 DOCUMENTS
IN THE CASE
Section 1. Contract between war department and James Johnson P. 3. Silas Craig was the lowest
bidder, but he was unable to furnish the security required,
and the quartermaster at St. Louis gave the contract to
Colonel James Johnson, the next lowest. |
Rodgers, General John Mason, and William Wirt, attorney general of the United States. P. 11. Only charge for transportation so far as it relates to the operations on the Missouri river to be referred. It is agreed by both parties that claims for detention of the Expedition and Johnson at the mouth of the Missouri--the first for $13,333.33, the second for $7,200--and for detention of the Expedition, Jefferson, and Johnson up the Missouri, be referred. Award of arbitrators, or a majority of them, to be final. Mr. Wirt declined to act as umpire (in January, 1820); probably because he was attorney-general, and by agreement of the parties the arbitrators named Walter Jones in his place. P. 12. Johnson's bill charged 16 1/4 cents for freight on the three steamboats and on six keel boats from Belle Fontaine to Council Bluffs. In each instance the quartermaster-general's memorandum was "usual price, 5 1/2 cents"; also fifty dollars each for three hundred officers and soldiers in the three steamboats from Belle Fontaine to Council Bluffs, as to which the quartermaster-general remarked, "fifty per cent too much." P. 13. September 30, 1819, James Johnson writes to Richard M. Johnson, his brother and attorney, a very vigorous denunciation of the alleged attempt of the Bank of St. Louis which has undertaken to attach his boats and provisions. He says the bank has already swindled him out of $50,000. Col. Talbot Chambers, of the Rifle regiment, commanding at Belle Fontaine, charged that Johnson's steamboats did not furnish proper accommodations for troops; to which Johnson replied that, "The accommodation of soldiers and boatmen must of necessity be very different from that which is prepared for ladies in a ball room, or |
even the silk stocking gentry of your luminous cities, not that soldiers are less meritorious than other classes of our fellow citizens; I should be the last to say, or believe so, for the soldier is his country's stay in the day and hour of danger. But the soldier expects to meet with difficulties and dangers and privations. He neither expects the silver spoon nor the silver slippers. Now, what is the fact in this case? The Expedition contained a plain, nice, level deck about 120 feet long, and it would have taken [but?] a day to have stretched the soldiers' tents on a ridge pole, to be fixed so as to form an awning; a detachment had come on from Louisville in that way, comfortably. The soldiers appeared much pleased, and so did the officers, with their situation in the cabin." The charge that the soldiers could have no exercise he said went to the general question--the practicability of this mode of traveling--to be settled between the secretary of war and Colonel Chambers. He was at a loss to know how the soldiers on shore, pulling at the cordelle, could be more safe from Indian ambuscade than men in the center of the river on a steamboat, "particularly when the mattresses could all be thrown up in a few minutes, and we were provided with extra plank, which was intended to be thrown against the hand rails above, which would form a complete fortification against Indian bullets or balls." Johnson seems to have made one good point, namely, that while he considered that he was not bound to repack and resalt for the voyage up the Missouri the provisions which he delivered in good order, yet he was willing to furnish salt and hands and leave the question of expense to the secretary of war. There was flat contradiction as to whether a portion of the meats was good or bad. P. 17. The sheriff from St. Louis undertook to serve civil process on Johnson's representatives at Belle Fontaine 13 |
on the written permission of Colonel Chambers. The sheriff was defeated by the firmness and decision of Captain Craig, and the government provisions being thus abandoned, by the orders of Colonel Chambers, were safely conveyed back to the Expedition." Johnson plausibly contended that the goods were virtually delivered, except as to those that might be found unfit when they were presented for inspection, and that no third party might interfere. He says he was threatened with force by the state authorities; but he prepared to resist under the United States flag. P. 19. May 20, 1819. Colonel Chambers requests Johnson to forward, by keel boat, a partial supply of provisions to Martin Cantonment at once, "to save the battalion of riflemen stationed " there. This necessity, he says, was caused "by the failure of the steamboats and the uncertainty which exists of their being enabled to ascend the Missouri river . . ." May 22d Colonel Chambers says, in reply to Johnson's inquiry of the same date whether the two steamboat loads of provisions which were at Belle Fontaine would be protected from arrest by the civil authority, "when delivered in the garrison," that he was not authorized to receive them until inspected and turned over by the commissary, Major Hemstead, or he was ordered to do so in writing by General Bissell. Johnson at once replies that he is ready for inspection. Chambers insists that the guard Johnson asks for will only protect property from injury, not from the civil authority of St. Louis. In view of the actual menace, Chambers' caution seemed justified. He refused to put the property in the storehouse previous to inspection; therefore Johnson asked Major Whistler to deposit the goods as near the store as possible; but he declined on the 23d to formally recognize the offer to deposit the goods, much less to receive them. Colonel Chambers, on the 21st, wrote to General Bissell that the Expedition, a boat of two hundred tons, drawing |
seven feet, reached St. Louis on the 13th and Belle Fontaine on the 18th, taking five days to accomplish twenty-five miles; "her machinery appears to be so feeble that it was with the utmost difficulty that she could reach this place," and the rapidity of the current could not be compared with that of the Missouri river; troops would be exposed to scorching sun by day and rain and dew by night on the open platform on the upper deck, and with no chance for exercise; the crew was inexperienced and the boat deficient in anchors and other appendages. "There exists but little doubt that she can never reach her destination. So soon as the annexed arrangements were [completed I?] immediately proposed to Colonel Johnson, to have the provisions inspected and turned over to the commissary, in order to expedite; but, in consequence of a civil suit, which had been adjudged unfavorably to Colonel Johnson, which he determined to resist, by force, and the opinion which he entertains that he is not subject to the expense of repacking and rendering the provisions sure from becoming tainted, no progress had yet been made except the landing of a few barrels, which were immediately seized by a civil officer." From the apparent state of the provisions it was impossible that they could be preserved one month. The few barrels weighed were deficient twenty pounds each "and the brine which I obtained from them was not only high colored, but the smell extremely offensive." He understood the civil authority at St. Louis was determined to arrest the progress of the boats unless the claims against Johnson were adjusted, and as he was equally determined to oppose, the expedition would be very much retarded. But Colonel Chambers had no legal right to anticipate all this, and the boats were, in fact, cleared. Colonel Chambers seemed to be in collusion with the bank, as Johnson charged, though Johnson also was a great bluffer. May 24, Johnson writes Chambers: "I am ready, at |
a moments warning, to ascend either of these rivers with the boats now here in the employment of government." July 4 Jesup writes Johnson--both being at Belle Fontaine--that his agent at Louisville had forced Captain Pickett, the quartermaster-general's assistant, to contract freight at three dollars a hundred from that place to St. Louis, whereas the regular rate from Pittsburgh to St. Louis was only a dollar and seventy-five cents. "It will not be in my power to make you any further advances; half the sum already advanced ought to have defrayed the whole expense of the expedition both on the Missouri and Mississippi. Congress at their last session appropriated one hundred and ninety thousand dollars for transportation, viz: one hundred and forty thousand dollars for the transportation of troops and stores, and fifty thousand for the transportation of provisions; of that sum you have received already upwards of one hundred and eighty thousand dollars, and you have furnished transportation for four companies of men only, and for about three hundred and thirty tons of provisions and stores ... The season has so far advanced that delay can be no longer tolerated." Answering on the same date, Johnson says the three steamboats are here--at Belle Fontaine--ready and, he presumes, will proceed up the river in the morning. He whines for still more money. (There was, undoubtedly, corrupt carelessness in these advances.) He is ready to provide any amount of transportation needed on very short notice. July 9 Johnson writes the quartermaster-general that on that day he left the Expedition, Jefferson, and Johnson at St. Charles, their cargoes all safe and in good plight and the boats competent to oppose the rapid current of the Missouri with entire success. Yet the Jefferson and Johnson had already been aground. He left orders for them to proceed at once to Council Bluffs, as his pilots informed him that the water was deep enough. For a report of the |
committee of the house of representatives on the award, March 1, 1821, see Military Affairs, v. 2, p. 324. On the 9th Johnson replies further to Jesup's strictures (p. 28), contending that his agreement with Pickett was fair and that the three steamboats took on three hundred and seventy-five tons in freight and men; when they left Belle Fontaine enough flour was left for a keel boat load. He had a boat ready to take it, except that a patroon had not returned with hands for loading from St. Louis; but Captain McGunnegle saw fit to give it to other boats which he said were ready, yet on that day they were still at the mouth of the river--waiting for hands. He contends that he lost half a month in vain efforts to unload and deliver his cargoes at Belle Fontaine. August 27 Jesup advises Johnson of a large sum advanced to him by order of the president; the quartermaster-general therefore calls on Johnson "for such sums as may be necessary to enable him (Captain McGunnegle) to discharge the boats which were employed in consequence of the deficiency of your arrangements"; and he asks Johnson to give a mortgage or bill of sale on the Johnson and the Expedition as further security, the bond being only $50,000. (P. 31.) On the 28th Johnson denies that McGunnegle was compelled to employ any boats on account of deficiency in his arrangements. He was ready to give any additional security required; but the property in question was already mortgaged to the government. There follows plenty of trouble about necessary supplementary keel boats. By August 31 Captain McGunnegle had heard, through a Frenchman who left Martin Cantonment on the 20th, that the Expedition was taking out her cargo at Ft. Osage, being unable to proceed farther "for want of depth of water." He had met the Johnson about thirty miles below Fort Osage. (P. 34). Johnson undertakes to lay the foundation for further |
contracting next year by advising Calhoun, secretary of war, that proper inspection be made at Louisville as early as February and then, in case of disaster, the loss should be the contractor's. This year the Expedition arrived at Belle Fontaine about May 17 and the inspection, resalting, and repacking took sixty days, during which time the boat would have gone a thousand miles up the river. There were only five months with good water after ice was broken. His plan was to carry all provisions in flat bottom boats and keels to the mouth of the Ohio, there loading steamboats and keels for the rest of the journey. (P. 42.) Pp. 44-58. On the 26th of November, 1819, Johnson sent from Great Crossings, his Kentucky home, to the secretary of war, a long story of his vicissitudes and the causes of delay in arriving at St. Louis. The Jefferson broke her piston head below St. Louis and was delayed a short time; the Calhoun failed in her boiler; the Expedition arrived May 12, lay two and one-half days to make repairs, arriving at Belle Fontaine the 17th, the Johnson about the 21st, and the Exchange at St. Louis about the same time. It was intended that this boat should go no farther than Belle Fontaine. The Expedition, Johnson said, had taken a fourth more than her ordinary tonnage to Belle Fontaine, "through a current, universally admitted by navigators of that river, as difficult and rapid as any that we should encounter. The citizens generally partook of the joy, except a faction at St. Louis, composed of the friends of the poor old broken St. Louis Bank, to see a steamboat, carrying more than two hundred tons of actual cargo, ascending their waters." At Belle Fontaine he had told Colonel Chambers that the attempt of the bank to attach the property was indefensible, because he regarded it as government property, "as it was purchased by advances made to myself as contractor." He wanted Chambers to receive the cargo in keel boats direct from the Expedition, |
the inspection to be at Johnson's risk; but Chambers declined. Johnson puffs Col. Atkinson (p. 50) liberally, but ineffectually, and then he accuses him, as well as Jesup, Chamberlain, and Captain McGunnegle, of conspiring against himself. The Expedition, Jefferson, and Johnson all received their cargoes "composed of provisions, munitions of war, and military stores, and arrived at Belle Fontaine about the second of July, where a quantity of quartermaster's and hospital stores were put on board, and the baggage belonging to officers and soldiers." They set sail July 3. A few days before they set out Johnson found that he must have some more money to buy fuel; but Jesup refused the requested advance. August 30 Uriel Sebree sent word that, though one of Johnson's keel boats had arrived and was alongside the Jefferson, Captain Bliss, the commanding officer on board, did not think that his instructions permitted him to unload on Johnson's keel boat. The hands had been persuaded that they would not get paid and were not inclined to go on with Johnson's keel boats. P. 56. October 12, Johnson says: "Major Sebree, with the last article from on board the steamboat Expedition and part from the steamboat Johnson, was a hundred miles above Martin's Camp with my keel boats, going on well." On the 16th Captain Craig had received every pound of cargo from the Johnson on Johnson's keel boats, and was going in person to Council Bluffs with all possible dispatch. Then Johnson drops into self-praise: "Long before this day (Nov. 26) every pound of provisions is at headquarters; this cargo was conveyed by my keel boats, which boats returned from the Council Bluffs, after having discharged their cargoes. The two last keel boats sent from Belle Fontaine may not have reached headquarters, but they must be near at hand. Thus, is this great concern closed, and I have conveyed from Belle |
Fontaine, up the two rivers, nine hundred and eighty-seven tons, and could have conveyed much more if desired." (This was vain boasting considering that the great power of the government had advanced him extravagant remuneration and over $76,000 in excess; and that for many years trappers and traders had been successfully freighting in keel boats far beyond Council Bluffs.) ". . . It was generally feared that it was impracticable. It was admitted by all, except a squad at St. Louis, to be a most high-minded attempt to benefit the west in particular; and that squad was composed of those who were in the British interest, as I believe. But, as respected the success of the steamboats, this was thought out of the question: sir, may I be believed that I find very few indeed but what believed the same thing? Louisville, Cincinnati, and the whole country, contained the same sentiment. All this, I confess, did not change my belief that success was ours; and we have certainly succeeded as far as a trial could have been obtained. I can put the provisions as high up as the government requires next year. And, if I shall have your confidence and support, the world shall be deceived as to the fact of success, and that too in steamboats in part, and keel boats the balance. Many who own steamboats now believe in its practicability. I have broken the way at immense expense and risque." Halderman, "the great freighter", declined his offer of six cents a pound to carry goods to Martin Cantonment last fall, now he is apparently freighting half as far again for five and one-half cents. P. 59. May 20, Johnson was hoping at Belle Fontaine that the government boat commanded by Major Long would arrive and that Jesup and Colonel Atkinson would come on her. In another place he says their arrival would be his day of jubilee; but it was only a frost. P. 60. A sketch of General Jesup from the Georgetown Patriot. He entered the army in 1808 as an ensign or lieutenant; is now about thirty years old; was in the |
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