University of Virginia Library

CHAPTER XV

TRANSYLVANIA—A WILDERNESS
COMMONWEALTH

THE independent spirit displayed by the
Transylvania Company, and Henderson's
procedure in open defiance of the royal
governors of both North Carolina and Virginia,
naturally aroused grave alarm throughout
these colonies and South Carolina. "This
in my Opinion," says Preston in a letter to
George Washington (January 31, 1775),
"will soon become a serious Affair, & highly

deserves the Attention of the Government.
For it is certain that a vast Number of People
are preparing to go out and settle on this Purchase;
and if once they get fixed there, it will
be next to impossible to remove them or reduce
them to Obedience; as they are so far from the
Seat of Government. Indeed it may be the
Cherokees will support them."[1] Governor
Martin of North Carolina, already deeply disturbed
in anticipation of the coming revolutionary
cataclysm, thundered in what was generally
regarded as a forcible-feeble proclamation
(February 19, 1775) against "Richard
Henderson and his Confederates" in their
"daring, unjust and unwarrantable proceedings."[2]
In a letter to Dartmouth he denounces
"Henderson the famous invader" and
dubs the Transylvania Company "an infamous
Company of land Pyrates."

Officials who were themselves eager for land
naturally opposed Henderson's plans. Lord
Dunmore, who in 1774, as we have seen, was
heavily interested in the Wabash Land Company
engineered by William Murray, took the

ground that the Wabash purchase was valid
under the Camden-Yorke decision. This is so
stated in the records of the Illinois Company,
likewise under Murray's control. But although
the "Ouabache Company," of which
Dunmore was a leading member, was initiated
as early as May 16, 1774, the purchase of the
territory was not formally effected until October
18, 1775—too late to benefit Dunmore,
then deeply embroiled in the preliminaries to
the Revolution. Under the cover of his
agent's name, it is believed, Dunmore, with his
"passion for land and fees," illegally entered
tracts aggregating thousands of acres of land
surveyed by the royal surveyors in the summer
of 1774 for Dr. John Connolly.[3] Early in
this same year, Patrick Henry, who, as already
pointed out, had entered large tracts in Kentucky
in violation of Virginia's treaty obligations
with the Cherokees, united with William
Byrd 3d, John Page, Ralph Wormley, Samuel
Overton, and William Christian, in the effort
to purchase from the Cherokees a tract of land
west of Donelson's line, being firmly persuaded
of the validity of the Camden-Yorke opinion.
Their agent, William Kenedy, considerably
later in the year, went on a mission to the
Cherokee towns, and upon his return reported
that the Indians might be induced to sell.
When it became known that Judge Henderson
had organized the Transylvania Company and
anticipated Patrick Henry and his associates,
Colonel Arthur Campbell, as he himself states,
applied to several of the partners of the
Transylvania Company on behalf of Patrick
Henry, requesting that Henry be taken in as
a partner.[4] It was afterward stated, as commonly
understood among the Transylvania
proprietors, that both Patrick Henry and
Thomas Jefferson desired to become members
of the company; but that Colonel Richard
Henderson was instrumental in preventing
their admission "lest they should supplant the
Colonel [Henderson] as the guiding spirit of
the company."[5]

Fully informed by Preston's elaborate communication
on the gravity of the situation,
Dunmore acted energetically, though tardily,

LORD DUNMORE'S PROCLAMATION AGAINST THE
TRANSYLVANIA COMPANY

From an unique original in the Public Record Office, London

to prevent the execution of Henderson's designs.
On March 21st Dunmore sent flying
through the back country a proclamation, demanding
the immediate relinquishment of the
territory by "one Richard Henderson and
other disorderly persons, his associates," and
"in case of refusal, and of violently detaining
such possession, that he or they be immediately
fined and imprisoned."[6] This proclamation,
says a peppery old chronicler, may well rank
with the one excepting those arch traitors
and rebels, Samuel Adams and John Hancock,
from the mercy of the British monarch.
In view of Dunmore's confidence in the
validity of the Camden-Yorke decision, it is
noteworthy that no mention of the royal proclamation
of 1763 occurs in his broadside; and
that he bases his objection to the Transylvania
purchase upon the king's instructions
that all vacant lands "within this colony"
be laid off in tracts, from one hundred to one
thousand acres in extent, and sold at public
auction. This proclamation which was enclosed,
oddly enough, in a letter of official instructions
to Preston warning him not to survey
any lands "beyond the line run by Colonel
Donaldson," proved utterly ineffective. At
the same time, Dunmore despatched a pointed
letter to Oconostota, Atta-kulla-kulla, Judge's
Friend, and other Cherokee chieftains, notifying
them that the sale of the great tract of
land below the Kentucky was illegal and
threatening them with the king's displeasure
if they did not repudiate the sale.[7]

News of the plans which Henderson had
already matured for establishing an independent
colony in the trans-Alleghany wilderness,
now ran like wild-fire through Virginia. In
a letter to George Washington (April 9,
1775), Preston ruefully says: "Henderson I
hear has made the Purchase & got a Conveyance
of the great and Valluable Country below
the Kentucky from the Cherokees. He and
about 300 adventurers are gone out to take
Possession, who it is said intends to set up an
independent Government & form a Code of
Laws for themselves. How this may be I
cant say, but I am affraid the steps taken by

the Government have been too late. Before
the Purchase was made had the Governor interfered
it is believed the Indians would not
have sold."[8]

Meanwhile Judge Henderson, with strenuous
energy, had begun to erect a large stockaded
fort according to plans of his own. Captain
James Harrod with forty-two men was
stationed at the settlement he had made the
preceding year, having arrived there before the
McAfees started back to Virginia; and there
were small groups of settlers at Boiling
Spring, six miles southeast of Harrod's settlement,
and at St. Asaph's, a mile west of the
present Stanford. A representative government
for Transylvania was then planned.
When the frank and gallant Floyd arrived at
the Transylvania Fort on May 3d, he "expressed
great satisfaction," says Judge Henderson,
"on being informed of the plan we proposed
for Legislation & sayd he must most
heartily concur in that & every other measure
we should adopt for the well Governg or good of
the Community in Genl." In reference to a

conversation with Captain James Harrod and
Colonel Thomas Slaughter of Virginia, Henderson
notes in his diary (May 8th): "Our
plan of Legislation, the evils pointed out—the
remedies to be applyed &c &c &c were Acceeded
to without Hesitation. The plann was
plain & Simple—'twas nothing novel in its essence
a thousand years ago it was in use, and
found by every year's experience since to be unexceptionable.
We were in four distinct settlemts.
Members or delegates from every
place by free choice of Individuals they first
having entered into writings solemnly binding
themselves to obey and carry into Execution
Such Laws as representatives should from
time to time make, Concurred with, by A Majority
of the Proprietors present in the Country."

In reply to inquiries of the settlers, Judge
Henderson gave as his reason for this assembling
of a Transylvania Legislature that "all
power was derived from the people." Six
days before the prophetic arrival of the news
of the Battle of Lexington and eight days before

the revolutionary committee of Mecklenburg
County, North Carolina, promulgated
their memorable Resolves establishing laws for
an independent government, the pioneers assembled
on the green beneath the mighty plane-tree
at the Transylvania Fort. In his wise
and statesmanlike address to this picturesque
convention of free Americans (May 23, 1775),
an address which Felix Walker described as
being "considered equal to any of like kind
ever delivered to any deliberate body in that
day and time," Judge Henderson used these
memorable words:

An early writer, in speaking of the full-blooded
democracy of these "advanced" sentiments,
quaintly comments: "If Jeremy Bentham
had been in existence of manhood, he
would have sent his compliments to the President
of Transylvania." This, the first representative
body of American freemen which ever
convened west of the Alleghanies, is surely
the most unique colonial government ever set
up on this continent. The proceedings of this
backwoods legislature—the democratic leadership
of the principal proprietor; the prudence
exhibited in the laws for protecting game,
breeding horses, etc.; the tolerance shown in
the granting of full religious liberty—all display
the acumen and practical wisdom of these
pioneer law-givers. As the result of Henderson's
tactfulness, the proprietary form of government,
thoroughly democratized in tone,
was complacently accepted by the backwoodsmen.
From one who, though still under royal
rule, vehemently asserted that the source of all
political power was the people, and that "laws

derive force and efficiency from our mutual
consent," Western democracy thus born in the
wilderness was "taking its first political lesson."
In their answer to Henderson's assertion of
freedom from alien authority the pioneers unhesitatingly
declared: "That we have an absolute
right, as a political body, without giving
umbrage to Great Britain, or any of the colonies,
to form rules for the government of our
little society, cannot be doubted by any sensible
mind and being without the jurisdiction
of, and not answerable to any of his Majesty's
courts, the constituting tribunals of justice
shall be a matter of our first contemplation.
. . ." In the establishment of a constitution
for the new colony, Henderson with
paternalistic wisdom induced the people to
adopt a legal code based on the laws of England.
Out of a sense of self-protection he reserved
for the proprietors only one prerogative
not granted them by the people, the right
of veto. He clearly realized that if this power
were given up, the delegates to any convention
that might be held after the first would be able
to assume the claims and rights of the proprietors.

A land-office was formally opened, deeds
were issued, and a store was established which
supplied the colonists with powder, lead, salt,
osnaburgs, blankets, and other chief necessities
of pioneer existence. Writing to his brother
Jonathan from Leestown, the bold young
George Rogers Clark, soon to plot the downfall
of Transylvania, enthusiastically says
(July 6, 1775): "A richer and more Beautifull
Cuntry than this I believe has never been
seen in America yet. Col. Henderson is hear
and Claims all ye Country below Kentucke.
If his Claim Should be good, land may be got
Reasonable Enough and as good as any in ye
World."[9] Those who settled on the south
side of Kentucky River acknowledged the
validity of the Transylvania purchase; and
Clark in his Memoir says: "the Proprietors at
first took great pains to Ingratiate themselves
in the favr. of the people."

In regard to the designs of Lord Dunmore,

who, as noted above, had illegally entered the
Connolly grant on the Ohio and sought to outlaw
Henderson, and of Colonel William Byrd
3d, who, after being balked in Patrick Henry's
plan to anticipate the Transylvania Company
in effecting a purchase from the Cherokees,
was supposed to have tried to persuade the
Cherokees to repudiate the "Great Treaty,"
Henderson defiantly says: "Whether Lord
Dunmore and Colonel Byrd have interfered
with the Indians or not, Richard Henderson is
equally ignorant and indifferent. The utmost
result of their efforts can only serve to convince
them of the futility of their schemes and possibly
frighten some few faint-hearted persons,
naturally prone to reverence great names and
fancy everything must shrink at the magic of
a splendid title."[10]

Prompted by Henderson's desire to petition
the Continental Congress then in session for
recognition as the fourteenth colony, the
Transylvania legislature met again on the first
Thursday in September and elected Richard
Henderson and John Williams, among others,

as delegates to the gathering at Philadelphia.[11]
Shortly afterward the Proprietors of Transylvania
held a meeting at Oxford, North Carolina
(September 25, 1775), elected Williams as
the agent of the colony, and directed him to
proceed to Boonesborough there to reside until
April, 1776. James Hogg, of Hillsborough,
chosen as Delegate to represent the Colony in
the Continental Congress, was despatched to
Philadelphia, bearing with him an elaborate
memorial prepared by the President, Judge
Henderson, petitioning the Congress "to take
the infant Colony of Transylvania into their
protection."[12]

Almost immediately upon his arrival in
Philadelphia, James Hogg was presented to
"the famous Samuel and John Adams." The
latter warned Hogg, in view of the efforts then
making toward reconciliation between the colonies
and the king, that "the taking under our
protection a body of people who have acted in
defiance of the King's proclamation, will be
looked on as a confirmation of that independent
spirit with which we are daily reproached."

Jefferson said that if his advice were followed,
all the use the Virginians should make of their
charter would be "to prevent any arbitrary
or oppressive government to be established
within the boundaries of it"; and that it was his
wish "to see a free government established at
the back of theirs [Virginia's] properly united
with them." He would not consent, however,
that Congress should acknowledge the colony
of Transylvania, until it had the approbation
of the Virginia Convention. The quit-rents
imposed by the company were denounced in
Congress as a mark of vassalage; and many
advised a law against the employment of negroes
in the colony. "They even threatened
us with their opposition," says Hogg, with
precise veracity, "if we do not act upon liberal
principles when we have it so much in our
power to render ourselves immortal."[13]