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The commissioners then threw down a black and a white string, to signify that they might choose either war or peace, and retired. "It was worthy of observation," Butler con-
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tinues, " to see the different degrees of agitation which ap- peared in the young Indians at the delivery of Kekewapel- lathe's speech." They were "ready for war," but the out- side pressure was too strong for that sentiment to prevail : and at a subsequent interview on the same day, the chief, who had spoken so boldly, succumbed to the demands of the American officers. Although the treaty is dated January 31, it was actually signed on the 1st of February. It is here transcribed from the United States Statutes at Large, Vol. vii., p. 26:
ARTICLE 1. Three hostages shall be immediately deliv- ered to the commissioners, to remain in the possession of the United States until all the prisoners, white and black, taken in the late war from among the citizens of the United States, by the Shawanoe nation, or by any other Indian or Indians residing in their towns, shall be restored.
ARTICLE 2. The Shawanoe nation do acknowledge the United States to be the sole and absolute sovereigns of all the territory ceded to them by a treaty of peace made be- tween them and the King of Great Britain, the fourteenth day of January, one thousand seven hundred and eighty- four.
ARTICLE 3. If any Indian or Indians of the Shawanoe nation, or any other Indian or Indians residing in their towns, shall commit robbery or murder on, or do any injury to the citizens of the United States or any of them, that nation shall deliver such offender or offenders to the officer commanding the nearest post of the United States, to be punished according to the ordinances of Congress; and in like manner, any citizen of the United States, who shall do an injury to any Indian of the Shawanoe nation, or to any other Indian or Indians residing in their towns, and under
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HISTORY OF OHIO.
their protection, shall be punished according to the laws of the United States.
ARTICLE 4. The Shawanoe nation having knowledge of the intention of any nation or body of Indians to make war on the citizens of the United States, or of their counselling together for that purpose, and neglecting to give information thereof to the commanding officer of the nearest post of the United States, shall be considered as parties in such war, and be punished accordingly: and the United States shall in like manner inform the Shawanoes of any injury designed against them.
ARTICLE 5. The United States do grant peace to the Shawanoe nation, and do receive them into their friendship and protection.
ARTICLE 6. The United States do allot to the Shawa- noe nation, lands within their territory to live and hunt upon, beginning at the south line of the lands allotted to the Wyandots and Delaware nations, at the place where the main branch of the Great Miami, which falls into the Ohio, intersects the said line; then down the River Miami to the fork of that river, next below the old fort which was taken by the French in one thousand seven hundred and fifty-two; thence due west to the River de la Panse; then down that river to the River Wabash, beyond which lines none of the citizens of the United States shall settle, nor disturb the Shawanoes in their settlement and possessions; and the Shaw- anoes do relinquish to the United States, all title or pretence of title, they ever had to the lands east, west and south of the east, west and south lines before described.
ARTICLE 7. If any citizen or citizens of the United States shall presume to settle upon the lands allotted to the Shaw-
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anoes by this treaty, he or they shall be put out of the pro- tection of the United States.
In testimony whereof, the parties hereunto have affixed their hands and seals the day and ycar first above mentioned :
G. CLARK, MUSQUAUCONOCAH,
RICHD. BUTLER,
MEANYMSECAH,
SAML. H. PARSONS,
WAUPAUCOWELA,
AWEECONY,
NIHIPEEWA,
KAKAWIPILATHY,
NIHINESSICOE,
MALUNTHY.
Attest : ALEXANDER CAMPBELL, Sec'y Commissioners.
WITNESSES .- W. Finney, Maj. B. B. ; Thos. Doyle, Capt. B. B. ; Nathan McDowell, Ensign ; John Saffenger ; Henry Govy; Kagy Calloway ; John Boggs; Sam. Montgomery ; Daniel Elliot; James Rinker ; Nathl. Smith : Joseph Suffrein, or Kemepcmo Shawno ; Isaac Zane (Wyandot) ; The Half King of the Wyandots ; The Crane of the Wyandots ; Capt. Pipe of the Delawares ; Capt. Bohongehelas ; Tetebockshieha ; The Big Cat of the Delawares ; Pierre Droullar.
The orthography of the names of the Shawanese chicfs varies considerably in Butler's journal. "The treaty was signed," he says, "by Aweccanny, Kewepelathy, Captains Mclontha, Musquackhoonaka, Mianimsicca, Wapachcawela, Nihipccwa, kings, and Nehinessica, a young chief. The last named, Mianimsicca and four others were delivered as hostages-six instead of three. The witnesses were military officers, and inhabitants of the vicinity : Joseph Suffrein, mentioned as the White Shawnee, and probably an adopted son of the tribe and the Wyandot and Delaware chiefs, whose names are already familiar by their connection with the treaty of Fort McIntosh.13
During the period of these negotiations, the vigilance of
13) Sce Appendix No. XII.
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HISTORY OF OHIO.
the commissioners was unable to prevent depredations upon the Indians by white borderers,14 and it required an extraordi- nary exertion to check the organization of an expedition to proceed from Lexington to the Falls of the Ohio, and thence strike across the country to a point on the Great Miami, forty miles north of its mouth, for the purpose of intercepting and plundering the returning party of Shawanese. Such a con- dition of the frontier (for the savages, either in provocation or refusal, were constantly making depredations), in connec- tion with the ill-suppressed dissatisfaction of the Shawanese with the treaty itself, augured most unfavorably for the future. Indeed, the treaty of Fort Finney, or the Great Miami, was not worth the paper on which it was engrossed. The savage inroads continued through the summer of 1786, and in the autumn of that year Col. Logan led his expedi- tion against their towns, on the Mad River and Great Miami, as already narrated.
It will be observed that the terms of this treaty were peculiarly calculated to excite the jealousy of the Indians. The Shawanese were made to "acknowledge the United States to be the sole and absolute sovereign of all the terri- tory ceded by Great Britain"-a claim unintelligible to the savages, except in a sense fatal to their independence and territorial rights. Nor was this an erroneous construction. In a communication to President Washington, by H. Knox, Secretary of War, dated June 15th, 1789, the following ad- mission occurs : " By having recourse to the several Indian
14) An old Wyandot chief, called Runtandy, who came to camp as early as Oct. 23, with three young lads and a white interpreter, lost several horses, and on account of his absence in pursuit of the thieves, his name does not appear in the attestation. Quere .- Is the "Doonyontat" of Brodhead's Conference, in 1779, the "Daungquat," of Fort McIntosh, and " Runtandy," the same name ?
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CONFEDERATE COUNCIL AT DETROIT.
treaties, made by the authority of Congress, since the con- clusion of the war with Great Britain, excepting those made January, 1789, at Fort Harmar, it would appear, that Con- gress were of opinion, that the treaty of peace of 1783, absolutely invested them with the fee of all the Indian lands within the limits of the United States ; that they had the right to assign or retain such portions as they should judge proper."15
So general was the sensation of alarm, that the active and intelligent Brant succeeded in reviving his favorite project of the New York and Northwestern tribes ; although there is reason to doubt whether the former were ever represented therein, except by himself and his Mohawks, already refugees in Canada. There had been some indications of such a com- bination at the Treaty of Fort Stanwix, but the commissioners on that occasion had sternly and peremptorily refused to re- cognize any other Indian parties to the negotiation than the Six Nations. When, however, the transactions at the Ohio conferences had penetrated the recesses of the Western wilderness, it was not difficult, near the close of 1786, to assemble a formidable body of savage protestants at the Huron village opposite Detroit. The Indian archives of the United States contain a document, addressed to Congress, and pur- porting to proceed from the Five Nations, Hurons, Delawares, Shawanese, Ottowas, Chippewas, Powtewattimies, Twichtwees, Cherokees, and the Wabash confederates, assembled in con- federate council near the mouth of the Detroit River, from the 28th of November to the 18th of December, 1786. Their speech is of the latter date, and expressed a desire for peace, while temperately yet firmly insisting, that the first step to- wards a lasting reconciliation should be, " that all treaties
15) American State Papers, vol. v., p. 13.
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HISTORY OF OHIO.
carried on with the United States, should be with the gen- eral voice of the whole confederacy, and in the most open manner, without any restraint on either side, holding all partial treaties as void and of no effect." They attributed recent " mischief and confusion" to the fact that the United States had "managed every thing their own way," and con- cluded treaties separately. Congress was also urged to order surveyors and others to cease from crossing the Ohio River. Notwithstanding the mischief that had happened, the council professed a sincere wish for peace and tranquillity. "This," they said, " is the determination of all the chiefs of the con- federacy now assembled, notwithstanding that several Indian chiefs were killed in our villages, even when in council, and when absolutely engaged in promoting peace with you, the thirteen United States." For this purpose, they proposed a treaty at some half-way house early in the spring of 1787. This important address closed with these words : "Brothers! It shall not be our faults, if the plans which we have suggest- ed to you should not be carried into execution. In that case, the event will be very precarious ; and if fresh ruptures en- suc, we hope to be able to exculpate ourselves, and shall most assuredly, with our united force, be obliged to defend those rights and privileges which have been transmitted to us by our ancestors ; and if we should be thereby reduced to mis- fortunes, the world will pity us when they think of the ami- cable proposals we now make to prevent the unnecessary effusion of blood. These are our thoughts and firm resolves, and we earnestly desire that you would transmit to us, as soon as possible, your answer, be it what it may." The ad- dress was not signed by the individual chiefs, but opposite the name of each nation was drawn the figure of the bird or animal, which had been adopted as a national emblem.
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TREATY OF GREENVILLE.
In a letter to Col. Joseph Brant, dated " War Office, July 23, 1787," Gen. Knox explains that the Shawanese neglect- ed to forward the original speech ; and it appears by a letter from Captain Pipe of the Delawares, and the Half King of the Wyandots, dated June 3, 1787, that they finally for- warded the despatches to Fort Pitt, whence they reached the War Office on the 17th of July.
Such a communication could not fail to produce a profound sensation in Congress. That body was almost powerless by the weakness of the old system of confederation. The fight- ing population of the tribes apparently represented at the council near Detroit, was estimated at five thousand warriors; while the British still held the frontiers, and their agents ranged the valleys of the St. Lawrence, the Ohio and the Mississippi. Under these circumstances, Congress wisely modified their policy ; recognized the Indians as the rightful proprietors of the soil; and, on the 2d of July, appropriated twenty-six thousand dollars " solely to the purpose of extin- guishing Indian claims to lands already ceded to the United States, by obtaining regular conveyances for the same, and for extending a purchase beyond the limits hitherto fixed by treaty." The clause in relation to limits, was a mere salvo to pride, as the treaties of Fort Harmar, negotiated on the 9th of January, 1788, by Governor St. Clair, with the Six Nations and the Ohio Indians, respectively, were only a re- iteration of the boundary stipulations at Fort Stanwix and Fort McIntosh.
The jealousies between the New York and the Western tribes, soon interrupted the Indian confederacy, which Brant and Sir John Johnson had hoped to make an efficient agency of embarrassment to the United States, but long and bitter was the struggle, before the Western Indians acquiesced in
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HISTORY OF OHIO.
the surrender of the valley of the Ohio. It was not until the treaty of Greenville, August 3, 1795, that the terrors of savage warfare passed from the annals into the traditions of the frontiers : but the campaigns of Wilkinson, Harmar, St. Clair, and Wayne, are beyond our present design, and we pause at a period when, with the territorial organization, the idea of conquest had ceased to guide our Indian administra- tion, and the more generous policy, of the recognition and purchase of an aboriginal right to the soil, which Washington was the first to urge, became the usage of his own and sub- sequent administrations of the General Government.
CHAPTER XXV.
COLONIAL CLAIMS TO WESTERN LANDS, AND THEIR CESSION TO THE UNITED STATES.
ON the 5th of March, 1496, King Henry VII. of England granted to the Venitian adventurer, John Cabot and his three sons, Sebastian, Lewis, and Sanctius, a commission by which they had authority and leave to sail to all parts, countries and seas of the east, of the west, and of the north, and upon their own proper cost and charges, to seek out and discover countries of the heathen and infidels, unknown to all Christians; there to set up the king's banner; to occupy and possess, as his vassals and lieutenants, the countries they should find, on condition of paying him one-fifth of all the gains obtained by them. Under this commission, John Cabot and his son Sebastian, sailed from England in May, 1497, and in June came in sight of land, supposed to be a part of Newfoundland. Thence they sailed along the coast north and south, and returned without attempting a settle- ment, although they took possession of the country in behalf of the crown of England.
In 1534 the celebrated Jaques Cartier made several voy- ages along the northern coast of North America, sailed up the River St. Lawrence as far as Montreal, and took posses- sion of the country in the name of the King of France. On the 17th of June, 1673, Father Marquette and M. Joliet reached the Mississippi by the channels of the Fox and Wis- consin Rivers, and descended as far as the Arkansas; while
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HISTORY OF OHIO.
on the 9th of April, 1683, M. de la Salle, the commandant of Fort Frontenac on Lake Ontario, discovered the mouth of the Mississippi, and took formal possession of the country in the name of Louis XIV. of France.
Colonization gave significance to discovery. England chiefly occupied the Atlantic sea-board : Canada and Louisi- ana became colonies of France, and, before the treaty of 1763, France had so successfully asserted her dominion to the valley of the Ohio, that England proposed to limit her American colonies on the west by a line drawn from Lake Erie through French creek to its mouth, and thence direct to the nearest mountains of Virginia.
When, in 1763, after a struggle of various fortune, the title to the vast region of the Ohio, the Mississippi and St. Lawrence was yielded by France, the government of Eng- land proclaimed that all the land west and northwest of the sources of the Atlantic rivers was reserved under the sov- ereignty, protection and dominion of the King of Great Britain, for the use of the Indians, and the governors of the colonies were forbidden to make any grants of the lands thus reserved.
Such a disposition of the conquest from France was incon- sistent with the pretensions of some of the colonies, whose early charters included in their limits the whole breadth of the continent-"from sea to sea." The adjustment of these claims greatly embarrassed the country at the most critical period of our national history, and is so closely related to individual rights in the soil of Ohio, as to justify a detailed statement of their nature and extent.
In the year 1606, on the 10th of April, James I., King of England, on the application of a number of gentlemen, for a license to settle a colony in that part of America called
467
COLONIAL CLAIMS TO WESTERN LANDS.
Virginia, not possessed by any Christian prince or people, between the thirty-fourth and forty-fifth degrees of north latitude, granted them a charter. In order to facilitate the settlement of the country, and at the request of the adven- turers, he divided it into two colonies. To the first colony, consisting of Sir Thomas Gates, Sir George Somers, Richard Hackluyt, Edward Maria Wingfield and their associates, called the London Company, he granted, "That they might begin their first plantation and habitation at any place on the said coast of Virginia or America, where they shall think fit and convenient, between the said four-and-thirty and one- and-forty degrees of the said latitude; and they shall have all lands, &c., from the said first seat of their plantation and habitation, by the space of fifty miles of English statute measure, all along the said coast of Virginia and America, towards the west and southwest, as the coast lieth, with all the islands within one hundred miles directly over and against the same sea-coast; and also all the lands, &c., from said place of their first plantation and habitation, for the space of fifty like English miles, all along the said coast of Virginia and America, towards the east and northeast, or towards the north as the coast lieth, with all the islands, within one hundred miles, directly over and against the said sea coast; and also all the lands, &c., from the same fifty miles every way on the sea coast, directly into the main land, by the space of one hundred like English miles, and that no other subjects should be allowed to settle on the back of them, towards the main land, without written license from the council of the colony."
To the second colony, consisting of Thomas Hanman, Raleigh Gilbert, William Parker, George Popham, and others, principally inhabitants of Plymouth, Bristol, and the eastern
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HISTORY OF OHIO.
parts of England, King James granted the tract between the thirty-eight and forty-fifth degrees of north latitude, under the same description, as the grant of the first colony. To these grants a consideration was annexed, that a plantation should not be made within one hundred miles of a prior plantation.
By the same charter, the king agreed that he would give and grant, by letters patent, to such persons, their heirs and assigns, as the council of each colony, or the most part of them, should nominate or assign, all the lands, tenements and hereditaments, which should be within the precincts lim- ited for each colony, to be holden of him, his heirs and suc- cessors as for the manor of East Greenwich, in the county of Kent, in free and common socage only, and not in capite. And that such letters patent should be sufficient assurance from the patentees, so distributed and divided amongst the undertakers of the plantations of the several colonies, and such as should make their plantations in either of the said several colonies in such manner and form, and for such estates, as shall be ordered and set down by the council of said col- ony, or the most part of them respectively, within which the same lands, tenements or hereditaments shall lie, or be ; although express mention of the true yearly value or cer- tainty of the premises, or any of them, or of any other gifts or grants by the king, or any of his progenitors or prede- cessors, to the guarantees, was not made, or any statute, &c., to the contrary notwithstanding.
On the 23d of May, 1609, King James, on the applica- tion of the first colony for a further enlargement and explana- tion of the first grant, gave them a second charter, in which they were incorporated by the name of "The Treasurer and Company of Adventurers and Planters of the city of London, for the first colony of Virginia."
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COLONIAL CLAIMS TO WESTERN LANDS.
In this charter, the king grants to them all the lands, &c., in that part of America called Virginia, from the point of land called Cape or Point Comfort, all along the sea-coast to the northward, two hundred miles ; and from the said Point or Cape Comfort, all along the sea-coast, to the southward, two hundred miles ; and all the space and circuit of land, lying from the sea-coast of the precinct aforesaid up into the main land throughout, from sea to sea, west and northwest ; and also all the islands within one hundred miles along the coast of both seas of the precinct aforesaid.
On the 12th of March, 1611-12, on the representation that there were several islands without the foregoing grant, and contiguous to the coast of Virginia, and on the request of the said first colony, for an enlargement of the former letters patent, as well for a more ample extent of their limits and territories into the seas adjoining to, and upon the coast of Virginia, as for the better government of the said colony, King James granted them another charter. After reciting the description of the second grant, he then proceeds to give, grant and confirm, to the Treasurer and Company of Adven- turers and Planters of the city of London for the first colony of Virginia, and their heirs, &c., " all and singular those islands, whatsoever, situate and being in any part of the occan, seas, bordering on the coast of our said first colony in Virginia, and being within three hundred leagues of any of the parts heretofore granted to the said treasurer and com- pany in said former letters patent as aforesaid, and being within the one and-fortieth and thirty degrees of northerly latitude, with all the lands, &c., both within the said tract of land on the main, and also within the said islands and seas adjoining, &c. Provided, always, that the said islands, or any premises herein mentioned, or by these presents intended
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HISTORY OF OHIO.
or meant to be conveyed, be not actually possessed or inhab- ited by any other Christian prince or state ; nor be within the bounds, limits, or territories of the northern colony here- tofore by us granted, to be planted by our loving subjects in the north part of Virginia."
On the 15th day of July, 1624, James I. granted a com- mission for the government of Virginia, in which it is alleged that the charters to the Treasurer and Company of Adventur- ers and Planters of the city of London, for the first colony of Virginia, had been avoided upon a quo warranto brought, and a legal and judicial proceeding therein by due course of law.
On the 20th day of August, 1624, James granted another commission for the government of Virginia, in which it is alleged : “ Whereupon we, entering into mature and deliber- ate consideration of the premises, did, by the advice of our Lords of the Privy Council, resolve, by altering the charters of the said company, as to the point of government, wherein the same might be found defective, to settle such a course as might best secure the safety of the people there, and cause the said plantation to flourish ; and yet, with the preservation of the interests of every planter and adventurer, so far forth as their present interests shall not prejudice the public plan- tations ; but because the said treasurer and company did not submit their charters to be reformed, our proceedings therein were stayed for a time, until, upon quo warranto brought, and a legal and a judicial proceeding therein, by due course of law, the said charters were, and now are, and stand avoided."
On the 13th of May, 1625, Charles I., by his proclama- tion, after alleging that the letters patent to the colony of Virginia had been questioned in a legal course, and thereupon judicially repealed and judged to be void, declares that the
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COLONIAL CLAIMS TO WESTERN LANDS.
government of the colony of Virginia, shall immediately depend on himself, and not be committed to a company or corporation.
From this time, Virginia was considered to be a royal gov- ernment, and it appears that the kings of England, from time to time, granted commissions for the government of the same.
The right of making grants of lands was vested in and solely exercised by the crown.
The colonies of Maryland, North and South Carolina, Georgia, and part of Pennsylvania, were erected by the crown, within the chartered limits of the first colony of Vir- ginia.
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