The Military Tract–Perils of Frontier Life–Gathering Settlements About Black Hawk’s Village–Friction–Attempted Compromise–Correspondence–Gaines at Fort Armstrong.
It may be possible that this fresh outbreak was superinduced by the gradual appearance of the hated American further and further northward toward Black Hawk’s village, but, if true, the act was indefensible as it was meddlesome. He deliberately assisted in precipitating the trouble between Red Bird (who was a remarkably decent Indian) and the Americans, without the slightest provocation.
By acts of Congress[[63]] bounty land warrants were voted to the soldiers of the war of “’twelve,” and for their especial benefit the so-called “Military Tract” was erected in the State of Illinois, comprising the territory between the Illinois and Mississippi rivers, 169 miles north to a line drawn from the great bend of the river above Peru to the Mississippi, containing 5,360,000 acres.[[64]] Into this, two classes of settlers poured–as Catlin aptly put it, “the overwhelming torrent of emigration to the ‘Far West.’”
From the conclusion of the first peace with Great Britain, the native white population increased at a ratio astonishing to the observer and writer of those days, particularly James Hall, and with the advent of the “twenties” the overflow was moving into this “Military Tract.” One class comprised the soldier, who was the beneficiary, with his family, while the other was composed of families from Kentucky and Tennessee, the purchasers of those warrants, which had been gradually working northward from the beginning of the century, and which up to this time largely predominated in the population of Illinois. In both of these classes were the Indian fighters; men whose homes had been desolated or whose fathers and mothers had been murdered by blood-thirsty savages; men whose bodies carried lead placed there by Indian muskets, and who, from sad experience, were not likely to receive with composure the raids of bandit Sacs. These men were tired of tilling the soil with rifles lashed to the plowbeam and of being constantly called away from the field to awful scenes of carnage, where perhaps neighbor or wife or child had just been burned at the stake. Gen. A.C. Dodge, who was a pioneer by birth, a man whose honesty of purpose and soundness of judgment on Indian questions have never yet been questioned, forcibly illustrated those conditions in a speech at the semi-centennial of Burlington, Iowa: “In the settlement of Kentucky five of my father’s uncles fell under the Indian hatchet. Among the incidents of his very earliest recollection was to have seen the dead and bleeding body of one of those uncles borne in the arms of another on horseback to the stockade fort in which they lived. My own brother, Henry LaFayette Dodge, * * * was captured and burned to death at the stake.”
James Hall, the friend and defender of the Indian, has pictured the vicissitudes of the pioneers who blazed the way for later generations to follow. Among other things, we find, on page 152, Vol. 2, “Sketches of the West,” the following:
“They left behind them all the comforts of life. They brought but little furniture, but few farming implements, and no store of provisions. Until their lands were cleared and brought into culture, and their domestic animals became productive, they depended for subsistence chiefly upon the game of the forest. They ate their fresh meat without salt, without vegetables, and in many instances without bread; and they slept in cabins hastily erected, of green logs, and in which they were exposed to much of the inclemency of the weather. To their other sufferings that of sickness was often added; and they found themselves assailed, in situations where medical assistance could not be procured, by diseases of sudden development and fatal character.
“While thus overburthened by toil and assailed by disaster, the settler found employment for all the energy of his character and all the inventive powers of his mind. The savage was watching, with malignant vigilance, to grasp every opportunity to harass the intruder into the hunting grounds of his fathers. Sometimes he contented himself with seizing the horses or driving away the cattle of the emigrant, depriving the wretched family of the means of support, and reserving the consummation of his vengeance to a future occasion; sometimes, with a subtle refinement of cruelty, the Indian warrior crept into a settlement by stealth, and created universal dismay by stealing away a child, or robbing a family of the wife and mother; sometimes a father was the victim, and the widow and orphans were thrown upon the protection of the friends who, on such occasions, were never deaf to the claims of the unfortunate, while as often the yelling band surrounded the peaceful cabin at the midnight hour, applied the firebrand to the slight fabric, and murdered the whole of its defenseless inmates.”
Exhausted by such scenes, these men had come to Illinois with their children, whose tender memories had gathered material never to be effaced, to enjoy peaceful pursuits and erect homes for their families. When, therefore, Black Hawk sought to renew such tactics, he trod the mine which exploded and tore his power to shreds. The final conflict was inevitable, and though during the first portion of the campaign, for want of discipline, those spirited, independent and unrestrained young fellows brought no great honor to their arms, when the iron hand of Gen. James D. Henry brought them to reason, they marched with a grim determination to avenge the murders of their ancestors by hurling Black Hawk forever from the power to molest them more, and they did it in a manner sufficiently decisive.
In 1829[[65]] these settlers, observing the fertility of the lands at the mouth of Rock River, the protecting influence of a Government fort, pushed over to that point and squatted upon the lands there. Settlements multiplying by the reputation of the land, the President was persuaded that the time had come to survey and open them up for sale, and he issued his proclamation accordingly. This survey included the village occupied by Black Hawk.
It has been urged by some that there was no necessity for opening up this tract for settlement, because the nearest settlements were far away, leaving an extensive belt between, which should first have been occupied. Who is to judge of man’s choice in the public domain but the man himself? The fort and public buildings made a respectable settlement by themselves. Add to these the traders and a garrison with all the hangers-on, and the neighborhood became an inviting one for settlers. The mines to the north were booming; the river boats were carrying great numbers of passengers, who always stopped at this point, and one must repeat, why should it not be attractive?