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 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 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 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 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 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;
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 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 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 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 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, 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
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 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)
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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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)
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 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)
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 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 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)
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 inhabitants(144); 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.