man for so big an assignment, at least not as a commer- 

 cial entrepreneur. He had lost the fortune of his wife, 

 formerly Ann Biddle, a Piiiladelphia society belle, in a 

 business venture. Then he had migrated to Kentucky 

 and in 1784 opened a general store at Lexington in the 

 heart of the country where the grass turned steel-blue 

 each May. There were about 20,000 white people in 

 Kentucky then; more were coming in daily and it seemed 

 to Wilkinson that a general store could hardly fail. 



But Wilkinson was no shopkeeper. Even his enemies, 

 of whom he had an unenviable share, conceded that he 

 was an unusual man. He had courage to the point of 

 audacity, he had imagination, he was charming — but it 

 was said that his ambitions made him unscrupulous. 

 During the American Revolution he had served with 

 Benedict Arnold in the Quebec campaign. At the age of 

 20 — he was born in 1757— he was appointed a brigadier- 

 general on the recommendation of General Gates. 



JLrial run 



In 1786 Wilkinson conceived the idea of breaking 

 through the export barrier the Spanish-American gov- 

 ernment had set up at Natchez and New Orleans. Every- 

 thing considered, he thought it unwise to risk too much 

 on that first \'enture. Wilkinson had founded Frankfort 

 in 1786 and it was from that area that he set out by 

 flatboat in April 1787 for tlic strenuous voyage on the 

 Kentucky River northward to the Ohio. 



At the Falls of the Ohio (Louisville) the cargo of 

 tobacco, bacon and flour was transferred to two flatboats. 

 When they reached Natchez they were seized, as ex- 

 pected, but Wilkinson's ready tongue — and probably 

 some generous bribery- convinced the Spanish authori- 



37 



