filled by election.(97)

In one respect, even during this trying period, the western country gave
promise of its future growth. There was a large crop. Flour and pork,
quoted, strangely enough, together, sold at the Falls of Ohio at twelve
shillings per hundred pounds, while Indian corn sold at nine pence per
bushel.(98)

On August 24, 1786, Congress ordered its secretary to inform the
inhabitants of Kaskaskia that a government was being prepared for
them.(99) In 1787, conditions in the Illinois country became too serious
to be ignored. The Indian troubles were grave and persistent, but graver
still was the danger of the rebellion or secession of the Western Country
or else of a war with Spain. The closure of the Mississippi by Spain made
the West desperate. Discontent, anarchy, and petitions might drag a weary
length, but when troops raised without authority were quartered at
Vincennes, when these troops seized Spanish goods, and impressed the
property of the inhabitants of Vincennes, and proposed to treat with the
Indians, the time for action was at hand. In April, Gen. Josiah Harmar,
then at Falls of Ohio, was ordered to move the greater part of his troops
to Vincennes to restore order among the distracted people at that place.
Intruders upon the public lands were to be removed, and the lawless and
illegally levied troops were to be dispersed.(100)

Arrived at Vincennes, Gen. Harmar proceeded with vigor. The resolution of
Congress against intruders on the public lands was published in English
and in French. The inhabitants, especially the Americans whose hold on
their lands was the more insecure, were dismayed, and French and Americans
each prepared a petition to Congress, and appointed Bartholomew Tardiveau,
who was to go to Congress within a month, as their agent. Tardiveau was
especially fitted for this task by his intimate acquaintance with the land
grants of the region. Each party at Vincennes also prepared an address to
Gen. Harmar, the Americans declaring that they were settled on French
lands and feared that their lands would be taken from them without payment
and asking aid from Congress, and the French expressing their joy at being
freed from their former bad government. Many of Clark's militia had made
tomahawk-rights, and this added to the confusion of titles.(101)

From August 9 to 16, Gen. Harmar, with an officer and thirty men, some
Indian hunters, and Tardiveau, journeyed overland from Vincennes to