The War in the Northwest 235 



One of the petitions is pathetic in its showing of 

 the bewilderment into which the poor Creoles were 

 thrown as to who their governors really were. 

 It requests "their Sovereign Lords/' 19 whether 

 of the Congress of the United States or of 

 the Province of Virginia, whichever might be the 

 owner of the country, to nominate "a lieutenant or 

 a governor, whomever it may please our Lords to 

 send us." 20 The letter goes on to ask that this 

 governor may speak French, so that he may preside 

 over the court; and it earnestly beseeches that the 

 laws may be enforced and crime and wrong-doing 

 put down with a strong hand. 



The conquest of the Illinois Territory was 

 fraught with the deepest and most far-reaching 

 benefits to all the American people ; it likewise bene- 

 fited, in at least an equal degree, the boldest and 

 most energetic among the French inhabitants, those 

 who could hold their own among freemen, who 

 could swim in troubled waters; but it may well 

 be doubted whether to the mass of the ignorant 

 and simple Creoles it was not a curse rather than 

 a blessing. 



19 "Nos. Souverains Seigneurs." The letter is ill-written 

 and worse spelt, in an extraordinary French patois. State 

 Department MSS., No. 30, page 459. It is dated December 

 3, 1782. Many of the surnames attached are marked with a 

 cross; others are signed. Two are given respectively as 

 "Bienvenus fils" and "Blouin fils." 



50 State Department MSS., No. 30, p. 459, "de nomer un 

 lieutenant ou un gouverneur tel qu'il plaira a nos Seigneurs 

 de nous I'envoyer." 



