Sidebilder
PDF
ePub

their fire, they rushed on with their tomahawks; one indeed, at the sacrifice of his own life, darted into the camp and tomahawked and scalped Major General Butler, where his wounds were dressing, though the Indian was instantly put to death. A variety of opinion has been expressed in regard to the numbers of the enemy engaged in this battle; varying from four thousand to ten hundred: the former estimate is utterly too extravagant for all our acquaintance with Indian force. Against General Wayne,* they mustered but two thousand, according to his own account; and only half that number from Col. McKee's letter to Col. England at Detroit; though he had been advancing against them for two seasons. Our own force engaged in the action, after deducting the first regiment, amounted to about twelve hundred men, exceeding in all probability, the number of the Indians; but with all their gallantry and even hard fighting, wofully inferior to the enemy in efficiency; had our men flanked out according to all Indian fighting when they had roused the enemy from the grass and the bogs, their opportunity would have been at least equal with them. The truth is, that the division of the force was highly dangerous; not worth the deserters after whom a large detachment was sent; and if necessary to secure the provisions in the rear, it had been better effected by a retrogade movement of the whole body; the deficiency of cavalry or mounted men, was also most fatal; still the radical error of the campaign was forcing disaffected, unprepared troops into such hazardous warfare. It is due to our adversaries to record, that the Indian chieft who commanded them in this great battle was Little Turtle, who had defeated Colonel Hardin in Harmar's campaign; assisted no doubt by the Shawanee chief Blue Jacket, and the Delaware Buckongahelas. This eminent native chief, the imitator of Pontiac in influence and war, is represented as planning this attack in opposition to many other chiefs; and that he was arrayed with silver medals and jewels from the ears and nose, in all the foppery of Indian dress mixed with Euro

* Wayne's dispatch, Metcalf's Collection, p. 160. †Idem p. 138, and Thatcher's Indian Biography.

pean clothes: he it was, who wisely withdrew his countrymen from the pursuit, telling them they had killed enough of the Americans. The loss of the Indians in this battle is not certainly known; but in no probability, could it be proportionate to that of the whites; the former fought mostly under cover of logs or grass, while the latter were gathered into a target for the whole fire of the enemy. "An American officer who encountered a party of thirty Indians near the battle ground, a day or two after the defeat (and was detained by them, till they believed him a friend from Canada) was informed, that the number of killed was fifty-six."*

A few weeks after this defeat, Gen. Scott having raised a volunteer corps of mounted men, is said to have dispatched some scouts to reconnoiter the enemy, who, when they had arrived within a few miles of the battle ground,† discovered a large party of Indians diverting and enjoying themselves with the plunder they had taken; riding the bullocks and to all appearances generally drunk. This condition of things was quickly reported to their commander; a force march was ordered, and the corps being divided into three parties, fell upon the enemy by surprise and routed them with a slaughter of two hundred killed on the spot; all the cannon and stores in their possession were retaken, and the remainder of the savage body put to flight. Gen. Scott, in this pretended retaliation upon the Indians, is represented to have lost six men; to give greater plausibility to this tale, he is said to have given the following affecting description of the fatal field of St. Clair's defeat. In the space of three hundred and fifty yards lay five hundred skull bones; and from the battle ground for five miles, the roads and woods were strewed with skeletons and muskets. This would indeed have been a retaliation almost merited by the bloody field of St. Clair; but an attentive reader must have been astounded at the greatness of the alleged carnage. Two hundred Indians killed would have been a more memorable destruction of the savages, than had ever been ascertained, (it is believed, in any one contest) during the wars of more than two centuries with the European Thatcher's Indian Biography, vol. 2, p. 249.

S

† Metcalf, p. 140.

race. But this whole account is utterly fabulous; the Kentucky troops did not go beyond the Eagle creek hills in their own State, and did not cross the Ohio. An actor* in the party itself, has assured the author, that the whee expedition to the field of battle is a fiction: the panic of the western country was too great to admit of so remarkable an enterprise to a scene, which had filled the country with dismay and with mourning.t

The elections for members of our eighth and last convention anterior to the formation of the State, took place in December, 1791; the period of the meeting was not, however, till the first Monday in the ensuing April at Danville. In January of the latter year, Colonel Wilkinson, who had figured so largely in the, affairs of Kentucky, and in her trade and defence with signal service, was appointed a Lieutenant Colonel in the second regiment of United States' troops, and took command of Fort Washington.

The old story, but of melancholy import at the time of Indian depredations continued from Danville to Louisville; and to punish and prevent them, Congress passed an act for the defence of the western frontiers.

It is solacing to the feelings to turn from this constant catalogue of blood, to the rise of the useful and peaceful arts among us, which, however, could only be secured by first putting it out of the power of the Indians to interrupt their development. Higby's grist mill near Lexington, and one on Fountain Blue near Harrodsburg, were among the earliest water mills in the State. The former was built before the fall of 1785. To Messrs. Craig and Parkers, Kentucky is indebted for the establishment of the first paper mill near Georgetown in Scott county. 1 But this brief notice of our arts is again interrupted by the din of war; and yet the President of the United States, still in much forbearance, thought it prudent to offer the Indians peace. Indeed what had we to gain of these poor naked miserable sav

* H. Marshall, Esq.

The original sources of this mistake which have imposed on Mr. Trumbull, Mr. McClung and Dr. Metcalf, the author has not been able to detect.

ages, but peace, and if they would but have granted it in good faith, by negotiation, much bloodshed might have been saved on both sides. Notwithstanding this disposition on the part of the United States, at this very time, it was ascertained "that the Cherokees of five towns would join the Shawanees in the war against Kentucky;" and yet hostilities were forbidden on the part of the whites, while the effect of pacific overtures was ascertaining.

CHAPTER XIII.

Convention of 1792-George Nicholas-First Constitution-Boundaries-First officers of Government-Compensation-Intrigues of Genet in Kentucky-Remonstrances of Gen. Washington with Gov. Shelby-French attachments in Kentucky.

On the first Monday in April, the convention for forming the first Constitution of Kentucky assembled, as previously indicated. The most distinguished man in this body, and who may emphatically be called the author of the first Constitution of Kentucky, was George Nicholas, the most eminent lawyer of his time in Kentucky; whether his learning or his powers of mind be regarded, and the father of the present Judge Nicholas. This gentleman had emigrated from Virginia, about '90 or '91, and had devoted himself with the most exemplary and untiring energy to a profound and thorough comprehension of his complex and intricate profession. Presenting too, difficulties of peculiar and novel embarrassment in the condition of our land law, which presented a terra incognita for the sagacity of Kentucky judges and lawyers to explore and to coast. He is said to have devoted seven hours a day for many years in order to reach a lofty standard of professional excellence, which he had set before his generous ambition; the allurements of company were disdained, and they were left to the hospitalities of his lady, when their entertainment came into competition with his professional studies. Col. Nicholas is said not to have been an eloquent or graceful speaker, although a powerful and impres

sive one, and always possessed of great influence with the courts, and of widely extended reputation with the people. Next to Col. Nicholas were judges McDowell and Sebastian and Alexander S. Bullitt, all gentlemen of talents, information and habits of public business. There ought to be some curiosity in regard to the labors of this convention,* for although the Constitution formed by it, no longer directly governs the affairs of Kentucky; still it is one of our political muniments; and as the earliest political fabric after the Revolutionary war, possesses an interest to which no American patriot, much less no citizen of Kentucky ought to be insensible. For this purpose an abstract of the material parts of the Constitution of 1792, is submitted to the reader. The legislature was divided as at present into two branches, a Senate and a House of Representatives; the latter elected by the free white male residents, annually; the former by electors, for four years. The electors were chosen every four years and formed a college for the choice "of men of the most wisdom, experience and virtue, in the State as Senators;" and likewise at the same time elected a Governor. The peculiar features were, that the Senate might fill its own vacancies, (almost unavoidable in a body chosen independently of any local districts:) and an executive veto on the disapproved acts of the legislature, which could only be invalidated, by a vote of two-thirds of both branches of the legislature. Another peculiar provision, not generally recognized in the south-western country of the United States was, that all elections were directed to be by ballot. The Supreme Judiciary both as to matters of law and equity was constituted much as at present, of one Supreme court and such inferior courts as the legislature may establish; with one singular provision, that it should have original and final jurisdiction. in all cases respecting the titles to land, under the present land laws of Virginia, including those which were depending in the present Supreme court for the district of Kentucky at the time of establishing the new court. It was, however, provided, that the legislature might, whenever they thought it expedient, take

Its Journal still slumbers in perishable manuscript in the department of State.

« ForrigeFortsett »