USA > Mississippi > The westward movement : the colonies and the republic west of the Alleghanies, 1763-1798 with full cartographical illustrations from contemporary sources > Part 13
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 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51
The position of all the other forts in the department had been for some time precarious. In June, Fort Randolph at the mouth of the Kanawha was abandoned, leaving Fort Henry at Wheeling the most advanced post, while an inner line of stock- ades from Fort Ligonier to the new Fort Armstrong at Kittan- ning (built in June) were the chief protections of the frontier.
While the region north of the Ohio was thus abandoned, Shelby's rapid movements had quieted, for the most part, that south of the Ohio, and encouraged some adventurous frontiers- men to cross the river and seek lands among the Delawares. relying upon their friendship. Brodhead had little confidence in that incongruous people, and did what he could to prevent the risks.
In August, 1779, General Sullivan was well started on his exasperating inroad among the Iroquois lakes of New York, partly to punish the Indians for their treachery, and partly to render more open the communication with the West. Ilis
140
GEORGE ROGERS CLARK.
devastation was ample, but its effect was not lasting. Some portions of the Six Nations were beyond his reach. Such were some of the Senecas and Munseys, whose lands stretched into the northwestern parts of the present State of Ohio. To make a diversion in Sullivan's favor, and similarly to chastise this portion of that people, Brodhead, by calling in his outposts and summoning volunteers from the county lieutenants, suc- ceeded in gathering abont six hundred men near Fort Pitt. The response for volunteers had not been as general as he had wished, and he gave as a reason that the people are " intent upon going to Kentuck ; " but he succeeded in getting some, who, in the guise of Indians, were content to scour the country for scalps.
Brodhead had been anxious to start on this expedition so as to get some advantage out of two hundred of his men, whose term of service expired on August 10; but it was not until the 11th that he set out, and in such spirits that he hoped he would be allowed, after punishing the Senecas, to march on Detroit. He marched up the Alleghany, and set to work burning honses, and destroying cornfields, and gathering plunder, later to be sold for the benefit of his men. He had lost neither man nor beast when, on September 14, he was back in Fort Pitt, having temporarily, at least, quelled the savage temper in this region.
In October, he sent a force to drive off trespassers who had - , left the Monongahela and had crossed the Ohio, while he tried to persuade the Delawares not to molest any who escaped his vigilance.
He was still dreaming of an attack on Detroit, and in Novem- ber he asked Washington's permission to make it before Feb- ruary, when the floods would interfere. He was advised by Washington to wait till spring, and gather supplies and infor- mation in the interim. It was discouraging when Brodhead heard of the death of David Rogers and the capture of the supplies which he was bringing up the river from New Orleans. If the reports which reached Fort Pitt were true, - and Brod- head had asked Zeisberger to get him information, - the garri- son at Detroit counted but about six hundred, regulars and militia.
While thus neither McIntosh nor Brodhead had accomplished
141
GENERAL SUSPENSE.
much, there had been in Jefferson and others a larger confi- dence in the daring backwoods spirit of Clark. By July 1, 1779, Clark had returned to Vincennes, only to be disappointed in meeting there but one hundred and fifty of the recruits whom he had expected from Virginia, and but thirty of the three hundred Kentuckians who had been promised to him. With an inadequate force, he was not tempted to carry out "the clever thing " which he had set his heart upon, and so, in August, leaving Helm at Vincennes, he returned to the falls of the Ohio. Here he again raised the question of an attack on Detroit ; but it was the opinion of his council of war that at least a thousand men were necessary for such a stroke, while with half that number he could successfully hold his own. To do this, it was thought, required a force of two hundred at the mouth of the Ohio, and a hundred and fifty each at Vin- cennes and Cahokia.
Clark's position at the falls, where his men had been prom- ised one hundred and fifty thousand acres in bounty land, alarmed De Peyster during the winter, lest Clark should fortify so good a strategic point. It was Clark's purpose to spend the time till spring in an incursion among the Shawnees on the Miami and Scioto; but the river fell and rendered transportation difficult, and the plan was abandoned. On November 19, he wrote a letter to George Mason, which, with his letters of February 24 from Vincennes, and April 29 from Kaskaskia. constitutes the main sources for the study of his campaigns. Clark's memoirs, said to have been written at the request of Jefferson and Madi- son, though more in detail, were written (1791) too long after- wards to be of comparable value.
So the year (1779) was closing almost everywhere beyond the mountains with suspense on both sides, but with the opposing generals intent on preparations for a new campaign in the spring.
In August, 1779, Haldimand had sent some aid to Detroit, and had taken measure to reassure the Six Nations, whose spir- its had been rudely shattered by Sullivan and Brodhead. It seemed doubtful if Clinton could keep his promise of large rein- forcements for Canada, for by September the negotiations for exchanging the Convention troops which surrendered at Sara-
142
GEORGE ROGERS CLARK.
toga had fallen through, and South Carolina, where the British were strengthening their foothold, had made large demands on the resources at headquarters in New York. So Detroit, though a new fort had been built there, was far from secure when, late in the year, De Peyster came from Mackinac to take charge.
That commander had left the garrison at the straits hardly more confident. The effect of Hamilton's discomfiture, when news of it had reached them in May, had been discouraging. It rendered the French uneasy, and, as De Peyster said, " cowed the Indians in general." Haldimand, when he heard of these results, asked De Peyster to send some Puants, Sacs, and Foxes down to Quebec to give them new courage at the sight of a British fleet, and later he sent a speech, for De Peyster to render to the tribes, in which he advised them "to keep the Bostonians [Americans] out of the country in order to enjoy peace and plenty."
De Peyster had by this time asked to be relieved, and Sin- clair was sent to take the post, which in his superior's judg- ment was " in a critical situation." Not long before, a French trader, Godefroy Linetot, had deserted to the rebel canse, and in JJuly, 1779, it had been believed at Mackinac that the rene- gade was preparing to attack St. Joseph with four hundred men. After this the Indians were slowly rehabilitated in the English interest, and before De Peyster left he had himself , begun to be hopeful that " the Indians would clear the Illinois at one stroke," and welcome the Cherokees coming up from the south. Haldimand hardly shared De Peyster's confidence, and when Sinclair arrived in October, 1779, he found it not so easy to arouse the Indians for a spring campaign to the Illinois. Sinclair had been sent there with a distinct plan of campaign on the part of the home government. He was expected to descend the Mississippi, while Campbell from Pensacola took New Or- leans and came up to meet him. Germain in the previous June had notified Haldimand of this plan, and at a later date he had instructed Stuart to keep the southern Indians in open commu- nication with Detroit. Germain's purpose had already been, temporarily at least, dashed by Galvez's prompt movement in September, 1779, on Natchez, later to be explained, and by all efforts at the north failing.
143
THE CUMBERLAND REGION.
Before the year (1779) closed, a new movement in the west- ern regions had been consummated, which gave the pioneers a firm hold on the Cumberland valley. During a season which was the severest the frontiersmen had experienced, and which was marked by suffering and famine throughout the west, James Robertson, now closing a ten years' residence on the Holston, had spent the previous year among the Cherokees, laboring to keep them quiet. About November 1, 1779, with a train of immigrants from the Watauga hamlets, he started west. By the close of the year they had built a fort and a few cabins, which were the beginnings of the later Nashville. It was a region then known as the French Lick, and had been, since 1714, occasionally occupied by the French hunters. Vast herds of buffalo had long found the lick an attraction. Within the next three months Robertson's party built a stockade, and scat- tered their huts about the ground.
This occupation of a new region was the most decided gain for the American cause which a year of anxiety had developed. Clark still held the Illinois country, to be sure, but he was surrounded with little of that domesticity which comforted Rob- ertson at the French Lick. With little homogeneousness in the Illinois population, there was scant confidence in its future. Now and for some time yet, Clark's ability to maintain himself depended on the pecuniary aid which Vigo and Pollock ren- dered. In November (1779), the Virginia Assembly had de- cided to strengthen Clark's position, but their action was wholly dependent on the credit which the governor of that State could obtain at New Orleans. For three and a half years' from March, 1778, Clark dispensed fifty thousand dollars in specie, or nearly two and a quarter millions in currency. Up to the close of 1779, he drew in nearly equal parts fifty thousand dol- lars or more in specie from Pollock and from the Virginia treasury. Pollock's account with Virginia, mainly for the sup- port of Clark, shows that he advanced in specie down to Au- gust, 1781, over ninety thousand dollars.
CHAPTER IX.
THE SINISTER PURPOSES OF FRANCE.
1774-1779.
Louis XV. of France had died in 1774, and in the mid- summer of that year, Maurepas, affable and courtly, but what- ever you please in principle and a known enemy of England, had been put at the head of the cabinet of the new king, Louis XVI. The minister of foreign affairs was Vergennes, now a man of fifty-three, a patient and polite diplomat of the intrigu- ing school. He was perfectly unserupulous when occasion re- quired, and an adept in the arts of deceit. " A little good- natured wisdom," said Jay at a later day, " often does more in polities than much slippery craft. By the former, the French acquired the esteem and gratitude of America, and by the latter their minister is impairing it." It was his policy to be prepared for war, and to watch for an opportunity to catch England at a disadvantage.
He must have looked on with some satisfaction when he saw his Anglican rival strive, by the Quebec Bill, to hem in her revolting colonies by the same geographical confines which France in claiming to the Alleghanies had so long struggled to maintain. A few years later, as we shall see, Vergennes him- self would gladly have pressed the same restraint upon the nas- cent American Republic, if Franklin, Adams, and Jay had given him the opportunity. Already the alliance which was to follow the downfall of Burgoyne was a purpose of Vergennes, but he could not at this juncture eseape anxiety lest the concil- iatory counsels of Chatham would prevail, and lest England, by plunging into a French war, would, as her cabinet dared to hope, succeed in winning back the loyalty of her colonies. Ile was, indeed, astounded at the imbecility of the English ministry in neglecting opportunities of appeasing the rebels. He was told that the obstinacy of the king was at fault. The monarch
145
VERGENNES.
might indeed be stubborn, but the real fault was the blindness of the Tory party to the change which was taking place in what that age called the prerogative of the king, and in the principles of the British Constitution. There was an unwillingness to recognize the fact that revolutions are no respecters of vested political interests. The Tories failed to understand that civic progress is often made on the wreck of the present.
Vergennes was possessed by a similar obtuseness. Still, an occasional light was thrown into his mind by his consuming desire to humble England. Egregiously perfidious himself, he was continually prating of English perfidy.
Congratulating himself, somewhat prematurely, that Spain was won to his views, Vergennes, on August 7, 1775, in a communication addressed to the Spanish minister, distinctly foreshadowed his purpose of active intervention in the Amer- ican war. In October, M. Bonvouloir sailed in the " Charm- ing Betsy " for Philadelphia, under secret instructions from Vergennes, to observe what was going on in the American Congress. He was also to seek occasions to let the Americans know of the sympathy of France.
Doniol's bulky acknowledgment of French heartlessness, as his great work has proved to be, as well as Stevens's Facsimiles, show us how detestably insincere Vergennes could be. Near the end of 1775, he put on record his opinions for the edifica- tion of his king. He told his royal master that French aid alone could make sure the success of the colonies. He assured him that it was the true policy of France to cripple her natural enemy. When the struggle in America had weakened Eng- land, the time, he said, would come publicly to assist the revolt. Meanwhile, he explained, France must keep the American courage up, by promises, till such a propitious turn of the con- test comes.
The American Congress was at the same time playing into Vergennes's hands. Late in November, they had instituted a Committee of Secret Correspondence, with Franklin at its head, and on December 12 this committee instructed Arthur Lee, then in London, to make approaches to the Continental powers.
When the new year (1776) opened, Vergennes found himself, through the intrigues of his enemies, in a degree of embarrass-
146
THE SINISTER PURPOSES OF FRANCE.
ment which was increased by the indecision of the king. Be- fore JJannary was gone, a letter from Beaumarchais, saying that England was nearly hopeless, was so skillfully used in Ver- gennes's hands that the king withdrew his opposition, and the way seemed clear.
Still, the influence of Maurepas and Turgot was against pre- cipitating a war, which, in the latter's judgment, might, by emaneipating the British colonies, give the signal for the revolt of all colonies of whatever power. Turgot was indeed in a fair way to prove too much of an obstacle, and in May he was dismissed.
Early in March, encouraging reports came from Bonvouloir, and Gerard de Rayneval formulated the results for Vergennes's eye. It was represented that if the humiliation of England was carried to an extent of assuring the independence of the colonies, Franee could have no fear of them in their exhaustion. War with England was represented as inevitable, whatever the result of their assisting the colonies.
Vergennes had no disposition to retreat, and on May 2, 1776, he definitely requested the king to approve a grant of money to the colonies, and the royal assent was given. Up to this time the minister had abstained from positive aetion in aid of the colonies ; but he had winked at the help which was being given in the French ports. It was a turning-point, and a policy was begun of deeided significanee.
The troops which England had already dispatched to America alarmed Vergennes, lest a way be found in the sequel to hurl them against the French West Indies. At the same time, he aroused Spain by picturing a like danger, if these troops should be moved against New Orleans. The ministers at Madrid were not slow to see how Louisiana could aggrandize Spain, if England, in the first instance, and, after that, if her severed de- pendencies, could be kept back from the Mississippi. Nothing could conduce so much to this end as the exhaustion of both parties in the war, and the greater the exhaustion, the better prospects for France and Spain. It was thus, with Spanish connivance, the hope of Vergennes to lure the Americans to a collapse by giving them hope that they could obtain a subsidy of money. On May 3, 1776, Vergennes proposed to Spain that she should advance a million dollars to the Americans.
147
FRANCE AND SPAIN.
Grimaldi, in advising his royal master to accede to the propo- sition and sharing Vergennes's sinister aims, congratulated him on a movement which might.not only force England to destruc- tion, but would at the same time exhaust the Americans. The colonists would in this way become in the end an easy prey to the Bourbons.
Meanwhile, the American Congress, ignorant of the con- cealed purposes of France, had sent Silas Deane to Paris as its agent. The Committee of Secret Correspondence had given him, on March 3, his instructions. Deane soon found himself the sport of two parties in the gay capital. On the one side he was shadowed by a complacent American named Bancroft, who reported everything to the English ministry. On the other, Vergennes, with whom Deane had his first meeting in July, (1776), played the sympathizing friend to conceal his inimical wiles. With diplomatic blandness the French minister prom- ised all that America could need.
Not long afterwards came tidings of the Declaration of In- dependence. Vergennes was now aroused, and active inter- ference seemed imminent, while Beaumarchais had attained a position where he could assure the American Committee of Secret Correspondence that his fictitious house of Hortales et Cie was ready to be an intermediary in bringing Congress and the French government into closer relations. Still later, (August, 1776), Vergennes, while urging his royal master that the time for action had come, also suggested to Spain that she could now throw off the mask. Spain hesitated, as Portuguese affairs perplexed her, but on October 8, she assented. Almost at the same time, news reached Paris of Washington's defeat on Long Island, and that untoward event called a halt in the autumn of 1776.
Meanwhile, events were moving rapidly in America, and Spanish officials were winking at aid given the colonies at New Orleans.
Intelligence of the action on July 4, 1776, at Philadelphia. had hardly reached Fort Pitt when, under orders of Congress, and by direction of the State of Virginia, Captain George Gibson and Lieutenant Linn started, on July 19, down the river in the disguise of traders. When, in August, they arrived
148
THE SINISTER PURPOSES OF FRANCE.
at New Orleans, they found the Spanish governor, Unzaga, in no complacent mood. He had been uneasy under the suspicion that in diplomatie ways all was not going well. He was appre- hensive that England would succeed in pacifying her colonies, and could then, with their aid, turn upon Louisiana. To get information, he had already sent a spy to Philadelphia.
Gibson and his companion found, however, prompt sympathy in Oliver Polloek. This American had begun active exertions in behalf of his countrymen in April, 1776, when he had unsuc- cessfully tried to persuade Unzaga to protect American vessels against British warships. With Pollock's aid Gibson's acts were partly concealed from the British spies, and he bought twelve hundred pounds of powder. A part of it, under Pol- lock's direction, was shipped north by sea, while the greater bulk of it, nine thousand pounds, in one hundred and fifty kegs, was placed on barges to ascend the river. This was done while English spies were watching for some overt act, and, to make it appear that he was committing some offense against Spanish law, Gibson allowed himself to be thrown into prison.
Linn, in charge of the barges, started homeward on Septem- ber 22, 1776. It was a long pull against the current for nearly eight months, and it was May 2, 1777, before the lientenant delivered his dangerous burden to Colonel William Crawford, at Wheeling, " for the use of the Continent." The expedition, in its slow progress, had run great risks of being intercepted.
After Linn had started north, Pollock wrote from New Or- leans to Congress, tendering renewed services and recounting the beneficial effect which the Declaration of Independence had made in that town. He said that the governor was ready to open trade with the Americans, and would protect their cruisers and prizes, should they come into the river. He also added that this Spanish official was ready to unite with Congress in maintaining a regular express by the Mississippi and Fort Pitt, between Philadelphia and New Orleans. Pollock's sym- pathies had not escaped the notice of the English spies. His surrender was demanded by the British commander at Pensa- cola, but was refused. An English sloop-of-war was lying down the river, and Pollock was fearful that some untoward accident might throw him into its commander's hands. Accordingly he desired Congress to give him a commission in some capacity,
149
GALVEZ AND POLLOCK.
so that he could have its protection in an emergency. In the same letter Pollock adds that the Spanish governor had sent orders to the mouth of the river to put American vessels enter- ing the passes under the Spanish flag.
On the 1st of February preceding (1777), Don Bernardo de Galvez, the commander of a regiment in the garrison at New Orleans, succeeded to the governor's chair. He very soon opened communication through Major Cruz, at St. Louis, with Colonel Morgan on the Ohio, and took Pollock into his confi- dence as one whom Unzaga assured him he could trust.
Galvez was a young man of twenty-one, of powerful family connection, and likely to bring Spanish and French interests into close relations. Jay, who later knew his relatives in Spain, informed the president of Congress that " the one on the Mis- sissippi has written favorably of the Americans to his brothers here, and it would be well to cultivate this disposition." The opportunity to do so was not lost.
The new governor soon strengthened himself by bringing emigrants from the French West Indies. In retaliation for British captures on the lakes back of New Orleans, he boldly seized some English vessels trading between the Balize and Manchac. He began to build some boats to carry long-range guns, which would be more than a match for the light guns which any vessel could take over the bar at the mouth of the Mississippi.
Pollock soon devised some audacious plans. In April, 1777, he sent a vessel north under Lemire to inform Congress that Galvez stood ready to furnish cash and supplies to any American force intending to capture Pensacola, and a little later (May 5) he urged Congress to make a decision, and, if favorable, to send blank commissions to be used in raising troops in New Orleans. Colonel George Gordon, commanding at Fort Pitt, had fore- stalled any action of Congress, and before Linn's return he had sent word to Galvez that if the Spaniards would supply trans- ports, he was hoping to send one thousand men down the river prepared to attack Mobile and Pensacola. A little later, the Spanish governor was assured that he need have no apprehen- sion, but that the Creeks, Choctaws, and Chickasaws could be depended upon to stand neutral. Nothing came of the project, but the Committee of Secret Correspondence took on their part
150
THE SINISTER PURPOSES OF FRANCE.
an important step when they appointed, in June, 1777, Polloek their commercial agent, and directed him to ship at once forty or fifty thousand dollars' worth of eloths and strouds to Phila- delphia by three or four swift vessels, promising to send flour in return to balance the account.
It was not long before the British blockade of the Atlantic coast had become so close that Congress found it impossible to send the flour out of port. In October, Polloek was told to run the necessary risks of forwarding supplies along the coast, as transportation by the river was too slow and, because of Indian forays, too hazardous for their present exigencies.
On September 26, 1776, a few days after Linn's barges had cast off their moorings at New Orleans, Congress had appointed some commissioners to Europe. At their head was Franklin, and he was not without hope that in the final settlement he could induee the British ministers to sell Florida and Quebec to the new Republic. His companions in the mission were to be Arthur Lee, now in London (for Jefferson had declined to be one), and Deane, already in Paris. The latter, active in mind, had conceived a new plan for relieving the stagnation of events, and on December 1, before Franklin arrived, he had written home, outlining a scheme to attract immigration, and to find money for the depleted treasury of the colonies. He thought that the country which the Quebec Act had aimed to alienate from the colonies would be "a resource amply ade- quate, under proper regulations, for defraying the whole ex- pense of the war, and for providing the sums necessary to pur- chase the native right to the soil." To give this land its value he proposed that it should be made a distinct State, of twenty- five million aeres, to be confederated with those other colonies which had made a declaration of independence. The settling of it was to be left to one hundred or more grantees, while Congress reserved for their own advantage one fifth of the land, mines, etc. To induee immigration, he relied upon the sym- pathy with the American struggle which, despite the calcu- lating selfishness of the Vergennes ministry, was marked among the French people. Before the month (December) closed, the American commissioners, Franklin being now on the spot, had their initial meeting both with Vergennes and the Count
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.