TREATY AT VINCENNES.

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Indians, and almost totally destroyed. The calamity was one of the most severe ever sustained by the United States at the hands of the Indians until the time of the recent defeat of Custer. The battle ground is in Mercer county, Ohio, and since known as Fort Recovery.

The government, too feeble and greatly embarrassed, financially, from its struggle with Great Britain, could not speedily retrieve its loss. St. Clair resigned his commission in disgrace and Gen. Wayne - Mad Anthony, of revolutionary fame-was appointed military 'commander of the northwest in his stead. While the new general was recruiting his forces and subjecting them to a discipline that rendered their subsequent movements invincible, the government again tried to bring the Wabash tribes to a treaty of peace. The latter, now arrogant beyond measure from their victory, declined all overtures, and basely murdered Messrs. Hardin, Freeman and Trueman, who were sent with messages of peace to them. Gen. Putnam, the agent of the Ohio company, at Marietta, offered his services, and at the hazard of his life undertook to visit the hostile tribes and induce them to come to Philadelphia or Fort Washington and enter into negotiations. He was soon satisfied that the Indians would neither go to Philadelphia nor Fort Washington. Persisting in his efforts, however, several of the Wabash tribes agreed to meet him at Vincennes. Thither he went, starting from Fort Washington on the 26th of August, in company with the Moravian missionary, John Heckwelder, and the surviving prisoners-consisting mostly of women and little children-captured at the Wea towns by Scott and Wilkinson the previous year. The party, numbering in all one hundred and forty persons, were put in boats and taken down the Ohio and up the Wabash, ascending which they reached Vincennes on the afternoon of the 12th. The Indians, already notified of its coming, "were assembled upon the banks of the river, and when they saw their friends approaching," says Heckwelder, "they discharged their guns in token of joy, and sang the praises of their friends in tunes peculiar to themselves." The prisoners were

immediately delivered to their friends with a happy speech by Gen. Putnam. From the 13th to the 23d the Indians were daily coming in to participate in the treaty.

Delegates representing the Eel Creek, Wea, Pottawatomie, Mascoutin, Kickapoo, Piankeshaw, Kaskaskia and Peoria tribes being present, a conference was opened in the council house on the morning of the 24th. Here Gen. Putnam assured the assembled chiefs that the United States desired peace; that ample time and opportu

nity would be given to them all to talk with the United States about all that had happened; to settle all old scores and to begin anew. An answer was deferred until the next day, when the council was again convened, at which the speakers chosen to reply on behalf of their respective tribes rose up in succession, and spoke upon strings —i. e., giving presents of wampum. The drift of their speeches

was that the whites should not take their land, but remain on the east and south side of the Ohio, letting that river be the mutual bounddary. Their speeches were not clear, and Gen. Putnam requested a more definite answer, with which they gratified him in the afternoon. Among other things, the Indian speakers stated "that they did not wish to live too near the white people, as there were bad persons on both sides; that they wished to trade with us, and concluded with a request that the French dwelling in the vicinity of Vincennes might not be deprived of the lands which had been given them by the forefathers of the speakers in times past.

Definite articles of peace were concluded and signed on the 27th of September, 1792, and this was the first treaty ever entered into between the United States and the several Wabash tribes. As heretofore intimated, it was a treaty of peace and friendship only.

Gen. Putnam, as appears from his receipt, dated May 22, 1792, to the war department, had taken with him, besides a quantity of goods for presents, "the following silver ornaments: twenty medals, thirty pairs of arm and wristbands, twelve dozen of brooches, thirty pairs of nose jewels, thirty pairs of ear jewels, and two large white wampum belts of peace, with a silver medal suspended to each, bearing the arms of the United States."+

The chiefs of the several tribes having "signed the articles of treaty," says the Journal of Gen. Putnam, "the latter arose and delivered the following speech to them:

"Brothers, listen to what I say: We have been for some days past industriously engaged in a good work, namely, in establishing a peace, and we have happily succeeded, through the influence of the Great Spirit.

"Brothers, we have wiped off the blood,-we have buried the hatchet on both sides; and all that is past shall be forgotten. (Takes up the belts.)

"Brothers, this is the belt of peace, which I now present you in the name of the United States. This belt shall be the evidence of, and the pledge for, the performance of the articles of the treaty of * Vide Heckwelder's journal in the book before quoted, pp. 116, 117. † Putnam's Manuscript Journal of the Treaty of Vincennes.

THE GREAT PEACE BELT.

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peace which we have concluded between the United States and your tribes this day.

"Brothers, whenever you look on this, remember that there is a perpetual peace and friendship between you and us, and that you are now under the protection of the United States.

"Brothers, we both hold this belt in our hands,-here, at this end, the United States hold it, and you hold it by the other end. The road, you see, is broad, level and clear. We may now pass to one another easy and without difficulty. Brothers, the faster we hold this belt the happier we shall be. Our women and children will have no occasion to be afraid any more. Our young men will observe that their wise men performed a good work.

"Brothers, be all strong in that which is good. Abide all in this path, young and old, and you will enjoy the sweetness of peace." (Delivers the belts.)

The connection which the relic here illustrated sustains with the treaty at Vincennes will now be shown. We leave the treaty for a moment while we narrate the circumstances under which this medal, together with the other one illustrated farther on, was found. For the purposes of description, the first may be designated as the "Washington medal," although it is an engraving, and the latter as the "British medal." The former is believed to be none other than the silver medal "suspended to the white wampum belt of peace" presented by Gen. Putnam, and referred to in his speech.

The two medals, the illustrations of which are the exact size of the originals, and fine representations of the sides of the medals they display, were found in April, 1855, at the old, so-called, Kickapoo Indian burying-ground, near the mouth of the Middle Fork of the Vermilion River, four miles west of Danville, Illinois, in a grave which had become exposed by the giving way of the high bluff, on the brink of which this grave, with many others, is situated.*

*The old burial-place bears the appearance of having been used by the Indians for many years prior to the time of the cession of the territory along the Vermilion by the Pottawatomies and Kickapoos. It is a level plateau of several acres, at an elevation that commands a fine view of both streams, overlooking the bluffs beyond, and taking in a wide scope of the prairies, before the timber and undergrowth had intercepted the view. The plateau is terminated at the westward by a precipitous bluff, the foot of which, nearly a hundred feet below, is washed by the Middle Fork. Of late years the stream has encroached upon the bluff at the water-line, causing the earth to slide down from above. Two young men, John Ecard and Hiram Chester, then living upon the farm of Samuel Chester, near by, were passing along the water's edge, in the month of April, 1855, and found a skull and some other parts of a human skeleton that had fallen out of a grave above and rolled down the hill. The skull was well preserved, and had clinging to it the remains of a rotted band, filled with plain brooches, about a half an inch in diameter, made of silver, which, owing to their delicate structure and the length of time they had been buried, crumbled to pieces on exposure to the air. The young men, following an accessible path that led up the hill, proceeded to the

The Washington medal consists of a thin plate of silver let into a rim of the same metal. It was made and engraved by hand. On

the side not illustrated is engraved "the coat of arms of the United States-the American eagle, with wings outspread, the shield upon grave out of which the remains had fallen, and found a part of the grave still intact. Ecard took a stick, and digging around in that portion of the grave that yet remained, quickly unearthed both of the medals, which were highly discolored. He sold them to Samuel Chester, and the latter disposed of them to the present owner, Josephus Collett, of Terre Haute, to whom the writer is indebted for permission to illustrate them. The writer has the affidavit of Samuel Chester as to the time, place and manner of their finding. Mr. Chester was informed of the facts within a few moments after their discovery, and immediately went over to the spot in company with the young men, of whom he then and there received the particulars substantially as given.

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DESCRIPTION OF THE MEDAL.

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its breast; a bundle of arrows in one foot and an olive branch in the other; and the stars, representing the several states, about the head of the bird, from which lines radiate, representing the sun's rays. The eye,' by which the medal is suspended, shows no signs of having been used; the delicate tracings of the engraver appear as perfect as when first made. These facts would seem to preclude the idea that it was worn about the person as an ornament.

Among the manuscript papers of Gen. Putnam relating to the treaty of Vincennes is a speech, in his own handwriting, in which he particularly describes one side of this medal.*

We quote extracts from Gen. Putnam's speech:

"Brothers, the engravings on this medal distinguish the United States from all other nations; it is called their arms, and no other nation has the like. The principal figure is a broad eagle. This bird is a native of this island, and is to be found in no other part of the world; and both you and the Americans being also born on this island, and having grown up together with the eagle, they have placed him in their arms, and have engraved him on this medal, by which the great chief, Gen. Washington, and all the people of the United States hold this belt fast. The wings of the eagle are extended to give protection to all our friends, and to assure you of our protection so long as you hold fast this belt. In his right foot the eagle holds the branch of a tree, which with us is an emblem of peace, and it means that we love peace, and wish to live in peace with all our neighbors, and is to assure you that while you hold this belt fast you shall always be in peace and security, whether you are pursuing the chase, or reposing yourselves under the shadow of the bough. In the left foot of this bird is placed a bundle of arrows; by this is meant that the United States have the means of war, and that when peace cannot be obtained or maintained with their neighbors on just terms, and that if, notwithstanding all their endeavors for peace, war is made upon them, they are prepared for it."+

*Whether this explanation, or the substance of it, was delivered at Vincennes, we cannot say. It does not appear in the journal of the proceedings. Letter of Dr. Andrews, custodian of the Putnam papers at Marietta College, Ohio, to the writer. However, while the journal may be silent on this point, it was doubtless delivered, as appears from the remarks of an Indian chief two years later, at Greenville, noticed farther on.

It will be borne in mind that prior to this treaty the tribes represented at Vincennes had never held official or diplomatic relations with the United States, and it was highly proper that our coat of arms, and the signification of its several parts, should be explained to them. The bill of account of Gen. Putnam against the United States shows that at this treaty he delivered one of the peace belts, six of the medals, and a quantity of other jewelry itemized in the account, and that he retained the other peace belt, medals, etc., in his custody. Extract from the Putnam papers, supplied to the writer by Dr. Andrews.