played in the general deportment. Such has sometimes presented itself, as a probable solution of the overflowing ardor and abounding energy, which are so prominently exhibited in Kentuckians; and which still mark the descendants of that gallant and daring body of men, who conquered the most favorite hunting ground of the Indians. In addition to this, a large body of revolutionary officers and soldiers had settled in Kentucky, and no doubt had, increased the military impulse. With this excitability of character, also preserved in no slight degree in the parent stock of Virginia, the thrilling events of the French revolution, which had arrayed Fox and M'Intosh against Pitt and Burke, impressed themselves on the feelings of Kentucky, with the utmost power. In this way the great moral volcano of France poured its streams of desolating lava on the distant lands of Kentucky. France and Frenchmen were identified with all the high and hallowed sentiments of liberty and national gratitude; and no wonder the effects on all the relations of society, were deep and wide. How mistaken and ill directed, and moreover how ill requited was all this enthusiasm of Americans for French interests, need not, thank God, be now detailed. Its utter overthrow, and with it, all "inveterate antipathies against particular nations, and passionate attachment for others,” in the terms of Washington's sacred farewell to his countrymen, are now to be seen in a genuine national pride; which, while it should not be blind to the excellences of other nations, will at all times, in peace and in war, rally round our own country in opposition to any other on the earth.

Under the influence of the national excitement, which then marked Kentucky, in common with the rest of this republic, a numerous and respectable meeting was held in Lexington on the 24th of May, 1794; when resolutions of a most violent character were adopted, expressive of unqualified censure upon the administration of the great Washington, mixing all the difficulties and perplexities attending the Indian war, British outrages and Spanish procrastination, in one mass of condemnation. The virtuous, the patriotic and enlightened Jay was denounced as an enemy to the western country, and finally a convention was

invited "for the purpose of deliberating on the steps, which will be most expedient for the attainment and security of our just rights."

The military defence was particularly inveighed against, although no government could have exerted itself more affectionately than that of Washington, under the embarassments of so distant and so vulnerable a frontier; with a foreign force stimulating the enemy within the bosom of the country. Yet, when by the light of our own times, the conduct of a war in the same region, in the comparative maturity of the government is compared with that which was carried on under ten-fold embarrassment; the approval of the administration is irresistible. If the government of the United States, with all its strength and efficiency, took three campaigns in 1812 and 1813, to defeat the Indians, what credit does the administration of Washington not deserve in 1794, to have effected the same object in four campaigns, two of which only were active ones? The complaints respecting foreign negotiations might be as effectually answered; but it is not material to this history; suffice it to say, the convention could not be brought about with all the powerful incentives, which were applied to inflame the public indignation. The subject of the excise on distilled spirits, next produced its irritations on Kentucky temper; but they never exceeded some hard words, and more tricks upon the public officers. The tumults of Pennsylvania happily did not extend themselves to Kentucky.

CHAPTER XIV.

Wayne's campaign of 1794-Indian peace of Greenville-British Treaty of 1794-Spanish Treaty of 1795-Spanish Negotiations with Judge Sebastian in 1795 and in 1797-First conflict between the court of Appeals and the Legislature.

General Wayne, who was left in head quarters at Greenville, had, in the course of the winter of 1793, re-occupied the battle ground of St. Clair, and erected a fort, which he called Recovery.

Still the depredations of the Indians continued; and on the 10th of February, Lord Dorchester, the Governor General of Canada, in a speech addressed to several Indian tribes assembled at Quebec, declared to them, that "he* should not be surprised if Great Britan and the United States were at war in the course of the year; and if so a line must be drawn by the warriors." In pursuance of this hostile spirit Governor Simcoee stablished a military post below the rapids of the Maumee, on its northern side, about fifty miles south of Detroit; this flagrant outrage upon our territory was suitably noticed by the government, without obtaining the withdrawal of the insulting garrison; instead of which, it provoked a justification on the part of the British Minister of this encroachment upon a nation at peace. It was indeed a time of insults and aggressions from both France and Great Britian, such, as it is to be trusted, this nation will never again experience. The advance of British forts must no doubt have greatly encouraged the hostilities of the Indians, independent of the actual aids in arms and provisions obtained from the British.

To this must be attributed in some degree an attack in July, upon Fort Recovery, by a large body of Indians, who after an assault for twenty-four hours with small arms, withdrew. By the 26th of July General Scott, accompanied by sixteen hundred Kentucky militia, united with the regular army under Gen. Wayne, of about the same number. The reluctance to co-operate with regular troops had disappeared before the reputation of Wayne, propagated by the Kentucky volunteers in the previous campaign. The army under General Wayne commenced its march to the confluence of the Au Glaize with the Maumee, where the richest and most extensive settlements of the Indians lay; there he attempted a surprise, by ordering two roads to be cut from Greenville to distract the enemy, while he marched by neither. This manœuvre was however defeated by the desertion of a degenerate soldier by the name of Newmant,

*American State Papers vol. 2-65-73,

It has been conjectured by some officers, that Newman was purposely sent by Wayne as sergeant Champ was by Washington during the revolutionary war. The subsequent unexplained pardon of Newman gives some confirmation to this idea.

who gave the Indians intelligence of the approach of the army in sufficient time to allow of their evacuating their towns. They were accordingly found deserted; while Wayne prosecuted his march down the northern side of the Maumee. The enemy

were now reported, by the scouts, to be encamped in the vicinity of the British fort, at the foot of the Rapids, where the American army directed its march, after having built Fort Deposite, about seven miles from the British garrison. On the 20th of August, the march was resumed, in the order hitherto pursued. After proceeding about five miles, the commanding General was informed by a messenger from Major Price, who led the advance, that he had discovered the enemy; their left resting upon the Maumee, and their right extending an unknown distance into a thick brush-wood. The army was then formed upon the principles previously adopted, to receive the enemy in front in two lines; its right resting on the river, and its left extending into the wood previously mentioned. General Scott was now ordered to repair to Todd's brigade of Kentucky volunteers, which had marched on the extreme left of the army, and with that brigade to turn the extreme right of the enemy, and attack their rear; whilst General Barbee, who, with his brigade had formed the rear guard of the army, was directed to follow the second line of infantry, to be employed as circumstances might require; and the light troops and guards in front of the army, being now driven in by the enemy, to arrest their progress until the lines of infantry were properly formed; Captain Campbell, who commanded the advance of the dragoons, was directed to charge. In the the execution of this order, that gallant officer was killed, and his troop driven upon the infantry, which being at length formed, were ordered to "advance and charge with trailed arms, and rouse the Indians from their coverts, at the point of the bayonet, and when up, to deliver a close and well directed fire on their backs, followed by a brisk charge, so as not to give them time to load again, or to form their lines." "Such was the impetuosity of the charge, by the first line of infantry, that the Indians, Canadian militia and volunteers were driven from all their cov

erts, in so short a time, that although every possible exertion was used by General Scott and his detachment of the mounted volunteers, to gain their proper positions, but part could get up in season to participate in the action, the enemy being driven in the course of one hour more than two miles, through the thick woods, already mentioned, by less than one half their number." "The loss of the enemy was more than double that of the Federal army. The woods were strewed for a considerable distance with the dead bodies of Indians and their white auxiliaries, the latter armed with British muskets and bayonets. Brig. General Wilkinson commanded the right wing, and Col. Hamtramck the left; these officers, with the aids Capt. De Butts, T. Lewis, Lieutenant William H. Harrison, and Adjutant General Mill's, were all most generously complimented by the commanding General.* The army remained for three days encamped on the Maumee, in front of the battle-ground, destroying all the houses and fields of grain, including the house and stores "of Col. M'Kee, the British Indian agent, and principal stimulator of the war now existing between the United States and the savages.' 99 While the American force was thus encamped, Major Campbell, who commanded the British fort on the Miamis, (as the Maumee was then written,) addressed a letter to Gen. Wayne to know in what light he was to view "such near approaches," "almostwithin the reach of the guns of a post belonging to his majesty, the king of Great Britain." To this insolent demand Wayne replied, that "were you entitled to an answer, the most full and satisfactory was announced to you from the muz zles of my small arms yesterday morning, in the action against hordes of savages in the vicinity of your fort, which terminated gloriously for the American arms." This was followed by several other letters in a tone of proud defiance on the part of the American officer, concluding in a demand in the name of the President of the United States, to withdraw and remove his troops to the nearest post occupied by the British at the peace of 1783. To this demand it was gallantly answered, that "the post would not be abandoned at the summons of any power whatever until orders were received from his superiors, or the fortunes of war

* See General Wayne's genuine despatch in the Casket of 1830, p. 116, Philadelphia.