ploy the lands of the country as a fund to obtain settlers and establish an independent state.” 1

The proposed assembly convened at Harrodsburg on the 6th of June. Clark was not present when the session began, and when he arrived, he found that the pressing question of the day had already been acted upon, and that he himself, with Gabriel John Jones, had been elected a delegate to represent the settlements in the Virginia Assembly. Clark knew that such an election would not entitle them to seats, but he agreed to visit Williamsburg, and present the cause of his fellow pioneers. Provided with a formal memorial to the Virginia Assembly,2 he started, with Jones, for Virginia and, after a very painful journey, upon which, Clark declared, I suffered more torment than I ever experienced before or since," they reached the neighborhood of Charlottesville, only to learn that the Assembly had adjourned. Jones set off for a visit to the settlements on the Holston; but Clark, intent upon his mission, pushed on to Hanover County, where he secured an interview with Patrick Henry, then Governor of Virginia.

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After listening to Clark's report of the troubles of the frontier colony, and doubtless enjoying his denunciations of the Transylvania Company, Governor Henry introduced him to the executive Council of the State, and he at once requested from them five hundred pounds of powder for frontier defences. He had determined to accomplish the object of his mission in any manner possible, and he knew that if he could induce the authorities

1 Collins, II, p. 134.

2 This memorial was in the possession of the late Hon. John Mason Brown; see Brown's "Political Beginnings of Kentucky," p. 38.

of Virginia to provide for the defence of the frontier settlements, the announcement of her property rights in them would certainly follow, to the destruction of the plans of Henderson and his colleagues.

The Council, however, doubtless also foreseeing these consequences, declared that its powers could not be so construed as to give it authority to grant such a request. But Clark was insistent, and urged his case so effectively that, after considerable discussion, the Council announced that, as the call appeared urgent, they would assume the responsibility of lending five hundred pounds of powder to Clark, making him personally responsible for its value, in case their assumption of authority should not be upheld by the Burgesses. They then presented him with an order to the keeper of the public magazine calling for the powder desired.

This was exactly what Clark did not want, as the loan of five hundred pounds of powder to George Rogers Clark, could in no sense be interpreted as an assumption. by Virginia, of the responsibility of defending the western frontier, and his next act was most characteristic of the man. He returned the order with a curt note, declaring his intention of repairing at once to Kentucky, and exerting the resources of the country to the formation of an independent State, for, he frankly declared, "a country which is not worth defending is not worth claiming." 1

This threat proved instantly successful. The Council recalled Clark to their presence and, on August 23, 1776, delivered him another order calling for five hundred pounds of gunpowder, which was to be conveyed to Pittsburg by Virginia officials, there "to be safely kept and

1 This letter is reproduced in English's "Life of George Rogers Clark."

delivered to George Rogers Clark or his order, for the use of the said inhabitants of Kentucky."

With this concession Clark was completely satisfied, for he felt that by it Virginia was admitting her obligation to defend the pioneers of the West, and that an open declaration of sovereign rights over the territory must soon follow. He accordingly wrote to his friends in Kentucky, requesting them to receive the powder at Pittsburg, and convey it to the Kentucky stations, while he himself awaited the opening of the autumn session of the Virginia Assembly, where he hoped to procure a more explicit verdict against the claims of Henderson's Company.

At the time appointed for the meeting, Clark, accompanied by his colleague, Gabriel John Jones, proceeded to Williamsburg and presented his petition to the Assembly,1 where again his remarkable personality secured a victory. In spite of the vigorous exertions of Henderson and Campbell in behalf of the Transylvania Company, the Virginia Assembly (December 7, 1776) 2 passed an act dividing the vast, ill-defined region, hitherto known as Fincastle County, into three sections, to be known as Kentucky County, Washington County and Montgomery County, Virginia. The County of Kentucky, comprising almost the same territory as is contained in the present State of Kentucky, was thus recognized as a political unit of the Virginia Commonwealth, and as such was entitled to representation.

This statute decided the fate of the Transylvania Company, as there could not be two Sovereign Proprietors of

1 They hailed as representatives from "the western part of Fincastle County, on the Kentucky river," for want of a better title. Collins, II, p. 611.

2 Hening's "Statutes at Large of Virginia,” IX, p. 257; Brown's "Political Beginnings of Kentucky," p. 39.

the soil of Kentucky County. And so passed, a victim to its own lust of gain, the last attempt to establish a proprietary government upon the free soil of the United States; and George Rogers Clark, as founder of Kentucky's first political organization, became the political father of the Commonwealth, even as Daniel Boone had been the father of her colonization.

CHAPTER III

KENTUCKY'S PART IN THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION

THE fate of Henderson's detested corporation having been decided, Clark was preparing to return to his home in the new county of Kentucky, when he received news that, although the precious powder, which had cost him such a conflict, had been conveyed to Pittsburg, as the Virginia Council had promised, no one had as yet appeared to bear it to its destination beyond the mountains. This task was by no means either a safe or an easy one, as the news of its intended transmission had in some way reached the Indians; but Clark and Jones started at once for Pittsburg, determined that, at any cost, the stations should receive their ammunition. Securing a small boat and seven boatmen, they placed the precious freight aboard, and quietly embarked for their dangerous journey down the Ohio. They were hotly pursued by Indians who, however, were not provided with boats of sufficient size to follow by water, and were compelled to make their way along the wooded banks, so that by the time Clark reached a point near the present site of Maysville, known as the Three Islands,1 his pursuers were far behind. Running the boat quietly along the shaded bank of one of the islands, he entered the mouth of Limestone Creek, and carefully concealed the powder at different points in the thick underbrush which lined the shore. He then allowed 1 Collins, II, pp. 135, 445.

2 Details given in Butler, 1834 Ed., p. 41.