Reinforced by several companies under Colonel Christian, General Lewis crossed the river, with the intention of joining Lord Dunmore near Chillicothe. At Salt Licks (now Jackson, Ohio) he had orders to halt his troops. Suspecting the motives of Lord Dunmore, he disregarded the orders and pressed on. Near Chillicothe Dunmore made a treaty with the Ohio Indians, who promised not to hunt south of the Ohio, and not to molest voyagers on the river. Lord Dunmore's conduct in changing the plan of the campaign, which left General Lewis exposed to a separate attack, and his subsequent conduct in making peace with the Indians before he had punished them for their breach of former treaties, were regarded by the soldiers engaged as premeditated treachery. This impression was confirmed by the plot he later made with Indians to ravage the settlements of Virginia, and by his hasty departure from the colony. His real motives will never be known. The initial scenes in the drama of the Revolutionary War were in progress. His position as a Tory governor was embarrassing, and naturally inspired suspicion in the minds of the colonists.[1488]
While the Dunmore War was in progress, the "Quebec Bill" was discussed and enacted by the British Parliament. The bill so enlarged the boundaries of the province of Quebec that it made the Ohio and Mississippi rivers its southern and western limits, and the whole Northwest territory a part of Canada. The bill in its passage did not escape the protest of Lord Chatham, Edmund Burke, Charles James Fox, Colonel Barré, and the corporation of the city of London.[1489] The colonies, at the time of the enactment of the Quebec Bill, made complaint concerning it "for establishing the Roman Catholic religion in the province of Quebec, abolishing the equitable system of English laws, and erecting a tyranny there, to the great danger (from so total a dissimilarity of religion, law, and government) of the neighboring colonies."[1490] Its real purpose and effect, however, of robbing the American colonies of 240,000 square miles of territory which had already been ceded to them in their charters, and establishing the Mississippi and the Ohio rivers as Canadian boundaries, in case of war and a separation of the Eastern colonies from the mother country, were not mentioned, and seem not to have been considered. The colonies then had little interest in, and scarcely a thought of, the country beyond the Alleghanies. During the war, however, they learned something of the value of the West; and in the negotiations for peace, in 1782-3, the Quebec Bill was often recurred to as one of the principal causes of the Revolution.[1491]
For several years after the close of the Dunmore War the Western Indians were again quiet. They heard with satisfaction of the opening battles of the Revolution, and were not in haste to take the war-path for either side. Except at the British post of Detroit, the sentiments of the settlers west of the mountains were intensely anti-English. The Eastern colonies were too much occupied in their own defence to give any attention to what was happening at the West. The hardy pioneers, left to themselves, conducted their own campaigns. They were not enrolled in the Continental army, and they knew little of, and cared less for, the Continental Congress and the great commander-in-chief of the army. They recognized only the authority of Virginia; and, as voluntary and patriotic rangers, they achieved some of the most important and brilliant victories of the war, concerning which the official proceedings of Congress, and the voluminous correspondence of Washington and of other prominent actors in the war, make scarcely a mention.
The northeastern portion of Kentucky was explored by Dr. Walker in 1747, the central portion by Daniel Boone and others in 1769, and the northwestern portion in 1773. The first log cabin in Kentucky was built by James Harrod at Harrodsburg, Mercer County, in 1774, and the first fort by Boone, at Boonesborough, Madison County, in June, 1775.[1492] About this time George Rogers Clark made an exploring tour in Kentucky, and in the autumn returned to his home in Albemarle County, Virginia.[1493] In the following spring he went back to Kentucky; and, in view of the depredations which the Ohio Indians were committing on the settlements, called a meeting of the pioneers at Harrodsburg to devise a plan of defence. His plan was to appoint delegates who should proceed to Williamsburg and petition the Assembly that Kentucky be made a county of Virginia. The meeting, however, acting before his arrival and against his judgment, elected him and Gabriel Jones to be members of the Virginia Assembly. Their journey through the trackless wilderness and across the mountains was attended with great suffering, and they arrived after the legislature had adjourned. Patrick Henry was the governor. Before him and the Council, Clark laid the claim of Kentuckians to be regarded as citizens of Virginia, and asked for five hundred pounds of powder as a gift for their protection. He was heard with attention and respect, but was told that the Council had no authority to furnish the gunpowder as a gift. It could be loaned to the Kentuckians as friends, but not as citizens. Clark refused to accept it on such conditions, and left, saying, "A country which is not worth defending is not worth claiming." He was called back, and an order on the commandant at Fort Pitt was given to him for the powder. At the autumn session of the legislature Kentucky was made a county of Virginia.[1494]
On returning to Kentucky Clark found the country more disturbed than ever. The Ohio Indians were invading it with larger parties; they lay in ambush about every fort,[1495] and murdered the luckless soldier of the garrison who ventured outside the stockade. Clark seriously pondered over this alarming state of affairs, and came to the conclusion that the strategic points for defending Kentucky were on the north side of the Ohio River. He had probably never heard of Scipio Africanus and of his policy of fighting the enemy in the enemy's country. Without disclosing his thoughts to any one, he sent, during the summer of 1777, two young hunters as spies to Kaskaskia and Vincennes, and, having received favorable reports, started in October[1496] for Williamsburg. There, on December 10th, he laid before Governor Henry his plan for the conquest of the Northwest territory from the British, whom he regarded as the instigators of the Indian raids upon Kentucky. He also consulted confidentially with George Mason, George Wythe, and Thomas Jefferson. They, with the governor, were enthusiastic for the execution of his scheme and took immediate steps to furnish him with ammunition and supplies.
A PLAN OF CASCASKIES (Kaskaskia).
Reduced from a plate in Philip Pittman's Present State of the European Settlements on the Mississippi (London, 1770). Key: A, The fort. B, The Jesuits. C, Formerly commanding officer's house. D, The church. The river is about 450 feet wide, which will afford a scale to the rest of the plan.—Ed.
The recent surrender of Burgoyne at Saratoga had inspired a new energy in the conduct of the war. The necessary legislation was obtained under the pretext that the supplies were for the defence of Kentucky. Twelve hundred pounds, in the depreciated currency of Virginia, was voted him for expenses in the enemy's country. In January, 1778, Clark received from Governor Henry the rank of colonel, and two sets of instructions: one, which was public, for the defence of Kentucky; and the other, which was secret, for an "attack on the British post at Kaskaskia." He was empowered to raise seven companies, of fifty men each, in any county of the commonwealth, to act as militia under his orders.[1497] He began recruiting, under his public orders, at Fort Pitt, but with little success, owing to quarrels between Virginia and Pennsylvania, and the opposition to the policy of sending soldiers, who were needed there, to defend Kentucky.[1498] After much tribulation he raised three companies, and took them down the river to Corn Island, at the Falls of the Ohio, opposite Louisville. Several companies that had been recruited elsewhere were promised him, but they did not arrive. Some of his men deserted, but enough Kentuckians joined him to make up four companies, or nearly two hundred men.[1499] Here he divulged the secret of their destination, and read to the men his confidential instructions. They willingly accepted the situation, and the next day the expedition started. As their boats shot the falls, the sun was in total eclipse, which fixes the date as June 24, 1778. He had just received from Fort Pitt the news of the treaty of alliance between France and the United States, which he could use to advantage with the French settlers at Kaskaskia. With two relays at the oars, he ran the boats day and night, and on the 28th landed on an island at the mouth of the Cherokee (Tennessee) River. Here a party of white hunters, who had been at Kaskaskia eight days before, was brought in, and they volunteered to accompany him. Nine miles below the island, and one mile above old Fort Massac, they ran into a small creek, concealed their boats, and without a cannon,[1500] a horse, or any means of transporting baggage or supplies, took up their march of more than a hundred miles across the prairies.[1501]