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were signed by hundreds, who gladly accepted the proffered amnesty. The leading insurgents were deserted, discouraged, and powerless; the first of October hailed the restoration of peace and order.*

The disorganized malcontents still were sufficiently numerous to make a show of resistance, and to produce some annoyance to the tranquillity of the country. The Federal government had made active preparations to subdue the rebels by force of arms, while overtures of peace were tendered to them. Already a powerful army of fourteen thousand militia, assembled from Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, was on its march to the western counties of Pennsylvania. The army proceeded to Pittsburgh, and there encamped. Not a shadow of resistance was shown, and the last remains of disaffection disappeared. Bradford and a few obnoxious chiefs fled to the Spanish dominions on the Mississippi, and others to the remote settlements of the West.

An inquisitorial court was opened by General Hamilton on the part of the government, and informers flocked in by hundreds, of whom many had suffered severely from the insurgents. At length a catalogue of names was completed and handed over to a captain of dragoons, who found no lack of guides in making his arrests. A few days sufficed to place under military guard about three hundred prisoners for further examination.

The intercession of influential friends procured the discharge of many; but others, less fortunate, were detained in custody and sent to Philadelphia for trial. Some were there detained in prison for several months, and finally discharged. One individual was tried, convicted, and sentenced to death for robbing the mail, but was ultimately pardoned. Thus terminated this first resistance to the laws of the country by a regularly organized insurrection.†

The main body of the army soon afterward took up the line of march for their homes; some, at their request, were paid off and discharged at Pittsburgh. A few battalions were retained on duty through the winter. To keep down any germs of insurrectionary spirit, the government ordered the enlistment of a regiment of dragoons, to serve six months, and to be composed of such persons as were well disposed to the govern

* See American Pioneer, vol. ii., p. 212. VOL. II.-O

+ Idem, p. 212, 213

ment. Portions of this troop were kept in constant motion from point to point, or in attending the excise officers in their visits.

In the mean time, the inhabitants of the western settlements had been gradually and steadily increasing. Pittsburgh had acquired much importance by reason of the arrival and departure of the United States troops and military stores. The population was now one thousand souls, and the Legislature at its last session had incorporated it as a regular borough, by an act approved April 22d, 1794. The same year a settlement at Presque Isle had been abandoned, in order to conciliate the Indians. It was again settled two years afterward.

[A.D. 1795.] The decisive victory of the Maumee over the combined savages and their English allies had restored the frontiers to quietude and safety. Confidence was renewed, and emigrants again began to press forward; settlements became more dense; trade and manufactures began to flourish, and prosperity smiled upon the country. About .the close of this year Pittsburgh presented a population of fourteen hundred souls.†

Yet the country northwest of the Alleghany River was still an uninhabited wilderness, and its contiguity to the warlike. tribes near the lakes formed but little inducement to immigrants more securely located. To procure the occupancy of this region, the state government deemed it expedient to hold out strong temptations to the poor settler as well as to the rich capitalist. Among the first measures adopted for this purpose was the grant, or the right of entering or locating a large body of lands, designated in the act of the Legislature, to a number of capitalists who had assumed the name of the "Population Company." The principal condition required of this company was, that within a certain time they should place upon every tract of four hundred acres so located at least one able-bodied settler, and cause to be made certain slight preemption improvements.

The company, to induce immigrants to settle their lands, proposed to grant in fee simple to every such settler one hundred and fifty acres of land, provided he should comply with the requisitions imposed on them. Thus the settler would secure for himself one hundred and fifty acres of land, including Writings of Washington, vol. xii., p. 52.

† Pioneer, vol. i., p. 306.

his improvement, while the "company," through him, would secure two hundred and fifty acres more.

Soon afterward, the Legislature passed an act giving to the individual settler, for the same improvements, four hundred acres, the same amount previously allowed to the "company." This interfered with the company's plan of aggrandizement, and was deemed by them an infringement of "vested rights." Immigrants, of course, would prefer to receive four hundred acres from the state, rather than one hundred and fifty acres from the company. The company's grants were slowly taken up; each settler made his improvement for himself, and not for the company, and some incautiously made their improvements within the district which had been appropriated exclusively to the "Population Company."

Settlements progressed in this manner for some time, when the agents of the company commenced suits of ejectment against the state settlers who had encroached upon their privilege. At length the latter harassed with suits and the expenses of litigation, and being utterly unable singly to contend with a moneyed company, voluntarily abandoned their habitations and retired westward into the "Connecticut Reserve." Here no lands were given away; but it was sold for a reasonable price, and the title was indisputable to such amounts and tracts as purchasers desired.* This is a specimen of the beauties of companies and vested rights, and their proneness to interfere with the general prosperity.

[A.D. 1796.] In the mean time, manufactures and arts had greatly multiplied since the treaty of Greenville. Trade began to stand upon a firm basis, and capital was freely invested. The first paper-mill west of the mountains was erected this year, within four miles of Brownsville. This was the "Redstone paper-mills," owned by Samuel Jackson and Jonathan Sharpless, two Quaker mechanics from "Gilpin's paper-mills," on Brandywine Creek.†

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CHAPTER VIII.

66

INDIAN RELATIONS AND TREATIES WITH THE UNITED STATES, FROM THE TREATY OF PARIS TO THE TREATY OF GREENVILLE.”. A.D. 1783 TO 1795.

Argument. Retrospect relative to the Northwestern Boundary.-Reluctantly assented to in the Treaty of 1783 by Great Britain.-Disregard of Treaty Stipulations relative to the Northwestern Posts by British Cabinet.-British and Indian Alliance during the Revolutionary War.-Western Feeling toward the Indians.-Jealousy of the Indians at the rapid Advance of the White Settlements.-Measures of Congress to conciliate Indian Jealousy.-Preliminary Steps for Treaties with all the Tribes. Treaties by individual States prior to 1784.-Treaty of Fort Stanwix, and the Treaty Line.-Treaty of Fort M'Intosh, and Boundary Line.-Treaty of the Miami with the Shawanese, and their Cession of Lands.-Treaties of Hopewell with Southern Indians.-Cherokee Treaty.-Choctâ Treaty.-Chickasâ Treaty.-Extent of Country and Number of Warriors of each Nation respectively.-Dissatisfaction of the Six Nations relative to the Treaty of Fort Stanwix.-Their Grievances.-Preparations for a new Treaty.-Treaty of Fort Harmar in 1789.-The Shawanese refuse to attend.-Shawanese encouraged to Hostilities by British Traders at Detroit.Connivance of the British Government at these Intrigues.-Hostilities commenced upon the Ohio Frontier.-Pacific Overtures of Governor St. Clair.-Unsettled Condi tion of the Southern Indians.-The Cherokees.-Encroachments of the Cumberland Settlements.-Treaty of Holston, July 2d, 1791.-Creek Disturbances.—Measures to conciliate the Creeks.-The Treaty of New York with M'Gillivray and other Creek Chiefs.-Efforts of Spanish Agents to embarrass the Negotiations.-M'Gillivray's Opposition. The Creeks instigated to War.-Cherokees commence Hostilities.-Spanish Intrigue with Creeks and Cherokees.-Creek Preparation for Hostilities against Cumberland Settlements.-Bowles, a Creek Chief.-Indian Tribes generally make Overtures for Peace and Friendship after Wayne's Victory.-Treaty with Six Nations in 1794.-Treaty of Greenville in 1795, comprising all Northwestern Tribes.Termination of Indian Wars.

[A.D. 1783.] By the treaty of Paris, September 3d, 1783, Great Britain renounced all claim to the territory of the United States south of all the great lakes, and east of the Mississippi to its sources. That power also stipulated to withdraw her troops and military garrisons, as soon as convenient, from every part of the relinquished territory. Among the most important posts held by Great Britain within the said territory were those of Niagara, Detroit, and the Miami, on the Maumee River, below the Rapids, besides other posts of minor importance upon the head waters of the Wabash.

The stipulations for this relinquishment were made with great reluctance on the part of the British government. During the greater part of the negotiations preceding the treaty, Mr.

Oswald, the British commissioner, persisted in his demands that the Ohio River should form the northwestern boundary of the United States; and it was only after every effort had failed to move Mr. Adams and Mr. Jay that he consented to adopt the present boundary through the middle of the great lakes.

[A.D. 1784.] We have already seen that, during the war of Independence, Great Britain had armed all the northwestern tribes against her revolted colonies; that her agents and emissaries had instigated all the tribes south of the lakes, and as far west as the Mississippi, to carry the scalping-knife and the tomahawk, with all the horrors of Indian warfare, upon all the frontier settlements from the Hudson River to the western parts of North Carolina and Georgia. To carry out this plan of Indian hostilities, the agents and military officers of Great Britain at her western posts were authorized to enter into treaties of alliance with the savage tribes, with stipulations to protect and defend them, and to furnish them with arms, ammunition, and all the means necessary to their hostile operations. Still further to inflame their avarice and stimulate them to deeds of blood, the agents of Great Britain were encouraged to pay a premium upon every scalp taken from the head of the colonists, whether male or female, child or adult. Such was the spirit in which England carried on the war with her colonies.

By such means, the greater portion of the "Six Nations," inhabiting the northern and western parts of New York and Pennsylvania,had been involved in hostilities with the colonies. All the tribes south of Lake Erie, embracing the Shawanese, Wyandots, Delawares, Ottawâs, Chippewas, and many smaller tribes, had been enlisted in the British interest. The hostilities which had been incessantly waged against the frontier inhabitants during the struggle for Independence, had created and kept alive in the breasts of the western people of New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia an undying hatred and desire of revenge against those tribes, who continued their hostility after the war with Great Britain had been terminated. Compelled to contend alone with the savages, while their eastern friends were engaged with the ruthless armies of the mother country, the western people were now anxious to conciliate the Indian power, after the support and protection of England had been withdrawn.

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