234 The Winning of the West 



Great Britain, and the only immediate effect of the 

 act was to still further derange affairs in Illinois. 

 The whole subject of the land cessions of the various 

 States, by which the Northwest Territory became 

 Federal property, and the heart of the Union, can 

 best be considered in treating of post-Revolutionary 

 times. 



The French Creoles had been plunged in chaos. 

 In their deep distress they sent to the powers that 

 the chances of war had set above them petition after 

 petition, reciting their wrongs and praying that they 

 might be righted. There is one striking difference 

 between these petitions and the similar requests and 

 complaints made from time to time by the different 

 groups of American settlers west of the Alleghanies. 

 Both alike set forth the evils from which the peti- 

 tioners suffered, and the necessity of governmental 

 remedy. But whereas the Americans invariably 

 asked that they be allowed to govern themselves, 

 being delighted to undertake the betterment of their 

 condition on their own account, the French, on the 

 contrary, habituated through generations to paternal 

 rule, were more inclined to request that somebody 

 fitted for the task should be sent to govern them. 

 They humbly asked Congress either to "immediate- 

 ly establish some form of government among them, 

 and appoint officers to execute the same," or else 

 "to nominate commissioners to repair to the Illinois 

 and inquire into the situation." 18 



18 State Department MSS., No. 30, p. 453. Memorial of 

 Francois Carbonneaux, agent for the inhabitants of Illinois. 



