The Life of George Washington, Vol. 5 (of 5)
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The discontents which had been long fomented in the western country,
had assumed a serious and alarming appearance.
[Sidenote: Kentucky remonstrance.]
A remonstrance to the President and congress of the United States from
the inhabitants of Kentucky, respecting the navigation of the
Mississippi, was laid before the executive, and each branch of the
legislature. The style of this paper accorded well with the
instructions under which it had been prepared.
In the language of an offended sovereign people, injured by the
maladministration of public servants, it demanded the use of the
Mississippi as a natural right which had been unjustly withheld; and
charged the government, openly, with being under the influence of a
local policy, which had prevented its making one single real effort
for the security of a good which was all essential to the prosperity
of the western people. Several intemperate aspersions upon the
legislative and executive departments, accompanied with complaints
that the course of the negotiations had not been communicated to those
who were interested in the event, and with threats obviously pointing
to dismemberment, were concluded with a declaration that nothing would
remunerate the western people for the suspension of this great
territorial right; that they must possess it; that the god of nature
had given them the means of acquiring and enjoying it; and that to
permit a sacrifice of it to any other considerations, would be a crime
against themselves and their posterity.
In the senate, the subject was referred to a committee, who reported,
"that in the negotiation now carrying on at Madrid between the United
States and Spain, the right of the former to the free navigation of
the Mississippi is well asserted and demonstrated, and their claim to
its enjoyment is pursued with all the assiduity and firmness which the
magnitude of the subject demands; and will doubtless continue to be so
pursued until the object shall be obtained, or adverse circumstances
shall render the further progress of the negotiation impracticable.
That in the present state of the business, it would be improper for
congress to interfere. But in order to satisfy the citizens of the
United States more immediately interested in the event of this
negotiation, that the United States have uniformly asserted their
right to the free use of the navigation of the river Mississippi, and
have employed and will continue to pursue such measures as are best
adapted to obtain the enjoyment of this important territorial right,
the committee recommend that it be resolved by the senate--
"That the President of the United States be, and he hereby is
requested to cause to be communicated to the executive of the state of
Kentucky,[22] such part of the existing negotiation between the United
States and Spain relative to this subject, as he may deem adviseable,
and consistent with the course of the negotiation."
[Footnote 22: Two months previous to the passage of this
resolution, the secretary of state had, by direction of the
President, given the governor the most solemn assurances on
this point.]
In the house of representatives also, a resolution was passed,
expressing the conviction of the house, that the executive was urging
the claim of the United States to the navigation of the Mississippi,
in the manner most likely to prove successful.
Had the measures pursued in the western country been dictated,
exclusively, by a wish to obtain an important good, these resolutions
would have allayed the ferment which had been excited. The effect
which must be produced on Spain by the insinuation that the
continuance of their connexion with the Atlantic states depended on
obtaining the object they sought, was too apparent to escape the
notice of men endowed with an ordinary share of intelligence. But when
the real motives for human action are latent, it is vain to
demonstrate the unreasonableness of those which are avowed.
After the reception of these resolutions, a number of the principal
citizens from various parts of Kentucky assembled at Lexington, and
among many intemperate resolutions passed the following:
[Sidenote: Intemperate resolutions of the people of that state.]
"That the general government whose duty it was to put us in possession
of this right (the navigation of the Mississippi) have, either through
design or mistaken policy, adopted no effectual measures for its
attainment.
"That even the measures they have adopted, have been uniformly
concealed from us, and veiled in mysterious secrecy.
"That civil liberty is prostituted, when the servants of the people
are suffered to tell their masters, that communications which they may
judge important ought not to be intrusted to them."
These resolutions concluded with a recommendation of county meetings,
of county committees of correspondence, and of a convention when it
might be judged expedient, to deliberate on the proper steps for the
attainment and security of their just rights.
To estimate these resolutions accurately, it will be necessary to view
in connexion with them, the military preparations which were making in
that country, under the authority of France.
In October, 1793, it was alleged by the Spanish commissioners, that
four Frenchmen had left Philadelphia, empowered by the minister of the
French republic to prepare an expedition, in Kentucky, against New
Orleans. This fact was immediately communicated by Mr. Jefferson to
the governor of that state, with a request that he would use those
means of prevention which the law enabled him to employ. Binding to
good behaviour was particularly recommended. This letter was
accompanied by one from the secretary of war, conveying the request of
the President, that, if preventive means should fail, effectual
military force should be employed to arrest the expedition; and
General Wayne was ordered to hold a body of troops at the disposal of
the governor, should he find the militia insufficient for his purpose.
The governor had already received information, that a citizen of
Kentucky was in possession of a commission appointing him
Commander-in-chief of the proposed expedition; and that the Frenchmen
alluded to in the letter of Mr. Jefferson, had arrived, and, far from
affecting concealment declared, that they only waited for money which
they expected soon to receive, in order to commence their operations.
The following extract of a letter from the governor, on this subject,
exhibits a curious specimen of the conclusions to which gentlemen were
conducted by the course of political reasoning which prevailed at the
day.
After stating the facts above alluded to, he says, "I have great
doubts, even if they do attempt to carry their plan into execution,
(provided they manage their business with prudence,) whether there is
any legal authority to restrain or punish them, at least before they
have actually accomplished it. For if it is lawful for any one citizen
of this state to leave it, it is equally so for any number of them to
do it. It is also lawful to carry with them any quantity of
provisions, arms, and ammunition; and if the act is lawful in itself,
there is nothing but the particular intention with which it is done
that can possibly make it unlawful. But I know of no law which
inflicts a punishment on intention only; or any criterion by which to
decide what would be sufficient evidence of that intention, if it was
a proper subject for legal censure.
"I shall, upon all occasions, be averse to the exercise of any power
which I do not consider myself as clearly and explicitly invested
with, much less would I assume power to exercise it against men whom I
consider as friends and brethren, in favour of a man whom I view as an
enemy and a tyrant. I shall also feel but little inclination to take
an active part in punishing or restraining any of my fellow citizens
for a supposed intrusion only, to gratify or remove the fears of the
minister or a prince who openly withholds from us an invaluable right,
and who secretly instigates against us a most savage and cruel enemy."
Upon the receipt of this extraordinary letter, the President directed
General Wayne to establish a military post at Fort Massac, on the
Ohio, for the purpose of stopping by force, if peaceful means should
fail, any body of armed men who should be proceeding down that river.
This precaution appears to have been necessary. The preparations for
the expedition were, for some time, carried on with considerable
activity; and there is reason to believe that it was not absolutely
relinquished, until Spain ceased to be the enemy of France.[23]
[Footnote 23: Intercepted letters were laid before the
President, showing that this expedition had been
communicated to some members of the national convention and
approved. It was stated that Mr. Genet, with the rank of
major general, was to be Commander-in-chief of all forces
raised on the American continent, and to direct their
movements.]
The proceedings of the legislature of South Carolina embarrassed those
who had planned the invasion of the Floridas, but did not entirely
disconcert them. In April, a French sloop of war arrived on the
confines of Georgia and East Florida, with a small body of troops, who
were landed on one of the islands on the coast, south of the St. Mary,
and who declared themselves to be part of a larger force, which might
soon be expected. Upon their arrival, several small corps of Americans
who had engaged to serve the republic of France, assembled in Georgia,
for the purpose, as was universally understood, of co-operating with
the French against the neighbouring dominions of Spain.
The interposition of government, and the inadequacy of the force to
the object, disconcerted this expedition. Its leader conducted his
followers into the Indian country, and endeavoured to make a
settlement on their hunting grounds.
While these turbulent scenes were acting, the loud plaudits of France,
which were dictated by a passionate devotion to that country, were
reechoed from every part of the American continent. The friendship of
that republic for the United States, her respect for their rights, the
ingratitude with which her continuing benefits were repaid, the
injustice done her by the executive, its tameness under British
insults, were the inexhaustible themes of loud, angry, and unceasing
declamation. It required a firmness of mind, and a weight of character
possessed only by the chief magistrate, to maintain the ground he had
taken, against such an assemblage of passions and of prejudices.
It will be recollected that in the preceding year, the attempt to
treat with the hostile Indians had suspended the operations of General
Wayne until the season for action had nearly passed away. After the
total failure of negotiation, the campaign was opened with as much
vigour as a prudent attention to circumstances would permit.
The Indians had expected an attempt upon their villages, and had
collected in full force, with the apparent determination of risking a
battle in their defence. A battle was desired by the American general;
but the consequences of another defeat were too serious to warrant him
in putting more to hazard by precipitate movements, than the
circumstances of the war required. The negotiations with the Indians
were not terminated till September, and it was then too late to
complete the preparations which would enable General Wayne to enter
their country and to hold it. He, therefore, contented himself with
collecting his army and penetrating about six miles in advance of Fort
Jefferson into the uninhabited country, where he established himself
for the winter, in a camp called Greensville. After fortifying his
camp, he took possession of the ground on which the Americans had been
defeated in 1791, where he erected Fort Recovery. These positions
afforded considerable protection to the frontiers, and facilitated the
opening of the ensuing campaign.
Seeing only the dark side of every measure adopted by the government,
and not disinclined to militia expeditions made at the expense of the
United States, the people of Kentucky loudly charged the President
with a total disregard of their safety, pronounced the continental
troops entirely useless, declared that the Indians were to be kept in
awe alone by militia, and insisted that the power should be deposited
with some person in their state, to call them out at his discretion,
at the charge of the United States.
Meanwhile, some steps were taken by the governor of Upper Canada which
were well calculated to increase suspicions respecting the
dispositions of Great Britain.
It was believed by the President, not without cause,[24] that the
cabinet of London was disposed to avail itself of the non-execution of
that article of the treaty of peace, which stipulates for the payment
of debts, to justify a permanent detention of the posts on the
southern side of the great lakes, and to establish a new boundary
line, whereby those lakes should be entirely comprehended in Upper
Canada. Early in the spring, a detachment from the garrison of Detroit
repossessed and fortified a position near fifty miles south of that
station, on the Miamis of the lakes, a river which empties into Lake
Erie at its westernmost point.
[Footnote 24: See note No. IX. at the end of the volume.]
This movement, the speech of Lord Dorchester, and other facts which
strengthened the belief that the hostile Indians were at least
countenanced by the English, were the subjects of a correspondence
between the secretary of state and Mr. Hammond, in which crimination
was answered by recrimination, in which a considerable degree of
mutual irritation was displayed, and in which each supported his
charges against the nation of the other, much better than he defended
his own. It did not, however, in any manner, affect the operations of
the army.
The delays inseparable from the transportation of necessary supplies
through an uninhabited country, infested by an active enemy peculiarly
skilled in partisan war, unavoidably protracted the opening of the
campaign until near midsummer. Meanwhile, several sharp skirmishes
took place, in one of which a few white men were stated to be mingled
with the Indians.
On the 8th of August, General Wayne reached the confluence of the Au
Glaize and the Miamis of the lakes, where he threw up some works of
defence, and protection for magazines. The richest and most extensive
settlements of the western Indians lay about this place.
The mouth of the Au Glaize is distant about thirty miles from the post
occupied by the British on the Miamis of the lakes, in the vicinity of
which the whole strength of the enemy, amounting, according to
intelligence on which General Wayne relied, to rather less than two
thousand men, was collected. The continental legion was not much
inferior in number to the Indians: and a reinforcement of about eleven
hundred mounted militia from Kentucky, commanded by General Scott,
gave a decided superiority of strength to the army of Wayne. That the
Indians had determined to give him battle was well understood; and the
discipline of his legion, the ardour of all his troops, and the
superiority of his numbers, authorized him confidently to expect a
favourable issue. Yet, in pursuance of that policy by which the United
States had been uniformly actuated, he determined to make one more
effort for the attainment of peace without bloodshed. Messengers were
despatched to the several hostile tribes who were assembled in his
front, inviting them to appoint deputies to meet him on his march, in
order to negotiate a lasting peace.
On the 15th of August, the American army advanced down the Miamis,
with its right covered by that river; and on the 18th, arrived at the
rapids. Here they halted on the 19th, in order to erect a temporary
work for the protection of the baggage, and to reconnoitre the
situation of the enemy.
The Indians were advantageously posted behind a thick wood, and behind
the British fort.
[Sidenote: General Wayne defeats the Indians at the Miamis.]
At eight in the morning of the 20th, the American army advanced in
columns: the legion with its right flank covered by the Miamis: One
brigade of mounted volunteers commanded by General Todd was on the
left; and the other under General Barbee was in the rear. A select
battalion, commanded by Major Price, moved in front of the legion,
sufficiently in advance to give timely notice for the troops to form
in case of action.[25]
[Footnote 25: An evasive answer having been returned to the
pacific overture made from the Au Glaize, General Wayne was
uncertain whether the Indians had decided for peace or war.]
After marching about five miles, Major Price received a heavy fire
from a concealed enemy, and was compelled to retreat.
The Indians had chosen their ground with judgment. They had advanced
into the thick wood in front of the British works which extends
several miles west from the Miamis, and had taken a position, rendered
almost inaccessible to horse by a quantity of fallen timber which
appeared to have been blown up in a tornado. They were formed in three
lines, within supporting distance of each other; and, as is their
custom, with a very extended front. Their line stretched to the west,
at right angles with the river, about two miles; and their immediate
effort was to turn the left flank of the American army.
On the discharge of the first rifle, the legion was formed in two
lines, and the front was ordered to advance with trailed arms, and
rouse the enemy from his covert at the point of the bayonet; then, and
not until then, to deliver a fire, and to press the fugitives too
closely to allow them time to load after discharging their pieces.
Soon perceiving the strength of the enemy in front, and that he was
endeavouring to turn the American left, the general ordered the second
line to support the first. The legion cavalry, led by Captain
Campbell, was directed to penetrate between the Indians and the river,
where the wood was less thick and entangled, in order to charge their
left flank; and General Scott, at the head of the mounted volunteers,
was directed to make a considerable circuit, and to turn their right
flank.
These orders were executed with spirit and promptitude; but such was
the impetuosity of the charge made by the first line of infantry, so
entirely was the enemy broken by it, and so rapid was the pursuit,
that only a small part of the second line and of the mounted
volunteers could get into the action. In the course of one hour, the
Indians were driven more than two miles, through thick woods; when the
pursuit terminated within gun shot of the British fort.
General Wayne remained three days on the banks of the Miamis, in front
of the field of battle, during which time the houses and cornfields
above and below the fort, some of them within pistol shot of it, were
reduced to ashes. During these operations, a correspondence took place
between General Wayne and Major Campbell, the commandant of the fort,
which is stated by the former in such a manner as to show, that
hostilities between them were avoided only by the prudent acquiescence
of the latter in this devastation of property within the range of his
guns.
On the 28th, the army returned to Au Glaize by easy marches,
destroying on its route all the villages and corn within fifty miles
of the river.
In this decisive battle, the loss of the Americans, in killed and
wounded, amounted to one hundred and seven, including officers. Among
the dead was Captain Campbell, who commanded the cavalry, and
Lieutenant Towles of the infantry, both of whom fell in the first
charge. General Wayne bestowed great and well merited praise on the
courage and alacrity displayed by every part of the army.
The hostility of the Indians still continuing, their whole country was
laid waste, and forts were erected in the heart of their settlements,
to prevent their return.
This seasonable victory rescued the United States from a general war
with all the Indians north-west of the Ohio. The Six Nations had
discovered a restless uneasy temper; and the interposition of the
President, to prevent a settlement which Pennsylvania was about to
make at Presqueisle, seemed rather to suspend the commencement of
hostilities, than to establish permanent pacific dispositions among
those tribes. The battle of the 20th of August, however, had an
immediate effect; and the clouds which had been long gathering in that
quarter, were instantly dissipated.
In the south too, its influence was felt. In that quarter, the
inhabitants of Georgia and the Indians seemed equally disposed to war.
Scarcely was the feeble authority of the government competent to
restrain the aggressions of the former, or the dread of its force
sufficient to repress those of the latter. In this doubtful state of
things, the effect of a victory could not be inconsiderable.
About this time, the seditious and violent resistance to the execution
of the law imposing duties on spirits distilled within the United
States, had advanced to a point in the counties of Pennsylvania lying
west of the Alleghany mountains, which required the decisive
interposition of government.
[Sidenote: Insurrection in the Western parts of Pennsylvania.]
Notwithstanding the multiplied outrages committed on the persons and
property of the revenue officers, and of those who seemed willing to
submit to the law, yet, in consequence of a steady adherence to the
system of counteraction adopted by the executive, it was visibly
gaining ground, and several distillers in the disaffected country were
induced to comply with its requisites. The opinion, that the
persevering efforts of the administration would ultimately prevail,
derived additional support from the passage of an act by the present
congress, containing those provisions which had been suggested by the
chief of the treasury department. The progress of this bill, which
became a law on the fifth of June, could not have been unknown to the
malcontents, nor could its probable operation have been misunderstood.
They perceived that the certain loss of a market for the article,
added to the penalties to which delinquents were liable, might
gradually induce a compliance on the part of distillers, unless they
could, by a systematic and organized opposition, deprive the
government of the means it employed for carrying the law into
execution.
On the part of the executive, this open defiance of the laws, and of
the authority of the government, was believed imperiously to require,
that the strength and efficacy of those laws should be tried. Against
the perpetrators of some of the outrages which had been committed,
bills of indictment had been found in a court of the United States,
upon which process was directed to issue; and at the same time,
process was also issued against a great number of non-complying
distillers.
The marshal repaired in person to the country which was the scene of
these disorders, for the purpose of serving the processes. On the 15th
of July, while in the execution of his duty, he was beset on the road
by a body of armed men, who fired on him, but fortunately did him no
personal injury. At daybreak, the ensuing morning, a party attacked
the house of General Nevil, the inspector; but he defended himself
resolutely, and obliged the assailants to retreat.
Knowing well that this attack had been preconcerted, and apprehending
that it would be repeated, he applied to the militia officers and
magistrates of the county for protection. The answer was, that "owing
to the too general combination of the people to oppose the revenue
system, the laws could not be executed so as to afford him protection:
that should the _posse comitatus_ be ordered out to support the civil
authority, they would favour the party of the rioters."
On the succeeding day, the insurgents re-assembled to the number of
about five hundred, to renew their attack on the house of the
inspector. That officer, finding that no protection could be afforded
by the civil authority, had applied to the commanding officer at Fort
Pitt, and had obtained a detachment of eleven men from that garrison,
who were joined by Major Kirkpatrick. Successful resistance to so
great a force being obviously impracticable, a parley took place, at
which the assailants, after requiring that the inspector[26] and all
his papers should be delivered up, demanded that the party in the
house should march out and ground their arms. This being refused, the
parley terminated, and the assault commenced. The action lasted until
the assailants set fire to several adjacent buildings, the heat from
which was so intense that the house could no longer be occupied. From
this cause, and from the apprehension that the fire would soon be
communicated to the main building, Major Kirkpatrick and his party
surrendered themselves.