Doyle

Moore, the leader, and a portion of his party, located on the hills near Bellefontaine, while Bond and the rest settled in the American Bottom (from which circumstance that name is derived), near Harrisonville, afterwards known as the blockhouse fort. James Piggot, John Doyle, Robert Whitehead and a Mr. Bowen, soldiers in Clark's expedition, also shortly after settled in Illinois. had a family and taught school. He was, perhaps, the first teacher to make that profession his business in Illinois. He also spoke French and Indian, and in the latter language was frequently employed as interpreter. Not until 1785 was this little band of American pioneers reinforced. Then came Joseph Ogle, Joseph Warley and James Andrews, all from Virginia and each with a large family. In the following year the American settlements were again augmented by the arrival of James Lemen, George Atcherson, and David Waddell with their families, besides several others.*

While the country was under the Virginia regime (but without the sanction of her authorities), La Balme, a native of France, in the fall of 1780 during the revolutionary war, made another attempt to lead an expedition from Kaskaskia against the British. It consisted of 30 men, and was ostensibly formed to capture the post of Detroit. At Vincennes it was reinforced by a few men. The party moved up the Wabash, and at the head of the Maumee attacked and destroyed a British trading post called Kekionga, on the site of the present Fort Wayne. After securing the booty, the party retired to the banks of the small river Aboite, where they encamped. Here a party of Indians attacked them in the night, the leader and a few of his followers were killed, the remainder dispersed, and the expedition against Detroit failed. Its object, like those of Brady and Meillet, was doubtless plunder.†

Col. Todd, the Virginia commandant,spent but little of his time in our part of the Illinois county; he remained in office until the time of his death, which occurred at the battle of Blue Licks in Kentucky, August 18, 1782, where he was in command, not having resigned as commander of the militia of that district in Kentucky. This was the bloodiest Indian battle ever fought in Kentucky. Cols. Todd, Trig, Harlan, and a son of Daniel Boone, all fell. It was a sad day; the Kentuckians lost 67 men, more than a third of their force, mostly killed. Col. Todd had just returned from Virginia on business pertaining to the Illinois county. His gov ernment in Illinois was popular.

The successor of Col. Todd was a Frenchman, named Timothy de Montbrun, of whose administration, how long it lasted, or who was his successor, little or nothing is known. Montbrun's name appears to land grants and other documents among the archives at Kaskaskia.

The Cession of Illinois.-As we have seen, all of the Northwestern territory, by private conquest, passed under the dominion of Virginia at a time when all the States were engaged in a common war, defending against the power of the mother country to reduce them to subjection; and whatever was the right of a State to organize an individual war enterprise, and turn its success to

*See Annals of the West.

+Reynold's Pioneer History.

private advantage by extending her jurisdiction over a vast and fertile region for her separate benefit and aggrandizement, the congress of the States, probably for the sake of harmony, acquiesced in the validity of this. But Virginia and a number of other States asserted still another claim to these western lands, and during the revolutionary war these confiicting claims became quite a hindrance to the prompt adoption of the articles of confederation. Many of the original colonies had their boundaries exactly defined in their royal charters, but Virginia, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and the Carolinas, claimed to extend westward to the farther ocean, or to the Mississippi; since, under the treaty of Paris, 1763, that river had become the established western boundary of Great Britain. New York, too, under certain alleged concessions to her jurisdiction made by the Iroquois, or six nations, the conquerers of many Algonquin tribes including the Illinois, claimed almost the whole of the western country from beyond the lakes on the north to the Cumberland mountains on the south, and west to the great river.

Large ideas as to the pecuniary value of the western lands obtained at the time, from which vast revenues were anticipated. The prospective well-filled coffers of the States, as well as the broad expansion of their dominions, excited the envy of their landless sisters. The latter held, therefore, that as these lands, as well as their own independence, had to be wrested from the British crown by joint effort, they ought to become joint property. Still, the claimant States in congress had succeeded in getting a clause inserted into the proposed articles of confederation, that no State should be deprived of any territory for the joint benefit of all. But Maryland, a non-claimant State, refused her assent to the articles with that provision. The adoption of the articles, which would make of the colonies a union, was very much desired. New York now, whose claim was the most baseless, opened the way by allowing her delegates in congress, at discretion, to cede to the union all her interest west of a line drawn through the western extremity of Lake Ontario. Congress urged this example upon the other claimant states, guaranteeing that the ceded lands should be disposed of for the common benefit of all; and as the territories became populated they should be divided into States and admitted into the Union on an equal footing with the original States.

Connecticut next proposed a cession of her indefinite due western extension, retaining, however, a tract of some 3,000,000 acres in Northwestern Ohio, known since as the Western Reserve. This she also relinquished in the year 1800. The Virginia assembly, hoping to reanimate the flagging cause of the South by a more thorough union, just prior to its adjournment, December 31, 1780, on the approach of Arnold, who sacked and burned Richmond within a few days after, ceded to the United States all her claim to the territory north-west of the river Ohio, requiring from congress, however, a guarantee of her right to the remainder south of the Ohio and east of the Mississippi. The New York delegates soon after exercised the discretion confided to them by their State, and executed a deed of cession, reserving the right of retraction unless the same guarantees were extended to New York as to any other ceding States. On the same day the delegates of Maryland, being thereunto empowered by act of the State, signed the articles

of confederation, which completed the ratification, and a nation was launched.

This was early in the sping of 1781; Virginia, however, did not execute her deed of cession till March 1, 1784. In the meantime peace had been made with Great Britain, by which nearly all this country passed to the ownership of the nation, in common, and Virginia modified her act of cession by omitting her demand to the territory south-east of the Ohio. The deed of cession was executed by her delegates in Congress, Thomas Jefferson, Samuel Hardy, Arthur Lee and James Monroe. It stipulated that the territory should be cut into States not less than 100 nor more than 150 miles square; to be republican in form, and to be admitted into the union with "the same rights of sovereignty, freedom and independence as the other States;" that indemnity for the expenses of her expeditions incurred in subduing the British posts in the west be allowed her; that land, not exceeding 150,000 acres, promised by her, should be allowed to George Rogers Clark, his officers and soldiers; that the proceeds of the sales of the lands ceded shall be considered a common fund for all the States, present and future; and that "the French and Canadian inhabitants, and other settlers of the Kaskaskias, Post Vincennes, and the neighboring villages, who have professed themselves citizens of Virginia, shall have their possessions and titles confirmed to them, and be protcted in the enjoyment of their rights and liberties."

Immediately after the execution of the deed of cession by Virginia, Congress proposed by ordinance, (April 23, 1784,) to establish a form of government for the entire western region, from the Gulf to the Lakes, though it was not yet wholly acquired. The plan proposed to divide the whole into 17 States; a tier of 8 was to border on the Mississippi, whose eastern boundary was to be a north and south line through the falls of the Ohio, and each to contain two parallels of latitude, except the northernmost, which was to extend from the 45th parallel to the northern limits of the United States; to the east of these a corresponding tier of 8 more was to be laid off, whose eastern boundary was to be a north and south line running through the mouth of the Great Kanawha; the remaining tract, to the east of this and north of the Ohio, was to constitute the 17th State. In these territories, the settlers, either on their petition or by act of Congress, were to receive authority to create a temporary form of government; but when 20,000 free inhabitants had settled within any of them, they were authorized to call a convention, form a constitution, and establish for themselves a permanent government, subject to the following requirements: to remain forever a part of the confederacy of the United States; to be subject to the articles of confederation and the acts and ordinances of Congress like the original States; not to interfere with the disposal of the soil by Congress; to be liable to their proportion of the federal debt, present and prospective; not to tax the lands of the United States; their respective governments to be republican; not to tax lands belonging to non-residents higher than those of residents; and when any one got of free inhabitants as many as the least numerous of the original Thirteen States, to be admitted into the Union on an equal footing with them. The committee, of which Mr. Jefferson was chairman, reported also this

remarkable provision, the adoption of which, and unalterable adherence to, would doubtless have prevented the late rebellion: "That after they ear 1800, of the Christian era, there shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in any of the said States, otherwise than in punishment of crimes, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted." But this proviso failed on account of not receiving a majority of the States. The four New England States, with New York and Pennsylvania, voted for it; New Jersey, Delaware and Georgia, were unrepresented; North Carolina was divided; Maryland, South Carolina and Virginia, (Mr. Jefferson being overborne by his colleagues,) voted against it. The anti-slavery clause was stricken out and the resolutions became an ordinance.

While such was the law for these territories, it never received application to any of them; no organization was ever effected under it. Nor had Massachusetts in the meantime relinquished her claim in the territories. In 1785, Rufus King renewed the antislavery proviso in congress, as a condition upon which she would make a cession of her claim. The question was referred to a committee of eight States, where it slept the sleep that knows no waking. Massachusetts, however, in accordance with the Virginia scheme of dividing the western territory into small States, ceded her claim, April 19, 1785; and with the consent of Congress to accept the cession of Connecticut, with the reservation of 3,000,000 acres, September 13th, 1786, the title of the confederated States to the lands north-west of the river Ohio became complete. In the meantime, by act of congress, surveys and explorations were going on in the territories which glaringly exposed the total disregard of natural boundaries, and the inconvenience resulting from cutting up the western country into seventeen small states. Virginia and Massachusetts were now called upon to modify the conditions of their deeds, so as to allow that portion of the territory northwest of the Ohio to be divided up into three or five States, at the option of Congress, which was accordingly done, and the following year Congress passed the ordinance of 1787.

This was a slow transition period, which was doubly experienced in the settlements of Illinois which were the fartherest removed from the seat of power, be it Virginia or the United States. During all this time, and for three years after the adoption of the ordinance of 1787, and until the organization of the county of St. Clair, by Governor St. Clair, in 1790, there was a very imperfect administration of the law, which consisted of a mixture of the civil or the French, the English, as resulting from the promulgations of the arbitrary acts of the British commandants at Fort Chartres, and such as had been instituted by the Virginia authorities. There were no regular courts of law in existence in the country, and no civil government worth mentioning. The people were a law unto themselves; their morals were simple and pure, and the grosser vices were kept dormant. Crimes against the peace of society were rare, misdemeanors infrequent, and fraud and dishonest dealings seldom practiced. During part of this time, too, the Indians were hostile, committing many brutal murders, which engaged the settlers in constant warfare and mutual protection against the savages; a state of affairs not con

ducive to the civil administration of the law where even the most perfect code exists. The following curious land speculation, on the part of a territorial court instituted by Colonel Todd, as it relates in part to Illinois, may not be amiss to transcribe, as it illustrates also the fallibility of men in office, and the necessity of the people to ever hold a watchful eye over their official servants.

In June, 1779, Colonel Todd established a court of civil and criminal jurisdiction at Post Vincennes, composed of several magistrates. Colonel J. M. P. Legras, having been appointed commandant of the post, acted as president of the court, and exercised a controlling influence over its proceedings. Adopting in some measure the usages and custems of the early French commandants, the court began to grant or concede tracts of land to the French and American inhabitants, and to different civil and military officers of the country. Indeed, the court assumed the power of granting lands to every applicant, mostly in tracts varying from the size of a house lot to 400 acres, though some were several leagues square. Before 1783, about 26,000 acres of land were thus granted to different individuals; and from 1773 to 1787, when in the latter year the practice was stopped by General Harmar, the grants amounted to 22,000 acres, making a total, first and last, of 48,000 acres. The commandant and magistrates, after having exercised this power for some time, were easily led to believe that they had the right to dispose of all that large tract of land which, in 1742, had been granted by the Piankeshaw Indians, for the use of the French inhabitants at Post Vincennes. Once convinced of their supreme dominion over this entire tract, the court was not long in arriving at the conclusion that they might make grants to themselves with as much propriety as to others; and if they could do this with small tracts, they might with the whole; hoping, doubtless, that, as the country passed under the government of the United States, the grants would receive confirmation. Accordingly, all that tract of country extending on the Wabash 72 miles from Pointe La Coupee to the mouth of White river, westward into Illinois 120 miles and east from the Wabash 90 miles (excluding lands already conceded), "to which the Indian title was supposed to be extinguished, was divided between the members of the court, and orders to that effect, entered on their journal; each member [as a matter of delicacy] absenting himself from the court on the day that the order was made in his favor, so as to give it the appearance of being the [disinterested] act of his fellows only."*

This shameful transaction being totally illegal, as no agent or trustee can make sale to himself, failing to prove a source of profit to the grantees in open market, was in a measure abandoned. Still, as the grant was in due form, under the great seal and authority of Virginia, land speculators, spying out the matter, quietly purchased freely of the lands thus granted, which could be readily done for a song, and then dispersed themselves over all the United States, and for many years after, duped great numbers of ignorant and credulous people, many of whom did not detect the swindle until moving out to their lands so purchased, they dis covered their titles to be a myth. These swindling practices

*Letter of Governor Harrison.