Early Saint Louis

Source

"At the time that a settlement was made upon the site of St. Louis, nearly the whole of the great Mississippi Valley was a wild, with the exception of the immediate neighborhoods of New Orleans, Natchez, Fort do Chartres, St. Genevieve, Kaskaskia, Cahokia and a few more military posts."

"In the year 1788...Manuel Perez became commandant-general of the post of St. Louis, of the west Illinois country. It was during this time that the friendly relations, subsisting since the Revolution, between the east and west sides of the Mississippi were materially interrupted, by the Spanish government laying claim to the exclusive right of the navigation of the river."

The Influence Of Spanish Agents

Source

"After the war, treaties had been made with them by the State of Georgia, but the Creeks claimed that the stipulated terms had not been kept.  One very strong reason for their hostility was the presence among them of Spanish agents. 

On The Mississippi River In New Orleans, Louisiana

The authorities of Louisiana were determined to keep the navigation of the Mississippi wholly in their hands and to allow the United States no commercial privileges at New Orleans."

Spanish Intrigue (Part 2)

Also See Spanish Intrigue (Part 1)

 It was a hundred years before historians dug the incriminating documents out, and by that time even the Judge Advocate General himself could not reach this slightly mercenary brigadier [General James Wilkinson]. The curious may go to the Archiva Historico-Nacional in Spain. And there, in Estado Legajo No. 3898 B*, they will find the whole treasonable scheme writ large. [Source: Daniel Boone by John Bakeless (1939)]


*Papers Bearing on James Wilkinson's Relations with Spain, 1787-1816

George Rogers Clark Contacted Spanish Officials

Portrait - Fort Massac, Illinois, Museum

"Because of the vulnerability of the westernmost part of the United States, George Rogers Clark had also contacted Spanish officials, offering to bring settlers into Spanish territory in return for land."

Sign In New Madrid, Missouri

"Gradually Kentuckians began to cross into Spanish Missouri, quite unaware of the dark and devious schemes that had helped to clear the way."

Daniel Boone's Grave In Frankfort, Kentucky
"...emigrated to Missouri 1799..."

"The confluence of events, including land title disputes...the lure of Missouri (not only [General James] Wilkinson's "whisper" campaign, but the personal attention that the Spanish gave to persuading the Boone family to move there for the prestige of having an American icon in their midst) and the "push" of New Englanders and others crowding Kentucky spaces found members of Daniel Boone's family, including Daniel himself, moving to Missouri." (From Daniel Boone by John Bakeless, 1939).

Refugio

Part Of Refugio County, Texas Map (LOC link)

Lots of Land (Refugio):

My Lady of Orange

Source

About the author.

All On the Natchez Trace

House In Natchez, Mississippi

THE DEVIL'S BACKBONE...:

"All (on the Natchez Trace) merged in the march of pioneers...doomed men and men of destiny moved along it."  "Their movement was not merely geographical along a north-south trail.  It was also chronological through a history which included Indian resistance, French speculation in settlement, Spanish domination, and finally American expansion."

DePeyster's Plan

Surrender Of Fort Sackville ( Hamilton To Clark)

From DANIEL BOONE by John Bakeless:

... Hamilton, who was captured by George Rogers Clark's militia, was replaced as lieutenant-governor at Detroit by Major DePeyster, who was planning to "...assail George Rogers Clark in Kentucky."

"It (DePeyster's plan) was to attack his (Clark's) fort at the Falls of the Ohio, create as much trouble as possible, and make sure that the Americans were kept too busy to aid the Spaniards (in a simultaneous attack on St. Louis and along the Mississippi)."

Why Had They Come To St. Malo?

Source

Under the lily and the rose...: 

His Republican, Political And Military Character

Source - Andrew Jackson

"...the [Spanish] commander of Pensacola, Gov. Manrequez, who had aided the English and Indians, in carrying on the war with the United States, was addressed by General Jackson on the subject; Monrequez attempted to evade the subject by the usual course of diplomacy and intrigue.  The republican, the political, and the military character of General Jackson, is fully exhibited in his last letter to Manrequez, as follows [excerpt]:

Source

Further excerpts:

"My government will protect every inch of her territory, her citizens, and her property, from insult and depredation, regardless of the political revolutions of Europe...she has sacred rights that cannot be trampled upon with impunity."

"Your excellency has been candid enough to admit your having supplied the Indians with arms.  In addition to this, I have learned that a British flag has been seen flying on one of your forts.  All this done whilst you are pretending to be neutral."

And finally:

California: An Intimate History

California: An Intimate History,  By Gertrude Franklin Horn Atherton:

For more recent, and detailed, history, older editions of California newspapers are online.

Spanish Intrigue

In a neat tie-in to the Aaron Burr saga, Brigadier General James Wilkinson, who played a very prominent part in Burr's scheme, made a "cameo" appearance in the Daniel Boone book because of his (Wilkinson's) plot to have Kentucky break away not only from Virginia as a separate state, but from the United States as well, and for the Kentuckians to switch their allegiance to Spanish rule if Spain supplied Wilkinson and company with arms.

From DANIEL BOONE by John Bakeless (1939):

 "He (Wilkinson) had soldiered with Benedict Arnold; but so far--at least no one knows anything to the contrary--he had been loyal. The war over, he had come to Kentucky in 1784 to make a fortune. The fortune proved harder to achieve than the brigadier had anticipated. He looked around for easy money. Arnold had done that, too, years before. The British were gone. The Spaniards? Brigadier General Wilkinson took a boat for New Orleans. He had a long and very private conference with Spanish officials there. When he came back, the brigadier had found his easy money. He rejoined the United States Army later; but still he kept that easy money. Eventually he went before a court-martial. His enemies were entirely correct in suspecting unutterable treason. Wilkinson had actually asked the Spaniards for arms to use against the United States. The trouble was that, though his accusers knew they were correct, they could not prove it. All the evidence was neatly tucked away in the Spanish Government's archives in Havana."

Foreigners In Spanish Texas In 1804

Jim's Photo 

From Lots of Land:

In 1804, according to Mrs. Hatcher, there were sixty-eight foreigners living in Spanish Texas, of whom fifty had been there more than three years. Thirteen of them were Americans, among them William Barr and Samuel Davenport. There were nine Frenchmen and eight Irishmen living at Nacogdoches. None of

them held land titles from the Spanish, nor did Gil Ybarbo and his clan. But they were there, with deep roots in the soil, and they were never budged, not even twenty-odd years later when a foreign empresario sought to evict them.

See It Was Americans Who Broke Through from the same source at Relatively Fiction.

Show Your Passports

Philip Nolan's Friends: A Story of the Change of the Western Empire by Edward Everett Hale:

"If we trace events to their unconscious causes we may say that no single day has done so much to make America strong and to make Spain weak as that day in 1801 when a Spanish officer, under his king's commission, murdered Philip Nolan, bearing the same king's passport for his lawful adventure." 

From a Detour Through History posts:

"Philip Nolan's death, as the result of an order which came originally from General Wilkinson's friend Gayoso, is still a mysterious affair. Wilkinson had not hesitated to try to hang the noose of treason about the neck of his friend Aaron Burr." [Devil's Backbone] Nolan was a business aide to General Wilkinson. Philip Nolan was a character in the novel by Edward Everett Hale in The Man Without A Country; Hale later wrote "The Real Philip Nolan" to differentiate between the character Philip Nolan and the authentic Philip Nolan.

It Was The Americans Who Broke Through

From Lots of Land:

Source

But, by and large, Spain never attempted to settle Texas, only to guard it, to keep anyone else from grabbing it.  As Mattie Austin Hatcher wrote...,

The Spaniards felt compelled to be on their guard against...the Americans, whom
they feared most of all. 

The latter premonition proved a wise one. Spain had held her own against the French, had maintained at least a formal authority over the Indians, was able to reduce the Louisiana immigration to only a trickle, and had completely shut the English.

It was the American who broke through the closed door.  He was on his way by the end of the century, when Nolan had already captured wild horses (and perhaps drawn his maps for General James Wilkinson) west of the Red River.

Stoddard's Triple Play In Louisiana

The Final Challenge, The American Frontier, 1804-1845, by Dale Van Every, reminded us of an historic event that took place in St. Louis, the provincial capital of Upper Louisiana, in March 1804:

"Seldom in the history of international relations has possession of so vast and valuable a territory passed in a single transaction, and certainly never has so great a prize been transferred among three nations in the span of 24 hours."  

"The commissioner of France who accepted title for France on the first day was Captain Amos Stoddard of the Army of the United States.  On the second day French Commissioner Amos Stoddard handed the reins of government to American Governor Amos Stoddard."

The Library of Congress's Thomas Jefferson online exhibit has a couple of items relating to this event.