The purpose of the expedition was to retaliate upon the British for the attack on St. Louis and for the defeat of La Balme. On the march, severe difficulties incident to the season were encountered. The post was easily taken, the Indians were conciliated by a liberal proportion of the booty, the Spanish flag was raised and the Illinois country with St. Josephs and its dependencies was claimed for the crown of Spain. The British flag was given to Commandant Cruzat, of St. Louis. These proceedings made some prominent Americans fear that Spain would advance claims to the region at the close of the Revolution.[71]
In the summer of 1781, a party of seven men was sent out by the commandant at Michilimackinac with a letter to the inhabitants of Cahokia and Kaskaskia asking them to furnish troops to be paid by the king of England, and to assume the defensive against the Spaniards. The men reached St. Louis before visiting Cahokia or Kaskaskia, and were arrested by the Spanish commandant, who sent a copy of the letter to Major Williams, knowing no officer in Illinois superior to him. This created jealousy at Cahokia and Kaskaskia, each of several officers claiming superiority. Charles Gratiot, a man of some ability, who had removed from Cahokia to St. Louis because unable to endure the lawlessness at the former place, wrote that he did not know what course the Illinois people might have taken if Cruzat had not intercepted the British agents. Illinois was a country without a head where everyone expected to do as he pleased.[72]
In noting the operations of the medley of military forces in the County of Illinois, it is easy to conceive how the result might have been different, but the fact is that as the county ceased to exist, no nation had established a better title to the region than that of the Americans.
Chapter II. The Period of Anarchy in Illinois.[73]
Illinois was practically in a state of anarchy during the time that it was a county of Virginia, and when that county ceased to be, anarchy became technically as well as practically its condition, and remained so until government under the Ordinance of 1787 was inaugurated in 1790.
Virginia's legacy from her ephemeral county was one of unpaid bills. Scarcely had the general assembly adjourned, in January, 1782, when Benjamin Harrison wrote: “We know of no power given to any person to draw bills on the State but to Colo Clarke and yet we find them drawn to an immense amount by Colo Montgomery, and Captn Robt. George and some others; we have but too much reason to suppose a collusion and fraud betwixt the drawers and those they are made payable to; most of them are for specie when they well knew we had none amongst us, and from the largeness of the sums, proves the transactions must have been in paper and the depreciation taken into account, when the bargains were made; indeed George confesses this to have been the case when he gave Philip Barbour a bill for two hundred and thirty two thousand, three hundred and twenty Dollars and uses the plea of ignorance.” The transactions of Oliver Pollock, purchasing agent at New Orleans, should be carefully examined from the time he began to act with [pg 041] Montgomery.[74] Thimothé Demunbrunt, as he signed his name, asked pay for his services as lieutenant, in order that he might not be a charge to his friends—a thing which would be shameful to one of noble descent. He wished to be able to support his family and to go with Clark on a proposed expedition. His petition was supported by a certificate from Col. Montgomery, testifying that Demunbrunt had been active in his military duty, had gone against the savages in the spring of 1780, had gone on the “Expedition up the Wabash,” and had gone to the relief of Fort Jefferson when Montgomery could raise only twelve men.[75]
The military troubles continued. The commander at Vincennes reported his troops as destitute and unpaid. Richard Winston, of Kaskaskia, who had succeeded Todd as head of the civil government in Illinois, was arrested by military force and put in jail. The prisoner claimed that the proceedings were wholly irregular and that he was unacquainted with the nature of the charge against [pg 042] him.[76] The next year, he was accused of treason, the accuser declaring that Winston had proposed to turn Illinois over to Spain, but that his proposal had been despised by the Spanish commandant.[77] Upon Winston was also laid the chief blame for the discontent of the French, he being charged with having told Montgomery that the French were strangers to liberty and must be ruled with a rod of iron or the bayonet, and that if he wanted anything he must send his guards and take it by force; while, at the same time, he told the French that the military was a band of robbers and came to Illinois for plunder.[78] However, numerous and well-founded as the accusations might be, both accused and accuser laid their claims for salary before the Virginia Board of Commissioners for the Settlement of Western Accounts.[79] Even the notorious Col. Montgomery presented before this board his defence, which consisted of a recital of his meritorious deeds, others being omitted.[80]
Another visitor to the Board of Commissioners was Francis Carbonneaux, prothonotary and notary public for the Illinois country. Although he came to get some private affairs settled, his chief mission was to lay before the Board the confusion in Illinois, and the Board correctly surmised that if Virginia did not afford relief the messenger [pg 043] would proceed to Congress.[81] It was but natural that at this time, the people of Illinois should be in doubt as to whom to present their petition, because Virginia had offered to cede her western lands to Congress, although the terms of cession were not yet agreed upon. Carbonneaux complained that Illinois was wholly without law or government; that the magistrates, from indolence or sinister views, had for some time been lax in the execution of their duties, and were now altogether without authority; that crimes of the greatest enormity might be committed with impunity, and a man be murdered in his own house and no one regard it; that there was neither sheriff nor prison; and to crown the general confusion, that many persons had made large purchases of three and four hundred leagues, and were endeavoring to have themselves established lords of the soil, as some had done in Canada, and to have settlements made on these purchases, composed of a set of men wholly subservient to their views. The Spanish traded freely in Illinois, but strictly prohibited Illinois from trading in Spanish dominions. Complaint was also made that the Board of Commissioners had not settled the Illinois accounts in peltry according to the known rule and practice, namely: that fifty pounds of peltry should represent one hundred livres in money.