In January, 1781, the Virginia Legislature passed an act ceding to Congress, for the benefit of the United States, all of Virginia’s claim to the territory northwest of the Ohio; but the cession was not consummated until after the close of the war with 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 petitioners 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 “immediately 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.” [Footnote:  State Department MSS., No. 30, p. 453.  Memorial of Francois Carbonneaux, agent for the inhabitants of Illinois.]

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,” [Footnote:  “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.”] 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.” [Footnote:  State Department MSS., No. 30, p. 459, “de nomer un lieutenant ou un gouverneur tel qu’il plaira a nos Seigneurs de nous l’envoyer.”] 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 benefited, 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.