USA > Missouri > A history of Missouri from the earliest explorations and settlements until the admission of the state into the union, Volume II > Part 46
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
27 American State Papers, 2 Public Lands, p. 454.
397
BLACK HAWK
not properly represented when this treaty was made, that the chiefs who made it were not authorized to make the treaty, were drunk and knew not what they did.
Draper thinks that this treaty was probably the cause of the alienation of the Rock River Fox and Saukee Indians in the war of 1812.28 Black Hawk, in his autobiography, gives' us this version, "one of our people killed an American and was confined in the prison of St. Louis for the offense; we held a council at our village what could be done with him, which determined that Quash-qua-ma, Pa-she-pa-ho, Ou-che- qua-ka and Ha-she-quar-hi-qua should go down to St. Louis, see our American Father, and do all they could to have our friend re- leased by paying for the person killed, thus covering the blood and satisfying the relatives of the man murdered. This being the only BLACK HAWK means with us for saving a person who had killed another, and we then thought it was the same with the whites.
. The party set out with the good wishes of the whole nation, hoping that they would accomplish the object of their mission. The relatives of the prisoner blacked their faces and fasted, hoping the Great Spirit would take pity on them and return the husband and father to his wife and children. Quash-qua-ma and party remained a long time absent. They at length returned and encamped a short distance below the village, but did not come up that day, nor did any person approach their camp. They appeared to be dressed in fine coats and had medals. From these circumstances we were in hopes that they had brought good news. Early the next morning the Council Lodge was crowded. Quash-qua-ma and party came up and gave us the following account of their mission :
"On their arrival at St. Louis they met their American Father and explained to him their business and urged the release of their friend. The American chief told them he wanted land and they agreed to give him some on the west side of the Mississippi, and some on the Illinois side, opposite the Jeffron. When the business was all arranged, they expected to have their friend released to come home with them, but about the time they were ready to start their friend was let out of prison, who ran a short distance and was shot 28 3 Minnesota Historical Collection, p. 143.
398
HISTORY OF MISSOURI
dead. This was all they could recollect of what was said and done. They had been drunk the greater part of the time they were in St. Louis.
"This is all myself and nation knew of the treaty of 1804. It has been explained to me since. I find by that treaty all our country east of the Mississippi, and south of the Jeffron, was ceded to the United States for one thousand dollars a year. I will leave it to the people of the United States to say whether our nation was properly represented in this treaty, or whether we received a fair compensation for the extent of country ceded by those four individuals.29
If we compare the representation of the Saukee Indians alone, then residing on the Des Moines river, at Portage des Sioux, in 1815, when a treaty was entered into with them, the inadequate and ap- parently fraudulent representation of both the Renards and Saukees in 1804 appears very manifest. At Portage des Sioux in 1815, the United States were represented by William Clark, Ninian Edwards and Auguste Chouteau as Commissioners, and the Saukee Indians by twelve chiefs and warriors, to wit: Shamaga, the lance; Weesaka, the Devil; Catchemackesc, the big eagle; Chekaqua, he that stands by the tree; Kataka, or Sturgeon; Mecaitch, the eagle; Neshota, the twin; Quashquama, the jumping fish; Chagosort, the blues' son; Pocama, the plumb; Namachewana-chaha, the Sioux; Nanocha- atasa, the brave by hazard; and Maurice Blondeau, Samuel Solomon and Noel Mongrain, interpreters. R. Walsh acted as secretary of the Commission, and Thomas Levers, Lieutenant-Colonel commanding First Regiment U. S. Inf., P. Chouteau, Agent; T. Paul, C. C. T .; James B. Moore, Captain; Samuel Whiteside, Captain; John W. Johnson, U. S. Factor and Indian Agent, and Daniel Converse, Third Lieutenant, as witnesses. And on the next day, when a treaty was made with the Renard Indians, these were represented by twenty-two chiefs and warriors. And in the year following, May 13, 1816, when a treaty of peace was made by the same Commissioners, these Indians were represented by twenty-two warriors and chiefs, as
29 Quash-qua-ma was a great treaty signer. Major Forsythe says that he well knew that there were "many wet souls among them", that is among the Renards and Saukees, "particularly my old acquaintance Quash-qua-ma," thus confirming Black Hawk's statement as to drunkenness. Quash-qua-ma was a chief among the Saukees in Missouri; he signed the treaties of Portage des Sioux, September, 1815; that of Fort Armstrong in September, 1822, and Prairie du Chien in August, 1825; died opposite Clarksville in Missouri in 1830. Draper says, "he is represented by those who knew him as not tall but heavily formed, nor did he appear to possess any of the traits of a noble warrior, with a character not always free from tarnish." 3 Minnesota Collection, p. 143.
399
CONFIRMED
follows: Anowart, or the one who speaks; Namawenane, the Stur- geon-man; Nasawarku, the fork; Namatchesa, the jumping stur- geon; Matchequawa, the Bad Axe; Mascho, young eagle; Aquaosa, a lion coming out of the water; Mucketamachekaka, black sparrow hawk; Sakeetoo, the thunder that frightens; Warpaloka, the rum- bling thunder; Kemealosha, the swan that flies in the rain; Pashe- komack, the swan that flies low; Keotasheka, the running partridge ; Wapalamo, the White wolf; Caskupwa, the swan whose wings crack when he flies; Poinaketa, the cloud that don't stop; Bad Weather; Anawashqueth, the bad root; Wassekenequa, sharp- faced bear; Napetaka, he who has a swan's throat around his neck ; Mashashe, the fox; Wapamukqua, the white bear.
In all these treaties it was deemed important by the United States that the treaty of 1804 made at St. Louis in the name of both the Renard and Saukee Indians should be confirmed. If the chiefs who made the treaty of 1804 were authorized by the Indian nations to make the cession that was made, it is clear that in 1815 or 1816 no supplementary stipulation confirming the treaty of 1804 would have been deemed necessary.30 It is also to be noted that Quashquama, in 1816, said, "You white men may put what you please on paper, but I tell you again I never sold any land higher up the Missouri than the mouth of the Rocky river."31 Undoubtedly Quashquama was drunk when he made the treaty of 1804, and did not understand the nature or character of the treaty he entered into for his tribe.
Returning now to the legislative history of the territory we find that this subject deeply interested Jefferson and his advisers. By some it was suggested that a military government was best adapted to the country and people. The most influential French residents favored this system, among them Chouteau, who was then in Wash- ington. Gallatin had several interviews with him on this and other subjects while he was in Washington, and under date of 20th of August, 1804, writes Jefferson, "I had two conversations with Chouteau; he seems to be well disposed but what he wants is power and money; he proposed that he should have a negative on all Indian trading licenses, and the direction and all the profits of the trade
30 In a recent publication of the Black Hawk war an effort is made to white- wash the treaty of 1804, and to measure Black Hawk by the standard of the highest civilization, without however, conceding him the right to resist with all his power and ability a manifest and palpable fraud perpetrated on his people by a few drunken Indians pretending to act for the Fox and Saukee Indian nations. See Stephen's History of the Black Hawk War.
31 Beggs' Early History of the West, p. 216.
400
HISTORY OF MISSOURI
carried on by the government with all the Indians of Louisiana, replacing only the capital. I told him this was inadmissable, and his last demand was the exclusive trade with the Osages, to be effected by granting licenses only to his agents, but that he should not be con- cerned in the trade with any other nation. The annual consumption of the Osages he states $140,000, in goods estimated at their value at the Illinois; the annual consumption of all the Missouri Indians, including the Sioux of the Mississippi, he estimates at $300,000. On account of the slowness of the returns, a capital double the annual consumption is necessary for carrying on the trade. As he may be either useful or dangerous I gave no flat denial to his last request, but told him to modify it in the least objectionable shape, and to write General Dearborn from St. Louis, which he said he would do. As to the government of upper Louisiana, he is decidedly in favor of a military one, and appears much afraid of civil law and lawyers. In some respects he may be right, but as regular laws and courts protect the poor and the ignorant, we may mistrust the predilection of him who is comparatively rich and intelligent in favor of the other system.''32
But by the Act of 1805, upper Louisiana was detached from the Territory of Indiana, and erected into a separate territory, and which "Shall henceforth be known and designated by the name and title of the Territory of Louisiana." The executive power was vested in a Governor under this Act to be appointed by the President for a period of three years unless sooner removed, and who was made the Com- mander in Chief of the Militia of the territory and Ex-officio Com- missioner of Indian Affairs. A Secretary for the territory, to hold his office for four years, to preserve and record all papers of the territory, was also provided for. The legislative power was vested in the Governor and in three judges, or a majority of them, who were empowered to establish inferior courts, prescribe the jurisdiction of the same and make such laws "as may be deemed by them conducive to good government and not inconsistent with the Constitution and the laws of the United States," all criminal cases to be triable by jury, as well as all civil cases involving more than $100. The Act provided that the laws should be published in the territory, and reported to the President and Congress for approval. The judges appointed were to hold their offices for four years, and required to hold two terms of court annually at such places as might be most convenient to the 32 Jefferson Papers, 3d Series, vol. 5, No. 83.
401
THE ACT OF 1805
people. New districts from time to time, it was provided, should be laid out so as to facilitate the administration of justice, and provi- sion was made for the appointment of other magistrates and civil officers.33 Under this Act General Wilkinson 34 was appointed Governor of the territory, Joseph Browne 35 of New York, Secretary of the same, and James B. C. Lucas, John Coburn,36 and Rufus Easton,37 judges of the Superior court.
33 2 United States Statutes at Large, page 331.
34 Albert Gallatin, February 12, 1806, writes, "Of the General (Wilkinson) I have no very exalted opinion; he is extravagant and needy and would not, I think, feel much delicacy in speculating on public money or public lands. In both those respects he must be closely watched; and he has now united himself with every man in Louisiana who had received or claims large grants under the Spanish Government, (Gratiot, the Chouteaus, Soulard &c). But tho' perhaps not very scrupulous in that respect and although I fear he may sacrifice to a cer- tain degree the interests of the United States to his desire of being popular in his government he is honorable in his private dealings and of betraying it to a for- eign country I believe him altogether incapable. Yet, Ellicott's information, together with this hint may induce caution, and if anything can be done which may lead to discoveries either in respect to him or others, it would seem proper, but how to proceed I do not know." Jefferson Papers, 3d Series, vol. 6, No. 84. Gen. James Wilkinson was born at Benedict in Maryland in 1757, received a good education, studied medicine, on the breaking out of the Revolutionary war served in the army, and then in the Indian wars. Retired from the ser- vice and engaged in the mercantile business in Kentucky. When the new con- stitution was adopted was appointed Colonel in the army of the United States by Washington. At the battle of the Maumee under Gen. Wayne he com- manded the right wing of the army, after the death of Wayne became com- mander in chief of the United States army. In the war of 1812 failed in his military operations in Canada. Was tried by a court of inquiry as to his alleged connection with the Spanish conspiracy, no satisfactory evidence being produced he was acquitted, but was discharged from the army. Published his Memoirs in three volumes, an elaborate defense. Removed to Mexico where he died Dec. 28, 1825.
35 A brother-in-law of Aaron Burr.
36 Born in Philadelphia; came to Kentucky in 1784 on the advice of Luther Martin; lived in Lexington until 1794, then removed to Mason county where he was made Judge of the Circuit court; an ardent Democrat; friend of Daniel Boone; an Act appropriating land in Louisiana Territory passed for him at his instance; one of the commissioners in 1796 to run a line between Kentucky and Virginia; held many offices and died in 1823. Cuming's Tour, page 148.
37 When Jefferson afterwards failed to reappoint him, he wrote a letter ask- ing him for an explanation, to which Jefferson replied under date of February 22, 1806, as follows : " Your commission as Judge of Louisiana, according to its own terms and those of the Constitution, is to expire at the end of the present session of the Senate. The nomination of a successor is then by the Constitution as free as it originally was. In exercising the duty of a nomination to office it has never been, nor can be attempted, that, after a selection (is) made of one of the competitors, those who are unsuccessful shall have the right to have the reason specified for which they have been pretermitted, and be heard in justification on the ground of protecting their reputation. I always receive such documents of character as the parties or their friends offer, seek the best information I can otherwise get, make up as honest an opinion as I can and say no more about it. I never even let it be known who asks for office, much less the grounds of not giving it. Every one must be sensible what kind of altercation I should be in-
402
HISTORY OF MISSOURI
General Wilkinson, prior to his appointment as Governor, was stationed at St. Louis and located the United States cantonment at Bellefontaine. Within a short time after Wilkinson's appointment Aaron Burr visited his brother-in-law, Joseph Browne, Secretary of the territory, then in St. Louis. Burr's term of office as Vice Presi- dent of the United States had expired only a short time before this visit, and of course, as was right and proper, he was treated by General Wilkinson with distinguished consideration. When he departed from St. Louis Wilkinson sent him to New Orleans in his ten-oar barge, gaily fitted out, escorted by a Sergeant and ten men and oarsmen. At a subsequent period when Burr's alleged scheme to dismember the Union was published to the world, General Wil- kinson's courtesy to the ex-Vice President was by many considered palpable proof of his complicity in the enterprise. But when Burr visited St. Louis Wilkinson argued his scheme was not suspected, hence, no one could then suppose that he was implicated with him. What the secret purpose of Burr's visit to St. Louis was, we are not permitted to know. In answer to the charge that he had knowledge of Burr's plans, Wilkinson was able to show that in October, 1804, he had written to the Honorable Robert Smith, Secretary of the Navy under Jefferson's administration, that "Burr was about something" whether internal or external he could not say, but that "an eye ought to be kept on him." In view of this letter, and the further fact that he had been the most potent agent in thwarting Burr's scheme, all charges of complicity with him were manifestly impossible of being substantiated. So in 1811, by a court of inquiry, which had been summoned to investigate these charges, as well as the charge of complicity with the so-called Spanish conspiracy to dismember the Union, Wilkinson was acquitted. Timothy Kibby of the St. Charles district, however, in 1807, made an affidavit which was laid before the court, stating that he met Wilkinson in 1805, at Camp Bellefon- taine, that he told him then that he was anxious that he should meet Colonel Burr who had gone to St. Charles on that day, that he in- quired what was the disposition of the people in the district of St. Charles, and asked whether they were pleased with the change of
volved in, on every nomination, were I to specify the grounds of passing over a candidate, as you desire in your letter. However, if you think proper to call on me I will verbally state to you two or three facts and hear anything you may wish to say respecting them. It is the first time it has ever been asked, and it is most probable that it is the last time it will ever be yielded to. Accept my salu- tations and respects." Jefferson Papers, Series I, vol. II, No. 140.
403
BURR
government, and whether he did not think that the greater part of them would prefer a government separate from the government of the United States, that Wilkinson further said as the greater number of them had lived in the United States and removed to this country while it was under the Spanish government it convinced him that they were not pleased with their own, that in a little time it would be in his power to place him in affluent circumstances which he was deter- mined to do, and that he should do the same by Mr. Pierre Proven- chère ; but these facts and those of a similar suspicious character stated by Kibby were not of such a convincing nature as to affect the court.38
Burr always ridiculed the idea that he was ever engaged in a scheme to dismember the United States, but admitted that his object was to cause or promote a revolution in Mexico, and that Wilkinson was a party to the projected enterprise. Nor ought Burr's statement now to be doubted. Wilkinson's double dealing, treachery and actual partici- pation in a scheme to separate the western country from the Union, and receiving Span- ish pay, has been amply sustained by docu- mentary evidence, since brought to light, but this, though suspected by many at the time GENERAL JAMES WILKINSON of this investigation by the Court of Inquiry, was unknown and strenuously denied by Wilkinson.
Wilkinson suggested at least to one of the residents of the territory at this time, that the Government had in view a scheme to remove the greater portion of the settlers from the west side to the east side of the Mississippi. After his arrival in St. Louis he was visited by representatives of the several districts, and among others by one Edward F. Bond, a delegate from the Cape Girardeau district. Wilkinson received him, so Bond says, with "politeness and com- placency" and bestowed on him "a small share of his confidence" in giving him several appointments "within his gift," and then told him that the President contemplated to transfer a great portion of the inhabitants of upper Louisiana to New Orleans, or some other point on the east side of the Mississippi "thereby making the settlements more compact, facilitating the administration of justice, and making us more strong in those parts where we are most exposed and vulner-
38 This affidavit was originally obtained bv Rufus Easton and transmitted to Jefferson to discredit Wilkinson.
404
HISTORY OF MISSOURI
able from the attacks of foreign enemies." Bond became much - interested in this scheme, "was willing to make a sacrifice to effect it," wrote several letters to Wilkinson, sounded the people, and found among others that Dr. Richard Jones Waters, a man of considerable influence in New Madrid "and vast possessions in land and other property" was willing to make an exchange of his lands two for one and buy up the rights of others, &c., all of which Bond sets out in a letter to Jefferson, dated October 17, 1806, tendering his services as agent to acquire property rights to carry out this plan for the Govern- ment.39 In how far Wilkinson was authorized to proceed in such a scheme does not appear. Likely in a mere casual conversation with the President the feasibility of concentrating the population on the east side of the Mississippi may have been mentioned, because no doubt fears were then entertained by many patriotic people, that the indefinite extension of the Union west of the Missouri .was fraught with great danger. That such a scheme should even have been thought practicable or desirable shows how little the possibilities of the future were then understood even by the wisest men.
The administration of Wilkinson as Governor of the territory did not give satisfaction and aroused bitter antagonism. It was charged against him that he was guilty of improper interference with the Board of Commissioners appointed to settle the land titles of the new territory, and consequently Gallatin wrote Jefferson, saying, "I think that General Wilkinson should be advised that he has nothing to do with the land business, (which is entirely under the direction of the Surveyor General, land officers and Commissioners) unless it be to remove intruders under the existing laws; that caution given to him might prevent some of the altercations for authority."40 It was also charged against him that he favored keeping the territory under military rule; that he antagonized the American settlers; that he was predisposed in favor of the rich French land owners, and ante- dated and other land grants; that he was a Royalist, a Federalist and a Burrite. Undoubtedly he was engaged in land speculation, and the fact that he purchased land adjacent to the cantonment at Belle- fontaine which had been located there by him, was unfavorably commented upon, although afterwards he sold this land to the Govern- ment at the same price for which he purchased it. But in a letter to President Jefferson dated St. Louis, March 29, 1806, Wilkinson says,
39 See letter of Edward F. Bond, - Jefferson Papers, 2d Series, vol. 8, No. 27. 40 Jefferson Papers, 3d Series, vol. 6, No. 3.
405
POLITICAL CONTROVERSIES
"I have so far conformed my conduct to your inclinations I believe as to avoid every species of interested pursuit since my arrival here, and I can asseverate upon my honor that I do not at this moment own a single acre of ground in the territory, directly or indirectly - exception, a conditional contract at a high price for a small tract made with views to the accommodation of the public."41 Rufus Easton, Hempstead, Lucas, Hammond and others, a short time after his ap- pointment, were all arrayed against him. Wilkinson was so hostile to Easton, who was the first postmaster at St. Louis, that he would not let his mail be sent through his post-office. Hempstead was also very bitter in his opposition to him and denounced him in vehement language. He writes in November, 1805, that unless political affairs of the country change for the better he will not make the country his residence long, and that no person was ever more displeased with any government than he with the government insti- tuted in the territory, and says that, "with the principles of civil liberty in which I have happily been bred, and the patriotic examples of my father before me, I can not bow the knee to any political Baal, nor give my approbation to conduct that I am fully conscious is despotic. With the Governor who now holds the office of Brigadier General, and in addition is vested with a strange combination of powers, you can not imagine to what a degree I wish for a change of times. From a rank Federalist to a suspected Republican he became a bigot and is now a petty tyrant."42
Wilkinson on the other hand charged that a nephew of Hammond had wantonly murdered an Indian, and that because he endeavored to bring him to justice, Hammond became his bitter enemy. In order to clear himself from this imputation Hammond transmitted to Jefferson perhaps the first verdict of a coroner's inquest held in what is now Missouri. This coroner's inquest was held at St. Louis on the 26th of May, 1806, before Nathan Pusey, Coroner, and John Murphy, foreman, Calvin Adams, James Smith, James Rankin, Josiah McLanahan, James Huston, John G. Comegys, François Hortiz, Joseph LeCroix, William Massey, Hugh Patterson, Gabriel LeCroix, George Doggett, and Charles LeGuerrien as a coroner's jury; and which found that Samuel Hammond, Jr., killed a Kickapoo Indian in defending Colonel Return J. Meigs and Dr. Antoine
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.