Page:History of Southeast Missouri 1912 Volume 1.djvu/148

 88 HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI A number of settlers were attracted by the generous conditions on which land was granted and bj' the real desirability of the site of New Madrid, and ilorgan steered well on the way to the accomplishment of his de- sire. He came in conflict however with plans that had been formed by Governor Miro the Spanish governor of Louisiana whose head- quarters were at New Orleans and who was engaged in intrigue with General Jauies Wil- kinson. Wilkinson was an officer in the army of the United States in command of the dis- trict along the Mississippi river. He had planned with iliro to incite a rebellion among the people of the United States west of the Alleghanies, with the intention of separating this territory from the United States and of joining it to the Spanish territory. Wilkin- son was drawing a pension from the Spanish government and had hopes that his efforts in securing a part of the territory of the United States for Spain would result in his receiving some very great reward. Of course Morgan's plan of drawing settlers to New Madrid and making that a prosperous and flourishing center of trade for Upper Louisiana was in direct opposition to the hopes of Wilkinson. He saw in Colonel ^Morgan a rival and set to work to thwart his plans. He wrote Governor Miro that he had applied for a grant in the Yazoo country in order to destroy the place of a certain Colonel jMorgan. He told Miro that Morgan was a man of education and in- telligence, but a thorough speculator. He also said of Morgan that he had been twice in bankruptcy, and that he was very poor, but also very ambitious. He also said that he had had a spy searching out information concerning Morgan and his agreement with Don Diego Gardoqui and that he was con- vinced that Morgan's scheme would be suc- cessful unless steps were taken to counter- act it. He assured Miro that their plans would be greatly hindered if Morgan would be allowed to carry on his settlement. Acting on this information Governor Miro proceeded at once to try and put an end to the operations conducted by Morgan. On the 20th of ilay, 1789, he wrote to the Span- ish government protesting against the grant that had been made to Morgan. He said that it formed a state within a state and asked the government to cancel this grant ; at the same time he wrote to Morgan himself and charged him with having exceeded his powers and with having acted toward the government of Spain in bad faith. He said that ilorgan had no authority to lay out a town and provide for a government. He informed Morgan that it was his intention to construct a fort at New jMadrid and to place a detachment of soldiers there to control the situation. Mor- gan saw that this interference would very likely work the ruin of all of his hopes. He replied to the letter in a most apologetic man- ner, saying that if he had, indeed, exceeded his authority he had done so because of his zeal in the service of the King of Spain. He was unable to conceal the fact, however, from those colonists who had come and were com- ing to New Madrid, that he had fallen into disfavor with the government and they im- mediately began to fear that he would be unable to carry out his promise. It seems too that an emissary of Miro visited New Ma- drid and succeeded in stirring up some ill feeling against Morgan and his rule. The col- onists complained about some of the regula- tions and finally sent an agent, one John Ward, to present a petition to Governor Miro. Acting on this petition Miro carried out his threat and sent a company of soldiers with orders to construct a fort at New Madrid and