Sherry Chandler

Johnson on Brown and Wilkinson

Once upon a time in Danville, Kentucky, we had a series of ten Constitutional Conventions to gain Kentucky its independence from Viriginia and admittance to the new Union as a state in its own right. The process wasn’t simple: the Continental Congress drug its feet for one reason or another. The British, French, and Spanish were still interested in stopping American expansion westward. And Kentucky was filled with land speculators and revolutionary soldiers looking for their land grants. Two of the most prominent delegates to the conventions were General James Wilkinson and John Brown. (Names still somewhat prominent in Kentucky politics.) Wilkinson seems to have been a silver-tongued devil. He talked his way into a trading treaty with the Spaniards an New Orleans and he may very nearly have talked Kentucky into leaving Virginia and becoming part of Spain. In this Spanish Conspiracy, Brown apparently backed Wilkinson for a while but in the end, he had second thoughts. Brown went on the be elected our first U.S. Senator and Wilkinson went on westward looking for greener pastures.

Here is that controversy as treated by the Drunken Poet of Danville.

The Vision

‘Twas a darksome night, the hour ten,
Which calls to bed all honest men;
Musing upon my sad affairs,
I took the light and went up stairs,
Threw off my clothes, bound up my head,
And quietly crept into bed;
The whiskey bottle standing by,
To take a drink, should I be dry.
From care and sorrow quite exempt,
I went to sleep and thus I dreamt:
Methought the room seem’d in a flame,
And Liberty’s bright Goddess came;
Her form the Deity express’d,
In all her radiant charms confess’d.
Not mighty Jove, who from above,
Descended with the Queen of Love,
Could boast more dignity and grace,
Or add one beauty to her face.
Struck with the great and awful sight,
I shrunk aghast in dread affright;
My trembling limbs were numb’d with fear,
While backward rose my bristled hair—
When soon the Goddess silence broke,
And thus majestic sweetness spoke—
“Why did my children far too soon,
Their tender parents importune,
For ample leave to separate,
And make themselves a distant state?
Have you a man that’s form’d to please,
Who writes with judgment, speaks with ease,
Of government can bear the weight,
And guide the dang’rous helm of state?
Who for your good has wonders done?”
The slumb’ring Muse cried “Wilkinson.”
The Deity with looks resign’d,
In placid accents thus subjoin’d—
“I give great Wilkinson his due,
And grant that what you say is true;
But can your state to Congress send,
A man on whom you may depend;
A member equal to the task,
Whose noble soul near [sic] wore a mask?
Pray tell me, have you such a one?”
The concious [sic] muse roar’d “Johnny Brown.”
Pleas’d with what the Goddess spoke,
In joyous rapture I awoke;
But soon I found the darling theme,
Like all my prospects, but a dream.

— Thomas Johnson, Jr. from The Kentucky Miscellany. A Facsimile of the Fourth Edition 1821 (University of Kentucky Libraries Occaional Papers Number 11)

Possibly related posts:

Clark, Littell, Johnson

Mark Brown, Featured Poet

Mark Russell Brown

Fleda Brown

Midway Writer’s Workshop with Crystal Wilkinson

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.