1790-95.

Movements of Genet.

421

shall not at this time enter into any discussion of its merits and defects.

A second subject to be noticed is the attempt of the agents of the French minister in the United States, to enlist the citizens of Kentucky in an attack upon the dominions of Spain in the southwest. We cannot, and need not, do more than refer to the state of feeling prevalent in America, in relation to France, from 1792 to 1795, On the 21st of January, 1793, the French had taken the life of their monarch, and upon the 18th of May, M. Genet, was presented to Washington as the representative of the new republic of France.* This man brought with him open instructions, in which the United States were spoken of as naturally neutral in the contest between France and united Holland, Spain and England; and secret instructions, the purpose of which was to induce the Government, and if that could not be done, the People, of the American republic, to make common cause with the founders of the dynasty of the guillotine. In pursuance of this plan, Genet began a system of operations, the tendency of which was, to involve the People of the United States in a war with the enemies of France, without any regard to the views of the federal government; and knowing very well the old bitterness of the frontier-men in relation to the navigation of the Mississippi, he formed the plan of embodying a band of troops beyond the Alleghanies for the conquest of Louisiana. Early in November, 1793, four persons were sent westward to raise troops and issue commissions in the name of the French republic. They moved openly and boldly, secure in the strong democratic feelings of the inhabitants of the region drained by the great river which Spain controlled; and so far succeeded as to persuade even the political founder of Kentucky, George Rogers Clark, to become a Major General in the armies of France, and Commander-in-chief of the revolutionary forces on the Mississippi. § Nor did the French emissaries much mistake the temper of the people of the West,¶

* Pitkin's United States, ii. 359.

+ Pitkin's U. States, ii. 360.-Marshall's Washington, v. 410.-See a pamphlet by Genet, giving his instructions and the correspondence between the federal government and himself, published in Philadelphia, 1793.

See the correspondence between Jefferson and Genet. American State Papers, 141 to 188.

See documents, American State Papers, i. 454 to 460.

§ Clark's proposals are in Marshall, ii. 103.

¶ See American State Papers, i. 454 to 460, and Marshall's Kentucky, ii. 99 to 101, as to correspondence of Governor Shelby and his course in relation to Genet.-Also Butler's Kentucky, 224 to 234, and 524 to 531.

422

Addresses of the Democratic Society.

1790-95 as will be evident from the following extracts, the first of which is from an address "to the inhabitants of the United States west of the Alleghany and Appalachian mountains," dated December 13th, 1793; the other from a remonstrance to the President and Congress of the United States of America, which is without date, but was prepared about the same time as the first paper.

December 13, 1793. Fellow-citizens:-The Democratic Society of Kentucky having had under consideration the measures necessary to obtain the exercise of your rights to the free navigation of the Mississippi, have determined to address you upon that important topic. In so doing they think that they only use the undoubted right of citizens to consult for their com mon welfare. This measure is not dictated by party or faction; it is the consequence of unavoidable necessity. It has become so from the neglect shown by the General Government, to obtain for those of the citizens of the United States who are interested therein the navigation of that river.

*

Experience, fellow-citizens, has shown us that the General Government is unwilling that we should obtain the navigation of the river Mississippi. A local policy appears to have an undue weight in the councils of the Union. It seems to be the object of that policy to prevent the population of this country, which would draw from the eastern states their industrious citizens. This conclusion inevitably follows from a consideration of the measures taken to prevent the purchase and settlement of the lands bordering on the Mississippi. Among those measures, the unconstitutional interference which rescinded sales, by one of the States, to private individuals, makes a striking object. And perhaps the fear of a successful rivalship, in every article of their exports, may have its weight. But, if they are not unwilling to do us justice, they are at least regardless of our rights and welfare. We have found prayers and supplications of no avail, and should we continue to load the table of Congress with memorials, from a part only of the western country, it is too probable that they would meet with a fate similar to those which have been formerly presented. Let us, then, all unite our endeavors in the common cause. Let all join in a firm and manly remonstrance to the President and Congress of the United States, stating our just and undoubted right to the navigation of the Mississippi, remonstrating against the conduct of government with regard to that right, which must have been occasioned by local policy or neglect, and demanding of them speedy and effectual exertions for its attainment. We cannot doubt that you will cordially and unanimously join in this measure. It can hardly be necessary to remind you that considerable quantities of beef, pork, flour, hemp, tobacco, &c., the produce of this

1790-95. Addresses of the Democratic Society.

423

country, remain on hand for want of purchasers, or are sold at inadequate prices. Much greater quantities might be raised if the inhabitants were encouraged by the certain sale which the free navigation of the Mississippi would afford. An additional increase of those articles, and a greater variety of produce and manufactures, would be supplied, by means of the encouragement, which the attainment of that great object would give to emigration. But it is not only your own rights which you are to regard: remember that your posterity have a claim to your exertions to obtain and secure that right. Let not your memory be stigmatised with a neglect of duty. Let not history record that the inhabitants of this beautiful country lost a most invaluable right, and half the benefits bestowed upon it by a bountiful Providence, through your neglect and supineness. The present crisis is favorable. Spain is engaged in a war which requires all her forces. If the present golden opportunity be suffered to pass without advantage, and she shall have concluded a peace with France, we must then contend against her undivided strength.

But what may be the event of the proposed application is still uncertain. We ought, therefore to be still upon our guard, and watchful to seize the first favorable opportunity to gain our object. In order to this, our union should be as perfect and lasting as possible. We propose that societies should be formed, in convenient districts, in every part of the western country, who shall preserve a correspondence upon this and every other subject of a general concern. By means of these societies we shall be enabled speedily to know what may be the result of our endeavors, to consult upon such further measures as may be necessary to preserve union, and, finally, by these means, to secure success.

Remember that it is a common cause which ought to unite us, that cause is indubitably just, that ourselves and posterity are interested, that the crisis is favorable, and that it is only by union that the object can be achieved. The obstacles are great, and so ought to be our efforts. Adverse fortune may attend us, but it shall never dispirit us. We may for a while exhaust our wealth and strength, but until the all-important object is procured, we pledge ourselves to you, and let us all pledge ourselves to each other, that our perseverance and our friendship will be inexhaustible. JOHN BRECKENRIDGE, Chairman.

Test:-THOMAS TODD,

THOMAS BODLEY, Clerks.

To the President and Congress of the United States of America. The remonstrance of the subscribers, citizens of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, showeth :

That your remonstrants, and the other inhabitants of the United States, west of the Allegany and Apalachian mountains, are entitled, by

424

Addresses of the Democratic Society.

1790-95 nature and stipulation, to the free and undisturbed navigation of the river Mississippi; and that, from the year 1783 to this day, they have been prevented uniformly, by the Spanish king, from exercising that right. Your remonstrants have observed, with concern, that the General Government, whose duty it was to have preserved that right, have used no effectual measures for its attainment; that even their tardy and ineffectual negotiations have been veiled with the most mysterious secrecy; that that secrecy is a violation of the political rights of the citizen, as it declares that the people are unfit to be entrusted with important facts relative to their rights, and that their servants may retain from them the knowledge of those facts. Eight years are surely sufficient for the discussion of the most doubtful and disputable claim. The right to the navigation of the Mississippi admits neither of doubt nor dispute. Your remonstrants, therefore, conceive that the negotiations on that subject have been unnecessarily lengthy, and they expect that it be demanded categorically of the Spanish king whether he will acknowledge the right of the citizens of the United States to the free and uninterrupted navigation of the River Mississippi, and cause all obstructions, interruption, and hindrance to the exercise of that right, in future, to be withdrawn and avoided; that immediate answer thereto be required, and that such answer be the final period of all negotiations upon this subject.

Your remonstrants further represent, that the encroachment of the Spaniards upon the territory of the United States, is a striking and melancholy proof of the situation to which our country will be reduced, if a tame policy should still continue to direct our councils.

Your remonstrants join their voice to that of their fellow-citizens in the Atlantic States, calling for satisfaction for the injuries and insults offered to America; and they expect such satisfaction shall extend to every injury and insult done or offered to any part of America, by Great Britain and Spain; and as the detention of the posts, and the interruption to the navigation of the Mississippi, are injuries and insults of the greatest atrocity, and of the longest duration, they require the most par ticular attention to those subjects.*

But the government had taken measures to prevent the proposed movements from being carried into effect. The Governor of Kentucky, Isaac Shelby; Governor St. Clair; and General Wayne, were all written to : and, by the preparation of troops, the renewal of Fort Massac,† the dissemination of just views among the people, and the request made of the French government that Genet should be recalled, the plans of that mischief-maker and his

* American State Papers, xx. 929, 930.

+ See American Pioneer, ii. 220.-See on the whole subject, Marshall ii. 96 to 122.

1790-95.

Genet's plans defeated.

425

; agents were effectually defeated: the rulers of France disowned his acts-he was ordered back to Europe-and in May 1794 his western emissary was forced to write to the Democratic Society of Lexington in these words:

To the Democratic Society of Lexington.

Citizens-Events, unforeseen, the effects of causes which it is unnecessary here to develope, have stopped the march of two thousand brave Kentuckians, who, strong in their courage, in the justice of their rights, their cause, the general assent of their fellow-citizens, and convinced of the brotherly dispositions of the Louisianians, waited only for their orders to go, by the strength of their arms, take from the Spaniards the despotic usurpers of the empire of the Mississippi, ensure to their country the navigation of it, break the chains of the Americans, and their brethren the French, hoist up the flag of liberty in the name of the French republic, and lay the foundation of the prosperity and happiness of two nations situated so, and destined by nature to be but one, the most happy in the universe.

Accept, citizens, the farewell, not the last, of a brother who is determined to sacrifice every thing in his power for the liberty of his country, and the prosperity of the generous inhabitants of Kentucky.

Salut en la patrie,

AUGUSTE LACHAISE.*

A third topic relative to Kentucky, which we have now to notice as connected with the period we are treating of, is the Spanish intrigue with Wilkinson, Sebastian, Innis, and Nicholas.

American State Papers, xx. 931.-This letter was followed by a meeting in Lexington, which denounced Washingtou and all who supported him, especially Jay. It also proposed a convention for the indefinite purpose of deliberating on the steps expedient to secure the just rights of the people: the proposition produced no result.-See Butler's Kentucky, 234.-Up to April, 1794, there were preparations still going on ; John S. Gano of Cincinnati, on the 8th or 9th of that month, passed through Lexington; he found the Genet plan generally liked, cannon casting, ammunition subscribed, and heard of boats building at the Falls. It had been previously dropped for a time from want of funds. -See American State Papers, i. 459, 460.

Notwithstanding Genet's defeat, M. Adet, the minister of France in 1796, appears to have sent emissaries into the West in the spring of that year, to renew the process of exciting disaffection to the Union. They were General Collot and M. Warin. Information of the plan having been communicated to the executive, an agent was sent after the Frenchmen to watch them, and counteract their purposes. This person saw Collot at Pittsburgh, and learned his plans; he was to visit Kentucky, Fort Washington, the Southwest, Vincennes, Kaskaskia and St. Louis; he carried strong letters to Wilkinson, and relied especially on Sebastian. The government appears to have brought the whole plot to nought in silence.-(See the memoranda of Oliver Wolcott, Secretary of Treasury; the letter of the agent employed; &c. &c. in George Gibbs' “ Memoirs of the Administrations of Washington and John Adams. New York, 1846." Vol. i. 350 to 356.)