DISSATISFACTION OF WESTERN SETTLERS.

While Washington was urging upon the people of Virginia the importance of a water communication between the head waters of the Potomac and the Ohio, and had succeeded so far as to effect the organization of two companies under the patronage of the Governments of Maryland and Virginia, the people of the Western States, dissatisfied with the tax imposed upon them to pay the interest on the debt of the country to France, were many of them abandoning their dwellings and marching towards the Mississippi, "in order to unite with a certain number of disbanded soldiers who were anxious to possess themselves of a considerable portion of the territory watered by that river." Their object was to establish a government under the name of The Western Independence, and deny the authority of the American Congress, as McGillivray says in a letter to the governor of Pensacola.

This Alexander McGillivray, the head chief of the Talapouches, or Creeks, was a half-breed, the son of Lachland McGillivray, a Scotchman, and a Creek woman. He was educated in Scotland. Pickett, the historian of Alabama, calls him the Talleyrand of Alabama; and Gayarre, in an extended eulogy, says of him: "The individual who, Proteus-like, could in turn,-nay more, who could at the same time, be a British colonel, a Spanish and an American general, a polished gentleman, a Greek and Latin scholar, and a wild Indian chief with the frightful tomahawk at his belt and the war paint on his body, a shrewd politician, a keen-sighted merchant, a skillful speculator, the emperor of the Creeks and Seminoles, the able negotiator in person with Washington and other great men, the writer of papers which would challenge the admiration of the most fastidious, he who could be a Mason among the Christians, and a pagan prophet in the woods; he who could have presents, titles, decorations, showered at the same time upon him from England, Spain and the United States, and who could so long arrest their encroachments against himself and his nation by playing them like puppets against each other, must be allowed to tower far above the common herd of men." McGillivray died 17th February, 1793. He was buried with Masonic honors, in

the garden of William Panton, in Pensacola. His death spread desolation among his people.

PROPHECIES OF NAVARRO

Martin Navarro, the Spanish intendant at New Orleans, united with remarkable sagacity and foresight a jealousy of the American population of the Western States, amounting almost to mania. His policy in regulating commercial intercourse with all neighbors was in the largest degree conciliatory and generous. From the hour of its birth, he predicted with singular accuracy the power and growth of the American republic. In 1786, speaking of the commercial relations between the province of Louisiana and the numerous Indian tribes which owned the territory bordering upon the Mississippi river, he says:

"Nothing can be more proper than that the goods they want should be sold them at an equitable price, in order to afford them inducements and facilities for their hunting pursuits, and in order to put it within their means to clothe themselves on fair terms. Otherwise they would prefer trading with the Americans, with whom they would in the end form alliances which cannot but turn out to be fatal to this province."

The surplus productions of the Western settlements at this time had grown into a very considerable commerce, which, having no other outlet than the Mississippi, was sent down that river to New Orleans where it was subjected to unjust and oppressive duties. The flatboat-men complained of the seizures, confiscations, extortions and imprisonments which in almost every instance were visited upon them by the Spanish authorities. Infuriated by the frequency and flagrant character of these outrages, and denying the right of Spain under the treaty of 1783 in any way to restrict the free navigation of the river, the Western people began seriously to contemplate an open invasion of Louisiana, and a forcible seizure of the port of New Orleans. They laid their grievances before Congress and petitioned that body to renew negotiations with Spain, and secure for them such commercial privileges as were necessary to the very existence of their settlements.

Navarro seconded these views, and writing to his Government says: "The powerful enemies we have to fear in this

province are not the English, but the Americans, whom we must oppose by active and sufficient measures." He then, by a variety of reasons, urges that a restriction of commercial franchises will only increase the embarrassment of Spain. "The only way," he says, "to check them, is with a proportionate population, and it is not by imposing commercial restrictions that this population is to be acquired, but by granting a prudent extension and freedom of trade."

By granting the Americans special privileges, donating lands to them and affording them other subsidies, Navarro hoped to lure them from their allegiance to our Government. Very many, yielding to these inducements, moved their families into the Spanish province and became willing subjects of His Catholic Majesty. The majority of those who remained. owing to the repeated failures and rebuffs they had suffered in their efforts to obtain free commercial privileges, were forced at length to consider the idea of forming a new and independent republic of their own. Their separation by distance and mountain barriers from the Atlantic states rendered all commercial intercourse impracticable between the two portions of the country. They were surrounded by savages against whose murderous attacks their Government was unable to afford them adequate protection, and their commerce was burdened with oppressive and ruinous duties before it could gain access to the markets of the world. Besides these considerations, they were oppressed with heavy taxation to pay the interest on the great war debt to France. These reasons, to any one who can identify himself with the period of our history now under review, would certainly seem sufficient to overcome a patriotism which had always been measured by the amount of sacrifice it was capable of making without any return. Our Government, still under the old confederacy and no longer bound by the cohesive elements of the war, was ready to fall to pieces because of its inherent weakness. The majority of the people, both east and west, had little confidence in its stability. The leading patriots of the Revolution, alarmed at the frequent and threatening demonstrations of revolt made in all parts of the country, were at a loss to know how to avoid a final disruption.

"What, then," says Washington in a letter to John Jay, "is to be done? Things cannot go on in the same strain forever. It is much to be feared, as you observe, that the better kind of people, being disgusted with the circumstances, will have their minds prepared for any revolution whatever. We are apt to

run from one extreme to another.

* I am told that even respectable characters speak of a monarchical government without horror. From thinking proceeds speaking; then acting is often but a single step. But how irrevocable and tremendous! What a triumph for our enemies to verify their predictions! What a triumph for the advocates of despotism to find that we are incapable of governing ourselves, and that systems founded on the basis of equal liberty are merely ideal and fallacious."

It was when the country was in this condition, that the idea of a separate independence took form among the people west of the Alleghanies. Want of unanimity in the adoption of a basis for the new republic only prevented its organization; for as soon as the question came under serious consideration, no less than five parties appeared, each claiming its plan to be the only one suited to the purposes in view. Judge Martin, in his history of Louisiana, says:

"The first party was for being independent of the United States, and for the formation of a new republic unconnected with the old one, and resting on a basis of its own and a close alliance with Spain.

"Another party was willing that the country should become a part of the province of Louisiana, and submit to the admission of the laws of Spain.

"A third desired a war with Spain and the seizure of New Orleans.

"A fourth plan was to prevail on Congress, by a show of preparation for war, to extort from the cabinet of Madrid what it persisted in refusing.

"The last, as unnatural as the second, was to solicit France to procure a retrocession of Louisiana, and to extend her protection to Kentucky."

Encouraged in their designs to lure the Western people into Louisiana by this public evidence of their disaffection

toward their own country, the Spanish authorities from this moment conceived the idea of working a dismemberment of our confederacy and attaching the vast country west of the Alleghanies to the other Hispano-American possessions. Separate plans for effecting this object were formed by Miro, the governor of Louisiana, and Gardoquoi, the Spanish minister at Philadelphia. These officials were jealous of each other, and though partners in design, frequently clashed in their

measures.

GEN. WILKINSON'S INTRIGUES.

In June, 1787, General James Wilkinson, an officer of the Revolution who had emigrated to the West a few months before, descended the Mississippi to New Orleans, with a cargo of flour, tobacco, butter and bacon. His boat having been seized, Wilkinson, after a protracted interview with Governor Miro, parted from him with an order for its release and permission to sell his cargo free of duty. This arch-intriguer was permitted, during the entire period that his negotiations with Miro were in progress, to enjoy all the privileges of the New Orleans market free of duty. He sold large cargoes of tobacco, flour and butter to the Spanish authorities on different occasions, and received from Miro, at various times, very large sums of money to aid him in the work of dismemberment. We learn that at one time he sought to become a Spanish subject, but was dissuaded by Miro, who, while he loved the treason, hated the traitor. At another time, in the midst of his intrigues he besought Miro to obtain for him a portion of the country to which he could flee to escape the vengeance which would pursue him in case his diabolical acts should be discovered by Washington. He remained in New Orleans until September. During that period, at Miro's request, he furnished him with his views in writing of the political interests of Spain and the Western people. This document strongly advocated the free navigation of the Mississippi, and was sent to Madrid for the perusal of the king. But it was intended simply as a blind, to conceal the inception of an intrigue between Miro and Wilkinson for the separation of the Western settlements from the Union, and their adherence to Spain. It was soon ascertained that, coincident with the submission of this document,