log cabins which have been built
on a cedar bluff above the Lick by Capt. Robertson and his
company."

In the midst of the famine during this terrible period of the
"hard winter," Judge Henderson was sorely concerned for the fate
of the new colony which he had projected, and immediately
proceeded to purchase at huge cost a large stock of corn. On
March 5, 1780, this corn, which had been raised by Captain
Nathaniel Hart, was "sent from Boonesborough in perogues
[pettiaugers or flatboats] under the command of William Bailey
Smith.... This corn was taken down the Kentucky River, and
over the Falls of Ohio, to the mouth of the Cumberland, and
thence up that river to the fort at the French Lick. It is
believed have been the only bread which the settlers had until it
was raised there in 1781." There is genuine impressiveness in
this heroic triumphing over the obstacles of obdurate nature and
this paternalistic provision for the exposed Cumberland
settlement--the purchase by Judge Henderson, the shipment by
Captain Hart, and the transportation by Colonel Smith, in an
awful winter of bitter cold and obstructed navigation, of this
indispensable quantity of corn purchased for sixty thousand
dollars in depreciated currency.

Upon his arrival at the French Lick, shortly after the middle of
April, Judge Henderson at once proceeded to organize a government
for the little community. On May 1st articles of association were
drawn up; and important additions thereto were made on May 13th,
when the settlers signed the complete series. The original
document, still preserved, was drafted by Judge Henderson, being
written throughout in his own handwriting; and his name heads the
list of two hundred and fifty and more signatures. The
"Cumberland Compact," as this paper is called, is fundamentally a
mutual contract between the copartners of the Transylvania
Company and the settlers upon the lands claimed by the company.
It represents the collective will of the community; and on
account of the careful provisions safeguarding the rights of each
party to the contract it may be called a bill of rights. The
organization of this pure democracy was sound and
admirable--another notable early example of the commission form
of government. The most remarkable feature of this backwoods
constitution marks Judge Henderson as a pioneer in the use of the
political device so prominent to-day, one hundred and forty years
later--the "recall of judges." In