FRENCH AND SPANISH INTRIGUES-PLANS TO EFFECT AN INDEPENDENT GOVERNMENT IN THE WEST.

In the spring of 1793, Genet, the French minister, arrived in this country and was received with great enthusiasm by the people who sympathized with the new republic of France. He at once began a series of intrigues to involve the United States in a war with the enemies of France. He proceeded to arm and equip privateers, and to enlist crews in the American ports to cruise against the commerce of England and Spain, as if this country were openly at war with those powers. At that time democratic societies, in imitation of the Jacobin Clubs of France, had been established in Kentucky. Their spirit was anti-federal. The failure to secure from Spain the free navigation of the Mississippi, the excise upon distilled liquors, the Indian war, what was considered the base truckling to England, and the still baser desertion of France in her terrible struggles with the leagued despotism of Europe, all became subjects of passionate declamation in the clubs and violent invectives in the papers. The protracted negotiation with Spain, relative to the navigation of the Mississippi, which was then in her dominions, had not been closed. The people of the West were jealous upon that subject, and distrustful of the intentions of the Federal Government. It was rumored that government was about to form an alliance with England, that hated power, against their beloved France, and that the old project of giving up to Spain the sole right of navigating the Mississippi was to be revived.

Aware of this deep feeling against the Federal Government, Genet sent four French agents to Kentucky to enlist an army of two thousand- men under the banners of France, to descend the Ohio and Mississippi in boats, and attack, conquer, and bring the Spanish settlements under the dominion of France. These emissaries found their plans met with the warmest approbation, and some of the leading men in Kentucky enlisted in the cause, among whom was General George Rogers Clarke, who was thereupon commissioned Major-General in the French service. The free navigation of the Mississippi forever would be the only direct benefit accruing to Kentucky, but French pay, French rank, and magnificent donations of land in the conquered provinces, were the allurements held out to private adventurers.

President Washington, acting under information from the minister of the king of Spain, used his efforts to suppress these movements. In consequence, General Wayne, whose cavalry was then wintering in Kentucky, wrote to Governor Shelby, that he should, by force of arms, repress any illegal expedition from Kentucky. The Governor, in his reply to the Secretary of State, said that he doubted if this could be legally done, for if it was lawful for one citizen to leave a State, it was equally so for any number. Again he said: "Much less would I assume power to exercise it against men whom I consider as friends and brethren, in favor 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."

These sentiments were prevalent among a vast majority of all classes of citizens. Upon receiving this answer, Washington, justly alarmed, ordered General Wayne to occupy Fort Massac, which stood on the Ohio River, in the Illinois country, with his artillery, and to take other necessary steps to arrest this rash expedition.

In the meantime, the democratic societies resorted to every method of inflaming the popular mind upon the subject of the navigation of the Mississippi, and the jealousy of the East, which they contended was the true cause of the failure of the general government to procure it for them. They had invited a general meeting of the people in Lexington, in the spring of 1794, where resolutions were adopted of a violent character, breathing the deepest hostility to the general government, and recommending the election of county delegates to a convention, whose object was not precisely defined; but which looked like a plan for separating from the East and erecting an independent government west of the mountains. At this juncture the intelligence arrived of the recall of Genet and the disavowal of his acts by the French republic, although in truth he had but conformed with their secret instructions. This ended the project.

About this period the Spanish authorities attempted an intrigue with Wilkinson, Sebastian, Innis, and Nicholas, all prominent men of Kentucky. From 1787, when Wilkinson made his first trip to New Orleans, until he took part in the Indian war in 1791, he held constant intercourse with the Spanish provinces; but whether his plans reached only so far as to form a commercial treaty with those provinces that would secure the navigation of the Mississippi to the West, or contemplated a disunion of the West from the East, is yet in doubt. He, however, in 1808 and again in 1811, was tried before a court martial on charge of having received a pension from Spain in consideration of his turning traitor and effecting a disunion of the States, but was triumphantly acquitted.

In the summer of 1797, Thomas Powers, agent for Carondelet, Governor of the Spanish provinces, came to Kentucky from Louisiana, and sent a communication to Sebastian for his consideration, and that of Nicholas, Innis, Murray, and others whom they might see fit to consult upon the subject. This paper embodied a plan by which the West was to rebel and declare its independence of the Union, and form a government wholly independent of the Atlantic States. The sum of two hundred thousand dollars, twenty field pieces, and other munitions of war, were supplied by his Catholic

Majesty. Fort Massac was to be seized instantly, and the federal troops to be dispossessed of all posts upon the western waters. In the event of their success in establishing a new government, that of Spain was to grant them especial commercial privileges, and the idea was held out that that government would not respect the treaty of 1795, which gave to the United States the free navigation of the Mississippi. Innis and Nicholas replied coldly to these overtures. It is not known whether Sebastian signed this reply; but it was proved afterward, in 1806, before the Kentucky Legislature, that he had for years received a pension of two thousand dollars from the Spanish government, and he was considered guilty of holding treasonable intercourse with her agents.

THE WHISKY INSURRECTION.

IN the year 1791, Congress enacted laws laying duties upon spirits distilled in the United States, and upon stills. From the very commencement of the operation of these laws, combinations were formed in the four western counties of Pennsylvania to defeat them, and violences were repeatedly committed. The western insurgents followed, as they' supposed, the example of the American revolution in opposing an excise law. Distilling was then considered a reputable business, and was very extensively carried on in Western Pennsylvania. Rye, their principal crop, was too bulky to transport across the mountains; therefore, having no market for it, they were obliged to convert it into the more easily transported article of whisky, which was their principal item to pay for their salt, sugar, and iron. They had cultivated their lands for years, at the peril of their lives, with little or no protection from the federal government, and when at last they were enabled to raise a little surplus grain to meet their expenses of living, they were met by a law which forbade them doing as they pleased with the fruits of their labors. In effect it was as bad as a government tax on wheat would be at the present day to the western farmer.

The indignation of the people at this law was universal. Public meetings were held, composed of the most influential men, denouncing the law, and resolutions passed recommending the public to treat all persons, holding the office of collector of the tax, with contempt. The tax collectors were subjected to all sorts of indignities from the populace. In September, 1791, Robert Johnson, the collector for Alleghany and Washington, was waylaid, dragged from his horse, his hair cut off, and he was tarred and feathered. The officer sent to serve the process against these offenders was treated in a similar manner. The next month a man named Wilson was torn from his bed by persons in disguise, carried several miles to a blacksmith's shop, stripped naked, burnt with a red-hot iron, and covered with a coat of tar and feathers.

Not long after, one Rosebury was tarred and feathered for speaking in favor of the law.

Congress in May, 1792, passed material modifications to the law, but all to no purpose. The excitement increased, not only were collectors visited with violence, but those distillers who complied with the law. The adversaries of the law went so far as to burn the barns and tear down the houses of the collectors and others, and threaten with death those who should disclose their names. So strong was the public feeling that one word in favor of the law was enough to ruin any man. It was considered as a badge of toryism. No clergyman, physician, lawyer, nor merchant was sustained by the people unless his sentiments were in opposition.

On the 16th of July, 1794, a band of about forty individuals attacked the mansion of Gen. John Neville, chief inspector of Western Pennsylvania, situated seven miles southwest of Pittsburgh. It was defended by Major Kirkpatrick, with eleven men from the garrison at Pittsburgh. The attack was previously made with small arms, and fire having been set to the house the garrison was obliged to surrender. One of the insurgents was killed.

Gen. Neville was one of the most zealous patriots of the revolution, and a man of great wealth and unbounded benevolence. During the "starving years" of the early settlements in that region, he had largely contributed to the necessities of the suffering pio. neers; and when necessary, he had divided his last loaf with the needy. In accepting the office he was governed by a sense of public duty. It was done at the hazard of his life and the loss of all his property. All his revolutionary services and his great popularity were insufficient to shield him from public indignation, and his hospitable mansion was consumed to ashes in the presence of hundreds who had shared his bounty or had enjoyed his benevolence.

Insubordination everywhere prevailed; all law was disregarded; the peaceable members of society became obnoxious to the mob and their adherents; the mail was boldly robbed, and disclosed letters which added new victims to the lawless rage; the United States marshal was compelled to escape for his life down the Ohio.

At length, so dangerous had become the state of affairs, that President Washington, on the 7th August (1794) issued a proclamation, commanding the insurgents to disperse, and warning all persons against abetting, aiding, or comforting the perpetrators of these treasonable acts, and requiring all officers and other citizens, according to their respective duties and the laws of the land, to exert their utmost endeavors to prevent and suppress such dangerous proceedings.

Washington having ordered out fifteen thousand militia from the adjoining States, proceeded in October to Bedford, whence he gave out instructions to Gen. Lee, of Virginia, who marched his troops to Pittsburgh. On their approach the insurgents were awed into submission to the law. In the spring succeeding a part of the

military, who had remained at Pittsburgh through the winter under Gen. Morgan, returned: order had been fully restored, and the law acquiesced in. Some of the insurgents were imprisoned for nearly a year.

FRONTIER DESPERADOES.

THERE are two states of society perhaps equally bad for the promotion of good morals and virtue-the densely populated city and the wilderness. In the former, a single individual loses his identity in the mass, and being unnoticed is without the view of the public, and can, to a certain extent, commit crimes with impunity. In the latter, the population is sparse, and the strong arm of the law not being extended over him, his crimes are, in a measure, unobserved, or if so, frequently the power is wanting to bring him to justice. Hence both are the resort of desperadoes.

In the early settlement of the West, the borders were infested with desperadoes flying from justice, suspected or convicted felons escaped from the grasp of the law, who sought safety in the depth of the forest. The counterfeiter and the robber found there a secure retreat or a new theater for crime.

While St. Louis was under Spanish dominion, in the latter part of the last century, the intercourse with New Orleans was at one time rendered very dangerous, by a very large band of robbers, under the command of two desperadoes by the names of Culbert and Magilbray, who, stationing themselves at a certain point on the Mississippi, carried on a regular and extensive system of piracy.

In the year 1787, a barge richly laden left New Orleans, bound for St. Louis. At Beausoliel's Island the robbers boarded the vessel, and ordered the crew below, with the owner, Mr. Beausoliel, among them. His whole fortune was in the barge, and now that he was to be deprived of it, he was in agony. But all was saved to him through the heroic daring of a negro, one of the crew. The negro Cacasotte was short and slender, but exceedingly strong and active, and the peculiar characteristics of the race had in him given place to features of exceeding grace and beauty. As soon as the robbers had taken possession, Cacasotte appeared overjoyed. He danced, sang, laughed, and soon induced them to believe that his ebullitions of pleasure arose from their having liberated him from irksome slavery. His constant attention to their smallest wants won their confidence, and he alone was permitted to roam unmolested and unwatched through the vessel.

Having thus far effected his object, he seized the first opportunity to speak to Mr. Beausoliel, and beg permission to rid him of his dangerous intruder. He laid his plan before his master, who, with a good deal of hesitation, acceded to it. Cacasotte was cook, and it was agreed between him and his fellow-conspirators,