The River Trade and the Separatist Spirit.
The power this gave Wilkinson, the way he had obtained it, and the use
he made of it, gave an impetus to the separatist party in Kentucky. He
was by no means the only man, however, who was at this time engaged in
the river trade to Louisiana; nor were his advantages over his
commercial rivals as marked as he alleged. They, too, had discovered
that the Spanish officials could be bribed to shut their eyes to
smuggling, and that citizens of Natchez could be hired to receive
property shipped thither as being theirs, so that it might be admitted
on payment of twenty-five per cent. duty. Merchants gathered quantities
of flour and bacon, but especially of tobacco, at Louisville, and thence
shipped it in flat-boats to Natchez, where it was received by their
correspondents; and keel boats sometimes made the return journey, though
the horses, cattle, and negro slaves were generally taken to Kentucky
overland. [Footnote: Draper MSS. John Williams to William Clark, New
Orleans, Feb. II, 1789; Girault to Do., July 26, 1788, from Natchez; Do.
to Do., Dec. 5, 1788; receipt of D. Brashear at Louisville, May 23,
1785.] All these traders naturally felt the Spanish control of the
navigation, and the intermittent but always possible hostility of the
Spanish officials, to be peculiarly irksome.
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