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preted to all the different nations.* We have been long in sending you an answer, because of the great importance of the subject. But we now answer it fully; having given it all the consideration in our power.

"Brothers: You tell us that, after you had made peace with the King, our father, about ten years ago, it remained to make peace between the United States and the Indian nations who had taken part with the King. For this purpose Commissioners were appointed who sent messages to all those Indian nations, inviting them to come and make peace;' and, after reciting the periods at which you say treaties were held, at Fort Stanwix, Fort McIntosh and Miami, all which treaties, according to your own acknowledgement, were for the sole purpose of making peace, you then say, 'Brothers, the Commissioners who conducted these treaties, in behalf of the United States, sent the papers containing them to the general council of the States, who supposing them satisfactory to the nations treated with, proceeded to dispose of the lands thereby ceded.'

"Brothers: This is telling us plainly, what we always understood to be the case, and it agrees with the declarations of those few who attended those treaties, viz: That they went to meet your Commissioners to make peace; but, through fear, were obliged to sign any paper that was laid before them; and it has since appeared that deeds of cession were signed by them, instead of treaties of peace.

"Brothers: You then say, after some time it

appears that a number of people in your nations were dissatisfied with the treaties of Fort McIntosh and Miami, therefore the council of the United States appointed Governor St. Clair their Commissioner, with full power, for the purpose of removing all causes of controversy, relating to trade, and settling boundaries, between the Indian nations in the northern department, and the United States. He accordingly sent messages, inviting all the nations concerned to meet him at a council fire he kindled at the falls of the Muskingum. While he was waiting for them, some mischief happened at that place, and the fire was put out: so he kindled a council fire at Fort Harmar, where near six hundred Indians of different nations attended. The Six Nations then renewed and confirmed the treaty of Fort Stanwix; and the Wyandots and Delawares renewed and confirmed the treaty of Fort McIntosh: some Ottawas, Chippewas, Pottawatamies, and Sacs, were also parties to the treaty of Fort Harmar.' Now brothers, these are your words; and it is necessary for us to make a short reply to them.

"Brothers: A general council of all the Indian confederacy was held,

* It seems however, that Brant and the Chiefs of the Iroquois who had argued for peace were not consulted.-Letter of the Commissioners to General Knox.-American State Papers, v. 359.

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as you well know, in the fall of the year 1788, at this place; and that general council was invited by your Commissioner Governor St. Clair, to meet him for the purpose of holding a treaty, with regard to the lands mentioned by you to have been ceded by the treaties of Fort Stanwix and Fort McIntosh.

"Brothers: We are in possession of the speeches and letters which passed on that occasion, between those deputed by the confederated Indians, and Governor St. Clair, the Commissioner of the United States. These papers prove that your said Commissioner, in the beginning of the year 1789, after having been informed by the general council of the preceding fall, that no bargain or sale of any part of these Indian lands would be considered as valid or binding unless agreed to by a general council, nevertheless persisted in collecting together a few chiefs of two or three nations only, and with them held a treaty for the cession of an immense country, in which they were no more interested, than as a branch of the general cenfederacy, and who were in no manner authorized to make any grant or concession whatever.

"Brothers: How then was it possible for you to expect to enjoy peace, and quietly to hold these lands, when your Commissioner was informed, long before he had 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. The part of these lands which the United States now wish us to relinquish, and which you say are settled, have been sold by the United States since that time.

"Brothers: You say the United States wish to have confirmed all the lands ceded to them by the treaty of Fort Harmar, and also a small tract at the rapids of the Ohio, claimed by General Clark, for the use of himself and his warriors. And, in consideration thereof, the United States would give such a large sum of money or goods, as was never given, at any one time, for any quantity of Indian lands, since the white people first set their feet on this island. And, because these lands did every year furnish you with skins and furs, with which you bought clothing and other necessaries, the United States will now furnish the like constant supplies. And therefore, besides the great sum to be delivered at once, they will every year deliver you a large quantity of such goods as are best fitted to the wants of yourselves, your women, and children.'

"Brothers: Money, to us, is of no value; and to most of us unknown; and, as no consideration whatever can induce us to sell the lands on which we get sustenance for our women and children, we hope we may be allowed to point out a mode by which your settlers may be easily removed, and peace thereby obtained.

"Brothers: We know that these settlers are poor, or they would never have ventured to live in a country which has been in continual trouble ever since they crossed the Ohio. Divide, therefore, this large

2

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sum of money, which you have offered to us, among these people. Give to each, also, a proportion of what you say you would give to us, annually, over and above this very large sum of money; and, as we are persuaded, they would most readily accept of it in lieu of the lands you sold them. If you add, also, the great sums you must expend in raising and paying armies, with a view to force us to yield you our country, you will certainly have more than sufficient for the purpose of re-paying these settlers for all their labor and their improvements. "Brothers: You have talked to us about concessions. It appears strange that should you expect any from us, who have only been defending our just rights against your invasions. We want peace. Restore to us our country, and we shall be enemies no longer.

"Brothers: You make one concession to us by offering us your money; and another by having agreed to do us justice, after having long and injuriously withheld it: we mean in the acknowledgement you have now made, that the King of England never did, nor never had a right to give you our country, by the treaty of peace. And you want to make this act of common justice a great part of your concessions; and seem to expect that, because you have at last acknowledged our independence, we should, for such a favor, surrender to you our country.

Brothers-You have talked, also, a great deal about pre-emption, and your exclusive right to purchase Indian lands, as ceded to you by the king, at the treaty of peace.

Brothers :-We never made any agreement with the king, nor with any other nation, that we would give to either the exclusive right of purchasing our lands; and we declare to you, that we consider ourselves free to make any bargain or cession of lands, whenever and to whomsoever we please. If the white people, as you say, made a treaty that none of them but the king should purchase of us, and that he has given that right to the United States, it is an affair which concerns you and him, and not us: we have never parted with such a power.

Brothers :-At our general council, held at the Glaize last fall, we agreed to meet commissioners from the United States, for the purpose of restoring peace, provided they consented to acknowledge and confirm our boundary line to be the Ohio. and we determined not to meet you, until you gave us satisfaction on that point: that is the reason we have

never met.

We desire you to consider, brothers, that our only demand is the peaceable possession of a small part of our once great country. Look back and review the lands from whence we have been driven to this spot. We can retreat no farther; because the country behind hardly affords food for its inhabitants; and we have, therefore, resolved to leave our bones in this small space to which we are now confined.

394

Reasons which kept the Indians at War.

1790-1795 Brothers: We shall be persuaded that you mean to do us justice, i you agree that the Ohio shall remain the boundary line between us. I you will not consent thereto, our meeting will be altogether unneces sary. This is the great point which we hoped would have bee explained before you left your homes, as our message, last fall, wa principally directed to obtain that information.

Done in general council, at the foot of the Maumee Rapids, the 13th day of August, 1793.

This, of necessity, closed the attempts of the United States to make peace; some few further efforts were made to secure the Iroquois to the cause of America, but they ended in nothing; and from the month of August, the preparations for a decision by arms of the questions pending between the white and red men went forward constantly.

But it is natural to ask what causes led the northwestern savages thus to stake their very existence upon the contest, when terms so liberal were offered by their opponents. We answer-first, their previous success did much; and secondly, they hoped for the aid of Britain, and at length of Spain also, on their side.

For several years, said Brant, we were engaged in getting a confederacy formed, and thef unanimity occasioned by these endeavors among our western brethren, enabled them to defeat two American armies. The war continued without our brothers, the English, giving any assis tance, except a little ammunition; and they seeming to desire that a peace might be concluded, we tried to bring it about at a time that the United States desired it very much, so that they sent commissioners from among their first people, to endeavor to make peace with the hostile Indians. We assembled also for that purpose at the Miami river in the summer of 1793, intending to act as mediators in bringing about an honorable peace; and if that could not be obtained, we resolved to join our western brethren in trying the fortune of war. But to our sur prise, when upon the point of entering upon a treaty with the commis

* American State Papers, v. 356.

↑ In another portion of the same speech, Captain Brant stated that General Haldeman exhorted them to the formation of that union with the different nations.

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Lord Dorchester's Speech.

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sioners, we found that it was opposed by those acting under the British government, and hopes of farther assistance were given to our western brethren, to encourage them to insist on the Ohio as a boundary between them and the United States.*

Through Elliott, McKee, and Butler, this confidence in English aid was thus excited among the savages, before their final refusal of the generous terms offered by Washington; and soon after, the higher functionaries endorsed the representations of their subordinates. In February, 1794, Lord Dorchester, addressing the deputies from the council of 1793, said:

Children: I was in expectation of hearing from the people of the United States what was required by them: I hoped that I should have been able to bring you together, and make you friends.

Children-I have waited long, and listened with great attention, but I have not heard one word from them.

Children: I flattered myself with the hope that the line proposed in the year eighty-three, to separate us from the United States, which was immediately broken by themselves as soon as the peace was signed, would have been mended, or a new one drawn, in an amicable manner. Here, also, I have been disappointed.

Children: - Since my return, I find no appearance of a line remains ; and from the manner in which the people of the United States rush on, and act, and talk on this side; and from what I learn of their conduct toward the sea, I shall not be surprised if we are at war with them in the course of the present year; and if so, a line must then be drawn by the warriors.

Children :-You talk of selling your lands to the state of New York. I have told you that there is no line between them and us. I shall acknowledge no lands to be theirs which have been encroached on by them since the year 1783. They then broke the peace, and as they kept it not on their part, it doth not bind on ours.

Children: They then destroyed their right of pre-emption. Therefore, all their approaches towards us since that time, and all the purchases made by them, I consider as an infringement on the King's rights. And when a line is drawn between us, be it in peace or war, they must lose all their improvements and houses on our side of it. Those people must all be gone who do not obtain leave to become the King's subjects. What belongs to the Indians will, of course, be secured and confirmed to them.

Children: What farther can I say to you? You are witnesses Stone, ii. 358.