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marks which we made on the political condition of the early settlers, that while Kentucky was engaged in angry altercation with Virginia, in relation to the navigation of the Mississippi, and other exciting topics, to which we have alluded, Tennessee was angrily urging the same subjects upon the attention of North Carolina. But the people of Tennessee became more exasperated, and proceeded to more decisive measures than the inhabitants of Kentucky; for while the latter only weighed the advantages of their connexion with the Union, and spoke of a violent separation from the mother state as a possible event, the former proceeded to the experiment of a separate government, and actually framed the constitution of an independent state, which they called Frankland. They were, however, not unanimous in this measure; a part only of the people, headed by a few violent men, assented to its adoption, while the remainder continued loyal to the existing authorities, patiently waiting for a change of times, and confidently relying on the justice of a government of their own choice, which could have no inducement, nor any provocation, to oppress a portion of its citizens. The state of Frankland had a brief and turbulent existence, and died a natural death. The admission of Tennessee into the Union, as a separate state, in 1796, quieted the discontents of the people.

About the year 1750, a settlement was made at Redstone, now called Brownsville, on the Monongahela. The settlers were chiefly Pennsylvanians. From this place and Fort Pitt, they spread over western Pennsylania and Virginia. No part of our popula

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tion ever suffered more severely from Indian ties than this. The wars were fierce and lor continued. There is scarcely a spot throughout that region, which is not distinguished as the field of a sanguinary battle, or the scene of some memorable deed of savage atrocity. The romantic and beautiful shores of the Monongahela, are rendered particularly interesting, by the many wild traditions related by the old inhabitants, and the singularly exciting associations with which they inspire the mind of the traveler.

The savages who assailed the new settlements in the west, resided chiefly on the northwestern side of the Ohio river, from its mouth to the lakes. The British government had established agencies among them, for the sole purpose of keeping alive their rancor against the American people. The fur trade was not at that period a source of great profit, nor an object of commercial cupidity; and the British cabinet could have had no other inducement sufficiently powerful, to have provoked a measure so audacious, as that of maintaining agents among the tribes within our acknowledged territorial boundaries, except that of preventing the expansion of population, by keeping up a continual warfare upon the borders. The fearful extent to which they effected this object, is too well remembered. Colonel M'Kee, an authorized agent of the British government, of high official rank and great influence among the tribes, became infamously notorious for the atrocities committed under his sanction, and the success of his wide spread and indefatigable intrigues.

His name is found continually associated with the darkest deeds which are recorded in the history or preserved in the traditions of our border wars. That his mis deeds have been exaggerated by rumor, and magnified by the resentment of those who suf‐ fered by his cruel policy, is altogether possible; but enough is shewn in his own official acts, and in the reports of the American governors and commanders in the west, to establish the fact, that he served what he supposed to be the interests of his own country, with a zeal as fatal to his own reputation, as it was destructive to the peace of the frontiers, and ruinous to the unhappy savages who were the willing instruments of his vengeance. A wretched miscreant named Girty, was another agent in these nefarious proceedings—a native of one of the British colonies, who, in consequence of his crimes, or of some injury which he supposed himself to have received, had fled from the abodes of civilized men; he became a savage in manners and in principle, and spent his whole life in the perpetration of a demoniac vengeance against his countrymen. He planned many expeditions against our borders, some of which he led in person; was present at the conflagration of the settler's cabin, witnessed the expiring agonies of the mother and the infant, and assisted in the dreadful solemnities which attend the torturing of a prisoner at the stake. It was in vain that the unhappy victims appealed to his humanity; a single instance only is known, in which he suffered the dictates of pity to actuate his conduct; with the same cold indifference or hellish malignity, did he witness the butchery of the infant,

the murder of the female, and the excrutiating torture of the gallant soldier. He is not known to have held any specific appointment under the British government; but he was the companion and subordinate of McKee, and was known to have had the countenance and protection of that officer.

This subject is too painful to be dwelt upon in detail.

The relations between the British and American governments are now placed upon an amicable basis, which renders it improbable, that the vicious of either nation, will ever again have it in their power to inflict upon the peaceful inhabitants of the other, such injuries as those to which we have alluded. The recital of these events, therefore, in the mere spirit of resentment, would be wrong; but it is impossible to pass them over in silence, because they have had so important a bearing upon the affairs of this region, that without adverting to them, its history cannot be understood, nor can the difficulties which surrounded the first settlers be fairly appreciated.

We have seen, that the pioneers of Kentucky, though few in number and unsupported by the government, contended successfully against the Indians. The settlement of the newer states, west of the Ohio, commenced at a later period, under the immediate auspices of the United States, and with prospects far more encouraging; yet the hostilities were as fierce, though not so long protracted, as those of the Kentuckians. In the one case, small parties of volunteers, hastily collected, and without organization, acted successfully against the savage; in the other,

ing the arts of husbandry and domestic manufactures among them."

While such language was used by the highest authorities of our country, in their instructions to the subordinate agents whose duties brought them in contact with the Indians, and was repeated in the various councils held with the tribes, and enforced by the most solemn pledges—while the Indians were entreated in the most urgent manner to abstain from the use of spirituous liquors, to discontinue their exterminating wars with each other, to live in peace with the white men, and to cultivate our arts, they were admonished by the insidious emissaries to whom we have alluded, to regard us with suspicion, as enemies, who, under the guise of friendship, sought their destruction. A fair specimen of this species of backwoods diplomacy, may be found in a talk delivered by Colonel McKee to the Potowatamies, who had destroyed twenty barrels of spirits, which had been brought into their nation by an English trader, in November, 1804.

"My children," said he, "I am surprised that you should rob one of your father's traders; the man that you took the liquor from lately, was an Englishman, and sent to trade among you by me; I told him to take some liquor with him, to give to the chiefs among my children on the St. Joseph's a dram in cold weather, when they came to see him, but not to sell any to you.

"My children, it is true that the Americans do not wish to sell you any spirituous liquors, therefore, they have told their traders, that they should not carry any liquor into your country; but, my chil

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