USA > Ohio > The Ohio country between the years 1783 and 1815 : including military operations that twice saved to the United States the country west of the Alleghany Mountains after the revolutionary war > Part 3
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While showing no favor to the United States the British desired to have an official representa- tive in the country that they might be kept in- formed regarding the sentiments and acts of the people, and of the government. For this purpose, Sir John Temple was appointed consul in Novem- ber, 1785, and, upon discussion of the matter, he was received by the State Department as a favor to Great Britain.
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In December, 1786, Phineas Bond was sent to London as consul to Great Britain from New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland. After a period of hesitancy on the part of the government, he was received; and in later years it was acknow- ledged by the British that Mr. Bond was of service to them, and no complaints were made by the States that sent him.
The United States government instituted in- quiries regarding the laws of the several States against the collection of debts by foreigners; and some such laws that might prove obnoxious to some subjects of Great Britain were repealed.1
Early in 1791, Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of State, sent Gouverneur Morris to London as pri- vate agent, to learn the sentiment of the British ministry regarding: "Ist, Their retention of the American military posts; 2nd, Indemnification for the Negroes carried away by the British soldiers; 3rd, A treaty for the regulation of commerce, and 4th, The exchange of ministers." ยท
Morris, from his more affable nature and his
1 In this connection, see Benjamin Franklin's articles on Sending Felons to America, and his Retort Courteous for sar- casm regarding the British desire to be paid by the people whose property they had destroyed after the treaty, either personally or at any rate through their allies. Also compare the Laws of Virginia regarding claims; and several letters of Henry Knox, Secretary of War, No. 150, Volume i.
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From 1783-1791
greater love for high society, also probably from his more facile business training, dwelt much nearer the governing forces in London than did Adams; and his powers of observation, and discernment, were none the less clear. He felt obliged to report that the British
" were decided not to surrender the posts in any event; and as our courts were shut against the collec- tion of debts, they suggested indemnification on our part, and that they would set it so high (if it was ad- mitted) as to insure disagreement; that they had measures for concealing the Negroes carried away; and lastly, that they equivocated on every proposal of a treaty of commerce."
Here, at last, was somewhat of a statement, gathered piecemeal and informally, showing that the British, as usual, continued to arrogate to themselves the right to treat the United States disrespectfully, according only to their supreme selfishness, regardless of the formal treaty!
A recent English writer says1:
"Considering the clouded state of the political hori- zon, it is not surprising that Morris's patience was tried by an unwillingness of the British ministers to commit themselves to any arrangement with him. As statesmen of the Old World, they could condone
1 Edward Smith, in his England and America after Inde- pendence, page 23.
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the irregularity of his secret mission. But it was their business to temporize, and see what turn European affairs would take."
This confession of selfish arrogance was probably the truth of the matter. They had the advantage over the young Republic, and were determined to keep it, while alleging the complexity of European troubles as an excuse.
Not a word was at this time uttered regarding improper treatment of their friends, the Tories, many of whom remained even after the with- drawal of the British armies, and for whom the tender conscience of some American statesmen had awakened some sympathy in the States. It is probably true that in some parts of the States the treatment of loyalists (Tories) did not fully accord with the phrasing of the Treaty of Paris on this subject; though it did accord with right and reason. There had been many instances of extreme violence during the war by these loyalists against the hard-pressed colonists; instances where they had taken up arms and led the British against their neighbors, and otherwise clandestinely caused the death of neighbors on account of their efforts for independence; and it was beyond reason that such persons (Tories) would be welcomed as though they had the full rights of patriots, or even
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From 1783-1791
tolerated in such neighborhoods after the close of the war. The Americans quite agreed that all such persons should have departed with the British. For them to remain on or near the scenes of so much suffering and bloodshed, as constant reminders of their participation in the cause of it, was but to invite the punishment they fully deserved.
In August, 1791, Great Britain sent her first Minister, George Hammond, to the United States. He was well received; and President Washington soon appointed Thomas Pinckney Minister to Great Britain. Secretary Jefferson, in his direct way, soon approached Hammond regarding the continued occupancy of American military posts by British troops, and requested their with- drawal. "Being pressed as to the full extent of his powers," Hammond acknowledged that he was not empowered to perform any definite act or agreement, and that his instructions were of a general "plenipotentiary " character.
President Washington's proclamation of neu- trality between the French and British in another of their quarrels, and his later letter to the French expressing general confidence, together with the requested recall of the French Min- ister by the United States government, displeased
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The Ohio Country
the parties at home and abroad, as is usual in such cases.
The British plot was deepening. For her in- creasing European war expenditures, she was receiving great profits from her continued depri- vation of the United States of the American Abo- rigine trade. By retaining the United States' posts, she could continue to dominate the Abo- rigines and the western country in its trade, and possibly in its destiny.
CHAPTER III
DEVELOPMENT OF THE WEST CHECKED BY BRITISH INFLUENCES
Aborigine Claims to Land Based on Conquest, which Claims the Savages and the British Were not Willing to Accede to the United States, their Conqueror-Treaties with Aborigines-Reservations-Cession to United States of Western Claims by States-Civil Organizations-Surveys for Settlements-Ohio Land Companies-Fort Finney Built-Continued Control of Aborigines by British-Ex- peditions against Savage Marauders-Desire in the West for Independence from the United States-Unauthorized Retaliations on Spaniards Allayed.
T HE Aborigines continued to be unsettled and to threaten the peace; and the United States government continued a pacific policy toward them and the British.
The Legislature of New York for some time after the Treaty of Paris favored the expulsion from American territory of the Six Nations (the Iroquois of New York), on account of their in- stability and treachery; but this question was
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The Ohio Country
finally settled by the United States Congress in favor of continued forbearance, and it was de- cided that efforts be made to keep them as fully as possible from British influence; to civilize them by treaty, and to confine them to narrower limits by gradually and nominally purchasing their claims to territory unnecessary to them.
Accordingly, October 22, 1784, a treaty was effected at Fort Stanwix, on the site of the present city of Rome, New York, where the Six Nations relinquished all claims to the country west of the Allegheny Mountains. These claims were based on the idea, shared alike by them and the British, that they were entitled to this territory by virtue of their conquest of the western tribes; but they did not want to accord the Americans a similar right to this territory, which the Americans had wrested from these Savages, as well as from the British, by hard-won victories.
Virginia ceded to the United States all of her right, title, and claim, derived by charter from Queen Elizabeth, to the country northwest of the Ohio River, March 1, 1784. Congress was prepared for this act, and by a committee, of which Thomas Jefferson was chairman, reported the same day a plan for its temporary government. The names proposed for the divisions of this territory not
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From 1784-1787
meeting with approval by Congress, they were erased from the plan April 23d; and later this sug- gested plan for division was rejected.
Continuing its humane policy toward the Abo- rigines, the United States, by Commissioners George Rogers Clark, Richard Butler, and Arthur Lee, met the chiefs of the Chippewa, Delaware, Ottawa, and Wyandot tribes at Fort McIntosh, on the right bank of the Ohio River at the mouth of Beaver Creek about twenty-nine miles below Pittsburg, and January 21, 1785, effected a treaty in which the limits of their territory were agreed upon as follows: the Maumee River on the west, and the Cuyahoga on the east; from Lake Erie to a line running westward from Fort Laurens, by the Tuscarawas River, to the portage on the head- waters of the Miami River, at Loramie; all being in the present State of Ohio. Reservations were made by the United States of tracts six miles square, at this portage, at the mouth of the Maumee River, and two miles square at the lower Sandusky River. Three Aborigine chiefs were to remain hostages with the Commissioners until all American prisoners then held by the Aborigines were surrendered.
Overtures for treaty and peace were also made to the Miami, Pottawotami, Piankishaw, and other
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The Ohio Country
western tribes, but, through the influence of the British and French with whom they associated, and who were in opposition to the American sys- tem of government, land surveys, and definite land titles, the desired treaty could not be effected. A large council of these tribes, however, was held, the following August, at Ouiotenon, generally known as Wea, by the Wabash River, where the policy of continuing savage raids on American frontier settlements was inculcated.
On April 19, 1785, the Legislature of Massa- chusetts released to the general government her claims in the Northwestern Territory, excepting a small part in southeastern Michigan which was released May 30, 1800. This claim, like other claims by the Colonies, was based on the old English charters, or patents, the English deriving their right from their discovery of the Atlantic shore.
The desire of the immigrants from the Eastern States to obtain western lands for settlement be- came so great after the treaty of Fort McIntosh, that this, combined with the necessity of estab- lishing permanent lines for titles, induced Con- gress to pass, on May 20, 1785, "An Ordinance for Ascertaining the Mode of Disposing of Lands in the Western Territory," which provided for
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From 1784-1787
the survey and marking of lines of townships, water-power sites, etc.
"Several disorderly persons having crossed the Ohio River and settled upon unappropriated lands," Congress passed an act, June 15, 1785, prohibiting such intrusions, and commanding the intruders "to depart with their families and effects without loss of time, as they shall answer the same at their peril." This action was taken to protect the lives of the would-be settlers, as two members of the four families who settled near the mouth of the Scioto River were killed by Savages in April. The action of Congress was also intended to allay the antipathy of the Savages, while pre- paring the country for formal settlement. It was during this summer that the extensive purchases of land by the Ohio Company of Associates, and by John Cleves Symmes, were negotiated.
A few United States troops occasionally passed along the Ohio River from Fort Pitt (now Pitts- burg) to and from Vincennes and Kaskaskia, escort- ing officers, carrying despatches, and convoying supplies. October 22, 1785, the building of Fort Finney was begun by Major Finney's command on the bank of the Big Miami River, about a mile above its mouth in the Ohio. Here, on January 31, 1786, commissioners effected a treaty with the
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The Ohio Country
Shawnees, with Wyandot and Delaware represent- atives as witnesses, wherein land was allotted to them southwest of that allotted at the treaty of Fort McIntosh, and extending to the Wabash River, with like conditions. Hostages were retained for the return of American captives, as at other treaties; but the hostages escaped, and very few captives were returned. The Miamis and other tribes farther west were urged to participate in these treaties, but they again declined, they being more strongly under British influence. 1
A large number of settlers from the East con- tinued to come into the Ohio River Valley; and depredations on them by the Savages became so frequent and exasperating that a thousand Ken- tuckians, under command of General Clark, marched to Vincennes against the tribes along the Wabash River in the fall of 1786; but poor supplies and disaffection among the volunteers caused the expedition to return without having punished the enemy.
Nearly eight hundred mounted riflemen under Colonel Benjamin Logan were fitted out against the hostile Shawnees, and, detouring the head-
1 See the United States State Department MSS., No. 56, pages 345, 395, and No. 150. Also the Haldimand Papers during 1784 to 1786.
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From 1784-1787
waters of Mad River, in the present Clark and Champaign counties, Ohio, they burned eight large towns of the Aborigines, destroyed many fields of corn, killed about ten warriors including the head chief, and captured thirty-two prisoners. 1
On September 14, 1786, the State of Connecticut released in favor of the United States her claims to lands in the Northwestern Territory excepting her "Western Reserve" from the forty-first de- gree of latitude to that of forty-two degrees and two minutes, and from the western line of Penn- sylvania to a north and south line one hundred and twenty miles to the west; and that State opened an office for the disposal of that part of the Reserve east of the Cuyahoga River, the eastern boundary of the territory allotted to the Aborigines.
With the increasing population west of the Alle- gheny Mountains, the free navigation of the Mis- sissippi River became a paramount question; and some misconceptions regarding Secretary John Jay's efforts for a treaty with Spain, combined with the activities of designing men, some of
1 For full description of the temper of the Savages and of the American settlements, and of efforts of the general gov- ernment for peace, see United States State Department MSS., Nos. 30, 56, 60, and 150. Also the Draper MSS. in the Wis- consin Historical Society Library.
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The Ohio Country
whom were allied to British interests, caused commotion in the Ohio Valley, increasing among the settlements to a clamor for independence, or separation from the American Union. General George R. Clark, whose active command, to curtail expenses, had been withdrawn July 2, 1783, act- ing with others at Vincennes, decided to garrison the abandoned Post Vincennes. An independent company of men was enlisted early in October, 1786, and, with this company, the goods of Spanish merchants at Vincennes and elsewhere along the Ohio River were seized with a "determination that they should not trade up the river, if they would not let the Americans trade down the Missis- sippi." The Council of Virginia decided positively against these measures February 28, 1787; and, by resolution of Congress, April 24th, the United States troops along the Ohio River were directed to take immediate and efficient measures "for dis- possessing a body of men who had, in a lawless and unauthorized manner, taken possession of Post Vincennes in defiance of the proclamation and authority of the United States." The re- cently brevetted Brigadier-General Josiah Harmar, with a small force of United States soldiers, then took possession of the post, and allowed Clark and his followers to return to their homes. Thus
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From 1784-1787
was averted a possible war with Spain and France combined.
The Americans engaged in these overt acts wrote to their friends that "Great Britain stands ready with open arms to receive and support us. They have already offered to open their resources for our supplies."
CHAPTER IV
CONTINUED NEFARIOUS WORK WITH THE SAVAGES
Activities of the British against the United States-Their Main Fort in American Territory Strengthened-Benedict Arnold with them-Organization of the Territory North- west of the Ohio River-Increase in Population-Other Civil Organizations-More Systematic Efforts to Check British Influence with American Aborigines- Forts Built-Reports of the Extensive Savage Work Done by the Aborigines-Cannibalism.
T' THE animus of Great Britain at this time is further shown by a letter of March 22, 1787, from Sir John Johnson to Joseph Brant, the most prominent chief of the Six Nations (Iroquois), regarding the military posts yet held by the British in American territory. This is given in part as follows:
"It is for your [the Aborigines'] sake, chiefly, that we hold them. If you become indifferent about them they may, perhaps, be given up . . . whereas, by supporting them you encourage us to hold them, and discourage the new settlements . every
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From 1787-1790
day increased by numbers coming in who find they cannot live in the States."
Arthur St. Clair, then Representative in Con- gress from Pennsylvania, also reported April 13, 1787, the continued infraction of the Treaty of Paris regarding these forts.
The noted Virginia loyalist (Tory) Doctor John Connolly, who had been active against the col- onists during the Revolutionary War, and was yet a British subject, resident in Canada, again be- came active for his king, traversing Ohio and Ken- tucky in 1787, '88, '89 in efforts to alienate the American settlers from the East, and to ally them with the British for the purpose of capturing the Spanish territory by the lower rivers and control- ling the Mississippi Basin. General James Wil- kinson charged that Connolly was an emissary direct from Lord Dorchester, then Governor of Canada, and Wilkinson himself was not free from suspicion of being engaged in a similar scheme. The probability of the correctness of Wilkinson's charge against Connolly, however, was strength- ened by the fact that, in June of this year, the British garrison at Detroit was largely reinforced from lower Canada, and the next year the forti- fications were rebuilt and strengthened by order of Lord Dorchester, who was then there.
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The Ohio Country
These warlike preparations on American terri- tory continued for some length of time, and simi- lar preparations were occasionally made for several years.1 Benedict Arnold was reported as being in Detroit about June 1, 1790, inspecting the British troops; and on August 25th, President Washing- ton took official notice of the British prepara- tions, which were evidently for a Mississippi campaign.
The Congressional Committee on the Territory Northwest of the Ohio River reported, July 7, 1786, a plan for its division; and the full Ordinance for the government of this Territory was made a law July 13, 1787. This "Ordinance of 1787" marks an era in legislative history. The principal officers for the Northwestern Territory under this Ordi- nance, who were appointed October 5th, to enter upon their duties February 1, 1788, were the following: Governor, Major-General Arthur St. Clair; Judges, Samuel H. Parsons, James M. Var- num, and John Armstrong; Secretary, Winthrop Sargent. John Armstrong declining to serve,
1 See James Wilkinson's Memoirs, volume ii; Charles E. A. Gayarre's History of Louisiana, volume iii; State Depart- ment MSS .; Virginia State Papers, volume iv; Draper MSS .; Gardoqui MSS., etc. For accounts of the treachery and sav- agery of the Aborigines during these years, see United States State Department MSS., and Draper MSS.
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From 1787-1790
John Cleves Symmes was appointed to fill the vacancy.
It was estimated that within a year after the organization of this Territory, twenty thousand men, women, and children from the Eastern States passed down the Ohio River to settle in the Ohio River Basin.
The renewal of military preparations by the British in this Territory, centering at Detroit, had an exciting effect upon the American Aborigines, who had long been impatient of their enforced quiet. The increasing settlements in southern Ohio, and south of the river, on lands relinquished by the Aborigines in treaties, and the completion of the organization of the Territory, were eagerly accepted as incentives for repeating their murder- ous raids upon the settlements.
To allay the maraudings, Congress, July 21, 1787, directed the Superintendent of Aborigine Affairs for the Northern Department, or, if he was unable to attend to it, General Josiah Harmar, to proceed to the most convenient place and make treaty both with the Aborigines of the Wabash River country and with the Shawnees of the central western part of Ohio, and to grant them all assur- ances consistent with the honor and dignity of the United States.
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The Ohio Country
These and repeated like efforts for peace were unavailing. Thereupon the first instructions by Congress to Governor St. Clair in 1788 were:
I. Examine carefully into the real temper of the Aborigines. 2. Remove if possible all causes of con- troversy, so that peace and harmony may be estab- lished between the United States and the Aborigine tribes. 3. Regulate trade among the Aborigines. 4. Neglect no opportunity that offers for extinguish- ing the Aborigine claims to lands westward as far as the Mississippi River, and northward as far as the completion of the forty-first degree of north latitude. 5. Use every possible endeavor to ascertain the names of the real head men and warriors of the several tribes, and to attach these men to the United States by every possible proper means. 6. Make every exertion to defeat all confederations and combinations among the tribes; and conciliate the white people inhabiting the frontiers, toward the Aborigines.
The county of Washington in the Northwest Territory was organized in 1778 within the present limits of Ohio; and Governor St. Clair and the judges adopted and published laws, both civil and criminal, for the government and protection of the Territory.
Governor St. Clair succeeded in effecting with the Six Nations another treaty, January 9, 1789, this time at Fort Harmar at the mouth of the Mus- kingum River by the Ohio; also with the Chippe-
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From 1787-1790
was, Delawares, Ottawas, Pottawotamis, Sacs, and Wyandots; all of whom confirmed the bound- ary of Aborigine claims according to previous treaties. These Aborigines at this treaty received from the United States six thousand dollars in money, additional to the payments with former treaties. But a few weeks, however, sufficed to again demonstrate their insincerity, and treachery, their maraudings being resumed with the opening of spring.
General Henry Knox, Secretary of War, re- ported to President Washington June 13, 1789, that murders by Savages were yet being com- mitted on both sides of the Ohio River, and that the inhabitants were exceedingly alarmed through the extent of six or seven hundred miles; that the settlers had been in constant warfare with the Savages for many years; and that:
"The injuries and murders have been so reciprocal that it would be a point of critical investigation to know on which side they had been the greater. Some of the inhabitants of Kentucky the past year, roused by recent injuries, made an incursion into the Wabash country and, possessing an equal aversion to all bear- ing the name Indians, they destroyed a number of peaceable Piankishaws who prided themselves in their attachment to the United States. . . . By the best and latest information it appears that by the Wabash and its communications there are from fifteen
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The Ohio Country
hundred to two thousand warriors. An expedition with a view of extirpating them, or destroying their towns, could not be undertaken with a probability of success with less than an army of two thousand and five hundred men. The regular troops of the United States on the frontiers are less than six hundred, of which number not more than four hundred could be collected from the posts."
The posts referred to were Forts Pitt, Harmar, Steuben, at the Falls of the Ohio River, and Vincennes.
The Kentuckians again decided to avenge some wrongs they had recently suffered and, on August 26, 1789, Colonel John Hardin led two hundred volunteer cavalrymen across the Ohio River at the Falls, and to the Wabash. They killed six Aborigines, burned one deserted town, and des- troyed what corn they found, returning September 28th without the loss of a man.
President Washington addressed Governor St. Clair October 6th desiring full information re- garding the Wabash and Illinois Aborigines, and requesting that war with them be averted if pos- sible; but authorizing him to call not more than one thousand militiamen from Virginia and five hundred from Pennsylvania, if necessary, to co- operate with the Federal troops in the Territory. The Governor was also directed to proceed to exe-
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