The plaintiffs did not claim Nash on this latter ground, however. Their contention was for the absolute right to hold Nash during his natural life and dispose of him as they pleased. Their conduct toward him showed that they unlawfully attempted to, and did successfully, exercise for years the right of absolute control over him, until he at last sought safety in flight. Since no evidence had been produced to show that Nash had forfeited his freedom because of conviction for crime, the decision was given for him with costs. Thus did the Supreme Court of the slave state of Louisiana uphold the free character of the soil of Illinois, and rescue a free man from bondage, at a time when slavery openly flourished here, and slaves were bought and sold and held in bondage even by such prominent characters as the governor of the territory.
CHAPTER VII
NINE YEARS OF GARRISON LIFE
The privations and loneliness of life at the new post on the Chicago River in the years following 1803 can be imagined by most readers only with difficulty. Only those who have experienced the deadly dullness of military routine at an isolated station can appreciate it properly. All witnesses agree in testifying to the overpowering loneliness of life under such conditions as prevailed at Fort Dearborn from 1803 to 1812. "In compassion to a poor devil banished to another planet," wrote Governor St. Clair, from Cincinnati, to Alexander Hamilton, in 1795, "tell me what is doing in yours, if you can snatch a moment from the weighty cares of your office."[373] One day in October, 1817, a year after the establishment of the second Fort Dearborn, Samuel A. Storrow, who was making a tour through the Northwest, appeared on the north bank of the Chicago River, and shortly after entered the fort, where he was received "as one arrived from the moon."[374] A British officer, writing from Mackinac in 1796, laments as follows: "You talk of your place being duller than ever, &c., believe me it cannot be put in competition with ours for dullness, jealousy, and envy, with all the etceteras mentioned in yours."[375] And Captain Heald, writing from Fort Dearborn in June, 1810, within a few days of his taking command there, announces that unless he can obtain a leave of absence to go to New England the coming autumn he will resign the service, and leave the command to another. It is a good place for a man with a family, who can be content to "live so remote from the civilized part of the world."
[373] Smith, The St. Clair Papers, II, 318.
[374] Wisconsin Historical Collections, VI, 179.
[375] Michigan Pioneer Collections, XII, 211.
The little establishment at Fort Dearborn constituted a miniature world, with interests and ambitions quite detached from those of the larger world outside. The principal means of contact with the latter was afforded by the traders who passed through Chicago, proceeding with their merchandise to the Indian country or returning therefrom with the fruits of their barter. They brought the news of the outside world to the inmates of the garrison and surrounding cabins. Each year a vessel from Detroit or Mackinac brought a supply of merchandise to the traders at Milwaukee, Chicago, and St. Joseph, and took back the stock of furs accumulated by them.[376] Aside from these visits there were official communications from time to time between the commanding officers of the little group of northwestern posts, to which Fort Dearborn belonged, and advantage was taken of the opportunity thus presented to transmit letters and items of private import. Occasionally, too, the brig, "Adams," constituting the chief part of Commodore Brevoort's "navy of the lakes," would pay a visit to Chicago. It must have been an occasion of rare excitement in the lives of the inmates of Fort Dearborn when Kingsbury passed through Chicago with a company of troops in the spring of 1805, on his way to superintend the establishment of Fort Belle Fontaine near the mouth of the Missouri River.[377]
[376] Antoine le Claire's statement in Wisconsin Historical Collections, XI, 239-40.
[377] For the facts concerning this expedition see the Kingsbury Papers, letter book, passim.
Only belated rumors of the events of the outside world ordinarily penetrated the seclusion of Fort Dearborn. From November until May it was as isolated as though on another planet. We have in epitome the story of the failure of one attempt, made by Captain Whistler in December, 1809, to break this isolation. He obtained a month's leave of absence to journey to Cincinnati.[378] Today the round trip may be made and a fair day's business transacted in twenty-four hours. Whistler left Chicago the last of November and reached Fort Wayne December 10, "much fatigued after 11 days wairy traveling through rain and snow." The water was so high that his further progress was prevented. Finding it impossible, should he proceed, to be back at his post by the end of the month, he prepared to return to Fort Dearborn, grateful to his superior for the opportunity accorded him as though he had succeeded in making the journey.