the Indians, and many Indians were killed by the whites, and there was no time when there was not fear and apprehension because of the temper of many of the Indian tribes, who, through the influence of British agents and emissaries, were made actively hostile. Moreover, both parties had enlisted them in the military service, and thus their savage propensities and love of war were cultivated, their passionate love of strong drink gratified, and at the close of the contest the Indians generally were left in a very demoralized condition.

CHAPTER IV.

EVENTS FOLLOWING THE TREATY OF PEACE. THE EFFECT UPON THE INDIANS.THE FRONTIER POSTS REMAIN IN THE HANDS OF THE BRITISH.-COMPLICA TIONS RESULTING THEREFROM.-MILITARY EXPEDITIONS AGAINST THE INDIANS. INTERVIEW, AT NIAGARA, BETWEEN UNITED STATES COMMISSIONERS AND DEPUTATIONS FROM THE INDIAN NATIONS, ETC.

AMONG the pressing duties which forced themselves on the Congress of the United States, at the close of the Revolutionary war, none were more imperative than some satisfactory adjustment with the Indian nations. Not long after the cessation of hostilities, and the treaty of peace, the Congress, in May, 1783

"Resolved, That the secretary of war take the most effective measures to inform the several Indian nations on the frontiers of the United States, that preliminary articles of peace have been agreed on, and hostilities have ceased with Great Britain, and to communicate to them that the forts within the United States, and in possession of the British troops, will speedily be evacuated; intimating, also, that the United States are disposed to enter into friendly treaty with the different tribes, and to inform the hostile Indian nations that unless they immediately cease all hostilities against the citizens of the United States, and accept of these friendly proffers of peace, Congress will take the most decided measures to compel them thereto.” When the treaty of Paris was concluded, in 1763, the French had not extinguished the Indian title to the lands in the western country, and, in fact, owned only a few small tracts about her various forts situate therein. No transfer of territory came from Pontiac's war, or from that of Dunmore. The New York Indians, it is true, had, at the treaty of Fort Stanwix, in 1763, ceded to the English their lands south of the Ohio river. Hence, "when, at the close of the Revolution, in 1783, Great Britain made over her western lands to the United States, she made over nothing more than she had received from France, excepting the title of the Six Nations

and the southern Indians to a portion of the territory south of the Ohio river. But this was not the view that the Congress of the United States took of the affair. This body, it would seem, conceived that it had, under the treaty with England, a full right to all the lands embraced in the territory thereby ceded, and, regarding the Indian title as forfeited by the Revolution, assumed that the government would not purchase lands from the Indians, but grant them peace, and dictate terms as to the boundary lines of territory allowed."

In the treaty with the Delawares, in 1778 (the first formal treaty made by the United States with any Indian tribe), the lands of the Indians are not referred to by any given boundaries. It was simply stated that the most practicable way for the troops of the United States, to the posts and forts of the British on the lakes and other places, "is by passing through the country of the Delawares;" and the Indians agreed "to give a free passage through their country to the troops aforesaid."

In 1782, the year before the treaty of peace, Congress had under consideration a cession of land from the State of New York to the United States, and the committee to whom the subject was referred, on the first of May of that year, recommended the acceptance of the cession, for the following

reasons:

"1. It clearly appeared to your committee that all the lands belonging to the Six Nations of Indians and their tributaries have been, in due form, put under the protection of the crown of England, by the said Six Nations, as appendant to the late government of the colony of New York, so far as respects jurisdiction only.

"2. That the citizens of the said colony of New York have borne the burden, both as to blood and treasure, of protecting and supporting the said Six Nations of Indians and their tributaries, for upward of one hundred years last past, as the dependents and allies of the said government.

"3. That the crown of England has always considered and treated the country of the said Six Nations and their tributaries, inhabited as far as the forty-fifth degree of north latitude, as appendant to the government of New York.

"4. That the neighboring colonies of Massachusetts, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia have also, from time to time, by their public acts, recognized and admitted the said Six Nations and their tributaries to be appendant to the government of New York.

"5. That by Congress accepting this cession, the jurisdiction of the whole western territory, belonging to the Six Nationsand their tributaries, will be vested in the United States, greatly to the advantage of the Union."

The committee of Congress assume, in their report, a right in the Six Nations to lands in the western territory which had no foundation in fact. The government commissioners, Oliver Walcott, Richard Butler, and Arthur Lee, who made the treaty of the 22d of October, 1784, with the Six Nations, at Fort Stanwix, certainly entertained no such opinion. The provisions of the treaty are sufficient evidence on this subject. The first article gives peace to the Senecas, Mohawks, Onondagas, and Cayugas, and the United States receives and gives them protection on the following conditions: Six Indian hostages are to be given to the commissioners by the said Indians, to remain in possession of the United States, till all the prisoners, white and black, which were taken by the Senecas, in the late war, shall be given up; and the Oneidas and Tuscaroras are to be secured in the possession of the lands on which they are settled. The third article reads thus:

"Art. 3. A line shall be drawn beginning at the mouth of a creek about four miles east of Niagara, called Oyonwayea, or Johnson's landing place, upon the lake, named by the Indians Oswego, and by us Ontario; from thence southerly, always four miles east of the carrying path, between Lake Erie and Ontario, to the mouth of Tehoreroran, or Buffalo creek, on Lake Erie; thence south to the north boundary of the State of Pennsylvania, thence west to the end of the said north boundary, thence south along the west boundary of said state to the river Ohio, the said line, from the mouth of the Oyonwayea to the Ohio, shall be the western boundary of the Six Nations; that the Six Nations shall and do yield to the United States all claims to the country west of the said boundary, and then they shall be secured in the peaceable

possession of the lands they inhabit, east and north of the same, reserving only six miles square round the Fort of Oswego to the United States, for the support of the same."

The fourth and last article of the treaty says that "the commissioners, in consideration of the present circumstances of the Six Nations, and in the execution of the humane and liberal views of the United States, upon the signing of the above articles, will order goods to be delivered to the said Six Nations, for their use and comfort."

The Six Nations had, on many occasions previous to that time, operated in Canada, and westward along the lakes; they had driven the Hurons and other tribes infesting the borders of the lakes before them; had made incursions to the south and southwest on hostile expeditions; the French, on divers occasions, had felt their power, and years before our revolutionary period they had organized their confederacy, and it was said that when the colonies were discussing the matter of forming some sort of a league or union, the Iroquois chiefs and orators held up their confederation as an example for imitation.

It is not to be presumed that such a people, if they considered they had valid claims to such a vast country as the western territory would yield all right to it, simply for a few goods to be delivered to them for their use and comfort, at the time of signing the Fort Stanwix treaty.

In the month of January, 1789, another treaty was made with the Six Nations at Fort Harmer. Arthur St. Clair, then governor of the Northwest Territory, was the commissioner on the part of the United States. The Six Nations (except the Mohawks, who did not attend) confirmed the boundary line established by the treaty of 1784, and gave a release and quitclaim to all lands west of said boundary to the United States, and the parties mutually pledged to each other peace and friendship.

The original instructions for the government of the commissioners appointed in 1783, to make treaties with all the Indian nations, provided for one convention with all the tribes, but these were amended the following March, so as to authorize treaties with tribes separately, as far as possible.