The history of Detroit and Michigan; or, The metropolis illustrated; a chronological cyclopedia of the past and present, Vol I, Part 57

Author: Farmer, Silas, 1839-1902
Publication date: 1889
Publisher: Detroit, S. Farmer & co
Number of Pages: 1096

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GREENVILLE, June 7, 1796.

David Harrigan, Esq., Department Quartermaster General at Fort Washington:

DEAR SIR,-

Yesterday evening Captain (Bartholomew) Shaumberg arrived in this cantonment from Detroit, where he has been politely received by the British commanding officer of the garrison, Colonel England.

This gentleman has sent General Wilkinson a plan of the Fort, town, &c. All the British troops are prepared to leave Detroit on the first order from the high powers.

SAMUEL HENLEY, A. Q. M.

We now approach an exceedingly interesting

question, and one that concerns the entire North- west. Detroit was the farthest west of all the British posts. The date on which it was evacuated, there- fore, fixes the date of the actual possession by the United States of a territory larger than the original thirteen States. For many years it has been thought impossible to determine when this inter- esting event took place.

In determining residence and occupancy of the claimants in the settlement of the land claims at Detroit, the United States Government and the Commissioners of Claims fixed upon July I as the official date of American possession ; but there was no evidence that July I was the real date of the first occupancy of the territory by American troops. It was simply an arbitrary date; it was necessary to agree upon some point of time, and in the absence of definite information, the approximate date of July I was fixed upon.

The question was discussed at some length by the late A. D. Fraser in a communication to the Detroit Free Press, dated June 23, 1867. He said, " It nowhere appears, so far as I am aware, on what precise day the post of Detroit was surrendered by the British to the American Government."

Various other persons engaged in historical re- search came to the same conclusion.

Hon. William M. Evarts, late Secretary of State, in a letter dated Washington, March 23, 1877, says, "Careful examination has been made in this depart- ment, and in respect to the events in 1796 the precise dates have not been found." In point of fact, on account of the destruction of many of the records, in the War of 1812, there are no documents in Washington that give any clue to the date in ques- tion.

The finding of this date, so interesting not only to Detroit but to the entire nation, engaged atten- tion very soon after this work was begun, and not until three years had passed was the ample evidence obtained which is herewith submitted.

In Volume II of the American Pioneer, published at Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1843, by J. S. Williams, is the following letter :

DAYTON, O., June 24, 1843. DEAR SIR, --

Mr. John S. Williams :

A gentleman in this place has a volume of letters of Colonel J. F. Hamtramck, being the record of his official correspondence with Generals Wayne and Wilkinson, and other officers, from Oc- tober 31, 1794, until January 20, 1797. According to the Daily Journal of Wayne's Campaign, published in your first volume, Colonel Hamtramck took the command of Fort Wayne on the 22d of October, 1794, and the army left on the 28th for Greenville. The correspondence commences three days afterwards, and is dated at Fort Wayne until the 17th of May, 1796. The British being then about to surrender the posts within our territory, Col- onel Hamtramck went down the Maumee to Camp Deposit, from the 8th to the 21st of June. On the 11th of July he wrote from the late British Fort Miamis, which he informs General Wilkin-

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son had that day been given up. A few letters follow dated at Detroit.

The history of this volume is somewhat singular. Colonel Hamtramck having taken command of Detroit on the 13th of July, 1796, the letter-book remained among the papers of the gar- rison until the surrender of General Hull. At the time an officer of the Ohio militia got possession of it, and was permitted by the British to bring it away among his private papers and effects. Since his death it has been preserved by his relatives.

A large portion of the correspondence is taken up with the busi- ness of the garrison, acknowledging the receipt of supplies, and asking for the various articles of which the post stood in need. I have looked over the whole carefully and gleaned whatever I have judged worth transmitting to you.

JOHN W. VAN CLEVE.

The following, with other extracts from the Ham- tramck letters, are given in the volume :

(To General Wilkinson.)

FORT MIAMIS, July 11, 1796.

On the 7th instant two small vessels arrived from Detroit, in which I sent a detachment of artillery and infantry consisting of sixty-five men, together with a number of cannon with ammuni- tion, &c., &c. The whole under the command of Captain Porter.

On the 9th, a sloop arrived from Detroit, at Swan Creek, pur- chased by Captain De Butts, which carried fifty tons and which is now loaded with flour, quartermaster's stores and troops. That, together with eleven bateaux which I have, will be sufficient to take all the troops I have with me, leaving the remainder of our stores deposited at this place, which was evacuated on this day, and where I have left Captain Marschalk and Lieutenant Shanklin with fifty-two men, infantry, and a Corporal and six of artillery; that is, including the garrison at the head of the Rapids. * * * I shall embark within two hours with all the troops for Detroit.

(To General Wilkinson.)

DETROIT, July 17th, 1796.

I have the pleasure to inform you of the safe arrival of the troops under my command at this place, which was evacuated on the 11th instant and taken possession of by a detachment of sixty- five men, commanded by Captain Moses Porter, whom I had de- tached from the foot of the Rapids for that purpose. Myself and the troops arrived on the 13th instant

J. F. HAMTRAMCK.

FAC-SIMILE OF THE SIGNATURE OF J. F. HAMTRAMCK.

The original contract for the use of the vessel referred to in the first letter above quoted is in the possession of the State Historical Society at Detroit. It reads as follows :

July 2nd, 1796 .- Henry De Butts, Esq., for and on the part of the government of the United States of America, of the one part, and James May of Detroit, gentleman, owner of a certain schooner called the "Swan," of the other part, lets and leases the said vessel to sail to such ports and places of Lakes Erie and Huron as the said Henry De Butts or any other person represent-

ing the government of the United States may order, so long as the said Government may require. De Butts to pay 150 pounds New York currency each month for use of the vessel. Period of ser- vice to be computed from July 2, 1796.

WILLIAM ROE,

Witness.

Additional evidence of the date of British evacua- tion is found in a volume entitled " 1812 : The War and its Moral. A Canadian Chronicle, by Wm. F. Coffin, Sheriff of Montreal, Lieut .- Col., etc., Mon- treal. 1864." From the references he makes and the list of documents quoted, this author is evidently a reliable authority. Among the witnesses inter- viewed by him was Squire Reynolds, of Amherst- burg. Mr. Reynolds, who had been in the War of 1812 as an officer in the British army, was an old man of eighty-three at the time of the interview, possessing the respect of everybody, remarkably vigorous, full of intellectual force, with memory per- fectly clear and reliable. Reynolds, in his narrative of experiences, gives a large amount of detail on many subjects, and numerous dates concerning vari- ous events. The accuracy of his memory as to many dates is verified by various accounts. Con- cerning Detroit, he said, "I saw the British flag hauled down from the flag-staff of Detroit at noon, IIth of July, 1796; I saw it again hoisted by Brock at noon of Sunday, 16th August, 1812." This date of July II is further confirmed by Judge Woodward in a decision rendered on September 26, 1807, in the case of some fugitive slaves.

The question as to the date of the first American occupation of Detroit is thus definitely settled; and as it marks the point of time when the entire western territory was de jure and de facto transferred from the English to the American Government, the date of July 11, 1796, when the Stars and Stripes first waved over Detroit, should be treas- ured in the memory of every child and every citizen. The curious coincidence that Colonel Richard England was the last English com- mandant will help to fix the remembrance of the fact.

It will be noticed that Colonel Hamtramck ad-

dresses his letters to General Wilkinson, who was then, in the absence of General Wayne, commander of the United States troops at Greenville. The Henley letter-book shows that on June 25 General Wayne was expected to arrive soon at Greenville by way of Cincinnati. On July 20 Mr. Henley wrote to the quartermaster-general, "I received our old Gen- eral with all the force of my well-meaning polite- ness. I heard of his arrival in Fort Jefferson, I

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mounted our horse, the old Pole Evil, went into the woods, and there halted until I caught the eye of the General; I then flew like a streak of lightning to the Old Iron 6 and banged her off 15 times, which has placed him and me on good terms." On July 29, 1796, Mr. Henley wrote from Greenville to Mr. Hopkins at Fort Hamilton, "The General and the Quartermaster-General leave this cantonment for Detroit to-morrow. Old Bald appears in good order and I hope he will carry his old master through all the bad roads in this country and land him safe to the regained British garrison, Detroit." General Wayne reached Detroit safely prior to August 25, remained until after November 14, and then went to Presque Isle, now Erie, Pennsylvania, where he died December 14, 1796.

Tradition says that, before evacuating, the British destroyed the windmills and filled the fort well with stones, and that the key of the garrison was left in possession of a negro. This may be true, but it is a matter of official record that immediately after the evacuation the British commissary at Chatham was authorized to lend fifty barrels of pork to Mr. O'Hare, the United States commissary, as he had not enough for the American troops at Mackinaw. Simon Girty, the renegade, remained behind when the British took their leave. When the boats laden with American troops appeared in sight, he became so much alarmed that he could not wait for the return of the ferry-boat, but forced his black mare down a steep bank into the river, and, at the risk of drowning, made for the Canadian shore; and as he rode up the bank, he cursed the United States Gov- ernment and its troops with all the oaths his fury could inspire. When the British were again in pos- session, in 1812, he returned to Detroit, and on being asked about his horse said, "Oh, she's dead, and I buried her with the honors of war."

Under the Treaty of Ghent, of December 24, 1814, commissioners were appointed to determine the boundary line between the United States and Canada, and on June 2, 1820, Colonels Hill and Barclay, British commissioners, and General Porter, American commissioner, with their secretaries, Dr. Bigsley, of the English, and Major Fraser of the American Government, arrived at Detroit for the purpose of determining the boundary line.

Their report, made in 1822, fixed it where it has since remained.

FRENCH AND SPANISH INTRIGUES FOR THE POS- SESSION OF DETROIT AND THE WEST.

While the negotiations for the surrender of De- troit and the West were in progress, the French Government, which was at war with Spain, sought to effect the seizure of the then Spanish province of

Louisiana through the aid of certain of the adven- turous spirits of the West, numbers of whom were ready for almost any scheme of conquest or of gain, especially if it promised the control of the Mississippi.

An expedition against New Orleans was so far organized that many men were enlisted and gath- ered at an appointed rendezvous in Kentucky. In 1794 Governor St. Clair felt called upon to issue a proclamation against the proceeding, and it was abandoned for a time. As a measure of protection against the movement, Baron de Carondelet, the Spanish Governor of Louisiana, began intriguing for the organization of a western confederacy which should ally its fortunes to those of Louisiana, and Thomas Powers was employed to promote his plans.

Meanwhile, in November, 1794, and October, 1795, the United States concluded treaties with both England and Spain for the surrender of the western posts occupied by their troops. These treaties exasperated France, and after July, 1796, she ceased to be on friendly terms with the United States. On August 19, 1796, France and Spain formed an alliance offensive and defensive, possibly with the hope of securing neutral territory between England and the far West, which she was seeking to obtain. France sent an agent into the West to agitate the subject of a western confederacy, and to obtain information as to the condition of the coun- try. At the same time the Spanish Governor Ca- rondelet showed a disinclination to fulfil the obliga- tions of his home government by delivering up the Spanish posts on the Mississippi, and renewed his efforts to detach the West from the Union.

The following letter, from the private papers of Governor St. Clair, gives information as to both French and Spanish agents and their plans. The original is somewhat mutilated :

James McHenry, Secy. of War, to Gov. St. Clair. WAR OFFICE, May, 1796. SIR,-

The President has had information which affords strong ground to believe that there are certain persons employed and paid to visit the western country, for the purpose of encouraging the people of those parts to secede from the Union, and form a separate connec- tion with a foreign power. The persons more particularly pointed to as emissaries on this occasion are one Powers, de Collot, and Warin. It is said also that they have received written instructions from their government and letters to influence * men in the district of country * *

* been * as the field of their operations.

The route, at least of some of them, is by Pittsburgh down the Ohio to the old Shawaneese town, thence across the Ohio through the lower parts of Kentucky and southwestern territory, thence to the rapids of the Ohio, thence to Post Vincents, thence to St. Genevieve, and thence down to New Orleans. It is thought that they will be very open in conversations, that they may be easily traced by those apprised of their project, and that an overweening confidence in the success of their mission may originate circum- stances upon which to ground a legal seizure of their papers. You will perceive that it is important to such a seizure that they

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should have no reason to suspect, from ill-timed inquiries or meas- ures, that they are discovered. You will, of course, keep your knowledge of their errand and design to yourself, and trust it only to those who may be necessary to the plan you may adopt, and at the moment when confid * * be used to effect its successful execution. Powers is of Irish descent, about thirty-five years of age, a man of science, seemingly versatile, speaks French, Span- ish and English with equal fluency, and pronounces each as a native.

De Collot is a Frenchman, full six feet high, about forty years of age, and speaks English very well. Warin is also a Frenchman; was lately a sub-engineer in the service of the United States which he resigned for his present employment; speaks English tolerably, is about thirty years of age, above six feet high, black hair, ruddy complexion and easy manners.

I have only to add that these persons are believed to be in pos- session of papers which it is considered of great importance to obtain, and to request, if procured, that copies be made of them, and attested, as well as the originals, by yourself, or some other person, and forwarded by safe * * to the President. *

I have the honor, &c.

JAMES McHENRY, Sec. of War.

The General Victor Collot, alluded to in the let- ter, while in Detroit as a French spy, made a map of the Detroit River, with a view of the town as it was in 1796, which view is still preserved in the Depart- ment of Marine at Paris. 1

As to Collot and Powers, Governor St. Clair wrote to Hon. James Ross, on September 6, 1796, as follows :

Collot has left the country after making, it is said, an accurate survey of the Ohio and sounding its depths in a number of places. He was stopped at Massac and his papers examined by the com- manding officer. Another matter has happened that will I sup- pose, make some noise. A certain Mr. Powers was met as he was ascending the Ohio, by an officer, Lieutenant Steel, (who, it is said, was imprudent enough to tell him he was sent for the express purpose, by General Wayne) who stopped him, broke open his letters, examined them and his other papers, and took away with him such as he thought proper.

A year afterwards Powers visited General Wilkin- son at Detroit as an agent of the Spanish governor, who still sought to carry out his project. He left Natchez early in June, and arrived in Detroit on August 16. Learning that General Wilkinson was absent, he did not enter the fort until August 24. He was treated by Colonel Strong, who had tem- porary command, with the rigor which his reputa- tion seemed to merit. Dispatches announcing his arrest were sent to General Wilkinson, and reached him on September 2, just as he entered the river St. Clair on his return. At the subsequent trial of General Wilkinson a Captain S-t testified that on

the same day, after having read his letters, he, General Wilkin- son, invited me to go on shore with him to shoot pigeons. While on shore he told me that Mr. Thomas Powers had arrived at De- troit in his absence, that Colonel Strong the commandant, acting under an order of Major-General Wayne's, had him in confine- ment; that he was apprehensive that he would have to send Mr.

Powers out of the country, although he knew him to be an honest clever fellow, a man of talents, and one that had rendered him great service; but unfortunately that Mr. P. was suspected as a spy, and that the United States suspected him, General Wilkinson, and at the same time quoting the old adage that it was " more criminal in some to look over the hedge than in others to steal a hare," asking me "how I should like to take a trip to New Madrid with Mr. Powers." I answered, " Very well." He then enjoined secrecy on me. We arrived at Detroit before the middle of Sep- tember, 1797, and found Mr. P. (as the General had stated) in confinement. He was immediately set at liberty ; and a few days afterward I dined with him at the General's table.

A very short time after this (perhaps a day) I was sent for by the General, who informed me that he had other duty for me than that of escorting Mr. P .; that Captain Shaumbourgh was selected for that command; that I must hold myself in readiness to proceed to Kentucky, there to procure money on bills and pay the troops at Fort Massack and Fort Knox at Vincennes, which order I obeyed, and left Mr. P. at Detroit. In the beginning of November following, I met Captain Shaumbourgh at Fort Massack on his return from N. Madrid, where he had delivered Mr. Powers. He showed me his instructions from the General relative to Mr. P., in which Captain S. was ordered not to permit Mr. P. to enter any of our posts, and denied him the use of pen, ink, pencil or paper, &c. On reading those instructions, I expressed some surprise at this great precaution, when I knew that Mr. Powers had travelled through that country on his way, and that he had his full liberty at Detroit. Captain Shaumbourgh, laughing, said it was a bore.

The following letter from General Wilkinson to Mr. Powers, considered in the light of all the facts, would seem to confirm the opinion of Captain S-t as to the duplicity of General Wilkinson :

HEAD QUARTERS, DETROIT, Sept. 5, 1797.

SIR,-

I have, the last moment, received your letter of this day which occasions me much surprise.

At our first interview, the night before last, I expressed to you the necessity of your speedy return by the shortest route to the Baron de Carondelet, with my answer to the letter which you bore me from him. You offered no objection to this proposition, except the incapacity of your horses for the journey which I immediately agreed to remove by furnishing others.

You, at the same time, complained to me of the violence and outrage which you had experienced on your journey to this place, being at one time stopped, and at another time pursued, seized, and examined in every particular of person, baggage and papers. It seems a little singular that you should incline to retrace a route in which you had suffered such abuse, when a secure and conveni- ent one is proposed to you.

As no man can more highly appreciate the rights of treaties and of individuals than myself, and as I am apprised of the obliga- tions subsisting between the United States and his Catholic Majesty, I am among the last men on earth who would wantonly or capriciously question the compacted rights of the two sovereign- ties, their citizens or subjects.

But as you have approached me in a public character, and on national business, which requires my speedy answer to the letter of the Governor of Louisiana, whose messenger you are, I can- not consider you so far a free agent as to elect the time or route for your return, but that you stand bound by motives of political import, as well to Spain as to the United States, to con- summate the objects of your mission with all possible promptitude; and, of consequence, that all objects of a private or personal nature must yield to the obligations of public duty.

I, therefore, Sir, cannot recede from my purpose, and will hope you may be prepared to take your departure early to-morrow morn- ing, in the company of Captain Shaumbourgh who will be in- structed to attend you to New Madrid, and who will receive and

1 It has been reproduced for this work. See chapter on Houses and Homes.

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forward any letter you may wish to send to the Falls of Ohio, from the most convenient point of your route.

With due consideration, I am, Sir,

Your most obedient servant,

JA. WILKINSON.

In the official account of Powers' mission, ad- dressed to Gayoso, the Governor of Natchez, Powers said :

The General received me coldly enough. In the first confer- ence, he broke out with saying to me very bitterly, "We are ruined, Sir, both you and myself, without receiving any benefit from your voyage." Afterwards, he asked me whether I had brought the six hundred and forty dollars (eternally these six hundred and forty dollars!) he added that the executive had given orders to the Governor of the Northwestern Territory to take me and send me to Philadelphia, and that there was no other resource left for me to escape but to suffer myself to be conducted immediately under guard to Fort Massack, and from thence to New Madrid, and having informed him of the proposition of the Baron, he pro- ceeded to tell me that it was a chimerical project, and impossible to be executed ; that the inhabitants of the western states having obtained all they wished by the treaty, would form no other politi- cal or commercial connection, and that now they had no other motive to separate themselves from the interests of the other states, although France and Spain had made them the most advantageous propositions ; that the fermentation which had existed for four years was now subsided, &c. ; that Spain had now nothing else to do but to give complete effect to the treaty, which had overturned all his plans and rendered useless the work of more than ten years. And inasmuch as he had, as he said, de- stroyed his cyphers and all his correspondence with our govern- ment, and that his duty and his honor did not permit him to continue it ; that the Governor need not fear that he would abuse the confidence he had placed in him ; finally that Spain having ceded to the United States the territory of the Natches, &c., it might happen that he would be appointed Governor of it, and that then opportunities would not be' wanting for him to take measures that would be more efficacious to effect his political pro- jects. He complained much that the secret of his connections with our government had been divulged through want of prudence on our part.

The letter from Baron de Carondelet, which Powers delivered to General Wilkinson on Septem- ber 3, is said to have appealed to his ambition, with the promise that he would be made the general of the new republic; and it was claimed that both France and Spain would pay the troops he would be able to raise.

In his " Proofs of the Corruption of General Wil- kinson," Mr. Clark says:

The Baron de Carondelet did not, however, know the character of our General. He was willing to take all the money that could be offered ; he was willing to carry on any correspondence, provided it could be kept secret ; and while in a subordinate sta- tion, he was willing to risk a place for which he knew he could ob- tain an indemnity. But the scene was now changed ; he was at the head of the army ; his legal emoluments were great, and his rapacity saw the means of increasing them. His secret corre- spondence had been suspected. The frequent visits of Powers had occasioned jealousy, and the indiscreet communications of the Spanish officers, as we learn from himself, had excited more than attention to his conduct. He was not yet prepared openly to assume the Spanish uniform, and a secret correspondence had become dangerous. Powers, therefore, did not fully succeed in the object of his mission.

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The history of Detroit and Michigan; or, The metropolis illustrated; a chronological cyclopedia of the past and present, Vol I, Part 57

Author: Farmer, Silas, 1839-1902 Publication date: 1889 Publisher: Detroit, S. Farmer & co Number of Pages: 1096

Author: Farmer, Silas, 1839-1902
Publication date: 1889
Publisher: Detroit, S. Farmer & co
Number of Pages: 1096