Transylvania--A Wilderness Commonwealth
You are about a work of the utmost importance to the well-being of this
country in general, in which the interest and security of each and every
individual are inseparably connected.... Our peculiar circumstances in
this remote country, surrounded on all sides with difficulties, and
equally subject to one common danger, which threatens our common
overthrow, must, I think, in their effects, secure to us an union of
interests, and, consequently, that harmony in opinion, so essential to
the forming good, wise and wholesome laws.
--Judge Richard Henderson: Address to the Legislature of Transylvania,
May 23, 1775.
The independent spirit displayed by the Transylvania Company, and
Henderson's procedure in open defiance of the royal governors of both
North Carolina and Virginia, naturally aroused grave alarm throughout
these colonies and South Carolina. "This in my Opinion," says Preston in
a letter to George Washington (January 31, 1775), "will soon become a
serious Affair, & highly deserves the Attention of the Government. For
it is certain that a vast Number of People are preparing to go out and
settle on this Purchase; and if once they get fixed there, it will be
next to impossible to remove them or reduce them to Obedience; as they
are so far from the Seat of Government. Indeed it may be the Cherokees
will support them." [164] Governor Martin of North Carolina, already
deeply disturbed in anticipation of the coming revolutionary cataclysm,
thundered in what was generally regarded as a forcible-feeble
proclamation (February 19, 1775) against "Richard Henderson and his
Confederates" in their "daring, unjust and unwarrantable proceedings."
[165] In a letter to Dartmouth he denounces "Henderson the famous
invader" and dubs the Transylvania Company "an infamous Company of land
Pyrates."
Officials who were themselves eager for land naturally opposed
Henderson's plans. Lord Dunmore, who in 1774, as we have seen, was
heavily interested in the Wabash Land Company engineered by William
Murray, took the ground that the Wabash purchase was valid under the
Camden-Yorke decision. This is so stated in the records of the Illinois
Company, likewise under Murray's control. But although the "Ouabache
Company," of which Dunmore was a leading member, was initiated as early
as May 16, 1774, the purchase of the territory was not formally effected
until October 18, 1775--too late to benefit Dunmore, then deeply
embroiled in the preliminaries to the Revolution. Under the cover of his
agent's name, it is believed, Dunmore, with his "passion for land and
fees," illegally entered tracts aggregating thousands of acres of land
surveyed by the royal surveyors in the summer of 1774 for Dr. John
Connolly. [166] Early in this same year, Patrick Henry, who, as already
pointed out, had entered large tracts in Kentucky in violation of
Virginia's treaty obligations with the Cherokees, united with William
Byrd 3d, John Page, Ralph Wormley, Samuel Overton, and William
Christian, in the effort to purchase from the Cherokees a tract of land
west of Donelson's line, being firmly persuaded of the validity of the
Camden-Yorke opinion. Their agent, William Kenedy, considerably later in
the year, went on a mission to the Cherokee towns, and upon his return
reported that the Indians might be induced to sell. When it became known
that Judge Henderson had organized the Transylvania Company and
anticipated Patrick Henry and his associates, Colonel Arthur Campbell,
as he himself states, applied to several of the partners of the
Transylvania Company on behalf of Patrick Henry, requesting that Henry
be taken in as a partner. [167] It was afterward stated, as commonly
understood among the Transylvania proprietors, that both Patrick Henry
and Thomas Jefferson desired to become members of the company; but that
Colonel Richard Henderson was instrumental in preventing their admission
"lest they should supplant the Colonel [Henderson] as the guiding spirit
of the company." [168]
Fully informed by Preston's elaborate communication on the gravity of
the situation, Dunmore acted energetically, though tardily, to prevent
the execution of Henderson's designs. On March 21st Dunmore sent flying
through the back country a proclamation, demanding the immediate
relinquishment of the territory by "one Richard Henderson and other
disorderly persons, his associates," and "in case of refusal, and of
violently detaining such possession, that he or they be immediately
fined and imprisoned." [169] This proclamation, says a peppery old
chronicler, may well rank with the one excepting those arch traitors and
rebels, Samuel Adams and John Hancock, from the mercy of the British
monarch. In view of Dunmore's confidence in the validity of the
Camden-Yorke decision, it is noteworthy that no mention of the royal
proclamation of 1763 occurs in his broadside; and that he bases his
objection to the Transylvania purchase upon the king's instructions that
all vacant lands "within this colony" be laid off in tracts, from one
hundred to one thousand acres in extent, and sold at public auction.
This proclamation which was enclosed, oddly enough, in a letter of
official instructions to Preston warning him not to survey any lands
"beyond the line run by Colonel Donaldson," proved utterly ineffective.
At the same time, Dunmore despatched a pointed letter to Oconostota,
Atta-kulla-kulla, Judge's Friend, and other Cherokee chieftains,
notifying them that the sale of the great tract of land below the
Kentucky was illegal and threatening them with the king's displeasure if
they did not repudiate the sale. [170]
News of the plans which Henderson had already matured for establishing
an independent colony in the trans-Alleghany wilderness, now ran like
wild-fire through Virginia. In a letter to George Washington (April 9,
1775), Preston ruefully says: "Henderson I hear has made the Purchase &
got a Conveyance of the great and Valluable Country below the Kentucky
from the Cherokees. He and about 300 adventurers are gone out to take
Possession, who it is said intends to set up an independent Government &
form a Code of Laws for themselves. How this may be I cant say, but I am
affraid the steps taken by the Government have been too late. Before the
Purchase was made had the Governor interfered it is believed the Indians
would not have sold." [171]
Meanwhile Judge Henderson, with strenuous energy, had begun to erect a
large stockaded fort according to plans of his own. Captain James Harrod
with forty-two men was stationed at the settlement he had made the
preceding year, having arrived there before the McAfees started back to
Virginia; and there were small groups of settlers at Boiling Spring, six
miles southeast of Harrod's settlement, and at St. Asaph's, a mile west
of the present Stanford. A representative government for Transylvania
was then planned. When the frank and gallant Floyd arrived at the
Transylvania Fort on May 3d, he "expressed great satisfaction," says
Judge Henderson, "on being informed of the plan we proposed for
Legislation & sayd he must most heartily concur in that & every other
measure we should adopt for the well Governg or good of the Community in
Genl." In reference to a conversation with Captain James Harrod and
Colonel Thomas Slaughter of Virginia, Henderson notes in his diary (May
8th): "Our plan of Legislation, the evils pointed out--the remedies to
be applyed &c &c &c were Acceeded to without Hesitation. The plann was
plain & Simple--'twas nothing novel in its essence a thousand years ago
it was in use, and found by every year's experience since to be
unexceptionable. We were in four distinct settlemts. Members or
delegates from every place by free choice of Individuals they first
having entered into writings solemnly binding themselves to obey and
carry into Execution Such Laws as representatives should from time to
time make, Concurred with, by A Majority of the Proprietors present in
the Country."
In reply to inquiries of the settlers, Judge Henderson gave as his
reason for this assembling of a Transylvania Legislature that "all power
was derived from the people." Six days before the prophetic arrival of
the news of the Battle of Lexington and eight days before the
revolutionary committee of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina,
promulgated their memorable Resolves establishing laws for an
independent government, the pioneers assembled on the green beneath the
mighty plane-tree at the Transylvania Fort. In his wise and
statesmanlike address to this picturesque convention of free Americans
(May 23, 1775), an address which Felix Walker described as being
"considered equal to any of like kind ever delivered to any deliberate
body in that day and time," Judge Henderson used these memorable words:
You, perhaps, are fixing the palladium, or placing the first corner
stone of an edifice, the height and magnificence of whose superstructure
... can only become great in proportion to the excellence of its
foundation.... If any doubt remain amongst you with respect to the force
or efficiency of whatever laws you now, or hereafter make, be pleased to
consider that all power is originally in the people; make it their
interest, therefore, by impartial and beneficent laws, and you may be
sure of their inclination to see them enforced.
An early writer, in speaking of the full-blooded democracy of these
"advanced" sentiments, quaintly comments: "If Jeremy Bentham had been in
existence of manhood, he would have sent his compliments to the
President of Transylvania." This, the first representative body of
American freemen which ever convened west of the Alleghanies, is surely
the most unique colonial government ever set up on this continent. The
proceedings of this backwoods legislature--the democratic leadership of
the principal proprietor; the prudence exhibited in the laws for
protecting game, breeding horses, etc.; the tolerance shown in the
granting of full religious liberty--all display the acumen and practical
wisdom of these pioneer law-givers. As the result of Henderson's
tactfulness, the proprietary form of government, thoroughly democratized
in tone, was complacently accepted by the backwoodsmen. From one who,
though still under royal rule, vehemently asserted that the source of
all political power was the people, and that "laws derive force and
efficiency from our mutual consent," Western democracy thus born in the
wilderness was "taking its first political lesson." In their answer to
Henderson's assertion of freedom from alien authority the pioneers
unhesitatingly declared: "That we have an absolute right, as a political
body, without giving umbrage to Great Britain, or any of the colonies,
to form rules for the government of our little society, cannot be
doubted by any sensible mind and being without the jurisdiction of, and
not answerable to any of his Majesty's courts, the constituting
tribunals of justice shall be a matter of our first contemplation...."
In the establishment of a constitution for the new colony, Henderson
with paternalistic wisdom induced the people to adopt a legal code based
on the laws of England. Out of a sense of self-protection he reserved
for the proprietors only one prerogative not granted them by the people,
the right of veto. He clearly realized that if this power were given up,
the delegates to any convention that might be held after the first would
be able to assume the claims and rights of the proprietors.
A land-office was formally opened, deeds were issued, and a store was
established which supplied the colonists with powder, lead, salt,
osnaburgs, blankets, and other chief necessities of pioneer existence.
Writing to his brother Jonathan from Leestown, the bold young George
Rogers Clark, soon to plot the downfall of Transylvania,
enthusiastically says (July 6, 1775): "A richer and more Beautifull
Cuntry than this I believe has never been seen in America yet. Col.
Henderson is hear and Claims all ye Country below Kentucke. If his Claim
Should be good, land may be got Reasonable Enough and as good as any in
ye World." [172] Those who settled on the south side of Kentucky River
acknowledged the validity of the Transylvania purchase; and Clark in his
Memoir says: "the Proprietors at first took great pains to Ingratiate
themselves in the favr. of the people."
In regard to the designs of Lord Dunmore, who, as noted above, had
illegally entered the Connolly grant on the Ohio and sought to outlaw
Henderson, and of Colonel William Byrd 3d, who, after being balked in
Patrick Henry's plan to anticipate the Transylvania Company in effecting
a purchase from the Cherokees, was supposed to have tried to persuade
the Cherokees to repudiate the "Great Treaty," Henderson defiantly says:
"Whether Lord Dunmore and Colonel Byrd have interfered with the Indians
or not, Richard Henderson is equally ignorant and indifferent. The
utmost result of their efforts can only serve to convince them of the
futility of their schemes and possibly frighten some few faint-hearted
persons, naturally prone to reverence great names and fancy everything
must shrink at the magic of a splendid title." [173]
Prompted by Henderson's desire to petition the Continental Congress then
in session for recognition as the fourteenth colony, the Transylvania
legislature met again on the first Thursday in September and elected
Richard Henderson and John Williams, among others, as delegates to the
gathering at Philadelphia. [174] Shortly afterward the Proprietors of
Transylvania held a meeting at Oxford, North Carolina (September 25,
1775), elected Williams as the agent of the colony, and directed him to
proceed to Boonesborough there to reside until April, 1776. James Hogg,
of Hillsborough, chosen as Delegate to represent the Colony in the
Continental Congress, was despatched to Philadelphia, bearing with him
an elaborate memorial prepared by the President, Judge Henderson,
petitioning the Congress "to take the infant Colony of Transylvania into
their protection." [175]
Almost immediately upon his arrival in Philadelphia, James Hogg was
presented to "the famous Samuel and John Adams." The latter warned Hogg,
in view of the efforts then making toward reconciliation between the
colonies and the king, that "the taking under our protection a body of
people who have acted in defiance of the King's proclamation, will be
looked on as a confirmation of that independent spirit with which we are
daily reproached." Jefferson said that if his advice were followed, all
the use the Virginians should make of their charter would be "to prevent
any arbitrary or oppressive government to be established within the
boundaries of it"; and that it was his wish "to see a free government
established at the back of theirs [Virginia's] properly united with
them." He would not consent, however, that Congress should acknowledge
the colony of Transylvania, until it had the approbation of the Virginia
Convention. The quit-rents imposed by the company were denounced in
Congress as a mark of vassalage; and many advised a law against the
employment of negroes in the colony. "They even threatened us with their
opposition," says Hogg, with precise veracity, "if we do not act upon
liberal principles when we have it so much in our power to render
ourselves immortal." [176]