USA > Mississippi > The pioneers, preachers and people of the Mississippi Valley > Part 17
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
316
PIONEERS, PREACHERS AND PEOPLE
as having been connected with what they appre. hended to be a treacherous and unscrupulously selfish scheme to sacrifice them and their future for the advantage of a distant section of the country. Yet Jay had never for a moment contemplated the re- signation of the right to navigate the Mississippi. Indeed he would have been the very last man in the nation to yield a single jot of principle or of justice, to inflict a wrong, or to distribute benefits unfairly. His sole error was the universal one of under-esti- mating the prospective growth of the common- wealths of the Valley. So far was he from any improper pliancy on this point, that he had stead- fastly supported the right to the river navigation, both during the war and after it, in defiance of all the tortuosities and intrigues which European diplo- macy could bring to bear upon him, and of the large offers of pecuniary assistance and threats of alterna- tive desertion which were constantly presented by the court of Spain as inducements toward the grant- ing of what we sought. But the masses of the people, however sure their "sober second thought," are little competent to judge of the conduct of a negotiator in a foreign land, in difficult times, who must look at the needs and rights, not of one section of his country, but of all; and though Jay, now a historical character, has long justly held a lofty and honored place among our Revolutionary heroes, in
317
OF THE MISSISSIPPI.
the hearts of Kentuckians, as well as all others of his countrymen, his spotless name was long a by-word and a hissing among them.
So guarded were the words and actions of the advocates of an independent government in Ken- tueky, that even now it cannot be demonstratively proved that they had actually agreed with Spain to establish it. Still it is known that one or two of them received Spanish pensions ; and there can be no reasonable doubt that Wilkinson, Brown, Sebas- tian, Innis, and a few more, did earnestly desire such an independent government, probably from the double desire for political power and position for themselves, and whatever pecuniary gains they could extort from the Spanish government. It is certain that they pushed their plan to the furthest point pos- sible, without instant ruin to their own prospects in Kentucky.
I proceed with the story of the Spanish intrigues, though out of strict chronological order. Caron- delet's negotiation with Judge Sebastian through Thomas Power, was brought to an end in 1795, by the treaty of October of that year, with Spain, which secured the navigation of the Mississippi. Two years afterward Power came again to Kentucky with a plan from Carondelet for forming an independent government west of the mountains. The public mind was to be prepared by newspaper articles ; the
318
PIONEERS, PREACHERS AND PEOPLE
scheme aided by Spain with men and arms. This proposition was submitted to Sebastian, to Innis, to Nicholas, and to Wilkinson, and was decidedly dis- couraged by all ; not as treasonable or unpatriotic, but merely as impracticable under the circumstances. Wilkinson, however, intimated that if he should be appointed governor of Natchez, for Spain, he might be able to proceed in some plan of the kind. Power returned to New Orleans with this answer ; and thus ended, as far as is now known, any actual attempts by Spain to dismember our Union. Sebastian, how- ever, received a Spanish pension of two thousand dollars a year, until 1806.
The story of the West after the Revolution would not be complete without some reference to the ined- dlesome and impertinent endeavors of revolutionary France to reap in her turn some advantage among the hardy and excitable population of the new trans- Alleghanian State. There was no part of the United States where the French nation received more love or sympathy than in Kentucky. Her generous aid in the dark days of our own contest with England were gratefully remembered ; and her magnificent attitude of successful defiance to the banded powers of Europe who sought to beat down her newly-estab- lished republican government, was enthusiastically admired. That crazy democat Genet, the French ambassador, deluded by the triumphant progress
319
OF THE MISSISSIPPI.
which he made through the country, believing that he could wield the moral and physical power of the United States in aid of France in the contest be- tween herself and England and Spain, sent four emis- saries into Kentucky, to raise two thousand men, and appoint a general, descend the Ohio and Missis- sippi in boats, attack the Spaniards in Louisiana, and bring them under French authority. General George Rogers Clark, the hero of Kaskaskia and Vincennes, now considerably fallen in social and political posi- tion, was so imprudent as to consent to receive the supreme command of this chimerical army, with the long-tailed title of "Major General in the armies of France, and Commander-in-Chief of the French Revolutionary Legions on the Mississippi." The work of enlistment went vigorously forward. Demo- cratic clubs, humble imitations of the Jacobin clubs of France, were established over Kentucky, and grew rampant with denunciations of the federal gov- ernment ; of the Spanish treachery in closing the Mississippi ; of the vile tricks which Washington and Jay were contriving to unite this country and Eng- land againt France ; of the tyrannical excise act. The new State was in a perfect ferment of disloyal and fanatic excitement. There was much corres- pondence amongst the Federal and State officers respecting these military schemes. President Wash- ington, Governor Shelby, and General Wayne wrote
320
PIONEERS, PREACHERS AND PEOPLE
backward and forward. Depeau, one of the French agents, wrote an extraordinary letter to Gov. Shelby, in very French English, intended as a courteous announcement of his business, and an invitation to join in it. Shelby was even so much swayed from his usual straight-forward common-sense as to write to Gen. Wayne, in substance, that he had great doubts whether he could consistently endeavor to stop any Kentuckian or Kentuckians who should merely set out to leave the State with arms and pro- visions. Washington, who could not see the force of such reasoning, laconically ordered Wayne to garri- son Fort Massac, on the Ohio, and to do what else might be necessary to stop this muster of fools. The Democrats, on this, grew more excited than ever. They called a convention and passed some resolutions full of bitter enmity to the general government ; and this convention took measures to call another, which squinted hard in the old direction of separation from the Union. But just in the nick of time the news came that the French Republic had recalled Genet, and disapproved and disavowed his acts. This prieked the bubble. Lachaise and Depeau, the chief French agents, instantly lost their authority, and disap- peared. Gen. Clark lost his long title and his mili- tary command. The officers and soldiers of the in- tended army lost the generous grants which their French friends had lavishly promised them, of lande
321
OF THE MISSISSIPPI.
which they did not own. And the public mind, losing so many and promising subjects for excite- ment, grew at once quite calm.
While Carondelet's intrigues were still proceed- ing, and while the democratie and federal quarrel was yet hot and fierce in Kentucky, the unpopular administration of Washington was succeeded by the actually hateful one of Adams. In the new govern- ment the people of Kentucky had little confidence, and entertained for it still less respect ; for they were convinced that it was unfriendly to them. Never- theless, Kentucky had been admitted as a State ; and a treaty had been formed with Spain, by which the right of navigating the Mississippi for three years had been obtained, as well as the right to deposit mer- chandise in New Orleans for purposes of commerce. But before this period expired, the Spanish governor of New Orleans shut the port, and refused the per- mission agreed upon by the treaty. For even after the organization of the new State, the scheme of wooing her from her attachment to the confederacy was still contemplated. Then came the alien and sedition laws, ill-judged and oppressive enactments, which awakened tumult and confusion throughout the country, especially in Kentucky and Virginia. The former, irritated by their enactment, took the first step in that system of nullification, afterward so strangely put forward again by South Carolina. By
14*
322
PIONEERS, PREACHERS AND PEOPLE
a series of resolutions passed by her legislature, in 1798-9, she denied the right of the general govern- ment to interfere in matters of private State rights and authority. No State of all the country was so addicted to the principles of Jefferson, perhaps; it might be said, no people ever worshipped a dema- gogue in the form of a politician as did the Kentuck- ians Jefferson. And accordingly, they repudiated the doctrine of Adams and his congress, and passed a set of resolutions, drawn up by Jefferson with his own hand for the purpose. Thus did Kentucky de- file its statute book with a direful blot ; a stain which it has taken long years of fealty to the Union, to the federal authority, the united central power of the Republic, to wipe out. And no lapse of time will remove the spot from her history. The written word remaineth. The resolution in the book will forever tell of the folly that placed it there. Let us hope that the lesson will not be lost upon her sister States.
Thus goes on the muddy, crooked stream of poli- ties ; Spain intriguing still ; England dispatching her emissaries from the North with the hope of harassing the Kentucky people-and they yet retaining, though not without doubt and difficulty, integrity toward the confederacy. It is time for me now to pass from this political part of my subject, and to return and trace downward another line of history.
As I have said, the Indians suspended their hostili-
323
OF THE MISSISSIPPI.
ties for a brief period after the close of the Revolu- tionary struggle. Finding that England had made no provision for them in her treaty with the colonies, they resumed hostilities after a more fearful sort than had ever been seen before. By the treaty between England and the United States, the former was to relinquish all fortresses within our territory after the boundary line had been run-the line which is now the northern boundary of the Union. But there was also another stipulation : that English merchants were to be allowed to collect their dues and debts in this country precisely as before the Revolution. Vir- ginia, indignant at the carrying away of slaves by the British fleet, "nullified" this provision of the treaty, and prohibited by law the collection of British debts. England seized upon this pretext to retain her hold of the fortresses upon the northern border. So that her troops were yet stationed in certain forts in Michigan, northern Ohio, and Indiana ; and from these centres of operation and influence, the Indians were constantly supplied with arms and provisions, sometimes with advice and encouragement ; and were continually making descents upon the border settle- ments, hindering and almost absolutely preventing the settlement of the Northwestern Territory.
Thus the people of Kentucky must be still on the war-path; their cabins and block-houses burned; their wives and children tomahawked and butchered as be-
324
PIONEERS, PREACHERS AND PEOPLE
fore. Let us pause a moment to recount some of the incidents of this period, which may be said to reach from about 1784 to the battle of the Fallen Timber, in 1794.
A man named Davis walks out one morning, and has only got a few steps from the door, when he turns round and finds an Indian between him and the threshold. Thinking to elude the savage, he runs round the house so as to enter before him ; but on re- turning finds that the cabin is filled with Indians, and he himself is hotly pursued by the one whom he had first seen. He rushes to a cornfield and suc- ceeds in concealing himself. Hearing no noise, and no shouts or screams from the cabin, and knowing that without arms he can do nothing for the rescue of his family, he runs at the top of his speed for five miles to a block-house occupied by his brother and some other settlers. These quickly sally out, return to Da- vis's house, find that no blood has been spilled ; and after great difficulty-for the Indians have taken every means to obliterate their traces-succeed in getting upon the trail. Following this with all speed, after a number of hours they succeed in overtaking the savages, who have still the wife and children of Da- vis with them. One of the children, a boy of eleven, is instantly thrown to the ground, as the Indians see his father and friends approaching, and the hair and skin from the top of his head skillfully removed by
325
OF THE MISSISSIPPI.
that surgical process called scalping. The rest of the Indians, frightened at the crack of the rifles, take to their heels, leaving the remainder of the family in a sink hole by the side of the trail. The boy, spring- up, his head streaming with blood, cries out at the top of his voice : "Father ! after them ! Cuss those red- skins-they've got my har !" This is an illustration of the spirit of the boys of that period.
There was a redoubtable hunter and Indian-fighter of the name of Hart, whose quickness and keenness in the warfare of the woods had obtained him the name of Sharp-Eye from his Indian enemies. This man had performed a number of feats which had won him the unenviable distinction of the special hatred of these red people. Making a descent upon his neighborhood, secreting themselves over night, they attack his family as they are sitting at their breakfast one morning. An Indian levels his rifle and shoots Hart dead. The son, a boy of twelve years of age, grasps his father's rifle and sends a bullet through the Indian's heart. The other savages rush at the door in a body. The brave boy hurls a tomahawk and splits the skull of a second; drives his scalping-knife to the hilt in the heart of a third, and then-the party is a large one, and the contest is too unequal-they carry him off with his mother, rather proud of the achievements of the lad. A sister was killed on the journey ; but the boy and his
326
PIONEERS, PREACHERS AND PEOPLE
.
mother, after being captives for some time, were ran- somed, and returned home.
The spirit of the women of the country was of the same indomitable sort. The house of a settler was attacked just before the break of day. Hearing a noise outside, he incautiously opened the door and stepped out on the threshold, when he received the contents of six or seven Indian rifles. Falling across the entry, mortally wounded, his wife hastily pulled the body in, and closed the door, just in season to prevent the Indians from entering. They immedi- ately, with clubs and tomahawks, commenced to cut away the door. There were no firearms in the house, the settler having been so reckless as to be without them. They succeeded in breaking down one of the puncheons of the door and were pressing in. The bold wife had nothing but an axe ; but as one savage after another crawled through, she hewed him down with the axe, and drew him inside; until four were dispatched. The other three, thinking almost any other plan more promising, now climb the roof and seek to descend the chimney. But female ingenuity is fertile in resources. There is only one feather bed in the house, and quick as thought she empties it into the bed of glowing coals in the fireplace. Two more of the Indians, suffocated by the pungent fumes, fall into the fire, and as they grovel in the live coals, she splits their skulls with her axe. The last of the party
327
OF THE MISSISSIPPI.
tries the broken door again. As he is crawling through, the valiant woman gives him also a death- wound with her heavy weapon, and is left safe for a time and alone with her great sorrow and her brave revenge, and with a ghastly company of eight bloody corpses-her husband and his seven murderers.
There was for many years resident in the North- western Territory, in what became afterward the State of Illinois, a French creole woman, born at the post of St. Joseph's, upon Lake Michigan. She was fortunate enough, during her singular life, to have three husbands, two of them Frenchmen and one American. She was known as Madame Lecompte, the name of her second husband, for that of the third she did not choose to keep; a very vigorous, clear-minded person, capable of adapting herself to circumstances, and well experienced in the customs of her Indian neighbors. Born in 1735, she so- journed some time in Michigan, and afterward descended to the French settlements in Illinois, and here took up her residence at Kahohia. Many times, when the Indians were making descents upon the French at the instigation of the English, this woman, who was much beloved by the savages, received pre- vious information from them that they were about to attack the settlements, in order that she might escape before the onslaught. The message always came in the night-time ; but instead of escaping, the bold-
328
PIONEERS, PREACHERS AND PEOPLE
hearted woman would instantly set out for the Indian camp, approach as day was breaking, and freely enter amongst their host, secure of respectful treat- ment. Sometimes she would stop with them one, two, or three days ; protesting, urging, reasoning with them, and inducing them at length to give up their foray. Returning to the settlement, with three or four hundred savage warriors, who had come out to burn and slay, she brought them, in friendly guise, to make their humble acknowledgments to the settlers, and to partake of their hospitality. Thus, in a dozen cases at least, did this brave woman, at Kahokia and Kaskaskia, prevent the destruction of the French and American inhabitants. She lived till 1843, reaching the astonishing age of a hundred and nine years ; and the old chronicler, Governor Reynolds, whom I am so fortunate as to number among my personal friends, says, that to the last she was active in body and mind, and possessed her faculties and functions, intellectual and physical, at that advanced period, better than women of forty or fifty do now. She was accustomed to go out in all weathers, walking on the ice and snow, and in the open air, and health, longevity, beauty of complexion, were more certainly secured by this means, says Governor Reynolds, than by making pilgrimages "on fine, rich carpets, bc- tween the piano and the air-tight stove."
William Whiteside, a soldier of the Revolution,
329
OF THE MISSISSIPPI.
who had fought bravely and well at the battle of King's Mountain, a strong athletic woodsman, of Irish blood, was in 1795 settled in the American Bottom, between Kaskaskia and Kahokia. Getting intelligence that a party of Indians was encamped in the neighborhood, with the design of stealing his horses, the fiery old warrior summoned a little band of fourteen men, his tried companions in many a combat with the savages, and set out to surprise them in camp. Surrounding them just before day, a furious charge was made, and after a severe combat, all the Indians were killed but one, who fled, and who was killed when he got home, by his tribesmen, for his cowardice. In this battle, Capt. Whiteside re- ceived a wound which he thought mortal, and which brought him to the ground. But he neither flinched nor feared; and he lay there exhorting his men to fight bravely, not to retreat an inch, and never to permit the enemy to touch him after he was dead. One of his sons, who was unable to use his gun, being wounded in the arm, now came up, and on examin- ing his father's wound, discovered that the ball had merely glanced from a rib, and passing round, had lodged under the skin near the spine. IIe quietly drew his butcher-knife and cut out the ball, as he would out of a tree, merely remarking in a dry way, "Father, you're not dead yet !" The old man, on reflection, thought so too; and jumping to his feet,
330
PIONEERS, PREACHERS AND PEOPLE
cried out, " Boys, I can fight the Indians yet !" and rushed again into the fight.
I shall not delay to give details of the incessant border barbarities of the Indians ; nor of the expedi- tions which, one after another, went forth against them. After a considerable period, the general government undertook the defence of the western set- tlements. I need not detail the adventures, the suffer- ings, the defeats and degradation of the hapless hosts of Harmor and St. Clair; nor the splendid triumphal progress of Anthony Wayne; nor the decisive vic- tory gained by him in the great battle of the Fallen Timber, which reduced the belligerent tribes to a condition of humble, though unwilling submission. But I will take time to narrate a few circumstances of individual adventure in Wayne's army, which will serve as additional illustrations of the character of western woodsmen of that day.
Attached to Wayne's army was a small body of scouts, whose business it was to range up and down the woods in front and flank of the line of march, familiarize themselves with the movements of the savages, and every now and then to arrest some Indian and bring him to the camp, that the general might get his news at first hand. The head of these scouts was Captain William Wells, who had asso- ciated with him a man named Miller, another named McLennan, and three others. These, while in camp.
331
OF THE MISSISSIPPI.
were gentlemen at large, and no duties devolved upon them ; but when they were on the war-path their occupations were of a sufficiently hazardous description to make up for former ease. In 1793, Wayne had sent out Wells, with Miller and McLen- nan, for the purpose of catching an Indian. They proceeded northward in the direction of some Indian towns. When yet at a distance, they heard a sound of merry-making ; and approaching an open glade in the wood, found three Indians seated near its centre, cooking venison, laughing and talking at leisure. The three spies were too distant to rush in upon them ; and it was necessary to take one of them alive. They therefore skirted along the timber till they eame opposite to the point from which they had first discovered the savages. Here there was a fallen tree ; and creeping along this until they were safely enseonced between the branches, it was arranged that the spy on the right should shoot the Indian on the right ; he on the left should pick his man in the same way, while McLennan, who was in the middle, and the fleetest man in the party, was to run after the third Indian, and seize him. The fire was given, the two Indians fell dead, and, as was expected, the middle one took to his heels with all dispatch, McLennan after him. The smoke had not cleared away before the two men were seen bounding along at the top of their speed. Near at hand was a
332
PIONEERS, PREACHERS AND PEOPLE
stream of water. The Indian, seeing McLennan gaining on him, ran to the river, and plunging over a bluff, twenty feet high, landed in a deep quagmire. McLennan, without pausing, sprang over him ; and up to their breasts, as they stood, both mired fast, but within reach of each other, a desperate struggle ensued. The knife and tomahawk were drawn, and the two foes were on the point of a bloody conflict, when the other two spies came up, and burst into a hearty laugh at the absurd phase of the spectacle. The Indian, seeing that there was no chance for him, dropped his weapons and surrendered. The others extricated them from their embarrassing attitude ; and while the two who had been in the morass were washing off the dirt, it was discovered that the man who had thus been seized, was not really an Indian, though burned and browned so as to be almost of their tawny complexion; but that he bore indubit- able marks of white origin. Miller had himself been a prisoner with the Indians many years, having been captured in his early youth ; and had left a brother, Christopher Miller, in their hands. A strange sus- pieion flashed upon him. It was years since he had seen his brother. The white Indian, however, was sulky, and refused to answer any questions, until Miller, riding up-for they had placed him upon a horse-called him by his Indian name. The man flushed, turned crimson, and asked, " How do you
333
OF THE MISSISSIPPI.
know my name ?" Here was the truth revealed as by a miracle. The brothers' hands had been provi- dentially stayed from shedding each other's blood ; and after long and urgent entreaty, pleading even with tears in his eyes, Miller succeeded in winning Christopher from his wild Indian ways; and at length induced him to join their scouting and forag- ing party, of which he became one of the most reso lute and indomitable members.
Thus reinforced, and with two other men, they were sent on a subsequent occasion, by General Wayne, to take other prisoners. They had pro- ceeded thirty-five miles from Fort Defiance, in the direction of Maumce. This was in the year 1794, just before the great battle in which Wayne was vic- torious. Arriving within two miles of the English post, they rode boldly into an Indian town near to where Fort Meigs was afterward built, as if they had come from the British fort; and being painted and decorated with feathers in Indian style, although they met Indians constantly, as some of them could speak the language, they were supposed to be none other than a party of Indians. In an out-of-the-way place, beyond the town, they seize an Indian warrior with his squaw, gag and handcuff them, tie them upon the saddle, and turn toward the American camp. Presently they reach the neighborhood of a large Indian encampment; and now these seven
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.