state of anarchy during the time that it was
a county of Virginia, and when that county ceased to be, anarchy became
technically as well as practically its condition, and remained so until
government under the Ordinance of 1787 was inaugurated in 1790.

Virginia's legacy from her ephemeral county was one of unpaid bills.
Scarcely had the general assembly adjourned, in January, 1782, when
Benjamin Harrison wrote: "We know of no power given to any person to draw
bills on the State but to Colo Clarke and yet we find them drawn to an
immense amount by Colo Montgomery, and Captn Robt. George and some others;
we have but too much reason to suppose a collusion and fraud betwixt the
drawers and those they are made payable to; most of them are for specie
when they well knew we had none amongst us, and from the largeness of the
sums, proves the transactions must have been in paper and the depreciation
taken into account, when the bargains were made; indeed George confesses
this to have been the case when he gave Philip Barbour a bill for two
hundred and thirty two thousand, three hundred and twenty Dollars and uses
the plea of ignorance." The transactions of Oliver Pollock, purchasing
agent at New Orleans, should be carefully examined from the time he began
to act with Montgomery.(74) Thimothe Demunbrunt, as he signed his name,
asked pay for his services as lieutenant, in order that he might not be a
charge to his friends--a thing which would be shameful to one of noble
descent. He wished to be able to support his family and to go with Clark
on a proposed expedition. His petition was supported by a certificate from
Col. Montgomery, testifying that Demunbrunt had been active in his
military duty, had gone against the savages in the spring of 1780, had
gone on the "Expedition up the Wabash," and had gone to the relief of Fort
Jefferson when Montgomery could raise only twelve men.(75)

The military troubles continued. The commander at Vincennes reported his
troops as destitute and unpaid. Richard Winston, of Kaskaskia, who had
succeeded Todd as head of the civil government in Illinois, was arrested
by military force and put in jail. The prisoner claimed that the
proceedings were wholly irregular and that he was unacquainted with the
nature of the charge against him.(76) The next year, he was accused of
treason, the accuser declaring that Winston had proposed to turn Illinois
over to Spain, but that his proposal had been despised by t