Part 2 (2/2)
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 pet.i.tion 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 a.s.sistance, 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, cure Des Kaskaskias pour tous les habitans Francais 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 pet.i.tion, and to take bills on Congress in payment.(135)
Hamtramck responded to the pet.i.tion 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 establis.h.i.+ng 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 pet.i.tion 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 t.i.thes 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 inst.i.tution 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 establis.h.i.+ng 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 apt.i.tude. The attempt to immediately transform a subject people was a signal failure, but neither the attempt nor the failure was unique.
CHAPTER III.
I. The Land and Indian Questions. 1790 to 1809.
A proclamation issued by Estevan Miro, Governor and Intendant of the Provinces of Louisiana and Florida in 1789, offered to immigrants a liberal donation of land, graduated according to the number of laborers in the family; freedom of religion and from payment of t.i.thes, although no public wors.h.i.+p except Catholic would be allowed; freedom from taxation; and a free market at New Orleans for produce or manufactures. All settlers must swear allegiance to Spain.(146) This proclamation came at a time when the West was divided in opinion as to whether to make war upon Spain for her closure of the Mississippi or to secede from the United States and become a part of Spain.(147) It tended to continue the emigration from the Illinois country to Spanish territory, for public land was not yet for sale in Illinois.
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