Detroit and Michilimackinac were, during this period, the points of greatest interest. At these posts the Indian warriors were assembled and furnished with arms and ammunition, and from thence they were despatched against the nearest American settlements, to pillage, burn, and destroy, and to massacre and scalp the defenceless inhabitants. On their return from their murderous expeditions, these savage allies were met by the British commanders in the council-houses of Mackinaw and Detroit, and there received the stipulated price for the scalps which they brought.

It is not to be wondered at that the European inhabitants of Michigan and Canada should have been opposed to the doctrines of the American Revolution. The French population had been accustomed to a despotic government, and from habit were little inclined to any other; while the English colonists were mere adventurers, and had come to the country for no other reason than to benefit their fortunes by its trade. They were, therefore, actuated by a totally different spirit from that which animated the inhabitants of the original English colonies, who were fixed in their habits, and who had fled from the persecutions of the people of England, that they might enjoy, undisturbed, the right of self-government in matters of religion.

Not only were parties of Indians sent out against the American settlements, but in some instances they were supported by the regular troops and the local militia. One of these joint expeditions, commanded by Captain Byrd, set out from Detroit to attack Louisville. It proceeded in boats as far as it could ascend the Maumee river, and from thence crossed over to the Ohio; but the high water here preventing them from reaching the place for which they started, they marched to what is called Ruddle's Station. The formidable force which they presented intimidated the garrison at this post, and it immediately surrendered, under the promise of being protected from the Indians. This promise, however, was violated, and the prisoners were all massacred. A small stockade, called Martin's Station, was likewise taken by the same commander, and his advance threw the whole region into the utmost consternation, when he suddenly withdrew.

Another expedition started from Detroit under the command of Henry Hamilton, the commandant of the post. At that time the feeble settlements in what now comprises Kentucky were much exposed to the hostile inroads of the savages, and General Clarke, an officer of great bravery and experience, had been sent by the Governor of Virginia for their defence. Supposing that he could better accomplish his object by reducing Kaskaskia, Kahokia, and other small French settlements in this region, which were believed to be friendly to the British cause, he descended the river and took possession of them.

Governor Hamilton was no sooner informed of these proceedings than he collected a force of regulars, militia, and Indians and proceeded to St. Vincent, where he halted to make arrangements for active operations as soon as the season would permit. His design was to recover the posts which had been captured by General Clarke, to attack and defeat the force under his command, and destroy the infant settlements of the Americans in this region.

General Clarke was soon advised of the movements of Hamilton. A Spanish merchant informed him that this officer was extremely careless in his operations, and that he had sent a part of his force to the Ohio river to destroy the settlements along its banks. The American general accordingly despatched an armed boat to the Wabash, with orders to her commander not to permit anything to pass that river, while he himself set out

with one hundred and thirty men for the same point, although in the depth of winter. Sixteen days were occupied in crossing the country, the soldiers sometimes marching up to their breasts in water along the shores of the Wabash, that stream having overflowed its banks. As soon as they arrived at St. Vincent, the soldiers were drawn up in order of battle, and, with the trunk of a tree formed in the shape of a cannon, they boldly advanced to attack the British post. Governor Hamilton, supposing that he was about to be assailed by artillery, immediately surrendered. The British were suffered to return to Detroit; but their commander, who was known to have been active in instigating the Indians to commit the greatest barbarities, was placed in irons and sent to Virginia as a prisoner of war.

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Still some of the savages were not well affected to the British cause. early as 1776 the Delawares had received a message from the Hurons of Detroit, requesting them to "keep their shoes in readiness to unite with their warriors.' Netawatwees, however, the chief of the Delawares, who wished to remain neutral, would not listen to this proposal, but sent to the Huron chief in return several belts of wampum, admonishing him at the same time to keep quiet, and to remember the misery which the Hurons had formerly brought upon themselves by engaging in wars on the side of the French. The reply of the Delawares was delivered in the presence of De Peyster, the English commandant, who cut the belts of wampum in pieces, threw them on the ground, and commanded the messengers who brought them instantly to quit the country.

Certain Moravian missionaries, who were engaged in their peaceful and pious labors on the banks of the Muskingum, did not escape the suspicions of the English in this quarter. These disinterested and charitable men were accused of holding a secret correspondence with the Congress at Philadelphia, and of contributing their influence, as well as that of their Indian congregation, to aid the American cause.

The Indian agent was therefore sent to Niagara, and a grand council of the Iroquois was assembled, at which those tribes were urged to break up the Indian congregation collected by the Moravians. Not wishing, however, to have anything to do with it, they sent a message to the Chippewas and Ottawas, with a belt, stating that they gave the Indian congregation into their hands "to make soup of."

In 1781 the Moravian missionaries arrived at Detroit, where they were immediately brought before De Peyster, the English commandant. A war council was held at the same time, when the council-house was completely filled, the different tribes being arranged on either side. The assembly was addressed in a long speech by Captain Pipe, the principal chief of the Wolf tribe, who had committed the most savage barbarities upon the scattered American settlements. He told the commandant "that the English might fight the Americans if they chose: it was their cause, and not his; that they had raised a quarrel among themselves, and that it was their business to fight it out. They had set him on the Americans," he said, "as the hunter sets his dog upon the game." By the side of the British commander stood a war-chief, with a stick in his hand four feet in length strung with American scalps. "Now, father," said he, presenting the stick and addressing himself to the commandant, "here is what has been done with the hatchet you gave me. I have made the use of it that you ordered me to do, and found it sharp."

It was by such influences that these savage tribes were instigated to commit the most atrocious cruelties against the defenceless American settlements on the frontiers during the whole course of the Revolutionary war.

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Every avenue was closed whereby a different influence might be introduced among them, and they were made to believe that the Americans were only seeking to possess themselves of their lands, and to drive them away from the territory they had inherited from their forefathers.

But, after the country from Maine to Florida had been drenched with blood in this great contest for freedom, the American cause was at last triumphant; and by the treaty of peace concluded at Versailles in 1783, an end was at last temporarily put to these barbarities; the distant settlers were permitted once more to resume their labors and to sleep without alarm.

ORGANIZATION OF THE NORTHWESTERN TERRITORY.

But, although the war was at an end, the posts and trading stations along the lakes, within the acknowledged limits of the United States, were not given up. Of the real causes which induced the British Government, in violation of all the principles of good faith, to retain these posts, we have no means of judging. It may, however, be fairly inferred from the conduct of individuals, that if that Government did not actually and by direct means promote the Indian war which broke out at this time, it did not, to say the least, discountenance it.

There is ample evidence to show that British emissaries were sent to the remote Indian tribes on the borders of the lakes to instigate them to take up arms, and that, after they had done so, they looked for aid from the English garrisons within the American territory. In the treaty of peace of 1783, there was no express stipulation in regard to the surrender of the northwestern posts; but by the second article of Jay's treaty, in 1794, it was agreed that the British troops should be withdrawn from all the posts assigned to the United States by the former treaty (of 1783) on or before the first day of June, 1796.

The conduct of England in so long persisting in retaining possession of a country which did not belong to her, we shall not pretend to account for; but the value of this country, from the richness of its soil and its other advantages, soon began to attract attention.

Measures were accordingly taken for its temporary government. The circumstance which had more particularly directed the public attention to this western domain was a memorial from the soldiers and officers of the Revolutionary army, presented to General Washington in 1783, setting forth their claims to a portion of the public lands. Nothing, however, was granted to them at that time.

The country had been completely exhausted by the terrible struggle in which it had been so long engaged, and, heavily burdened with debt, it was now seeking for some means by which it could secure its liquidation; and, as the war had been prosecuted for the general good, it was held that the States claiming lands in this quarter were bound to grant portions of them for this object. The territory northwest of the Ohio was claimed by several of the Eastern States, on the ground that it was included within the limits indicated, by their charters from the English Crown. In answer to the wishes of the Government and people, these States, in a patriotic spirit, surrendered their claims to this extensive territory, that it might constitute a common fund to aid in the payment of the national debt.

To prepare the way for this cession, a law had been passed in October, 1780, that the territory so to be ceded should be disposed of for the common benefit of the whole Union; that the States erected therein should be of suitable extent, not less than one hundred nor more than one hundred and

fifty miles square; and that any expenses that might be incurred in recovering the posts then in the hands of the British should be reimbursed.

New York released her claims to Congress on the 1st of March, 1781; Virginia on the 1st of the same month, 1784; Massachusetts on the 19th of April, 1785; and Connecticut on the 4th of September, 1786.

Meanwhile, the Iroquois, in 1784, conveyed to the United States all their right to any lands west of Pennsylvania; and on the 1st of January, 1785, by the treaty of Fort McIntosh, the Ottawas, Chippewas, Delawares, and Wyandots surrendered all the lands claimed by them south of the Ohio, a belt of territory six miles broad, commencing at the River Raisin and extending along the strait to Lake St. Clair, a tract of twelve miles square at the Rapids of the Maumee, together with the Islands of Bois Blanc and Mackinaw, and also a tract six miles by three on the mainland, to the north of the last-mentioned island. These different cessions having been obtained from the native tribes, in 1787 a government was organized for this extensive region, which received the name of the Northwest Territory.

It is unnecessary here to examine particularly the details of this ordinance: it was based on the principles of civil liberty maintained in the Magna Charta of England, re-enacted in the Bill of Rights, and incorporated into our different State constitutions. This ordinance, it is well known, was drawn up by Nathan Dane, of Beverly, Massachusetts, a benevolent and excellent man, and a distinguished lawyer, who was the compiler of a very valuable abridgment of American Law, and the founder of the Dane Law School in the University of Cambridge.

On the 7th of April, 1788, a company of forty-seven individuals landed at the spot where Marietta now stands, and there commenced the settlement of Ohio. The first code of laws for this territory was published by nailing them to the body of a tree upon the banks of the Muskingum, and Return Jonathan Meigs was appointed to administer them, the Governor, Arthur St. Clair, not having yet arrived.

We have seen that the Western posts were still retained by the British Government, notwithstanding the peace concluded in 1783. Several questions of no little interest had sprung up, which excited unfriendly feelings between the two nations and governed their policy. Debts due by Americans to British subjects, the payment of which had been guaranteed by the treaty, were not paid; and, on the other hand, the slaves belonging to American citizens, and who had been taken away by the British officers, were not restored. In consequence of this unsettled state of things, when the Baron Steuben was sent by General Washington to Sir Frederic Haldimand at Quebec to arrange matters for the occupation of these posts, with instructions to proceed to Michigan and along the line of the lake frontier for the purpose of taking possession of them, he was informed that they would not be given up, and was refused passports to Niagara and Detroit. Combined with the retention of the posts, a new confederacy among the savages was evidently organizing in the West. As early as December, 1786, a grand council of the different tribes was held near the mouth of the Detroit river. At this council were delegates from the Six Nations, from the Hurons, the Ottawas, the Miamis, the Shawanese, the Chippewas, the Cherokees, the Delawares, the Pottowatamies, and from the confederates of the Wabash. The principal subject of discussion at this council appears to have been a question of boundary. It was contended by the Indians that the United States had no right to cross the Ohio river, but they advised a pacific line of policy so long as there was no actual encroachment upon their territory. The design of this discussion undoubtedly was to create a belief

that the Americans intended to drive them from their lands, and, as was said, to "kindle their council fires wherever they thought proper, without consulting the Indians." The American Government, indeed, considered that the treaty of 1783 vested in them jurisdiction over the Indian territory, a claim which the native occupants were by no means disposed to admit. At this time, also, the United States were at issue with a foreign Power respecting the right of navigating the Mississippi.

Among other things, as a plea for still retaining the Western posts, it was pretended by the English that the extensive and valuable country in which they were situated had been ceded away through some oversight on the part of the commissioners, or from their ignorance of the geography of the country. But the real motives by which they were actuated are sufficiently manifest. They had already succeeded in exciting hostile feelings among the Indian tribes, and this they were determined to take advantage of for the purpose of preventing this broad and fertile region from passing out of their hands.

Many of the half-breeds were also active in seconding the views of the English, not only by inflaming the minds of the Indians, but by promising to take up arms in their cause, from a belief that if they did not thus side with them they would not afterward be suffered to trade in their territory. Meanwhile Alexander McKenzie, an agent of the British Government, visited Detroit, painted like a savage, and stated that he had just returned from the remote tribes of the upper lakes, who were all in arms, and prepared to oppose the claims of the Americans to the Western lands; that large bodies of warriors had already assembled, and that they were about to attack the infant settlements of Virginia and Ohio. The artifice practised by McKenzie succeeded to his wish; and he could the better operate upon the prejudices and passions of the Indians as he spoke their language perfectly well. Elliot and the notorious Simon Girty were no less active in exciting the savages to war.

In 1794 an agent was sent from the Spanish settlements on the banks of the Mississippi for the same object, and to hasten the organization of the Indian confederacy against the United States. "Children," said he to his savage auditors, "you see me on my feet grasping the tomahawk to strike them, (the Americans.) We will strike together. I do not desire you to go before me in the front, but to follow me. Children, you hear what these distant nations have said to us, so that we have nothing to do but to put our designs into immediate execution, and to forward this pipe to the three warlike nations who have been so long struggling for their country. Tell them to smoke this pipe, and to forward it to all the lake Indians and to their Northern brethren. Then nothing will be wanting to complete our general union from the rising to the setting of the sun, and all the nations will be ready to add strength to the blow we are going to strike." Excited by these various means, bands of savage warriors, armed with the tomahawk and scalping-knife, were seen hastening towards the lake posts, and another great Indian confederacy was formed, consisting of the Ottawas, the Pottowatamies, the Wyandots, the Miamis, the Chippewas, and the Delawares.

As early as 1785 and 1786 the hostile Indians had occasionally sent their war-parties against the feeble frontier settlements in Kentucky and along the banks of the Ohio, where a few enterprising emigrants from Virginia and New England had erected their little clusters of log-cabins.

These border incursions, which most clearly appear to have been countenanced by the British, induced the American Government in 1790 to send into that quarter General Josiah Harmar, an accomplished and able officer,