USA > Mississippi > The westward movement : the colonies and the republic west of the Alleghanies, 1763-1798 with full cartographical illustrations from contemporary sources > Part 29
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While this savage warfare kept the frontiers anxious, the sinister purposes of Spain were only partly veiled in her at- tempts to aid the Indians. The federal government knew per- feetly, as Pickering had intimated, that the enmity of Spain was a constant factor in this southwestern problem. Lafayette, in February, 1783, had written to Livingston from Cadiz that " among the Spanish, the Americans have but few well-wishers, and their government will insist upon a pretended right all along the left shore of the Mississippi."
During the summer of 1783, there were constant attempts of the Spaniards to stop American boats trading on the Mississippi, and it was believed that the renewed activity of the Indian depredations along the Ohio was by their instigation. To prevent these evils, the Kentucky people looked to the parent State in vain. They soon discovered that with military move- ments directed from Williamsburg, as the militia laws required, delays interposed that were dangerous, while self-protection could not allow hesitancy of action. This led them to consider the advantages of autonomy, while its necessity and justice were not unrecognized in the tide-water region of Virginia. Wash-
331
BENJAMIN LOGAN.
ington was outspoken, and favored confining the western limits of the old State to a meridian cutting the mouth of the Great Kanawha. He revealed to Hamilton his anxiety when he told him that, unless such concessions were made, it would take but the touch of a feather to turn the western people to other mas- ters. Jefferson wrote to Madison that Virginia ought to let Kentucky go, and that promptly, lest all the over-mountain people should unite, when Congress would sustain their claim, to make the mountains instead of the Kanawha the boundary. He thought it no small advantage for Virginia to have the hundred miles and more of mountains beyond that river as a barrier between the two States.
Filson, a Pennsylvania schoolmaster who had turned sur- veyor, had lately run through these Kentucky settlements and estimated their population at about thirty thousand. His map, made at this time, shows fifty-two settlements and eighteen scattered houses. He had also just published an account of Kentucky, in which he had had the aid of Daniel Boone, David Todd, and James Harrod. Boone had also connected the early days of the pioneers with the present in a sketch of his life, which Filson had taken down at the dictation of his friend.
The movement which McGillivray was inciting at the south grew to look ominous. In this crisis Colonel Benjamin Logan assembled his militia captains at Danville to take measures for protection. This body of counselors was law-abiding enough to shrink from any movement not purely defensive, but their mili- tary organization, in the absence of civil control, opportunely offered the best initiative towards a representative convention to be held at Danville on December 27. Still holding to the military divisions of the people, it was directed that a single delegate from each company should be elected to attend. When the convention met, the question of withdrawing from the gov- ernment of Virginia divided the conference. In this uncer- tainty it was readily seen that independence was rather a civil than military question. Accordingly, a new notice was issued, recommending the people, by delegates, to be assembled at Dan- ville in May, 1785, to take the problem into full consideration.
NOTE. - The map on the two following pages is the principal part of Filson's map of Ken- · tucky.
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THE SOUTHWEST INSECURE.
While this Kentucky movement was making progress under the forms of law, more headlong action was taken beyond the mountains of North Carolina, which for a while threatened serious complications. That State, in her Bill of Rights in 1776, had anticipated the formation of one or more other States in due time out of her western territory. There had been laid, as we have seen, in this over-mountain region, the foundations of two separate communities. They were destined to be united in one commonwealth, but they held at this time little commu- nication with each other, though the more distant was sprung, as it were, from the loins of the nearer. The one in which James Robertson was the leading spirit was scattered in the valley of the Cumberland, tributary to Nashborough, or Nash- ville, as it was now becoming the fashion to call the collection of huts which bore that name. Miro had already his eye upon Robertson as a likely ally in his future schemes, while yet he was sending him friendly messages, explaining how he was doing what he could to restrain the savages who were raiding the Cumberland frontiers. The time was not yet ripe for the Spanish intriguer to show his hand in this region.
Farther east, the country originally settled from Virginia, and lying just below the southwestern corner of that State, was the valley in which the Watauga Association had moulded a self-centred community. With its growth the North Carolina legislature had divided the region into four counties, - Wash- ington, Green, Sullivan, and Davidson, and all but the last were infected with the same unrest as was pervading Kentucky. These settlements were separated from the support of North Carolina by the mountains on the east, while in the west it was a long distance beyond the Cumberland Gap before the more western communities were reached. Their closest ties were with their neighbors across the Virginia line on the north, and near it their principal town, Jonesboro', was built. This Wa- tanga region -- as a whole it might be called - lay between the Alleghany and Cumberland mountains, and was drained by the Clinch, Holston, and other tributaries of the Tennessee. It was exposed towards the southwest by the course of that river, along which it was open to inroads of the Cherokees, and particularly of the Chickamangas, the most relentless branch of that tribe. It was also in this direction that the settlements looked to
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JONESBORO' CONVENTION.
increase their territory, and they had already begun to extend beyond the agreed allotments by the tribes, and were building stockades in close proximity to the Indian villages. The peace of the valley was still farther jeopardized by the occupation in February, 1784, of a tract of territory near the great bend of the Tennessee in the present State of Alabama, under a move- ment led by Sevier and Blount. The position was too ad- vanced for support, and had soon to be abandoned under the savage threats. With this aggressive temper, the authorities of North Carolina had little sympathy, and the frontiersmen complained that the legislature made no appropriations for gifts with which to appease the plundered savages.
At this juncture the state Assembly at Hillsborough, in June, 1784, voted to cede to the confederacy their charter lands lying west of the mountains and extending to the Mississippi. This cession covered twenty-nine million acres, and the act gave Congress two years in which to accept it. The report of this action, spreading over the mountains, was all that was neces- sary to arouse the rebellious spirit of a people who felt that without their concurrence they were cast off by the parent State and left to shift for themselves. It was to them, at least, ap- parent that if they were to find any protection against their hostile neighbors, in the interval before the acceptance by Con- gress of the cession, it was to be in their own vigilance.
In this state of affairs a convention met at Jonesboro' on August 23, 1784, and organized under the presidency of Sevier. It was agreed by delegates of the three counties already named, and by a two-thirds vote, that they be erected at once into an independent State. When this decision was known to the rabble of hunters and woodsmen who surrounded the court- house, there were shouts of turbulent joy. The convention framed an address, setting forth the plan and advantages of independence, and determined on holding another convention in November, to adopt a constitution. It was decided to appeal to Congress for countenance and advice as to the proposed con- stitution. There was a disposition to induce the contiguous part of Virginia to join in the movement. This was a note which alarmed the authorities at Williamsburg, and Patrick Henry saw in it the finger of the Spanish devil.
While these things were taking place at Jonesboro', the legis-
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THE SOUTHWEST INSECURE.
lature at New Berne, taking alarm, repealed the aet of cession. This reversal for a while tempered the impetuosity of the Sepa- ratists in the valley, and when a new body of delegates convened in November, it was found that the party for independence had lost strength, and the convention broke up amid a confusion of aims. Governor Martin took advantage of the seeming disper- sion of the rebellious party, and invested Sevier with a commis- sion and authority to lead the disaffected baek to their loyalty. In December, accordingly, we find the man who had been counted upon to perfeet the revolutionary seheme, and who was yet to head the revived movement, doing his best to hold the people to obedience to the laws.
So the year 1784 ended with great uncertainty as to the political future of the three leading communities west of the mountains. In Kentucky, the soberer sense of the people plainly deprecated any hasty action. In the Holston region it seemed as if a division of public opinion would delay action, at least. At Nashville, in its remote situation, more connected with Ken- tucky than with the Holston region, there was nothing as yet to incite alarm.
How far these initial measures for independence were made with Spanish concurrence is not clear; but it is not probable that Miro had as yet ventured upon any direct assurance of support. The Spanish authorities, however, were certainly ' cognizant of McGillivray's aims and hopes.
The Americans, when the United States made Oliver Pol- lock its agent at Havana, had already lost a vigilant friend at New Orleans, who might now have divined what time has since disclosed. He left the Mississippi for his new mission in- debted to the royal treasury in the sum of $151,696, which he had borrowed to assist the American eause in the days when Spain was playing with the sympathies of the struggling col- onies. At this time, while Virginia was perplexed with her western problem, Pollock was imprisoned in Havana during eighteen months for debts which he had incurred in her behalf, a rigor doubtless instigated by the changed feelings which Spain was harboring towards the new Republic.
There was little doubt in the minds of Congress that a strug-
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OPENING OF THE MISSISSIPPI.
gle with Spain was imminent for the control of the Mississippi. Lafayette, who had written from Madrid such unassuring opin- ions of the Spanish temper, had now returned to the States, and in Baltimore he disclosed to Madison his belief in the determination of the Madrid cabinet to stand by what they deemed their interest in the matter. Madison was so impressed both with Lafayette's assurances and with the absolute neces- sity of thwarting Spain in her purpose, that he saw no way of avoiding a war except for France and Britain to intervene jointly, and profit by the trade that the free navigation of the Mississippi would bring them. America's demand, as Madi- son formulated it, was not only for the free use of the river, but for an entrepôt below 32°, for he felt assured the west would never consent to shift the lading of their descending boats to sea-going vessels higher up the river. Free trade down the stream would make, he contended, New Orleans one of the most flourishing emporiums of the world, and Spain ought to see it. The French in New Orleans, he again affirmed, cannot be denied this trade by their Spanish masters.
While all these views were common, Congress on June 3, 1784, instructed its diplomatic agents that the navigation of the Mississippi must in any event be rendered free.
During 1785, events took a more decided color from Spanish diplomacy. The opening of the Mississippi became with the possession of the northern posts the two objects nearest the heart of the west. In January, Madison said discouragingly, " We must bear with Spain for a while," and trust to the future to develop a sale for our western lands through the opening of the Mississippi. "All Europe," he added, "who wishes to trade with us, knows that to make these western settlements flourish is their gain." To such terms Lafayette replied : " Spain is such a fool that allowances must be made." Just what these allowances might be were soon to be disclosed, when Don Diego de Gardoqui, with the ultimatum of Spain, arrived in Philadelphia in May, 1785. He did not present his creden- tials till July 2, and at that time Jay was authorized by Con- gress to treat with him.
Meantime, the rumors from the west made people fearful of they knew not what sudden developments. It was heard with
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THE SOUTHWEST INSECURE.
alarm that Georgia had sent messengers to New Orleans, de- manding the surrender of Natchez, only to be rebuffed by Miró with a profession that he had no authority to comply. It was not this so much as the assurance of a single State in exercising diplomatic functions in violation of the federal com- pact that seemed serious. It was well known that Washington did not share the impatience of his southern brethren about the Mississippi. He looked upon delay in the settlement with Spain as likely to promote what he deemed of more importance, - the development of trade channels across the mountains. In June, 1785, he wrote to Marbois: "The emigration to the waters of the Mississippi is astonishingly great, and chiefly of a description of people who are not very subordinate to the laws and constitution of the State they go from. Whether the prohibition, therefore, of the Spaniards is just or unjust, politic or impolitic, it will be with difficulty that people of this class can be restrained in the enjoyment of natural advantages." Again, on September 7, Washington wrote to Rochambeau : " I do not think the navigation of the Mississippi is an object of great importance to us at present," and he added that it might be left till the full-grown west would have it " in spite of all opposition."
Apprehensions of difficulty prevailed, when, on July 26, Jay began his negotiations with Gardoqui. The American secre- tary very soon saw that the Spanish agent would interpose few direct hindrances to a treaty of commerce whereby the Atlantic ports would profit. Jay knew that there was nothing which the country needed more than a season of business prosperity. Taxes were burdensome, and those who could were flying across the mountains to escape the gatherers of them. To pay such demands and to appease England by meeting her claims for debts, commercial opportunities were needed. But it soon be- came evident to Jay that Spain had no intention of enriching the Americans except by acquiring corresponding advantages to herself. and these were the best security for her claims on the Mississippi in the absolute control of its navigation. To meet such demands Jay could do nothing while Congress ad- hered to the vote, which we have seen was passed a year before, that in any event the Great River must be left open. Nothing which Jay could suggest weakened the firmness of Gardoqui
339
JAMES WILKINSON.
on this point. So there grew in the American's mind the be- lief that all would go well if Congress would consent to yield the Mississippi for a term of years - say twenty-five - with- out prejudice to later claims. This, he thought, would certainly satisfy the Northern States, which were to gain most by com- mercial privileges, while the South and West might agree that any imperative demand for the free navigation of the river would not arise for a generation. This was known to be Wash- ington's view of the exigency. Virginia had just appointed commissioners to open a wagon road from the head of James River to the Kanawha falls, and beyond to Lexington, in Ken- tucky. Washington claimed that it was likely to be cheaper to carry western produce through the mountains to tide-water than down the Mississippi, if it started from any point east of the Kanawha, or even from the falls of the Ohio. Congress, hesitating in such a belief, on August 25 instructed Jay to close no agreement with Gardoqui without their approval.
While the thrifty German and slovenly Celt were raising more flour in Kentucky than could possibly be consumed, there was small chance that any scheme of closing the great channel of western commerce for a lifetime would find favor. Nor, indeed, could any plan of repressing the marvelous expansion of the west be acceded to. Before Jay began his negotiations, he had written to Lafayette that this western increase was going on "with a degree of rapidity heretofore unknown," and that it would continue, " notwithstanding any attempts of anybody to prevent it."
The prevalence of views in the East and in Congress antago- nistic to western progress, as they were deemed, could but arouse the latent spirit of independence which we have seen existed in more than one over-mountain region. They particularly aroused a recent comer to Kentucky, who was gifted with all that makes for subtle leadership and unscrupulous political daring, - a smooth affability, a cunning mind, a ready speech, and a fascinating address. The possessor of these insinuating qualities was James Wilkinson, an officer of the Revolution, who, in 1784, had resigned the adjutant-generalship of Pennsyl- vania and had appeared in Lexington. His reputation, even then, was not without tarnish, but he had left suspicions behind, and had thrown himself at once into mercantile life. The men
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THE SOUTHWEST INSECURE.
he dealt with had little cause to inquire sharply into a charac- ter which Roosevelt not undeservedly calls " the most despicable in our history." Wilkinson was soon vigilant as a speculator in skins and salt, - sharp enough, doubtless, but where every- body abont him was a rasping bargainer, he was not conspic- nous for moral delinquencies. He wrote to a friend, whom he had left in Philadelphia : " If I can hold up cleverly for a couple of years, I shall lay the foundation of opulence for pos- terity." Ile elaimed to the same correspondent that " his local credit and consequence, vanity apart, were not inconsiderable." Ile always had had a belief in his star.
At the time when delegates met in May, 1785, to consider the question of independency, Wilkinson was too ill to attend, and we very likely owe it to his absence that the convention persisted in holding to constitutional grounds, and agreed to solicit the permission of Virginia to become a separate State. It also took an advanced stand in political policy when the members declared for equal representation and manhood suf- frage, as against the Virginia practice of equal county repre- sentation irrespective of population. In order to make the circulation of an address effective, it was also determined in the convention to set up a printing-press.
It was Wilkinson's boast that determinate action was delayed till another meeting in August, in order that the members might have the advantage of his presence. When, on August 14, the new convention met, he made a passionate demand for an immediate unconditional separation from Virginia. He elaimed that he had been at the start one of those adverse to independence; but that the renegade spirit in Congress on the Mississippi question had convinced him of the necessity of such action. Before the members assembled, he had again advised his distant friend that "free trade out of the Missis- sippi would push Kentucky most rapidly. Our products are so prodigions," he added, "that our exports would exceed our imports fivefold. We are unanimously ready to wade to it through blood." He closed his fieree prophecy with a sugges- tion that the Mississippi would be no sooner cleared than the Spanish mines beyond it " might be possessed with the greatest facility." With these views he entered the convention, but its members resisted his violent urgency, and deferred to another convention the final settlement of the question.
341
THE HOLSTON PEOPLE.
When this healthy and moderate action was known at the east, Madison recognized in gratification that "the first in- stance of the dismemberment of a State had been conducted in a way to form a salutary precedent." Washington stood less for their order of going, and was prepared to meet the people of Kentucky " upon their own ground, and draw the best line and make.the best terms, and part good friends."
To turn to the people of the Holston. They proved to have shared only a temporary calm after their convention had dis- solved. Sevier had been unable to uproot the latent passion for independence. Early in the year (1785), the Separatist leaders had petitioned Congress for the right of setting up their new State between the Alleghany River and the meridian of Louis- ville. Its northern bounds were to run from the junction of the Great Kanawha and Greenbrier and along the 37° parallel. Its southern were to be by the 34°. This would have given them a large part of Kentucky, and have carried their territory well down to the bend of the Tennessee. With these rather mag- nificent visions, their Assembly met at Greenville, now selected as a capital, and in March began their work, in a rude log cabin, which had an earth floor and a clapboard roof. This hasty body stood for a population which it was supposed num- bered about five-and-twenty thousand. But it was a community with no other currency than that supplied by fox and mink skins, varied with such agricultural products as could be passed from hand to hand. With this money they proposed to pay their civil servants, and, upon an apportioned salary of such products, Sevier, now in the headlong stream like everybody else, was chosen governor. Their new chief magistrate very soon sent a letter to Congress asking for recognition, but it was unheeded, as Governor Martin had warned them it would be. Patrick Henry, alarmed at their territorial ambition, feared that it would arouse the tribes and cause impediments in the Spanish negotiations. Meanwhile, as governor, he cautioned the State's Indian agent not to commit Virginia to any partici- pation in coming events.
In May, Congress urged North Carolina to renew her cession and thus place the territory of the Separatists under federal control ; but a state pride declined to part with any portion of
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THE SOUTHWEST INSECURE.
her territory with a rebellion unquelled. On the last of May, Sevier's people made a covenant with such of the Cherokees as could be enticed, and got a questionable title to lands south of the French Broad, and east of the ridge which parted the waters of the Tennessee River. They invaded without any such pretended right other lands of the Cherokees and Creeks. Such acts added an Indian war to their other difficulties.
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