Page:Kentucky Resolutions of 1798.djvu/48

32 "In a conversation I had with Don Gardoqui, the Spanish minister, relative to the Mississippi, he stated that, if the people of Kentucky would erect themselves into an independent State, and appoint a proper person to negotiate with him, he had authority for that purpose, and would enter into an arrangement with them for the exportation of their produce to New Orleans on terms of mutual advantage."

John Brown also wrote to George Muter, Chief-Justice of Kentucky, a letter setting forth the same views, and adding the thought that it was not to be thought likely that Kentucky would hesitate any longer to separate herself from Virginia by the shortest if the illegal way; and he also says plainly that the idea of Don Gardoqui looked to a separation, and, indeed, was conditioned upon a separation from the United States.

Affairs were in this posture when the question of ratification of the Constitution of the United States was finally settled. Each of the seven counties which then composed the district of Kentucky sent two delegates to the Virginia convention. The men who held the extreme views on the subject of independence were very popular, more so than the measures they advocated, when the two could be separated, and they held nearly all the prominent offices, and now formed a great majority of the delegates. On the question of ratification they voted three for and eleven against, Jefferson County casting its whole vote for the Constitution, led by the distinguished Robert Breckinridge;