USA > Missouri > A history of Missouri from the earliest explorations and settlements until the admission of the state into the union, Volume II > Part 38
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68 Bishop Joseph Rosati, a native of Sora, kingdom of Naples, where he was born in 1789; became a member of the Congregation of the Priests of the Mission of St. Vincent de Paul; came to America with Father DeAndreis; ap- pointed second superior of the order in America; first Bishop of St. Louis; established the Jesuits in St. Louis, the Sisters of St. Joseph, the Ladies of the Sacred Heart, the Sisters of Visitation and Sisters of Charity, and founded the St. Louis Hospital and several colleges for boys and three academies for girls; member of the Provincial Councils of 1829, 1833, 1837, and 1840; called to Rome, sent on diplomatic mission to Hayti; consecrated Archbishop Kendrick as coadjutor; died in Rome September 24, 1843, and buried at Monte Citario in a chapel dedicated to St. Vincent de Paul.
60 This church was consecrated by Father Joseph Rosati, the successor as superior of the order of Father de Andreis, assisted by Fathers François Cellini, F. X. Dahmen, John Odin, Louis Rondot, John Timon, Philip Borgna, Angello Mascaroni, Regis Loisel and Benoit Roux, and the following laymen - Louis Tucker, Frederick Saucier, Hilary Tucker, George Hamilton, and James Shan- non. Reverend Henri Pratte, Parish priest of Ste. Genevieve, had charge of this parish until his death in 1822. He was succeeded by Reverend François X. Dahmen, 1822-1828, and he, by Reverend John Bouillier. The parish register begins April 20th 1820, recording the baptism of Edward Colman. The St. James Catholic church of Potosi was first attached to the church of St. Joachim as a mission and the earliest baptism at Potosi, dated 1827, was re- corded by Father John Timon.
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"such was the piety and the resignation of the inmates of the semi- nary under the pious government of Father Rosati that all seemed to feel happy and advanced in the way of salvation."70 In connection with the seminary a college for seculars was opened in an unfinished house, and here also many sons of the early Protestant settlers of Missouri received an education. At the time Bishop Timon attended the seminary, Father J. M. Odin, afterwards Bishop of New Orleans, was also a student there.
When Bishop Dubourg was in France in 1817, he applied to the Superior-General of the Order of the Sacred Heart for a colony of those religious ladies to establish a house of their order and a school in his diocese. This request of the Bishop, who knew so well how to appeal to the religious and charitable feelings, was acceded to and five members of this order with Madame Duchesne as Superior were sent from France to establish a school for girls in that then far away diocese. This little band of devoted and heroic women sailed from France in the spring of 1818, reached New Orleans safely, and on the 22nd day of August arrived at St. Louis. At first they opened a school at St. Charles, but through either the poverty or indifference of the people met very little encouragement. After remaining there for one year it became manifest to these ladies that with their school they would not be able to earn even a scanty subsistence at St. Charles and they therefore concluded to remove to Florissant. Fa- ther Dunand, the same pious Trappist who had induced the people of "the Barrens" to petition the Bishop for the location of the seminary in their neighborhood, now assisted the sisters in their removal to Florissant, where on Christmas Eve 1819 they occupied their new home. Here they remained until 1827 and then began to erect a convent on a tract of 27 acres of land adjacent to St. Louis, condi- tionally donated to them by John Mullanphy. In 1847 they sold their convent at Florissant and removed to St. Louis. Madame Duchesne remained Superior of the order in America until 1840. The labors and hardships she endured, the holy life she led, and heroic virtues she manifested, entitle her to a conspicuous place among the early female educators of our state. Few are the old families of St. Louis in which some daughters were not educated by the accom- plished ladies of this order. So conspicuous were the merits of Mother Duchesne that the Congregation of Rites in Rome, it is said, has under consideration her beatification.
70 Life of Bishop Timon, p. 28.
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HISTORY OF MISSOURI
With the presence of Bishop Dubourg, life and activity began to characterize the Catholic congregations of the territory which before his time had seemed to be suffering from dry-rot. Almost imme- diately after his arrival in St. Louis he laid the corner-stone of a new brick church to replace the old post and log structure. The archi- tect of this new church was Gabriel Paul and the builder Hugh O'Neil. But this church was never plastered and ceiled, for it soon gave way to a stone cathedral.
In St. Charles and Portage des Sioux, after the departure of Father Dunand, Father Charles de LaCroix for a time supplied the congre- gations. Father Dunand was known among the French Catholics of Florissant and elsewhere as "le Pere Prieur," and was held in high esteem. In May 1820 he returned to France. From 1804 to the time of his departure to France he seems to have visited every Catholic community west of the river, and was indefatigable in his religious labors.
Father François Niel, a French priest, in 1818, under the auspices of Bishop Dubourg, opened a school in St. Louis which continued until 1819. In 1820 Father Leo Deys, Father Andreas Ferrari, Father Aristide Anduze and Father Michael Saulnier who came with Father DeAndreis, at the request of Bishop Dubourg, acted as professors in this school. At this time Father Niel was curate of the cathedral. This school was the germ from which grew the St. Louis University, founded a few years afterward by the Jesuits.
CHAPTER XX
The Louisiana Purchase-Westward Movement of American Pioneers-British Proclamation, 1763, Prohibits Settlements West of the Alleghanies-Virginia Colonial Assembly, 1769, Asserts Authority over Botecourt County "on the Mississippi"-Relations of France and Spain to Colonial Boundary Claims -Territory Northwest of Ohio to the Lakes Becomes Part of Virginia by Conquest-By Treaty of 1783 Free Navigation of the Mississippi Secured to United States and Great Britain-Boundary Lines of Canada Fixed by the Military Operations of Virginia-Significance of Erection of Fort Jefferson South of the Mouth of the Ohio-Free Navigation of Mississippi Denied by Spain Leads to Louisiana Purchase-New England and Eastern States Dis- posed to Acquiesce in Spain's Denial of Free Navigation-Indignation Aroused in Kentucky-Independent Spirit of Western Pioneers-Isolation and Dis- satisfaction of Western Population Basis of Spanish Intrigues-New Madrid a Spanish Port of Entry-Spanish Espionage of River Com- merce-The District of "Miro"-General James Wilkinson Chief Agent of Spain-His Intrigues and Efforts to Deliver Kentucky to Spain-Sentiment for Independent Government in Order to Secure Free Navigation of the Mis- sissippi-Colonial Scheme of Colonel Morgan Frustrated by Wilkinson- Gayoso Goes to Mouth of the Ohio to Meet American Emissaries- Free Navigation of the Mississippi Secured under Treaty of 1795-Louisiana Acquired by Napoleon, 1800-Free Navigation of the Mississippi again Denied-Universal Discontent of Western Population-Warlike Preparations Authorized by Congress-Negotiations by Monroe and Livingston in Paris- Motives Impelling Napoleon to Sell Louisiana-Sale Quickly Consummated -Marbois' Account of the Conclusion of the Treaty-Objections to Ratifi- cation of Treaty in United States-Constitutional Impediments-A Con- ceded Unconstitutional Precedent-Predicted Consequences of the Purchase of Louisiana-Dissolution of the Union Planned in Massachusetts-Popular Approval of the Louisiana Purchase-Survival of the Union Due to the Purchase of Louisiana.
The acquisition of Louisiana, from France, by purchase, will always be considered by the student as one of the most impor- tant events in the history of the United States, and in its far reaching consequences certainly one of the greatest governmental transactions ever consummated by peaceful methods.
The story of the gradual spread of the English-speaking settlers, from the Atlantic seaboard across the formidable barriers of the Appalachian range, through a wilderness tenanted by fierce and war-like savage Indian tribes, to the waters of the Mississippi, is a romance of heroic achievement. Slowly, from the frontiers of Penn- sylvania, Virginia, the Carolinas and Georgia, these settlers moved westward.1 Across the mountains and through the virgin forests
1 Marbois, p. 108. The planters who had come from England at first were in no hurry to advance toward the mountains.
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HISTORY OF MISSOURI
they opened roads, and moved beset by every peril. In the wilder- ness they reared their rude log cabins, homes and fortresses at once, and in the unbroken woods opened farms and planted the seeds of future states.
Before the Revolution, these bold and hardy pioneers had crossed the Alleghanies, built their homes on the banks of the Alleghany and Monongahela; organized society in the valley of the Watauga; penetrated the wilderness beyond the Chattahoochee; and, some of the most adventurous spirits following the Ohio, Tennessee and Cumberland, had reached the mighty waters of the Mississippi. Nor could the British government restrain this west- ward movement. Although by royal proclamation, bearing date October 3, 1763, settlements were prohibited farther west than the Alleghanies, nevertheless such settlements were made. Evidently with a view to assert its authority over, and its claim to the west, when Botecourt county was organized by the Virginia Colonial As- sembly in 1769, the following clause was inserted, "And whereas, the people situated on the Mississippi, in said county of Botecourt, will be very remote from the court-house, and must necessarily become a separate county as soon as their numbers are sufficient, which prob- ably will happen in short time ; be it therefore enacted by the authority aforesaid, that the inhabitants of that part of the county of Bote- court which lies on the said waters, shall be exempted from the pay- ment of any levies to be laid by the said county court for the purpose of building a court-house and prison for said county."2 The celebrated settlement west of the mountains on the banks of the Watauga, one of the branches of the Holston, was formed in di- rect defiance of this royal proclamation and in 1776 was admitted to representation in the Constitutional Convention of North Carolina.
The Revolution did not impede this westward march; it found some of its staunchest supporters among the western settlers. Nor during the struggle did the southern states lose sight of their western boundary. It was well understood that Georgia claimed the country to the Mississippi on the parallel of Savannah; and during the war North Carolina and Virginia began to survey their boundary lines from the Atlantic to that river. North Carolina formed the Watauga settlement into a county out of its territory west of the Alleghanies, with the Mississippi as a western limit and this territory now consti- tutes the state of Tennessee.
2 Kercheval's History of the Valley of Virginia, p. 154.
33I
COLONIAL CONQUESTS
Spain observed these claims with undisguised jealousy. In 1777, Galvez, the Spanish Governor of Louisiana, was instructed in case the Americans showed a disposition to capture the British posts on the lower Mississippi, and deliver them to his Catholic Majesty, to receive and hold them "in trust or deposit." 3 Nor did France think it advisable to give the Americans all the strength which was then attainable. Spain at one time might have secured the largest part of the territory claimed by the southern states, but failed to do so. Galvez, however, in several brilliant campaigns conquered both Floridas, and thus the limits of Spain were extended to the thirty- first degree of north latitude, on the east bank of the Mississippi; and it was also afterward claimed, that the expedition of Don Eugenio Purée in 1781, from St. Louis, to the post of St. Joseph, and the cap- ture of this post, gave possession of the country along "the river of the Illinois," to Spain. The rupture between England and Spain, and consequent conquests of the two Floridas by Galvez during the Revolutionary war, gave the United States great satisfaction; a minister was sent to Madrid by the Colonies to negotiate an alliance, and particularly to secure the right of a free navigation of the Mississippi to the sea, but this right Spain, supported by France, was not willing to concede.
In 1778, during the Revolutionary war, under commission from Virginia, General George Rogers Clark conquered all the British terri- tory northwest of the Ohio River, to the Great Lakes, and established American authority in the old French settlements on the Mississippi. This conquered country was erected by Virginia, in 1778, into the county of Illinois, and Colonel John Todd was appointed County Lieutenant and Civil Commandant of the same. Under the orders of Patrick Henry, Gen. Clark built Fort Jefferson at the mouth of the Ohio.4 North Carolina extended her boundaries to the Mississippi, and Georgia proposed to establish, as the county of Bourbon, the territory now embraced within the limits of the state of Mississippi. In addition, the Indian victories of the troops of the southern colonies in the Cherokee and Chickasaw country, was a palpable assertion of dominion in this disputed territory.
When finally the negotiations for peace began, the country east of the Mississippi and north of the Floridas had de facto become the west-
3 Gayarre's History of Louisiana, p. III, -- Spanish Domination.
4 At the mouth of Mayfield creek, near the present town of Wyckliffe, in Ballard county, Kentucky.
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HISTORY OF MISSOURI
ern limits of the southern states. Nevertheless, France and Spain were anxious to exclude these states from the Mississippi, and de la Lucerne, French Minister at Philadelphia, obtained from Congress a resolution that our Minister should, in the peace negotiations as to the western boundary, then pending, treat under the direction of France; and further he was directed to "not insist" upon the free navigation of the Mississippi below the thirty-first degree of north latitude.
Relying on the proclamation of 1763, which practically conceded to the Indians, the Shawnees, Choctaws, Creeks, and Chickasaws, the territory between the Alleghanies and the Mississippi, it was claimed during the peace negotiations between France, Spain, England and the United States, that the western boundary of the United States could not extend to the Mississippi, because Great Britain had ex- cluded the whites from this territory, and thereby acknowledged the independence of the Indians settled in it. Count de Vergennes suggested that the western boundary of the United States south of the Ohio, be a line starting at the north boundary line of Florida, on the Tombigbee river, up that river northeast until its head wasreached, thence across to the bend of the Cumberland, and down the river to the Ohio,- all east of this line to be territory of the United States, and all west to be free Indian territory, but under the protection of Spain; and the territory north of the Ohio, Vergennes proposed should be regulated by the "Court of London." But Spain as already stated even denied the title of the United States to the territory northwest of the Ohio, claiming that she had conquered the country "near the sources of the Illinois," and that all the country not conquered and owned by her belonged to the Indians, and therefore could not belong to the United States.5 Thus it was proposed to exclude the United States from the Mississippi river, France conspiring with Spain, and perhaps looking to the future re-acquisition of the Louisiana country. But Jay would not assent to these terms; and after tedious and pro- tracted negotiations, a final treaty of peace was concluded September 3, 1783, the ratification being exchanged May 17, 1784, which secur- ed Spain west and east Florida ; and by the eighth article of the treaty, free navigation of the Mississippi from its source to its mouth, was conceded to both citizens of the United States and Great Britain. The Mississippi was made the boundary line on the west between Spain and the United States and on the south, it was fixed on the
5 Carr's Missouri, p. 72.
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BOUNDARY LINES
thirty-first degree north parallel, running due east from the Missis- sippi to the Appalachicola, thence down the middle of that river to its junction with the Flint, thence to the head of St. Mary's river, and down that river to the Atlantic ocean.
The full significance of the energetic action of Virginia during the Revolutionary war in extending the sphere of her military opera- tions to the Mississippi, and northwest of the Ohio, is not fully appre- ciated at this day. Through the maze of hostile intrigues the United States secured the Mississippi as a western boundary; but it is certain that the military operations inaugurated by Virginia made possible this result. The conquest and possession of the country north of the Ohio, and the erection of a fort south of the mouth of the Ohio on the Mississippi, together with military possession of the terri- tory it implied, could not be denied. Without this actual occupation of the territory northwest of the Ohio, secured by the brilliant and heroic campaign of General Clark, the boundary of Canada, instead of being the Great Lakes might have been the Ohio river on the south, and the Mississippi river on the west. In the magnitude of its results, the far seeing statesmanship which prompted Virginia to send an expedition to wrest from English possession the wilder- ness country bordering on the Mississippi, will in all future time, easily stand as one of the pre-eminent events in the annals of the Revolutionary period. So also the erection of Fort Jefferson by order of Governor Patrick Henry, made impossible the con- tention that the country between the Tombigbee, the Cumber- land and the Mississippi rivers, was neutral Indian territory, because it was also in part at least, de facto Virginia territory, and the cam- paigns against the Indians in this country were undoubtedly a prac- tical assertion of dominion.
The fact that the Mississippi was secured as the western bound- ary of the United States ultimately led to the Louisiana purchase. Although under the treaty of 1783, the free navigation of the Missis- sippi was conceded to the United States, Spain practically withheld or denied this privilege and almost immediately after the treaty in 1784, Galvez instructed the Governor of Louisiana that the English and Americans did not, under this treaty, have "the right which they put forward to the free navigation of the Mississippi." 6 Don Diego Gardoqui, the Spanish Minister at Philadelphia, declared
6 General Archives of the Indies, Seville, Letter of Galvez dated Aranjuez, June 26, 1784.
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HISTORY OF MISSOURI
expressly that the Spanish King would never permit any nation to use that river, both banks of which belonged to him. Waiving, for a time, the just claim of the United States, Jay thought it expedient in order to secure certain trade facilities and mercantile advantages for the New England and Eastern states, to suggest a new treaty with Spain "limited, say to twenty or thirty years, the United States stipu- lating that for the term of the treaty, they would forbear to navigate the Mississippi below their southern boundary." In Kentucky this proposal aroused great bitterness. The free navigation of the river as guaranteed by the treaty, was necessary to the people west of the Alleghanies. The rich, productive fields of Kentucky yielded bounti- fully in vain, without this natural great water-way to the sea. It was the only outlet. When the proposal by which the eastern states, in order to secure commercial advantages of their own, intended to sacrifice the interests of the young and growing communities of the west, was clearly understood the flames of indignation rose high.
The population of the west was rapidly increasing. In 1769 the wife and daughter of Daniel Boone were "the first white women that ever stood on the Kentucky river," but in 1785 an aggressive and high-spirited people had settled in the country. Thoughtful men already began to see that the Americans would eventually possess the whole Mississippi valley. When in 1788, Brissot de Warville traveled through the western country he met Dr. Saugrain, then a resident of Gallipolis, and records that Dr. Saugrain said, that sooner or later the Spaniards would be forced to quit the Mississippi and give up Louisiana, that the Americans would cross the river and es- tablish themselves in the country, and that he considered Louisiana "one of the finest countries of the universe."7
Among the settlers and pioneers of this new western country a spirit of independence prevailed. People were self reliant. They felt that their interests could only be effectually protected by the or- ganization of a new state west of the mountain wilderness, which seemed to separate them from the east by a topographic barrier. They had an inadequate government, with no protection at all except that which their own strong arms afforded. Across the Ohio, wild and ferocious savages living under British pay, made insecure their homes by incursions. They petitioned Virginia and Congress for the privilege to organize a new and separate state of the Union. This
7 New Travels in the United States by Brissot de Warville, p. 259. (London Ed. 1792.)
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SUBTLE INTRIGUES
privilege was denied. What wonder, when it was proposed to close up the Mississippi and to subject the productions of their soil to seiz- ure and plunder, and manifold exactions from a foreign power planted at the mouth of this great river, that the people should be dissatisfied.
Of this condition of affairs Spain took notice, and, using this dis- satisfaction as a basis, almost immediately after the close of the Revo- lution, a series of complicated and subtle intrigues were begun, to separate the west from the Atlantic states. The field of operation was not confined to Kentucky alone, but extended over the whole southwest, involving many public men, land companies and Indian tribes, and continued for a period of twenty years, until the final acquisition of the Louisiana territory. Nor was Spain alone engaged in these intrigues. France, too, endeavored to regain Louisiana, and thus encircle the Atlantic states, and set bounds to the "childish avarice of the Americans," who, says Rochefoucault-Liancourt, "wish to grasp everything." Great Britain also had not given up hope of regaining a foothold in the Mississippi Valley, and in one instance at least this led to the exposure, humiliation and expulsion of a United States Senator.8
But the Spanish control of the mouth of the Mississippi was a con- stant source of friction. Now by vigorous commercial restrictions it was made manifest to the people of Kentucky, Tennessee and Mis- sissippi that they were aliens in New Orleans. Then by a generous policy the advantage of a political connection with Spain was clearly shown. The object was to make manifest that to secure free navi- gation of the Mississippi they must attach themselves to Spain, and
8 William Blount, born in North Carolina, a member from that state to the Convention that formed the Constitution of the United States, appointed, by Washington, Governor of the territory south of the Ohio; identified with the history of Tennessee from the earliest settlement of the country; a member of the Tennessee Constitutional Convention of 1796. On his motion this conven- tion adopted as an essential part of the Bill of Rights the declaration, that "an equal participation of the free navigation of the Mississippi is one of the inherent rights of the citizens of this state; it can not therefore, be conceded to any prince, potentate, power or persons whatever." This was notice, not only to the hated Spaniards, but also to New England and the Northeastern states, of the sentiment of the people of the new state. - Parton's Life of Jackson, Vol. I., p. 172. Blount was elected first United States senator from Tennessee; ex- pelled July, 1797, on charge that he conspired to set on foot a military expedition to invade the Spanish territories and conquer same for the King of Great Britain. But he did not lose the confidence of the people of Tennessee, nor forfeit their good opinion; he was elected to the State Senate immediately thereafter from Knox county, and elected Speaker of the Senate unanimously December 3, 1797. He died at the age of fifty-three, March 21, 1800.
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HISTORY OF MISSOURI
that as American citizens they could never enjoy this advantage. The idea seemed, indeed, well calculated to greatly enlist the sympathy of the western people. Such an alliance or connection offered immunity from all kinds of exactions, and apparently opened a vista of great commercial and financial prosperity. As it was, a military post, and port of entry, was established at New Madrid and all boats were compelled to land there. On all commodities descending the river the owners were "compelled to pay an excise duty to the Government, varying at different times according to the arbitrary will of the In- tendant, or the orders of the King, from six to twenty-five percent ad valorem." The cargoes were overhauled, and if the Spanish officers suspected deception, were even required to be unloaded. Fi- nally, equipped with proper papers, showing that the duties were paid, the boats were required to land at each port further down the stream, and to exhibit their evidence that all duties had been discharged, and in default the batteries were opened, the boat pursued, and the owners subjected to a heavy fine and imprisonment and confiscation of goods. The officers along the river often were tyrannical and arbi- trary, and probably greedy and corrupt. This system, however, seemed to favor the far-reaching designs of Spain.
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