ing these difficulties, and that was so fortified by constitutions and so guarded by laws that it was dangerous of access and hopeless of attainment under present circumstances. It was the certain course, which had been indicated in the former convention, which he would not now repeat, but which every gentleman present would connect with a declaration of independence, the formation of a constitution, and the organization of a new state which might safely find its way into the Union on terms advantageous to its interests and prosperity. He expatiated upon the prosperous circumstances of the country; its increasing population, its rich productions and its imperious claims to the benefits of commerce through the Mississippi, its only outlet.

"That the same difficulties did not exist on the part of Spain to concede to the people on the western waters the right of navigating the river which she had to a treaty with the United States, there were many reasons for supposing; that there was information of the first importance on that subject within the power of the convention which, he doubted not, it would be agreeable for the members to have and for the gentleman who possessed it to communicate."

This reference, of course, was to John Brown, a delegate, who was also a delegate from Virginia to the congress and whose letter to George Muter showed him to have been in communication with Gardoqui, the Spanish minister.

Mr. Brown, understanding the reference of General Wilkinson, arose and said that "he did not think himself at liberty to disclose what had passed in private conferences between the Spanish minister, Mr. Gardoqui, and himself; but this much, in general, he would venture to inform the convention, that, provided we are unanimous, everything we could wish for was within our reach.”

When Mr. Brown had concluded, General Wilkinson arose and was granted permission to read an address, directed to the Spanish

"Intendant at New Orleans." This address which was very lengthy has been excellently epitomized by Smith as follows: "The author urged the natural right of the western people to follow the current of rivers flowing through their country into the sea, the great common and highway of nations.

"The extent of the country, the richness of the soil, the quantity and variety of productions suitable for foreign markets, for which there were no avenues of conveyance should the Mississippi be closed to their export.

"The advantages which Spain would derive from allowing free use of the river to those on its various waters by increase of trade and revenue to her.

"That the population of Kentucky was rapidly increasing and that each individual looked forward to the free navigation of the Mississippi with the greatest solicitude.

"The general abhorrence with which the people of the western waters received the intelligence that congress was about to cede to Spain the exclusive right of navigating the river for twenty-five years.

"That the western people were being driven to the alternative of separating themselves from the Union on that account, considering the navigation indispensable to their future growth and prosperity. These commercial advantages outweighed the political considerations presented in favor of a connection with the Federal Union.

"That should Spain be so blind to her true interest as to refuse the use of the river to the western people, and thereby compel a resort to military means, Great Britain stood ready with a sufficient force of armed allies, to cooperate with them in enforcing the great national right.

"That the whole Spanish possessions in America would be endangered by such a combined movement, should the British, who now hold the mouth of the St. Lawrence, also seize and command the mouth of the Mississippi." Wilkinson was a shrewd and grasping man,

soldier and politician, too. He knew the magic chord on which, as a politician, he should play. The dominant question of the hour was not so much the erection of the district of Kentucky into a state of the Union, as the free navigation of the Mississippi river. He had interests, golden interests, at the mouth of that river; the people of Kentucky must have a market and the river opened one to them. Wilkinson bought their products, floated them down that river and returning paid them in good Spanish gold. He had touched the pocket nerve and knew his advantages. This he kept ever before the convention. He was a more successful emissary of Spain than Gardoqui would have been, had he been given a seat in the convention. Yet Wilkinson did some things to the advantage of the district for which he should have credit. He made a market at New Orleans for Kentucky's products and he brought back to the district the proceeds of the sales and so far as the records show, honestly met his obligations. But he was all of this time in the pay of Spain; that is the blot upon his escutcheon.

The motion to refer the resolutions of the sixth convention was adopted, which was regarded as a triumph for the "court" or Spanish party. Committees were appointed to consider various questions and upon nearly all of these Wilkinson was appointed as a member. His party was dominant in the convention and he seemed to be dominant in his party. John Brown, one might suppose, being a delegate in congress, and to the convention as well, would have ranked high in committee assignments, but Wilkinson took the leading place while Brown sat in the rear. Wilkinson was the controlling spirit while behind his seat in the convention, there lurked, invisible, the Spanish face of Don Gardoqui. The gold which he had so wisely distributed was apparently returning values ten-fold to his values ten-fold to his country.

The leaders of the "country" party, the men

Vol. I-8.

who were for their own country whatever might betide, were alarmed by the strength of the followers of Wilkinson and attempted to counteract it. Colonel Crockett left the convention for Lexington and there obtained three hundred signatures to a paper protesting against separation from the Union. Among these signers were men of Wilkinson's constituency. With these signatures, he returned to Danville and the convention. The petition of citizens of Mercer and Madison asking the convention to pray congress that it adopt measures at once to obtain the free navigation of the Mississippi was presented and referred to a special committee.

To again secure the consent of Virginia for the independence of Kentucky in accordance with the will of congress, a committee was appointed consisting of Messrs. Muter, Jouett, Allen and Wilkinson. The latter, for a previously appointed committee, prepared and read this address:

"To the United States in Congress assembled: The people of Kentucky represented in convention, as freemen, as citizens, and as part of the American Republic, beg leave by this humble petition, to state their rights and to call for protection in them.

"When the peace had secured to America that sovereignty and independence for which she had so nobly contended, we could not, like our Atlantic friends, retire to enjoy in ease the blessings of freedom.

"Many of us had expended in the struggle for our country's rights that property which would have enabled us to possess a competency with our liberty.

"On the western waters, the commonwealth of Virginia possessed a fair but uninhabited wild. In this wilderness we sought, after having procured liberty for our posterity, to provide for their support. Inured to hardships by a long warfare, we ventured into the almost impenetrable forests; without bread or domestic animals, we depended upon the casual

supplies afforded by the chase; hunger was our familiar attendant, and even our unsavory meals were made upon the wet surface of the earth with the cloud-deformed canopy for our covering. Though forced to pierce the thicket, it was not in safety we trod; the wily savage thirsted for our blood, lurked in the paths and seized the unsuspecting hunter. While we lamented the loss of a friend, a brother, a father, a wife, a child became a victim of the barbarian tomahawk. Instead of consolation, a new and greater misfortune deadened the sense of former inflictions. From the Union we receive no support, but we impeach not their justice. Ineffectual treaties, often renewed and as often broken by the savage nations, served only to supply them with the means of our destruction. But no human cause could control that Providence which destined this Western country to be the seat of a civilized and happy people. The period of its accomplishment was distant but it advanced with rapid and incredible strides. We derive strength from our misfortunes and numbers from our losses. The unparallelled fertility of our soil made grateful returns far disproportioned to the slight labor which our safety would permit us to bestow. Our fields and herds afforded us not only sufficient support for ourselves, but also for the emigrants who annually doubled our numbers, and even a surplus still remains for exportation. This surplus would be far greater did not a narrow policy shut up our navigation and discourage our industry.

"To this situation we call your attention. We beg you to trace the Mississippi from the ocean, survey the innumerable rivers which water your Western territory and pay their tribute to its greatness; examine the luxuriant soil which those rivers traverse. Then we ask, can the God of wisdom and nature have created that vast country in vain? Was it for nothing that He blessed it with a fertility almost incredible? Did He not provide those

great streams which flow into the Mississippi and by it communicate with the Atlantic, that other nations and climes might with us enjoy the blessings of our fruitful soil? View the country and you will answer for yourselves. But can the presumptuous madness of man imagine a policy inconsistent with the immense designs of the Deity? Americans.

cannot.

"As it is the natural right of the people of this country to navigate the Mississippi, so they have also the right derived from treaties and national compacts. Shall we not avail ourselves of those natural and conventional rights so vital to our future?

"By the treaty of peace concluded in the year 1763 between the crowns of Great Britain, France and Spain, the free navigation of the river Mississippi was ascertained to Great Britain. The right thus ascertained was exercised by the subjects of that crown till the peace of 1783, and conjointly with them by the citizens of the United States.

"By the treaty in which Great Britain acknowledged the independence of the United States, she also ceded to them the free navigation of the Mississippi. It was a right naturally and essentially annexed to the possession of this Western country. As such, it was claimed by America and it was upon that principle that she claimed it; yet the court of Spain, who possess the country at the mouth of the Mississippi, have obstructed our citizens in the enjoyment of that right.

"If policy is the motive which actuates political conduct, you will support us in this right, and thereby enable us to assist in the support of government. If you will be really our fathers, stretch forth your hands to save us. If you will be worthy guardians, defend our rights. We are a member that would exert any muscle for your service. Do not cut us off from your body. By every tie of consanguinity and affection, by the remembrance of the blood we have mingled in a common

cause, by a regard for justice and policy, we conjure you to procure our right.

"Let not your beneficence be circumscribed by the mountains which divide us, but let us feel that you really are the guardians and asserters of our rights; then you will secure the prayers of a people whose gratitude would be as warm as the vindication of their rights will be eternal; then our connection shall be perpetuated to the latest times, a monument of your justice and a terror to your enemies."

The address to the general assembly of Virginia seeking an act of separation, was now finally agreed to by the convention, following the Wilkinson paper, the gist of which has been given. The address was as follows:

"To the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Virginia—Gentlemen: The representatives of the good people inhabiting the several counties composing the district of Kentucky in convention met beg leave again to address you on the great and important subject of their separation from the parent state and being made a member of the Federal Union. Being fully impressed with these ideas and justified by frequent examples, we conceive it our duty from the regard we owe to our constituents and being encouraged by the action of congress, again to apply to your honorable body, praying that an act may pass at the present session for enabling the good people of the Kentucky district to obtain an independent government and be admitted into the confederation as a member of the Federal Union, upon such terms and conditions as to you may appear proper and equitable; and that you transmit such act to the president of the convention with all convenient dispatch, in order for our consideration and the final completion of the business. Finally, we again solicit the friendly interposition of the

parent state with the congress of the United States for a speedy admission of the district into the Federal Union; and also, to urge that honorable body, in the most express terms, to take effectual measures for procuring to the inhabitants of this district the free navigation of the Mississippi river, without which the situation of a large part of the community will be wretched and miserable and may be the source of future evils.

"Ordered that the president sign and the clerk attest the said address, and that the same be enclosed by the president to the house of delegates." General Wilkinson offered and the convention adopted the following:

"Resolved, that a committee be appointed to draft an address to the good people of the district setting forth the principles from which this convention acts; representing to them their true condition; urging the necessity of union, concord and mutua concession; and solemnly calling upon them to furnish this convention, at its next session, with instructions in what manner to proceed on the important subject to them submitted."

The committee called for by this resolution was composed of Messrs. Wilkinson, Innes, Jouett, Muter, Sebastian, Allen and Caldwell. Thus the committee was controlled by what was known as the "court" party, though it failed to avail itself of the opportunity to excite the people in favor of an immediate separation from Virginia and the setting up of an independent state. It is altogether probable that the "court" party, with perhaps two exceptions, Wilkinson and Sebastian, was as loyal to the Union and as subservient to the constitution and the laws, as were the members of the "country" party.

And thus adjourned the seventh convention. which had considered the question of Kentucky's separation from Virginia and admission into the Federal Union, yet the district seemed no nearer the goal sought than when the agitation had first begun. Arizona and New Mexico, of late years, seeking Statehood now about to be accomplished, have thought the way hard and long, but theirs has been a primrose path of dalliance compared to that of Kentucky. Nevada, then as now, a rotten borough, the State of legalized prize-fights and easy divorces, was admitted to the Union for the mere asking, though the entire State had not then, nor has it now, a voting population equal to that of some Congressional districts in other states of the Union. West Virginia, ravished from the old Mother of States without asking her consent, was admitted to the Union almost without asking for such a favor; but Kentucky, one of the bright stars in the galaxy of states, was forced to take the suppliant's place for years and though the first to ask for the high honor of Statehood was ignored and compelled to see Vermont, which had never joined the Confederation, admitted before it.

The adjournment of the convention brought to Kentucky the first of the many political contests which have marked its history with a bitterness not in keeping with the question at

issue. Charges of treason were bandied about as though that most serious of offenses were no more than a charge of disorderly conduct. The men of today who have passed beyond the half-century mark, have heard the same charge made against the best men of Kentucky and have seen those same men haled to prison walls simply because they differed in political opinion from some of their neighbors. In the time of war the laws are silent, and good men, with the bad, must suffer not. only indignity but greater wrongs, as hundreds of Kentuckians did in 1861-5. But there was no war other than a war of words, when our good grandfathers fought political battles and called each other hard names after the adjournment of this seventh convention. They were desperately in earnest, these forefathers of ours, no matter on which side they were aligned, and if in the heat of the contest they used harsh terms, they did no more than we, their descendants, do today with not a tithe of reason therefor. We prate of the necessity for two great parties in a system like ours and straightway proclaim the members of the party opposed to our Own as thieves, meanwhile meeting those same "thieves" on terms of personal equality as our friends; fraternizing with them in the lodges to which we jointly belong; kneeling with them at the altar rail of the churches in which