EQUITY OF THEIR MEASURES, whatever might be their fentiments when in a lower ftation, and while aggrieved by fuperiors. The or dinance authorised the Council of State to fend a fleet thither, and to grant commiffions to proper perfons to enforce to obedience all such as stood oppofed to the authority of Parliament. In confequence hereof commiffioners were appointed, and a powerful fleet and army detached to reduce all their enemies to fubmiffion. They were to ufe their endeavours, by granting pardons and by other peaceful arts, to induce the colonists to obey the state of England: but if thefe means should prove ineffectual, then they were to employ every act of hoftility; to free those servants and flaves, of masters oppofing the government, that would ferve as foldiers to fubdue them; and to caufe the acts of Parliament to be executed, and juftice to be administered in the name of the Commonwealth. After the arrival of the commiffioners with the naval and military force, the Virginians refufed to fubmit, till articles of furrender had been agreed upon, by which it was ftipulated, "The plantation of Virginia, and all the inhabi tants thereof, fhall enjoy fuch freedoms and privileges as belong to the free people of England. The General Affembly, as formerly, shall convene and tranfact the affairs of the colony. The people of Virginia fhall have a free trade, as the people of England, to all places, and with all nations. Virginia fhall be free from all taxes, customs, and impofitions whatsoever; and none fhall be imposed on them without confent of the General Affembly; and neither forts nor caftles fhall be erected, nor garrifons maintained without their confent.*" This convention, entered into with arms in their hands, they fuppofed had fecured the ancient limits of their country; its free trade; its exemption from taxation but by their own Affembly, and exclufion of military force from among them. Yet in every of these points was this convention violated by fubfequent kings and parliaments, and other infactions of their conftitution, equally dangerous, committed. The General Affembly, which was compofed of the council of state and burgeffes, fitting together and deciding by plurality of voices, was fplit into two houfes, by which the council obtained a separate negative on their laws. Appeals from their fupreme court, which had been fixed by law in their General Affembly, were arbitrarily removed to England, to be there heard before the king and Bland's Inquiry into the Rights of the British Colonies. council council. Instead of four hundred miles on the fea coaft, they were reduced, in the space of thirty years, to about one hundred miles. Their trade with foreigners was totally fuppreffed, and, when carried to Great-Britain, was there loaded with imposts. It is unneceffary, however, to glean up the feveral instances of injury, as scattered through American and British history; and the more especially, as, by paffing on to the acceffion of the prefent King, we fhall find fpecimens of them all, aggravated, multiplied, and crowded within a a fmall compass of time, fo as to evince a fixed defign of confidering the rights of the people, whether natural, conventional, or chartered, as mere nuilities. The colonies were taxed internally; their effential intereft facrificed to individuals in Great-Britain; their legiflatures fufpended; charters annulled; trials by juries taken away; their perfons fubjected to transportation across the Atlantic, and to trial before foreign judicatories; their fupplications for redrefs thought beneath anfwer; themfelves published as cowards in the councils of their mother country and courts of Europe; armed troops fent among them to enforce fubmiffion to these violences; and actual hoftilities commenced against them. No alternative was presented but refiftance or unconditional fubmiffion. Between these there could be no hesitation. They closed in the appeal to arms. They declared themselves Independent. States. They confederated together in one great republic; thus fecuring to every State the benefit of an union of their whole force. They fought they conquered-and obtained an honourable and glorious peace. KENTUCKY. Though the war which took place between England and France in the year 1755, terminated fo gloriously to Great-Britain, and fecurely for the then colonies, ftill we remained ignorant of the whole of the fine country lying between the high hills, which rife from Great Sandy river, approximate to the Allegany mountain, and extending down the Ohio to its confluence with the Miffiffippi, and back to thofe ridges of mountains which traverse America in a fouth-west-byweft direction, until they are loft in the flat lands of Weft-Florida. However, certain men, called Long Hunters, from Virginia and North-Carolina, by penetrating thefe mountains, which ramify into a country two hundred miles over from east to west, called the wilderness, were fascinated with the beauty and luxuriance of the country on the western fide, A grant A grant had been fold by the Six Nations of Indians to fome Britifft commiffioners at fort Stanwix, in 1768, which comprehended this country, and which afforded the Americans a pretext for a right to fettle it; but thofe Indian natives who were not concerned in the grant, became diffatisfied with the profpect of a fettlement which might become fo dangerous a thorn in their fide, and committed fome maflacres upon the firft explorers of the country. However, after the expedition of Lord Dunmore, in 1774, and the battle at the mouth of the Great Kanhaway, between the army of Colonel Lewis and the confederated tribes of Indians, they were in fome measure quiet. The Affembly of Virginia began now to encourage the peopling that diftrict of country called Kentucky, from the name of a river which runs nearly through the middle of it. This encouragement confifted in offering four hundred acres of land, to every person who engaged to build a cabin, clear a piece of land, and produce a crop of Indian corn. This was called a fettlement right. Some hundreds of these fettlements were made; but, in the mean time, Mr. Richard Henderfon, of North-Carolina, a man of confiderable abilities, and more enterprife, had obtained a grant from the Cherokee tribe of Indians for this fame tract of country; and though it was contrary to the laws of the land for any private citizen to make purchases of the Indians, ftill Mr. Henderfon perfevered in his intention of establishing a colony of his own. He actually took poffeffion of the country, with many of his followers, where he remained pretty quiet, making very little improvement, Virginia being at that time entirely occupied with the war, which had commenced between Great-Britain and the confederated States. Moft of the young men from the back fettlements of Virginia and Pennsylvania, who would have migrated to this country, having engaged in the war, formed that body of men, called Rifle-men; which not only checked the growth of the fettlement, but fo dried up the fources of emigration, that it was near being an nihilated by the fury of the favages. The legality of Mr. Henderfon's claim was investigated by the State of Virginia in 1781; and though, according to exifting laws, there could be no fort of equity in it, he having acted in contempt of the State, the legislature, to avoid feuds or disturbances, for Mr. Henderson had confiderable influence, agreed, as an indemnification for the expenfe and trouble he had been at, that he should be allowed a tract of country twelve miles fquare, lying in the forks of the Ohio and Green rivers: a tract of his own chufing. Virginia Virginia gave a farther reward and encouragement at this time to the first fettlers, for the perils they had undergone in the establishment of their fettlement, of a tract of one thoufand acres, called a preemption right, to be laid off adjoining to the fettlement of four hundred acres, the grantee only paying office-fees for the fame. After this period (i. e. 1781) a land office was opened by the State, granting warrants for any quantity of unlocated land, upon condition of certain fums of the depreciated continental currency being paid into the treasury, at so much for one hundred acres. The great plenty and little value of this money foon caufed the whole country to be located, which was one of the material caufes of its rapid population. It was neceffary, in the management of this bufinefs, that care fhould be taken to prevent that perplexity and litigation, which the vague manner in which that bufinefs was executed in many instances would neceffarily produce. For this purpose, three principal furveyors were appointed, who were to lay, or cause to be laid off, by their depties, the different locations within the limits of their diftricts: this being done, and recorded in the office, the original survey was fent to the deputy register's office, there to be recorded; from thence it was fent to the principal regifter's office at Richmond, the feat of government, there to remain twelve months, in order that any perfon having a claim, by virtue of a prior location, might have an opportunity to enter a caveat, and prevent a furreptitious grant from iffuing. Commiffioners were also sent to adjust the claims of fettlement and pre-emption rights; by which means order was preferved, and the government fettled, of a district of country detached and separated at that time, more than two hundred miles from any other fettled country. The years 1783 and 1784 brought out vaft numbers of emigrants from all parts of America, particularly the latter year, when it was fuppofed that in Kentucky alone, not lefs than twelve thousand perfons became fettlers; feveral Europeans from France, England, and Ireland, were among the number. In 1783, 1784, and 1785, great part of the country was furveyed and patented, and the people in the interior fettlements pursued their business in as much quiet and fafety as they could have done in any part of Europe. Court-houses were built in the different counties, and roads were opened for carriages, which seven years before had not been seen in the country. The roads prior to that time being barely fufficient for fingle horfes to travel on. La In 1785, the district had grown fo confiderable from the great num ber of emigrants which had arrived, and that respectability which it had acquired, that it produced a difpofition in the inhabitants to be come an independent State, and to be admitted as another link in the great federal chain. A convention was immediately formed by fending deputies from the different counties, who met at Danville, for the purpose of taking the matter into confideration; when it was determined, after fome debating, to petition Virginia for that purpose. However, this bufinefs was procrastinated; for finding, though they might feparate whenever they chofe, yet that it was optional with the legiflature of Virginia to recommend them to be taken into the federal government, which they were not likely to do, and which it was certain could not be done without, they were content to remain as they were for that time. The federal government in the courfe of the year 1785, undertook to lay off the country weft of the Ohio, in such a manner as would anfwer the purpose of felling the land, and fetting the country; but owing to a variety of caufes, their progrefs was very flow. However, fome land was furveyed in 1786 and 1787, and in the latter year a fettlement was formed upon the Muskingum, which may be looked upon as the commencement of American fettlements upon the wef tern fide of the Ohio. In 1788 and 1789, fome farther furveying was done; but little fince has been transacted in those parts, except wars between the Indians and fettlers. NORTH AND SOUTH-CAROLINA. We give the hiftory of the fettlement of thefe States together, as for a very confiderable period they formed but one colony. A few adventurers emigrated from the Maffachusetts, and fettled round Cape Fear, about the time of the reftoration. They confidered mere occupancy, with a transfer from the natives, without any grant from the king, as a good title to the lands which they poffeffed. They deemed themselves entitled to the fame "civil privileges" as those of the country whence they had emigrated. For years they experienced the complicated mife:ies of want. They folicited the aid of their countrymen; and the general court, with an attention and humanity which did it the greatest honour, ordered an extensive contribution for their relief, But the final fettlement of the province was effected equally through the rapacity of the courtiers of Charles II. and his own facility in rewarding thofe, to whom he was greatly indebted 2 |