To George Washington from Kentucky Citizens, 7 September 1795
From Kentucky Citizens
[Lexington, Ky., 7 Sept. 1795]
At a meeting of sundry Citizens of Kentuckey held at the Presbyterian meeting House in the Town of Lexington by adjournment the 7th day of September 1795. Rowland Thomas was appointed Clerk And John Campbell chairman.1
The committee appointed at the last meeting to prepare an address to the president of the United States, expressive of our sentiments on the Treaty proposed Between the United States and the King of Great Brittain,2 reported as follows:
To the President of the United States
Sir
A solicitude for the welfare of our Country actuates us, in following the example of those of our fellow Citizens, who have submitted to you, their sentiments on the Treaty proposed between the United States & the King of Great Brittain. We need not appologize for addressing you on a subject which so deeply involves our interests and feelings. We have a firm reliance on your Wisdom and patriotism, but we can never cherish, that high and unlimitted Confidence, which can have no foundation, but the persuasion of human infallibility, Highly estimating the advantages of a Republican Government, We dread the Idea of its being endangered by improper Connections. And whilst we esteem it the duty of a Patriot to comply with the laws of his country. We esteem it likewise his duty to protest against the Adoption of measures, which he fears will prove pernicious. In the present instance we are anxiously expecting to hear of a suspension of the negotiation for establishing the Treaty proposed by the British Minister in conjunction with our late Ambassador extraordinary. We trouble you not with a general detail of our objections. they are such as have echoed from every part of the Union. The local Interests of Western America seem indeed to be peculiarly affected by this Treaty. Western America is insulted with a repetition of that Article of the Treaty of Peace, which guaranties to the contracting parties, the free navigation of the River Missisippie.3 An article which before the cession of Florida to Spain promised mutual advantages, but which at the present moment hath no meaning but what is favourable to the King of Great Brittain.4 It might have been expected, that upon the renewal of this Article, his Britannic Majesty, after having abdicated the right, & the power of performing the Contract on his part, would have assured the United States of his mediation with the King of Spain, to remove the difficulties with which we are embarrassed; but instead of this, the Treaty (by conceding to the British Government, not only the unrestrained navigation of a River on which they have not a foot of territory, but the free use of all the ports & places belonging to the United States) affords the strongest encouragement to that Government, to carry on partial & clandestine negotiations at Madrid, in Order to secure for ever a Monopoly of the trade of the Western Waters. The provision of the second article securing to settlers & Traders within the precincts or jurisdictions of the posts, after they are surrendered, the right of continuing to reside within the boundry line, on the American Soil, and to remain subjects to the King of Great Brittain, is a measure we conceive, calculated to preserve to the British Government that influence amongst the Indians, to which we attribute the commencement and continuance of the Indian War; and we apprehend will in its effects, deprive us of the advantages contemplated in the late Treaty with the Indian tribes.5 Connecting these objections which as inhabitants of the Western Country we conceived it our duty thus briefly to state with many others which have been made by associations of our fellow Citizens in different quarters of the Union, We cannot forbear expressing our decided dis-approbation of the Treaty—A reliance on the Wisdom and patriotism of our Executive, induces us to hope, that an expression, of the wishes of his fellow Citizens, will have its due weight on his mind, whilst forming his Opinion on this important occasion. We therefore express our hopes and wishes, that by disapproving the Proposed treaty, You will give the People an additional proof of your attachment to their interests, and vigilent care over their prosperity and happiness.
Which was agreed to unanimously and Ordered to be forwarded.
John Campbell Chairman
Teste Rowland Thomas Clerk
LS, DLC:GW; LB, DLC:GW.
John Campbell sent the address under a cover letter to GW dated 10 Sept. (ALS, DLC:GW; LB, DLC:GW). The docket of the address notes that “the post mark was ‘Lexington Septr 22d.[’]” Above that remark is a statement written in November: “It would now seem out of time to answer the address; and an indecent expression” found “in the 2d page would have been a sufficient reason at any time to let the address pass unnoticed” (see n.3). GW wrote similarly on the letter-book copy: “It would now [be] out of time to answr this address when recd Novr Indecent besides.”
1. Rowland Thomas (c.1779–1827) served as clerk to several committees of the Kentucky House and as clerk of the Henry County courts from that county’s formation in 1798 until his death. This probably was the John Campbell of Jefferson County, Ky., who served in the state senate.
2. Residents of Kentucky gathered at the courthouse in Lexington on 28 Aug. and approved several resolutions, including that “the citizens now assembled have the undoubted right … to express their opinions publicly, on every measure of government, and that on none can it more behove them, than on the proposal of a treaty with any foreign power, as a treaty is not constitutionally a subject of discussion in the house of the people’s immediate representatives.” They declared that “the treaty … contains a catalogue of terms and conditions, shameful to the American name” and that it “has let the subjects of this hostile and treacherous government into a participation of our right to navigate the Missisippi, and has thereby dispelled every hope of obtaining an amicable adjustment of our differences with Spain on that subject.” Above all, Great Britain “is and has long been totally destitute of that, without which, treaties become only plots and robberies, Faith. Her m[a]gnanimity shews itself, through the Indian’s tomahawk and scalping knife; her friendship in the Algerine cruisers; and her truth, honesty and justice, in violating the treaty of 1783; detaining the posts, in her commercial regulations, and in her late robberies of the American vessels.”
The citizens then selected a committee to prepare an address to GW and report on the next Fayette County court day (Aurora General Advertiser [Philadelphia], 5 Oct.).
3. It appears from markings on the page that the preceding sentence contained the “indecent expression” cited in the docket. The citizens were referring to Article VIII of the definitive treaty of peace between the United States and Great Britain, 3 Sept. 1783, and to Article III of the Jay Treaty (see 155, 247).
4. British control of Florida (and thus the lower Mississippi River) was ceded to Spain by the fifth article of the 1783 Treaty of Peace, by which Great Britain obtained peace with Spain ( 48:481–86}.
5. The citizens were referring to the Treaty of Greenville with the western tribes, signed on 3 Aug. (see 2:39–45).