326 Treaty of Fort Harmar. 1790-95. long before he held the treaty of Fort Harmar, that the consent of a general council was absolutely necessary to convey any part of these lands to the United States.* And in 1795, at Greenville, Massas, a Chippewa chieftain, who signed the treaty at Fort Harmar, said: Elder Brother: When you yesterday read to us the treaty of Muskingum, I understood you clearly at that treaty we had not good interpreters, and we were left partly unacquainted with many particulars of it. I was surprised when I heard your voice, through a good interpreter, say that we had received presents and compensation for those lands which were thereby ceded. I tell you, now, that we, the three fires, never were informed of it. If our uncles, the Wyandots, and grandfathers, the Delawares, have received such presents, they have kept them to themselves. I always thought that we, the Ottawas, Chippewas, and Pottawattamies, were the true owners of those lands, but now I find that new masters have undertaken to dispose of them; so that, at this day, we do not know to whom they, of right belong. We never received any compensation for them. I don't know how it is, but ever since that treaty we have become objects of pity, and our fires have been retiring from this country. Now, elder brother, you see we are objects of compassion; and have pity on our weakness and misfortunes; and, since you have purchased these lands, we cede them to you: they are yours.t The Wyandots, however, acknowledged even the transfer made on the Muskingum to be binding: "Brother," said Tarke, who signed foremost among the representatives of that tribe at Greenville, and who had also signed at Fort Harmar, You have proposed to us to build our good work on the treaty of Muskingum that treaty I have always considered as formed upon the fairest principles. You took pity on us Indians. You did not do as our fathers the British agreed you should. You might by that agreement have taken all our lands; but you pitied us, and let us hold part. I always looked upon that treaty to be binding upon the United States and us Indians.‡ The truth in reference to this treaty of Fort Harmar seems to have been, that the confederated nations, as a whole, did not sanction it, and in their council of 1788 could not agree one with * American State Papers, v. p. 356. American State Papers, v. p. 571. † American State Papers, v. p. 570. 1790-95. Indian relations in 1789. 327 another in relation to it. "I have still my doubts," says Brant, before the council met I have still my doubts whether we will join or not, some being no ways inclined for peaceable methods. The Hurons, Chippewas, Ottawas, Pottawattimies, and Delawares, will join with us in trying lenient steps, and having a boundary line fixed; and, rather than enter headlong into a destructive war, will give up a small part of their country. On the other hand, the Shawanese, Miamis and Kickapoos, who are now so much addicted to horse-stealing, that it will be a difficult task to break them of it, as that kind of business is their best harvest, will of course declare for war, and not giving up any of their country, which, I am afraid, will be the means of our separating. They are, I believe, determined not to attend the treaty with the Americans. Still I hope for the best. As the major part of the nations are of our opinions, the rest may be brought to, as nothing shall be wanting on my part to convince them of their error." Le Gris, the great chief of the Miamies, in April, 1790, said to Gamelin,† that the Muskingum treaty was not made by chiefs or delegates, but by young men acting without authority, although Tarke, the head of the Wyandots, signed and sanctioned it, as well as Captain Pipe of the Delawares, while Brant himself was present.|| Thus then stood the relations of the Indians and the United States in 1789. Transfers of territory had been made by the Iroquois, the Wyandots, the Delawares and the Shawanese, which were open to scarce any objection; but the Chippeways, Ottawas, Kickapoos, Weas, Piankeshaws, Potawatimies, Eel River Indians, Kaskaskias, and above all the Miamies,§ were not bound by any existing agreement to yield the lands north of the Ohio. If their tale is true, the confederated tribes had forbidden the treaty of Fort Harmar, and had warned Governor St. Clair that it would not be binding on the confederates. They wished the Ohio to be a perpetual boundary between the white and red men of the West, and would not sell a rod of the region north of it. So strong was this feeling that their young men, they said, could Stone, ii. 278. American State Papers, v. 94. + See post as to Gamelin's mission. All of these appeared at the Treaty of Greenville. When this confederacy was formed we do not learn; its existence is first seen by its council of November, 1786, whose address, referred to p. 300, may be found American State papers, v.8. 328 Grounds of United States claims. 1790-95. not be restrained from warfare upon the invading Long Knives, and thence resulted the unceasing attacks upon the frontier stations and the emigrants. It was not, therefore, without reason, that Washington expressed a doubt as to the justness of an offensive war upon the tribes of the Wabash and Maumee;* and had the treaty of Fort Harmar been the sole ground whereon the United States could have claimed of the Indians the Northwest Territory, it may be doubted whether right would have justified the steps taken in 1790, '91, and '94: but the truth was, that before that treaty, the Iroquois, Delawares, Wyandots, and Shawanese had yielded the south of Ohio, the ground on which they had long dwelt; and neither the sale to Putnam and his associates, nor that to Symmes, was intended to reach one foot beyond the lands ceded. Of this we have proof in the third article of the ordinance of 1787, passed the day before the proposition to sell to the Ohio Company was for the first time debated; which article declares that the lands of the Indians shall never be taken from them without their consent. It appears to us, therefore, that the United States were fully justified in taking possession of the northwest shore of the Belle Riviere, and that without reference to the treaty at Fort Harmar, which we will allow to have been, if the Indians spoke truly, (and they were not contradicted by the United States commissioners,) morally worthless. But it also appears to us, that in taking those steps in 1790 and 1791, which we have presently to relate, the federal government acted unwisely; and that it should then, at the outset, have done what it did in 1793, after St. Clair's terrible defeat,— namely, it should have sent commissioners of the highest character to the lake tribes, and in the presence of the British, learnt their causes of complaint, and offered fair terms of compromise. That such a step was wise and just, the government acknowledged by its after-action; and surely none can question the position that it was more likely to have been effective before the savages had twice defeated the armies of the confederacy than afterward. The full bearing of these remarks will be best seen, however, when the whole tale is told, and to that we now proceed. In June, 1789, Major Doughty, with a hundred and forty men, began the building of Fort Washington at Cincinnati. Upon the 29th of December, General Harmar himself came down with three See ante p. 319. 1790-95. Gamelin's mission. 329 hundred additional troops.* On the 1st or 2d of January,† 1790, St. Clair arrived at Losantiville,‡ changed its name to Cincinnati, in honor of the society so called, and organized Hamilton county.|| On the 8th of that month, he was at Fort Steuben,§ (Jeffersonville opposite Louisville,) whence he proceeded to Kaskaskia, where he remained until the 11th of June, when, having learned from Major Hamtramck, commanding at Vincennes, the hostile feeling of the Wabash and Maumee tribes, he started for Fort Washington, which point he reached upon the 13th of July. The feeling alluded to had been ascertained in the following manner. Washington having desired that great pains should be taken to learn the real sentiments of the northwestern Indians, Governor St. Clair instructed Major Hamtramck at Vincennes, (Fort Knox,) to send some experienced person to ascertain the views and feelings of the Miamis and their confederates. The person chosen was Anthony Gamelin, who, on the fifth of April, proceeded upon his mission. The Piankeshaws, Kickapoos, and Ouitenons, (Ouias or Weas,) all referred him to their elder brethren, the Miamis, so that he had to journey on to the point where the Miamis, Chaouanons,¶ (Shawnees) and Delawares resided; upon the 23d of April he reached that point and upon the 24th assembled the savages. I gave to each nation, he says, two branches of wampum, and began the speeches, before the French and English traders, being invited by the chiefs to be present, having told them myself I would be glad to have them present, having nothing to say against any body. After the speech, I showed them the treaty concluded at Muskingum, [Fort Harmar,] between his excellency Governor St. Clair and sundry nations, which displeased them. I told them that the purpose of this present time was not to submit them to any condition, but to offer them the Cist's Cincinnati Miscellany, ii. 124. † American Pioneer, ii. 148.-Cist's Cincinnati Miscellany, ii. 124. Losantiville (sometimes called Losantiburgh, American Pioneer, ii. 400) was properly the name of Filson's plat ; (ante p. 305.) Ludlow's, which was not exactly the same, was not named until St. Clair, in January, 1790, called it Cincinnati, but meanwhile went by the old name. (Transactions Ohio Historical Society, part second, vol. i. 33.—Symmes' MS. Letters. Also Cist's Cincinnati Miscellany, i. 9.) As to bounds of county, &c. see Cist's Cincinnati Miscellany, i. 241. § American Pioneer, ii. 220. In Cist's Cincinnati Miscellany, this post is called Fort Finney; in Imlay, (p. 34, note,) Fort Ferring; in the map of the Falls, same vol. Fort Fenny. The old French orthography used by Charlevoix and all others. 330 Gamelin's Journal. 1790-95. peace, which made disappear their pleasure. The great chief told me that he was pleased with the speech; that he would soon give me an answer. In a private discourse with the great chief, he told me not to mind what the Shawanees would tell me, having a bad heart, and being the perturbators of all the nations. He said the Miamies had a bad name, on account of mischief done on the River Ohio; but he told me it was not occasioned by his young men, but by the Shawanese; his young men going out only for to hunt. The 25th of April, Blue Jacket, chief warrior of the Shawanese, invited me to go to his house, and told me, My friend, by the name and consent of the Shawanese and Delawares I will speak to you. We are all sensible of your speech, and pleased with it: but, after consultation, we cannot give an answer without hearing from our father at Detroit; and we are determined to give you back the two branches of wampum, and to send you to Detroit to see and hear the chief, or to stay here twenty nights for to receive his answer. From all quarters we receive speeches from the Americans, and not one is alike. We suppose that they intend to deceive us. Then take back your branches of wampum." The 26th, five Pottawattamies arrived here with two negro men, which they sold to English traders. The next day I went to the great chief of the Miamies, called Le Gris. His chief warrior was present. I told him how I had been served by the Shawanese. He answered me that he had heard of it: that the said nations had behaved contrary to his intentions. He desired me not to mind those strangers, and that he would soon give me a positive answer. The 28th April, the great chief desired me to call at the French trader's and receive his answer. "Don't take bad," said he, " of what I am to tell you. You may go back when you please. We cannot give you a positive answer. We must send your speeches to all our neighbors, and to the lake nations. We cannot give a definitive answer without consulting the commandant at Detroit." And he desired me to render him the two branches of wampum refused by the Shawanese; also, a copy of speeches in writing. He promised me that, in thirty nights, he would send an answer to Post Vincennes, by a young man of each nation. He was well pleased with the speeches, and said to be worthy of attention, and should be communicated to all their confederates, having resolved among them not to do any thing without an unanimous consent. I agreed to his requisitions, and rendered him the two branches of wampum, and a copy of the speech. Afterwards, he told me that the Five Nations, so called, or Iroquois, were training something; that five of them, and three Wyandots, were in this village with branches of wampum. He could not tell me presently their purpose; but he said I would know of it very soon. The same day, Blue Jacket, chief of the Shawanees, invited me to |