ing star for such patriots as preferred to follow the principles of true Democracy rather than the vain imaginings of an opportunist, ready to adopt any theory that might possibly lead to victory, place and power. Robert J. Breckinridge, Sr., was the most eminent Presbyterian divine of the country, the friend and adviser of Mr. Lincoln, and the father of four gallant boys-two of whom fought bravely for the Union in 1861-5, while their two elder brothers, equally gallant, won honors for their state and name in the army of the Confederacy. One of these was the eloquent Col. W. C. P. Breckinridge who, for years, represented the famed Ashland district and whom the late Senator William Lindsay, declared was "one of the great men of Kentucky." John C. Breckinridge, Major of Volunteers in the war with Mexico; representative in congress from the Ashland district; Vice President of the United States; Senator from Kentucky; major general in the Confederate army and secretary of war at the close of the war. The very name of Breckinridge means history in Kentucky. Two days after the organization of the general assembly, Governor Shelby appeared before a joint session of that body, and following the example of President Washington, read his message, at the conclusion of which he furnished a copy to the speaker of the senate and of the house, and retired from the chamber. Thus quietly and with proper dignity, were the wheels of self-government first set in motion in Kentucky. James Brown was appointed Secretary of State and George Nicholas, Attorney General. The first United States Senators were John Brown and John Edwards. Brown had represented the District of Kentucky as a Delegate from Virginia in the old Congress. There had been charges against him to the effect that he was engaged in what has come to be known as "the Spanish Conspiracy," but it is believed that he was not culpable nor guilty of any wrong-doing, his efforts, which led to the charge, growing out of his intense desire to secure for the people of Kentucky the free navigation of the Mississippi river which was necessary to their commercial prosperity. It has been facetiously declared that “where two or three Kentuckians are gathered together, some one of them makes a speech," a compliment to the oratorical capacity of the true Kentuckian. It has also been stated by some envious outsider, not so fortunate as to have been born in the State, that "if a Kentuckian is not already holding an office, he expects to do so before he dies," which is also a compliment, as it recognizes the willingness and capacity of the Kentuckian to assume the burdens of any public duty which may be thrust upon him by his admiring fellow-citizens. These reflections are induced by the fact that the very first enactment of the first general assembly of the state created an office, by a bill entitled: "An act establishing an Auditor of Public Accounts." This act was approved by the Governor June 22, 1792, and became a law upon that date. Auditors of the state therefore have the right to feel that their office is of very honorable lineage and confers distinction even though it may occasionally fail to lead to governorships or other higher positions. It is to the credit of our first legislature that its first act was in the direction of a proper keeping and disbursement of the public funds. One is led to speculate upon the need for such an officer, however, when there is no appearance of such funds or custodian therefor. The first demand upon the assembly, under ordinary circumstances, would appear to have been an act to raise revenue, and the choice of a treasurer to care for it. This, however, was later attended to. The session of the general assembly began, as has been stated, on June 4, and ended on June 22, 1792, the shortest legislative session on record. Thomas Todd was clerk of the house and Buckner Thruston, of the senate. James E. Stone, later to win appreciative laurels as clerk in both house and senate, was not then eligible for the position in either body, owing to his youth, but was later elected and has since been retained as a permanency in one body or the other, as the one or the other was in political accord with his opinions. The general assembly recognized then, as now, that it needed praying for, and therefore elected the Rev. John Gano as chaplain. John Bradford was elected public printer and the author sincerely trusts that he escaped the "slings and arrows of outrageous fortune" which, in later years, were a portion of the emoluments of that unhappy position. Nicholas Lewis was sergeant at arms of the house; Kenneth McKoy, of the senate; Roger Divine was doorkeeper of the house; David Johnson, of the senate. These subordinate officials secure this historical recognition, because they were the first men in Kentucky who ever held these positions. To enumerate those who succeeded them and those who attempted to do so and failed, would change this publication from a history to an excerpt from a census report. per barrel; flour, five dollars per barrel; whisky, fifty cents per gallon." There was no internal revenue tax on whisky then and consequently no "moonshine" nor revenue officers to disturb and make afraid the proprietors of mountain distilleries. "The scarcity of money, the greater purchasing value of what little there was, brought the wage standard to a corresponding level." For years it has been difficult to secure the service in the general assembly of the best men of the State, for many reasons, one of which has been the deterioration of the house and senate in the good opinion of the electorate. For this, the people are themselves to blame. They should force their best men to the front; should elect them to the house or senate, with or without their consent. Henry Clay was willing to serve and did serve as a member of the Kentucky legislature, after he had won renown in the congress of the United States. Though there may be today no Henry Clays in Kentucky, there are thousands of good men, honest men, intelligent and capable, who should be drafted into the service of their constituents and sent to Frankfort not to represent this or that political party; this or that special interest; but the sovereign people of the commonwealth regardless of petty partisan politics. There are interests predominant today which know nothing, care nothing, for the public good, and work alone for selfish advancement, choosing that party as their own which, for the moment, seems predominant, A treasurer was next provided for, and then and deserting it at that time when the opposan anomalous condition was found to existing party appears to be about to gain the there was no treasure. In view of this distressing condition, the new treasurer was authorized to borrow money-if he could. The members of the general assembly received one dollar per diem and twelve dollars extra, for the session; the presiding officers receiving twenty dollars extra. The clerk was paid $50 and the sergeant at arms, $12 "in full of all demands." Smith, in his "History of Kentucky," says: "To give an idea of the market prices of the times, beef was two cents per pound; buffalo meat, one and one half cents; venison, one and a quarter cents; butter, eight cents; turkeys, fifteen cents each; potatoes, fifty cents ascendancy. The people complain when they see the wrong about to triumph, yet when the next election comes they go "like dumb, driven cattle," into the election booths and place the stamp of their approval beneath the emblems of their respective parties, utterly regardless of the character of the men who are candidates upon that ticket. Then they strut among their fellow men and loudly proclaim that they "always vote the straight ticket," and have never yet "scratched a ballot." The people who do these things, and they represent each of the two great parties in Kentucky, deserve all the evil that comes to them and more. They worship They worship a fetich and are blinded by a partisanship that would be discreditable to an unlettered savage. The millennium is a promise in which many millions believe. It is sure to come some day. When it does come, the electorate will possibly forget party shibboleths and, if there are elections held then, will vote as duty and patriotism require, but it is a strain upon the imagination to consider such a proposition. CHAPTER XXIII. INDIAN PEACE COMMISSIONERS MURDERED-EASTERN VIEW OF INDIAN QUESTION-INDIANS REJECT PEACE PROPOSAL "MAD ANTHONY" MOVES AGAINST THEM-KENTUCKY REINFORCEMENTS CAMPAIGN AGAINST THE MAUMEES-DEFEAT OF INDIANS AND ALLIESWAYNE GIVES BRITISH OFFICER "LIGHT"-TREATY OF Greenville. It is necessary at this point to revert to the Indian question again for a short time. Major John Adair, commanding about one hundred Kentuckians, on the 6th of November, 1792, was attacked near Fort St. Clair in Ohio, by a large body of Indians under command of Little Turtle. After repulsing the savages several times Major Adair was forced to retreat with a loss of six killed, all of his camp equipage and more than one hundred pack horses. The enemy, whose losses were believed to have been greater in killed and wounded, than those of Major Adair, made no effort to pursue him being content with the plunder they had secured. General Wilkinson, who, for the time being, deserted politics for the army in which he now held a position, complimented Major Adair and his command. for the gallantry with which they had confronted superior numbers. their camp, but the Delawares refused to accede to the proposal. They remained in the camp during the night and seemed peaceable. On the following morning, inquiries were made of them as to the country, when they became excited and murdered Colonel Hardin. Major Trueman they made prisoner, and on the march to Sandusky, murdered him also. When the news reached the Indian towns of the murder of the peace commissioners, much excitement prevailed and the perpetrators were censured as it was unusual for the Indians to attack those who came to talk of peace. This was poor consolation to the families and comrades of the murdered men. In the Eastern states there were then as now, Pharisees of the "holier-than-thou” sect who affected to believe that the western people provoked and kept alive Indian aggression by cruelties inflicted and outlawry practiced, and that the poor Indians "were persecuted, murdered and outraged beyond all forbearance," and were therefore, justified in reprisals in self-defense. Pro- prisals in self-defense. The pulpit and the press, together with the demagogue on the platform, whom the country has always with it, fostered this idea, forgetting how their own ancestors had been harried by the savages in the early days of the eastern colonies and how they had as ruthlessly slaughtered those sav Later in the same year, Wilkinson selected Colonel John Hardin and Major Trueman as commissioners to treat for peace with the Indians of the Miami towns in Ohio. Proceeding upon their mission, they were well received by the first Indians whom they met who showed respect for the peace messengers. Soon afterwards a party of five Delaware Indians arrived at the camp and Colonel Hardin proposed that he and his comrade should visit ages as had the westerners those who made their lives a burden and the lives of their wives and children unsafe during every hour of the day and night. These people of the eastern states it was, whose representatives in the congress had for so long a time resisted the admission of Kentucky into the Union. To their minds the Union belonged to the saints and never for a moment did they then, nor do they now, fail to believe that they were and are the saints. "President Washington," says Smith, "to counteract the pernicious impression which possessed the minds of the people of the Atlantic states, and also, that the Indians were willing to listen to and accept terms of peace on just grounds, ordered a treaty council at Sandusky, Ohio. In the meantime, all citizens were forbidden to engage in any hostilities with the savages, a very painful and hard necessity laid on the Kentuckians after the many and very recent and distressing barbarities perpetrated on them." The historian Butler considering the conditions at that time, says: Sym "Nor can the necessity of this action of the president be appreciated without attentively noticing the deep-rooted prejudice of the country at large on the subject of Indian atrocities. They showed themselves in the debates in congress, and were too much confirmed by the history of the national intercourse with the aborigines in general. pathy with the interests of a race of men incompatible with the existence of our agricultural people, seems to have occupied the people east of the mountains when it had no longer room to operate against themselves. No thought then seemed to exist that the same causes of inconsistent states of social existence prevailed on the western side of the mountains, just as they had presented themselves on the eastern side for the preceding century and a half. Our people would gladly have abided, for the present, with the terri torial limit of the Ohio. But no territorial limit could permanently arrest the ruin of the one race, or the progress of the other. The decree of their fate was passed by natural causes which no human exertions could counteract." The commissioners announced to the government at Washington that the Indians refused to enter into a treaty. The government had tendered the olive branch and on its rejection had but one recourse. The Indians should be taught to fear, if they did not respect the white man. Gen. Anthony Wayne, the "Mad Anthony" of the Revolution, the soldierly fires of whose nature had not abated with the advancing years, had massed his forces at Fort Washington and was ordered in October, 1793, to move upon the Indians along the Maumee. He called upon the governor of Kentucky for a detachment of mounted volunteers. So deep was the distrust of Kentuckians of the capacity of the regular forces, owing to the disasters attendant on the recent expeditions of Harmar and St. Clair, that there was but a feeble response to the call of the governor for volunteers. It was the first as it was the last time, when Kentuckians failed to respond at once to a call to arms. They had no objection to warfare; they rather enjoyed it, but they were careful about their military associates. They had serious objections to being slaughtered to make an Indian holiday. Finally, however, General Scott marched at the head of a thousand mounted Kentuckians to reinforce General Wayne. On the 26th of October this force encamped within four miles of the headquarters of the army, six miles in advance of Fort Jefferson and eighty miles from the Ohio river. The weather was cold, the army not well equipped for a campaign against savages in the forest, their natural battle ground, and General Wayne decided to suspend his march and build Fort Greenville. Greenville. The regulars went into winter |
