USA > New York > Steuben County > A history of Steuben County, New York, and its people, Vol. I > Part 9
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HISTORY OF STEUBEN COUNTY
territories and states, although the policy of both France and Spain had antecedently prevailed and been there enforced. ! >
The shoeking conduct and savage barbarities, of the Indians, instigated largely by their Tory allies, at Wyoming, ,Cherry Valley; and many other places, disposed many to show them no leniency or favor. Especially was this the case with those, or, their relatives, who had so severely suffered at their hands. At one time the move- ment to eonfiseate their lands and drive them from the state rer ceived so much favor in the legislature . that it would have pre- vailed but for the opposing advice and influence of General Schuy- ler, Governor Clinton and others. Washington took the same posi= tion in the national legislature.
The wiser and better plan advocated and urged by these and other far-seeing statesmen and humanitarians prevailed. Notwith, standing the long and annoying periods spent and wasted in nego- tiating treaties, and the large sums of money expended by the states and by the general goverment in settling Indian, claims, the more humane and peaceful poliey was, without doubt, less expensive to the country than a renewal of war and conquest would have proved ; and truly it was far more to the eredit of the states and to the na- tion to deal in this manner with the survivors of a brave and heroic people, whose chief reason for fighting against the revolted colonists was loyalty to the British, with whom they had been in sympathy, and their allies, and in whom they had implicit confidence for one hundred years.
The Constitution of the United States was not adopted until September, 1787; from 1778, the only bond of union and action was the "Articles of Confederation." By many eminent persons this was held to be of no more binding force or strength than a "rope of sand." No power was given to the confederated government to make treaties or alliances, to coin money, or do any other almost necessary aet. After the close of the war, when the stern and vig- orous rule of military necessity no longer existed, until the Consti- tution became the supreme rule, was the most dangerous and critical period of our national existence. The misrule, uncertainty and ter- rors of the "Destruction and Reconstruction" period of and in the seceded states was mild and endurable in comparison with the period under the "Articles of Confederation" from the close of the Revolu- tion until the Federal constitution became, effective.
NEW YORK AND THE SIX NATIONS' COUNCIL.
In 1784, a few months after the treaty of peace which closed the Revolutionary war and recognized onr independent existenee, the state of New York was face to face with a dangerous and eritical Indian question, that demanded immediate, adjustment and settle- ment. This the state boldly and heroically assumed. . Later on this would have been a subject for the national government under the constitution, but no power was given it except that which was ex- pressly denied by this "rope of sand."
Accordingly, the first attempt, on the part of the state of New York, to convene a general council of the Six Nations was made in 1784, only a few months after the treaty of peace with, Great Britain which ended the Revolution. In April of that year the legislature passed an act making the governor and board of commissioners
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HISTORY OF STEUBEN COUNTY
superintendents of Indian affairs. Governor George Clinton was, by virtue of his office, president of the board. No man was more effi- cient and better equipped ; more patriotic, or a greater benefactor to the state and nation at large. The commissioners appointed were Abraham Cuyler, Peter Schnyler and Henry Glen, who, by the law creating this board, were associated with Philip Schuyler, Robert Yates, Abraham Ten Broeck, Abraham Yates, Jr., John J. Beekman, P. W. Yates, Mathew Vischer and General Gansvoort. Governor Clinton, the head of the board, assumed the active direction of the negotiations and the services of a large number who had been Indian traders, travellers, captives and missionaries were secured, including Jacob Reed, James Dean, Major Fonda, Rev. Samuel Kirkland, Col. Wemple and Col. Van Dyke. Runners, as messengers, were sent to the different Indian villages from the Mohawk Castle to Niagara, to consult with the leading sachems and chiefs and induce the Indians to attend the council, which was contingently appointed to be held at a certain time at Fort Schuyler, as Fort Stanwix was then called.
All these proceedings and preparations were taken and made without the knowledge that the general government was at the same time taking initiatory steps for a treaty with the Indians. Congress had already determined upon a general treaty, not alone with the Six Nations, but with all the tribes contiguous to the settlements in New York, Pennsylvania and the Ohio region, and had appointed as its commissioners Oliver Woolcott, Richard Butler and Arthur Lee.
It is asserted that this is the first instance, since the definitive treaty of peace between Great Britain and the United States, in which the jurisdiction and authority of the Federal government and that of a state came in conflict. An acrimonious correspondence en- sued on the question of jurisdiction and the respective rights of each to form treaties with the Indians, the state maintaining its right to treat with all the Indians within its jurisdiction. The New York authorities, yielding to the influence of Alexander Hamilton and others, reluctantly receded from its position. The Indians, through the influence of British traders, were averse to treating with the state ; even disposed to meet the "Thirteen Fires" and hold a treaty of peace jointly with their kindred of the western nations. It is im- portant here to note that the position and determination of the Indians was the first stepping stone to enunciate and declare that the United States, the "Thirteen Fires," was the unit-the nation; that the state was but a component part, notwithstanding the "rope "of sand." This declaration was irrevocably established on the bloody fields of the Civil war, strewn with the bones of brave men, more than eighty years after.
The New York board did not relax their exertion, and part of the spring and summer of 1784 were spent in endeavors to con- vene a council of the Six Nations. On the first of September depu- ties from the Onondagas. Cayugas and Senecas met at Fort Stan- wix. The Oneidas and Tuscaroras did not attend; a deputation was brought in on the third day by runners.
Mr. Turner, in his valued and reliable history of the "Phelps' and Gorham Purchase," gives a very interesting and concise sum- mary of this and subsequent councils and treaties, which can be profitably queted and inserted in this connection. Its important re-
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HISTORY OF STEUBEN COUNTY
lation to this local history will be the sufficient excuse for the pla- giarism :
"The deputies of these two nations (Oneidas and Tuscaroras) were first addressed by Governor Clinton. He assured them of a disposition to be at peace; disclaimed any intention to deprive them of their lands; proposed a settlement of boundaries, and warned them against disposing of their lands lo other than commissioners regularly appointed by the state of New York, who would treat with them for lands when they were disposed to sell them. In reply to this speech a delegate of the two nations expressed their grati- fication in this-that the war had ended, and that they could now meet and smoke the pipe of peace. 'You have come up,' said he, 'what has been an untrodden path to you for many years; and this path which you have seen as you have come along has been strewed with blood. We, therefore, in our turn, console your losses and sorrows during these troublesome times. We rejoice that you have opened the path of peace to this country.' He thanked the commissioners for their advice to the Oneidas and Tuscaroras not to listen to individuals who proposed to purchase of their lands.
CLASH BETWEEN STATE AND NATION.
"At this stage of the council the Cayugas and Tuscaroras' chiefs exhib- ited a letter from the commissioners of congress. The letter was read. It informed the Indians that they, the commissioners, were appointed by con- gress to settle a general peace with all the Indian nations from the Ohio to the Great Lakes; that the governor of New York had no authority from congress ; but as he had invited the Indians to assemble at Fort Stanwix on the 20th of September, the commissioners, to save the trouble of two coun- cils, would alter the determination of holding the council at Niagara, and meet them at Fort Stanwix on the day named.
"Governor Clinton next addressed the sachems and warriors of the Mo- hawks, Onondagas, Cayugas and Senecas. He assured them that what was a colony had become a state; that he and his friends had met them to open the path of peace, to establish that friendly relation that existed between the Indians and their white neighbors previous to the war. Some passages of the governor's speech were as truly cloquent as anything that will be found among our state records. He said: 'The council fires which were lighted both at Albany and Onondaga by our ancestors and those of the Six Nations, which burned so bright and shone with so friendly a light over our common country, have unhappily almost been extinguished by the late war with Great Britain. I now gather together, at this place, the remaining brands, add fresh fuel, and with the true spirit of reconciliation and returning friend- ship. rekindle the fire, in hopes that no future events may ever arise to ex- tinguish it: but that you, and we. and the offspring of us both, may enjoy its benign influence as long as the sun shall shine, or water flow.' In refer- ence to the letter of the commissioners of congress, he assured them that their business was with Indians residing out of any state; but that New York had a right to deal with those residing within her boundaries.
"The answer to the governor's speech was made by Brant. He said that it 'meets with our dispositions and feelings, and feelings of our minds.' In reference to the respective claims of congress and New York, he thought it strange that there should be two bodies to manage the same business. Sev- eral speeches followed, Brant and Cornplanter being the spokesmen for the Indians. The utmost harmony prevailed, the Indian orators treating all sub- jects adroitly and manifesting a disposition to make a treaty, but evidently intending to stave off any direct action until they met in council the United States commissioners. To a proposition from Governor Clinton that the state of New York would look for a cession of lands to help indemnify them for the expenses and sacrifices of the war, they replied, admitting the justness of the claim, but saying that they were peace ambassadors, and had no au- thority to dispose of lands. The council broke up, after distributing presents and leaving the Indians a supply of provisions for subsistence, while wait- ing to meet the United States commissioners.
"The treaty of Fort Stanwix followed by the United States commission- ers, Oliver Woolcott, Richard Butler and Arthur Lee. No record of the pro- ceedings exists in our public archives; the general result is, however, known. Terms of peace were concluded. The western boundaries of the Six Nations were so fixed as to enlarge the carrying place on the Niagara river they had
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HISTORY OF STEUBEN COUNTY
previously ceded to the king of Great Britain, and starting from the mouth of Buffalo creek was to be a line running due south to the northern boundary of Pennsylvania; thence west to the end of said boundary; thence south along the west boundary of said state to the river Ohio. The treaty was effected with considerable difficulty, a large number of the Indians insisting that it should be general and embrace the western Indians, so that all questions of boundaries could be settled at once. Brant was absent, transacting some busi- ness with the governor of Canada. Had he been present, it is doubtful whether any treaty would have been concluded. Red Jacket, then a youth, made his first public speech, and as Levasseur (who derived bis information from Lafayette) says: 'His speech was a masterpiece, and every warrior who heard him was carried away with his eloquence.' He strongly pro- tested against ceding away the hunting grounds of his people at the west, and boldly advocated a renewal of the war. The better counsels of Corn- planter, however, prevailed. The so highly-extolled eloquence of Red Jacket had little in it of practicability. The Six Nations agreed to surrender all their captives, most of whom had been brought to the treaty ground for that purpose. The commissioners, on behalf of the United States, guaranteed to the Six Nations the quiet possession of the lands they occupied, which was recognized as embracing all of New York west of the cessions they had made under English dominion.
COUNCIL. AT FORT HERKIMER.
"The next council of the commissioners of New York after the one last hereinbefore named was convened at Fort Herkimer in June, 1785. This was with the Oneidas and Tuscaroras. Governor Clinton made the opening speech, in which, after defining their rights and advising them that the state had the exclusive right to purchase, he informed them that it was understood they were prepared to sell some of their lands south of the Unadilla, and, if so, the commissioners were ready to purchase. After nearly two days' delibera- tion the governor's speech was replied to by Petrus, the minister. The orator said his people were averse to parting with lands; alluded to the frauds that had been practiced upon the Mohawks before the Revolution; said the German Flatts people, when they were poor, applied to us for lands, and they were friends; but 'now they are rich, they do not use us kindly.' The speech was one of consummate ability. Especially did the chief turn the tables upon the governor in a frequent allusion to his former advice to the Indians to keep their land. Days of deliberation and speechmaking succeeded, the Indians
making a proposition to lease a small quantity of land, then to sell a small quantity of their poorest land, but failing to come up to what the commission- ers required. In a speech made by the Grasshopper, he alluded to the attempt by the British agents, during the war, to induce the Tuscaroras and Oneidas to join them. He said: 'They told us by joining the Americans we would get lice, as they were only a lousy people; but, althoughi, as they expressed, the Americans were lousy, they have, nevertheless, overcome their enemies.'
"The commissioners finally succeeded in purchasing the land lying between the Unadilla and Chenango rivers, south of a line drawn east and west through those streams, and north of the Pennsylvania line, etc., for which they paid eleven thousand five hundred dollars, and distributed among them a liberal amount of goods, trinkets and provisions. In finally announcing the conclusion to sell the land the Grasshopper said: 'This news about selling our land will make a great noise in the Six Nations, when they hear we have so much, and, therefore, we hope we shall not be applied to any more for any of our country.' How was the future curtained before the simple backwoods diplomatist! Little did he think that the narrow strip of land thus grudg- ingly and unwillingly parted with would be added to and widened out until his people were nearly, >horn of their broad possessions."
LAND COMPANIES COMPLICATE MATTERS.
One great difficulty in the way of negotiating treaties with the Indians was the organization and operations of two joint lessee companies. The constitution of the state forbade the purchase of the fee in lands of the Indians by individuals, reserving the right therefor to the state alone. To evade this, and come in possession of the lands, an association of individuals was organized in the winter
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HISTORY OF STEUBEN COUNTY
of 1787-88, who styled themselves, the "New York Genesee Land Company." The company was composed of some eighty or ninety persons, mostly residing on the Hudson river, many of whom were wealthy and influential. The principal seat of the company . was at Hudson. Dr. Caleb Benton, John Livingston and Jared Coffin were the chief managers. At the same time a branch company was organized in Canada, called the "Niagara Genesee Land Company." John Butler, Samuel Street, John Powell and Benjamin Barton were principal members of this last-named company. All but Bar- ton were residents of Canada. This branch organization enabled the company to avail themselves of the then potent influence of Col. John Butler and his associates with the Six Nations. Benjamin Barton was an active member of the association. Soon after the close of the Revolution he had engaged in the Indian trade as a drover, from New Jersey by way of the Susquehanna river to the British garrison at Niagara. By his frequent journeyings back and forth in his business he became well acquainted with the trails along the Susquehanna and its tributaries-the Chemung, and Canisteo, the Genesee and the great trail from the Genesee river to Niagara. He also learned much of the Indian history and legends of Big Tree, Painted Post, Tioga and the intermediate and adjacent territory. He became. well acquainted with the Seneeas, their language and history ; was adopted by them and had taken while a youth, Henry O'Bail, the son of Cornplanter, and placed him in a school in New Jersey. From this last-named Indian and his numerous kins- men, much valuable and reliable information relating to localities in Steuben county and adjoining territory has been derived. In addition to the influence thus acquired, there belonged to the New York company several who for a long period had been Indian traders.
Thus organized, by such appliances as usually forwarded and influenced dealings with the Indians, in 1787 the company obtained a lease for nine hundred and ninety-nine years of all the lands of the Six Nations in the state of New York. except in some small reser- vations the privilege of hunting and fishing. The annual rent was to be two thousand Spanish milled dollars, together with a bonus of twenty thousand dollars.
In March, 1788, John Taylor had been appointed an agent of the New York Board of Commissioners, or superintendent of Indian affairs. In that month he was sent to the Indian country to coun- teract the unlawful proceedings of the lessees. On his return he re- ported that he had met with a clerk of an Indian trader just from Tioga, who told him that Livingston had sent fourteen sleighs loaded with goods into the Indian country ; that they got within fifty miles of Tioga, and would proceed no further ; that the Seneeas were exceedingly dissatisfied with Livingston and would not abide by the bargain, charging him with having cheated them; that they threat- ened Ryekman for having assisted him in cheating them; that one hundred and sixty families were at Tioga, with a considerable num- ber of cattle, in order to form a settlement on those lands, but were very much at a loss, as they heard that the state intended that no settlement should be made. Governor Clinton issued a proclamation warning purchasers that the lessee's title would be annulled and declared void, and sent runners to all the Six Nations, warning them
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HISTORY OF STEUBEN COUNTY
of the fraud that had been practiced against them. "It was a for- midable organization, embracing men of wealth and influence, and those who, if their own plans could not be consummated, had an influence with the Indians that would enable them to throw serions obstacles in the way of legal negotiations with them for their lands. The lease consummated, the next object of the association was to pro- cure an act of the legislature sanctioning the proceeding, and for that purpose an attempt was made to intimidate by threats of dis- memberment and the formation of a new state embracing all the leased territory. But the whole matter was met with energy and promptness by Governor Clinton, who urged upon the legislature measures to counteract the intended and threatened mischief. In March, 1788, an act was passed which authorized the governor to dis- regard all contracts made with Indians not sanctioned by the state, and to cause all persons who had entered upon Indian lands under such contracts to be driven off by force, and their buildings de- stroyed. The governor ordered the sheriff of Herkimer county (which embraced all of the present county of Herkimer and all west of it to the west bounds of the state), to dispossess intruders and burn their dwellings. A military force was called out and the order strictly executed. One of the prominent settlers and a co-operator of the lessees, was taken to New York in irons, upon a charge of high treason.
"Thus baffled, the managers of the two associations determined to retaliate and force a compromise, if they failed to carry out their original design, by meeting the state upon treaty grounds, when they could bring a stronger force and lobby than they could command for the halls of legislation.
"At the treaty held at Fort Stanwix in September, 1788, with the Onondagas, for the purchase of their lands by the state, Govern- or Clinton attended in person, backed by all the official aid and in- fluence he could command ; and yet he found for a time great, an- noying and perplexing difficulty in effecting any results; its source was unseen, its hiding place undiscovered. Little opposition from the lessees showed itself openly, but it was there with its strongest appliances and far-reaching influences both in men and money. In after years when pushing a claim and soliciting compensation in behalf of one of the then unknown and unsuspected aiders in this opposition against the Niagara company, a man prominent in legal, political and social circles declared his client had kept the Indians from agreeing to the treaties as long as he could, and when he could no longer hold the Indians, for thirty days by frivolous pretexts baffled and prevented Governor Clinton from concluding the treaty. Yet in spite of and against all of the groundless resistance, treaties went on until the state had become possessed of all the lands of the Six Nations cast of the preemption line. This preemption line will later be more particularly referred to and defined.
"The lessces, seeing little hope of accomplishing their designs, finally petitioned the legislature for relief; after considerable delay and sharp opposition, which soon after mysteriously evaporated, an act was passed and became a law authorizing the commissioners of tlie land office to set off for them, from any of the vacant unappro- priated lands of the state, a tract equal to ten miles square. The allotment was finally made in township No. 3 of the old Military
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Tract. (Now Clinton and Franklin counties, state of New York.)
"Thus was terminated to the good fortune of the state of New York a magnificently dangerous scheme contemplating the possession of a vast domain and, as has been notoriously alleged, a separate state organization. It marks an important era in the early history of this state and of the United States."
ATTEMPT TO DISMEMBER STATE.
The careful student of the history of this transaction and its contemplated objects, can not resist the conclusion that the whole object was stimulated by the hope and prospect of individual gain, at the sacrifice of our political and social integrity. Many respec- table individuals, with reputations for patriotic and exalted motives, were involved in the scheme, and as a last resort the restoration under British dominion, a dismembered state, with the hopes of the nation imperiled. It has been frequently asserted by intelligent and independent thinkers that the American Union had its initiation in selfish motives for the redress and elimination of alleged tyrannies and wrongs, and the establishment of freedom for the nation and liberty for the individual in place of the then existing situation; that self as well as patriotism were the inspiring motives, and that the last was resorted to when most effective. An English satirist has said "Patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrels." To the sterl- ing integrity, firmness and courage of Governor Clinton in the di- lemma is due the abortion of the nefarious project.
The nefarious scheme again appeared in November, 1793. James Wadsworth and Oliver Phelps received a circular signed by John Livingston and Caleb Benton, as officers of a convention purporting to have been held at Geneva, New York, urging the people to hold town meetings and sign petitions for a new state to be set off from the state of New York and to embrace the counties of Otsego, Tioga, Herkimer and Ontario.
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