xt7gms3jx88t https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7gms3jx88t/data/mets.xml Kentucky Historical Society. 1880  books b02-000000025 English Printed at the Kentucky Yeoman Off., Major, Johnston & Barrett, 1880.y. : Frankfort, Kentucky Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection.  Proceedings of the Kentucky Historical Society at its Second Annual Meeting in Frankfort, February 11, 1880. text Proceedings of the Kentucky Historical Society at its Second Annual Meeting in Frankfort, February 11, 1880. 1880 2002 true xt7gms3jx88t section xt7gms3jx88t 






PROCEEDINGS



OF THE



KENTUCKY HIISTORICAL



SOCIETY,



AT ITS



SECOND ANNUAL MEETING,







     TN FRANKFORT, FEBRUARY ii, I88o.



      F RAN KFORT,
PRINTED A T TILE KENTUCKY
   MAJOR, JOHNSTON 
           IS80.



K Y.:
YEOMANV OFFICE.
BARRETT.

 
This page in the original text is blank.



 




                           PROCEEDINGS


                                  OF THE



KENTUCKY HISTORICAL SOCIETY,


                                  AT ITS



SECOND ANNUAL MEETING,


         IN [RANKFORT, FEBRUARY 11, 1880.



      [From Kentucky Yeoman Report.]
  The Kentucky Historical Society held its
Second Annual Meeting in Major Hall,
Frankfort, at 8 o'clock, P. M., on Wednes-
day, February i i, i88o. Owing to the
inclement weather and hard rain prevailing,
the attendance was not as large as it would
otherwise have been, but those present
constituted a highly intelligent and appre-
ciative audience  The platform was occu-
pied by the officers of the Society, the
Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Speaker
of the House, Ex-Governor BISHOP, of
Ohio; Hon. I. N. BOONE, Representative
from Clark county, a relative of DANIEL
BOONE, and other distinguished citizens.
The proceedings were opened with an
appropriate prayer by Rev. GREEN CLAY
SMITH, followed by an introductory address
by Ex-Governor JAMES B. MCCREARY,
President of the Society.
Upon its conclusion he announced that,
owing to the unavoidable absence of Col.
WM. PRESTON JOHNSTON, the orator of the
evening, his address would be read by Maj.
H. T. STANTON, whom he introduced to
the audience, and who executed the duty
assigned him with credit to himself and
the author, whose absence, however, was
much regretted.



  The next exercise on the programme was
the reading of a memorial to the Legisla-
ture by Gen. C. M. CLAY, Chairman of the
Memorial Committee, who followed the
same with a few remarks. Succeeding
this, Prof. G. W. RANCK, Curator of the
Society, made a verbal report of the prog-
ress of the Society during the past year,
with a stirring appeal in its behalf. The
enrollment of the new members followed,
and the proceedings were closed with bene-
diction by Prof. J. D. PICKETT. We give,
in the order of the programme, the several
addresses of the evening:
INTRODUCTORY REMARKS BY JAMES B. Mc-
         CREARY, PRESIDENT.
  LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: The lessons of
History cannot be too highly appreciated,
or too thoroughly examined. Whether we
study them as presented on the Temples
and Tombs of ancient times, or in the vel-
lum volumes 'of the present, much benefit
may be derived. Lord Bacon said: "As
statues and pictures are dumb Histories, so
Histories, are speaking pictures."
  Everything that preserves the Past of an
Empire, a Republic, or a State, is valuable.
The thread of events that joins the ages
together, or the channel by which their
special contributions have been handed
down from Asia to Europe, and from Eu-
rope to America, are full of thrilling inter-
est. The dawn of civilization in the East,

 
PROCEEDINGS OF THE



and its- march through successive oriental
Empires; the advancement of ancient pol-
ity, science, art, and literature; the strug-
gle for personal liberty and independence,
and the changes which occurred when the
sunshine of Christianity first illumined the
world, are not only speaking pictures of
History, but are indicative also of the ulti-
mate accomplishment by the human race
of the grand destiny ordained -by Divine
Providence.
  A great philologist said: "History is a
narration of events-a statement of the
progress of a 'nation." If this is true,
there is no country on earth whose teach-
ings are more instructive or more worthy
of preservation than ours. In this age of
invention, improvement, and advancement
the changes produced by investigation and
discovery are so vast and rapid that it is
difficult to realize their magnitude, or com-
prehend the transformations that are oc-
curring around us.   According to the
Deautiful representations of Bancroft, we
are "setting up the grand temple of civ
ilization. the separate stones and pillars of
which each nation and age was commis-
sioned to hew and carve." Our people
have built according to their genius and
instincts.  Time and thought and expe-
rience have not wrought in vain, and they
realize that " they have builded better than
they knew." In fact, when we consider
their inventions and their workmanship,
and remember that the American Union,
though but little more than a century old,
is about equal in territory to the whole of
Europe; has fifty millions of human be-
ings, and connects two oceans; has eighty
thousand 'miles of railroads, and the same
number of miles of telegraph; enrolled
last year in the public schools nine millions
of pupils, for whose education an army of
over two hundred thousand teachers were
employed, and about eighty millions of
dollars expended by the States; has annual
productions of wheat, corn, cotton, and
other staples that are sought after in almost
every market of the civilized world; has
underlying her soil vast store-houses of
coal, iron, gold, and silver, not surpassed
by any other section of the globe, and has
added to all these freedom of speech, free-
dom of press, freedom  of religion, and
universal -freedom of person, it seems as if
our Republic was indeed reserved as the
proper location-for the grandest structure
of civilization, and that the human mind
cannot assign a limit to its growth, or an-
ticipate the crowning events of the coming
century, if, under wise laws, proper econ-
omy, and correct statesmanship, its pros-
perity is not retarded. Everything con-
nected with the History of the United
States is worth preserving and perpetuat-



ing. Kentucky is a component part of our
great Republic, and her sons should per-
form their share toward rescuing from
oblivion and preserving all that is valuable.
  We owe it to our ancestors, to ourselves,
and our posterity, to preserve and perpet-
uate, in a durable form, the official and
public acts of those who preceded us, with
the same care and attention given to the
public and official acts of those now in au-
thority. While much that is valuable con-
nected with the History of our State has
been collected and preserved by the able
and indefatigable efforts of Marshall, But-
ler, and the senior and junior Collins, and
by other Kentucky Historians, it is a mat-
ter of regret that the archives of our State
do not contain every important document
in relation to the early conventions and
other political events anterior to the sepa-
ration of Kentucky from Virginia, and her
admission into the Union. I may add, also,
that it is by no means creditable to our
State that many of the old and valuable
records and journals have been lying for
years unhonored, unappreciated, and un-
cared for, in undistinguishable confusion,,
in a room rarely opened, the prey of moths,
cobwebs, and the dust of decay. The ab-
sence of proper legislation authorizing
them to be properly arranged and cared
for is the cause of their present condition.
  Twenty-two States of this Union have
Historical Societies, which have collected
much that is valuable, and contributed
much that has added to their power and
eminence. Some of these State Historical
Societies are supported entirely by State
aid, and many of the best men of the
country belong to them. There is no State
whose history is richer in material of every
kind, or fuller of thrilling interest, than the
State of Kentucky. The lives of such men
as Daniel Boone, the early pioneer; Isaac
Shelby, the first Governor of Kentucky;
John Brown and John Edwards, the first
Senators; Christopher Greenup, the first
Representative in Congress from Kentucky;
Harry Innis, Benjamin Sebastian. Caleb
Wallace. and Thos. Todd, the first Judges of
the Court of Appeals, help to make up the
History of our State, give to it prominence,
and serve as guide-posts to mark distinct
periods of progress: .but the History of
Kentucky is not confined to them; the
evidences of a pre-historic race that pre-
ceded the rude and untutored tribes en-
countered here by the early Anglo-Saxon
explorers; the events connected with the
days when Kentucky was the pioneer of
civilization, and the first Territory that ap-
peared for admission into the Union; the
relics of the times which gave to her the
name of "I The Dark and Bloody Ground;"
the utterances of her statesmen; the doings



2

 
KENTUCKY HISTORICAL SOCIETY.



of her soldiers; the history of her bench
and bar and pulpit, glittering with the
wisdom of men who might properly be
called the peers of any who have ever lived
within the borders of our Republic; the
contributions of her sons and daughters to
science, literature, and art, and her won-
derful geological formations, all serve to
make the work of the Kentucky Historical
Society charming and comprehensive, and
indicate that if it is properly supported by
its members, and aided by the State, it
will become equal in importance and mag-
nitude to any in the Union.
  We meet to-night to celebrate the Second
Anniversary of the Kentucky Historical
Society. I am gratified to be able to state
that it is in a prosperous condition, and
that its future seems bright and promising.
  The object of the Society is to not only
hold in trust for the State, and arrange,
under proper authority, all-records or papers
that may be committed to its care, but also
to collect or receive as contributions every-
thing of interest or of value connected
with the History of our State; and also to
form an association of Kentuckians, who,
loving everything connected with Ken
tucky, desire also to keep step with the
music of an age of progress, improvement,
and advancement. Surely there can be no
more laudable undertaking than this, and
the aid of every friend of the Common-
wealth is invoked. There is no State more
worthy of the affection of her sons and
daughters than ours. The traveler, amid
the sunny scenes of Italy, or France, or
the lowlands of Scotland, or in the Repub-
lic of Switzerland, finds no country that
excels Kentucky; and the morning sun
rising in the east, and throwing its light
over the granite hills of New Hampshire
and across the fertile fields, magnificent
cities, vast prairies and winding rivers of
the great Mississippi Valley, and onward
beyond the Rocky Mountains to the shores
of the Pacific ocean, beautifies and illu-
mines no State whose measure of liberty,
prosperity,'and honor is fuller than that
of K-entucky, or that furnishes greater or
more varied material for a Historical So-
ciety.
ADDRESS OF COL. V-AM. PRESTONIJOHNSTON.
  The Kentucky Historical Society did
the writer a great honor when it invited
him to deliver the annual address. He
knew that great difficulties intervened-
business interests committed to his charge
by others; but he hoped so to arrange these
as to permit his appearance at Frankfort at
this time, The purpose of your Society is
so near the heart of every Kentuckian, its
business so full of inspiration, that every-
thing seemed possible] in its service. It



3



has not, however, been possible for the
writer to appear in person, owing to para-
mount engagements, and he, therefore,
avails himself of the services of a friend
in the delivery of his address, and throws
himself upon the indulgence of this Soci-
ety.
  It is good for Kentucky that this His-
torical Society has been formed; that her
glory in the past is safe in the hands of
men sensitive to her honor, yet keenly alive
to the demands of inexorable truth. Her
deeds and achievements have been great
and memorable. We should not willingly
let them die, or be forgotten. True it is,
that it is better to do' great deeds than to
record them. But there is no sharper spur
to grand endeavor than a confidence that,
even if it be made in vain, it will not sink
into the dust, but will live in the hearts and
memories of men. The unrecorded dead
and deeds of a people fade into the infinite
spaces of the past like the echo of the
winds of a century ago. It is History that
confers immortality. The power to achieve
lifts a people above the groveling billions
who cumber the earth; but it is only to a
chosen few of the generous and gifted
races of mankind that it is given to write
their annals on adamant and embody
achievement in literature, and so shine
into the far future, even as a star in the
firmament, to guide and to glorify. It is
the historical literature of a nation which
confers upon it perennial life. Its tear-
blotted and blood-stained pages bestow the
only immortality possible to a nation, as
distinguished from an individual.
  A memorable history fitly recorded is
necessary to the very idea' of a historic
race.; and have you considered how much
is implied in that term, a historic race  It
is to be numbered with the Greeks, in whom
all forms of beauty found their standard
and incarnation; with the Romans, who
dominated the world in the majesty and
masterhood of strength and order; with
those children of Israel who struck the
harp of prophecy and praise to the Lord
Most Highest, which will resound till time
shall be no more. It is to be counted in
that strenuous brotherhood of European
nations which directs the material forces
and intellectual movement of the whole
earth. This is a high destiny.
  How is our American people to become
a historic race; and how is Kentucky to
stand in its vanguard First, there must
be aspiration, not only for equality with
the very best, but for preeminence. Un-
less you contend for the first place, you
will be found in the last. It is a contest of
Titans, into which the feeble, the fearful;
and the sluggish need not enter. But you
must not only Aspire; you must think, and

 
PROCEEDINGS OF THE



do, great things. And, lastly, you must
add to your aspiration and achievement the
inspiration which emblazons thought and
action in imperishable forms on the endur-
ing scrolls of literature and history. This
Society makes the first step in this last grand
consummation-the record of your past.
  The question naturally arises, whether
there is anything to justify the hope that
your place in the march of nations may be
in the front rank. Has this little Common-
wealth given promise of a really high and
grand career I think it can be demon-
strated by an appeal to the facts of history.
This State is yet a youthful member of the
community of civilized States. Only a few
weeks ago I shook hands with the venera-
ble Dr. Graham, walking briskly in the
streets of Louisville. And yet his span of
years nearly equals the whole existence of
the Commonwealth. The century which
marks the life time of Kentucky amounts
but to a decade in the life-time of a nation
You are yet in the bloom of youth; in the
beauty and joyousness of your spring:tide
W\That, then, can you have achieved  The
infant Hercules strangled two monstrous
serpents while yet in the cradle. Your in-
fancy has been Herculean. It is a custom
to chronicle the childhood of princes-of
babes born in the purple; and the pen of
inspiration has deigned to celebrate the
youth of those destined for leadership by
divine selection. ' He chose David also
his servant, and took him away from the
sheep-folds. As he followed the ewes great
with young ones, he took him, that he
might feed Jacob his people, and Israel his
inheritance."
  And, oh ! fellow-citizens, if ever there
was a shepherd with the seal of sovereignty
upon his brow, a fair young David among
the slheep-folds, a community clothed with
the signs and symbols of royalty, it is the
Commonwealth of Kentucky.
   Again, I declare that you who have
bound yourselves together in a well-organ-
ized and zealous State Historical Society
have done well. Your work is a good
work. You are the keepers of the tables
of the law. You are the registrars and
chroniclers of the daily life of the State.
You are sentinels to that treasury of thought
where lie stored the crown-jewels of her in-
tellectual and moral worth.  The glory
and honor of your State is in your keeping.
The importance of your duty and your
trust cannot be overestimated.
   It is my wish, in coming before the pub-
lic, always to add some bit of original
thinking, when possible, to our common
stock of knowledge. Carrying out this pur-
pose, I shall venture to ask a question
appropriate to this audience and occasion,
and to attemptits answer. " What is His-.



tory  " This is a question which has been
often asked, and the reply would seem ob-
vious enough. But the great men who
have written history-the oracles-make
response, not in definitions, but in epi-
grams. Now, an epigram, no matter how
central its aim or trenchant its edge, differs
essentially from a definition. The epigram
sweeps the horizon with bird's eye view,
and depicts the landscape in a sentence.
This is art. The humbler, but not less use-
ful. office of the definition is, with Jacob's-
staff and chain, to run the lines and mark
the boundaries of knowledge. The wise
Socrates taught that definition is the begin-
ning of exact thought. You will, there-
fore, pardon me my definition, which is
submitted to wholesome correction.
  Let us first look to the historians for their
conception of what history is. You will
find that Carlyle calls it "a looking before
and after; " Macaulay, "a true picture of
the life of our ancestors;"' Arnold, " the
biography of a Society; " Kingsley says,
"1 history is the history of men and women,
and of nothing else;" Sir James Stephens
views history " as a drama of which retri-
bution is the law, opinion the chief agent,
and the improvement and ultimate happi-
ness of our race the appointed, though
remote, catastrophe; " Michelet, in his fine
French way, says: "Thierry called history
narrative, and M. Guizot, analysis. I have
named it resurrection, and it will retain the
name." I have no such words as these.
They are as vivid as the flash of the electric
spark; but they are epigrams, not defini-
tions. Will you now tread with me a lower
plane of thought and feeling, in which we
may find more of the exactness of the work-
day worlds.
  HISTORY IS MAN'S TRUE     RECORD OF
WHATEVER IS GENERAL, IMPORTANT, AND
ASCERTAINED IN THE LIVING PAST OF HU-
MANITY.
  It is man's record; and his record of the
past of man. History relates to the past
by force of the term. Prediction is not
history, and what we call the present is al-
ready past when it is proclaimed. The
striking of the clock announces that the
hour is dead. Moreover. it is man's rec-
ord, not the eternal and infallible register
of his acts, which is written in the Book of
Doom. Neither is it Nature's record, her
autobiography, speaking through the facts
which we have grouped under the names
of geography, geology, biology, and those
kindred sciences which have a close rela-
tion to the physical side of man. All these
are auxiliary to history; elucidate, illus
trate, help to embody it. They furnish the
drapery for that spiritual nature of man, of
his humanity, which, under God's gift, rules



I



I

 


KENTUCKY HISTORICAL SOCIETY.



the upper realm of the earth, and the in-
habitants thereof.
  History is the record of a living past, of
those spiritual forces which animated men
of other days, and which still sway, how-
ever modified, the actors of to-day. Archoe-
ology, which is the paleontology of man,
collects and classifies the fossil facts of hu-
man existence, which retain the forms, but
not the breath and sentient being, of life.
It deals with what has perished. It strives
to reconstruct, through aid of the imagi-
nation, that dead past. Hence, though it
is not history, it helps it, and is peculiarly
within the province of a Historial Society.
A flint arrow-head, an Indian mound, pre-
historic pottery, all have a meaning for the
illuminati; they are the alphabet of the
unknown.
  And so with paleold gy, or the science of
antiquities. If a fact has perished, it be-
longs to archoeology ; if it is perishable,
to antiquities; but the legacies of history
have a perennial bloom.
  History must at last define itself by the
standard of the permanent, the important,
and the general. It is always a series of
generalizations. It is by this division that
biography is set apart from history, which
it aids, illustrates and verifies. Biography
is at once the mother and interpreter of
historv. But there is a life of society apart
from the lives of its members, so that we
must say with Arnold that " history is the
biography of a society."
  Its position is central in the circle of hu-
man knowledge, because it is the interpre-
tation of man, the central figure of crea-
tion.  We must discriminate between it
and the tangent, intersecting, and included
provinces of knowledge. These auxiliary
sciences are the handmaidens of the queen.
ly daughter of Memory.
  But the most essential criterion of his-
tory is its truth. All forms of the unreal,
whether fiction or falsification, or fable,
must be rejected from the limits of history.
  History, as a human record, partakes of
the error and fallibility of man's nature;
but resting chiefly upon human testimony,
and having for a principal purpose the
moral guidance of men, its decisions are
based upon the preponderance of proba-
bilities.
  Still, there are many facts which are cer
tain. To narrate these and their attendant
circumstances, and set upon them a moral
value, are among the offices of history.
   You need not put any faith, my fellow-
citizens, in that oft-quoted saying of the
cynical Walpole, who himself had faith in
nobody. "Do not read history to me."
exclaimed the broken-down politician, " I
know that that is false." He mistook his
own false and faulty pleadings before the



5



bar of history for the final decree of that
just and awful tribunal to which the un.
fortunate righteous cry aloud out of the
very depths, and not in vain. Walpole's
own place is fixed forever. History has
laid her half scornful finger on the reputa-
tion and memory of the arch-corrupter, and
oh, how different is the shrivelled mummy
from the man who filled so wide a space.
No, my friends, history is true in the main
to those who earnestly seek the truth. If
this were not so, if the sifted evidence of
the past were not trustworthy in most of
its features, the same doubt and denial
might be predicated of the veracity of the
living, moving, breathing society around
us; and Mallock's question, " Is life worth
living" would be already answered, "No."
This Association is itself a proof of the
vital interest felt in the establishment and
perpetuation of truth. That is your aim,
your object, your constant endeavor, the
very reason for your existence; hence you
may feel an honest pride in your agency
for good, and in the moral force, you exert
in bringing forth light out of darkness and
establishing the reign of truth among men.
  I now tuxn to a practical question. What
is the proper sphere of this Association 
The answer is implied in its name. Your
Society is intended to rescue, to record, and
to transmit the history of Kentucky. In
the vastness of modern literary accumula-
tion and scientific research, effective work
and valuable results can be attained only
by a division of labor. You will accom-
plish much if you complete your own par-
ticular segment in the vast circle of human
knowledge. You have much to cheer you
on in your exalted and animating task. Its
labors will be lightened by the interest of
a theme as stirring as the pages of Frois-
sart and as picturesque as the Idyls of Ten-
nyson, and will be sweetened by the rewards
of patriotic endeavor. There is no grander
romance than Kentucky's century of vivid,
strenuous manhood embodies.
   If your efforts shall succeed in presenting
a resurrected past instinct with the throb-
bing life'of a cycle of yesterdays, no sister
State will show a chronicle more individual,
or crowded with figures vaster, more titanic,
or more potent in politics and war. Look
to the beginnings of your history. The
voices of its dawn stir the blood like the
sound of a bugle. The gathering of the
pioneers in our leafy glades rises like a
scene from the tales of Chaucer,. or a page
torn  from  mediaxval romance.   'I hey
seemed to be moved by that half-barbaric,
half-divine spirit of unrest which lays the
foundations of empire in the realms of mat-
ter and of mind. It was the springtide of
our national existence, the hey-day of our
youth. The breath of May was in the

 
PROCEEDINGS OF THE



flowers and leaves; the sweet sap was flow.
ing in every fibre from tap-root to topmost
branch; there was life everywhere. The
sound of rural merriment was on the breeze,
and the echoes of the chase, or the keener
and more thrilling notes of the combat,
war-whoop, rifle-crack, and the hard
breathing of mortal struggle. All is green
above, and all is green below, save that one
red thread of heart's blood which streaks
the verdant carpet, the mark of Indian
cruelty and hate.
  Life was joyous, intense, and childlike in
its simplicity, restlessness, and eager enjoy-
ment. Heroic Greece seems come again as
we recall the story of the contest for the
soil between a gifted race and their savage
foes; and as we behold rising from the
bosom of this primitive Commonwealth,
twin nurslings, the majestic form of law
and the puissant presence of martial
achievement.
  Common consent, the popular verdict,
which is a wiser verdict than the few are
always willing to confess, has, after the
sifting of a century, assigned the posi-
tion of the typical pioneer to DANIEL
BOONE. Without exaggerating his virtues,
or concealing his defects, I believe that
this is a just judgment. He is entitled to
this preeminence, not merely because he
was the first to penetrate to the heart of
this goodly land, but because, like Joshua
and Caleb, the tidings he bore back to his
countrymen were such as to induce them to
brave the dangers of the wilderness, and
the greater peril of the savage hunters who
possessed the land. To enter this debata-
ble ground, the battle-field where met the
fierce warriors from the Miami and the
braves of the South, was to pass between
the upper and nether mill-stone. But the
grit of the pioneer was sharper than the
burr of the savage. He endured the fear-
ful ordeal, and left to us the heritage of his
hardihood and indomitable courage. On
the next anniversary-IIth February, i88i
-you can, if you will, celebrate the third
semi-centennial of the birthday of Daniel
Boone.
  Boone was already well on in middle
life, when with five others, in 1769, he
crossed the crest of the Cumberland Moun-
tains, and entered Kentucky. In a few
months he was the only survivor of the
party. Among them perished that Find-
ley, who had explored the defiles of these
mountains two years before, and to whose
report Boone owed his ardent longing for
this adventure. Findley stands to us the
shadow of a name-; the first explorer, the
first expiatory victim, of the invaded sanc-
tity of the wilderness. The life of Daniel
Boone is familiar to this audience-his com-
bats with rifle and scalping-knife; his



perilous adventures by flood and field; his
absolute isolation in the unbroken solitude
of the forest; the restless craving of his
soul for what was beyond, which bore him
on and on, until his bones were laid by the
banks of the Missouri.
  Did you ever try to conceive over what a
compass of country, and with what perils
the pioneer made his ceaseless tramp In
this day of steam-power and iron rail, we
are whirled hither and thither as whim or
business prompts, and it is hard for us to
estimate the endless marches and counter-
marches, which carried the early settlers
over unknown and hostile regions. The
spirit of migration stirs the blood of men like
some potent fever, which will not down.
Think of Boone, ever on foot, born in
Pennsylvania, a dweller in North Carolina,
the explorer of Kentucky. Think of his
pilgrimages back and forth; his expeditions
against the Indians; his scouting parties;
his long hunts. We see him a prisoner at
Detroit; waging war in Ohio, Illinois, In-
diana, and at last, a settler in Missouri.
But whether as warrior, hunter, captive or
citizen, he bore himself worthily. Patient
of fatigue and suffering, circumspect in
council, eager in the fray, he knew how,
when occasion required, to do and endure
all things for the common weal. This is
patriotism. Remember his escape from the
Indians at Chillicothe to warn our infant
colony of the threatened invasion. He
saved it. His courage, his endurance, his
intelligence saved the little settlement at
Boonsborough. This is to be a good citi-
zen, to give all that is in you for the com-
mon cause. Therefore, the memory of
Daniel Boone deserves well of the Common-
wealth of Kentucky.
  But if it is our duty to perpetuate the
name of Boone, as the type of the simple,
narrow, aggressive pioneer, there is another
of a loftier, broader genius, the chief
founder of the imperial splendor of all this
broad West, the great Kentuckian of the
last century. There is but one man to
whom the name can be applied-GEORGE
ROGERS CLARK.
  You all know how this great man came
to Kentucky. a mere youth in years, but
already an adept in war, and revolving in
his capacious brain schemes of empire for
the " Old Dominion " which had given him
birth. A land-surveyor by profession, he
had already served in the Indian wars,
when, in 1775, being then less than twenty-
three years of age, he came to Kentucky.
He at once obtained command of the In-
dian fighters of the colony. He initiated
the movement for an organized government,
and, in the next year, 1776, was sent as a
delegate to urge upon the State authorities
of Virginia the claims of the colony for



6

 
KENTUCKY HISTORICAL SOCIETY.



government and defense. Clark was one
of those men who are called, by every im-
pulse of their natures, to the work of
moulding a crude community into a regu-
lar Commonwealth. He was an organizer
like Theodoric, like Charlemagne; and, as
the chief duty of the hour was the protec-
tion of the colony by arms, he converted
the guerrilla forays of his countrymen into
a system of defense, which, in repelling at-
tack, struck at the very vitals of the assail-
ant. We are too apt, in reflecting on the
meagreness of the means employed, to un-
derrate the magnitude of the results and
the scope of the genius which foresaw
them. It was Clark who conceived the
great design of wresting the Northwest
from  the British Empire.  He captured
Kaskaskia with but four companies, and
compelled the surrender of Vincennes with
only 175 men, who had endured the most
intolerable hardships to reach it.  He
transferred the theatre of war from the soil
of Kentucky to the territory north of the
Ohio, and taught the enemy to fear for
their own corn-fields and wigwams. He
made peace possible in this smiling land by
teaching the rigors of war to a ferocious
foeman. His was the far-reaching vision
and ample pinion, of the eagle.
  It was a sad sight, whenrage and poverty
and his infirmities had bowed the old hero
down, and he sat wifeless, childless, and
crippled at his cabin door, with a new world
in which he had no part rising around him.
His rude dwelling was on Corn Island, at
the Falls of the Ohio, near where the grand
railroad bridge spans the plunging rapids.
Here he brooded over the neglect which
had consigned him to early obscurity. He
had given a teeming and imperial territory
to his country, and still he had scarcely
where to lay his head. At last, the kind-
ness of his sister, Mrs. Croghan, drew him
from his solitude, and he had the comforts
of a home with her at Locust Grove, six
miles above Louisville.
  An old aunt of mine, who was on familiar
terms, as a child, in that household, has
described to me the old man as she saw
him in those sad latter days. He was al-
ways a friend of her father's, and would
summon this little girl to fan away the flies
as he slept in his chair. He always re-
warded the service with some grave and
courteous compliment. He had lost a leg,
and, as he sat asleep, with face as white s
wax, and his gra