The Rogue Republic by William C. Davis

Author:William C. Davis [Davis, William C.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Thomas was also to take a copy of the declaration with him and invite people to subscribe to it. The delegates appealed for talk and compromise to bring the disaffected into the fold but warned that they would not treat with the forces of "anarchy & civil War."36

Robert Percy saw alarm in Baton Rouge over the opposition gathering in St. Helena, noting that every available supporter of the convention who could be spared from the plantations was under arms.37 The turnout boosted the delegates' morale, and in its own way, Leonard's news had too. Brown posed a threat, but the fact that he was known to be writing to Folch in Pensacola meant that the Spaniard had not left his capital, and thus rumors of his marching with an army of soldados, Choctaw, and slaves were false. That was one threat gone, and as a result visitors found the convention in high spirits.38

On October 1 Thomas was ready. The volunteers in Baton Rouge had swelled to over 600 by now. He left 240 to garrison the fort and led 400 out that evening.39 Just before he mounted to leave, Thomas told a bystander that he hoped West Florida would become a state in the Union and that they would soon add their star to the Stars and Stripes.40 Townspeople watched as the volunteers marched from the fort and through the village on the road east, bound, said one, "to quell some disorderly persons over there."41 A Natchez editor present hoped that Thomas and Brown might come to a peaceful settlement to avoid the anarchy with which they were threatened.42 Someone paid four dollars to a local milliner to have a flag made for the expedition, and as they marched the lone star waved over them.43 They moved at a far less frantic pace than Thomas's march to Baton Rouge, and on the morning of October 3 they crossed the Amite. Six miles beyond the river, Thomas halted the column and met with the alcalde Michael Jones, who many expected would act in concert with Brown and Cooper.

Jones had always been more loyal to Spain than most, perhaps because, as a Tory fugitive from the American Revolution, he felt more comfortable under a monarchy. He had helped put down the Kempers in 1804 and remained close to Delassus until his fall. For the past few days, he had tried to build a resistance, sometimes through intimidation by telling potential recruits that he had thirty Choctaw in war paint who would attack and plunder those who failed to join him. As a result, some families in the area simply fled, though others on their own gathered in hopes of dispersing Jones, who many regarded as nothing but a bandit.44 Now he rather belligerently presented to Thomas his own plan for an association of the districts of West Florida, signed by himself and several others from St. Helena and St. Ferdinand, no doubt hoping that Thomas and his officers would sign as well and turn their backing to this new compact.

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