("lass 
 
 Book ' f •'! ^f 7 
 
 l^KKSIvNTi;!) BY 
 
The Star 0/ Empire 
 
 By ARCHIBALD HENDERSON 
 
ISAAC SHELBY 
 
 First Governor of Kentucky 
 
The Star of Empire 
 
 Phases of the 
 
 Westward Movement in the 
 
 old Southwest 
 
 By 
 ARCHIBALD HENDERSON, M.A., Ph.D., D.C.L. 
 
 Member of the American Historical Association, Mississippi Valley 
 
 Historical Association, Ohio Valley Historical 
 
 Association, etc., etc. 
 
 ^ 
 
 lPfU^,.^C^ /^r-^ 
 
 1919 
 
 THE SEEMAN PRINTERY 
 
 DURHAM. N. C. 
 
I. -I A- 
 
 ^/' 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 NORTH CAROLINA AND KENTUCKY 
 
 In the epic movement of American expansion, which 
 found its true inauguration in pioneer advance and its true 
 romance in border struggle, North Carolina and Kentucky 
 are united with indissoluble bonds. Three such men as Daniel 
 Boone, Richard Henderson, and Isaac Shelby — Boone, the ex- 
 plorer and Indian fighter ; Henderson, the colonizer and law- 
 giver; Shelby, the soldier and statesman — flowering at a 
 single historical moment out of the life of North Carolina en- 
 dow her with a rare distinction as a creative force in west- 
 ward expansion. Kentucky would be sorely impoverished, shorn 
 of the greater measure of the incomparable romance and won- 
 der of her settlement, rude beginnings, and first steps in national 
 statehood if bereft of North Carolina's epochal contribution: 
 the exploring instinct of Christopher Gist, the pioneering 
 genius of Daniel Boone, the strenuous leadership of Isaac 
 Shelby, the colonizing spirit of Richard Henderson, the ex- 
 pansionist ideals of the canny Scots, James Hogg and William 
 Johnston; of that sire of the "Great Pacificator," Jesse Ben- 
 ton ; of the Harts, Thomas, Nathaniel, and David ; the Hen- 
 dersons, Samuel, Nathaniel, and Pleasant ; the Boones, Squire 
 and Jesse; Richard Calloway, Felix Walker, John Luttrell, 
 John Williams, John Gray Blount, Leonard Henley Bullock. 
 William Bailey Smith, and others less spectacular in their 
 achievements yet little less important. They were the crest 
 and foremost fringe of that mobile wave which welled up 
 from the fountain source of American liberty, the ancient 
 colony of North Carolina, swept irresistibly through the "high- 
 swung gateway" of the Cumberland, and held the fair region 
 of the trans-Alleghany within the circle of its protecting bar- 
 rier until Kentucky had weathered the storms of border war- 
 fare and been swept triumphantly into a union of free and 
 independent states. 
 
 In writing the history of national development, it should 
 continually be borne in mind that not one, but two movements 
 
4 The Star of Empire 
 
 were proceeding simultaneously along parallel lines. On the 
 eastern slope, from the Alleghanies to the Atlantic, there was 
 going forward the struggle of the Continental armies to ex- 
 haust and defeat the martial power of Great Britain. But 
 simultaneously with this great dramatic conflict, of the more 
 or less conventional military type, was occurring that guerrilla 
 warfare and border struggle — with nature, with the wilder- 
 ness, with a savage foe, with Great Britain — which was to 
 eventuate, on the conclusion of the titanic struggle, in the 
 addition of an imperial area of western territory to the do- 
 main of the Republic. If the sword and the musket were the 
 symbols of the martial combat on the eastern slope, the sym- 
 bols of pioneer struggle and advance in the western wilder- 
 ness were the rifle and the tomahawk, the axe and the sur- 
 veyor's chain. 
 
 In the present volume, the relations of North Carolina to 
 Kentucky in the earlier phases of westward expansion in the 
 Old Southwest will be set forth. This story will largely 
 centre about the career of two great men — Isaac Shelby, sur- 
 veyor, hero of three battles in three wars, and first executive 
 of the commonwealth of Kentucky; and Richard Henderson, 
 jurist, pioneer, expansionist, and president of the Colony of 
 Transylvania. In making a study from this new angle, fresh 
 light is thrown upon this little appreciated and imperfectly un- 
 derstood movement of westward expansion, which was ul- 
 timately to work such a profound and far-reaching effect upon 
 the destiny of the nation. 
 
THE STAR OF EMPIRE 
 
 PHASES OF THE WESTWARD MOVEMENT IN THE 
 OLD SOUTHWEST 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 The Southwestward Movement — The Shelbys 
 As late as the first quarter of the eighteenth century, the 
 American settlements were largely confined to a narrow strip 
 along the Atlantic coast, with occasional isolated settlements 
 further in the interior. There were two main zones of settle- 
 ment : the Tidewater section and the Piedmont region. Be- 
 cause of the great barrier of the mountain system, it was 
 long before a way to the west was found. 
 
 Settlement progressed in two directions — westward from 
 the coast, and southwestward, beginning in Maryland, New 
 Jersey, and Pennsylvania, and extending along the broad 
 terraces to the east of the Appalachian range. This second 
 streaming of the population thrust into the Piedmont region 
 a class of people differing in spirit and in tendency from their 
 more aristocratic and complacent neighbors to the east. These 
 settlers of the Valley of Virginia and the Carolina Piedmont 
 were the first pioneers of the Old Southwest. In the second 
 quarter of the century, in the Valley of Virginia free grants 
 of a thousand acres per family were being made ; and in the 
 Piedmont region of North Carolina the proprietary of Lord 
 Granville through his agents was disposing of lands, in six 
 hundred and forty acre tracts, at trivial cost, and even making 
 large free grants on the condition of seating a certain propor- 
 tion of settlers. It was undoubtedly the rich lure of these 
 cheap and even free lands in Virginia and North Carolina 
 which set up the vast southwestwardly exodus in the second 
 and third quarters of the century. "Inhabitants flock in here 
 daily," wrote Governor Gabriel Johnston, of North Carolina, 
 in 1750, "mostly from Pensilvania and other parts of America, 
 who are overstocked with people and some directly from Eu- 
 
 (5) 
 
6 The Star o^ Empiri; 
 
 rope, they commonly seat themselves towards the West, and 
 have got near the mountains." Squire Boone, the father of 
 the great pioneer, removed with his entire family from Penn- 
 sylvania to Virginia and thence to North Carolina in the spring 
 of 1750. Samuel Henderson, the father of the jurist-pioneer, 
 removed even earlier from Hanover County, Virginia, to what 
 was soon to be Granville County, North Carolina — at some 
 time prior to 1742. It is believed the immigrant ancestors of 
 the Shelby family settled in Maryland about the year 1730; 
 and the earliest surveys and grants to Evan Shelby, junior 
 and senior, make it reasonably certain that the Shelbys re- 
 sided continuously in Maryland from 1739 or earlier until 1771 
 or 1772. About this time (1771-1772), the Shelby connection 
 removed to the Holston country in that twilight zone of the 
 debatable ground between North Carolina and Virginia. 
 Evan Shelby settled with his family on the site of the present 
 Bristol, Tennessee. 
 
 On December 11, 1750, near the North Mountain, in the 
 vicinity of Hagerstown, Maryland, was born Isaac Shelby, 
 distinguished figure in the history of the Old Southwest — the 
 second son and third child of Evan Shelby and his first wife, 
 Letitia Cox. Endowed with the iron constitution of his father, 
 young Shelby was reared in a martial atmosphere and early 
 adapted himself to the strenuous life of the pioneer. Upon 
 their removal to King's Meadows, near Bristol, the Shelbys 
 herded and grazed cattle on an extensive scale along the Vir- 
 ginia border. At Shelby's Station, the fort built by Evan 
 Shelby, where hundreds were sometimes forted during the 
 Revolution, the Shelbys kept a store ; and here Daniel Boone, 
 according to records still preserved, purchased supplies in 
 preparation for his ill-fated expedition in 1773. 
 
 In 1774, as the result of showing himself to be a young 
 man of promise, Isaac Shelby was appointed lieutenant in the 
 militia by Colonel William Preston, the County Lieutenant of 
 Fincastle County, Virginia. He was soon to see service ; for 
 in October of that year occurred Dunmore's War, ending with 
 the Battle of the Great Kanawha. The Holston men, who 
 
The Star of Empiri; 7 
 
 were under the command of Col. William Christian, were the 
 advance guard of civilization, the most daring settlers who 
 had pushed farthest out into the western wilderness. Under 
 Evan Shelby, one of the five captains in Col. Christian's com- 
 mand, were his sons : Isaac, a lieutenant, and James, a pri- 
 vate. Of the important part played by the Shelbys in this 
 battle I have written at length elsewhere.* Suffice it to say 
 that in this fierce struggle, the most stubborn and hotly con- 
 tested fight ever made by the Indians in the Old Southwest 
 against the English, it was the flanking movement of the de- 
 tachment in which Isaac Shelby took a leading part that turned 
 the tide and decided the victory for the whites. Isaac Shelby, 
 the twenty- four year old officer, played an important and he- 
 roic role in this decisive battle — the thrilling martial scene pre- 
 liminary to the great drama of the Revolution. 
 
 At the close of the campaign, a small palisaded rectangle, 
 about eighty yards long, with block houses at two of its 
 corners, was erected at Point Pleasant by order of Lord Dun- 
 more. This stockade, entitled Fort Blair, was strongly garri- 
 soned, and the chief command was given to that splendid 
 border fighter, Captain William Russell. The young Isaac 
 Shelby, in recognition of his valued services in the recent bat- 
 tle, was made second in command. It was here, according to 
 tradition, that the great Indian chief, Cornstalk, came to shake 
 the hand of the young paleface brave, Isaac Shelby, who had 
 led the strategic flank movement which stampeded his army. 
 
 * Isaac Shelby: Revolutionary Patriot and Border Hero. In two parts. "North 
 Carolina Booklet," January, 1917, and July, 1918. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 The South westward Movement — The Hendersons 
 
 In the middle years of the eighteenth century, attracted 
 by the lure of rich lands in North Carolina, many families of 
 Virginia gentry, principally from Hanover County, settled in 
 the region ranging from Williamsborough on the east to Hills- 
 borough on the west. These settlers were described by the 
 quaint old diarist, Hugh McAden, as a people with "abund- 
 ance of wealth and leisure for enjoyment." Some years later, 
 Governor Josiah Martin, in speaking of the inhabitants of 
 Granville and Bute counties, observed : "They have great pre- 
 eminence, as well with respect to soil and cultivation, as to the 
 manners and condition of the inhabitants, in which last respect 
 the difference is so great that one would be led to think them 
 people of another region." This society, to quote the words of 
 Turner concerning the people of the Virginia Piedmont, was 
 "a society naturally expansive, seeing its opportunity to deal 
 in unoccupied lands along the frontier which continually 
 moved toward the west, and in this era of the eighteenth cen- 
 tury dominated by the democratic ideals of pioneers rather 
 than by the aristocratic tendencies of slave-holding planters." 
 
 When Samuel Henderson removed to North Carolina, the 
 great frontier county of Granville embraced an immense ter- 
 ritory which included the present county of Granville. At 
 this time, the country was very sparsely settled ; and Samuel 
 Henderson and his family, who were among the very earliest 
 settlers, were the first to carry hogs and apple scions into that 
 section. Dr. J. F. D. Smyth, an Englishman, who visited the 
 neighborhood in 1774 and 1775, speaks of the "very fine set- 
 tlement called Nutbush," and the "large body of excellent 
 land." By 1749, Granville had about 3,000 inhabitants, in 
 1763 some 4,000. The adjoining county of Orange showed an 
 equally remarkable growth in population. In the South Caro- 
 lina Gazette of March 8, 1768, may be read the following 
 interesting comment : 
 
 (8) 
 
The; Star of Empire 9 
 
 "A letter from Williamsburgh, Virginia, dated October 18, 
 1767, says: There is scarce a history, ancient or modern, which 
 affords an account of such a rapid and sudden increase of in- 
 habitants in a back frontier country, as that of North CaroHna. 
 
 "To justify the truth of this observation, we need only to 
 assure you, that 20 years ago there was not 20 taxable per- 
 sons within the limits of the county of Orange, in which there 
 are now 4,000 taxable." 
 
 In his search for a settlement, the Moravian Bishop Span- 
 genburg records that the "culture of Indian corn and raising 
 of hogs" were the principal industries of the farmers of Gran- 
 ville county. Probably the largest land owner in the county at 
 this period was William Person, who called himself "Parson," 
 sheriff of the county in 1754. 
 
 Several years after his settlement on Nutbush Creek, 
 Samuel Henderson was elevated to the office of high sheriff' 
 of Granville county. According to the family records, Enfield 
 court house was the seat of Samuel Henderson's office as sheriff. 
 Undoubtedly, the most important and onerous of his duties 
 as sheriff was the collection of taxes. The taxables consisted 
 of "all the white males above 16 years of age, and all mula- 
 toes, masters and slaves, male and female, above the age of 
 12," and by this list the sheriff collected all the public or 
 provincial poll. The sheriff was legally empowered to dis- 
 train for all these taxes and was entitled to a fee of two shil- 
 lings and eight pence currency for every distress. The sheriff 
 had to be a freeholder of the county in order to qualify, held 
 his office through the Governor's appointment, and had to 
 "find surety for 1,000 pounds sterling that he should faithfully 
 discharge the duties of that office and account for and pay all 
 public and private moneys by him received as sheriff." 
 
 Samuel Henderson was a man of strong and rugged frame, 
 and always "executed his writs, subpoenas, and processes, 
 afoot through the forest primeval, traversing a territory from 
 Virginia on the north to Johnston county on the south, and 
 from the mountains on the west to Northampton on the east" 
 
10 The Star of Empire 
 
 (R. W. Winston's Address on Leonard Henderson). Most of 
 the official duties of his office, during his absences, were per- 
 formed by his deputy or by his son, Richard, the sub-sherifT. 
 Samuel was "a man of social and benevolent disposition, 
 his talents of the middle grade" — the words em- 
 ployed by his son Pleasant, in his memoir. In the event, 
 we need not be surprised that Richard Henderson, with 
 so active, strong, and rugged a progenitor, should de- 
 velop into one of the most remarkable pioneers, colonizers and 
 law-givers of his time. Before his death in 1784, Samuel Hen- 
 derson enjoyed the satisfaction of seeing both his son and 
 his nephew upon the highest court of law — the first in the 
 colony, the second in the state, of North Carolina. At a 
 somewhat later day, two of his grandsons were to win the 
 highest legal and judicial positions the State could offer, the 
 one the recognized leader of the bar, the other Chief Justice 
 of the Supreme Court of North Carolina. 
 
 From his father, indubitably, Richard Henderson derived 
 his unflagging energy and powerful physique. But it was 
 from his mother, assuredly, that he derived those remark- 
 able qualities of originality and constructive power which in 
 after life won him such noteworthy distinction, and enabled 
 him to play a leading role in the initial colonization that 
 assured the ultimate acquisition of the West. Elizabeth Wil- 
 liams, Richard Henderson's mother, born in Hanover county, 
 Virginia, on November 14, 1714, was the daughter of John 
 Williams, a wealthy emigrant from Wales. In the memoir 
 written by her son Pleasant, she is described as a woman of 
 exemplary life and unusual talents, possessing a "strong and 
 comprehensive mind" — and ever "chastened by a due sense of 
 futurity, and the advantages temporal as well as eternal of 
 doing as she would wish to be done by" (underscored in the 
 original memoir). She was the mother of twelve children, one 
 of whom lived only a few days ; Mary, born in Hanover 
 county, Virginia, January 10, 1734; Richard, born in Hanover 
 county, April 20, 1733 ; Nathaniel, born in Hanover county, 
 December 1, 1736; Elizabeth, born in Hanover county, Feb- 
 
The Star of Empire U 
 
 ruary 19, 1738; Ann, born in Hanover county, March 13, 
 1739 ; Susanna, born in Granville county, N. C, April 23, 1742 ; 
 John, born in Granville county, October 24, 1744; Samuel, 
 born in Granville county, February 6, 1746; William, born in 
 Granville county, March 5, 1748; Thomas, born in Granville 
 county, March 19, 1752 ; and Pleasant, born in Granville county. 
 January 9, 1756. 
 
 In consequence of the positive lack of either public 
 schools in the county or of colleges in North Carolina, the elder 
 children of the Henderson family, as recorded in Pleasant 
 Henderson's memoir, were taught by a private tutor, especially 
 engaged by their father to give them individual instruction. 
 This was an unusual privilege in those days of hardy virtues, 
 but limited educational facilities. 
 
 In the prosecution of the affairs of his office, Samuel 
 Henderson was obliged to spend a large part of his time away 
 from home. In consequence of this circumstance, as recorded 
 by his grandson, he gave over the general direction of the 
 education of the children, and of Richard in especial, to his 
 wife, who, while not a woman of high culture in the exacting 
 sense in which we employ the phrase today, has been de- 
 scribed by her grandson as "excellent, industrious, and intelli- 
 gent." Like George Washington and Benjamin Franklin, 
 Richard Henderson found the lack of a university education 
 no bar to his success. From the evidence before us, it is clear 
 that Richard Henderson enjoyed excellent educational ad- 
 vantages in receiving the individual instruction of a private 
 tutor, fortified as this educational discipline was by the direc- 
 tive impress of the powerful mentality of his mother. On an- 
 other score, we should not forget that his was that ideal pre- 
 paratory school lauded by Luther Burbank, "the only place 
 that is truly fit to bring up a boy or a plant — the country." 
 
 It has been said of Richard Henderson that he possessed 
 one of the most remarkable minds for the rapid acquisition and 
 thorough assimilation of knowledge ever produced in the South. 
 A talented, scholarly man, as described by that cautious and 
 accurate historian, Lyman C. Draper, Richard Henderson was 
 
12 The Star of Empire; 
 
 a profound student of law, government, and history ; and his 
 brother, who studied law under his direction for considerably 
 more than a year, enjoyed the benefits of his unusually fine 
 library. It was, doubtless, not so much his researches in law 
 and history, as his active participation in the practical duties 
 of the afifairs of his father's office which gave him, as the his- 
 torian Wheeler says, "that enlarged knowledge of men and 
 things for which he became so eminently distinguished in af- 
 ter life." During the term of his father's office, he served suc- 
 cessively as constable, deputy, and acting sheriff, and often 
 transacted for his father, in all its details, the business of 
 the shrievalty. At the expiration of his father's term of 
 office, Richard, "fired by a noble ambition," as Judge W. H. 
 Battle puts it, devoted himself energetically to the study of 
 the law, the natural and inevitable medium for the display of 
 his mental qualities. 
 
 After reading law for a twelve-month with his first cousin 
 and senior, the capable attorney, John Williams, who lived hard 
 by in the neighborhood, on his fine estate of "Montpelier," 
 Richard Henderson made so bold as to apply for a license. It 
 was the custom of that day for the prospective barrister to 
 present himself for examination before the Chief Justice of 
 the "General Court." The certificate of proficiency, issued by 
 the Chief Justice to those who successfully underwent the 
 ordeal of examination, was then presented to the Governor 
 of the Colony, who, after satisfying himself that all require- 
 ments had been properly met, issued the official Hcense. The 
 following incident of Richard's experience in the eft'ort to 
 obtain a license, after the brief period of his study (one year), 
 as narrated by his brother. Pleasant, furnishes an admirable 
 illustration of the mentality and self-confidence of Richard 
 Henderson. It is, as his brother succinctly expressed it, "an 
 evidence of the strength of his mind." 
 
 On presenting himself for his examination, the applicant, 
 because of his youth, was regarded with dubiety by the Chief 
 Justice, Charles Berry. 
 
The; Star of Empire 13 
 
 "How long have you read law, and what books have you 
 studied?" he asked. 
 
 "Twelve months," replied young Henderson, enumerating 
 the books he had read. 
 
 We may readily imagine the scornful smile of the Chief 
 Justice, and the tone of his brusque reply : 
 
 "It is quite unnecessary, young man, to proceed with this 
 examination. No man in such a short space of time, and with 
 only the books you have mentioned, can possibly have quali- 
 fied himself to secure a license. My advice to you, sir, is to 
 return home." 
 
 This put young Henderson on his mettle — for although his 
 experience in the law was limited, his sense of justice and fair 
 play was already highly developed. In tones ringing with 
 manly determination, he replied : 
 
 "Sir, I am an applicant for an examination. It is your 
 duty to examine me, and if I am found worthy, to grant 
 me a certificate; if otherwise, to refuse it." 
 
 Struck by the force of this spirited reply, yet none the 
 less sharply nettled by having his duty thus concisely outlined 
 for him by this country-bred youth, the Chief Justice pro- 
 ceeded to give him a most rigid and searching examination. 
 As little daunted by this running fire of questions as he had 
 been by the discouraging advice of the Chief Justice, young 
 Henderson survived the ordeal with brilliance. His examiner 
 was so much impressed both by his coolness under fire and 
 his real knowledge of the law, that on presenting him his 
 certificate, he paid him many encomiums upon his industry, 
 acquirements and talents. His license was forthwith granted 
 by the Governor of the Colony. Beginning his legal career 
 with so favorable an augury, Richard Henderson almost im- 
 mediately began to win, as his brother expressed it, great 
 success in the practice of his profession. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 Henderson, Barrister and Judge 
 
 This "very fine settlement called Nut Bush," as Smyth 
 described it, with its "large body of excellent land," its rug- 
 ged foothills, its solemn forests and fast flowing streams, 
 brooded over by a spirit of reflective and majestic calm, was 
 the natural milieu for the development of the figure known 
 to history as Colonel Richard Henderson. Gathered about 
 him were a host of friends and neighbors, congenial and 
 high-souled folk — the Williamses, progenitors of a long line 
 of famous men; the Bullocks, close relatives of the Hender- 
 sons, whom they had followed to Granville county from New 
 Hanover county, Virginia, shortly before the middle of the 
 century; the Penns, the most famous of whom was the noted 
 John Penn, one of the signers of the Declaration of Indepen- 
 dence ; the Hargroves, Carringtons, Ridleys, and Baskervilles, 
 "gentle folk possessed of broad acres, troops of slaves and 
 dogs of all degrees." 
 
 Another neighbor was the Irish Lord, George Keeling, 
 who had been driven from his seat in Parliament and suf- 
 fered the confiscation of his property on account of his intense 
 Protestantism. He emigrated to Virginia, and established a 
 fishery on the banks of the Rappahannock river, improvis- 
 ing his own nets for catching herrings. Romantic glamour 
 attaches to the authentic story that out of the proceeds of 
 his earnings he sent to his sweetheart, Agnes Bullock, of Wales, 
 a sum of money sufficient to pay her transportation across 
 the Atlantic, where the protecting arms of her faithful be- 
 trothed awaited her. 
 
 On the death of Lord Keeling, John Williams, whose 
 father, John Williams, was the brother of Richard Hender- 
 son's mother, married the widow Keeling, nee Agnes Bul- 
 lock, on November 12, 1759. Agnes Bullock, sister of Leonard 
 Henley Bullock and daughter of John Bullock and Ann Hen- 
 ley (daughter of Leonard Henley and Ann Hawkins), be- 
 
 (14) 
 
The: Star of Empire 15 
 
 longed to one of the most prominent and influential families of 
 Granville county. 
 
 The youngest daughter of Lord Keeling and A^gnes Bul- 
 lock, Elizabeth, was married to Richard Henderson on De- 
 cember 28, 1763. Another daughter, Nancy, was married to 
 Thomas Satterwhite on October 15, 1772; while a third 
 daughter, Frances, was married to Bromfield Ridley, a promi- 
 nent lawyer of Granville county, on February 18, 1770. The 
 only child'of John Williams and Agnes Bullock, the widow of 
 Lord Keeling, was Agatha, who was married to Colonel 
 Robert Burton, originally of Mecklenburg county, Virginia, 
 and sometime member of the Continental Congress, on Oc- 
 tober 12, 1775.* 
 
 Richard Henderson found a worthy mate in the person of 
 his wife, Elizabeth. "It may not be amiss to mention here," 
 says the Hon. W. H. Battle, in his "Memoir of Leonard 
 Henderson" (North Carolina University Magazine, Ix, 1859- 
 60), as an evidence of the simplicity and frugality of the 
 times, as well as of the prudence and industry of the matrons 
 of his day that his mother (Elizabeth Keeling), though the 
 wife of one of the highest officers of the province, taught 
 her eldest sons, as well as her daughters, to card and spin. 
 Why Leonard was not instructed in the same housewifely 
 accomplishment we are not informed. The splendid pro- 
 fessional career of one of his elder brothers, Archibald, shows 
 that though it might not have advanced, it certainly would 
 not have obstructed his upward course to fame and fortune." 
 
 Richard Henderson's auspicious beginning at the law, in 
 his notable tilt with Chief Justice Charles Berry, was pro- 
 phetic of the eminent success he was successively to win as ad- 
 vocate, King's Aittorney, Superior Court Judge, and ultimately 
 lawmaker for the colony of Transylvania and the famous 
 "Government of the Notables" on the Cumberland. His taste 
 for the study of law, history, and literature found expression 
 in the splendid library which he had collected ; and it was in 
 
 * The original marriage bonds of all these marriages are still preserved in 
 the court house at Oxford, N. C. 
 
16 The Star of Empire; 
 
 this library and under his tutelage, in after years, that his 
 younger brother, Pleasant, devoted almost two years to read- 
 ing and the study of legal lore. Though only twenty-eight 
 years old at the time of his marriage, Richard Henderson had 
 already achieved striking success in the practice of his profes- 
 sion. The earliest court record now to be found at Oxford, N. 
 C, the trial docket of the County Court for the May term, 1763, 
 shows that both Richard Henderson and his law-partner, John 
 Williams, were engaged in an extensive practice. The court 
 records at Salisbury, N. C, show that on September 22, 
 1763, Richard Henderson was appointed King's Attorney for 
 the district of Salisbury to serve at the October term of the 
 Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions. This same year we 
 find him pitted against John Williams, his senior, in a number 
 of cases on the Crown Docket in September, at Salisbury. 
 
 The court records of the Reference Crown Docket, at the 
 March term, 1764, for the District of Salisbury, show that a 
 large proportion of the cases were entrusted to Richard Hen- 
 derson for advocacy and trial. Here his colleagues and fellow 
 advocates were the cultured and stately William Hooper, af- 
 terwards famous as a signer of the Declaration of Indepen- 
 dence ; John Dunn, persecuted Loyalist and subsequently good 
 American ; John Kichen, the sagacious legal counsellor ; Ed- 
 mund Fanning, the gentleman adventurer, the Associate Jus- 
 tice; Alexander Martin, vigorous politician, afterwards Gov- 
 ernor of North Carolina, who v/as frequently commissioned by 
 the Crown to hold the District Court at Salisbury, notably in 
 June, 1775, when Captain Jack, on his way to Philadelphia 
 with an account of the Mecklenburg proceedings, passed 
 through Salisbury and allowed the account to be read aloud 
 by Col. William Kennon ; and many others of future promi- 
 nence and distinction. Here and at Hillsboro, he was thrown 
 into close association with the discreet and reliable Thomas 
 Hart, and during the earliest days of his practice at Salisbury, 
 he formed the acquaintance, subsequently ripening into sincere 
 regard, of the hunter, Daniel Boone, and of his father, Squire 
 
The Star o^ Empire 17 
 
 Boone, who served continuously as one of the "Worshipful 
 Justices" at the County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions 
 for many years dating from the first sittings of the court in 
 1753. 
 
 Richard Henderson was frequently called upon to serve as 
 King's Attorney during the years from 1763 to 1768; and his 
 genial nature and conspicuous ability brought him at once gen- 
 eral popularity and high distinction. A contemporary, in speak- 
 ing of Richard Henderson's practice and advocacy in the Su- 
 perior Court, then the highest court of judicature in the 
 province, pays him this distinguished tribute : 
 
 "Even there, where oratory and eloquence is as brilliant and 
 powerful as in Westminster Hall, he soon became distinguished 
 and eminent and his superior genius shone forth with great 
 splendor and universal applause." 
 
 Following the dissatisfaction of the people with the con- 
 stitution of the courts of law under Governor Dobbs during 
 the years from 1760 to 1762, a "Supreme Court of Justice" 
 was established in the districts of Edenton, Newbern, Salis- 
 bury, Wilmington and Halifax, to be composed of the Chief 
 Justice and an assistant judge. In 1767, a new and much more 
 elaborate court system was adopted, to endure for a period of 
 five years. The Province was divided into six judicial districts, 
 Hillsboro being added to those above mentioned. In each was 
 a court to be held by the Chief Justice and two associates, the 
 latter appointed by the Governor and allowed 500 pounds a 
 year, for payment of which a special tax on each wheel of a 
 pleasure carriage, and on lawsuits was laid. "This system," 
 says Dr. Kemp P. Battle in his "History of the Supreme Court 
 of North Carolina," (103 N. C. Reports), "was an essential 
 departure from the English system. Instead of the judges 
 trying questions of fact only in the districts, leaving the ques- 
 tion of law to be heard before all the judges sitting in bank at 
 Newbern, all the members of the court went to the court house 
 of each district and there heard both questions of fact and 
 questions of law. The Nisi Prius Court and the Appellate 
 
18 The; Star of Empire 
 
 Court were held in the same town by the same judges, and 
 during the same term. A great defect was that one Judge, in 
 the absence of the others, had all the powers of the court." 
 
 At a meeting of the Governor's Council on March 1, 1768, 
 at Wilmington, there being present Governor Tryon and 
 James Hassell, John Rutherford, Lewis DeRossett, William 
 Dry, Benjamin Heron, and Samuel Strudwick, members of 
 the Council, the Governor announced his intention to appoint 
 Richard Henderson, Esq., of Granville, an Associate Justice, 
 he having formerly appointed Maurice Moore as the other 
 Associate Justice, and Stephen Dewey as Judge Advocate for 
 the District of Newbern, pending the meeting of the Council. 
 The Council journal reads: "It is the unanimous opinion of 
 this board that the said three gentlemen are properly qualified 
 for the several offices." At the meeting of the next Superior 
 Court, held at Salisbury, beginning March 5, 1768, Richard 
 Henderson took his seat with Maurice Moore upon the bench, 
 the entry in the court records of Rowan County reading : "This 
 day Richard Henderson, Esq., produced His Majesty's commis- 
 sion from His Excellency, the Governor, and under the great 
 seal of the Province, thereby constituting and appointing him, 
 the said Richard Henderson, one of His Majesty's Associate 
 Justices of this Province who was qualified according to law 
 by taking the oaths by law appointed for that purpose and re- 
 peating and subscribing to the test." 
 
 In the appointment of Henderson to this position, the 
 Governor gave some voice to the western section of the Colony. 
 At this time, be it recalled, the east was vastly the more fa- 
 vored section. All the members of the Council were from the 
 east, as were also the two other Superior Court Justices and 
 the Attorney General. Moreover, five eastern counties sent 
 five members each to the Assembly whereas other counties in 
 the Province sent only two. Richard Henderson was signally 
 honored, as a leading and representative man of his section, 
 in being appointed as the sole high officer in the government 
 from the entire western section of the colony. 
 
 The high regard in which Richard Henderson was held 
 
The Star of Empire 19 
 
 by the people of his own section and by the Governor himself, 
 is best evinced by the letter of Governor Tryon to the Earl of 
 Shelburne, from Brunswick, March 4, 1768: 
 
 "Mr. Henderson is a gentleman of candor and ability, born 
 in Virginia and about 33 years of age. He lives near Hills- 
 borough in the back country, among a people whom I am per- 
 suaded will be happy at having such a distinction paid to one 
 who resides among them, and for whom they entertain an 
 esteem." (Colonial Records, VH, 697.) 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 Pre;liminaries of the Regulation 
 
 The new Superior Court of North Carolina, Martin How- 
 ard, Chief Justice, and Maurice Moore and Richard Hender- 
 son, Associate Justices, constituted under the court law of 
 1767, was soon called upon to render judgment in matters 
 arising out of the Regulation agitation. The exceptional 
 scarcity of currency, the disastrous consequences of which 
 were escaped in the eastern part of the province through the 
 convenient system of warehouse certificates, fell most heavily 
 upon the poorer people of the frontier western counties. Ig- 
 norance of the exact amount of the fees legally allowable un- 
 der a loosely drawn fee bill was by no means confined to the 
 uneducated people of the province. The Regulators living in 
 the frontier counties, who were for the most part uncultured, 
 violently resented, naturally enough, the devious and question- 
 able devices employed by the sheriffs, registers, and clerks, to 
 compel them to pay far more than was either just or right. 
 An enormous proportion of the taxes, as was well known to 
 the Regulators, never went into the public treasury at all, but 
 was embezzled by the dishonest sheriffs. Staggering under 
 the burdens of inadequately proportioned taxes, dishonest of- 
 ficers, exorbitant fees, and an alarming scarcity of currency, 
 the people were ripe for agitation and revolt. 
 
 Edmund Fanning, around whom raged the fury of the 
 Regulators, settled at Hillsborough in 1762, having been grad- 
 uated five years before from Yale College. In March, 1763, 
 he qualified as register of Orange County ; and from that date, 
 by his contempt for the masses of the people and his efforts 
 to exploit them for his own pecuniary gain, he aroused the 
 undying hostility of the regulating element. 
 
 Confident in the power conferred by large numbers, the 
 Regulators on April 8, 1768, entered Hillsborough, took from 
 the sheriff a horse which had been levied on for taxes, and 
 departed with derisive shouts, after maltreating the sheriff 
 
 (20) 
 
The; Star of Empire 21 
 
 and others, and shooting up the house of Edmund Fanning. 
 When Fanning, who was Colonel of the Orange County 
 militia, and Lieutenant Colonel John Gray took steps to muster 
 into service the local troops in order to suppress like displays 
 of lawlessness and mob violence, the news so incensed the 
 Regulators that they threatened to raise a force of 1500 men, 
 march into Hillsborough, and burn down the town if their 
 demands were not complied with. Warrants were issued for 
 two of the leaders of the insurrection. Husband and Butler, 
 who were immediately arrested by a posse led by Thomas 
 Hart, former sheriff of the county, but subsequently released 
 on bail. Governor Tryon proceeded to Hillsborough for the 
 purpose of attempting to pacify the discontented faction; but 
 so widespread was the disaffection that all his efforts proved 
 unavailing. Thereupon he ordered out the militia, marched 
 through Rowan and Mecklenburg counties, embodying troops 
 on the way, and finally held a grand review at Salisbury on 
 August 23, 1768. The governor addressed the troops in per- 
 son, assuring them that a Superior Court to try those con- 
 cerned in the recent disturbance had been ordered convened 
 at Hillsborough and that an armed force was necessary for 
 its protection. 
 
 At the session of the Superior Court, held by Justices 
 Howard and Henderson, beginning on September 23, the 
 three insurgents on trial were found guilty of a riot and 
 rescue, and sentenced as follows : William Butler to a fine of 
 fifty pounds and six months' imprisonment; and Samuel De- 
 vinney and John Philip Hartzo, each, to a fine of twenty-five 
 pounds and three months imprisonment. About a year later, 
 the governor, acting on the advice of his sovereign, pardoned 
 by proclamation all those who had been found guilty on these 
 charges. 
 
 The real crux of the situation, which was to be settled at 
 the same sitting of the court, was the trial of Edmund Fan- 
 ning, register, and Francis Nash, clerk, of Orange County. 
 Fanning pleaded a misconstruction of the fee bill. The court 
 took an advisari on his motion in arrest of judgment and for 
 a new trial ; and the matter was still pending and undecided 
 
22 The Star of Empire 
 
 at the breaking up of the court in September, 1770. At the 
 first meeting of the Regulators in Orange County in 1766, 
 Francis Nash, who earnestly desired to adjust matters equit- 
 ably, wrote them that 'he would refund to anyone aggrieved any 
 fee charged by him which the Superior Court might hold ex- 
 cessive; and again in 1768, he and Fanning made the same of- 
 fer to the Regulators. Whilst Fanning escaped punishment on 
 these suits, there is no reason to doubt that he had taken 
 advantage of his office to construe the fee bill in such ways 
 as to mulct the common people in unjust and exorbitant 
 fees. The court had found him guilty of taking too high fees, 
 but acquitted him of the "least intentional abuse." Their fail- 
 ure to secure punishment for the most insidious of all their op- 
 pressors, who always treated them with "insufiferable hateur," 
 fortified in the Regulators the determination to call Fanning 
 to personal account for the offense which, as they saw it, the 
 jury had adjudged him guilty of, but failed to punish him for. 
 In the diary of Waightstill Avery, a native of Norwich, Con- 
 necticut, a graduate of Princeton, and now a young barrister 
 residing in Salisbury, we read as follows : 
 
 March 16 and 17, 1769. In company with the Judge 
 (Richard Henderson), Colonel Fanning, and Mr. Hooper 
 set out for Hillsborough. 
 
 March 18, 19 and 20. Where we arrived on Monday the 
 twentieth, having been waylaid by the Regulators who had 
 formed an ambuscade to kill Colonel Fanning. 
 
 In Rowan County, in this same year, the efforts of the 
 Regulators to secure indictments against the court officials 
 proved even less successful than the suits in Orange against 
 Fanning. At their instance, William Hooper, recently ap- 
 pointed Deputy Attorney General, drew up a bill against John 
 Frohock for extortion. This was returned ignoramus. Three 
 other indictments, involving the other two Frohocks, William 
 and Thomas, proved equally unsuccessful. It seems clear that 
 in these cases the Regulators, while having good cases against 
 these corrupt county officials, were unsuccessful in securing 
 either adequate evidence in support of their charges or ade- 
 quate legal presentation of their cases. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 Regulation and Insurrection 
 
 During the summer of this year, the Regulators prepared 
 an elaborate petition to the justices of the Superior Court, de- 
 tailing the history of their agitation and the grounds for pro- 
 test, and urgently praying for redress of their grievances. The 
 tone in which the conclusion of the petition was couched was 
 ominous and threatening, revealing the determination of the 
 Regulators to take the law into their own hands, if the law 
 were not administered, whether justly or unjustly, in their 
 favor : — 
 
 "Our only crime with which they can charge us is virtue in 
 the very highest degree, namely, to risk our all to save our 
 country from rapine and slavery in our detecting of practices 
 which the law itself allows to be worse than robbery. If we 
 [do not] obtain this (the substance of the petition) that we 
 may have some security for our properties more than the bare 
 number of our officers, we can see plainly that we shall not be 
 able to live under such oppressions and to what extremities 
 this must drive us you can as well judge as we can ourselves. 
 As we are serious and in good earnest and the cause respects 
 the whole body of people it would be a loss of time to enter 
 into arguments on particular points, for though there are a 
 few men who have the gift and art of reasoning, yet every 
 man has a feeling and knows when he has justice done him 
 as well as the most learned." 
 
 Saturday, September 22, the court convened — at which 
 time the court adjourned until Monday, after the defiant 
 threat, euphemistically called petition, had been handed to 
 Richard Henderson, the only justice present, by James Hunter. 
 Monday morning, at 11 o'clock, Richard Henderson opened 
 the court alone, none of the other justices being present at 
 Hillsborough ; and Henry Pendleton, Esq., appeared as at- 
 torney for the Crown. The court house, a simple, frame 
 structure characteristic of the period, was located in the square 
 
 (23) 
 
24 The Star of Empire 
 
 in which the present court house now stands, with the prison 
 and stocks in the rear. Nearby was the market house erected 
 some time prior to 1768; the store of the firm of Johnston and 
 Thackston occupied the southwest corner of the intersection 
 of King and Churton streets, the court house the southeast 
 corner, and the other stores the remaining corners. 
 
 Leading men of the day, many of them famous at a later 
 period, were present at this term of court : — ^John WilHams, of 
 Granville, afterwards delegate to the Continental Congress, 
 and Superior Court Judge after the Revolution, a genial, kind- 
 hearted man ; Alexander Martin, Revolutionary patriot. Gov- 
 ernor of North Carolina, and United States Senator, in turn; 
 Francis Nash, former clerk of the court, and subsequently 
 distinguished as a Brigadier General in the Revolution, being 
 killed at the Battle of Germantown ; Thomas Hart, former 
 sheriff of the county (1762-1763), the only sheriff, as the 
 Regulators themselves stated, who settled his accounts; John 
 Luttrell, clerk of the Crown, later an officer in the Revolution, 
 killed in battle; John Cooke, clerk of the Superior Court; 
 Tyree Harris, ex-sheriff, who had aroused the especial ire 
 of the Regulators; Lieut. Col. John Gray and Maj. Thomas 
 Lloyd, chairman of the County Court, both of whom had been 
 active in raising the county militia to suppress the Regulators 
 in 1768; Michael Holt, a gentleman-farmer and a man of re- 
 pute ; Edmund Fanning, gentleman-adventurer, the chief ob- 
 ject of Regulation vengeance; and others of like distinction 
 and position. The most authentic account of the "hold-up" 
 of the session of the Superior Court and of the indignities 
 visited upon many respected and eminent citizens, is found 
 in the letter of Judge Henderson to Governor Tryon, writ- 
 ten from his home in Granville couny, of date September 
 29, 1770. This letter, impartial in its essential points, is here 
 reproduced in full : 
 
 "Sir, 
 
 "With the deepest concern for my country I have lately 
 been witness to a scene which not only threatened the peace 
 and well-being of this Province for the future, but was in 
 
The Star op Empire 25 
 
 itself the most horrid and audacious insult to government, per- 
 petrated with such circumstances of cruelty and madness as 
 ( I believe) scarcely has been equaled at any time. However 
 flattering your Excellency's prospects may have been in respect 
 to the people called Regulators, their late conduct too suffi- 
 ciently evinces that a wise, mild and benevolent administra- 
 tion comes very far short of bringing them to a sense of 
 their duty. They are abandoned to every principle of virtue 
 and desperately engaged not only in the most shocking bar- 
 barities but a total subversion of the Constitution. 
 
 "On Monday last being the second day of Hillsborough Su- 
 perior Court, early in the morning the town was filled with a 
 great number of these people shouting, hallooing and mak- 
 ing a considerable tumult in the streets. At about 11 o'clock 
 the court was opened, and immediately the house filled as close 
 as one man could stand by another, some with clubs, others 
 with whips and switches, few or none without some weapon. 
 When the house had become so crowded that no more could 
 well get in, one of them (whose name I think is called Fields) 
 came forward and told me he had something to say before I 
 proceeded to business. The accounts I had previously re- 
 ceived together with the manner and appearance of these men 
 and the abruptness of their address rendered my situation 
 extremely uneasy. Upon my informing Fields that he might 
 speak on, he proceeded to let me know that he spoke for the 
 whole body of the people called Regulators. That they un- 
 derstood that I would not try their causes, and their determi- 
 nation was to have them tried, for they had come down to 
 see justice done and justice they would have, and if I would 
 proceed to try those causes it might prevent much mischief. 
 They also charged the court with injustice at the preceding 
 term and objected to the jurors appointed by the Inferior 
 Court and said they would have them altered and others 
 appointed in their room, with many other things too tedious 
 to mention here. Thus I found myself under a necessity of 
 attempting to soften and turn away the fury of these mad 
 people, in the best manner in my power, and as such could 
 
26 The Star of Empire 
 
 well be, pacify their rage and at the same time preserve the 
 little remaining dignity of the court. The consequence of 
 which was that after spending upwards of half an hour in 
 this disagreeable situation the mob cried out, 'retire, retire, 
 and let the court go on.' Upon which most of the Regulators 
 went out and seemed to be in consultation in a party by 
 themselves. 
 
 "The little hopes of peace derived from this behavior were 
 very transient, for in a few minutes Mr. Williams, an attorney 
 of that court, was coming in and had advanced near the door 
 when they fell on him in a most furious manner with clubs 
 and sticks of enormous size and it was with great difficulty 
 he saved his life by taking refuge in a neighboiing store house. 
 Mr. Fanning was next the object of their fury, him they 
 seized and took with a degree of violence not to be described 
 from off the bench where he had retired for protection and as- 
 sistance and with hideous shouts of barbarian cruelty dragged 
 him by the heels out of doors, while others engaged in dealing 
 out blows with such violence that I made no doubt his life 
 would instantly become a sacrifice to their rage and madness. 
 However, Mr. Fanning, by a manly exertion miraculously 
 broke hold and fortunately jumped into a door that saved him 
 from immediate dissolution. During the uproar several of 
 them told me with oaths of great bitterness that my turn 
 should be next. I will not deny that in this frightful affair 
 my thoughts were much engaged on my own protection, 
 but it was not long before James Hunter and some other of 
 their chieftains came and told me not to be uneasy for that 
 no man should hurt me on proviso I would sit and hold court 
 to the end of the term. 
 
 "I took advantage of this proposal and made no scruple at 
 promising what was not in my intention to perform for the 
 terms they would allow me to hold court on were, that no 
 lawyer, the King's Attorney, excepted, should be admitted into 
 court, and that they should stay and see justice impartially done. 
 
 "It would be impertinent to trouble your Excellency with 
 many circumstances that occurred in this barbarous riot. 
 
The Star o? Empire 27 
 
 Messrs. Thomas Hart, Alexander Martin, Michael Holt, John 
 Luttrell (clerk of the Crown) and many others were severely 
 whipped. Col. Gray, Major Lloyd, Mr. Francis Nash, John 
 Cooke, Tyree Harris and sundry other persons timorously 
 made their escape or would have shared the same fate. In 
 about four or five hours their rage seemed to subside a little 
 and they permitted me to adjourn court and conducted me 
 with great parade to my lodgings. Colonel Fanning, whom 
 they had made a prisoner of, was in the evening permitted to 
 return to his own house on his word of honour to surrender 
 himself next day. At about 10 o'clock that evening, I took 
 an opportunity of making my escape by the back way, and left 
 poor Colonel Fanning and the little borough in a wretched 
 situation. 
 
 "Thus far may it please your Excellency with respect to 
 what came within my own knowledge. Since my departure 
 many different and authentic accounts say that the mob, not 
 contented with the cruel abuse they had already given Mr. 
 Fanning in which one of his eyes was almost beaten out, did 
 the next day actually determine to put him immediately to 
 death, but some of them a little more human than the rest, in- 
 terfered and saved his life. They turned him out in the street 
 and spared his life on no other conditions than that of taking 
 the road and continuing to run until he should get out of their 
 sight. They soon after, to consummate their wicked designs, 
 broke and entered his mansion house, destroyed every article 
 of furniture, and with axes and other instruments laid the 
 fabric level with its foundation, broke and entered his cellar 
 and destroyed the contents, his papers were carried into the 
 streets by armfulls and destroyed, his wearing apparel shared 
 the same fate; I much fear his office will be their next object. 
 Have not yet heard where Colonel Fanning has taken shelter, 
 the last advice was that he was a mile or two from town on 
 horseback, but the person by whom this came says that the 
 insurgents have scouting parties constantly traversing the sev- 
 eral roads and woods about town and should he unfortunately 
 fall into their hands the consequences perhaps would be fatal. 
 
28 The Star of Empire 
 
 The merchants and inhabitants were chiefly run out into the 
 country and expect their stores and houses without distinction 
 will be pillaged and laid waste. 
 
 "The number of insurgents that appeared when the riot 
 first began was, I think, about 150, though they constantly 
 increased for two days and kept a number with firearms at 
 about a mile distant from town ready to fall on whenever they 
 were called for. This amount is contradicted by some and 
 believed by others ; certain it is that a large number of men 
 constantly lay near the town, whether they had arms or not 
 is not yet sufficiently determined. 
 
 "As the burden of conducting Hillsborough Superior Court 
 fell on my shoulders alone, the task was extremely hard and 
 critical. I made every effort in my power consistent with 
 my office and the duty the public is entitled to claim to preserve 
 peace and good order, but as all attempts of that kind were inef- 
 fectual, thought it more advisable to break up court than sit 
 and be made a mock judge for the sport and entertainment 
 of those abandoned wretches. 
 
 "This express has been delayed two days in expectation of 
 obtaining from Mr. Fanning a more particular account of the 
 damage done him as well as the rest of the inhabitants of that 
 desolate borough, but as the persons whom I sent for that 
 purpose are not yet returned, think it my duty to forward this 
 with the utmost expedition. Should my conduct through the 
 transactions merit your approbation it will greatly add to the 
 felicity of 
 "Sir, 
 
 "Your Excellency's most obedient and obliged humble 
 servant, 
 
 Richard Henderson. 
 
 "To his Excellency Governor Tryon. 
 
 "P. S. My express has this instant arrived from Hills- 
 borough with the following accounts : Colonel Fanning is alive 
 and well as could be expected. The insurgents left the town on 
 Wednesday night having done very little mischief after spoil- 
 
The Star of Empire 29 
 
 ing Mr. Fanning's house except breaking the windows of 
 most of the houses in town, among which Mr. Edwards' did 
 not escape. The merchants and others are taking possession of 
 their shattered tenements. Mr. Fanning's house is not quite 
 down, a few timbers support the lower story, but they are cut 
 off at the sills and a small breeze of wind will throw down the 
 little that remains. Everything else that we heard of Mr. 
 Fanning is true with this addition that he lost upwards of 
 200 pounds in cash. 
 
 "Inclosed is a petition presented me on Saturday by James 
 Hunter, that being the first day of the court, the answer was 
 delayed till Monday. Your Excellency may best judge if 
 that paper may not be of service at a future day. There are 
 many subscribers who are all without dispute Regulators. 
 
 I am as before, 
 
 "R. H." 
 
 In the account published in the New York Gazette, being 
 correspondence from Newbern, dated October 5, 1770, some 
 additional facts not contained in Henderson's letter may be 
 gleaned. On ascending the bench, the Regulators ordered 
 Judge Henderson "to pursue business," but in the manner in 
 which they should prescribe, which was that no lawyers should 
 enter the court house, no juries but what they should pack, and 
 order new trials in cases where some of them had been cast 
 for their malpractices. Furthermore, they seized Mr. William 
 Hooper, Assistant Attorney General, and afterwards one of 
 North Carolina's notable men ; "dragged and paraded him 
 through the streets, and treated him with every mark of con- 
 tempt and insult." But for the accident of being at the home 
 of Mr. William Johnston, some miles from Hillsborough, 
 doubtless Mr. James Iredell, at that time attorney and subse- 
 quently Justice of the United States Supreme Court, would 
 have suffered shameful indignities at the hands of the Regu- 
 lators (McRee's "Life of James Iredell," ii, 379). During 
 the riot of the second day, after destroying Fanning's house 
 and contents, "they went to a large, handsome church bell, 
 
30 The Star of Empire 
 
 that Colonel Fanning, at the expense of 60 or 70 pounds had 
 made a present to the Church of Hillsborough and split it to 
 pieces and were at the point of pulling down the church ; but 
 their leaders, thinking it would betray their religious principles, 
 restrained them." They destroyed the church bell under a 
 ludicrous misapprehension that it was a spice mortar ! (Caruth- 
 er's Life of Caldwell, note, p. 133.) 
 
 Fanning they hunted out of town with dogs at his heels, 
 stoning him as he fled ; and to show their opinion of lawyers, 
 "they took from his chains a negro that had been executed 
 some time, and placed him at the lawyer's bar." At the court 
 house, they held court, one of the Regulators sitting on the 
 bench as judge, another acting as sheriff, and still another, 
 one Yorke, as clerk. According to tradition, the Regulators 
 before hunting Fanning out of town, made him plead law at 
 the mock court which they had set up. (Caruthers' Life of 
 Caldwell, p. 132.) The court records still preserved at Hills- 
 borough bear the entries made by the Regulators, in disposing 
 of the cases then on the docket, reeking with billingsgate and 
 profanity, and invariably deciding all cases in favor of those 
 of "regulating principles." Some of the entries well take the 
 measure of the caliber and temper of the Regulators. "Damned 
 Rogues," "Fanning pays cost but loses nothing," "Hogan pays 
 and be damned," "Negroes not worth a damn. Cost exceeds 
 the whole," and in a case for "slander," the entry: "Nonsense, 
 let them agree for Ferrell has gone hellward," and again, 
 "Judgment by default, the money must come to officers." 
 
 Upon the book which bears these entries, with the title 
 "Trial Causes to Hillsborough Superior Court, September 
 Term, 1770," may still be read the significant entry: 
 
 "Several persons styling themselves Regulators assembled 
 together in the court yard, under the conduct of Herman Hus- 
 bands, James Hunter, Rednap Howell, William Butler, Samuel 
 Deviney and many others, insulted some of the gentlemen of 
 the bar, and in a violent manner went into the court house 
 and forcibly carried out some of the attorneys and cruelly 
 beat them. They then insisted that the judge should proceed 
 
The: Star op Empirjb 31 
 
 to trial of their leaders, who had been indicted at a former 
 court, and that the jury should be taken from out their party. 
 
 "Therefore, the judge, finding it impossible to proceed 
 with honor to himself and justice to his country, adjourned 
 court until tomorrow morning at 10 o'clock, and took advan- 
 tage of the night and made his escape, and the court ad- 
 journed until court in course. 
 
 "Minute Docket, September 22, 1770." 
 
 Richard Henderson was recognized everywhere throughout 
 the colony as a fair and just judge. During those stirring 
 times, the Superior Court, the highest court in the Colony, 
 stood as a bulwark between the mob and the objects of its 
 animosity. The proposals, with which the Regulators wished 
 Henderson to comply, were a scandalous travesty of justice, 
 a mockery of the first principles of equity. No charge of in- 
 justice in the administration of his office was ever made against 
 Henderson. It is a noteworthy circumstance that, although 
 the Regulators were rebelling against legal tyrannies and the 
 alleged injustices of county officials, they visited no violence 
 upon Judge Henderson and subjected him to no indignities, 
 whilst soundly thrashing, or attempting to thrash, a number 
 of men afterwards of great eminence and distinction in North 
 Carolina. There were some threats by the more unruly of 
 the mob ; but Judge Henderson was protected from personal 
 violence and indignity — the very last course to be pursued by 
 the Regulators had he been identified in their minds with in- 
 justice, oppression or condonement of extortion. It is less a 
 credit to the lawless mob of the Regulators than a testimonial 
 of the people's confidence in Henderson as a just judge that 
 they abstained from doing him bodily violence. In so far, at 
 least, the mob refrained from degrading those principles of 
 society which, by virtue of his position and office, were vested 
 in his person. Henderson refused to yield to the dictates of 
 lawless and incensed anarchists, abandoned the hopeless effort 
 to hold the court and returned to his home. 
 
 The community of Hillsborough was terrorized, the coun- 
 tryside in a state of violent and uncurbed insurrection. With- 
 
32 The Star of Empire; 
 
 out the support of an armed force, the court was powerless ; 
 and mihtary protection was not to be expected of a people 
 utterly terrorized by a mob which shot up Hillsborough with 
 all the dare-devil recklessness and wild bravado of a band of 
 Western cowboys. This mob was furthermore doubly dan- 
 gerous in that it was animated with a spirit of vengefulness 
 against chosen objects of their wrath, many of whom were 
 wholly innocent of offense. Henderson adjourned court sine 
 die' it was "Hobson's choice." Like another North Carolina 
 jurist who had learned the law under Richard Henderson's 
 own son, in a civil crisis a century later he realized that "the 
 power of the judiciary was exhausted." 
 
 The failure of the legal machinery of the Colony to control 
 the Regulating mob had already been recognized by Judge 
 Maurice Moore in his letter of March 13, 1770, to the Gov- 
 ernor, from Salisbury, in which he points out that the designs 
 of the insurgents went further than to promote inquiry into the 
 conduct of civil officers. According to his information, "there 
 is no such thing as collecting the public tax, or levying a pri- 
 vate debt among them (the Regulators)," Ominous and pro- 
 phetic are his words: "This is an evil, sir (tho' cognizable in 
 the courts of law) no civil process can remedy." (Col. Rec, 
 Vni, 192.) 
 
 At a meeting of the Governor's Council, on October 18, 
 was read the opinion of the Attorney General upon the of- 
 fenses contained in Judge Henderson's report of the Hills- 
 borough riot. The Attorney General's opinion contained these 
 words : "That the menaces thrown out against, and the in- 
 sult offered Mr. Justice Henderson when in the execution of 
 his office, and the Insurgents preventing him from holding out 
 the term there, will be construed in law only a misdemeanor, 
 though of the highest nature." The pulling down of Fan- 
 ning's house and the assaults upon numerous citizens were 
 construed as a riot; and the words of the Regulators, in 
 drinking "damnation to King George and success to the 
 Pretender," were construed as, in all probability, amounting 
 
The; Star of Empire; 33 
 
 to high treason — had they been supported by more ample and 
 conclusive evidence. In his report to Lord Hillsborough, on 
 October 7, Governor Tryon- wrote of the Hillsborough riot: 
 "After they had offered many insults to the dignity and pro- 
 ceeding of the court, they committed such outrages in the 
 town that Mr. H.enderson, the Associate Judge, was forced 
 to put an end to the court by making his escape in the middle 
 of the night." (Col. Rec, VH, 248.) 
 
 The sentiment which animated the mob at Hillsborough 
 was not one of animosity against Judge Henderson, personally. 
 The Regulators had been ingratiated by Chief Justice How- 
 ard's leniency and considerate attitude. The only record of 
 objection to Judge Henderson was voiced by an agitator and 
 Regulator, one Thomas Hamilton, who was heard by Waight- 
 still Avery on March 6, to harangue a group of excited Regu- 
 lators near Salisbury, in the following words : "What business 
 has Maurice Moore to be judge, he was not appointed by the 
 King, he nor Henderson neither. They'll neither of them 
 hold court." (Col. Rec, VHI, 518-520.) The grievance was 
 not expressed out of pure prejudice or personal animosity ; the 
 protest was directed against the system of judicial appoint- 
 ment, the selection of the associate justices by the Governor, 
 and not by the King. It is true, however, that Maurice Moore 
 was actually held in especial detestation by the Regulators. 
 Upon one occasion, he was roundly denounced by the Regu- 
 lators as "rascal, rogue, villain, scoundrel" and other, un- 
 printable terms and even threatened with flogging and still 
 worse, with death, if he attempted to hold court at Salisbury. 
 (Col. Rec, VIII, 520.) 
 
 The demands made of Judge Henderson by the treasonable 
 mob at Hillsborough, had he attempted to accede to them, which 
 is inconceivable, would have resulted in a scandalous travesty 
 of justice. It was only after Henderson failed to comply 
 with their revolutionary proposals, subversive of all law and 
 social order, and had escaped from their clutches, that the 
 Regulators formed the determination to vent upon him their 
 baffled rage and incendiary revenge. On November 18, Gov- 
 
34 The; Star of Empire; 
 
 ernor Tryon reported to a meeting of his council at Newbern 
 that Judge Henderson had just acquainted him with most 
 starthng information. An express from Granville county had 
 informed Judge Henderson on the evening of Sunday, Novem- 
 ber 18, that on Monday, Nfovember 12, his barn and stables 
 had been set fire to and consumed together with several horses 
 and a quantity of corn, and that on the night of the Wednesday 
 following his dwelling was set fire to and consumed. A 
 proclamation was accordingly issued by the Governor, requir- 
 ing all civil officers to assist in apprehending the incendiaries, 
 and offering a reward of 100 pounds to anyone who should 
 apprehend the criminal or criminals. Something little short 
 of financial ruin, assuredly, was the price which Richard 
 Henderson paid for his devotion to due process of law. 
 
 In February, 1771, a court having been ordered to sit at 
 Hillsborough, the Chief Justice and his two associates sub- 
 mitted a remonstrance to the Governor, which eloquently tes- 
 tifies to the social revolution then in progress in North 
 Carolina : 
 
 "Sir, 
 
 "Your Excellency having signified to us your opinion that 
 it is expedient that the Chief Justice, Associate Justices and 
 Attorney General should attend the ensuing court at Hills- 
 borough, we do acquaint Your Excellency that we have con- 
 ferred together upon the subject, and considering the violences 
 committed there at the last court, and being well informed that 
 the disturbances and distractions in the district are rather in- 
 creasing than declining, we submit it to Your Excellency as 
 our opinion that we cannot attend that court with any hopes 
 of transacting the business of it ; or, indeed with any prospect 
 of personal safety to ourselves. 
 
 , "Martin Howard, C. J. 
 
 "M. Moore, 
 "R. Hende;rson, 
 "March 18, 1771, Newbern." 
 
The; Star of Empire 35 
 
 In their letter to Governor Tryon from Salisbury, of 
 March 18, 1771, John Frohock and Alexander Martin re- 
 ported that, at a conference with some 400 or 500 Regulators 
 nearby on the Yadkin, the Regulators expressed concern when 
 they learned that the judges "did not think it prudent to hold 
 court in Salisbury under the direction of whips and clubs." 
 They said "there would have been no danger for the Chief 
 Justice to have held a court, but as to the associates they 
 were silent" — showing their continued animosity against the 
 hated Moore, and against Henderson upon whom they had 
 already wreaked their incendiary vengeance. (Col. Rec, VIII, 
 534.) In the court records, preserved at Hillsborough, we 
 may today read the significant entry : 
 
 "Hillsborough, March Term, 1771. 
 "The persons who style themselves Regulators and under 
 the conduct of Herman Husbands, James Hunter, Rednap 
 Howell, William Butler, Samuel Devinney and others, broke 
 up the court at September term last, still continuing their 
 riotous meetings and severely threatening the judges, lawyers, 
 and other officers of the court, prevented any of the judges and 
 lawyers attending. 
 
 "Therefore the court continues adjourned till September 
 term next 1771." 
 
 Admirably expressive of the state of the Colony at this 
 time, and of the pressing need for decisive and strenuous ac- 
 tion, is the following vivid picture of the work of the Regu- 
 lators : 
 
 "Their demands and their violence increased at every 
 meeting. Their success produced no reformation. They broke 
 and trampled under foot all the bonds of civilized society, and 
 gave reins to every disordered passion ; for vice itself, by re- 
 peated acts of violence had changed its name and color. They 
 prevented the Superior Court from sitting in Hillsborough, 
 insulted the judges, and maltreated the inhabitants. Not satis- 
 fied with abusing Judge Henderson at court, they burnt his 
 
36 The; Star of Empire 
 
 stables and corn on the 12th of November, and they burnt 
 his dwelHng house on the 14th. It was no longer a question 
 whether clerks, registers, or lawyers should be permitted more 
 than legal fees, and sheriffs be compelled to account for all 
 the taxes they had collected. It was now to determine whether 
 civil government should prevail, or every man's property be 
 exposed, without redress, to the avarice or resentment of a 
 lawless mob." (Williamson's History of North Carolina.) 
 
 According to the statement of John Ashe in the Assembly 
 of 1769, Thomas Person, formerly sheriff of Granville (1762) 
 and in 1769 member for that county, had frequently been 
 charged with perjury. (Col. Rec, VIII, 118.) On his trial 
 for perjury and extorting illegal fees, at the December (1770) 
 session of the Assembly, Richard Henderson prosecuting, 
 Thomas Person was exonerated of the charges preferred, John 
 Campbell acting as chairman of the investigating committee ; 
 and the report of the findings of the committee was ordered to 
 be "printed in The Public Gazette." ( Col. Rec, VIII, 448, 449, 
 461.) Through clever manipulation, at an auspicuously 
 chosen moment in a "very thin house" composed for the nonce 
 almost entirely of adherents of Person who were of avowedly 
 Regulating principles, Henderson, the prosecutor, was or- 
 dered by the Assembly to pay the heavy costs of the suit. It 
 was further ordered that if Henderson failed to pay, he was 
 to receive the highest censure the House could inflict upon 
 him. (Col. Rec, VIII, 467-8.) The costs of the suit were 
 117 pounds. 
 
 Such was the malice of the Regulating element — that 
 element which, incited by the violent expressions of Person, 
 himself a notorious Regulator, and others of like temper, 
 visited such cowardly incendiary vengeance upon Henderson. 
 The real attitude of the Assembly of 1770 towards Person, 
 despite the Campbell report, expressive of their thorough-going 
 distrust of him as agitator and Regulator, is expressed in their 
 action, whether intended or actually taken, in expelling him 
 from that body. We read in the anonymous letter, attributed 
 to Rednap Howell, a Regulation leader : "When the house 
 
The Star of Empire 37 
 
 met their first step was to expel Husband and Parsons (Person) 
 from their seats; Husband they sent to jail; Parsons, home." 
 (Col. Rec, Vni, et seq.) The records unequivocally show 
 that Husband was expelled and incarcerated (Ibid., VHI, 268, 
 269; 330, 331) ; but as to Person they are silent. 
 
 In writing to Earl Hillsborough on March 11, 1771, Gov- 
 ernor Tryon expresses great satisfaction over the session just 
 then concluded, stating that he has been "honorably seconded 
 by the Legislature." The exceptional character of the action 
 of Person's friends in securing the malicious placing of the cost 
 of the suit against Person upon Richard Henderson, furnishes 
 the one striking exception, and becomes the occasion for a 
 notable tribute to Judge Henderson : 
 
 "There was, however, one step taken which gave me much 
 concern. It was the resolution passed respecting Mr. Hen- 
 derson, one of the associate judges. This was done by sur- 
 prise in a very thin House composed of the friends of a mem- 
 ber of the House who stood charged by Mr. Henderson with 
 having perjured himself, I am sensible Mr. Henderson will 
 liave a more favorable verdict at the next session, a majority 
 of the members who happened to be absent when this unfair 
 advantage was taken, declaring afterward their disapprobation 
 thereof. 
 
 "Mr. Henderson, my Lord, is a man of probity and a firm 
 friend of Government as well from principle as from the duty 
 of his office, and who from his spirited endeavors to preserve 
 the last Hillsborough Court against the insults of the In- 
 surgents, by the malice of his enemies and those of Govern- 
 ment, has had his house, stables, four horses and many other 
 effects burned last Winter, sufferings which pleaded for more 
 humanity than he received from representatives of his country- 
 men." (Col. Rec, VIII, 525.) 
 
 As anticipated by the Governor, the malice of Person's ad- 
 herents was balked at the very next session of the Assembly. 
 Oti December 19, 1771, it was on motion 
 
 "Resolved, That the resolve of the last session of the 
 Assembly held at Newbern on the fifth day of December, 
 
38 The Star op Empire 
 
 one thousand seven hundred and seventy, directing Richard 
 Henderson, esquire, to pay the expenses of several witnesses 
 who were called to the bar of this House to give evidence 
 against Thomas Person, one of the members thereof, on sev- 
 eral charges of perjury and extortion, be rescinded and ex- 
 punged from the journals of the House. Rd. Caswell, Speaker. 
 J. Green, junr. Clk." (Mss. Collections, N. C. Historical Com- 
 missions. Cf. also. Col. Rec, IX, 196.) 
 
 Pursuant to this resolution of the Assembly, one of the 
 broader minded men of the day, in the interest of justice and 
 fair play, forwarded a copy of the resolution to the editor of 
 the Newbern Gazette, Mr. James Davis, with a request to 
 publish the same — which request was doubtless carried out. 
 Inclosed with a copy of the resolution was the following let- 
 ter, fully indicative of the saner sentiment of that day : 
 
 "Mr. Davis: 
 
 "At the last session of Assembly held at Newbern, it was 
 resolved, that the Honorable Richard Henderson, esquire, one 
 of the associate judges of this Province, should pay the ex- 
 penses of certain witnesses, called to the bar of the House to 
 give evidence against Thomas Person, upon charges of perjury 
 and extortion. 
 
 "The publication of that resolve, in the Newbern paper, 
 had a designed and necessary tendency to prejudice the repu- 
 tation of Mr. Henderson, in the opinion of those who con- 
 cluded the House of Assembly would inflict their censures 
 upon such only as merited them. From a (line missing * * *) 
 upon their journals by an undue influence, exerted to obtain 
 it, and at the time of passing it, many members were absent, 
 who held that proceeding in abhorrence, and would have 
 solemnly protested against it, if they had been present. The 
 Assembly at their present session in a full House, entered 
 into a resolve a true copy of which I (send?) you as a mem- 
 ber of the community, disposed to do equal justice, and make 
 the vindication of Mr. Henderson's character as public as 
 was the attempt to asperse it, I beg you will give this last 
 
The Star of Empiri; 39 
 
 resolve a place in your paper, and you will oblige many of 
 your readers. 
 
 "December 21st, 1771." 
 
 (Unpublished Henderson mss.) It is reasonable to suppose 
 that this letter as well as the resolve was published by Mr. 
 Davis in the Newbern Gazette. 
 
 Richard Henderson was vindicated in the most ample and 
 satisfactory manner. The original resolve, "railroaded 
 through" the Assembly by Person's partisan supporters, was 
 not only rescinded, but ordered "expunged from the journals 
 of the House." The resolve exonerating Henderson was 
 published in the Newbern Gazette. The Assembly on De- 
 cember 14, 1773, ordered the costs of the suit against Person 
 to be paid out of the public treasury. Whatever may be said 
 of his later distinguished services, certain it is that Person was 
 so active and so notorious in his leadership of the Regulators 
 as to be included by Governor Tryon in the list of those ex- 
 cepted from the benefit of pardon. Person was captured by 
 the forces of Governor Tryon, carried as a prisoner to Hills- 
 borough, and there confined with the Regulators who were 
 convicted and sentenced to death. Person succeeded in escap- 
 ing trial and further punishment — according to tradition, 
 through the personal friendship between him and Edmund 
 Fanning, who "had the ear of the Governor." (Col. Rec, VHI, 
 xxvii-xxviii.) 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 Alamance 
 
 Meanwhile the Governor, the Council and the Assembly 
 had all come to one conclusion as to the policy it was im- 
 perative to pursue. The disturbances in the Colony must be 
 suppressed and the insurgents put down with military force. 
 The report of the committee, submitted on September 10, 1770, 
 and duly adopted, contained the following significant clause : 
 
 "The late daring and insolent attack made on the Superior 
 Court at Hillsborough, by the people who call themselves 
 Regulators, we hold in the utmost detestation and abhorrence. 
 The deliberate and preconceived malice with which it was con- 
 trived, and the brutal fury with which it was executed, equally 
 bespeak them unawed by the laws of their country, insensible 
 to every moral duty, and wickedly disaffected to government 
 itself. The dissolute principles and licentious spirit by which 
 these people are actuated and stand united, render them too 
 formidable for the ordinary process of law. Sensible of this, 
 sir, we owe it to our sovereign, our constituents, and our- 
 selves, to adopt measures at once spirited and decisive." (Col. 
 Rec, Vni, 312.) 
 
 Four days later Samuel Johnston brought in his drastic 
 "Riot Act," which was immediately tabled by a House, the 
 majority of whom were of Regulation principles. The House 
 then appointed a committee to prepare a bill regulating of- 
 ficers' fees. While the House was bending all its energies 
 toward passing reformatory laws, the Regulators themselves 
 precipitated the originally contemplated drastic action. On 
 December 31, news reached the House that a large body of 
 Regulators were assembled with wagons and provisions at 
 Cross Creek (Fayetteville) preparatory to marching on New- 
 bern. Within a week Johnston's "Riot Act" was taken from 
 the table and passed. Various bills, embodying reforms sought 
 by the Regulators, were also passed by the Assembly; but 
 the imprisonment of Husband, against whom "no bill" was 
 
 (40) 
 
The Star of Empire 41 
 
 actually found by the special term of the Court of Oyer and 
 Terminer at Newbern on February 2, 1771, the Chief Justice 
 presiding, aroused the Regulators to a renewed outbreak of 
 insurrectionism. They had even gone so far as to assemble 
 in readiness to march upon Newbern to rescue Husband, when 
 the news of his release reached them ; whereupon they quietly 
 dispersed. But the terror caused by their embodiment threw 
 the entire province into a panic of dread and the government 
 hurriedly called out the regiments of Dobbs, Johnston, and 
 Wake counties. Another term of court, called by the Governor, 
 met on March 11 at Newbern, at which all the justices were 
 present, and every one of the 62 indictments against the 
 Regulators was returned "a true bill." As all these defen- 
 dants were adjudged outlaws under the riot law if they did 
 not appear for trial in 60 days, another court was called for 
 two months later, to which all these bills were made returnable. 
 
 On March 19, the Governor called for 2,500 volunteers 
 from the various counties of the Colony. Considerable ob- 
 stacles were encountered in embodying troops to serve, some 
 counties refusing to furnish their quota, others complying with 
 marked reluctance. The cloud of civil war loomed dread- 
 ful upon the horizon. After numerous vicissitudes of fortune, 
 Tryon with his forces reached the banks of the Alamance on 
 May 14. Two days later he formed his army, some 1,000 
 men and officers, in line, and marched to meet the enemy, 
 assembled to the number of some 2,000, about five m^iles further 
 on. There is no incident in North Carolina history which so 
 fitfully glows with pedestrian heroism and pathetic inefficiency. 
 In response to the representations of Doctor Caldwell, who 
 interviewed the Governor, and a petition from the Regulators, 
 presumably transmitted by Caldwell, Tryon refused to make 
 any concession, standing firm upon the condition that the 
 people should submit to government, and disperse at a desig- 
 nated hour. 
 
 No true realization of the impending tragic conflict seems 
 to have been felt by the Regulators. Engaged in wrestling 
 matches among themselves, as if upon a holiday, they were 
 
42 The Star of Empire 
 
 suddenly aroused to a sense of danger when an old soldier 
 in their midst warned them to look out for a volley. It was 
 what they might have expected, for when Tryon refused to 
 make any concession after being petitioned a second time, 
 for a redress of grievances, they told the messenger to go 
 back and tell Billy Tryon they defied him, and that a fight 
 was all they wanted. Finally Tryon sent them his ultimatum : 
 that unless they dispersed at once, they would be fired upon. 
 "Fire! and be damned!" was the defiant reply. Upon re- 
 ceiving this message, the Governor ordered his troops to fire. 
 At first the troops failed to comply ; whereupon Tryon, who 
 was riding upon a white charger, rose in his stirrups and cried : 
 "Fire! Fire on them or on me!" A volley rang out, and the 
 tragic conflict was on. 
 
 From behind trees, fences and rocks the Regulators at 
 first poured in a withering fire upon Tryon's forces. The 
 artillery of the Governor's troops did much execution among 
 the Regulators ; but these, led by Captain Montgomery, made 
 a desperate attack upon the guns, which they finally captured, 
 after routing the gunners. The Regulators soon found them- 
 selves unable to work the guns, and lacking support from 
 their main body, gave way before the attack of the Governor's 
 forces and abandoned the guns. After two hours of fighting, 
 the Regulators abandoned the field, having lost nine men killed 
 and a great many wounded. Of the 15 men who were cap- 
 tured, one, James Few, was summarily executed upon the field 
 of battle, he having been under ban for outlawry. Given the 
 alternative of taking the oath or being hanged, Few firmly re- 
 fused to take the oath, though twice urged to do so by the 
 Governor, who wished to spare his life. It is clear that his 
 execution, though needlessly summary, was inevitable, sooner 
 or later. It was ordered at the time to quiet the dissatisfac- 
 tion among Tryon's soldiers, who threatened to go no further 
 unless some of the insurgents were summarily dealt with. 
 
 On the day following the battle, the Governor pardoned 
 by proclamation all those who would submit themselves to 
 government and take the oath of allegiance, specific exception 
 
The; Star of Empire; 43 
 
 being made of those who had already been captured and thos^ 
 who had recently been outlawed. Tryon received hearty ap- 
 probation for his conduct from the British Government, which 
 also directed him to tender publicly the King's thanks to the 
 troops for their loyal conduct during the campaign. 
 
 Joined on its march westward on June 4 by General Wad- 
 dell's column, which had not been present at the battle, the 
 united forces finally entered Hillsborough on June 14. Several 
 courts martial for the trial of prisoners had been held while 
 the troops were on the march, and also at Hillsborough, as late 
 as June 18. From June 14 to June 18, an especial Court of 
 05^er and Terminer, consisting of the Chief Justice and his 
 two associates, Moore and Henderson, sat in trial of the 
 prisoners, 12 of whom were convicted of treason and two ac- 
 quitted. Six were executed on June 19, the remaining six 
 being reprieved by the Governor at the solicititation of the 
 officers of the army. (Col. Rec, VHI, 650.) During Tryon's 
 absence, the six reprieved prisoners, "by some strange irregu- 
 larity," were set at liberty, and were never afterwards brought 
 to justice. It is important to state in vindication of the repu- 
 tation of the court which tried these prisoners, that the 
 judges were just in their decision, and lenient in their recom- 
 mendation. The Governor desired to make a bloody example 
 of the captured Regulators, and doubtless would gladly have 
 seen all 14 executed. It was only at the solicitation of the 
 officers of the Army that six of the 12 Regulators condemned 
 to death escaped with their lives. Tryon sought to intimidate 
 the court itself, and to force it to do his bidding, rather than 
 to administer justice. Nothing more clearly demonstrates the 
 probity and firmness of the court in the impartial administra- 
 tion of justice, adherence to due process of law, and their 
 defiance of the threats of the Governor to depose them if they 
 did not obey his orders, than the following passage from the 
 famous "Atticus Letter," addressed to Tryon after he became 
 Governor of New York, and said to have been written by 
 Maurice Moore, one of the justices of the court: 
 
 "Never were criminals more entitled to every lenity the 
 
44 The Star of Empire 
 
 law could afford them ; but, sir, no consideration could abate 
 your zeal in a cause you had transferred from yourself to your 
 sovereign. You shamefully exerted every influence of your 
 character against the lives of these people. As soon as you were 
 told that an indulgence of one day had been granted to two men 
 to send for witnesses, who actually established their inno- 
 cence, and saved their lives, you sent an aide-de-camp to the 
 judges and attorney general, to acquaint them that you were 
 dissatisfied with the inactivity of their conduct, and threatened 
 to represent them unfavorably in England if they did not pro- 
 ceed with more spirit and dispatch. Had the court submitted 
 to influence, all testimony on the part of prisoners would have 
 been excluded ; they must have been condemned to a man. 
 You said that your solicitude for the condemnation of these 
 people arose from your desire of manifesting the lenity of 
 government in their pardon. How have your actions contra- 
 dicted your words ! Out of twelve that were condemned, the 
 lives of six only were spared." (Col. Rec, VHI, 718-727. In 
 Virginia Gazette, Nov. 7, 1771.) 
 
 The relentless Tryon was succeeded as Governor by Jo- 
 siah Martin, who found, on taking office, that the insurrection 
 was now completely stamped out. In reply to the Governor's 
 request as to whether the outlaws could be tried under the 
 riot act, already explained, the Superior Court justices, in- 
 dividually, filed opinions, the consensus of which was that the 
 defendants could not be treated as outlaws under the above 
 act, but that they could be tried under any other law, such as 
 the law of treason. (Col. Rec, IX, 333-339.) 
 
 In response to Martin's letter, laying the matter before the 
 home government. Lord Hillsborough replied that the King 
 authorized the Provincial Assembly to pass an act of grace, 
 pending His Majesty's decision. The provincial upper house 
 rejected this act; but at the beginning of the Revolution, the 
 King, as a matter of policy, issued through the Governor a 
 proclamation of pardon for all who had been concerned in 
 the Regulation, with the single exception of Husband. (Col. 
 Rec, X, 90 and 405.) 
 
The: Star of Empire 45 
 
 The most accurate and concise statement of the Regulation 
 troubles, their causes and violences, is contained in Governor 
 Martin's letter to Lord Dartmouth of November 28, 1772, fol- 
 lowing a tour through the back counties, and personal dis- 
 cussion of the recent insurrectionism with people of all classes. 
 He gave it as his matured conviction, a conviction which must 
 appeal to all who have studied in detail this phase of our early 
 history — that the people had been "grievously oppressed by 
 the sheriffs, clerks and the subordinate officers of govern- 
 ment, and exceedingly moved my compassion ; but on the 
 other hand, I can assure your lordship there was not wanting 
 evidence of the most extravagant licentiousness and criminal 
 violence on the part of these wretched people, which (being) 
 provoked by the abuse I discovered, or by other causes that 
 might be inscrutable to me, seems at length to have urged 
 matters to a crisis that necessarily terminated in bloodshed. 
 Upon the whole, I am not without hopes, my Lord, that the 
 vigorous measures taken by my predecessors under those cir- 
 cumstances may have a tendency to keep under the disorderly 
 spirit." (Col. Rec, IX, 357-358. Also ibid., IX, 330.) 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 The Inauguration of Western Expansion 
 
 The influence of the War of the Regulation upon the 
 movement of westward expansion has never been accurately 
 traced by historians. Just as the Scotch Highlanders, who 
 had been forced to take the oath of allegiance to the British 
 crown after the bloody disaster at Culloden, kept the faith and 
 were Tory virtually to a man in North Carolina during the 
 Revolution ; so the Regulators who remained in North Caro- 
 lina kept their faith and became consistent Tories, largely in 
 consequence of the oath of allegiance they took to the British 
 crown after Alamance. But there was another element of the 
 Regulators, who represented the true American spirit — men of 
 the stamp of Daniel Boone and James and Charles Robertson, 
 who constituted the vanguard of the army of westward ex- 
 pansion. These true Americans, distraught by apparently ir- 
 remediable injustices, even before Alamance had plunged fear- 
 lessly into the wilderness, seeking beyond the mountains a new 
 birth of liberty, lands of their own selection free of cost or 
 quit rents, and a government of their own choosing and own 
 control. Indeed the feverish movements of the people, stim- 
 ulated by the thousands of pioneers who were annually enter- 
 ing North Carolina or passing through toward the beckoning 
 Southwest, had set in motion a wave of migration across the 
 mountains as early as 1769. But after the battle of Alamance, 
 the liberty-loving men of Regulating instincts swept in a great 
 tide into the northeastern region of Tennessee. Somewhat 
 later, many of these eagerly followed Henderson and Boone 
 in organizing the Colony of Transylvania. "They played a 
 glorious part," says the historian Bancroft, "in taking posses- 
 sion of the Mississippi Valley, towards which they were car- 
 ried irresistibly by their love of independence. It is a mistake 
 if any have supposed that the Regulators were cowed down 
 by their defeat at the Alamance. Like the mammoth, they 
 shook the bolt from their brow and crossed the mountains." 
 
 The proclamation of George IV in 1763, forbidding the 
 eastern colonists to settle on lands to the west of a line join- 
 
 (46) 
 
The Star of Empire 47 
 
 ing the head-springs of the rivers flowing into the xA.tlantic, 
 was one of the shaping causes in awakening the resistance 
 of the American people to the narrow-visioned, blundering 
 governmental policies of Great Britain. In their steady pro- 
 pulsion westward of the frontier line and their progressive, 
 irresistible settlemient of lands from which they were impo- 
 tently debarred by royal proclamation, the colonists quietly 
 flouted the authority claimed and exercised by the English 
 sovereign. By virtue of her hazy charter, claiming "from 
 sea to sea," Virginia laid claim to almost the entire interior 
 of the continent. This vast territory beckoned to prospec- 
 tive settlers ; and North Carolina, under the terms of her 
 charter, laid claim to an extensive western area. The time 
 was ripe for a great leader, far-sighted, aggressive^ pru- 
 dent — a territorial expansionist who might prepare the ground 
 for a great westward migration of the people and the estab- 
 lishment of a permanent settlement in the heart of the trans- 
 montane wilderness. 
 
 George Washington expressed the secret belief of the pe- 
 riod when he hazarded the judgment that the Royal Proclama- 
 tion of 1763 was a mere temporary expedient to quiet the 
 minds of the Indians, and was not intended as a permanent 
 bar to westward expansion. Some years earlier, Richard 
 Henderson, with the continental vision of Washington, had 
 come to the conclusion that the uncharted West offered un- 
 limited possibilities in the shape of reward to pioneering 
 spirits, with a genuine constructive policy, willing to ven- 
 ture their all in vindication of their faith. George Wash- 
 ington, acquiring vast tracts of western land by secret pur- 
 chase, indirectly stimulated the powerful army that was car- 
 rying the broad-axe westward; Richard Henderson, with a 
 large- visioned, constructive policy of public promotion, coloni- 
 zation and settlement of the virgin West, directly conferred 
 large benefits upon the nation by his resolution and aggres- 
 siveness. Washington and Henderson were factors of crucial 
 importance in the settlement of the West and the advance of 
 the pioneer army into the wilderness of Tennessee, Kentucky, 
 and Ohio. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 An Early Land Company 
 
 During the early days of his legal practice in Salisbury, 
 Richard Henderson formed the acquaintance of Daniel Boone, 
 a young hunter and scout with only a local notoriety, who 
 lived a few miles away and frequently attended the terms 
 of court. Col. John Williams, of Granville, Henderson's 
 law-partner, and Col. Thomas Hart, sheriff of Orange county, 
 also knew Boone who, though very poor, impressed these 
 men with his sterling virtues of trustworthiness and in- 
 tegrity. From Boone, who had traveled into the Holston 
 region as early as 1760, these three men learned of the 
 beauty and fertility of the Western lands, and were thrilled 
 with the glowing accounts which Boone gave of his wander- 
 ings as hunter and explorer. Accordingly, they agreed among 
 themselves to engage Boone to spy out the land for them, 
 and to report to them on his return. As early as 1764, Boone 
 was spying out the Western lands as the agent of Richard 
 Henderson, and inquiring of the "Long Hunters," who had 
 penetrated further to the westward than himself, as to the 
 "locography and geography of the country." 
 
 It may be that Henderson was retarded in his plans by 
 the Royal Proclamation of 1763; it may be that his plan for 
 securing title to vast tracts of Western lands was not yet 
 matured. Whatever the cause certain it is that no move 
 was made by him until the after the treaty of Fort Stanwix 
 in 1768. According to this treaty, Great Britain acquired by 
 purchase from the Six Nations their unwarranted claim to 
 all the territory east and southeast of the Ohio and north of the 
 Tennessee rivers — a vast region including Kentucky and im- 
 mense portions of Tennessee and West Virginia. This treaty 
 acted as a great stimulant to Western colonization and Hen- 
 derson realized that another decade would mark an epoch in 
 the history of American civilization. At the same time, every- 
 one in North Carolina realized the absurdity of the claim 
 
 (48) 
 
t^: 
 
 COLONEL RICHARD HENDERSON 
 
 President of the Colony of 
 
 Transylvania 
 
The Star of Empire 49 
 
 of the Northern tribes to the Kentucky area — for it had been 
 claimed from time immemorial by the Southern Indians, the 
 Cherokees, the aboriginal occupants of what is now Tennessee. 
 
 Richard Henderson immediately understood the significance 
 of the Treaty of Fort Stanwix, since it extinguished the claim 
 of the Northern tribes to the Kentucky area. The valid owner- 
 ship of the territory being actually vested in the Cherokees, 
 Henderson foresaw that the lands could be acquired only by 
 lease or by purchase from that tribe. Although Boone had 
 once actually penetrated the wilderness of Kentucky on its 
 northeast corner, he was unaware of it ; and he was as eager 
 to explore the fabled region as was Henderson to have him 
 do so. His old companion in Braddock's campaign, John 
 Findlay, now happened into the valley of the Yadkin and 
 told Boone that he believed he could guide him across the 
 mountains to Kentucky v/hich he had visited on a trading ex- 
 pedition some years previous. 
 
 Boone doubtless held his last conference before starting 
 West with Judge Henderson at Salisbury, where he was pre- 
 siding over the Superior Court ; and plans were soon outlined 
 for Boone's journey of exploration. At this time Boone was 
 very poor and in debt to the law firm of Williams and Hen- 
 derson. His desire to pay off his indebtedness to Hender- 
 son made him all the more ready to undertake the exhaustive 
 tour of exploration in company with Findlay and others. 
 
 In his autobiographical account, Boone has described the 
 details of his two years' sojourn in Kentucky, part of the 
 time hunting on his own account, part of the time prospect- 
 ing and seeking out suitable sites for settlement, colonization 
 and defence, in the interest of Henderson and his associates. 
 In his description of the richness, beauty and fertility of the 
 country, in which he is supported by contemporary annalists, 
 such as Felix Walker, Thomas Hanson, and Nathaniel Hen- 
 derson, Boone expresses himself (through the mouth of the 
 bombastic Filson) in glowing terms: 
 
 "Nature was here a series of wonders and a fund of de- 
 light. Here she displayed her ingenuity and industry in a 
 
50 The Star of Empire 
 
 variety of flowers and fruits, beautifully colored, elegantly 
 shaped and charmingly flavored ; and we were diverted with 
 innumerable animals presenting themselves perpetually to our 
 view." On his return in 1771, from his remarkable journey 
 beyond the Cumberland, he was immediately engaged by Hen- 
 derson to act as his secret and trusted ambassador to treat 
 with the Cherokee Indians for the purchase of this imperial 
 domain. The project upon which Henderson now embarked 
 was the first great movement of westward expansion, a move- 
 ment which "for timeliness, heroism and ultimate success is 
 without a parallel in our annals." This enterprise, said Gov- 
 ernor Morehead, of Kentucky, in 1840, "in point of magnitude 
 and peril, as well as constancy and heroism displayed in its 
 execution has never been paralleled in the history of America." 
 
 At the time of Boone's return to North Carolina, Judge 
 Henderson was embroiled in the exciting issues of the Regu- 
 lation. His plan to inaugurate his great Western venture was 
 thus temporarily frustrated ; but the dissolution of the Su- 
 perior Court, under the "Judiciary Act of 1767," took place in 
 1773. Richard Henderson was now left free to devote him- 
 self unreservedly to the monumental project towards which 
 the investigations of years had led. From this time for- 
 ward, Richard Henderson sheds the glamor of local fame and 
 enters into national history as one of the remarkable figures 
 and notable constructive pioneers in the early history of the 
 American people. 
 
 In the meantime, Daniel Boone grew impatient over the 
 delay; for he was eager to carry his family with him into the 
 heart of the Western wilderness. Ignoring the crucial ques- 
 tion of title and heedlessly disregarding the inconceivable dan- 
 gers of encroaching upon the territory of hostile Indians, 
 Boone recruited a body of settlers, and on September 25, 1773, 
 started from the Yadkin Valley in North Carolina for Ken- 
 tucky with a colony numbering eighteen men, besides women 
 and children. Unsuspicious of danger, a detachment of Boone's 
 force was attacked by a band of Indians, and seven of them. 
 
The Star of Empire 51 
 
 including Boone's own son, were killed. They were now joined 
 by a party of forty fellow emigrants from the Valley of Vir- 
 ginia and Powell's Valley; and Boone was anxious to pro- 
 ceed. But the others demurred ; and despite Boone's expostu- 
 lations, the whole party scattered and returned to the settle- 
 ments. This incident is significant evidence that Boone was 
 deficient in executive ability, the power to originate and exe- 
 cute schemes of colonization on a large scale. A marvelous 
 scout, a skilled hunter, a backwoodsman without a peer, a 
 man of rare balance and sagacity of judgment, Boone lacked 
 constructive leadership and executive genius. He was a per- 
 fect instrument for executing the designs of others. It was 
 not until the creative and executive brain of Richard Hender- 
 son was applied to the vast and daring project of Western 
 colonization that it was carried through to a successful 
 termination. 
 
 In 1774 Henderson organized on a more extensive footing 
 under the name of the Louisa Company, the land company 
 first known as Richard Henderson and Company which seems 
 to have been originally composed of Col. John Williams, Col. 
 Thomas Hart, and himself. The name of the Louisa Com- 
 pany was quickly changed to Transylvania Company ; and the 
 purpose of the organization was to make a purchase of lands 
 and to effect a settlement thereon, on a basis of peace and 
 legal right, contrary to the misguided plan of Boone, who 
 boldly intended to fight his way into possession of territory 
 to which he had no legal claim. The ownership of all the 
 Kentucky region, with the exception of the extreme north- 
 eastern section, remained vested in the tribe of Cherokee In- 
 dians. Their title to the territory had been acknowledged by 
 Great Britain through her Southern Agent of Indian Affairs, 
 John Stuart, at the Treaty of Lochaber in 1770. Henderson 
 was now confronted with a two-fold task: first, to secure an 
 indisputable title from the Indian owners ; and second, to 
 surmount the far more serious obstacle of royal edict against 
 the purchase of land from the Indians by private individuals 
 without a crown grant. Through the highest English legal 
 
52 The Star of Empire 
 
 authorities Henderson learned that according to the most re- 
 cent legal decision rendered in England on the subject, pur- 
 chases by individuals from Indian owners were legally valid. 
 Without royal grant, Patrick Henry in Virginia, in 1774, was 
 negotiating for the purchase of part of the very territory 
 Henderson desired. Two years earlier the Watauga settlers 
 leased from the Cherokees the lands upon which they resided — 
 a preliminary to subsequent purchase. 
 
 Had Richard Henderson made his purchase from the 
 Cherokees without taking further steps to assure himself as 
 to the legality of his actions, he would doubtless have been 
 justified by the popular sentiment of the day, in view of the 
 universal disregard of the Royal Proclamation of 1763. But 
 having served on the highest court of law in the Colony of 
 North Carolina, he was determined to secure the highest legal 
 opinion of Great Britain. The opinion handed down by the 
 Lord Chancellor and the Attorney General cleared away the 
 legal difficulties ; and Henderson next inaugurated active steps 
 toward arranging a treaty with the Cherokee Indians. Daniel 
 Boone had just returned from the campaign of General An- 
 drew Lewis against the allied Indian tribes, resulting in a vic- 
 tory for the white men over the red men at the battle of the 
 Great Kanawha, on October 10, 1774. This victory put a 
 stop to Dunmore's War, assured peace with the Indians for 
 the succeeding year, and greatly reduced the dangers inci- 
 dent to colonization of the Kentucky wilderness. 
 
 Richard Henderson associated with himself in the great 
 enterprise eight gentlemen of probity and distinction, either his 
 relatives, connections, friends, or emigrants to North Carolina 
 from his boyhood home in Hanover county, Virginia. The 
 partners in the Transylvania Company were the three broth- trTy 
 
 ers, Nathaniel, David and Thomas Hart, especially noted for >^^'' ^ 
 their connections and associations with Henry Clay and 
 Thomas Hart Benton ; James Hogg, of the family of the 
 "Ettrick Shepherd," a prosperous merchant and eminent citi- 
 zen ; and WilHam Johnston, the chief of the Scotch merchants 
 of his section, an emigrant from Scotland, of distinguished 
 
The Star of Empire 53 
 
 connections — all residing in the county of Orange ; John Lut- 
 trell, a native of Westmoreland County, Virginia, who was af- 
 terwards swept into the Revolution and killed in battle ; John 
 Williams, the distinguished lawyer, Leonard Henley Bul- 
 lock, former high sheriff, and Richard Henderson, as president 
 and legal adviser — all three residing in the adjacent county of 
 Granville. This group of strong men and representative citi- 
 zens gave stability and driving force to the momentous un- 
 dertaking upon which they were now embarked. 
 
 In the autumn of 1774, Colonel Richard Henderson, ac- 
 companied by Captain Nathaniel Hart and a guide, journeyed 
 to the Otari towns of the Overhill Cherokee Indians to open 
 negotiations for the purchase of territory. The Indian chiefs 
 expressed a willingness to treat with Henderson; and as a 
 precautionary measure, Atta-kulla-kulla, or "The Little Car- 
 penter," the most celebrated and influential Indian among all 
 the tribes then known, a young Indian man and an Indian 
 woman, accompanied Henderson and Hart on their return 
 home in November, in order to see and examine the goods 
 offered as the consideration. Greatly to Henderson's satisfac- 
 tion, these goods met with the entire approval of the Indians. 
 The goods for which 10,000 pounds sterling was paid, were 
 purchased at Cross Creek ( Fayetteville, N. C.) on December 
 6, 1774, and soon afterwards sent forward in wagons to the 
 Watauga settlement. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 The; Great Treaty and the Wii^derness Road 
 
 It is interesting to note that just prior to the public an- 
 nouncement throughout the Colony of this vast scheme of 
 promotion and colonization, Dr. J. F. D. Smyth, the British 
 emissary, met Richard Henderson at the home of Col. John 
 Williams. Although Smyth in his travels as British scout 
 had seen the greatest men in the American Colonies, he pro- 
 nounces Richard Henderson "one of the most singular and 
 extraordinary persons and excentric geniuses in America, and 
 perhaps in the world." When on Christmas Day, 1774, there 
 were spread broadcast throughout the Colony of North Caro- 
 lina "Proposals for the encouragement of settling the lands 
 purchased by Messrs. Richard Henderson & Co. on the 
 branches of the Mississippi River from the Cherokee tribe 
 of Indians," a genuine sensation was created. In a letter to 
 Andrew Miller (January 28, 1775), Archibald Neilson, deputy 
 auditor of the Colony, inquired anxiously, and apparently not 
 without reason: "Pray is Dick Henderson out of his head?" 
 As it happened, Dick Henderson was never more coolly in 
 possession of his head than now ; nor had he ever hitherto put 
 it to uses of such momentous promise. Though trembling in 
 fear of the coming revolutionary cataclysm, Governor Josiah 
 Martin thundered forth in a forcible-feeble proclamation 
 against "Richard Henderson and his confederates," in their 
 "daring, unjust and unwarrantable proceeding." In letters to 
 the Earl of Dartmouth, Martin speaks scathingly of "Hen- 
 derson, the famous invader" and of "the infamous Hender- 
 son and his associates" whom he dubs "an infamous company 
 of land Pyrates." He denounced their project as a "lawless 
 undertaking" and "an infraction of the royal prerogative," 
 and threatened the company, if it persisted in its course, "with 
 the pain of His Majesty's displeasure and the most rigorous 
 penalties of the law." 
 
 To these fulminations of the royal governors, Henderson 
 
 (54) 
 
The Star op Empire 55 
 
 and his associates paid no heed. Daniel Boone was despatched 
 to summon the tribe of Cherokee Indians to the Sycamore 
 Shoals of the Watauga (near present Elizabethton, Tennes- 
 see) for a treaty. Some twelve hundred Indians, men, women 
 and children, virtually the entire tribe, assembled at the treaty 
 ground. From the 14th to the 17th of March, in a fair and 
 open treaty, Colonel Richard Henderson in behalf of the Tran- 
 sylvania Company purchased from the Cherokee Indians up- 
 wards of twenty million acres, comprising portions of the pres- 
 ent States of Virginia and Tennessee, and almost all of the 
 present State of Kentucky. 
 
 News of the proposed treaty quickly reached young Isaac 
 Shelby at Fort Blair ; and his pioneering instinct unerringly 
 drew him to the focus of interest, the treaty ground. We are 
 fortunate in having handed down to us a description of the 
 treaty on the part of young Isaac Shelby, an eye-witness. It 
 was proved, by the investigation conducted at the instance of 
 the State of Virginia, that the treaty was conducted "with an 
 honesty unparalleled in that day in such matters." From the 
 deposition of Isaac Shelby (December 3, 1777), the follow- 
 ing is deserving of quotation here : — 
 
 "That in March, 1775, this Deponent was present at a 
 Treaty held at Wattaugha between the said Henderson and the 
 Cherokee Indians : that the deponent then heard the said Hen- 
 derson call the Indians, where the deed by which the said Hen- 
 derson now claims was going to be signed, and declared that 
 they would attend to what was going to be done : that the de- 
 ponent believes the courses in the said Deed contained, to be 
 the very courses which the said Henderson read therefrom to 
 the Indians and were interpreted to them. That the said Hen- 
 derson took the said Deed from among several others lying 
 on a table, all of which appeared to the Deponent to be of 
 the same tenor with that which he read." 
 
 It was doubtless at some time during the course of the 
 treaty that Judge Henderson, attracted by the sterling qual- 
 ities of young Shelby and by his manifest eagerness to 
 connect himself with Henderson's plan of colonization, se- 
 
56 The; Star of Empire; 
 
 cured the promise of his services in the future, following the 
 expiration of his term of enlistment, to act as surveyor in Ken- 
 tucky for the Transylvania Company. 
 
 Once Richard Henderson had secured formal possession of 
 this vast territory for the Transylvania Company, he immed- 
 iately took active steps toward securing actual possession. As 
 a preliminary step and even while the negotiations were still 
 in progress, he commissioned Boone to mark out a road from 
 the established settlements westward to the new possessions. 
 The company of road builders, some 30 in number, placed 
 themselves "under the management of Colonel Boone, who 
 was to be our pilot and conductor through the wilderness to 
 the promised land." So says Felix Walker, of Rutherford 
 County, N. C, one of the party. About 10 days later Richard 
 Henderson with some 30 men, set ofT from the treaty ground 
 over the path which Boone and his axemen had cut out. Hender- 
 son had no intention of acting as a mere financial promoter of 
 the enterprise of settling the wilderness. He was of the stuff that 
 empire builders are made. The trials and vicissitudes of the 
 journey, for both the parties under Henderson and Boone re- 
 spectively, were arduous in the extreme. The forests bristled 
 with Indians, numerous settlers were fleeing from the wilder- 
 ness in dread of Indian forays, and it was supremely difficult 
 to hold the men in line. Again and again the fate of the ex- 
 pedition hung in the balance. It was the courage and energy 
 of Henderson, ever the man of action, and his unswerving re- 
 solve to go forward in the face of all named and unnamed 
 dangers which carried through the armed "trek" to a victor- 
 ious conclusion. 
 
 As they were encamped near the site of the future Boones- 
 borough, Boone and his party were attacked by Indians. On 
 April 1, Boone despatched a letter to Henderson, which ex- 
 presses the complete confidence which the backwoodsman felt 
 in the leadership of Henderson. It is one of the greatest con- 
 temporary tributes to Henderson and the company which he 
 was leading. 
 
The; Star of Empire; 57 
 
 "Dear Colonel 
 
 "After my compliments to you, I shall acquaint you with 
 our misfortune. On March 25 a party of Indians fired on my 
 company about half an hour before day, and killed Mr. 
 T witty and his negro, and wounded Mr. Walker very deeply, 
 but I hope he will recover. On March 28, as we were hunt- 
 ing for provisions, we found Samuel Pate's son, who gave us 
 an account that the Indians fired on their camp on the 27th 
 day. 
 
 "My brother and I went down and found two men killed 
 and sculped, Thomas McDowell and Jeremiah McPheeters. 
 I have sent a man down to all the lower companies in order 
 to gather them all to the mouth of Otter Creek. 
 
 "My advice to you, sir, is to come or send as soon as pos- 
 sible. Your company is desired greatly, for the people are 
 very uneasy ; but are willing to stay and venture their lives 
 with you, and now is the time to flusterate their (the Indians') 
 intentions, and keep the country, whilst we are in it. 
 
 "If we give away to them now it will ever be the case. 
 This day we start from the battleground, for the mouth of 
 Otter Creek, where we shall immediately erect a fort, which 
 will be done before you can come or send — then we can send 
 the men to meet you, if you send for them. 
 
 "Daniel Boone. 
 
 "We stood on the ground and guarded our baggage till 
 day, and lost nothing. We have about 15 miles to Cantuck 
 (the Kentucky River) at Otter Creek. 
 
 "D. B." 
 
 The incidents of this historic march are well authenticated ; 
 the details I have embodied in the work of which this and 
 subsequent instalments are but fragmentary outlines. One 
 of the most important of western historical documents is the 
 autograph diary of Richard Henderson, lent to the historian 
 Mann Butler by Richard's brother. Pleasant. 
 
 There is the simplicity of tense reality in the following 
 entry in Henderson's diary : — 
 
58 The: Star of Empire 
 
 "About 11 o'clock received a letter from Mr. Luttrell's 
 camp that there were five persons killed on the road to the 
 Cantuckee by Indians. Captain Hart, upon the receipt of this 
 news, retreated back with his company and determined to set- 
 tle in the valley to make corn for the Cantucky people. The 
 same day (Friday, April 7) received a letter from Dan Boone, 
 that his company was fired upon by the Indians (who) killed 
 two of his men, though he kept the ground and saved the 
 baggage." 
 
 This intelligence spread consternation and even terror into 
 the hearts of strong men, and caused some to turn back. 
 Abraham's Lincoln's grandfather, who was with Henderson's 
 party, was afraid to advance. But Richard Henderson was 
 made of sterner stuff. Without hesitation he commanded a 
 forward march. The settlement of the West rested upon the 
 shoulders of Henderson, and he quavered not under that mo- 
 mentous burden. Nor did it tend to allay the fears of his fol- 
 lowers or to diminish their apprehension to meet, day after 
 day, parties of panic-stricken fugitives which, in the aggregate, 
 totaled more than twice the number in his little band. 
 
 Henderson's diary is laconically, simply eloquent of his 
 determination to go forward. The day after the receipt of 
 the letter from Boone (April 8), there is the following signifi- 
 cant entry : — 
 
 "Started about 10 o'clock. Crossed Cumberland Gap about 
 four miles. Met about 40 persons returning from the Can- 
 tucky on account of the late murders by the Indians. Could 
 prevail on only one to return." 
 
 There are few if any more memorable pictures in all of 
 western history than this : Richard Henderson, a man a little 
 above average height, broad of shoulders but not fleshy, clad 
 in the rough garb of the pioneer, standing firmly planted in 
 the "Wilderness Trail" on a ragged spur of the grey-grained 
 Cumberlands, pointing significantly forward to the "dark and 
 bloody ground," and pleading ineffectually with the pale and 
 disheartened fugitives to turn about and join the dangers and 
 
The; Star of Empire 59 
 
 vicissitudes of pioneer conquest. For this indeed was the 
 destined mission of Henderson's remarkable career, to stand 
 firm and to give bold leadership to that momentous, crucial 
 movement in behalf of permanent western colonization. 
 
 After various trials and vicissitudes, the founder of Ken- 
 tucky, with his little band, at least reached the destined goal of 
 their arduous journeyings. Henderson's record on his birth- 
 day runs: "Thursday the 20th (April) Arrived at Fort 
 Boone on the Mouth of Oter Creek Cantuckey River where 
 we were Saluted by a running fire of about 25 Guns ; all that 
 was then at Fort. . . . The men appeared in high spirits 
 & much rejoiced in our arrival." It is a coincidence of historic 
 interest that just one day after the embattled farmers at Lex- 
 ington "fired the shots heard round the world," the echoing 
 shots of Boone and his sturdy backwoodsmen rang out to an- 
 nounce the arrival of the Proprietor of Transylvania and the 
 birth of the American West. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 Transylvania 
 
 Soon after his arrival at Fort Boone, Judge Henderson 
 busied himself with having erected, according to plans of his 
 own, a large stockaded fort. His greatest concern was to 
 unite the people for the purpose of establishing an independ- 
 ent government. "Our plan of legislation," he says in his 
 diary (May 8, 1775), "the evils pointed out . . . the rem- 
 edies to be applyed &c &c &c were Acceded to without Hesi- 
 tation. The plann was plain & Simple . . . 'twas nothing 
 novel in its essence — a thousand years ago it v^as in use, and 
 found by every Year's experience to be unexceptionable. We 
 were in four distinct settlem*^. Members or delegates from 
 every place by free choice of Individuals they first having en- 
 tered into writings solemnly binding themselves to obey and 
 carry into Execution Such Laws as representatives should 
 from time to time make. Concurred with, by A Majority of 
 the Proprietors present in the Country." On May 23, 1775, 
 the pioneers from the various small settlements and camps 
 nearby assembled on the green under a mighty plane tree at 
 Boonesborough. 
 
 In his address opening the assembly. Judge Henderson used 
 these memorable words : — 
 
 "You are about a work of the utmost importance to the 
 well-being of this country in general, in which the interest and 
 security of every and each individual are inseparably con- 
 nected. 
 
 "You, perhaps, are . . . placing the first corner stone 
 of an edifice (which) can only become great in proportion to 
 the excellence of its foundation. ... If any doubt remain 
 amongst you with respect to the force or efficiency of whatever 
 laws you now, or hereafter make, be pleased to consider that 
 all pozver is originally in the people: make it their interest, 
 therefore, by impartial and beneficent laws, and you may be 
 sure of their inclination to see them enforced." 
 
 (60) 
 
The: Star of Empire 61 
 
 The government which was established here was probably 
 the most unique colonial government ever set up on this con- 
 tinent. The proprietary form of government, greatly democ- 
 ratised, was adopted by the pioneers under Henderson's guid- 
 ance. From one who, though still nominally under royal rule, 
 vehemently asserts that the source of all political power is the 
 people, and that "laws derive force and efficiency from our 
 mutual consent," western democracy thus born in the wilder- 
 ness was "taking its first political lesson." 
 
 A land office was formally opened, deeds issued, and a store 
 established which supplied the colonists with powder, lead, 
 salt, osnaburgs, blankets, and the chief necessities of pioneer 
 existence. Here was a marvellous country that was actually 
 being occupied permanently by patriotic Americans. And 
 people nowadays can scarcely realize the delight, and well- 
 nigh rapture, of the pioneers in the wonderful country they 
 were colonizing. "To enter upon a detail of the Beauty & 
 Goodness of our Country," writes Nathaniel Henderson to a 
 friend, "would be a task too arduous. . . . Let it suffice 
 to tell you it far exceeds any country I ever saw or heard of. 
 I am conscious its out of the power of any man to make you 
 clearly sensible of the great Beauty and Richness of Ken- 
 tucky." Writing to his brother Jonathan from Leestown, the 
 young George Rogers Clark, soon to plot the downfall of 
 Transylvania, enthusiastically says (July 6, 1775) : "A richer 
 and more Beautiful County than this I believe has never been 
 seen in America yet." 
 
 It is a memorable feature of the career of the young Isaac 
 Shelby, later to become the first governor of Kentucky, that 
 he devoted a year of his life to scouring the wilds of Ken- 
 tucky and surveying tracts of land for the pioneers who settled 
 under the auspices of the Transylvania Company. The gar- 
 rison of Fort Blair, where Shelby was located, was not dis- 
 banded until July, 1775; and immediately thereafter he jour- 
 neyed to Kentucky and engaged in the business of land sur- 
 veying for the proprietors of the Transylvania Company. He 
 surveyed numerous tracts of land for others, and also made a 
 
62 The Star of Empire 
 
 number of entries of land for himself in Judge Henderson's 
 land office. Two years later, when testifying before the Vir- 
 ginia legislative committee, Shelby said : "This Deponent has 
 made several Entries for lands in Mr. Henderson's Office, but 
 does not conceive himself to be in any manner interested in the 
 Event of the dispute, between the Commonwealth of Virginia 
 and the said Henderson." After nearly a year's service as 
 surveyor, Shelby's health finally became impaired, owing to 
 continued exposure to wet and cold, combined with the fre- 
 quent necessity for going without either bread or salt. On 
 this account he was compelled to return to the settlements on 
 Holston. 
 
 Judge Henderson cherished the hope of having Transyl- 
 vania received by the Continental Congress as the fourteenth 
 American colony. At Oxford, in Granville County, North 
 Carolina, on September 25, 1775, the proprietors of Transyl- 
 vania held a meeting and elected James Hogg as a delegate, 
 armed with an ably prepared memorial, to the Continental 
 Congress then in session at Philadelphia, petitioning for the 
 recognition of Transylvania as the fourteenth member of the 
 united colonies. The memorial reads in part as follows : 
 
 "Having their hearts warmed with the same noble spirit 
 that animates the United Colonies, and moved with indigna- 
 tion at the late ministerial and parliamentary usurpation, it is 
 the wish of the Proprietors of Transylvania to be considered 
 by the Parliaments as brethren, engaged in the same great 
 cause of liberty and mankind The memorial- 
 ists please themselves that the United Colonists will take the 
 infant colony of Transylvania into their protection; and they 
 in return, will do everything in their power, and give such as- 
 sistance in the general cause of America as the Congress shall 
 judge to be suitable to their abilities." 
 
 In their conversations with James Hogg, the Adamses, 
 Samuel and John, displayed keen interest in the affairs of the 
 wilderness colony; but voiced strong objection to certain of 
 its features. Jefferson advised the Virginia delegates to use 
 their charter, not to destroy the claims of the Transylvania 
 
The Star of Empire 63 
 
 Company, but "to prevent any arbitrary or oppressive govern- 
 ment to be established within the boundaries of it." To Hogg, 
 Jefferson stated that "it was his wish to see a free government 
 estabHshed at the back of theirs [Virginia's] properly united 
 with them." He would not consent, however, for Congress 
 to acknowledge the Colony of Transylvania until it had been 
 acknowledged by Virginia. Opposition was expressed to the 
 proprietary form of government, quit-rents were regarded as a 
 form of vassalage, and the hope was generally expressed that 
 the proprietors would establish a "free government" and, as 
 Hogg quotes, "render ourselves immortal." 
 
 James Hogg's embassy to Philadelphia was barren of re- 
 sults ; and this failure marked the beginning of the end of 
 the Colony of Transylvania. Henderson was defeated prin- 
 cipally through the opposition of two men: Patrick Henry, 
 who always sought to extend in all directions the power and 
 bounds of the "Ancient Dominion" of Virginia; and George 
 Rogers Clark, who represented Harrodsburg, the rival settle- 
 ment to Boonesborough in Kentucky, and as a Virginian 
 wished to see Transylvania legislated into a dependency of 
 Virginia. 
 
 The mantle of leadership in the West, thitherto worn by 
 Henderson as colonizer and law giver, now fell upon the 
 shoulders of Clark, who forced upon Virginia his own ap- 
 pointment as virtual military dictator of the trans-Alleghany 
 region. Under the pressure of Henderson's vigorous repre- 
 sentations, Virginia finally acknowledged the validity of the 
 claims of the Transylvania Company as against the Cherokee 
 Indians, but frankly confiscated the purchase and made of 
 Transylvania a county of Virginia. In consideration of the 
 very great expense incurred by Richard Henderson and Com- 
 pany in purchasing and settling the said lands, "by which the 
 Commonwealth is likely to receive great advantage, by in- 
 creasing its inhabitants and establishing a barrier against the 
 Indians," Virginia granted to Richard Henderson and Com- 
 pany two hundred thousand acres of land situated between 
 the Ohio and Green rivers, opposite the present site of Evans- 
 
64 The Star of Empire 
 
 ville, Indiana. North Carolina later granted to the company a 
 like amount on Powell and Clinch rivers in Tennessee. As 
 just compensation, these grants were inadequate to measure 
 the value of the service in behalf of permanent western coloni- 
 zation rendered by the Transylvania Company. 
 
 At its own expense, the Transylvania Company had suc- 
 cessfully colonized the Kentucky area with between two and 
 three hundred men. With true revolutionary ardor, the pro- 
 prietors successfully defied the royal authority as expressed 
 through the crown governors of North Carolina and Virginia. 
 Although Henderson and his associates failed to secure recog- 
 nition of Transylvania as the fourteenth American colony, 
 they furnished to the world, as Hulbert says, "one of the most 
 heroic displays of that typical American spirit of comprehen- 
 sive aggrandizement of which so much is heard to-day." Un- 
 questionably the strenuous borderers, with their roving in- 
 stincts, would in any event ultimately have established im- 
 pregnable strongholds in the Kentucky area. But had it not 
 been for the Transylvania Company and Daniel Boone, no se- 
 cure stronghold, to protect the whites against the savages, 
 might have been established and fortified as early as 1775. 
 In that event the American colonies, convulsed in a titanic 
 struggle, might well have seen Kentucky overrun by savage 
 hordes, led by English officers, throughout the Revolution. 
 In consequence, the American colonies at the close of the 
 Revolution would probably have been compelled to leave in 
 British hands the vast and fertile regions beyond the Alle- 
 ghanies. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 The Aftermath of the Revolution 
 
 The early history of Kentucky and the struggles made to 
 secure statehood for the trans-Alleghany region constitute 
 a story closely associated with the careers of Richard Hen- 
 derson and Isaac Shelby. Henderson conceived the idea of 
 making Transylvania the fourteenth American colony, engag- 
 ing Daniel Boone as his principal scout in traversing the Ken- 
 tucky region, and Isaac Shelby as a leading surveyor in sur- 
 veying the land. The actual advance into Kentucky in 1775, 
 headed by Henderson with Boone as advance guard, was made 
 possible by the defeat of the Indians at the Battle of the Great 
 Kanawha in 1774, in which Isaac Shelby played a prominent 
 part. After Kentucky was settled in 1775 and 1776, Hender- 
 son turned his activities toward Tennessee and the settlement 
 of the Cumberland region and Shelby threw himself actively 
 into the struggle for American independence. 
 
 Elsewhere the present writer has told the stories of these 
 two men in reference to those events.* The purpose of the 
 remainder of the present work is to describe the difficult 
 role played by Isaac Shelby in the early history of Kentucky 
 subsequent to the close of the Revolution. No just, adequate 
 or detailed account has ever hitherto been given of the later 
 career of Isaac Shelby — a career intimately associated with 
 the earlier decades of the history of Kentucky following the 
 conclusion of peace with Great Britain in 1783. 
 
 At the close of the war, Isaac Shelby and his wife took up 
 their abode on the first settlement and preemption granted in 
 Kentucky. For the next decade he devoted himself to mak- 
 ing a livelihood by the cultivation of the soil, to which he had 
 been bred in early life. Says the Hon. W. T. Barry, in his 
 obituary address on Isaac Shelby: "He proved to be one of 
 the best practical farmers in our country — by industry and 
 
 * Richard Henderson : the Authorship of the Cumberland Compact and the 
 Founding of Nashville, in the "Tennessee Historical Magazine," September, 1916; 
 and Isaac Shelby: Revolutionary Patriot and Border Hero. Parts I and II, in the 
 "North Carolina Booklet," January, 1917, and July, 1918. 
 
 (65) 
 
66 The Star of Empire; 
 
 judicious management his fortune was rapidly augmented. 
 He was content to repose on the laurels he had won in the 
 war of independence. His talents, his services and high repu- 
 tation, gave him just claims to preferment. The people, too, 
 eagerly solicited his services ; but he could never be induced 
 to enter upon public life, unless the exigencies of his country 
 rendered his services indispensable. . . Like Cincinnatus, 
 he remained unambitious at his farm, enforcing, by his ex- 
 ample, the duties of private life ; teaching industry, temper- 
 ance, and economy; extending acts of benevolence and human- 
 ity to his countrymen, and setting an example to afifectionate 
 husbands, kind parents, and humane masters." 
 
 The period from the close of the Revolution until 1792, 
 in Kentucky, covers the struggles, oft-repeated, to secure the 
 benefits of statehood. Ten separate conventions were held 
 in close succession before Kentucky was finally admitted into 
 the Union of States on June 1, 1792. On occasion, Shelby 
 served in the conventions, convened for the purpose of obtain- 
 ing a separation from the State of Virginia ; and he was a 
 member of the convention which formed the first constitution 
 of Kentucky in April, 1792. It is one of the most gratifying 
 incidents in the early history of the West that John Sevier 
 and Isaac Shelby, who together had planned the Battle of 
 King's Mountain and so largely contributed by their personal 
 efforts to the achievement of that decisive and pivotal victory 
 of the Revolution, should have been rewarded by the suffrages 
 of their countrymen in the choice of the first chief magis- 
 trates, respectively, of Tennessee and Kentucky. Shelby was 
 unanimously chosen as first governor of Kentucky by the 
 board of election in May, 1792. For some days, he hesitated 
 to accept an office of such high responsibilty — one, as he him- 
 self modestly observed, which he conceived his walk through 
 life had not qualified him to fill with real advantage to his 
 country. However, regarding with veneration and respect 
 the call of his fellow citizens, he consented, after mature re- 
 flection, to accept. In passing through Danville, where ten 
 preliminary conventions were held for separation from Vir- 
 
This Star of Empire; 67 
 
 ginia, on his way to Lexington, first capital after admission to 
 Union, he was presented by the inhabitants with an address 
 in which the following words occur : "Unacquainted as to 
 flattery or studied panegyrics, they only wish in the plain 
 language of truth to express the great satisfaction they feel 
 on the appointment, and of your acceptance of the office." 
 Upon his arrival in Lexington, on June 4, he was likewise pre- 
 sented with an address, containing the following expressions : 
 "Truly sensible, that no other motive than a sincere desire to 
 promote the happiness and welfare of your country, could have 
 induced you to accept an appointment, that must draw you 
 from those scenes of domestic ease and private tranquility, 
 which you enjoy in so eminent a degree; . . . (and) hav- 
 ing the fullest confidence in your wisdom, virtue and in- 
 tegrity, we rest satisfied, that under your administration the 
 Constitution will be kept inviolate, and the laws so calculated 
 as to promote happiness and good order in the State." 
 
 On June 6, the governor-elect repaired to the hall of the 
 senate chamber, then in a log cabin, and delivered an address 
 to the two houses assembled there — thus imitating the pro- 
 cedure of his illustrious contemporary model, George Washing- 
 ton — a procedure recently brought back into use by President 
 Wilson. In his address. Governor Shelby urged the estab- 
 lishment of public and private credit on the most solid basis; 
 the speedy settlement of land disputes; the regulation of fu- 
 ture elections, in such manner as to guard against undue in- 
 fluence; the appointment of two senators; and the passage of 
 a law to compel sheriflfs and other public officers to give se- 
 curity for the due performance of their duties. In general, 
 he urged upon all to make paramount the effort to secure the 
 "prosperity of our common country." In particular, remarks 
 were addressed to the House of Representatives, recommend- 
 ing the raising of an adequate revenue for public exigencies 
 and the appointment of commissions to fix on a place for the 
 permanent seat of government. In the answer to the gov- 
 ernor's address occurs the following interesting observation : — 
 "It affords us pleasure that the voice of our country has called 
 
68 The; Star of Empire 
 
 to the office of chief magistrate one who from an early period, 
 has experienced inconveniences and dangers we have in com- 
 mon been subject to, by our far removal from the assistance 
 of government and our adjacent situation to hostile savages." 
 
 This passage calls forcible attention to the condition of 
 Kentucky as a frontier state. For years, like Tennessee, it 
 had remained in an isolated situation, exposed to the sporadic 
 attacks of the Indians and very imperfectly protected by arm- 
 ed force. It is true that for a decade the average annual im- 
 migration into Kentucky after 1777 was about 2,700 a year, 
 and from 1786 to 1790, 12,000 a year. And this, in spite of 
 the fact that the routes to Kentucky were persistently haunted 
 by the savage men, who frequently fell upon travellers com- 
 ing over the wilderness road and voyagers by the water routes, 
 in particular the Ohio. The figures given by Judge Innis in 
 1790 are appalling: that the Indians alone had killed 1,500 
 persons during his seven years of residence in Kentucky. 
 
 This sense of isolation and the belief that they were neg- 
 lected by Washington were among the underlying causes of 
 disaffection to the general government on the part of the peo- 
 ple of Kentucky. The people in the east labored under the 
 delusion that, in the difficulties with the Indians on the western 
 frontier, the whites were generally the aggressors. Moreover, 
 the British government, in flagrant disregard of the provisions 
 of the treaty of peace, had failed to remove her troops from 
 the northwestern posts. Whereas the general government had 
 assumed the defence of the borders, the real meaning of the 
 change proved disastrous to the people of the West, since the 
 Federal troops stationed at the western frontier posts were 
 entirely inadequate in numbers to cope with the situation, 
 which involved the defence of a long and exposed frontier. 
 Harman's expedition aganst the Indians in 1790 was marred 
 by mismanagement and needlessly severe losses ; and the final 
 outcome of the matter, as the result of the protests of the peo- 
 ple of Kentucky to the general government, was that a local 
 board of war was appointed in Kentucky, consisting of Scott, 
 Innis, Shelby, Logan and Brown. 
 
The Star of Empire 69 
 
 General Arthur St. Clair, although his appointment was 
 distasteful to the people of Kentucky, was made commander 
 of the United States Army in the West. Disregarding St. 
 Clair, the Kentuckians in 1791 despatched an expedition 
 against the Indians under Scott and Wilkinson, which so far 
 as it went was completely successful. Nevertheless St. Clair 
 in November of the same year headed an expedition against 
 the Indians which met with disastrous defeat. It was hard 
 upon these events that Shelby took up his duties as chief 
 magistrate ; and one of his tasks was to proportion the defense 
 to the immediate danger of the different quarters of the State 
 so as to afford the best protection to the weak settlements. 
 
 General Anthony Wayne — the "Mad Anthony" of his- 
 tory — was eventually chosen as commander of the United 
 States Army in the West to succeed St. Clair, who was Gov- 
 ernor of the Northwest Territory; but this was only done 
 after failure, both by local authorities and the general govern- 
 ment, to negotiate a peace with the Indians. Pending the 
 operations carried out by General Wayne, a new peril ap- 
 peared upon the horizon which involved the governor and 
 people of Kentucky and afforded the acid test of their al- 
 legiance to the general government. 
 
J 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 Isaac Shelby and the Genet Mission 
 
 The famous episode in which Edmund Charles Genet, the 
 representative of the new French Repubhc, played the highly 
 dramatic leading role, is certainly one of the most extraordi- 
 nary in our national annals. In order to understand the sig- 
 nificance of the episode and its relation to Isaac Shelby, it is 
 imperatively necessary to understand the popular temper in 
 the country at that time, and in particular the temper of 
 Kentucky. 
 
 In Kentucky, one of the leading features of dissatisfac- 
 tion with the federal government was the popular conviction 
 that the leading Federalist statesmen of the country were luke- 
 warm in advocacy of the demand for the opening of the Mis- 
 sissippi to Western commerce. Ever since the excitement 
 aroused by Jay's reputed proposal to cede to Spain for twenty- 
 five years the navigation of the Mississippi River in return for 
 commercial advantages to be enjoyed by the Eastern States 
 alone, the temper of the Kentucky people had tended toward 
 opposition to the Spaniards who held Louisiana and resolutely 
 denied to the United States the free navigation of the Missis- 
 sippi. The hostility towards the Spaniards was aggravated 
 by the fact that they were allied in the war against France 
 with England, which still retained the Northwest posts in de- 
 fiance of her treaty obligations. The inevitable result was to 
 arouse the sentiment of the people of Kentucky in behalf of 
 France against the alliance of England and Spain which, in 
 fact, efifectively closed the Mississippi to the commerce of the 
 West. Moreover, many Americans throughout the country — 
 for the sentiment was by no means confined to Kentucky alone 
 — felt most warmly towards France, the ally of America in 
 the Revolution. 
 
 This sentiment found free vent in the United States 
 through the instrumentality of the "Democratic Clubs," ema- 
 nating in especial from the Democratic Society of Philadel- 
 
 (70) 
 
The Star of Empire 71 
 
 phia, established early in 1793. As early as August of the 
 same year, one of these clubs was organized in Lexington, 
 Kentucky ; and soon similar organizations sprang up, in 
 Georgetown, Paris, and other Kentucky towns. Through the 
 instrumentality of these societies, sentiment was rapidly being 
 developed and organized. When Genet landed at Charleston 
 on April 8, 1793, he inaugurated a most vigorous and sensa- 
 tional campaign of propaganda on behalf of the new French 
 Republic. His meddlesome activities in the way of actually 
 fitting out ships for the service of France against Eng- 
 land, were effectually stopped by Washington's Proclama- 
 tion of Neutrality (April 22, 1793). Blocked in this di- 
 rection, he now turned his attention to the task of enlisting 
 the sentiment of the entire country on the side of France. 
 Receiving what he chose to regard as tacit encouragement 
 from Jefferson, an ardent democrat and lover of France, 
 Genet deliberately proceeded, by appealing direct to the peo- 
 ple of the United States, to invoke the armed assistance of 
 American citizens against the Spanish possessions in the 
 Southwest. By recruiting an army against the Spaniards at 
 New Orleans, Genet hoped to embroil the United States in a 
 war with Spain and eventually with Spain's ally, England. 
 
 The effect of Genet's machinations, carried on at first 
 through his agent, Michaux, soon exhibited itself in Kentucky. 
 Many prominent citizens, feeling embittered against Spain for 
 the closure of the Mississippi, welcomed the opportunity to ex- 
 press themselves in no uncertain terms ; and in October, 1793, 
 the Democratic Society of Lexington went on record in a vio- 
 lent resolution : — "That the right of the people on the waters of 
 the Mississippi, to the navigation, was undoubted ; and . . . 
 ought to be peremptorily demanded of Spain, by the govern- 
 ment of the United States." A printed address, giving evi- 
 dence of a plot being hatched in Philadelphia to enlist a force 
 in Kentucky against the Spanish dominions on the Missis- 
 sippi had come into the possession of the Commissioners of 
 Spain as early as the summer of 1793 ; and following their 
 complaint to the President, George Washington, Thomas Jef- 
 
72 The; Star of Empire 
 
 ferson, Secretary of State, transmitted the address to Gov- 
 eriior Shelby, in a letter (August 29, 1793), in which he says 
 that the President desires "if you shall have reason to be- 
 lieve any such enterprise meditated, that you put them on 
 aieir guard against the consequence, as all acts of hostility com- 
 mitted by them on nations at peace with the United States 
 are forbidden by the laws and will expose them to punishment : 
 And that in every event, you take those legal measures which 
 shall be necessary to prevent any such enterprize." In his 
 reply (October 5, 1793), Shelby says: "I think it my duty 
 to take this early opportunity to assure you that I shall be 
 particularly attentive to prevent any attempts of that nature 
 from this country. I am well persuaded, at present, none 
 such is in contemplation in this place. The citizens of Ken- 
 tucky possess too just a sense of the obligations they owe 
 the general government, to embark in any enterprize that 
 would be so injurious to the United States." 
 
 At the time of writing this letter. Governor Shelby was 
 confident that no such enterprise was in contemplation in 
 Kentucky; but he was soon to be undeceived. On November 
 6 Jefferson again writes to Shelby, informing him that the four 
 agents of France are Lachaise, Depeau, Mathurin and Gig- 
 noux ; and urging him : first, to restrain the conspirators by 
 law, if possible; but in case legal statutes should prove inade- 
 quate to meet the situation, to suppress the expedition by the 
 militia of the States, as had been ordered and practiced in 
 the other States. In the same enclosure (of date November 
 9, 1793), the Secretary of War addressed a letter to Governor 
 Shelby in which he points out that the expedition in contem- 
 plation, if permitted to proceed, would constitute a breach of 
 neutrality, and consequently involve us in war with Spain ; and 
 explicitly says : "The secretary of state has suggested how this 
 design may be prevented by the usual course of the laws — but 
 if this mode should be ineffectual, I am authorized by the 
 president of the United States, to request that your excellency 
 will use effectual military force to prevent the execution of the 
 plan of the said Frenchmen, or any other persons who may 
 
The Star of Empire 73 
 
 support, or abet their design. For the lawful expenses of 
 which the United States will be held responsible." 
 
 At about this same time (November 7, 1793) Arthur 
 St. Clair, Governor of the Northwest Territory, writes Gov- 
 ernor Shelby — informing him that George Rogers Clark had 
 received a commission, from the government of France, and 
 was about to raise a body of men in Kentucky to attack the 
 Spanish settlements upon the Mississippi. He also informs 
 Shelby of a report, which has reached him, that "a large sum 
 of money, a paymaster, and a number of French officers, are 
 arrived at the falls of Ohio ; and a number of boats for the 
 expedition laid down." At the same time, St. Clair issued a 
 proclamation warning the public of the designs of Lachaise, 
 Depeau, Mathurin and Gignoux, and forbidding the citizens 
 of the Northwest Territory to aid, abet or join them, in any 
 attempt they may meditate against the Spanish settlements on 
 the Mississippi. 
 
 At the time of convening the legislature of Kentucky on 
 November 6, Governor Shelby had not received the three let- 
 ters above mentioned ; as he expressly states, he did not re- 
 ceive the letters from the Secretary of State and the Secretary 
 of War until late in December. Nor had he then any im- 
 portant or tangible evidence that there was a serious movement 
 on foot in Kentucky of the kind described. Moreover, he 
 had no information of any detailed sort as to any efforts being 
 made by the general government in behalf of Kentucky be- 
 yond the vague and indefinite statement of Jefferson in his 
 letter of August 29, 1793 : "In addition to considerations re- 
 specting the peace of the general union, the special interests of 
 the State of Kentucky would be particularly committed, as 
 nothing could be more inauspicious to them than such a move- 
 ment, at the very moment when those interests are under 
 negotiation between Spain and the United States." That 
 Governor Shelby did not, later in the session, make a special 
 address to the legislature on the subjects is entirely compre- 
 hensible, in view of the above facts. And in view of the 
 lack of precise and detailed information, such an address 
 
74 The Star of Empire 
 
 would have been, it seems, ill-advised and alarmist in char- 
 acter. While appealing to the passions of the people, by giving 
 credence to the sensational stories which at this time lacked 
 proper authentification, such an address or a proclamation 
 would had been powerless to allay the popular hostility to 
 Spain and disaffection to the general government by the vague 
 cryptic allusion of Jefferson to a "negotiation" then in prog- 
 ress between the United States and Spain. 
 
 Meantime, the agents of Genet had reached Kentucky, 
 and immediately proceeded to sound Governor Shelby in re- 
 gard to their extraordinary and unneutral project. Writing 
 from Knob Lick, November 25, 1793, and addressing Shelby 
 as "Citizen Governor," Lachaise expresses his regret at be- 
 ing unable to deliver to the Governor in person "letters which 
 I was intrusted with by the minister," and ventures the hope 
 that he may see him at his (Shelby's) home, should he pay a 
 visit there in the near future. Writing from the same place, 
 on the same date, Charles Depeau informs the "Citizen Gov- 
 ernor" that he has been despatched in company with more 
 Frenchmen to join the expedition of the Mississippi, and con- 
 tinues as follows : "As I am to procure the provisions, I am 
 happy to communicate to you, whatever you shall think worthy 
 of my motive, or in which your advice may be of use to me, as 
 I hope I have in no way disobliged you; if I have, I will most 
 willingly ask your pardon. For nobody can be more than I 
 am willing for your prosperity and happiness. As some 
 strange reports has reached my ears that your excellence has 
 positive orders to arrest all citizens inclining to our assistance, 
 and as my remembrance know by your conduct, in justice you 
 will satisfy me in this uncommon request." From these two 
 letters, it seems to be clear that these Frenchmen had been 
 led to believe, perhaps by Senator Brown, of Philadelphia, 
 that Governor Shelby, as an individual, was hostile to the Span- 
 iards and favorable to the French. The purport of these pre- 
 sumptuous letters is obviously to take the measure of the 
 governor and learn from him the exact nature of his official 
 disposition toward the proposed undertaking. In reply to this 
 
The Star of Empire 75 
 
 second letter, Governor Shelby wrote from Frankfort, No- 
 vember 28, stating the substance of the instructions he had 
 received from the Secretary of State, and adding only these 
 words : "To which charge I must pay that attention which my 
 present situation obliges me." The phrase, "my present situ- 
 ation," gives a somewhat dubious meaning to the governor's 
 statement ; but one familiar with his style of expressing him- 
 self, and with the formal phraseology of the day, recognizes 
 the statement merely to mean : that whatever his personal 
 feelings towards France as a nation might be, he would in his 
 official capacity as Governor of Kentucky see that the laws 
 of the country were enforced. It is highly probable that, at 
 this time, Governor Shelby had not informed himself as to 
 laws then on the statute books in Kentucky covering the case 
 in question. Nor does it appear that he had resolved to in- 
 voke the military power of the State should no legal remedy 
 be available. 
 
 On December 2, following the issuance of his proclamation 
 of November 7, already referred to, Governor St. Clair re- 
 ceived a letter from the Secretary of War "announcing the 
 design of certain Frenchmen, to engage in some military ex- 
 pedition against the possessions of Spain on the Mississippi — 
 to set out from Kentucky." One week later he wrote to Gen- 
 eral Wayne informing him of the receipt of this letter and of 
 the fact that he had informed Governor Shelby of it — "in 
 order that he might take such measures to prevent it, as he 
 judged proper." On January 6, acting upon this advice. 
 General Wayne wrote to Governor Shelby, placing at his dis- 
 posal the squadron of horse, stationed between Georgetown 
 and Lexington and under the command of Major W. Winston, 
 for use in suppressing the French expedition. 
 
 It is difficult to arrive at an exact estimate, at so remote a 
 date, of the complexion of men's minds in a given circum- 
 stance and the precise motives which prompt to decisive ac- 
 tion. There is no reason to doubt that many of the leaders 
 of Kentucky, including Shelby, as evidenced by his letter of 
 January 13, 1794, printed below, felt very violently against 
 
76 The Star op Empire 
 
 Spain and very warmly towards France. To these irascible 
 and hot-blooded patriots dwelling upon the Western waters, 
 that country which kept closed to their produce and free 
 traffic the great highway of the Mississippi River was nothing 
 less than an enemy country. While the membership of the 
 Democratic clubs and societies in Kentucky are perhaps not 
 fully known, certain it is that many prominent men, among 
 which were included a number of Shelby's friends, were 
 members of these organizations. It soon became plain to 
 Shelby that the temper of the people at this time was very in- 
 flammable; and he preferred to adopt a Fabian policy of 
 "watchful waiting," rather than to adopt an aggressive policy 
 of military suppression. 
 
 With reference to the situation which had developed by 
 an early date in January, 1794, Shelby himself says: "The 
 subject now became serious and interesting, and required the 
 most attentive consideration ; for although I felt no apprehen- 
 sions that the intended expedition could be carried into eflfect, 
 yet I entertained too high a sense of the obligations due to the 
 General Government, to refuse the exercise of any powers 
 with which I was clearly invested. After the most careful ex- 
 amination of the subject, I was doubtful whether under the 
 constitution and laws of my country, I possessed powers so 
 extensive as those which I was called upon to exercise." 
 Doubtless Governor Shelby referred the investigation as to 
 the legal status of the case to his Secretary of State, James 
 Brown, who was a member of the Democratic Society of Lex- 
 ington ; but the dates of the letters exchanged between the 
 two, which have been preserved, indicates that Brown con- 
 curred with the views of the Governor, rather than that 
 Shelby accepted the legal advice of his secretary. 
 
 Below is Governor Shelby's famous letter of January 13, 
 1794, to the Secretary of State of the United States : 
 
 "Sir : After the date of my last letter to you, I received in- 
 formation that a commission had been sent to General Clark, 
 with power to name, and commission other officers, and to 
 raise a body of men : no steps having been taken by him (as 
 
The Star of Empire 17 
 
 far as has come to my knowledge) to carry this plan into 
 execution I did not conceive, that it was either proper or neces- 
 sary, for me to do anything in the business. 
 
 "Two Frenchmen, Lachaise, and Depeau, have lately come 
 into this State. I am told they declare publicly, they are in 
 daily expectation of receiving a supply of money, and that 
 as soon as they do receive it, they shall raise a body of men, 
 and proceed with them down the river. 
 
 "Whether they have any sufficient reason to expect to get 
 such a supply, or any serious intention of applying it in that 
 way, if they do receive it, I can form no opinion. 
 
 "I judge it proper, as the president had directed you to 
 write to me on this subject, to give you this information, that 
 he may be apprised as fully as I am of the steps which 
 have been, and are now taking here, in this matter. If the 
 president should hereafter think it necessary to hold any fur- 
 ther communication with the executive of this state on this 
 subject, I wish him to be full, and explicit as to the part which 
 he wishes and expects me to act. That if what is required of 
 me should in my opinion be within my constitutional powers, 
 and in the line of my duty, I may hereafter have it in my 
 power to show that the steps which I may take were not only 
 within my legal powers, but were also required by him. 
 
 "I have great doubts, even if they (General Clark, and the 
 Frenchmen) attempt to carry this plan into execution, (pro- 
 vided they manage their business with prudence) whether 
 there is any legal authority to restrain or to punish them ; at 
 least before they have actually accomplished it. For if it is 
 lawful for any one citizen of this state to leave it, it is equally 
 so for any number of them to do it. It is also lawful for them 
 to carry with them any quantity of provisions, arms, and am- 
 munition. And if the act is lawful in itself, there is nothing 
 but the particular intention with which it is done, that can 
 possibly make it unlawful — but I know of no law which in- 
 flicts punishment on intention only — or any criterion by which 
 to decide what would be sufficient evidence of that intention : 
 (even) if it was a proper subject of legal censure. 
 
78 The Star of Empire 
 
 "I shall upon all occasions be averse to the exercise of any 
 power which I do not consider myself as being clearly and 
 explicitly invested with ; much less would I assume power, to 
 exercise it against men, who I consider as friends, and breth- 
 ren, in favour of a man, whom I view as an enemy, and a 
 tyrant. 
 
 "I shall also feel but little inclination to take an active part 
 in punishing or restraining my fellow citizens for a supposed 
 intention only — to gratify or remove the fears of the minister 
 of a prince who openly withholds from us an invaluable right ; 
 and who secretly instigates against us a most savage and 
 cruel enemy. 
 
 "But whatever may be my private opinion, as a man, as 
 a friend to liberty, an American citizen, and an inhabitant of 
 the western waters — I shall at all times hold it as my duty, 
 to perform whatever may be constitutionally required of me 
 as governor of , Kentucky, by the president of the United 
 States." 
 
 There can be no sort of doubt that this was a most extra- 
 ordinary letter for the governor of a state to address to the 
 Secretary of State of the United States. Moreover, it stands 
 out in sharp contrast to Shelby's former letter (October 5, 
 1793) to the Secretary of State. In a letter to General M. D. 
 Hardin (July 1, 1812), Governor Shelby gives this explana- 
 tion : "There is to be sure some inconsistency in my two letters 
 to the Secretary of State of the United States, and I saw it at 
 the time, but at the date of the last, I saw evidently that the 
 whole scheme of Lachaise would fall to the ground without 
 any interference, and that the present was a favourable one. 
 while the apprehensions of the President were greatly excited, 
 to express to him what I knew to be the general sentiments 
 of the Kentucky people, relative to the navigation of the Mis- 
 sissippi and the Spanish Government. . . ." Governor 
 Shelby has clearly fallen into error, after the lapse of years, 
 in his declaration that on January 15, 1794, he was assured of 
 the failure of the Franco-American expedition against Louis- 
 iana. At this very time. General George Rogers Clark was 
 
The Star of Empire 79 
 
 circulating his "Proposals for raising volunteers &c." for this 
 expedition throughout Kentucky ; and so favorably were these 
 "Proposals" received that they were set forth, in full, in the 
 Centinel of the Northwest Territory — Cincinnati, January 25, 
 1794, and copied in the Kentucky Gazette of February 8, 
 1794. They appear as follows: 
 
 George R. Clark, Esq. 
 
 Major General in the armies of France, and Commander 
 in Chief of the French Revolutionary Legions on the Mis- 
 sissippi River. 
 
 PROPOSALS 
 
 For raising the volunteers for the reduction of the Spanish 
 posts on the Mississippi, for opening the trade of the said 
 river, & giving freedom to its inhabitants, &c. 
 
 All persons serving the expedition to be entitled to one 
 thousand acres of Land — those that engage for one year, will 
 be entitled to two thousand acres — if they serve two years or 
 during the present war with France, they will have three 
 thousand acres of any unappropriated Land that may be con- 
 quered. The officers in proportion pay &c as other French 
 troops. All lawful Plunder to be equally divided agreeable to 
 the custom of War. All necessaries will be provided for the 
 enterprize, and every precaution taken to cause the return of 
 those who wish to quit the service, as comfortable as possible, 
 and a reasonable number of days allowed them to return, at 
 the expiration of which time their pay will cease. All per- 
 sons will be commissioned agreeable to the number of men 
 they bring into the field. Those that serve the expedition will 
 have their choice of receiving their lands or one dollar per day. 
 
 G. R. Clark. 
 
 It was not until February 10 that Governor Shelby replied 
 to the letter of General Anthony Wayne of January 6, pre- 
 ceding. In it he says : "I can assure you that, there is not 
 the smallest probability that such an enterprize will be attempt- 
 ed; if it should, the Militia of this State, I am fully persuaded, 
 are able and willing to suppress every attempt that can be 
 made here to violate the laws of the Union." It is difficult to 
 understand, today, though it may be true, how Governor 
 
80 The Star of Empire 
 
 Shelby could have had access to sources of information so 
 positive to the effect that the French enterprise would not even 
 be attempted. On the contrary, it appears certain that it was 
 a matter of general, and even public, knowledge that prepara- 
 tions for the enterprise were well under way; and the pro- 
 jectors of the enterprise were so emboldened by the favorable 
 sentiment in Kentucky that Lachaise and Depeau had the te- 
 merity to address the governor on the subject, and General 
 Clark openly sent forth his proposals of volunteers, which 
 doubtless were read by Governor Shelby two days before he 
 wrote his reply to the letter of General Wayne. There is 
 something equivocal, also, in his assurance ; for he had already 
 expressed his doubts as to the existence of law on the statute 
 books under which the courts could arrest the projected en- 
 terprise. 
 
 The actual fact would seem to be that Governor Shelby 
 deliberately declined every invitation or proposal made to 
 him by the General Government, either directly or through 
 St. Clair and Wayne, to act upon his own unsupported au- 
 thority as governor of Kentucky — either by invoking legal 
 aid or military force. He delivered his ultimatum to the presi- 
 dent of the United States, which practically amounted to this : 
 I can find no law which empowers me to stop this expedition. 
 If you wish it stopped legally, pass a national law that will 
 cover the case. Moreover, I decline to call out the State 
 militia to suppress an enterprise which may never materialize 
 into action ; for premature or ill-advised action will agitate 
 and inflame public sentiment in this State. If you want me 
 to suppress the enterprise by force, command me to do so un- 
 der the constitution and I will carry out such constitutional 
 command. But I warn you now of this significant circum- 
 stance : the people on the western waters are aroused against 
 Spain and are uncompromising in their demands for such 
 negotiations with Spain as will lead to the opening of the 
 Mississippi River. 
 
 Let us see, now, what was the actual result of Shelby's 
 recalcitrant and somewhat defiant attitude in this whole mat- 
 
The Star of Empire 81 
 
 ter. Several important consequences flowed from his letter of 
 January 13, 1794. In the first place, an "act in addition to 
 the act for the punishment of certain crimes against the United 
 States" was brought before Congress "declaring, that to em- 
 bark in an enterprize, such as was contemplated by the citi- 
 zens of this State, should be considered as criminal, and di- 
 recting what punishment should be inflicted on those who 
 should be guilty of such an offence." In answer to Shelby's 
 letter (January 13, 1794), Edmund Randolph wrote Shelby 
 an extended letter (March 29, 1794), in the first part of which 
 he attempts to show, without by any means complete success, 
 that Governor Shelby "might with propriety comply with the 
 instructions of the General Government" ; and in his message 
 to the House of Representatives of Kentucky (November 15, 
 1794) Shelby says: "From the necessity of passing that law 
 (above referred to), I infer that my doubts as to criminality 
 of the proposed enterprise were well founded, and that until 
 the passage of that law (June 5, 1794), the ofifence had not 
 been declared nor the punishment defined." 
 
 It is clear that the President, from Shelby's letter of Jan- 
 uary 13, 1794, feared that in his official capacity as Gov- 
 ernor of Kentucky he was not disposed to take drastic ac- 
 tion, either legal or military, in suppressing the projected ex- 
 pedition. Accordingly, taking the matter into his own hands, 
 he issued a proclamation (March 24, 1794), declaring: 
 "Whereas I have received information that certain persons in 
 violation of the laws, have presumed, under color of a for- 
 eign authority, to enlist citizens of the United States and 
 others within the State of Kentucky, and have there assembled 
 an armed force for the purpose of invading and plundering the 
 territory of a nation at peace with the said United States. . . . 
 I have therefore thought proper to issue this proclamation, 
 hereby solemnly warning every person not authorized by the 
 laws, against enlisting any citizen or citizens of the United 
 States, or levying troops or assembling any persons within the 
 United States for the purpose aforesaid, or proceeding in any 
 manner to the execution thereof, as they will answer the same 
 
82 The Star of Empire 
 
 at their peril." Wasiiington took the additional step of di- 
 recting General Wayne to "establish a strong military post 
 at Fort Massac on the Ohio, and prevent by force, if neces- 
 sary, the descent of any hostile party down that river." 
 
 The recall of Genet, which had been effected through dip- 
 lomatic channels, together with Washington's prompt and de- 
 cisive manner cited above, dealt the final blow to the hopes of 
 Clark, Lachaise, and their adherents. The gravity of the situ- 
 ation, and the danger which had been averted, are exhibited in 
 a letter of Lachaise to the Democratic Society of Lexington 
 (May, 1794), in which he says "that causes unforeseen had 
 put a stop to the march of two thousand brave Kentuckians, 
 who were about to go and put an end to the Spanish despot- 
 ism on the Mississippi, where Frenchmen and Kentuckians, 
 united under the banners of France, might have made one 
 nation, the happiest in the world — so perfect was their sym- 
 pathy." 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 The Navigation of the Mississippi 
 
 In an "Address to the Freemen of Kentucky," issued in the 
 summer of 1812, during his campaign for the governorship, 
 Governor Shelby declared that he wrote his letter of January 
 13, 1794, having in view as one principal object to alarm the 
 General Government regarding the Western people and their 
 excited state concerning the question of the navigation of 
 the Mississippi. "The attention of the General Government 
 being thus drawn to the Western country, I deemed it a fa- 
 vorable time to make an impression on their minds of the im- 
 portance of the navigation of the Mississippi, and of the ne- 
 cessity of attending to that subject. On that account and with 
 that object, my letter of the 13th January, 1794, was calculated 
 rather to increase than to diminish the apprehensions of the 
 General Government as to the Western country. This letter 
 had the effect desired, it drew from the Secretary of State 
 information in relation to the navigation of the Mississippi, 
 and satisfied us that the General Government was, in good 
 faith, pursuing this object of first importance to the people 
 of Kentucky. The information thus drawn forth quieted the 
 public mind and restored harmony to the country." 
 
 A more explicit setting forth of the negotiations is neces- 
 sary here to a full understanding of this most important sub- 
 ject. In his letter to Shelby of March 29, 1794, Edmund Ran- 
 dolph says: "In December, 1791, it was verbally communicated 
 to the Secretary of State by one of the Commissioners of Spain 
 here, that his Catholic Majesty, apprised of our solicitude to 
 have some arrangements made respecting our free navigation 
 of the Mississippi, and the use of a port thereon, was ready 
 to enter into a treaty at Madrid. . . . Instructions, com- 
 prehensive, accurate and forcible were prepared by my pre- 
 decessor; and if at this stage of the business, it were proper 
 to develop them to public view, I should expect with certainty, 
 that those who are the most ardent for the main object would 
 
 (83) 
 
84 The Star of Empire 
 
 pronounce that the executive has been deficient neither in 
 vigilance nor exertions." 
 
 The pressure of pubHc sentiment, aroused by the pro- 
 nunciamentos of the Lexington Democratic Society, at length 
 took form in the following action by the General Assembly 
 of Kentucky (December 20, 1794) : — "Resolved, that the sen- 
 ators in Congress be and they are hereby instructed to require 
 information of the steps which have been taken to obtain the 
 navigation of the river Mississippi and to transmit such in- 
 formation to the executive of this State." On November 24, 
 preceding, Thomas Pinckney had been commissioned by the 
 Federal Government as envoy to Madrid, with instructions to 
 negotiate a treaty securing the free navigation of the Mis- 
 sissippi. And further to allay the excitement in Kentucky, 
 the Senate of the United States passed a resolution providing: 
 
 "That the President of the United States be, and he hereby 
 is, requested to cause to be communicated to the executive 
 of the State of Kentucky, such part of the existing negotiation 
 between the United States and Spain, relative to this subject, 
 as he may deem advisable and consistent with the course o^ 
 negotiations." 
 
 In pursuance of this resolution, the President appointed 
 James Innes "a Special Commissioner to detail a faithful his- 
 tory of the negotiations pending between the United States and 
 the Court of Madrid respecting the navigation of the Missis- 
 sippi." The exhaustive analysis made by the Special Com- 
 missioner and transmitted to Governor Shelby, was published 
 with accompanying documents in the Kentucky Gazette, 
 March 14, 1795. The crux of the matter is contained in his 
 statement that the President had decided not to "enter into 
 any commercial relations with the Court of Madrid 'until our 
 right to the free use of the Mississippi shall be most unequiv- 
 ocally acknowledged and established, on principles never here- 
 after to be drawn into contestation.' " 
 
 The subsequent incidents in this matter, the further Span- 
 ish intrigues engineered by Carondelet, the diplomatic negotia- 
 tions of Pinckney, can find no place here. Sufifice it to say 
 
The; Star of Empire 85 
 
 that on March 30, 1798, the Spanish troops evacuated the 
 posts north of the boundary, the thirty-first meridian, estab- 
 Hshed by the treaty; and at last "the pioneers of the West 
 found themselves in the possession of the long coveted right 
 of freely navigating the great river, which formed their only 
 highway to the markets of the world." 
 
 Isaac Shelby has been the target for severe criticism and 
 bitter invective because of his stand in the matter of the 
 French expedition and his apparent readiness to allow 
 American neutrality to be violated and America compromised. 
 But when we consider that the ultimate result of his famous 
 letter of January 13, 1794 and of his subsequent acts was the 
 opening to navigation of the Mississippi, we cannot but feel 
 that this splendid achievement far outweighs the fault of al- 
 leged luke-warmness in devotion to the national government 
 in the matter of ordering the arrest of General Clark, La- 
 chaise, Depeau, and the other leaders in the expedition. 
 
 It was during Governor Shelby's term as first governor of 
 Kentucky that General Wayne conducted his effective cam- 
 paign against the Indians, culminating in the battle of Fallen 
 Timbers and the treaty (August 3, 1795), by which the 
 Northwestern tribes surrendered all claims south of the Ohio 
 River. In his autobiographical account, Shelby says in 
 speaking of the time when he assumed the ofifice of governor: 
 "The country was then in a state of war, without funds of 
 any description, every part of Kentucky was a frontier in- 
 fested with a savage foe and the means of defense allowed by 
 the government very weak and feeble, but from a perfect 
 knowledge of the most exposed points of the frontier. Gov- 
 ernor Shelby was so enabled to proportion the defense to the 
 immediate danger of the different quarters of the State as to 
 afford the best protection to the weak settlement which his 
 limited means could possibly enable him to do, and prevented 
 any considerable depredations from the barbarous foe which 
 had before so greatly annoyed the country." With the final 
 evacuation in May, 1796, of the British posts in the North- 
 west, the cancerous source of strife between the Indians and 
 
86 The Star of Empire 
 
 Americans was removed ; and from this time forward Ken- 
 tucky began to lose its frontier character and enjoy the bene- 
 fits of peace and prosperity. 
 
 The coming of peace, the evacuation of the posts held by 
 the British and the Spanish, the cessation of Spanish intrigue 
 and conspiracy, the opening of the Mississippi and the secur- 
 ing of the right of deposit for American goods in New Or- 
 leans — these great blessings mark for Kentucky the close of 
 the period of Westward expansion and herald the dawn of 
 an era of great and prosperous statehood. 
 
 LRBJl'22 
 
I PRINTERY, DURHAM^ N. C.