(Signed) J. F. Hamtramck,
Majr. Comd'g.[119]
A little later, Hamtramck wrote: “Our new government has taken place; five magistrates have been elected by the suffrage of the people, but not one of the Ottoman families remains in. One Mr. Miliet, Mr. Henry, Mr. Bagargon, Capt. Johnson, and Capt. Dalton, have been elected. You will be surprised to see Dalton in office; but I found that he had too many friends to refuse him. I keep a watch-side eye over him, and find that he conducts himself with great propriety.”[120]
The relief afforded by the new court was not complete, for soon came the report: “The people are very impatient to see Gen. St. Clair or some of the judges; in fact, they are very much wanted.”[121] The term of the members of the court expired in April, 1789, and no new members were elected, because the early arrival of Gen. St. Clair was expected.[122] An interregnum occurred, and in November, 1789, Hamtramck wrote to Harmar: “It is high time [pg 062] that government should take place in this country, and if it should happen that the Governor was not to come, nor any of the Judges, I would beg (for the sake of the people) that his Excellency would give me certain powers to create magistrates, a Sheriff and other officers, for the purpose of establishing Courts of Justice—for, at present, there are none, owing to the daily expectation of the arrival of the Governor. Those that had been appointed by the people last year, their authority has been refused in the courts of Kentucky, they declaring that by the resolve of Congress, neither the people of Post Vincennes, or the commanding officer, had a right to appoint magistrates; that the power was vested in the Governor only, and that it was an usurped authority. You see, Sir, how much to the prejudice of the people their present situation is, and how necessary it is that some steps should be taken to relieve them.
“The powers of the magistrates may be circumscribed as his Excellency may think proper, but the necessity of having such characters will appear when I assure you that at present no person here, can administer an oath which will be considered legal in the courts of Kentucky—and for the reasons above mentioned.”[123]
At last, on June 19, 1790, the judges for the Northwest Territory arrived at Vincennes.[124]
The situation at Kaskaskia was even worse than that at Vincennes, because Vincennes had a garrison. To understand the complaints of the time, it is necessary to notice the relations with Spain. On the first day of 1788, Hamtramck wrote: “The Spanish commanding officers of the different posts on the Mississippi are encouraging settlers by giving them lands gratis. A village by the [pg 063] name of Zewapetas, which is about thirty miles above the mouth of the Ohio, and which was begun last summer, consists now of thirty or fifty families.”[125] In the following October, Morgan made flattering offers to persons who would settle at New Madrid.[126] At the same time, the Mississippi was closed to Americans. Joseph St. Marie, of Vincennes, sent his clerk with a load of peltry to be traded to the Indians on the banks of the Mississippi. His goods were seized and confiscated by the Spanish commander at the Arkansas Post. The commander said that his orders were to seize all goods of Americans, found in the Mississippi below the mouth of the Ohio. Upon appeal to Gov. Miro, of Louisiana, the governor said that the court of Spain had given orders to send offending traders prisoners to the mines of Brazil.[127]
The combination of inducements to such as would become Spanish subjects and of severity to such as would not do so, secured Spain some settlers. Hamtramck said: “I am fearful that the Governor will not find many people in the Illinois, as they are daily going on the Spanish side. I believe that all our Americans of Post Vincennes will go to Morgan—a number of them are already gone to see him. I am told that Mr. Morgan has taken unwarrantable measures to invite the people of Illinois to come to him, saying that the Governor never would come in that country, and that their negroes were all free the moment the government should be established—for which all the remaining good inhabitants propose to go to him. I can not give you this for certain; I will [pg 064] know better in a short time, and inform you.”[128] “I have the honor to enclose you Mr. Morgan's letter at his request, and one for you. You will see in Mr. Morgan's that a post will be established opposite the Ohio; and if what Mr. Morgan says is true (which I doubt not), respecting the inhabitants of the Illinois, the Governor will have no occasion to go there. Will you be so good as to inform me if Congress have changed their resolution respecting the freedom of the negroes of this country; and if they are free from the day of the resolve, or if from the day it is published in a district.”[129] A few weeks later, Harmar wrote to St. Clair: “The emigration continues, it possible, more rapid than ever; within these twenty days, not less than one hundred souls have passed [Fort Harmar, at Falls of Ohio] daily: the people are all taken up with Col. Morgan's New Madrid.... The generality of the inhabitants of Kaskaskias, and a number of those at Post Vincennes, I am informed, have quit those villages, and gone over to the Spanish side. The arrival of your Excellency amongst them, I believe is anxiously expected.”[130]
The Indians were very hostile, and it is noteworthy that by the middle of 1789, the comparative immunity of the French from attack had ceased. Only negroes were safe, and they, probably, because they sold well.[131] Civil government was at low ebb in the Kaskaskia region. By January, 1789, the court at Kaskaskia had dissolved.[132]
The depopulation of Illinois led Hamtramck to write to Bartholomew Tardiveau, at the Falls of Ohio, asking whether it were true that the slaves of the French were to be free. Tardiveau responded that it was not true, and that he had written from New York, the preceding December, to Hamtramck and to Illinois concerning the matter, but that his letters had been intercepted. The true meaning of the resolve of Congress was published at Vincennes upon the receipt of Tardiveau's letter and was to be published in Illinois at the first opportunity. The narration of these facts was closed by the statement that if the governor or the judges did not come soon, most of the people would go to the Spanish side, “for they begin to think there are no such men as a Governor or Judges.”[133]