Show f t t r l sa 1 ea ck 1 1 1 I 1 sP r rl l t Louia o Lc t cz- cz o r a ap p I t 1 I 9 r Nashville Jo c boron h r rt t San p N. N F m a a 1 tJ tf urI s 's h C 1 r r 1 x y 5 e e 14 it 1 4 V e C E K s p CN 1 Y t S r rV ah I r l A i E t e VT V r V I r 4 sr 1 Q 1 e 9 s ti Q t V 1 AUtu U c 1 tr THE OLD T r T Cr r h By ELMO SCOTT WATSON V 0 o THE TUC average American the history hIst ry of the Revolution in its general outline outline outline out out- line Is a familiar stor story tile story the oppression oppression oppression sion of British rule in n America the J I rebellion of the Thirteen Colonies the Declaration of Independence ence the selection of George Washington to lead the Continental arm array army the long weary struggle against wh what t seemed t l at times hopeless odds and then Yorktown tartan and victory Then so they think the e tr iI Republic with the hero of the Revolution nc sits a its first President started on its triumphant war tetir toward becoming what we fondly believe b lle e b 6 be to the greatest nation on earth But nut they tow br to comparatively little of those stormy years ibich intervened ened between the signing of th the ty tr of peace am and the adoption of the Const Const- fo tian ID ncr ner of the troubled trouble waters through which foto to ee new ow ship of state was compelled to sail sailor or ioe oe it reached readied a safe afe haven I fl est ast of all do they realize that scarcely was wast t Resolution Re over than these new states not lit jet ld truly Imly united states even nm though there was a n aMeral sterol Meral government almost had a revolution re of W car own onn upon their hands It will be a n surprise Beany many to know that there was a n time in the fir history of our nation when the people of r section of the country were looking upon those jl i mother as oppressors just as much as the Colonies had looked looke upon King George 1 cj ni his big ministers as ns t tyrannical rulers were io to fight b for their independence so 50 sop p t they could set up a union of their own and I efen seeking foreign aid in their project I iet these are the facts that that modern historical bol hIp Is bringing to light and giving to toI I caDS ans a better conception of the many trials ugh l which their nation was borne and the factors Involved in making that nation t It Is toda today One of the latest of the theof of this scholarship Is the book The American Frontier by Arthur Preston recently published b by y the Houghton J company of Boston which deals with this I neglected gl period in American history I P story torI has bas been touched upon by various his his- I I an such as Roosevelt noose Windsor and Uen lender lender- er J P- P but bot none Done of them has attempted to connect 9 all the links In the story When Roosevelt t f stance Instance wrote his tits Winning Winnin of the West Vest tell but little that was c certain about this 1 j cod od Now Kw however it ca can n be told with greaty great great- for Doctor Whitaker by spending ears U Sears ears as ns Amherst Memorial Fellow from he t colle college e In France Spain England rind Find L to the Spanish archives has written the g narrative of the days dais da s 's when through a tin g g web of intrigue and diplomacy the Hie c It frontiersmen of the old South South- t l' l r burst their way through gh h to 0 tits the Mississippi r. r A Dramatic Story 1 I Ad story Is that and It li Is ls an Interest interest- I h a y of actors who o appear from time to time the drama d rama a There are rough necked back back- t n of the Daniel Boone breed and courtly n of the kin king g of Spain Scotch fur furj j and d half half breed eed chiefs of Creek and Chero- Chero ns Picturesque rn rascals cals venal legIs lebis P nd d a host of others Across the stage stag t f do de Galt Galvez ez who whose e c conquest of oft Flo t fr aa a from the British during the tits gu lard as J the t e beginning Sinning of the contest between alian II antl M American frontiersmen Conde de dej j u ca u the e crafty Spanish minister nt frOMI ky Jack Sevier Indian fighter fisher Idol oft of J 11 t klin and and founder of the short lived state l t V ee ee James es Robertson the Father of tor or I Gen Cen James Wilkinson the con arch n as con r and am ken d some me lesser lights in ills Isis his plots such h t njamin jamin in Sebastian and Harr Harry y lanes Innes i y T Then tt more lore r there are others whose names r hT or over Oter er r hi his George f Geor amilar-Geor M George g a no Rogers ers Clark Clare b brood brood- r I 4 Wr wrongS g at the hands of ti a nation heso he Ie fed uSo so well Patrick Henry still sUB con n nI to t I tl PI th H a cause be of human liberty y John Tn Jay bIdle II fi n y P and above all nil others the I tle e h Whole guru ure of George Georte Washington terII Dots tory Story of the intrigue th the plots and andon amI t on n 1 til the beers t treaties a and n the tits viii various c 1 III by P Ene the e diplomatic chessboard made mad b by hy hyI 5 1 En Nc do 2 gland ure by b France FIance Hn and ind by the young un I t tat F lf tea Use des na Hon js i just emerging from Its wul wulF l t n to too o long to be told here here- nut But thet the t Idi t tt 1 to It the th brought the a men men of the western wester n j tit hren n on verge rge of a It r revolution evolution against their n th the t tJ tt kit b t eln e Atlantic se seaboard ab n aid is found In t the he er o e over S n find anti the mw new n w Republic for forM er r th afro e 11 te M nil th the Old Southwest shown In t the thea he fi nd 1 a and the fife crux of that situation which H d dim ax Just years ado ajo was fuss whether U GENERAL REFERENCE MAP LEGEND t C Spanish posts C o c Towns Towne on oaths tM American frontlet lr Stippled area represents American r I frontier settlements about 1790 25 lO 1 1 r or not Spain had the the right to l close the Mississippi l to the I frontiersmen I who had settled in that ter ter- 11 tory In one of the chapters in The S Spanish Spanish- American rIc n Frontier Doctor Whitaker tells of r that J known chapter In in American history as as' as aso f follows follows' II o By the very mod mode e 0 of r It its s settlement the West Nest of our period was dedicated c to i I. I e. e the are theory which leaves each state a in a federation f freeto free freo er oro to promote mote Its own Interests without It o regard to the whole h Its communities n were established by the theIn tin lel individual Initiative of land speculator ator and In flat fiat defiance of or the colonial governments of or orf JI lo North Carolina and Virginia Virginia-as Virginia I as in the case case of the no Holston settlements e of r western n North Carolina and Si Richard f l Henderson's Hendersons colony o of Transylvania ransy vania In Kentucky or Kentucky Kentucky- or r with at mo most the tho passive s acquiescence C lr enco of the revolutionary state governments as In Inthe Inthe the 0 case of or Cumberland By ny their own 0 efforts ts f these settlements maintained themselves receiving e l r from om th the parent foster-parent state little more mor th than n th the skeleton leton of government which they themselves had hado to o Invest with living substance The The frontiersmen felt that the Atlantic states were much more interested Interested interested inter Inter- ested in western lands than In western people and that even oven with the best best will In the tho th world legislatures legislatures legislatures legisla- legisla legisla legisla- tures sitting at Williamsburg Va and Hillsborough Hillsborough Hills Hills- borough borouSh N. N N C. C were Incapacitated by remoteness and the Intervening mountains from giving good government to the Mississippi valley settlements Current Ideas with regard to natural frontiers and and the economic basis basil of ot political systems pointed to the erection of these western communities Into separate states with equal membership in Federal Federal Federal Fed Fed- eral Union If Indeed they remained a part of it at all The example of or the American Revolution so vividly recent exerted a powerful Influence over the frontiersmen who now thought of themselves with of oppressed colonists as aR playing th the part the Atlantic governments in the role rolo of the tyrant formerly filled by George III Declaiming In the of Patrick Henry and ami Samuel Adams manner against taxation and misgovernment the frontiersmen frontiers frontiers- various the through its men followed process of or conventions petitions and stages the culminating step of a declaration of Inde Inde- to At first however they sought only what the Atlantic colonists had at first tried to secure as autonomous members members mem mem- England recognition from situation federative empire This was the bers bars of a the Indignation of the 1786 when 1783 to from frontier rosier was vas directed against the Individual states state professed devotion to alone and the frontiersmen congress situation assumed a new and danger danser- dangerous In In 1786 1785 the s illusion of of or a benefIcent beneficent beneficent The he ous aspect was shat shattered red and many many of them congress continued the advisability of a began to question terms whatever what what- the Atlantic states on any union with due in part of sentiment was This change chanse e ever authorizing the conclusion con con- conclusion of congress to the resolution that would close the with Spain treaty aty of a elusion for a generation Mississippi American shipping Mississippi to of or congress was was adopt adopted d The secret resolution following December it In August August 1786 SO and by the In KentuckY The indignation was common property was hot white and they there tion of the people sacrificed for th the benefit ben- ben been that they had protested and farmers fishermen edt of eastern Increased their Ire lr- against Other grievances Franklin had applied fo for r of congress The state and had been rebutted rebuffed Union the admIssion to communIties expect more frontier r Might other Indian policy of congress The friendly treatment to offensive to them Unable pr was as still m more re against the northern tribes congress con con- the tho Kentuckians the southern Indians Indian actuallY to favor gress seemed In western North Caro- Caro over their white neighbors negotiated a treaty with lina Its commissioners In December 1785 that the Cherokee Indians In North Carolina and resentment aroused keen rt the frontiersmen but buton buton Virginia not merely among the a well for It restored to as coast on the Atlantic cuara guarantee tee lands granted Indians under under a the aut authority of the state of ofa a and settled North horth Carolina the end of 1786 there that by The result was the West Nest who were threatening threat threat- In were many people separation from the parent states ening not merely from the United on the Atlantic but secessIon autonomy but outright States It was no longer lonser frontiersmen rod radical ca the more that Independence this new phase of particular particular- wore were planning and dangerous rous because Its goal the more Ism was all Mississippi AT valley republic The union a new themselves a was th they described which phrase with suggested unity very waters Western the men of or the or of union unton all ot of the these settlements settlements set set- cj tits tile bond bona o Ohio Indicting waters of the tits by the vins uj ton On situated were Cumberland erand plateau Indian affairs the trie matters mat mat- on or near Mississippi were m the or of n and d the tho navigation st In to these soft settlements and d common interest satisfaction of or orthe tern of managed to the thc when they were P not m addresses were cir cir- circulated cire e People there correspondence formed th the of and c committees nl Franklin and even evenIn nl nd Kentucky Cu far tho the frontiersmen had In Ys So far western iy imitated the patriots of and ana consciouslY had not they closely that one step 16 76 but t there here was still sought nl foreign aid against t taken they pricy had not ye yet curiously ly enough much wa was There the thet oppressor but It came to nothing r. r talk of or British Intervention Intervene that passed their doors The curt current eat of the tue rivers nation that should piny play the pointed part a toof to if of France Spain as In this the second American EI I rf r la TI TIm m 17 1 2 G 14 44 tion Floridablanca however was no Vergennes 3 and Wilkinson no Washington That step however was taken when there then began the negotiations between the frontiersmen and the Spanish authorities looking toward some sort of ot an nn arrangement which would be mutually satisfactory with General Wilkinson acting a as agent for Spain In Kentucky Wilkinson's Wilkinsons scheme as presented to the Spanish o officers in Louisiana w was s a n sort of header double in that It offered two alternatives f The government Spanish should either bulk build buildup d dup up a Spanish party In Kentucky by a Do judicious manipulation of commercial regulations on on thi Mississippi and then foment a revolution that would I In Its secession from the Union an anthe and the formation of a close connection with Spain or It should adopt an Immigration policy with such suet liberal concessions In the way of land grants religious toleration and political privileges atwould aa at would depopulate Kentucky and fill the waste spaces of Louisiana Climax of Conspiracy When this proposal was put up to the Spanish ministry In Madrid and considered by Floridablanca Floridablanca Florida Florida- blanca It was met by a n proposal Incorporated In a n royal order which would have given Spain pretty much what she wanted but which would not have proved pro at nt all satisfactory to the fron fron- tiers In the meantime things were coming toa to toa a head hend In Kentucky The climax of or the Spanish conspiracy In Its first phase came with the convention of July 1788 In Kentucky when according to Wilkinson Innes Inne and Sebastian openly urged the convention to carry Kentucky out of the Union We know but little of the proceedings of that convention or of or the toe considerations considerations considerations con con- that led the convention to reject ct the tho proposal It was obvious however that the analogy analogy analogy anal anal- ogy so often orten drawn by frontier agitators between their situation and that of ot the Atlantic colonies in 1775 was far from perfect Even admitting genuine grievances and a diversity of or Interest the numbers we wealth and political experience of or the frontiersmen were Inadequate for the maintenance of an Independent Inde Indo pendent state and tl their clr geographical situation was extremely likely to to entail either a conflict with Spain or subjection to It The time for Independence independence independence inde Inde- had not yet arrived This was the Judgment judgment judgment Judg judg- ment of or the convention It tt seems and that body d decided to await the result of or the new federal experiment experiment experiment ex ex- ex- ex and when the substance of the royal order of ot December 1 1788 was was communicated to Wilkinson it gave the separatist cause another blow t. t I Meanwhile the governments on the Atlantic coast coast had heard reports of or the progress s of the Spanish Intrigue an and rumors of or a British intrigue In tho the West Nest Alarmed at the prospect of or disunion they took toole measures placate tp placate the westerners The legislatures legIslatures legislatures leg leg- of Virginia and North Carolina both on their own account and In the Interest of or the frontiersmen frontiersmen fron fron- passed resolutions 1788 asserting the Inalienable right of their citizens to the navigation of or the Mississippi Virginia gave save encouragement to the movement In Kentucky to form a separate state and secure admission |