The Winning of the West, Volume 4: Louisiana and the Northwest, 1791-1807Roosevelt, Theodore
History
The Winning of the West, Volume 4: Louisiana and the Northwest, 1791-1807
Roosevelt, Theodore
Northwest, Old -- History; United States -- Territorial expansion; West (U.S.) -- History
It is impossible that he could have been really misled as to Michaux's
character and the object of his visits; nevertheless, he actually gave
him a letter of introduction to the Kentucky Governor, Isaac Shelby.
[Footnote: State Department MSS., Jefferson Papers, Series I., Vol. V.,
p. 163.] Shelby had shown himself a gallant and capable officer in
warfare against both the Indians and the Tories, but he possessed no
marked political ability, and was entirely lacking in the strength of
character which would have fitted him to put a stop to rebellion and
lawlessness. He hated England, sympathized with France, and did not
possess sufficient political good sense to appreciate either the
benefits of the Central Government or the need of preserving order.
Clark at once proceeded to raise what troops he could, and issued a
proclamation signed by himself as Major General of the Armies of France,
Commander in Chief of the French Revolutionary Legions on the
Mississippi. He announced that he proposed to raise volunteers for the
reduction of the Spanish posts on the Mississippi and to open the trade
of that river, and promised all who would join him from one to three
thousand acres of any unappropriated land in the conquered regions, the
officers to receive proportionately more. All lawful plunder was to be
equally divided according to the customs of war. [Footnote: Marshall,
II., page 103.] The proclamation thus frankly put the revolutionary
legions on the footing of a gang of freebooters. Each man was to receive
a commission proportioned in grade to the number of soldiers he brought
to Clark's band. In short, it was a piece of sheer filibustering, not
differing materially from one of Walker's filibustering attempts in
Central America sixty years later, save that at this time Clark had
utterly lost his splendid vigor of body and mind and was unfit for the
task he had set himself. At first, however, he met with promises of
support from various Kentuckians of prominence, including Benjamin
Logan. [Footnote: Draper MSS., Benjamin Logan to George Rogers Clark,
Dec. 31, 1793.] His agents gathered flat-boats and pirogues for the
troops and laid in stores of powder, lead, and beef. The nature of some
of the provisions shows what a characteristic backwoods expedition it
was; for Clark's agent notified him that he had ready "upwards of eleven
hundred weight of Bear Meat and about seventy or seventy-four pair of
Veneson Hams." [Footnote: Draper MSS., John Montgomery to Geo. Rogers
Clark, Jan. 12, 1794.]
The Democratic Societies Support Clark.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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