USA > Missouri > A history of Missouri from the earliest explorations and settlements until the admission of the state into the union, Volume II > Part 45
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47
"By the 12th Section of the Act erecting Louisiana into territories and pro- viding for the temporary government thereof, 'the executive power now vested in the Governor of the Indiana territory is extended to and to be exercised in Louisiana.' Your petitioners beg leave to state, that they have read with the utmost attention the laws enacted at different times, for the provisory Gov- ernment of the several territories of the Union, and that far from observing in those laws anything like trusting the Governor of a neighboring State or territory with the government of a newly erected territory, they find on the contrary that Congress paid the most scrupulous respect to the interests and feelings of the inhabitants by the wisest precautions, in not only obliging the Governor to reside in the territory which he governs, but also obliging him to hold a freehold estate in the same territory. In the Ordinance for the Government of the terri- tory North-West of the river Ohio, we find this provision, "Be it ordained by the authority aforesaid, that there shall be appointed from time to time by Congress, a Governor, whose commission shall continue in force for a term of three years, unless sooner revoked by Congress; he shall reside in the District and have a freehold estate therein in 1,000 acres of land, while in the exercise of his office."
389
MEMORIAL
The petition then says that the
"point of Louisiana nearest to the place where the Governor of the Indiana territory makes his habitual residence, is not less than 165 miles distant; and there is not a house to be met with on the road, impassable at many seasons of the year owing to the number of creeks and rivers which sometimes overflow their banks, sometimes are entirely covered with ice; so that we may conclude, that did not justice and sound policy prohibit the alliances in contemplation, nature itself loudly proclaims its impracticability. Your Honorable Houses may judge at what immense distance some parts of Louisiana must be from the Governor to whom an appcal lies in many cases affecting the property and the life of individuals."
The meagre provisions made by this Act for the settlement of the Spanish land titles and no doubt the principal cause of the agitation, the memorial fully discussed. It is claimed that under the provisions of the Act the people are deprived of rights which they had under the laws of Spain, that
"Agreeably to the laws, usages and customs of Spain, three years were granted by the Spanish government after having obtained a full or incipient grant for making a settlement thereon; that American emigrants, some time previous to the 20th day of December, 1803, might have bought from the original proprietors or rather holders of such incipient title, rights to such lands, and taking it for granted that Congress would allow the same space of time, which was allowed by the Spanish government, for making a settlement upon land obtained from the Spanish government, might have returned to the eastern part of the United States in order to prepare everything necessary for their removal, and with in- tention of coming back to Louisiana in the following spring, to settle upon these lands bought bona fide and without fraud, yet Congress in the 14th Section declares null and void every act, and proceeding, subsequent to the treaty of St. Ildefonso, made the Ist day of October 1800, of whatsoever nature towards obtaining any grant, title or claim of such lands, and under whatever authority transacted or pretended, to be and have been from the beginning, null, void and of no effect in law or equity, although the King of Spain did not renounce his sovereignty over Louisiana on the Ist day of October 1800, and that at what period of time an absolute renunciation of Louisiana was made by the King of Spain the petitioners can not ascertain; but that they 'conceive that the sov- ercignty of the United States in Louisiana did not begin previously to that abso- lute and unconditional renunciation on the part of the King of Spain.'"
And further the memorialists, in support of the grants of the Spanish officers, argue :
"That time sufficient must be allowed for the Spanish government to make known its final treaty with the French Republic to its agents in Louisiana (author- ized, your petitioners humbly conceive, to grant lands in its name until they receive official notice of the treaty which ceded Louisiana to France) and that it is not probable that a government, at a considerable distance can be in a greater hurry to take steps by which it divests itself of the sovereignty of a country, than the Government which has just acquired that country, and which is on the spot, has taken to have its sovereignty acknowledged there, and that ten months and ten days elapsed after the treaty between the United States and the French Republic before the United States took possession of Louisiana, your Honorable Houses must conclude that there may have been grants of land obtained from the Spanish government, as to which, those who have obtained them, may have yet more than one year to comply with the laws, usages and customs of the Span- ish government. But your petitioners (we mean the few who have any knowl-
390
HISTORY OF MISSOURI
edge at all of the laws respecting Louisiana enacted during the last session of your Honorable Houses) find themselves placed between the necessity either of not complying with the conditions on which they received lands from the Spanish Government or of acting in direct contradiction to a law enacted by your Hon- orable Houses; and yet what do those grants amount to which were given since the Ist day of October, 1800? If your Honorable Houses will be pleased to call upon your officers in Louisiana for a correct statement of the quantity of land given since that epoch by the officers of the Spanish Government your Honorable Houses will be satisfied that there has been but a very inconsiderable quantity of land thus disposed of, chiefly in favor of hard laboring men, who owing to the various rumors which ran over the country ever since the cession to France was spoken of, the country belonging sometimes to Spain, sometimes to France, sometimes to the United States, sometimes to Spain again; at an immense dis- tance from every source of information very often not understanding the language of their neighbors, discouraged at first from exhausting their whole in making improvements on lands to which they had obtained an incipient title, from what they conceived the precariousness of those titles, likely to result from the inter- ference of such or such a power to which they were told Louisiana belonged, prevented by your law from complying with the conditions of Spain, when they had not it any longer in their power to doubt that the country was ultimately to remain to the United States and who at the very moment their confidence had begun to revive find themselves whatever they do liable to be punished by a free and enlightened nation, for having listened to the dictates of prudence and placed confidence in the United States."
And the memorial continues,
" Your petitioners beg leave to observe further, that it was only on the 10th of March, 1804, that the United States took possession of the District of Louisiana; it should seem of course that the inhabitants of Louisiana could not be bound by any law of the United States previous at least to that government ; yet your Honorable Houses by a law approved by the President on the 26th day of March, 1804, deprive of his property, and if he does persist in his claims after the first day of October next, condemn to a fine not exceeding 1,000 dollars, and to suffer an imprisonment not exceeding one year, any man who shall have attempted a settlement on lands to which he may not have obtained as yet a complete title, if he has made or attempted a settlement any time posterior to the 20th day of December, 1803, that is more than three months before the law which condemns him was enacted; and if your Honorable Houses reflect that the Act erecting Louisiana into two territories is only to take place on the Ist of October 1804 it will result that a man may be guilty by doing an act indifferent in itself, in virtue of a law which is to take effect more than nine months subse- quently according to the law itself, before the provision of that law can be en- forced, and that too, in the very face of the 3d article of the Ninth Section of the Constitution of the United States which declares that, 'No bill of attainder or ex post facto law shall be formed.' "
In conclusion the petitioners ask :
"I. For the repeal of the Act erecting Louisiana into two territories, and providing for the temporary Government thereof.
2. That legal steps should be immediately taken for the permanent division of Louisiana.
3. That a Governor, Secretary and Judges should be appointed by the President, who shall reside in the District of Louisiana, and hold property therein to the same amount as is prescribed by Ordinance respecting the territory North- West of the river Ohio.
4. That the Governor, Secretary and Judges to be thus appointed for the District of Louisiana, should in preference be chosen from among those who speak both the English and French languages.
5. That the records of each county, and the proceedings of the courts of Justice in the District of Louisiana, should be kept and had in both the English
39I
DEMANDS
and French languages as it is the case in a neighboring country under a mon- archial Government and acquired by conquest.
6. That supposing the District of Louisiana to be divided into five counties ten members, two from each county, shall be elected by the people having a right to vote in each county according to the rules prescribed by the Ordinance re- specting the North-West territory, every two years, or such another number as Congress may appoint, which said members shall jointly with the Governor form the legislative council of the said District of Louisiana.
7. That Congress would acknowledge the principle of our being entitled, in virtue of the treaty, to the free possession of slaves, and to the right of import- ing slaves into the District of Louisiana under such restrictions as to Congress, in their wisdom, will appear necessary.
8. That Congress, taking into consideration the distance at which we live from the seat of the General Government, which does not allow the General Gov- ernment to be informed with respect to the truc interests of this country, but through the agents of that same government, - Congress should enact a law authorizing this District of Louisiana to send an agent or delegate to Congress whose powers as to speaking and voting in the House, Congress may circum- scribe as to them may seem proper.
9. That funds be appropriated for the support, and lands set apart, or bought, for the building and maintaining of a French and English school in each county, and for the building of a seminary of learning, where not only the French and the English languages, but likewise the dead languages, mathematics, me- chanics, natural and moral philosophy, and the principles of the Constitution of the United States should be taught; independent of the obligation of spreading knowledge, upon which alone a free Government can stand, in a country till now unacquainted with your laws and languages, a powerful additional interest will result, in the opinion of Congress, from teaching principally mathematics and natural philosophy, when your Honorable Houses reflect that Louisiana abounds with mines of every description, which can never be worked to any advantage without powerful engines supplied by those two sciences.
10. That every private engagement conformable to the laws of Spain, entered into during the time Louisiana was ruled by the Laws of Spain, shall be main- tained.
II. That any judgment which was considered as final, according to the Spanish law, shall not be revised by any of the tribunals to be established in Louisiana by the United States.
12. That any judgment from which an appeal might be had, according to the Spanish law, to any superior tribunal, may be appealed from, to a tribunal of equal dignity within this territory, or the United States, and that a final judg- ment be had conformably to the Laws of Louisiana at the time the suits were first brought into the court."
This memorial was dated September 29, 1804, and was signed by Richard Jones Waters and Eligius Fromentin, Deputies of New Madrid; Christopher Hays, Stephen Byrd, Andrew Ramsay and Frederick Bollinger, Deputies of Cape Girardeau; J. S. J. Beauvais and P. Detchmendey, Deputies of Ste. Genevieve; Charles Gratiot, P. Provenchère, Auguste Chouteau, Richard Caulk, David Musick and Francis Cottard, Deputies of St. Louis and dependencies; War- ren Cottle, A. Reynal, F. Saucier and Timothy Kibby, Deputies of St. Charles and dependencies. Auguste Chouteau and Eligius Fromentin were appointed "Deputies, delegates and agents generally" to present the memorial to Congress.
392
HISTORY OF MISSOURI
It will be noted that the delegates to this convention principally represented the American settlers who had taken up their residence in upper Louisiana under the Spanish government prior to the acquisition of the territory by the United States. Richard Jones Waters originally came from Maryland to New Madrid; and was the most influential, intelligent, active and wealthiest citizen of that locality. Colonel Christopher Hays originally came to Louisiana in 1787 from Pennsylvania with Colonel George Morgan, and was one of his "gentleman surveyors." Morgan had set aside forty miles square of land to him and his associates for settlement. Colonel Hays afterward, by special permit of the Marquis de Casa Calvo settled in the Cape Girardeau district. During the Revolutionary war he was Colonel of a Pennsylvania regiment, and occupied many offices of trust. He was one of the leading characters in the western part of Pennsylvania during the entire war. Andrew Ramsay was the first American settler in the Cape Girardeau district, and immi- grated to upper Louisiana from the disputed territory on the borders of Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia; during the Revolutionary war he kept a ferry across the Cheat river, and for a time resided in Pittsburg before coming down the Ohio. His grant adjoined the grant of Don Louis Lorimier, Post Commandant at Cape Girardeau. George Frederick Bollinger, another delegate from the Cape Girar- deau district in 1800 came from Lincoln county, North Carolina to upper Louisiana, bringing with him a large number of North Caro- lina Germans who were attracted, by the free donations of land, to the Spanish possessions. He was a man of wealth, energy and great influence among the early settlers. Stephen Byrd was an emigrant from eastern Tennessee, from the Watauga settlement, immigrating to the Spanish dominion with his father about the year 1800. Rich- ard Caulk and David Musick, from the St. Louis district, both came from Maryland, and had served in the Maryland Line during the Revolutionary war; and Dr. Warren Cottle and Timothy Kibby were among the first American settlers north of the Missouri river. Kibby served in the Indian war under General Wayne, was in a corps known as "Kibby's Spies" under command of his cousin, Colonel Ephraim Kibby; and died at St. Charles, January 24, 1813. On the other hand Beauvais, and Detchmendey, Deputies of Ste. Genevieve; Gratiot, Provenchère, Chouteau and Cottard, Deputies of St. Louis, and Dr. Reynal and Saucier, Deputies of St. Charles, were among the richest, most influential and intelligent representatives of the
393
FROMENTIN
French element. Chouteau and Eligius Fromentin were selected as delegates of the convention to present the memorial of the inhabit- ants of Louisiana to Congress. The large and extensive business interests of Chouteau have made his name well known, but of Eli- gius Fromentin little, if anything, is now known in Missouri; but among the delegates he was the most learned, and no doubt the author of the memorial. Fromentin resided at this time at New Madrid. He was a native of France, was an accomplished scholar and linguist. Originally a Roman Catholic priest, and a member of the Jesuit order, he withdrew from the order, removed to the United States and studied law, and married into a distinguished Maryland family. He came to New Madrid immediately after the purchase of Louisiana, but subsequently removed from New Madrid to New Orleans, where he occupied a prominent position, and in 1812 was elected United States senator from the state of Louisi- ana. After his term of office in the United States Senate terminated in 1819, he was elected judge of a New Orleans Court, and in 1822 appointed United States Judge for the District of Florida by President Monroe, where he came in conflict with Andrew Jackson at the time Governor of Florida, and as a result resigned and returned to New Orleans.24 Fromentin in 1822, died of the yellow fever, following his wife within twenty-four hours.
As to the origin of the movement among the inhabitants which resulted in this memorial, Rufus Easton, writes President Jefferson under date of January 7, 1805, that when, in April, 1804, the Act of Congress for the government of the country became known, about twenty inhabitants of St. Louis assembled to call a meeting of delegates from the different districts, and that the ostensible purpose was to remonstrate against the annexation of upper Louisiana to the Indiana Territory; but that the real ground of dissatisfaction was the clause relative to the titles to land, that the whole matter was arranged by the French inhabitants there, and that not an American was invited, although at least forty
24 It seems that Jackson had caused Governor Jose Caballo, the last Spanish Governor of West Florida, to be arrested, and that Fromentin issued a writ of habeas corpus; whereupon General Jackson issued an order on Judge Fromen- tin to show cause why he interfered with his authority as Governor of West Florida, and as such "exercising the powers of the Captain General and Intend- ant of the Island of Cuba over said province of Florida" and also acting "in a judicial capacity as Supreme Judge over the same, and as Chancellor thereof." Caballo was charged with the attempt of carrying away and secreting papers relating to the rights of property, all of which led to a heated controversy at the time. American State Papers, vol. 2., Miscellaneous, page 840.
394
HISTORY OF MISSOURI
Americans resided at the time in the town, some of whom were respect- able merchants; and he further says, "Such measures were taken as to carry the election of the major part of the delegates in the French interest by confining the choice of the delegates to the committees, and the election of those committees to the various French villages in the country, as may be seen by the proceedings of the committee at St. Louis herewith sent. And could they have quieted the Americans peaceably settled on their plantations with the plausible declaration that they were absolutely decided 'to never separate the interests of the town of St. Louis from those of every inhabitant of this country, French or Americans, wishing that in future that distinction should be abolished even in the name, their wishes would have been carried into effect without opposition."" Easton states that : "The original intention of this convention was to petition Congress for a government militaire, a plan of which was shown to the first Commandant of the country, the leading features of which were: I. To have a Governor residing in the territory possessing both civil and military jurisdic- tion; 2. Commandants for each district to possess like powers with an appeal to the Governor in certain cases; 3. No trial to be by jury except in such cases as in the opinion of the Governor or Commandant justice should absolutely require it for special causes to be shown, and the practice of lawyers to be entirely prohibited." This scheme was frustrated according to Easton by a person who resided some years within the United States in the character of a school master, and who understood the French language. He further says that the Governor and judges of the Indiana Territory were, in the original draft of the memorial, compared to foreign Bashaws, to Pro-praetors and Pro- Consuls under the more modest names of Governor and Judges, sent out to rule over the people; that it was declared that Congress had broken the treaty, and that a motion was made by one of the members to call upon the Emperor of France to enforce its fulfillment; that the memorial, as first drawn up, was presented to the first civil Comman- dant, Captain Stoddard, for his approbation and correction, and that he, though a very good man, only pared off such portions of its wiry edge as in his opinion would obtain it a hearing, and Easton adds "delighted, as all characters of his political sentiments would be, with the indignity offered to the present majority of Congress."2
Harrison in a letter of introduction which he gave to Auguste Chouteau, says that "nine tenths of the people of the country are 25 Jefferson Papers, Series 6, vol. 10.
395
INDIAN TREATY OF 1804
warmly attached to the Government of the United States, and if in the petition of which Mr. Chouteau is the bearer, there are found expressions which appear to contradict this opinion they must be attributed to the irritation produced by the insulting misrepresenta- tions of them which have been published throughout the United States, and to the violent language of the speeches of some of the members of Congress (particularly Mr. Lyons) on the subject of the Louisiana bill. It was imagined that they ought not to speak of their own grievances in terms more moderate than those used by the persons who did not feel them. The people of this district wish for nothing more than a separate territorial government of their own in the second or representative degree. If I had been so fortunate as to have arrived here before the meeting was dissolved which framed the petition it would have been clothed in very different language. I have divided the district of Louisiana into five districts in the manner you directed and am now employed in organizing the courts and militia."26
During the administration of Governor Harrison a treaty was made at St. Louis, November 3, 1804, with the Foxes (Renards) and Saukees which eventually became the cause of much trouble with them. Governor Harrison had been directed by President Jefferson on June 27, 1804, to make a treaty with these Indians to obtain a cession of their lands on both sides of the Illinois river, and to grant them for the lands thus ceded an annual compensation. The treaty was entered into between Governor William H. Harrison, representing the United States, and Layowvois or Laiyuva, Pashepaho, or the Stabber, Quashquama, or Jumping Fish, Outchequaha, and Hashe-quarhiqua, or the PA-SHE-PA-HIO Bear, who in the treaty are said to represent the United Fox and Saukee tribes, in the presence of William Prince, Secretary to the Commission, John Griffin, one of the judges of the Indiana Territory, James Bruff, Major of Artillery, U. S., Amos Stoddard, Captain Corps of Artillerists, P. Chouteau, " Agent de la haute Louisiana pour le department sauvage," Charles Gratiot, Auguste Chouteau, Stephen Worrel, Lieutenant U. S. Artillery and D. Delauney, with the assistance of Joseph Barron and Hypolite 26 WVm. H. Harrison to Jefferson. Jefferson Papers, Series 6, vol. 10, No.38.
396
HISTORY OF MISSOURI
Bolon as sworn interpreters. But instead of confining the treaty to a cession of lands, as outlined by the President, the Indian title to an immense stretch of country on both sides of the Mississippi river, embracing over 50,000,000 acres of land was, by this single treaty, extinguished. The general boundary of the land to which this Indian title was thus secured is described in the treaty as beginning "at a point on the Missouri river opposite to the mouth of the Gasconade river ; thence in a direct course so as to strike the river Jeffron at the distance of thirty miles from its mouth and thence down the Jeffron to the Mississippi; thence up the Mississippi to the mouth of the Ouisconsing river, and up the same to a point which shall be thirty- six miles in a direct line from the mouth of the said river; thence by a direct line to the point where the Fox river (a branch of the Illinois) leaves the small lake called Sakaegan; thence down the Fox river to the Illinois river, and down the same to the Mississippi."
It is very evident that nothing in Jefferson's instructions war- ranted a treaty including lands on the west side of the Mississippi. Governor Harrison was directed to obtain a cession of land on both sides of the Illinois, and not on both sides of the Mississippi. But when a clause of this treaty is examined, and to which the Indians were made to agree, and which provided "that nothing in this treaty contained shall affect the claim of any individual or individuals who- may have obtained grants of land from the Spanish government, and included within the general boundary line laid down in this treaty, provided that such grants have at any time been made known to the Indian tribes and recognized by them," and with this provision be coupled the presence of Auguste Chouteau, Charles Gratiot, Pierre Chouteau, Agent "pour le department sauvage," and D. Delauney, the mystery why land on the west side of the Mississippi was included in this treaty becomes somewhat clearer. It was, may be, to secure such a quasi-endorsement of the large Spanish land grants held by these persons that this Indian treaty was made to em- brace land on the west side of the Mississippi. Harrison says that after the treaty was made he was shown the grant to Dubuque and in which Auguste Chouteau owned a half interest, and finding that without this clause this tract of land might be considered as receded, although the Indians acknowledged the validity of the Dubuque title, the Indians were induced to agree to the additional article.27 Black Hawk always claimed that the Fox and Saukee nations were
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.