The Settlement of Illinois, 1778-1830 :: I. The Land and Indian Questions.

I. The Land and Indian Questions.

Probably nothing affected settlement in Illinois from 1809 to 1818 more profoundly than did changes in the land question, for during this period Congress passed important acts relative to land sales, and this was also the period of the first sales of public lands in the territory. It seems strange that such sales should have been so long delayed, yet the settlement of French claims, although begun by the Governor of the Northwest Territory at an early day, and continued by commissioners authorized by Congress and appointed in 1804, was incomplete when Illinois became a separate territory, and the United States government adhered to its policy of selling no land in the territory until the claims were finally adjudicated. When a list of decisions reported by the commissioners to Congress late in 1809 was confirmed in the following May,225 and the next year a long list of rejected claims arising chiefly from the work of professional falsifiers, was reported,226 it seemed probable that the work was nearing completion, but a final settlement was still delayed, and the long-suffering Illinois squatters were bitterly disappointed when, in February, 1812, in accordance with a resolution presented by the Committee on Public Lands, Congress made provision for the appointment of a committee to revise the confirmations made by the Governor years before.227 The [pg 100] first legislature of Illinois met in the succeeding November, and adopted a memorial to Congress in which it was pointed out that the establishment of a land-office in the territory, several years before, had led to the opinion that the public land would soon be sold, and that because of this opinion those who constituted the majority of the inhabitants of the territory had been induced to settle, hoping that they would have an opportunity to purchase land before they should have made such improvements as would tempt the competition of avaricious speculators. The fulfillment of this hope having been long deferred, many squatters had now made valuable improvements which they were in danger of losing, either at the public sales of land or through the designs of the few speculators who had bought from the needy and unbusinesslike French most of the unlocated claims. For the relief of the squatters a law was desired that would permit actual settlers to enter the land on which their improvements stood, and requiring persons holding unlocated claims to locate them on unimproved lands lying in the region designated by Congress for that purpose. It was also hoped that as Congress had given one hundred acres of land to each regular soldier, as much would be granted to each member of the Illinois militia, since the militiaman had not only fought as bravely as the regular, but had also furnished his own supplies. If such a donation was not made it was hoped that a right of preËmption would be given to the militia, or failing even this, that they might be given the right, legally, to collect from anyone entering their land, the value of their improvements.228 In proof of the fact stated in the memorial, that speculators had bought many French claims, it may be noted that William Morrison [pg 101] had ninety-two of the claims granted at Kaskaskia, his affirmed claims comprising more than eighteen thousand acres, exclusive of a large number of claims measured in French units, while John Edgar received a satisfactory report on claims aggregating more than forty thousand acres, in addition to a number of claims previously affirmed to him.229

A few days after preparing the above memorial, the legislature prepared an address to Congress, in which reference was made to the arrangement made between Congress and Ohio by the Act of April 30, 1802, granting to Ohio two salt springs on condition that the state should agree not to tax such public lands as should be sold within her borders, until after five years from the date of sale. Illinois wished in similar fashion to gain control of the salt springs on Saline creek. The Illinois delegate in Congress was instructed that if the bargain could not be made, he should attempt to secure an appropriation for opening a road from Shawneetown to the Saline and thence to Kaskaskia. It was also desired that the Secretary of the Treasury should authorize the designation of the college township reserved by the Ordinance of 1787 and by the Act of 1804, and because “labor in this Territory is abundant, and laborers at this time extremely scarce,” it was hoped that slaves from Kentucky or elsewhere might be employed at the salines for a period of not more than three years, after which they should return to their masters.230 Each prayer of this address was granted. The enabling act and the Illinois constitution ceded the salt springs to the state and agreed that public lands sold in [pg 102] Illinois should be exempt from taxation for five years from date of sale; the Illinois Constitution provided for the employment of slaves at the salt works; an act provided for the location of the college township; and in 1816 the making of the desired road was authorized, although at the beginning of 1818 the route had been merely surveyed and mapped.231

The memorial which preceded the address was also in large measure successful. An act of February, 1813, granted to the squatters in Illinois the right of preËmpting a quarter section, each, of the lands they occupied, and of entering the land upon the payment of one-twentieth of the purchase money, as was then required in private sales.232 This act was of prime importance. For more than thirty years settlers in Illinois had improved their lands at the risk of losing them. Since the appointment, in 1804, of commissioners to settle the French land claims, the settlers had been expecting the public lands, including those they occupied, to be offered for sale; thus it was inevitable that anxiety concerning the right of preËmption should increase as the settlement of claims neared completion, and contemporaries record that the inability to secure land titles seriously retarded settlement;233 now, however, the granting of the right of preËmption, before any public lands in Illinois were offered for sale, ended the long suspense of the settlers. Years before this, Kentucky, now selling its public lands at twenty cents per acre, had passed liberal preËmption laws, and they were repeatedly renewed,234 facts which increased the anxiety of Illinois.

[pg 103]

Year after year the settlement of land claims dragged on, thus delaying the sales of land.235 In an official report of December, 1813, it is stated that: “In the Territory of Illinois, two land-offices are directed by law to be opened; one at Kaskaskia, the other at Shawneetown, so soon as the private claims and donations are all located, and the lands surveyed, which are in great forwardness.”236 A tract of land was set apart in April, 1814, to satisfy the claims recommended by the commissioners for confirmation.237 A report of November, 1815, said that the commissioners hoped to open the land-office at Kaskaskia on May 15, 1816; and finally, in a report on the public lands sold from October 1, 1815, to September 30, 1816, we find that about thirty-four thousand acres have been sold at Shawneetown and somewhat less than thirteen thousand acres at Kaskaskia, the price at the latter place being precisely the two dollars per acre which was then the minimum, while that at Shawneetown was slightly higher,238 presumably due to the sale of town lots, which had been authorized in 1810, although no sales took place earlier than 1814.239

The long delay in opening the land-offices in Illinois was fatal to an early settlement of the region, because the old states had public lands which they offered for sale at low rates, thus depriving Illinois of a fair chance as a competitor. In 1779 Kentucky granted to each family which had settled before January 1, 1778, the right of preËmption—four hundred acres if no improvement had been made and one thousand acres if a hut had been built. The preËmptor, by a law of 1786, was to pay 13s. [pg 104] 4d. per one hundred acres.240 In 1781 the sheriffs of Lincoln, Fayette, and Jefferson counties, Virginia, were authorized to survey not more than four hundred acres for each poor family in Kentucky, for which twenty shillings per one hundred acres should be paid within two and one-half years.241 In 1791 more than three and one-half millions of acres were sold in New York at eight pence per acre, while many thousands of acres in addition were sold for less than four shillings per acre—many for less than two shillings.242 Pennsylvania offered homestead claims, in 1792, at seven pounds ten shillings per hundred acres.243

In December, 1796, Kentucky sheriffs were ordered to sell no more land for taxes until directed by the legislature to do so.244 In 1800, and again in 1812, Kentucky offered land at twenty cents per acre, and in 1820 at fifteen cents per acre,245 while during the interval preËmption acts were repeatedly passed.246 Land in Tennessee sold at from twelve and one-half to twenty-five cents per acre in 1814, and in 1819 at fifty cents.247

In 1816 various classes of claimants were given increased facilities and an extension of time for locating their claims in Illinois. The business of satisfying claims was to linger [pg 105] for years, but with the opening of the land-offices it ceased to be a potent factor in retarding settlement.248

One writer says of Illinois: “The public lands have rarely sold for more than five dollars per acre, at auction. Those sold at Edwardsville in October, 1816, averaged four dollars. Private sales at the land-office are fixed by law, at two dollars per acre. The old French locations command various prices, from one to fifty dollars. Titles derived from the United States government are always valid, and those from individuals rarely false.”249 At this time emigrants were going in large numbers to Missouri, and the Illinois river country, not yet relieved of its Indian title, was being explored.250

Reports concerning the sales of public lands give the quantity of land sold in Illinois toward the close of the territorial period, the figures for 1817 and 1818 being as follows:

	Acres in 1817.	Acres in 1818.	Jan. 1, 1818.	Sept. 30, 1818.
Shawneetown	72,384	216,315	$291,429	$637,468
Kaskaskia	90,493	121,052	209,295	406,288
Edwardsville251	149,165	121,923	301,701	451,499252
	312,042	459,290	$802,425	$1,495,255

The percentage of debt showed a marked increase in the first nine months of 1818. There were received in three-quarters of 1817 and 1818, respectively:

[pg 106]

	1817.	1818.
At Shawneetown	$32,837	$112,759
At Kaskaskia	41,218	68,975
At Edwardsville	41,426	78,788

During this same period the receipts at Steubenville, Marietta, and Wooster, Ohio, decreased,253 showing that Illinois was beginning to surpass Ohio as an objective point for emigrants wishing to enter land.

The Indian question was interwoven with the land question during the territorial period. In 1809 the Indians relinquished their claim to some small tracts of land lying near the point where the Wabash ceases to be a state boundary line.254 No more cessions were made until after the war of 1812. Although the population of Illinois increased, during the territorial period, from some eleven thousand to about forty thousand, the increase before the war was slight, and thus it came about that during the war the few whites were kept busy defending themselves from the large and hostile Indian population. So well does the manner of defence in Illinois illustrate the frontier character of the region that a sketch of the same may be given. When, in 1811, the Indians became hostile and murdered a few whites, the condition of the settlers was precarious in the extreme. Today the term city would be almost a favor to a place containing no more inhabitants than were then to be found in the white settlements in Illinois. Moreover, few as were the whites, they were dispersed in a long half-oval extending from a point on the Mississippi near the present Alton southward to the Ohio, and thence up that river and the Wabash to a point considerably north of Vincennes. This fringe of settlement was but a few miles [pg 107] wide in some places, while so sparse was the population near the mouth of the Ohio that the communication between northern and southern Indians was unchecked. Carlyle was regarded as the extreme eastern boundary of settlements to the westward; a fort on Muddy River, near where the old Fort Massac trace crossed the stream, was considered as one of the most exposed situations; and Fort La Motte, on a creek of the same name above Vincennes, was a far northern point. The exposed outside was some hundreds of miles long, and the interior and north were occupied by ten times as many hostile savages as there were whites in the country, the savages being given counsel and ammunition by the British garrisons on the north.255 Under conditions then existing, aid from the United States could be expected only in the event of dire necessity. Stout frontiersmen were almost ready to seek refuge in flight, but no general exodus took place, although in February, 1812, Governor Edwards wrote to the Secretary of War: “The alarms and apprehensions of the people are becoming so universal, that really I should not be surprised if we should, in three months, lose more than one-half of our present population. In places, in my opinion, entirely out of danger, many are removing. In other parts, large settlements are about to be totally deserted. Even in my own neighborhood, several families have removed, and others are preparing to do so in a week or two. A few days past, a gentleman of respectability arrived here from Kentucky, and he informed me that he saw on the road, in one day, upwards of twenty wagons conveying families out of this Territory. Every effort to check the prevalence of such terror seems to be ineffectual, and although much of it is unreasonably indulged, yet it is very certain the Territory will very shortly be in considerable [pg 108] danger. Its physical force is very inconsiderable, and is growing weaker, while it presents numerous points of attack.”256

To the first feeling of fear succeeded a determination to hold the ground. Before the middle of 1812, Governor Edwards had established Fort Russell, a few miles northwest of the present Edwardsville, bringing to this place, which was to be his headquarters, the cannon which Louis XIV. had had placed in Fort Chartres;257 and two volunteer companies had been raised, and had “ranged to a great distance—principally between the Illinois and the Kaskaskia rivers, and sometimes between the Kaskaskia and the Wabash—always keeping their line of march never less than one and sometimes three days' journey outside of all the settlements”258—which incidentally shows what great unoccupied regions still existed even in the southern part of Illinois. As the rangers furnished their own supplies, the two companies went out alternately for periods of fifteen days. Sometimes the company on duty divided, one part marching in one direction and the other in the opposite, in order to produce the greatest possible effect upon the Indians. Settlers on the frontier—and that comprised a large proportion of the population—“forted themselves,” as it was then expressed. Where a few families lived near each other, one of the most substantial houses was fortified, and here the community staid at night, and in case of imminent danger in the daytime as well. Isolated outlying families left their homes and retired to the nearest fort. Such places of refuge were numerous and many were the attacks which they successfully withstood.

[pg 109]

Rangers and frontier forts were used with much effect, but the great dispersion of settlement and the large numbers of Indians combined to make it wholly impossible to make such means of defence entirely adequate. In August, 1812, the Governor wrote to the Secretary of War: “The principal settlements of this Territory being on the Mississippi, are at least one hundred and fifty miles from those of Indiana, and immense prairies intervene between them. There can, therefore, be no concert of operations for the protection of their frontiers and ours.... No troops of any kind have yet arrived in this Territory, and I think you may count on hearing of a bloody stroke upon us very soon. I have been extremely reluctant to send my family away, but, unless I hear shortly of more assistance than a few rangers, I shall bury my papers in the ground, send my family off, and stand my ground as long as possible.”259 The “bloody stroke” predicted by the Governor fell on the garrison at Fort Dearborn, where Chicago now stands. Some regular troops were subsequently sent to the territory, but the war did not lose its frontier character. One of the most characteristic features was that troops sometimes set out on a campaign of considerable length, in an uninhabited region, without any baggage train and practically without pack horses, the men carrying their provisions on their horses, and the horses living on wild grass.260 Unflagging energy was shown by the settlers, several effective campaigns being carried on, and by the close of 1814 the war was closed in Illinois.261

Extinction of Indian titles to land was retarded by the war and also by the policy of the United States, which was expressed by Secretary of War Crawford, in 1816, as follows: [pg 110] “The determination to purchase land only when demanded for settlement will form the settled policy of the Government. Experience has sufficiently proven that our population will spread over any cession, however extensive, before it can be brought into market, and before there is any regular and steady demand for settlement, thereby increasing the difficulty of protection, embarrassing the Government by broils with the natives, and rendering the execution of the laws regulating intercourse with the Indian tribes utterly impracticable.”262 Some progress, however, was made in extinguishing Indian titles during the territorial period after the close of the war. In 1816, several tribes confirmed the cession of 1804 of land lying south of an east and west line passing through the southern point of Lake Michigan, and ceded a route for an Illinois-Michigan canal.263 At Edwardsville, on September 25, 1818, the Peoria, Kaskaskia, Michigamia, Cahokia, and Tamarois ceded a tract comprising most of southern and much of central Illinois.264 The significance of this cession would have been immense had it not been that it was made by weak tribes, while the powerful Kickapoo still claimed and held all that part of the ceded tract lying north of the parallel of 39°—a little to the north of the mouth of the Illinois river. This Kickapoo claim included the fertile and already famous Sangamon country, in which the state capital was eventually to be located, and squatters were pressing hard upon the Indian [pg 111] frontier, yet the Indians still held the land when Illinois became a state.

During the territorial period, Illinois gained the long-sought right of preËmption; the French claims ceased to retard settlement; some progress was made in the extinction of Indian titles, and the sale of public land was begun. The new state was to find the Indian question a pressing one, and some changes in the land system were yet desired, but the crucial point was passed.

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