USA > Missouri > A history of Missouri from the earliest explorations and settlements until the admission of the state into the union, Volume II > Part 39
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Many leading men of the country were enlisted in the scheme to separate the western country by the free and lavish use of money. The determination of North Carolina to hold what is now the state of Tennessee, and the dissatisfaction caused by this policy, among the people west of the mountain range, for a time greatly aided the Spanish schemes. The organization of the state of "Frankland" by General Sevier no doubt was encouraged by Spanish financial aid. Sevier, in 1788, wrote Gardoqui that, "the inhabitants are unanimous in their vehement desire to form an alliance and treaty of commerce with Spain, and to put themselves under her protection." He also asked for a supply of arms and ammunition to throw off the yoke of North Carolina. To show their sympathy with Spain and antipathy to North Carolina, the name of the district was changed by the people, from Cumberland District to "Miro District," in honor of Don Este- van Miro,9 then Governor of Louisiana. And it is quite plain now,
9 Succeeded Galvez as Governor-General of Louisiana in 1786; was a Col- onel of the Royal armies; served under Galvez in his memorable campaign resulting in the conquest of east and west Florida. Miro's administration ter- minated in 1791, when he sailed for Spain, where he successively attained the ranks of Brigadier-General and Mariscal de Campo or Lieutenant-General. Ga- yarre says, he "had a sound judgment, a high sense of honor and an excellent heart," and that he possessed two qualities not always found together "suavity
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WILKINSON
that if Miro had actively co-operated with Gardoqui, the general feeling of dissatisfaction prevailing in this district, might have been greatly utilized in the interest of Spain. But this opportunity was allowed to pass.
The chief agent of Spain in all the intrigues to bring about a sep- aration of the western country from the United States, was General James Wilkinson. He came to Lexington, Kentucky, in February 1784, opened a store there and soon acquired great influence. He was a delegate to the first Kentucky Convention which met in Danville, De- cember 27, 1784. Although only a short time a resident, and a compar- ative stranger, he was selected to prepare the resolutions and address in favor of a separation from Virginia, and this address finally secured statehood for Kentucky in 1787. His commercial operations becoming more extended, he naturally began to take an interest in the navigation of the Mississippi, and when the news reached Kentucky, that Minister Jay "had proposed to the Spanish Minister to surrender the navigation of the Mississippi for thirty years," Wilkinson, Muter,1º Innis,11 John
of temper and energy." He was a man of education, master of several lan- guages, "remarkable for strict morality" and "indefatigable industry." - Gayarre's Louisiana,- Spanish Domination - page 310. He married a daugh- ter of Macarty and was a brother-in-law of Morris Conway. Daniel Clark says, in his memoir to Secretary Pickering, that Miro "was a weak man, unac- quainted with the American government, ignorant even of the position of Ken- tucky with the respect to his province," and alarmed at the very idea of an irruption of Kentucky men. - Wilkinson's Memoirs, Vol. 2, Appendix VI.
10 George Muter, a Scotchman, Colonel of infantry in the Virginia State Line, Commissioner of the Virginia War Office, but forced to resign for neglect and mismanagement in his office in 1781; came to Kentucky in 1783; impli- cated in the Spanish conspiracy in 1792; elected Circuit judge, afterwards a judge of the court of Appeals; became very unpopular on account of a decision affecting real estate which it was openly charged was corruptly made; then reversed himself and resigned on condition that he should be paid a pension of $300, annually; afterwards this law was repealed and he became a pensioner of Judge Thomas Todd.
11 Judge Harry Innis, the coadjutor of Sebastian, remained unmolested and even uncensured by any expression of opinion on the part of any public func- tionary; was judge of the United States District court, and Marshall called him "a self convicted illicit intriguer with a foreign power." Innis sued Humph- rey Marshall for charging him with being "a weak and a partial judge, an enemy to his government, and one whom he ranked with a Sebastian, a Blount and an Arnold." The case was tried but the jury did not agree, so the case finally went out of court, each party paying his own costs. Harry Innis was born in Virginia in 1752; died in Frankfort, Kentucky, in 1816; son of an Episcopalian minister ; lawyer, employed by the Committee of Public Safety of Virginia to superintend the working of the Chisel lead mines; in 1783 made judge of the District court in Kentucky; 1785 appointed Attorney-General, and in 1787 appointed United States District Judge; was deep in the Spanish intrigue, and only saved from expulsion from office and disgrace by his position and his friends, retained the confidence of George Washington and his friends in Congress protected him. His daughter married J. J. Crittenden.
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HISTORY OF MISSOURI
Brown,12 Sebastian,13 and others at once made it the subject of bitter political agitation, so that both Virginia and Congress were compelled to make a declaration that no rights would be surrendered.
In June, 1787, Wilkinson, in the garb of a merchant and specula- tor, went to New Orleans with a boat load of tobacco, flour, butter and bacon. An order had been issued to seize and confiscate the boat and its load, but Wilkinson secured an interview with Governor Miro, and he permitted him to sell his cargo without paying any duty. After making his sales, Wilkinson remained in New Orleans for several months, was hospitably feted by Miro and secured the privilege to introduce, free of duty, tobacco and many other articles of western trade. In September following he sailed for Philadelphia, and returned triumphant to Kentucky, announcing that he had secured special trade privileges for himself, including a contract for the annual shipment of two hundred thousand pounds of tobacco, on account of the Span- ish government, at ten dollars per hundred. From this time on, Wilkinson carried on a cypher correspondence with Miro and his successor, Carondelet. Being a purchaser of tobacco he thereby se- cured great influence in Kentucky, because all the planters were anx- ious to sell this staple to New Orleans, and such sales could only be made through him. "I am convinced" said Miro in 1788, "that there is no means more powerful to accomplish the principal object
we have in view * * * than the promise that the Government will take as much as six million pounds of their tobacco instead of two million, which are now bought from them."14 And the purpose of Wilkinson is said, by Miro, to have been "the delivering up of Ken- tucky into His Majesty's hands, which is the main object to which Wilkinson has promised to devote himself entirely," and thus forever constituting "this province a rampart for the protection of New Spain."
12 John Brown, first Senator of Kentucky, son of a respectable clergyman of Rock Bridge, Virginia; received a good education; came to Kentucky in 1783, and was a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1786-7.
13 Sebastian, says Marshall, was execrated by the sound and honest part of the community for the guilt and turpitude of his conduct. Marshall's History of Kentucky, Vol. 2, p. 332. Benjamin Sebastian, not a native of any of the col- onies, was for a time an Episcopal minister, then became a lawyer and early drifted to Kentucky where he was elected judge of the Supreme court. He never complained of his punishment, and took his position as a scape-goat with- out murmur; he admitted his complicity, and that he received a pension for services rendered in 1795; was associated with Wilkinson and Brown in 1788; his pension amounted to $2,000, per annum. When the facts of this Spanish con- spiracy came to be fully known he was forced out of office.
14 Gayarre's Louisiana, Spanish Domination, p. 208.
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DISCONTENT
Before Wilkinson's boats arrived at New Orleans, practically no trade intercourse existed between the settlers on the Ohio, and New Orleans and lower Louisiana. Now and then an emigrant by dint of entreaty, or at the solicitation of friends at New Orleans, was allow- ed to settle near Natchez with his family and slaves, and bring his cattle, furniture and farming implements into the country with him. Venturesome traders going down the river were liable to have their property seized by the first Spanish commanding officer whom they might chance to meet. This policy now was suddenly changed. Emigration from the western county into the Spanish possessions was encouraged, the property of the new settlers was allowed to be brought into the country free of duty, passports were issued to such settlers to insure their safety, and lands, too, were freely granted. Among these settlers were many who were only speculators. These had shipments of supplies made to their address, and which were admitted free of duty, and having sold these supplies and finished their business, they would return home under pretense of going up the river for their families. Only a comparatively small number remained in the country. But the encouragement given to this emigration opened a market for the produce on the Ohio. Flour, bacon, corn and tobacco found a ready sale, and consequently lands in Kentucky began to increase in value. In 1788, Daniel Clark writes Wilkinson that he can make him rich, if he will direct his neighbors to him whenever they have business to transact at New Orleans. He says that a thousand barrels of pork would sell here annually "at ten hard dollars per barrel."15 Flour, which before Wilkinson came to New Orleans sold at $4 per barrel on the Ohio, increased in price to $9 a barrel, and from ten to fifteen thousand barrels generally found a ready sale in lower Louisiana. This restricted and precarious trade however gave life and activity to the whole upper country, and any regulation or tariff calculated to hinder or obstruct it at once resulted in stagnation and commercial disaster, and led naturally to general dissatisfaction.
In 1788, both before and immediately after the adoption of the Federal constitution, general discontent prevailed, and the sentiment was universal for the establishment of a separate and independent government, in order to secure the free navigation of the Mississippi. Wilkinson industriously augmented this feeling of unrest. Gardoqui, the Spanish Minister at Philadelphia, had been instructed by the
15 Wilkinson's Memoirs, vol. 2, appendix 13.
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HISTORY OF MISSOURI
Spanish court to encourage the people of the western country to form an alliance with Spain. He employed a person named Pierre Wower d'Arges as his agent to invite people from Kentucky and elsewhere, to form American settlements in lower Louisiana, by offering liberal concessions of land, permission to introduce slaves and farming uten- sils free of duty, and promising that the settlers should not be dis- turbed in their religion, although they could not be permitted to build churches or have salaried ministers.16 D'Arges had not only received instructions from Gardoqui, but also from Count Florida Blanca, one of the members of the cabinet of Madrid, to do all in his power to dismember the Union, but when he presented himself with his instructions to Miro, and solicited his co-operation, to his great astonishment he was detained in New Orleans, on various pretexts, and not allowed to go up the river. Miro was in the meantime writing to Count Florida Blanca, explaining his purpose, showing that the mission of D'Arges interfered with the plans of Wilkinson, and re- vealing to him the true purpose of Wilkinson's visit to New Orleans. An important part of the plan of Miro and Wilkinson was to exasper- ate the feelings of the people and arouse discontent by raising all man- ner of obstruction to trade and the free navigation of the river. "The western people," says Miro in his letter, "would no longer have any inducement to immigrate, if they were put in possession of free trade with us. This is the reason why this privilege should only be granted to a few individuals having influence among them, as is suggested in Wilkinson's memorial, because on their seeing the ad- vantage bestowed on these few, they might be easily persuaded to acquire the like by becoming Spanish subjects."
About this time Colonel Morgan addressed his memorial to Gardoqui, proposing to plant a great American colony near the mouth of the Ohio, in a district now within the limits of Missouri, and re- ceived the grant which has been already fully detailed. This gigan- tic enterprise, if Miro had co-operated with Gardoqui, undoubtedly would have been successful and exercised a potent influence in the
16 This Pierre Wower d'Arges was a Frenchman, a Knight of St. Louis, who arrived at the Falls of the Ohio in 1785; claimed to be a naturalist engaged in inquiring into the productions of the country; his confidential friend was Bar- thélemi Tardiveau, then a resident of Kentucky, who afterward removed to Kaskaskia, and then to New Madrid. D'Arges, Miro said, while residing at Louisville drew drafts on M. Marbois, then French Consul at New York; finally lived as one of the family of Count de Moustier, French Minister, before the French Revolution, and from this he argued that he undoubtedly was still seek - ing to promote French interests in Louisiana.
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WILKINSON FAVORS SEPARATION
affairs of the Mississippi valley, and might have given it an entirely different political destiny. But Miro frustrated this scheme at the instance of Wilkinson, who wrote him that if he allowed Morgan's plan to be carried out, "it will destroy the whole fabric of which we have laid out the foundation." Wilkinson urged upon him that the Spaniards should be the carriers of the commerce of the river, and thus "his Catholic Majesty will have on the river thirty thousand boatmen at least, whom it will be easy to equip and convert into armed bodies, to assist in the defense of the province from whatever quarter it may be threatened." By various devices, tending to cause unrest and discontent, Wilkinson, subsidized by Spanish gold and trading privi- leges, for years endeavored to wean the people from allegiance to the general Government, without, however, unfolding his true purpose. The question, however, of separation from the United States was openly discussed at this time by many distinguished inhabitants, but never brought forward in a formal manner. Everything seemed to hinge on the demand of the people of Kentucky for admission into the Union as an independent state.
When the second Constitutional Convention of Kentucky met in 1789, Wilkinson wrote Miro that he would feel the pulse of the mem- bers, and consult with two or three leading men capable of assisting him, and then "disclose as much of our great scheme as may appear opportune, according to circumstances." He was careful in his promises, and too politic to disclose much of his plan to the public in general. He knew well that the people, though greatly dissatis- fied, were not ripe for his scheme. He subsidized a few of the promi- nent men, and wrote that these were "decidedly in favor of separating from the United States, and an alliance with Spain," but his hope was that Spain, by rigorously prohibiting the navigation of the river, and bringing ruin upon the people, would drive them into rebellion against the general Government, and disrupt the Union. "Spain," he wrote, "ought to consider the navigation of the Mississippi as one of the most precious jewels of her crown," and further, "if Congress can obtain the free use of the Mississippi, and if Spain should cede it without condition, it would strengthen the Union and deprive Spain of all influence in this district." In the convention, Wilkinson declared himself in favor of a separation, so as to secure the free navigation of the Mississippi, but the matter was referred to a com- mittee, a long recess was taken, and in the meantime the powers of the new Constitution of the United States became manifest. Political
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HISTORY OF MISSOURI
appointments were bestowed on many of Wilkinson's adherents, Wilkinson himself was appointed Colonel in the new army, and Spain's opportunity slipped away. Nevertheless Wilkinson, though an officer in the United States army, maintained his treasonable correspondence, but the flow of money from New Orleans was no longer as free as before. Miro was displeased that he should be in the actual service of the United States, and employed in military oper- ations elsewhere, instead of remaining in Kentucky to urge secession. He wrote him that it was his duty to remain there, "because, according to the answer received from the court, you are now our agent, and I am instructed to give you to hope that the King will reward your services, as I have already intimated to you." Many of Wilkinson's adherents and malcontents began to fall away at this time, or they became lukewarm, principally because the people were advised that the question of the Mississippi was about to be settled amicably be- tween Spain and the United States. The mere knowledge that some- thing was being done tended greatly to allay public excitement. The people were willing to wait if bona fide efforts were made to protect and secure the rights guaranteed by the treaty. Wilkinson himself, suspected by Washington, sought to become a Spanish subject in order to secure protection in an emergency.
Baron Carondelet succeeded Miro in 1791.17 But at this time he could hardly hope to accomplish anything. Still he did not give up the attempt and as his emissary employed one Thomas Power, who for several years made New Madrid his place of residence. This Power was an Englishman by birth, but a naturalized Spanish subject, zealous in the service of Spain, intelligent, cautious and well educated. Under one pretense or another he visited Kentucky and endeavored by communication with Sebastian, Innes, Wilkinson and others to revive the plots to separate the western states from the Union which had been carried on under Miro's administration. Through Power, Carondelet endeavored to ascertain the force, dis- cipline and temper of the army under Wilkinson. He made a strong appeal to the ambition of the latter, telling him that all it required on his part was "firmness and resolution" to make the "western people free and happy." He asked, "Can a man of your superior genius
17 Don François Luis Hector, Baron de Carondelet, was a native of Flanders, and in the service of Spain for many years, was a colonel in the Royal armies, had been Governor of San Salvador and Guatemala, and in 1791 was appointed Governor of Louisiana. He was an able man. In 1797 he was appointed President of the Royal Audiencia of Quito.
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NAVIGATION OF THE MISSISSIPPI
prefer a subordinate and contracted position as Commander of the small and insignificant army of the United States to the glory of being the founder of an Empire, the liberator of so many millions of his countrymen - the Washington of the West?"18 These allurements produced no effect. Wilkinson and his associates were too wise to attempt so dangerous a scheme. Still they continued to receive Spanish money, held a correspondence with the Spanish officials and their representative, Power. In 1796 one Elisha Winter being at New Madrid, at Fort Celeste, heard the Commandant Captain Thomas Portelle make some observations he could not understand. Asking the interpreter for an explanation, he was told that Portelle had in his chamber up stairs "a Spanish lady, going to visit General Wilkinson." This aroused Winter's curiosity, and he found that the reference was to a chest of Spanish dollars, as much as five men could handle, sent by the Spanish government to Wilkinson. This of course seemed strange to Winter. Afterward going up the Ohio in a canoe, no doubt occasionally thinking of this "Spanish lady," he · met Power coming down stream on his way to New Madrid, who told him that he was going there to get some groceries. This convinced the suspicious Winter that Power was on his way to "gallant the Spanish lady to headquarters," accordingly he made all haste to see General Wayne to give him "information of the approach of so val- uable a creature."19 But Wilkinson never received this money, for the messenger entrusted with it, Harry Owens, was murdered by his boatmen, who divided the money among themselves and escaped into the woods.20
The matter of the navigation of the Mississippi, however, remained unadjusted, a source of friction, a constant impediment to the develop- ment and trade of the western country. The dissatisfaction extended in 1794, beyond Kentucky to the western borders of Pennsylvania, whose trade interests on the Mississippi now had become important.
18 Gayarre's Louisiana, Spanish Domination, p. 365.
19 Wilkinson's Memoirs, vol. 2, appendix 35.
20 The $9,640, came to New Madrid in the galley "Victoria," Bernardo Molino, Patron. At this time François Langlois was Captain of militia in New Madrid and Commandant of the Galliot "Flecha" stationed there and also had under his orders the gun-boat "Toro" and the batteau "Prince of the Asturias." When Harry Owens came up from New Orleans with orders from Carondelet to deliver the money for General Wilkinson on the Ohio, Langlois furnished Owens a "patrón" named Pepello and six oarsmen, and shipped in his canoe $6,000, packed in little barrels. Owens was killed on this trip by the men, and afterwards Vexerano, one of the crew was arrested, and also Pepello, and tried as having murdered Owens, at New Orleans.
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HISTORY OF MISSOURI
Consequently, Wilkinson, Innis, Sebastian, Brown, Murray, Nichols, and others who had been interested in the Miro plot to separate Kentucky from the Union, were disposed to take up again their for- mer relations with the Spanish government, and through Power it was arranged that some of them would meet a Spanish officer of rank at the mouth of the Ohio, to discuss this delicate and important subject. Carondelet selected as his emissary, Gayosa de Lemos, one of the most distinguished Spanish officials, then Governor of Natchez. Gayosa had been educated in England; was a man of polished and familiar manners, accessible to all and of boundless generosity.21 From Natchez he went to New Madrid, and upon his arrival Portelle sent Power to Kentucky to make the necessary arrange- ments for an interview with Sebastian, Innes and their associates.22 In the meantime Gayosa proceeded to the mouth of the Ohio, and there, while awaiting the arrival of the delegation from Kentucky, erected a small triangular stockade fort opposite the mouth of this river in
21 2 Wilkinson's Memoirs, vol. 2, p. 241, note.
22 In 1795 Gayoso ascended the Mississippi to Fort San Fernando de las Barancas, (Chickasaw Bluffs), remained there two months and then went to New Madrid. He advised Portelle that he had dispatches to send to Kentucky and Portelle engaged Power to carry those dispatches as travelling was his passion. In 1794 Power was sent to Kentucky by Portelle when Genet started his agitation, also when the boatmen murdered Owens who had $6,000, for Wilkinson. On that trip Power left New Madrid with a pirogue, hands and provisions ; reached Red Banks in six days, where he was detained by the bilious fever until September 24th, then by land went to Cincinnati, where he arrived on October 6th; from Cincinnati, under orders of General Wilkinson, he went to Gallipolis; on his return at Red Banks he met Benjamin Sebastin, Harry Innis John Murray and George Nicholas; Wilkinson then urged that a military mag- azines should be formed at New Madrid, well supplied with arms, ammunition and other military stores. Power was a man of education and literary ability. In giving a sketch of his experiences, he says in a letter to General Wilkinson, dated February 6, 1803: "It is true I have been at the sources of those streams through which the treasures of the new world flow and empty themselves into channels through which they are conveyed and separated from the rest of the globe, but it was merely to experience the sufferings of Tantalus, and return home with my pockets lighter than when I set off." Then speaking of the mean- ness of the Spanish officials, he comments on "their coarse and vulgar vices and their disgusting vanity;" he says that "they are determined to let me linger out my life in poverty" and pictures himself to "stand in the midst of them like Rubens' picture of famine in the gallery of Luxemburg surrounded by opulence and power." Of Wilkinson he says, "I respect your virtues, admire your under- standing, reverence and esteem your character and shall ever be proud of your friendship," all of which encomium Wilkinson afterwards used to good advantage when the charges against him were investigated by a court martial, and Power appeared as one of the principal witnesses against him. Power, Wilkinson says, was a man "of travel and information; his conversation was interesting; he was a man of liberal education and polished manners; possessed capacity and understood character." It may interest some to know that Power married Josephine Trudeau, daughter of Jean Trudeau (2) and Felicite de Villars in New Orleans,
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