Читать книгу The Settlement of Illinois, 1778-1830 - Arthur Clinton Boggess - Страница 3

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Illinois was practically in a state of anarchy during the time that it was a county of Virginia, and when that county ceased to be, anarchy became technically as well as practically its condition, and remained so until government under the Ordinance of 1787 was inaugurated in 1790.

Virginia's legacy from her ephemeral county was one of unpaid bills. Scarcely had the general assembly adjourned, in January, 1782, when Benjamin Harrison wrote: “We know of no power given to any person to draw bills on the State but to Colo Clarke and yet we find them drawn to an immense amount by Colo Montgomery, and Captn Robt. George and some others; we have but too much reason to suppose a collusion and fraud betwixt the drawers and those they are made payable to; most of them are for specie when they well knew we had none amongst us, and from the largeness of the sums, proves the transactions must have been in paper and the depreciation taken into account, when the bargains were made; indeed George confesses this to have been the case when he gave Philip Barbour a bill for two hundred and thirty two thousand, three hundred and twenty Dollars and uses the plea of ignorance.” The transactions of Oliver Pollock, purchasing agent at New Orleans, should be carefully examined from the time he began to act with [pg 041] Montgomery.74 Thimothé Demunbrunt, as he signed his name, asked pay for his services as lieutenant, in order that he might not be a charge to his friends—a thing which would be shameful to one of noble descent. He wished to be able to support his family and to go with Clark on a proposed expedition. His petition was supported by a certificate from Col. Montgomery, testifying that Demunbrunt had been active in his military duty, had gone against the savages in the spring of 1780, had gone on the “Expedition up the Wabash,” and had gone to the relief of Fort Jefferson when Montgomery could raise only twelve men.75

The military troubles continued. The commander at Vincennes reported his troops as destitute and unpaid. Richard Winston, of Kaskaskia, who had succeeded Todd as head of the civil government in Illinois, was arrested by military force and put in jail. The prisoner claimed that the proceedings were wholly irregular and that he was unacquainted with the nature of the charge against [pg 042] him.76 The next year, he was accused of treason, the accuser declaring that Winston had proposed to turn Illinois over to Spain, but that his proposal had been despised by the Spanish commandant.77 Upon Winston was also laid the chief blame for the discontent of the French, he being charged with having told Montgomery that the French were strangers to liberty and must be ruled with a rod of iron or the bayonet, and that if he wanted anything he must send his guards and take it by force; while, at the same time, he told the French that the military was a band of robbers and came to Illinois for plunder.78 However, numerous and well-founded as the accusations might be, both accused and accuser laid their claims for salary before the Virginia Board of Commissioners for the Settlement of Western Accounts.79 Even the notorious Col. Montgomery presented before this board his defence, which consisted of a recital of his meritorious deeds, others being omitted.80

Another visitor to the Board of Commissioners was Francis Carbonneaux, prothonotary and notary public for the Illinois country. Although he came to get some private affairs settled, his chief mission was to lay before the Board the confusion in Illinois, and the Board correctly surmised that if Virginia did not afford relief the messenger [pg 043] would proceed to Congress.81 It was but natural that at this time, the people of Illinois should be in doubt as to whom to present their petition, because Virginia had offered to cede her western lands to Congress, although the terms of cession were not yet agreed upon. Carbonneaux complained that Illinois was wholly without law or government; that the magistrates, from indolence or sinister views, had for some time been lax in the execution of their duties, and were now altogether without authority; that crimes of the greatest enormity might be committed with impunity, and a man be murdered in his own house and no one regard it; that there was neither sheriff nor prison; and to crown the general confusion, that many persons had made large purchases of three and four hundred leagues, and were endeavoring to have themselves established lords of the soil, as some had done in Canada, and to have settlements made on these purchases, composed of a set of men wholly subservient to their views. The Spanish traded freely in Illinois, but strictly prohibited Illinois from trading in Spanish dominions. Complaint was also made that the Board of Commissioners had not settled the Illinois accounts in peltry according to the known rule and practice, namely: that fifty pounds of peltry should represent one hundred livres in money.

The petitioners prayed that a president of judicature be sent to them, with executive powers to a certain extent, and that subordinate civil officers be appointed, to reside in each village or station, with power to hear and decide all causes upon obligations not exceeding three hundred dollars, higher amounts to be determined by a court to be held at Kaskaskia and to be composed of the president and a majority of the magistrates. It was [pg 044] desired that the grant in which the Kaskaskia settlements lay should be considered as one district. It contained five villages, of which Kaskaskia and Cahokia were the largest. The grant extended to the headwaters of the Illinois River on the north. The land had been granted to the settlers by the Indians, and the Indians, having given their consent by solemn treaties, had never denied the sale. The tract referred to was probably the two purchases of the Illinois Company. Maps give but one of these and, in fact, the other was said to be so described as to comprise a line only. Naturally, this fact was not known at the time of purchase.

It was frankly acknowledged that Illinois had no man fitted for the office of president. It was hoped that Virginia would furnish one, and would send with him a company of regulars to act under his direction and enforce laws and authority. The president should be empowered to grant land in small tracts to immigrants. The privilege of trading in Spanish waters, especially on the Missouri, was much desired. It was said that Carbonneaux “appears to have been instructed as to the ground of his message by the better disposed part of the inhabitants of the country whose complaints he represents.”82

At the time of Carbonneaux's petition, there was no legal way by which newcomers to Illinois could acquire public land. Virginia had prepared to open a land-office, soon after the conquest of the Illinois country, but she seems to have heeded the recommendation of Congress that no unappropriated land be sold during the war.83 Some grants had been made by Todd, Demunbrunt, the Indians, and others with less show of right, but they were made without [pg 045] governmental authority. The Indians had presented a tract of land to Clark, but the view consistently held was that individuals could not receive Indian land merely upon their own initiative.84 One of the grants made at Vincennes, which seems to have been a typical one, was signed by Le Grand, “Colonel commandant and President of the Court,” and was made by the authority granted to the magistrates of the court of Vincennes by John Todd, “Colonel and Grand civil Judge for the United States.” The purpose of the grant, which comprised four hundred arpents “in circumference,” was to induce immigration.85 The grants made by the court of Vincennes became notorious from the fact that thousands of acres were granted by the court to its own members.86

On March 1, 1784, Virginia ceded her western lands to the United States, thus transferring to the general government the question of land titles. The country had been in a state of unconcealed anarchy for more than two years, all semblance of Virginia authority having ceased, and the cession is quite as much a tribute to Virginia's shrewdness as to her generosity. Never was so large a present made with less sacrifice. The cession was made with the following conditions, some of which were to have a direct and potent influence upon the settlement of the ceded region:

1. The territory should be formed into states of not less than one hundred nor more than one hundred and fifty square miles each;

2. Virginia's expenses in subduing and governing the territory should be reimbursed by the United States;

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3. Settlers should have their “possessions and titles confirmed;”

4. One hundred and fifty thousand acres, or less, should be granted to George Rogers Clark and his soldiers;

5. The Virginia military bounty lands should be located north of the Ohio River, unless there should prove to be enough land for the purpose south of that river;

6. The proceeds from the sale of the lands should be for the United States, severally.87

In the year of the Virginia cession, Congress passed the Ordinance for the Government of the Western Territory, but as it never went into effect, its importance is slight except as indicative of the trend of public feeling on the subjects which it involved. Should Jefferson's plan, proposed at this time, have been carried out, Illinois would have been parts of the states of Polypotamia, Illinois, Assenisipia, and Saratoga.88

Carbonneaux, the messenger from Illinois to Virginia, carried his petition to Congress. Congress paid the messenger, referred the petition to a committee, and upon the report of the committee voted to choose one or more commissioners to go to Illinois and investigate conditions there.89 No record of the appointment of such commissioners has been found. Congress considered Carbonneaux's petition early in 1785. In November of the same year comes a record of the anarchy in Illinois. This was addressed to George Rogers Clark, who was the hope of the people of that neglected country. The commandant at St. Louis is afraid of an attack from the Royalists at Michilimackinac, or he has given orders for all the people [pg 047] in that place to be in readiness when called on, with their arms.

“The Indians are very troublesome on the rivers, and declare an open war with the Americans, which I am sure is nothing lessened by the advice of our neighbors, the French in this place, and the people from Michilimackinac, who openly say they will oppose all the Americans that come into this country. For my part, it is impossible to live here, if we have not regular justice very soon. They are worse than the Indians, and ought to be ruled with a rod of iron.”90

During the year 1786, George Rogers Clark was the chief factor in Illinois affairs. He was regarded by the people as their advocate before Congress. In March, seven of the leading men of Vincennes, at the request of the French and American inhabitants, sent a petition to him asking him to persuade Congress to send troops to defend them from the Indians, and also saying: “We have unanimously agreed to present a petition to Congress for relief, apprehensive that the Deed we received from an office, established or rather continued by Colo Todd for lands, may possibly be a slender foundation; so that after we have passed through a scene of suffering in forming settlements in a remote and dangerous part may have the mortification to be totally deprived of our improvements.”91 In June, seventy-one American subscribers from Vincennes, “in the County of Illinois,” asked Congress to settle their land-titles and give them a government. They held land from grants from an office established by Col. Todd, whose validity they questioned. The commandant [pg 048] and magistracy had resigned because of the disobedience of the people. There was no executive, no law, no government, and the Indians were very hostile.92

Clark was not unmindful of the needs of the people. He wrote to the president of Congress: “The inhabitants of the different towns in the Illinois are worthy the attention of Congress. They have it in their power to be of infinite service to us, and might act as a great barrier to the frontier, if under proper regulation; but having no law or government among them, they are in great confusion, and without the authority of Congress is extended to them, they must, in all probability, fall a sacrifice to the savages, who may take advantage of the disorder and want of proper authority in that country. I have recommended it to them, to re-assume their former customs, and appoint temporary officers until the pleasure of Congress is known, which I have flattered them would be in a short time. How far the recommendation will answer the desired purpose is not yet known.”93

Clark's fears of the Indians were only too well grounded. During the summer, the American settlers were compelled to retire to a fort at Bellefontaine, and four of their number were killed. At the same time, about twenty Americans were killed about Vincennes. The French were still safe from Indian attacks and were very angry because the Americans complained of existing conditions.94 The strife between the French and the Americans at Vincennes, over the proper relations of the whites to the Indians, became intense. The French contended that the Indians should [pg 049] be allowed to come and go freely, while the Americans held that it was unsafe to grant such freedom. At last, upon the occasion of the killing of an Indian by the Americans, after they had been attacked by the Indians, the French citizens ordered all persons, who had not permission to settle from the government under which they last resided, to leave at once and at their own risk. The French told the Americans plainly that they were not wanted, and that they, the French, did not know whether the place belonged to the United States or to Great Britain.95 This last assertion was probably true. The British Michilimackinac Company had a large trading-house at Cahokia for supplying the Indians, they held Detroit, and their machinations among the Indians were constant. The feeling of all intelligent Americans in Illinois must have been expressed by John Edgar when he wrote that the Illinois country was totally lost unless a government should soon be established.96 Clark wrote a vigorous letter to the people at Vincennes, telling them that unless they stopped quarreling military rule would be established; that the government established under Virginia was still in force, having been confirmed by Congress upon the acceptance of the Virginia deed of cession, and that the court, if depleted, should be filled by election.97

In one respect, even during this trying period, the western country gave promise of its future growth. There was a large crop. Flour and pork, quoted, strangely enough, together, sold at the Falls of Ohio at [pg 050] twelve shillings per hundred pounds, while Indian corn sold at nine pence per bushel.98

On August 24, 1786, Congress ordered its secretary to inform the inhabitants of Kaskaskia that a government was being prepared for them.99 In 1787, conditions in the Illinois country became too serious to be ignored. The Indian troubles were grave and persistent, but graver still was the danger of the rebellion or secession of the Western Country or else of a war with Spain. The closure of the Mississippi by Spain made the West desperate. Discontent, anarchy, and petitions might drag a weary length, but when troops raised without authority were quartered at Vincennes, when these troops seized Spanish goods, and impressed the property of the inhabitants of Vincennes, and proposed to treat with the Indians, the time for action was at hand. In April, Gen. Josiah Harmar, then at Falls of Ohio, was ordered to move the greater part of his troops to Vincennes to restore order among the distracted people at that place. Intruders upon the public lands were to be removed, and the lawless and illegally levied troops were to be dispersed.100

Arrived at Vincennes, Gen. Harmar proceeded with vigor. The resolution of Congress against intruders on the public lands was published in English and in French. The inhabitants, especially the Americans whose hold on their lands was the more insecure, were dismayed, and French and Americans each prepared a petition to Congress, [pg 051] and appointed Bartholomew Tardiveau, who was to go to Congress within a month, as their agent. Tardiveau was especially fitted for this task by his intimate acquaintance with the land grants of the region. Each party at Vincennes also prepared an address to Gen. Harmar, the Americans declaring that they were settled on French lands and feared that their lands would be taken from them without payment and asking aid from Congress, and the French expressing their joy at being freed from their former bad government. Many of Clark's militia had made tomahawk-rights, and this added to the confusion of titles.101

From August 9 to 16, Gen. Harmar, with an officer and thirty men, some Indian hunters, and Tardiveau, journeyed overland from Vincennes to Kaskaskia, where conditions were to be investigated. The August sun poured down its rays upon the parched prairies and dwindling streams. Water was bad and scarce, but buffalo, deer, bear, and smaller game were abundant.

Harmar found life in the settlements he visited as crude as the path he traveled. Kaskaskia was a French village of one hundred and ninety-one men, old and young, with an accompaniment of women and children of various mixtures of white and red blood. Cahokia, then the metropolis, had two hundred and thirty-nine Frenchmen, old and young, with an accompaniment similarly mixed. Between these settlements was Bellefontaine, a small stockade, inhabited altogether by Americans, who had settled without authority. The situation was a beautiful one; the land was fertile; there [pg 052] was no taxation, and the people had an abundance to live upon. They were much alarmed when told of their precarious state respecting a title to their lands, and they gave Tardiveau a petition to carry to Congress. On the route to Cahokia, another stockade, Grand Ruisseau, similarly inhabited by Americans, was passed. There were about thirty other American intruders in the fertile valleys near the Mississippi, and they, too, gave Tardiveau a petition to Congress.

The Kaskaskia, Peoria, Cahokia, and Mitcha tribes of Indians numbered only about forty or fifty members, of whom but ten or eleven individuals composed the Kaskaskia tribe; but this does not mean that danger from the Indians was not great, because other and more hostile tribes came in great numbers to hunt in the Illinois country. The significance of the diminished numbers of these particular tribes lies in the fact that they had the strongest claim to that part of Illinois which would be first needed for settlement. At Kaskaskia and Cahokia, the French were advised to obey their magistrates until Congress had a government ready for them, and Cahokia was advised to put its militia into better shape, and to put any turbulent or refractory persons under guard until a government could be instituted.102

Having finished his work in the settlements near the Mississippi, Harmar returned to Vincennes, where he held councils with the Indians, and on October 1, set out on his return to Fort Harmar. Although without authority to give permanent redress, he had persuaded the French at Vincennes to relinquish their charter and to throw themselves upon the generosity of Congress. “As it would have been impolitic, after the parade we had made, to [pg 053] entirely abandon the country,” he left Maj. John F. Hamtramck, with ninety-five men, at Vincennes.103 Harmar's visit was doubtless of some value, but he had not been gone five weeks when Hamtramck wrote to him: “Our civil administration has been, and is, in a great confusion. Many people are displeased with the Magistrates; how it will go at the election, which is to be the 2d of Decr, I know not. But it is to be hoped that Congress will soon establish some mode of government, for I never saw so injudicious administration. Application has repeatedly been made to me for redress. I have avoided to give answer, not knowing how far my powers extended. In my opinion, the Minister of War should have that matter determined, and sincerely beg you would push it. I confess to you, that I have been very much at a loss how to act on many occasions.”104

Not earlier than the 24th of November, Tardiveau set out for Congress with his petitions from the Illinois country. Harmar was much pleased to have so able a messenger, and spoke of him as sensible, well-informed, and able to give a minute and particular description of the western country, particularly the Illinois. He had been preceded to Congress by Joseph Parker, of Kaskaskia. Harmar seems to have regarded Tardiveau as a sort of antidote to Parker, for he closes his recommendation of the former by saying: “There have been some imposters before Congress, particularly one Parker, a whining, canting Methodist, a kind of would-be governor. He is extremely unpopular at Kaskaskia, and despised by the inhabitants.”105

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This detracts from the value of Parker's representations, which had been made in a letter to St. Clair, the President of Congress. After explaining that when he left Kaskaskia, on June 5, 1787, the people did not have an intended petition ready, Parker complained of the lack of government in Illinois, the presence of British traders, the depopulation of the country by the inducements of the Spaniards, and the high rate at which it was proposed to sell lands. His complaints were true, although he may have failed to give them in their proper proportion.106

On July 13, 1787, the Ordinance of 1787 had been passed by Congress. The Illinois country was at that time ready for war against the Spanish, who persisted in closing the Mississippi. The troops, irregularly levied by George Rogers Clark at Vincennes, had seized some Spanish goods on the theory that if the Spanish would not allow the United States to navigate the lower Mississippi, the Spanish should not be allowed to navigate the upper Mississippi. John Rice Jones, later the first lawyer in Illinois, was Clark's commissary.107

The Ordinance of 1787 was the only oil then at hand for these troubled waters. The situation in Illinois was a complicated one, and probably the numerical weakness of the population alone saved the country from disastrous results. The few Americans in Illinois desired governmental protection from the Spanish, the Indians, the British, and any Americans who might seek to jump the claims of the first squatters; the few French desired protection from the Spanish, the Americans, the British, and soon from the Indians; the numerous Indians, permanent or transient, desired protection from the Spanish, the Americans, and in rare cases from an Americanized [pg 055] Frenchman. Americans, French, Spanish, British, and Indians made an opportunity for many combinations.

For the French inhabitants, the somewhat paternal character of the government provided for by the Ordinance was a matter of no concern. The great rock of offense for them was the prohibition of slavery. An exodus to the Spanish side of the Mississippi resulted and St. Louis profited by what the older villages of Illinois lost.108 In addition to a justifiable feeling of uncertainty as to whether they would be allowed to retain their slaves, the credulous French had their fears wrought upon by persons interested in the sale of Spanish lands. These persons took pains to inculcate the belief that all slaves would be released upon American occupancy. The Spanish officials were also active. The commandant at St. Louis wrote to the French at Kaskaskia, Cahokia, and Vincennes, respectively, inviting them to settle west of the Mississippi and offering free lands.109 Mr. Tardiveau, the agent for the Illinois settlers to Congress, tried to induce Congress to repeal the anti-slavery clause of the Ordinance. He said that it threatened to be the ruin of Illinois. Designing persons had told the French that the moment Gen. St. Clair arrived all their slaves would be free. Failing in his efforts to secure a repeal, he wrote to Gen. St. Clair, asking him to secure from Congress a resolution giving the true intent of the act.110 In this letter, Tardiveau advanced the doctrine, later so much used, that the evils of slavery would be mitigated by its diffusion.111 The first panic of [pg 056] the French only gradually subsided and the question of slavery was a persistent one.

One of the most industrious of those interested in the sale of Spanish lands was George Morgan, of New Jersey.112 In 1788, he tried to secure land in Illinois also. He and his associates petitioned Congress to sell them a tract of land on the Mississippi. A congressional committee found upon investigation that the proposed purchase [pg 057] comprised all of the French settlements in Illinois.113 Thereupon was passed the Act of June 20, 1788. According to its provisions, the French inhabitants of Illinois were to be confirmed in their possessions and each family which was living in the district before the year 1783 was to be given a bounty of four hundred acres. These bounty-lands were to be laid off in three parallelograms, at Kaskaskia, Prairie du Rocher, and Cahokia, respectively. They were to be bounded on the east by the ridge of rocks—a natural formation trending from north to south, a short distance to the east of the French settlements. Morgan was to be sold a large described tract for not less than sixty-six and two-thirds cents per acre. Indian titles were to be extinguished if necessary.114

The Act of June 20, 1788, is an important landmark in the settlement of Illinois. The grant of bounty-lands was made for the purpose of giving the French settlers a means of support when the fur-trade and hunting should have become unprofitable from the advance of American settlement. This was a clear acknowledgment that the Indians were right in believing, as they did, that the American settlement would be fatal to Indian hunting-grounds. The Indians were soon bitterly hostile. Then, too, the claims of the settlers to land, founded upon French, British, or Virginia grants, were to be investigated. This investigation dragged on year after year, even for decades, and as it was the policy of the United States not to sell public land in Illinois until these claims were [pg 058] settled, the country became a great squatters'115 camp. The length of the investigation was doubtless due in part to the utter carelessness of the French in giving and in keeping their evidences of title.

By a congressional resolution of August 28, 1788, it was provided that the lands donated to Illinois settlers should be located east, instead of west, of the ridge of rocks. As this would throw the land too far from the settlements to be available, petitions followed for the restoration of the provisions of June 20, and in 1791 the original location was decreed. By a resolution of August 29, 1788, the governor of the Northwest Territory was ordered to carry out the provisions of the acts of June 20 and August 28, 1788, respectively.116

The beginning of operations, in accordance with the acts just cited, was delayed by the fact that the governor and judges, appointed under the Ordinance of 1787, and who alone could institute government under it, did not reach the Illinois country until 1790. In the meantime, anarchy continued. Contemporary accounts give a good idea of the attempts at government during the time, and the fact of their great interest, combined with the fact that most of them are yet unpublished, seems to warrant treatment of the subject at some length.

The court at Kaskaskia met more than a score of times during 1787 and 1788. Its record consists in large part of mere meetings and adjournments. All members of the court were French, while litigants and the single jury recorded were Americans. Jurors from Bellefontaine received forty-five livres each, and those from Prairie du [pg 059] Rocher, twenty-five livres each. This court seems to have been utterly worthless.117 At Vincennes, matters were at least as bad. “It was the most unjust court that could have been invented. If anybody called for a court, the president had 20 livers in peltry; 14 magistrates, each 10 livers; for a room, 10 livers; other small expenses, 10 livers; total in peltry, 180 livers—which is 360 in money. So that a man who had twenty or thirty dollars due, was obliged to pay, if he wanted a court, 180 livers in peltry: This court also never granted an execution, but only took care to have the fees of the court paid. The government of this country has been in the Le Gras and Gamelin family for a long time, to the great dissatisfaction of the people, who presented me a Petition some days ago, wherein they complained of the injustice of their court—in consequence of which, I have dissolved the old court, ordered new magistrates to be elected, and established new regulations for them to go by.”118 Upon the dissolution of the court, Maj. Hamtramck issued the following:

“REGULATIONS FOR THE COURT OF POST VINCENNES.

“In consequence of a Petition presented to me by the people of Post Vincennes, wherein they complain of the [pg 060] great expence to which each individual is exposed in the recovery of his property by the present court, and as they express a wish to have another mode established for the administration of justice—I do, therefore, by these presents, dissolve the said court, and direct that five magistrates be elected by the suffrages of the people who, when chosen, will meet and settle their seniority.

“One magistrate will have power to try causes, not exceeding fifty livers in peltry. Two magistrates will determine all causes not exceeding one hundred livers in peltry—from their decision any person aggrieved may (on paying the cost of the suit) appeal to the District Court, which will consist of three magistrates; the senior one will preside. They will meet the third Tuesday in every month and set two days, unless the business before them be completed within that time. All causes in this court shall be determined by a jury of twelve inhabitants. Any person summoned by the sheriff as a juryman who refuses or neglects to attend, shall be fined the price of a day's labour. In case of indisposition, he will, previous to the sitting of the court, inform the clerk, Mr. Antoine Gamelin, who will order such vacancies to be filled.

“The fees of the court shall be as follows: A magistrate, for every cause of fifty livers or upwards in peltry, shall receive one pistole in peltry, and in proportion for a lesser sum. The sheriff for serving a writ or a warrant shall receive three livers in peltry; for levying an execution, 5 per cent, including the fees of the clerk of the court.

“The clerk for issuing a writ shall receive three livers in peltry, and all other fees as heretofore. The jury being an office which will be reciprocal, are not to receive pay. All expenses of the court are to be paid by the person that is cast. This last part may appear to you to be an extraordinary charge—but my reason for mentioning it is, that [pg 061] formerly the court made the one who was most able pay the fees of the court, whether he lost or no.

“The magistrates, before they enter into the execution of their office, will take the following oath before the commandant: I, A., do swear that I will administer justice impartially, and to the best of my knowledge and understanding, so help me God.

“Given under my hand this 5th day of April, 1788.”

(Signed) J. F. Hamtramck,

Majr. Comd'g.119

A little later, Hamtramck wrote: “Our new government has taken place; five magistrates have been elected by the suffrage of the people, but not one of the Ottoman families remains in. One Mr. Miliet, Mr. Henry, Mr. Bagargon, Capt. Johnson, and Capt. Dalton, have been elected. You will be surprised to see Dalton in office; but I found that he had too many friends to refuse him. I keep a watch-side eye over him, and find that he conducts himself with great propriety.”120

The relief afforded by the new court was not complete, for soon came the report: “The people are very impatient to see Gen. St. Clair or some of the judges; in fact, they are very much wanted.”121 The term of the members of the court expired in April, 1789, and no new members were elected, because the early arrival of Gen. St. Clair was expected.122 An interregnum occurred, and in November, 1789, Hamtramck wrote to Harmar: “It is high time [pg 062] that government should take place in this country, and if it should happen that the Governor was not to come, nor any of the Judges, I would beg (for the sake of the people) that his Excellency would give me certain powers to create magistrates, a Sheriff and other officers, for the purpose of establishing Courts of Justice—for, at present, there are none, owing to the daily expectation of the arrival of the Governor. Those that had been appointed by the people last year, their authority has been refused in the courts of Kentucky, they declaring that by the resolve of Congress, neither the people of Post Vincennes, or the commanding officer, had a right to appoint magistrates; that the power was vested in the Governor only, and that it was an usurped authority. You see, Sir, how much to the prejudice of the people their present situation is, and how necessary it is that some steps should be taken to relieve them.

“The powers of the magistrates may be circumscribed as his Excellency may think proper, but the necessity of having such characters will appear when I assure you that at present no person here, can administer an oath which will be considered legal in the courts of Kentucky—and for the reasons above mentioned.”123

At last, on June 19, 1790, the judges for the Northwest Territory arrived at Vincennes.124

The situation at Kaskaskia was even worse than that at Vincennes, because Vincennes had a garrison. To understand the complaints of the time, it is necessary to notice the relations with Spain. On the first day of 1788, Hamtramck wrote: “The Spanish commanding officers of the different posts on the Mississippi are encouraging settlers by giving them lands gratis. A village by the [pg 063] name of Zewapetas, which is about thirty miles above the mouth of the Ohio, and which was begun last summer, consists now of thirty or fifty families.”125 In the following October, Morgan made flattering offers to persons who would settle at New Madrid.126 At the same time, the Mississippi was closed to Americans. Joseph St. Marie, of Vincennes, sent his clerk with a load of peltry to be traded to the Indians on the banks of the Mississippi. His goods were seized and confiscated by the Spanish commander at the Arkansas Post. The commander said that his orders were to seize all goods of Americans, found in the Mississippi below the mouth of the Ohio. Upon appeal to Gov. Miro, of Louisiana, the governor said that the court of Spain had given orders to send offending traders prisoners to the mines of Brazil.127

The combination of inducements to such as would become Spanish subjects and of severity to such as would not do so, secured Spain some settlers. Hamtramck said: “I am fearful that the Governor will not find many people in the Illinois, as they are daily going on the Spanish side. I believe that all our Americans of Post Vincennes will go to Morgan—a number of them are already gone to see him. I am told that Mr. Morgan has taken unwarrantable measures to invite the people of Illinois to come to him, saying that the Governor never would come in that country, and that their negroes were all free the moment the government should be established—for which all the remaining good inhabitants propose to go to him. I can not give you this for certain; I will [pg 064] know better in a short time, and inform you.”128 “I have the honor to enclose you Mr. Morgan's letter at his request, and one for you. You will see in Mr. Morgan's that a post will be established opposite the Ohio; and if what Mr. Morgan says is true (which I doubt not), respecting the inhabitants of the Illinois, the Governor will have no occasion to go there. Will you be so good as to inform me if Congress have changed their resolution respecting the freedom of the negroes of this country; and if they are free from the day of the resolve, or if from the day it is published in a district.”129 A few weeks later, Harmar wrote to St. Clair: “The emigration continues, it possible, more rapid than ever; within these twenty days, not less than one hundred souls have passed [Fort Harmar, at Falls of Ohio] daily: the people are all taken up with Col. Morgan's New Madrid. … The generality of the inhabitants of Kaskaskias, and a number of those at Post Vincennes, I am informed, have quit those villages, and gone over to the Spanish side. The arrival of your Excellency amongst them, I believe is anxiously expected.”130

The Indians were very hostile, and it is noteworthy that by the middle of 1789, the comparative immunity of the French from attack had ceased. Only negroes were safe, and they, probably, because they sold well.131 Civil government was at low ebb in the Kaskaskia region. By January, 1789, the court at Kaskaskia had dissolved.132

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The depopulation of Illinois led Hamtramck to write to Bartholomew Tardiveau, at the Falls of Ohio, asking whether it were true that the slaves of the French were to be free. Tardiveau responded that it was not true, and that he had written from New York, the preceding December, to Hamtramck and to Illinois concerning the matter, but that his letters had been intercepted. The true meaning of the resolve of Congress was published at Vincennes upon the receipt of Tardiveau's letter and was to be published in Illinois at the first opportunity. The narration of these facts was closed by the statement that if the governor or the judges did not come soon, most of the people would go to the Spanish side, “for they begin to think there are no such men as a Governor or Judges.”133

In September, 1789, Hamtramck received the following petition from Kaskaskia:

“To John Francis Hamtramck, Esqr., Major of the 1st U. S. Regt. and commandant at Post Vincennes, &c. &c.

“The inhabitants of Kaskaskias, in the Illinois, beg leave to address you, as the next commanding officer in the service of the United States, to lay before you the deplorable situation we are reduced to, and the absolute necessity of our being speedily succoured to prevent as well our total ruin, as that of the place.

“The Indians are greatly more numerous than the white people, and are rather hostilely inclined; the name of an American among them is a disgrace, because we have no superior. Our horses, horned cattle, and corn are stolen and destroyed without the power of making any effectual resistance. Our houses are in ruin and decay; our lands are uncultivated; debtors absconded and absconding; our little commerce destroyed. We are apprehensive of a [pg 066] dearth of corn, and our best prospects are misery and distress, or what is more than probable an untimely death by the hands of Savages.

“We are well convinced that all these misfortunes have befallen us for want of some superior, or commanding authority; for ever since the cession of this Territory to Congress, we have been neglected as an abandoned people, to encounter all the difficulties that are always attendant upon anarchy and confusion; neither did we know from authority until latterly, to what power we were subject. The greater part of our citizens have left the country on this account to reside in the Spanish dominions; others are now following, and we are fearful, nay, certain, that without your assistance, the small remainder will be obliged to follow their example.

“Thus situated, our last resource is to you, Sir, hoping and praying that you will so far use your authority to save an almost deserted country from destruction, and to order or procure the small number of twenty men with an officer, to be stationed among us for our defence; and that you will make order for the establishment of a civil court to take place immediately and to continue in force until the pleasure of his Excellency the Governor shall be known, and to whom we beg you would communicate our distress.

“We beg your answer by the return of the bearer, addressed to the Revd Mr. Le Dru, our Priest, who signs this in the name and at the request, of the inhabitants.

“Dated at Kaskaskia the fourteenth day of September, 1789.

“Ledru, curé Des Kaskaskias pour tous les habitans Français de l'endroit et outres voisins de la partie Americaine.

“Jno Edgar.”134

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John Edgar offered to furnish provisions for the twenty soldiers asked for in the petition, and to take bills on Congress in payment.135

Hamtramck responded to the petition by saying that sickness prevailed among the troops at Vincennes to such an extent that twenty men could not be sent thence to Kaskaskia, but that the request would be sent to headquarters. As to the civil department, the people were advised to elect two or three magistrates in every village. These should prevent debtors from leaving, and should levy on the goods of such debtors as had already gone to the Spanish side. “Let your magistrates be respectable men by their moral character, as well as in point of property; let them attend with vigilance to all disputes that may arise amongst you, and in a particular manner to the Indian affairs.”136 This reply reached Edgar on the night of October 27, 1789. The next day, Edgar wrote to Hamtramck saying that it was probable that the recommendations in regard to establishing a civil government could not be carried out without a military force. The French were easily governed by a superior, but they knew nothing of government by an equal. Indians were constantly incited by the Spanish. They stole horses and escaped to the Spanish side. Edgar enclosed correspondence and depositions showing that on the night of the eighth of October, John Dodge and Michael Antanya, with a party of whites and Indians, came from the Spanish side to Kaskaskia, made an unsuccessful attempt to carry off some of Edgar's slaves, and threatened to burn the village. He adds “[In] the spring it is impossible I can [pg 068] stand my ground, surrounded as we are by savage enemies. I have waited five years in hopes of a government; I shall still wait until March, as I may be able to withstand them in the winter season, but if no succour nor government should then arrive, I shall be compelled to abandon the country, and I shall go to live at St. Louis. Inclination, interest and love for the country prompt me to reside here, but when in so doing it is ten to one but both my life and property will fall a sacrifice, you nor any impartial mind can blame me for the part I shall take.”137

One day later, John Rice Jones wrote from Kaskaskia. The answer to the petition sent by Ducoigne and addressed to Ledru and Edgar, had been opened by the latter in the absence and by the consent of the former. Ledru had gone to be priest at St. Louis. At first he had refused the offer of the position, but when he received his tithes at Kaskaskia, he found that they would not support him, so he was compelled to move. He met no better treatment than de la Valiniere and Gibault before him, and no priest was likely to fare any better until a government was established. St. Pierre, priest at Cahokia, had gone to be priest at Ste. Genevieve, and it was said that Gibault was to be priest at L'Anse a la Graisse (New Madrid). Morgan had been coolly received at New Orleans, and his boasted settlement at New Madrid was almost broken up. The attempted seizure of Edgar's negroes could not be punished, because there was no one with authority to remonstrate with the Spanish, and private remonstrances were unheeded. The Spanish were making every effort to depopulate Illinois. They well knew that the people would follow their priests. Flattering offers had been made to Edgar by the Spanish, among them being free [pg 069] lands, no taxes, and free permission to work at the lead mines and salt springs. He had refused all offers, but if government was not established by the next March he would go to St. Louis, and if he went, Kaskaskia would be practically at an end. Twenty-four British trading-boats from Michilimackinac were on the Mississippi on the American side opposite the mouth of the Missouri. Their purpose was to attract Indian trade.138

Gov. St. Clair arrived at Kaskaskia on March 5, 1790.139 With his coming anarchy technically ceased, but naturally the institution of an orderly government was a gradual process. In August, Tardiveau wrote to Hamtramck from Kaskaskia, saying that he hoped that Maj. Wyllys had given Hamtramck such a specimen of the difficulty of establishing a regular government and organizing the militia in Illinois as would induce the sending of a few regular troops from Vincennes. Even ten men would be a help. The Indians daily stole horses, and Tardiveau tried to raise a force to go and punish the offenders, but he was effectually opposed by a lawless band of ringleaders. A militia law and the Illinois civil power were useless to remedy the matter. There were plenty of provisions in Illinois to supply any soldiers that might be sent.140 Tardiveau was then lieutenant-colonel of the first regiment of militia, and also judge of probate, having been appointed by the governor.141 Harmar replied that it was utterly impracticable to comply with Tardiveau's request for soldiers.142

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On June 20, 1788, a congressional committee reported that there were about eighty families at Kaskaskia, twelve at Prairie du Rocher, four or five at Fort Chartres and St. Philips, and about fifty at Cahokia, making one hundred and forty-six or one hundred and forty-seven families in these villages.143 In 1766–7, the same villages, with Vincennes, were supposed to have about two thousand inhabitants144; and about five years later, 1772, there were some fifteen hundred inhabitants in these villages, not including Vincennes.145

It is not surprising that the population of the Illinois country decreased from 1765 to 1790. During these years, British and Americans had attempted to impose upon the French settlers a form of government for which they had neither desire nor aptitude. The attempt to immediately transform a subject people was a signal failure, but neither the attempt nor the failure was unique.

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