diff options
| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 05:20:16 -0700 |
|---|---|---|
| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 05:20:16 -0700 |
| commit | 6d0193b1abf0cd211f3dceb8471fd4cb3321601a (patch) | |
| tree | 36878db2004e43d0d5081cac9759e76d1b7f7342 | |
| -rw-r--r-- | .gitattributes | 3 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 3014-0.txt | 5126 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 3014-0.zip | bin | 0 -> 115499 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 3014-h.zip | bin | 0 -> 1992300 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 3014-h/3014-h.htm | 6370 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 3014-h/images/cover.jpg | bin | 0 -> 1899676 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 3014.txt | 4597 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 3014.zip | bin | 0 -> 108717 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | LICENSE.txt | 11 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | README.md | 2 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/oldno10.txt | 4907 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/oldno10.zip | bin | 0 -> 107473 bytes |
12 files changed, 21016 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/3014-0.txt b/3014-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..346963e --- /dev/null +++ b/3014-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5126 @@ +The Old Northwest by Frederic Austin Ogg, Volume 19 in the Chronicles of +America series, an eBook presented by Project Gutenberg. + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost +no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it +under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this +eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +Title: The Old Northwest +A Chronicle of the Ohio Valley and Beyond, +Volume 19 In The Chronicles Of America Series +Author: Frederic Austin Ogg +Editor: Allen Johnson +Release Date: February 15, 2009 [EBook #3014] +Last Updated: November 17, 2016 +Language: English +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +Produced by The James J. Kelly Library Of St. Gregory's University, Alev +Akman, David Widger, and Robert Homa. + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE OLD NORTHWEST *** + +The Old Northwest + +By Frederic Austin Ogg + +A Chronicle of the Ohio Valley and Beyond + +Volume 19 of the +Chronicles of America Series +∴ +Allen Johnson, Editor +Assistant Editors +Gerhard R. Lomer +Charles W. Jefferys + +Abraham Lincoln Edition + +New Haven: Yale University Press +Toronto: Glasgow, Brook & Co. +London: Humphrey Milford +Oxford University Press +1919 + +Copyright, 1919 +by Yale University Press + + +Contents + +The Old Northwest +Chapter Chapter Title Page + I. Pontiac's Conspiracy 1 + II. "A Lair of Wild Beasts" 20 + III. The Revolution Begins 41 + IV. The Conquest Completed 57 + V. Wayne, The Scourge Of The Indians 76 + VI. The Great Migration 97 + VII. Pioneer Days and Ways 110 +VIII. Tecumseh 131 + IX. The War Of 1812 And The New West 151 + X. Sectional Cross Currents 172 + XI. The Upper Mississippi Valley 189 + Bibliographical Note 211 + Index 215 + +THE OLD NORTHWEST + +∴ +CHAPTER I. + +Pontiac's Conspiracy + +The fall of Montreal, on September 8, 1760, while the plains about the +city were still dotted with the white tents of the victorious English +and colonial troops, was indeed an event of the deepest consequence to +America and to the world. By the articles of capitulation which were +signed by the Marquis de Vaudreuil, Governor of New France, Canada and +all its dependencies westward to the Mississippi passed to the British +Crown. Virtually ended was the long struggle for the dominion of the New +World. Open now for English occupation and settlement was that vast +country lying south of the Great Lakes between the Ohio and the +Mississippi--which we know as the Old Northwest--today the seat of five +great commonwealths of the United States. + +With an ingenuity born of necessity, the French pathfinders and +colonizers of the Old Northwest had chosen for their settlements sites +which would serve at once the purposes of the priest, the trader, and +the soldier; and with scarcely an exception these sites are as important +today as when they were first selected. Four regions, chiefly, were +still occupied by the French at the time of the capitulation of +Montreal. The most important, as well as the most distant, of these +regions was on the east bank of the Mississippi, opposite and below the +present city of St. Louis, where a cluster of missions, forts, and +trading-posts held the center of the tenuous line extending from Canada +to Louisiana. A second was the Illinois country, centering about the +citadel of St. Louis which La Salle had erected in 1682 on the summit of +"Starved Rock," near the modern town of Ottawa in Illinois. A third was +the valley of the Wabash, where in the early years of the eighteenth +century Vincennes had become the seat of a colony commanding both the +Wabash and the lower Ohio. And the fourth was the western end of Lake +Erie, where Detroit, founded by the doughty Cadillac in 1701, had +assumed such strength that for fifty years it had discouraged the +ambitions of the English to make the Northwest theirs. + +Sir Jeffrey Amherst, to whom Vaudreuil surrendered in 1760, forthwith +dispatched to the western country a military force to take possession of +the posts still remaining in the hands of the French. The mission was +entrusted to a stalwart New Hampshire Scotch-Irishman, Major Robert +Rogers, who as leader of a band of intrepid "rangers" had made himself +the hero of the northern frontier. Two hundred men were chosen for the +undertaking, and on the 13th of September the party, in fifteen +whaleboats, started up the St. Lawrence for Detroit. + +At the mouth of the Cuyahoga River, near the site of the present city of +Cleveland, the travelers were halted by a band of Indian chiefs and +warriors who, in the name of their great ruler Pontiac, demanded to know +the object of their journeying. Parleys followed, in which Pontiac +himself took part, and it was explained that the French had surrendered +Canada to the English and that the English merely proposed to assume +control of the western posts, with a view to friendly relations between +the red men and the white men. The rivers, it was promised, would flow +with rum, and presents from the great King would be forthcoming in +endless profusion. The explanation seemed to satisfy the savages, and, +after smoking the calumet with due ceremony, the chieftain and his +followers withdrew. + +Late in November, Rogers and his men in their whaleboats appeared before +the little palisaded town of Detroit. They found the French commander, +Belêtre, in surly humor and seeking to stir up the neighboring Wyandots +and Potawatomi against them. But the attempt failed, and there was +nothing for Belêtre to do but yield. The French soldiery marched out of +the fort, laid down their arms, and were sent off as prisoners down the +river. The fleur-de-lis, which for more than half a century had floated +over the village, was hauled down, and, to the accompaniment of cheers, +the British ensign was run up. The red men looked on with amazement at +this display of English authority and marveled how the conquerors +forbore to slay their vanquished enemies on the spot. + +Detroit in 1760 was a picturesque, lively, and rapidly growing frontier +town. The central portions of the settlement, lying within the bounds of +the present city, contained ninety or a hundred small houses, chiefly of +wood and roofed with bark or thatch. A well-built range of barracks +afforded quarters for the soldiery, and there were two public +buildings--a council house and a little church. The whole was surrounded +by a square palisade twenty-five feet high, with a wooden bastion at +each corner and a blockhouse over each gateway. A broad passageway, the +chemin du ronde, lay next to the palisade, and on little narrow streets +at the center the houses were grouped closely together. + +Above and below the fort the banks of the river were lined on both +sides, for a distance of eight or nine miles, with little rectangular +farms, so laid out as to give each a water-landing. On each farm was a +cottage, with a garden and orchard, surrounded by a fence of rounded +pickets; and the countryside rang with the shouts and laughter of a +prosperous and happy peasantry. Within the limits of the settlement were +villages of Ottawas, Potawatomi, and Wyandots, with whose inhabitants +the French lived on free and easy terms. "The joyous sparkling of the +bright blue water," writes Parkman; "the green luxuriance of the woods; +the white dwellings, looking out from the foliage; and in the distance +the Indian wigwams curling their smoke against the sky--all were mingled +in one broad scene of wild and rural beauty." + +At the coming of the English the French residents were given an +opportunity to withdraw. Few, however, did so, and from the gossipy +correspondence of the pleasure-loving Colonel Campbell, who for some +months was left in command of the fort, it appears that the life of the +place lost none of its gayety by the change of masters. Sunday card +parties at the quarters of the commandant were festive affairs; and at a +ball held in celebration of the King's birthday the ladies presented an +appearance so splendid as to call forth from the impressionable officer +the most extravagant praises. A visit in the summer of 1761 from Sir +William Johnson, general supervisor of Indian affairs on the frontier, +became the greatest social event in the history of the settlement, if +not of the entire West. Colonel Campbell gave a ball at which the guests +danced nine hours. Sir William reciprocated with one at which they +danced eleven hours. A round of dinners and calls gave opportunity for +much display of frontier magnificence, as well as for the consumption of +astonishing quantities of wines and cordials. Hundreds of Indians were +interested spectators, and the gifts with which they were generously +showered were received with evidences of deep satisfaction. + +No amount of fiddling and dancing, however, could quite drown +apprehension concerning the safety of the post and the security of the +English hold upon the great region over which this fort and its distant +neighbors stood sentinel. Thousands of square miles of territory were +committed to the keeping of not more than six hundred soldiers. From the +French there was little danger. But from the Indians anything might +be expected. Apart from the Iroquois, the red men had been bound to the +French by many ties of friendship and common interest, and in the late +war they had scalped and slaughtered and burned unhesitatingly at the +French command. Hardly, indeed, had the transfer of territorial +sovereignty been made before murmurs of discontent began to be heard. + +Notwithstanding outward expressions of assent to the new order of +things, a deep-rooted dislike on the part of the Indians for the English +grew after 1760 with great rapidity. They sorely missed the gifts and +supplies lavishly provided by the French, and they warmly resented the +rapacity and arrogance of the British traders. The open contempt of the +soldiery at the posts galled the Indians, and the confiscation of their +lands drove them to desperation. In their hearts hope never died that +the French would regain their lost dominion; and again and again rumors +were set afloat that this was about to happen. The belief in such a +reconquest was adroitly encouraged, too, by the surviving French +settlers and traders. In 1761 the tension among the Indians was +increased by the appearance of a "prophet" among the Delawares, calling +on all his race to purge itself of foreign influences and to unite to +drive the white man from the land. + +Protests against English encroachments were frequent and, though +respectful, none the less emphatic. At a conference in Philadelphia in +1761, an Iroquois sachem declared, "We, your Brethren, of the several +Nations, are penned up like Hoggs. There are Forts all around us, and +therefore we are apprehensive that Death is coming upon us." "We are now +left in Peace," ran a petition of some Christian Oneidas addressed to +Sir William Johnson, "and have nothing to do but to plant our Corn, Hunt +the wild Beasts, smoke our Pipes, and mind Religion. But as these Forts, +which are built among us, disturb our Peace, and are a great hurt to +Religion, because some of our Warriors are foolish, and some of our +Brother Soldiers don't fear God, we therefore desire that these Forts +may be pull'd down, and kick'd out of the way." + +The leadership of the great revolt that was impending fell naturally +upon Pontiac, who, since the coming of the English, had established +himself with his squaws and children on a wooded island in Lake St. +Clair, barely out of view of the fortifications of Detroit. In all +Indian annals no name is more illustrious than Pontiac's; no figure more +forcefully displays the good and bad qualities of his race. Principal +chief of the Ottawa tribe, he was also by 1763 the head of a powerful +confederation of Ottawas, Ojibwas, and Potawatomi, and a leader known +and respected among Algonquin peoples from the sources of the Ohio to +the Mississippi. While capable of acts of magnanimity, he had an +ambition of Napoleonic proportions, and to attain his ends he was +prepared to use any means. More clearly than most of his forest +contemporaries, he perceived that in the life of the Indian people a +crisis had come. He saw that, unless the tide of English invasion was +rolled back at once, all would be lost. The colonial farmers would push +in after the soldiers; the forests would be cut away; the +hunting-grounds would be destroyed; the native population would be +driven away or enslaved. In the silence of his wigwam he thought out a +plan of action, and by the closing weeks of 1762 he was ready. Never was +plot more shrewdly devised and more artfully carried out. + +During the winter of 1762-63 his messengers passed stealthily from +nation to nation throughout the whole western country, bearing the +pictured wampum belts and the reddened tomahawks which symbolized war; +and in April, 1763, the Lake tribes were summoned to a great council on +the banks of the Ecorces, below Detroit, where Pontiac in person +proclaimed the will of the Master of Life as revealed to the Delaware +prophet, and then announced the details of his plan. Everywhere the +appeal met with approval; and not only the scores of Algonquin peoples, +but also the Seneca branch of the Iroquois confederacy and a number of +tribes on the lower Mississippi, pledged themselves with all solemnity +to fulfill their prophet's injunction "to drive the dogs which wear red +clothing into the sea." While keen-eyed warriors sought to keep up +appearances by lounging about the forts and begging in their customary +manner for tobacco, whiskey, and gunpowder, every wigwam and forest +hamlet from Niagara to the Mississippi was astir. Dusky maidens chanted +the tribal war-songs, and in the blaze of a hundred camp-fires chiefs +and warriors performed the savage pantomime of battle. + +A simultaneous attack, timed by a change of the moon, was to be made on +the English forts and settlements throughout all the western country. +Every tribe was to fall upon the settlement nearest at hand, and +afterwards all were to combine--with French aid, it was confidently +believed--in an assault on the seats of English power farther east. The +honor of destroying the most important of the English strongholds, +Detroit, was reserved for Pontiac himself. + +The date fixed for the rising was the 7th of May. Six days in advance +Pontiac with forty of his warriors appeared at the fort, protested +undying friendship for the Great Father across the water, and insisted +on performing the calumet dance before the new commandant, Major +Gladwyn. This aroused no suspicion. But four days later a French settler +reported that his wife, when visiting the Ottawa village to buy venison, +had observed the men busily filing off the ends of their gunbarrels; and +the blacksmith at the post recalled the fact that the Indians had lately +sought to borrow files and saws without being able to give a plausible +explanation of the use they intended to make of the implements. + +The English traveler Jonathan Carver, who visited the post five years +afterwards, relates that an Ottawa girl with whom Major Gladwyn had +formed an attachment betrayed the plot. Though this story is of doubtful +authenticity, there is no doubt that, in one way or another, the +commandant was amply warned that treachery was in the air. The sounds of +revelry from the Indian camps, the furtive glances of the redskins +lounging about the settlement, the very tension of the atmosphere, would +have been enough to put an experienced Indian fighter on his guard. + +Accordingly when, on the fated morning, Pontiac and sixty redskins, +carrying under long blankets their shortened muskets, appeared before +the fort and asked admission, they were taken aback to find the whole +garrison under arms. On their way from the gate to the council house +they were obliged to march literally between rows of glittering steel. +Well might even Pontiac falter. With uneasy glances, the party crowded +into the council room, where Gladwyn and his officers sat waiting. +"Why," asked the chieftain stolidly, "do I see so many of my father's +young men standing in the street with their guns?" "To keep them in +training," was the laconic reply. + +The scene that was planned was then carried out, except in one vital +particular. When, in the course of his speech professing strong +attachment to the English, the chieftain came to the point where he was +to give the signal for slaughter by holding forth the wampum belt of +peace inverted, he presented the emblem--to the accompaniment of a +significant clash of arms and roll of drums from the mustered garrison +outside--in the normal manner; and after a solemn warning from the +commandant that vengeance would follow any act of aggression, the +council broke up. To the forest leader's equivocal announcement that he +would bring all of his wives and children in a few days to shake hands +with their English fathers, Gladwyn deigned no reply. + +Balked in his plans, the chief retired, but only to meditate fresh +treachery; and when, a few days later, with a multitude of followers, he +sought admission to the fort to assure "his fathers" that "evil birds +had sung lies in their ears," and was refused, he called all his forces +to arms, threw off his disguises, and began hostilities. For six months +the settlement was besieged with a persistence rarely displayed in +Indian warfare. At first the French inhabitants encouraged the +besiegers, but, after it became known that a final peace between England +and France had been concluded, they withheld further aid. Throughout the +whole period, the English obtained supplies with no great difficulty +from the neighboring farms. There was little actual fighting, and the +loss of life was insignificant. + +By order of General Amherst, the French commander still in charge of +Fort Chartres sent a messenger to inform the redskins definitely that no +assistance from France would be forthcoming. "Forget then, my dear +children,"--so ran the admonition--"all evil talks. Leave off from +spilling the blood of your brethren, the English. Our hearts are now but +one; you cannot, at present, strike the one without having the other for +an enemy also." The effect was, as intended, to break the spirit of the +besiegers; and in October Pontiac humbly sued for peace. + +Meanwhile a reign of terror spread over the entire frontier. Settlements +from Forts Le Bœuf and Venango, south of Lake Erie, to Green Bay, west +of Lake Michigan, were attacked, and ruses similar to that attempted at +Detroit were generally successful. A few Indians in friendly guise would +approach a fort. After these were admitted, others would appear, as if +quite by chance. Finally, when numbers were sufficient, the conspirators +would draw their concealed weapons, strike down the garrison, and begin +a general massacre of the helpless populace. Scores of pioneer families, +scattered through the wilderness, were murdered and scalped; traders +were waylaid in the forest solitudes; border towns were burned and +plantations were devastated. In the Ohio Valley everything was lost +except Fort Pitt, formerly Fort Duquesne; in the Northwest, everything +was taken except Detroit. + +Fort Pitt was repeatedly endangered, and the most important engagement +of the war was fought in its defense. The relief of the post was +entrusted in midsummer to a force of five hundred regulars lately +transferred from the West Indies to Pennsylvania and placed under the +command of Colonel Henry Bouquet. The expedition advanced with all +possible caution, but early in August, 1764, when it was yet twenty-five +miles from its destination, it was set upon by a formidable Indian band +at Bushy Run and threatened with a fate not unlike that suffered by +Braddock's little army in the same region nine years earlier. Finding +the woods full of redskins and all retreat cut off, the troops, drawn up +in a circle around their horses and supplies, fired with such effect as +they could upon the shadowy forms in the forest. No water was +obtainable, and in a few hours thirst began to make the soldiery +unmanageable. Realizing that the situation was desperate, Bouquet +resorted to a ruse by ordering his men to fall back as if in retreat. +The trick succeeded, and with yells of victory the Indians rushed from +cover to seize the coveted provisions--only to be met by a deadly fire +and put to utter rout. The news of the battle of Bushy Run spread +rapidly through the frontier regions and proved very effective in +discouraging further hostilities. + +It was Bouquet's intention to press forward at once from Fort Pitt into +the disturbed Ohio country. His losses, however, compelled the +postponement of this part of the undertaking until the following year. +Before he started off again he built at Fort Pitt a blockhouse which +still stands, and which has been preserved for posterity by becoming, in +1894, the property of the Pittsburgh chapter of the Daughters of the +American Revolution. In October, 1764, he set out for the Muskingum +valley with a force of fifteen hundred regulars, Pennsylvania and +Virginia volunteers, and friendly Indians. By this time the great +conspiracy was in collapse, and it was a matter of no great difficulty +for Bouquet to enter into friendly relations with the successive tribes, +to obtain treaties with them, and to procure the release of such English +captives as were still in their hands. By the close of November, 1764, +the work was complete, and Bouquet was back at Fort Pitt. Pennsylvania +and Virginia honored him with votes of thanks; the King formally +expressed his gratitude and tendered him the military governorship of +the newly acquired territory of Florida. + +The general pacification of the Northwest was accomplished by treaties +with the natives in great councils held at Niagara, Presqu'isle (Erie), +and Detroit. Pontiac had fled to the Maumee country to the west of Lake +Erie, whence he still hurled his ineffectual threats at the "dogs in +red." His power, however, was broken. The most he could do was to gather +four hundred warriors on the Maumee and Illinois and present himself at +Fort Chartres with a demand for weapons and ammunition with which to +keep up the war. The French commander, who was now daily awaiting orders +to turn the fortress over to the English, refused; and a deputation +dispatched to New Orleans in quest of the desired equipment received no +reply save that New Orleans itself, with all the country west of the +river, had been ceded to Spain. The futility of further resistance on +the part of Pontiac was apparent. In 1765 the disappointed chieftain +gave pledges of friendship; and in the following year he and other +leaders made a formal submission to Sir William Johnson at Oswego, and +Pontiac renounced forever the bold design to make himself at a stroke +lord of the West and deliverer of his country from English domination. + +For three years the movements of this disappointed Indian leader are +uncertain. Most of the time, apparently, he dwelt in the Maumee country, +leading the existence of an ordinary warrior. Then, in the spring of +1769, he appeared at the settlements on the middle Mississippi. At the +newly founded French town of St. Louis, on the Spanish side of the +river, he visited an old friend, the commandant Saint Ange de Bellerive. +Thence he crossed to Cahokia, where Indian and creole alike welcomed him +and made him the central figure in a series of boisterous festivities. + +An English trader in the village, observing jealously the honors that +were paid the visitor, resolved that an old score should forthwith be +evened up. A Kaskaskian redskin was bribed, with a barrel of liquor and +with promises of further reward, to put the fallen leader out of the +way; and the bargain was hardly sealed before the deed was done. +Stealing upon his victim as he walked in the neighboring forest, the +assassin buried a tomahawk in his brain, and "thus basely," in the words +of Parkman, "perished the champion of a ruined race." Claimed by +Saint-Ange, the body was borne across the river and buried with military +honors near the new Fort St. Louis. The site of Pontiac's grave was soon +forgotten, and today the people of a great city trample over and about +it without heed. + + + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +"A Lair Of Wild Beasts" + + +Benjamin Franklin, who was in London in 1760 as agent of the +Pennsylvania Assembly, gave the British ministers some wholesome advice +on the terms of the peace that should be made with France. The St. +Lawrence and the Great Lakes regions, he said, must be retained by +England at all costs. Moreover, the Mississippi Valley must be taken, in +order to provide for the growing populations of the seaboard colonies +suitable lands in the interior, and so keep them engaged in agriculture. +Otherwise these populations would turn to manufacturing, and the +industries of the mother country would suffer. + +The treaty of peace, three years later, brought the settlement which +Franklin suggested. The vast American back country, with its inviting +rivers and lakes, its shaded hills, and its sunny prairies, became +English territory. The English people had, however, only the vaguest +notion of the extent, appearance, and resources of their new possession. +Even the officials who drew the treaty were as ignorant of the country +as of middle Africa. Prior to the outbreak of the war no widely known +English writer had tried to describe it; and the absorbing French books +of Lahontan, Hennepin, and Charlevoix had reached but a small circle. +The prolonged conflict in America naturally stimulated interest in the +new country. The place-names of the upper Ohio became household words, +and enterprising publishers put out not only translations of the French +writers but compilations by Englishmen designed, in true journalistic +fashion, to meet the demands of the hour for information. + +These publications displayed amazing misconceptions of the lands +described. They neither estimated aright the number and strength of the +French settlements nor dispelled the idea that the western country was +of little value. Even the most brilliant Englishman of the day, Dr. +Samuel Johnson, an ardent defender of the treaty of 1763, wrote that the +large tracts of America added by the war to the British dominions were +"only the barren parts of the continent, the refuse of the earlier +adventurers, which the French, who came last, had taken only as better +than nothing." As late indeed as 1789, William Knox, long +Under-Secretary for the Colonies, declared that Americans could not +settle the western territory "for ages," and that the region must be +given up to barbarism like the plains of Asia, with a population as +unstable as the Scythians and Tartars. But the shortsightedness of these +distant critics can be forgiven when one recalls that Franklin himself, +while conjuring up a splendid vision of the western valleys teeming with +a thriving population, supposed that the dream would not be realized for +"some centuries." None of these observers dreamt that the territories +transferred in 1763 would have within seventy-five years a population +almost equal to that of Great Britain. + +The ink with which the Treaty of Paris was signed was hardly dry before +the King and his ministers were confronted with the task of providing +government for the new possessions and of solving problems of land +tenure and trade. Still more imperative were measures to conciliate the +Indians; for already Pontiac's rebellion had been in progress four +months, and the entire back country was aflame. It must be confessed +that a continental wilderness swarming with murderous savages was an +inheritance whose aspect was by no means altogether pleasing to the +English mind. + +The easiest solution of the difficulty was to let things take their +course. Let seaboard populations spread at will over the new lands; let +them carry on trade in their own way, and make whatever arrangements +with the native tribes they desire. Colonies such as Virginia and New +York, which had extensive western claims, would have been glad to see +this plan adopted. Strong objections, however, were raised. Colonies +which had no western claims feared the effects of the advantages which +their more fortunate neighbors would enjoy. Men who had invested heavily +in lands lying west of the mountains felt that their returns would be +diminished and delayed if the back country were thrown open to settlers. +Some people thought that the Indians had a moral right to protection +against wholesale white invasion of their hunting-grounds, and many +considered it expedient, at all events, to offer such protection. + +After all, however, it was the King and his ministers who had it in +their power to settle the question; and from their point of view it was +desirable to keep the western territories as much as possible apart from +the older colonies, and to regulate, with farsighted policy, their +settlement and trade. Eventually, it was believed, the territories would +be cut into new colonies; and experience with the seaboard dependencies +was already such as to suggest the desirability of having the future +settlements more completely under government control from the beginning. + +After due consideration, King George and his ministers made known their +policy on October 7, 1763, in a comprehensive proclamation. The first +subject dealt with was government. Four new provinces--"Quebec, East +Florida, West Florida, and Grenada" ¹--were set up in the ceded +territories, and their populations were guaranteed all the rights and +privileges enjoyed by the inhabitants of the older colonies. The +Mississippi Valley, however, was included in no one of these provinces; +and, curiously, there was no provision whatever for the government of +the French settlements lying within it. The number and size of these +settlements were underestimated, and apparently it was supposed that all +the habitants and soldiers would avail themselves of their privilege of +withdrawing from the ceded territories. + +¹ The Proclamation of 1763 drew the boundaries of "four distinct and +separate governments." Grenada was to include the island of that name, +together with the Grenadines, Dominico, St. Vincent, and Tobago. The +Floridas lay south of the bounds of Georgia and east of the Mississippi +River. The Apalachicola River was to be the dividing line between East +and West Florida. Quebec included the modern province of that name and +that part of Ontario lying north of a line drawn from Lake Nipissing to +the point where the forty-fifth parallel intersects the St. Lawrence +River. + +The disposition made of the great rectangular area bounded by the +Alleghanies, the Mississippi, the Lakes, and the Gulf, was fairly +startling. With fine disregard of the chartered claims of the seaboard +colonies and of the rights of pioneers already settled on frontier +farms, the whole was erected into an Indian reserve. No "loving subject" +might purchase land or settle in the territory without special license; +present residents should "forthwith remove themselves"; trade should be +carried on only by permit and under close surveillance; officers were to +be stationed among the tribes to preserve friendly relations and to +apprehend fugitives from colonial justice. + +The objects of this drastic scheme were never clearly stated. Franklin +believed that the main purpose was to conciliate the Indians. Washington +agreed with him. Later historians have generally thought that what the +English Government had chiefly in mind was to limit the bounds of the +seaboard colonies, with a view to preserving imperial control over +colonial affairs. Very likely both of these motives weighed heavily in +the decision. At all events, Lord Hillsborough, who presided over the +meetings of the Lords of Trade when the proclamation was discussed, +subsequently wrote that the "capital object" of the Government's policy +was to confine the colonies so that they should be kept in easy reach of +British trade and of the authority necessary to keep them in due +subordination to the mother country, and he added that the extension of +the fur trade depended "entirely upon the Indians being undisturbed in +the possession of their hunting-grounds." ¹ + +¹ But as Lord Hillsborough had just taken office and adopted bodily a +policy formulated by his predecessor, he is none too good an authority. +See Alvord's Mississippi Valley in British Politics, vol. I, pp. 203-4. + +It does not follow that the King and his advisers intended that the +territory should be kept forever intact as a forest preserve. They seem +to have contemplated that, from time to time, cessions would be secured +from the Indians and tracts would be opened for settlement. But every +move was to be made in accordance with plans formulated or authorized in +England. The restrictive policy won by no means universal assent in the +mother country. The Whigs generally opposed it, and Burke thundered +against it as "an attempt to keep as a lair of wild beasts that earth +which God, by an express charter, has given to the children of men." + +In America there was a disposition to take the proclamation lightly as +being a mere sop to the Indians. But wherever it was regarded seriously, +it was hotly resented. After passing through an arduous war, the +colonists were ready to enter upon a new expansive era. The western +territories were theirs by charter, by settlement, and by conquest. The +Indian population, they believed, belonged to the unprogressive and +unproductive peoples of the earth. Every acre of fertile soil in America +called to the thrifty agriculturist; every westward flowing river +invited to trade and settlement--as well, therefore, seek to keep back +the ocean with a broom as to stop by mere decree the tide of +homeseekers. Some of the colonies made honest attempts to compel the +removal of settlers from the reserved lands beyond their borders, and +Pennsylvania went so far as to decree the death penalty for all who +should refuse to remove. But the law was never enforced. + +The news of the cession of the eastern bank of the Mississippi to the +English brought consternation to the two or three thousand French people +living in the settlements of the Kaskaskia, Illinois, and Wabash +regions. The transfer of the western bank to Spain did not become known +promptly, and for months the habitants supposed that by taking up their +abode on the opposite side of the stream they would continue under their +own flag. Many of them crossed the Mississippi to find new abodes even +after it was announced that the land had passed to Spain. + +From first to last these settlements on the Mississippi, the Wabash, and +the Illinois had remained, in French hands, mere sprawling villages. The +largest of them, Kaskaskia, may have contained in its most flourishing +days two thousand people, many of them voyageurs, coureurs-de-bois, +converted Indians, and transients of one sort or another. In 1765 there +were not above seventy permanent families. Few of the towns, indeed, +attained a population of more than two or three hundred. All French +colonial enterprise had been based on the assumption that settlers would +be few. The trader preferred it so, because settlements meant +restrictions upon his traffic. The Jesuit was of the same mind, because +such settlements broke up his mission field. The Government at Paris +forbade the emigration of the one class of people that cared to +emigrate, the Huguenots. + +Though some of the settlements had picturesque sites and others drew +distinction from their fortifications, in general they presented a drab +appearance. There were usually two or three long, narrow streets, with +no paving, and often knee-deep with mud. The houses were built on either +side, at intervals sufficient to give space for yards and garden plots, +each homestead being enclosed with a crude picket fence. Wood and thatch +were the commonest building materials, although stone was sometimes +used; and the houses were regularly one story high, with large +vine-covered verandas. Land was abundant and cheap. Every enterprising +settler had a plot for himself, and as a rule one large field, or more, +was held for use in common. In these, the operations of ploughing, +sowing, and reaping were carefully regulated by public ordinance. +Occasionally a village drew some distinction from the proximity of a +large, well-managed estate, such as that of the opulent M. Beauvais of +Kaskaskia, in whose mill and brewery more than eighty slaves were +employed. + +Agriculture was carried on somewhat extensively, and it is recorded +that, in the year 1746 alone, when there was a shortage of foodstuffs at +New Orleans, the Illinois settlers were able to send thither "upward of +eight hundred thousand weight of flour." Hunting and trading, however, +continued to be the principal occupations; and the sugar, indigo, +cotton, and other luxuries which the people were able to import directly +from Europe were paid for mainly with consignments of furs, hides, +tallow, and beeswax. Money was practically unknown in the settlements, +so that domestic trade likewise took the form of simple barter. Periods +of industry and prosperity alternated with periods of depression, and +the easy-going habitants--"farmers, hunters, traders by turn, with a +strong admixture of unprogressive Indian blood"--tended always to +relapse into utter indolence. + +Some of these French towns, however, were seats of culture; and none was +wholly barren of diversions. Kaskaskia had a Jesuit college and likewise +a monastery. Cahokia had a school for Indian youth. Fort Chartres, we +are gravely told, was "the center of life and fashion in the West." If +everyday existence was humdrum, the villagers had always the opportunity +for voluble conversation "each from his own balcony"; and there were +scores of Church festivals, not to mention birthdays, visits of +travelers or neighbors, and homecomings of hunters and traders, which +invited to festivity. Balls and dances and other merrymakings at which +the whole village assembled supplied the wants of a people proverbially +fond of amusement. Indeed, French civilization in the Mississippi and +Illinois country was by no means without charm. + +Kaskaskia, in the wonderfully fertile "American Bottom," maintained its +existence, in spite of the cession to the English, as did also Vincennes +farther east on the Wabash. Fort Chartres, a stout fortification whose +walls were more than two feet thick, remained the seat of the principal +garrison, and some traces of French occupancy survived on the Illinois. +Cahokia was deserted, save for the splendid mission-farm of St. Sulpice, +with its thirty slaves, its herd of cattle, and its mill, which the +fathers before returning to France sold to a thrifty Frenchman not +averse to becoming an English subject. A few posts were abandoned +altogether. Some of the departing inhabitants went back to France; some +followed the French commandant, Neyon de Villiers, down the river to New +Orleans; many gathered up their possessions, even to the frames and +clapboards of their houses, and took refuge in the new towns which +sprang up on the western bank. One of these new settlements was Ste. +Geneviève, strategically located near the lead mines from which the +entire region had long drawn its supplies of shot. Another, which was +destined to greater importance, was St. Louis, established as a trading +post on the richly wooded bluffs opposite Cahokia by Pierre Laclède in +1764. + +Associated with Laclède in his fur-trading operations at the new post +was a lithe young man named Pierre Chouteau. In 1846--eighty-two years +afterwards--Francis Parkman sat on the spacious veranda of Pierre +Chouteau's country house near the city of St. Louis and heard from the +lips of the venerable merchant stories of Pontiac, Saint-Ange, Croghan, +and all the western worthies, red and white, of two full generations. +"Not all the magic of a dream," the historian remarks, "nor the +enchantments of an Arabian tale, could outmatch the waking realities +which were to rise upon the vision of Pierre Chouteau. Where, in his +youth, he had climbed the woody bluff, and looked abroad on prairies +dotted with bison, he saw, with the dim eye of his old age, the land +darkened for many a furlong with the clustered roofs of the western +metropolis. For the silence of the wilderness, he heard the clang and +turmoil of human labor, the din of congregated thousands; and where the +great river rolls down through the forest, in lonely grandeur, he saw +the waters lashed into foam beneath the prows of panting steamboats, +flocking to the broad levee." + +Pontiac's war long kept the English from taking actual possession of the +western country. Meanwhile Saint-Ange, commanding the remnant of the +French garrison at Fort Chartres, resisted as best he could the demands +of the redskins for assistance against their common enemy and hoped +daily for the appearance of an English force to relieve him of his +difficult position. In the spring of 1764 an English officer, Major +Loftus, with a body of troops lately employed in planting English +authority in "East Florida" and "West Florida," set out from New Orleans +to take possession of the up-river settlements. A few miles above the +mouth of the Red, however, the boats were fired on, without warning, +from both banks of the stream, and many of the men were killed or +wounded. The expedition retreated down the river with all possible +speed. This display of faintheartedness won the keen ridicule of the +French, and the Governor, D'Abadie, with mock magnanimity, offered an +escort of French soldiery to protect the party on its way back to +Pensacola! Within a few months a second attempt was projected, but news +of the bad temper of the Indians caused the leader, Captain Pittman, to +turn back after reaching New Orleans. + +Baffled in this direction, the new commander-in-chief, General Gage, +resolved to accomplish the desired end by an expedition from Fort Pitt. +Pontiac, however, was known to be still plotting vengeance at that time, +and it seemed advisable to break the way for the proposed expedition by +a special mission to placate the Indians. For this delicate task Sir +William Johnson selected a trader of long experience and of good +standing among the western tribes, George Croghan. Notwithstanding many +mishaps, the plan was carried out. With two boats and a considerable +party of soldiers and friendly Delawares, Croghan left Fort Pitt in May, +1765. As he descended the Ohio he carefully plotted the river's windings +and wrote out an interesting description of the fauna and flora +observed. All went well until he reached the mouth of the Wabash. There +the party was set upon by a band of Kickapoos, who killed half a dozen +of his men. Fluent apologies were at once offered. They had made the +attack, they explained, only because the French had reported that the +Indians with Croghan's band were Cherokees, the Kickapoos' most deadly +enemies. Now that their mistake was apparent, the artful emissaries +declared, their regret was indeed deep. + +All of this was sheer pretense, and Croghan and his surviving followers +were kept under close guard and were carried along with the Kickapoo +band up the Wabash to Vincennes, where the trader encountered old Indian +friends who soundly rebuked the captors for their inhospitality. Croghan +knew the Indian nature too well to attempt to thwart the plans of his +"hosts." Accordingly he went on with the band to the upper Wabash post +Ouiatanon, where he received deputation after deputation from the +neighboring tribes, smoked pipes of peace, made speeches, and shook +hands with greasy warriors by the score. Here came a messenger from +Saint-Ange asking him to proceed to Fort Chartres. Here, also, Pontiac +met him, and, after being assured that the English had no intention of +enslaving the natives, declared that he would no longer stand in the +conquerors' path. Though in unexpected manner, Croghan's mission was +accomplished, and, with many evidences of favor from the natives, he +went on to Detroit and thence to Niagara, where he reported to Johnson +that the situation in the West was ripe for the establishment of English +sovereignty. + +There was no reason for further delay, and Captain Thomas Sterling was +dispatched with a hundred Highland veterans to take over the +settlements. Descending the Ohio from Fort Pitt, the expedition reached +Fort Chartres just as the frosty air began to presage the coming of +winter. On October 10, 1765,--more than two and a half years after the +signing of the Treaty of Paris,--Saint-Ange made the long-desired +transfer of authority. General Gage's high-sounding proclamation was +read, the British flag was run up, and Sterling's red-coated soldiery +established itself in the citadel. In due time small detachments were +sent to Vincennes and other posts; and the triumph of the British power +over Frenchman and Indian was complete. Saint-Ange retired with his +little garrison to St. Louis, where, until the arrival of a Spanish +lieutenant-governor in 1770, he acted by common consent as chief +magistrate. + +The creoles who passed under the English flag suffered little from the +change. Their property and trading interests were not molested, and the +English commandants made no effort to displace the old laws and usages. +Documents were written and records were kept in French as well as +English. The village priest and the notary retained their accustomed +places of paternal authority. The old idyllic life went on. Population +increased but little; barter, hunting, and trapping still furnished the +means of a simple subsistence; and with music, dancing, and holiday +festivities the light-hearted populace managed to crowd more pleasure +into a year than the average English frontiersman got in a lifetime. + +For a year or two after the European pacification of 1763 Indian +disturbances held back the flood of settlers preparing to enter, through +the Alleghany passes, the upper valleys of the westward flowing rivers. +Neither Indian depredations nor proclamations of kings, however, could +long interpose an effectual restraint. The supreme object of the +settlers was to obtain land. Formerly there was land enough for all +along the coasts or in the nearer uplands. But population, as Franklin +computed, was doubling in twenty-five years; vacant areas had already +been occupied; and desirable lands had been gathered into great +speculative holdings. Newcomers were consequently forced to cross the +mountains--and not only newcomers, but all residents who were still +land-hungry and ambitious to better their condition. + +To such the appeal of the great West was irresistible. The English +Government might indeed regard the region as a "barren waste" or a +"profitless wilderness," but not so the Scotch-Irish, Huguenot, and +Palatine homeseekers who poured by the thousands through the Chesapeake +and Delaware ports. Pushing past the settled seaboard country, these +rugged men of adventure plunged joyously into the forest depths and +became no less the founders of the coming nation than were the Pilgrims +and the Cavaliers. + +Ahead of the home-builder, however, went the speculator. It has been +remarked that "from the time when Joliet and La Salle first found their +way into the heart of the great West up to the present day when far-off +Alaska is in the throes of development, 'big business' has been engaged +in western speculation." ¹ In pre-revolutionary days this speculation +took the form of procuring, by grant or purchase, large tracts of +western land which were to be sold and colonized at a profit. Franklin +was interested in a number of such projects. Washington, the Lees, and a +number of other prominent Virginians were connected with an enterprise +which absorbed the old Ohio Company; and in 1770 Washington, piloted by +Croghan, visited the Ohio country with a view to the discovery of +desirable areas. Eventually he acquired western holdings amounting to +thirty-three thousand acres, with a water-front of sixteen miles on the +Ohio and of forty miles on the Great Kanawha. + +¹ Alvord, Mississippi Valley in British Politics, vol. I, p.86. + +In 1773 a company promoted by Samuel Wharton, Benjamin Franklin, William +Johnson, and a London banker, Thomas Walpole, secured the grant of two +and a half million acres between the Alleghanies and the Ohio, which was +to be the seat of a colony called Vandalia. This departure from the +policy laid down in the Proclamation of 1763 was made reluctantly, but +with a view to giving a definite western limit to the seaboard +provinces. The Government's purpose was fully understood in America, and +the project was warmly opposed, especially by Virginia, the chartered +claimant of the territory. The early outbreak of the Revolutionary War +wrecked the project, and nothing ever came of it--or indeed of any +colonization proposal contemporary with it. By and large, the building +of the West was to be the work, not of colonizing companies or other +corporate interests, but of individual homeseekers, moving into the new +country on their own responsibility and settling where and when their +own interests and inclinations led. + + + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +The Revolution Begins + + +One of the grievances given prominence in the Declaration of +Independence was that the English Crown had "abolished the free system +of English laws in a neighbouring province, establishing therein an +arbitrary government, and enlarging its boundaries so as to render it at +once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same arbitrary +rule into these colonies." The measure which was in the minds of the +signers was the Quebec Act of 1774; and the feature to which they +especially objected was the extension of this peculiarly governed +Canadian province to include the whole of the territory north of the +Ohio and east of the Mississippi. + +The Quebec Act was passed primarily to remedy a curious mistake made by +King George's ministers eleven years earlier. The Proclamation of 1763 +had been intended to apply to the new French-speaking possessions in +only a general way, leaving matters of government and law to be +regulated at a later date. But through oversight it ordained the +establishment of English law, and even of a representative assembly, +precisely as in the other new provinces. The English governors were thus +put in an awkward position. They were required to introduce English +political forms and legal practices. Yet the inexperience and suspicion +of the people made it unwise, if not impossible, to do so. When, for +example, jury trial was broached, the peasants professed to be quite +unable to understand why the English should prefer to have matters of +law decided by tailors and shoemakers rather than by a judge; and as for +a legislature, they frankly confessed that assemblies "had drawn upon +other colonies so much distress, and had occasioned so much riot and +bloodshed, that they had hoped never to have one." + +The Act of 1774 relieved the situation by restoring French law in civil +affairs, abolishing jury trial except in criminal cases, rescinding the +grant of representative government, and confirming the Catholic clergy +in the rights and privileges which they had enjoyed under the old +régime. This would have aroused no great amount of feeling among New +Englanders and Virginians if the new arrangements had been confined to +the bounds of the original province. But they were not so restricted. On +the contrary, the new province was made to include the great region +between the Alleghanies and the Mississippi, southward to the Ohio; and +it was freely charged that a principal object of the English Government +was to sever the West from the shore colonies and permanently link it +with the St. Lawrence Valley rather than with the Atlantic slope. + +At all events, the Quebec Act marked the beginning of civil government +in the great Northwest. On November 9, 1775, Henry Hamilton appeared as +Lieutenant-Governor at the new capital, Detroit. Already the "shot that +was heard around the world" had been fired on Lexington Green; and +Hamilton had been obliged to thread his way through General Montgomery's +lines about Montreal in the guise of a Canadian. Arrived at his new seat +of authority, he found a pleasant, freshly fortified town whose white +population had grown to fifteen hundred, including a considerable number +of English-speaking settlers. The country round was overrun with +traders, who cheated and cajoled the Indians without conscience; the +natives, in turn, were a nondescript lot, showing in pitiful manner the +bad effects of their contact with the whites. + +As related by a contemporary chronicler--a Pennsylvanian who lived for +years among the western tribes--an Indian hunting party on arriving at +Detroit would trade perhaps a third of the peltries which they brought +in for fine clothes, ammunition, paint, tobacco, and like articles. Then +a keg of brandy would be purchased, and a council would be held to +decide who was to get drunk and who to keep sober. All arms and clubs +were taken away and hidden, and the orgy would begin. It was the task of +those who kept sober to prevent the drunken ones from killing one +another, a task always hazardous and frequently unsuccessful, sometimes +as many as five being killed in a night. When the keg was empty, brandy +was brought by the kettleful and ladled out with large wooden spoons; +and this was kept up until the last skin had been disposed of. Then, +dejected, wounded, lamed, with their fine new shirts torn, their +blankets burned, and with nothing but their ammunition and tobacco +saved, they would start off down the river to hunt in the Ohio country +and begin again the same round of alternating toil and debauchery. In +the history of the country there is hardly a more depressing chapter +than that which records the easy descent of the red man, once his taste +for "fire water" was developed, to bestiality and impotence. + +The coming on of the Revolution produced no immediate effects in the +West. The meaning of the occurrences round Boston was but slowly grasped +by the frontier folk. There was little indeed that the Westerners could +do to help the cause of the eastern patriots, and most of them, if left +alone, would have been only distant spectators of the conflict. But +orders given to the British agents and commanders called for the +ravaging of the trans-Alleghany country; and as a consequence the West +became an important theater of hostilities. + +The British agents had no troops with which to undertake military +operations on a considerable scale, but they had one great resource--the +Indians--and this they used with a reckless disregard of all +considerations of humanity. In the summer of 1776 the Cherokees were +furnished with fifty horse-loads of ammunition and were turned loose +upon the back country of Georgia and the Carolinas. Other tribes were +prompted to depredations farther north. White, half-breed, and Indian +agents went through the forests inciting the natives to deeds of horror; +prices were fixed on scalps--and it is significant of the temper of +these agents that a woman's scalp was paid for as readily as a man's. + +In every corner of the wilderness the bloody scenes of Pontiac's war +were now reënacted. Bands of savages lurked about the settlements, ready +to attack at any unguarded moment; and wherever the thin blue smoke of a +settler's cabin rose, prowlers lay in wait. A woman might not safely go +a hundred yards to milk a cow, or a man lead a horse to water. The +farmer carried a gun strapped to his side as he ploughed, and he +scarcely dared venture into the woods for the winter's supply of fuel +and game. Hardly a day passed on which a riderless horse did not come +galloping into some lonely clearing, telling of a fresh tragedy on the +trail. + +The rousing of the Indians against the frontiersmen was an odious act. +The people of the back country were in not the slightest degree +responsible for the revolt against British authority in the East. They +were non-combatants, and no amount of success in sweeping them from +their homes could affect the larger outcome. The crowning villainy of +this shameful policy was the turning of the redskins loose to prey upon +helpless women and children. + +The responsibility for this inhumanity must be borne in some degree by +the government of George III. "God and nature," wrote the Earl of +Suffolk piously, "hath put into our hands the scalping-knife and +tomahawk, to torture them into unconditional submission." But the fault +lay chiefly with the British officers at the western posts--most of all, +with Lieutenant-Governor Hamilton at Detroit. Probably no British +representative in America was on better terms with the natives. He drank +with them, sang war-songs with them, and received them with open arms +when they came in from the forests with the scalps of white men dangling +at their belts. A great council on the banks of the Detroit in June, +1778, was duly opened with prayer, after which Hamilton harangued the +assembled Chippewas, Hurons, Mohawks, and Potawatomi on their "duties" +in the war and congratulated them on the increasing numbers of their +prisoners and scalps, and then urged them to redoubled activity by +holding out the prospect of the complete expulsion of white men from the +great interior hunting-grounds. + +Scarcely were the deputations attending this council well on their way +homewards when a courier arrived from the Illinois country bringing +startling news. The story was that a band of three hundred rebels led by +one George Rogers Clark had fallen upon the Kaskaskia settlements, had +thrown the commandant into irons, and had exacted from the populace an +oath of allegiance to the Continental Congress. It was reported, too, +that Cahokia had been taken, and that, even as the messenger was leaving +Kaskaskia, "Gibault, a French priest, had his horse ready saddled to go +to Vincennes to receive the submission of the inhabitants in the name of +the rebels." + +George Rogers Clark was a Virginian, born in the foothills of Albemarle +County three years before Braddock's defeat. His family was not of the +landed gentry, but he received some education, and then, like Washington +and many other adventuresome young men of the day, became a surveyor. At +the age of twenty-two he was a member of Governor Dunmore's staff. +During a surveying expedition he visited Kentucky, which so pleased him +that in 1774 he decided to make that part of the back country his home. +He was even then a man of powerful frame, with broad brow, keen blue +eyes, and a dash of red in his hair from a Scottish ancestress--a man, +too, of ardent patriotism, strong common sense, and exceptional powers +of initiative and leadership. Small wonder that in the rapidly +developing commonwealth beyond the mountains he quickly became a +dominating spirit. + +With a view to organizing a civil government and impressing upon the +Virginia authorities the need of defending the western settlements, the +men of Kentucky held a convention at Harrodsburg in the spring of 1775 +and elected two delegates to present their petition to the Virginia +Assembly. Clark was one of them. The journey to Williamsburg was long +and arduous, and the delegates arrived only to find that the Legislature +had adjourned. The visit, none the less, gave Clark an opportunity to +explain to the new Governor--"a certain Patrick Henry, of Hanover +County," as the royalist Dunmore contemptuously styled his +successor--the situation in the back country and to obtain five hundred +pounds of powder. He also induced the authorities to take steps which +led to the definite organization of Kentucky as a county of Virginia. + +In the bloody days that followed, most of the pioneers saw nothing to be +done except to keep close guard and beat off the Indians when they came. +A year or two of that sort of desperate uncertainty gave Clark an idea. +Why not meet the trouble at its source by capturing the British posts +and suppressing the commandants whose orders were mainly responsible for +the atrocities? There was just one obstacle: Kentucky could spare +neither men nor money for the undertaking. + +In the spring of 1777 two young hunters, disguised as traders, were +dispatched to the Illinois country and to the neighborhood of Vincennes, +to spy out the land. They brought back word that the posts were not +heavily manned, and that the French-speaking population took little +interest in the war and was far from reconciled to British rule. The +prospect seemed favorable. Without making his purpose known to anyone, +Clark forthwith joined a band of disheartened settlers and made his way +with them over the Wilderness Trail to Virginia. By this time a plan on +the part of the rebels for the defense of the Kentucky settlements had +grown into a scheme for the conquest of the whole Northwest. + +Clark's proposal came opportunely. Burgoyne's surrender had given the +colonial cause a rosy hue, and already the question of the occupation of +the Northwest had come up for discussion in Congress. Governor Henry +thought well of the plan. He called Thomas Jefferson, George Mason, and +George Wythe into conference, and on January 2, 1778, Clark was given +two sets of orders--one, for publication, commissioning him to raise +seven companies of fifty men each "in any county of the Commonwealth" +for militia duty in Kentucky, the other, secret, authorizing him to use +this force in an expedition for the capture of the "British post at +Kaskasky." To meet the costs, only twelve hundred pounds in depreciated +continental currency could be raised. But the Governor and his friends +promised to try to secure three hundred acres of land for each soldier, +in case the project should succeed. The strictest secrecy was preserved, +and, even if the Legislature had been in session, the project would +probably not have been divulged to it. + +Men and supplies were gathered at Fort Pitt and Wheeling and were +carried down the Ohio to "the Falls," opposite the site of Louisville. +The real object of the expedition was concealed until this point was +reached. On learning of the project, the men were surprised, and some +refused to go farther. But in a few weeks one hundred and seventy-five +men, organized in four companies, were in readiness. The start was made +on the 24th of June. Just as the little flotilla of clumsy flatboats was +caught by the rapid current, the landscape was darkened by an eclipse of +the sun. The superstitious said that this was surely an evil omen. But +Clark was no believer in omens, and he ordered the bateaux to proceed. +He had lately received news of the French alliance, and was surer than +ever that the habitants would make common cause with his forces and give +him complete success. + +To appear on the Mississippi was to run the risk of betraying the object +of the expedition to the defenders of the posts. Hence the wily +commander decided to make the last stages of his advance by an overland +route. At the deserted site of Fort Massac, nine miles below the mouth +of the Tennessee, the little army left the Ohio and struck off northwest +on a march of one hundred and twenty miles, as the crow flies, across +the tangled forests and rich prairies of southern Illinois. + +Six days brought the invaders to the Kaskaskia River, three miles above +the principal settlement. Stealing silently along the bank of the stream +on the night of the 4th of July, they crossed in boats which they seized +at a farmhouse and arrived at the palisades wholly unobserved. Half of +the force was stationed in the form of a cordon, so that no one might +escape. The remainder followed Clark through an unguarded gateway into +the village. + +According to a story long current, the officials of the post were that +night giving a ball, and all of the élite, not of Kaskaskia alone but of +the neighboring settlements as well, were joyously dancing in one of the +larger rooms of the fort. Leaving his men some paces distant, Clark +stepped to the entrance of the hall, and for some time leaned unobserved +against the door-post, grimly watching the gayety. Suddenly the air was +rent by a war-whoop which brought the dancers to a stop. An Indian +brave, lounging in the firelight, had caught a glimpse of the tall, +gaunt, buff and blue figure in the doorway and had recognized it. Women +shrieked; men cursed; the musicians left their posts; all was disorder. +Advancing, Clark struck a theatrical pose and in a voice of command told +the merrymakers to go on with their dancing, but to take note that they +now danced, not as subjects of King George but as Virginians. Finding +that they were in no mood for further diversion, he sent them to their +homes; and all night they shivered with fear, daring not so much as to +light a candle lest they should be set upon and murdered in their beds. + +This account is wholly unsupported by contemporary testimony, and it +probably sprang from the imagination of some good frontier story-teller. +It contains at least this much truth, that the settlement, after being +thrown into panic, was quickly and easily taken. Curiously enough, the +commandant was a Frenchman, Rocheblave, who had thriftily entered the +British service. True to the trust reposed in him, he protested and +threatened, but to no avail. The garrison, now much diminished, was +helpless, and the populace--British, French, and Indian alike--was not +disposed to court disaster by offering armed resistance. Hence, on the +morning after the capture the oath of fidelity was administered, and the +American flag was hoisted for the first time within view of the Father +of Waters. After dispatching word to General Carleton that he had been +compelled to surrender the post to "the self-styled Colonel, Mr. Clark," +Rocheblave was sent as a captive to Williamsburg, where he soon broke +parole and escaped. His slaves were sold for five hundred pounds, and +the money was distributed among the troops. Cahokia was occupied without +resistance, and the French priest, Father Pierre Gibault, whose parish +extended from Lake Superior to the Ohio, volunteered to go to Vincennes +and win its inhabitants to the American cause. + +Like Kaskaskia and Cahokia, the Wabash settlement had been put in charge +of a commandant of French descent. The village, however, was at the +moment without a garrison, and its chief stronghold, Fort Sackville, was +untenanted. Gibault argued forcefully for acceptance of American +sovereignty, and within two days the entire population filed into the +little church and took the oath of allegiance. The astonished Indians +were given to understand that their former "Great Father," the King of +France, had returned to life, and that they must comply promptly with +his wishes or incur his everlasting wrath for having given aid to the +despised British. + +Thus without the firing of a shot or the shedding of a drop of blood, +the vast Illinois and Wabash country was won for the future United +States. Clark's plan was such that its success was assured by its very +audacity. It never occurred to the British authorities that their far +western forts were in danger, and they were wholly unprepared to fly to +the defense of such distant posts. British sovereignty on the +Mississippi was never recovered; and in the autumn of 1778 Virginia took +steps to organize her new conquest by setting up the county of Illinois, +which included all her territories lying "on the western side of the +Ohio." + + + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +The Conquest Completed + + +Lieutenant-Governor Hamilton had many faults, but sloth was not one of +them; and when he heard what had happened he promptly decided to regain +the posts and take the upstart Kentucky conqueror captive. Emissaries +were sent to the Wabash country to stir up the Indians, and for weeks +the Detroit settlement resounded with preparations for the expedition. +Boats were built or repaired, guns were cleaned, ammunition was +collected in boxes, provisions were put up in kegs or bags, baubles for +the Indians were made or purchased. Cattle and wheels, together with a +six-pounder, were sent ahead to be in readiness for use at various +stages of the journey. + +Further weeks were consumed in awaiting reenforcements which never came; +and in early October, when the wild geese were scudding southward before +the first snow flurries of the coming winter, the commandant started for +the reconquest with a motley force of thirty-six British regulars, +forty-five local volunteers, seventy-nine local militia, and sixty +Indians. Reënforcements were gathered on the road, so that when +Vincennes was reached the little army numbered about five hundred. From +Detroit the party dropped easily down the river to Lake Erie, where it +narrowly escaped destruction in a blinding snowstorm. By good +management, however, it was brought safely to the Maumee, up whose +sluggish waters the bateaux were laboriously poled. A portage of nine +miles gave access to the Wabash. Here the water was very shallow, and +only by building occasional dikes to produce a current did the party +find it possible to complete the journey. As conferences with the +Indians further delayed them, it was not until a few days before +Christmas that the invaders reached their goal. + +The capture of Vincennes proved easy enough. The surrender, none the +less, was made in good military style. There were two iron +three-pounders in the wretched little fort, and one of these was loaded +to the muzzle and placed in the open gate. As Hamilton and his men +advanced, so runs a not very well authenticated story, Lieutenant Helm +stood by the gun with a lighted taper and called sternly upon the +invaders to halt. The British leader demanded the surrender of the +garrison. Helm parleyed and asked for terms. Hamilton finally conceded +the honors of war, and Helm magnanimously accepted. Hamilton thereupon +drew up his forces in a double line, the British on one side and the +Indians on the other; and the garrison--one officer and one +soldier--solemnly marched out between them! After the "conquerors" had +regained their equanimity, the cross of St. George was once more run up +on the fort. A body of French militia returned to British allegiance +with quite as much facility as it had shown in accepting American +sovereignty under the eloquence of Father Gibault; and the French +inhabitants, gathered again in the church, with perfectly straight faces +acknowledged that they had "sinned against God and man" by taking sides +with the rebels, and promised to be loyal thereafter to George III. + +Had the British forces immediately pushed on, this same scene might have +been repeated at Kaskaskia and Cahokia. Clark's position there was far +from strong. Upon the expiration of their term of enlistment most of his +men had gone back to Kentucky or Virginia, and their places had been +taken mainly by creoles, whose steadfastness was doubtful. Furthermore, +the Indians were restless, and it was only by much vigilance and bravado +that they were kept in a respectful mood. All this was well known to +Hamilton, who now proposed to follow up the recapture of the Mississippi +posts by the obliteration of all traces of American authority west of +the Alleghanies. + +The difficulties and dangers of a midwinter campaign in the flooded +Illinois country were not to be lightly regarded, and weeks of +contending with icy blasts and drenching rains lent a seat by an open +fire unusual attractiveness. Hence the completion of the campaign was +postponed until spring--a decision which proved the salvation of the +American cause in the West. As means of subsistence were slender, most +of the Detroit militia were sent home, and the Indians were allowed to +scatter to their distant wigwams. The force kept at the post numbered +only about eighty or ninety whites, with a few Indians. + +Clark now had at Kaskaskia a band of slightly over a hundred men. He +understood Hamilton's army to number five or six hundred. The outlook +was dubious, until François Vigo, a friendly Spanish trader of St. +Louis, escaping captivity at Vincennes, came to Kaskaskia with the +information that Hamilton had sent away most of his troops; and this +welcome news gave the doughty Kentuckian a brilliant idea. He would +defend his post by attacking the invaders while they were yet at +Vincennes, and before they were ready to resume operations. "The case is +desperate," he wrote to Governor Henry, "but, sir, we must either quit +the country or attack Mr. Hamilton." He had probably never heard of +Scipio Africanus but, like that indomitable Roman, he proposed to carry +the war straight into the enemy's country. "There were undoubtedly +appalling difficulties," says Mr. Roosevelt, "in the way of a midwinter +march and attack; and the fact that Clark attempted and performed the +feat which Hamilton dared not try, marks just the difference between a +man of genius and a good, brave, ordinary commander." + +Preparations were pushed with all speed. A large, flat-bottomed boat, +the Willing, was fitted out with four guns and was sent down the +Mississippi with forty men to ascend the Ohio and the Wabash to a place +of rendezvous not far from the coveted post. By early February the +depleted companies were recruited to their full strength; and after the +enterprise had been solemnly blessed by Father Gibault, Clark and his +forces, numbering one hundred and thirty men, pushed out upon the +desolate, wind-swept prairie. + +The distance to be covered was about two hundred and thirty miles. Under +favorable circumstances, the trip could have been made in five or six +days and with little hardship. The rainy season, however, was now at its +height, and the country was one vast quagmire, overrun by swollen +streams which could be crossed only at great risk. Ten days of wearisome +marching brought the expedition to the forks of the Little Wabash. The +entire region between the two channels was under water, and for a little +time it looked as if the whole enterprise would have to be given up. +There were no boats; provisions were running low; game was scarce; and +fires could not be built for cooking. + +But Clark could not be turned back by such difficulties. He plunged +ahead of his men, struck up songs and cheers to keep them in spirit, +played the buffoon, went wherever danger was greatest, and by an almost +unmatched display of bravery, tact, and firmness, won the redoubled +admiration of his suffering followers and held them together. Murmurs +arose among the creoles, but the Americans showed no signs of faltering. +For more than a week the party floundered through the freezing water, +picked its way from one outcropping bit of earth to another, and seldom +found opportunity to eat or sleep. Rifles and powder-horns had to be +borne by the hour above the soldiers' heads to keep them dry. + +Finally, on the 23d of February, a supreme effort carried the troops +across the Horseshoe Plain, breast-deep in water, and out upon high +ground two miles from Vincennes. By this time many of the men were so +weakened that they could drag themselves along only with assistance. But +buffalo meat and corn were confiscated from the canoes of some passing +squaws, and soon the troops were refreshed and in good spirits. The +battle with the enemy ahead seemed as nothing when compared with the +struggle with the elements which they had successfully waged. No exploit +of the kind in American history surpasses this, unless it be Benedict +Arnold's winter march through the wilderness of Maine in 1775 to attack +Quebec. + +Two or three creole hunters were now taken captive, and from them Clark +learned that no one in Vincennes knew of his approach. They reported, +however, that, although the habitants were tired of the "Hair-Buyer's" +presence and would gladly return to American allegiance, some two +hundred Indians had just arrived at the fort. The Willing had not been +heard from. But an immediate attack seemed the proper course; and the +young colonel planned and carried it out with the curious mixture of +bravery and braggadocio of which he was a past master. + +First he drew up a lordly letter, addressed to the inhabitants of the +town, and dispatched it by one of his creole prisoners. "Gentlemen," it +ran, "being now within two miles of your village with my army ... and +not being willing to surprise you, I take this step to request such of +you as are true citizens, and willing to enjoy the liberty I bring you, +to remain still in your houses. And those, if any there be, that are +friends to the King, will instantly repair to the fort and join the +Hair-Buyer General and fight like men." Having thus given due warning, +he led his "army" forward, marching and counter-marching his meager +forces among the trees and hills to give an appearance of great numbers, +while he and his captains helped keep up the illusion by galloping +wildly here and there on horses they had confiscated, as if ordering a +vast array. At nightfall the men advanced upon the stockade and opened +fire from two directions. + +Not until a sergeant reeled from his chair with a bullet in his breast +did the garrison realize that it was really under attack. The habitants +had kept their secret well. There was a beating of drums and a hurrying +to arms, and throughout the night a hot fusillade was kept up. By firing +from behind houses and trees, and from rifle pits that were dug before +the attack began, the Americans virtually escaped loss; while Hamilton's +gunners were picked off as fast as they appeared at the portholes of the +fort. Clark's ammunition ran low, but the habitants furnished a fresh +supply and at the same time a hot breakfast for the men. In a few hours +the cannon were silenced, and parleys were opened. Hamilton insisted +that he and his garrison were "not disposed to be awed into an action +unworthy of British subjects," but they were plainly frightened, and +Clark finally sent the commandant back to the fort from a conference in +the old French church with the concession of one hour's time in which to +decide what he would do. To help him make up his mind, the American +leader caused half a dozen Indians who had just returned from the +forests with white men's scalps dangling at their belts to be tomahawked +and thrown into the river within plain view of the garrison. + +Surrender promptly followed. Hamilton and twenty-five of his men were +sent off as captives to Virginia, where the commandant languished in +prison until, in 1780, he was paroled at the suggestion of Washington. +On taking an oath of neutrality, the remaining British sympathizers were +set at liberty. For a second time the American flag floated over Indiana +soil, not again to be lowered. + +Immediately after the capitulation of Hamilton, a scouting-party +captured a relief expedition which was on its way from Detroit and +placed in Clark's hands ten thousand pounds' worth of supplies for +distribution as prize-money among his deserving men. The commander's cup +of satisfaction was filled to the brim when the Willing appeared with a +long-awaited messenger from Governor Henry who brought to the soldiers +the thanks of the Legislature of Virginia for the capture of Kaskaskia +and also the promise of more substantial reward. + +The whole of the Illinois and Indiana country was now in American hands. +Tenure, however, was precarious so long as Detroit remained a British +stronghold, and Clark now broadened his plans to embrace the capture of +that strategic place. Leaving Vincennes in charge of a garrison of forty +men, he returned to Kaskaskia with the Willing and set about organizing +a new expedition. Kentucky pledged three hundred men, and Virginia +promised to help. But when, in midsummer, the commander returned to +Vincennes to consolidate and organize his forces, he found the numbers +to be quite insufficient. From Kentucky there came only thirty men. + +Disappointment followed disappointment; he was ordered to build a fort +at the mouth of the Ohio--a project of which he had himself approved; +and when at last he had under his command a force that might have been +adequate for the Detroit expedition, he was obliged to use it in meeting +a fresh incursion of savages which had been stirred up by the new +British commandant on the Lakes. But Thomas Jefferson, who in 1779 +succeeded Henry as Governor of Virginia, was deeply interested in the +Detroit project, and at his suggestion Washington gave Clark an order on +the commandant of Fort Pitt for guns, supplies, and such troops as could +be spared. On January 22, 1781, Jefferson appointed Clark +"brigadier-general of the forces to be embodied on an expedition +westward of the Ohio." Again Clark was doomed to disappointment. One +obstacle after another interposed. Yet as late as May, 1781, the +expectant conqueror wrote to Washington that he had "not yet lost sight +of Detroit." Suitable opportunity for the expedition never came, and +when peace was declared the northern stronghold was still in British +hands. + +Clark's later days were clouded. Although Virginia gave him six thousand +acres of land in southern Indiana and presented him with a sword, peace +left him without employment, and he was never able to adjust himself to +the changed situation. For many years he lived alone in a little cabin +on the banks of the Ohio, spending his time hunting, fishing, and +brooding over the failure of Congress to reward him in more substantial +manner for his services. He was land-poor, lonely, and embittered. In +1818 he died a paralyzed and helpless cripple. His resting place is in +Cave Hill Cemetery, Louisville; the finest statue of him stands in +Monument Circle, Indianapolis--"an athletic figure, scarcely past youth, +tall and sinewy, with a drawn sword, in an attitude of energetic +encouragement, as if getting his army through the drowned lands of the +Wabash." ¹ + +¹ Hosmer, Short History of the Mississippi Valley, p. 94. + +The capture of Vincennes determined the fate of the Northwest. Frontier +warfare nevertheless went steadily on. In 1779 Spain entered the contest +as an ally of France, and it became the object of the British commanders +on the Lakes not only to recover the posts lost to the Americans but to +seize St. Louis and other Spanish strongholds on the west bank of the +Mississippi. In 1780 Lieutenant-Governor Patrick Sinclair, a bustling, +garrulous old soldier stationed at Michilimackinac, sent a force of some +nine hundred traders, servants, and Indians down the Mississippi to +capture both the American and Spanish settlements. An attack on St. +Louis failed, as did likewise a series of efforts against Cahokia and +Kaskaskia, and the survivors were glad to reach their northern +headquarters again, with nothing to show for their pains except a dozen +prisoners. + +Not to be outdone, the Spanish commandant at St. Louis sent an +expedition to capture British posts in the Lake country. An arduous +winter march brought the avengers and their Indian allies to Fort St. +Joseph, a mile or two west of the present city of Niles, Michigan. It +would be ungracious to say that this post was selected for attack +because it was without a garrison. At all events, the place was duly +seized, the Spanish standard was set up, and possession of "the fort and +its dependencies" was taken in the name of his Majesty Don Carlos III. +No effort was made to hold the settlement permanently, and the British +from Detroit promptly retook it. Probably the sole intention had been to +add somewhat to the strength of the Spanish position at the forthcoming +negotiations for peace. + +The war in the West ended, as it began, in a carnival of butchery. +Treacherous attacks, massacres, burnings, and pillagings were everyday +occurrences, and white men were hardly less at fault than red. Indeed +the most discreditable of all the recorded episodes of the time was a +heartless massacre by Americans of a large band of Indians that had been +Christianized by Moravian missionaries and brought together in a +peaceful community on the Muskingum. This slaughter of the innocents at +Gnadenhütten ("the Tents of Grace") reveals the frontiersman at his +worst. But it was dearly paid for. From the Lakes to the Gulf redskins +rose for vengeance. Villages were wiped out, and murderous bands swept +far into Virginia and Pennsylvania, evading fortified posts in order to +fall with irresistible fury on unsuspecting traders and settlers. + +In midsummer, 1782, news of the cessation of hostilities between Great +Britain and her former seaboard colonies reached the back country, and +the commandant at Detroit made an honest effort to stop all offensive +operations. A messenger failed, however, to reach a certain Captain +Caldwell, operating in the Ohio country, in time to prevent him from +attacking a Kentucky settlement and bringing on the deadly Battle of +Blue Licks, in which the Americans were defeated with a loss of +seventy-one men. George Rogers Clark forthwith led a retaliatory +expedition against the Miami towns, taking prisoners, recapturing +whites, and destroying British trading establishments; and with this +final flare-up the Revolution came to an end in the Northwest. + +The soldier had won the back country for the new nation. Could the +diplomat hold it? As early as March 19, 1779,--just three weeks after +Clark's capture of Vincennes,--the Continental Congress formally laid +claim to the whole of the Northwest; and a few months later John Adams +was instructed to negotiate for peace on the understanding that the +country's northern and western boundaries were to be the line of the +Great Lakes and the Mississippi. When, in 1781, Franklin, Jefferson, +Jay, and Laurens were appointed to assist Adams in the negotiation, the +new Congress of the Confederation stated that the earlier instructions +on boundaries represented its "desires and expectations." + +It might have been supposed that if Great Britain could be brought to +accept these terms there would be no further difficulty. But obstacles +arose from other directions. France had entered the war for her own +reasons, and looked with decidedly more satisfaction on the defeat of +Great Britain than on the prospect of a new and powerful nation in the +Western Hemisphere. Furthermore, she was in close alliance with Spain; +and Spain had no sympathy whatever with the American cause as such. At +all events, she did not want the United States for a neighbor on the +Mississippi. + +The American commissioners were under instructions to make no peace +without consulting France. But when, in the spring of 1782, Jay came +upon the scene of the negotiations at Paris, he demurred. He had been +for some time in Spain, and he carried to Paris not only a keen contempt +for the Spanish people and Spanish politics, but a strong suspicion that +Spain was using her influence to keep the United States from getting the +territory between the Lakes and the Ohio. France soon fell under similar +suspicion, for she was under obligations, as everyone knew, to satisfy +Spain; and little time elapsed before the penetrating American diplomat +was semiofficially assured that his suspicions in both directions were +well founded. + +The mainspring of Spanish policy was the desire to make the Gulf of +Mexico a closed sea, under exclusive Spanish control. This plan would be +frustrated if the Americans acquired an outlet on the Gulf; furthermore, +it would be jeopardized if they retained control on the upper +Mississippi. Hence, the States must be kept back from the great river; +safety dictated that they be confined to the region east of the +Appalachians. + +An ingenious plan was thereupon developed. Spain was to resume +possession of the Floridas, insuring thereby the coveted unbroken coast +line on the Gulf. The vast area between the Mississippi and the +Appalachians and south of the Ohio was to be an Indian territory, half +under Spanish and half under American "protection." The entire region +north of the Ohio was to be kept by Great Britain, or, at the most, +divided--on lines to be determined--between Great Britain and the United +States. From Rayneval, confidential secretary of the French foreign +minister Vergennes, Jay learned that the French Government proposed to +give this scheme its support. + +Had such terms as these been forced on the new nation, the hundreds of +Virginian and Pennsylvanian pioneers who had given up their lives in the +planting of American civilization in the back country would have turned +in their graves. But Jay had no notion of allowing the scheme to +succeed. He sent an emissary to England to counteract the Spanish and +French influence. He converted Adams to his way of thinking, and even +raised doubts in Franklin's mind. Finally he induced his colleagues to +cast their instructions to the winds and negotiate a treaty with the +mother country independently. + +This simplified matters immensely. Great Britain was a beaten nation, +and from the beginning her commissioners played a losing game. There was +much haggling over the loyalists, the fisheries, debts; but the +boundaries were quickly drawn. Great Britain preferred to see the +disputed western country in American hands rather than to leave a chance +for it to fall under the control of one of her European rivals. + +Accordingly, the Treaty of Paris drew the interior boundary of the new +nation through the Great Lakes and connecting waters to the Lake of the +Woods; from the most northwestern point of the Lake of the Woods due +west to the Mississippi (an impossible line); down the Mississippi to +latitude 31°; thence east, by that parallel and by the line which is now +the northern boundary of Florida, to the ocean. Three nations, instead +of two, again shared the North American Continent: Great Britain kept +the territory north of the Lakes; Spain ruled the Floridas and +everything west of the Mississippi; the United States held the +remainder--an area of more than 825,000 square miles, with a population +of three and one half millions. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +Wayne, The Scourge Of The Indians + + +"This federal republic," wrote the Spanish Count d'Aranda to his royal +master in 1782, "is born a pigmy. A day will come when it will be a +giant, even a colossus. Liberty of conscience, the facility for +establishing a new population on immense lands, as well as the +advantages of the new government, will draw thither farmers and artisans +from all the nations." + +Aranda correctly weighed the value of the country's vast stretches of +free and fertile land. The history of the United States has been largely +a story of the clearing of forests, the laying out of farms, the +erection of homes, the construction of highways, the introduction of +machinery, the building of railroads, the rise of towns and of great +cities. The Germans of Wisconsin and Missouri, the Scandinavians of +Minnesota and the Dakotas, the Poles and Hungarians of Chicago, the +Irish and Italians of a thousand communities, attest the fact that the +"farmers and artisans from all the nations" have had an honorable part +in the achievement. + +In laying plans for the development of the western lands the +statesmanship of the Revolutionary leaders was at its best. In the first +place, the seven States which had some sort of title to tracts extending +westward to the Mississippi wisely yielded these claims to the nation; +and thus was created a single, national domain which could be dealt with +in accordance with a consistent policy. In the second place, Congress, +as early as 1780, pledged the national Government to dispose of the +western lands for the common benefit, and promised that they should be +"settled and formed into distinct republican states, which shall become +members of the federal union, and have the same rights of sovereignty, +freedom, and independence as the other states." + +Finally, in the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 there was mapped out a +scheme of government admirably adapted to the liberty-loving, yet +law-abiding, populations of the frontier. It was based on the broad +principles of democracy, and it was sufficiently flexible to permit +necessary changes as the scattered settlements developed into organized +Territories and then into States. Geographical conditions, as well as +racial inheritances, foreordained that the United States should be an +expanding, colonizing nation; and it was of vital importance that +wholesome precedents of territorial control should be established in the +beginning. Louisiana, Florida, the Mexican accessions, Alaska, and even +the newer tropical dependencies, owe much to the decisions that were +reached in the organizing of the Northwest a century and a quarter ago. + +The Northwest Ordinance was remarkable in that it was framed for a +territory that had practically no white population and which, in a +sense, did not belong to the United States at all. Back in 1768 Sir +William Johnson's Treaty of Fort Stanwix had made the Ohio River the +boundary between the white and red races of the West. Nobody at the +close of the Revolution supposed that this division would be adhered to; +the Northwest had not been won for purposes of an Indian reserve. None +the less, the arrangements of 1768 were inherited, and the nation +considered them binding except in so far as they were modified from time +to time by new agreements. The first such agreement affecting the +Northwest was concluded in 1785, through George Rogers Clark and two +other commissioners, with the Wyandots, Delawares, Chippewas, and +Ottawas. By it the United States acquired title to the southeastern half +of the present State of Ohio, with a view to surveying the lands and +raising revenue by selling them. Successive treaties during the next +thirty years gradually transferred the whole of the Northwest from +Indian hands to the new nation. + +Officially, the United States recognized the validity of the Indian +claims; but the pioneer homeseeker was not so certain to do so. From +about 1775 the country south of the Ohio filled rapidly with settlers +from Virginia and the Carolinas, so that by 1788 the white population +beyond the Blue Ridge was believed to be considerably over one hundred +thousand. For a decade the "Indian side," as the north shore was +habitually called, was trodden only by occasional hunters, traders, and +explorers. But after Clark's victories on the Mississippi and the +Wabash, the frontiersmen grew bolder. By 1780 they began to plant camps +and cabins on the rich bottom-lands of the Miamis, the Scioto, and the +Muskingum; and when they heard that the British claims in the West had +been formally yielded, they assumed that whatever they could take was +theirs. With the technicalities of Indian claims they had not much +patience. In 1785 Colonel Harmar, commanding at Fort Pitt, sent a +deputation down the river to drive the intruders back. But his agents +returned with the report that the Virginians and Kentuckians were moving +into the forbidden country "by the forties and fifties," and that they +gave every evidence of proposing to remain there. Surveyors were +forthwith set to work in the "Seven Ranges," as the tract just to the +west of the Pennsylvania boundary was called; and Fort Harmar was built +at the mouth of the Muskingum to keep the over-ardent settlers back. + +The close of the Revolution brought not only a swift revival of +emigration to the West but also a remarkable outburst of speculation in +western land. March 3, 1786, General Rufus Putnam and some other +Continental officers met at the "Bunch of Grapes" Tavern in Boston and +decided that it would be to their advantage to exchange for land in the +Seven Ranges the paper certificates in which they had been paid for +their military services. Accordingly an "Ohio Company" was organized, +and Dr. Manasseh Cutler--"preacher, lawyer, doctor, statesman, +scientist, land speculator"--was sent off to New York to push the matter +in Congress. The upshot was that Congress authorized the sale of one and +a half million acres east of the Scioto to the Ohio Company, and five +million acres to a newly organized Scioto Company. + +The Scioto Company fell into financial difficulties and, after making an +attempt to build up a French colony at Gallipolis, collapsed. But +General Putnam and his associates kept their affairs well in hand and +succeeded in planting the first legal white settlement in the present +State of Ohio. An arduous winter journey brought the first band of +forty-eight settlers, led by Putnam himself, to the mouth of the +Muskingum on April 7, 1788. Here, in the midst of a great forest dotted +with terraces, cones, and other fantastic memorials of the +moundbuilders, they erected a blockhouse and surrounded it with cabins. +For a touch of the classical, they called the fortification the Campus +Martius; to be strictly up to date, they named the town Marietta, after +Marie Antoinette, Queen of France. In July the little settlement was +honored by being made the residence of the newly arrived Governor of the +Territory, General Arthur St. Clair. + +Before the close of the year Congress sold one million acres between the +two Miamis to Judge Symmes of New Jersey; and three little towns were at +once laid out. To one of them a pedantic schoolmaster gave the name +L-os-anti-ville, "the town opposite the mouth of the Licking." The name +may have required too much explanation; at all events, when, in 1790, +the Governor transferred the capital thither from Marietta, he +rechristened the place Cincinnati, in honor of the famous Revolutionary +society to which he belonged. + +Land speculators are confirmed optimists. But Putnam, Cutler, Symmes, +and their associates were correct in believing that the Ohio country was +at the threshold of a period of remarkable development. There was one +serious obstacle--the Indians. Repeated expeditions from Kentucky had +pushed most of the tribes northward to the headwaters of the Miami, +Scioto, and Wabash; and the Treaty of 1785 was supposed to keep them +there. But it was futile to expect such an arrangement to prove lasting +unless steadily backed up with force. In their squalid villages in the +swampy forests of northern Ohio and Indiana the redskins grew sullen and +vindictive. As they saw their favorite hunting-grounds slipping from +their grasp, those who had taken part in the cession repented their +generosity, while those who had no part in it pronounced it fraudulent +and refused to consider themselves bound by it. Swiftly the idea took +hold that the oncoming wave must be rolled back before it was too late. +"White man shall not plant corn north of the Ohio" became the rallying +cry. + +Back of this rebelliousness lay a certain amount of British influence. +The Treaty of 1783 was signed in as kindly spirit as the circumstances +would permit, but its provisions were not carried out in a charitable +manner. On account of alleged shortcomings of the United States, the +British Government long refused to give up possession of eight or ten +fortified posts in the north and west. One of these was Detroit; and the +officials stationed there systematically encouraged the hordes of +redskins who had congregated about the western end of Lake Erie to make +all possible resistance to the American advance. The British no longer +had any claim to the territories south of the Lakes, but they wanted to +keep their ascendancy over the northwestern Indians, and especially to +prevent the rich fur trade from falling into American hands. Ammunition +and other supplies were lavished on the restless tribes. The post +officials insisted that these were merely the gifts which had regularly +been made in times of peace. But they were used with deadly effect +against the Ohio frontiersmen; and there can be little doubt that they +were intended so to be used. + +By 1789 the situation was very serious. Marauding expeditions were +growing in frequency; and a scout sent out by Governor St. Clair came +back with the report that most of the Indians throughout the entire +Northwest had "bad hearts." Washington decided that delay would be +dangerous, and the nation forthwith prepared for its first war since +independence. Kentucky was asked to furnish a thousand militiamen and +Pennsylvania five hundred, and the forces were ordered to come together +at Fort Washington, near Cincinnati. + +The rendezvous took place in the summer of 1790, and General Josiah +Harmar was put in command of a punitive expedition against the Miamis. +The recruits were raw, and Harmar was without the experience requisite +for such an enterprise. None the less, when the little army, accompanied +by three hundred regulars, and dragging three brass field-pieces, +marched out of Fort Washington on a fine September day, it created a +very good impression. All went well until the expedition reached the +Maumee country. On the site of the present city of Fort Wayne they +destroyed a number of Indian huts and burned a quantity of corn. But in +a series of scattered encounters the white men were defeated, with a +loss of nearly two hundred killed; and Harmar thought it the part of +wisdom to retreat. He had gained nothing by the expedition; on the +contrary, he had stirred the redskins to fresh aggressions, and his +retreating forces were closely followed by bands of merciless raiders. + +Washington knew what the effect of this reverse would be. Accordingly he +called St. Clair to Philadelphia and ordered him to take personal +command of a new expedition, adding a special warning against ambush and +surprise. Congress aided by voting two thousand troops for six months, +besides two small regiments of regulars. But everything went wrong. +Recruiting proved slow; the men who were finally brought together were +poor material for an army, being gathered chiefly from the streets and +prisons of the seaboard cities; and supplies were shockingly inadequate. + +St. Clair was a man of honest intention, but old, broken in health, and +of very limited military ability; and when finally, October 4, 1791, he +led his untrained forces slowly northwards from Fort Washington, he +utterly failed to take measures either to keep his movements secret or +to protect his men against sudden attack. The army trudged slowly +through the deep forests, chopping out its own road, and rarely +advancing more than five or six miles a day. The weather was favorable +and game was abundant, but discontent was rife and desertions became +daily occurrences. As most of the men had no taste for Indian warfare +and as their pay was but two dollars a month, not all the commander's +threats and entreaties could hold them in order. + +On the night of the 3d of November the little army--now reduced to +fourteen hundred men--camped, with divisions carelessly scattered, on +the eastern fork of the Wabash, about a hundred miles north of +Cincinnati and near the Indiana border. The next morning, when +preparations were being made for a forced march against some Indian +villages near by, a horde of redskins burst unexpectedly upon the +bewildered troops, surrounded them, and threatened them with utter +destruction. A brave stand was made, but there was little chance of +victory. "After the first onset," as Roosevelt has described the battle, +"the Indians fought in silence, no sound coming from them save the +incessant rattle of their fire, as they crept from log to log, from tree +to tree, ever closer and closer. The soldiers stood in close order, in +the open; their musketry and artillery fire made a tremendous noise, but +did little damage to a foe they could hardly see. Now and then through +the hanging smoke terrible figures flitted, painted black and red, the +feathers of the hawk and eagle braided in their long scalp-locks; but +save for these glimpses, the soldiers knew the presence of their somber +enemy only from the fearful rapidity with which their comrades fell dead +and wounded in the ranks." + +At last, in desperation St. Clair ordered his men to break through the +deadly cordon and save themselves as best they could. The Indians kept +up a hot pursuit for a distance of four miles. Then, surfeited with +slaughter, they turned to plunder the abandoned camp; otherwise there +would have been escape for few. As it was, almost half of the men in the +engagement were killed, and less than five hundred got off with no +injury. The survivors gradually straggled into the river settlements, +starving and disheartened. + +The page on which is written the story of St. Clair's defeat is one of +the gloomiest in the history of the West. Harmar's disaster was dwarfed; +not since Braddock and his regulars were cut to pieces by an unseen foe +on the road to Fort Duquesne had the redskins inflicted upon their +hereditary enemy a blow of such proportions. It was with a heavy heart +that the Governor dispatched a messenger to Philadelphia with the news. +Congress ordered an investigation; and in view of the unhappy general's +high character and his courageous, though blundering, conduct during the +late campaign, he was exonerated. He retained the governorship, but +prudently resigned his military command. + +The situation was now desperate. Everywhere the forests resounded with +the exultant cries of the victors, while the British from Detroit and +other posts actively encouraged the belief not only that they would +furnish all necessary aid but that England herself was about to declare +war on the United States. Eventually a British force from Detroit +actually invaded the disputed country and built a stockade (Fort Miami) +near the site of the present city of Toledo, with a view to giving the +redskins convincing evidence of the seriousness of the Great White +Father's intentions. Small wonder that, when St. Clair sought to obtain +by diplomacy the settlement which he had failed to secure by arms, his +commissioners were met with the ultimatum: "Brothers, we shall be +persuaded that you mean to do us justice, if you agree that the Ohio +shall remain the boundary line between us. If you will not consent +thereto, our meeting will be altogether unnecessary." + +It is said that Washington's first choice for the new western command +was "Light-Horse Harry" Lee. But considerations of rank made the +appointment inexpedient, and "Mad Anthony" Wayne was named instead. +Wayne was the son of a Pennsylvania frontiersman and came honestly by +his aptitude for Indian fighting. In early life he was a surveyor, and +in the Revolution he won distinction as a dashing commander of +Pennsylvania troops at Ticonderoga, Brandywine, Germantown, Stony Point, +and other important engagements. Finally he obtained a major-general's +commission in Greene's campaign in Georgia, and at the close of the war +he settled in that State as a planter. His vanity--displayed chiefly in +a love of fine clothes--brought upon him a good deal of criticism; and +Washington, who in a Cabinet meeting characterized him as "brave and +nothing else," was frankly apprehensive lest in the present business +Wayne's impetuosity should lead to fresh disaster. Yet the qualities +that on a dozen occasions had enabled Wayne to snatch success from +almost certain defeat--alertness, decisiveness, bravery, and sheer love +of hard fighting--were those now chiefly in demand. + +The first task was to create an army. A few regulars were available; but +most of the three or four thousand men who were needed had to be +gathered wheresoever they could be found. A call for recruits brought +together at Pittsburgh, in the summer of 1792, a nondescript lot of +beggars, criminals, and other cast-offs of the eastern cities, no better +and no worse than the adventurers who had taken service under St. Clair. +Few knew anything of warfare, and on one occasion a mere report of +Indians in the vicinity caused a third of the sentinels to desert their +posts. But, as rigid discipline was enforced and drilling was carried on +for eight and ten hours a day, by spring the survivors formed a very +respectable body of troops. The scene of operations was then transferred +to Fort Washington, where fresh recruits were started on a similar +course of development. Profitting by the experience of his predecessors, +Wayne insisted that campaigning should begin only after the troops were +thoroughly prepared; and no drill-master ever worked harder to get his +charges into condition for action. Going beyond the ordinary manual of +arms, he taught the men to load their rifles while running at full +speed, and to yell at the top of their voices while making a bayonet +attack. + +In October, 1793, the intrepid Major-General advanced with twenty-six +hundred men into the nearer stretches of the Indian country, in order to +be in a position for an advantageous spring campaign. They built Fort +Greenville, eighty miles north of Cincinnati, and there spent the +winter, while, on St. Clair's fatal battle-field, an advance detachment +built a post which they hopefully christened Fort Recovery. Throughout +the winter unending drill was kept up; and when, in June, 1794, fourteen +hundred mounted militia arrived from Kentucky, Wayne found himself at +the head of the largest and best-trained force that had ever been turned +against the Indians west of the Alleghanies. Even before the arrival of +the Kentuckians, it proved its worth by defending its forest +headquarters, with practically no loss, against an attack by fifteen +hundred redskins. + +On the 27th of July the army moved forward in the direction of the +Maumee, with closed ranks and so guarded by scouts that no chance +whatever was given for surprise attacks. Washington's admonitions had +been taken to heart, and the Indians could only wonder and admire. News +of the army's advance traveled ahead and struck terror through the +northern villages, so that many of the inhabitants fled precipitately. +When the troops reached the cultivated lands about the junction of the +Maumee and Auglaize rivers, they found only deserted huts and great +fields of corn, from which they joyfully replenished their diminished +stores. Here a fort was built and given the significant name Defiance; +and from it a final offer of peace was sent out to the hostile tribes. +Never doubting that the British would furnish all necessary aid, the +chieftains returned evasive answers. Wayne thereupon moved his troops to +the left bank of the Maumee and proceeded cautiously downstream toward +the British stronghold at Fort Miami. + +A few days brought the army to a place known as Fallen Timbers, where a +tornado had piled the trunks and branches of mighty trees in +indescribable confusion. The British post was but five or six miles +distant; and there behind the breastworks which nature had provided, and +in easy reach of their allies, the Indians chose to make their stand. On +the morning of the 20th of August, Wayne, now so crippled by gout that +he had to be lifted into his saddle, gallantly led an assault. The +Indian fire was murderous, and a battalion of mounted Kentuckians was at +first hurled back. But the front line of infantry rushed up and +dislodged the savages from their covert, while the regular cavalry on +the right charged the enemy's left flank. Before the second line of +infantry could get into action the day was won. The whole engagement +lasted less than three-quarters of an hour, and not a third of Wayne's +three thousand men actually took part in it. + +The fleeing redskins were pursued to the walls of the British fort, and +even there many were slain. The British soldiery not only utterly failed +to come to the relief of their hard-pressed allies, but refused to open +the gates to give them shelter. The American loss was thirty-three +killed and one hundred wounded. But the victory was the most decisive as +yet gained over the Indians of the Northwest. A warfare of forty years +was ended in as many minutes. + +From the lower Maumee, Wayne marched back to Fort Defiance, and thence +to the junction of the St. Mary's and St. Joseph rivers, where he built +a fort and gave it the name still borne by the thriving city that grew +up around it--Fort Wayne. Everywhere the American soldiers destroyed the +ripened crops and burned the villages, while the terrified inhabitants +fled. In November the army took up winter quarters at Fort Greenville. + +At last the Americans had the upper hand. Their arms were feared; the +British promises of help were no longer credited by the Indians; and it +was easy for Wayne to convince the tribal representatives who visited +him in large numbers during the winter that their true interest was to +win the good-will of the United States. In the summer of 1795 there was +a general pacification. Delegation after delegation arrived at Fort +Greenville, until more than a thousand chiefs and braves were in +attendance. The prestige of Wayne was still further increased when the +news came that John Jay had negotiated a treaty at London under which +the British posts on United States soil were finally to be given up; and +on August 3rd Wayne was able to announce a great treaty wherein the +natives ceded all of what is now southern Ohio and southeastern Indiana, +and numerous tracts around posts within the Indian country, such as Fort +Wayne, Detroit, and Michilimackinac--strategic points on the western +waterways. "Elder Brother," said a Chippewa chief in the course of one +of the interminable harangues delivered during the negotiation, "you +asked who were the true owners of the land now ceded to the United +States. In answer, I tell you, if any nations should call themselves the +owners of it, they would be guilty of falsehood; our claim to it is +equal; our Elder Brother has conquered it." The United States duly +recognized the Indian title to all lands not expressly ceded and +promised the Indians annual subsidies. The terms of the treaty were +faithfully observed on both sides, and for fifteen years the pioneer +lived and toiled in peace. + +Wayne forthwith became a national hero. Returning to Philadelphia in +1796, he was met by a guard of honor, hailed with the ringing of bells +and a salute of fifteen guns, and treated to a dazzling display of +fireworks. Congress voted its thanks, and Washington, whose fears had +long since vanished, added his congratulations. There was one other +service on the frontier for the doughty general to render. The British +posts were at last to be surrendered, and Wayne was designated to +receive them. By midsummer he was back in the forest country, and in the +autumn he took possession of Detroit, amid acclamations of Indians, +Americans, Frenchmen, and Englishmen alike. But his work was done. On +the return journey he suffered a renewed attack of his old enemy, gout, +and at Presqu'isle (Erie) he died. A blockhouse modeled on the defenses +which he built during his western campaign marks his first resting-place +and bears aloft the flag which he helped plant in the heart of the +Continent. + + + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +The Great Migration + + +While the fate of the Northwest still hung in the balance, emigration +from the eastern States became the rage. "Every small farmer whose +barren acres were covered with mortgages, whose debts pressed heavily +upon him, or whose roving spirit gave him no peace, was eager to sell +his homestead for what it would bring and begin life anew on the banks +of the Muskingum or the Ohio." ¹ Land companies were then just as +optimistic and persuasive as they are today, and the attractions of the +western country lost nothing in the telling. Pamphlets described the +climate as luxurious, the soil as inexhaustible, the rainfall as both +abundant and well distributed, the crops as unfailingly bountiful; paid +agents went among the people assuring them that a man of push and +courage could nowhere be so prosperous and so happy as in the West. + +¹ McMaster, History of the People of the United States, vol. III, p. +461. + +As early as 1787 an observer at Pittsburgh reported that in six weeks he +saw fifty flatboats set off for the down-river settlements; in 1788 +forty-five hundred emigrants were said to have passed Fort Harmar +between February and June. Most of these people were bound for Kentucky +or Tennessee. But the census of 1790 gave the population north of the +Ohio as 4,280, and after Wayne's victory the proportion of newcomers who +fixed their abodes in that part of the country rapidly increased. For a +decade Ohio was the favorite goal; and within eight years after the +battle at Fallen Timbers this region was ready for admission to the +Union as a State. Southern Indiana also filled rapidly. + +For a time the westward movement was regarded as of no disadvantage to +the seaboard States. It was supposed that the frontier would attract a +population of such character as could easily be spared in more settled +communities. But it became apparent that the new country did not appeal +simply to broken-down farmers, bankrupts, and ne'er-do-wells. Robust and +industrious men, with growing families, were drawn off in great numbers; +and public protest was raised against the "plots to drain the East of +its best blood." Anti-emigration pamphlets were scattered broadcast, +and, after the manner of the day, the leading western enterprises were +belabored with much bad verse. A rude cut which gained wide circulation +represented a stout, ruddy, well-dressed man on a sleek horse, with a +label, "I am going to Ohio," meeting a pale and ghastly skeleton of a +man, in rags, on the wreck of what had once been a horse, with the +label, "I have been to Ohio." + +The streams of migration flowed from many sources. New England +contributed heavily. Marietta, Cincinnati, and many other rising river +towns received some of the best blood of that remote section. The +Western Reserve--a tract bordering on Lake Erie which Connecticut had +not ceded to the Federal Government--drew largely from the Nutmeg State. +A month before Wayne set out to take possession of Detroit, Moses +Cleaveland with a party of fifty Connecticut homeseekers started off to +found a settlement in the Reserve; and the town which took its name from +the leader was but the first of a score which promptly sprang up in this +inviting district. The "Seven Ranges," lying directly south of the +Reserve, drew emigrants from Pennsylvania, with some from farther south. +The Scioto valley attracted chiefly Virginians, who early made +Chillicothe their principal center. In the west, and north of the Symmes +tract, Kentuckians poured in by the thousands. + +Thus in a decade Ohio became a frontier melting-pot. Puritan, Cavalier, +Irishman, Scotch-Irishman, German--all were poured into the crucible. +Ideals clashed, and differing customs grated harshly. But the product of +a hundred years of cross-breeding was a splendid type of citizenship. At +the presidential inaugural ceremonies of March 4, 1881, six men chiefly +attracted the attention of the crowd: the retiring President, Hayes; the +incoming President, Garfield; the Chief-Justice who administered the +oath, Waite; the general commanding the army, William T. Sherman; the +ex-Secretary of the Treasury, John Sherman; and "the Marshal Ney of +America," Lieutenant-General Sheridan. Five of the six were natives of +Ohio, and the sixth was a lifelong resident. Men commented on the +striking group and rightly remarked that it could have been produced +only by a singularly happy blending of the ideas and ideals that form +the warp and woof of Americanism. + +Amalgamation, however, took time; for there were towering prejudices and +antipathies to be overcome. The Yankee scorned the Southerner, who +reciprocated with a double measure of dislike. The New England settlers +were, as a rule, people of some education; not one of their communities +long went without a schoolmaster. They were pious, law-abiding, +industrious; their more easy-going neighbors were likely to consider +them over-sensitive and critical. But the quality that made most +impression upon others was their shrewdness in business transactions. +They could drive a bargain and could discover loopholes in a contract in +a fashion to take the average backwoodsman off his feet. "Yankee trick" +became, indeed, a household phrase wherever New Englander and Southerner +met. Whether the Yankee talked or kept silent, whether he was generous +or parsimonious, he was always under suspicion. + +What of the "Long Knives" from Virginia, the Carolinas, and Kentucky who +also made the Ohio lands their goal? Of books they knew little; they did +not name their settlements in honor of classic heroes. They were not +"gentlemen"; many of them, indeed, had sought the West to escape a +society in which distinctions of birth and possessions had put them at a +disadvantage. They were not so pious as the New Englanders, though they +were capable of great religious enthusiasm, and their morals were +probably not inferior. Their houses were poorer; their villages were not +so well kept; their dress was more uncouth, and their ways rougher. But +they were a hardy folk--brave, industrious, hospitable, and generous to +a fault. + +In the first days of westward migration the favorite gateway into the +Ohio Valley was Cumberland Gap, at the southeastern corner of the +present State of Kentucky. Thence the Virginians and Carolinians passed +easily to the Ohio in the region of Cincinnati or Louisville. Later +emigrants from more northern States found other serviceable routes. +Until the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825, New Englanders reached the +West by three main avenues. Some followed the Mohawk and Genesee +turnpikes across central New York to Lake Erie. This route led directly, +of course, to the Western Reserve. Some traveled along the Catskill +turnpike from the Hudson to the headwaters of the Allegheny, and thence +descended the Ohio. Still others went by boat from Boston to New York, +Philadelphia, or Baltimore, in order to approach the Ohio by a more +southerly course. + +The natural outlet from Pennsylvania was the Ohio River. Emigrants from +the western parts of the State floated down the Allegheny or Monongahela +to the main stream. Those from farther east, including settlers from New +Jersey, made the journey overland by one of several well-known roads. +The best of these was a turnpike following the line that General Forbes +had cut during the French and Indian War from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh +by way of Lancaster and Bedford. Baltimore was a favorite point of +departure, and from it the route lay almost invariably along a turnpike +to Cumberland on the upper Potomac, and thence by the National Road +across the mountains to Wheeling. In later days this was the route +chiefly taken from Virginia, although more southerly passes through the +Blue Ridge were used as outlets to the Great Kanawha, the Big Sandy, and +other streams flowing into the Ohio farther down. + +Thus the lines of westward travel which in the East spread fan-shape +from Maine to Georgia converged on the Ohio; and that stream became, and +for half a century remained, the great pathway of empire. Most of the +emigrants had to cover long distances in overland travel before they +reached the hospitable waterway; some, especially in earlier times, made +the entire journey by land. Hundreds of the very poor went afoot, +carrying all their earthly possessions on their backs, or dragging them +in rude carts. But the usual conveyance was the canvas-covered +wagon--ancestor of the "prairie schooner" of the western plains--drawn +over the rough and muddy roads by four, or even six, horses. In this +vehicle the emigrants stowed their provisions, household furniture and +utensils, agricultural implements, looms, seeds, medicines, and every +sort of thing that the prudent householder expected to need, and for +which he could find space. Extra horses or oxen sometimes drew an +additional load; cattle, and even flocks of sheep, were occasionally +driven ahead or behind by some member of the family. + +In the years of heaviest migration the highways converging on Pittsburgh +and Wheeling were fairly crowded with westward-flowing traffic. As a +rule several families, perhaps from the same neighborhood in the old +home, traveled together; and in any case the chance acquaintances of the +road and of the wayside inns broke the loneliness of the journey. There +were wonderful things to be seen, and every day brought novel +experiences. But exposure and illness, dread of Indian attacks, mishaps +of every sort, and the awful sense of isolation and of uncertainty of +the future, caused many a man's stout heart to quail, and brought +anguish unspeakable to brave women. Of such joys and sorrows, however, +is a frontier existence compounded; and of the growing thousands who +turned their faces toward the setting sun, comparatively few yielded to +discouragement and went back East. Those who did so were usually the +land speculators and people of weak, irresolute, or shiftless character. + +An English traveler, Morris Birkbeck, who passed over the National Road +through southwestern Pennsylvania in 1817, was filled with amazement at +the number, hardihood, and determination of the emigrants whom he +encountered. + +Old America seems to be breaking up [he wrote] and moving westward. We +are seldom out of sight, as we travel on this grand track, towards the +Ohio, of family groups, behind and before us.... A small wagon (so light +that you might almost carry it, yet strong enough to bear a good load of +bedding, utensils and provisions, and a swarm of young citizens--and to +sustain marvelous shocks in its passage over these rocky heights) with +two small horses; sometimes a cow or two, comprises their all; excepting +a little store of hard-earned cash for the land office of the district; +where they may obtain a title for as many acres as they possess +half-dollars, being one fourth of the purchase money. The wagon has a +tilt, or cover, made of a sheet, or perhaps a blanket. The family are +seen before, behind, or within the vehicle, according to the road or the +weather, or perhaps the spirits of the party.... A cart and single horse +frequently affords the means of transfer, sometimes a horse and +pack-saddle. Often the back of the poor pilgrim bears all his effects, +and his wife follows, naked-footed, bending under the hopes of the +family." ¹ + +¹ Quoted in Turner, Rise of the New West, pp. 79-80. + +Arrived at the Ohio, the emigrant either engaged passage on some form of +river-craft or set to work to construct with his own hands a vessel that +would bear him and his belongings to the promised land. The styles of +river-craft that appeared on the Ohio and other western streams in the +great era of river migration make a remarkable pageant. There were +canoes, pirogues, skiffs, rafts, dugouts, scows, galleys, arks, +keelboats, flatboats, barges, "broadhorns," "sneak-boxes," and +eventually ocean-going brigs, schooners, and steamboats. The canoe +served the early explorer and trader, and even the settler whose +possessions had been carried over the Alleghanies on a single packhorse. +But after the Revolution the needs of an awakening empire led to the +introduction of new types of craft, built to afford a maximum of +capacity and safety on a downward voyage, without regard for the demands +of a round trip. The most common of these one-way vessels was the +flatboat. + +A flatboat trip down the great river was likely to be filled with +excitement. The sound of the steam-dredge had never been heard on the +western waters, and the stream-bed was as Nature had made it, or rather +was continually remaking it. Yearly floods washed out new channels and +formed new reefs and sand-bars, while logs and brush borne from the +heavily forested banks continually built new obstructions. Consequently +the sharpest lookout had to be maintained, and the pilot was both +skilful and lucky who completed his trip without permitting his boat to +be caught on a "planter" (a log immovably fixed in the river bed), +entangled in the branches of overhanging trees, driven on an island, or +dashed on the bank at a bend. Navigation by night and on foggy days was +hazardous in the extreme and was avoided as far as possible. If all went +well, the voyage from Pittsburgh to Cincinnati could be completed in six +or eight days; but delays might easily extend the period to a month. + +One grave danger has not been mentioned--the Indians. From the moment +when the slow-moving flatboat passed beyond the protection of a white +settlement, it was liable to be fired on, by day or by night, by +redskins; and the better-built boats were so constructed as to be at +least partially bullet-proof. Sometimes extra timber was used to give +safety; sometimes the cargo was specially placed with that aim in view. +The Indians rarely went beyond the water's edge. Their favorite ruse was +to cause captive or renegade whites to run along the bank imploring to +be saved. When a boat had been decoyed to shore, and perhaps a landing +had been made, the savages would pour a murderous fire on the voyagers. +This practice became so common that pioneer boats "shunned the whites +who hailed them from the shores as they would have shunned the Indians," +and as a consequence many whites escaping from the Indians in the +interior were refused succor and left to die. + +When the flatboat reached its destination, it might find service as a +floating store, or even as a schoolhouse. But it was likely to be broken +up, so that the materials in it could be used for building purposes. +Before sawmills became common, lumber was a precious commodity, and +hundreds of pioneer cabins in the Ohio Valley were built partly or +wholly of the boards and timbers taken from the flatboats of their +owners. Even the "gunnels" were sometimes used in Cincinnati as +foundations for houses. In later days the flatboat, if in reasonably +good condition, was not unlikely to be sold to persons engaged in +trading down the Mississippi. Loaded with grain, flour, meats, and other +backwoods products, it would descend to Natchez or New Orleans, where +its cargo could be transferred to ocean-going craft. But in any case its +end was the same; for it would not have been profitable, even had it +been physically possible, to move the heavy, ungainly craft upstream +over long distances, in order to keep it continuously in service. + + + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +Pioneer Days And Ways + + +Arrived on the lower Ohio, or one of its tributaries, the pioneer looked +out upon a land of remarkable riches. It was not a Mexico or a Peru, +with emblazoned palaces and glittering temples, nor yet a California, +with gold-flecked sands. It was merely an unending stretch of wooded +hills and grassy plains, bedecked with majestic forests and fructifying +rivers and lakes. It had no treasures save for the man of courage, +industry, and patience; but for such it held home, broad acres, liberty, +and the coveted opportunity for social equality and advancement. + +The new country has been commonly thought of, and referred to by writers +on the history of the West, as a "wilderness"; and offhand, one might +suppose that the settlers were obliged literally to hew their way +through densely grown vegetation to the spots which they selected for +their homes. In point of fact, there were great areas of upland--not +alone in the prairie country of northern Indiana and Illinois, but in +the hilly regions within a hundred miles of the Ohio--that were almost +treeless. On these unobstructed stretches grasses grew in profusion; and +here roamed great herds of herbivorous animal-kind--deer and elk, and +also buffalo, "filing in grave procession to drink at the rivers, +plunging and snorting among the rapids and quicksands, rolling their +huge bulk on the grass, rushing upon each other in hot encounter, like +champions under shield." Along the watercourses ducks, wild geese, +cranes, herons, and other fowl sounded their harsh cries; gray +squirrels, prairie chickens, and partridges the hunter found at every +turn. + +Furthermore, the forests, as a rule, were not difficult to penetrate. +The trees stood thick, but deer paths, buffalo roads, and Indian trails +ramified in all directions, and sometimes were wide enough to allow two +or three wagons to advance abreast. Mighty poplars, beeches, sycamores, +and "sugars" pushed to great heights in quest of air and sunshine, and +often their intertwining branches were locked solidly together by a +heavy growth of grape or other vines, producing a canopy which during +the summer months permitted scarcely a ray of sunlight to reach the +ground. There was, therefore, a notable absence of undergrowth. When a +tree died and decayed, it fell apart piecemeal; it was with difficulty +that woodsmen could wrest a giant oak or poplar from its moorings and +bring it to the ground, even by severing the trunk completely at the +base. Here and there a clean swath was cut through a forest, for perhaps +dozens of miles, by a hurricane. This gave opportunity for the growth of +a thicket of bushes and small trees, and such spots were equally likely +to be the habitations of wild beasts and the hiding-places of warlike +bands of redskins. + +There were always adventurous pioneers who scorned the settlements and +went off with their families to fix their abodes in isolated places. But +the average newcomer preferred to find a location in, or reasonably +near, a settlement. The choice of a site, whether by a company of +immigrants wishing to establish a settlement or by an individual +settler, was a matter of much importance. Some thought must be given to +facilities for fortification against hostile natives. There must be an +adequate supply of drinking-water; and the location of innumerable +pioneer dwellings was selected with reference to free-flowing springs. +Pasture land for immediate use was desirable; and of course the soil +must be fertile. As a rule, the settler had the alternative of +establishing himself on the lowlands along a stream and obtaining ground +of the greatest productiveness, with the almost certain prospect of +annual attacks of malaria, or of seeking the poorer but more healthful +uplands. The attractions of the "bottoms" were frequently irresistible, +and the "ague" became a feature of frontier life almost as inevitable as +the proverbial "death and taxes." + +The site selected, the next task was to clear a few acres of ground +where the cabin was to stand. It was highly desirable to have a belt of +open land as a protection against Indians and wild beasts; besides, +there must be fields cleared for tillage. If the settler had neighbors, +he was likely to have their aid in cutting away the densest growth of +trees, and in raising into position the heavy timbers which formed the +framework and walls of his cabin. Splendid oaks, poplars, and sycamores +were cut into convenient lengths, and such as could not be used were +rolled into great heaps and burned. Before sawmills were introduced +lumber could not be manufactured; afterwards, it became so plentiful as +to have small market value. + +Almost without exception the frontier cabins had log walls; and they +were rarely of larger size than single lengths would permit. On an +average, they were twelve or fourteen feet wide and fifteen or eighteen +feet long. Sometimes they were divided into two rooms, with an attic +above; frequently there was but one room "downstairs." The logs were +notched together at the corners, and the spaces between them were filled +with moss or clay or covered with bark. Rafters were affixed to the +uppermost logs, and to one another, with wooden pins driven through +auger holes. In earliest times the roof was of bark; later on, shingles +were used, although nails were long unknown, and the shingles, after +being laid in rows, were weighted down with straight logs. + +Sometimes there was only an earth floor. But as a rule "puncheons," +i.e., thick, rough boards split from logs, were laid crosswise on round +logs and were fastened with wooden pins. There was commonly but a single +door, which was made also of puncheons and hung on wooden hinges. A +favorite device was to construct the door in upper and lower sections, +so as to make it possible, when there came a knock or a call from the +outside, to respond without offering easy entrance to an unwelcome +visitor. In the days when there was considerable danger of Indian +attacks no windows were constructed, for the householder could defend +only one aperture. Later, square holes which could be securely barred at +night and during cold weather were made to serve as windows. Flat pieces +of sandstone, if they could be found, were used in building the great +fireplace; otherwise, thick timbers heavily covered with clay were made +to serve. In scarcely a cabin was there a trace of iron or glass; the +whole could be constructed with only two implements--an ax and an auger. + +Occasionally a family carried to its new home some treasured bits of +furniture; but the difficulty of transportation was likely to be +prohibitive, and as a rule the cabins contained only such pieces of +furniture as could be fashioned on the spot. A table was made by +mounting a smoothed slab on four posts, set in auger holes. For seats +short benches and three-legged stools, constructed after the manner of +the tables, were in common use. Cooking utensils, food-supplies, seeds, +herbs for medicinal purposes, and all sorts of household appliances were +stowed away on shelves, made by laying clapboards across wooden pins +driven into the wall and mounting to the ceiling; although after sawed +lumber came into use it was a matter of no great difficulty to construct +chests and cupboards. Not infrequently the settler's family slept on +bear skins or blankets stretched on the floor. But crude bedsteads were +made by erecting a pole with a fork in such a manner that other poles +could be supported horizontally in this fork and by crevices in the +walls. Split boards served as "slats" on which the bedding was spread. +For a long time "straw-ticks"--large cloth bags filled with straw or +sometimes dry grass or leaves--were articles of luxury. Iron pots and +knives were necessities which the wise householder carried with him from +his eastern or southern home. In the West they were hard to obtain. The +chief source of supply was the iron-manufacturing districts of +Pennsylvania and Virginia, whence the wares were carried to the +entrepôts of river trade by packhorses. The kitchen outfit of the +average newcomer was completed with a few pewter dishes, plates, and +spoons. But winter evenings were utilized in whittling out wooden bowls, +trenchers, and noggins or cups, while gourds and hard-shelled squashes +were turned to numerous uses. The commonest drinking utensil was a +long-handled gourd. + +The dress of the pioneer long remained a curious cross between that of +the Indians and that of the white people of the older sections. In +earlier times the hunting-shirt--made of linsey, coarse nettle-bark +linen, buffalo-hair, or even dressed deerskins--was universally worn by +the men, together with breeches, leggings, and moccasins. The women and +children were dressed in simple garments of linsey. In warm weather they +went barefooted; in cold, they wore moccasins or coarse shoes. + +Rarely was there lack of food for these pioneer families. The soil was +prodigal, and the forests abounded in game. The pièce de résistance of +the backwoods menu was "hog an' hominy"; that is to say, pork served +with Indian corn which, after being boiled in lye to remove the hulls, +had been soaked in clear water and cooked soft. "Johnny cake" and +"pone"--two varieties of cornbread--were regularly eaten at breakfast +and dinner. The standard dish for supper was cornmeal mush and milk. As +cattle were not numerous, the housewife often lacked milk, in which case +she fell back on her one never-failing resource--hominy; or she served +the mush with sweetened water, molasses, the gravy of fried meat, or +even bear's oil. Tea and coffee were long unknown, and when introduced +they were likely to be scorned by the men as "slops" good enough perhaps +for women and children. Vegetables the settlers grew in the garden plot +which ordinarily adjoined the house, and thrifty families had also a +"truck patch" in which they raised pumpkins, squashes, potatoes, beans, +melons, and corn for "roasting ears." The forests yielded game, as well +as fruits and wild grapes, and honey for sweetening. + +The first quality for which the life of the frontier called was untiring +industry. It was possible, of course, to eke out an existence by +hunting, fishing, petty trading, and garnering the fruits which Nature +supplied without man's assistance. And many pioneers in whom the roving +instinct was strong went on from year to year in this hand-to-mouth +fashion. But the settler who expected to be a real home-builder, to gain +some measure of wealth, to give his children a larger opportunity in +life, must be prepared to work, to plan, to economize, and to sacrifice. +The forests had to be felled; the great logs had to be rolled together +and burned; crops of maize, tobacco, oats, and cane needed to be +planted, cultivated, and harvested; live stock to be housed and fed; +fences and barns to be built; pork, beef, grain, whiskey, and other +products to be prepared for market, and perhaps carried scores of miles +to a place of shipment. + +All these things had to be done under conditions of exceptional +difficulty. The settler never knew what night his place would be raided +by marauding redskins, who would be lenient indeed if they merely +carried off part of his cattle or burned his barn. Any morning he might +peer out of the "port hole" above the cabin door to see skulking figures +awaiting their chance. Sickness, too, was a menace and a terror. Picture +the horrors of isolation in times of emergency--wife or child suddenly +taken desperately ill, and no physician within a hundred miles; husband +or son hovering between life and death as the result of injury by a +falling tree, a wild beast, a venomous snake, an accidental gun-shot, or +the tomahawk of a prowling Indian. Who shall describe the anxiety, the +agony, which in some measure must have been the lot of every frontier +family? The prosaic illnesses of the flesh were troublesome enough. On +account of defective protection for the feet in wet weather, almost +everybody had rheumatism; most settlers in the bottom-lands fell victims +to fever and ague at one time or another; even in the hill country few +persons wholly escaped malarial disorders. "When this home-building and +land-clearing is accomplished," wrote one whose recollections of the +frontier were vivid, "a faithful picture would reveal not only the +changes that have been wrought, but a host of prematurely broke-down men +and women, besides an undue proportion resting peacefully in country +graveyards." + +The frontiersman's best friend was his trusty rifle. With it he defended +his cabin and his crops from marauders, waged warfare on hostile +redskins, and obtained the game which formed an indispensable part of +his food supply. At first the gun chiefly used on the border was the +smooth-bored musket. But toward the close of the eighteenth century a +gunsmith named Deckhard, living at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, began making +flintlock rifles of small bore, and in a short time the "Deckhard rifle" +was to be found in the hands of almost every backwoodsman. The barrel +was heavy and from three feet to three feet and a half in length, so +that the piece, when set on the ground, reached at least to the +huntsman's shoulder. The bore was cut with twisting grooves, and was so +small that seventy bullets were required to weigh a pound. In loading, a +greased linen "patch" was wrapped around the bullet; and only a small +charge of powder was needed. The gun was heavy to carry and difficult to +hold steadily upon a target; but it was economical of ammunition, and in +the hands of the strong-muscled, keen-eyed, iron-nerved frontiersman it +was an exceedingly accurate weapon, at all events within the ordinary +limits of forest ranges. He was a poor marksman who could not shoot +running deer or elk at a distance of one hundred and fifty yards, and +kill ducks and geese on the wing; and "boys of twelve hung their heads +in shame if detected in hitting a squirrel in any other part of the body +than its head." + +Life on the frontier was filled with hard work, danger, and anxiety. Yet +it had its lighter side, and, indeed, it may be doubted whether people +anywhere relished sport more keenly or found more pleasure in their +everyday pursuits. The occasional family without neighbors was likely to +suffer from loneliness. But few of the settlers were thus cut off, and +as a rule community life was not only physically possible but highly +developed. Many were the opportunities that served to bring together the +frontiersmen, with their families, throughout a settlement or county. +Foremost among such occasions were the log-rollings. + +After a settler had felled the thick-growing trees on a plot which he +desired to prepare for cultivation, he cut them, either by sawing or by +burning, into logs twelve or fifteen feet in length. Frequently these +were three, four, or even five feet in diameter, so that they could not +be moved by one man, even with a team of horses. In such a situation, +the settler would send word to his neighbors for miles around that on a +given day there would be a log-rolling at his place; and when the day +arrived six, or a dozen, or perhaps a score, of sturdy men, with teams +of horses and yokes of oxen, and very likely accompanied by members of +their families, would arrive on the scene with merry shouts of +anticipation. By means of handspikes and chains drawn by horses or oxen, +the great timbers were pushed, rolled, and dragged into heaps, and by +nightfall the field lay open and ready for the plough--requiring, at the +most, only the burning of the huge piles that had been gathered. + +Without loss of time the fires were started; and as darkness came on, +the countryside glowed as with the light of a hundred huge torches. The +skies were reddened, and as a mighty oak or poplar log toppled and fell +to the ground, showers of sparks lent the scene volcanic splendor. Bats +and owls and other dim-eyed creatures of the night flew about in +bewilderment, sometimes bumping hard against fences or other objects, +sometimes plunging madly into the flames and contributing to the general +holocaust. For days the great fires were kept going, until the last +remnants of this section of the once imposing forest were consumed; +while smoke hung far out over the country, producing an atmospheric +effect like that of Indian summer. + +Heavy exertion called for generous refreshment, and on these occasions +the host could be depended on to provide an abundance of food and drink. +The little cabin could hardly be made to accommodate so many guests, +even in relays. Accordingly, a long table was constructed with planks +and trestles in a shady spot, and at noon--and perhaps again in the +evening--the women folk served a meal which at least made up in "staying +qualities" what it lacked in variety or delicacy. The principal dish was +almost certain to be "pot-pie," consisting of boiled turkeys, geese, +chickens, grouse, veal, or venison, with an abundance of dumplings. +This, with cornbread and milk, met the demands of the occasion; but if +the host was able to furnish a cask of rum, his generosity was +thoroughly appreciated. + +In the autumn, corn-huskings were a favorite form of diversion, +especially for the young people; and in the early spring neighbors +sometimes came together to make maple sugar. A wedding was an important +event and furnished diversion of a different kind. From distances of +twenty and thirty miles people came to attend the ceremony, and often +the festivities extended over two or three days. Even now there was work +to be done; for as a rule the neighbors organized a house-building +"bee," and before separating for their homes they constructed a cabin +for the newly wedded pair, or at all events brought it sufficiently near +completion to be finished by the young husband himself. + +Even after a day of heavy toil at log-rolling, the young men and boys +bantered one another into foot races, wrestling matches, shooting +contests, and other feats of strength or skill. And if a fiddler could +be found, the day was sure to end with a "hoe-down"--a dance that "made +even the log-walled house tremble." No corn-husking or wedding was +complete without dancing, although members of certain of the more +straitlaced religious sects already frowned upon the diversion. + +Rough conditions of living made rough men, and we need not be surprised +by the testimony of English and American travelers, that the frontier +had more than its share of boisterous fun, rowdyism, lawlessness, and +crime. The taste for whiskey was universal, and large quantities were +manufactured in rude stills, not only for shipment down the Mississippi, +but for local consumption. Frequenters of the river-town taverns called +for their favorite brands--"Race Horse," "Moral Suasion," "Vox Populi," +"Pig and Whistle," or "Split Ticket," as the case might be. But the +average frontiersman cared little for the niceties of color or flavor so +long as his liquor was cheap and produced the desired effect. Hard work +and a monotonous diet made him continually thirsty; and while ordinarily +he drank only water and milk at home, at the taverns and at social +gatherings he often succumbed to potations which left him in happy +drunken forgetfulness of daily hardships. House-raisings and weddings +often became orgies marked by quarreling and fighting and terminating in +brutal and bloody brawls. Foreign visitors to the back country were led +to comment frequently on the number of men who had lost an eye or an +ear, or had been otherwise maimed in these rough-and-tumble contests. + +The great majority of the frontiersmen, however, were sober, +industrious, and law-abiding folk; and they were by no means beyond the +pale of religion. On account of the numbers of Scotch-Irish, +Presbyterianism was in earlier days the principal creed, although there +were many Catholics and adherents of the Reformed Dutch and German +churches, and even a few Episcopalians. About the beginning of the +nineteenth century sectarian ascendancy passed to the Methodists and +Baptists, whose ranks were rapidly recruited by means of one of the most +curious and characteristic of backwoods institutions, the camp-meeting +"revival." The years 1799 and 1800 brought the first of the several +great waves of religious excitement by which the West--especially Ohio, +Indiana, Kentucky, and Tennessee--was periodically swept until within +the memory of men still living. + +Camp-meetings were usually planned and managed by Methodist +circuit-riders or Baptist itinerant preachers, who hesitated not to +carry their work into the remotest and most dangerous parts of the back +country. When the news went abroad that such a meeting was to take +place, people flocked to the scene from far and near, in wagons, on +horseback, and on foot. Pious men and women came for the sake of +religious fellowship and inspiration; others not so pious came from +motives of curiosity, or even to share in the rough sport for which the +scoffers always found opportunity. The meeting lasted days, and even +weeks; and preaching, praying, singing, "testifying," and "exhorting" +went on almost without intermission. "The preachers became frantic in +their exhortations; men, women, and children, falling as if in +catalepsy, were laid out in rows. Shouts, incoherent singing, sometimes +barking as of an unreasoning beast, rent the air. Convulsive leaps and +dancing were common; so, too, 'jerking,' stakes being driven into the +ground to jerk by, the subjects of the fit grasping them as they writhed +and grimaced in their contortions. The world, indeed, seemed demented." +¹ Whole communities sometimes professed conversion; and it was +considered a particularly good day's work when notorious disbelievers or +wrong-doers--"hard bats," in the phraseology of the frontier--or gangs +of young rowdies whose only object in coming was to commit acts of +deviltry, succumbed to the peculiarly compelling influences of the +occasion. + +¹ Hosmer, Short History of the Mississippi Valley, p. 116. + +In this sort of religion there was, of course, much wild emotionalism +and sheer hysteria; and there were always people to whom it was +repellent. Backsliders were numerous, and the person who "fell from +grace" was more than likely to revert to his earlier wickedness in its +grossest forms. None the less, in a rough, unlearned, and materialistic +society such spiritual shakings-up were bound to yield much permanent +good. Most western people, at one time or another, came under the +influence of the Methodist and Baptist revivals; and from the men and +women who were drawn by them to a new and larger view of life were +recruited the hundreds of little congregations whose meeting-houses in +the course of time dotted the hills and plains from the Alleghanies to +the Mississippi. As for the hard-working, honest-minded frontier +preachers who braved every sort of danger in the performance of their +great task, the West owes them an eternal debt of gratitude. In the +words of Roosevelt, "their prejudices and narrow dislikes, their raw +vanity and sullen distrust of all who were better schooled than they, +count for little when weighed against their intense earnestness and +heroic self-sacrifice." + +Nor was education neglected. Many of the settlers, especially those who +came from the South, were illiterate. But all who made any pretense of +respectability were desirous of giving their children an opportunity to +learn to read and write. Accordingly, wherever half a dozen families +lived reasonably close together, a log schoolhouse was sure to be found. +In the days before public funds existed for the support of education the +teachers were paid directly, and usually in produce, by the patrons. +Sometimes a wandering pedagogue would find his way into a community and, +being engaged to give instruction for two or three months during the +winter, would "board around" among the residents and take such +additional pay as he could get. More often, some one of the settlers who +was fortunate enough to possess the rudiments of an education undertook +the rôle of schoolmaster in the interval between the autumn +corn-gathering and the spring ploughing and planting. + +Instruction rarely extended beyond the three R's; but occasionally a +newcomer who had somewhere picked up a smattering of algebra, Latin, or +astronomy stirred the wonder, if not also the suspicion, of the +neighborhood. Schoolbooks were few and costly; crude slates were made +from pieces of shale; pencils were fashioned from varicolored soapstone +found in the beds of small streams. No frontier picture is more familiar +or more pleasing than that of the farmer's boy sitting or lying on the +floor during the long winter evening industriously tracing by firelight +or by candlelight the proverb or quotation assigned him as an exercise +in penmanship, or wrestling with the intricacies of least common +denominators and highest common divisors. It is in such a setting that +we get our first glimpse of the greatest of western Americans, Abraham +Lincoln. + + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +Tecumseh + + +Wayne's victory in 1795, followed by the Treaty of Fort Greenville, gave +the Northwest welcome relief from Indian warfare, and within four years +the Territory was ready to be advanced to the second of the three grades +of government provided for it in the Ordinance of 1787. A Legislature +was set up at Cincinnati, and in due time it proceeded to the election +of a delegate to Congress. Choice fell on a young man whose name was +destined to a permanent place in the country's history. William Henry +Harrison was the son of a signer of the Declaration of Independence, the +scion of one of Virginia's most honored families. Entering the army in +1791, he had served as an aide-de-camp to Wayne in the campaign which +ended at Fallen Timbers, and at the time of his election was acting as +Secretary of the Territory and ex-officio Lieutenant-Governor. + +Although but twenty-six years of age, and without a vote in the House of +Representatives, Harrison succeeded in procuring from Congress in 1800 +an act dividing the Territory into two distinct "governments," separated +by the old Greenville treaty line as far as Fort Recovery and then by a +line running due north to the Canadian boundary. The division to the +east was named Ohio, that to the west Indiana; and Harrison was made +Governor of the latter, with his residence at Vincennes. In 1802 the +development of the back country was freshly emphasized by the admission +of Ohio as a State. + +Meanwhile the equilibrium between the white man and the red again became +unstable. In the Treaty of 1795 the natives had ceded only southern +Ohio, southeastern Indiana, and a few other small and scattered areas. +Northward and westward, their country stretched to the Lakes and the +Mississippi, unbroken except by military posts and widely scattered +settlements; and title to all of this territory had been solemnly +guaranteed. As late as 1800 the white population of what is now Indiana +was practically confined to Clark's Grant, near the falls of the Ohio, +and a small region around Vincennes. It numbered not more than +twenty-five hundred persons. But thereafter immigration from the +seaboard States, and from the nearer lands of Kentucky and Tennessee, +set in on a new scale. By 1810 Indiana had a white population of +twenty-five thousand, and the cabins of the energetic settlers dotted +river valleys and hillsides never before trodden by white man. + +In this new rush of pioneers the rights of the Indians received scant +consideration. Hardy and well-armed Virginians and Kentuckians broke +across treaty boundaries and possessed themselves of fertile lands to +which they had no valid claim. White hunters trespassed far and wide on +Indian territory, until by 1810 great regions, which a quarter of a +century earlier abounded in deer, bear, and buffalo, were made as +useless for Indian purposes as barren wastes. Although entitled to the +protection of law in his person and property, the native was cheated and +overawed at every turn; he might even be murdered with impunity. Abraham +Lincoln's uncle thought it a virtuous act to shoot an Indian on sight, +and the majority of pioneers agreed with him. + +"I can tell at once," wrote Harrison in 1801, "upon looking at an Indian +whom I may chance to meet whether he belongs to a neighboring or a more +distant tribe. The latter is generally well-clothed, healthy, and +vigorous; the former half-naked, filthy, and enfeebled by intoxication, +and many of them without arms excepting a knife, which they carry for +the most villainous purposes." The stronger tribes perceived quite as +clearly as did the Governor the ruinous effects of contact between the +two peoples, and the steady destruction of the border warriors became a +leading cause of discontent. Congress had passed laws intended to +prevent the sale of spirituous liquors to the natives, but the courts +had construed these measures to be operative only outside the bounds of +States and organized Territories, and in the great unorganized Northwest +the laws were not heeded, and the ruinous traffic went on uninterrupted. +Harrison reported that when there were only six hundred warriors on the +Wabash the annual consumption of whiskey there was six thousand gallons, +and that killing each other in drunken brawls had "become so customary +that it was no longer thought criminal." + +Most exasperating, however, from the red man's point of view was the +insatiable demand of the newcomers for land. In the years 1803, 1804, +and 1805 Harrison made treaties with the remnants of the Miami, Eel +River, Piankeshaw, and Delaware tribes--characterized by him as "a body +of the most depraved wretches on earth"--which gained for the settlers a +strip of territory fifty miles wide south of White River; and in 1809 he +similarly acquired, by the Treaty of Fort Wayne, three million acres, in +tracts which cut into the heart of the Indian country for almost a +hundred miles up both banks of the Wabash. The Wabash valley was richer +in game than any other region south of Lake Michigan, and its loss was +keenly felt by the Indians. Indeed, it was mainly the cession of 1809 +that brought once more to a crisis the long-brewing difficulties with +the Indians. + +About the year 1768 the Creek squaw of a Shawnee warrior gave birth at +one time to three boys, in the vicinity of the present city of +Springfield, Ohio. ¹ One of the three barely left his name in aboriginal +annals. A second, known as Laulewasikaw, "the man with the loud voice," +poses in the pages of history as "the prophet." The third brother was +Tecumseh, "the wild-cat that leaps upon its prey," or "the shooting +star," as the name has been translated. He is described as a tall, +handsome warrior--daring and energetic, of fluent and persuasive speech, +given to deep reflection, an implacable hater of the white man. Other +qualities he possessed which were not so common among his people. He had +perfect self-command, a keen insight into human motives and purposes, +and an exceptional capacity to frame plans and organize men to carry +them out. His crowning scheme for bringing together the tribes of the +Middle West into a grand democratic confederacy to regulate land +cessions and other dealings with the whites stamps him as perhaps the +most statesmanlike member of his race. + +¹ Authorities differ as to the facts of Tecumseh's birth. His earliest +biographer, Benjamin Drake, holds that he was "wholly a Shawanoe" and +that he was a fourth child, the Prophet and another son being twins. +William Henry Harrison spoke of Tecumseh's mother as a Creek. + +While yet hardly more than a boy, Tecumseh seems to have been stirred to +deep indignation by the persistent encroachment of the whites upon the +hunting-grounds of his fathers. The cessions of 1804 and 1805 he +specially resented, and it is not unlikely that they clinched the +decision of the young warrior to take up the task which Pontiac had left +unfinished. At all events, the plan was soon well in hand. A less +far-seeing leader would have been content to call the scattered tribes +to a momentary alliance with a view to a general uprising against the +invaders. But Tecumseh's purposes ran far deeper. All of the Indian +peoples, of whatever name or relationships, from the Lakes to the Gulf +and from the Alleghanies to the Rockies, were to be organized in a +single, permanent confederacy. This union, furthermore, was to consist, +not of chieftains, but of the warriors; and its governing body was to be +a warriors' congress, an organ of genuine popular rule. Joint ownership +of all Indian lands was to be assumed by the confederacy, and the +piecemeal cession of territory by petty tribal chiefs, under pressure of +government agents, was to be made impossible. Only thus, Tecumseh +argued, could the red man hope to hold his own in the uneven contest +that was going on. + +The plan was brilliant, even though impracticable. Naturally, it did not +appeal instantly to the chieftains, for it took away tribal independence +and undermined the chieftain's authority. Besides, its author was not a +chief, and had no sanction of birth or office. Its success was dependent +on the building of an intertribal association such as Indian history had +never known. And while there was nothing in it which contravened the +professed policy of the United States, it ran counter to the +irrepressible tendency of the advancing white population to spread at +will over the great western domain. + +By these obstacles Tecumseh was not deterred. With indefatigable zeal he +traveled from one end of the country to the other, arguing with chiefs, +making fervid speeches to assembled warriors, and in every possible +manner impressing his people with his great idea. The Prophet went with +him; and when the orator's logic failed to carry conviction, the +medicine-man's imprecations were relied upon to save the day. Events, +too, played into their hands. The Leopard-Chesapeake affair, ¹ in 1807, +roused strong feeling in the West and prompted the Governor-General of +Canada to begin intrigues looking to an alliance with the redskins in +the event of war. And when, late in the same year, Governor Hull of +Michigan Territory indiscreetly negotiated a new land cession at +Detroit, the northern tribes at once joined Tecumseh's league, muttering +threats to slay the chiefs by whom the cession had been sanctioned. + +¹ See Jefferson and his Colleagues, by Allen Johnson (in The Chronicles +of America). + +In the spring of 1808 Tecumseh and his brother carried their plans +forward another step by taking up their residence at a point in central +Indiana where Tippecanoe Creek flows into the Wabash River. The +place--which soon got the name of the Prophet's Town--was almost +equidistant from Vincennes, Fort Wayne, and Fort Dearborn; from it the +warriors could paddle their canoes to any part of the Ohio or the +Mississippi, and with only a short portage, to the waters of the Maumee +and the Great Lakes. The situation was, therefore, strategic. A village +was laid out, and the population was soon numbered by the hundred. +Livestock was acquired, agriculture was begun, the use of whiskey was +prohibited, and every indication was afforded of peaceful intent. + +Seasoned frontiersmen, however, were suspicious. Reports came in that +the Tippecanoe villagers engaged daily in warlike exercises; rumor had +it that emissaries of the Prophet were busily stirring the tribes, far +and near, to rebellion. Governor Harrison was not a man to be easily +frightened, but he became apprehensive, and proposed to satisfy himself +by calling Tecumseh into conference. + +The interview took place at Vincennes, and was extended over a period of +two weeks. There was a show of firmness, yet of good will, on both +sides. The Governor counseled peace, orderliness, and industry; the +warrior guest professed a desire to be a friend to the United States, +but said frankly that if the country continued to deal with the tribes +singly in the purchase of land he would be obliged to ally himself with +Great Britain. To Harrison's admonition that the redskins should leave +off drinking whiskey--"that it was not made for them, but for the white +people, who alone knew how to use it"--the visitor replied pointedly by +asking that the sale of liquor be stopped. + +Notwithstanding the tenseness of the situation, Harrison negotiated the +land cessions of 1809, which cost the Indians their last valuable +hunting-grounds in Indiana. The powerful Wyandots promptly joined +Tecumseh's league, and war was made inevitable. Delay followed only +because the Government at Washington postponed the military occupation +of the new purchase, and because the British authorities in Canada, +desiring Tecumseh's confederacy to attain its maximum strength before +the test came, urged the redskins to wait. + +For two more years--while Great Britain and the United States hovered on +the brink of war--preparations continued. Tribe after tribe in Indiana +and Illinois elected Tecumseh as their chief, alliances reached to +regions as remote as Florida. In 1810 another conference took place at +Vincennes; and this time, notwithstanding Harrison's request that not +more than thirty redskins should attend, four hundred came in Tecumseh's +train, fully armed. + +A large portico in front of the Governor's house [says a contemporary +account] had been prepared for the purpose with seats, as well for the +Indians as for the citizens who were expected to attend. When Tecumseh +came from his camp, with about forty of his warriors, he stood off, and +on being invited by the Governor, through an interpreter, to take his +seat, refused, observing that he wished the council to be held under the +shade of some trees in front of the house. When it was objected that it +would be troublesome to remove the seats, he replied that "it would only +be necessary to remove those intended for the whites--that the red men +were accustomed to sit upon the earth, which was their mother, and that +they were always happy to recline upon her bosom." ¹ + +¹ James Hall, Memoir of William Henry Harrison, pp. 113-114. + +The chieftain's equivocal conduct aroused fresh suspicion, but he was +allowed to proceed with the oration which he had come to deliver. Freely +rendered, the speech ran, in part, as follows: + +I have made myself what I am; and I would that I could make the red +people as great as the conceptions of my mind, when I think of the Great +Spirit that rules over all. I would not then come to Governor Harrison +to ask him to tear the treaty [of 1809]; but I would say to him, +Brother, you have liberty to return to your own country. Once there was +no white man in all this country: then it belonged to red men, children +of the same parents, placed on it by the Great Spirit to keep it, to +travel over it, to eat its fruits, and fill it with the same race--once +a happy race, but now made miserable by the white people, who are never +contented, but always encroaching. They have driven us from the great +salt water, forced us over the mountains, and would shortly push us into +the lakes--but we are determined to go no further. The only way to stop +this evil is for all red men to unite in claiming a common and equal +right in the land, as it was at first, and should be now--for it never +was divided, but belongs to all.... Any sale not made by all is not +good. + +In his reply Harrison declared that the Indians were not one nation, +since the Great Spirit had "put six different tongues in their heads," +and argued that the Indiana lands had been in all respects properly +bought from their rightful owners. Tecumseh's blood boiled under this +denial of his main contention, and with the cry, "It is false," he gave +a signal to his warriors, who sprang to their feet and seized their +war-clubs. For a moment an armed clash was imminent. But Harrison's cool +manner enabled him to remain master of the situation, and a +well-directed rebuke sent the chieftain and his followers to their +quarters. + +On the following morning Tecumseh apologized for his impetuosity and +asked that the conference be renewed. The request was granted, and again +the forest leader pressed for an abandonment of the policy of purchasing +land from the separate tribes. Harrison told him that the question was +for the President, rather than for him, to decide. "As the great chief +is to determine the matter," responded the visitor grimly, "I hope the +Great Spirit will put sense enough into his head to induce him to direct +you to give up this land. It is true he is so far off he will not be +injured by the war. He may sit still in his town, and drink his wine, +while you and I will have to fight it out." + +Still the clash was averted. Once more, in the summer of 1811, Tecumseh +appeared at Vincennes, and again the deep issue between the two peoples +was threshed out as fruitlessly as before. Announcing his purpose to +visit the southern tribes to unite them with those of the North in a +peaceful confederacy, the chieftain asked that during his absence all +matters be left as they were, and promised that upon his return he would +go to see President Madison and "settle everything with him." + +Naturally, no pledge of the kind was given, and no sooner had Tecumseh +and twenty of his warriors started southward on their mission to the +Creeks than Harrison began preparations to end the menace that had been +so long hanging over the western country. Troops were sent to Harrison; +and volunteers were called for. As fast as volunteers came in they were +sent up to the Wabash to take possession of the new purchase. +Reinforcements arrived from Pittsburgh and from Kentucky, and in a short +while the Governor was able to bring together at Fort Harrison, near the +site of the present city of Terre Haute, twenty-four companies of +regulars, militia, and Indians, aggregating about nine hundred +well-armed men. + +Late in October this army, commanded by Harrison in person, set forth +for the destruction of the Tippecanoe rendezvous. On the way stray +redskins were encountered, but the advance was not resisted, and to his +surprise Harrison was enabled to lead his forces unmolested to within a +few hundred yards of the Prophet's headquarters. Emissaries now came +saying that the invasion was wholly unexpected, professing peaceful +intentions, and asking for a parley. Harrison had no idea that anything +could be settled by negotiation, but he preferred to wait until the next +day to make an attack; accordingly he agreed to a council, and the army +went into camp for the night on an oak-covered knoll about a mile +northwest of the village. No entrenchments were thrown up, but the +troops were arranged in a triangle to conform to the contour of the +hill, and a hundred sentinels under experienced officers were stationed +around the camp-fires. The night was cold, and rain fell at intervals, +although at times the moon shone brightly through the flying clouds. + +The Governor was well aware of the proneness of the Indians to early +morning attacks, so that about four o'clock on the 7th of November he +rose to call the men to parade. He had barely pulled on his boots when +the forest stillness was broken by the crack of a rifle at the farthest +angle of the camp, and instantly the Indian yell, followed by a +fusillade, told that a general attack had begun. Before the militiamen +could emerge in force from their tents, the sentinel line was broken and +the red warriors were pouring into the enclosure. Desperate fighting +ensued, and when time for reloading failed, it was rifle butt and +bayonet against tomahawk and scalping knife in hand-to-hand combat. For +two hours the battle raged in the darkness, and only when daylight came +were the troops able to charge the redskins, dislodge them from behind +the trees, and drive them to a safe distance in the neighboring swamp. +Sixty-one of Harrison's officers and men were killed or mortally +wounded; one hundred and twenty-seven others suffered serious injury. +The Governor himself probably owed his life to the circumstance that in +the confusion he mounted a bay horse instead of his own white stallion, +whose rider was shot early in the contest. + +The Indian losses were small, and for twenty-four hours Harrison's +forces kept their places, hourly expecting another assault. "Night," +wrote one of the men subsequently, "found every man mounting guard, +without food, fire, or light and in a drizzling rain. The Indian dogs, +during the dark hours, produced frequent alarms by prowling in search of +carrion about the sentinels." There being no further sign of +hostilities, early on the 8th of November a body of mounted riflemen set +out for the Prophet's village, which they found deserted. The place had +evidently been abandoned in haste, for nothing--not even a fresh stock +of English guns and powder--had been destroyed or carried off. After +confiscating much-needed provisions and other valuables, Harrison +ordered the village to be burned. Then, abandoning camp furniture and +private baggage to make room in the wagons for the wounded, he set out +on the return trip to Vincennes. A company was left at Fort Harrison, +and the main force reached the capital on the 18th of November. + +Throughout the western country the news of the battle was received with +delight, and it was fondly believed that the backbone of Tecumseh's +conspiracy was broken. It was even supposed that the indomitable +chieftain and his brother would be forthwith surrendered by the Indians +to the authorities of the United States. Harrison was acclaimed as a +deliverer. The legislatures of Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois formally +thanked him for his services; and if, as his Federalist enemies charged, +he had planned the whole undertaking with a view to promoting his +personal fortunes, he ought to have been satisfied with the result. It +was the glamour of Tippecanoe that three decades afterwards carried him +into the President's chair. + +In precipitating a clash while Tecumseh, the master-mind of the +fast-growing confederacy, was absent, the Prophet committed a capital +blunder. When reproached by his warriors, he declared that all would +have gone well but for the fact that on the night before the battle his +squaw had profanely touched the pot in which his magic charms were +brewed, so that the spell had been broken! The explanation was not very +convincing, and ominous murmurings were heard. Before the end of the +year, however, word came to Vincennes that the crafty magician was back +at Tippecanoe, that the village had been rebuilt, and that the lives of +the white settlers who were pouring into the new purchase were again +endangered. + +Still more alarming was the news of Tecumseh's return in January, 1812, +from a very successful visit to the Creeks, Choctaws, and Cherokees. He +began by asking leave to make his long-projected visit to Washington to +obtain peace from the President, and he professed deep regret for "the +unfortunate transaction that took place between the white people and a +few of our young men at our village." To the British agent at +Amherstburg he declared that had he been on the spot there would have +been no fighting at Tippecanoe. It is reasonable to suppose that in this +case there would have been, at all events, no Indian attack; for +Tecumseh was thoroughly in sympathy with the British plan, which was to +unite and arm the natives, but to prevent a premature outbreak. The +chieftain's presence, however, would hardly have deterred Harrison from +carrying out his decision to break up the Tippecanoe stronghold. + +The spring of 1812 brought an ominous renewal of depredations. Two +settlers were murdered within three miles of Fort Dearborn; an entire +family was massacred but five miles from Vincennes; from all directions +came reports of other bloody deeds. The frontier was thrown into panic. +A general uprising was felt to be impending; even Vincennes was thought +to be in danger. "Most of the citizens of this country," reported +Harrison, on the 6th of May, "have abandoned their farms, and taken +refuge in such temporary forts as they have been able to construct. +Scores fled to Kentucky and to even more distant regions." + +Tecumseh continued to assert his friendship for his "white brothers" and +to treat the battle at Tippecanoe as a matter of no moment. The murders +on the frontier he declared to be the work of the Potawatomi, who were +not under his control, and for whose conduct he had no excuse. But it +was noted that he made no move to follow up his professed purpose to +visit Washington in quest of peace, and that he put forth no effort to +restrain his over-zealous allies. It was plain enough that he was simply +awaiting a signal from Canada, and that, as the commandant at Fort Wayne +tersely reported, if the country should have a war with Great Britain, +it must be prepared for an Indian war as well. + + + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +The War Of 1812 And The New West + + +The spring of 1812 thus found the back country in a turmoil, and it was +with a real sense of relief that the settlers became aware of the +American declaration of war against Great Britain on the 18th of June. +More than once Governor Harrison had asked for authority to raise an +army with which to "scour" the Wabash territory. In the fear that such a +step would drive the redskins into the arms of the British, the War +Department had withheld its consent. Now that the ban was lifted, the +people could expect the necessary measures to be taken for their +defense. In no part of the country was the war more popular; nowhere did +the mass of the able-bodied population show greater eagerness to take +the field. + +According to official returns, the Westerners were totally unprepared +for the contest. There were but five garrisoned posts between the Ohio +and the Canadian frontier. Fort Harrison had fifty men, Fort Wayne +eighty-five, Fort Dearborn fifty-three, Fort Mackinac eighty-eight, and +Detroit one hundred and twenty--a total force of fewer than four +hundred. The entire standing army of the United States numbered but +sixty-seven hundred men, and it was obvious that the trans-Alleghany +population would be obliged to carry almost alone the burden of their +own defense. The task would not be easy; for General Brock, commanding +in upper Canada, had at least two thousand regulars and, as soon as +hostilities began, was joined by Tecumseh and many hundred redskins. + +While the question of the war was still under debate in Congress, +President Madison made a requisition on Ohio for twelve hundred militia, +and in early summer the Governors of Indiana and Illinois called +hundreds of volunteers into service. Leaving their families as far as +possible under the protection of stockades or of the towns, the patriots +flocked to the mustering-grounds; many, like Cincinnatus of old, +deserted the plough in midfield. Guns and ammunition in sufficient +quantity were lacking; even tents and blankets were often wanting. But +enthusiasm ran high, and only capable leadership was needed to make of +these frontier forces, once they were properly equipped, a formidable +foe. + +The story of the leaders and battles of the war in the West has been +told in an earlier volume of this series. ¹ It will be necessary here +merely to call to mind the stages through which this contest passed, as +a preliminary to a glimpse of the conditions under which Westerners +fought and of the new position into which their section of the country +was brought when peace was restored. So far as the regions north of the +Ohio were concerned, the war developed two phases. The first began with +General William Hull's expedition from Ohio against Fort Malden for the +relief of Detroit, and it ended with the humiliating surrender of that +important post, together with the forced abandonment of Forts Dearborn +and Mackinac, so that the Wabash and Maumee became, for all practical +purposes, the country's northern boundary. This was a story of complete +and bitter defeat. The second phase began likewise with a disaster--the +needless loss of a thousand men on the Raisin River, near Detroit. Yet +it succeeded in bringing William Henry Harrison into chief command, and +it ended in Commodore Perry's signal victory on Lake Erie and Harrison's +equally important defeat of the disheartened British land forces on the +banks of the Thames River, north of the Lake. At this Battle of the +Thames perished Tecumseh, who in point of fact was the real force behind +the British campaigns in the West. Tradition describes him on the eve of +the battle telling his comrades that his last day had come, solemnly +stripping off his British uniform before going into battle, and arraying +himself in the fighting costume of his own people. + +¹ See The Fight for a Free Sea, by Ralph D. Paine (in The Chronicles of +America). + +For two-thirds of the time, the war went badly for the Westerners, and +only at the end did it turn out to be a brilliant success. The reasons +for the dreary succession of disasters are not difficult to discover. +Foremost among them is the character of the troops and officers. The +material from which the regiments were recruited was intrinsically good, +but utterly raw and untrained. The men could shoot well; they had great +powers of endurance; and they were brave. But there the list of their +military virtues ends. + +The scheme of military organization relied upon throughout the West was +that of the volunteer militia. In periods of ordinary Indian warfare the +system served its purpose fairly well. Under stern necessity, the +self-willed, independence-loving backwoodsmen could be brought to act +together for a few weeks or months; but they had little systematic +training, and their impatience of restraint prevented the building up of +any real discipline. There were periodic musters for company or +regimental drill. But, as a rule, drill duty was not taken seriously. +Numbers of men failed to report; and those who came were likely to give +most of their time to horse-races, wrestling-matches, shooting +contests--not to mention drinking and brawling--which turned the +occasion into mere merrymaking or disorder. The men brought few guns, +and when drills were actually held these soldiers in the making +contented themselves with parading with cornstalks over their shoulders. +"Cornstalk drill" thus became a frontier epithet of derision. It goes +without saying that these troops were poorly officered. The captains and +colonels were chosen by the men, frequently with more regard for their +political affiliations or their general standing in the community than +for their capacity as military commanders; nor were the higher officers, +appointed by the chief executive of territory, state, or nation, more +likely to be chosen with a view to their military fitness. + +So it came about, as Roosevelt has said, that the frontier people of the +second generation "had no military training whatever, and though they +possessed a skeleton militia organization, they derived no benefit from +it, because their officers were worthless, and the men had no idea of +practising self-restraint or obeying orders longer than they saw fit." ¹ +When the War of 1812 began, these backwoods troops were pitted against +British regulars who were powerfully supported by Indian allies. The +officers of these untrained American troops were, like Hull, pompous, +broken-down, political incapables; while to the men themselves may +fairly be applied Amos Kendall's disgusted characterization of a +Kentucky muster: "The soldiers are under no more restraint than a herd +of swine. Reasoning, remonstrating, threatening, and ridiculing their +officers, they show their sense of equality and their total want of +subordination." Not until the very last of the war, when under +Harrison's direction capable and experienced officers drilled them into +real soldiers, did these backwoods stalwarts become an effective +fighting force. + +¹ Winning of the West, vol. IV. p. 246. + +There were also shortcomings of another sort. None was more exasperating +or costly than the lack of means of transportation. Even in Ohio, the +oldest and most settled portion of the Northwest, roads were few and +poor; elsewhere there were practically none of any kind. But the regions +in which the war was carried on were far too sparsely populated to be +able to furnish the supplies, even the foodstuffs, needed by the troops; +and materials of every sort had to be transported from the East, by +river, lake, and wilderness trail. Up and down the great unbroken +stretches between the Ohio and the Lakes moved the floundering supply +trains in the vain effort to keep up with the armies, or to reach camps +or forts in time to avert starvation or disaster. Pack-horses waded +knee-deep in mud; wagons were dragged through mire up to their hubs; +even empty vehicles sometimes became so embedded that they had to be +abandoned, the drivers being glad to get off with their horses alive. +Many times a quartermaster, taking advantage of a frost, would send off +a convoy of provisions, only to hear of its being swamped by a thaw +before reaching its destination. One of the tragedies of the war was the +suffering of the troops while waiting for supplies of clothing, tents, +medicines, and food which were stuck in swamps or frozen up in rivers or +lakes. + +Beset with pleurisy, pneumonia, and rheumatism in winter, with fevers in +summer, and subject to attack by the Indians at all times, these +frontier soldiers led an existence of exceptional hardship. Only the +knowledge that they were fighting for their freedom and their homes held +them to their task. An interesting sidelight on the conditions under +which their work was done is contained in the following extract from a +letter written by a volunteer in 1814: + +On the second day of our march a courier arrived from General Harrison, +ordering the artillery to advance with all possible speed. This was +rendered totally impossible by the snow which took place, it being a +complete swamp nearly all day. On the evening of the same day news +arrived that General Harrison had retreated to Portage River, eighteen +miles in the rear of the encampment at the rapids. As many men as could +be spared determined to proceed immediately to re-enforce him.... At two +o'clock the next morning our tents were struck, and in half an hour we +were on the road. I will candidly confess that on that day I regretted +being a soldier. On that day we marched thirty miles under an incessant +rain; and I am afraid you will doubt my veracity when I tell you that in +eight miles of the best of the road, it took us over the knees, and +often to the middle. The Black Swamp would have been considered +impassable by all but men determined to surmount every difficulty to +accomplish the object of their march. In this swamp you lose sight of +terra firma altogether--the water was about six inches deep on the ice, +which was very rotten, often breaking through to the depth of four or +five feet. The same night we encamped on very wet ground, but the driest +that could be found, the rain still continuing. It was with difficulty +we could raise fires; we had no tents; our clothes were wet, no axes, +nothing to cook with, and very little to eat. A brigade of pack-horses +being near us, we procured from them some flour, killed a hog (there +were plenty of them along the road); our bread was baked in the ashes, +and our pork we broiled on the coals--a sweeter meal I never partook of. +When we went to sleep it was on two logs laid close to each other, to +keep our bodies from the damp ground. Good God! What a pliant being is +man in adversity. ¹ + +¹ Dawson, William H. Harrison, p. 369. + +The principal theater of war was the Great Lakes and the lands adjacent +to them. Prior to the campaign which culminated in Jackson's victory at +New Orleans after peace had been signed, the Mississippi Valley had been +untrodden by British soldiery. The contest, none the less, came close +home to the backwoods populations. Scores of able-bodied men from every +important community saw months or years of toilsome service; many failed +to return to their homes, or else returned crippled, weakened, or +stricken with fatal diseases; crops were neglected, or had only such +care as could be given them by old men and boys; trade languished; +Indian depredations wrought further ruin to life and property and kept +the people continually in alarm. Until 1814, reports of successive +defeats, in both the East and West, had a depressing influence and led +to solemn speculation as to whether the back country stood in danger of +falling again under British dominion. + +It was, therefore, with a very great sense of relief that the West heard +in 1815 that peace had been concluded. At a stroke both the British +menace and the danger from the Indians were removed; for although the +redskins were still numerous and discontented, their spirit of +resistance was broken. Never again was there a general uprising against +the whites; never again did the Northwest witness even a local Indian +war of any degree of seriousness save Black Hawk's Rebellion in 1832. +Tecumseh manifestly realized before he made his last stand at the Thames +that the cause of his people was forever lost. + +For several years the unsettled conditions on the frontiers had +restrained any general migration thither from the seaboard States. But +within a few months after the proclamation of peace the tide again set +westward, and with an unprecedented force. Men who had suffered in their +property or other interests from the war turned to Indiana and Illinois +as a promising field in which to rebuild their fortunes. The rapid +extinction of Indian titles opened up vast tracts of desirable land, and +the conditions of purchase were made so easy that any man of ordinary +industry and integrity could meet them. Speculators and promoters +industriously advertised the advantages of localities in which they were +interested, boomed new towns, and even loaned money to ambitious +emigrants. + +The upshot was that the population of Indiana grew from twenty-five +thousand in 1810 to seventy thousand in 1816, when the State was +admitted to the Union. Illinois filled with equal rapidity, and attained +statehood only two years later. Then the tide swept irresistibly +westward across the Mississippi into the great regions which had been +acquired from France in 1803. As late as 1812 the Territory of Missouri, +comprising all of the Louisiana Purchase north of the present State of +Louisiana, had a population of only twenty-two thousand, including many +French and Spanish settlers and traders. But in 1818 it had a population +of more than sixty thousand, and was asking Congress for legislation +under which the most densely inhabited portion should be set off as the +State of Missouri. Thus the Old Northwest was not merely losing its +frontier character and taking its place in the nation on a footing with +the seaboard sections; it was also serving as the open gateway to a +newer, vaster, and in some respects richer American back country. + +In the main, southern Indiana and Illinois--as well as the +trans-Mississippi territory--drew from Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, +and the remoter South. North of the latitude of Indianapolis and St. +Louis the lines of migration led chiefly from New England, New York, and +Pennsylvania. But many of the settlers came, immediately or after only a +brief interval, from Europe. The decade following the close of the war +was a time of unprecedented emigration from England, Scotland, Ireland, +and Germany to the United States; and while many of the newcomers found +homes in the eastern States, where they in a measure offset the +depopulation caused by the westward exodus, a very large proportion +pressed on across the mountains in quest of the cheap lands in the +undeveloped interior. During these years the western country was +repeatedly visited by European travelers with a view to ascertaining its +resources, markets, and other attractions for settlers; and emigration +thither was powerfully stimulated by the writings of these observers, as +well as by the activities of sundry founders of agricultural colonies. + +"These favorable accounts," wrote Adlard Welby, an Englishman who made a +tour of inspection through the West in 1819, "aided by a period of real +privation and discontent in Europe, caused emigration to increase +ten-fold; and though various reports of unfavorable nature soon +circulated, and many who had emigrated actually returned to their native +land in disgust, yet still the trading vessels were filled with +passengers of all ages and descriptions, full of hope, looking forward +to the West as to a land of liberty and delight--a land flowing with +milk and honey--a second land of Canaan." ¹ + +¹ Thwaites, Early Western Travels, vol. XII, p. 148. + +After the dangers from the Indians were overcome, the main obstacle to +western development was the lack of means of easy and cheap +transportation. The settler found it difficult to reach the region which +he had selected for his home. Eastern supplies of salt, iron, hardware, +and fabrics and foodstuffs could be obtained only at great expense. The +fast-increasing products of the western farms--maize, wheat, meats, +livestock--could be marketed only at a cost which left a slender margin +of profit. The experiences of the late war had already proved the need +of highways as auxiliaries of national defense. It required a month to +carry goods from Baltimore to central Ohio. None the less, even before +the War of 1812, hundreds of transportation companies were running +four-horse freight wagons between the eastern and western States; and in +1820 more than three thousand wagons--practically all carrying western +products--passed back and forth between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, +transporting merchandise valued at eighteen million dollars. + +Small wonder that western producer and eastern dealer alike became +interested in internal improvements; or that under the double stimulus +of private and public enterprise Indian trails fast gave way to rough +pioneer roadways, and they to carefully planned and durable turnpikes. +Long before the War of 1812, Jefferson, Gallatin, Clay, and other +statesmen had conceived of a great highway, or series of highways, +connecting the seaboard with the interior as the surest and best means +of promoting national unity and strength; and, in the act of Congress of +1802 admitting the State of Ohio, a promising beginning had been made by +setting aside five per cent of the money received from the sale of +public lands in the State for the building of roads extending eastward +to the navigable waters of Atlantic streams. In 1808 Secretary Gallatin +had presented to Congress a report calling for an outlay on internal +improvements of two million dollars of federal money a year for ten +years; and in 1811 the Government had entered upon the greatest +undertaking of its kind in the history of the country. + +This enterprise was the building of the magnificent highway known to the +law as the Cumberland Road, but familiar to uncounted emigrants, +travelers, and traders--and deeply embedded in the traditions of the +Middle States and the West--as the National Road. Starting at +Cumberland, Maryland, this great artery of commerce and travel was +pushed slowly through the Alleghanies, even in the dark days of the war, +and by 1818 it was open for traffic as far west as Wheeling. The method +of construction was that which had lately been devised by John McAdam in +England, and involved spreading crushed limestone over a carefully +prepared road-bed in three layers, traffic being permitted for a time +over each layer in succession. This "macadamized" surface was curved to +permit drainage, and extra precautions were taken in localities where +spring freshets were likely to cause damage. + +Controversy raged over proposals to extend the road to the farthest +West, to provide its upkeep by a system of tolls, and to build similar +highways farther north and south. But for a time constitutional and +legal difficulties were swept aside and construction continued. Columbus +was reached in 1833, Indianapolis about 1840; and the roadway was graded +to Vandalia, then the capital of Illinois, and marked out to Jefferson +City, Missouri, although it was never completed to the last-mentioned +point by federal authority. When one reads that the original cost of +construction mounted to $10,000 a mile in central Pennsylvania, and even +$13,000 a mile in the neighborhood of Wheeling, one's suspicion is +aroused that public contracts were not less dubious a hundred years ago +than they have been known to be in our own time. + +The National Road has long since lost its importance as the great +connecting link of East and West. But in its day, especially before +1860, it was a teeming thoroughfare. Its course was lined with +hospitable farmhouses and was dotted with fast-growing villages and +towns. Some of the latter which once were nationally famed were left +high and dry by later shifts of the lines of traffic, and have quite +disappeared from the map. Throughout the spring and summer months there +was a steady westward stream of emigrants; hardly a day failed to bring +before the observer's eye the creaking canvas-covered wagon of the +homeseeker. Singly and in companies they went, ever toward the promised +land. Wagon-trains of merchandise from the eastern markets toiled +patiently along the way. Speculators, peddlers, and sightseers added to +the procession, and in hundreds of farmhouses the women-folk and +children gathered in interested groups by the evening fire to hear the +chance visitor talk politics or war and retail with equal facility the +gossip of the next township and that of Washington or New York. Great +stage-coach lines--the National Road Stage Company, the Ohio National +Stage Company, and others--advertised the advantages of their services +and sought patronage with all the ingenuity of the modern railroad. +Taverns and roadhouses of which no trace remains today offered +entertainment at any figure, and of almost any character, that the +customer desired. Eastward flowed a steady stream of wagon-trains of +flour, tobacco, and pork, with great droves of cattle and hogs to be +fattened for the Philadelphia or Baltimore markets. + +At almost precisely the same time that the first shovelful of earth was +turned for the Cumberland Road, people dwelling on the banks of the +upper Ohio were startled by the spectacle of a large boat moving +majestically down stream entirely devoid of sail, oar, pole, or any +other visible means of propulsion or control. This object of wonderment +was the New Orleans, the first steamboat to be launched on western +waters. + +The conquest of the steamboat was speedy and complete. Already in 1819 +there were sixty-three such craft on the Ohio, and in 1834--when the +total shipping tonnage of the Atlantic seaboard was 76,064, and of the +British Empire 82,696--the tonnage afloat on the Ohio and Mississippi +was 126,278. Vessels regularly ascended the navigable tributaries of the +greater streams in quest of cargoes, and while craft of other sorts did +not disappear, the great and growing commerce of the river was +revolutionized. + +In the upbuilding of steamboat navigation the thriving, bustling, +boastful spirit of the West found ample play. Steamboat owners vied with +one another in adorning their vessels with bowsprits, figureheads, and +all manner of tinseled decorations, and in providing elegant +accommodations for passengers; engineers and pilots gloried in speed +records and challenged one another to races which ended in some of the +most shocking steamboat disasters known to history. The unconscious +bombast of an anonymous Cincinnati writer in Timothy Flint's Western +Monthly Review in 1827 gives us the real flavor of the steamboat +business on the threshold of the Jacksonian era: + +An Atlantic cit, who talks of us under the name of backwoodsmen, would +not believe, that such fairy structures of oriental gorgeousness and +splendor as the Washington, the Florida, the Walk in the Water, The Lady +of the Lake, etc., etc., had ever existed in the imaginative brain of a +romancer, much less, that they were actually in existence, rushing down +the Mississippi, as on the wings of the wind, or plowing up between the +forests, and walking against the mighty current "as things of life," +bearing speculators, merchants, dandies, fine ladies, everything real, +and everything affected, in the form of humanity, with pianos, and +stocks of novels, and cards, and dice, and flirting, and love-making, +and drinking, and champagne, and on the deck, perhaps, three hundred +fellows, who have seen alligators, and neither fear whiskey, nor +gun-powder. A steamboat, coming from New Orleans, brings to the remotest +villages of our streams, and the very doors of the cabins, a little +Paris, a section of Broadway, or a slice of Philadelphia, to ferment in +the minds of our young people, the innate propensity for fashions and +finery.... Cincinnati will soon be the centre of the "celestial empire," +as the Chinese say; and instead of encountering the storms, the +seasickness, and dangers of a passage from the Gulf of Mexico to the +Atlantic, whenever the Erie Canal shall be completed, the opulent +southern planters will take their families, their dogs and parrots, +through a world of forests, from New Orleans to New York, giving us a +call by the way. When they are more acquainted with us, their voyage +will often terminate here. ¹ + +¹ Vol. I, p. 25 (May, 1827). + +The new West was frankly materialistic. Yet its interests were by no +means restricted to steamboats, turnpikes, crops, exports, and +money-making. It concerned itself much with religion. One of the most +familiar figures on trail and highway was the circuit-rider, with his +Bible and saddlebags; and no community was so remote, or so hardened, as +not to be raised occasionally to a frenzy of religious zeal by the crude +but terrifying eloquence of the revivalist. For education, likewise, +there was a growing regard. Nowhere did the devotion of the Western +people to the twin ideas of democracy and enlightenment find nobler +expression than in the clause of the Indiana constitution of 1816 making +it the duty of the Legislature to provide for "a general system of +education, ascending in a regular gradation from township schools to a +state university, wherein tuition shall be gratis, and equally open to +all." This principle found general application throughout the Northwest. +By 1830 common schools existed wherever population was sufficient to +warrant the expense; academies and other secondary schools were +springing up in Cincinnati, Louisville, St. Louis, and many lesser +places; state universities existed in Ohio and Indiana; and Baptists, +Methodists, and Presbyterians had begun to dot the country with small +colleges. Literature developed slowly. But newspapers appeared almost +before there were readers; and that the new society was by no means +without cultural, and even æsthetic, aspiration is indicated by the +long-continued rivalry of Cincinnati and Lexington, Kentucky, to be +known as "the Athens of the West." + + + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +Sectional Cross Current + + +The War of 1812 did much in America to stimulate national pride and to +foster a sense of unity. None the less, the decade following the Peace +of Ghent proved the beginning of a long era in which the point of view +in politics, business, and social life was distinctly sectional. New +England, the Middle States, the South, the West--all were bent upon +getting the utmost advantages from their resources; all were viewing +public questions in the light of their peculiar interests. In the days +of Clay and Calhoun and Jackson the nation's politics were essentially a +struggle for power among the sections. + +There was a time when the frontier folk of the trans-Alleghany country +from Lakes to Gulf were much alike. New Englanders in the Reserve, +Pennsylvanians in central Ohio, Virginians and Carolinians in Kentucky +and southern Indiana, Georgians in Alabama and Mississippi, Kentuckians +and Tennesseeans in Illinois and Missouri--all were pioneer farmers and +stock-raisers, absorbed in the conquest of the wilderness and all +thinking, working, and living in much the same way. But by 1820 the +situation had altered. The West was still a "section," whose interests +and characteristics contrasted sharply with those of New England or the +Middle States. Yet upon occasion it could act with very great effect, as +for instance when it rallied to the support of Jackson and bore him +triumphantly to the presidential chair. Great divergences, however, had +grown up within this western area; differences which had existed from +the beginning had been brought into sharp relief. Under play of climatic +and industrial forces, the West had itself fallen apart into sections. + +Foremost was the cleavage between North and South, on a line marked +roughly by the Ohio River. Climate, soil, the cotton gin, and slavery +combined to make of the southern West a great cotton-raising area, +interested in the same things and swayed by the same impulses as the +southern seaboard. Similarly, economic conditions combined to make of +the northern West a land of small farmers, free labor, town-building, +and diversified manufactures and trade. A very large chapter of American +history hinges on this wedging apart of Southwest and Northwest. To this +day the two great divisions have never wholly come together in their +ways of thinking. + +But neither of these western segments was itself entirely a unit. The +Northwest, in particular, had been settled by people drawn from every +older portion of the country, and as the frontier receded and society +took on a more matured aspect, differences of habits and ideas were +accentuated rather than obscured. Men can get along very well with one +another so long as they live apart and do not try to regulate their +everyday affairs on common lines. + +The great human streams that poured into the Northwest flowed from two +main sources--the nearer South and New England. Ohio, Indiana, and +Illinois were first peopled by men and women of Southern stock. Some +migrated directly from Virginia, the Carolinas, and even Georgia. But +most came from Kentucky and Tennessee and represented the second +generation of white people in those States, now impelled to move on to a +new frontier by the desire for larger and cheaper farms. Included in +this Southern element were many representatives of the well-to-do +classes, who were drawn to the new territories by the opportunity for +speculation in land and for political preferment, and by the opening +which the fast-growing communities afforded for lawyers, doctors, and +members of other professions. The number of these would have been larger +had there been less rigid restrictions upon slaveholding. It was rather, +however, the poorer whites--the more democratic, non-slaveholding +Southern element--that formed the bulk of the earlier settlers north of +the Ohio. + +There was much westward migration from New England before the War of +1812, but only a small share of it reached the Ohio country, and +practically none went beyond the Western Reserve. The common goal was +western New York. Here again there was some emigration of the well-to-do +and influential. But, as in the South, the people who moved were mainly +those who were having difficulty in making ends meet and who could see +no way of bettering their condition in their old homes. The back country +of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and western Massachusetts was filled +with people of this sort--poor, discontented, restless, without +political influence, and needing only the incentive of cheap lands in +the West to sever the slender ties which bound them to the stony +hillsides of New England. + +After 1815 New England emigration rose to astonishing proportions, and +an increasing number of the homeseekers passed--directly or after a +sojourn in the Lower Lake country of New York--into the Northwest. The +opening of the Erie Canal in 1825 made the westward journey easier and +cheaper. The routes of travel led to Lakes Ontario and Erie, thence to +the Reserve in northern Ohio, thence by natural stages into other +portions of northern Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, and eventually into +southern Michigan and Wisconsin. Not until after 1830 did the stalwart +homeseekers penetrate north of Detroit; the great stretches of prairie +between Lakes Erie and Michigan, and to the south--left quite untouched +by Southern pioneers--satisfied every desire of these restless farmers +from New England. + +For a long time Southerners determined the course of history in the Old +Northwest. They occupied the field first, and they had the great +advantage of geographical proximity to their old homes. Furthermore, +they lived more compactly; the New Englanders were not only spread over +the broader prairie stretches of the north, but scattered to some extent +throughout the entire region between the Lakes and the Ohio. ¹ But by +the middle of the century not only had the score of northern counties +been inundated by the "Yankees" but the waves were pushing far into the +interior, where they met and mingled with the counter-current. Both +Illinois and Indiana became, in a preëminent degree, melting-pots in +which was fused by slow and sometimes painful processes an amalgam which +Bryce and other keen observers have pronounced the most American thing +in America. + +¹ In 1820 the population of Indiana was confined almost entirely to the +southern third of the State, although the removal of the capital, in +1825, from Corydon to Indianapolis was carried out in the confidence +that eventually that point would become the State's populational as it +was its geographical center. When, in 1818, Illinois was admitted to the +Union its population was computed at 40,000. The figure was probably +excessive; at all events, contemporaries testify that so eager were the +people for statehood that many were counted twice, and even emigrants +were counted as they passed through the Territory. But the census of +1820 showed a population of 55,000, settled almost wholly in the +southern third of the State, with narrow tongues of inhabited land +stretching up the river valleys toward the north. Two slave States +flanked the southern end of the commonwealth; almost half of its area +lay south of a westward prolongation of Mason and Dixon's line. Save for +a few Pennsylvanians, the people were Southern; the State was for all +practical purposes a Southern State. As late as 1833 the Legislature +numbered fifty-eight members from the South, nineteen from the Middle +States, and only four from New England. + +Of the great national issues in the quarter-century following the War of +1812 there were some upon which people of the Northwest, in spite of +their differing points of view, could very well agree. Internal +improvement was one of these. Roads and canals were necessary outlets to +southern and eastern markets, and any reasonable proposal on this +subject could be assured of the Northwest's solid support. The +thirty-four successive appropriations to 1844 for the Cumberland Road, +Calhoun's "Bonus Bill" of 1816, the bill of 1822 authorizing a +continuous national jurisdiction over the Cumberland Road, the +comprehensive "Survey Bill" of 1824, the Maysville Road Bill of +1830--all were backed by the united strength of the Northwestern +senators and representatives. + +So with the tariff. The cry of the East for protection to infant +industries was echoed by the struggling manufacturers of Cincinnati, +Louisville, and other towns; while a protective tariff as a means of +building up the home market for foodstuffs and raw materials seemed to +the Westerner an altogether reasonable and necessary expedient. Ohio +alone in the Northwest had an opportunity to vote on the protective bill +of 1816, and gave its enthusiastic support. Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois +voted unitedly for the bills of 1820, 1824, 1828, and 1832. The +principal western champion of the protective policy was Henry Clay, a +Kentuckian; but the Northwest supported the policy more consistently +than did Clay's own State and section. + +On the National Bank the position of the Northwest was no less emphatic. +The people were little troubled by the question of constitutionality; +but believing that the bank was an engine of tyranny in the hands of an +eastern aristocracy, they were fully prepared to support Jackson in his +determination to extinguish that "un-American monopoly." + +There were other subjects upon which agreement was reached either with +difficulty or not at all. One of these was the form of local government +which should be adopted. Southerners and New Englanders brought to their +new homes widely differing political usages. The former were accustomed +to the county as the principal local unit of administration. It was a +relatively large division, whose affairs were managed by elective +officers, mainly a board of commissioners. The New Englanders, on the +other hand, had grown up under the town-meeting system and clung to the +notion that an indispensable feature of democratic local government is +the periodic assembling of the citizens of a community for legislative, +fiscal, and electoral purposes. The Illinois constitution of 1818 was +made by Southerners, and naturally it provided for the county system. +But protest from the "Yankee" elements became so strong that in the new +constitution of 1848 provision was made for township organization +wherever the people of a county wanted it; and this form of government, +at first prevalent only in the northern counties, is now found in most +of the central and southern counties as well. + +The most deeply and continuously dividing issue in the Northwest, as in +the nation at large, was negro slavery. Although written by Southern +men, the Ordinance of 1787 stipulated that there should be "neither +slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said territory, otherwise than +in the punishment of crimes whereof the party shall have been duly +convicted." If the government of the Northwest had been one of laws, and +not of men, this specific provision would have made the territory free +soil and would have relieved the inhabitants from all interest in the +"peculiar institution." But the laws never execute themselves--least of +all in frontier communities. In point of fact, considerable numbers of +slaves were held in the territory until the nineteenth century was far +advanced. As late as 1830 thirty-two negroes were held in servitude in +the single town of Vincennes. Slavery could and did prevail to a limited +extent because existing property rights were guaranteed in the Ordinance +itself, in the deed of cession by Virginia, in the Jay Treaty of 1794, +and in other fundamental acts. The courts of the Northwest held that +slave-owners whose property could be brought under any of these +guarantees might retain that property; and although no court +countenanced further importation, itinerant Southerners--"rich planters +traveling in their family carriages, with servants, packs of +hunting-dogs, and trains of slaves, their nightly camp-fires lighting up +the wilderness where so recently the Indian hunter had held +possession"--occasionally settled in southern Indiana or Illinois and +with the connivance of the authorities kept some of their dependents in +slavery, or quasi-slavery, for decades. + +Of actual slaveholders there were not enough to influence public +sentiment greatly. But the people of Southern extraction, although +neither slaveholders nor desiring to become such, had no strong moral +convictions on the subject. Indeed, they were likely to feel that the +anti-slavery restriction imposed an unfortunate impediment in the way of +immigration from the South. Hence the persistent demand of citizens of +Indiana and Illinois for a relaxation of the drastic prohibition of +slavery in the Ordinance of 1787. In 1796 Congress was petitioned from +Kaskaskia to extend relief; in 1799 the territorial Legislature was +urged to bring about a repeal; in 1802 an Indiana territorial convention +at Vincennes memorialized Congress in behalf of a suspension of the +proviso for a period of ten years. Not only were violations of the law +winked at, but both Indiana and Illinois deliberately built up a system +of indenture which partook strongly of the characteristics of slavery. +After much controversy, Indiana, in 1816, framed a state constitution +which reiterated the language of the Northwest Ordinance, but without +invalidating titles to existing slave property; while Illinois was +admitted to the Union in 1818 with seven or eight hundred slaves upon +her soil, and with a constitution which continued the old system of +indenture with slight modification. + +In a heated contest in Illinois in 1824 over the question of calling a +state convention to draft a constitution legalizing slavery the people +of Northern antecedents made their votes tell and defeated the project. +But, like other parts of the Northwest, this State never became a unit +on the slavery issue. Certainly it never became abolitionist. By an +almost unanimous vote the Legislature, in 1837, adopted joint +resolutions which condemned abolitionism as "more productive of evil +than of moral and political good"; and in Congress in the preceding year +the delegation of the State had given solid support to the "gag +resolutions," which were intended to deny a hearing to all petitions on +the slavery question. + +Throughout the great era of slavery controversy the Northwest was +prolific of schemes of compromise, for the constant clash of Northern +and Southern elements developed an aptitude for settlement by agreement +on moderate lines. The people of the section as a whole long clung to +popular, or "squatter," sovereignty as the supremely desirable solution +of the slavery question--a device formulated and defended by two of the +Northwest's own statesmen, Cass and Douglas, and relinquished only +slowly and reluctantly under the leadership, not of a New England +abolitionist, but of a statesman of Southern birth who had come to the +conclusion that the nation could not permanently exist half slave and +half free. + +Cass, Douglas, Lincoln--all were adopted sons of the Northwest, and the +career of every one illustrates not only the prodigality with which the +back country showered its opportunities upon men of industry and talent, +but the play and interplay of sectional and social forces in the +building of the newer nation. Cass and Douglas were New Englanders. One +was born at Exeter, New Hampshire, in 1782; the other at Brandon, +Vermont, in 1813. Lincoln sprang from Virginian and Kentuckian stocks. +His father's family moved from Virginia to Kentucky at the close of the +Revolution; in 1784 his grandfather was killed by lurking Indians, and +his father, then a boy of six, was saved from captivity only by a lucky +shot of an older brother. Lincoln himself was born in 1809. Curiously +enough, Cass and Douglas, the New Englanders, played their rôles on the +national stage as Jackson Democrats, while Lincoln, the Kentuckian of +Virginian ancestry, became a Whig and later a Republican. + +Cass and Douglas were well-born. Cass's father was a thrifty +soldier-farmer who made for his family a comfortable home at Zanesville, +Ohio; Douglas's father was a successful physician. Lincoln was born in +obscurity and wretchedness. His father, Thomas Lincoln, was a +ne'er-do-well Kentucky carpenter, grossly illiterate, unable or +unwilling to rise above the lowest level of existence in the pioneer +settlements. His mother, Nancy Hanks, whatever her antecedents may have +been, was a woman of character, and apparently of some education. But +she died when her son was only nine years of age. + +Cass and Douglas had educational opportunities which in their day were +exceptional. Both attended famous academies and received instruction in +the classics, mathematics, and philosophy. Both grew up in an +environment of enlightenment and integrity. Lincoln, on the other hand, +got a few weeks of instruction under two amateur teachers in Kentucky +and a few months more in Indiana--in all, hardly as much as one year; +and as a boy he knew only rough, coarse surroundings. When, in 1816, the +restless head of the family moved from Kentucky to southern Indiana, his +worldly belongings consisted of a parcel of carpenters' tools and +cooking utensils, a little bedding, and about four hundred gallons of +whiskey. No one who has not seen the sordidness, misery, and apparent +hopelessness of the life of the "poor whites" even today, in the +Kentucky and southern Indiana hills, can fully comprehend the chasm +which separated the boy Lincoln from every sort of progress and +distinction. + +All three men prepared for public life by embracing the profession that +has always, in this country, proved the surest avenue to preferment--the +law. But, whereas Cass arrived at maturity just in time to have an +active part in the War of 1812, and in this way to make himself the most +logical selection for the governorship of the newly organized Michigan +Territory, Douglas saw no military service, and Lincoln only a few weeks +of service during the Black Hawk War, and both were obliged to seek fame +and fortune along the thorny road of politics. Following admission to +the bar at Jacksonville, Illinois, in 1834, Douglas was elected public +prosecutor of the first judicial circuit in 1835; elected to the state +Legislature in 1836; appointed by President Van Buren registrar of the +land office at Springfield in 1837; made a judge of the supreme court of +the State in 1841; and elected to the national House of Representatives +in 1843. Resourceful, skilled in debate, intensely patriotic, and +favored with many winning personal qualities, he drew to himself men of +both Northern and Southern proclivities and became an influential +exponent of broad and enduring nationalism. + +Meanwhile, after a first defeat, Lincoln was elected to the Illinois +Legislature in 1834, and again in 1836. When he gathered all of his +worldly belongings in a pair of saddle-bags and fared forth to the new +capital, Springfield, to settle himself to the practice of law, he had +more than a local reputation for oratorical power; and events were to +prove that he had not only facility in debate and familiarity with +public questions, but incomparable devotion to lofty principles. In the +subsequent unfolding of the careers of Lincoln and Douglas--especially +in the turn of events that brought to each a nomination for the +presidency by a great party in 1860--there was no small amount of good +luck and sheer accident. But it is equally true that by prodigious +effort Kentuckian and Vermonter alike hewed out their own ways to +greatness. + +It was the glory of the Northwest to offer a competence to the needy, +the baffled, the discouraged, the tormented of the eastern States and of +Europe. The bulk of its fast-growing population consisted, it is true, +of ordinary folk who could have lived on in fair comfort in the older +sections, yet who were ambitious to own more land, to make more money, +and to secure larger advantages for their children. But nowhere else was +the road for talent so wide open, entirely irrespective of inheritance, +possessions, education, environment. Nowhere outside of the +trans-Alleghany country would the rise of a Lincoln have been possible. + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +The Upper Mississippi Valley + + +While the Ohio country--the lower half of the States of Ohio, Indiana, +and Illinois--was throwing off its frontier character, the remoter +Northwest was still a wilderness frequented only by fur-traders and +daring explorers. And that far Northwest by the sources of the +Mississippi had been penetrated by few white men since the seventeenth +century. The earliest white visitors to the upper Mississippi are not +clearly known. They may have been Pierre Radisson and his +brother-in-law, Ménard des Grosseilliers, who are alleged to have +covered the long portage from Lake Superior to the Mississippi in or +about 1665; but the matter rests entirely on how one interprets +Radisson's vague account of their western perambulations. At all events, +in 1680--seven years after the descent of the river from the Wisconsin +to the Arkansas by Marquette and Joliet--Louis Hennepin, under +instructions from La Salle, explored the stream from the mouth of the +Illinois to the Falls of St. Anthony, where the city of Minneapolis now +stands, five hundred miles from the true source. + +There the matter of exploration rested until the days of Thomas +Jefferson, when the purchase of Louisiana lent fresh interest to +northwestern geography. In 1805 General James Wilkinson, in military +command in the West, dispatched Lieutenant Zebulon M. Pike with a party +of twenty men from St. Louis to explore the headwaters of the great +river, make peace with the Indians, and select sites for fortified +posts. From his winter quarters near the Falls, Pike pushed northward +over the snow and ice until, early in 1806, he reached Leech Lake, in +Cass County, Minnesota, which he wrongly took to be the source of the +Father of Waters. It is little wonder that, at a time when the river and +lake surfaces were frozen over and the whole country heavily blanketed +with snow, he should have found it difficult to disentangle the maze of +streams and lakes which fill the low-lying region around the headwaters +of the Mississippi, the Red River, and the Lake of the Woods. In 1820 +General Cass, Governor of Michigan, which then had the Mississippi for +its western boundary, led an expedition into the same region as far as +Cass Lake, where the Indians told him that the true source lay some +fifty miles to the northwest. It remained for the traveler and +ethnologist Henry Schoolcraft, twelve years later, to discover Lake +Itasca, in modern Clearwater County, which occupies a depression near +the center of the rock-rimmed basin in which the river takes its rise. + +It was not these infrequent explorers, however, who opened paths for +pioneers into the remote Northwest, but traders in search of furs and +pelts--those commercial pathfinders of western civilization. There is +scarcely a town or city in the State of Wisconsin that does not owe its +origin, directly or indirectly, to these men. Cheap and tawdry enough +were the commodities bartered for these wonderful beaver and otter +pelts--ribbons and gewgaws, looking-glasses and combs, blankets and +shawls of gaudy color. But scissors and knives, gunpowder and shot, +tobacco and whiskey, went also in the traders' packs, though traffic in +fire-water was forbidden. These goods, upon arrival at Mackinac, were +sent out by canoes and bateaux to the different posts, where they were +dealt out to the savages directly or were dispatched to the winter camps +along the far-reaching waterways. "Returning home in the spring, the +bucks would set their squaws and children at making maple-sugar or +planting corn, watermelons, potatoes, and squash, while they themselves +either dawdled their time away or hunted for summer furs. In the autumn, +the wild rice was garnered along the sloughs and the river mouths, and +the straggling field crops were gathered in--some of the product being +hidden in skillfully covered pits, as a reserve, and some dried for +transportation in the winter's campaign. The villagers were now ready to +depart for their hunting-grounds, often hundreds of miles away. It was +then that the trader came and credits were wrangled over and extended, +each side endeavoring to get the better of the other." ¹ + +¹ Thwaites, Story of Wisconsin, p. 156. + +This traffic was largely managed by the British in Canada until 1816, +when an act of Congress forbade foreign traders to operate on United +States soil. But a heavier blow was inflicted in the establishment of +John Jacob Astor's American Fur Company, which was given a substantial +monopoly of Indian commerce. From its headquarters on Mackinac Island +this great corporation rapidly squeezed the clandestine British agents +out of the American trade, introduced improved methods, and built up a +system which covered the entire fur-bearing Northwest. + +Of this remoter Northwest, the region between Lakes Erie and Michigan +was the most accessible from the East; yet it was avoided by the first +pioneers, who labored under a strange misapprehension about its climate +and resources. In spite of the fact that it abounded in rich +bottom-lands and fertile prairies and was destined to become one of the +most bountiful orchards of the world, it was reported by early +prospectors to be swampy and unfit for cultivation. Though Governor Cass +did his best to overcome this prejudice, for years settlers preferred to +gather mainly about Detroit, leaving the rich interior to fur-traders. +When enlightenment eventually came, population poured in with a rush. +Detroit--which was a village in 1820--became ten years later a thriving +city of thirty thousand and the western terminus of a steamboat line +from Buffalo, which year after year multiplied its traffic. By the year +1837 the great territory lying east of Lake Michigan was ready for +statehood. + +Almost simultaneously the region to the west of Lake Michigan began to +emerge from the fur-trading stage. The place of the picturesque trader, +however, was not taken at once by the prosaic farmer. The next figure in +the pageant was the miner. The presence of lead in the stretch of +country between the Wisconsin and Illinois rivers was known to the +Indians before the coming of the white man, but they began to appreciate +its value only after the introduction of firearms by the French. The ore +lay at no great depth in the Galena limestone, and the aborigines +collected it either by stripping it from the surface or by sinking +shallow shafts from which it was hoisted in deerskin bags. Shortly after +the War of 1812 American prospectors pushed into the region, and the +Government began granting leases on easy terms to operators. In 1823 one +of these men arrived with soldiers, supplies, skilled miners, and one +hundred and fifty slaves; and thereafter the "diggings" fast became a +mecca for miners, smelters, speculators, merchants, gamblers, and +get-rich-quick folk of every sort, who swarmed thither by thousands from +every part of the United States, especially the South, and even from +Europe. "Mushroom towns sprang up all over the district; deep-worn +native paths became ore roads between the burrows and the +river-landings; sink-holes abandoned by the Sauk and Foxes, when no +longer to be operated with their crude tools, were reopened and found to +be exceptionally rich, while new diggings and smelting-furnaces, fitted +out with modern appliances, fairly dotted the map of the country." ¹ + +¹ Thwaites, Story of Wisconsin, p. 163. + +Galena was the entrepôt of the region. A trail cut thither from Peoria +soon became a well-worn coach road; roads were early opened to Chicago +and Milwaukee. In 1822 Galena was visited by a Mississippi River +steamboat, and a few years later regular steamboat traffic was +established. And it was by these roadways and waterways that homeseekers +soon began to arrive. + +The invasion of the white man, accompanied though it was by treaties, +was bitterly resented by the Indian tribes who occupied the Northwest +above the Illinois River. These Sioux, Sauk and Foxes, and Winnebagoes, +with remnants of other tribes, carried on an intermittent warfare for +years, despite the efforts of the Federal Government to define tribal +boundaries; and between red men and white men coveting the same lands +causes of irritation were never wanting. In 1827 trouble which had been +steadily brewing came to the boiling-point. Predatory expeditions in the +north were reported; the Winnebagoes were excited by rumors that another +war between the United States and Great Britain was imminent; an +incident or even an accident was certain to provoke hostilities. The +incident occurred. When Red Bird, a petty Winnebago chieftain dwelling +in a "town" on the Black River, was incorrectly informed that two +Winnebago braves who had been imprisoned at Prairie du Chien had been +executed, he promptly instituted vengeance. A farmer's family in the +neighborhood of Prairie du Chien was massacred, and two keel-boats +returning down stream from Fort Snelling were attacked, with some loss +of life. The settlers hastily repaired the old fort and also dispatched +messengers to give the alarm. Galena sent a hundred militiamen; a +battalion came down from Fort Snelling; Governor Cass arrived on the +spot by way of Green Bay; General Atkinson brought up a full regiment +from Jefferson Barracks, near St. Louis; and finally Major Whistler +proceeded up the Fox with a portion of the troops stationed at Fort +Howard, on Green Bay. + +When all was in readiness, the Winnebagoes were notified that, unless +Red Bird and his principal accomplice, Wekau, were promptly surrendered, +the tribe would be exterminated. The threat had its intended effect, and +the two culprits duly presented themselves at Whistler's camp on the +Fox-Wisconsin portage, in full savage regalia, and singing their war +dirges. Red Bird, who was an Indian of magnificent physique and lofty +bearing, had but one request to make--that he be not committed to +irons--and this request was granted. At Prairie du Chien, whither the +two were sent for trial, he had opportunities to escape, but he refused +to violate his word by taking advantage of them. Following their trial, +the redskins were condemned to be hanged. Unused to captivity, however, +Red Bird languished and soon died, while his accomplice was pardoned by +President Adams. In 1828 Fort Winnebago was erected on the site of Red +Bird's surrender. + +The Winnebagoes now agreed to renounce forever their claims to the lead +mines. Furthermore, in the same year, the site of the principal Sauk +village and burying-ground, on Rock River, three miles south of the +present city of Rock Island, was sold by the Government, and the Sauk +and Foxes resident in the vicinity were given notice to leave. Under the +Sauk chieftain Keokuk most of the dispossessed warriors withdrew +peacefully beyond the Mississippi, and two years later the tribal +representatives formally yielded all claims to lands east of that +stream. Some members of the tribe, however, established themselves on +the high bluff which has since been known as Black Hawk's Watch Tower +and defied the Government to remove them. + +The leading spirit in this protest was Black Hawk, who though neither +born a chief nor elected to that dignity, had long been influential in +the village and among his people at large. During the War of 1812 he +became an implacable enemy of the Americans, and, after fighting with +the British at the battles of Frenchtown and the Thames, he returned to +Illinois and carried on a border warfare which ended only with the +signing of a special treaty of peace in 1816. For years thereafter he +was accustomed to lead his "British band" periodically across northern +Illinois and southern Michigan to the British Indian agency to receive +presents of arms, ammunition, provisions, and trinkets; and he was a +principal intermediary in the British intrigues which gave Cass, as +superintendent of Indian affairs in the Northwest, many uneasy days. He +was ever a restless spirit and a promoter of trouble, although one must +admit that he had some justice on his side and that he was probably +honest and sincere. Tall, spare, with pinched features, exceptionally +high cheekbones, and a prominent Roman nose, he was a figure to command +attention--the more so by reason of the fact that he had practically no +eyebrows and no hair except a scalp-lock, in which on state occasions he +fastened a flaming bunch of dyed eagle feathers. + +Returning from their hunt in the spring of 1830, Black Hawk and his +warriors found the site of their town preëmpted by white settlers and +their ancestral burying-ground ploughed over. In deep rage, they set off +for Malden, where they were liberally entertained and encouraged to +rebel. Coming again to the site of their village a year later, they were +peremptorily ordered away. This time they resolved to stand their +ground, and Black Hawk ordered the squatters themselves to withdraw and +gave them until the middle of the next day to do so. Black Hawk +subsequently maintained that he did not mean to threaten bloodshed. But +the settlers so construed his command and deluged Governor Reynolds with +petitions for help. With all possible speed, sixteen hundred volunteers +and ten companies of United States regulars were dispatched to the +scene, and on the 25th of June, they made an impressive demonstration +within view of the village. In the face of such odds discretion seemed +the better part of valor, and during the succeeding night Black Hawk and +his followers quietly paddled across the Mississippi. Four days later +they signed an agreement never to return to the eastern banks without +express permission from the United States Government. + +On the Indian side this compact was not meant to be kept. Against the +urgent advice of Keokuk and other leaders, Black Hawk immediately began +preparations for a campaign of vengeance. British intrigue lent +stimulus, and a crafty "prophet," who was chief of a village some +thirty-five miles up the Rock, made it appear that aid would be given by +the Potawatomi, Winnebagoes, and perhaps other powerful peoples. In the +first week of April, 1832, the disgruntled leader and about five hundred +braves, with their wives and children, crossed the Mississippi at Yellow +Banks and ascended the Rock River to the prophet's town, with a view to +raising a crop of corn during the summer and taking the war-path in the +fall. + +The invasion created much alarm throughout the frontier country. The +settlers drew together about the larger villages, which were put as +rapidly as possible in a state of defense. Again the Governor called for +volunteers, and again the response more than met the expectation. Four +regiments were organized, and to them were joined four hundred regulars. +One of the first persons to come forward with an offer of his services +was a tall, ungainly, but powerful young man from Sangamon County, who +had but two years before settled in the State, and who was at once +honored with the captaincy of his company. This man was Abraham Lincoln. +Other men whose names loom large in American history were with the +little army also. The commander of the regulars was Colonel Zachary +Taylor. Among his lieutenants were Jefferson Davis and Albert Sidney +Johnston, and Robert Anderson, the defender of Fort Sumter in 1860, was +a colonel of Illinois volunteers. It is said that the oath of allegiance +was administered to young Lincoln by Lieutenant Jefferson Davis! + +Over marshy trails and across streams swollen by the spring thaws the +army advanced to Dixon's Ferry, ninety miles up the Rock, whence a +detachment of three hundred men was sent out, under Major Stillman, to +reconnoitre. Unluckily, this force seized three messengers of peace +dispatched by Black Hawk and, in the clash which followed, was cut to +pieces and driven into headlong flight by a mere handful of red +warriors. The effect of this unexpected affray was both to stiffen the +Indians to further resistance and to precipitate a fresh panic +throughout the frontier. All sorts of atrocities ensued, and Black +Hawk's name became a household bugaboo the country over. + +Finally a new levy was made ready and sent north. Pushing across the +overflowed wilderness stretches, past the sites of modern Beloit and +Madison, this army, four thousand strong, came upon the fleeing enemy on +the banks of the Wisconsin River, and at Wisconsin Heights, near the +present town of Prairie du Sac, it inflicted a severe defeat upon the +Indians. Again Black Hawk desired to make peace, but again he was +frustrated, this time by the lack of an interpreter. The redskins' +flight was continued in the direction of the Mississippi, which they +reached in midsummer. They were prevented from crossing by lack of +canoes, and finally the half-starved band found itself caught between +the fire of a force of regulars on the land side and a government supply +steamer, the Warrior, on the water side, and between these two the +Indian band was practically annihilated. + +Thus ended the war--a contest originating in no general uprising or +far-reaching plan, such as marked the rebellions instigated by Pontiac +and Tecumseh, but which none the less taxed the strength of the border +populations and opened a new chapter in the history of the remoter +northwestern territories. Black Hawk himself took refuge with the +Winnebagoes in the Dells of the Wisconsin, only to be treacherously +delivered over to General Street at Prairie du Chien. Under the terms of +a treaty of peace signed at Fort Armstrong (Rock Island) in September, +the fallen leader and some of his accomplices were held as hostages, and +during the ensuing winter they were kept at Jefferson Barracks (St. +Louis) under the surveillance of Jefferson Davis. In the spring of 1833 +they were taken to Washington, where they had an interview with +President Jackson. "We did not expect to conquer the whites," Black Hawk +told the President; "they had too many houses, too many men. I took up +the hatchet, for my part, to revenge injuries which my people could no +longer endure. Had I borne them longer without striking, my people would +have said, 'Black Hawk is a woman--he is too old to be a chief--he is no +Sauk.'" After a brief imprisonment at Fortress Monroe, where Jefferson +Davis was himself confined at the close of the Civil War, the captives +were set free, and were taken to Philadelphia, New York, up the Hudson, +and finally back to the Rock River country. + +For some years Black Hawk lived quietly on a small reservation near Des +Moines. In 1837 the peace-loving Keokuk took him with a party of Sauk +and Fox chiefs again to Washington, and on this trip he made a visit to +Boston. The officials of the city received the august warrior and his +companions in Faneuil Hall, and the Governor of the commonwealth paid +them similar honor at the State House. Some war-dances were performed on +the Common for the amusement of the populace, and afterwards the party +was taken to see a performance by Edwin Forrest at the Tremont Theatre. +Here all went well, except that at an exciting point in the play where +one of the characters fell dying the Indians burst out into a war-whoop, +to the considerable consternation of the women and children present. + +A few months after returning to his Iowa home, Black Hawk, now +seventy-one years of age, was gathered to his fathers. He was buried +about half a mile from his cabin, in a sitting posture, his left hand +grasping a cane presented to him by Henry Clay, and at his side a supply +of food and tobacco sufficient to last him to the spirit land, supposed +to be three days' travel. "Rock River," he said in a speech at a Fourth +of July celebration shortly before his death, "was a beautiful country. +I liked my town, my cornfields, and the home of my people. I fought for +it. It is now yours. Keep it, as we did. It will produce you good +crops." + +The Black Hawk War opened a new chapter in the history of the Northwest. +The soldiers carried to their homes remarkable stories of the richness +and attractiveness of the northern country, and the eastern newspapers +printed not only detailed accounts of the several expeditions but highly +colored descriptions of the charms of the region. Books and pamphlets by +the score helped to attract the attention of the country. The result was +a heavy influx of settlers, many of them coming all the way from New +England and New York, others from Pennsylvania and Ohio. Lands were +rapidly surveyed and placed on sale, and surviving Indian +hunting-grounds were purchased. Northern Illinois filled rapidly with a +thrifty farming population, and the town of Chicago became an entrepôt. +Further north, Wisconsin had been organized, in 1836, as a Territory, +including not only the present State of that name but Iowa, Minnesota, +and most of North and South Dakota. As yet the Iowa country, however, +had been visited by few white people; and such as came were only hunters +and trappers, agents of the American Fur and other trading companies, or +independent traders. Two of the most active of these free-lances of +early days--the French Canadian Dubuque and the Englishman +Davenport--have left their names to flourishing cities. + +To recount the successive purchases by which the Government freed Iowa +soil from Indian domination would be wearisome. The Treaty of 1842 with +the Sauks and Foxes is typical. After a sojourn of hardly more than a +decade in the Iowa country, these luckless folk were now persuaded to +yield all their lands to the United States and retire to a reservation +in Kansas. The negotiations were carried out with all due regard for +Indian susceptibilities. Governor Chambers, resplendent in the uniform +of a brigadier-general of the United States army, repaired with his +aides to the appointed rendezvous, and there the chiefs presented +themselves, arrayed in new blankets and white deerskin leggings, with +full paraphernalia of paint, feathers, beads, and elaborately decorated +war clubs. Oratory ran freely, although through the enforced medium of +an interpreter. The chiefs harangued for hours not only upon the +beautiful meadows, the running streams, the stately trees, and the other +beloved objects which they were called upon to surrender to the white +man, but upon the moon and stars and rain and hail and wind, all of +which were alleged to be more attractive and beneficent in Iowa than +anywhere else. The Governor, in turn, gave the Indians some good advice, +urging them to live peaceably in their new homes, to be industrious and +self-supporting, to leave liquor alone, and, in general, to "be a credit +to the country." When every one had talked as much as he liked, the +treaty was solemnly signed. + +The "New Purchase" was thrown open to settlers in the following spring; +and the opening brought scenes of a kind destined to be reënacted scores +of times in the great West during succeeding decades--the borders of the +new district lined, on the eve of the opening, with encamped settlers +and their families ready to race for the best claims; horses saddled and +runners picked for the rush; a midnight signal from the soldiery, +releasing a flood of eager land-hunters armed with torches, axes, +stakes, and every sort of implement for the laying out of claims with +all possible speed; by daybreak, many scores of families "squatting" on +the best pieces of ground which they had been able to reach; innumerable +disputes, with a general readjustment following the intervention of the +government surveyors. + +The marvelous progress of the upper Mississippi Valley is briefly told +by a succession of dates. In 1838 Iowa was organized as a Territory; in +1846 it was admitted as a State; in 1848 Wisconsin was granted +statehood; and in 1849 Minnesota was given territorial organization with +boundaries extending westward to the Missouri. + +Thus the Old Northwest had arrived at the goal set for it by the +large-visioned men who framed the Ordinance of 1787; every foot of its +soil was included in some one of the five thriving, democratic +commonwealths that had taken their places in the Union on a common basis +with the older States of the East and the South. Furthermore, the +Mississippi had ceased to be a boundary. A magnificent vista reaching +off to the remoter West and Northwest had been opened up; the frontier +had been pushed far out upon the plains of Minnesota and Iowa. Decade +after decade the powerful epic of westward expansion, shot through with +countless tales of heroism and sacrifice, had steadily unfolded before +the gaze of an astonished world; and the end was not yet in sight. + + + + + + +Bibliographical Note + + +There is no general history of the Northwest covering the whole of the +period dealt with in this book except Burke A. Hinsdale, The Old +Northwest (1888). This is a volume of substantial scholarship, though it +reflects but faintly the life and spirit of the people. The nearest +approach to a moving narrative is James K. Hosmer, Short History of the +Mississippi Valley (1901), which tells the story of the Middle West from +the earliest explorations to the close of the nineteenth century, within +a brief space, yet in a manner to arouse the reader's interest and +sympathy. A fuller and very readable narrative to 1796 will be found in +Charles Moore, The Northwest under Three Flags (1900). Still more +detailed, and enlivened by many contemporary maps and plans, is Justin +Winsor, The Westward Movement (1899), covering the period from the +pacification of 1763 to the close of the eighteenth century. Frederick +J. Turner, Rise of the New West (1906) contains several interesting and +authoritative chapters on western development after the War of 1812; and +John B. McMaster, History of the People of the United States (8 vols., +1883-1913), gives in the fourth and fifth volumes a very good account of +westward migration. + +An excellent detailed account of the settlement and development of a +single section of the Northwest is G. N. Fuller, Economic and Social +Beginnings of Michigan, Michigan Historical Publications, Univ. Series, +No. 1 (1916). A very readable book is R. G. Thwaites, The Story of +Wisconsin (rev. ed., 1899), containing a full account of the early +relations of white men and red men, and of the Black Hawk War. Mention +may be made, too, of H. E. Legler, Leading Events of Wisconsin History +(1898). + +Among the volumes dealing with the diplomatic history of the Northwest, +mention should be made of two recent studies: C. W. Alvord, The +Mississippi Valley in British Politics (2 vols., 1917), and E. S. +Corwin, French Policy and the American Alliance (1916). + +Aside from Lincoln, few men of the earlier Northwest have been made the +subjects of well-written biographies. Curiously, there are no modern +biographies, good or bad, of George Rogers Clark, General St. Clair, or +William Henry Harrison. John R. Spears, Anthony Wayne (1903) is an +interesting book; and Andrew C. McLaughlin, Lewis Cass (1891), and Allen +Johnson, Stephen A. Douglas (1908) are excellent. Lives of Lincoln that +have importance for their portrayal of western society include: John T. +Morse, Jr., Abraham Lincoln (2 vols., 1893); John G. Nicolay and John +Hay, Abraham Lincoln, a History (10 vols., 1890); and Ida M. Tarbell, +Life of Abraham Lincoln (new ed., 2 vols., 1917). + +The reader will do well, however, to turn early to some of the works +within the field which, by reason of their literary quality as well as +their scholarly worth, have attained the dignity of classics. Foremost +are the writings of Francis Parkman. Most of these, it is true, deal +with the history of the American interior prior to 1763. But Frontenac +and New France under Louis XIV (Frontenac edition, 1915), and A +Half-Century of Conflict (2 vols., same ed.) furnish the necessary +background; and The Conspiracy of Pontiac (2 vols., same ed.) is +indispensable. Parkman's work closes with the Indian war following the +Treaty of 1763. Theodore Roosevelt's Winning of the West (4 vols., +1889-96) takes up the story at that point and carries it to the collapse +of the Burr intrigues during the second administration of Thomas +Jefferson. This work was a pioneer in the field. In the light of recent +scholarship it is subject to criticism at some points; but it is based +on careful study of the sources, and for vividness and interest it has +perhaps not been surpassed in American historical writing. A third +extensive work is Archer B. Hulbert, Historic Highways of America (16 +vols., 1902-05). In writing the history of the great land and water +routes of trade and travel between East and West the author found +occasion to describe, in interesting fashion, most phases of western +life. The volumes most closely related to the subject matter of the +present book are: Military Roads of the Mississippi Valley (VIII); +Waterways of Western Expansion (IX); The Cumberland Road (X); and +Pioneer Roads and Experiences of Travellers (XI-XII). Mention should be +made also of Mr. Hulbert's The Ohio River, a Course of Empire (1906). + +Further references will be found appended to the articles on Illinois, +Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin in The Encyclopædia Britannica +(11th edition). + +Opportunity to get the flavor of the period by reading contemporary +literature is afforded by two principal kinds of books. One is +reminiscences, letters, and histories written by the Westerners +themselves. Timothy Flint's Recollections of the Last Ten Years (1826) +will be found interesting; as also J. Hall, Letters from the West +(1828), and T. Ford, History of Illinois (1854). + +The second type of materials is books of travel written by visitors from +the East or from Europe. Works of this nature are always subject to +limitations. Even when the author tries to be accurate and fair, his +information is likely to be hastily gathered and incomplete and his +judgments unsound. Between 1800 and 1840 the Northwest was visited, +however, by many educated and fair-minded persons who wrote readable and +trustworthy descriptions of what they saw and heard. A complete list +cannot be given here, but some of the best of these books are: John +Melish, Travels in the United States of America in the Years 1806 & 1807 +and 1809, 1810 & 1811 (2 vols., 1812); William Cobbett, A Year's +Residence in the United States of America (1818); Henry B. Fearon, +Sketches of America (1818); Morris Birkbeck, Letters from Illinois +(1818); John Bradbury, Travels in the Interior of America in the Years +1809, 1810, and 1811 (1819); Thomas Hulme, Journal made during a Tour in +the Western Countries of America, 1818-1819 (1828); and Michael +Chevalier, Society, Manners, and Politics in the United States (1839). +Copies of early editions of some of these works will be found in most +large libraries. But the reader is happily not dependent on this +resource. Almost all of the really important books of the kind are +reprinted, with introductions and explanatory matter, in Reuben G. +Thwaites, Early Western Travels, 1748-1846 (32 vols., 1904-07), which is +one of our chief collections of historical materials. + + + +INDEX + + +A. + +Abadie, D', Governor of the French, New Orleans, 33. +Adams, John, 71, 72, 74. +Alabama, Georgians in, 173. +American Fur Company, 192-193. +Amherst, General Sir Jeffrey, 3, 14. +Anderson, Robert, 201. +Aranda, Count d', quoted, 76. +Armstrong, Fort (Rock Island), 203. +Astor, J. J., 192. +Atkinson, General Henry, 196. + + +B. + +Bank, National, 179. +Beauvais, M., of Kaskaskia, 29. +Belêtre, Captain, commandant at Detroit, 4. +Birkbeck, Morris, quoted, 105-106. +Black Hawk, Indian leader, 198-199; enemy of Americans, 198, 199-200; +rebellion, 160, 200-203; after defeat, 203-204; later life and death, +204-205. +Blue Licks, Battle of, 71. +Bouquet, Colonel Henry, 15-16, 17. +Bushy Run, Battle of, 15-16. + + +C. + +Cadillac, see La Mothe-Cadillac. +Cahokia, Pontiac at, 18; school for Indians at, 30; under English, 31; +taken by Clark, 48, 55; British try to seize, 69. +Caldwell, Captain, 71. +Campbell, Colonel, British commandant at Detroit, 6. +Campus Martius, fortification in Ohio, 81. +Canada passes to British control, 1. +Carver, Jonathan, 12. +Cass, Lewis, statesman of the Northwest, 183; life, 184-186; Governor of +Michigan, 190; expedition into Mississippi regions, 190-191; aids +against Indians, 196. +Cass Lake, 191. +Chartres, Fort, French commandant sends message to Indians, 14; Pontiac +at, 17; "center of life and fashion," 30; after cession to English, 31; +Saint-Ange commands, 33; Croghan invited to, 35; Sterling reaches, 36. +Chillicothe (O.), 100. +Chouteau, Pierre, 32-33. +Cincinnati, named, 82; migration to, 99; legislature in, 131; education, +171. +Clark, G. R., in Illinois country, 48; life and character, 48-49; +delegate to Virginia Assembly, 49; proposes capturing British posts, 50; +commissioned by Virginia council, 51; expedition, 51-56; at Kaskaskia, +59-60, 60-61; expedition to Vincennes, 61-66; plans expedition against +Detroit, 67; failure of plan, 68; later life and death, 68; expedition +against Miami towns, 71; agreement of 1785 with Indians, 79. +Clay, Henry, 164, 205. +Cleaveland, Moses, 99. +Columbus (O.), Cumberland Road reaches (1833), 166. +Continental Congress claims Northwest, 71. +Corydon (Ind.), capital removed from, 177 (note). +Croghan, George, 34-36. +Cumberland Gap, 102. +Cumberland Road, 165-168, 178. +Cutler, Dr. Manasseh, 80-81, 82. +Cuyahoga River, Pontiac halts English at, 3. + + +D. + +Davis, Jefferson, 201, 203, 204. +Dearborn, Fort, 149, 152, 153. +Deckhard rifle, 120. +Defiance, Fort, 92, 94. +Detroit, occupied by French, 2-3; surrenders to English, 4; in 1760, +4-5; Pontiac plans destruction of, 11; council with Indians at, 17; +Clark plans attack, 67-68; British refuse surrender, 83; Wayne obtains +cession of Indian land near, 95; garrison at, 152; Hull's expedition for +relief of, 153; growth, 193. +Douglas, S. A., statesman of Northwest, 183; life, 184-187. +Duquesne, Fort, see Pitt, Fort. + + +E. + +East Florida, province provided in Proclamation of 1763, 24, 24 (note), +33; plan for Spain to resume possession, 73. +Education in Northwest, 129-130, 170-171. +Erie Canal opened (1825), 102, 176. +Erie, Lake, French settlement on, 2-3; Perry's victory on, 154. + + +F. + +Fallen Timbers, Battle at, 92-94. +Flint, Timothy, Western Monthly Review, 169. +Florida, see East Florida, West Florida. +France supports Spain in her American policy, 72-74. +Franklin, Benjamin, advice to British ministers, 20; acquires western +land, 38, 39; on committee for boundary negotiation, 72, 74. +French settlements in Northwest, 2, 28-33; Loftus's expedition against, +33-34; under English control, 36-37. +Fur trade, 191-193. + + +G. + +Gage, General Thomas, 34, 36. +Galena (Ill.), 195, 196. +Gallatin, Albert, 164, 165. +Gallipolis, attempt to build French colony at, 81. +Garfield, J. A., 100. +Ghent, Peace of, 172. +Gibault, Pierre, French priest, 48, 55, 59, 62. +Gladwyn, Major, 11, 12. +Gnadenhütten, massacre at, 70. +Great Britain refuses to give up fortified posts, 83. +Greenville, Fort, 91, 94; Treaty of, 131. +Grenada, province provided in Proclamation of 1763, 24, 24 (note). +Grosseilliers, see Ménard des Grosseilliers. + + +H. + +Hamilton, Henry, Lieutenant-Governor at Detroit, 43; and the Indians, +47; part in Revolution, 57 et seq. +Harmar, General Josiah, 80, 84, 85. +Harmar, Fort, 80. +Harrison, W. H., in Northwest Territory, 131-132; on Indians, 133-134; +conference with Tecumseh, 139-140, 140-143; at Tippecanoe, 144-147; +chief in command in West, 153-154, 156. +Harrison, Fort, 144, 152. +Hayes, R. B., 100. +Helm, Lieutenant, 59. +Hennepin, Louis, 190. +Henry, Patrick, 49, 51. +Hillsborough, Lord, on British policy in regard to Indian reservations, +26. +Howard, Fort, 196. +Huguenots forbidden to emigrate, 29. +Hull, General William, 138, 153, 156. + + +I. + +Illinois, a county of Virginia, 56; after War of 1812, 161; admitted as +State (1818), 161, 177 (note); immigration, 162; frontier settlers in, +173; Southerners in, 174-175; population (1818), 177 (note); indentures, +182; slavery, 182-183. +Indiana, settlement, 98; formed from part of Northwest Territory, 132; +population (1800-10), 132-133; (1810-16), 161; (1820), 177 (note); after +War of 1812, 161; admitted as State (1816), 161; immigration, 162; +frontier settlers in, 172; Southerners in, 174-175; indentures, 182; +slavery, 182. +Indianapolis, Cumberland Road reaches, 166; capital removed to (1825), +177 (note). +Indians, parleys with Rogers, 3-4; incited by French against English, 4; +relations with French at Detroit, 5; menace to English, 7-8; protest +against English encroachments, 8-9; Pontiac's conspiracy, 9 et seq.; +method of warfare, 15; trade with, 25, 44-45; reservation by +Proclamation of 1763, 25-27; attack Croghan's band, 34-35; in +Revolution, 45 et seq.; massacre at Gnadenhütten, 70; agreements with, +78-79; rebel against Americans, 82-83; incited by British, 83-84; +punitive expedition against Miamis, 84-85; Wayne against, 89 et seq.; +danger on Ohio River from, 108; cessions by, 132, 135, 140; relations +with white settlers, 133-135; Tecumseh's conspiracy, 136 et seq.; Battle +of Tippecanoe, 144-146; raids of 1812, 149; menace removed after War of +1812, 160; trouble with Winnebagoes, 196-198; Black Hawk War, 200-203; +treaties, 206-207. +Iowa, organized as Territory (1838), 208; admitted as State (1846), 208. +Itasca, Lake, 191. + + +J. + +Jay, John, 72, 74. +Jay Treaty, 94-95, 181. +Jefferson, Thomas, 51, 67, 72, 164. +Jefferson Barracks (St. Louis), 203. +Jefferson City (Mo.), Cumberland Road marked out to, 166. +Johnson, Allen, Jefferson and his Colleagues cited, 138 (note). +Johnson, Dr. Samuel, opinion of Northwest America, 21, 22. +Johnson, Sir William, visits Detroit, 6; Pontiac surrenders to, 18; +sends Croghan against Indians, 34. +Johnson, W. S., 39. +Johnston, A. S., 201. +Joliet, Louis, 189. + + +K. + +Kaskaskia, French settlement, 28, 30; under English, 31; Clark captures, +48, 52-53; Clark at, 60-61; British attack, 69. +Kendall, Amos, quoted, 156. +Kentucky, organized as county of Virginia, 49; frontier settlers in, +172. +Keokuk, Indian chief, 198, 200, 204. +Knox, William, British Under-Secretary for the Colonies, 22. + + +L. + +Laclède, Pierre, 32. +La Mothe-Cadillac, Antoine de, founds Detroit (1701), 2. +La Salle, Réné-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de, 2. +Laulewasikaw, "Prophet," Brother of Tecumseh, 135, 147-148. +Laurens, Henry, 72. +Le Bœuf, Fort, 14. +Lee, "Light-Horse Harry," 89. +Leech Lake, Pike reaches, 190. +Leopard-Chesapeake affair, 138. +Lexington (Ky.), aspires to be "Athens of the West," 171. +Lincoln, Abraham, 184-188, 201. +Lincoln, Thomas, father of Abraham, 185. +Loftus, Major, 33. +"Long Knives," 101. +L-os-anti-ville, 82; see also Cincinnati. +Louisiana Purchase, 161, 190. +Louisville (Ky.), education in, 171. + + +M. + +McAdam, John, devises road construction, 165-166. +Mackinac, Fort, 152, 153. +Malden, Fort, 153. +Marietta (O.), founded, 81; settlers from New England, 99. +Marquette, Jacques, Jesuit missionary, 189. +Mason, George, 51. +Massac, Fort, 52. +Maysville Road Bill (1830), 178. +Ménard des Grosseilliers, 189. +Miami, Fort, 88, 92. +Michilimackinac, 95. +Minnesota organized as Territory (1849), 208. +Mississippi, Georgians in, 173. +Mississippi Valley, 24-25. +Missouri, population of Territory (1812-18), 161-162; frontier settlers +in, 173. +Monroe, Fortress, 204. +Montreal, fall of (1760), 1. + + +N. + +National Road, see Cumberland Road. +New England, westward migration from, 99; 175-177. +New Orleans, Indians seek equipment at, 18; Jackson's victory, 159. +New Orleans, The, first steamboat in West, 168. +Niagara, council with Indians at, 17. +Northwest Territory, extent of, 1-2; French settlements, 2; Franklin +advises British to retain, 20; ignorance of country, 21-22; questions of +settlement and government, 22 et seq.; settlement, 37 et seq., 79-82; +Continental Congress claims, 71; Treaty of Paris gives to U. S., 75; +state claims yield to nation, 77; migration to, 97 et seq.; character of +country, 110-112; pioneer life, 112 et seq.; in War of 1812, 151 et +seq.; loses frontier character, 162; religion, 170; education, 170-171; +sectionalism, 173-174; Southern influence, 176-177; national issues, +178-179; form of government, 179-180; slavery, 180-184; explorations +upon upper Mississippi, 189-191; fur trade, 191-193; lead-mining, +194-195; after Black Hawk War, 205-206; Indian treaties, 206-208; +bibliography, 211-214; see also names of States. + + +O. + +Ohio, settlement, 98 et seq.; routes to, 102 et seq.; formed from part +of Northwest Territory, 132; admitted as State (1802), 132, 165; means +of transportation in, 157; frontier settlers in, 172; Southerners in, +174-175. +Ohio Company, 39, 80-81. +Ohio River, emigrants on, 106-109. +Ordinance of 1787, 77-78, 131, 180, 181, 182. +Oswego, Pontine surrenders at, 18. +Ottawa (Ill.), French settlement near, 2. +Ouiatanon, 35. + + +P. + +Paine, R. D., The Fight for a Free Sea cited, 153 (note). +Paris, Treaty of (1783), 20, 22, 75. +Parkman, Francis, quoted, 5-6, 19, 32-33. +Perry, Commodore O. H., 154. +Pike, Lieutenant Z. M., 190. +Pitt, Fort, 15, 16, 17, 34, 36. +Pittman, Captain, 34. +Pontiac, Indian chief, 3; conspiracy, 9 et seq.; power broken, 17; +further plots, 34; meets Croghan, 35. +Presqu'isle (Erie), council with Indians at, 17. +Proclamation of 1763, 24, 24 (note), 41-42. +"Prophet," see Laulewasikaw. +Prophet's Town, 139. +Putnam, General Rufus, 80, 81, 82. + + +Q. + +Quebec, province provided under Proclamation of 1763, 24, 24 (note). +Quebec Act (1774), 41-43. + + +R. + +Radisson, Pierre, 189. +Raisin River, 153. +Rayneval, secretary to French Foreign Minister, 74. +Recovery, Fort, 91. +Red Bird, Indian chief, 196, 197. +Revolution, effects on West, 45. +Rocheblave, commandant at Kaskaskia, 54. +Rogers, Major Robert, 3, 4. +Roosevelt, Theodore, quoted, 61, 156. + + +S. + +Sackville, Fort, 55. +Saint Ange de Bellerive, 18, 19, 33, 36. +St. Anthony, Falls of, Hennepin reaches, 190. +St. Clair, General Arthur, 81, 84, 85-87, 89. +St. Joseph, Fort, 69-70. +St. Louis, French settlement near, 2; French town, 18; established +(1764), 32; Saint-Ange retires to, 36; under Spanish rule, 69; education +in, 171. +St. Louis, Fort, 2. +Ste. Genevieve, 32. +Schoolcraft, Henry, 191. +Scioto Company, 81. +"Seven Ranges," 80, 99-100. +Sheridan, Lieutenant-General P. H., 100. +Sherman, John, 100. +Sherman, General W. T., 100. +Sinclair, Lieutenant-Governor Patrick, 69. +Slavery, 180-184. +Snelling, Fort, 196. +Spain, cessions to, 18, 28; ally of France, 69; seizes Fort St. Joseph, +69-70; American policy, 72-73; plan presented at peace negotiation, +73-74. +Stanwix, Fort, Treaty of, 78. +"Starved Rock," 2. +Sterling, Captain Thomas, 36. +Stillman, Major, 202. +Symmes, Judge J. C., of N. J., 82. + + +V. + +Tariff, attitude of Northwest toward, 178-179. +Taylor, Zachary, 201. +Tecumseh, plans confederacy, 135 et seq.; at Prophet's Town, 139; +confers with Harrison at Vincennes, 139-140, 140-143; sympathy with +British, 148, 150; joins British in 1812, 152; killed, 154. +Thames, Battle of the, 154. +Tippecanoe, Battle of, 144-147. +Transportation, difficulties, 163-164; highways, 164-168; stage lines, +167; steamboats, 168-170; Erie Canal, 176; roads and canals, 178; on +Mississippi River, 195. + + +V. + +Vandalia, projected colony, 39. +Vandalia (Ill.), Cumberland Road graded to, 166. +Vaudreuil, Pierre de Rigaud, Marquis de, Governor of Canada, 1, 3. +Venango, Fort, 14. +Vergennes, Charles Gravier, Comte de, French Foreign Minister, 74. +Vigo, François, 60-61. +Villiers, Neyon de, 31. +Vincennes, French colony, 2; under British, 31; surrenders to Clark, 55; +captured by British, 58-59, Clark retakes, 63-66, 69; Harrison and +Tecumseh in conference at, 139-140, 140-143. + + +W. + +Wabash Valley, French settlement in, 2. +Waite, Chief Justice M. R., 100. +Walpole, Thomas, 39. +War of 1812, popular in West, 151; standing army, 152; volunteers +called, 152; in the West, 153-154; military organization, 154-156; lack +of transportation facilities, 157-158; life of frontier soldiers, +158-159; peace (1815), 160. +Warrior, The, Government supply steamer in Black Hawk War, 203. +Washington, George, acquires western land, 38-39. +Wayne, "Mad Anthony," 89 et seq. +Wayne, Fort, 94, 152; Treaty of, 135. +Wekau, Indian chief, 197. +Welby, Adlard, quoted, 163. +West Florida, province provided under Proclamation of 1763, 24, 24 +(note), 33; plan for Spain to resume possession of, 73. +Western Reserve, 99, 102, 172, 175. +Wharton, Samuel, 39. +Whistler, Major, 196, 197. +Wilkinson, General James, 190. +Willing, The, Clark's boat, 61, 64, 66, 67. +Winnebago, Fort, 197. +Wisconsin admitted as State (1848), 208. +Wythe, George, 51. + + + + + + +The Chronicles of America Series + + 1. The Red Man's Continent + by Ellsworth Huntington + 2. The Spanish Conquerors + by Irving Berdine Richman + 3. Elizabethan Sea-Dogs + by William Charles Henry Wood + 4. The Crusaders of New France + by William Bennett Munro + 5. Pioneers of the Old South + by Mary Johnson + 6. The Fathers of New England + by Charles McLean Andrews + 7. Dutch and English on the Hudson + by Maud Wilder Goodwin + 8. The Quaker Colonies + by Sydney George Fisher + 9. Colonial Folkways + by Charles McLean Andrews +10. The Conquest of New France + by George McKinnon Wrong +11. The Eve of the Revolution + by Carl Lotus Becker +12. Washington and His Comrades in Arms + by George McKinnon Wrong +13. The Fathers of the Constitution + by Max Farrand +14. Washington and His Colleagues + by Henry Jones Ford +15. Jefferson and his Colleagues + by Allen Johnson +16. John Marshall and the Constitution + by Edward Samuel Corwin +17. The Fight for a Free Sea + by Ralph Delahaye Paine +18. Pioneers of the Old Southwest + by Constance Lindsay Skinner +19. The Old Northwest + by Frederic Austin Ogg +20. The Reign of Andrew Jackson + by Frederic Austin Ogg +21. The Paths of Inland Commerce + by Archer Butler Hulbert +22. Adventurers of Oregon + by Constance Lindsay Skinner +23. The Spanish Borderlands + by Herbert Eugene Bolton +24. Texas and the Mexican War + by Nathaniel Wright Stephenson +25. The Forty-Niners + by Stewart Edward White +26. The Passing of the Frontier + by Emerson Hough +27. The Cotton Kingdom + by William E. Dodd +28. The Anti-Slavery Crusade + by Jesse Macy +29. Abraham Lincoln and the Union + by Nathaniel Wright Stephenson +30. The Day of the Confederacy + by Nathaniel Wright Stephenson +31. Captains of the Civil War + by William Charles Henry Wood +32. The Sequel of Appomattox + by Walter Lynwood Fleming +33. The American Spirit in Education + by Edwin E. Slosson +34. The American Spirit in Literature + by Bliss Perry +35. Our Foreigners + by Samuel Peter Orth +36. The Old Merchant Marine + by Ralph Delahaye Paine +37. The Age of Invention + by Holland Thompson +38. The Railroad Builders + by John Moody +39. The Age of Big Business + by Burton Jesse Hendrick +40. The Armies of Labor + by Samuel Peter Orth +41. The Masters of Capital + by John Moody +42. The New South + by Holland Thompson +43. The Boss and the Machine + by Samuel Peter Orth +44. The Cleveland Era + by Henry Jones Ford +45. The Agrarian Crusade + by Solon Justus Buck +46. The Path of Empire + by Carl Russell Fish +47. Theodore Roosevelt and His Times + by Harold Howland +48. Woodrow Wilson and the World War + by Charles Seymour +49. The Canadian Dominion + by Oscar D. Skelton +50. The Hispanic Nations of the New World + by William R. Shepherd + + + + + +Transcriber's Notes + + +Detailed Notes Section: + + +Chapter 2. + +On Page 21, add period after possession in the sentence: The English +people had, however, only the vaguest notion of the extent, appearance, +and resources of their new possession. + + +Chapter 3. + +On Page 53, and also Page 205, war-whoop was hyphenated between two +lines for spacing. The word was not used elsewhere in this book, but in +other chronicles it is spelled with a hyphen. We retained the hyphen. + + +Chapter 5. + +On Page 101, easy-going was hyphenated between two lines for spacing. On +Page 30, easy-going occurred in the middle of a sentence, and was +hyphenated. We retained the hyphen. + +Pack-horse (Page 106) and pack-horses (Page 116) were spelled with a +hyphen in Chapter 5, but packhorse (Page 157) and pack-horses (Page 159) +of Chapter 7 omitted the hyphen. We did not make any adjustments to the +spelling of these words. + + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE OLD NORTHWEST *** + +***** This file should be named 3014-h.htm or 3014-h.zip ***** + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/3/0/1/3014/ + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will be +renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no one +owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation (and +you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without permission +and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth in the +General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to copying and +distributing Project Gutenberg™ electronic works to protect the PROJECT +GUTENBERG™ concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered +trademark, and may not be used if you charge for the eBooks, unless you +receive specific permission. If you do not charge anything for copies of +this eBook, complying with the rules is very easy. You may use this +eBook for nearly any purpose such as creation of derivative works, +reports, performances and research. They may be modified and printed and +given away--you may do practically anything with public domain eBooks. +Redistribution is subject to the trademark license, especially +commercial redistribution. + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU +DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg™ mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work (or +any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg™ License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg™ +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg™ electronic +work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to and accept +all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all the +terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy all +copies of Project Gutenberg™ electronic works in your possession. If you +paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project Gutenberg™ +electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the terms of this +agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or entity to whom you +paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be used +on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who agree +to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few things that +you can do with most Project Gutenberg™ electronic works even without +complying with the full terms of this agreement. See paragraph 1.C +below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project Gutenberg™ +electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement and help +preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg™ electronic works. See +paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg™ electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you +from copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating +derivative works based on the work as long as all references to Project +Gutenberg are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the +Project Gutenberg™ mission of promoting free access to electronic works +by freely sharing Project Gutenberg™ works in compliance with the terms +of this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg™ name associated +with the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg™ License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg™ work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning the +copyright status of any work in any country outside the United States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg™ License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg™ work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost +no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it +under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this +eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org. + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg™ electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work with +the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the work, +you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through +1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project +Gutenberg™ trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg™ electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg ™ License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg™ +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg™. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg™ License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg™ work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg™ web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg™ +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg™ works unless +you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing access +to or distributing Project Gutenberg™ electronic works provided that + +* You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from the +use of Project Gutenberg™ works calculated using the method you already +use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed to the owner of +the Project Gutenberg™ trademark, but he has agreed to donate royalties +under this paragraph to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid within 60 days following each +date on which you prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your +periodic tax returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such +and sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the +address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to the +Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +* You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies you +in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he does not +agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg™ License. You must +require such a user to return or destroy all copies of the works +possessed in a physical medium and discontinue all use of and all access +to other copies of Project Gutenberg ™ works. + +* You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any +money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the +electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of +receipt of the work. + +* You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free +distribution of Project Gutenberg™ works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg™ +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set forth +in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from both the +Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael Hart, the +owner of the Project Gutenberg™ trademark. Contact the Foundation as set +forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg™ collection. +Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg™ electronic works, and the +medium on which they may be stored, may contain "Defects," such as, but +not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or corrupt data, transcription +errors, a copyright or other intellectual property infringement, a +defective or damaged disk or other medium, a computer virus, or computer +codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES: Except for the "Right of +Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg™ trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg™ electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all liability +to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal fees. You agree +that you have no remedies for negligence, strict liability, breach of +warranty or breach of contract except those provided in Paragraph F3. +You agree that the Foundation, the trademark owner, and any distributor +under this agreement will not be liable to you for actual, direct, +indirect, consequential, punitive or incidental damages even if you give +notice of the possibility of such damage. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND: If you discover a defect +in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can receive +a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a written +explanation to the person you received the work from. If you received +the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with your +written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with the +defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', with no other +warranties of any kind, express or implied, including but not limited to +warranties of merchantibility or fitness for any purpose. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY: You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg™ electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg™ electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg™ +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg™ work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg™ + +Project Gutenberg ™ is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg's™ goals +and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg™ collection will remain freely +available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure and +permanent future for Project Gutenberg™ and future generations. To learn +more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and how +your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 and the +Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org. + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the state +of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal Revenue +Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification number is +64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at 809 +North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official page +at https://pglaf.org. + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg™ depends upon and cannot survive without wide spread +public support and donations to carry out its mission of increasing the +number of public domain and licensed works that can be freely +distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest array of +equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations ($1 to +$5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt status with +the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations where +we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To send +donations or determine the status of compliance for any particular state +visit https://pglaf.org. + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make any +statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from outside +the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other ways +including including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate. + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg™ electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg™ +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg™ eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg™ eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. unless +a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily keep eBooks +in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg™, including +how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to subscribe to +our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
\ No newline at end of file diff --git a/3014-0.zip b/3014-0.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..a848e3b --- /dev/null +++ b/3014-0.zip diff --git a/3014-h.zip b/3014-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..6203669 --- /dev/null +++ b/3014-h.zip diff --git a/3014-h/3014-h.htm b/3014-h/3014-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..15bd611 --- /dev/null +++ b/3014-h/3014-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,6370 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> + +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" > + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> +<head> + +<title> +The Old Northwest by Frederic Austin Ogg, Volume 19 in the Chronicles of +America series, an e-book presented by Project Gutenberg +</title> +<link rel="coverpage" href="images/cover.jpg" /> + <style type="text/css"> + + body { margin:8%; text-align:justify;} + p { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; } + a { text-decoration:none;} + h1, h2 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; } + h3 { text-align: center; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; + font-variant:small-caps; font-weight:normal; font-size:large;} + h4 { text-align: left; font-weight:bold; font-size:small; + margin-bottom:0em;} + hr { width: 40%; margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:2em;} + hr.break { width: 20%; margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:2em;} + hr.tiny { width: 10%; } + ins {text-decoration:none; border-bottom:thin dotted gray;} + blockquote {font-size: 97%; margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 5%;} + blockquote p { text-indent: 0em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; } + + div.chapterhead { padding-top:4em; } + div#start-of-book + { text-indent:0; text-align: center; + font-weight:bold; font-size:large; + margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; + margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:2em;} + div#start-of-book p {font-size:x-large;} + p.chaptertitle + { text-indent:0; text-align: center; + font-variant:small-caps; + font-weight:bold; font-size:1.2em; + margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; + margin-bottom:2em;} + p.author { text-align: center; + font-weight:bold; font-size:large; + margin-bottom:2em;} + p.book-subtitle + { text-align:center; + font-weight:bold; font-variant:small-caps; + margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; } + /* Boilerplate classes */ + div.boilerplate { margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em;} + div.boilerplate p { text-indent:0em; } + .pagenum { right: 1%; font-size:x-small; background-color:inherit; color:gray; + text-indent:0em; text-align:right; position:absolute; + /* To remove the page-numbers, use the hidden visibilty feature */ + /* visibility:hidden; */ + border: 1px solid silver; padding: 1px 2px; + font-style:normal; + font-variant:normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;} + /* simple-function classes */ +.smcap {font-variant:small-caps;} +.superscript { font-size:50%; vertical-align:top; } +.center {text-align:center; } +.right {text-align:right; } +.small {font-size:small;} +.xlarge {font-size:x-large;} +.noindent {text-indent: 0; } +.double-space-top {margin-top:2em;} +.single-space-top {margin-top:1em;} +.no-space-top {margin-top:0em;} +.no-space-bottom {margin-bottom:0em;} +.quad-space-bottom {margin-bottom:4em;} +.bold {font-weight:bold;} +.neat-left-margin {margin-left:2.5em;} + /* table of contents styling */ +table.toc {margin:0 auto;} +table.toc caption {font-variant:small-caps; font-weight:bold; + font-size:large; margin-bottom:1em;} +table.toc th {font-size:small;} +table.toc tr td {vertical-align:top;} +table.toc tr td:first-child {text-align:right; padding-right:.5em; } +table.toc tr td:last-child {text-align:right; padding-left:.5em; } + /* index classes */ + div#index { font-size:small; + margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%;} + div#index p {margin-top:.5em; margin-bottom:.5em; + text-indent:0em;} +/* footer classes */ +div.footer { border-style:solid; border-color:silver; border-width:thin; + border-top:none; border-bottom:none; + padding-left:10%; padding-right:10%;} +div.footer p { text-indent:0; text-align:justify; font-size:80%; } +/* titlepage classes */ + div#titlepage { padding-top:5%; padding-bottom:5%; + margin-right:15%; margin-left:15%; + text-align:center;} + div#titlepage p { text-indent:0em; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom: .25em; } + </style> +</head> +<body> +<div class="boilerplate"> +<p> +The Old Northwest by Frederic Austin Ogg, +Volume 19 in the Chronicles of America series, +an eBook presented by Project Gutenberg. +</p> + +<p> +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org +</p> + +<p class="no-space-bottom"> +Title: The Old Northwest +</p> +<p class="neat-left-margin no-space-top no-space-bottom"> + A Chronicle of the Ohio Valley and Beyond,<br /> + Volume 19 In The Chronicles Of America Series +</p> +<p class="no-space-top"> +Author: Frederic Austin Ogg<br /> +Editor: Allen Johnson<br /> +Release Date: February 15, 2009 [EBook #3014]<br /> +Last Updated: November 17, 2016<br /> +Language: English<br /> +Character set encoding: UTF-8 +</p> + +<p> +Produced by The James J. Kelly Library Of St. Gregory's +University, Alev Akman, David Widger, and Robert Homa. +</p> + +<p class="bold double-space-top quad-space-bottom"> +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE OLD NORTHWEST *** +</p> +</div> + +<div id="titlepage"> + <h1>The Old Northwest</h1> + <p class="author">By Frederic Austin Ogg</p> + <p class="book-subtitle">A Chronicle of the Ohio Valley and Beyond</p> + <p> + Volume 19 of the<br /> + Chronicles of America Series <br /> + ∴<br /> + Allen Johnson, Editor<br /> + Assistant Editors<br /> + Gerhard R. Lomer <br /> + Charles W. Jefferys + </p> + <hr class="tiny" /> + <p> + <i>Abraham Lincoln Edition</i><br /><br /> + </p> + <p> New Haven: Yale University Press<br /> + Toronto: Glasgow, Brook & Co.<br /> + London: Humphrey Milford<br /> + Oxford University Press<br /> + 1919 + </p> + +<p class="center small"> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_ii" id="Page_ii">ii</a></span> + Copyright, 1919<br /> + by Yale University Press <br /> +</p> +</div> + + +<hr /> + +<p> +<a name="Contents" id="Contents"></a> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">vii</a></span> +<br /><br /><br /> +</p> +<h2>Contents</h2> + + +<table class="toc" summary="Table of Contents for The Old Northwest"> +<caption>The Old Northwest</caption> +<thead> +<tr> +<th>Chapter</th> +<th>Chapter Title</th> +<th>Page</th> +</tr> +</thead> +<tbody> + + <tr> + <td>I.</td> + <td class="smcap">Pontiac's Conspiracy</td> + <td><a href="#Chapter01">1</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>II.</td> + <td class="smcap">"A Lair of Wild Beasts"</td> + <td><a href="#Chapter02">20</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>III.</td> + <td class="smcap">The Revolution Begins</td> + <td><a href="#Chapter03">41</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>IV.</td> + <td class="smcap">The Conquest Completed</td> + <td><a href="#Chapter04">57</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>V.</td> + <td class="smcap">Wayne, The Scourge Of The Indians</td> + <td><a href="#Chapter05">76</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>VI.</td> + <td class="smcap">The Great Migration</td> + <td><a href="#Chapter06">97</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>VII.</td> + <td class="smcap">Pioneer Days and Ways</td> + <td><a href="#Chapter07">110</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>VIII.</td> + <td class="smcap">Tecumseh</td> + <td><a href="#Chapter08">131</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>IX.</td> + <td class="smcap">The War Of 1812 And The New West</td> + <td><a href="#Chapter09">151</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>X.</td> + <td class="smcap">Sectional Cross Currents</td> + <td><a href="#Chapter10">172</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>XI.</td> + <td class="smcap">The Upper Mississippi Valley</td> + <td><a href="#Chapter11">189</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td></td> + <td class="smcap">Bibliographical Note</td> + <td><a href="#Biblio">211</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td></td> + <td class="smcap">Index</td> + <td><a href="#indexChapter">215</a></td> + </tr> +</tbody> +</table> + + + + <hr /> + <div id="start-of-book"> + <p> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_001" id="Page_001">1</a></span> + <a name="Chapter01" id="Chapter01"></a> + THE OLD NORTHWEST + </p> + <p class="single-space-top"> + ∴ + </p> + <h2> + <a href="#Contents">CHAPTER I.</a> + </h2> + </div> + + <p class="chaptertitle">Pontiac's Conspiracy</p> + + <p class="noindent"> + <span class="smcap">The</span> fall of Montreal, on September 8, 1760, + while the plains about the city were still dotted with the white tents of + the victorious English and colonial troops, was indeed an event of the + deepest consequence to America and to the world. By the articles of + capitulation which were signed by the Marquis de Vaudreuil, Governor of + New France, Canada and all its dependencies westward to the Mississippi + passed to the British Crown. Virtually ended was the long struggle for the + dominion of the New World. Open now for English occupation and settlement + was that vast country lying south of the Great Lakes between the Ohio and + the Mississippi—which we know as the Old Northwest—today + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_002" id="Page_002">2</a></span> + the seat of five great commonwealths of the United States. + </p> + <p> + With an ingenuity born of necessity, the French pathfinders and colonizers + of the Old Northwest had chosen for their settlements sites which would + serve at once the purposes of the priest, the trader, and the soldier; and + with scarcely an exception these sites are as important today as when they + were first selected. Four regions, chiefly, were still occupied by the + French at the time of the capitulation of Montreal. The most important, as + well as the most distant, of these regions was on the east bank of the + Mississippi, opposite and below the present city of St. Louis, where a + cluster of missions, forts, and trading-posts held the center of the + tenuous line extending from Canada to Louisiana. A second was the Illinois + country, centering about the citadel of St. Louis which La Salle had + erected in 1682 on the summit of "Starved Rock," near the modern town of + Ottawa in Illinois. A third was the valley of the Wabash, where in the + early years of the eighteenth century Vincennes had become the seat of a + colony commanding both the Wabash and the lower Ohio. And the fourth was + the western end of Lake Erie, where Detroit, founded by the doughty + Cadillac in 1701, had assumed + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_003" id="Page_003">3</a></span> + such strength that for fifty years it had discouraged the ambitions of + the English to make the Northwest theirs. + </p> + <p> + Sir Jeffrey Amherst, to whom Vaudreuil surrendered in 1760, forthwith + dispatched to the western country a military force to take possession of + the posts still remaining in the hands of the French. The mission was + entrusted to a stalwart New Hampshire Scotch-Irishman, Major Robert + Rogers, who as leader of a band of intrepid "rangers" had made himself the + hero of the northern frontier. Two hundred men were chosen for the + undertaking, and on the 13th of September the party, in fifteen + whaleboats, started up the St. Lawrence for Detroit. + </p> + <p> + At the mouth of the Cuyahoga River, near the site of the present city of + Cleveland, the travelers were halted by a band of Indian chiefs and + warriors who, in the name of their great ruler Pontiac, demanded to know + the object of their journeying. Parleys followed, in which Pontiac himself + took part, and it was explained that the French had surrendered Canada to + the English and that the English merely proposed to assume control of the + western posts, with a view to friendly relations between the red men and + the white men. The rivers, + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_004" id="Page_004">4</a></span> + it was promised, would flow with rum, and presents from the great King + would be forthcoming in endless profusion. The explanation seemed to + satisfy the savages, and, after smoking the calumet with due ceremony, + the chieftain and his followers withdrew. + </p> + <p> + Late in November, Rogers and his men in their whaleboats appeared before + the little palisaded town of Detroit. They found the French commander, + Belêtre, in surly humor and seeking to stir up the neighboring + Wyandots and Potawatomi against them. But the attempt failed, and there + was nothing for Belêtre to do but yield. The French soldiery marched + out of the fort, laid down their arms, and were sent off as prisoners + down the river. The fleur-de-lis, which for more than half a century had + floated over the village, was hauled down, and, to the accompaniment of + cheers, the British ensign was run up. The red men looked on with + amazement at this display of English authority and marveled how the + conquerors forbore to slay their vanquished enemies on the spot. + </p> + <p> + Detroit in 1760 was a picturesque, lively, and rapidly growing frontier + town. The central portions of the settlement, lying within the bounds of + the present city, contained ninety or a hundred + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_005" id="Page_005">5</a></span> + small houses, chiefly of wood and roofed with bark or thatch. A well-built + range of barracks afforded quarters for the soldiery, and there were two + public buildings—a council house and a little church. The whole was + surrounded by a square palisade twenty-five feet high, with a wooden + bastion at each corner and a blockhouse over each gateway. A broad + passageway, the <i>chemin du ronde,</i> lay next to the palisade, and on + little narrow streets at the center the houses were grouped closely + together. + </p> + <p> + Above and below the fort the banks of the river were lined on both sides, + for a distance of eight or nine miles, with little rectangular farms, so + laid out as to give each a water-landing. On each farm was a cottage, with + a garden and orchard, surrounded by a fence of rounded pickets; and the + countryside rang with the shouts and laughter of a prosperous and happy + peasantry. Within the limits of the settlement were villages of Ottawas, + Potawatomi, and Wyandots, with whose inhabitants the French lived on free + and easy terms. "The joyous sparkling of the bright blue water," writes + Parkman; "the green luxuriance of the woods; the white dwellings, looking + out from the foliage; and in the distance the Indian wigwams curling their + smoke + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_006" id="Page_006">6</a></span> + against the sky—all were mingled in one broad scene of wild + and rural beauty." + </p> + <p> + At the coming of the English the French residents were given an + opportunity to withdraw. Few, however, did so, and from the gossipy + correspondence of the pleasure-loving Colonel Campbell, who for some + months was left in command of the fort, it appears that the life of the + place lost none of its gayety by the change of masters. Sunday card + parties at the quarters of the commandant were festive affairs; and at a + ball held in celebration of the King's birthday the ladies presented an + appearance so splendid as to call forth from the impressionable officer + the most extravagant praises. A visit in the summer of 1761 from Sir + William Johnson, general supervisor of Indian affairs on the frontier, + became the greatest social event in the history of the settlement, if not + of the entire West. Colonel Campbell gave a ball at which the guests + danced nine hours. Sir William reciprocated with one at which they danced + eleven hours. A round of dinners and calls gave opportunity for much + display of frontier magnificence, as well as for the consumption of + astonishing quantities of wines and cordials. Hundreds of Indians were + interested spectators, and the gifts with which they were generously + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_007" id="Page_007">7</a></span> + showered were received with evidences of deep satisfaction. + </p> + <p> + No amount of fiddling and dancing, however, could quite drown apprehension + concerning the safety of the post and the security of the English hold + upon the great region over which this fort and its distant neighbors stood + sentinel. Thousands of square miles of territory were committed to the + keeping of not more than six hundred soldiers. From the French there was + little danger. But from the Indians anything might be expected. Apart from + the Iroquois, the red men had been bound to the French by many ties of + friendship and common interest, and in the late war they had scalped and + slaughtered and burned unhesitatingly at the French command. Hardly, + indeed, had the transfer of territorial sovereignty been made before + murmurs of discontent began to be heard. + </p> + <p> + Notwithstanding outward expressions of assent to the new order of things, + a deep-rooted dislike on the part of the Indians for the English grew + after 1760 with great rapidity. They sorely missed the gifts and supplies + lavishly provided by the French, and they warmly resented the rapacity and + arrogance of the British traders. The open contempt of the soldiery at the + posts galled the + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_008" id="Page_008">8</a></span> + Indians, and the confiscation of their lands drove them + to desperation. In their hearts hope never died that the French would + regain their lost dominion; and again and again rumors were set afloat + that this was about to happen. The belief in such a reconquest was + adroitly encouraged, too, by the surviving French settlers and traders. In + 1761 the tension among the Indians was increased by the appearance of a + "prophet" among the Delawares, calling on all his race to purge itself of + foreign influences and to unite to drive the white man from the land. + </p> + <p> + Protests against English encroachments were frequent and, though + respectful, none the less emphatic. At a conference in Philadelphia in + 1761, an Iroquois sachem declared, "We, your Brethren, of the several + Nations, are penned up like Hoggs. There are Forts all around us, and + therefore we are apprehensive that Death is coming upon us." "We are now + left in Peace," ran a petition of some Christian Oneidas addressed to Sir + William Johnson, "and have nothing to do but to plant our Corn, Hunt the + wild Beasts, smoke our Pipes, and mind Religion. But as these Forts, which + are built among us, disturb our Peace, and are a great hurt to Religion, + because some of our Warriors are + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_009" id="Page_009">9</a></span> + foolish, and some of our Brother Soldiers don't fear God, we therefore + desire that these Forts may be pull'd down, and kick'd out of the way." + </p> + <p> + The leadership of the great revolt that was impending fell naturally upon + Pontiac, who, since the coming of the English, had established himself + with his squaws and children on a wooded island in Lake St. Clair, barely + out of view of the fortifications of Detroit. In all Indian annals no name + is more illustrious than Pontiac's; no figure more forcefully displays the + good and bad qualities of his race. Principal chief of the Ottawa tribe, + he was also by 1763 the head of a powerful confederation of Ottawas, + Ojibwas, and Potawatomi, and a leader known and respected among Algonquin + peoples from the sources of the Ohio to the Mississippi. While capable of + acts of magnanimity, he had an ambition of Napoleonic proportions, and to + attain his ends he was prepared to use any means. More clearly than most + of his forest contemporaries, he perceived that in the life of the Indian + people a crisis had come. He saw that, unless the tide of English invasion + was rolled back at once, all would be lost. The colonial farmers would + push in after the soldiers; the forests would be cut away; the + hunting-grounds would be destroyed; + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_010" id="Page_010">10</a></span> + the native population would be driven away or enslaved. In the silence of + his wigwam he thought out a plan of action, and by the closing weeks of + 1762 he was ready. Never was plot more shrewdly devised and more artfully + carried out. + </p> + <p> + During the winter of 1762-63 his messengers passed stealthily from nation + to nation throughout the whole western country, bearing the pictured + wampum belts and the reddened tomahawks which symbolized war; and in + April, 1763, the Lake tribes were summoned to a great council on the banks + of the Ecorces, below Detroit, where Pontiac in person proclaimed the will + of the Master of Life as revealed to the Delaware prophet, and then + announced the details of his plan. Everywhere the appeal met with + approval; and not only the scores of Algonquin peoples, but also the + Seneca branch of the Iroquois confederacy and a number of tribes on the + lower Mississippi, pledged themselves with all solemnity to fulfill their + prophet's injunction "to drive the dogs which wear red clothing into the + sea." While keen-eyed warriors sought to keep up appearances by lounging + about the forts and begging in their customary manner for tobacco, + whiskey, and gunpowder, every wigwam and forest hamlet from Niagara to the + Mississippi + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_011" id="Page_011">11</a></span> + was astir. Dusky maidens chanted the tribal war-songs, and in the blaze of + a hundred camp-fires chiefs and warriors performed the savage pantomime of + battle. + </p> + <p> + A simultaneous attack, timed by a change of the moon, was to be made on + the English forts and settlements throughout all the western country. + Every tribe was to fall upon the settlement nearest at hand, and + afterwards all were to combine—with French aid, it was confidently + believed—in an assault on the seats of English power farther east. + The honor of destroying the most important of the English strongholds, + Detroit, was reserved for Pontiac himself. + </p> + <p> + The date fixed for the rising was the 7th of May. Six days in advance + Pontiac with forty of his warriors appeared at the fort, protested undying + friendship for the Great Father across the water, and insisted on + performing the calumet dance before the new commandant, Major Gladwyn. + This aroused no suspicion. But four days later a French settler reported + that his wife, when visiting the Ottawa village to buy venison, had + observed the men busily filing off the ends of their gunbarrels; and the + blacksmith at the post recalled the fact that the Indians had lately + sought to + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_012" id="Page_012">12</a></span> + borrow files and saws without being able to give a plausible + explanation of the use they intended to make of the implements. + </p> + <p> + The English traveler Jonathan Carver, who visited the post five years + afterwards, relates that an Ottawa girl with whom Major Gladwyn had formed + an attachment betrayed the plot. Though this story is of doubtful + authenticity, there is no doubt that, in one way or another, the + commandant was amply warned that treachery was in the air. The sounds of + revelry from the Indian camps, the furtive glances of the redskins + lounging about the settlement, the very tension of the atmosphere, would + have been enough to put an experienced Indian fighter on his guard. + </p> + <p> + Accordingly when, on the fated morning, Pontiac and sixty redskins, + carrying under long blankets their shortened muskets, appeared before the + fort and asked admission, they were taken aback to find the whole garrison + under arms. On their way from the gate to the council house they were + obliged to march literally between rows of glittering steel. Well might + even Pontiac falter. With uneasy glances, the party crowded into the + council room, where Gladwyn and his officers sat waiting. "Why," asked the + chieftain stolidly, "do I see so + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_013" id="Page_013">13</a></span> + many of my father's young men standing in the street with their guns?" + "To keep them in training," was the laconic reply. + </p> + <p> + The scene that was planned was then carried out, except in one vital + particular. When, in the course of his speech professing strong attachment + to the English, the chieftain came to the point where he was to give the + signal for slaughter by holding forth the wampum belt of peace inverted, + he presented the emblem—to the accompaniment of a significant clash + of arms and roll of drums from the mustered garrison outside—in the + normal manner; and after a solemn warning from the commandant that + vengeance would follow any act of aggression, the council broke up. To the + forest leader's equivocal announcement that he would bring all of his + wives and children in a few days to shake hands with their English + fathers, Gladwyn deigned no reply. + </p> + <p> + Balked in his plans, the chief retired, but only to meditate fresh + treachery; and when, a few days later, with a multitude of followers, he + sought admission to the fort to assure "his fathers" that "evil birds had + sung lies in their ears," and was refused, he called all his forces to + arms, threw off his disguises, and began hostilities. For six months + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_014" id="Page_014">14</a></span> + the settlement was besieged with a persistence rarely displayed in Indian + warfare. At first the French inhabitants encouraged the besiegers, but, + after it became known that a final peace between England and France had + been concluded, they withheld further aid. Throughout the whole period, + the English obtained supplies with no great difficulty from the + neighboring farms. There was little actual fighting, and the loss of life + was insignificant. + </p> + <p> + By order of General Amherst, the French commander still in charge of Fort + Chartres sent a messenger to inform the redskins definitely that no + assistance from France would be forthcoming. "Forget then, my dear + children,"—so ran the admonition—"all evil talks. Leave off + from spilling the blood of your brethren, the English. Our hearts are now + but one; you cannot, at present, strike the one without having the other + for an enemy also." The effect was, as intended, to break the spirit of + the besiegers; and in October Pontiac humbly sued for peace. + </p> + <p> + Meanwhile a reign of terror spread over the entire frontier. Settlements + from Forts Le Bœuf and Venango, south of Lake Erie, to Green Bay, + west of Lake Michigan, were attacked, and ruses + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_015" id="Page_015">15</a></span> + similar to that attempted at Detroit were generally successful. A few + Indians in friendly guise would approach a fort. After these were + admitted, others would appear, as if quite by chance. Finally, when + numbers were sufficient, the conspirators would draw their concealed + weapons, strike down the garrison, and begin a general massacre of the + helpless populace. Scores of pioneer families, scattered through the + wilderness, were murdered and scalped; traders were waylaid in the forest + solitudes; border towns were burned and plantations were devastated. In + the Ohio Valley everything was lost except Fort Pitt, formerly Fort + Duquesne; in the Northwest, everything was taken except Detroit. + </p> + <p> + Fort Pitt was repeatedly endangered, and the most important engagement of + the war was fought in its defense. The relief of the post was entrusted in + midsummer to a force of five hundred regulars lately transferred from the + West Indies to Pennsylvania and placed under the command of Colonel Henry + Bouquet. The expedition advanced with all possible caution, but early in + August, 1764, when it was yet twenty-five miles from its destination, it + was set upon by a formidable Indian band at Bushy Run and threatened with + a fate not unlike + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_016" id="Page_016">16</a></span> + that suffered by Braddock's little army in the same region nine years + earlier. Finding the woods full of redskins and all retreat cut off, the + troops, drawn up in a circle around their horses and supplies, fired with + such effect as they could upon the shadowy forms in the forest. No water + was obtainable, and in a few hours thirst began to make the soldiery + unmanageable. Realizing that the situation was desperate, Bouquet resorted + to a ruse by ordering his men to fall back as if in retreat. The trick + succeeded, and with yells of victory the Indians rushed from cover to + seize the coveted provisions—only to be met by a deadly fire and + put to utter rout. The news of the battle of Bushy Run spread rapidly + through the frontier regions and proved very effective in discouraging + further hostilities. + </p> + <p> + It was Bouquet's intention to press forward at once from Fort Pitt into + the disturbed Ohio country. His losses, however, compelled the + postponement of this part of the undertaking until the following year. + Before he started off again he built at Fort Pitt a blockhouse which still + stands, and which has been preserved for posterity by becoming, in 1894, + the property of the Pittsburgh chapter of the Daughters of the American + Revolution. In + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_017" id="Page_017">17</a></span> + October, 1764, he set out for the Muskingum valley with a force of + fifteen hundred regulars, Pennsylvania and Virginia volunteers, + and friendly Indians. By this time the great conspiracy was in collapse, + and it was a matter of no great difficulty for Bouquet to enter into + friendly relations with the successive tribes, to obtain treaties with + them, and to procure the release of such English captives as were still in + their hands. By the close of November, 1764, the work was complete, and + Bouquet was back at Fort Pitt. Pennsylvania and Virginia honored him with + votes of thanks; the King formally expressed his gratitude and tendered + him the military governorship of the newly acquired territory of Florida. + </p> + <p> + The general pacification of the Northwest was accomplished by treaties + with the natives in great councils held at Niagara, Presqu'isle (Erie), + and Detroit. Pontiac had fled to the Maumee country to the west of Lake + Erie, whence he still hurled his ineffectual threats at the "dogs in red." + His power, however, was broken. The most he could do was to gather four + hundred warriors on the Maumee and Illinois and present himself at Fort + Chartres with a demand for weapons and ammunition with which to keep up + the war. The French + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_018" id="Page_018">18</a></span> + commander, who was now daily awaiting orders to turn the fortress over to + the English, refused; and a deputation dispatched to New Orleans in quest + of the desired equipment received no reply save that New Orleans itself, + with all the country west of the river, had been ceded to Spain. The + futility of further resistance on the part of Pontiac was apparent. In + 1765 the disappointed chieftain gave pledges of friendship; and in the + following year he and other leaders made a formal submission to Sir + William Johnson at Oswego, and Pontiac renounced forever the bold design + to make himself at a stroke lord of the West and deliverer of his country + from English domination. + </p> + <p> + For three years the movements of this disappointed Indian leader are + uncertain. Most of the time, apparently, he dwelt in the Maumee country, + leading the existence of an ordinary warrior. Then, in the spring of 1769, + he appeared at the settlements on the middle Mississippi. At the newly + founded French town of St. Louis, on the Spanish side of the river, he + visited an old friend, the commandant Saint Ange de Bellerive. Thence he + crossed to Cahokia, where Indian and creole alike welcomed him and made + him the central figure in a series of boisterous festivities. + </p> + <p> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_019" id="Page_019">19</a></span> + An English trader in the village, observing jealously the honors that were + paid the visitor, resolved that an old score should forthwith be evened + up. A Kaskaskian redskin was bribed, with a barrel of liquor and with + promises of further reward, to put the fallen leader out of the way; and + the bargain was hardly sealed before the deed was done. Stealing upon his + victim as he walked in the neighboring forest, the assassin buried a + tomahawk in his brain, and "thus basely," in the words of Parkman, + "perished the champion of a ruined race." Claimed by Saint-Ange, the body + was borne across the river and buried with military honors near the new + Fort St. Louis. The site of Pontiac's grave was soon forgotten, and today + the people of a great city trample over and about it without heed. + </p> + <p><br /></p> + <hr /> + + + <div class="chapterhead"> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_020" id="Page_020">20</a></span> + <a name="Chapter02" id="Chapter02"></a> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + <h2> + <a href="#Contents">CHAPTER II.</a> + </h2> + <p class="chaptertitle">"A Lair Of Wild Beasts"</p> + </div> + <p><br /></p> + + <p class="noindent"> + <span class="smcap">Benjamin Franklin</span>, who was in London in 1760 + as agent of the Pennsylvania Assembly, gave the British ministers some + wholesome advice on the terms of the peace that should be made with + France. The St. Lawrence and the Great Lakes regions, he said, must be + retained by England at all costs. Moreover, the Mississippi Valley must + be taken, in order to provide for the growing populations of the seaboard + colonies suitable lands in the interior, and so keep them engaged in + agriculture. Otherwise these populations would turn to manufacturing, + and the industries of the mother country would suffer. + </p> + <p> + The treaty of peace, three years later, brought the settlement which + Franklin suggested. The vast American back country, with its inviting + rivers and lakes, its shaded hills, and its sunny prairies, became English + territory. The English people had, + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_021" id="Page_021">21</a></span> + however, only the vaguest notion of the extent, appearance, and resources + of their new possession. Even the officials who drew the treaty were as + ignorant of the country as of middle Africa. Prior to the outbreak of the + war no widely known English writer had tried to describe it; and the + absorbing French books of Lahontan, Hennepin, and Charlevoix had reached + but a small circle. The prolonged conflict in America naturally stimulated + interest in the new country. The place-names of the upper Ohio became + household words, and enterprising publishers put out not only translations + of the French writers but compilations by Englishmen designed, in true + journalistic fashion, to meet the demands of the hour for information. + </p> + <p> + These publications displayed amazing misconceptions of the lands + described. They neither estimated aright the number and strength of the + French settlements nor dispelled the idea that the western country was of + little value. Even the most brilliant Englishman of the day, Dr. Samuel + Johnson, an ardent defender of the treaty of 1763, wrote that the large + tracts of America added by the war to the British dominions were "only the + barren parts of the continent, the refuse of the earlier adventurers, + which the French, who came last, had + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_022" id="Page_022">22</a></span> + taken only as better than nothing." As late indeed as 1789, William Knox, + long Under-Secretary for the Colonies, declared that Americans could not + settle the western territory "for ages," and that the region must be given + up to barbarism like the plains of Asia, with a population as unstable as + the Scythians and Tartars. But the shortsightedness of these distant + critics can be forgiven when one recalls that Franklin himself, while + conjuring up a splendid vision of the western valleys teeming with a + thriving population, supposed that the dream would not be realized for + "some centuries." None of these observers dreamt that the territories + transferred in 1763 would have within seventy-five years a population + almost equal to that of Great Britain. + </p> + <p> + The ink with which the Treaty of Paris was signed was hardly dry before + the King and his ministers were confronted with the task of providing + government for the new possessions and of solving problems of land tenure + and trade. Still more imperative were measures to conciliate the Indians; + for already Pontiac's rebellion had been in progress four months, and the + entire back country was aflame. It must be confessed that a continental + wilderness swarming with murderous savages was + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_023" id="Page_023">23</a></span> + an inheritance whose aspect was by no means altogether pleasing to the + English mind. + </p> + <p> + The easiest solution of the difficulty was to let things take their + course. Let seaboard populations spread at will over the new lands; let + them carry on trade in their own way, and make whatever arrangements with + the native tribes they desire. Colonies such as Virginia and New York, + which had extensive western claims, would have been glad to see this plan + adopted. Strong objections, however, were raised. Colonies which had no + western claims feared the effects of the advantages which their more + fortunate neighbors would enjoy. Men who had invested heavily in lands + lying west of the mountains felt that their returns would be diminished + and delayed if the back country were thrown open to settlers. Some people + thought that the Indians had a moral right to protection against wholesale + white invasion of their hunting-grounds, and many considered it expedient, + at all events, to offer such protection. + </p> + <p> + After all, however, it was the King and his ministers who had it in their + power to settle the question; and from their point of view it was + desirable to keep the western territories as much as possible apart from + the older colonies, and to regulate, + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_024" id="Page_024">24</a></span> + with farsighted policy, their settlement and trade. Eventually, it was + believed, the territories would be cut into new colonies; and experience + with the seaboard dependencies was already such as to suggest the + desirability of having the future settlements more completely under + government control from the beginning. + </p> + <p> + After due consideration, King George and his ministers made known their + policy on October 7, 1763, in a comprehensive proclamation. The first + subject dealt with was government. Four new provinces—"Quebec, East + Florida, West Florida, and Grenada" ¹—were set up in the ceded + territories, and their populations were guaranteed all the rights and + privileges enjoyed by the inhabitants of the older colonies. The + Mississippi Valley, however, was included in no one of these provinces; + and, curiously, there was no provision whatever for the government of the + French settlements lying + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_025" id="Page_025">25</a></span> + within it. The number and size of these settlements were underestimated, + and apparently it was supposed that all the <i>habitants</i> and soldiers + would avail themselves of their privilege of withdrawing from the ceded + territories. + </p> +<div class="footer"> + <p> + <a id="footer_2-1" name="footer_2-1"></a> +¹ The Proclamation of 1763 drew the boundaries of "four distinct +and separate governments." Grenada was to include the island of that +name, together with the Grenadines, Dominico, St. Vincent, and Tobago. +The Floridas lay south of the bounds of Georgia and east of the +Mississippi River. The Apalachicola River was to be the dividing line +between East and West Florida. Quebec included the modern province of +that name and that part of Ontario lying north of a line drawn from Lake +Nipissing to the point where the forty-fifth parallel intersects the St. +Lawrence River. +</p> +</div> + <p> + The disposition made of the great rectangular area bounded by the + Alleghanies, the Mississippi, the Lakes, and the Gulf, was fairly + startling. With fine disregard of the chartered claims of the seaboard + colonies and of the rights of pioneers already settled on frontier farms, + the whole was erected into an Indian reserve. No "loving subject" might + purchase land or settle in the territory without special license; present + residents should "forthwith remove themselves"; trade should be carried on + only by permit and under close surveillance; officers were to be stationed + among the tribes to preserve friendly relations and to apprehend fugitives + from colonial justice. + </p> + <p> + The objects of this drastic scheme were never clearly stated. Franklin + believed that the main purpose was to conciliate the Indians. Washington + agreed with him. Later historians have generally thought that what the + English Government had chiefly in mind was to limit the bounds of the + seaboard colonies, with a view to preserving imperial + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_026" id="Page_026">26</a></span> + control over colonial affairs. Very likely both of these motives weighed + heavily in the decision. At all events, Lord Hillsborough, who presided + over the meetings of the Lords of Trade when the proclamation was + discussed, subsequently wrote that the "capital object" of the + Government's policy was to confine the colonies so that they should be + kept in easy reach of British trade and of the authority necessary to + keep them in due subordination to the mother country, and he added that + the extension of the fur trade depended "entirely upon the Indians being + undisturbed in the possession of their hunting-grounds." ¹ + </p> +<div class="footer"> + <p> + <a id="footer_2-2" name="footer_2-2"></a> +¹ But as Lord Hillsborough had just taken office and adopted +bodily a policy formulated by his predecessor, he is none too good an +authority. See Alvord's <i>Mississippi Valley in British Politics</i>, +vol. I, pp. 203-4. +</p> +</div> + <p> + It does not follow that the King and his advisers intended that the + territory should be kept forever intact as a forest preserve. They seem to + have contemplated that, from time to time, cessions would be secured from + the Indians and tracts would be opened for settlement. But every move was + to be made in accordance with plans formulated or authorized in England. + The restrictive policy won by no means universal assent in the mother + country. The Whigs generally opposed it, + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_027" id="Page_027">27</a></span> + and Burke thundered against it as "an attempt to keep as a lair of wild + beasts that earth which God, by an express charter, has given to the + children of men." + </p> + <p> + In America there was a disposition to take the proclamation lightly as + being a mere sop to the Indians. But wherever it was regarded seriously, + it was hotly resented. After passing through an arduous war, the colonists + were ready to enter upon a new expansive era. The western territories were + theirs by charter, by settlement, and by conquest. The Indian population, + they believed, belonged to the unprogressive and unproductive peoples of + the earth. Every acre of fertile soil in America called to the thrifty + agriculturist; every westward flowing river invited to trade and + settlement—as well, therefore, seek to keep back the ocean with a + broom as to stop by mere decree the tide of homeseekers. Some of the + colonies made honest attempts to compel the removal of settlers from the + reserved lands beyond their borders, and Pennsylvania went so far as to + decree the death penalty for all who should refuse to remove. But the law + was never enforced. + </p> + <hr class="break" /> + <p> + The news of the cession of the eastern bank of the Mississippi to the + English brought consternation to + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_028" id="Page_028">28</a></span> + the two or three thousand French people living in the settlements of the + Kaskaskia, Illinois, and Wabash regions. The transfer of the western bank + to Spain did not become known promptly, and for months the + <i>habitants</i> supposed that by taking up their abode on the opposite + side of the stream they would continue under their own flag. Many of them + crossed the Mississippi to find new abodes even after it was announced + that the land had passed to Spain. + </p> + <p> + From first to last these settlements on the Mississippi, the Wabash, and + the Illinois had remained, in French hands, mere sprawling villages. The + largest of them, Kaskaskia, may have contained in its most flourishing + days two thousand people, many of them <i>voyageurs, coureurs-de-bois,</i> + converted Indians, and transients of one sort or another. In 1765 there + were not above seventy permanent families. Few of the towns, indeed, + attained a population of more than two or three hundred. All French + colonial enterprise had been based on the assumption that settlers would + be few. The trader preferred it so, because settlements meant restrictions + upon his traffic. The Jesuit was of the same mind, because such + settlements broke up his mission field. The Government + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_029" id="Page_029">29</a></span> + at Paris forbade the emigration of the one class of people that cared to + emigrate, the Huguenots. + </p> + <p> + Though some of the settlements had picturesque sites and others drew + distinction from their fortifications, in general they presented a drab + appearance. There were usually two or three long, narrow streets, with no + paving, and often knee-deep with mud. The houses were built on either + side, at intervals sufficient to give space for yards and garden plots, + each homestead being enclosed with a crude picket fence. Wood and thatch + were the commonest building materials, although stone was sometimes used; + and the houses were regularly one story high, with large vine-covered + verandas. Land was abundant and cheap. Every enterprising settler had a + plot for himself, and as a rule one large field, or more, was held for use + in common. In these, the operations of ploughing, sowing, and reaping were + carefully regulated by public ordinance. Occasionally a village drew some + distinction from the proximity of a large, well-managed estate, such as + that of the opulent M. Beauvais of Kaskaskia, in whose mill and brewery + more than eighty slaves were employed. + </p> + <p> + Agriculture was carried on somewhat extensively, and it is recorded that, + in the year 1746 + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_030" id="Page_030">30</a></span> + alone, when there was a shortage of foodstuffs at New Orleans, the + Illinois settlers were able to send thither "upward of eight hundred + thousand weight of flour." Hunting and trading, however, continued to be + the principal occupations; and the sugar, indigo, cotton, and other + luxuries which the people were able to import directly from Europe were + paid for mainly with consignments of furs, hides, tallow, and beeswax. + Money was practically unknown in the settlements, so that domestic trade + likewise took the form of simple barter. Periods of industry and + prosperity alternated with periods of depression, and the easy-going + <i>habitants</i>—"farmers, hunters, traders by turn, with a strong + admixture of unprogressive Indian blood"—tended always to relapse + into utter indolence. + </p> + <p> + Some of these French towns, however, were seats of culture; and none was + wholly barren of diversions. Kaskaskia had a Jesuit college and likewise a + monastery. Cahokia had a school for Indian youth. Fort Chartres, we are + gravely told, was "the center of life and fashion in the West." If + everyday existence was humdrum, the villagers had always the opportunity + for voluble conversation "each from his own balcony"; and there were + scores of Church festivals, not to mention birthdays, + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_031" id="Page_031">31</a></span> + visits of travelers or neighbors, and homecomings of hunters and traders, + which invited to festivity. Balls and dances and other merrymakings at + which the whole village assembled supplied the wants of a people + proverbially fond of amusement. Indeed, French civilization in the + Mississippi and Illinois country was by no means without charm. + </p> + <p> + Kaskaskia, in the wonderfully fertile "American Bottom," maintained its + existence, in spite of the cession to the English, as did also Vincennes + farther east on the Wabash. Fort Chartres, a stout fortification whose + walls were more than two feet thick, remained the seat of the principal + garrison, and some traces of French occupancy survived on the Illinois. + Cahokia was deserted, save for the splendid mission-farm of St. Sulpice, + with its thirty slaves, its herd of cattle, and its mill, which the + fathers before returning to France sold to a thrifty Frenchman not averse + to becoming an English subject. A few posts were abandoned altogether. + Some of the departing inhabitants went back to France; some followed the + French commandant, Neyon de Villiers, down the river to New Orleans; many + gathered up their possessions, even to the frames and clapboards of their + houses, and + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_032" id="Page_032">32</a></span> + took refuge in the new towns which sprang up on the western bank. One of + these new settlements was Ste. Geneviève, strategically located + near the lead mines from which the entire region had long drawn its + supplies of shot. Another, which was destined to greater importance, + was St. Louis, established as a trading post on the richly wooded bluffs + opposite Cahokia by Pierre Laclède in 1764. + </p> + <p> + Associated with Laclède in his fur-trading operations at the new + post was a lithe young man named Pierre Chouteau. In 1846—eighty-two + years afterwards—Francis Parkman sat on the spacious veranda of + Pierre Chouteau's country house near the city of St. Louis and heard from + the lips of the venerable merchant stories of Pontiac, Saint-Ange, + Croghan, and all the western worthies, red and white, of two full + generations. "Not all the magic of a dream," the historian remarks, "nor + the enchantments of an Arabian tale, could outmatch the waking realities + which were to rise upon the vision of Pierre Chouteau. Where, in his + youth, he had climbed the woody bluff, and looked abroad on prairies + dotted with bison, he saw, with the dim eye of his old age, the land + darkened for many a furlong with the clustered roofs of the western + metropolis. For the silence of the wilderness, he + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_033" id="Page_033">33</a></span> + heard the clang and turmoil of human labor, the din of congregated + thousands; and where the great river rolls down through the forest, in + lonely grandeur, he saw the waters lashed into foam beneath the prows of + panting steamboats, flocking to the broad levee." + </p> + <p> + Pontiac's war long kept the English from taking actual possession of the + western country. Meanwhile Saint-Ange, commanding the remnant of the + French garrison at Fort Chartres, resisted as best he could the demands of + the redskins for assistance against their common enemy and hoped daily for + the appearance of an English force to relieve him of his difficult + position. In the spring of 1764 an English officer, Major Loftus, with a + body of troops lately employed in planting English authority in "East + Florida" and "West Florida," set out from New Orleans to take possession + of the up-river settlements. A few miles above the mouth of the Red, + however, the boats were fired on, without warning, from both banks of the + stream, and many of the men were killed or wounded. The expedition + retreated down the river with all possible speed. This display of + faintheartedness won the keen ridicule of the French, and the Governor, + D'Abadie, with mock + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_034" id="Page_034">34</a></span> + magnanimity, offered an escort of French soldiery to protect the party on + its way back to Pensacola! Within a few months a second attempt was + projected, but news of the bad temper of the Indians caused the leader, + Captain Pittman, to turn back after reaching New Orleans. + </p> + <p> + Baffled in this direction, the new commander-in-chief, General Gage, + resolved to accomplish the desired end by an expedition from Fort Pitt. + Pontiac, however, was known to be still plotting vengeance at that time, + and it seemed advisable to break the way for the proposed expedition by a + special mission to placate the Indians. For this delicate task Sir William + Johnson selected a trader of long experience and of good standing among + the western tribes, George Croghan. Notwithstanding many mishaps, the plan + was carried out. With two boats and a considerable party of soldiers and + friendly Delawares, Croghan left Fort Pitt in May, 1765. As he descended + the Ohio he carefully plotted the river's windings and wrote out an + interesting description of the fauna and flora observed. All went well + until he reached the mouth of the Wabash. There the party was set upon by + a band of Kickapoos, who killed half a dozen of his men. Fluent apologies + were at once offered. They had + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_035" id="Page_035">35</a></span> + made the attack, they explained, only because the French had reported that + the Indians with Croghan's band were Cherokees, the Kickapoos' most deadly + enemies. Now that their mistake was apparent, the artful emissaries + declared, their regret was indeed deep. + </p> + <p> + All of this was sheer pretense, and Croghan and his surviving followers + were kept under close guard and were carried along with the Kickapoo band + up the Wabash to Vincennes, where the trader encountered old Indian + friends who soundly rebuked the captors for their inhospitality. Croghan + knew the Indian nature too well to attempt to thwart the plans of his + "hosts." Accordingly he went on with the band to the upper Wabash post + Ouiatanon, where he received deputation after deputation from the + neighboring tribes, smoked pipes of peace, made speeches, and shook hands + with greasy warriors by the score. Here came a messenger from Saint-Ange + asking him to proceed to Fort Chartres. Here, also, Pontiac met him, and, + after being assured that the English had no intention of enslaving the + natives, declared that he would no longer stand in the conquerors' path. + Though in unexpected manner, Croghan's mission was accomplished, and, with + many evidences of favor from + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_036" id="Page_036">36</a></span> + the natives, he went on to Detroit and thence to Niagara, where he + reported to Johnson that the situation in the West was ripe for the + establishment of English sovereignty. + </p> + <p> + There was no reason for further delay, and Captain Thomas Sterling was + dispatched with a hundred Highland veterans to take over the settlements. + Descending the Ohio from Fort Pitt, the expedition reached Fort Chartres + just as the frosty air began to presage the coming of winter. On October + 10, 1765,—more than two and a half years after the signing of the + Treaty of Paris,—Saint-Ange made the long-desired transfer of + authority. General Gage's high-sounding proclamation was read, the British + flag was run up, and Sterling's red-coated soldiery established itself in + the citadel. In due time small detachments were sent to Vincennes and + other posts; and the triumph of the British power over Frenchman and + Indian was complete. Saint-Ange retired with his little garrison to St. + Louis, where, until the arrival of a Spanish lieutenant-governor in 1770, + he acted by common consent as chief magistrate. + </p> + <p> + The creoles who passed under the English flag suffered little from the + change. Their property and trading interests were not molested, and the + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_037" id="Page_037">37</a></span> + English commandants made no effort to displace the old laws and usages. + Documents were written and records were kept in French as well as English. + The village priest and the notary retained their accustomed places of + paternal authority. The old idyllic life went on. Population increased but + little; barter, hunting, and trapping still furnished the means of a + simple subsistence; and with music, dancing, and holiday festivities the + light-hearted populace managed to crowd more pleasure into a year than the + average English frontiersman got in a lifetime. + </p> + <p> + For a year or two after the European pacification of 1763 Indian + disturbances held back the flood of settlers preparing to enter, through + the Alleghany passes, the upper valleys of the westward flowing rivers. + Neither Indian depredations nor proclamations of kings, however, could + long interpose an effectual restraint. The supreme object of the settlers + was to obtain land. Formerly there was land enough for all along the + coasts or in the nearer uplands. But population, as Franklin computed, was + doubling in twenty-five years; vacant areas had already been occupied; and + desirable lands had been gathered into great speculative holdings. + Newcomers were consequently forced to cross the + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_038" id="Page_038">38</a></span> + mountains—and not only newcomers, but all residents who were still + land-hungry and ambitious to better their condition. + </p> + <p> + To such the appeal of the great West was irresistible. The English + Government might indeed regard the region as a "barren waste" or a + "profitless wilderness," but not so the Scotch-Irish, Huguenot, and + Palatine homeseekers who poured by the thousands through the Chesapeake + and Delaware ports. Pushing past the settled seaboard country, these + rugged men of adventure plunged joyously into the forest depths and became + no less the founders of the coming nation than were the Pilgrims and the + Cavaliers. + </p> + <p> + Ahead of the home-builder, however, went the speculator. It has been + remarked that "from the time when Joliet and La Salle first found their + way into the heart of the great West up to the present day when far-off + Alaska is in the throes of development, 'big business' has been engaged in + western speculation." ¹ In pre-revolutionary days this speculation + took the form of procuring, by grant or purchase, large tracts of western + land which were to be sold and colonized at a profit. Franklin was + interested in a number of such projects. Washington, + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_039" id="Page_039">39</a></span> + the Lees, and a number of other prominent Virginians were connected with + an enterprise which absorbed the old Ohio Company; and in 1770 Washington, + piloted by Croghan, visited the Ohio country with a view to the discovery + of desirable areas. Eventually he acquired western holdings amounting to + thirty-three thousand acres, with a water-front of sixteen miles on the + Ohio and of forty miles on the Great Kanawha. + </p> +<div class="footer"> + <p> + <a id="footer_3-1" name="footer_3-1"></a> + ¹ Alvord, <i>Mississippi Valley in British Politics,</i> vol. I, p.86. +</p> +</div> + <p> + In 1773 a company promoted by Samuel Wharton, Benjamin Franklin, William + Johnson, and a London banker, Thomas Walpole, secured the grant of two and + a half million acres between the Alleghanies and the Ohio, which was to be + the seat of a colony called Vandalia. This departure from the policy laid + down in the Proclamation of 1763 was made reluctantly, but with a view to + giving a definite western limit to the seaboard provinces. The + Government's purpose was fully understood in America, and the project was + warmly opposed, especially by Virginia, the chartered claimant of the + territory. The early outbreak of the Revolutionary War wrecked the + project, and nothing ever came of it—or indeed of any colonization + proposal contemporary with it. By and large, the building of the West was + to be the work, not of colonizing + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_040" id="Page_040">40</a></span> + companies or other corporate interests, but of individual homeseekers, + moving into the new country on their own responsibility and settling + where and when their own interests and inclinations led. + </p> + <p><br /></p> + <hr /> + + + <div class="chapterhead"> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_041" id="Page_041">41</a></span> + <a name="Chapter03" id="Chapter03"></a> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + <h2> + <a href="#Contents">CHAPTER III.</a> + </h2> + <p class="chaptertitle">The Revolution Begins</p> + </div> + <p><br /></p> + + + + <p class="noindent"> + <span class="smcap">One</span> of the grievances given prominence + in the Declaration of Independence was that the English Crown had + "abolished the free system of English laws in a neighbouring province, + establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its + boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument + for introducing the same arbitrary rule into these colonies." + The measure which was in the minds of the signers was the Quebec Act of + 1774; and the feature to which they especially objected was the extension + of this peculiarly governed Canadian province to include the whole of the + territory north of the Ohio and east of the Mississippi. + </p> + <p> + The Quebec Act was passed primarily to remedy a curious mistake made by + King George's ministers eleven years earlier. The Proclamation of 1763 had + been intended to apply to the new French-speaking + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_042" id="Page_042">42</a></span> + possessions in only a general way, leaving matters of government and law + to be regulated at a later date. But through oversight it ordained the + establishment of English law, and even of a representative assembly, + precisely as in the other new provinces. The English governors were thus + put in an awkward position. They were required to introduce English + political forms and legal practices. Yet the inexperience and suspicion + of the people made it unwise, if not impossible, to do so. When, for + example, jury trial was broached, the peasants professed to be quite + unable to understand why the English should prefer to have matters of law + decided by tailors and shoemakers rather than by a judge; and as for a + legislature, they frankly confessed that assemblies "had drawn upon other + colonies so much distress, and had occasioned so much riot and bloodshed, + that they had hoped never to have one." + </p> + <p> + The Act of 1774 relieved the situation by restoring French law in civil + affairs, abolishing jury trial except in criminal cases, rescinding the + grant of representative government, and confirming the Catholic clergy in + the rights and privileges which they had enjoyed under the old + régime. This would have aroused no great amount of feeling + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_043" id="Page_043">43</a></span> + among New Englanders and Virginians if the new arrangements had been + confined to the bounds of the original province. But they were not so + restricted. On the contrary, the new province was made to include the + great region between the Alleghanies and the Mississippi, southward to + the Ohio; and it was freely charged that a principal object of the + English Government was to sever the West from the shore colonies and + permanently link it with the St. Lawrence Valley rather than with the + Atlantic slope. + </p> + <p> + At all events, the Quebec Act marked the beginning of civil government in + the great Northwest. On November 9, 1775, Henry Hamilton appeared as + Lieutenant-Governor at the new capital, Detroit. Already the "shot that + was heard around the world" had been fired on Lexington Green; and + Hamilton had been obliged to thread his way through General Montgomery's + lines about Montreal in the guise of a Canadian. Arrived at his new seat + of authority, he found a pleasant, freshly fortified town whose white + population had grown to fifteen hundred, including a considerable number + of English-speaking settlers. The country round was overrun with traders, + who cheated and cajoled the Indians without conscience; the natives, + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_044" id="Page_044">44</a></span> + in turn, were a nondescript lot, showing in pitiful manner the bad effects + of their contact with the whites. + </p> + <p> + As related by a contemporary chronicler—a Pennsylvanian who lived + for years among the western tribes—an Indian hunting party on + arriving at Detroit would trade perhaps a third of the peltries which they + brought in for fine clothes, ammunition, paint, tobacco, and like + articles. Then a keg of brandy would be purchased, and a council would be + held to decide who was to get drunk and who to keep sober. All arms and + clubs were taken away and hidden, and the orgy would begin. It was the + task of those who kept sober to prevent the drunken ones from killing one + another, a task always hazardous and frequently unsuccessful, sometimes as + many as five being killed in a night. When the keg was empty, brandy was + brought by the kettleful and ladled out with large wooden spoons; and this + was kept up until the last skin had been disposed of. Then, dejected, + wounded, lamed, with their fine new shirts torn, their blankets burned, + and with nothing but their ammunition and tobacco saved, they would start + off down the river to hunt in the Ohio country and begin again the same + round of alternating toil + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_045" id="Page_045">45</a></span> + and debauchery. In the history of the country there is hardly a more + depressing chapter than that which records the easy descent of the red + man, once his taste for "fire water" was developed, to bestiality and + impotence. + </p> + <p> + The coming on of the Revolution produced no immediate effects in the West. + The meaning of the occurrences round Boston was but slowly grasped by the + frontier folk. There was little indeed that the Westerners could do to + help the cause of the eastern patriots, and most of them, if left alone, + would have been only distant spectators of the conflict. But orders given + to the British agents and commanders called for the ravaging of the + trans-Alleghany country; and as a consequence the West became an important + theater of hostilities. + </p> + <p> + The British agents had no troops with which to undertake military + operations on a considerable scale, but they had one great + resource—the Indians—and this they used with a reckless + disregard of all considerations of humanity. In the summer of 1776 the + Cherokees were furnished with fifty horse-loads of ammunition and were + turned loose upon the back country of Georgia and the Carolinas. Other + tribes were prompted to + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_046" id="Page_046">46</a></span> + depredations farther north. White, half-breed, and Indian agents went + through the forests inciting the natives to deeds of horror; prices were + fixed on scalps—and it is significant of the temper of these agents + that a woman's scalp was paid for as readily as a man's. + </p> + <p> + In every corner of the wilderness the bloody scenes of Pontiac's war were + now reënacted. Bands of savages lurked about the settlements, ready to + attack at any unguarded moment; and wherever the thin blue smoke of a + settler's cabin rose, prowlers lay in wait. A woman might not safely go a + hundred yards to milk a cow, or a man lead a horse to water. The farmer + carried a gun strapped to his side as he ploughed, and he scarcely dared + venture into the woods for the winter's supply of fuel and game. Hardly a + day passed on which a riderless horse did not come galloping into some + lonely clearing, telling of a fresh tragedy on the trail. + </p> + <p> + The rousing of the Indians against the frontiersmen was an odious act. The + people of the back country were in not the slightest degree responsible + for the revolt against British authority in the East. They were + non-combatants, and no amount of success in sweeping them from their homes + could + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_047" id="Page_047">47</a></span> + affect the larger outcome. The crowning villainy of this shameful + policy was the turning of the redskins loose to prey upon helpless women + and children. + </p> + <p> + The responsibility for this inhumanity must be borne in some degree by the + government of George III. "God and nature," wrote the Earl of Suffolk + piously, "hath put into our hands the scalping-knife and tomahawk, to + torture them into unconditional submission." But the fault lay chiefly + with the British officers at the western posts—most of all, with + Lieutenant-Governor Hamilton at Detroit. Probably no British + representative in America was on better terms with the natives. He drank + with them, sang war-songs with them, and received them with open arms when + they came in from the forests with the scalps of white men dangling at + their belts. A great council on the banks of the Detroit in June, 1778, + was duly opened with prayer, after which Hamilton harangued the assembled + Chippewas, Hurons, Mohawks, and Potawatomi on their "duties" in the war + and congratulated them on the increasing numbers of their prisoners and + scalps, and then urged them to redoubled activity by holding out the + prospect of the complete expulsion of white men from the great interior + hunting-grounds. + </p> + <p> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_048" id="Page_048">48</a></span> + Scarcely were the deputations attending this council well on their way + homewards when a courier arrived from the Illinois country bringing + startling news. The story was that a band of three hundred rebels led by + one George Rogers Clark had fallen upon the Kaskaskia settlements, had + thrown the commandant into irons, and had exacted from the populace an + oath of allegiance to the Continental Congress. It was reported, too, that + Cahokia had been taken, and that, even as the messenger was leaving + Kaskaskia, "Gibault, a French priest, had his horse ready saddled to go to + Vincennes to receive the submission of the inhabitants in the name of the + rebels." + </p> + <p> + George Rogers Clark was a Virginian, born in the foothills of Albemarle + County three years before Braddock's defeat. His family was not of the + landed gentry, but he received some education, and then, like Washington + and many other adventuresome young men of the day, became a surveyor. At + the age of twenty-two he was a member of Governor Dunmore's staff. During + a surveying expedition he visited Kentucky, which so pleased him that in + 1774 he decided to make that part of the back country his home. He was + even then a man of powerful frame, with broad + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_049" id="Page_049">49</a></span> + brow, keen blue eyes, and a dash of red in his hair from a Scottish + ancestress—a man, too, of ardent patriotism, strong common sense, + and exceptional powers of initiative and leadership. Small wonder that in + the rapidly developing commonwealth beyond the mountains he quickly + became a dominating spirit. + </p> + <p> + With a view to organizing a civil government and impressing upon the + Virginia authorities the need of defending the western settlements, the + men of Kentucky held a convention at Harrodsburg in the spring of 1775 and + elected two delegates to present their petition to the Virginia Assembly. + Clark was one of them. The journey to Williamsburg was long and arduous, + and the delegates arrived only to find that the Legislature had adjourned. + The visit, none the less, gave Clark an opportunity to explain to the new + Governor—"a certain Patrick Henry, of Hanover County," as the + royalist Dunmore contemptuously styled his successor—the situation + in the back country and to obtain five hundred pounds of powder. He also + induced the authorities to take steps which led to the definite + organization of Kentucky as a county of Virginia. + </p> + <p> + In the bloody days that followed, most of the + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_050" id="Page_050">50</a></span> + pioneers saw nothing to be done except to keep close guard and beat off + the Indians when they came. A year or two of that sort of desperate + uncertainty gave Clark an idea. Why not meet the trouble at its source by + capturing the British posts and suppressing the commandants whose orders + were mainly responsible for the atrocities? There was just one obstacle: + Kentucky could spare neither men nor money for the undertaking. + </p> + <p> + In the spring of 1777 two young hunters, disguised as traders, were + dispatched to the Illinois country and to the neighborhood of Vincennes, + to spy out the land. They brought back word that the posts were not + heavily manned, and that the French-speaking population took little + interest in the war and was far from reconciled to British rule. The + prospect seemed favorable. Without making his purpose known to anyone, + Clark forthwith joined a band of disheartened settlers and made his way + with them over the Wilderness Trail to Virginia. By this time a plan on + the part of the rebels for the defense of the Kentucky settlements had + grown into a scheme for the conquest of the whole Northwest. + </p> + <p> + Clark's proposal came opportunely. Burgoyne's surrender had given the + colonial cause a rosy hue, + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_051" id="Page_051">51</a></span> + and already the question of the occupation of the Northwest had come up + for discussion in Congress. Governor Henry thought well of the plan. He + called Thomas Jefferson, George Mason, and George Wythe into conference, + and on January 2, 1778, Clark was given two sets of orders—one, for + publication, commissioning him to raise seven companies of fifty men each + "in any county of the Commonwealth" for militia duty in Kentucky, the + other, secret, authorizing him to use this force in an expedition for the + capture of the "British post at Kaskasky." To meet the costs, only twelve + hundred pounds in depreciated continental currency could be raised. But + the Governor and his friends promised to try to secure three hundred acres + of land for each soldier, in case the project should succeed. The + strictest secrecy was preserved, and, even if the Legislature had been in + session, the project would probably not have been divulged to it. + </p> + <p> + Men and supplies were gathered at Fort Pitt and Wheeling and were carried + down the Ohio to "the Falls," opposite the site of Louisville. The real + object of the expedition was concealed until this point was reached. On + learning of the project, the men were surprised, and some refused to go + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_052" id="Page_052">52</a></span> + farther. But in a few weeks one hundred and seventy-five men, organized in + four companies, were in readiness. The start was made on the 24th of June. + Just as the little flotilla of clumsy flatboats was caught by the rapid + current, the landscape was darkened by an eclipse of the sun. The + superstitious said that this was surely an evil omen. But Clark was no + believer in omens, and he ordered the <i>bateaux</i> to proceed. He had + lately received news of the French alliance, and was surer than ever that + the <i>habitants</i> would make common cause with his forces and give him + complete success. + </p> + <p> + To appear on the Mississippi was to run the risk of betraying the object + of the expedition to the defenders of the posts. Hence the wily commander + decided to make the last stages of his advance by an overland route. At + the deserted site of Fort Massac, nine miles below the mouth of the + Tennessee, the little army left the Ohio and struck off northwest on a + march of one hundred and twenty miles, as the crow flies, across the + tangled forests and rich prairies of southern Illinois. + </p> + <p> + Six days brought the invaders to the Kaskaskia River, three miles above + the principal settlement. Stealing silently along the bank of the stream + on + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_053" id="Page_053">53</a></span> + the night of the 4th of July, they crossed in boats which they seized + at a farmhouse and arrived at the palisades wholly unobserved. Half of the + force was stationed in the form of a cordon, so that no one might escape. + The remainder followed Clark through an unguarded gateway into the + village. + </p> + <p> + According to a story long current, the officials of the post were that + night giving a ball, and all of the élite, not of Kaskaskia alone + but of the neighboring settlements as well, were joyously dancing in one + of the larger rooms of the fort. Leaving his men some paces distant, Clark + stepped to the entrance of the hall, and for some time leaned unobserved + against the door-post, grimly watching the gayety. Suddenly the air was + rent by a war-whoop which brought the dancers to a stop. An Indian brave, + lounging in the firelight, had caught a glimpse of the tall, gaunt, buff + and blue figure in the doorway and had recognized it. Women shrieked; men + cursed; the musicians left their posts; all was disorder. Advancing, Clark + struck a theatrical pose and in a voice of command told the merrymakers to + go on with their dancing, but to take note that they now danced, not as + subjects of King George but as Virginians. Finding that they were in no + mood for further diversion, he + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_054" id="Page_054">54</a></span> + sent them to their homes; and all night they shivered with fear, daring + not so much as to light a candle lest they should be set upon and murdered + in their beds. + </p> + <p> + This account is wholly unsupported by contemporary testimony, and it + probably sprang from the imagination of some good frontier story-teller. + It contains at least this much truth, that the settlement, after being + thrown into panic, was quickly and easily taken. Curiously enough, the + commandant was a Frenchman, Rocheblave, who had thriftily entered the + British service. True to the trust reposed in him, he protested and + threatened, but to no avail. The garrison, now much diminished, was + helpless, and the populace—British, French, and Indian alike—was + not disposed to court disaster by offering armed resistance. Hence, on the + morning after the capture the oath of fidelity was administered, and the + American flag was hoisted for the first time within view of the Father of + Waters. After dispatching word to General Carleton that he had been + compelled to surrender the post to "the self-styled Colonel, Mr. Clark," + Rocheblave was sent as a captive to Williamsburg, where he soon broke + parole and escaped. His slaves were sold for five hundred pounds, and the + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_055" id="Page_055">55</a></span> + money was distributed among the troops. Cahokia was occupied without + resistance, and the French priest, Father Pierre Gibault, whose parish + extended from Lake Superior to the Ohio, volunteered to go to Vincennes + and win its inhabitants to the American cause. + </p> + <p> + Like Kaskaskia and Cahokia, the Wabash settlement had been put in charge + of a commandant of French descent. The village, however, was at the moment + without a garrison, and its chief stronghold, Fort Sackville, was + untenanted. Gibault argued forcefully for acceptance of American + sovereignty, and within two days the entire population filed into the + little church and took the oath of allegiance. The astonished Indians were + given to understand that their former "Great Father," the King of France, + had returned to life, and that they must comply promptly with his wishes + or incur his everlasting wrath for having given aid to the despised + British. + </p> + <p> + Thus without the firing of a shot or the shedding of a drop of blood, the + vast Illinois and Wabash country was won for the future United States. + Clark's plan was such that its success was assured by its very audacity. + It never occurred to the British authorities that their far western forts + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_056" id="Page_056">56</a></span> + were in danger, and they were wholly unprepared to fly to the defense of + such distant posts. British sovereignty on the Mississippi was never + recovered; and in the autumn of 1778 Virginia took steps to organize her + new conquest by setting up the county of Illinois, which included all her + territories lying "on the western side of the Ohio." + </p> + <p><br /></p> + <hr /> + + + <div class="chapterhead"> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_057" id="Page_057">57</a></span> + <a name="Chapter04" id="Chapter04"></a> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + + <h2> + <a href="#Contents">CHAPTER IV.</a> + </h2> + <p class="chaptertitle">The Conquest Completed</p> + </div> + <p><br /></p> + + + <p class="noindent"> + <span class="smcap">Lieutenant-Governor Hamilton</span> had many faults, + but sloth was not one of them; and when he heard what had happened he + promptly decided to regain the posts and take the upstart Kentucky + conqueror captive. Emissaries were sent to the Wabash country to stir up + the Indians, and for weeks the Detroit settlement resounded with + preparations for the expedition. Boats were built or repaired, guns were + cleaned, ammunition was collected in boxes, provisions were put up in kegs + or bags, baubles for the Indians were made or purchased. Cattle and + wheels, together with a six-pounder, were sent ahead to be in readiness + for use at various stages of the journey. + </p> + <p> + Further weeks were consumed in awaiting reenforcements which never came; + and in early October, when the wild geese were scudding southward before + the first snow flurries of the coming + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_058" id="Page_058">58</a></span> + winter, the commandant started for the reconquest with a motley force + of thirty-six British regulars, forty-five local volunteers, + seventy-nine local militia, and sixty Indians. Reënforcements were + gathered on the road, so that when Vincennes was reached the little army + numbered about five hundred. From Detroit the party dropped easily down + the river to Lake Erie, where it narrowly escaped destruction in a + blinding snowstorm. By good management, however, it was brought safely + to the Maumee, up whose sluggish waters the <i>bateaux</i> were + laboriously poled. A portage of nine miles gave access to the Wabash. + Here the water was very shallow, and only by building occasional dikes to + produce a current did the party find it possible to complete the journey. + As conferences with the Indians further delayed them, it was not until a + few days before Christmas that the invaders reached their goal. + </p> + <p> + The capture of Vincennes proved easy enough. The surrender, none the less, + was made in good military style. There were two iron three-pounders in the + wretched little fort, and one of these was loaded to the muzzle and placed + in the open gate. As Hamilton and his men advanced, so runs a not very + well authenticated story, Lieutenant + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_059" id="Page_059">59</a></span> + Helm stood by the gun with a lighted taper and called sternly upon the + invaders to halt. The British leader demanded the surrender of the + garrison. Helm parleyed and asked for terms. Hamilton finally conceded + the honors of war, and Helm magnanimously accepted. Hamilton thereupon + drew up his forces in a double line, the British on one side and the + Indians on the other; and the garrison—one officer and one + soldier—solemnly marched out between them! After the + "conquerors" had regained their equanimity, the cross of St. George was + once more run up on the fort. A body of French militia returned to British + allegiance with quite as much facility as it had shown in accepting + American sovereignty under the eloquence of Father Gibault; and the French + inhabitants, gathered again in the church, with perfectly straight faces + acknowledged that they had "sinned against God and man" by taking sides + with the rebels, and promised to be loyal thereafter to George III. + </p> + <p> + Had the British forces immediately pushed on, this same scene might have + been repeated at Kaskaskia and Cahokia. Clark's position there was far + from strong. Upon the expiration of their term of enlistment most of his + men had gone back + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_060" id="Page_060">60</a></span> + to Kentucky or Virginia, and their places had been taken mainly by + creoles, whose steadfastness was doubtful. Furthermore, the Indians were + restless, and it was only by much vigilance and bravado that they were + kept in a respectful mood. All this was well known to Hamilton, who now + proposed to follow up the recapture of the Mississippi posts by the + obliteration of all traces of American authority west of the Alleghanies. + </p> + <p> + The difficulties and dangers of a midwinter campaign in the flooded + Illinois country were not to be lightly regarded, and weeks of contending + with icy blasts and drenching rains lent a seat by an open fire unusual + attractiveness. Hence the completion of the campaign was postponed until + spring—a decision which proved the salvation of the American cause + in the West. As means of subsistence were slender, most of the Detroit + militia were sent home, and the Indians were allowed to scatter to their + distant wigwams. The force kept at the post numbered only about eighty or + ninety whites, with a few Indians. + </p> + <p> + Clark now had at Kaskaskia a band of slightly over a hundred men. He + understood Hamilton's army to number five or six hundred. The outlook was + dubious, until François Vigo, a friendly Spanish + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_061" id="Page_061">61</a></span> + trader of St. Louis, escaping captivity at Vincennes, came to Kaskaskia + with the information that Hamilton had sent away most of his troops; and + this welcome news gave the doughty Kentuckian a brilliant idea. He would + defend his post by attacking the invaders while they were yet at + Vincennes, and before they were ready to resume operations. "The case is + desperate," he wrote to Governor Henry, "but, sir, we must either quit the + country or attack Mr. Hamilton." He had probably never heard of Scipio + Africanus but, like that indomitable Roman, he proposed to carry the war + straight into the enemy's country. "There were undoubtedly appalling + difficulties," says Mr. Roosevelt, "in the way of a midwinter march and + attack; and the fact that Clark attempted and performed the feat which + Hamilton dared not try, marks just the difference between a man of genius + and a good, brave, ordinary commander." + </p> + <p> + Preparations were pushed with all speed. A large, flat-bottomed boat, the + <i>Willing,</i> was fitted out with four guns and was sent down the + Mississippi with forty men to ascend the Ohio and the Wabash to a place of + rendezvous not far from the coveted post. By early February the depleted + companies were recruited to their full strength; and + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_062" id="Page_062">62</a></span> + after the enterprise had been solemnly blessed by Father Gibault, Clark + and his forces, numbering one hundred and thirty men, pushed out upon the + desolate, wind-swept prairie. + </p> + <p> + The distance to be covered was about two hundred and thirty miles. Under + favorable circumstances, the trip could have been made in five or six days + and with little hardship. The rainy season, however, was now at its + height, and the country was one vast quagmire, overrun by swollen streams + which could be crossed only at great risk. Ten days of wearisome marching + brought the expedition to the forks of the Little Wabash. The entire + region between the two channels was under water, and for a little time it + looked as if the whole enterprise would have to be given up. There were no + boats; provisions were running low; game was scarce; and fires could not + be built for cooking. + </p> + <p> + But Clark could not be turned back by such difficulties. He plunged ahead + of his men, struck up songs and cheers to keep them in spirit, played the + buffoon, went wherever danger was greatest, and by an almost unmatched + display of bravery, tact, and firmness, won the redoubled admiration of + his suffering followers and held them together. Murmurs arose among the + creoles, but the Americans + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_063" id="Page_063">63</a></span> + showed no signs of faltering. For more than a week the party floundered + through the freezing water, picked its way from one outcropping bit of + earth to another, and seldom found opportunity to eat or sleep. Rifles + and powder-horns had to be borne by the hour above the soldiers' heads + to keep them dry. + </p> + <p> + Finally, on the 23d of February, a supreme effort carried the troops + across the Horseshoe Plain, breast-deep in water, and out upon high ground + two miles from Vincennes. By this time many of the men were so weakened + that they could drag themselves along only with assistance. But buffalo + meat and corn were confiscated from the canoes of some passing squaws, and + soon the troops were refreshed and in good spirits. The battle with the + enemy ahead seemed as nothing when compared with the struggle with the + elements which they had successfully waged. No exploit of the kind in + American history surpasses this, unless it be Benedict Arnold's winter + march through the wilderness of Maine in 1775 to attack Quebec. + </p> + <p> + Two or three creole hunters were now taken captive, and from them Clark + learned that no one in Vincennes knew of his approach. They reported, + however, that, although the <i>habitants</i> were tired + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_064" id="Page_064">64</a></span> + of the "Hair-Buyer's" presence and would gladly return to American + allegiance, some two hundred Indians had just arrived at the fort. The + <i>Willing</i> had not been heard from. But an immediate attack seemed + the proper course; and the young colonel planned and carried it out with + the curious mixture of bravery and braggadocio of which he was a past + master. + </p> + <p> + First he drew up a lordly letter, addressed to the inhabitants of the + town, and dispatched it by one of his creole prisoners. "Gentlemen," it + ran, "being now within two miles of your village with my army … + and not being willing to surprise you, I take this step to request such + of you as are true citizens, and willing to enjoy the liberty I bring you, + to remain still in your houses. And those, if any there be, that are + friends to the King, will instantly repair to the fort and join the + Hair-Buyer General and fight like men." Having thus given due warning, + he led his "army" forward, marching and counter-marching his meager forces + among the trees and hills to give an appearance of great numbers, while he + and his captains helped keep up the illusion by galloping wildly here and + there on horses they had confiscated, as if ordering a vast array. At + nightfall the men advanced + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_065" id="Page_065">65</a></span> + upon the stockade and opened fire from two directions. + </p> + <p> + Not until a sergeant reeled from his chair with a bullet in his breast did + the garrison realize that it was really under attack. The <i>habitants</i> + had kept their secret well. There was a beating of drums and a hurrying to + arms, and throughout the night a hot fusillade was kept up. By firing from + behind houses and trees, and from rifle pits that were dug before the + attack began, the Americans virtually escaped loss; while Hamilton's + gunners were picked off as fast as they appeared at the portholes of the + fort. Clark's ammunition ran low, but the <i>habitants</i> furnished a + fresh supply and at the same time a hot breakfast for the men. In a few + hours the cannon were silenced, and parleys were opened. Hamilton insisted + that he and his garrison were "not disposed to be awed into an action + unworthy of British subjects," but they were plainly frightened, and Clark + finally sent the commandant back to the fort from a conference in the old + French church with the concession of one hour's time in which to decide + what he would do. To help him make up his mind, the American leader caused + half a dozen Indians who had just returned from the forests with white + men's scalps + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_066" id="Page_066">66</a></span> + dangling at their belts to be tomahawked and thrown into the river + within plain view of the garrison. + </p> + <p> + Surrender promptly followed. Hamilton and twenty-five of his men were sent + off as captives to Virginia, where the commandant languished in prison + until, in 1780, he was paroled at the suggestion of Washington. On taking + an oath of neutrality, the remaining British sympathizers were set at + liberty. For a second time the American flag floated over Indiana soil, + not again to be lowered. + </p> + <p> + Immediately after the capitulation of Hamilton, a scouting-party captured + a relief expedition which was on its way from Detroit and placed in + Clark's hands ten thousand pounds' worth of supplies for distribution as + prize-money among his deserving men. The commander's cup of satisfaction + was filled to the brim when the <i>Willing</i> appeared with a long-awaited + messenger from Governor Henry who brought to the soldiers the thanks of + the Legislature of Virginia for the capture of Kaskaskia and also the + promise of more substantial reward. + </p> + <p> + The whole of the Illinois and Indiana country was now in American hands. + Tenure, however, + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_067" id="Page_067">67</a></span> + was precarious so long as Detroit remained a British stronghold, and Clark + now broadened his plans to embrace the capture of that strategic place. + Leaving Vincennes in charge of a garrison of forty men, he returned to + Kaskaskia with the <i>Willing</i> and set about organizing a new + expedition. Kentucky pledged three hundred men, and Virginia promised + to help. But when, in midsummer, the commander returned to Vincennes to + consolidate and organize his forces, he found the numbers to be quite + insufficient. From Kentucky there came only thirty men. + </p> + <p> + Disappointment followed disappointment; he was ordered to build a fort at + the mouth of the Ohio—a project of which he had himself approved; + and when at last he had under his command a force that might have been + adequate for the Detroit expedition, he was obliged to use it in meeting a + fresh incursion of savages which had been stirred up by the new British + commandant on the Lakes. But Thomas Jefferson, who in 1779 succeeded Henry + as Governor of Virginia, was deeply interested in the Detroit project, and + at his suggestion Washington gave Clark an order on the commandant of Fort + Pitt for guns, supplies, and such troops as could be spared. On January + 22, + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_068" id="Page_068">68</a></span> + 1781, Jefferson appointed Clark "brigadier-general of the forces to be + embodied on an expedition westward of the Ohio." Again Clark was doomed to + disappointment. One obstacle after another interposed. Yet as late as May, + 1781, the expectant conqueror wrote to Washington that he had "not yet + lost sight of Detroit." Suitable opportunity for the expedition never + came, and when peace was declared the northern stronghold was still in + British hands. + </p> + <p> + Clark's later days were clouded. Although Virginia gave him six thousand + acres of land in southern Indiana and presented him with a sword, peace + left him without employment, and he was never able to adjust himself to + the changed situation. For many years he lived alone in a little cabin on + the banks of the Ohio, spending his time hunting, fishing, and brooding + over the failure of Congress to reward him in more substantial manner for + his services. He was land-poor, lonely, and embittered. In 1818 he died a + paralyzed and helpless cripple. His resting place is in Cave Hill + Cemetery, Louisville; the finest statue of him stands in Monument Circle, + Indianapolis—"an athletic figure, scarcely past youth, tall and + sinewy, with a drawn sword, in an attitude of energetic + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_069" id="Page_069">69</a></span> + encouragement, as if getting his army through the drowned lands of the + Wabash." ¹ + </p> +<div class="footer"> + <p> + <a id="footer_4-1" name="footer_4-1"></a> +¹ Hosmer, <i>Short History of the Mississippi Valley</i>, p. 94. +</p> +</div> + <p> + The capture of Vincennes determined the fate of the Northwest. Frontier + warfare nevertheless went steadily on. In 1779 Spain entered the contest + as an ally of France, and it became the object of the British commanders + on the Lakes not only to recover the posts lost to the Americans but to + seize St. Louis and other Spanish strongholds on the west bank of the + Mississippi. In 1780 Lieutenant-Governor Patrick Sinclair, a bustling, + garrulous old soldier stationed at Michilimackinac, sent a force of some + nine hundred traders, servants, and Indians down the Mississippi to + capture both the American and Spanish settlements. An attack on St. Louis + failed, as did likewise a series of efforts against Cahokia and Kaskaskia, + and the survivors were glad to reach their northern headquarters again, + with nothing to show for their pains except a dozen prisoners. + </p> + <p> + Not to be outdone, the Spanish commandant at St. Louis sent an expedition + to capture British posts in the Lake country. An arduous winter march + brought the avengers and their Indian allies to Fort St. Joseph, a mile or + two west of the + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_070" id="Page_070">70</a></span> + present city of Niles, Michigan. It would be ungracious to say that this + post was selected for attack because it was without a garrison. At all + events, the place was duly seized, the Spanish standard was set up, and + possession of "the fort and its dependencies" was taken in the name of + his Majesty Don Carlos III. No effort was made to hold the settlement + permanently, and the British from Detroit promptly retook it. Probably + the sole intention had been to add somewhat to the strength of the + Spanish position at the forthcoming negotiations for peace. + </p> + <p> + The war in the West ended, as it began, in a carnival of butchery. + Treacherous attacks, massacres, burnings, and pillagings were everyday + occurrences, and white men were hardly less at fault than red. Indeed the + most discreditable of all the recorded episodes of the time was a + heartless massacre by Americans of a large band of Indians that had been + Christianized by Moravian missionaries and brought together in a peaceful + community on the Muskingum. This slaughter of the innocents at + Gnadenhütten ("the Tents of Grace") reveals the frontiersman at his + worst. But it was dearly paid for. From the Lakes to the Gulf redskins + rose for vengeance. Villages were wiped out, + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_071" id="Page_071">71</a></span> + and murderous bands swept far into Virginia and Pennsylvania, evading + fortified posts in order to fall with irresistible fury on unsuspecting + traders and settlers. + </p> + <p> + In midsummer, 1782, news of the cessation of hostilities between Great + Britain and her former seaboard colonies reached the back country, and the + commandant at Detroit made an honest effort to stop all offensive + operations. A messenger failed, however, to reach a certain Captain + Caldwell, operating in the Ohio country, in time to prevent him from + attacking a Kentucky settlement and bringing on the deadly Battle of Blue + Licks, in which the Americans were defeated with a loss of seventy-one + men. George Rogers Clark forthwith led a retaliatory expedition against + the Miami towns, taking prisoners, recapturing whites, and destroying + British trading establishments; and with this final flare-up the + Revolution came to an end in the Northwest. + </p> + <p> + The soldier had won the back country for the new nation. Could the + diplomat hold it? As early as March 19, 1779,—just three weeks after + Clark's capture of Vincennes,—the Continental Congress formally laid + claim to the whole of the Northwest; and a few months later John Adams + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_072" id="Page_072">72</a></span> + was instructed to negotiate for peace on the understanding that the + country's northern and western boundaries were to be the line of the Great + Lakes and the Mississippi. When, in 1781, Franklin, Jefferson, Jay, and + Laurens were appointed to assist Adams in the negotiation, the new + Congress of the Confederation stated that the earlier instructions on + boundaries represented its "desires and expectations." + </p> + <p> + It might have been supposed that if Great Britain could be brought to + accept these terms there would be no further difficulty. But obstacles + arose from other directions. France had entered the war for her own + reasons, and looked with decidedly more satisfaction on the defeat of + Great Britain than on the prospect of a new and powerful nation in the + Western Hemisphere. Furthermore, she was in close alliance with Spain; and + Spain had no sympathy whatever with the American cause as such. At all + events, she did not want the United States for a neighbor on the + Mississippi. + </p> + <p> + The American commissioners were under instructions to make no peace + without consulting France. But when, in the spring of 1782, Jay came upon + the scene of the negotiations at Paris, he demurred. He had been for some + time + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_073" id="Page_073">73</a></span> + in Spain, and he carried to Paris not only a keen contempt for the + Spanish people and Spanish politics, but a strong suspicion that Spain was + using her influence to keep the United States from getting the territory + between the Lakes and the Ohio. France soon fell under similar suspicion, + for she was under obligations, as everyone knew, to satisfy Spain; and + little time elapsed before the penetrating American diplomat was + semiofficially assured that his suspicions in both directions were well + founded. + </p> + <p> + The mainspring of Spanish policy was the desire to make the Gulf of Mexico + a closed sea, under exclusive Spanish control. This plan would be + frustrated if the Americans acquired an outlet on the Gulf; furthermore, + it would be jeopardized if they retained control on the upper Mississippi. + Hence, the States must be kept back from the great river; safety dictated + that they be confined to the region east of the Appalachians. + </p> + <p> + An ingenious plan was thereupon developed. Spain was to resume possession + of the Floridas, insuring thereby the coveted unbroken coast line on the + Gulf. The vast area between the Mississippi and the Appalachians and south + of the Ohio was to be an Indian territory, half under Spanish and + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_074" id="Page_074">74</a></span> + half under American "protection." The entire region north of the Ohio was + to be kept by Great Britain, or, at the most, divided—on lines to be + determined—between Great Britain and the United States. From + Rayneval, confidential secretary of the French foreign minister Vergennes, + Jay learned that the French Government proposed to give this scheme its + support. + </p> + <p> + Had such terms as these been forced on the new nation, the hundreds of + Virginian and Pennsylvanian pioneers who had given up their lives in the + planting of American civilization in the back country would have turned in + their graves. But Jay had no notion of allowing the scheme to succeed. He + sent an emissary to England to counteract the Spanish and French + influence. He converted Adams to his way of thinking, and even raised + doubts in Franklin's mind. Finally he induced his colleagues to cast their + instructions to the winds and negotiate a treaty with the mother country + independently. + </p> + <p> + This simplified matters immensely. Great Britain was a beaten nation, and + from the beginning her commissioners played a losing game. There was much + haggling over the loyalists, the fisheries, debts; but the boundaries were + quickly drawn. + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_075" id="Page_075">75</a></span> + Great Britain preferred to see the disputed western country in American + hands rather than to leave a chance for it to fall under the control of + one of her European rivals. + </p> + <p> + Accordingly, the Treaty of Paris drew the interior boundary of the new + nation through the Great Lakes and connecting waters to the Lake of the + Woods; from the most northwestern point of the Lake of the Woods due west + to the Mississippi (an impossible line); down the Mississippi to latitude + 31°; thence east, by that parallel and by the line which is now the + northern boundary of Florida, to the ocean. Three nations, instead of two, + again shared the North American Continent: Great Britain kept the + territory north of the Lakes; Spain ruled the Floridas and everything west + of the Mississippi; the United States held the remainder—an area of + more than 825,000 square miles, with a population of three and one half + millions. + </p> + <p><br /></p> + <hr /> + + <div class="chapterhead"> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_076" id="Page_076">76</a></span> + <a name="Chapter05" id="Chapter05"></a> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + <h2> + <a href="#Contents">CHAPTER V.</a> + </h2> + <p class="chaptertitle">Wayne, The Scourge Of The Indians</p> + </div> + <p><br /></p> + + <p class="noindent"> + "<span class="smcap">This</span> federal republic," wrote the Spanish + Count d'Aranda to his royal master in 1782, "is born a pigmy. A day will + come when it will be a giant, even a colossus. Liberty of conscience, the + facility for establishing a new population on immense lands, as well as + the advantages of the new government, will draw thither farmers and + artisans from all the nations." + </p> + <p> + Aranda correctly weighed the value of the country's vast stretches of free + and fertile land. The history of the United States has been largely a + story of the clearing of forests, the laying out of farms, the erection of + homes, the construction of highways, the introduction of machinery, the + building of railroads, the rise of towns and of great cities. The Germans + of Wisconsin and Missouri, the Scandinavians of Minnesota and the Dakotas, + the Poles and Hungarians of Chicago, + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_077" id="Page_077">77</a></span> + the Irish and Italians of a thousand communities, attest the fact that + the "farmers and artisans from all the nations" have had an honorable part + in the achievement. + </p> + <p> + In laying plans for the development of the western lands the statesmanship + of the Revolutionary leaders was at its best. In the first place, the + seven States which had some sort of title to tracts extending westward to + the Mississippi wisely yielded these claims to the nation; and thus was + created a single, national domain which could be dealt with in accordance + with a consistent policy. In the second place, Congress, as early as 1780, + pledged the national Government to dispose of the western lands for the + common benefit, and promised that they should be "settled and formed into + distinct republican states, which shall become members of the federal + union, and have the same rights of sovereignty, freedom, and independence + as the other states." + </p> + <p> + Finally, in the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 there was mapped out a scheme + of government admirably adapted to the liberty-loving, yet law-abiding, + populations of the frontier. It was based on the broad principles of + democracy, and it was sufficiently flexible to permit necessary changes as + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_078" id="Page_078">78</a></span> + the scattered settlements developed into organized Territories and then + into States. Geographical conditions, as well as racial inheritances, + foreordained that the United States should be an expanding, colonizing + nation; and it was of vital importance that wholesome precedents of + territorial control should be established in the beginning. Louisiana, + Florida, the Mexican accessions, Alaska, and even the newer tropical + dependencies, owe much to the decisions that were reached in the + organizing of the Northwest a century and a quarter ago. + </p> + <p> + The Northwest Ordinance was remarkable in that it was framed for a + territory that had practically no white population and which, in a sense, + did not belong to the United States at all. Back in 1768 Sir William + Johnson's Treaty of Fort Stanwix had made the Ohio River the boundary + between the white and red races of the West. Nobody at the close of the + Revolution supposed that this division would be adhered to; the Northwest + had not been won for purposes of an Indian reserve. None the less, the + arrangements of 1768 were inherited, and the nation considered them + binding except in so far as they were modified from time to time by new + agreements. The first such + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_079" id="Page_079">79</a></span> + agreement affecting the Northwest was concluded + in 1785, through George Rogers Clark and two other commissioners, with the + Wyandots, Delawares, Chippewas, and Ottawas. By it the United States + acquired title to the southeastern half of the present State of Ohio, with + a view to surveying the lands and raising revenue by selling them. + Successive treaties during the next thirty years gradually transferred the + whole of the Northwest from Indian hands to the new nation. + </p> + <p> + Officially, the United States recognized the validity of the Indian + claims; but the pioneer homeseeker was not so certain to do so. From about + 1775 the country south of the Ohio filled rapidly with settlers from + Virginia and the Carolinas, so that by 1788 the white population beyond + the Blue Ridge was believed to be considerably over one hundred thousand. + For a decade the "Indian side," as the north shore was habitually called, + was trodden only by occasional hunters, traders, and explorers. But after + Clark's victories on the Mississippi and the Wabash, the frontiersmen grew + bolder. By 1780 they began to plant camps and cabins on the rich + bottom-lands of the Miamis, the Scioto, and the Muskingum; and when they + heard that the British claims in + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_080" id="Page_080">80</a></span> + the West had been formally yielded, they assumed that whatever they could + take was theirs. With the technicalities of Indian claims they had not + much patience. In 1785 Colonel Harmar, commanding at Fort Pitt, sent a + deputation down the river to drive the intruders back. But his agents + returned with the report that the Virginians and Kentuckians were moving + into the forbidden country "by the forties and fifties," and that they + gave every evidence of proposing to remain there. Surveyors were forthwith + set to work in the "Seven Ranges," as the tract just to the west of the + Pennsylvania boundary was called; and Fort Harmar was built at the mouth + of the Muskingum to keep the over-ardent settlers back. + </p> + <p> + The close of the Revolution brought not only a swift revival of emigration + to the West but also a remarkable outburst of speculation in western land. + March 3, 1786, General Rufus Putnam and some other Continental officers + met at the "Bunch of Grapes" Tavern in Boston and decided that it would be + to their advantage to exchange for land in the Seven Ranges the paper + certificates in which they had been paid for their military services. + Accordingly an "Ohio Company" was organized, and Dr. Manasseh + Cutler—"preacher, lawyer, + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_081" id="Page_081">81</a></span> + doctor, statesman, scientist, land speculator"—was sent off + to New York to push the matter in Congress. The upshot was that Congress + authorized the sale of one and a half million acres east of the Scioto to + the Ohio Company, and five million acres to a newly organized Scioto + Company. + </p> + <p> + The Scioto Company fell into financial difficulties and, after making an + attempt to build up a French colony at Gallipolis, collapsed. But General + Putnam and his associates kept their affairs well in hand and succeeded in + planting the first legal white settlement in the present State of Ohio. An + arduous winter journey brought the first band of forty-eight settlers, led + by Putnam himself, to the mouth of the Muskingum on April 7, 1788. Here, + in the midst of a great forest dotted with terraces, cones, and other + fantastic memorials of the moundbuilders, they erected a blockhouse and + surrounded it with cabins. For a touch of the classical, they called the + fortification the Campus Martius; to be strictly up to date, they named + the town Marietta, after Marie Antoinette, Queen of France. In July the + little settlement was honored by being made the residence of the newly + arrived Governor of the Territory, General Arthur St. Clair. + </p> + <p> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_082" id="Page_082">82</a></span> + Before the close of the year Congress sold one million acres between the + two Miamis to Judge Symmes of New Jersey; and three little towns were at + once laid out. To one of them a pedantic schoolmaster gave the name + <i>L-os-anti-ville,</i> "the town opposite the mouth of the Licking." + The name may have required too much explanation; at all events, when, in + 1790, the Governor transferred the capital thither from Marietta, he + rechristened the place Cincinnati, in honor of the famous Revolutionary + society to which he belonged. + </p> + <p> + Land speculators are confirmed optimists. But Putnam, Cutler, Symmes, and + their associates were correct in believing that the Ohio country was at + the threshold of a period of remarkable development. There was one serious + obstacle—the Indians. Repeated expeditions from Kentucky had pushed + most of the tribes northward to the headwaters of the Miami, Scioto, and + Wabash; and the Treaty of 1785 was supposed to keep them there. But it was + futile to expect such an arrangement to prove lasting unless steadily + backed up with force. In their squalid villages in the swampy forests of + northern Ohio and Indiana the redskins grew sullen and vindictive. As they + saw their favorite hunting-grounds slipping from their grasp, + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_083" id="Page_083">83</a></span> + those who had taken part in the cession repented their generosity, while + those who had no part in it pronounced it fraudulent and refused to + consider themselves bound by it. Swiftly the idea took hold that the + oncoming wave must be rolled back before it was too late. "White man shall + not plant corn north of the Ohio" became the rallying cry. + </p> + <p> + Back of this rebelliousness lay a certain amount of British influence. The + Treaty of 1783 was signed in as kindly spirit as the circumstances would + permit, but its provisions were not carried out in a charitable manner. On + account of alleged shortcomings of the United States, the British + Government long refused to give up possession of eight or ten fortified + posts in the north and west. One of these was Detroit; and the officials + stationed there systematically encouraged the hordes of redskins who had + congregated about the western end of Lake Erie to make all possible + resistance to the American advance. The British no longer had any claim to + the territories south of the Lakes, but they wanted to keep their + ascendancy over the northwestern Indians, and especially to prevent the + rich fur trade from falling into American hands. Ammunition and other + supplies were lavished + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_084" id="Page_084">84</a></span> + on the restless tribes. The post officials insisted that these were merely + the gifts which had regularly been made in times of peace. But they were + used with deadly effect against the Ohio frontiersmen; and there can be + little doubt that they were intended so to be used. + </p> + <p> + By 1789 the situation was very serious. Marauding expeditions were growing + in frequency; and a scout sent out by Governor St. Clair came back with + the report that most of the Indians throughout the entire Northwest had + "bad hearts." Washington decided that delay would be dangerous, and the + nation forthwith prepared for its first war since independence. Kentucky + was asked to furnish a thousand militiamen and Pennsylvania five hundred, + and the forces were ordered to come together at Fort Washington, near + Cincinnati. + </p> + <p> + The rendezvous took place in the summer of 1790, and General Josiah Harmar + was put in command of a punitive expedition against the Miamis. The + recruits were raw, and Harmar was without the experience requisite for + such an enterprise. None the less, when the little army, accompanied by + three hundred regulars, and dragging three brass field-pieces, marched out + of Fort Washington on a fine September day, it created a very good + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_085" id="Page_085">85</a></span> + impression. All went well until the expedition reached the Maumee country. + On the site of the present city of Fort Wayne they destroyed a number of + Indian huts and burned a quantity of corn. But in a series of scattered + encounters the white men were defeated, with a loss of nearly two hundred + killed; and Harmar thought it the part of wisdom to retreat. He had gained + nothing by the expedition; on the contrary, he had stirred the redskins to + fresh aggressions, and his retreating forces were closely followed by + bands of merciless raiders. + </p> + <p> + Washington knew what the effect of this reverse would be. Accordingly he + called St. Clair to Philadelphia and ordered him to take personal command + of a new expedition, adding a special warning against ambush and surprise. + Congress aided by voting two thousand troops for six months, besides two + small regiments of regulars. But everything went wrong. Recruiting proved + slow; the men who were finally brought together were poor material for an + army, being gathered chiefly from the streets and prisons of the seaboard + cities; and supplies were shockingly inadequate. + </p> + <p> + St. Clair was a man of honest intention, but old, broken in health, and of + very limited military + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_086" id="Page_086">86</a></span> + ability; and when finally, October 4, 1791, he led his untrained forces + slowly northwards from Fort Washington, he utterly failed to take measures + either to keep his movements secret or to protect his men against sudden + attack. The army trudged slowly through the deep forests, chopping out its + own road, and rarely advancing more than five or six miles a day. The + weather was favorable and game was abundant, but discontent was rife and + desertions became daily occurrences. As most of the men had no taste for + Indian warfare and as their pay was but two dollars a month, not all the + commander's threats and entreaties could hold them in order. + </p> + <p> + On the night of the 3d of November the little army—now reduced to + fourteen hundred men—camped, with divisions carelessly scattered, on + the eastern fork of the Wabash, about a hundred miles north of Cincinnati + and near the Indiana border. The next morning, when preparations were + being made for a forced march against some Indian villages near by, a + horde of redskins burst unexpectedly upon the bewildered troops, + surrounded them, and threatened them with utter destruction. A brave stand + was made, but there was little chance of victory. "After the first onset," + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_087" id="Page_087">87</a></span> + as Roosevelt has described the battle, "the Indians fought in silence, no + sound coming from them save the incessant rattle of their fire, as they + crept from log to log, from tree to tree, ever closer and closer. The + soldiers stood in close order, in the open; their musketry and artillery + fire made a tremendous noise, but did little damage to a foe they could + hardly see. Now and then through the hanging smoke terrible figures + flitted, painted black and red, the feathers of the hawk and eagle + braided in their long scalp-locks; but save for these glimpses, the + soldiers knew the presence of their somber enemy only from the fearful + rapidity with which their comrades fell dead and wounded in the ranks." + </p> + <p> + At last, in desperation St. Clair ordered his men to break through the + deadly cordon and save themselves as best they could. The Indians kept up + a hot pursuit for a distance of four miles. Then, surfeited with + slaughter, they turned to plunder the abandoned camp; otherwise there + would have been escape for few. As it was, almost half of the men in the + engagement were killed, and less than five hundred got off with no injury. + The survivors gradually straggled into the river settlements, starving and + disheartened. + </p> + <p> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_088" id="Page_088">88</a></span> + The page on which is written the story of St. Clair's defeat is one of the + gloomiest in the history of the West. Harmar's disaster was dwarfed; not + since Braddock and his regulars were cut to pieces by an unseen foe on the + road to Fort Duquesne had the redskins inflicted upon their hereditary + enemy a blow of such proportions. It was with a heavy heart that the + Governor dispatched a messenger to Philadelphia with the news. Congress + ordered an investigation; and in view of the unhappy general's high + character and his courageous, though blundering, conduct during the late + campaign, he was exonerated. He retained the governorship, but prudently + resigned his military command. + </p> + <p> + The situation was now desperate. Everywhere the forests resounded with the + exultant cries of the victors, while the British from Detroit and other + posts actively encouraged the belief not only that they would furnish all + necessary aid but that England herself was about to declare war on the + United States. Eventually a British force from Detroit actually invaded + the disputed country and built a stockade (Fort Miami) near the site of + the present city of Toledo, with a view to giving the redskins convincing + evidence of the seriousness + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_089" id="Page_089">89</a></span> + of the Great White Father's intentions. Small wonder that, when St. Clair + sought to obtain by diplomacy the settlement which he had failed to + secure by arms, his commissioners were met with the ultimatum: + "<em>Brothers</em>, we shall be persuaded that you mean to do us + justice, if you agree that the Ohio shall remain the boundary line between + us. If you will not consent thereto, our meeting will be altogether + unnecessary." + </p> + <p> + It is said that Washington's first choice for the new western command was + "Light-Horse Harry" Lee. But considerations of rank made the appointment + inexpedient, and "Mad Anthony" Wayne was named instead. Wayne was the son + of a Pennsylvania frontiersman and came honestly by his aptitude for + Indian fighting. In early life he was a surveyor, and in the Revolution he + won distinction as a dashing commander of Pennsylvania troops at + Ticonderoga, Brandywine, Germantown, Stony Point, and other important + engagements. Finally he obtained a major-general's commission in Greene's + campaign in Georgia, and at the close of the war he settled in that State + as a planter. His vanity—displayed chiefly in a love of fine + clothes—brought upon him a good deal of criticism; and Washington, + who in a Cabinet + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_090" id="Page_090">90</a></span> + meeting characterized him as "brave and nothing else," was frankly + apprehensive lest in the present business Wayne's impetuosity should lead + to fresh disaster. Yet the qualities that on a dozen occasions had enabled + Wayne to snatch success from almost certain defeat—alertness, + decisiveness, bravery, and sheer love of hard fighting—were those + now chiefly in demand. + </p> + <p> + The first task was to create an army. A few regulars were available; but + most of the three or four thousand men who were needed had to be gathered + wheresoever they could be found. A call for recruits brought together at + Pittsburgh, in the summer of 1792, a nondescript lot of beggars, + criminals, and other cast-offs of the eastern cities, no better and no + worse than the adventurers who had taken service under St. Clair. Few knew + anything of warfare, and on one occasion a mere report of Indians in the + vicinity caused a third of the sentinels to desert their posts. But, as + rigid discipline was enforced and drilling was carried on for eight and + ten hours a day, by spring the survivors formed a very respectable body of + troops. The scene of operations was then transferred to Fort Washington, + where fresh recruits were started on a similar course of development. + Profitting + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_091" id="Page_091">91</a></span> + by the experience of his predecessors, Wayne insisted that campaigning + should begin only after the troops were thoroughly prepared; and no + drill-master ever worked harder to get his charges into condition for + action. Going beyond the ordinary manual of arms, he taught the men to + load their rifles while running at full speed, and to yell at the top of + their voices while making a bayonet attack. + </p> + <p> + In October, 1793, the intrepid Major-General advanced with twenty-six + hundred men into the nearer stretches of the Indian country, in order to + be in a position for an advantageous spring campaign. They built Fort + Greenville, eighty miles north of Cincinnati, and there spent the winter, + while, on St. Clair's fatal battle-field, an advance detachment built a + post which they hopefully christened Fort Recovery. Throughout the winter + unending drill was kept up; and when, in June, 1794, fourteen hundred + mounted militia arrived from Kentucky, Wayne found himself at the head of + the largest and best-trained force that had ever been turned against the + Indians west of the Alleghanies. Even before the arrival of the + Kentuckians, it proved its worth by defending its forest headquarters, + with practically + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_092" id="Page_092">92</a></span> + no loss, against an attack by fifteen hundred redskins. + </p> + <p> + On the 27th of July the army moved forward in the direction of the Maumee, + with closed ranks and so guarded by scouts that no chance whatever was + given for surprise attacks. Washington's admonitions had been taken to + heart, and the Indians could only wonder and admire. News of the army's + advance traveled ahead and struck terror through the northern villages, so + that many of the inhabitants fled precipitately. When the troops reached + the cultivated lands about the junction of the Maumee and Auglaize rivers, + they found only deserted huts and great fields of corn, from which they + joyfully replenished their diminished stores. Here a fort was built and + given the significant name Defiance; and from it a final offer of peace + was sent out to the hostile tribes. Never doubting that the British would + furnish all necessary aid, the chieftains returned evasive answers. Wayne + thereupon moved his troops to the left bank of the Maumee and proceeded + cautiously downstream toward the British stronghold at Fort Miami. + </p> + <p> + A few days brought the army to a place known as Fallen Timbers, where a + tornado had piled the + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_093" id="Page_093">93</a></span> + trunks and branches of mighty trees in indescribable confusion. The + British post was but five or six miles distant; and there behind the + breastworks which nature had provided, and in easy reach of their allies, + the Indians chose to make their stand. On the morning of the 20th of + August, Wayne, now so crippled by gout that he had to be lifted into his + saddle, gallantly led an assault. The Indian fire was murderous, and a + battalion of mounted Kentuckians was at first hurled back. But the + front line of infantry rushed up and dislodged the savages from their + covert, while the regular cavalry on the right charged the enemy's left + flank. Before the second line of infantry could get into action the day + was won. The whole engagement lasted less than three-quarters of an hour, + and not a third of Wayne's three thousand men actually took part in it. + </p> + <p> + The fleeing redskins were pursued to the walls of the British fort, and + even there many were slain. The British soldiery not only utterly failed + to come to the relief of their hard-pressed allies, but refused to open + the gates to give them shelter. The American loss was thirty-three killed + and one hundred wounded. But the victory was the most decisive as yet + gained over the Indians + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_094" id="Page_094">94</a></span> + of the Northwest. A warfare of forty years was ended in as many minutes. + </p> + <p> + From the lower Maumee, Wayne marched back to Fort Defiance, and thence to + the junction of the St. Mary's and St. Joseph rivers, where he built a + fort and gave it the name still borne by the thriving city that grew up + around it—Fort Wayne. Everywhere the American soldiers destroyed the + ripened crops and burned the villages, while the terrified inhabitants + fled. In November the army took up winter quarters at Fort Greenville. + </p> + <p> + At last the Americans had the upper hand. Their arms were feared; the + British promises of help were no longer credited by the Indians; and it + was easy for Wayne to convince the tribal representatives who visited him + in large numbers during the winter that their true interest was to win the + good-will of the United States. In the summer of 1795 there was a general + pacification. Delegation after delegation arrived at Fort Greenville, + until more than a thousand chiefs and braves were in attendance. The + prestige of Wayne was still further increased when the news came that John + Jay had negotiated a treaty at London under which the British posts on + United States soil were + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_095" id="Page_095">95</a></span> + finally to be given up; and on August 3rd Wayne was able to announce a + great treaty wherein the natives ceded all of what is now southern Ohio + and southeastern Indiana, and numerous tracts around posts within the + Indian country, such as Fort Wayne, Detroit, and + Michilimackinac—strategic points on the western waterways. "Elder + Brother," said a Chippewa chief in the course of one of the interminable + harangues delivered during the negotiation, "you asked who were the true + owners of the land now ceded to the United States. In answer, I tell you, + if any nations should call themselves the owners of it, they would be + guilty of falsehood; our claim to it is equal; our Elder Brother has + conquered it." The United States duly recognized the Indian title to all + lands not expressly ceded and promised the Indians annual subsidies. The + terms of the treaty were faithfully observed on both sides, and for + fifteen years the pioneer lived and toiled in peace. + </p> + <p> + Wayne forthwith became a national hero. Returning to Philadelphia in 1796, + he was met by a guard of honor, hailed with the ringing of bells and a + salute of fifteen guns, and treated to a dazzling display of fireworks. + Congress voted its thanks, and Washington, whose fears had long + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_096" id="Page_096">96</a></span> + since vanished, added his congratulations. There was one other service on + the frontier for the doughty general to render. The British posts were at + last to be surrendered, and Wayne was designated to receive them. By + midsummer he was back in the forest country, and in the autumn he took + possession of Detroit, amid acclamations of Indians, Americans, Frenchmen, + and Englishmen alike. But his work was done. On the return journey he + suffered a renewed attack of his old enemy, gout, and at Presqu'isle + (Erie) he died. A blockhouse modeled on the defenses which he built + during his western campaign marks his first resting-place and bears aloft + the flag which he helped plant in the heart of the Continent. + </p> + <p><br /></p> + <hr /> + + + <div class="chapterhead"> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_097" id="Page_097">97</a></span> + <a name="Chapter06" id="Chapter06"></a> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + + <h2> + <a href="#Contents">CHAPTER VI.</a> + </h2> + <p class="chaptertitle">The Great Migration</p> + </div> + <p><br /></p> + + <p class="noindent"> + <span class="smcap">While</span> the fate of the Northwest still hung + in the balance, emigration from the eastern States became the rage. + "Every small farmer whose barren acres were covered with mortgages, + whose debts pressed heavily upon him, or whose roving spirit gave him + no peace, was eager to sell his homestead for what it would bring and + begin life anew on the banks of the Muskingum or the Ohio." ¹ + Land companies were then just as optimistic and persuasive as + they are today, and the attractions of the western country lost nothing in + the telling. Pamphlets described the climate as luxurious, the soil as + inexhaustible, the rainfall as both abundant and well distributed, the + crops as unfailingly bountiful; paid agents went among the people assuring + them that a man of push and courage + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_098" id="Page_098">98</a></span> + could nowhere be so prosperous and so happy as in the West. + </p> +<div class="footer"> + <p> + <a id="footer_6-1" name="footer_6-1"></a> +¹ McMaster, <i>History of the People of the United States,</i> vol. +III, p. 461. +</p> +</div> + <p> + As early as 1787 an observer at Pittsburgh reported that in six weeks he + saw fifty flatboats set off for the down-river settlements; in 1788 + forty-five hundred emigrants were said to have passed Fort Harmar between + February and June. Most of these people were bound for Kentucky or + Tennessee. But the census of 1790 gave the population north of the Ohio as + 4,280, and after Wayne's victory the proportion of newcomers who fixed + their abodes in that part of the country rapidly increased. For a decade + Ohio was the favorite goal; and within eight years after the battle at + Fallen Timbers this region was ready for admission to the Union as a + State. Southern Indiana also filled rapidly. + </p> + <p> + For a time the westward movement was regarded as of no disadvantage to the + seaboard States. It was supposed that the frontier would attract a + population of such character as could easily be spared in more settled + communities. But it became apparent that the new country did not appeal + simply to broken-down farmers, bankrupts, and ne'er-do-wells. Robust and + industrious men, with growing families, were drawn off in great + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_099" id="Page_099">99</a></span> + numbers; and public protest was raised against the "plots to drain the + East of its best blood." Anti-emigration pamphlets were scattered + broadcast, and, after the manner of the day, the leading western + enterprises were belabored with much bad verse. A rude cut which gained + wide circulation represented a stout, ruddy, well-dressed man on a sleek + horse, with a label, "I am going to Ohio," meeting a pale and ghastly + skeleton of a man, in rags, on the wreck of what had once been a horse, + with the label, "I have been to Ohio." + </p> + <p> + The streams of migration flowed from many sources. New England contributed + heavily. Marietta, Cincinnati, and many other rising river towns received + some of the best blood of that remote section. The Western Reserve—a + tract bordering on Lake Erie which Connecticut had not ceded to the + Federal Government—drew largely from the Nutmeg State. A month + before Wayne set out to take possession of Detroit, Moses Cleaveland with + a party of fifty Connecticut homeseekers started off to found a settlement + in the Reserve; and the town which took its name from the leader was but + the first of a score which promptly sprang up in this inviting district. + The "Seven Ranges," lying directly south of the Reserve, + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">100</a></span> + drew emigrants from Pennsylvania, with some from farther south. The Scioto + valley attracted chiefly Virginians, who early made Chillicothe their + principal center. In the west, and north of the Symmes tract, Kentuckians + poured in by the thousands. + </p> + <p> + Thus in a decade Ohio became a frontier melting-pot. Puritan, Cavalier, + Irishman, Scotch-Irishman, German—all were poured into the crucible. + Ideals clashed, and differing customs grated harshly. But the product of a + hundred years of cross-breeding was a splendid type of citizenship. At the + presidential inaugural ceremonies of March 4, 1881, six men chiefly + attracted the attention of the crowd: the retiring President, Hayes; the + incoming President, Garfield; the Chief-Justice who administered the oath, + Waite; the general commanding the army, William T. Sherman; the + ex-Secretary of the Treasury, John Sherman; and "the Marshal Ney of + America," Lieutenant-General Sheridan. Five of the six were natives of + Ohio, and the sixth was a lifelong resident. Men commented on the striking + group and rightly remarked that it could have been produced only by a + singularly happy blending of the ideas and ideals that form the warp and + woof of Americanism. + </p> + <p> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">101</a></span> + Amalgamation, however, took time; for there were towering prejudices and + antipathies to be overcome. The Yankee scorned the Southerner, who + reciprocated with a double measure of dislike. The New England settlers + were, as a rule, people of some education; not one of their communities + long went without a schoolmaster. They were pious, law-abiding, + industrious; their more easy-going neighbors were likely to consider them + over-sensitive and critical. But the quality that made most impression + upon others was their shrewdness in business transactions. They could + drive a bargain and could discover loopholes in a contract in a fashion to + take the average backwoodsman off his feet. "Yankee trick" became, + indeed, a household phrase wherever New Englander and Southerner met. + Whether the Yankee talked or kept silent, whether he was generous or + parsimonious, he was always under suspicion. + </p> + <p> + What of the "Long Knives" from Virginia, the Carolinas, and Kentucky who + also made the Ohio lands their goal? Of books they knew little; they did + not name their settlements in honor of classic heroes. They were not + "gentlemen"; many of them, indeed, had sought the West to escape a society + in which distinctions of birth and possessions + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">102</a></span> + had put them at a disadvantage. They were not so pious as the New + Englanders, though they were capable of great religious enthusiasm, and + their morals were probably not inferior. Their houses were poorer; their + villages were not so well kept; their dress was more uncouth, and their + ways rougher. But they were a hardy folk—brave, industrious, + hospitable, and generous to a fault. + </p> + <p> + In the first days of westward migration the favorite gateway into the Ohio + Valley was Cumberland Gap, at the southeastern corner of the present State + of Kentucky. Thence the Virginians and Carolinians passed easily to the + Ohio in the region of Cincinnati or Louisville. Later emigrants from more + northern States found other serviceable routes. Until the opening of the + Erie Canal in 1825, New Englanders reached the West by three main avenues. + Some followed the Mohawk and Genesee turnpikes across central New York to + Lake Erie. This route led directly, of course, to the Western Reserve. + Some traveled along the Catskill turnpike from the Hudson to the + headwaters of the Allegheny, and thence descended the Ohio. Still others + went by boat from Boston to New York, Philadelphia, or Baltimore, in order + to approach the Ohio by a more southerly course. + </p> + <p> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">103</a></span> + The natural outlet from Pennsylvania was the Ohio River. Emigrants from + the western parts of the State floated down the Allegheny or Monongahela + to the main stream. Those from farther east, including settlers from New + Jersey, made the journey overland by one of several well-known roads. The + best of these was a turnpike following the line that General Forbes had + cut during the French and Indian War from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh by + way of Lancaster and Bedford. Baltimore was a favorite point of departure, + and from it the route lay almost invariably along a turnpike to Cumberland + on the upper Potomac, and thence by the National Road across the mountains + to Wheeling. In later days this was the route chiefly taken from Virginia, + although more southerly passes through the Blue Ridge were used as outlets + to the Great Kanawha, the Big Sandy, and other streams flowing into the + Ohio farther down. + </p> + <p> + Thus the lines of westward travel which in the East spread fan-shape from + Maine to Georgia converged on the Ohio; and that stream became, and for + half a century remained, the great pathway of empire. Most of the + emigrants had to cover long distances in overland travel before they + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">104</a></span> + reached the hospitable waterway; some, especially in earlier times, made + the entire journey by land. Hundreds of the very poor went afoot, carrying + all their earthly possessions on their backs, or dragging them in rude + carts. But the usual conveyance was the canvas-covered wagon—ancestor + of the "prairie schooner" of the western plains—drawn over the rough + and muddy roads by four, or even six, horses. In this vehicle the + emigrants stowed their provisions, household furniture and utensils, + agricultural implements, looms, seeds, medicines, and every sort of thing + that the prudent householder expected to need, and for which he could find + space. Extra horses or oxen sometimes drew an additional load; cattle, and + even flocks of sheep, were occasionally driven ahead or behind by some + member of the family. + </p> + <p> + In the years of heaviest migration the highways converging on Pittsburgh + and Wheeling were fairly crowded with westward-flowing traffic. As a rule + several families, perhaps from the same neighborhood in the old home, + traveled together; and in any case the chance acquaintances of the road + and of the wayside inns broke the loneliness of the journey. There were + wonderful things to be seen, and every day brought novel experiences. + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">105</a></span> + But exposure and illness, dread of Indian attacks, mishaps of every sort, + and the awful sense of isolation and of uncertainty of the future, caused + many a man's stout heart to quail, and brought anguish unspeakable to + brave women. Of such joys and sorrows, however, is a frontier existence + compounded; and of the growing thousands who turned their faces toward the + setting sun, comparatively few yielded to discouragement and went back + East. Those who did so were usually the land speculators and people of + weak, irresolute, or shiftless character. + </p> + <p> + An English traveler, Morris Birkbeck, who passed over the National Road + through southwestern Pennsylvania in 1817, was filled with amazement at + the number, hardihood, and determination of the emigrants whom he + encountered. + </p> + <blockquote> + <p> + Old America seems to be breaking up [he wrote] and moving westward. We + are seldom out of sight, as we travel on this grand track, towards the + Ohio, of family groups, behind and before us.… A small wagon (so light + that you might almost carry it, yet strong enough to bear a good load of + bedding, utensils and provisions, and a swarm of young citizens—and + to sustain marvelous shocks in its passage over these rocky heights) with + two small horses; sometimes a cow or two, comprises their all; excepting a + little store of hard-earned + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">106</a></span> + cash for the land office of the district; where they may obtain a title + for as many acres as they possess half-dollars, being one fourth of the + purchase money. The wagon has a tilt, or cover, made of a sheet, or + perhaps a blanket. The family are seen before, behind, or within the + vehicle, according to the road or the weather, or perhaps the spirits of + the party.… A cart and single horse frequently affords the means + of transfer, sometimes a horse and pack-saddle. Often the back of the poor + pilgrim bears all his effects, and his wife follows, naked-footed, + bending under the hopes of the family." ¹ + </p> + </blockquote> + <div class="footer"> + <p> + <a id="footer_6-2" name="footer_6-2"></a> +¹ Quoted in Turner, <i>Rise of the New West</i>, pp. 79-80. + </p> + </div> + <p> + Arrived at the Ohio, the emigrant either engaged passage on some form of + river-craft or set to work to construct with his own hands a vessel that + would bear him and his belongings to the promised land. The styles of + river-craft that appeared on the Ohio and other western streams in the + great era of river migration make a remarkable pageant. There were canoes, + pirogues, skiffs, rafts, dugouts, scows, galleys, arks, keelboats, + flatboats, barges, "broadhorns," "sneak-boxes," and eventually ocean-going + brigs, schooners, and steamboats. The canoe served the early explorer and + trader, and even the settler whose possessions had been carried over the + Alleghanies on a single packhorse. But after the Revolution the needs of + an awakening + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">107</a></span> + empire led to the introduction of new types of craft, built to afford a + maximum of capacity and safety on a downward voyage, without regard for + the demands of a round trip. The most common of these one-way vessels + was the flatboat. + </p> + <p> + A flatboat trip down the great river was likely to be filled with + excitement. The sound of the steam-dredge had never been heard on the + western waters, and the stream-bed was as Nature had made it, or rather was + continually remaking it. Yearly floods washed out new channels and formed + new reefs and sand-bars, while logs and brush borne from the heavily + forested banks continually built new obstructions. Consequently the + sharpest lookout had to be maintained, and the pilot was both skilful and + lucky who completed his trip without permitting his boat to be caught on a + "planter" (a log immovably fixed in the river bed), entangled in the + branches of overhanging trees, driven on an island, or dashed on the bank + at a bend. Navigation by night and on foggy days was hazardous in the + extreme and was avoided as far as possible. If all went well, the voyage + from Pittsburgh to Cincinnati could be completed in six or eight days; but + delays might easily extend the period to a month. + </p> + <p> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">108</a></span> + One grave danger has not been mentioned—the Indians. From the moment + when the slow-moving flatboat passed beyond the protection of a white + settlement, it was liable to be fired on, by day or by night, by redskins; + and the better-built boats were so constructed as to be at least partially + bullet-proof. Sometimes extra timber was used to give safety; sometimes + the cargo was specially placed with that aim in view. The Indians rarely + went beyond the water's edge. Their favorite ruse was to cause captive or + renegade whites to run along the bank imploring to be saved. When a boat + had been decoyed to shore, and perhaps a landing had been made, the + savages would pour a murderous fire on the voyagers. This practice became + so common that pioneer boats "shunned the whites who hailed them from the + shores as they would have shunned the Indians," and as a consequence many + whites escaping from the Indians in the interior were refused succor and + left to die. + </p> + <p> + When the flatboat reached its destination, it might find service as a + floating store, or even as a schoolhouse. But it was likely to be broken + up, so that the materials in it could be used for building purposes. + Before sawmills became common, lumber + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">109</a></span> + was a precious commodity, and hundreds of pioneer cabins in the Ohio + Valley were built partly or wholly of the boards and timbers taken from + the flatboats of their owners. Even the "gunnels" were sometimes used in + Cincinnati as foundations for houses. In later days the flatboat, if in + reasonably good condition, was not unlikely to be sold to persons engaged + in trading down the Mississippi. Loaded with grain, flour, meats, and + other backwoods products, it would descend to Natchez or New Orleans, + where its cargo could be transferred to ocean-going craft. But in any case + its end was the same; for it would not have been profitable, even had it + been physically possible, to move the heavy, ungainly craft upstream over + long distances, in order to keep it continuously in service. + </p> + <p><br /></p> + <hr /> + + + <div class="chapterhead"> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">110</a></span> + <a name="Chapter07" id="Chapter07"></a> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + + <h2> + <a href="#Contents">CHAPTER VII.</a> + </h2> + <p class="chaptertitle">Pioneer Days And Ways</p> + </div> + <p><br /></p> + + <p class="noindent"> + <span class="smcap">Arrived</span> on the lower Ohio, or one of its + tributaries, the pioneer looked + out upon a land of remarkable riches. It was not a Mexico or a Peru, with + emblazoned palaces and glittering temples, nor yet a California, with + gold-flecked sands. It was merely an unending stretch of wooded hills and + grassy plains, bedecked with majestic forests and fructifying rivers and + lakes. It had no treasures save for the man of courage, industry, and + patience; but for such it held home, broad acres, liberty, and the coveted + opportunity for social equality and advancement. + </p> + <p> + The new country has been commonly thought of, and referred to by writers + on the history of the West, as a "wilderness"; and offhand, one might + suppose that the settlers were obliged literally to hew their way through + densely grown vegetation to the spots which they selected for their homes. + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">111</a></span> + In point of fact, there were great areas of upland—not alone in the + prairie country of northern Indiana and Illinois, but in the hilly regions + within a hundred miles of the Ohio—that were almost treeless. On + these unobstructed stretches grasses grew in profusion; and here roamed + great herds of herbivorous animal-kind—deer and elk, and also + buffalo, "filing in grave procession to drink at the rivers, plunging and + snorting among the rapids and quicksands, rolling their huge bulk on the + grass, rushing upon each other in hot encounter, like champions under + shield." Along the watercourses ducks, wild geese, cranes, herons, and + other fowl sounded their harsh cries; gray squirrels, prairie chickens, + and partridges the hunter found at every turn. + </p> + <p> + Furthermore, the forests, as a rule, were not difficult to penetrate. The + trees stood thick, but deer paths, buffalo roads, and Indian trails + ramified in all directions, and sometimes were wide enough to allow two or + three wagons to advance abreast. Mighty poplars, beeches, sycamores, and + "sugars" pushed to great heights in quest of air and sunshine, and often + their intertwining branches were locked solidly together by a heavy growth + of grape or other vines, producing a canopy which during the + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">112</a></span> + summer months permitted scarcely a ray of sunlight to reach the ground. + There was, therefore, a notable absence of undergrowth. When a tree died + and decayed, it fell apart piecemeal; it was with difficulty that woodsmen + could wrest a giant oak or poplar from its moorings and bring it to the + ground, even by severing the trunk completely at the base. Here and there + a clean swath was cut through a forest, for perhaps dozens of miles, by a + hurricane. This gave opportunity for the growth of a thicket of bushes and + small trees, and such spots were equally likely to be the habitations of + wild beasts and the hiding-places of warlike bands of redskins. + </p> + <p> + There were always adventurous pioneers who scorned the settlements and + went off with their families to fix their abodes in isolated places. But + the average newcomer preferred to find a location in, or reasonably near, + a settlement. The choice of a site, whether by a company of immigrants + wishing to establish a settlement or by an individual settler, was a + matter of much importance. Some thought must be given to facilities for + fortification against hostile natives. There must be an adequate supply of + drinking-water; and the location of innumerable pioneer dwellings was + selected + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">113</a></span> + with reference to free-flowing springs. Pasture land for immediate use was + desirable; and of course the soil must be fertile. As a rule, the settler + had the alternative of establishing himself on the lowlands along a stream + and obtaining ground of the greatest productiveness, with the almost + certain prospect of annual attacks of malaria, or of seeking the poorer + but more healthful uplands. The attractions of the "bottoms" were + frequently irresistible, and the "ague" became a feature of frontier life + almost as inevitable as the proverbial "death and taxes." + </p> + <p> + The site selected, the next task was to clear a few acres of ground where + the cabin was to stand. It was highly desirable to have a belt of open + land as a protection against Indians and wild beasts; besides, there must + be fields cleared for tillage. If the settler had neighbors, he was likely + to have their aid in cutting away the densest growth of trees, and in + raising into position the heavy timbers which formed the framework and + walls of his cabin. Splendid oaks, poplars, and sycamores were cut into + convenient lengths, and such as could not be used were rolled into great + heaps and burned. Before sawmills were introduced lumber could not be + manufactured; afterwards, + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">114</a></span> + it became so plentiful as to have small market value. + </p> + <p> + Almost without exception the frontier cabins had log walls; and they were + rarely of larger size than single lengths would permit. On an average, + they were twelve or fourteen feet wide and fifteen or eighteen feet long. + Sometimes they were divided into two rooms, with an attic above; + frequently there was but one room "downstairs." The logs were notched + together at the corners, and the spaces between them were filled with moss + or clay or covered with bark. Rafters were affixed to the uppermost logs, + and to one another, with wooden pins driven through auger holes. In + earliest times the roof was of bark; later on, shingles were used, + although nails were long unknown, and the shingles, after being laid in + rows, were weighted down with straight logs. + </p> + <p> + Sometimes there was only an earth floor. But as a rule "puncheons," + <i>i.e.,</i> thick, rough boards split from logs, were laid crosswise on + round logs and were fastened with wooden pins. There was commonly but a + single door, which was made also of puncheons and hung on wooden hinges. + A favorite device was to construct the door in upper and lower sections, + so as to make it possible, + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">115</a></span> + when there came a knock or a call from the outside, to respond without + offering easy entrance to an unwelcome visitor. In the days when there was + considerable danger of Indian attacks no windows were constructed, for the + householder could defend only one aperture. Later, square holes which + could be securely barred at night and during cold weather were made to + serve as windows. Flat pieces of sandstone, if they could be found, were + used in building the great fireplace; otherwise, thick timbers heavily + covered with clay were made to serve. In scarcely a cabin was there a + trace of iron or glass; the whole could be constructed with only two + implements—an ax and an auger. + </p> + <p> + Occasionally a family carried to its new home some treasured bits of + furniture; but the difficulty of transportation was likely to be + prohibitive, and as a rule the cabins contained only such pieces of + furniture as could be fashioned on the spot. A table was made by mounting + a smoothed slab on four posts, set in auger holes. For seats short benches + and three-legged stools, constructed after the manner of the tables, were + in common use. Cooking utensils, food-supplies, seeds, herbs for medicinal + purposes, and all sorts of household + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">116</a></span> + appliances were stowed away on shelves, made by laying clapboards across + wooden pins driven into the wall and mounting to the ceiling; although + after sawed lumber came into use it was a matter of no great difficulty + to construct chests and cupboards. Not infrequently the settler's family + slept on bear skins or blankets stretched on the floor. But crude + bedsteads were made by erecting a pole with a fork in such a manner that + other poles could be supported horizontally in this fork and by crevices + in the walls. Split boards served as "slats" on which the bedding was + spread. For a long time "straw-ticks"—large cloth bags filled with + straw or sometimes dry grass or leaves—were articles of luxury. + Iron pots and knives were necessities which the wise householder carried + with him from his eastern or southern home. In the West they were hard to + obtain. The chief source of supply was the iron-manufacturing districts of + Pennsylvania and Virginia, whence the wares were carried to the + <i>entrepôts</i> of river trade by packhorses. The kitchen outfit + of the average newcomer was completed with a few pewter dishes, plates, + and spoons. But winter evenings were utilized in whittling out wooden + bowls, trenchers, and noggins or cups, while gourds and hard-shelled + squashes + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">117</a></span> + were turned to numerous uses. The commonest drinking utensil was a + long-handled gourd. + </p> + <p> + The dress of the pioneer long remained a curious cross between that of the + Indians and that of the white people of the older sections. In earlier + times the hunting-shirt—made of linsey, coarse nettle-bark linen, + buffalo-hair, or even dressed deerskins—was universally worn by the + men, together with breeches, leggings, and moccasins. The women and + children were dressed in simple garments of linsey. In warm weather they + went barefooted; in cold, they wore moccasins or coarse shoes. + </p> + <p> + Rarely was there lack of food for these pioneer families. The soil was + prodigal, and the forests abounded in game. The <i>pièce de + résistance</i> of the backwoods menu was "hog an' hominy"; that + is to say, pork served with Indian corn which, after being boiled in lye + to remove the hulls, had been soaked in clear water and cooked soft. + "Johnny cake" and "pone"—two varieties of cornbread—were + regularly eaten at breakfast and dinner. The standard dish for supper + was cornmeal mush and milk. As cattle were not numerous, the housewife + often lacked milk, in which case she fell back on her one never-failing + resource—hominy; + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">118</a></span> + or she served the mush with sweetened water, molasses, the gravy of + fried meat, or even bear's oil. Tea and coffee were long unknown, and + when introduced they were likely to be scorned by the men as "slops" + good enough perhaps for women and children. Vegetables the settlers + grew in the garden plot which ordinarily adjoined the house, and thrifty + families had also a "truck patch" in which they raised pumpkins, + squashes, potatoes, beans, melons, and corn for "roasting ears." The + forests yielded game, as well as fruits and wild grapes, and honey for + sweetening. + </p> + <p> + The first quality for which the life of the frontier called was untiring + industry. It was possible, of course, to eke out an existence by hunting, + fishing, petty trading, and garnering the fruits which Nature supplied + without man's assistance. And many pioneers in whom the roving instinct + was strong went on from year to year in this hand-to-mouth fashion. But + the settler who expected to be a real home-builder, to gain some measure + of wealth, to give his children a larger opportunity in life, must be + prepared to work, to plan, to economize, and to sacrifice. The forests had + to be felled; the great logs had to be rolled together and burned; crops + of maize, tobacco, oats, and cane + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">119</a></span> + needed to be planted, cultivated, and harvested; live stock to be housed + and fed; fences and barns to be built; pork, beef, grain, whiskey, and + other products to be prepared for market, and perhaps carried scores of + miles to a place of shipment. + </p> + <p> + All these things had to be done under conditions of exceptional + difficulty. The settler never knew what night his place would be raided by + marauding redskins, who would be lenient indeed if they merely carried off + part of his cattle or burned his barn. Any morning he might peer out of + the "port hole" above the cabin door to see skulking figures awaiting + their chance. Sickness, too, was a menace and a terror. Picture the + horrors of isolation in times of emergency—wife or child suddenly + taken desperately ill, and no physician within a hundred miles; husband or + son hovering between life and death as the result of injury by a falling + tree, a wild beast, a venomous snake, an accidental gun-shot, or the + tomahawk of a prowling Indian. Who shall describe the anxiety, the agony, + which in some measure must have been the lot of every frontier family? The + prosaic illnesses of the flesh were troublesome enough. On account of + defective protection for the feet in wet weather, almost everybody had + rheumatism; most + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">120</a></span> + settlers in the bottom-lands fell victims to fever and ague at one time + or another; even in the hill country few persons wholly escaped malarial + disorders. "When this home-building and land-clearing is accomplished," + wrote one whose recollections of the frontier were vivid, "a faithful + picture would reveal not only the changes that have been wrought, but a + host of prematurely broke-down men and women, besides an undue proportion + resting peacefully in country graveyards." + </p> + <p> + The frontiersman's best friend was his trusty rifle. With it he defended + his cabin and his crops from marauders, waged warfare on hostile redskins, + and obtained the game which formed an indispensable part of his food + supply. At first the gun chiefly used on the border was the smooth-bored + musket. But toward the close of the eighteenth century a gunsmith named + Deckhard, living at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, began making flintlock rifles + of small bore, and in a short time the "Deckhard rifle" was to be found in + the hands of almost every backwoodsman. The barrel was heavy and from + three feet to three feet and a half in length, so that the piece, when set + on the ground, reached at least to the huntsman's shoulder. The bore was + cut with twisting grooves, and was so + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">121</a></span> + small that seventy bullets were required to weigh a pound. In loading, a + greased linen "patch" was wrapped around the bullet; and only a small + charge of powder was needed. The gun was heavy to carry and difficult to + hold steadily upon a target; but it was economical of ammunition, and in + the hands of the strong-muscled, keen-eyed, iron-nerved frontiersman it + was an exceedingly accurate weapon, at all events within the ordinary + limits of forest ranges. He was a poor marksman who could not shoot + running deer or elk at a distance of one hundred and fifty yards, and + kill ducks and geese on the wing; and "boys of twelve hung their heads in + shame if detected in hitting a squirrel in any other part of the body + than its head." + </p> + <p> + Life on the frontier was filled with hard work, danger, and anxiety. Yet + it had its lighter side, and, indeed, it may be doubted whether people + anywhere relished sport more keenly or found more pleasure in their + everyday pursuits. The occasional family without neighbors was likely to + suffer from loneliness. But few of the settlers were thus cut off, and as + a rule community life was not only physically possible but highly + developed. Many were the opportunities that served to bring together the + frontiersmen, with their families, + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">122</a></span> + throughout a settlement or county. Foremost among such occasions were the + log-rollings. + </p> + <p> + After a settler had felled the thick-growing trees on a plot which he + desired to prepare for cultivation, he cut them, either by sawing or by + burning, into logs twelve or fifteen feet in length. Frequently these were + three, four, or even five feet in diameter, so that they could not be + moved by one man, even with a team of horses. In such a situation, the + settler would send word to his neighbors for miles around that on a given + day there would be a log-rolling at his place; and when the day arrived + six, or a dozen, or perhaps a score, of sturdy men, with teams of horses + and yokes of oxen, and very likely accompanied by members of their + families, would arrive on the scene with merry shouts of anticipation. By + means of handspikes and chains drawn by horses or oxen, the great timbers + were pushed, rolled, and dragged into heaps, and by nightfall the field + lay open and ready for the plough—requiring, at the most, only the + burning of the huge piles that had been gathered. + </p> + <p> + Without loss of time the fires were started; and as darkness came on, the + countryside glowed as with the light of a hundred huge torches. The + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">123</a></span> + skies were reddened, and as a mighty oak or poplar log toppled and fell to + the ground, showers of sparks lent the scene volcanic splendor. Bats and + owls and other dim-eyed creatures of the night flew about in bewilderment, + sometimes bumping hard against fences or other objects, sometimes plunging + madly into the flames and contributing to the general holocaust. For days + the great fires were kept going, until the last remnants of this section + of the once imposing forest were consumed; while smoke hung far out over + the country, producing an atmospheric effect like that of Indian summer. + </p> + <p> + Heavy exertion called for generous refreshment, and on these occasions the + host could be depended on to provide an abundance of food and drink. The + little cabin could hardly be made to accommodate so many guests, even in + relays. Accordingly, a long table was constructed with planks and trestles + in a shady spot, and at noon—and perhaps again in the + evening—the women folk served a meal which at least made up in + "staying qualities" what it lacked in variety or delicacy. The principal + dish was almost certain to be "pot-pie," consisting of boiled turkeys, + geese, chickens, grouse, veal, or venison, with an abundance of + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">124</a></span> + dumplings. This, with cornbread and milk, met the demands of the occasion; + but if the host was able to furnish a cask of rum, his generosity was + thoroughly appreciated. + </p> + <p> + In the autumn, corn-huskings were a favorite form of diversion, especially + for the young people; and in the early spring neighbors sometimes came + together to make maple sugar. A wedding was an important event and + furnished diversion of a different kind. From distances of twenty and + thirty miles people came to attend the ceremony, and often the festivities + extended over two or three days. Even now there was work to be done; for + as a rule the neighbors organized a house-building "bee," and before + separating for their homes they constructed a cabin for the newly wedded + pair, or at all events brought it sufficiently near completion to be + finished by the young husband himself. + </p> + <p> + Even after a day of heavy toil at log-rolling, the young men and boys + bantered one another into foot races, wrestling matches, shooting + contests, and other feats of strength or skill. And if a fiddler could be + found, the day was sure to end with a "hoe-down"—a dance that "made + even the log-walled house tremble." No corn-husking + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">125</a></span> + or wedding was complete without dancing, although members of certain of + the more straitlaced religious sects already frowned upon the diversion. + </p> + <p> + Rough conditions of living made rough men, and we need not be surprised by + the testimony of English and American travelers, that the frontier had + more than its share of boisterous fun, rowdyism, lawlessness, and crime. + The taste for whiskey was universal, and large quantities were + manufactured in rude stills, not only for shipment down the Mississippi, + but for local consumption. Frequenters of the river-town taverns called + for their favorite brands—"Race Horse," "Moral Suasion," "Vox + Populi," "Pig and Whistle," or "Split Ticket," as the case might be. But + the average frontiersman cared little for the niceties of color or flavor + so long as his liquor was cheap and produced the desired effect. Hard work + and a monotonous diet made him continually thirsty; and while ordinarily + he drank only water and milk at home, at the taverns and at social + gatherings he often succumbed to potations which left him in happy drunken + forgetfulness of daily hardships. House-raisings and weddings often became + orgies marked by quarreling and fighting + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">126</a></span> + and terminating in brutal and bloody brawls. Foreign visitors to the back + country were led to comment frequently on the number of men who had lost + an eye or an ear, or had been otherwise maimed in these rough-and-tumble + contests. + </p> + <p> + The great majority of the frontiersmen, however, were sober, industrious, + and law-abiding folk; and they were by no means beyond the pale of + religion. On account of the numbers of Scotch-Irish, Presbyterianism was + in earlier days the principal creed, although there were many Catholics + and adherents of the Reformed Dutch and German churches, and even a few + Episcopalians. About the beginning of the nineteenth century sectarian + ascendancy passed to the Methodists and Baptists, whose ranks were rapidly + recruited by means of one of the most curious and characteristic of + backwoods institutions, the camp-meeting "revival." The years 1799 and + 1800 brought the first of the several great waves of religious excitement + by which the West—especially Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, and + Tennessee—was periodically swept until within the memory of men + still living. + </p> + <p> + Camp-meetings were usually planned and managed by Methodist circuit-riders + or Baptist itinerant + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">127</a></span> + preachers, who hesitated not to carry their work into the remotest and + most dangerous parts of the back country. When the news went abroad that + such a meeting was to take place, people flocked to the scene from far and + near, in wagons, on horseback, and on foot. Pious men and women came for + the sake of religious fellowship and inspiration; others not so pious came + from motives of curiosity, or even to share in the rough sport for which + the scoffers always found opportunity. The meeting lasted days, and even + weeks; and preaching, praying, singing, "testifying," and "exhorting" went + on almost without intermission. "The preachers became frantic in their + exhortations; men, women, and children, falling as if in catalepsy, were + laid out in rows. Shouts, incoherent singing, sometimes barking as of an + unreasoning beast, rent the air. Convulsive leaps and dancing were common; + so, too, 'jerking,' stakes being driven into the ground to jerk by, the + subjects of the fit grasping them as they writhed and grimaced in their + contortions. The world, indeed, seemed demented." ¹ Whole communities + sometimes professed conversion; and it was considered a particularly + good day's work + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">128</a></span> + when notorious disbelievers or wrong-doers—"hard bats," in the + phraseology of the frontier—or gangs of young rowdies whose only + object in coming was to commit acts of deviltry, succumbed to the + peculiarly compelling influences of the occasion. + </p> +<div class="footer"> + <p> + <a id="footer_7-1" name="footer_7-1"></a> +¹ Hosmer, <i>Short History of the Mississippi Valley,</i> p. 116. + </p> +</div> + <p> + In this sort of religion there was, of course, much wild emotionalism and + sheer hysteria; and there were always people to whom it was repellent. + Backsliders were numerous, and the person who "fell from grace" was more + than likely to revert to his earlier wickedness in its grossest forms. + None the less, in a rough, unlearned, and materialistic society such + spiritual shakings-up were bound to yield much permanent good. Most + western people, at one time or another, came under the influence of the + Methodist and Baptist revivals; and from the men and women who were drawn + by them to a new and larger view of life were recruited the hundreds of + little congregations whose meeting-houses in the course of time dotted the + hills and plains from the Alleghanies to the Mississippi. As for the + hard-working, honest-minded frontier preachers who braved every sort of + danger in the performance of their great task, the West owes them an + eternal debt of gratitude. In the + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">129</a></span> + words of Roosevelt, "their prejudices and narrow dislikes, their raw + vanity and sullen distrust of all who were better schooled than they, + count for little when weighed against their intense earnestness and + heroic self-sacrifice." + </p> + <p> + Nor was education neglected. Many of the settlers, especially those who + came from the South, were illiterate. But all who made any pretense of + respectability were desirous of giving their children an opportunity to + learn to read and write. Accordingly, wherever half a dozen families lived + reasonably close together, a log schoolhouse was sure to be found. In the + days before public funds existed for the support of education the teachers + were paid directly, and usually in produce, by the patrons. Sometimes a + wandering pedagogue would find his way into a community and, being engaged + to give instruction for two or three months during the winter, would + "board around" among the residents and take such additional pay as he + could get. More often, some one of the settlers who was fortunate enough + to possess the rudiments of an education undertook the rôle of + schoolmaster in the interval between the autumn corn-gathering and the + spring ploughing and planting. + </p> + <p> + Instruction rarely extended beyond the three R's; + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">130</a></span> + but occasionally a newcomer who had somewhere picked up a smattering of + algebra, Latin, or astronomy stirred the wonder, if not also the + suspicion, of the neighborhood. Schoolbooks were few and costly; crude + slates were made from pieces of shale; pencils were fashioned from + varicolored soapstone found in the beds of small streams. No frontier + picture is more familiar or more pleasing than that of the farmer's boy + sitting or lying on the floor during the long winter evening industriously + tracing by firelight or by candlelight the proverb or quotation assigned + him as an exercise in penmanship, or wrestling with the intricacies of + least common denominators and highest common divisors. It is in such a + setting that we get our first glimpse of the greatest of western + Americans, Abraham Lincoln. + </p> + <p><br /></p> + <hr /> + + <div class="chapterhead"> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">131</a></span> + <a name="Chapter08" id="Chapter08"></a> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + + <h2> + <a href="#Contents">CHAPTER VIII.</a> + </h2> + <p class="chaptertitle">Tecumseh</p> + </div> + <p><br /></p> + + <p class="noindent"> + <span class="smcap">Wayne's</span> victory in 1795, followed by the + Treaty of Fort Greenville, gave the Northwest welcome relief from Indian + warfare, and within four years the Territory was ready to be advanced to + the second of the three grades of government provided for it in the + Ordinance of 1787. A Legislature was set up at Cincinnati, and in due + time it proceeded to the election of a delegate to Congress. Choice fell + on a young man whose name was destined to a permanent place in the + country's history. William Henry Harrison was the son of a signer of the + Declaration of Independence, the scion of one of Virginia's most honored + families. Entering the army in 1791, he had served as an aide-de-camp to + Wayne in the campaign which ended at Fallen Timbers, and at the time of + his election was acting as Secretary of the Territory and + <i>ex-officio</i> Lieutenant-Governor. + </p> + <p> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">132</a></span> + Although but twenty-six years of age, and without a vote in the House of + Representatives, Harrison succeeded in procuring from Congress in 1800 an + act dividing the Territory into two distinct "governments," separated by + the old Greenville treaty line as far as Fort Recovery and then by a line + running due north to the Canadian boundary. The division to the east was + named Ohio, that to the west Indiana; and Harrison was made Governor of + the latter, with his residence at Vincennes. In 1802 the development of + the back country was freshly emphasized by the admission of Ohio as a + State. + </p> + <p> + Meanwhile the equilibrium between the white man and the red again became + unstable. In the Treaty of 1795 the natives had ceded only southern Ohio, + southeastern Indiana, and a few other small and scattered areas. Northward + and westward, their country stretched to the Lakes and the Mississippi, + unbroken except by military posts and widely scattered settlements; and + title to all of this territory had been solemnly guaranteed. As late as + 1800 the white population of what is now Indiana was practically confined + to Clark's Grant, near the falls of the Ohio, and a small region around + Vincennes. It numbered not more than twenty-five + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">133</a></span> + hundred persons. But thereafter immigration from the seaboard States, and + from the nearer lands of Kentucky and Tennessee, set in on a new scale. + By 1810 Indiana had a white population of twenty-five thousand, and the + cabins of the energetic settlers dotted river valleys and hillsides never + before trodden by white man. + </p> + <p> + In this new rush of pioneers the rights of the Indians received scant + consideration. Hardy and well-armed Virginians and Kentuckians broke + across treaty boundaries and possessed themselves of fertile lands to + which they had no valid claim. White hunters trespassed far and wide on + Indian territory, until by 1810 great regions, which a quarter of a + century earlier abounded in deer, bear, and buffalo, were made as useless + for Indian purposes as barren wastes. Although entitled to the protection + of law in his person and property, the native was cheated and overawed at + every turn; he might even be murdered with impunity. Abraham Lincoln's + uncle thought it a virtuous act to shoot an Indian on sight, and the + majority of pioneers agreed with him. + </p> + <p> + "I can tell at once," wrote Harrison in 1801, "upon looking at an Indian + whom I may chance to meet whether he belongs to a neighboring or a more + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">134</a></span> + distant tribe. The latter is generally well-clothed, healthy, and + vigorous; the former half-naked, filthy, and enfeebled by intoxication, + and many of them without arms excepting a knife, which they carry for the + most villainous purposes." The stronger tribes perceived quite as clearly + as did the Governor the ruinous effects of contact between the two + peoples, and the steady destruction of the border warriors became a + leading cause of discontent. Congress had passed laws intended to prevent + the sale of spirituous liquors to the natives, but the courts had + construed these measures to be operative only outside the bounds of States + and organized Territories, and in the great unorganized Northwest the laws + were not heeded, and the ruinous traffic went on uninterrupted. Harrison + reported that when there were only six hundred warriors on the Wabash the + annual consumption of whiskey there was six thousand gallons, and that + killing each other in drunken brawls had "become so customary that it was + no longer thought criminal." + </p> + <p> + Most exasperating, however, from the red man's point of view was the + insatiable demand of the newcomers for land. In the years 1803, 1804, and + 1805 Harrison made treaties with the remnants of the Miami, Eel River, + Piankeshaw, and Delaware + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">135</a></span> + tribes—characterized by him as "a body of the most depraved wretches + on earth"—which gained for the settlers a strip of territory fifty + miles wide south of White River; and in 1809 he similarly acquired, by the + Treaty of Fort Wayne, three million acres, in tracts which cut into the + heart of the Indian country for almost a hundred miles up both banks of + the Wabash. The Wabash valley was richer in game than any other region + south of Lake Michigan, and its loss was keenly felt by the Indians. + Indeed, it was mainly the cession of 1809 that brought once more to a + crisis the long-brewing difficulties with the Indians. + </p> + <p> + About the year 1768 the Creek squaw of a Shawnee warrior gave birth at one + time to three boys, in the vicinity of the present city of Springfield, + Ohio. ¹ One of the three barely left his name in aboriginal annals. A + second, known as Laulewasikaw, "the man with the loud voice," poses in the + pages of history as "the prophet." The third brother was Tecumseh, "the + wild-cat that leaps upon its prey," or "the shooting star," as the + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">136</a></span> + name has been translated. He is described as a tall, handsome + warrior—daring and energetic, of fluent and persuasive speech, + given to deep reflection, an implacable hater of the white man. Other + qualities he possessed which were not so common among his people. He had + perfect self-command, a keen insight into human motives and purposes, and + an exceptional capacity to frame plans and organize men to carry them out. + His crowning scheme for bringing together the tribes of the Middle West + into a grand democratic confederacy to regulate land cessions and other + dealings with the whites stamps him as perhaps the most statesmanlike + member of his race. + </p> +<div class="footer"> + <p> + <a id="footer_8-1" name="footer_8-1"></a> +¹ Authorities differ as to the facts of Tecumseh's birth. His +earliest biographer, Benjamin Drake, holds that he was "wholly a +Shawanoe" and that he was a fourth child, the Prophet and another son +being twins. William Henry Harrison spoke of Tecumseh's mother as a +Creek. + </p> +</div> + <p> + While yet hardly more than a boy, Tecumseh seems to have been stirred to + deep indignation by the persistent encroachment of the whites upon the + hunting-grounds of his fathers. The cessions of 1804 and 1805 he specially + resented, and it is not unlikely that they clinched the decision of the + young warrior to take up the task which Pontiac had left unfinished. At + all events, the plan was soon well in hand. A less far-seeing leader would + have been content to call the scattered tribes to a momentary alliance + with a view to a general uprising against the invaders. But Tecumseh's + purposes + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">137</a></span> + ran far deeper. All of the Indian peoples, of whatever name or + relationships, from the Lakes to the Gulf and from the Alleghanies to the + Rockies, were to be organized in a single, permanent confederacy. This + union, furthermore, was to consist, not of chieftains, but of the + warriors; and its governing body was to be a warriors' congress, an organ + of genuine popular rule. Joint ownership of all Indian lands was to be + assumed by the confederacy, and the piecemeal cession of territory by + petty tribal chiefs, under pressure of government agents, was to be made + impossible. Only thus, Tecumseh argued, could the red man hope to hold his + own in the uneven contest that was going on. + </p> + <p> + The plan was brilliant, even though impracticable. Naturally, it did not + appeal instantly to the chieftains, for it took away tribal + independence and undermined the chieftain's authority. Besides, its author + was not a chief, and had no sanction of birth or office. Its success was + dependent on the building of an intertribal association such as Indian + history had never known. And while there was nothing in it which + contravened the professed policy of the United States, it ran counter to + the irrepressible tendency of the advancing white + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">138</a></span> + population to spread at will over the great western domain. + </p> + <p> + By these obstacles Tecumseh was not deterred. With indefatigable zeal he + traveled from one end of the country to the other, arguing with chiefs, + making fervid speeches to assembled warriors, and in every possible manner + impressing his people with his great idea. The Prophet went with him; and + when the orator's logic failed to carry conviction, the medicine-man's + imprecations were relied upon to save the day. Events, too, played into + their hands. The <i>Leopard-Chesapeake</i> affair, ¹ in 1807, roused + strong feeling in the West and prompted the Governor-General of Canada to + begin intrigues looking to an alliance with the redskins in the event of + war. And when, late in the same year, Governor Hull of Michigan Territory + indiscreetly negotiated a new land cession at Detroit, the northern tribes + at once joined Tecumseh's league, muttering threats to slay the chiefs by + whom the cession had been sanctioned. + </p> +<div class="footer"> + <p> + <a id="footer_8-2" name="footer_8-2"></a> +¹ See <i>Jefferson and his Colleagues,</i> by Allen Johnson (in <i>The +Chronicles of America</i>). + </p> +</div> + <p> + In the spring of 1808 Tecumseh and his brother carried their plans forward + another step by taking up their residence at a point in central Indiana + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">139</a></span> + where Tippecanoe Creek flows into the Wabash River. The place—which + soon got the name of the Prophet's Town—was almost equidistant from + Vincennes, Fort Wayne, and Fort Dearborn; from it the warriors could + paddle their canoes to any part of the Ohio or the Mississippi, and with + only a short portage, to the waters of the Maumee and the Great Lakes. The + situation was, therefore, strategic. A village was laid out, and the + population was soon numbered by the hundred. Livestock was acquired, + agriculture was begun, the use of whiskey was prohibited, and every + indication was afforded of peaceful intent. + </p> + <p> + Seasoned frontiersmen, however, were suspicious. Reports came in that the + Tippecanoe villagers engaged daily in warlike exercises; rumor had it that + emissaries of the Prophet were busily stirring the tribes, far and near, + to rebellion. Governor Harrison was not a man to be easily frightened, but + he became apprehensive, and proposed to satisfy himself by calling + Tecumseh into conference. + </p> + <p> + The interview took place at Vincennes, and was extended over a period of + two weeks. There was a show of firmness, yet of good will, on both sides. + The Governor counseled peace, orderliness, and industry; the warrior guest + professed a desire to + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">140</a></span> + be a friend to the United States, but said frankly that if the country + continued to deal with the tribes singly in the purchase of land he would + be obliged to ally himself with Great Britain. To Harrison's admonition + that the redskins should leave off drinking whiskey—"that it was + not made for them, but for the white people, who alone knew how to use + it"—the visitor replied pointedly by asking that the sale of liquor + be stopped. + </p> + <p> + Notwithstanding the tenseness of the situation, Harrison negotiated the + land cessions of 1809, which cost the Indians their last valuable + hunting-grounds in Indiana. The powerful Wyandots promptly joined + Tecumseh's league, and war was made inevitable. Delay followed only + because the Government at Washington postponed the military occupation of + the new purchase, and because the British authorities in Canada, desiring + Tecumseh's confederacy to attain its maximum strength before the test + came, urged the redskins to wait. + </p> + <p> + For two more years—while Great Britain and the United States hovered + on the brink of war—preparations continued. Tribe after tribe in + Indiana and Illinois elected Tecumseh as their chief, alliances reached to + regions as remote as Florida. In 1810 another conference took place at + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">141</a></span> + Vincennes; and this time, notwithstanding Harrison's request that not more + than thirty redskins should attend, four hundred came in Tecumseh's train, + fully armed. + </p> + <blockquote> + <p> + A large portico in front of the Governor's house [says a contemporary + account] had been prepared for the purpose with seats, as well for the + Indians as for the citizens who were expected to attend. When Tecumseh + came from his camp, with about forty of his warriors, he stood off, and on + being invited by the Governor, through an interpreter, to take his seat, + refused, observing that he wished the council to be held under the shade + of some trees in front of the house. When it was objected that it would be + troublesome to remove the seats, he replied that "it would only be + necessary to remove those intended for the whites—that the red men + were accustomed to sit upon the earth, which was their mother, and that + they were always happy to recline upon her bosom." ¹ + </p> + </blockquote> +<div class="footer"> + <p> + <a id="footer_8-3" name="footer_8-3"></a> +¹ James Hall, <i>Memoir of William Henry Harrison,</i> pp. 113-114. + </p> +</div> + <p> + The chieftain's equivocal conduct aroused fresh suspicion, but he was + allowed to proceed with the oration which he had come to deliver. Freely + rendered, the speech ran, in part, as follows: + </p> + <blockquote> + <p> + I have made myself what I am; and I would that I could make the red + people as great as the conceptions of my mind, when I think of the Great + Spirit that rules over all. I would not then come to Governor Harrison to + ask him to tear the treaty [of 1809]; but I would say to him, + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">142</a></span> + Brother, you have liberty to return to your own country. Once there was + no white man in all this country: then it belonged to red men, children + of the same parents, placed on it by the Great Spirit to keep it, to + travel over it, to eat its fruits, and fill it with the same + race—once a happy race, but now made miserable by the white people, + who are never contented, but always encroaching. They have driven us from + the great salt water, forced us over the mountains, and would shortly push + us into the lakes—but we are determined to go no further. The only + way to stop this evil is for all red men to unite in claiming a common + and equal right in the land, as it was at first, and should be + now—for it never was divided, but belongs to all.… + Any sale not made by all is not good. + </p> + </blockquote> + <p> + In his reply Harrison declared that the Indians were not one nation, since + the Great Spirit had "put six different tongues in their heads," and + argued that the Indiana lands had been in all respects properly bought + from their rightful owners. Tecumseh's blood boiled under this denial of + his main contention, and with the cry, "It is false," he gave a signal to + his warriors, who sprang to their feet and seized their war-clubs. For a + moment an armed clash was imminent. But Harrison's cool manner enabled him + to remain master of the situation, and a well-directed rebuke sent the + chieftain and his followers to their quarters. + </p> + <p> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">143</a></span> + On the following morning Tecumseh apologized for his impetuosity and asked + that the conference be renewed. The request was granted, and again the + forest leader pressed for an abandonment of the policy of purchasing land + from the separate tribes. Harrison told him that the question was for the + President, rather than for him, to decide. "As the great chief is to + determine the matter," responded the visitor grimly, "I hope the Great + Spirit will put sense enough into his head to induce him to direct you to + give up this land. It is true he is so far off he will not be injured by + the war. He may sit still in his town, and drink his wine, while you and I + will have to fight it out." + </p> + <p> + Still the clash was averted. Once more, in the summer of 1811, Tecumseh + appeared at Vincennes, and again the deep issue between the two peoples + was threshed out as fruitlessly as before. Announcing his purpose to visit + the southern tribes to unite them with those of the North in a peaceful + confederacy, the chieftain asked that during his absence all matters be + left as they were, and promised that upon his return he would go to see + President Madison and "settle everything with him." + </p> + <p> + Naturally, no pledge of the kind was given, and + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">144</a></span> + no sooner had Tecumseh and twenty of his warriors started southward on + their mission to the Creeks than Harrison began preparations to end the + menace that had been so long hanging over the western country. Troops were + sent to Harrison; and volunteers were called for. As fast as volunteers + came in they were sent up to the Wabash to take possession of the new + purchase. Reinforcements arrived from Pittsburgh and from Kentucky, and + in a short while the Governor was able to bring together at Fort Harrison, + near the site of the present city of Terre Haute, twenty-four companies of + regulars, militia, and Indians, aggregating about nine hundred well-armed + men. + </p> + <p> + Late in October this army, commanded by Harrison in person, set forth for + the destruction of the Tippecanoe rendezvous. On the way stray redskins + were encountered, but the advance was not resisted, and to his surprise + Harrison was enabled to lead his forces unmolested to within a few hundred + yards of the Prophet's headquarters. Emissaries now came saying that the + invasion was wholly unexpected, professing peaceful intentions, and asking + for a parley. Harrison had no idea that anything could be settled by + negotiation, but he preferred to wait until the next day to make an + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">145</a></span> + attack; accordingly he agreed to a council, and the army went into camp + for the night on an oak-covered knoll about a mile northwest of the + village. No entrenchments were thrown up, but the troops were arranged in + a triangle to conform to the contour of the hill, and a hundred sentinels + under experienced officers were stationed around the camp-fires. The night + was cold, and rain fell at intervals, although at times the moon shone + brightly through the flying clouds. + </p> + <p> + The Governor was well aware of the proneness of the Indians to early + morning attacks, so that about four o'clock on the 7th of November he rose + to call the men to parade. He had barely pulled on his boots when the + forest stillness was broken by the crack of a rifle at the farthest angle + of the camp, and instantly the Indian yell, followed by a fusillade, told + that a general attack had begun. Before the militiamen could emerge in + force from their tents, the sentinel line was broken and the red warriors + were pouring into the enclosure. Desperate fighting ensued, and when time + for reloading failed, it was rifle butt and bayonet against tomahawk and + scalping knife in hand-to-hand combat. For two hours the battle raged in + the darkness, and only when daylight came were the troops able to + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">146</a></span> + charge the redskins, dislodge them from behind the trees, and drive them + to a safe distance in the neighboring swamp. Sixty-one of Harrison's + officers and men were killed or mortally wounded; one hundred and + twenty-seven others suffered serious injury. The Governor himself probably + owed his life to the circumstance that in the confusion he mounted a bay + horse instead of his own white stallion, whose rider was shot early in the + contest. + </p> + <p> + The Indian losses were small, and for twenty-four hours Harrison's forces + kept their places, hourly expecting another assault. "Night," wrote one of + the men subsequently, "found every man mounting guard, without food, fire, + or light and in a drizzling rain. The Indian dogs, during the dark hours, + produced frequent alarms by prowling in search of carrion about the + sentinels." There being no further sign of hostilities, early on the 8th + of November a body of mounted riflemen set out for the Prophet's village, + which they found deserted. The place had evidently been abandoned in + haste, for nothing—not even a fresh stock of English guns and + powder—had been destroyed or carried off. After confiscating + much-needed provisions and other valuables, Harrison ordered the village + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">147</a></span> + to be burned. Then, abandoning camp furniture and private baggage to make + room in the wagons for the wounded, he set out on the return trip to + Vincennes. A company was left at Fort Harrison, and the main force + reached the capital on the 18th of November. + </p> + <p> + Throughout the western country the news of the battle was received with + delight, and it was fondly believed that the backbone of Tecumseh's + conspiracy was broken. It was even supposed that the indomitable chieftain + and his brother would be forthwith surrendered by the Indians to the + authorities of the United States. Harrison was acclaimed as a deliverer. + The legislatures of Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois formally thanked him + for his services; and if, as his Federalist enemies charged, he had + planned the whole undertaking with a view to promoting his personal + fortunes, he ought to have been satisfied with the result. It was the + glamour of Tippecanoe that three decades afterwards carried him into the + President's chair. + </p> + <p> + In precipitating a clash while Tecumseh, the master-mind of the + fast-growing confederacy, was absent, the Prophet committed a capital + blunder. When reproached by his warriors, he declared that all would have + gone well but for the fact that on the + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">148</a></span> + night before the battle his squaw had profanely touched the pot in which + his magic charms were brewed, so that the spell had been broken! The + explanation was not very convincing, and ominous murmurings were heard. + Before the end of the year, however, word came to Vincennes that the + crafty magician was back at Tippecanoe, that the village had been rebuilt, + and that the lives of the white settlers who were pouring into the new + purchase were again endangered. + </p> + <p> + Still more alarming was the news of Tecumseh's return in January, 1812, + from a very successful visit to the Creeks, Choctaws, and Cherokees. He + began by asking leave to make his long-projected visit to Washington to + obtain peace from the President, and he professed deep regret for "the + unfortunate transaction that took place between the white people and a few + of our young men at our village." To the British agent at Amherstburg he + declared that had he been on the spot there would have been no fighting at + Tippecanoe. It is reasonable to suppose that in this case there would have + been, at all events, no Indian attack; for Tecumseh was thoroughly in + sympathy with the British plan, which was to unite and arm the natives, + but to prevent a premature outbreak. The chieftain's + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">149</a></span> + presence, however, would hardly have deterred Harrison from carrying out + his decision to break up the Tippecanoe stronghold. + </p> + <p> + The spring of 1812 brought an ominous renewal of depredations. Two + settlers were murdered within three miles of Fort Dearborn; an entire + family was massacred but five miles from Vincennes; from all directions + came reports of other bloody deeds. The frontier was thrown into panic. A + general uprising was felt to be impending; even Vincennes was thought to + be in danger. "Most of the citizens of this country," reported Harrison, + on the 6th of May, "have abandoned their farms, and taken refuge in such + temporary forts as they have been able to construct. Scores fled to + Kentucky and to even more distant regions." + </p> + <p> + Tecumseh continued to assert his friendship for his "white brothers" and + to treat the battle at Tippecanoe as a matter of no moment. The murders on + the frontier he declared to be the work of the Potawatomi, who were not + under his control, and for whose conduct he had no excuse. But it was + noted that he made no move to follow up his professed purpose to visit + Washington in quest of peace, and that he put forth no effort to restrain + his over-zealous allies. It was plain enough that he + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">150</a></span> + was simply awaiting a signal from Canada, and that, as the commandant at + Fort Wayne tersely reported, if the country should have a war with Great + Britain, it must be prepared for an Indian war as well. + </p> + <p><br /></p> + <hr /> + + <div class="chapterhead"> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">151</a></span> + <a name="Chapter09" id="Chapter09"></a> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + + <h2> + <a href="#Contents">CHAPTER IX.</a> + </h2> + <p class="chaptertitle">The War Of 1812 And The New West</p> + </div> + <p><br /></p> + + + <p class="noindent"> + <span class="smcap">The</span> spring of 1812 thus found the back country + in a turmoil, and it was with a real sense of relief that the settlers + became aware of the American declaration of war against Great Britain on + the 18th of June. More than once Governor Harrison had asked for authority + to raise an army with which to "scour" the Wabash territory. In the fear + that such a step would drive the redskins into the arms of the British, + the War Department had withheld its consent. Now that the ban was lifted, + the people could expect the necessary measures to be taken for their + defense. In no part of the country was the war more popular; nowhere did + the mass of the able-bodied population show greater eagerness to take the + field. + </p> + <p> + According to official returns, the Westerners were totally unprepared for + the contest. There were but five garrisoned posts between the Ohio + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">152</a></span> + and the Canadian frontier. Fort Harrison had fifty men, Fort Wayne + eighty-five, Fort Dearborn fifty-three, Fort Mackinac eighty-eight, and + Detroit one hundred and twenty—a total force of fewer than four + hundred. The entire standing army of the United States numbered but + sixty-seven hundred men, and it was obvious that the trans-Alleghany + population would be obliged to carry almost alone the burden of their own + defense. The task would not be easy; for General Brock, commanding in + upper Canada, had at least two thousand regulars and, as soon as + hostilities began, was joined by Tecumseh and many hundred redskins. + </p> + <p> + While the question of the war was still under debate in Congress, + President Madison made a requisition on Ohio for twelve hundred militia, + and in early summer the Governors of Indiana and Illinois called hundreds + of volunteers into service. Leaving their families as far as possible + under the protection of stockades or of the towns, the patriots flocked to + the mustering-grounds; many, like Cincinnatus of old, deserted the plough + in midfield. Guns and ammunition in sufficient quantity were lacking; even + tents and blankets were often wanting. But enthusiasm ran high, and only + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">153</a></span> + capable leadership was needed to make of these frontier forces, once they + were properly equipped, a formidable foe. + </p> + <p> + The story of the leaders and battles of the war in the West has been told + in an earlier volume of this series. ¹ It will be necessary here + merely to call to mind the stages through which this contest passed, as a + preliminary to a glimpse of the conditions under which Westerners fought + and of the new position into which their section of the country was + brought when peace was restored. So far as the regions north of the Ohio + were concerned, the war developed two phases. The first began with General + William Hull's expedition from Ohio against Fort Malden for the relief of + Detroit, and it ended with the humiliating surrender of that important + post, together with the forced abandonment of Forts Dearborn and Mackinac, + so that the Wabash and Maumee became, for all practical purposes, the + country's northern boundary. This was a story of complete and bitter + defeat. The second phase began likewise with a disaster—the needless + loss of a thousand men on the Raisin River, near Detroit. Yet it succeeded + in bringing William + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">154</a></span> + Henry Harrison into chief command, and it ended in + Commodore Perry's signal victory on Lake Erie and Harrison's equally + important defeat of the disheartened British land forces on the banks of + the Thames River, north of the Lake. At this Battle of the Thames perished + Tecumseh, who in point of fact was the real force behind the British + campaigns in the West. Tradition describes him on the eve of the battle + telling his comrades that his last day had come, solemnly stripping off + his British uniform before going into battle, and arraying himself in the + fighting costume of his own people. + </p> +<div class="footer"> + <p> + <a id="footer_9-1" name="footer_9-1"></a> +¹ See <i>The Fight for a Free Sea,</i> by Ralph D. Paine (in <i>The +Chronicles of America</i>). + </p> +</div> + <p> + For two-thirds of the time, the war went badly for the Westerners, and + only at the end did it turn out to be a brilliant success. The reasons for + the dreary succession of disasters are not difficult to discover. Foremost + among them is the character of the troops and officers. The material from + which the regiments were recruited was intrinsically good, but utterly raw + and untrained. The men could shoot well; they had great powers of + endurance; and they were brave. But there the list of their military + virtues ends. + </p> + <p> + The scheme of military organization relied upon throughout the West was + that of the volunteer + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">155</a></span> + militia. In periods of ordinary Indian warfare the + system served its purpose fairly well. Under stern necessity, the + self-willed, independence-loving backwoodsmen could be brought to act + together for a few weeks or months; but they had little systematic + training, and their impatience of restraint prevented the building up of + any real discipline. There were periodic musters for company or regimental + drill. But, as a rule, drill duty was not taken seriously. Numbers of men + failed to report; and those who came were likely to give most of their + time to horse-races, wrestling-matches, shooting contests—not to + mention drinking and brawling—which turned the occasion into mere + merrymaking or disorder. The men brought few guns, and when drills were + actually held these soldiers in the making contented themselves with + parading with cornstalks over their shoulders. "Cornstalk drill" thus + became a frontier epithet of derision. It goes without saying that these + troops were poorly officered. The captains and colonels were chosen by the + men, frequently with more regard for their political affiliations or their + general standing in the community than for their capacity as military + commanders; nor were the higher officers, appointed by the chief executive + of territory, + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">156</a></span> + state, or nation, more likely to be chosen with a view to their military + fitness. + </p> + <p> + So it came about, as Roosevelt has said, that the frontier people of the + second generation "had no military training whatever, and though they + possessed a skeleton militia organization, they derived no benefit from + it, because their officers were worthless, and the men had no idea of + practising self-restraint or obeying orders longer than they saw fit." + ¹ When the War of 1812 began, these backwoods troops were pitted + against British regulars who were powerfully supported by Indian allies. + The officers of these untrained American troops were, like Hull, pompous, + broken-down, political incapables; while to the men themselves may fairly + be applied Amos Kendall's disgusted characterization of a Kentucky muster: + "The soldiers are under no more restraint than a herd of swine. Reasoning, + remonstrating, threatening, and ridiculing their officers, they show their + sense of equality and their total want of subordination." Not until the + very last of the war, when under Harrison's direction capable and + experienced officers drilled them into real soldiers, did these backwoods + stalwarts become an effective fighting force. + </p> +<div class="footer"> + <p> + <a id="footer_9-2" name="footer_9-2"></a> +¹ <i>Winning of the West</i>, vol. IV. p. 246. + </p> +</div> + <p> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">157</a></span> + There were also shortcomings of another sort. None was more exasperating + or costly than the lack of means of transportation. Even in Ohio, the + oldest and most settled portion of the Northwest, roads were few and poor; + elsewhere there were practically none of any kind. But the regions in + which the war was carried on were far too sparsely populated to be able to + furnish the supplies, even the foodstuffs, needed by the troops; and + materials of every sort had to be transported from the East, by river, + lake, and wilderness trail. Up and down the great unbroken stretches + between the Ohio and the Lakes moved the floundering supply trains in the + vain effort to keep up with the armies, or to reach camps or forts in time + to avert starvation or disaster. Pack-horses waded knee-deep in mud; + wagons were dragged through mire up to their hubs; even empty vehicles + sometimes became so embedded that they had to be abandoned, the drivers + being glad to get off with their horses alive. Many times a quartermaster, + taking advantage of a frost, would send off a convoy of provisions, only + to hear of its being swamped by a thaw before reaching its destination. + One of the tragedies of the war was the suffering of the troops while + waiting for supplies of clothing, tents, medicines, + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">158</a></span> + and food which were stuck in swamps or frozen up in rivers or lakes. + </p> + <p> + Beset with pleurisy, pneumonia, and rheumatism in winter, with fevers in + summer, and subject to attack by the Indians at all times, these frontier + soldiers led an existence of exceptional hardship. Only the knowledge that + they were fighting for their freedom and their homes held them to their + task. An interesting sidelight on the conditions under which their work + was done is contained in the following extract from a letter written by a + volunteer in 1814: + </p> + <blockquote> + <p> + On the second day of our march a courier arrived from General Harrison, + ordering the artillery to advance with all possible speed. This was + rendered totally impossible by the snow which took place, it being a + complete swamp nearly all day. On the evening of the same day news arrived + that General Harrison had retreated to Portage River, eighteen miles in + the rear of the encampment at the rapids. As many men as could be spared + determined to proceed immediately to re-enforce him.… At two + o'clock the next morning our tents were struck, and in half an hour we + were on the road. I will candidly confess that on that day I regretted + being a soldier. On that day we marched thirty miles under an incessant + rain; and I am afraid you will doubt my veracity when I tell you that in + eight miles of the best of the road, it took us over the knees, and often + to the middle. The Black Swamp would have been considered + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">159</a></span> + impassable by all but men determined to surmount every difficulty to + accomplish the object of their march. In this swamp you lose sight of + <i>terra firma</i> altogether—the water was about six inches deep + on the ice, which was very rotten, often breaking through to the depth + of four or five feet. The same night we encamped on very wet ground, + but the driest that could be found, the rain still continuing. It was + with difficulty we could raise fires; we had no tents; our clothes were + wet, no axes, nothing to cook with, and very little to eat. A brigade + of pack-horses being near us, we procured from them some flour, killed + a hog (there were plenty of <em>them</em> along the road); our bread was + baked in the ashes, and our pork we broiled on the coals—a + sweeter meal I never partook of. When we went to sleep it was on two logs + laid close to each other, to keep our bodies from the damp ground. Good + God! What a pliant being is man in adversity. ¹ + </p> + </blockquote> +<div class="footer"> + <p> + <a id="footer_9-3" name="footer_9-3"></a> +¹ Dawson, <i>William H. Harrison,</i> p. 369. + </p> +</div> + <p> + The principal theater of war was the Great Lakes and the lands adjacent to + them. Prior to the campaign which culminated in Jackson's victory at New + Orleans after peace had been signed, the Mississippi Valley had been + untrodden by British soldiery. The contest, none the less, came close home + to the backwoods populations. Scores of able-bodied men from every + important community saw months or years of toilsome service; many failed + to return to their homes, or else returned + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">160</a></span> + crippled, weakened, or stricken with fatal diseases; crops were neglected, + or had only such care as could be given them by old men and boys; trade + languished; Indian depredations wrought further ruin to life and property + and kept the people continually in alarm. Until 1814, reports of + successive defeats, in both the East and West, had a depressing influence + and led to solemn speculation as to whether the back country stood in + danger of falling again under British dominion. + </p> + <p> + It was, therefore, with a very great sense of relief that the West heard + in 1815 that peace had been concluded. At a stroke both the British menace + and the danger from the Indians were removed; for although the redskins + were still numerous and discontented, their spirit of resistance was + broken. Never again was there a general uprising against the whites; never + again did the Northwest witness even a local Indian war of any degree of + seriousness save Black Hawk's Rebellion in 1832. Tecumseh manifestly + realized before he made his last stand at the Thames that the cause of his + people was forever lost. + </p> + <p> + For several years the unsettled conditions on the frontiers had restrained + any general migration thither from the seaboard States. But within a + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">161</a></span> + few months after the proclamation of peace the tide again set westward, + and with an unprecedented force. Men who had suffered in their property or + other interests from the war turned to Indiana and Illinois as a promising + field in which to rebuild their fortunes. The rapid extinction of Indian + titles opened up vast tracts of desirable land, and the conditions of + purchase were made so easy that any man of ordinary industry and integrity + could meet them. Speculators and promoters industriously advertised the + advantages of localities in which they were interested, boomed new towns, + and even loaned money to ambitious emigrants. + </p> + <p> + The upshot was that the population of Indiana grew from twenty-five + thousand in 1810 to seventy thousand in 1816, when the State was admitted + to the Union. Illinois filled with equal rapidity, and attained statehood + only two years later. Then the tide swept irresistibly westward across the + Mississippi into the great regions which had been acquired from France in + 1803. As late as 1812 the Territory of Missouri, comprising all of the + Louisiana Purchase north of the present State of Louisiana, had a + population of only twenty-two thousand, including many French and Spanish + settlers and traders. But in 1818 it had a population + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">162</a></span> + of more than sixty thousand, and was asking Congress for legislation under + which the most densely inhabited portion should be set off as the State of + Missouri. Thus the Old Northwest was not merely losing its frontier + character and taking its place in the nation on a footing with the + seaboard sections; it was also serving as the open gateway to a newer, + vaster, and in some respects richer American back country. + </p> + <p> + In the main, southern Indiana and Illinois—as well as the + trans-Mississippi territory—drew from Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, + and the remoter South. North of the latitude of Indianapolis and St. Louis + the lines of migration led chiefly from New England, New York, and + Pennsylvania. But many of the settlers came, immediately or after only a + brief interval, from Europe. The decade following the close of the war was + a time of unprecedented emigration from England, Scotland, Ireland, and + Germany to the United States; and while many of the newcomers found homes + in the eastern States, where they in a measure offset the depopulation + caused by the westward exodus, a very large proportion pressed on across + the mountains in quest of the cheap lands in the undeveloped interior. + During these years the western country was repeatedly + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">163</a></span> + visited by European travelers with a view to ascertaining its resources, + markets, and other attractions for settlers; and emigration thither was + powerfully stimulated by the writings of these observers, as well as by + the activities of sundry founders of agricultural colonies. + </p> + <p> + "These favorable accounts," wrote Adlard Welby, an Englishman who made a + tour of inspection through the West in 1819, "aided by a period of real + privation and discontent in Europe, caused emigration to increase ten-fold; + and though various reports of unfavorable nature soon circulated, and many + who had emigrated actually returned to their native land in disgust, yet + still the trading vessels were filled with passengers of all ages and + descriptions, full of hope, looking forward to the West as to a land of + liberty and delight—a land flowing with milk and honey—a + second land of Canaan." ¹ + </p> +<div class="footer"> + <p> + <a id="footer_9-4" name="footer_9-4"></a> +¹ Thwaites, <i>Early Western Travels,</i> vol. XII, p. 148. + </p> +</div> + <p> + After the dangers from the Indians were overcome, the main obstacle to + western development was the lack of means of easy and cheap + transportation. The settler found it difficult to reach the region which + he had selected for his home. Eastern supplies of salt, iron, hardware, + and fabrics and + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">164</a></span> + foodstuffs could be obtained only at great expense. The + fast-increasing products of the western farms—maize, wheat, meats, + livestock—could be marketed only at a cost which left a slender + margin of profit. The experiences of the late war had already proved the + need of highways as auxiliaries of national defense. It required a month + to carry goods from Baltimore to central Ohio. None the less, even before + the War of 1812, hundreds of transportation companies were running + four-horse freight wagons between the eastern and western States; and in + 1820 more than three thousand wagons—practically all carrying + western products—passed back and forth between Philadelphia and + Pittsburgh, transporting merchandise valued at eighteen million dollars. + </p> + <p> + Small wonder that western producer and eastern dealer alike became + interested in internal improvements; or that under the double stimulus of + private and public enterprise Indian trails fast gave way to rough pioneer + roadways, and they to carefully planned and durable turnpikes. Long before + the War of 1812, Jefferson, Gallatin, Clay, and other statesmen had + conceived of a great highway, or series of highways, connecting the + seaboard with the interior as the surest and best means of promoting + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">165</a></span> + national unity and strength; and, in the act of Congress of 1802 admitting + the State of Ohio, a promising beginning had been made by setting aside + five per cent of the money received from the sale of public lands in the + State for the building of roads extending eastward to the navigable waters + of Atlantic streams. In 1808 Secretary Gallatin had presented to Congress + a report calling for an outlay on internal improvements of two million + dollars of federal money a year for ten years; and in 1811 the Government + had entered upon the greatest undertaking of its kind in the history of + the country. + </p> + <p> + This enterprise was the building of the magnificent highway known to the + law as the Cumberland Road, but familiar to uncounted emigrants, + travelers, and traders—and deeply embedded in the traditions of the + Middle States and the West—as the National Road. Starting at + Cumberland, Maryland, this great artery of commerce and travel was pushed + slowly through the Alleghanies, even in the dark days of the war, and by + 1818 it was open for traffic as far west as Wheeling. The method of + construction was that which had lately been devised by John McAdam in + England, and involved spreading crushed limestone over a carefully + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">166</a></span> + prepared road-bed in three layers, traffic being permitted for a time over + each layer in succession. This "macadamized" surface was curved to permit + drainage, and extra precautions were taken in localities where spring + freshets were likely to cause damage. + </p> + <p> + Controversy raged over proposals to extend the road to the farthest West, + to provide its upkeep by a system of tolls, and to build similar highways + farther north and south. But for a time constitutional and legal + difficulties were swept aside and construction continued. Columbus was + reached in 1833, Indianapolis about 1840; and the roadway was graded to + Vandalia, then the capital of Illinois, and marked out to Jefferson City, + Missouri, although it was never completed to the last-mentioned point by + federal authority. When one reads that the original cost of construction + mounted to $10,000 a mile in central Pennsylvania, and even $13,000 a mile + in the neighborhood of Wheeling, one's suspicion is aroused that public + contracts were not less dubious a hundred years ago than they have been + known to be in our own time. + </p> + <p> + The National Road has long since lost its importance as the great + connecting link of East and West. But in its day, especially before 1860, + it + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">167</a></span> + was a teeming thoroughfare. Its course was lined with hospitable + farmhouses and was dotted with fast-growing villages and towns. Some of + the latter which once were nationally famed were left high and dry by + later shifts of the lines of traffic, and have quite disappeared from the + map. Throughout the spring and summer months there was a steady westward + stream of emigrants; hardly a day failed to bring before the observer's + eye the creaking canvas-covered wagon of the homeseeker. Singly and in + companies they went, ever toward the promised land. Wagon-trains of + merchandise from the eastern markets toiled patiently along the way. + Speculators, peddlers, and sightseers added to the procession, and in + hundreds of farmhouses the women-folk and children gathered in interested + groups by the evening fire to hear the chance visitor talk politics or war + and retail with equal facility the gossip of the next township and that of + Washington or New York. Great stage-coach lines—the National Road + Stage Company, the Ohio National Stage Company, and others—advertised + the advantages of their services and sought patronage with all the + ingenuity of the modern railroad. Taverns and roadhouses of which no trace + remains today offered entertainment at any figure, + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">168</a></span> + and of almost any character, that the customer desired. Eastward flowed a + steady stream of wagon-trains of flour, tobacco, and pork, with great + droves of cattle and hogs to be fattened for the Philadelphia or + Baltimore markets. + </p> + <p> + At almost precisely the same time that the first shovelful of earth was + turned for the Cumberland Road, people dwelling on the banks of the upper + Ohio were startled by the spectacle of a large boat moving majestically + down stream entirely devoid of sail, oar, pole, or any other visible means + of propulsion or control. This object of wonderment was the + <i>New Orleans,</i> the first steamboat to be launched on western waters. + </p> + <p> + The conquest of the steamboat was speedy and complete. Already in 1819 + there were sixty-three such craft on the Ohio, and in 1834—when the + total shipping tonnage of the Atlantic seaboard was 76,064, and of the + British Empire 82,696—the tonnage afloat on the Ohio and Mississippi + was 126,278. Vessels regularly ascended the navigable tributaries of the + greater streams in quest of cargoes, and while craft of other sorts did + not disappear, the great and growing commerce of the river was + revolutionized. + </p> + <p> + In the upbuilding of steamboat navigation + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">169</a></span> + the thriving, bustling, boastful spirit of the West found ample play. + Steamboat owners vied with one another in adorning their vessels with + bowsprits, figureheads, and all manner of tinseled decorations, and in + providing elegant accommodations for passengers; engineers and pilots + gloried in speed records and challenged one another to races which ended + in some of the most shocking steamboat disasters known to history. The + unconscious bombast of an anonymous Cincinnati writer in Timothy Flint's + <i>Western Monthly Review</i> in 1827 gives us the real flavor of the + steamboat business on the threshold of the Jacksonian era: + </p> + <blockquote> + <p> + An Atlantic cit, who talks of us under the name of backwoodsmen, would + not believe, that such fairy structures of oriental gorgeousness and + splendor as the <i>Washington</i>, the <i>Florida</i>, the <i>Walk in + the Water</i>, <i>The Lady of the Lake</i>, etc., etc., had ever existed + in the imaginative brain of a romancer, much less, that they were + actually in existence, rushing down the Mississippi, as on the wings of + the wind, or plowing up between the forests, and walking against the + mighty current "as things of life," bearing speculators, merchants, + dandies, fine ladies, everything real, and everything affected, in the + form of humanity, with pianos, and stocks of novels, and cards, and dice, + and flirting, and love-making, and drinking, and champagne, and on the + deck, perhaps, three hundred fellows, who have seen alligators, and + neither fear + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">170</a></span> + whiskey, nor gun-powder. A steamboat, coming from New Orleans, brings to + the remotest villages of our streams, and the very doors of the cabins, + a little Paris, a section of Broadway, or a slice of Philadelphia, to + ferment in the minds of our young people, the innate propensity for + fashions and finery.… Cincinnati will soon be the centre of the + "celestial empire," as the Chinese say; and instead of encountering the + storms, the seasickness, and dangers of a passage from the Gulf of Mexico + to the Atlantic, whenever the Erie Canal shall be completed, the opulent + southern planters will take their families, their dogs and parrots, + through a world of forests, from New Orleans to New York, giving us a + call by the way. When they are more acquainted with us, their voyage will + often terminate here. ¹ + </p> + </blockquote> +<div class="footer"> + <p> + <a id="footer_9-5" name="footer_9-5"></a> +¹ Vol. I, p. 25 (May, 1827). + </p> +</div> + <p> + The new West was frankly materialistic. Yet its interests were by no means + restricted to steamboats, turnpikes, crops, exports, and money-making. It + concerned itself much with religion. One of the most familiar figures on + trail and highway was the circuit-rider, with his Bible and saddlebags; + and no community was so remote, or so hardened, as not to be raised + occasionally to a frenzy of religious zeal by the crude but terrifying + eloquence of the revivalist. For education, likewise, there was a growing + regard. Nowhere did the devotion of the Western people to the twin + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">171</a></span> + ideas of democracy and enlightenment find nobler expression than in the + clause of the Indiana constitution of 1816 making it the duty of the + Legislature to provide for "a general system of education, ascending in a + regular gradation from township schools to a state university, wherein + tuition shall be gratis, and equally open to all." This principle found + general application throughout the Northwest. By 1830 common schools + existed wherever population was sufficient to warrant the expense; + academies and other secondary schools were springing up in Cincinnati, + Louisville, St. Louis, and many lesser places; state universities existed + in Ohio and Indiana; and Baptists, Methodists, and Presbyterians had begun + to dot the country with small colleges. Literature developed slowly. But + newspapers appeared almost before there were readers; and that the new + society was by no means without cultural, and even æsthetic, + aspiration is indicated by the long-continued rivalry of Cincinnati and + Lexington, Kentucky, to be known as "the Athens of the West." + </p> + <p><br /></p> + <hr /> + + + <div class="chapterhead"> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">172</a></span> + <a name="Chapter10" id="Chapter10"></a> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + + <h2> + <a href="#Contents">CHAPTER X.</a> + </h2> + <p class="chaptertitle">Sectional Cross Current</p> + </div> + <p><br /></p> + + + <p class="noindent"> + <span class="smcap">The</span> War of 1812 did much in America + to stimulate national pride and to foster a sense of unity. None the less, + the decade following the Peace of Ghent proved the beginning of a long + era in which the point of view in politics, business, and social life was + distinctly sectional. New England, the Middle States, the South, the + West—all were bent upon getting the utmost advantages from their + resources; all were viewing public questions in the light of their + peculiar interests. In the days of Clay and Calhoun and Jackson the + nation's politics were essentially a struggle for power among the + sections. + </p> + <p> + There was a time when the frontier folk of the trans-Alleghany country + from Lakes to Gulf were much alike. New Englanders in the Reserve, + Pennsylvanians in central Ohio, Virginians and Carolinians in Kentucky and + southern Indiana, + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">173</a></span> + Georgians in Alabama and Mississippi, Kentuckians and Tennesseeans in + Illinois and Missouri—all were pioneer farmers and stock-raisers, + absorbed in the conquest of the wilderness and all thinking, working, and + living in much the same way. But by 1820 the situation had altered. + The West was still a "section," whose interests and characteristics + contrasted sharply with those of New England or the Middle States. Yet + upon occasion it could act with very great effect, as for instance when + it rallied to the support of Jackson and bore him triumphantly to the + presidential chair. Great divergences, however, had grown up within this + western area; differences which had existed from the beginning had been + brought into sharp relief. Under play of climatic and industrial forces, + the West had itself fallen apart into sections. + </p> + <p> + Foremost was the cleavage between North and South, on a line marked + roughly by the Ohio River. Climate, soil, the cotton gin, and slavery + combined to make of the southern West a great cotton-raising area, + interested in the same things and swayed by the same impulses as the + southern seaboard. Similarly, economic conditions combined to make of the + northern West a land of small + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">174</a></span> + farmers, free labor, town-building, and diversified manufactures and + trade. A very large chapter of American history hinges on this wedging + apart of Southwest and Northwest. To this day the two great divisions + have never wholly come together in their ways of thinking. + </p> + <p> + But neither of these western segments was itself entirely a unit. The + Northwest, in particular, had been settled by people drawn from every + older portion of the country, and as the frontier receded and society took + on a more matured aspect, differences of habits and ideas were accentuated + rather than obscured. Men can get along very well with one another so long + as they live apart and do not try to regulate their everyday affairs on + common lines. + </p> + <p> + The great human streams that poured into the Northwest flowed from two + main sources—the nearer South and New England. Ohio, Indiana, and + Illinois were first peopled by men and women of Southern stock. Some + migrated directly from Virginia, the Carolinas, and even Georgia. But most + came from Kentucky and Tennessee and represented the second generation of + white people in those States, now impelled to move on to a new frontier by + the desire for larger and cheaper farms. + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">175</a></span> + Included in this Southern element were many representatives of the + well-to-do classes, who were drawn to the new territories by the + opportunity for speculation in land and for political preferment, and by + the opening which the fast-growing communities afforded for lawyers, + doctors, and members of other professions. The number of these would have + been larger had there been less rigid restrictions upon slaveholding. It + was rather, however, the poorer whites—the more democratic, + non-slaveholding Southern element—that formed the bulk of the + earlier settlers north of the Ohio. + </p> + <p> + There was much westward migration from New England before the War of 1812, + but only a small share of it reached the Ohio country, and practically + none went beyond the Western Reserve. The common goal was western New + York. Here again there was some emigration of the well-to-do and + influential. But, as in the South, the people who moved were mainly those + who were having difficulty in making ends meet and who could see no way of + bettering their condition in their old homes. The back country of Maine, + New Hampshire, Vermont, and western Massachusetts was filled with people + of this sort—poor, discontented, restless, without political + influence, and needing + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">176</a></span> + only the incentive of cheap lands in the West to sever the slender ties + which bound them to the stony hillsides of New England. + </p> + <p> + After 1815 New England emigration rose to astonishing proportions, and an + increasing number of the homeseekers passed—directly or after a + sojourn in the Lower Lake country of New York—into the Northwest. + The opening of the Erie Canal in 1825 made the westward journey easier and + cheaper. The routes of travel led to Lakes Ontario and Erie, thence to the + Reserve in northern Ohio, thence by natural stages into other portions of + northern Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, and eventually into southern + Michigan and Wisconsin. Not until after 1830 did the stalwart homeseekers + penetrate north of Detroit; the great stretches of prairie between Lakes + Erie and Michigan, and to the south—left quite untouched by Southern + pioneers—satisfied every desire of these restless farmers from New + England. + </p> + <p> + For a long time Southerners determined the course of history in the Old + Northwest. They occupied the field first, and they had the great advantage + of geographical proximity to their old homes. Furthermore, they lived more + compactly; the New Englanders were not only spread + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">177</a></span> + over the broader prairie stretches of the north, but scattered to some + extent throughout the entire region between the Lakes and the Ohio. ¹ + But by the middle of the century not only had the score of northern + counties been inundated by the "Yankees" but the waves were pushing far + into the interior, where they met and mingled with the counter-current. + Both Illinois and Indiana became, in a preëminent degree, + melting-pots in which was fused by slow and sometimes painful processes + an amalgam which Bryce and other keen observers have pronounced the most + American thing in America. + </p> +<div class="footer"> + <p> + <a id="footer_10-1" name="footer_10-1"></a> +¹ In 1820 the population of Indiana was confined almost entirely +to the southern third of the State, although the removal of the capital, +in 1825, from Corydon to Indianapolis was carried out in the confidence +that eventually that point would become the State's populational as it +was its geographical center. When, in 1818, Illinois was admitted to +the Union its population was computed at 40,000. The figure was probably +excessive; at all events, contemporaries testify that so eager were the +people for statehood that many were counted twice, and even emigrants +were counted as they passed through the Territory. But the census +of 1820 showed a population of 55,000, settled almost wholly in the +southern third of the State, with narrow tongues of inhabited land +stretching up the river valleys toward the north. Two slave States +flanked the southern end of the commonwealth; almost half of its area +lay south of a westward prolongation of Mason and Dixon's line. Save for +a few Pennsylvanians, the people were Southern; the State was for all +practical purposes a Southern State. As late as 1833 the Legislature +numbered fifty-eight members from the South, nineteen from the Middle +States, and only four from New England. + </p> +</div> + + <p> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">178</a></span> + Of the great national issues in the quarter-century following the War of + 1812 there were some upon which people of the Northwest, in spite of their + differing points of view, could very well agree. Internal improvement was + one of these. Roads and canals were necessary outlets to southern and + eastern markets, and any reasonable proposal on this subject could be + assured of the Northwest's solid support. The thirty-four successive + appropriations to 1844 for the Cumberland Road, Calhoun's "Bonus Bill" of + 1816, the bill of 1822 authorizing a continuous national jurisdiction over + the Cumberland Road, the comprehensive "Survey Bill" of 1824, the + Maysville Road Bill of 1830—all were backed by the united strength + of the Northwestern senators and representatives. + </p> + <p> + So with the tariff. The cry of the East for protection to infant + industries was echoed by the struggling manufacturers of Cincinnati, + Louisville, and other towns; while a protective tariff as a means of + building up the home market for foodstuffs and raw materials seemed to the + Westerner an altogether reasonable and necessary expedient. Ohio alone in + the Northwest had an opportunity to vote on the protective bill of 1816, + and gave its enthusiastic support. Ohio, Indiana, + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">179</a></span> + and Illinois voted unitedly for the bills of 1820, 1824, 1828, and 1832. + The principal western champion of the protective policy was Henry Clay, + a Kentuckian; but the Northwest supported the policy more consistently + than did Clay's own State and section. + </p> + <p> + On the National Bank the position of the Northwest was no less emphatic. + The people were little troubled by the question of constitutionality; but + believing that the bank was an engine of tyranny in the hands of an + eastern aristocracy, they were fully prepared to support Jackson in his + determination to extinguish that "un-American monopoly." + </p> + <p> + There were other subjects upon which agreement was reached either with + difficulty or not at all. One of these was the form of local government + which should be adopted. Southerners and New Englanders brought to their + new homes widely differing political usages. The former were accustomed to + the county as the principal local unit of administration. It was a + relatively large division, whose affairs were managed by elective + officers, mainly a board of commissioners. The New Englanders, on the + other hand, had grown up under the town-meeting system and clung to + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">180</a></span> + the notion that an indispensable feature of democratic local government is + the periodic assembling of the citizens of a community for legislative, + fiscal, and electoral purposes. The Illinois constitution of 1818 was made + by Southerners, and naturally it provided for the county system. But + protest from the "Yankee" elements became so strong that in the new + constitution of 1848 provision was made for township organization wherever + the people of a county wanted it; and this form of government, at first + prevalent only in the northern counties, is now found in most of the + central and southern counties as well. + </p> + <p> + The most deeply and continuously dividing issue in the Northwest, as in + the nation at large, was negro slavery. Although written by Southern men, + the Ordinance of 1787 stipulated that there should be "neither slavery nor + involuntary servitude in the said territory, otherwise than in the + punishment of crimes whereof the party shall have been duly convicted." If + the government of the Northwest had been one of laws, and not of men, this + specific provision would have made the territory free soil and would have + relieved the inhabitants from all interest in the "peculiar institution." + But the laws never execute themselves—least + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">181</a></span> + of all in frontier communities. In point of fact, considerable numbers of + slaves were held in the territory until the nineteenth century was far + advanced. As late as 1830 thirty-two negroes were held in servitude in the + single town of Vincennes. Slavery could and did prevail to a limited + extent because existing property rights were guaranteed in the Ordinance + itself, in the deed of cession by Virginia, in the Jay Treaty of 1794, and + in other fundamental acts. The courts of the Northwest held that + slave-owners whose property could be brought under any of these guarantees + might retain that property; and although no court countenanced further + importation, itinerant Southerners—"rich planters traveling in their + family carriages, with servants, packs of hunting-dogs, and trains of + slaves, their nightly camp-fires lighting up the wilderness where so + recently the Indian hunter had held possession"—occasionally settled + in southern Indiana or Illinois and with the connivance of the authorities + kept some of their dependents in slavery, or quasi-slavery, for decades. + </p> + <p> + Of actual slaveholders there were not enough to influence public sentiment + greatly. But the people of Southern extraction, although neither + slaveholders + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">182</a></span> + nor desiring to become such, had no strong moral convictions on + the subject. Indeed, they were likely to feel that the anti-slavery + restriction imposed an unfortunate impediment in the way of immigration + from the South. Hence the persistent demand of citizens of Indiana and + Illinois for a relaxation of the drastic prohibition of slavery in the + Ordinance of 1787. In 1796 Congress was petitioned from Kaskaskia to + extend relief; in 1799 the territorial Legislature was urged to bring + about a repeal; in 1802 an Indiana territorial convention at Vincennes + memorialized Congress in behalf of a suspension of the proviso for a + period of ten years. Not only were violations of the law winked at, but + both Indiana and Illinois deliberately built up a system of indenture + which partook strongly of the characteristics of slavery. After much + controversy, Indiana, in 1816, framed a state constitution which + reiterated the language of the Northwest Ordinance, but without + invalidating titles to existing slave property; while Illinois was + admitted to the Union in 1818 with seven or eight hundred slaves upon her + soil, and with a constitution which continued the old system of indenture + with slight modification. + </p> + <p> + In a heated contest in Illinois in 1824 over the + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">183</a></span> + question of calling a + state convention to draft a constitution legalizing slavery the people of + Northern antecedents made their votes tell and defeated the project. But, + like other parts of the Northwest, this State never became a unit on the + slavery issue. Certainly it never became abolitionist. By an almost + unanimous vote the Legislature, in 1837, adopted joint resolutions which + condemned abolitionism as "more productive of evil than of moral and + political good"; and in Congress in the preceding year the delegation of + the State had given solid support to the "gag resolutions," which were + intended to deny a hearing to all petitions on the slavery question. + </p> + <p> + Throughout the great era of slavery controversy the Northwest was prolific + of schemes of compromise, for the constant clash of Northern and Southern + elements developed an aptitude for settlement by agreement on moderate + lines. The people of the section as a whole long clung to popular, or + "squatter," sovereignty as the supremely desirable solution of the slavery + question—a device formulated and defended by two of the Northwest's + own statesmen, Cass and Douglas, and relinquished only slowly and + reluctantly under the leadership, not of a New England abolitionist, + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">184</a></span> + but of a statesman of Southern birth who had come to the conclusion that + the nation could not permanently exist half slave and half free. + </p> + <p> + Cass, Douglas, Lincoln—all were adopted sons of the Northwest, and + the career of every one illustrates not only the prodigality with which + the back country showered its opportunities upon men of industry and + talent, but the play and interplay of sectional and social forces in the + building of the newer nation. Cass and Douglas were New Englanders. One + was born at Exeter, New Hampshire, in 1782; the other at Brandon, Vermont, + in 1813. Lincoln sprang from Virginian and Kentuckian stocks. His father's + family moved from Virginia to Kentucky at the close of the Revolution; in + 1784 his grandfather was killed by lurking Indians, and his father, then a + boy of six, was saved from captivity only by a lucky shot of an older + brother. Lincoln himself was born in 1809. Curiously enough, Cass and + Douglas, the New Englanders, played their rôles on the national + stage as Jackson Democrats, while Lincoln, the Kentuckian of Virginian + ancestry, became a Whig and later a Republican. + </p> + <p> + Cass and Douglas were well-born. Cass's father was a thrifty + soldier-farmer who made for his + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">185</a></span> + family a comfortable home at Zanesville, Ohio; Douglas's father was a + successful physician. Lincoln was born in obscurity and wretchedness. His + father, Thomas Lincoln, was a ne'er-do-well Kentucky carpenter, grossly + illiterate, unable or unwilling to rise above the lowest level of + existence in the pioneer settlements. His mother, Nancy Hanks, whatever + her antecedents may have been, was a woman of character, and apparently of + some education. But she died when her son was only nine years of age. + </p> + <p> + Cass and Douglas had educational opportunities which in their day were + exceptional. Both attended famous academies and received instruction in + the classics, mathematics, and philosophy. Both grew up in an environment + of enlightenment and integrity. Lincoln, on the other hand, got a few + weeks of instruction under two amateur teachers in Kentucky and a few + months more in Indiana—in all, hardly as much as one year; and as a + boy he knew only rough, coarse surroundings. When, in 1816, the restless + head of the family moved from Kentucky to southern Indiana, his worldly + belongings consisted of a parcel of carpenters' tools and cooking + utensils, a little bedding, and about four hundred gallons of whiskey. No + one who has + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">186</a></span> + not seen the sordidness, misery, and apparent hopelessness of + the life of the "poor whites" even today, in the Kentucky and southern + Indiana hills, can fully comprehend the chasm which separated the boy + Lincoln from every sort of progress and distinction. + </p> + <p> + All three men prepared for public life by embracing the profession that + has always, in this country, proved the surest avenue to preferment—the + law. But, whereas Cass arrived at maturity just in time to have an active + part in the War of 1812, and in this way to make himself the most logical + selection for the governorship of the newly organized Michigan Territory, + Douglas saw no military service, and Lincoln only a few weeks of service + during the Black Hawk War, and both were obliged to seek fame and fortune + along the thorny road of politics. Following admission to the bar at + Jacksonville, Illinois, in 1834, Douglas was elected public prosecutor of + the first judicial circuit in 1835; elected to the state Legislature in + 1836; appointed by President Van Buren registrar of the land office at + Springfield in 1837; made a judge of the supreme court of the State in + 1841; and elected to the national House of Representatives in 1843. + Resourceful, skilled in debate, + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">187</a></span> + intensely patriotic, and favored with many winning personal qualities, he + drew to himself men of both Northern and Southern proclivities and became + an influential exponent of broad and enduring nationalism. + </p> + <p> + Meanwhile, after a first defeat, Lincoln was elected to the Illinois + Legislature in 1834, and again in 1836. When he gathered all of his + worldly belongings in a pair of saddle-bags and fared forth to the new + capital, Springfield, to settle himself to the practice of law, he had + more than a local reputation for oratorical power; and events were to + prove that he had not only facility in debate and familiarity with public + questions, but incomparable devotion to lofty principles. In the + subsequent unfolding of the careers of Lincoln and Douglas—especially + in the turn of events that brought to each a nomination for the presidency + by a great party in 1860—there was no small amount of good luck and + sheer accident. But it is equally true that by prodigious effort + Kentuckian and Vermonter alike hewed out their own ways to greatness. + </p> + <p> + It was the glory of the Northwest to offer a competence to the needy, the + baffled, the discouraged, the tormented of the eastern States and + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">188</a></span> + of Europe. The bulk of its fast-growing population consisted, it is true, + of ordinary folk who could have lived on in fair comfort in the older + sections, yet who were ambitious to own more land, to make more money, and + to secure larger advantages for their children. But nowhere else was the + road for talent so wide open, entirely irrespective of inheritance, + possessions, education, environment. Nowhere outside of the + trans-Alleghany country would the rise of a Lincoln have been possible. + </p> + <p><br /></p> + <hr /> + + <div class="chapterhead"> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">189</a></span> + <a name="Chapter11" id="Chapter11"></a> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + + <h2> + <a href="#Contents">CHAPTER XI.</a> + </h2> + <p class="chaptertitle">The Upper Mississippi Valley</p> + </div> + <p><br /></p> + + <p> + <span class="smcap">While</span> the Ohio country—the lower half + of the States of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois—was throwing off its + frontier character, the remoter Northwest was still a wilderness + frequented only by fur-traders and daring explorers. And that far + Northwest by the sources of the Mississippi had been penetrated by few + white men since the seventeenth century. The earliest white visitors to + the upper Mississippi are not clearly known. They may have been Pierre + Radisson and his brother-in-law, Ménard des Grosseilliers, who are + alleged to have covered the long portage from Lake Superior to the + Mississippi in or about 1665; but the matter rests entirely on how one + interprets Radisson's vague account of their western perambulations. At + all events, in 1680—seven years after the descent of the river from + the Wisconsin to the Arkansas by Marquette and Joliet—Louis + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">190</a></span> + Hennepin, under instructions from La Salle, explored the stream from the + mouth of the Illinois to the Falls of St. Anthony, where the city of + Minneapolis now stands, five hundred miles from the true source. + </p> + <p> + There the matter of exploration rested until the days of Thomas Jefferson, + when the purchase of Louisiana lent fresh interest to northwestern + geography. In 1805 General James Wilkinson, in military command in the + West, dispatched Lieutenant Zebulon M. Pike with a party of twenty men + from St. Louis to explore the headwaters of the great river, make peace + with the Indians, and select sites for fortified posts. From his winter + quarters near the Falls, Pike pushed northward over the snow and ice + until, early in 1806, he reached Leech Lake, in Cass County, Minnesota, + which he wrongly took to be the source of the Father of Waters. It is + little wonder that, at a time when the river and lake surfaces were frozen + over and the whole country heavily blanketed with snow, he should have + found it difficult to disentangle the maze of streams and lakes which fill + the low-lying region around the headwaters of the Mississippi, the Red + River, and the Lake of the Woods. In 1820 General Cass, Governor of + Michigan, + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">191</a></span> + which then had the Mississippi for its western boundary, led an + expedition into the same region as far as Cass Lake, where the Indians + told him that the true source lay some fifty miles to the northwest. It + remained for the traveler and ethnologist Henry Schoolcraft, twelve years + later, to discover Lake Itasca, in modern Clearwater County, which + occupies a depression near the center of the rock-rimmed basin in which + the river takes its rise. + </p> + <p> + It was not these infrequent explorers, however, who opened paths for + pioneers into the remote Northwest, but traders in search of furs and + pelts—those commercial pathfinders of western civilization. There is + scarcely a town or city in the State of Wisconsin that does not owe its + origin, directly or indirectly, to these men. Cheap and tawdry enough were + the commodities bartered for these wonderful beaver and otter + pelts—ribbons and gewgaws, looking-glasses and combs, blankets and + shawls of gaudy color. But scissors and knives, gunpowder and shot, + tobacco and whiskey, went also in the traders' packs, though traffic in + fire-water was forbidden. These goods, upon arrival at Mackinac, were sent + out by canoes and <i>bateaux</i> to the different posts, where they were + dealt out to the savages directly or were dispatched + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">192</a></span> + to the winter camps along the far-reaching waterways. "Returning home + in the spring, the bucks would set their squaws and children at making + maple-sugar or planting corn, watermelons, potatoes, and squash, while + they themselves either dawdled their time away or hunted for summer furs. + In the autumn, the wild rice was garnered along the sloughs and the river + mouths, and the straggling field crops were gathered in—some of the + product being hidden in skillfully covered pits, as a reserve, and some + dried for transportation in the winter's campaign. The villagers were now + ready to depart for their hunting-grounds, often hundreds of miles away. + It was then that the trader came and credits were wrangled over and + extended, each side endeavoring to get the better of the other." ¹ + </p> +<div class="footer"> + <p> + <a id="footer_11-1" name="footer_11-1"></a> +¹ Thwaites, <i>Story of Wisconsin,</i> p. 156. + </p> +</div> + <p> + This traffic was largely managed by the British in Canada until 1816, when + an act of Congress forbade foreign traders to operate on United States + soil. But a heavier blow was inflicted in the establishment of John Jacob + Astor's American Fur Company, which was given a substantial monopoly of + Indian commerce. From its headquarters on Mackinac Island this great + corporation rapidly + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">193</a></span> + squeezed the clandestine British agents out of the American trade, + introduced improved methods, and built up a system which covered the + entire fur-bearing Northwest. + </p> + <p> + Of this remoter Northwest, the region between Lakes Erie and Michigan was + the most accessible from the East; yet it was avoided by the first + pioneers, who labored under a strange misapprehension about its climate + and resources. In spite of the fact that it abounded in rich bottom-lands + and fertile prairies and was destined to become one of the most bountiful + orchards of the world, it was reported by early prospectors to be swampy + and unfit for cultivation. Though Governor Cass did his best to overcome + this prejudice, for years settlers preferred to gather mainly about + Detroit, leaving the rich interior to fur-traders. When enlightenment + eventually came, population poured in with a rush. Detroit—which was + a village in 1820—became ten years later a thriving city of thirty + thousand and the western terminus of a steamboat line from Buffalo, which + year after year multiplied its traffic. By the year 1837 the great + territory lying east of Lake Michigan was ready for statehood. + </p> + <p> + Almost simultaneously the region to the west + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">194</a></span> + of Lake Michigan began to emerge from the fur-trading stage. The place of + the picturesque trader, however, was not taken at once by the prosaic + farmer. The next figure in the pageant was the miner. The presence of + lead in the stretch of country between the Wisconsin and Illinois rivers + was known to the Indians before the coming of the white man, but they + began to appreciate its value only after the introduction of firearms by + the French. The ore lay at no great depth in the Galena limestone, and + the aborigines collected it either by stripping it from the surface or + by sinking shallow shafts from which it was hoisted in deerskin bags. + Shortly after the War of 1812 American prospectors pushed into the region, + and the Government began granting leases on easy terms to operators. In + 1823 one of these men arrived with soldiers, supplies, skilled miners, + and one hundred and fifty slaves; and thereafter the "diggings" fast + became a mecca for miners, smelters, speculators, merchants, gamblers, + and get-rich-quick folk of every sort, who swarmed thither by thousands + from every part of the United States, especially the South, and even from + Europe. "Mushroom towns sprang up all over the district; deep-worn native + paths became ore + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">195</a></span> + roads between the burrows and the river-landings; sink-holes abandoned by + the Sauk and Foxes, when no longer to be operated with their crude tools, + were reopened and found to be exceptionally rich, while new diggings and + smelting-furnaces, fitted out with modern appliances, fairly dotted the + map of the country." ¹ + </p> +<div class="footer"> + <p> + <a id="footer_11-2" name="footer_11-2"></a> +¹ Thwaites, <i>Story of Wisconsin,</i> p. 163. + </p> +</div> + <p> + Galena was the entrepôt of the region. A trail cut thither from + Peoria soon became a well-worn coach road; roads were early opened to + Chicago and Milwaukee. In 1822 Galena was visited by a Mississippi River + steamboat, and a few years later regular steamboat traffic was + established. And it was by these roadways and waterways that homeseekers + soon began to arrive. + </p> + <hr class="break" /> + + <p> + The invasion of the white man, accompanied though it was by treaties, was + bitterly resented by the Indian tribes who occupied the Northwest above + the Illinois River. These Sioux, Sauk and Foxes, and Winnebagoes, with + remnants of other tribes, carried on an intermittent warfare for years, + despite the efforts of the Federal Government to define tribal boundaries; + and between red men and white men coveting the same lands causes of + irritation + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">196</a></span> + were never wanting. In 1827 trouble which had been steadily + brewing came to the boiling-point. Predatory expeditions in the north were + reported; the Winnebagoes were excited by rumors that another war between + the United States and Great Britain was imminent; an incident or even an + accident was certain to provoke hostilities. The incident occurred. When + Red Bird, a petty Winnebago chieftain dwelling in a "town" on the Black + River, was incorrectly informed that two Winnebago braves who had been + imprisoned at Prairie du Chien had been executed, he promptly instituted + vengeance. A farmer's family in the neighborhood of Prairie du Chien was + massacred, and two keel-boats returning down stream from Fort Snelling + were attacked, with some loss of life. The settlers hastily repaired the + old fort and also dispatched messengers to give the alarm. Galena sent a + hundred militiamen; a battalion came down from Fort Snelling; Governor + Cass arrived on the spot by way of Green Bay; General Atkinson brought up + a full regiment from Jefferson Barracks, near St. Louis; and finally Major + Whistler proceeded up the Fox with a portion of the troops stationed at + Fort Howard, on Green Bay. + </p> + <p> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">197</a></span> + When all was in readiness, the Winnebagoes were notified that, unless Red + Bird and his principal accomplice, Wekau, were promptly surrendered, the + tribe would be exterminated. The threat had its intended effect, and the + two culprits duly presented themselves at Whistler's camp on the + Fox-Wisconsin portage, in full savage regalia, and singing their war + dirges. Red Bird, who was an Indian of magnificent physique and lofty + bearing, had but one request to make—that he be not committed to + irons—and this request was granted. At Prairie du Chien, whither the + two were sent for trial, he had opportunities to escape, but he refused to + violate his word by taking advantage of them. Following their trial, the + redskins were condemned to be hanged. Unused to captivity, however, Red + Bird languished and soon died, while his accomplice was pardoned by + President Adams. In 1828 Fort Winnebago was erected on the site of Red + Bird's surrender. + </p> + <p> + The Winnebagoes now agreed to renounce forever their claims to the lead + mines. Furthermore, in the same year, the site of the principal Sauk + village and burying-ground, on Rock River, three miles south of the + present city of Rock Island, was sold by the Government, and the Sauk and + Foxes + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">198</a></span> + resident in the vicinity were given notice to leave. Under the Sauk + chieftain Keokuk most of the dispossessed warriors withdrew peacefully + beyond the Mississippi, and two years later the tribal representatives + formally yielded all claims to lands east of that stream. Some members of + the tribe, however, established themselves on the high bluff which has + since been known as Black Hawk's Watch Tower and defied the Government to + remove them. + </p> + <p> + The leading spirit in this protest was Black Hawk, who though neither born + a chief nor elected to that dignity, had long been influential in the + village and among his people at large. During the War of 1812 he became an + implacable enemy of the Americans, and, after fighting with the British at + the battles of Frenchtown and the Thames, he returned to Illinois and + carried on a border warfare which ended only with the signing of a special + treaty of peace in 1816. For years thereafter he was accustomed to lead + his "British band" periodically across northern Illinois and southern + Michigan to the British Indian agency to receive presents of arms, + ammunition, provisions, and trinkets; and he was a principal intermediary + in the British intrigues which gave Cass, as superintendent + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">199</a></span> + of Indian affairs in the Northwest, many uneasy days. He was ever a + restless spirit and a promoter of trouble, although one must admit that + he had some justice on his side and that he was probably honest and + sincere. Tall, spare, with pinched features, exceptionally high + cheekbones, and a prominent Roman nose, he was a figure to command + attention—the more so by reason of the fact that he had practically + no eyebrows and no hair except a scalp-lock, in which on state occasions + he fastened a flaming bunch of dyed eagle feathers. + </p> + <p> + Returning from their hunt in the spring of 1830, Black Hawk and his + warriors found the site of their town preëmpted by white settlers and + their ancestral burying-ground ploughed over. In deep rage, they set off + for Malden, where they were liberally entertained and encouraged to rebel. + Coming again to the site of their village a year later, they were + peremptorily ordered away. This time they resolved to stand their ground, + and Black Hawk ordered the squatters themselves to withdraw and gave them + until the middle of the next day to do so. Black Hawk subsequently + maintained that he did not mean to threaten bloodshed. But the settlers so + construed his command + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">200</a></span> + and deluged Governor Reynolds with petitions for help. With all possible + speed, sixteen hundred volunteers and ten companies of United States + regulars were dispatched to the scene, and on the 25th of June, they + made an impressive demonstration within view of the village. In the face + of such odds discretion seemed the better part of valor, and during the + succeeding night Black Hawk and his followers quietly paddled across the + Mississippi. Four days later they signed an agreement never to return to + the eastern banks without express permission from the United States + Government. + </p> + <p> + On the Indian side this compact was not meant to be kept. Against the + urgent advice of Keokuk and other leaders, Black Hawk immediately began + preparations for a campaign of vengeance. British intrigue lent stimulus, + and a crafty "prophet," who was chief of a village some thirty-five miles + up the Rock, made it appear that aid would be given by the Potawatomi, + Winnebagoes, and perhaps other powerful peoples. In the first week of + April, 1832, the disgruntled leader and about five hundred braves, with + their wives and children, crossed the Mississippi at Yellow Banks and + ascended the Rock River to the prophet's town, with + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">201</a></span> + a view to raising a crop of corn during the summer and taking the + war-path in the fall. + </p> + <p> + The invasion created much alarm throughout the frontier country. The + settlers drew together about the larger villages, which were put as + rapidly as possible in a state of defense. Again the Governor called for + volunteers, and again the response more than met the expectation. Four + regiments were organized, and to them were joined four hundred regulars. + One of the first persons to come forward with an offer of his services was + a tall, ungainly, but powerful young man from Sangamon County, who had but + two years before settled in the State, and who was at once honored with + the captaincy of his company. This man was Abraham Lincoln. Other men + whose names loom large in American history were with the little army also. + The commander of the regulars was Colonel Zachary Taylor. Among his + lieutenants were Jefferson Davis and Albert Sidney Johnston, and Robert + Anderson, the defender of Fort Sumter in 1860, was a colonel of Illinois + volunteers. It is said that the oath of allegiance was administered to + young Lincoln by Lieutenant Jefferson Davis! + </p> + <p> + Over marshy trails and across streams swollen + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">202</a></span> + by the spring thaws the army advanced to Dixon's Ferry, ninety miles up + the Rock, whence a detachment of three hundred men was sent out, under + Major Stillman, to reconnoitre. Unluckily, this force seized three + messengers of peace dispatched by Black Hawk and, in the clash which + followed, was cut to pieces and driven into headlong flight by a mere + handful of red warriors. The effect of this unexpected affray was both + to stiffen the Indians to further resistance and to precipitate a fresh + panic throughout the frontier. All sorts of atrocities ensued, and Black + Hawk's name became a household bugaboo the country over. + </p> + <p> + Finally a new levy was made ready and sent north. Pushing across the + overflowed wilderness stretches, past the sites of modern Beloit and + Madison, this army, four thousand strong, came upon the fleeing enemy on + the banks of the Wisconsin River, and at Wisconsin Heights, near the + present town of Prairie du Sac, it inflicted a severe defeat upon the + Indians. Again Black Hawk desired to make peace, but again he was + frustrated, this time by the lack of an interpreter. The redskins' flight + was continued in the direction of the Mississippi, which they reached in + midsummer. + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">203</a></span> + They were prevented from crossing by lack of canoes, and finally the + half-starved band found itself caught between the fire of a force of + regulars on the land side and a government supply steamer, the + <i>Warrior,</i> on the water side, and between these two the Indian + band was practically annihilated. + </p> + <p> + Thus ended the war—a contest originating in no general uprising or + far-reaching plan, such as marked the rebellions instigated by Pontiac and + Tecumseh, but which none the less taxed the strength of the border + populations and opened a new chapter in the history of the remoter + northwestern territories. Black Hawk himself took refuge with the + Winnebagoes in the Dells of the Wisconsin, only to be treacherously + delivered over to General Street at Prairie du Chien. Under the terms of a + treaty of peace signed at Fort Armstrong (Rock Island) in September, the + fallen leader and some of his accomplices were held as hostages, and + during the ensuing winter they were kept at Jefferson Barracks (St. Louis) + under the surveillance of Jefferson Davis. In the spring of 1833 they were + taken to Washington, where they had an interview with President Jackson. + "We did not expect to conquer the whites," Black Hawk told the President; + "they had too many houses, + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">204</a></span> + too many men. I took up the hatchet, for my part, to revenge injuries + which my people could no longer endure. Had I borne them longer without + striking, my people would have said, 'Black Hawk is a woman—he is + too old to be a chief—he is no Sauk.'" After a brief imprisonment + at Fortress Monroe, where Jefferson Davis was himself confined at the + close of the Civil War, the captives were set free, and were taken to + Philadelphia, New York, up the Hudson, and finally back to the Rock River + country. + </p> + <p> + For some years Black Hawk lived quietly on a small reservation near Des + Moines. In 1837 the peace-loving Keokuk took him with a party of Sauk and + Fox chiefs again to Washington, and on this trip he made a visit to + Boston. The officials of the city received the august warrior and his + companions in Faneuil Hall, and the Governor of the commonwealth paid them + similar honor at the State House. Some war-dances were performed on the + Common for the amusement of the populace, and afterwards the party was + taken to see a performance by Edwin Forrest at the Tremont Theatre. Here + all went well, except that at an exciting point in the play where one of + the characters fell dying the Indians burst out into a war-whoop, + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">205</a></span> + to the considerable consternation of the women and children present. + </p> + <p> + A few months after returning to his Iowa home, Black Hawk, now seventy-one + years of age, was gathered to his fathers. He was buried about half a mile + from his cabin, in a sitting posture, his left hand grasping a cane + presented to him by Henry Clay, and at his side a supply of food and + tobacco sufficient to last him to the spirit land, supposed to be three + days' travel. "Rock River," he said in a speech at a Fourth of July + celebration shortly before his death, "was a beautiful country. I liked my + town, my cornfields, and the home of my people. I fought for it. It is now + yours. Keep it, as we did. It will produce you good crops." + </p> + <hr class="break" /> + + <p> + The Black Hawk War opened a new chapter in the history of the Northwest. + The soldiers carried to their homes remarkable stories of the richness and + attractiveness of the northern country, and the eastern newspapers printed + not only detailed accounts of the several expeditions but highly colored + descriptions of the charms of the region. Books and pamphlets by the score + helped to attract the attention of the country. The result + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">206</a></span> + was a heavy influx of settlers, many of them coming all the way from New + England and New York, others from Pennsylvania and Ohio. Lands were + rapidly surveyed and placed on sale, and surviving Indian hunting-grounds + were purchased. Northern Illinois filled rapidly with a thrifty farming + population, and the town of Chicago became an entrepôt. Further + north, Wisconsin had been organized, in 1836, as a Territory, including + not only the present State of that name but Iowa, Minnesota, and most of + North and South Dakota. As yet the Iowa country, however, had been + visited by few white people; and such as came were only hunters and + trappers, agents of the American Fur and other trading companies, or + independent traders. Two of the most active of these free-lances of + early days—the French Canadian Dubuque and the Englishman + Davenport—have left their names to flourishing cities. + </p> + <p> + To recount the successive purchases by which the Government freed Iowa + soil from Indian domination would be wearisome. The Treaty of 1842 with + the Sauks and Foxes is typical. After a sojourn of hardly more than a + decade in the Iowa country, these luckless folk were now persuaded to + yield all their lands to the United States and retire + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">207</a></span> + to a reservation in + Kansas. The negotiations were carried out with all due regard for Indian + susceptibilities. Governor Chambers, resplendent in the uniform of a + brigadier-general of the United States army, repaired with his aides to + the appointed rendezvous, and there the chiefs presented themselves, + arrayed in new blankets and white deerskin leggings, with full + paraphernalia of paint, feathers, beads, and elaborately decorated war + clubs. Oratory ran freely, although through the enforced medium of an + interpreter. The chiefs harangued for hours not only upon the beautiful + meadows, the running streams, the stately trees, and the other beloved + objects which they were called upon to surrender to the white man, but + upon the moon and stars and rain and hail and wind, all of which were + alleged to be more attractive and beneficent in Iowa than anywhere else. + The Governor, in turn, gave the Indians some good advice, urging them to + live peaceably in their new homes, to be industrious and self-supporting, + to leave liquor alone, and, in general, to "be a credit to the country." + When every one had talked as much as he liked, the treaty was solemnly + signed. + </p> + <p> + The "New Purchase" was thrown open to settlers in the following spring; + and the opening + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">208</a></span> + brought scenes of a kind destined to be reënacted scores of times in + the great West during succeeding decades—the borders of the new + district lined, on the eve of the opening, with encamped settlers and + their families ready to race for the best claims; horses saddled and + runners picked for the rush; a midnight signal from the soldiery, + releasing a flood of eager land-hunters armed with torches, axes, stakes, + and every sort of implement for the laying out of claims with all possible + speed; by daybreak, many scores of families "squatting" on the best pieces + of ground which they had been able to reach; innumerable disputes, with a + general readjustment following the intervention of the government + surveyors. + </p> + <p> + The marvelous progress of the upper Mississippi Valley is briefly told by + a succession of dates. In 1838 Iowa was organized as a Territory; in 1846 + it was admitted as a State; in 1848 Wisconsin was granted statehood; and + in 1849 Minnesota was given territorial organization with boundaries + extending westward to the Missouri. + </p> + <hr class="break" /> + + <p> + Thus the Old Northwest had arrived at the goal set for it by the + large-visioned men who framed the Ordinance of 1787; every foot of its + soil was included + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">209</a></span> + in some one of the five thriving, democratic commonwealths that had taken + their places in the Union on a common basis with the older States of the + East and the South. Furthermore, the Mississippi had ceased to be a + boundary. A magnificent vista reaching off to the remoter West and + Northwest had been opened up; the frontier had been pushed far out upon + the plains of Minnesota and Iowa. Decade after decade the powerful epic + of westward expansion, shot through with countless tales of heroism and + sacrifice, had steadily unfolded before the gaze of an astonished world; + and the end was not yet in sight. + </p> + <p><br /></p> + <hr /> + + <div class="chapterhead"> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">211</a></span> + <a name="Biblio" id="Biblio"></a> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + + <h2> + <a href="#Contents">Bibliographical Note</a> + </h2> + + </div> + <p><br /></p> + + + <p class="noindent"> + <span class="smcap">There</span> is no general history of the Northwest + covering the whole of the period dealt with in this book except Burke A. + Hinsdale, <i>The Old Northwest</i> (1888). This is a volume of substantial + scholarship, though it reflects but faintly the life and spirit of the + people. The nearest approach to a moving narrative is James K. Hosmer, + <i>Short History of the Mississippi Valley</i> (1901), which tells the + story of the Middle West from the earliest explorations to the close of + the nineteenth century, within a brief space, yet in a manner to arouse + the reader's interest and sympathy. A fuller and very readable narrative + to 1796 will be found in Charles Moore, <i>The Northwest under Three + Flags</i> (1900). Still more detailed, and enlivened by many contemporary + maps and plans, is Justin Winsor, <i>The Westward Movement</i> (1899), + covering the period from the pacification of 1763 to the close of the + eighteenth century. Frederick J. Turner, <i>Rise of the New West</i> + (1906) contains several interesting and authoritative chapters on + western development after the War of 1812; and John B. McMaster, + <i>History of the People of the United States</i> (8 vols., 1883-1913), + gives in the fourth and fifth volumes a very good account of westward + migration. + </p> + <p> + An excellent detailed account of the settlement and development of a + single section of the Northwest is + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">212</a></span> + G. N. Fuller, <i>Economic and Social Beginnings of Michigan,</i> + Michigan Historical Publications, Univ. Series, No. 1 (1916). A very + readable book is R. G. Thwaites, <i>The Story of Wisconsin</i> (rev. + ed., 1899), containing a full account of the early relations of white men + and red men, and of the Black Hawk War. Mention may be made, too, of + H. E. Legler, <i>Leading Events of Wisconsin History</i> (1898). + </p> + <p> + Among the volumes dealing with the diplomatic history of the Northwest, + mention should be made of two recent studies: C. W. Alvord, <i>The + Mississippi Valley in British Politics</i> (2 vols., 1917), and E. S. + Corwin, <i>French Policy and the American Alliance</i> (1916). + </p> + <p> + Aside from Lincoln, few men of the earlier Northwest have been made the + subjects of well-written biographies. Curiously, there are no modern + biographies, good or bad, of George Rogers Clark, General St. Clair, or + William Henry Harrison. John R. Spears, <i>Anthony Wayne</i> (1903) is an + interesting book; and Andrew C. McLaughlin, <i>Lewis Cass</i> (1891), and + Allen Johnson, <i>Stephen A. Douglas</i> (1908) are excellent. Lives of + Lincoln that have importance for their portrayal of western society + include: John T. Morse, Jr., <i>Abraham Lincoln</i> (2 vols., 1893); + John G. Nicolay and John Hay, <i>Abraham Lincoln, a History</i> (10 vols., + 1890); and Ida M. Tarbell, <i>Life of Abraham Lincoln</i> (new ed., + 2 vols., 1917). + </p> + <p> + The reader will do well, however, to turn early to some of the works + within the field which, by reason of their literary quality as well as + their scholarly worth, have attained the dignity of classics. Foremost are + the writings of Francis Parkman. Most of these, it is true, deal with the + history of the American interior + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">213</a></span> + prior to 1763. But <i>Frontenac and New France under Louis XIV</i> + (Frontenac edition, 1915), and <i>A Half-Century of Conflict</i> (2 vols., + same ed.) furnish the necessary background; and <i>The Conspiracy of + Pontiac</i> (2 vols., same ed.) is indispensable. Parkman's work closes + with the Indian war following the Treaty of 1763. Theodore Roosevelt's + <i>Winning of the West</i> (4 vols., 1889-96) takes up the story at that + point and carries it to the collapse of the Burr intrigues during the + second administration of Thomas Jefferson. This work was a pioneer in the + field. In the light of recent scholarship it is subject to criticism at + some points; but it is based on careful study of the sources, and for + vividness and interest it has perhaps not been surpassed in American + historical writing. A third extensive work is Archer B. Hulbert, + <i>Historic Highways of America</i> (16 vols., 1902-05). In writing the + history of the great land and water routes of trade and travel between + East and West the author found occasion to describe, in interesting + fashion, most phases of western life. The volumes most closely related to + the subject matter of the present book are: <i>Military Roads of the + Mississippi Valley</i> (VIII); <i>Waterways of Western Expansion</i> (IX); + <i>The Cumberland Road</i> (X); and <i>Pioneer Roads and Experiences of + Travellers</i> (XI-XII). Mention should be made also of Mr. Hulbert's + <i>The Ohio River, a Course of Empire</i> (1906). + </p> + <p> + Further references will be found appended to the articles on Illinois, + Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin in <i>The Encyclopædia + Britannica</i> (11th edition). + </p> + <p> + Opportunity to get the flavor of the period by reading contemporary + literature is afforded by two principal kinds of books. One is + reminiscences, letters, and + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">214</a></span> + histories written by the Westerners themselves. Timothy Flint's + <i>Recollections of the Last Ten Years</i> (1826) will be found + interesting; as also J. Hall, <i>Letters from the West</i> (1828), + and T. Ford, <i>History of Illinois</i> (1854). + </p> + <p> + The second type of materials is books of travel written by visitors from + the East or from Europe. Works of this nature are always subject to + limitations. Even when the author tries to be accurate and fair, his + information is likely to be hastily gathered and incomplete and his + judgments unsound. Between 1800 and 1840 the Northwest was visited, + however, by many educated and fair-minded persons who wrote readable and + trustworthy descriptions of what they saw and heard. A complete list + cannot be given here, but some of the best of these books are: John + Melish, <i>Travels in the United States of America in the Years 1806 & + 1807 and 1809, 1810 & 1811</i> (2 vols., 1812); William Cobbett, + <i>A Year's Residence in the United States of America</i> (1818); Henry B. + Fearon, <i>Sketches of America</i> (1818); Morris Birkbeck, <i>Letters + from Illinois</i> (1818); John Bradbury, <i>Travels in the Interior of + America in the Years 1809, 1810, and 1811</i> (1819); Thomas Hulme, + <i>Journal made during a Tour in the Western Countries of America, + 1818-1819</i> (1828); and Michael Chevalier, <i>Society, Manners, and + Politics in the United States</i> (1839). Copies of early editions of + some of these works will be found in most large libraries. But the reader + is happily not dependent on this resource. Almost all of the really + important books of the kind are reprinted, with introductions and + explanatory matter, in Reuben G. Thwaites, <i>Early Western Travels, + 1748-1846</i> (32 vols., 1904-07), which is one of our chief collections + of historical materials. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + + + + <div class="chapterhead"> + <a name="indexChapter" id="indexChapter"></a> + <br /><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">215</a></span> + <br /><br /><br /> + <h2><a href="#Contents">INDEX</a></h2> + <p><br /></p> + </div> + <div id="index"> + <h3>A.</h3> + <p> + Abadie, D', Governor of the French, New Orleans, + <a href="#Page_033">33</a>.<br /> + Adams, John, <a href="#Page_071">71</a>, + <a href="#Page_072">72</a>, <a href="#Page_074">74</a>.<br /> + Alabama, Georgians in, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>.<br /> + American Fur Company, + <a href="#Page_192">192</a>-<a href="#Page_193">193</a>.<br /> + Amherst, General Sir Jeffrey, + <a href="#Page_003">3</a>, <a href="#Page_014">14</a>.<br /> + Anderson, Robert, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>.<br /> + Aranda, Count d', quoted, <a href="#Page_076">76</a>.<br /> + Armstrong, Fort (Rock Island), <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.<br /> + Astor, J. J., <a href="#Page_192">192</a>.<br /> + Atkinson, General Henry, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>.<br /> + </p> + <p><br /></p> + <h3>B.</h3> + <p> + Bank, National, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>.<br /> + Beauvais, M., of Kaskaskia, <a href="#Page_029">29</a>.<br /> + Belêtre, Captain, commandant at Detroit, + <a href="#Page_004">4</a>.<br /> + Birkbeck, Morris, quoted, + <a href="#Page_105">105</a>-<a href="#Page_106">106</a>.<br /> + Black Hawk, Indian leader, + <a href="#Page_198">198</a>-<a href="#Page_199">199</a>; + enemy of Americans, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>, + <a href="#Page_199">199</a>-<a href="#Page_200">200</a>; + rebellion, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>, + <a href="#Page_200">200</a>-<a href="#Page_203">203</a>; + after defeat, + <a href="#Page_203">203</a>-<a href="#Page_204">204</a>; + later life and death, + <a href="#Page_204">204</a>-<a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br /> + Blue Licks, Battle of, <a href="#Page_071">71</a>.<br /> + Bouquet, Colonel Henry, + <a href="#Page_015">15</a>-<a href="#Page_016">16</a>, + <a href="#Page_017">17</a>.<br /> + Bushy Run, Battle of, + <a href="#Page_015">15</a>-<a href="#Page_016">16</a>.<br /> + </p> + <p><br /></p> + <h3>C.</h3> + <p> + Cadillac, <i>see</i> La Mothe-Cadillac. <br /> + Cahokia, Pontiac at, <a href="#Page_018">18</a>; + school for Indians at, <a href="#Page_030">30</a>; + under English, <a href="#Page_031">31</a>; + taken by Clark, <a href="#Page_048">48</a>, <a href="#Page_055">55</a>; + British try to seize, <a href="#Page_069">69</a>.<br /> + Caldwell, Captain, <a href="#Page_071">71</a>.<br /> + Campbell, Colonel, British commandant at Detroit, + <a href="#Page_006">6</a>.<br /> + Campus Martius, fortification in Ohio, <a href="#Page_081">81</a>.<br /> + Canada passes to British control, <a href="#Page_001">1</a>.<br /> + Carver, Jonathan, <a href="#Page_012">12</a>.<br /> + Cass, Lewis, statesman of the Northwest, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>; + life, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>-<a href="#Page_186">186</a>; + Governor of Michigan, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>; + expedition into Mississippi regions, + <a href="#Page_190">190</a>-<a href="#Page_191">191</a>; + aids against Indians, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>.<br /> + Cass Lake, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>.<br /> + Chartres, Fort, + French commandant sends message to Indians, <a href="#Page_014">14</a>; + Pontiac at, <a href="#Page_017">17</a>; + "center of life and fashion," <a href="#Page_030">30</a>; + after cession to English, <a href="#Page_031">31</a>; + Saint-Ange commands, <a href="#Page_033">33</a>; + Croghan invited to, <a href="#Page_035">35</a>; + Sterling reaches, <a href="#Page_036">36</a>.<br /> + Chillicothe (O.), <a href="#Page_100">100</a>.<br /> + Chouteau, Pierre, + <a href="#Page_032">32</a>-<a href="#Page_033">33</a>.<br /> + Cincinnati, named, <a href="#Page_082">82</a>; + migration to, <a href="#Page_099">99</a>; + legislature in, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>; + education, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>.<br /> + Clark, G. R., in Illinois country, <a href="#Page_048">48</a>; + life and character, + <a href="#Page_048">48</a>-<a href="#Page_049">49</a>; + delegate to Virginia Assembly, <a href="#Page_049">49</a>; + proposes capturing British posts, <a href="#Page_050">50</a>; + commissioned by Virginia council, <a href="#Page_051">51</a>; + expedition, <a href="#Page_051">51</a>-<a href="#Page_056">56</a>; + at Kaskaskia, + <a href="#Page_059">59</a>-<a href="#Page_060">60</a>, + <a href="#Page_060">60</a>-<a href="#Page_061">61</a>; + expedition to Vincennes, + <a href="#Page_061">61</a>-<a href="#Page_066">66</a>; + plans expedition against Detroit, <a href="#Page_067">67</a>; + failure of plan, <a href="#Page_068">68</a>; + later life and death, <a href="#Page_068">68</a>; + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">216</a></span> + expedition against Miami towns, <a href="#Page_071">71</a>; + agreement of 1785 with Indians, <a href="#Page_079">79</a>.<br /> + Clay, Henry, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br /> + Cleaveland, Moses, <a href="#Page_099">99</a>.<br /> + Columbus (O.), Cumberland Road reaches (1833), + <a href="#Page_166">166</a>.<br /> + Continental Congress claims Northwest, <a href="#Page_071">71</a>.<br /> + Corydon (Ind.), capital removed from, + <a href="#footer_10-1">177 (note)</a>.<br /> + Croghan, George, + <a href="#Page_034">34</a>-<a href="#Page_036">36</a>.<br /> + Cumberland Gap, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>.<br /> + Cumberland Road, + <a href="#Page_165">165</a>-<a href="#Page_168">168</a>, + <a href="#Page_178">178</a>.<br /> + Cutler, Dr. Manasseh, + <a href="#Page_080">80</a>-<a href="#Page_081">81</a>, + <a href="#Page_082">82</a>.<br /> + Cuyahoga River, Pontiac halts English at, <a href="#Page_003">3</a>.<br /> + </p> + <p><br /></p> + <h3>D.</h3> + <p> + Davis, Jefferson, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>, + <a href="#Page_203">203</a>, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>.<br /> + Dearborn, Fort, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>, + <a href="#Page_152">152</a>, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>.<br /> + Deckhard rifle, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>.<br /> + Defiance, Fort, <a href="#Page_092">92</a>, <a href="#Page_094">94</a>.<br /> + Detroit, occupied by French, + <a href="#Page_002">2</a>-<a href="#Page_003">3</a>; + surrenders to English, <a href="#Page_004">4</a>; + in 1760, <a href="#Page_004">4</a>-<a href="#Page_005">5</a>; + Pontiac plans destruction of, <a href="#Page_011">11</a>; + council with Indians at, <a href="#Page_017">17</a>; + Clark plans attack, + <a href="#Page_067">67</a>-<a href="#Page_068">68</a>; + British refuse surrender, <a href="#Page_083">83</a>; + Wayne obtains cession of Indian land near, <a href="#Page_095">95</a>; + garrison at, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>; + Hull's expedition for relief of, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>; + growth, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>.<br /> + Douglas, S. A., statesman of Northwest, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>; + life, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>-<a href="#Page_187">187</a>.<br /> + Duquesne, Fort, <i>see</i> Pitt, Fort.<br /> + </p> + <p><br /></p> + <h3>E.</h3> + <p> + East Florida, + province provided in Proclamation of 1763, <a href="#Page_024">24</a>, + <a href="#footer_2-1">24 (note)</a>, <a href="#Page_033">33</a>; + plan for Spain to resume possession, <a href="#Page_073">73</a>.<br /> + Education in Northwest, + <a href="#Page_129">129</a>-<a href="#Page_130">130</a>, + <a href="#Page_170">170</a>-<a href="#Page_171">171</a>.<br /> + Erie Canal opened (1825), + <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>.<br /> + Erie, Lake, French settlement on, + <a href="#Page_002">2</a>-<a href="#Page_003">3</a>; + Perry's victory on, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>.<br /> + </p> + <p><br /></p> + <h3>F.</h3> + <p> + Fallen Timbers, Battle at, + <a href="#Page_092">92</a>-<a href="#Page_094">94</a>.<br /> + Flint, Timothy, <i>Western Monthly Review</i>, + <a href="#Page_169">169</a>.<br /> + Florida, <i>see</i> East Florida, West Florida.<br /> + France supports Spain in her American policy, + <a href="#Page_072">72</a>-<a href="#Page_074">74</a>.<br /> + Franklin, Benjamin, advice to British ministers, <a href="#Page_020">20</a>; + acquires western land, + <a href="#Page_038">38</a>, <a href="#Page_039">39</a>; + on committee for boundary negotiation, + <a href="#Page_072">72</a>, <a href="#Page_074">74</a>.<br /> + French settlements in Northwest, <a href="#Page_002">2</a>, + <a href="#Page_028">28</a>-<a href="#Page_033">33</a>; + Loftus's expedition against, + <a href="#Page_033">33</a>-<a href="#Page_034">34</a>; + under English control, + <a href="#Page_036">36</a>-<a href="#Page_037">37</a>.<br /> + Fur trade, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>-<a href="#Page_193">193</a>.<br /> + </p> + <p><br /></p> + <h3>G.</h3> + <p> + Gage, General Thomas, + <a href="#Page_034">34</a>, <a href="#Page_036">36</a>.<br /> + Galena (Ill.), + <a href="#Page_195">195</a>, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>.<br /> + Gallatin, Albert, + <a href="#Page_164">164</a>, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>.<br /> + Gallipolis, attempt to build French colony at, + <a href="#Page_081">81</a>.<br /> + Garfield, J. A., <a href="#Page_100">100</a>.<br /> + Ghent, Peace of, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>.<br /> + Gibault, Pierre, French priest, + <a href="#Page_048">48</a>, <a href="#Page_055">55</a>, + <a href="#Page_059">59</a>, <a href="#Page_062">62</a>.<br /> + Gladwyn, Major, + <a href="#Page_011">11</a>, <a href="#Page_012">12</a>.<br /> + Gnadenhütten, massacre at, <a href="#Page_070">70</a>.<br /> + Great Britain refuses to give up fortified posts, + <a href="#Page_083">83</a>.<br /> + Greenville, Fort, <a href="#Page_091">91</a>, <a href="#Page_094">94</a>; + Treaty of, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>.<br /> + Grenada, province provided in Proclamation of 1763, + <a href="#Page_024">24</a>, <a href="#footer_2-1">24 (note)</a>.<br /> + Grosseilliers, <i>see</i> Ménard des Grosseilliers.<br /> + </p> + <p><br /></p> + <h3>H.</h3> + <p> + Hamilton, Henry, + Lieutenant-Governor at Detroit, <a href="#Page_043">43</a>; + and the Indians, <a href="#Page_047">47</a>; + part in Revolution, <a href="#Page_057">57</a> <i>et seq.</i><br /> + Harmar, General Josiah, <a href="#Page_080">80</a>, + <a href="#Page_084">84</a>, <a href="#Page_085">85</a>.<br /> + Harmar, Fort, <a href="#Page_080">80</a>.<br /> + Harrison, W. H., + in Northwest Territory, + <a href="#Page_131">131</a>-<a href="#Page_132">132</a>; + on Indians, + <a href="#Page_133">133</a>-<a href="#Page_134">134</a>; + conference with Tecumseh, + <a href="#Page_139">139</a>-<a href="#Page_140">140</a>, + <a href="#Page_140">140</a>-<a href="#Page_143">143</a>; + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">217</a></span> + at Tippecanoe, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>-<a href="#Page_147">147</a>; + chief in command in West, + <a href="#Page_153">153</a>-<a href="#Page_154">154</a>, + <a href="#Page_156">156</a>.<br /> + Harrison, Fort, + <a href="#Page_144">144</a>, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>.<br /> + Hayes, R. B., <a href="#Page_100">100</a>.<br /> + Helm, Lieutenant, <a href="#Page_059">59</a>.<br /> + Hennepin, Louis, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>.<br /> + Henry, Patrick, <a href="#Page_049">49</a>, <a href="#Page_051">51</a>.<br /> + Hillsborough, Lord, + on British policy in regard to Indian reservations, + <a href="#Page_026">26</a>.<br /> + Howard, Fort, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>.<br /> + Huguenots forbidden to emigrate, <a href="#Page_029">29</a>.<br /> + Hull, General William, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>, + <a href="#Page_153">153</a>, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>.<br /> + </p> + <p><br /></p> + <h3>I.</h3> + <p> + Illinois, a county of Virginia, <a href="#Page_056">56</a>; + after War of 1812, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>; + admitted as State (1818), <a href="#Page_161">161</a>, + <a href="#footer_10-1">177 (note)</a>; + immigration, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>; + frontier settlers in, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>; + Southerners in, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>-<a href="#Page_175">175</a>; + population (1818), <a href="#footer_10-1">177 (note)</a>; + indentures, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>; + slavery, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>-<a href="#Page_183">183</a>.<br /> + Indiana, settlement, <a href="#Page_098">98</a>; + formed from part of Northwest Territory, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>; + population (1800-10), + <a href="#Page_132">132</a>-<a href="#Page_133">133</a>; + (1810-16), <a href="#Page_161">161</a>; + (1820), <a href="#footer_10-1">177 (note)</a>; + after War of 1812, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>; + admitted as State (1816), <a href="#Page_161">161</a>; + immigration, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>; + frontier settlers in, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>; + Southerners in, + <a href="#Page_174">174</a>-<a href="#Page_175">175</a>; + indentures, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>; + slavery, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>.<br /> + Indianapolis, + Cumberland Road reaches, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>; + capital removed to (1825), <a href="#footer_10-1">177 (note)</a>.<br /> + Indians, parleys with Rogers, + <a href="#Page_003">3</a>-<a href="#Page_004">4</a>; + incited by French against English, <a href="#Page_004">4</a>; + relations with French at Detroit, <a href="#Page_005">5</a>; + menace to English, <a href="#Page_007">7</a>-<a href="#Page_008">8</a>; + protest against English encroachments, + <a href="#Page_008">8</a>-<a href="#Page_009">9</a>; + Pontiac's conspiracy, <a href="#Page_009">9</a> <i>et seq.</i>; + method of warfare, <a href="#Page_015">15</a>; + trade with, <a href="#Page_025">25</a>, + <a href="#Page_044">44</a>-<a href="#Page_045">45</a>; + reservation by Proclamation of 1763, + <a href="#Page_025">25</a>-<a href="#Page_027">27</a>; + attack Croghan's band, + <a href="#Page_034">34</a>-<a href="#Page_035">35</a>; + in Revolution, <a href="#Page_045">45</a> <i>et seq.</i>; + massacre at Gnadenhütten, <a href="#Page_070">70</a>; + agreements with, <a href="#Page_078">78</a>-<a href="#Page_079">79</a>; + rebel against Americans, + <a href="#Page_082">82</a>-<a href="#Page_083">83</a>; + incited by British, + <a href="#Page_083">83</a>-<a href="#Page_084">84</a>; + punitive expedition against Miamis, + <a href="#Page_084">84</a>-<a href="#Page_085">85</a>; + Wayne against, <a href="#Page_089">89</a> <i>et seq.</i>; + danger on Ohio River from, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>; + cessions by, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>, + <a href="#Page_135">135</a>, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>; + relations with white settlers, + <a href="#Page_133">133</a>-<a href="#Page_135">135</a>; + Tecumseh's conspiracy, <a href="#Page_136">136</a> <i>et seq.</i>; + Battle of Tippecanoe, + <a href="#Page_144">144</a>-<a href="#Page_146">146</a>; + raids of 1812, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>; + menace removed after War of 1812, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>; + trouble with Winnebagoes, + <a href="#Page_196">196</a>-<a href="#Page_198">198</a>; + Black Hawk War, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>-<a href="#Page_203">203</a>; + treaties, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>-<a href="#Page_207">207</a>.<br /> + Iowa, organized as Territory (1838), <a href="#Page_208">208</a>; + admitted as State (1846), <a href="#Page_208">208</a>.<br /> + Itasca, Lake, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>.<br /> + </p> + <p><br /></p> + <h3>J.</h3> + <p> + Jay, John, <a href="#Page_072">72</a>, <a href="#Page_074">74</a>.<br /> + Jay Treaty, + <a href="#Page_094">94</a>-<a href="#Page_095">95</a>, + <a href="#Page_181">181</a>.<br /> + Jefferson, Thomas, + <a href="#Page_051">51</a>, <a href="#Page_067">67</a>, + <a href="#Page_072">72</a>, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>.<br /> + Jefferson Barracks (St. Louis), <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.<br /> + Jefferson City (Mo.), + Cumberland Road marked out to, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>.<br /> + Johnson, Allen, + <i>Jefferson and his Colleagues</i> cited, + <a href="#footer_8-2">138 (note)</a>.<br /> + Johnson, Dr. Samuel, opinion of Northwest America, + <a href="#Page_021">21</a>, <a href="#Page_022">22</a>.<br /> + Johnson, Sir William, visits Detroit, <a href="#Page_006">6</a>; + Pontiac surrenders to, <a href="#Page_018">18</a>; + sends Croghan against Indians, <a href="#Page_034">34</a>.<br /> + Johnson, W. S., <a href="#Page_039">39</a>.<br /> + Johnston, A. S., <a href="#Page_201">201</a>.<br /> + Joliet, Louis, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>.<br /> + </p> + <p><br /></p> + <h3>K.</h3> + <p> + Kaskaskia, French settlement, + <a href="#Page_028">28</a>, <a href="#Page_030">30</a>; + under English, <a href="#Page_031">31</a>; + Clark captures, <a href="#Page_048">48</a>, + <a href="#Page_052">52</a>-<a href="#Page_053">53</a>; + Clark at, <a href="#Page_060">60</a>-<a href="#Page_061">61</a>; + British attack, <a href="#Page_069">69</a>.<br /> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">218</a></span> + Kendall, Amos, quoted, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>.<br /> + Kentucky, organized as county of Virginia, <a href="#Page_049">49</a>; + frontier settlers in, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>.<br /> + Keokuk, Indian chief, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>, + <a href="#Page_200">200</a>, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>.<br /> + Knox, William, British Under-Secretary for the Colonies, + <a href="#Page_022">22</a>.<br /> + </p> + <p><br /></p> + <h3>L.</h3> + <p> + Laclède, Pierre, <a href="#Page_032">32</a>.<br /> + La Mothe-Cadillac, Antoine de, founds Detroit (1701), + <a href="#Page_002">2</a>.<br /> + La Salle, Réné-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de, + <a href="#Page_002">2</a>.<br /> + Laulewasikaw, "Prophet," Brother of Tecumseh, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>, + <a href="#Page_147">147</a>-<a href="#Page_148">148</a>.<br /> + Laurens, Henry, <a href="#Page_072">72</a>.<br /> + Le Bœuf, Fort, <a href="#Page_014">14</a>.<br /> + Lee, "Light-Horse Harry," <a href="#Page_089">89</a>.<br /> + Leech Lake, Pike reaches, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>.<br /> + <i>Leopard-Chesapeake</i> affair, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>.<br /> + Lexington (Ky.), aspires to be "Athens of the West," + <a href="#Page_171">171</a>.<br /> + Lincoln, Abraham, + <a href="#Page_184">184</a>-<a href="#Page_188">188</a>, + <a href="#Page_201">201</a>.<br /> + Lincoln, Thomas, father of Abraham, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>.<br /> + Loftus, Major, <a href="#Page_033">33</a>.<br /> + "Long Knives," <a href="#Page_101">101</a>.<br /> + <i>L-os-anti-ville</i>, <a href="#Page_082">82</a>; + <i>see also</i> Cincinnati.<br /> + Louisiana Purchase, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>, + <a href="#Page_190">190</a>.<br /> + Louisville (Ky.), education in, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>.<br /> + </p> + <p><br /></p> + <h3>M.</h3> + <p> + McAdam, John, devises road construction, + <a href="#Page_165">165</a>-<a href="#Page_166">166</a>.<br /> + Mackinac, Fort, + <a href="#Page_152">152</a>, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>.<br /> + Malden, Fort, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>.<br /> + Marietta (O.), founded, <a href="#Page_081">81</a>; + settlers from New England, <a href="#Page_099">99</a>.<br /> + Marquette, Jacques, Jesuit missionary, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>.<br /> + Mason, George, <a href="#Page_051">51</a>.<br /> + Massac, Fort, <a href="#Page_052">52</a>.<br /> + Maysville Road Bill (1830), <a href="#Page_178">178</a>.<br /> + Ménard des Grosseilliers, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>.<br /> + Miami, Fort, <a href="#Page_088">88</a>, <a href="#Page_092">92</a>.<br /> + Michilimackinac, <a href="#Page_095">95</a>.<br /> + Minnesota organized as Territory (1849), <a href="#Page_208">208</a>.<br /> + Mississippi, Georgians in, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>.<br /> + Mississippi Valley, + <a href="#Page_024">24</a>-<a href="#Page_025">25</a>.<br /> + Missouri, population of Territory (1812-18), + <a href="#Page_161">161</a>-<a href="#Page_162">162</a>; + frontier settlers in, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>.<br /> + Monroe, Fortress, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>.<br /> + Montreal, fall of (1760), <a href="#Page_001">1</a>.<br /> + </p> + <p><br /></p> + <h3>N.</h3> + <p> + National Road, <i>see</i> Cumberland Road.<br /> + New England, westward migration from, <a href="#Page_099">99</a>; + <a href="#Page_175">175</a>-<a href="#Page_177">177</a>.<br /> + New Orleans, Indians seek equipment at, <a href="#Page_018">18</a>; + Jackson's victory, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>.<br /> + <i>New Orleans</i>, The, first steamboat in West, + <a href="#Page_168">168</a>.<br /> + Niagara, council with Indians at, <a href="#Page_017">17</a>.<br /> + Northwest Territory, extent of, + <a href="#Page_001">1</a>-<a href="#Page_002">2</a>; + French settlements, <a href="#Page_002">2</a>; + Franklin advises British to retain, <a href="#Page_020">20</a>; + ignorance of country, + <a href="#Page_021">21</a>-<a href="#Page_022">22</a>; + questions of settlement and government, + <a href="#Page_022">22</a> <i>et seq.</i>; + settlement, <a href="#Page_037">37</a> <i>et seq.</i>, + <a href="#Page_079">79</a>-<a href="#Page_082">82</a>; + Continental Congress claims, <a href="#Page_071">71</a>; + Treaty of Paris gives to U. S., <a href="#Page_075">75</a>; + state claims yield to nation, <a href="#Page_077">77</a>; + migration to, <a href="#Page_097">97</a> <i>et seq.</i>; + character of country, + <a href="#Page_110">110</a>-<a href="#Page_112">112</a>; + pioneer life, <a href="#Page_112">112</a> <i>et seq.</i>; + in War of 1812, <a href="#Page_151">151</a> <i>et seq.</i>; + loses frontier character, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>; + religion, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>; + education, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>-<a href="#Page_171">171</a>; + sectionalism, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>-<a href="#Page_174">174</a>; + Southern influence, + <a href="#Page_176">176</a>-<a href="#Page_177">177</a>; + national issues, + <a href="#Page_178">178</a>-<a href="#Page_179">179</a>; + form of government, + <a href="#Page_179">179</a>-<a href="#Page_180">180</a>; + slavery, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>-<a href="#Page_184">184</a>; + explorations upon upper Mississippi, + <a href="#Page_189">189</a>-<a href="#Page_191">191</a>; + fur trade, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>-<a href="#Page_193">193</a>; + lead-mining, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>-<a href="#Page_195">195</a>; + after Black Hawk War, + <a href="#Page_205">205</a>-<a href="#Page_206">206</a>; + Indian treaties, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>-<a href="#Page_208">208</a>; + bibliography, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>-<a href="#Page_214">214</a>; + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">219</a></span> + <i>see also</i> names of States. <br /> + </p> + <p><br /></p> + <h3>O.</h3> + <p> + Ohio, settlement, <a href="#Page_098">98</a> <i>et seq.</i>; + routes to, <a href="#Page_102">102</a> <i>et seq.</i>; + formed from part of Northwest Territory, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>; + admitted as State (1802), + <a href="#Page_132">132</a>, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>; + means of transportation in, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>; + frontier settlers in, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>; + Southerners in, + <a href="#Page_174">174</a>-<a href="#Page_175">175</a>.<br /> + Ohio Company, <a href="#Page_039">39</a>, + <a href="#Page_080">80</a>-<a href="#Page_081">81</a>.<br /> + Ohio River, emigrants on, + <a href="#Page_106">106</a>-<a href="#Page_109">109</a>.<br /> + Ordinance of 1787, + <a href="#Page_077">77</a>-<a href="#Page_078">78</a>, + <a href="#Page_131">131</a>, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>, + <a href="#Page_181">181</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>.<br /> + Oswego, Pontine surrenders at, <a href="#Page_018">18</a>.<br /> + Ottawa (Ill.), French settlement near, <a href="#Page_002">2</a>.<br /> + Ouiatanon, <a href="#Page_035">35</a>.<br /> + </p> + <p><br /></p> + <h3>P.</h3> + <p> + Paine, R. D., <i>The Fight for a Free Sea</i> cited, + <a href="#footer_9-1">153 (note)</a>.<br /> + Paris, Treaty of (1783), <a href="#Page_020">20</a>, + <a href="#Page_022">22</a>, <a href="#Page_075">75</a>.<br /> + Parkman, Francis, quoted, + <a href="#Page_005">5</a>-<a href="#Page_006">6</a>, + <a href="#Page_019">19</a>, + <a href="#Page_032">32</a>-<a href="#Page_033">33</a>.<br /> + Perry, Commodore O. H., <a href="#Page_154">154</a>.<br /> + Pike, Lieutenant Z. M., <a href="#Page_190">190</a>.<br /> + Pitt, Fort, <a href="#Page_015">15</a>, + <a href="#Page_016">16</a>, <a href="#Page_017">17</a>, + <a href="#Page_034">34</a>, <a href="#Page_036">36</a>.<br /> + Pittman, Captain, <a href="#Page_034">34</a>.<br /> + Pontiac, Indian chief, <a href="#Page_003">3</a>; + conspiracy, <a href="#Page_009">9</a> <i>et seq.</i>; + power broken, <a href="#Page_017">17</a>; + further plots, <a href="#Page_034">34</a>; + meets Croghan, <a href="#Page_035">35</a>.<br /> + Presqu'isle (Erie), council with Indians at, + <a href="#Page_017">17</a>.<br /> + Proclamation of 1763, + <a href="#Page_024">24</a>, <a href="#footer_2-1">24 (note)</a>, + <a href="#Page_041">41</a>-<a href="#Page_042">42</a>.<br /> + "Prophet," <i>see</i> Laulewasikaw. <br /> + Prophet's Town, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>.<br /> + Putnam, General Rufus, <a href="#Page_080">80</a>, + <a href="#Page_081">81</a>, <a href="#Page_082">82</a>.<br /> + </p> + <p><br /></p> + <h3>Q.</h3> + <p> + Quebec, province provided under Proclamation of 1763, + <a href="#Page_024">24</a>, <a href="#footer_2-1">24 (note)</a>. <br /> + Quebec Act (1774), + <a href="#Page_041">41</a>-<a href="#Page_043">43</a>.<br /> + </p> + <p><br /></p> + <h3>R.</h3> + <p> + Radisson, Pierre, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>.<br /> + Raisin River, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>.<br /> + Rayneval, secretary to French Foreign Minister, + <a href="#Page_074">74</a>.<br /> + Recovery, Fort, <a href="#Page_091">91</a>.<br /> + Red Bird, Indian chief, + <a href="#Page_196">196</a>, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>.<br /> + Revolution, effects on West, <a href="#Page_045">45</a>.<br /> + Rocheblave, commandant at Kaskaskia, <a href="#Page_054">54</a>.<br /> + Rogers, Major Robert, + <a href="#Page_003">3</a>, <a href="#Page_004">4</a>.<br /> + Roosevelt, Theodore, quoted, + <a href="#Page_061">61</a>, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>.<br /> + </p> + <p><br /></p> + <h3>S.</h3> + <p> + Sackville, Fort, <a href="#Page_055">55</a>.<br /> + Saint Ange de Bellerive, + <a href="#Page_018">18</a>, <a href="#Page_019">19</a>, + <a href="#Page_033">33</a>, <a href="#Page_036">36</a>.<br /> + St. Anthony, Falls of, Hennepin reaches, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>.<br /> + St. Clair, General Arthur, + <a href="#Page_081">81</a>, <a href="#Page_084">84</a>, + <a href="#Page_085">85</a>-<a href="#Page_087">87</a>, + <a href="#Page_089">89</a>.<br /> + St. Joseph, Fort, + <a href="#Page_069">69</a>-<a href="#Page_070">70</a>.<br /> + St. Louis, French settlement near, <a href="#Page_002">2</a>; + French town, <a href="#Page_018">18</a>; + established (1764), <a href="#Page_032">32</a>; + Saint-Ange retires to, <a href="#Page_036">36</a>; + under Spanish rule, <a href="#Page_069">69</a>; + education in, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>.<br /> + St. Louis, Fort, <a href="#Page_002">2</a>.<br /> + Ste. Genevieve, <a href="#Page_032">32</a>.<br /> + Schoolcraft, Henry, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>.<br /> + Scioto Company, <a href="#Page_081">81</a>.<br /> + "Seven Ranges," <a href="#Page_080">80</a>, + <a href="#Page_099">99</a>-<a href="#Page_100">100</a>.<br /> + Sheridan, Lieutenant-General P. H., <a href="#Page_100">100</a>.<br /> + Sherman, John, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>.<br /> + Sherman, General W. T., <a href="#Page_100">100</a>.<br /> + Sinclair, Lieutenant-Governor Patrick, <a href="#Page_069">69</a>.<br /> + Slavery, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>-<a href="#Page_184">184</a>.<br /> + Snelling, Fort, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>.<br /> + Spain, cessions to, <a href="#Page_018">18</a>, <a href="#Page_028">28</a>; + ally of France, <a href="#Page_069">69</a>; + seizes Fort St. Joseph, + <a href="#Page_069">69</a>-<a href="#Page_070">70</a>; + American policy, <a href="#Page_072">72</a>-<a href="#Page_073">73</a>; + plan presented at peace negotiation, + <a href="#Page_073">73</a>-<a href="#Page_074">74</a>.<br /> + Stanwix, Fort, Treaty of, <a href="#Page_078">78</a>.<br /> + "Starved Rock," <a href="#Page_002">2</a>.<br /> + Sterling, Captain Thomas, <a href="#Page_036">36</a>.<br /> + Stillman, Major, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>.<br /> + Symmes, Judge J. C., of N. J., <a href="#Page_082">82</a>.<br /> + </p> + <p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">220</a></span> + <br /></p> + <h3>V.</h3> + <p> + Tariff, attitude of Northwest toward, + <a href="#Page_178">178</a>-<a href="#Page_179">179</a>.<br /> + Taylor, Zachary, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>.<br /> + Tecumseh, plans confederacy, <a href="#Page_135">135</a> <i>et seq.</i>; + at Prophet's Town, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>; + confers with Harrison at Vincennes, + <a href="#Page_139">139</a>-<a href="#Page_140">140</a>, + <a href="#Page_140">140</a>-<a href="#Page_143">143</a>; + sympathy with British, + <a href="#Page_148">148</a>, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>; + joins British in 1812, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>; + killed, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>.<br /> + Thames, Battle of the, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>.<br /> + Tippecanoe, Battle of, + <a href="#Page_144">144</a>-<a href="#Page_147">147</a>.<br /> + Transportation, difficulties, + <a href="#Page_163">163</a>-<a href="#Page_164">164</a>; + highways, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>-<a href="#Page_168">168</a>; + stage lines, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>; + steamboats, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>-<a href="#Page_170">170</a>; + Erie Canal, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>; + roads and canals, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>; + on Mississippi River, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>.<br /> + </p> + <p><br /></p> + <h3>V.</h3> + <p> + Vandalia, projected colony, <a href="#Page_039">39</a>.<br /> + Vandalia (Ill.), Cumberland Road graded to, + <a href="#Page_166">166</a>.<br /> + Vaudreuil, Pierre de Rigaud, Marquis de, + Governor of Canada, + <a href="#Page_001">1</a>, <a href="#Page_003">3</a>.<br /> + Venango, Fort, <a href="#Page_014">14</a>.<br /> + Vergennes, Charles Gravier, Comte de, + French Foreign Minister, <a href="#Page_074">74</a>.<br /> + Vigo, François, + <a href="#Page_060">60</a>-<a href="#Page_061">61</a>.<br /> + Villiers, Neyon de, <a href="#Page_031">31</a>.<br /> + Vincennes, French colony, <a href="#Page_002">2</a>; + under British, <a href="#Page_031">31</a>; + surrenders to Clark, <a href="#Page_055">55</a>; + captured by British, + <a href="#Page_058">58</a>-<a href="#Page_059">59</a>, + Clark retakes, + <a href="#Page_063">63</a>-<a href="#Page_066">66</a>, + <a href="#Page_069">69</a>; + Harrison and Tecumseh in conference at, + <a href="#Page_139">139</a>-<a href="#Page_140">140</a>, + <a href="#Page_140">140</a>-<a href="#Page_143">143</a>.<br /> + </p> + <p><br /></p> + + <h3>W.</h3> + <p> + Wabash Valley, French settlement in, <a href="#Page_002">2</a>.<br /> + Waite, Chief Justice M. R., <a href="#Page_100">100</a>.<br /> + Walpole, Thomas, <a href="#Page_039">39</a>.<br /> + War of 1812, popular in West, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>; + standing army, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>; + volunteers called, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>; + in the West, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>-<a href="#Page_154">154</a>; + military organization, + <a href="#Page_154">154</a>-<a href="#Page_156">156</a>; + lack of transportation facilities, + <a href="#Page_157">157</a>-<a href="#Page_158">158</a>; + life of frontier soldiers, + <a href="#Page_158">158</a>-<a href="#Page_159">159</a>; + peace (1815), <a href="#Page_160">160</a>.<br /> + <i>Warrior</i>, The, + Government supply steamer in Black Hawk War, + <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.<br /> + Washington, George, acquires western land, + <a href="#Page_038">38</a>-<a href="#Page_039">39</a>.<br /> + Wayne, "Mad Anthony," <a href="#Page_089">89</a> <i>et seq.</i><br /> + Wayne, Fort, <a href="#Page_094">94</a>, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>; + Treaty of, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>.<br /> + Wekau, Indian chief, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>.<br /> + Welby, Adlard, quoted, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>.<br /> + West Florida, + province provided under Proclamation of 1763, + <a href="#Page_024">24</a>, <a href="#footer_2-1">24 (note)</a>, + <a href="#Page_033">33</a>; + plan for Spain to resume possession of, <a href="#Page_073">73</a>.<br /> + Western Reserve, + <a href="#Page_099">99</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, + <a href="#Page_172">172</a>, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>.<br /> + Wharton, Samuel, <a href="#Page_039">39</a>.<br /> + Whistler, Major, + <a href="#Page_196">196</a>, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>.<br /> + Wilkinson, General James, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>.<br /> + <i>Willing</i>, The, Clark's boat, + <a href="#Page_061">61</a>, <a href="#Page_064">64</a>, + <a href="#Page_066">66</a>, <a href="#Page_067">67</a>.<br /> + Winnebago, Fort, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>.<br /> + Wisconsin admitted as State (1848), <a href="#Page_208">208</a>.<br /> + Wythe, George, <a href="#Page_051">51</a>.<br /> + </p> + <p><br /></p> + </div> + + <hr /> + <div class="chapterhead"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2><a href="#Contents">The Chronicles of America Series</a></h2> + <ol> + <li>The Red Man's Continent<br /> by Ellsworth Huntington</li> + <li>The Spanish Conquerors<br /> by Irving Berdine Richman</li> + <li>Elizabethan Sea-Dogs<br /> by William Charles Henry Wood</li> + <li>The Crusaders of New France<br /> by William Bennett Munro</li> + <li>Pioneers of the Old South<br /> by Mary Johnson</li> + <li>The Fathers of New England<br /> by Charles McLean Andrews</li> + <li>Dutch and English on the Hudson<br /> by Maud Wilder Goodwin</li> + <li>The Quaker Colonies<br /> by Sydney George Fisher</li> + <li>Colonial Folkways<br /> by Charles McLean Andrews</li> + <li>The Conquest of New France<br /> by George McKinnon Wrong</li> + <li>The Eve of the Revolution<br /> by Carl Lotus Becker</li> + <li>Washington and His Comrades in Arms<br /> by George McKinnon Wrong</li> + <li>The Fathers of the Constitution<br /> by Max Farrand</li> + <li>Washington and His Colleagues<br /> by Henry Jones Ford</li> + <li>Jefferson and his Colleagues<br /> by Allen Johnson</li> + <li>John Marshall and the Constitution<br /> by Edward Samuel Corwin</li> + <li>The Fight for a Free Sea<br /> by Ralph Delahaye Paine</li> + <li>Pioneers of the Old Southwest<br /> by Constance Lindsay Skinner</li> + <li><span class="smcap">The Old Northwest<br /> + by Frederic Austin Ogg</span></li> + <li>The Reign of Andrew Jackson<br /> by Frederic Austin Ogg</li> + <li>The Paths of Inland Commerce<br /> by Archer Butler Hulbert</li> + <li>Adventurers of Oregon<br /> by Constance Lindsay Skinner</li> + <li>The Spanish Borderlands<br /> by Herbert Eugene Bolton</li> + <li>Texas and the Mexican War<br /> by Nathaniel Wright Stephenson</li> + <li>The Forty-Niners<br /> by Stewart Edward White</li> + <li>The Passing of the Frontier<br /> by Emerson Hough</li> + <li>The Cotton Kingdom<br /> by William E. Dodd</li> + <li>The Anti-Slavery Crusade<br /> by Jesse Macy</li> + <li>Abraham Lincoln and the Union<br /> by Nathaniel Wright Stephenson</li> + <li>The Day of the Confederacy<br /> by Nathaniel Wright Stephenson</li> + <li>Captains of the Civil War<br /> by William Charles Henry Wood</li> + <li>The Sequel of Appomattox<br /> by Walter Lynwood Fleming</li> + <li>The American Spirit in Education<br /> by Edwin E. Slosson</li> + <li>The American Spirit in Literature<br /> by Bliss Perry</li> + <li>Our Foreigners<br /> by Samuel Peter Orth</li> + <li>The Old Merchant Marine<br /> by Ralph Delahaye Paine</li> + <li>The Age of Invention<br /> by Holland Thompson</li> + <li>The Railroad Builders<br /> by John Moody</li> + <li>The Age of Big Business<br /> by Burton Jesse Hendrick</li> + <li>The Armies of Labor<br /> by Samuel Peter Orth</li> + <li>The Masters of Capital<br /> by John Moody</li> + <li>The New South<br /> by Holland Thompson</li> + <li>The Boss and the Machine<br /> by Samuel Peter Orth</li> + <li>The Cleveland Era<br /> by Henry Jones Ford</li> + <li>The Agrarian Crusade<br /> by Solon Justus Buck</li> + <li>The Path of Empire<br /> by Carl Russell Fish</li> + <li>Theodore Roosevelt and His Times<br /> by Harold Howland</li> + <li>Woodrow Wilson and the World War<br /> by Charles Seymour</li> + <li>The Canadian Dominion<br /> by Oscar D. Skelton</li> + <li>The Hispanic Nations of the New World<br /> by William R. Shepherd</li> + </ol> + <hr /> + + + + + + + + + + + + <div class="chapterhead"> + <br /> + <br /><br /><br /> + <h2><a href="#Contents">Transcriber's Notes</a></h2> + <p><br /></p> + </div> + <h3>Detailed Notes Section:</h3> + <p><br /></p> + <h4>Chapter 2.</h4> + <p> + On <a href="#Page_021">Page 21</a>, add period after possession in the + sentence: The English people had, however, only the vaguest notion of + the extent, appearance, and resources of their new + possession<strong>.</strong> + </p> + <p><br /></p> + <h4>Chapter 3.</h4> + <p> + On <a href="#Page_053">Page 53</a>, and also + <a href="#Page_205">Page 205</a>, war-whoop was hyphenated between + two lines for spacing. The word was not used elsewhere in this + book, but in other chronicles it is spelled with a hyphen. We + retained the hyphen. + </p> + <p><br /></p> + <h4>Chapter 5.</h4> + <p> + On <a href="#Page_101">Page 101</a>, easy-going was hyphenated between + two lines for spacing. On Page 30, easy-going occurred in the + middle of a sentence, and was hyphenated. We + retained the hyphen. + </p> + <p> + Pack-horse (Page 106) and pack-horses (Page 116) were spelled with a + hyphen in Chapter 5, but packhorse (Page 157) and pack-horses (Page 159) + of Chapter 7 omitted the hyphen. We did not make any adjustments to + the spelling of these words. + </p> + <p class="quad-space-bottom"><br /></p> + +<div class="boilerplate"> +<p class="bold"> +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE OLD NORTHWEST *** +</p> + +<p class="double-space-top"> +***** This file should be named 3014-h.htm or 3014-h.zip ***** +</p> + +<p class="no-space-bottom"> +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +</p> +<p class="no-space-top neat-left-margin"> + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/0/1/3014/ +</p> + +<p> +Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions +will be renamed. +</p> + +<p class="double-space-top"> +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg™ electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG™ concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away—you may do +practically <em>anything</em> with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution.</p> + +<p class="bold center double-space-top"> +*** START: FULL LICENSE ***</p> + +<p class="bold">THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK</p> + +<p>To protect the Project Gutenberg™ mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg™ License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license).</p> + +<p class="bold double-space-top"> +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg™ +electronic works</p> + +<p> +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg™ +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg™ electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg™ electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.</p> + +<p> +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg™ electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg™ electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg™ electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below.</p> + +<p> +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg™ electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg™ mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg™ works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg™ name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg™ License when you share it without charge with others.</p> + +<p> +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg™ work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States.</p> + +<p> +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:</p> + +<p> +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg™ License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg™ work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed:</p> + +<p> +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org.</p> + +<p> +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg™ electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg™ trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9.</p> + +<p> +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg™ electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg ™ License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.</p> + +<p> +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg™ +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg™.</p> + +<p> +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg™ License.</p> + +<p> +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg™ work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg™ web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg™ +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.</p> + +<p> +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg™ works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.</p> + +<p> +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg™ electronic works provided +that</p> + +<p> + * You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg™ works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg™ trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."</p> + +<p> + * You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg™ + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg ™ works.</p> + +<p> + * You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work.</p> + +<p> + * You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg™ works.</p> + +<p> +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg™ +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg™ trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.</p> + +<p>1.F.</p> + +<p> +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg™ +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg™ electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment.</p> + +<p> +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES: Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg™ trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg™ electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. <i>You agree that you have no remedies for negligence, strict +liability, breach of warranty or breach of contract except those +provided in Paragraph F3. You agree that the Foundation, the +trademark owner, and any distributor under this agreement will not be +liable to you for actual, direct, indirect, consequential, punitive or +incidental damages even if you give notice of the possibility of such +damage. </i> +</p> + +<p> +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND: If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem.</p> + +<p> +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', <em>with no other +warranties of any kind, express or implied, including but not limited to +warranties of merchantibility or fitness for any purpose.</em> +</p> + +<p> +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.</p> + +<p> +1.F.6. INDEMNITY: You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg™ electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg™ electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg™ +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg™ work, and (c) any Defect you cause.</p> + +<p class="bold double-space-top"> +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg™</p> + +<p> +Project Gutenberg ™ is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life.</p> + +<p> +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg's™ +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg™ collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg™ and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org.</p> + + +<p class="bold double-space-top"> +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation</p> + +<p> +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.</p> + +<p> +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://pglaf.org.</p> + +<p class="no-space-bottom">For additional contact information:</p> +<p class="no-space-top neat-left-margin"> +Dr. Gregory B. Newby<br /> +Chief Executive and Director<br /> +gbnewby@pglaf.org<br /> +</p> + +<p class="bold double-space-top"> +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation</p> + +<p> +Project Gutenberg™ depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS.</p> + +<p> +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +<em>send donations</em> or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://pglaf.org.</p> + +<p> +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate.</p> + +<p> +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.</p> + +<p> +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate.</p> + +<p class="bold double-space-top"> +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg™ electronic +works.</p> + +<p> +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg™ +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg™ eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.</p> + +<p> +Project Gutenberg™ eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.</p> + +<p class="no-space-bottom"> +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:</p> + +<p class="center no-space-top"> +https://www.gutenberg.org +</p> + +<p> +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg™, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.</p> +</div> + + + + </body> +</html> diff --git a/3014-h/images/cover.jpg b/3014-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..fcf895b --- /dev/null +++ b/3014-h/images/cover.jpg diff --git a/3014.txt b/3014.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..218c01c --- /dev/null +++ b/3014.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4597 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Old Northwest, by Frederic Austin Ogg + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Old Northwest + A Chronicle of the Ohio Valley and Beyond, Volume 19 In + The Chronicles Of America Series + +Author: Frederic Austin Ogg + +Editor: Allen Johnson + +Posting Date: February 15, 2009 [EBook #3014] +Release Date: January, 2002 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE OLD NORTHWEST *** + + + + +Produced by The James J. Kelly Library of St. Gregory's +University, and Alev Akman + + + + + + +THE OLD NORTHWEST, + +A CHRONICLE OF THE OHIO VALLEY AND BEYOND + + +By Frederic Austin Ogg + +New Haven: Yale University Press + +Toronto: Glasgow, Brook & Co. + +London: Humphrey Milford + +Oxford University Press + +1919 + + +CONTENTS + + I. PONTIAC'S CONSPIRACY + II. "A LAIR OF WILD BEASTS" + III. THE REVOLUTION BEGINS + IV. THE CONQUEST COMPLETED + V. WAYNE, THE SCOURGE OF THE INDIANS + VI. THE GREAT MIGRATION + VII. PIONEER DAYS AND WAYS + VIII. TECUMSEH + IX. THE WAR OF 1812 AND THE NEW WEST + X. SECTIONAL CROSS CURRENTS + XI. THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI VALLEY + + BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + + + + +THE OLD NORTHWEST + + + +Chapter I. Pontiac's Conspiracy + +The fall of Montreal, on September 8, 1760, while the plains about the +city were still dotted with the white tents of the victorious English +and colonial troops, was indeed an event of the deepest consequence to +America and to the world. By the articles of capitulation which were +signed by the Marquis de Vaudreuil, Governor of New France, Canada and +all its dependencies westward to the Mississippi passed to the British +Crown. Virtually ended was the long struggle for the dominion of the +New World. Open now for English occupation and settlement was that +vast country lying south of the Great Lakes between the Ohio and the +Mississippi--which we know as the Old Northwest--today the seat of five +great commonwealths of the United States. + +With an ingenuity born of necessity, the French pathfinders and +colonizers of the Old Northwest had chosen for their settlements sites +which would serve at once the purposes of the priest, the trader, and +the soldier; and with scarcely an exception these sites are as important +today as when they were first selected. Four regions, chiefly, were +still occupied by the French at the time of the capitulation of +Montreal. The most important, as well as the most distant, of these +regions was on the east bank of the Mississippi, opposite and below +the present city of St. Louis, where a cluster of missions, forts, and +trading-posts held the center of the tenuous line extending from Canada +to Louisiana. A second was the Illinois country, centering about the +citadel of St. Louis which La Salle had erected in 1682 on the summit of +"Starved Rock," near the modern town of Ottawa in Illinois. A third was +the valley of the Wabash, where in the early years of the eighteenth +century Vincennes had become the seat of a colony commanding both the +Wabash and the lower Ohio. And the fourth was the western end of Lake +Erie, where Detroit, founded by the doughty Cadillac in 1701, had +assumed such strength that for fifty years it had discouraged the +ambitions of the English to make the Northwest theirs. + +Sir Jeffrey Amherst, to whom Vaudreuil surrendered in 1760, forthwith +dispatched to the western country a military force to take possession +of the posts still remaining in the hands of the French. The mission +was entrusted to a stalwart New Hampshire Scotch-Irishman, Major Robert +Rogers, who as leader of a band of intrepid "rangers" had made himself +the hero of the northern frontier. Two hundred men were chosen for +the undertaking, and on the 13th of September the party, in fifteen +whaleboats, started up the St. Lawrence for Detroit. + +At the mouth of the Cuyahoga River, near the site of the present city +of Cleveland, the travelers were halted by a band of Indian chiefs and +warriors who, in the name of their great ruler Pontiac, demanded to +know the object of their journeying. Parleys followed, in which Pontiac +himself took part, and it was explained that the French had surrendered +Canada to the English and that the English merely proposed to assume +control of the western posts, with a view to friendly relations between +the red men and the white men. The rivers, it was promised, would flow +with rum, and presents from the great King would be forthcoming in +endless profusion. The explanation seemed to satisfy the savages, and, +after smoking the calumet with due ceremony, the chieftain and his +followers withdrew. + +Late in November, Rogers and his men in their whaleboats appeared before +the little palisaded town of Detroit. They found the French commander, +Beletre, in surly humor and seeking to stir up the neighboring Wyandots +and Potawatomi against them. But the attempt failed, and there was +nothing for Beletre to do but yield. The French soldiery marched out of +the fort, laid down their arms, and were sent off as prisoners down the +river. The fleur-de-lis, which for more than half a century had floated +over the village, was hauled down, and, to the accompaniment of cheers, +the British ensign was run up. The red men looked on with amazement +at this display of English authority and marveled how the conquerors +forbore to slay their vanquished enemies on the spot. + +Detroit in 1760 was a picturesque, lively, and rapidly growing frontier +town. The central portions of the settlement, lying within the bounds of +the present city, contained ninety or a hundred small houses, chiefly +of wood and roofed with bark or thatch. A well-built range of +barracks afforded quarters for the soldiery, and there were two public +buildings--a council house and a little church. The whole was surrounded +by a square palisade twenty-five feet high, with a wooden bastion at +each corner and a blockhouse over each gateway. A broad passageway, the +chemin du ronde, lay next to the palisade, and on little narrow streets +at the center the houses were grouped closely together. + +Above and below the fort the banks of the river were lined on both +sides, for a distance of eight or nine miles, with little rectangular +farms, so laid out as to give each a water-landing. On each farm was +a cottage, with a garden and orchard, surrounded by a fence of rounded +pickets; and the countryside rang with the shouts and laughter of a +prosperous and happy peasantry. Within the limits of the settlement were +villages of Ottawas, Potawatomi, and Wyandots, with whose inhabitants +the French lived on free and easy terms. "The joyous sparkling of the +bright blue water," writes Parkman; "the green luxuriance of the woods; +the white dwellings, looking out from the foliage; and in the distance +the Indian wigwams curling their smoke against the sky--all were mingled +in one broad scene of wild and rural beauty." + +At the coming of the English the French residents were given an +opportunity to withdraw. Few, however, did so, and from the gossipy +correspondence of the pleasure-loving Colonel Campbell, who for some +months was left in command of the fort, it appears that the life of +the place lost none of its gayety by the change of masters. Sunday card +parties at the quarters of the commandant were festive affairs; and at a +ball held in celebration of the King's birthday the ladies presented an +appearance so splendid as to call forth from the impressionable officer +the most extravagant praises. A visit in the summer of 1761 from Sir +William Johnson, general supervisor of Indian affairs on the frontier, +became the greatest social event in the history of the settlement, if +not of the entire West. Colonel Campbell gave a ball at which the guests +danced nine hours. Sir William reciprocated with one at which they +danced eleven hours. A round of dinners and calls gave opportunity for +much display of frontier magnificence, as well as for the consumption of +astonishing quantities of wines and cordials. Hundreds of Indians were +interested spectators, and the gifts with which they were generously +showered were received with evidences of deep satisfaction. + +No amount of fiddling and dancing, however, could quite drown +apprehension concerning the safety of the post and the security of the +English hold upon the great region over which this fort and its distant +neighbors stood sentinel. Thousands of square miles of territory were +committed to the keeping of not more than six hundred soldiers. From the +French there was little danger. But from the Indians anything might be +expected. Apart from the Iroquois, the red men had been bound to the +French by many ties of friendship and common interest, and in the late +war they had scalped and slaughtered and burned unhesitatingly at +the French command. Hardly, indeed, had the transfer of territorial +sovereignty been made before murmurs of discontent began to be heard. + +Notwithstanding outward expressions of assent to the new order of +things, a deep-rooted dislike on the part of the Indians for the English +grew after 1760 with great rapidity. They sorely missed the gifts and +supplies lavishly provided by the French, and they warmly resented the +rapacity and arrogance of the British traders. The open contempt of the +soldiery at the posts galled the Indians, and the confiscation of their +lands drove them to desperation. In their hearts hope never died that +the French would regain their lost dominion; and again and again rumors +were set afloat that this was about to happen. The belief in such +a reconquest was adroitly encouraged, too, by the surviving French +settlers and traders. In 1761 the tension among the Indians was +increased by the appearance of a "prophet" among the Delawares, calling +on all his race to purge itself of foreign influences and to unite to +drive the white man from the land. + +Protests against English encroachments were frequent and, though +respectful, none the less emphatic. At a conference in Philadelphia in +1761, an Iroquois sachem declared, "We, your Brethren, of the several +Nations, are penned up like Hoggs. There are Forts all around us, and +therefore we are apprehensive that Death is coming upon us." "We are now +left in Peace," ran a petition of some Christian Oneidas addressed to +Sir William Johnson, "and have nothing to do but to plant our Corn, Hunt +the wild Beasts, smoke our Pipes, and mind Religion. But as these Forts, +which are built among us, disturb our Peace, and are a great hurt to +Religion, because some of our Warriors are foolish, and some of our +Brother Soldiers don't fear God, we therefore desire that these Forts +may be pull'd down, and kick'd out of the way." + +The leadership of the great revolt that was impending fell naturally +upon Pontiac, who, since the coming of the English, had established +himself with his squaws and children on a wooded island in Lake St. +Clair, barely out of view of the fortifications of Detroit. In all +Indian annals no name is more illustrious than Pontiac's; no figure more +forcefully displays the good and bad qualities of his race. Principal +chief of the Ottawa tribe, he was also by 1763 the head of a powerful +confederation of Ottawas, Ojibwas, and Potawatomi, and a leader known +and respected among Algonquin peoples from the sources of the Ohio +to the Mississippi. While capable of acts of magnanimity, he had an +ambition of Napoleonic proportions, and to attain his ends he was +prepared to use any means. More clearly than most of his forest +contemporaries, he perceived that in the life of the Indian people a +crisis had come. He saw that, unless the tide of English invasion was +rolled back at once, all would be lost. The colonial farmers would +push in after the soldiers; the forests would be cut away; the +hunting-grounds would be destroyed; the native population would be +driven away or enslaved. In the silence of his wigwam he thought out a +plan of action, and by the closing weeks of 1762 he was ready. Never was +plot more shrewdly devised and more artfully carried out. + +During the winter of 1762-63 his messengers passed stealthily from +nation to nation throughout the whole western country, bearing the +pictured wampum belts and the reddened tomahawks which symbolized war; +and in April, 1763, the Lake tribes were summoned to a great council +on the banks of the Ecorces, below Detroit, where Pontiac in person +proclaimed the will of the Master of Life as revealed to the Delaware +prophet, and then announced the details of his plan. Everywhere the +appeal met with approval; and not only the scores of Algonquin peoples, +but also the Seneca branch of the Iroquois confederacy and a number of +tribes on the lower Mississippi, pledged themselves with all solemnity +to fulfill their prophet's injunction "to drive the dogs which wear +red clothing into the sea." While keen-eyed warriors sought to keep up +appearances by lounging about the forts and begging in their customary +manner for tobacco, whiskey, and gunpowder, every wigwam and forest +hamlet from Niagara to the Mississippi was astir. Dusky maidens chanted +the tribal war-songs, and in the blaze of a hundred camp-fires chiefs +and warriors performed the savage pantomime of battle. + +A simultaneous attack, timed by a change of the moon, was to be made on +the English forts and settlements throughout all the western country. +Every tribe was to fall upon the settlement nearest at hand, and +afterwards all were to combine--with French aid, it was confidently +believed--in an assault on the seats of English power farther east. +The honor of destroying the most important of the English strongholds, +Detroit, was reserved for Pontiac himself. + +The date fixed for the rising was the 7th of May. Six days in advance +Pontiac with forty of his warriors appeared at the fort, protested +undying friendship for the Great Father across the water, and insisted +on performing the calumet dance before the new commandant, Major +Gladwyn. This aroused no suspicion. But four days later a French settler +reported that his wife, when visiting the Ottawa village to buy venison, +had observed the men busily filing off the ends of their gunbarrels; and +the blacksmith at the post recalled the fact that the Indians had lately +sought to borrow files and saws without being able to give a plausible +explanation of the use they intended to make of the implements. + +The English traveler Jonathan Carver, who visited the post five years +afterwards, relates that an Ottawa girl with whom Major Gladwyn had +formed an attachment betrayed the plot. Though this story is of doubtful +authenticity, there is no doubt that, in one way or another, the +commandant was amply warned that treachery was in the air. The sounds +of revelry from the Indian camps, the furtive glances of the redskins +lounging about the settlement, the very tension of the atmosphere, would +have been enough to put an experienced Indian fighter on his guard. + +Accordingly when, on the fated morning, Pontiac and sixty redskins, +carrying under long blankets their shortened muskets, appeared before +the fort and asked admission, they were taken aback to find the whole +garrison under arms. On their way from the gate to the council house +they were obliged to march literally between rows of glittering steel. +Well might even Pontiac falter. With uneasy glances, the party crowded +into the council room, where Gladwyn and his officers sat waiting. +"Why," asked the chieftain stolidly, "do I see so many of my father's +young men standing in the street with their guns?" "To keep them in +training," was the laconic reply. + +The scene that was planned was then carried out, except in one vital +particular. When, in the course of his speech professing strong +attachment to the English, the chieftain came to the point where he was +to give the signal for slaughter by holding forth the wampum belt of +peace inverted, he presented the emblem--to the accompaniment of a +significant clash of arms and roll of drums from the mustered garrison +outside--in the normal manner; and after a solemn warning from the +commandant that vengeance would follow any act of aggression, the +council broke up. To the forest leader's equivocal announcement that he +would bring all of his wives and children in a few days to shake hands +with their English fathers, Gladwyn deigned no reply. + +Balked in his plans, the chief retired, but only to meditate fresh +treachery; and when, a few days later, with a multitude of followers, +he sought admission to the fort to assure "his fathers" that "evil birds +had sung lies in their ears," and was refused, he called all his forces +to arms, threw off his disguises, and began hostilities. For six months +the settlement was besieged with a persistence rarely displayed +in Indian warfare. At first the French inhabitants encouraged the +besiegers, but, after it became known that a final peace between England +and France had been concluded, they withheld further aid. Throughout +the whole period, the English obtained supplies with no great difficulty +from the neighboring farms. There was little actual fighting, and the +loss of life was insignificant. + +By order of General Amherst, the French commander still in charge of +Fort Chartres sent a messenger to inform the redskins definitely that +no assistance from France would be forthcoming. "Forget then, my dear +children,"--so ran the admonition--"all evil talks. Leave off from +spilling the blood of your brethren, the English. Our hearts are now but +one; you cannot, at present, strike the one without having the other for +an enemy also." The effect was, as intended, to break the spirit of the +besiegers; and in October Pontiac humbly sued for peace. + +Meanwhile a reign of terror spread over the entire frontier. Settlements +from Forts Le Boeuf and Venango, south of Lake Eric, to Green Bay, west +of Lake Michigan, were attacked, and ruses similar to that attempted at +Detroit were generally successful. A few Indians in friendly guise would +approach a fort. After these were admitted, others would appear, as if +quite by chance. Finally, when numbers were sufficient, the conspirators +would draw their concealed weapons, strike down the garrison, and begin +a general massacre of the helpless populace. Scores of pioneer families, +scattered through the wilderness, were murdered and scalped; traders +were waylaid in the forest solitudes; border towns were burned and +plantations were devastated. In the Ohio Valley everything was lost +except Fort Pitt, formerly Fort Duquesne; in the Northwest, everything +was taken except Detroit. + +Fort Pitt was repeatedly endangered, and the most important engagement +of the war was fought in its defense. The relief of the post was +entrusted in midsummer to a force of five hundred regulars lately +transferred from the West Indies to Pennsylvania and placed under the +command of Colonel Henry Bouquet. The expedition advanced with all +possible caution, but early in August, 1763, when it was yet twenty-five +miles from its destination, it was set upon by a formidable Indian band +at Bushy Run and threatened with a fate not un-like that suffered by +Braddock's little army in the same region nine years earlier. Finding +the woods full of redskins and all retreat cut off, the troops, drawn up +in a circle around their horses and supplies, fired with such effect +as they could upon the shadowy forms in the forest. No water was +obtainable, and in a few hours thirst began to make the soldiery +unmanageable. Realizing that the situation was desperate, Bouquet +resorted to a ruse by ordering his men to fall back as if in retreat. +The trick succeeded, and with yells of victory the Indians rushed from +cover to seize the coveted provisions--only to be met by a deadly +fire and put to utter rout. The news of the battle of Bushy Run spread +rapidly through the frontier regions and proved very effective in +discouraging further hostilities. + +It was Bouquet's intention to press forward at once from Fort Pitt +into the disturbed Ohio country. His losses, however, compelled the +postponement of this part of the undertaking until the following year. +Before he started off again he built at Fort Pitt a blockhouse which +still stands, and which has been preserved for posterity by becoming, +in 1894, the property of the Pittsburgh chapter of the Daughters of +the American Revolution. In October, 1764, he set out for the Muskingum +valley with a force of fifteen hundred regulars, Pennsylvania and +Virginia volunteers, and friendly Indians. By this time the great +conspiracy was in collapse, and it was a matter of no great difficulty +for Bouquet to enter into friendly relations with the successive tribes, +to obtain treaties with them, and to procure the release of such English +captives as were still in their hands. By the close of November, 1764, +the work was complete, and Bouquet was back at Fort Pitt. Pennsylvania +and Virginia honored him with votes of thanks; the King formally +expressed his gratitude and tendered him the military governorship of +the newly acquired territory of Florida. + +The general pacification of the Northwest was accomplished by treaties +with the natives in great councils held at Niagara, Presqu'isle (Erie), +and Detroit. Pontiac had fled to the Maumee country to the west of Lake +Erie, whence he still hurled his ineffectual threats at the "dogs in +red." His power, however, was broken. The most he could do was to gather +four hundred warriors on the Maumee and Illinois and present himself +at Fort Chartres with a demand for weapons and ammunition with which to +keep up the war. The French commander, who was now daily awaiting orders +to turn the fortress over to the English, refused; and a deputation +dispatched to New Orleans in quest of the desired equipment received +no reply save that New Orleans itself, with all the country west of the +river, had been ceded to Spain. The futility of further resistance on +the part of Pontiac was apparent. In 1765 the disappointed chieftain +gave pledges of friendship; and in the following year he and other +leaders made a formal submission to Sir William Johnson at Oswego, and +Pontiac renounced forever the bold design to make himself at a stroke +lord of the West and deliverer of his country from English domination. + +For three years the movements of this disappointed Indian leader are +uncertain. Most of the time, apparently, he dwelt in the Maumee country, +leading the existence of an ordinary warrior. Then, in the spring of +1769, he appeared at the settlements on the middle Mississippi. At +the newly founded French town of St. Louis, on the Spanish side of the +river, he visited an old friend, the commandant Saint Ange de Bellerive. +Thence he crossed to Cahokia, where Indian and creole alike welcomed him +and made him the central figure in a series of boisterous festivities. + +An English trader in the village, observing jealously the honors that +were paid the visitor, resolved that an old score should forthwith be +evened up. A Kaskaskian redskin was bribed, with a barrel of liquor and +with promises of further reward, to put the fallen leader out of +the way; and the bargain was hardly sealed before the deed was done. +Stealing upon his victim as he walked in the neighboring forest, the +assassin buried a tomahawk in his brain, and "thus basely," in the +words of Parkman, "perished the champion of a ruined race." Claimed by +Saint-Ange, the body was borne across the river and buried with military +honors near the new Fort St. Louis. The site of Pontiac's grave was soon +forgotten, and today the people of a great city trample over and about +it without heed. + + + +Chapter II. "A Lair Of Wild Beasts" + +Benjamin Franklin, who was in London in 1760 as agent of the +Pennsylvania Assembly, gave the British ministers some wholesome advice +on the terms of the peace that should be made with France. The St. +Lawrence and the Great Lakes regions, he said, must be retained by +England at all costs. Moreover, the Mississippi Valley must be taken, +in order to provide for the growing populations of the seaboard colonies +suitable lands in the interior, and so keep them engaged in agriculture. +Otherwise these populations would turn to manufacturing, and the +industries of the mother country would suffer. + +The treaty of peace, three years later, brought the settlement which +Franklin suggested. The vast American back country, with its inviting +rivers and lakes, its shaded hills, and its sunny prairies, became +English territory. The English people had, however, only the vaguest +notion of the extent, appearance, and resources of their new possession. +Even the officials who drew the treaty were as ignorant of the country +as of middle Africa. Prior to the outbreak of the war no widely known +English writer had tried to describe it; and the absorbing French books +of Lahontan, Hennepin, and Charlevoix had reached but a small circle. +The prolonged conflict in America naturally stimulated interest in the +new country. The place-names of the upper Ohio became household words, +and enterprising publishers put out not only translations of the French +writers but compilations by Englishmen designed, in true journalistic +fashion, to meet the demands of the hour for information. + +These publications displayed amazing misconceptions of the lands +described. They neither estimated aright the number and strength of the +French settlements nor dispelled the idea that the western country was +of little value. Even the most brilliant Englishman of the day, Dr. +Samuel Johnson, an ardent defender of the treaty of 1763, wrote that the +large tracts of America added by the war to the British dominions were +"only the barren parts of the continent, the refuse of the earlier +adventurers, which the French, who came last, had taken only as +better than nothing." As late indeed as 1789, William Knox, long +Under-Secretary for the Colonies, declared that Americans could not +settle the western territory "for ages," and that the region must be +given up to barbarism like the plains of Asia, with a population as +unstable as the Scythians and Tartars. But the shortsightedness of these +distant critics can be forgiven when one recalls that Franklin himself, +while conjuring up a splendid vision of the western valleys teeming with +a thriving population, supposed that the dream would not be realized for +"some centuries." None of these observers dreamt that the territories +transferred in 1763 would have within seventy-five years a population +almost equal to that of Great Britain. + +The ink with which the Treaty of Paris was signed was hardly dry before +the King and his ministers were confronted with the task of providing +government for the new possessions and of solving problems of land +tenure and trade. Still more imperative were measures to conciliate +the Indians; for already Pontiac's rebellion had been in progress four +months, and the entire back country was aflame. It must be confessed +that a continental wilderness swarming with murderous savages was an +inheritance whose aspect was by no means altogether pleasing to the +English mind. + +The easiest solution of the difficulty was to let things take their +course. Let seaboard populations spread at will over the new lands; let +them carry on trade in their own way, and make whatever arrangements +with the native tribes they desire. Colonies such as Virginia and New +York, which had extensive western claims, would have been glad to see +this plan adopted. Strong objections, however, were raised. Colonies +which had no western claims feared the effects of the advantages which +their more fortunate neighbors would enjoy. Men who had invested heavily +in lands lying west of the mountains felt that their returns would be +diminished and delayed if the back country were thrown open to settlers. +Some people thought that the Indians had a moral right to protection +against wholesale white invasion of their hunting-grounds, and many +considered it expedient, at all events, to offer such protection. + +After all, however, it was the King and his ministers who had it in +their power to settle the question; and from their point of view it was +desirable to keep the western territories as much as possible apart +from the older colonies, and to regulate, with farsighted policy, their +settlement and trade. Eventually, it was believed, the territories would +be cut into new colonies; and experience with the seaboard dependencies +was already such as to suggest the desirability of having the future +settlements more completely under government control from the beginning. + +After due consideration, King George and his ministers made known their +policy on October 7, 1763, in a comprehensive proclamation. The first +subject dealt with was government. Four new provinces--"Quebec, +East Florida, West Florida, and Grenada" *--were set up in the ceded +territories, and their populations were guaranteed all the rights +and privileges enjoyed by the inhabitants of the older colonies. The +Mississippi Valley, however, was included in no one of these provinces; +and, curiously, there was no provision whatever for the government of +the French settlements lying within it. The number and size of these +settlements were underestimated, and apparently it was supposed that all +the habitants and soldiers would avail themselves of their privilege of +withdrawing from the ceded territories. + + + * The Proclamation of 1763 drew the boundaries of "four distinct +and separate governments." Grenada was to include the island of that +name, together with the Grenadines. Dominico, St. Vincent, and Tobago. +The Floridas lay south of the bounds of Georgia and east of the +Mississippi River. The Apalachicola River was to be the dividing line +between East and West Florida. Quebec included the modern province of +that name and that part of Ontario lying north of a line drawn from Lake +Nipissing to the point where the forty-fifth parallel intersects the St. +Lawrence River. + + +The disposition made of the great rectangular area bounded by the +Alleghanies, the Mississippi, the Lakes, and the Gulf, was fairly +startling. With fine disregard of the chartered claims of the seaboard +colonies and of the rights of pioneers already settled on frontier +farms, the whole was erected into an Indian reserve. No "loving subject" +might purchase land or settle in the territory without special license; +present residents should "forthwith remove themselves"; trade should be +carried on only by permit and under close surveillance; officers were +to be stationed among the tribes to preserve friendly relations and to +apprehend fugitives from colonial justice. + +The objects of this drastic scheme were never clearly stated. Franklin +believed that the main purpose was to conciliate the Indians. Washington +agreed with him. Later historians have generally thought that what the +English Government had chiefly in mind was to limit the bounds of the +seaboard colonies, with a view to preserving imperial control over +colonial affairs. Very likely both of these motives weighed heavily in +the decision. At all events, Lord Hillsborough, who presided over the +meetings of the Lords of Trade when the proclamation was discussed, +subsequently wrote that the "capital object" of the Government's policy +was to confine the colonies so that they should be kept in easy reach +of British trade and of the authority necessary to keep them in due +subordination to the mother country, and he added that the extension of +the fur trade depended "entirely upon the Indians being undisturbed in +the possession of their hunting-grounds." * + + + * But as Lord Hillsborough had just taken office and adopted +bodily a policy formulated by his predecessor, he is none too good an +authority. See Alvord's "Mississippi Valley in British Politics," vol. +I, pp. 203-4. + + +It does not follow that the King and his advisers intended that the +territory should be kept forever intact as a forest preserve. They seem +to have contemplated that, from time to time, cessions would be secured +from the Indians and tracts would be opened for settlement. But every +move was to be made in accordance with plans formulated or authorized in +England. The restrictive policy won by no means universal assent in +the mother country. The Whigs generally opposed it, and Burke thundered +against it as "an attempt to keep as a lair of wild beasts that earth +which God, by an express charter, has given to the children of men." + +In America there was a disposition to take the proclamation lightly as +being a mere sop to the Indians. But wherever it was regarded seriously, +it was hotly resented. After passing through an arduous war, the +colonists were ready to enter upon a new expansive era. The western +territories were theirs by charter, by settlement, and by conquest. +The Indian population, they believed, belonged to the unprogressive and +unproductive peoples of the earth. Every acre of fertile soil in America +called to the thrifty agriculturist; every westward flowing river +invited to trade and settlement as well, therefore, seek to keep +back the ocean with a broom as to stop by mere decree the tide of +homeseekers. Some of the colonies made honest attempts to compel the +removal of settlers from the reserved lands beyond their borders, and +Pennsylvania went so far as to decree the death penalty for all who +should refuse to remove. But the law was never enforced. + + +The news of the cession of the eastern bank of the Mississippi to the +English brought consternation to the two or three thousand French +people living in the settlements of the Kaskaskia, Illinois, and Wabash +regions. The transfer of the western bank to Spain did not become known +promptly, and for months the habitants supposed that by taking up their +abode on the opposite side of the stream they would continue under their +own flag. Many of them crossed the Mississippi to find new abodes even +after it was announced that the land had passed to Spain. + +From first to last these settlements on the Mississippi, the Wabash, +and the Illinois had remained, in French hands, mere sprawling +villages. The largest of them, Kaskaskia, may have contained in its +most flourishing days two thousand people, many of them voyageurs, +coureurs-de-bois, converted Indians, and transients of one sort or +another. In 1765 there were not above seventy permanent families. Few +of the towns, indeed, attained a population of more than two or three +hundred. All French colonial enterprise had been based on the assumption +that settlers would be few. The trader preferred it so, because +settlements meant restrictions upon his traffic. The Jesuit was of the +same mind, because such settlements broke up his mission field. The +Government at Paris forbade the emigration of the one class of people +that cared to emigrate, the Huguenots. + +Though some of the settlements had picturesque sites and others drew +distinction from their fortifications, in general they presented a drab +appearance. There were usually two or three long, narrow streets, with +no paving, and often knee-deep with mud. The houses were built on either +side, at intervals sufficient to give space for yards and garden plots, +each homestead being enclosed with a crude picket fence. Wood and thatch +were the commonest building materials, although stone was sometimes +used; and the houses were regularly one story high, with large +vine-covered verandas. Land was abundant and cheap. Every enterprising +settler had a plot for himself, and as a rule one large field, or more, +was held for use in common. In these, the operations of ploughing, +sowing, and reaping were carefully regulated by public ordinance. +Occasionally a village drew some distinction from the proximity of a +large, well-managed estate, such as that of the opulent M. Beauvais +of Kaskaskia, in whose mill and brewery more than eighty slaves were +employed. + +Agriculture was carried on somewhat extensively, and it is recorded +that, in the year 1746 alone, when there was a shortage of foodstuffs at +New Orleans, the Illinois settlers were able to send thither "upward of +eight hundred thousand weight of flour." Hunting and trading, however, +continued to be the principal occupations; and the sugar, indigo, +cotton, and other luxuries which the people were able to import directly +from Europe were paid for mainly with consignments of furs, hides, +tallow, and beeswax. Money was practically unknown in the settlements, +so that domestic trade likewise took the form of simple barter. Periods +of industry and prosperity alternated with periods of depression, and +the easy-going habitants--"farmers, hunters, traders by turn, with +a strong admixture of unprogressive Indian blood"--tended always to +relapse into utter indolence. + +Some of these French towns, however, were seats of culture; and none was +wholly barren of diversions. Kaskaskia had a Jesuit college and likewise +a monastery. Cahokia had a school for Indian youth. Fort Chartres, we +are gravely told, was "the center of life and fashion in the West." If +everyday existence was humdrum, the villagers had always the opportunity +for voluble conversation "each from his own balcony"; and there +were scores of Church festivals, not to mention birthdays, visits of +travelers or neighbors, and homecomings of hunters and traders, which +invited to festivity. Balls and dances and other merrymakings at which +the whole village assembled supplied the wants of a people proverbially +fond of amusement. Indeed, French civilization in the Mississippi and +Illinois country was by no means without charm. + +Kaskaskia, in the wonderfully fertile "American Bottom," maintained its +existence, in spite of the cession to the English, as did also Vincennes +farther east on the Wabash. Fort Chartres, a stout fortification whose +walls were more than two feet thick, remained the seat of the principal +garrison, and some traces of French occupancy survived on the Illinois. +Cahokia was deserted, save for the splendid mission-farm of St. Sulpice, +with its thirty slaves, its herd of cattle, and its mill, which the +fathers before returning to France sold to a thrifty Frenchman not +averse to becoming an English subject. A few posts were abandoned +altogether. Some of the departing inhabitants went back to France; some +followed the French commandant, Neyon de Villiers, down the river to +New Orleans; many gathered up their possessions, even to the frames +and clapboards of their houses, and took refuge in the new towns which +sprang up on the western bank. One of these new settlements was Ste. +Genevieve, strategically located near the lead mines from which the +entire region had long drawn its supplies of shot. Another, which was +destined to greater importance, was St. Louis, established as a trading +post on the richly wooded bluffs opposite Cahokia by Pierre Laclede in +1764. + +Associated with Laclede in his fur-trading operations at the new post +was a lithe young man named Pierre Chouteau. In 1846--eighty-two years +afterwards--Francis Parkman sat on the spacious veranda of Pierre +Chouteau's country house near the city of St. Louis and heard from the +lips of the venerable merchant stories of Pontiac, Saint-Ange, Croghan, +and all the western worthies, red and white, of two full generations. +"Not all the magic of a dream," the historian remarks, "nor the +enchantments of an Arabian tale, could outmatch the waking realities +which were to rise upon the vision of Pierre Chouteau. Where, in his +youth, he had climbed the woody bluff, and looked abroad on prairies +dotted with bison, he saw, with the dim eye of his old age, the land +darkened for many a furlong with the clustered roofs of the western +metropolis. For the silence of the wilderness, he heard the clang and +turmoil of human labor, the din of congregated thousands; and where the +great river rolls down through the forest, in lonely grandeur, he saw +the waters lashed into foam beneath the prows of panting steamboats, +flocking to the broad levee." + +Pontiac's war long kept the English from taking actual possession of +the western country. Meanwhile Saint-Ange, commanding the remnant of the +French garrison at Fort Chartres, resisted as best he could the demands +of the redskins for assistance against their common enemy and hoped +daily for the appearance of an English force to relieve him his +difficult position. In the spring of 1764 an English officer, Major +Loftus, with a body of troops lately employed in planting English +authority in "East Florida" and "West Florida," set out from New Orleans +to take possession of the up-river settlements. A few miles above the +mouth of the Red, however, the boats were fired on, without warning, +from both banks of the stream, and many of the men were killed or +wounded. The expedition retreated down the river with all possible +speed. This display of faintheartedness won the keen ridicule of the +French, and the Governor, D'Abadie, with mock magnanimity, offered +an escort of French soldiery to protect the party on its way back to +Pensacola! Within a few months a second attempt was projected, but news +of the bad temper of the Indians caused the leader, Captain Pittman, to +turn back after reaching New Orleans. + +Baffled in this direction, the new commander-in-chief, General Gage, +resolved to accomplish the desired end by an expedition from Fort Pitt. +Pontiac, however, was known to be still plotting vengeance at that time, +and it seemed advisable to break the way for the proposed expedition +by a special mission to placate the Indians. For this delicate task +Sir William Johnson selected a trader of long experience and of good +standing among the western tribes, George Croghan. Notwithstanding many +mishaps, the plan was carried out. With two boats and a considerable +party of soldiers and friendly Delawares, Croghan left Fort Pitt in May, +1765. As he descended the Ohio he carefully plotted the river's +windings and wrote out an interesting description of the fauna and flora +observed. All went well until he reached the mouth of the Wabash. There +the party was set upon by a band of Kickapoos, who killed half a dozen +of his men. Fluent apologies were at once offered. They had made the +attack, they explained, only because the French had reported that the +Indians with Croghan's band were Cherokees, the Kickapoos' most deadly +enemies. Now that their mistake was apparent, the artful emissaries +declared, their regret was indeed deep. + +All of this was sheer pretense, and Croghan and his surviving followers +were kept under close guard and were carried along with the Kickapoo +band up the Wabash to Vincennes, where the trader encountered old Indian +friends who soundly rebuked the captors for their inhospitality. Croghan +knew the Indian nature too well to attempt to thwart the plans of his +"hosts." Accordingly he went out with the band to the upper Wabash +post Ouiatanon, where he received deputation after deputation from the +neighboring tribes, smoked pipes of peace, made speeches, and shook +hands with greasy warriors by the score. Here came a messenger from +Saint-Ange asking him to proceed to Fort Chartres. Here, also, Pontiac +met him, and, after being assured that the English had no intention of +enslaving the natives, declared that he would no longer stand in the +conquerors' path. Though in unexpected manner, Croghan's mission was +accomplished, and, with many evidences of favor from the natives, he +went on to Detroit and thence to Niagara, where he reported to Johnson +that the situation in the West was ripe for the establishment of English +sovereignty. + +There was no reason for further delay, and Captain Thomas Sterling +was dispatched with a hundred Highland veterans to take ever the +settlements. Descending the Ohio from Fort Pitt, the expedition reached +Fort Chartres just as the frosty air began to presage the coming of +winter. On October 10, 1765,--more than two and a half years after +the signing of the Treaty of Paris,--Saint-Ange made the long-desired +transfer of authority. General Gage's high-sounding proclamation was +read, the British flag was run up, and Sterling's red-coated soldiery +established itself in the citadel. In due time small detachments were +sent to Vincennes and other posts; and the triumph of the British power +over Frenchman and Indian was complete. Saint-Ange retired with his +little garrison to St. Louis, where, until the arrival of a Spanish +lieutenant-governor in 1770, he acted by common consent as chief +magistrate. + +The creoles who passed under the English flag suffered little from the +change. Their property and trading interests were not molested, and the +English commandants made no effort to displace the old laws and usages. +Documents were written and records were kept in French as well as +English. The village priest and the notary retained their accustomed +places of paternal authority. The old idyllic life went on. Population +increased but little; barter, hunting, and trapping still furnished +the means of a simple subsistence; and with music, dancing, and holiday +festivities the light-hearted populace managed to crowd more pleasure +into a year than the average English frontiersman got in a lifetime. + +For a year or two after the European pacification of 1763 Indian +disturbances held back the flood of settlers preparing to enter, through +the Alleghany passes, the upper valleys of the westward flowing rivers. +Neither Indian depredations nor proclamations of kings, however, +could long interpose an effectual restraint. The supreme object of the +settlers was to obtain land. Formerly there was land enough for all +along the coasts or in the nearer uplands. But population, as Franklin +computed, was doubling in twenty-five years; vacant areas had already +been occupied; and desirable lands had been gathered into great +speculative holdings. Newcomers were consequently forced to cross the +mountains--and not only newcomers, but all residents who were still +land-hungry and ambitious to better their condition. + +To such the appeal of the great West was irresistible. The English +Government might indeed regard the region as a "barren waste" or a +"profitless wilderness," but not so the Scotch-Irish, Huguenot, and +Palatine homeseekers who poured by the thousands through the Chesapeake +and Delaware ports. Pushing past the settled seaboard country, these +rugged men of adventure plunged joyously into the forest depths and +became no less the founders of the coming nation than were the Pilgrims +and the Cavaliers. + +Ahead of the home-builder, however, went the speculator. It has been +remarked that "from the time when Joliet and La Salle first found their +way into the heart of the great West up to the present day when far-off +Alaska is in the throes of development, 'big business' has been engaged +in western speculation." * In pre-revolutionary days this speculation +took the form of procuring, by grant or purchase, large tracts of +western land which were to be sold and colonized at a profit. Franklin +was interested in a number of such projects. Washington, the Lees, and +a number of other prominent Virginians were connected with an enterprise +which absorbed the old Ohio Company; and in 1770 Washington, piloted +by Croghan, visited the Ohio country with a view to the discovery of +desirable areas. Eventually he acquired western holdings amounting to +thirty-three thousand acres, with a water-front of sixteen miles on the +Ohio and of forty miles on the Great Kanawha. + + + * Alvord, Mississippi Valley in "British Politics," vol. I, p.86. + + + +In 1773 a company promoted by Samuel Wharton, Benjamin Franklin, William +Johnson, and a London banker, Thomas Walpole, secured the grant of two +and a half million acres between the Alleghanies and the Ohio, which +was to be the seat of a colony called Vandalia. This departure from the +policy laid down in the Proclamation of 1763 was made reluctantly, +but with a view to giving a definite western limit to the seaboard +provinces. The Government's purpose was fully understood in America, and +the project was warmly opposed, especially by Virginia, the chartered +claimant of the territory. The early outbreak of the Revolutionary +War wrecked the project, and nothing ever came of it--or indeed of any +colonization proposal contemporary with it. By and large, the building +of the West was to be the work, not of colonizing companies or other +corporate interests, but of individual homeseekers, moving into the new +country on their own responsibility and settling where and when their +own interests and inclinations led. + + + +Chapter III. The Revolution Begins + +One of the grievances given prominence in the Declaration of +Independence was that the English Crown had "abolished the free system +of English laws in a neighbouring province, establishing therein an +arbitrary government, and enlarging its boundaries so as to render it +at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same arbitrary +rule into these colonies." The measure which was in the minds of the +signers was the Quebec Act of 1774; and the feature to which they +especially objected was the extension of this peculiarly governed +Canadian province to include the whole of the territory north of the +Ohio and east of the Mississippi. + +The Quebec Act was passed primarily to remedy a curious mistake made by +King George's ministers eleven years earlier. The Proclamation of 1763 +had been intended to apply to the new French speaking possessions +in only a general way, leaving matters of government and law to be +regulated at a later date. But through oversight it ordained the +establishment of English law, and even of a representative assembly, +precisely as in the other new provinces. The English governors were +thus put in an awkward position. They were required to introduce English +political forms and legal practices. Yet the inexperience and suspicion +of the people made it unwise, if not impossible, to do so. When, for +example, jury trial was broached, the peasants professed to be quite +unable to understand why the English should prefer to have matters of +law decided by tailors and shoemakers rather than by a judge; and as for +a legislature, they frankly confessed that assemblies "had drawn upon +other colonies so much distress, and had occasioned so much riot and +bloodshed, that they had hoped never to have one." + +The Act of 1774 relieved the situation by restoring French law in civil +affairs, abolishing jury trial except in criminal cases, rescinding the +grant of representative government, and confirming the Catholic clergy +in the rights and privileges which they hard enjoyed under the old +regime. This would have aroused no great amount of feeling among New +Englanders and Virginians if the new arrangements had been confined to +the bounds of the original province. But they were not so restricted. +On the contrary, the new province was made to include the great region +between the Alleghanies and the Mississippi, southward to the Ohio; and +it was freely charged that a principal object of the English Government +was to sever the West from the shore colonies and permanently link it +with the St. Lawrence Valley rather than with the Atlantic slope. + +At all events, the Quebec Act marked the beginning of civil government +in the great Northwest. On November 9, 1775, Henry Hamilton appeared as +Lieutenant-Governor at the new capital, Detroit. Already the "shot +heard round the world" had been fired by the farmers at Lexington; and +Hamilton had been obliged to thread his way through General Montgomery's +lines about Montreal in the guise of a Canadian. Arrived at his new seat +of authority, he found a pleasant, freshly fortified town whose white +population had grown to fifteen hundred, including a considerable +number of English-speaking settlers. The country round was overrun with +traders, who cheated and cajoled the Indians without conscience; the +natives, in turn, were a nondescript lot, showing in pitiful manner the +bad effects of their contact with the whites. + +As related by a contemporary chronicler--a Pennsylvanian who lived for +years among the western tribes--an Indian hunting party on arriving at +Detroit would trade perhaps a third of the peltries which they brought +in for fine clothes, ammunition, paint, tobacco, and like articles. +Then a keg of brandy would be purchased, and a council would be held to +decide who was to get drunk and who to keep sober. All arms and clubs +were taken away and hidden, and the orgy would begin. It was the task +of those who kept sober to prevent the drunken ones from killing one +another, a task always hazardous and frequently unsuccessful, sometimes +as many as five being killed in a night. When the keg was empty, brandy +was brought by the kettleful and ladled out with large wooden spoons; +and this was kept up until the last skin had been disposed of. Then, +dejected, wounded, lamed, with their fine new shirts torn, their +blankets burned, and with nothing but their ammunition and tobacco +saved, they would start off down the river to hunt in the Ohio country +and begin again the same round of alternating toil and debauchery. In +the history of the country there is hardly a more depressing chapter +than that which records the easy descent of the red man, once his taste +for "fire water" was developed, to bestiality and impotence. + +The coming on of the Revolution produced no immediate effects in the +West. The meaning of the occurrences round Boston was but slowly grasped +by the frontier folk. There was little indeed that the Westerners could +do to help the cause of the eastern patriots, and most of them, if left +alone, would have been only distant spectators of the conflict. But +orders given to the British agents and commanders called for the +ravaging of the trans-Alleghany country; and as a consequence the West +became an important theater of hostilities. + +The British agents had no troops with which to undertake military +operations on a considerable scale, but they had one great resource--the +Indians--and this they used with a reckless disregard of all +considerations of humanity. In the summer of 1776 the Cherokees were +furnished with fifty horse-loads of ammunition and were turned loose +upon the back country of Georgia and the Carolinas. Other tribes were +prompted to depredations farther north. White, half-breed, and Indian +agents went through the forests inciting the natives to deeds of horror; +prices were fixed on scalps--and it is significant of the temper of +these agents that a woman's scalp was paid for as readily as a man's. + +In every corner of the wilderness the bloody scenes of Pontiac's war +were now reenacted. Bands of savages lurked about the settlements, ready +to attack at any unguarded moment; and wherever the thin blue smoke of a +settler's cabin rose, prowlers lay in wait. A woman might not safely +go a hundred yards to milk a cow, or a man lead a horse to water. +The farmer carried a gun strapped to his side as he ploughed, and he +scarcely dared venture into the woods for the winter's supply of fuel +and game. Hardly a day passed on which a riderless horse did not come +galloping into some lonely clearing, telling of afresh tragedy on the +trail. + +The rousing of the Indians against the frontiersmen was an odious +act. The people of the back country were in not the slightest degree +responsible for the revolt against British authority in the East. They +were non-combatants, and no amount of success in sweeping them from +their homes could affect the larger outcome. The crowning villainy of +this shameful policy was the turning of the redskins loose to prey upon +helpless women and children. + +The responsibility for this inhumanity must be borne in some degree +by the government of George III. "God and nature," wrote the Earl +of Suffolk piously, "hath put into our hands the scalping-knife and +tomahawk, to torture them into unconditional submission." But the fault +lay chiefly with the British officers at the western posts--most of +all, with Lieutenant-Governor Hamilton at Detroit. Probably no British +representative in America was on better terms with the natives. He drank +with them, sang war-songs with them, and received them with open arms +when they came in from the forests with the scalps of white men dangling +at their belts. A great council on the banks of the Detroit in June, +1778, was duly opened with prayer, after which Hamilton harangued the +assembled Chippewas, Hurons, Mohawks, and Potawatomi on their "duties" +in the war and congratulated them on the increasing numbers of their +prisoners and scalps, and then urged them to redoubled activity by +holding out the prospect of the complete expulsion of white men from the +great interior hunting-grounds. + +Scarcely were the deputations attending this council well on their way +homewards when a courier arrived from the Illinois country bringing +startling news. The story was that a band of three hundred rebels led by +one George Rogers Clark had fallen upon the Kaskaskia settlements, had +thrown the commandant into irons, and had exacted from the populace an +oath of allegiance to the Continental Congress. It was reported, too, +that Cahokia had been taken, and that, even as the messenger was leaving +Kaskaskia, "Gibault, a French priest, had his horse ready saddled to go +to Vincennes to receive the submission of the inhabitants in the name of +the rebels." + +George Rogers Clark was a Virginian, born in the foothills of Albemarle +County three years before Braddock's defeat. His family was not of the +landed gentry, but he received some education, and then, like Washington +and many other adventuresome young men of the day, became a surveyor. +At the age of twenty-two he was a member of Governor Dunmore's staff. +During a surveying expedition he visited Kentucky, which so pleased him +that in 1774 he decided to make that part of the back country his home. +He was even then a man of powerful frame, with broad brow, keen blue +eyes, and a dash of red in his hair from a Scottish ancestress--a man, +too, of ardent patriotism, strong common sense, and exceptional +powers of initiative and leadership. Small wonder that in the rapidly +developing commonwealth beyond the mountains he quickly became a +dominating spirit. + +With a view to organizing a civil government and impressing upon the +Virginia authorities the need of defending the western settlements, the +men of Kentucky held a convention at Harrodsburg in the spring of 1775 +and elected two delegates to present their petition to the Virginia +Assembly. Clark was one of them. The journey to Williamsburg was long +and arduous, and the delegates arrived only to find that the Legislature +had adjourned. The visit, none the less, gave Clark an opportunity +to explain to the new Governor--"a certain Patrick Henry, of +Hanover County," as the royalist Dunmore contemptuously styled his +successor--the situation in the back country and to obtain five hundred +pounds of powder. He also induced the authorities to take steps which +led to the definite organization of Kentucky as a county of Virginia. + +In the bloody days that followed, most of the pioneers saw nothing to be +done except to keep close guard and beat off the Indians when they came. +A year or two of that sort of desperate uncertainty gave Clark an idea. +Why not meet the trouble at its source by capturing the British posts +and suppressing the commandants whose orders were mainly responsible +for the atrocities? There was just one obstacle: Kentucky could spare +neither men nor money for the undertaking. + +In the spring of 1777 two young hunters, disguised as traders, were +dispatched to the Illinois country and to the neighborhood of Vincennes, +to spy out the land. They brought back word that the posts were not +heavily manned, and that the French-speaking population took little +interest in the war and was far from reconciled to British rule. The +prospect seemed favorable. Without making his purpose known to anyone, +Clark forthwith joined a band of disheartened settlers and made his way +with them over the Wilderness Trail to Virginia. By this time a plan on +the part of the rebels for the defense of the Kentucky settlements had +grown into a scheme for the conquest of the whole Northwest. + +Clark's proposal came opportunely. Burgoyne's surrender had given the +colonial cause a rosy hue, and already the question of the occupation +of the Northwest had come up for discussion in Congress. Governor Henry +thought well of the plan. He called Thomas Jefferson, George Mason, and +George Wythe into conference, and on January 2, 1778, Clark was given +two sets of orders--one, for publication, commissioning him to raise +seven companies of fifty men each "in any county of the Commonwealth" +for militia duty in Kentucky, the other, secret, authorizing him to +use this force in an expedition for the capture of the "British post at +Kaskasky." To meet the costs, only twelve hundred pounds in depreciated +continental currency could be raised. But the Governor and his friends +promised to try to secure three hundred acres of land for each soldier, +in case the project should succeed. The strictest secrecy was preserved, +and, even if the Legislature had been in session, the project would +probably not have been divulged to it. + +Men and supplies were gathered at Fort Pitt and Wheeling and were +carried down the Ohio to "the Falls," opposite the site of Louisville. +The real object of the expedition was concealed until this point was +reached. On learning of the project, the men were surprised, and some +refused to go farther. But in a few weeks one hundred and seventy-five +men, organized in four companies, were in readiness. The start was made +on the 24th of June. Just as the little flotilla of clumsy flatboats was +caught by the rapid current, the landscape was darkened by an eclipse of +the sun. The superstitious said that this was surely an evil omen. But +Clark was no believer in omens, and he ordered the bateaux to proceed. +He had lately received news of the French alliance, and was surer than +ever that the habitants would make common cause with his forces and give +him complete success. + +To appear on the Mississippi was to run the risk of betraying the +object of the expedition to the defenders of the posts. Hence the wily +commander decided to make the last stages of his advance by an overland +route. At the deserted site of Fort Massac, nine miles below the mouth +of the Tennessee, the little army left the Ohio and struck off northwest +on a march of one hundred and twenty miles, as the crow flies, across +the tangled forests and rich prairies of southern Illinois. + +Six days brought the invaders to the Kaskaskia River, three miles above +the principal settlement. Stealing silently along the bank of the stream +on the night of the 4th of July, they crossed in boats which they seized +at a farmhouse and arrived at the palisades wholly unobserved. Half of +the force was stationed in the form of a cordon, so that no one might +escape. The remainder followed Clark through an unguarded gateway into +the village. + +According to a story long current, the officials of the post were that +night giving a ball, and all of the elite, not of Kaskaskia alone but of +the neighboring settlements as well, were joyously dancing in one of +the larger rooms of the fort. Leaving his men some paces distant, Clark +stepped to the entrance of the hall, and for some time leaned unobserved +against the door-post, grimly watching the gayety. Suddenly the air was +rent by a warwhoop which brought the dancers to a stop. An Indian brave, +lounging in the firelight, had caught a glimpse of the tall, gaunt, buff +and blue figure in the doorway and had recognized it. Women shrieked; +men cursed; the musicians left their posts; all was disorder. Advancing, +Clark struck a theatrical pose and in a voice of command told the +merrymakers to go on with their dancing, but to take note that they now +danced, not as subjects of King George but as Virginians. Finding that +they were in no mood for further diversion, he sent them to their homes; +and all night they shivered with fear, daring not so much as to light a +candle lest they should be set upon and murdered in their beds. + +This account is wholly unsupported by contemporary testimony, and it +probably sprang from the imagination of some good frontier story-teller. +It contains at least this much truth, that the settlement, after being +thrown into panic, was quickly and easily taken. Curiously enough, the +commandant was a Frenchman, Rocheblave, who had thriftily entered the +British service. True to the trust reposed in him, he protested and +threatened, but to no avail. The garrison, now much diminished, was +helpless, and the populace--British, French, and Indian alike--was not +disposed to court disaster by offering armed resistance. Hence, on the +morning after the capture the oath of fidelity was administered, and the +American flag was hoisted for the first time within view of the Father +of Waters. After dispatching word to General Carleton that he had been +compelled to surrender the post to "the self-styled Colonel, Mr. Clark," +Rocheblave was sent as a captive to Williamsburg, where he soon broke +parole and escaped. His slaves were sold for five hundred pounds, and +the money was distributed among the troops. Cahokia was occupied without +resistance, and the French priest, Father Pierre Gibault, whose parish +extended from Lake Superior to the Ohio, volunteered to go to Vincennes +and win its inhabitants to the American cause. + +Like Kaskaskia and Cahokia, the Wabash settlement had been put in charge +of a commandant of French descent. The village, however, was at the +moment without a garrison, and its chief stronghold, Fort Sackville, +was untenanted. Gibault argued forcefully for acceptance of American +sovereignty, and within two days the entire population filed into the +little church and took the oath of allegiance. The astonished Indians +were given to understand that their former "Great Father," the King of +France, had returned to life, and that they must comply promptly with +his wishes or incur his everlasting wrath for having given aid to the +despised British. + +Thus without the firing of a shot or the shedding of a drop of blood, +the vast Illinois and Wabash country was won for the future United +States. Clark's plan was such that its success was assured by its very +audacity. It never occurred to the British authorities that their far +western forts were in danger, and they were wholly unprepared to fly +to the defense of such distant posts. British sovereignty on the +Mississippi was never recovered; and in the autumn of 1778 Virginia took +steps to organize her new conquest by setting up the county of Illinois, +which included all her territories lying "on the western side of the +Ohio." + + + +Chapter IV. The Conquest Completed + +Lieutenant-Governor Hamilton had many faults, but sloth was not one of +them; and when he heard what had happened he promptly decided to regain +the posts and take the upstart Kentucky conqueror captive. Emissaries +were sent to the Wabash country to stir up the Indians, and for weeks +the Detroit settlement resounded with preparations for the expedition. +Boats were built or repaired, guns were cleaned, ammunition was +collected in boxes, provisions were put up in kegs or bags, baubles for +the Indians were made or purchased. Cattle and wheels, together with +a six-pounder, were sent ahead to be in readiness for use at various +stages of the journey. + +Further weeks were consumed in awaiting reenforcements which never came; +and in early October, when the wild geese were scudding southward before +the first snow flurries of the coming winter, the commandant started +for the reconquest with a motley force of thirty-six British regulars, +forty-five local volunteers, seventy-nine local militia, and sixty +Indians. Reenforcements were gathered on the road, so that when +Vincennes was reached the little army numbered about five hundred. From +Detroit the party dropped easily down the river to Lake Erie, where +it narrowly escaped destruction in a blinding snowstorm. By good +management, however, it was brought safely to the Maumee, up whose +sluggish waters the bateaux were laboriously poled. A portage of nine +miles gave access to the Wabash. Here the water was very shallow, and +only by building occasional dikes to produce a current did the party +find it possible to complete the journey. As conferences with the +Indians further delayed them, it was not until a few days before +Christmas that the invaders reached their goal. + +The capture of Vincennes proved easy enough. The surrender, none +the less, was made in good military style. There were two iron +three-pounders in the wretched little fort, and one of these was loaded +to the muzzle and placed in the open gate. As Hamilton and his men +advanced, so runs a not very well authenticated story, Lieutenant +Helm stood by the gun with a lighted taper and called sternly upon +the invaders to halt. The British leader demanded the surrender of the +garrison. Helm parleyed and asked for terms. Hamilton finally conceded +the honors of war, and Helm magnanimously accepted. Hamilton thereupon +drew up his forces in a double line, the British on one side and +the Indians on the other; and the garrison--one officer and one +soldier--solemnly marched out between them! After the "conquerors" had +regained their equanimity, the cross of St. George was once more run +up on the fort. A body of French militia returned to British allegiance +with quite as much facility as it had shown in accepting American +sovereignty under the eloquence of Father Gibault; and the French +inhabitants, gathered again in the church, with perfectly straight faces +acknowledged that they had "sinned against God and man" by taking sides +with the rebels, and promised to be loyal thereafter to George III. + +Had the British forces immediately pushed on, this same scene might have +been repeated at Kaskaskia and Cahokia. Clark's position there was far +from strong. Upon the expiration of their term of enlistment most of +his men had gone back to Kentucky or Virginia, and their places had been +taken mainly by creoles, whose steadfastness was doubtful. Furthermore, +the Indians were restless, and it was only by much vigilance and bravado +that they were kept in a respectful mood. All this was well known to +Hamilton, who now proposed to follow up the recapture of the Mississippi +posts by the obliteration of all traces of American authority west of +the Alleghanies. + +The difficulties and dangers of a midwinter campaign in the flooded +Illinois country were not to be lightly regarded, and weeks of +contending with icy blasts and drenching rains lent a seat by an open +fire unusual attractiveness. Hence the completion of the campaign was +postponed until spring--a decision which proved the salvation of the +American cause in the West. As means of subsistence were slender, most +of the Detroit militia were sent home, and the Indians were allowed to +scatter to their distant wigwams. The force kept at the post numbered +only about eighty or ninety whites, with a few Indians. + +Clark now had at Kaskaskia a band of slightly over a hundred men. He +understood Hamilton's army to number five or six hundred. The outlook +was dubious, until Francois Vigo, a friendly Spanish trader of St. +Louis, escaping captivity at Vincennes, came to Kaskaskia with the +information that Hamilton had sent away most of his troops; and this +welcome news gave the doughty Kentuckian a brilliant idea. He would +defend his post by attacking the invaders while they were yet at +Vincennes, and before they were ready to resume operations. "The case is +desperate," he wrote to Governor Henry, "but, sir, we must either quit +the country or attack Mr. Hamilton." He had probably never heard of +Scipio Africanus but, like that indomitable Roman, he proposed to carry +the war straight into the enemy's country. "There were undoubtedly +appalling difficulties," says Mr. Roosevelt, "in the way of a midwinter +march and attack; and the fact that Clark attempted and performed the +feat which Hamilton dared not try, marks just the difference between a +man of genius and a good, brave, ordinary commander." + +Preparations were pushed with all speed. A large, flat-bottomed boat, +the Willing, was fitted out with four guns and was sent down the +Mississippi with forty men to ascend the Ohio and the Wabash to a place +of rendezvous not far from the coveted post. By early February the +depleted companies were recruited to their full strength; and after the +enterprise had been solemnly blessed by Father Gibault, Clark and +his forces, numbering one hundred and thirty men, pushed out upon the +desolate, windswept prairie. + +The distance to be covered was about two hundred and thirty miles. Under +favorable circumstances, the trip could have been made in five or six +days and with little hardship. The rainy season, however, was now at +its height, and the country was one vast quagmire, overrun by swollen +streams which could be crossed only at great risk. Ten days of wearisome +marching brought the expedition to the forks of the Little Wabash. The +entire region between the two channels was under water, and for a little +time it looked as if the whole enterprise would have to be given up. +There were no boats; provisions were running low; game was scarce; and +fires could not be built for cooking. + +But Clark could not be turned back by such difficulties. He plunged +ahead of his men, struck tip songs and cheers to keep them in spirit, +played the buffoon, went wherever danger was greatest, and by an almost +unmatched display of bravery, tact, and firmness, won the redoubled +admiration of his suffering followers and held them together. Murmurs +arose among the creoles, but the Americans showed no signs of faltering. +For more than a week the party floundered through the freezing water, +picked its way from one outcropping bit of earth to another, and seldom +found opportunity to eat or sleep. Rifles and powder-horns had to be +borne by the hour above the soldiers' heads to keep them dry. + +Finally, on the 23d of February, a supreme effort carried the troops +across the Horseshoe Plain, breast-deep in water, and out upon high +ground two miles from Vincennes. By this time many of the men were so +weakened that they could drag themselves along only with assistance. But +buffalo meat and corn were confiscated from the canoes of some passing +squaws, and soon the troops were refreshed and in good spirits. The +battle with the enemy ahead seemed as nothing when compared with the +struggle with the elements which they had successfully waged. No exploit +of the kind in American history surpasses this, unless it be Benedict +Arnold's winter march through the wilderness of Maine in 1775 to attack +Quebec. + +Two or three creole hunters were now taken captive, and from them Clark +learned that no one in Vincennes knew of his approach. They reported, +however, that, although the habitants were tired of the "Hair-Buyer's" +presence and would gladly return to American allegiance, some two +hundred Indians had just arrived at the fort. The Willing had not been +heard from. But an immediate attack seemed the proper course; and the +young colonel planned and carried it out with the curious mixture of +bravery and braggadocio of which he was a past master. + +First he drew up a lordly letter, addressed to the inhabitants of the +town, and dispatched it by one of his creole prisoners. "Gentlemen," it +ran, "being now within two miles of your village with my army...and not +being willing to surprise you, I take this step to request such of you +as are true citizens, and willing to enjoy the liberty I bring you, +to remain still in your houses. And those, if any there be, that are +friends to the King, will instantly repair to the fort and join the +Hair-Buyer General and fight like men." Having thus given due warning, +he led his "army" forward, marching and counter-marching his meager +forces among the trees and hills to give an appearance of great numbers, +while he and his captains helped keep up the illusion by galloping +wildly here and there on horses they had confiscated, as if ordering a +vast array. At nightfall the men advanced upon the stockade and opened +fire from two directions. + +Not until a sergeant reeled from his chair with a bullet in his breast +did the garrison realize that it was really under attack. The habitants +had kept their secret well. There was a beating of drums and a hurrying +to arms, and throughout the night a hot fusillade was kept up. By firing +from behind houses and trees, and from rifle pits that were dug before +the attack began, the Americans virtually escaped loss; while Hamilton's +gunners were picked off as fast as they appeared at the portholes of the +fort. Clark's ammunition ran low, but the habitants furnished a fresh +supply and at the same time a hot breakfast for the men. In a few hours +the cannon were silenced, and parleys were opened. Hamilton insisted +that he and his garrison were "not disposed to be awed into an action +unworthy of British subjects," but they were plainly frightened, and +Clark finally sent the commandant back to the fort from a conference in +the old French church with the concession of one hour's time in which +to decide what he would do. To help him make up his mind, the American +leader caused half a dozen Indians who had just returned from the +forests with white men's scalps dangling at their belts to be tomahawked +and thrown into the river within plain view of the garrison. + +Surrender promptly followed. Hamilton and twenty-five of his men were +sent off as captives to Virginia, where the commandant languished in +prison until, in 1780, he was paroled at the suggestion of Washington. +On taking, an oath of neutrality, the remaining British sympathizers +were set at liberty. For a second time the American flag floated over +Indiana soil, not again to be lowered. + +Immediately after the capitulation of Hamilton, a scouting-party +captured a relief expedition which was on its way from Detroit and +placed in Clark's hands ten thousand pounds' worth of supplies for +distribution as prize-money among his deserving men. The commander's cup +of satisfaction was filled to the brim when the Willing appeared with a +long-awaited messenger from Governor Henry who brought to the soldiers +the thanks of the Legislature of Virginia for the capture of Kaskaskia +and also the promise of more substantial reward. + +The whole of the Illinois and Indiana country was now in American hands. +Tenure, however, was precarious so long as Detroit remained a British +stronghold, and Clark now broadened his plans to embrace the capture of +that strategic place. Leaving Vincennes in charge of a garrison of forty +men, he returned to Kaskaskia with the Willing and set about organizing +a new expedition. Kentucky pledged three hundred men, and Virginia +promised to help. But when, in midsummer, the commander returned to +Vincennes to consolidate and organize his force, he found the numbers to +be quite insufficient. From Kentucky there came only thirty men. + +Disappointment followed disappointment; he was ordered to build a fort +at the mouth of the Ohio--a project of which he had himself approved; +and when at last he had under his command a force that might have been +adequate for the Detroit expedition, he was obliged to use it in meeting +a fresh incursion of savages which had been stirred up by the new +British commandant on the Lakes. But Thomas Jefferson, who in 1779 +succeeded Henry as Governor of Virginia, was deeply interested in the +Detroit project, and at his suggestion Washington gave Clark an order on +the commandant of Fort Pitt for guns, supplies, and such troops as +could be spared. On January 22, 1781, Jefferson appointed Clark +"brigadier-general of the forces to be embodied on an expedition +westward of the Ohio." Again Clark was doomed to disappointment. +One obstacle after another interposed. Yet as late as May, 1781, the +expectant conqueror wrote to Washington that he had "not yet lost sight +of Detroit." Suitable opportunity for the expedition never came, and +when peace was declared the northern stronghold was still in British +hands. + +Clark's later days were clouded. Although Virginia gave him six thousand +acres of land in southern Indiana and presented him with a sword, peace +left him without employment, and he was never able to adjust himself to +the changed situation. For many years he lived alone in a little +cabin on the banks of the Ohio, spending his time hunting, fishing, and +brooding over the failure of Congress to reward him in more substantial +manner for his services. He was land-poor, lonely, and embittered. In +1818 he died a paralyzed and helpless cripple. His resting place is +in Cave Hill Cemetery, Louisville; the finest statue of him stands in +Monument Circle, Indianapolis--"an athletic figure, scarcely past +youth, tall and sinewy, with a drawn sword, in an attitude of energetic +encouragement, as if getting his army through the drowned lands of the +Wabash." * + + + * Hosmer, "Short History of the Mississippi Valley." p. 94. + + +The capture of Vincennes determined the fate of the Northwest. Frontier +warfare nevertheless went steadily on. In 1779 Spain entered the contest +as an ally of France, and it became the object of the British commanders +on the Lakes not only to recover the posts lost to the Americans but to +seize St. Louis and other Spanish strongholds on the west bank of the +Mississippi. In 1780 Lieutenant-Governor Patrick Sinclair, a bustling, +garrulous old soldier stationed at Michilimackinac, sent a force of +some nine hundred traders, servants, and Indians down the Mississippi +to capture both the American and Spanish settlements. An attack on St. +Louis failed, as did likewise a series of efforts against Cahokia +and Kaskaskia, and the survivors were glad to reach their northern +headquarters again, with nothing to show for their pains except a dozen +prisoners. + +Not to be outdone, the Spanish commandant at St. Louis sent an +expedition to capture British posts in the Lake country. An arduous +winter march brought the avengers and their Indian allies to Fort St. +Joseph, a mile or two west of the present city of Niles, Michigan. +It would be ungracious to say that this post was selected for attack +because it was without a garrison. At all events, the place was duly +seized, the Spanish standard was set up, and possession of "the fort and +its dependencies" was taken in the name of his Majesty Don Carlos III. +No effort was made to hold the settlement permanently, and the British +from Detroit promptly retook it. Probably the sole intention had been to +add somewhat to the strength of the Spanish position at the forthcoming +negotiations for peace. + +The war in the West ended, as it began, in a carnival of butchery. +Treacherous attacks, massacres, burnings, and pillagings were everyday +occurrences, and white men were hardly less at fault than red. Indeed +the most discreditable of all the recorded episodes of the time was a +heartless massacre by Americans of a large band of Indians that had +been Christianized by Moravian missionaries and brought together in a +peaceful community on the Muskingum. This slaughter of the innocents +at Gnadenhutten ("the Tents of Grace") reveals the frontiersman at his +worst. But it was dearly paid for. From the Lakes to the Gulf redskins +rose for vengeance. Villages were wiped out, and murderous bands swept +far into Virginia and Pennsylvania, evading fortified posts in order to +fall with irresistible fury on unsuspecting traders and settlers. + +In midsummer, 1782, news of the cessation of hostilities between Great +Britain and her former seaboard colonies reached the back country, and +the commandant at Detroit made an honest effort to stop all offensive +operations. A messenger failed, however, to reach a certain Captain +Caldwell, operating in the Ohio country, in time to prevent him from +attacking a Kentucky settlement and bringing on the deadly Battle +of Blue Licks, in which the Americans were defeated with a loss of +seventy-one men. George Rogers Clark forthwith led a retaliatory +expedition against the Miami towns, taking prisoners, recapturing +whites, and destroying British trading establishments; and with this +final flare-up the Revolution came to an end in the Northwest. + +The soldier had won the back country for the new nation. Could the +diplomat hold it? As early as March 19, 1779,--just three weeks after +Clark's capture of Vincennes,--the Continental Congress formally laid +claim to the whole of the Northwest; and a few months later John Adams +was instructed to negotiate for peace on the understanding that the +country's northern and western boundaries were to be the line of the +Great Lakes and the Mississippi. When, in 1781, Franklin, Jefferson, +Jay, and Laurens were appointed to assist Adams in the negotiation, the +new Congress of the Confederation stated that the earlier instructions +on boundaries represented its "desires and expectations." + +It might have been supposed that if Great Britain could be brought to +accept these terms there would be no further difficulty. But obstacles +arose from other directions. France had entered the war for her own +reasons, and looked with decidedly more satisfaction on the defeat of +Great Britain than on the prospect of a new and powerful nation in the +Western Hemisphere. Furthermore, she was in close alliance with Spain; +and Spain had no sympathy whatever with the American cause as such. At +all events, she did not want the United States for a neighbor on the +Mississippi. + +The American commissioners were under instructions to make no peace +without consulting France. But when, in the spring of 1782, Jay came +upon the scene of the negotiations at Paris, he demurred. He had been +for some time in Spain, and he carried to Paris not only a keen contempt +for the Spanish people and Spanish politics, but a strong suspicion that +Spain was using her influence to keep the United States from getting the +territory between the Lakes and the Ohio. France soon fell under similar +suspicion, for she was under obligations, as everyone knew, to satisfy +Spain; and little time elapsed before the penetrating American diplomat +was semiofficially assured that his suspicions in both directions were +well founded. + +The mainspring of Spanish policy was the desire to make the Gulf of +Mexico a closed sea, under exclusive Spanish control. This plan would be +frustrated if the Americans acquired an outlet on the Gulf; furthermore, +it would be jeopardized if they retained control on the upper +Mississippi. Hence, the States must be kept back from the great +river; safety dictated that they be confined to the region east of the +Appalachians. + +An ingenious plan was thereupon developed. Spain was to resume +possession of the Floridas, insuring thereby the coveted unbroken +coast line on the Gulf. The vast area between the Mississippi and the +Appalachians and south of the Ohio was to be an Indian territory, half +under Spanish and half under American "protection." The entire region +north of the Ohio was to be kept by Great Britain, or, at the most, +divided--on lines to be determined--between Great Britain and the United +States. From Rayneval, confidential secretary of the French foreign +minister Vergennes, Jay learned that the French Government proposed to +give this scheme its support. + +Had such terms as these been forced on the new nation, the hundreds of +Virginian and Pennsylvanian pioneers who had given up their lives in the +planting of American civilization in the back country would have +turned in their graves. But Jay had no notion of allowing the scheme to +succeed. He sent an emissary to England to counteract the Spanish and +French influence. He converted Adams to his way of thinking, and even +raised doubts in Franklin's mind. Finally he induced his colleagues to +cast their instructions to the winds and negotiate a treaty with the +mother country independently. + +This simplified matters immensely. Great Britain was a beaten nation, +and from the beginning her commissioners played a losing game. There +was much haggling over the loyalists, the fisheries, debts; but the +boundaries were quickly drawn. Great Britain preferred to see the +disputed western country in American hands rather than to leave a chance +for it to fall under the control of one of her European rivals. + +Accordingly, the Treaty of Paris drew the interior boundary of the new +nation through the Great Lakes and connecting waters to the Lake of the +Woods; from the most northwestern point of the Lake of the Woods due +west to the Mississippi (an impossible line); down the Mississippi to +latitude 31 degrees; thence east, by that parallel and by the line which +is now the northern boundary of Florida, to the ocean. Three nations, +instead of two, again shared the North American Continent: Great Britain +kept the territory north of the Lakes; Spain ruled the Floridas +and everything west of the Mississippi; the United States held the +remainder--an area of more than 825,000 square miles, with a population +of three and one half millions. + + + +Chapter V. Wayne, The Scourge Of The Indians + +"This federal republic," wrote the Spanish Count d'Aranda to his royal +master in 1782, "is born a pigmy. A day will come when it will be +a giant, even a colossus. Liberty of conscience, the facility for +establishing a new population on immense lands, as well as the +advantages of the new government, will draw thither farmers and artisans +from all the nations." + +Aranda correctly weighed the value of the country's vast stretches of +free and fertile land. The history of the United States has been +largely a story of the clearing of forests, the laying out of farms, +the erection of homes, the construction of highways, the introduction +of machinery, the building of railroads, the rise of towns and of great +cities. The Germans of Wisconsin and Missouri, the Scandinavians of +Minnesota and the Dakotas, the Poles and Hungarians of Chicago, the +Irish and Italians of a thousand communities, attest the fact that the +"farmers and artisans from all the nations" have had an honorable part +in the achievement. + +In laying plans for the development of the western lands the +statesmanship of the evolutionary leaders was at its best. In the first +place, the seven States which had some sort of title to tracts extending +westward to the Mississippi wisely yielded these claims to the nation; +and thus was created a single, national domain which could be dealt with +in accordance with a consistent policy. In the second place, Congress, +as early as 1780, pledged the national Government to dispose of the +western lands for the common benefit, and promised that they should be +"settled and formed into distinct republican states, which shall become +members of the federal union, and have the same rights of sovereignty, +freedom; and independence as the other states." + +Finally, in the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 there was mapped out a +scheme of government admirably adapted to the liberty-loving, yet +law-abiding, populations of the frontier. It was based on the broad +principles of democracy, and it was sufficiently flexible to permit +necessary changes as the scattered settlements developed into organized +Territories and then into States. Geographical conditions, as well as +racial inheritances, foreordained that the United States should be +an expanding, colonizing nation; and it was of vital importance that +wholesome precedents of territorial control should be established in the +beginning. Louisiana, Florida, the Mexican accessions, Alaska, and even +the newer tropical dependencies, owe much to the decisions that were +reached in the organizing of the Northwest a century and a quarter ago. + +The Northwest Ordinance was remarkable in that it was framed for a +territory that had practically no white population and which, in a +sense, did not belong to the United States at all. Back in 1768 Sir +William Johnson's Treaty of Fort Stanwix had made the Ohio River the +boundary between the white and red races of the West. Nobody at the +close of the Revolution supposed that this division would be adhered to; +the Northwest had not been won for purposes of an Indian reserve. +None the less, the arrangements of 1768 were inherited, and the nation +considered them binding except in so far as they were modified from +time to time by new agreements. The first such agreement affecting the +Northwest was concluded in 1785, through George Rogers Clark and two +other commissioners, with the Wyandots, Delawares, Chippewas, and +Ottawas. By it the United States acquired title to the southeastern half +of the present State of Ohio, with a view to surveying the lands and +raising revenue by selling them. Successive treaties during the next +thirty years gradually transferred the whole of the Northwest from +Indian hands to the new nation. + +Officially, the United States recognized the validity of the Indian +claims; but the pioneer homeseeker was not so certain to do so. From +about 1775 the country south of the Ohio filled rapidly with settlers +from Virginia and the Carolinas, so that by 1788 the white population +beyond the Blue Ridge was believed to be considerably over one hundred +thousand. For a decade the "Indian side," as the north shore was +habitually called, was trodden only by occasional hunters, traders, +and explorers. But after Clark's victories on the Mississippi and the +Wabash, the frontiersmen grew bolder. By 1780 they began to plant camps +and cabins on the rich bottom-lands of the Miamis, the Scioto, and the +Muskingum; and when they heard that the British claims in the West had +been formally yielded, they assumed that whatever they could take was +theirs. With the technicalities of Indian claims they had not much +patience. In 1785 Colonel Harmar, commanding at Fort Pitt, sent a +deputation down the river to drive the intruders back. But his agents +returned with the report that the Virginians and Kentuckians were moving +into the forbidden country "by the forties and fifties," and that +they gave every evidence of proposing to remain there. Surveyors were +forthwith set to work in the "Seven Ranges," as the tract just to the +west of the Pennsylvania boundary was called; and Fort Harmar was built +at the mouth of the Muskingum to keep the over-ardent settlers back. + +The close of the Revolution brought not only a swift revival of +emigration to the West but also a remarkable outburst of speculation +in western land. March 3, 1786, General Rufus Putnam and some other +Continental officers met at the "Bunch of Grapes" Tavern in Boston and +decided that it would be to their advantage to exchange for land in +the Seven Ranges the paper certificates in which they had been paid for +their military services. Accordingly an "Ohio Company" was organized, +and Dr. Manasseh Cutler--"preacher, lawyer, doctor, statesman, +scientist, land speculator"--was sent off to New York to push the matter +in Congress. The upshot was that Congress authorized the sale of one and +a half million acres east of the Scioto to the Ohio Company, and five +million acres to a newly organized Scioto Company. + +The Scioto Company fell into financial difficulties and, after making +an attempt to build up a French colony at Gallipolis, collapsed. But +General Putnam and his associates kept their affairs well in hand and +succeeded in planting the first legal white settlement in the present +State of Ohio. An arduous winter journey brought the first band of +forty-eight settlers, led by Putnam himself, to the mouth of the +Muskingum on April 7, 1788. Here, in the midst of a great forest +dotted with terraces, cones, and other fantastic memorials of the +mound-builders, they erected a blockhouse and surrounded it with cabins. +For a touch of the classical, they called the fortification the Campus +Martius; to be strictly up to date, they named the town Marietta, after +Marie Antoinette, Queen of France. In July the little settlement was +honored by being made the residence of the newly arrived Governor of +the Territory, General Arthur St. Clair. Before the close of the year +Congress sold one million acres between the two Miamis to Judge Symmes +of New Jersey; and three little towns were at once laid out. To one of +them a pedantic schoolmaster gave the name L-os-anti-ville, "the town +opposite the mouth of the Licking." The name may have required too much +explanation; at all events, when, in 1790, the Governor transferred the +capital thither from Marietta, he rechristened the place Cincinnati, in +honor of the famous Revolutionary society to which he belonged. + +Land speculators are confirmed optimists. But Putnam, Cutler, Symmes, +and their associates were correct in believing that the Ohio country was +at the threshold of a period of remarkable development. There was one +serious obstacle--the Indians. Repeated expeditions from Kentucky had +pushed most of the tribes northward to the headwaters of the Miami, +Scioto, and Wabash; and the Treaty of 1785 was supposed to keep them +there. But it was futile to expect such an arrangement to prove lasting +unless steadily backed up with force. In their squalid villages in the +swampy forests of northern Ohio and Indiana the redskins grew sullen +and vindictive. As they saw their favorite hunting-grounds slipping +from their grasp, those who had taken part in the cession repented their +generosity, while those who had no part in it pronounced it fraudulent +and refused to consider themselves bound by it. Swiftly the idea took +hold that the oncoming wave must be rolled back before it was too late. +"White man shall not plant corn north of the Ohio" became the rallying +cry. + +Back of this rebelliousness lay a certain amount of British influence. +The Treaty of 1783 was signed in as kindly spirit as the circumstances +would permit, but its provisions were not carried out in a charitable +manner. On account of alleged shortcomings of the United States, the +British Government long refused to give up possession of eight or ten +fortified posts in the north and west. One of these was Detroit; and +the officials stationed there systematically encouraged the hordes of +redskins who had congregated about the western end of Lake Erie to make +all possible resistance to the American advance. The British no longer +had any claim to the territories south of the Lakes, but they wanted to +keep their ascendancy over the northwestern Indians, and especially to +prevent the rich fur trade from falling into American hands. Ammunition +and other supplies were lavished on the restless tribes. The post +officials insisted that these were merely the gifts which had regularly +been made in times of peace. But they were used with deadly effect +against the Ohio frontiersmen; and there can be little doubt that they +were intended so to be used. + +By 1789 the situation was very serious. Marauding expeditions were +growing in frequency; and a scout sent out by Governor St. Clair came +back with the report that most of the Indians throughout the entire +Northwest had "bad hearts." Washington decided that delay would be +dangerous, and the nation forthwith prepared for its first war since +independence. Kentucky was asked to furnish a thousand militiamen and +Pennsylvania five hundred, and the forces were ordered to come together +at Fort Washington, near Cincinnati. + +The rendezvous took place in the summer of 1790, and General Josiah +Harmar was put in command of a punitive expedition against the Miamis. +The recruits were raw, and Harmar was without the experience requisite +for such an enterprise. None the less, when the little army, accompanied +by three hundred regulars, and dragging three brass field-pieces, +marched out of Fort Washington on a fine September day, it created a +very good impression. All went well until the expedition reached the +Maumee country. On the site of the present city of Fort Wayne they +destroyed a number of Indian huts and burned a quantity of corn. But +in a series of scattered encounters the white men were defeated, with +a loss of nearly two hundred killed; and Harmar thought it the part +of wisdom to retreat. He had gained nothing by the expedition; on the +contrary, he had stirred the redskins to fresh aggressions, and his +retreating forces were closely followed by bands of merciless raiders. + +Washington knew what the effect of this reverse would be. Accordingly +he called St. Clair to Philadelphia and ordered him to take personal +command of a new expedition, adding a special warning against ambush and +surprise. Congress aided by voting two thousand troops for six months, +besides two small regiments of regulars. But everything went wrong. +Recruiting proved slow; the men who were finally brought together were +poor material for an army, being gathered chiefly from the streets and +prisons of the seaboard cities; and supplies were shockingly inadequate. + +St. Clair was a man of honest intention, but old, broken in health, and +of very limited military ability; and when finally, October 4, 1791, +he led his untrained forces slowly northwards from Fort Washington, he +utterly failed to take measures either to keep his movements secret +or to protect his men against sudden attack. The army trudged slowly +through the deep forests, chopping out its own road, and rarely +advancing more than five or six miles a day. The weather was favorable +and game was abundant, but discontent was rife and desertions became +daily occurrences. As most of the men had no taste for Indian warfare +and as their pay was but two dollars a month, not all the commander's +threats and entreaties could hold them in order. + +On the night of the 3d of November the little army--now reduced to +fourteen hundred men--camped, with divisions carelessly scattered, +on the eastern fork of the Wabash, about a hundred miles north +of Cincinnati and near the Indiana border. The next morning, when +preparations were being made for a forced march against some Indian +villages near by, a horde of redskins burst unexpectedly upon the +bewildered troops, surrounded them, and threatened them with utter +destruction. A brave stand was made, but there was little chance of +victory. "After the first on set," as Roosevelt has described the +battle, "the Indians fought in silence, no sound coming from them save +the incessant rattle of their fire, as they crept from log to log, from +tree to tree, ever closer and closer. The soldiers stood in close order, +in the open; their musketry and artillery fire made a tremendous noise, +but did little damage to a foe they could hardly see. Now and then +through the hanging smoke terrible figures flitted, painted black +and red, the feathers of the hawk and eagle braided in their long +scalp-locks; but save for these glimpses, the soldiers knew the presence +of their somber enemy only from the fearful rapidity with which their +comrades fell dead and wounded in the ranks." + +At last, in desperation St. Clair ordered his men to break through the +deadly cordon and save themselves as best they could. The Indians kept +up a hot pursuit for a distance of four miles. Then, surfeited with +slaughter, they turned to plunder the abandoned camp; otherwise there +would have been escape for few. As it was, almost half of the men in +the engagement were killed, and less than five hundred got off with no +injury. The survivors gradually straggled into the river settlements, +starving and disheartened. + +The page on which is written the story of St. Clair's defeat is one of +the gloomiest in the history of the West. Harmar's disaster was dwarfed; +not since Braddock and his regulars were cut to pieces by an unseen +foe on the road to Fort Duquesne had the redskins inflicted upon their +hereditary enemy a blow of such proportions. It was with a heavy heart +that the Governor dispatched a messenger to Philadelphia with the news. +Congress ordered an investigation; and in view of the unhappy general's +high character and his courageous, though blundering, conduct during +the late campaign, he was exonerated. He retained the governorship, but +prudently resigned his military command. + +The situation was now desperate. Everywhere the forests resounded with +the exultant cries of the victors, while the British from Detroit and +other posts actively encouraged the belief not only that they would +furnish all necessary aid but that England herself was about to declare +war on the United States. Eventually a British force from Detroit +actually invaded the disputed country and built a stockade (Fort Miami) +near the site of the present city of Toledo, with a view to giving +the redskins convincing evidence of the seriousness of the Great White +Father's intentions. Small wonder that, when St. Clair sought to obtain +by diplomacy the settlement which he had failed to secure by arms, +his commissioners were met with the ultimatum: "Brothers, we shall be +persuaded that you mean to do us justice, if you agree that the Ohio +shall remain the boundary line between us. If you will not consent +thereto, our meeting will be altogether unnecessary." + +It is said that Washington's first choice for the new western command +was "Light-Horse Harry" Lee. But considerations of rank made the +appointment inexpedient, and "Mad Anthony" Wayne was named instead. +Wayne was the son of a Pennsylvania frontiersman and came honestly by +his aptitude for Indian fighting. In early life he was a surveyor, +and in the Revolution he won distinction as a dashing commander of +Pennsylvania troops at Ticonderoga, Brandywine, Germantown, Stony Point, +and other important engagements. Finally he obtained a major-general's +commission in Greene's campaign in Georgia, and at the close of the war +he settled in that State as a planter. His vanity--displayed chiefly in +a love of fine clothes--brought upon him a good deal of criticism; and +Washington, who in a Cabinet meeting characterized him as "brave and +nothing else," was frankly apprehensive lest in the present business +Wayne's impetuosity should lead to fresh disaster. Yet the qualities +that on a dozen occasions had enabled Wayne to snatch success from +almost certain defeat--alertness, decisiveness, bravery, and sheer love +of hard fighting--were those now chiefly in demand. + +The first task was to create an army. A few regulars were available; +but most of the three or four thousand men who were needed had to be +gathered wheresoever they could be found. A call for recruits brought +together at Pittsburgh, in the summer of 1792, a nondescript lot of +beggars, criminals, and other cast-offs of the eastern cities, no better +and no worse than the adventurers who had taken service under St. Clair. +Few knew anything of warfare, and on one occasion a mere report of +Indians in the vicinity caused a third of the sentinels to desert their +posts. But, as rigid discipline was enforced and drilling was carried +on for eight and ten hours a day, by spring the survivors formed a very +respectable body of troops. The scene of operations was then transferred +to Fort Washington, where fresh recruits were started on a similar +course of development. Profitting by the experience of his predecessors, +Wayne insisted that campaigning should begin only after the troops were +thoroughly prepared; and no drill-master ever worked harder to get his +charges into condition for action. Going beyond the ordinary manual +of arms, he taught the men to load their rifles while running at full +speed, and to yell at the top of their voices while making a bayonet +attack. + +In October, 1793, the intrepid Major-General advanced with twenty-six +hundred men into the nearer stretches of the Indian country, in order +to be in a position for an advantageous spring campaign. They built +Fort Greenville, eighty miles north of Cincinnati, and there spent the +winter, while, on St. Clair's fatal battle-field, an advance detachment +built a post which they hopefully christened Fort Recovery. Throughout +the winter unending drill was kept up; and when, in June, 1794, fourteen +hundred mounted militia arrived from Kentucky, Wayne found himself at +the head of the largest and best-trained force that had ever been turned +against the Indians west of the Alleghanies. Even before the arrival +of the Kentuckians, it proved its worth by defending its forest +headquarters, with practically no loss, against an attack by fifteen +hundred redskins. + +On the 27th of July the army moved forward in the direction of the +Maumee, with closed ranks and so guarded by scouts that no chance +whatever was given for surprise attacks. Washington's admonitions had +been taken to heart, and the Indians could only wonder and admire. +News of the army's advance traveled ahead and struck terror through the +northern villages, so that many of the inhabitants fled precipitately. +When the troops reached the cultivated lands about the junction of the +Maumee and Auglaize rivers, they found only deserted huts and great +fields of corn, from which they joyfully replenished their diminished +stores. Here a fort was built and given the significant name Defiance; +and from it a final offer of peace was sent out to the hostile tribes. +Never doubting that the British would furnish all necessary aid, the +chieftains returned evasive answers. Wayne thereupon moved his troops to +the left bank of the Maumee and proceeded cautiously downstream toward +the British stronghold at Fort Miami. + +A few days brought the army to a place known as Fallen Timbers, where +a tornado had piled the trunks and branches of mighty trees in +indescribable confusion. The British post was but five or six miles +distant; and there behind the breastworks which nature had provided, and +in easy reach of their allies, the Indians chose to make their stand. On +the morning of the 20th of August, Wayne, now so crippled by gout that +he had to be lifted into his saddle, gallantly led an assault. The +Indian fire was murderous, and a battalion of mounted Kentuckians was +at first hurled back. But the front line of infantry rushed up and +dislodged the savages from their covert, while the regular cavalry on +the right charged the enemy's left flank. Before the second line of +infantry could get into action the day was won. The whole engagement +lasted less than three-quarters of an hour, and not a third of Wayne's +three thousand men actually took part in it. + +The fleeing redskins were pursued to the walls of the British fort, and +even there many were slain. The British soldiery not only utterly failed +to come to the relief of their hard-pressed allies, but refused to +open the gates to give them shelter. The American loss was thirty-three +killed and one hundred wounded. But the victory was the most decisive as +yet gained over the Indians of the Northwest. A warfare of forty years +was ended in as many minutes. + +From the lower Maumee, Wayne marched back to Fort Defiance, and thence +to the junction of the St. Mary's and St. Joseph rivers, where he built +a fort and gave it the name still borne by the thriving city that grew +up around it--Fort Wayne. Everywhere the American soldiers destroyed the +ripened crops and burned the villages, while the terrified inhabitants +fled. In November the army took up winter quarters at Fort Greenville. + +At last the Americans had the upper hand. Their arms were feared; the +British promises of help were no longer credited by the Indians; and it +was easy for Wayne to convince the tribal representatives who visited +him in large numbers during the winter that their true interest was to +win the good-will of the United States. In the summer of 1795 there +was a general pacification. Delegation after delegation arrived at +Fort Greenville, until more than a thousand chiefs and braves were in +attendance. The prestige of Wayne was still further increased when the +news came that John Jay had negotiated a treaty at London under which +the British posts on United States soil were finally to be given up; +and on August 3rd Wayne was able to announce a great treaty wherein the +natives ceded all of what is now southern Ohio and southeastern Indiana, +and numerous tracts around posts within the Indian country, such as Fort +Wayne, Detroit, and Michilimackinac--strategic points on the western +waterways. "Elder Brother," said a Chippewa chief in the course of one +of the interminable harangues delivered during the negotiation, "you +asked who were the true owners of the land now ceded to the United +States. In answer, I tell you, if any nations should call themselves +the owners of it, they would be guilty of falsehood; our claim to it +is equal; our Elder Brother has conquered it." The United States +duly recognized the Indian title to all lands not expressly ceded and +promised the Indians annual subsidies. The terms of the treaty were +faithfully observed on both sides, and for fifteen years the pioneer +lived and toiled in peace. + +Wayne forthwith became a national hero. Returning to Philadelphia in +1796, he was met by a guard of honor, hailed with the ringing of bells +and a salute of fifteen guns, and treated to a dazzling display of +fireworks. Congress voted its thanks, and Washington, whose fears had +long since vanished, added his congratulations. There was one other +service on the frontier for the doughty general to render. The British +posts were at last to be surrendered, and Wayne was designated to +receive them. By midsummer he was back in the forest country, and in +the autumn he took possession of Detroit, amid acclamations of Indians, +Americans, Frenchmen, and Englishmen alike. But his work was done. On +the return journey he suffered a renewed attack of his old enemy, gout, +and at Presqu'isle (Erie) he died. A blockhouse modeled on the defenses +which he built during his western campaign marks his first resting-place +and bears aloft the flag which he helped plant in the heart of the +Continent. + + + +Chapter VI. The Great Migration + +While the fate of the Northwest still hung in the balance, emigration +from the eastern States became the rage. "Every small farmer whose +barren acres were covered with mortgages, whose debts pressed heavily +upon him, or whose roving spirit gave him no peace, was eager to sell +his homestead for what it would bring and begin life anew on the banks +of the Muskingum or the Ohio." * Land companies were then just as +optimistic and persuasive as they are today, and the attractions of the +western country lost nothing in the telling. Pamphlets described the +climate as luxurious, the soil as inexhaustible, the rainfall as both +abundant and well distributed, the crops as unfailingly bountiful; +paid agents went among the people assuring them that a man of push and +courage could nowhere be so prosperous and so happy as in the West. + + + * McMaster, "History of the People of the United States," vol. +III, p. 461. + + +As early as 1787 an observer at Pittsburgh reported that in six weeks +he saw fifty flatboats set off for the downriver settlements; in 1788 +forty-five hundred emigrants were said to have passed Fort Harmar +between February and June. Most of these people were bound for Kentucky +or Tennessee. But the census of 1790 gave the population north of the +Ohio as 4,280, and after Wayne's victory the proportion of newcomers who +fixed their abodes in that part of the country rapidly increased. For +a decade Ohio was the favorite goal; and within eight years after the +battle at Fallen Timbers this region was ready for admission to the +Union as a State. Southern Indiana also filled rapidly. + +For a time the westward movement was regarded as of no disadvantage to +the seaboard States. It was supposed that the frontier would attract a +population of such character as could easily be spared in more settled +communities. But it became apparent that the new country did not appeal +simply to broken-down farmers, bankrupts, and ne'er-do-wells. Robust and +industrious men, with growing families, were drawn off in great numbers; +and public protest was raised against the "plots to drain the East of +its best blood." Anti-emigration pamphlets were scattered broadcast, +and, after the manner of the day, the leading western enterprises were +belabored with much bad verse. A rude cut which gained wide circulation +represented a stout, ruddy, well-dressed man on a sleek horse, with a +label, "I am going to Ohio," meeting a pale and ghastly skeleton of +a man, in rags, on the wreck of what had once been a horse, with the +label, "I have been to Ohio." + +The streams of migration flowed from many sources. New England +contributed heavily. Marietta, Cincinnati, and many other rising river +towns received some of the best blood of that remote section. The +Western Reserve--a tract bordering on Lake Erie which Connecticut had +not ceded to the Federal Government--drew largely from the Nutmeg +State. A month before Wayne set out to take possession of Detroit, Moses +Cleaveland with a party of fifty Connecticut homeseekers started off to +found a settlement in the Reserve; and the town which took its name from +the leader was but the first of a score which promptly sprang up in +this inviting district. The "Seven Ranges," lying directly south of the +Reserve, drew emigrants from Pennsylvania, with some from farther +south. The Scioto valley attracted chiefly Virginians, who early made +Chillicothe their principal center. In the west, and north of the Symmes +tract, Kentuckians poured in by the thousands. + +Thus in a decade Ohio became a frontier melting-pot. Puritan, Cavalier, +Irishman, Scotch-Irishman, German--all were poured into the crucible. +Ideals clashed, and differing customs grated harshly. But the product of +a hundred years of cross-breeding was a splendid type of citizenship. At +the presidential inaugural ceremonies of March 4, 1881, six men chiefly +attracted the attention of the crowd: the retiring President, Hayes; +the incoming President, Garfield; the Chief-Justice who administered the +oath, Waite; the general commanding the army, William T. Sherman; the +ex-Secretary of the Treasury, John Sherman; and "the Marshal Ney of +America," Lieutenant-General Sheridan. Five of the six were natives +of Ohio, and the sixth was a lifelong resident. Men commented on the +striking group and rightly remarked that it could have been produced +only by a singularly happy blending of the ideas and ideals that form +the warp and woof of Americanism. + +Amalgamation, however, took time; for there were towering prejudices +and antipathies to be overcome. The Yankee scorned the Southerner, who +reciprocated with a double measure of dislike. The New England settlers +were, as a rule, people of some education; not one of their communities +long went without a schoolmaster. They were pious, law-abiding, +industrious; their more easygoing neighbors were likely to consider them +over-sensitive and critical. But the quality that made most impression +upon others was their shrewdness in business transactions. They could +drive a bargain and could discover loopholes in a contract in a fashion +to take the average backwoodsman off his feet. "Yankee tricks" became, +indeed, a household phrase wherever New Englander and Southerner met. +Whether the Yankee talked or kept silent, whether he was generous or +parsimonious, he was always under suspicion. + +What of the "Long Knives" from Virginia, the Carolinas, and Kentucky who +also made the Ohio lands their goal? Of books they knew little; they +did not name their settlements in honor of classic heroes. They were +not "gentlemen"; many of them, indeed, had sought the West to escape a +society in which distinctions of birth and possessions had put them at a +disadvantage. They were not so pious as the New Englanders, though +they were capable of great religious enthusiasm, and their morals were +probably not inferior. Their houses were poorer; their villages were not +so well kept; their dress was more uncouth, and their ways rougher. But +they were a hardy folk--brave, industrious, hospitable, and generous to +a fault. + +In the first days of westward migration the favorite gateway into +the Ohio Valley was Cumberland Gap, at the southeastern corner of the +present State of Kentucky. Thence the Virginians and Carolinians passed +easily to the Ohio in the region of Cincinnati or Louisville. Later +emigrants from more northern States found other serviceable routes. +Until the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825, New Englanders reached +the West by three main avenues. Some followed the Mohawk and Genesee +turnpikes across central New York to Lake Erie. This route led directly, +of course, to the Western Reserve. Some traveled along the Catskill +turnpike from the Hudson to the headwaters of the Allegheny, and thence +descended the Ohio. Still others went by boat from Boston to New York, +Philadelphia, or Baltimore, in order to approach the Ohio by a more +southerly course. + +The natural outlet from Pennsylvania was the Ohio River. Emigrants from +the western parts of the State floated down the Allegheny or Monongahela +to the main stream. Those from farther east, including settlers from New +Jersey, made the journey overland by one of several well-known roads. +The best of these was a turnpike following the line that General Forbes +had cut during the French and Indian War from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh +by way of Lancaster and Bedford. Baltimore was a favorite point of +departure, and from it the route lay almost invariably along a turnpike +to Cumberland on the upper Potomac, and thence by the National Road +across the mountains to Wheeling. In later days this was the route +chiefly taken from Virginia, although more southerly passes through the +Blue Ridge were used as outlets to the Great Kanawha, the Big Sandy, and +other streams flowing into the Ohio farther down. + +Thus the lines of westward travel which in the East spread fan-shape +from Maine to Georgia converged on the Ohio; and that stream became, and +for half a century remained, the great pathway of empire. Most of the +emigrants had to cover long distances in overland travel before they +reached the hospitable waterway; some, especially in earlier times, +made the entire journey by land. Hundreds of the very poor went afoot, +carrying all their earthly possessions on their backs, or dragging +them in rude carts. But the usual conveyance was the canvas-covered +wagon--ancestor of the "prairie schooner" of the western plains--drawn +over the rough and muddy roads by four, or even six, horses. In this +vehicle the emigrants stowed their provisions, household furniture and +utensils, agricultural implements, looms, seeds, medicines, and every +sort of thing that the prudent householder expected to need, and for +which he could find space. Extra horses or oxen sometimes drew an +additional load; cattle, and even flocks of sheep, were occasionally +driven ahead or behind by some member of the family. + +In the years of heaviest migration the highways converging on Pittsburgh +and Wheeling were fairly crowded with westward-flowing traffic. As a +rule several families, perhaps from the same neighborhood in the old +home, traveled together; and in any case the chance acquaintances of the +road and of the wayside inns broke the loneliness of the journey. +There were wonderful things to be seen, and every day brought novel +experiences. But exposure and illness, dread of Indian attacks, mishaps +of every sort, and the awful sense of isolation and of uncertainty +of the future, caused many a man's stout heart to quail, and brought +anguish unspeakable to brave women. Of such joys and sorrows, however, +is a frontier existence compounded; and of the growing thousands who +turned their faces toward the setting sun, comparatively few yielded +to discouragement and went back East. Those who did so were usually the +land speculators and people of weak, irresolute, or shiftless character. + +An English traveler, Morris Birkbeck, who passed over the National Road +through southwestern Pennsylvania in 1817, was filled with amazement +at the number, hardihood, and determination of the emigrants whom he +encountered. + +"Old America seems to be breaking up [he wrote] and moving westward. We +are seldom out of sight, as we travel on this grand track, towards the +Ohio, of family groups, behind and before us.... A small wagon (so light +that you might almost carry it, yet strong enough to bear a good load of +bedding, utensils and provisions, and a swarm of young citizens--and to +sustain marvelous shocks in its passage over these rocky heights) with +two small horses; sometimes a cow or two, comprises their all; excepting +a little store of hard-earned cash for the land office of the district; +where they may obtain a title for as many acres as they possess +half-dollars, being one fourth of the purchase money. The wagon has a +tilt, or cover, made of a sheet, or perhaps a blanket. The family are +seen before, behind, or within the vehicle, according to the road or the +weather, or perhaps the spirits of the party.... A cart and single +horse frequently affords the means of transfer, sometimes a horse and +pack-saddle. Often the back of the poor pilgrim bears all his effects, +and his wife follows, naked-footed, bending under the hopes of the +family." * + + + * Quoted in Turner, "Rise of the New West," pp. 79-80. + + +Arrived at the Ohio, the emigrant either engaged passage on some form of +river-craft or set to work to construct with his own hands a vessel that +would bear him and his belongings to the promised land. The styles of +river-craft that appeared on the Ohio and other western streams in +the great era of river migration make a remarkable pageant. There +were canoes, pirogues, skiffs, rafts, dugouts, scows, galleys, +arks, keelboats, flatboats, barges, "broadhorns," "sneak-boxes," and +eventually ocean-going brigs, schooners, and steamboats. The canoe +served the early explorer and trader, and even the settler whose +possessions had been carried over the Alleghanies on a single packhorse. +But after the Revolution the needs of an awakening empire led to +the introduction of new types of craft, built to afford a maximum of +capacity and safety on a downward voyage, without regard for the demands +of a round trip. The most common of these one-way vessels was the +flatboat. + +A flatboat trip down the great river was likely to be filled with +excitement. The sound of the steam-dredge had never been heard on the +western waters, and the streambed was as Nature had made it, or rather +was continually remaking it. Yearly floods washed out new channels and +formed new reefs and sand-bars, while logs and brush borne from the +heavily forested banks continually built new obstructions. Consequently +the sharpest lookout had to be maintained, and the pilot was both +skilful and lucky who completed his trip without permitting his boat +to be caught on a "planter" (a log immovably fixed in the river bed), +entangled in the branches of overhanging trees, driven on an island, or +dashed on the bank at a bend. Navigation by night and on foggy days was +hazardous in the extreme and was avoided as far as possible. If all went +well, the voyage from Pittsburgh to Cincinnati could be completed in six +or eight days; but delays might easily extend the period to a month. + +One grave danger has not been mentioned--the Indians. From the moment +when the slow-moving flatboat passed beyond the protection of a white +settlement, it was liable to be fired on, by day or by night, by +redskins; and the better-built boats were so constructed as to be at +least partially bullet-proof. Sometimes extra timber was used to give +safety; sometimes the cargo was specially placed with that aim in view. +The Indians rarely went beyond the water's edge. Their favorite ruse was +to cause captive or renegade whites to run along the bank imploring to +be saved. When a boat had been decoyed to shore, and perhaps a landing +had been made, the savages would pour a murderous fire on the voyagers. +This practice became so common that pioneer boats "shunned the whites +who hailed them from the shores as they would have shunned the Indians," +and as a consequence many whites escaping from the Indians in the +interior were refused succor and left to die. + +When the flatboat reached its destination, it might find service as a +floating store, or even as a schoolhouse. But it was likely to be broken +up, so that the materials in it could be used for building purposes. +Before sawmills became common, lumber was a precious commodity, and +hundreds of pioneer cabins in the Ohio Valley were built partly or +wholly of the boards and timbers taken from the flatboats of their +owners. Even the "gunnels" were sometimes used in Cincinnati as +foundations for houses. In later days the flatboat, if in reasonably +good condition, was not unlikely to be sold to persons engaged in +trading down the Mississippi. Loaded with grain, flour, meats, and other +backwoods products, it would descend to Natchez or New Orleans, where +its cargo could be transferred to ocean-going craft. But in any case +its end was the same; for it would not have been profitable, even had +it been physically possible, to move the heavy, ungainly craft upstream +over long distances, in order to keep it continuously in service. + + + +Chapter VII. Pioneer Days And Ways + +Arrived on the lower Ohio, or one of its tributaries, the pioneer looked +out upon a land of remarkable riches. It was not a Mexico or a Peru, +with emblazoned palaces and glittering temples, nor yet a California, +with gold-flecked sands. It was merely an unending stretch of wooded +hills and grassy plains, bedecked with majestic forests and fructifying +rivers and lakes. It had no treasures save for the man of courage, +industry, and patience; but for such it held home, broad acres, liberty, +and the coveted opportunity for social equality and advancement. + +The new country has been commonly thought of, and referred to by writers +on the history of the West, as a "wilderness"; and offhand, one might +suppose that the settlers were obliged literally to hew their way +through densely grown vegetation to the spots which they selected for +their homes. In point of fact, there were great areas of upland--not +alone in the prairie country of northern Indiana and Illinois, but in +the hilly regions within a hundred miles of the Ohio--that were almost +treeless. On these unobstructed stretches grasses grew in profusion; and +here roamed great herds of herbivorous animal-kind--deer and elk, +and also buffalo, "filing in grave procession to drink at the rivers, +plunging and snorting among the rapids and quicksands, rolling their +huge bulk on the grass, rushing upon each other in hot encounter, like +champions under shield." Along the watercourses ducks, wild geese, +cranes, herons, and other fowl sounded their harsh cries; gray +squirrels, prairie chickens, and partridges the hunter found at every +turn. + +Furthermore, the forests, as a rule, were not difficult to penetrate. +The trees stood thick, but deer paths, buffalo roads, and Indian trails +ramified in all directions, and sometimes were wide enough to allow two +or three wagons to advance abreast. Mighty poplars, beeches, sycamores, +and "sugars" pushed to great heights in quest of air and sunshine, and +often their intertwining branches were locked solidly together by a +heavy growth of grape or other vines, producing a canopy which during +the summer months permitted scarcely a ray of sunlight to reach the +ground. There was, therefore, a notable absence of undergrowth. When a +tree died and decayed, it fell apart piecemeal; it was with difficulty +that woodsmen could wrest a giant oak or poplar from its moorings and +bring it to the ground, even by severing the trunk completely at the +base. Here and there a clean swath was cut through a forest, for perhaps +dozens of miles, by a hurricane. This gave opportunity for the growth of +a thicket of bushes and small trees, and such spots were equally likely +to be the habitations of wild beasts and the hiding-places of warlike +bands of redskins. + +There were always adventurous pioneers who scorned the settlements and +went off with their families to fix their abodes in isolated places. +But the average newcomer preferred to find a location in, or reasonably +near, a settlement. The choice of a site, whether by a company of +immigrants wishing to establish a settlement or by an individual +settler, was a matter of much importance. Some thought must be given to +facilities for fortification against hostile natives. There must be +an adequate supply of drinking-water; and the location of innumerable +pioneer dwellings was selected with reference to free-flowing springs. +Pasture land for immediate use was desirable; and of course the +soil must be fertile. As a rule, the settler had the alternative of +establishing himself on the lowlands along a stream and obtaining ground +of the greatest productiveness, with the almost certain prospect of +annual attacks of malaria, or of seeking the poorer but more healthful +uplands. The attractions of the "bottoms" were frequently irresistible, +and the "ague" became a feature of frontier life almost as inevitable as +the proverbial "death and taxes." + +The site selected, the next task was to clear a few acres of ground +where the cabin was to stand. It was highly desirable to have a belt +of open land as a protection against Indians and wild beasts; besides, +there must be fields cleared for tillage. If the settler had neighbors, +he was likely to have their aid in cutting away the densest growth of +trees, and in raising into position the heavy timbers which formed the +framework and walls of his cabin. Splendid oaks, poplars, and sycamores +were cut into convenient lengths, and such as could not be used were +rolled into great heaps and burned. Before sawmills were introduced +lumber could not be manufactured; afterwards, it became so plentiful as +to have small market value. + +Almost without exception the frontier cabins had log walls; and they +were rarely of larger size than single lengths would permit. On an +average, they were twelve or fourteen feet wide and fifteen or eighteen +feet long. Sometimes they were divided into two rooms, with an attic +above; frequently there was but one room "downstairs." The logs were +notched together at the corners, and the spaces between them were filled +with moss or clay or covered with bark. Rafters were affixed to the +uppermost logs, and to one another, with wooden pins driven through +auger holes. In earliest times the roof was of bark; later on, shingles +were used, although nails were long unknown, and the shingles, after +being laid in rows, were weighted down with straight logs. + +Sometimes there was only an earth floor. But as a rule "puncheons," +i.e., thick, rough boards split from logs, were laid crosswise on round +logs and were fastened with wooden pins. There was commonly but a single +door, which was made also of puncheons and hung on wooden hinges. A +favorite device was to construct the door in upper and lower sections, +so as to make it possible, when there came a knock or a call from the +outside, to respond without offering easy entrance to an unwelcome +visitor. In the days when there was considerable danger of Indian +attacks no windows were constructed, for the householder could defend +only one aperture. Later, square holes which could be securely barred at +night and during cold weather were made to serve as windows. Flat pieces +of sandstone, if they could be found, were used in building the great +fireplace; otherwise, thick timbers heavily covered with clay were made +to serve. In scarcely a cabin was there a trace of iron or glass; the +whole could be constructed with only two implements--an ax and an auger. + +Occasionally a family carried to its new home some treasured bits +of furniture; but the difficulty of transportation was likely to be +prohibitive, and as a rule the cabins contained only such pieces +of furniture as could be fashioned on the spot. A table was made by +mounting a smoothed slab on four posts, set in auger holes. For seats +short benches and three-legged stools, constructed after the manner of +the tables, were in common use. Cooking utensils, food-supplies, seeds, +herbs for medicinal purposes, and all sorts of household appliances were +stowed away on shelves, made by laying clapboards across wooden pins +driven into the wall and mounting to the ceiling; although after sawed +lumber came into use it was a matter of no great difficulty to construct +chests and cupboards. Not infrequently the settler's family slept on +bear skins or blankets stretched on the floor. But crude bedsteads were +made by erecting a pole with a fork in such a manner that other poles +could be supported horizontally in this fork and by crevices in the +walls. Split boards served as "slats" on which the bedding was spread. +For a long time "straw-ticks"--large cloth bags filled with straw or +sometimes dry grass or leaves--were articles of luxury. Iron pots and +knives were necessities which the wise householder carried with him from +his eastern or southern home. In the West they were hard to obtain. +The chief source of supply was the iron-manufacturing districts +of Pennsylvania and Virginia, whence the wares were carried to the +entrepots of river trade by packhorses. The kitchen outfit of the +average newcomer was completed with a few pewter dishes, plates, and +spoons. But winter evenings were utilized in whittling out wooden bowls, +trenchers, and noggins or cups, while gourds and hard-shelled squashes +were turned to numerous uses. The commonest drinking utensil was a +long-handled gourd. + +The dress of the pioneer long remained a curious cross between that +of the Indians and that of the white people of the older sections. In +earlier times the hunting-shirt--made of linsey, coarse nettle-bark +linen, buffalo-hair, or even dressed deerskins--was universally worn by +the men, together with breeches, leggings, and moccasins. The women and +children were dressed in simple garments of linsey. In warm weather they +went barefooted; in cold, they wore moccasins or coarse shoes. + +Rarely was there lack of food for these pioneer families. The soil was +prodigal, and the forests abounded in game. The piece de resistance of +the backwoods menu was "hog an' hominy"; that is to say, pork served +with Indian corn which, after being boiled in lye to remove the hulls, +had been soaked in clear water and cooked soft. "Johnny cake" and +"pone"--two varieties of cornbread--were regularly eaten at breakfast +and dinner. The standard dish for supper was cornmeal mush and milk. As +cattle were not numerous, the housewife often lacked milk, in which case +she fell back on her one never-failing resource--hominy; or she served +the mush with sweetened water, molasses, the gravy of fried meat, or +even bear's oil. Tea and coffee were long unknown, and when introduced +they were likely to be scorned by the men as "slops" good enough perhaps +for women and children. Vegetables the settlers grew in the garden plot +which ordinarily adjoined the house, and thrifty families had also a +"truck patch" in which they raised pumpkins, squashes, potatoes, beans, +melons, and corn for "roasting ears." The forests yielded game, as well +as fruits and wild grapes, and honey for sweetening. + +The first quality for which the life of the frontier called was untiring +industry. It was possible, of course, to eke out an existence by +hunting, fishing, petty trading, and garnering the fruits which Nature +supplied without man's assistance. And many pioneers in whom the roving +instinct was strong went on from year to year in this hand-to-mouth +fashion. But the settler who expected to be a real home-builder, to gain +some measure of wealth, to give his children a larger opportunity in +life, must be prepared to work, to plan, to economize, and to sacrifice. +The forests had to be felled; the great logs had to be rolled together +and burned; crops of maize, tobacco, oats, and cane needed to be +planted, cultivated, and harvested; live-stock to be housed and fed; +fences and barns to be built; pork, beef, grain, whiskey, and other +products to be prepared for market, and perhaps carried scores of miles +to a place of shipment. + +All these things had to be done under conditions of exceptional +difficulty. The settler never knew what night his place would be raided +by marauding redskins, who would be lenient indeed if they merely +carried off part of his cattle or burned his barn. Any morning he might +peer out of the "port hole" above the cabin door to see skulking figures +awaiting their chance. Sickness, too, was a menace and a terror. Picture +the horrors of isolation in times of emergency--wife or child suddenly +taken desperately ill, and no physician within a hundred miles; husband +or son hovering between life and death as the result of injury by a +falling tree, a wild beast, a venomous snake, an accidental gun-shot, or +the tomahawk of a prowling Indian. Who shall describe the anxiety, the +agony, which in some measure must have been the lot of every frontier +family? The prosaic illnesses of the flesh were troublesome enough. +On account of defective protection for the feet in wet weather, almost +everybody had rheumatism; most settlers in the bottom-lands fell victims +to fever and ague at one time or another; even in the hill country few +persons wholly escaped malarial disorders. "When this home-building and +land-clearing is accomplished," wrote one whose recollections of the +frontier were vivid, "a faithful picture would reveal not only the +changes that have been wrought, but a host of prematurely brokedown men +and women, besides an undue proportion resting peacefully in country +graveyards." + +The frontiersman's best friend was his trusty rifle. With it he defended +his cabin and his crops from marauders, waged warfare on hostile +redskins, and obtained the game which formed an indispensable part of +his food supply. At first the gun chiefly used on the border was the +smooth-bored musket. But toward the close of the eighteenth century a +gunsmith named Deckhard, living at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, began making +flintlock rifles of small bore, and in a short time the "Deckhard rifle" +was to be found in the hands of almost every backwoodsman. The barrel +was heavy and from three feet to three feet and a half in length, +so that the piece, when set on the ground, reached at least to the +huntsman's shoulder. The bore was cut with twisting grooves, and was so +small that seventy bullets were required to weigh a pound. In loading, +a greased linen "patch" was wrapped around the bullet; and only a small +charge of powder was needed. The grin was heavy to carry and difficult +to hold steadily upon a target; but it was economical of ammunition, and +in the hands of the strong-muscled, keen-eyed, iron-nerved frontiersman +it was an exceedingly accurate weapon, at all events within the ordinary +limits of forest ranges. He was a poor marksman who could not shoot +running deer or elk at a distance of one hundred and fifty yards, and +kill ducks and geese on the wing; and "boys of twelve hung their heads +in shame if detected in hitting a squirrel in any other part of the body +than its head." + +Life on the frontier was filled with hard work, danger, and anxiety. Yet +it had its lighter side, and, indeed, it may be doubted whether people +anywhere relished sport more keenly or found more pleasure in their +everyday pursuits. The occasional family without neighbors was likely to +suffer from loneliness. But few of the settlers were thus cut off, and +as a rule community life was not only physically possible but highly +developed. Many were the opportunities that served to bring together the +frontiersmen, with their families, throughout a settlement or county. +Foremost among such occasions were the log-rollings. + +After a settler had felled the thick-growing trees on a plot which he +desired to prepare for cultivation, he cut them, either by sawing or by +burning, into logs twelve or fifteen feet in length. Frequently these +were three, four, or even five feet in diameter, so that they could not +be moved by one man, even with a team of horses. In such a situation, +the settler would send word to his neighbors for miles around that on +a given day there would be a log-rolling at his place; and when the day +arrived six, or a dozen, or perhaps a score, of sturdy men, with teams +of horses and yokes of oxen, and very likely accompanied by members +of their families, would arrive on the scene with merry shouts of +anticipation. By means of handspikes and chains drawn by horses or oxen, +the great timbers were pushed, rolled, and dragged into heaps, and by +nightfall the field lay open and ready for the plough--requiring, at the +most, only the burning of the huge piles that had been gathered. + +Without loss of time the fires were started; and as darkness came on, +the countryside glowed as with the light of a hundred huge torches. The +skies were reddened, and as a mighty oak or poplar log toppled and fell +to the ground, showers of sparks lent the scene volcanic splendor. +Bats and owls and other dim-eyed creatures of the night flew about in +bewilderment, sometimes bumping hard against fences or other objects, +sometimes plunging madly into the flames and contributing to the general +holocaust. For days the great fires were kept going, until the last +remnants of this section of the once imposing forest were consumed; +while smoke hung far out over the country, producing an atmospheric +effect like that of Indian summer. + +Heavy exertion called for generous refreshment, and on these occasions +the host could be depended on to provide an abundance of food and drink. +The little cabin could hardly be made to accommodate so many guests, +even in relays. Accordingly, a long table was constructed with planks +and trestles in a shady spot, and at noon--and perhaps again in the +evening--the women folk served a meal which at least made up in "staying +qualities" what it lacked in variety or delicacy. The principal dish +was almost certain to be "pot-pie," consisting of boiled turkeys, geese, +chickens, grouse, veal, or venison, with an abundance of dumplings. +This, with cornbread and milk, met the demands of the occasion; but +if the host was able to furnish a cask of rum, his generosity was +thoroughly appreciated. + +In the autumn, corn-huskings were a favorite form of diversion, +especially for the young people; and in the early spring neighbors +sometimes came together to make maple sugar. A wedding was an important +event and furnished diversion of a different kind. From distances of +twenty and thirty miles people came to attend the ceremony, and often +the festivities extended over two or three days. Even now there was +work to be done; for as a rule the neighbors organized a house-building +"bee," and before separating for their homes they constructed a cabin +for the newly wedded pair, or at all events brought it sufficiently near +completion to be finished by the young husband himself. + +Even after a day of heavy toil at log-rolling, the young men and boys +bantered one another into foot races, wrestling matches, shooting +contests, and other feats of strength or skill. And if a fiddler could +be found, the day was sure to end with a "hoe-down"--a dance that "made +even the log-walled house tremble." No corn-husking or wedding was +complete without dancing, although members of certain of the more +straitlaced religious sects already frowned upon the diversion. + +Rough conditions of living made rough men, and we need not be surprised +by the testimony of English and American travelers, that the frontier +had more than its share of boisterous fun, rowdyism, lawlessness, and +crime. The taste for whiskey was universal, and large quantities were +manufactured in rude stills, not only for shipment down the Mississippi, +but for local consumption. Frequenters of the river-town taverns called +for their favorite brands--"Race Horse," "Moral Suasion," "Vox Populi," +"Pig and Whistle," or "Split Ticket," as the case might be. But the +average frontiersman cared little for the niceties of color or flavor so +long as his liquor was cheap and produced the desired effect. Hard work +and a monotonous diet made him continually thirsty; and while ordinarily +he drank only water and milk at home, at the taverns and at social +gatherings he often succumbed to potations which left him in happy +drunken forgetfulness of daily hardships. House-raisings and weddings +often became orgies marked by quarreling and fighting and terminating in +brutal and bloody brawls. Foreign visitors to the back country were led +to comment frequently on the number of men who had lost an eye or an +ear, or had been otherwise maimed in these rough-and-tumble contests. + +The great majority of the frontiersmen, however, were sober, +industrious, and law-abiding folk; and they were by no means beyond +the pale of religion. On account of the numbers of Scotch-Irish, +Presbyterianism was in earlier days the principal creed, although there +were many Catholics and adherents of the Reformed Dutch and German +churches, and even a few Episcopalians. About the beginning of the +nineteenth century sectarian ascendancy passed to the Methodists and +Baptists, whose ranks were rapidly recruited by means of one of the most +curious and characteristic of backwoods institutions, the camp-meeting +"revival." The years 1799 and 1800 brought the first of the several +great waves of religious excitement by which the West--especially Ohio, +Indiana, Kentucky, and Tennessee was periodically swept until within the +memory of men still living. + +Camp-meetings were usually planned and managed by Methodist +circuit-riders or Baptist itinerant preachers, who hesitated not to +carry their work into the remotest and most dangerous parts of the +back country. When the news went abroad that such a meeting was to take +place, people flocked to the scene from far and near, in wagons, +on horseback, and on foot. Pious men and women came for the sake of +religious fellowship and inspiration; others not so pious came from +motives of curiosity, or even to share in the rough sport for which the +scoffers always found opportunity. The meeting lasted days, and even +weeks; and preaching, praying, singing, "testifying," and "exhorting" +went on almost without intermission. "The preachers became frantic +in their exhortations; men, women, and children, falling as if in +catalepsy, were laid out in rows. Shouts, incoherent singing, sometimes +barking as of an unreasoning beast, rent the air. Convulsive leaps and +dancing were common; so, too, 'jerking,' stakes being driven into the +ground to jerk by, the subjects of the fit grasping them as they writhed +and grimaced in their contortions. The world, indeed, seemed demented." +* Whole communities sometimes professed conversion; and it was +considered a particularly good day's work when notorious disbelievers or +wrong-doers--"hard bats," in the phraseology of the frontier--or gangs +of young rowdies whose only object in coming was to commit acts of +deviltry, succumbed to the peculiarly compelling influences of the +occasion. + + + * Hosmer, "Short History of the Mississippi Valley," p. 116. + + +In this sort of religion there was, of course, much wild emotionalism +and sheer hysteria; and there were always people to whom it was +repellent. Backsliders were numerous, and the person who "fell from +grace" was more than likely to revert to his earlier wickedness in its +grossest forms. None the less, in a rough, unlearned, and materialistic +society such spiritual shakings-up were bound to yield much permanent +good. Most western people, at one time or another, came under the +influence of the Methodist and Baptist revivals; and from the men and +women who were drawn by them to a new and larger view of life were +recruited the hundreds of little congregations whose meeting-houses in +the course of time dotted the hills and plains from the Alleghanies +to the Mississippi. As for the hard-working, honest-minded frontier +preachers who braved every sort of danger in the performance of their +great task, the West owes them an eternal debt of gratitude. In the +words of Roosevelt, "their prejudices and narrow dislikes, their raw +vanity and sullen distrust of all who were better schooled than they, +count for little when weighed against their intense earnestness and +heroic self-sacrifice." + +Nor was education neglected. Many of the settlers, especially those who +came from the South, were illiterate. But all who made any pretense of +respectability were desirous of giving their children an opportunity +to learn to read and write. Accordingly, wherever half a dozen families +lived reasonably close together, a log schoolhouse was sure to be found. +In the days before public funds existed for the support of education +the teachers were paid directly, and usually in produce, by the patrons. +Sometimes a wandering pedagogue would find his way into a community and, +being engaged to give instruction for two or three months during +the winter, would "board around" among the residents and take such +additional pay as he could get. More often, some one of the settlers who +was fortunate enough to possess the rudiments of an education +undertook the role of schoolmaster in the interval between the autumn +corn-gathering and the spring ploughing and planting. + +Instruction rarely extended beyond the three R's; but occasionally a +newcomer who had somewhere picked up a smattering of algebra, Latin, +or astronomy stirred the wonder, if not also the suspicion, of the +neighborhood. Schoolbooks were few and costly; crude slates were made +from pieces of shale; pencils were fashioned from varicolored soapstone +found in the beds of small streams. No frontier picture is more familiar +or more pleasing than that of the farmer's boy sitting or lying on the +floor during the long winter evening industriously tracing by firelight +or by candlelight the proverb or quotation assigned him as an exercise +in penmanship, or wrestling with the intricacies of least common +denominators and highest common divisors. It is in such a setting that +we get our first glimpse of the greatest of western Americans, Abraham +Lincoln. + + + +Chapter VIII. Tecumseh + +Wayne's victory in 1795, followed by the Treaty of Fort Greenville, gave +the Northwest welcome relief from Indian warfare, and within four years +the Territory was ready to be advanced to the second of the three grades +of government provided for it in the Ordinance of 1787. A Legislature +was set up at Cincinnati, and in due time it proceeded to the election +of a delegate to Congress. Choice fell on a young man whose name was +destined to a permanent place in the country's history. William Henry +Harrison was the son of a signer of the Declaration of Independence, the +scion of one of Virginia's most honored families. Entering the army in +1791, he had served as an aide-de-camp to Wayne in the campaign which +ended at Fallen Timbers, and at the time of his election was acting as +Secretary of the Territory and ex-officio Lieutenant-Governor. + +Although but twenty-six years of age, and without a vote in the House of +Representatives, Harrison succeeded in procuring from Congress in 1800 +an act dividing the Territory into two distinct "governments," separated +by the old Greenville treaty line as far as Fort Recovery and then by +a line running due north to the Canadian boundary. The division to the +east was named Ohio, that to the west Indiana; and Harrison was made +Governor of the latter, with his residence at Vincennes. In 1802 the +development of the back country was freshly emphasized by the admission +of Ohio as a State. + +Meanwhile the equilibrium between the white man and the red again became +unstable. In the Treaty of 1795 the natives had ceded only southern +Ohio, southeastern Indiana, and a few other small and scattered areas. +Northward and westward, their country stretched to the Lakes and the +Mississippi, unbroken except by military posts and widely scattered +settlements; and title to all of this territory had been solemnly +guaranteed. As late as 1800 the white population of what is now Indiana +was practically confined to Clark's Grant, near the falls of the +Ohio, and a small region around Vincennes. It numbered not more than +twenty-five hundred persons. But thereafter immigration from the +seaboard States, and from the nearer lands of Kentucky and Tennessee, +set in on a new scale. By 1810 Indiana had a white population of +twenty-five thousand, and the cabins of the energetic settlers dotted +river valleys and hillsides never before trodden by white man. + +In this new rush of pioneers the rights of the Indians received scant +consideration. Hardy and well-armed Virginians and Kentuckians broke +across treaty boundaries and possessed themselves of fertile lands to +which they had no valid claim. White hunters trespassed far and wide +on Indian territory, until by 1810 great regions, which a quarter of +a century earlier abounded in deer, bear, and buffalo, were made as +useless for Indian purposes as barren wastes. Although entitled to the +protection of law in his person and property, the native was cheated and +overawed at every turn; he might even be murdered with impunity. Abraham +Lincoln's uncle thought it a virtuous act to shoot an Indian on sight, +and the majority of pioneers agreed with him. + +"I can tell at once," wrote Harrison in 1801, "upon looking at an Indian +whom I may chance to meet whether he belongs to a neighboring or a +more distant tribe. The latter is generally well-clothed, healthy, and +vigorous; the former half-naked, filthy, and enfeebled by intoxication, +and many of them without arms excepting a knife, which they carry for +the most villainous purposes." The stronger tribes perceived quite as +clearly as did the Governor the ruinous effects of contact between the +two peoples, and the steady destruction of the border warriors became +a leading cause of discontent. Congress had passed laws intended to +prevent the sale of spiritucus liquors to the natives, but the courts +had construed these measures to be operative only outside the bounds of +States and organized Territories, and in the great unorganized Northwest +the laws were not heeded, and the ruinous traffic went on uninterrupted. +Harrison reported that when there were only six hundred warriors on the +Wabash the annual consumption of whiskey there was six thousand gallons, +and that killing each other in drunken brawls had "become so customary +that it was no longer thought criminal." + +Most exasperating, however, from the red man's point of view was the +insatiable demand of the newcomers for land. In the years 1803, 1804, +and 1805 Harrison made treaties with the remnants of the Miami, Eel +River, Piankeshaw, and Delaware tribes--characterized by him as "a body +of the most depraved wretches on earth"--which gained for the settlers a +strip of territory fifty miles wide south of White River; and in 1809 he +similarly acquired, by the Treaty of Fort Wayne, three million acres, +in tracts which cut into the heart of the Indian country for almost a +hundred miles up both banks of the Wabash. The Wabash valley was richer +in game than any other region south of Lake Michigan, and its loss was +keenly felt by the Indians. Indeed, it was mainly the cession of 1809 +that brought once more to a crisis the long-brewing difficulties with +the Indians. + +About the year 1768 the Creek squaw of a Shawnee warrior gave birth +at one time to three boys, in the vicinity of the present city of +Springfield, Ohio. * One of the three barely left his name in aboriginal +annals. A second, known as Laulewasikaw, "the man with the loud voice," +poses in the pages of history as "the prophet." The third brother was +Tecumseh, "the wild-cat that leaps upon its prey," or "the shooting +star," as the name has been translated. He is described as a tall, +handsome warrior--daring and energetic, of fluent and persuasive speech, +given to deep reflection, an implacable hater of the white man. Other +qualities he possessed which were not so common among his people. He had +perfect self-command, a keen insight into human motives and purposes, +and an exceptional capacity to frame plans and organize men to carry +them out. His crowning scheme for bringing together the tribes of +the Middle West into a grand democratic confederacy to regulate land +cessions and other dealings with the whites stamps him as perhaps the +most statesmanlike member of his race. + + + * Authorities differ as to the facts of Tecumseh's birth. His +earliest biographer, Benjamin Drake, holds that he was "wholly a +Shawanoe" and that he was a fourth child, the Prophet and another son +being twins. William Henry Harrison spoke of Tecumseh's mother as a +Creek. + + +While yet hardly more than a boy, Tecumseh seems to have been stirred to +deep indignation by the persistent encroachment of the whites upon +the hunting-grounds of his fathers. The cessions of 1804 and 1805 +he specially resented, and it is not unlikely that they clinched the +decision of the young warrior to take up the task which Pontiac had +left unfinished. At all events, the plan was soon well in hand. A less +far-seeing leader would have been content to call the scattered tribes +to a momentary alliance with a view to a general uprising against the +invaders. But Tecumseh's purposes ran far deeper. All of the Indian +peoples, of whatever name or relationships, from the Lakes to the Gulf +and from the Alleghanies to the Rockies, were to be organized in a +single, permanent confederacy. This union, furthermore, was to consist, +not of chieftains, but of the warriors; and its governing body was to be +a warriors' congress, an organ of genuine popular rule. Joint ownership +of all Indian lands was to be assumed by the confederacy, and the +piecemeal cession of territory by petty tribal chiefs, under pressure +of government agents, was to be made impossible. Only thus, Tecumseh +argued, could the red man hope to hold his own in the uneven contest +that was going on. + +The plan was brilliant, even though impracticable. Naturally, it did +not appeal instantly to the chieftains, for it took away--tribal +independence and undermined the chieftain's authority. Besides, its +author was not a chief, and had no sanction of birth or office. Its +success was dependent on the building of an intertribal association such +as Indian history had never known. And while there was nothing in it +which contravened the professed policy of the United States, it ran +counter to the irrepressible tendency of the advancing white population +to spread at will over the great western domain. + +By these obstacles Tecumseh was not deterred. With indefatigable zeal he +traveled from one end of the country to the other, arguing with chiefs, +making fervid speeches to assembled warriors, and in every possible +manner impressing his people with his great idea. The Prophet went +with him; and when the orator's logic failed to carry, conviction, the +medicine-man's imprecations were relied upon to save the day. Events, +too, played into their hands. The Leopard-Chesapeake affair, * in 1807, +roused strong feeling in the West and prompted the Governor-General of +Canada to begin intrigues looking to an alliance with the redskins in +the event of war. And when, late in the same year, Governor Hull +of Michigan Territory indiscreetly negotiated a new land cession at +Detroit, the northern tribes at once joined Tecumseh's league, muttering +threats to slay the chiefs by whom the cession had been sanctioned. + + + * See "Jefferson and his Colleagues," by Allen Johnson (in "The +Chronicles of America"). + + +In the spring of 1808 Tecumseh and his brother carried their plans +forward another step by taking up their residence at a point in +central Indiana where Tippecanoe Creek flows into the Wabash River. +The place--which soon got the name of the Prophet's Town--was almost +equidistant from Vincennes, Fort Wayne, and Fort Dearborn; from it +the warriors could paddle their canoes to any part of the Ohio or the +Mississippi, and with only a short portage, to the waters of the Maumee +and the Great Lakes. The situation was, therefore, strategic. A village +was laid out, and the population was soon numbered by the hundred. +Livestock was acquired, agriculture was begun, the use of whiskey was +prohibited, and every indication was afforded of peaceful intent. + +Seasoned frontiersmen, however, were suspicious. Reports came in that +the Tippecanoe villagers engaged daily in warlike exercises; rumor had +it that emissaries of the Prophet were busily stirring the tribes, far +and near, to rebellion. Governor Harrison was not a man to be easily +frightened, but he became apprehensive, and proposed to satisfy himself +by calling Tecumseh into conference. + +The interview took place at Vincennes, and was extended over a period +of two weeks. There was a show of firmness, yet of good will, on both +sides. The Governor counseled peace, orderliness, and industry; the +warrior guest professed a desire to be a friend to the United States, +but said frankly that if the country continued to deal with the tribes +singly in the purchase of land he would be obliged to ally himself with +Great Britain. To Harrison's admonition that the redskins should leave +off drinking whiskey--"that it was not made for them, but for the white +people, who alone knew how to use it"--the visitor replied pointedly by +asking that the sale of liquor be stopped. + +Notwithstanding the tenseness of the situation, Harrison negotiated +the land cessions of 1809, which cost the Indians their last valuable +hunting-grounds in Indiana. The powerful Wyandots promptly joined +Tecumseh's league, and war was made inevitable. Delay followed only +because the Government at Washington postponed the military occupation +of the new purchase, and because the British authorities in Canada, +desiring Tecumseh's confederacy to attain its maximum strength before +the test came, urged the redskins to wait. + +For two more years--while Great Britain and the United States hovered on +the brink of war--preparations continued. Tribe after tribe in Indiana +and Illinois elected Tecumseh as their chief, alliances reached to +regions as remote as Florida. In 1810 another conference took place at +Vincennes; and this time, notwithstanding Harrison's request that not +more than thirty redskins should attend, four hundred came in Tecumseh's +train, fully armed. + +"A large portico in front of the Governor's house [says a contemporary +account] had been prepared for the purpose with seats, as well for the +Indians as for the citizens who were expected to attend. When Tecumseh +came from his camp, with about forty of his warriors, he stood off, and +on being invited by the Governor, through an interpreter, to take his +seat, refused, observing that he wished the council to be held under the +shade of some trees in front of the house. When it was objected that it +would be troublesome to remove the seats, he replied that 'it would only +be necessary to remove those intended for the whites--that the red men +were accustomed to sit upon the earth, which was their mother, and that +they were always happy to recline upon her bosom.'" * + + + * James Hall, "Memoir of William Henry Harrison," pp. 113-114. + + +The chieftain's equivocal conduct aroused fresh suspicion, but he was +allowed to proceed with the oration which he had come to deliver. Freely +rendered, the speech ran, in part, as follows: + +"I have made myself what I am; and I would that I could make the red +people as great as the conceptions of my mind, when I think of the Great +Spirit that rules over all. I would not then come to Governor Harrison +to ask him to tear the treaty [of 1809]; but I would say to him, +Brother, you have liberty to return to your own country. Once there was +no white man in all this country: then it belonged to red men, children +of the same parents, placed on it by the Great Spirit to keep it, to +travel over it, to eat its fruits, and fill it with the same race--once +a happy race, but now made miserable by the white people, who are never +contented, but always encroaching. They have driven us from the great +salt water, forced us over the mountains, and would shortly push us into +the lakes--but we are determined to go no further. The only way to stop +this evil is for all red men to unite in claiming a common and equal +right in the land, as it was at first, and should be now--for it never +was divided, but belongs to all.... Any sale not made by all is not +good." + +In his reply Harrison declared that the Indians were not one nation, +since the Great Spirit had "put six different tongues in their heads," +and argued that the Indiana lands had been in all respects properly +bought from their rightful owners. Tecumseh's blood boiled under this +denial of his main contention, and with the cry, "It is false," he gave +a signal to his warriors, who sprang to their feet and seized their +war-clubs. For a moment an armed clash was imminent. But Harrison's +cool manner enabled him to remain master of the situation, and a +well-directed rebuke sent the chieftain and his followers to their +quarters. + +On the following morning Tecumseh apologized for his impetuosity and +asked that the conference be renewed. The request was granted, and again +the forest leader pressed for an abandonment of the policy of purchasing +land from the separate tribes. Harrison told him that the question was +for the President, rather than for, him, to decide. "As the great chief +is to determine the matter," responded the visitor grimly, "I hope the +Great Spirit will put sense enough into his head to induce him to direct +you to give up this land. It is true he is so far off he will not be +injured by the war. He may sit still in his town, and drink his wine, +while you and I will have to fight it out." + +Still the clash was averted. Once more, in the summer of 1811, Tecumseh +appeared at Vincennes, and again the deep issue between the two peoples +was threshed out as fruitlessly as before. Announcing his purpose to +visit the southern tribes to unite them with those of the North in a +peaceful confederacy, the chieftain asked that during his absence all +matters be left as they were, and promised that upon his return he would +go to see President Madison and "settle everything with him." + +Naturally, no pledge of the kind was given, and no sooner had Tecumseh +and twenty of his warriors started southward on their mission to the +Creeks than Harrison began preparations to end the menace that had been +so long hanging over the western country. Troops were sent to Harrison; +and volunteers were called for. As fast as volunteers came in they +were sent up to the Wabash to take possession of the new purchase. +Reinforcements arrived from Pittsburgh and from Kentucky, and in a short +while the Governor was able to bring together at Fort Harrison, near +the site of the present city of Terre Haute, twenty-four companies +of regulars, militia, and Indians, aggregating about nine hundred +well-armed men. + +Late in October this army, commanded by Harrison in person, set forth +for the destruction of the Tippecanoe rendezvous. On the way stray +redskins were encountered, but the advance was not resisted, and to his +surprise Harrison was enabled to lead his forces unmolested to within +a few hundred yards of the Prophet's headquarters. Emissaries now came +saying that the invasion was wholly unexpected, professing peaceful +intentions, and asking for a parley. Harrison had no idea that anything +could be settled by negotiation, but he preferred to wait until the next +day to make an attack; accordingly he agreed to a council, and the +army went into camp for the night on an oak-covered knoll about a mile +northwest of the village. No entrenchments were thrown up, but the +troops were arranged in a triangle to conform to the contour of the +hill, and a hundred sentinels under experienced officers were stationed +around the camp-fires. The night was cold, and rain fell at intervals, +although at times the moon shone brightly through the flying clouds. + +The Governor was well aware of the proneness of the Indians to early +morning attacks, so that about four o'clock on the 7th of November he +rose to call the men to parade. He had barely pulled on his boots when +the forest stillness was broken by the crack of a rifle at the farthest +angle of the camp, and instantly the Indian yell, followed by a +fusillade, told that a general attack had begun. Before the militiamen +could emerge in force from their tents, the sentinel line was broken +and the red warriors were pouring into the enclosure. Desperate fighting +ensued, and when time for reloading failed, it was rifle butt and +bayonet against tomahawk and scalping knife in hand-to-hand combat. For +two hours the battle raged in the darkness, and only when daylight came +were the troops able to charge the redskins, dislodge them from behind +the trees, and drive them to a safe distance in the neighboring swamp. +Sixty-one of Harrison's officers and men were killed or mortally +wounded; one hundred and twenty-seven others suffered serious injury. +The Governor himself probably owed his life to the circumstance that in +the confusion he mounted a bay horse instead of his own white stallion, +whose rider was shot early in the contest. + +The Indian losses were small, and for twenty-four hours Harrison's +forces kept their places, hourly expecting another assault. "Night," +wrote one of the men subsequently, "found every man mounting guard, +without food, fire, or light and in a drizzling rain. The Indian dogs, +during the dark hours, produced frequent alarms by prowling in search +of carrion about the sentinels." There being no further sign of +hostilities, early on the 8th of November a body of mounted riflemen set +out for the Prophet's village, which they found deserted. The place had +evidently been abandoned in haste, for nothing--not even a fresh stock +of English guns and powder--had been destroyed or carried off. After +confiscating much-needed provisions and other valuables, Harrison +ordered the village to be burned. Then, abandoning camp furniture and +private baggage to make room in the wagons for the wounded, he set out +on the return trip to Vincennes. A company was left at Fort Harrison, +and the main force reached the capital on the 18th of November. + +Throughout the western country the news of the battle was received with +delight, and it was fondly believed that the backbone of Tecumseh's +conspiracy was broken. It was even supposed that the indomitable +chieftain and his brother would be forthwith surrendered by the Indians +to the authorities of the United States. Harrison was acclaimed as a +deliverer. The legislatures of Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois formally +thanked him for his services; and if, as his Federalist enemies charged, +he had planned the whole undertaking with a view to promoting his +personal fortunes, he ought to have been satisfied with the result. It +was the glamour of Tippecanoe that three decades afterwards carried him +into the President's chair. + +In precipitating a clash while Tecumseh, the master-mind of the +fast-growing confederacy, was absent, the Prophet committed a capital +blunder. When reproached by his warriors, he declared that all would +have gone well but for the fact that on the night before the battle +his squaw had profanely touched the pot in which his magic charms were +brewed, so that the spell had been broken! The explanation was not very +convincing, and ominous murmurings were heard. Before the end of the +year, however, word came to Vincennes that the crafty magician was back +at Tippecanoe, that the village had been rebuilt, and that the lives +of the white settlers who were pouring into the new purchase were again +endangered. + +Still more alarming was the news of Tecumseh's return in January, 1812, +from a very successful visit to the Creeks, Choctaws, and Cherokees. He +began by asking leave to make his long-projected visit to Washington to +obtain peace from the President, and he professed deep regret for "the +unfortunate transaction that took place between the white people and +a few of our young men at our village." To the British agent at +Amherstburg he declared that had he been on the spot there would have +been no fighting at Tippecanoe. It is reasonable to suppose that in +this case there would have been, at all events, no Indian attack; for +Tecumseh was thoroughly in sympathy with the British plan, which was +to unite and arm the natives, but to prevent a premature outbreak. The +chieftain's presence, however, would hardly have deterred Harrison from +carrying out his decision to break up the Tippecanoe stronghold. + +The spring of 1812 brought an ominous renewal of depredations. Two +settlers were murdered within three miles of Fort Dearborn; an entire +family was massacred but five miles from Vincennes; from all directions +came reports of other bloody deeds. The frontier was thrown into panic. +A general uprising was felt to be impending; even Vincennes was thought +to be in danger. "Most of the citizens of this country," reported +Harrison, on the 6th of May, "have abandoned their farms, and taken +refuge in such temporary forts as they have been able to construct. +Scores fled to Kentucky and to even more distant regions." + +Tecumseh continued to assert his friendship for his "white brothers" and +to treat the battle at Tippecanoe as a matter of no moment. The murders +on the frontier he declared to be the work of the Potawatomi, who were +not under his control, and for whose conduct he had no excuse. But it +was noted that he made no move to follow up his professed purpose to +visit Washington in quest of peace, and that he put forth no effort to +restrain his over-zealous allies. It was plain enough that he was simply +awaiting a signal from Canada, and that, as the commandant at Fort Wayne +tersely reported, if the country should have a war with Great Britain, +it must be prepared for an Indian war as well. + + + +Chapter IX. The War Of 1812 And The New West + +The spring of 1812 thus found the back country in a turmoil, and it +was with a real sense of relief that the settlers became aware of the +American declaration of war against Great Britain on the 18th of June. +More than once Governor Harrison had asked for authority to raise an +army with which to "scour" the Wabash territory. In the fear that such +a step would drive the redskins into the arms of the British, the War +Department had withheld its consent. Now that the ban was lifted, +the people could expect the necessary measures to be taken for their +defense. In no part of the country was the war more popular; nowhere did +the mass of the able-bodied population show greater eagerness to take +the field. + +According to official returns, the Westerners were totally unprepared +for the contest. There were but five garrisoned posts between the Ohio +and the Canadian frontier. Fort Harrison had fifty men, Fort Wayne +eighty-five, Fort Dearborn fifty-three, Fort Mackinac eighty-eight, +and Detroit one hundred and twenty--a total force of fewer than four +hundred. The entire standing army of the United States numbered but +sixty-seven hundred men, and it was obvious that the trans-Alleghany +population would be obliged to carry almost alone the burden of their +own defense. The task would not be easy; for General Brock, commanding +in upper Canada, had at least two thousand regulars and, as soon as +hostilities began, was joined by Tecumseh and many hundred redskins. + +While the question of the war was still under debate in Congress, +President Madison made a requisition on Ohio for twelve hundred militia, +and in early summer the Governors of Indiana and Illinois called +hundreds of volunteers into service. Leaving their families as far as +possible under the protection of stockades or of the towns, the patriots +flocked to the mustering-grounds; many, like Cincinnatus of old, +deserted the plough in midfield. Guns and ammunition in sufficient +quantity were lacking; even tents and blankets were often wanting. But +enthusiasm ran high, and only capable leadership was needed to make of +these frontier forces, once they were properly equipped, a formidable +foe. + +The story of the leaders and battles of the war in the West has been +told in an earlier volume of this series. * It will be necessary here +merely to call to mind the stages through which this contest passed, +as a preliminary to a glimpse of the conditions under which Westerners +fought and of the new position into which their section of the country +was brought when peace was restored. So far as the regions north of the +Ohio were concerned, the war developed two phases. The first began with +General William Hull's expedition from Ohio against Fort Malden for the +relief of Detroit, and it ended with the humiliating surrender of that +important post, together with the forced abandonment of Forts Dearborn +and Mackinac, so that the Wabash and Maumee became, for all practical +purposes, the country's northern boundary. This was a story of complete +and bitter defeat. The second phase began likewise with a disaster--the +needless loss of a thousand men on the Raisin River, near Detroit. Yet +it succeeded in bringing William Henry Harrison into chief command, and +it ended in Commodore Perry's signal victory on Lake Erie and Harrison's +equally important defeat of the disheartened British land forces on +the banks of the Thames River, north of the Lake. At this Battle of the +Thames perished Tecumseh, who in point of fact was the real force behind +the British campaigns in the West. Tradition describes him on the eve +of the battle telling his comrades that his last day had come, solemnly +stripping off his British uniform before going into battle, and arraying +himself in the fighting costume of his own people. + + + * See "The Fight for a Free Sea," by Ralph D. Paine (in "The +Chronicles of America"). + + +For two-thirds of the time, the war went badly for the Westerners, and +only at the end did it turn out to be a brilliant success. The reasons +for the dreary succession of disasters are not difficult to discover. +Foremost among them is the character of the troops and officers. The +material from which the regiments were recruited was intrinsically good, +but utterly raw and untrained. The men could shoot well; they had great +powers of endurance; and they were brave. But there the list of their +military virtues ends. + +The scheme of military organization relied upon throughout the West was +that of the volunteer militia. In periods of ordinary Indian warfare +the system served its purpose fairly well. Under stern necessity, the +self-willed, independence-loving backwoodsmen could be brought to act +together for a few weeks or months; but they had little systematic +training, and their impatience of restraint prevented the building up +of any real discipline. There were periodic musters for company or +regimental drill. But, as a rule, drill duty was not taken seriously. +Numbers of men failed to report; and those who came were likely to +give most of their time to horse-races, wrestling-matches, shooting +contests--not to mention drinking and brawling--which turned the +occasion into mere merrymaking or disorder. The men brought few +guns, and when drills were actually held these soldiers in the making +contented themselves with parading with cornstalks over their shoulders. +"Cornstalk drill" thus became a frontier epithet of derision. It goes +without saying that these troops were poorly officered. The captains and +colonels were chosen by the men, frequently with more regard for their +political affiliations or their general standing in the community than +for their capacity as military commanders; nor were the higher officers, +appointed by the chief executive of territory, state, or nation, more +likely to be chosen with a view to their military fitness. + +So it came about, as Roosevelt has said, that the frontier people of the +second generation "had no military training whatever, and though they +possessed a skeleton militia organization, they derived no benefit from +it, because their officers were worthless, and the men had no idea of +practising self-restraint or obeying orders longer than they saw fit." +* When the War of 1812 began, these backwoods troops were pitted against +British regulars who were powerfully supported by Indian allies. The +officers of these untrained American troops were, like Hull, pompous, +broken-down, political incapables; while to the men themselves may +fairly be applied Amos Kendall's disgusted characterization of a +Kentucky muster: "The soldiers are under no more restraint than a herd +of swine. Reasoning, remonstrating, threatening, and ridiculing their +officers, they show their sense of equality and their total want +of subordination." Not until the very last of the war, when under +Harrison's direction capable and experienced officers drilled them +into real soldiers, did these backwoods stalwarts become an effective +fighting force. + + + * "Winning of the West," vol. IV, p. 246. + + +There were also shortcomings of another sort. None was more exasperating +or costly than the lack of means of transportation. Even in Ohio, the +oldest and most settled portion of the Northwest, roads were few and +poor; elsewhere there were practically none of any kind. But the regions +in which the war was carried on were far too sparsely populated to be +able to furnish the supplies, even the foodstuffs, needed by the troops; +and materials of every sort had to be transported from the East, by +river, lake, and wilderness trail. Up and down the great unbroken +stretches between the Ohio and the Lakes moved the floundering supply +trains in the vain effort to keep up with the armies, or to reach camps +or forts in time to avert starvation or disaster. Pack-horses waded +knee-deep in mud; wagons were dragged through mire up to their hubs; +even empty vehicles sometimes became so embedded that they had to be +abandoned, the drivers being glad to get off with their horses alive. +Many times a quartermaster, taking advantage of a frost, would send +off a convoy of provisions, only to hear of its being swamped by a thaw +before reaching its destination. One of the tragedies of the war was the +suffering of the troops while waiting for supplies of clothing, tents, +medicines, and food which were stuck in swamps or frozen up in rivers or +lakes. + +Beset with pleurisy, pneumonia, and rheumatism in winter, with fevers +in summer, and subject to attack by the Indians at all times, these +frontier soldiers led an existence of exceptional hardship. Only the +knowledge that they were fighting for their freedom and their homes held +them to their task. An interesting sidelight on the conditions under +which their work was done is contained in the following extract from a +letter written by a volunteer in 1814: + +"On the second day of our march a courier arrived from General Harrison, +ordering the artillery to advance with all possible speed. This was +rendered totally impossible by the snow which took place, it being +a complete swamp nearly all day. On the evening of the same day news +arrived that General Harrison had retreated to Portage River, eighteen +miles in the rear of the encampment at the rapids. As many men as could +be spared determined to proceed immediately to re-enforce him.... At two +o'clock the next morning our tents were struck, and in half an hour we +were on the road. I will candidly confess that on that day I regretted +being a soldier. On that day we marched thirty miles under an incessant +rain; and I am afraid you will doubt my veracity when I tell you that +in eight miles of the best of the road, it took us over the knees, +and often to the middle. The Black Swamp would have been considered +impassable by all but men determined to surmount every difficulty to +accomplish the object of their march. In this swamp you lose sight of +terra firma altogether--the water was about six inches deep on the ice, +which was very rotten, often breaking through to the depth of four or +five feet. The same night we encamped on very wet ground, but the driest +that could be found, the rain still continuing. It was with difficulty +we could raise fires; we had no tents; our clothes were wet, no axes, +nothing to cook with, and very little to eat. A brigade of pack-horses +being near us, we procured from them some flour, killed a hog (there +were plenty of THEM along the road); our bread was baked in the ashes, +and our pork we broiled on the coals--a sweeter meal I never partook of. +When we went to sleep it was on two logs laid close to each other, to +keep our bodies from the damp ground. Good God! What a pliant being is +man in adversity." * + + + * Dawson. "William H. Harrison," p. 369. + + +The principal theater of war was the Great Lakes and the lands adjacent +to them. Prior to the campaign which culminated in Jackson's victory at +New Orleans after peace had been signed, the Mississippi Valley had been +untrodden by British soldiery. The contest, none the less, came close +home to the backwoods populations. Scores of able-bodied men from every +important community saw months or years of toilsome service; many +failed to return to their homes, or else returned crippled, weakened, +or stricken with fatal diseases; crops were neglected, or had only +such care as could be given them by old men and boys; trade languished; +Indian depredations wrought further ruin to life and property and kept +the people continually in alarm. Until 1814, reports of successive +defeats, in both the East and West, had a depressing influence and led +to solemn speculation as to whether the back country stood in danger of +falling again under British dominion. + +It was, therefore, with a very great sense of relief that the West heard +in 1815 that peace had been concluded. At a stroke both the British +menace and the danger from the Indians were removed; for although +the redskins were still numerous and discontented, their spirit of +resistance was broken. Never again was there a general uprising against +the whites; never again did the Northwest witness even a local Indian +war of any degree of seriousness save Black Hawk's Rebellion in 1832. +Tecumseh manifestly realized before he made his last stand at the Thames +that the cause of his people was forever lost. + +For several years the unsettled conditions on the frontiers had +restrained any general migration thither from the seaboard States. But +within a few months after the proclamation of peace the tide again set +westward, and with an unprecedented force. Men who had suffered in their +property or other interests from the war turned to Indiana and Illinois +as a promising field in which to rebuild their fortunes. The rapid +extinction of Indian titles opened up vast tracts of desirable land, and +the conditions of purchase were made so easy that any man of ordinary +industry and integrity could meet them. Speculators and promoters +industriously advertised the advantages of localities in which they +were interested, boomed new towns, and even loaned money to ambitious +emigrants. + +The upshot was that the population of Indiana grew from twenty-five +thousand in 1810 to seventy thousand in 1816, when the State was +admitted to the Union. Illinois filled with equal rapidity, and attained +statehood only two years later. Then the tide swept irresistibly +westward across the Mississippi into the great regions which had +been acquired from France in 1803. As late as 1819, the Territory of +Missouri, comprising all of the Louisiana Purchase north of the present +State of Louisiana, had a population of only twenty-two thousand, +including many French and Spanish settlers and traders. But in 1818 it +had a population of more than sixty thousand, and was asking Congress +for legislation under which the most densely inhabited portion should be +set off as the State of Missouri. Thus the Old Northwest was not merely +losing its frontier character and taking its place in the nation on +a footing with the seaboard sections; it was also serving as the open +gateway to a newer, vaster, and in some respects richer American back +country. + +In the main, southern Indiana and Illinois--as well as the +trans-Mississippi territory--drew from Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, +and the remoter South. North of the latitude of Indianapolis and St. +Louis the lines of migration led chiefly from New England, New York, and +Pennsylvania. But many of the settlers came, immediately or after only +a brief interval, from Europe. The decade following the close of the war +was a time of unprecedented emigration from England, Scotland, Ireland, +and Germany to the United States; and while many of the newcomers +found homes in the eastern States, where they in a measure offset the +depopulation caused by the westward exodus, a very large proportion +pressed on across the mountains in quest of the cheap lands in the +undeveloped interior. During these years the western country was +repeatedly visited by European travelers with a view to ascertaining its +resources, markets, and other attractions for settlers; and emigration +thither was powerfully stimulated by the writings of these observers, as +well as by the activities of sundry founders of agricultural colonies. + +"These favorable accounts," wrote Adlard Welby, an Englishman who made a +tour of inspection through the West in 1819, "aided by a period of +real privation and discontent in Europe, caused emigration to increase +tenfold; and though various reports of unfavorable nature soon +circulated, and many who had emigrated actually returned to their +native land in disgust, yet still the trading vessels were filled with +passengers of all ages and descriptions, full of hope, looking forward +to the West as to a land of liberty and delight--a land flowing with +milk and honey--a second land of Canaan." * + + + * Thwaites, "Early Western Travels," vol. XII, p. 148. + + +After the dangers from the Indians were overcome, the main obstacle +to western development was the lack of means of easy and cheap +transportation. The settler found it difficult to reach the Legion which +he had selected for his home. Eastern supplies of salt, iron, hardware, +and fabrics and foodstuffs could be obtained only at great expense. +The fast-increasing products of the western farms--maize, wheat, meats, +livestock--could be marketed only at a cost which left a slender margin +of profit. The experiences of the late war had already proved the need +of highways as auxiliaries of national defense. It required a month to +carry goods from Baltimore to central Ohio. None the less, even before +the War of 1812, hundreds of transportation companies were running +four-horse freight wagons between the eastern and western States; and in +1820 more than three thousand wagons--practically all carrying western +products--passed back and forth between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, +transporting merchandise valued at eighteen million dollars. + +Small wonder that western producer and eastern dealer alike became +interested in internal improvements; or that under the double stimulus +of private and public enterprise Indian trails fast gave way to rough +pioneer roadways, and they to carefully planned and durable turnpikes. +Long before the War of 1812, Jefferson, Gallatin, Clay, and other +statesmen had conceived of a great highway, or series of highways, +connecting the seaboard with the interior as the surest and best means +of promoting national unity and strength; and, in the act of Congress of +1802 admitting the State of Ohio, a promising beginning had been made +by setting aside five per cent of the money received from the sale of +public lands in the State for the building of roads extending eastward +to the navigable waters of Atlantic streams. In 1808 Secretary Gallatin +had presented to Congress a report calling for an outlay on internal +improvements of two million dollars of federal money a year for +ten years; and in 1811 the Government had entered upon the greatest +undertaking of its kind in the history of the country. + +This enterprise was the building of the magnificent highway known to +the law as the Cumberland Road, but familiar to uncounted emigrants, +travelers, and traders--and deeply embedded in the traditions of +the Middle States and the West--as the National Road. Starting at +Cumberland, Maryland, this great artery of commerce and travel was +pushed slowly through the Alleghanies, even in the dark days of the war, +and by 1818 it was open for traffic as far west as Wheeling. The method +of construction was that which had lately been devised by John McAdam +in England, and involved spreading crushed limestone over a carefully +prepared road-bed in three layers, traffic being permitted for a time +over each layer in succession. This "macadamized" surface was curved to +permit drainage, and extra precautions were taken in localities where +spring freshets were likely to cause damage. + +Controversy raged over proposals to extend the road to the farthest +West, to provide its upkeep by a system of tolls, and to build similar +highways farther north and south. But for a time constitutional and +legal difficulties were swept aside and construction continued. Columbus +was reached in 1833, Indianapolis about 1840; and the roadway was graded +to Vandalia, then the capital of Illinois, and marked out to Jefferson +City, Missouri, although it was never completed to the last-mentioned +point by federal authority. When one reads that the original cost of +construction mounted to $10,000 a mile in central Pennsylvania, and +even $13,000 a mile in the neighborhood of Wheeling, one's suspicion is +aroused that public contracts were not less dubious a hundred years ago +than they have been known to be in our own time. + +The National Road has long since lost its importance as the great +connecting link of East and West. But in its day, especially before +1860, it was a teeming thoroughfare. Its course was lined with +hospitable farmhouses and was dotted with fast-growing villages and +towns. Some of the latter which once were nationally famed were left +high and dry by later shifts of the lines of traffic, and have quite +disappeared from the map. Throughout the spring and summer months there +was a steady westward stream of emigrants; hardly a day failed to bring +before the observer's eye the creaking canvas-covered wagon of the +homeseeker. Singly and in companies they went, ever toward the promised +land. Wagon-trains of merchandise from the eastern markets toiled +patiently along the way. Speculators, peddlers, and sightseers added to +the procession, and in hundreds of farmhouses the womenfolk and children +gathered in interested groups by the evening fire to hear the chance +visitor talk politics or war and retail with equal facility the +gossip of the next township and that of Washington or New York. Great +stage-coach lines--the National Road Stage Company, the Ohio National +Stage Company, and others--advertised the advantages of their services +and sought patronage with all the ingenuity of the modern railroad. +Taverns and roadhouses of which no trace remains today offered +entertainment at any figure, and of almost any character, that the +customer desired. Eastward flowed a steady stream of wagon-trains of +flour, tobacco, and pork, with great droves of cattle and hogs to be +fattened for the Philadelphia or Baltimore markets. + +At almost precisely the same time that the first shovelful of earth +was turned for the Cumberland Road, people dwelling on the banks of +the upper Ohio were startled by the spectacle of a large boat moving +majestically down stream entirely devoid of sail, oar, pole, or any +other visible means of propulsion or control. This object of wonderment +was the New Orleans, the first steamboat to be launched on western +waters. + +The conquest of the steamboat was speedy and complete. Already in 1819 +there were sixty-three such craft on the Ohio, and in 1834--when the +total shipping tonnage, of the Atlantic seaboard was 76,064, and of the +British Empire 82,696--the tonnage afloat on the Ohio and Mississippi +was 126,278. Vessels regularly ascended the navigable tributaries of the +greater streams in quest of cargoes, and while craft of other sorts +did not disappear, the great and growing commerce of the river was +revolutionized. + +In the upbuilding of steamboat navigation the thriving, bustling, +boastful spirit of the West found ample play. Steamboat owners vied with +one another in adorning their vessels with bowsprits, figureheads, +and all manner of tinseled decorations, and in providing elegant +accommodations for passengers; engineers and pilots gloried in speed +records and challenged one another to races which ended in some of the +most shocking steamboat disasters known to history. The unconscious +bombast of an anonymous Cincinnati writer in Timothy Flint's "Western +Monthly Review" in 1827 gives us the real flavor of the steamboat +business on the threshold of the Jacksonian era: + +"An Atlantic cit, who talks of us under the name of backwoodsmen, would +not believe, that such fairy structures of oriental gorgeousness and +splendor as the Washington, the Florida, the Walk in the Water, The Lady +of the Lake, etc., etc., had ever existed in the imaginative brain of a +romancer, much less, that they were actually in existence, rushing down +the Mississippi, as on the wings of the wind, or plowing up between the +forests, and walking against the mighty current 'as things of life,' +bearing speculators, merchants, dandies, fine ladies, everything real, +and everything affected, in the form of humanity, with pianos, and +stocks of novels, and cards, and dice, and flirting, and love-making, +and drinking, and champagne, and on the deck, perhaps, three hundred +fellows, who have seen alligators, and neither fear whiskey, nor +gun-powder. A steamboat, coming from New Orleans, brings to the remotest +villages of our streams, and the very doors of the cabins, a little +Paris, a section of Broadway, or a slice of Philadelphia, to ferment in +the minds of our young people, the innate propensity for fashions and +finery.... Cincinnati will soon be the centre of the 'celestial +empire,' as the Chinese say; and instead of encountering the storms, +the seasickness, and dangers of a passage from the Gulf of Mexico to +the Atlantic, whenever the Erie Canal shall be completed, the opulent +southern planters will take their families, their dogs and parrots, +through a world of forests, from New Orleans to New York, giving us a +call by the way. When they are more acquainted with us, their voyage +will often terminate here." * + + + * Vol. I., p. 25 (May, 1827). + + +The new West was frankly materialistic. Yet its interests were by +no means restricted to steamboats, turnpikes, crops, exports, and +moneymaking. It concerned itself much with religion. One of the most +familiar figures on trail and highway was the circuit-rider, with his +Bible and saddlebags; and no community was so remote, or so hardened, as +not to be raised occasionally to a frenzy of religious zeal by the crude +but terrifying eloquence of the revivalist. For education, likewise, +there was a growing regard. Nowhere did the devotion of the Western +people to the twin ideas of democracy and enlightenment find nobler +expression than in the clause of the Indiana constitution of 1816 making +it the duty of the Legislature to provide for "a general system of +education, ascending in a regular gradation from township schools to a +state university, wherein tuition shall be gratis, and equally open to +all." This principle found general application throughout the Northwest. +By 1830 common schools existed wherever population was sufficient +to warrant the expense; academies and other secondary schools were +springing up in Cincinnati, Louisville, St. Louis, and many lesser +places; state universities existed in Ohio and Indiana; and Baptists, +Methodists, and Presbyterians had begun to dot the country with small +colleges. Literature developed slowly. But newspapers appeared almost +before there were readers; and that the new society was by no means +without cultural, and even aesthetic, aspiration is indicated by the +long-continued rivalry of Cincinnati and Lexington, Kentucky, to be +known as "the Athens of the West." + + + +Chapter X. Sectional Cross Current + +The War of 1812 did much in America to stimulate national pride and to +foster a sense of unity. None the less, the decade following the Peace +of Ghent proved the beginning of a long era in which the point of view +in politics, business, and social life was distinctly sectional. New +England, the Middle States, the South, the West all were bent upon +getting the utmost advantages from their resources; all were viewing +public questions in the light of their peculiar interests. In the days +of Clay and Calhoun and Jackson the nation's politics were essentially a +struggle for power among the sections. + +There was a time when the frontier folk of the trans-Alleghany country +from Lakes to Gulf were much alike. New Englanders in the Reserve, +Pennsylvanians in central Ohio, Virginians and Carolinians in Kentucky +and southern Indiana, Georgians in Alabama and Mississippi, Kentuckians +and Tennesseeans in Illinois and Missouri--all were pioneer farmers +and stock-raiser's, absorbed in the conquest of the wilderness and all +thinking, working, and living in much the same way, but by 1820 the +situation had altered. The West was still a "section," whose interests +and characteristics contrasted sharply with those of New England or the +Middle States. Yet upon occasion it could act with very great effect, +as for instance when it rallied to the support of Jackson and bore him +triumphantly to the presidential chair. Great divergences, however, had +grown up within this western area; differences which had existed from +the beginning had been brought into sharp relief. Under play of climatic +and industrial forces, the West had itself fallen apart into sections. + +Foremost was the cleavage between North and South, on a line marked +roughly by the Ohio River. Climate, soil, the cotton gin, and slavery +combined to make of the southern West a great cotton-raising area, +interested in the same things and swayed by the same impulses as the +southern seaboard. Similarly, economic conditions combined to make of +the northern West a land of small farmers, free labor, town-building, +and diversified manufactures and trade. A very large chapter of American +history hinges on this wedging apart of Southwest and Northwest. To this +day the two great divisions have never wholly come together in their +ways of thinking. + +But neither of these western segments was itself entirely a unit. The +Northwest, in particular, had been settled by people drawn from every +older portion of the country, and as the frontier receded and society +took on a more matured aspect, differences of habits and ideas were +accentuated rather than obscured. Men can get along very well with one +another so long as they live apart and do not try to regulate their +everyday affairs on common lines. + +The great human streams that poured into the Northwest flowed from +two main sources--the nearer South and New England. Ohio, Indiana, and +Illinois were first peopled by men and women of Southern stock. Some +migrated directly from Virginia, the Carolinas, and even Georgia. +But most came from Kentucky and Tennessee and represented the second +generation of white people in those States, now impelled to move on to +a new frontier by the desire for larger and cheaper farms. Included +in this Southern element were many representatives of the well-to-do +classes, who were drawn to the new territories by the opportunity for +speculation in land and for political preferment, and by the opening +which the fast-growing communities afforded for lawyers, doctors, and +members of other professions. The number of these would have been larger +had there been less rigid restrictions upon slaveholding. It was rather, +however, the poorer whites--the more democratic, non-slaveholding +Southern element--that formed the bulk of the earlier settlers north of +the Ohio. + +There was much westward migration from New England before the War +of 1812, but only a small share of it reached the Ohio country, and +practically none went beyond the Western Reserve. The common goal was +western New York. Here again there was some emigration of the well-to-do +and influential. But, as in the South, the people who moved were mainly +those who were having difficulty in making ends meet and who could see +no way of bettering their condition in their old homes. The back country +of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and western Massachusetts was +filled with people of this sort--poor, discontented, restless, without +political influence, and needing only the incentive of cheap lands +in the West to sever the slender ties which bound them to the stony +hillsides of New England. + +After 1815 New England emigration rose to astonishing proportions, and +an increasing number of the homeseekers passed--directly or after a +sojourn in the Lower Lake country of New York--into the Northwest. The +opening of the Erie Canal in 1825 made the westward journey easier and +cheaper. The routes of travel led to Lakes Ontario and Erie, thence +to the Reserve in northern Ohio, thence by natural stages into other +portions of northern Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, and eventually into +southern Michigan and Wisconsin. Not until after 1830 did the stalwart +homeseekers penetrate north of Detroit; the great stretches of prairie +between Lakes Erie and Michigan, and to the south--left quite untouched +by Southern pioneers--satisfied every desire of these restless farmers +from New England. + +For a long time Southerners determined the course of history in the +Old Northwest. They occupied the field first, and they had the great +advantage of geographical proximity to their old homes. Furthermore, +they lived more compactly; the New Englanders were not only spread over +the broader prairie stretches of the north, but scattered to some extent +throughout the entire region between the Lakes and the Ohio. * But by +the middle of the century not only had the score of northern counties +been inundated by the "Yankees" but the waves were pushing far into +the interior, where they met and mingled with the counter-current. Both +Illinois and Indiana became, in a preeminent degree, melting-pots in +which was fused by slow and sometimes painful processes an amalgam which +Bryce and other keen observers have pronounced the most American thing +in America. + + + * In 1820 the population of Indiana was confined almost entirely +to the southern third of the State, although the removal of the capital, +in 1825, from Corydon to Indianapolis was carried out in the confidence +that eventually that point would become the State's populational as it +was its geographical center. When, in 1818, Illinois was admitted to +the Union its population was computed at 40,000. The figure was probably +excessive; at all events, contemporaries testify that so eager were the +people for statehood that many were counted twice, and even emigrants +were counted as they passed through the Territory. But the census +of 1880 showed a population of 55,000, settled almost wholly in the +southern third of the State, with narrow tongues of inhabited land +stretching up the river valleys toward the north. Two slave States +flanked the southern end of the commonwealth; almost half of its area +lay south of a westward prolongation of Mason and Dixon's line. Save for +a few Pennsylvanians, the people were Southern; the State was for all +practical purposes a Southern State. As late as 1883 the Legislature +numbered fifty-eight members from the South, nineteen from the Middle +States, and only four from New England. + + +Of the great national issues in the quarter-century following the War +of 1812 there were some upon which people of the Northwest, in spite +of their differing points of view, could very well agree. Internal +improvement was one of these. Roads and canals were necessary outlets +to southern and eastern markets, and any reasonable proposal on +this subject could be assured of the Northwest's solid support. The +thirty-four successive appropriations to 1844 for the Cumberland +Road, Calhoun's "Bonus Bill" of 1816, the bill of 1822 authorizing +a continuous national jurisdiction over the Cumberland Road, the +comprehensive "Survey Bill" of 1824, the Maysville Road Bill of +1830--all were backed by the united strength of the Northwestern +senators and representatives. + +So with the tariff. The cry of the East for protection to infant +industries was echoed by the struggling manufacturers of Cincinnati, +Louisville, and other towns; while a protective tariff as a means of +building up the home market for foodstuffs and raw materials seemed to +the Westerner an altogether reasonable and necessary expedient. Ohio +alone in the Northwest had an opportunity to vote on the protective bill +of 1816, and gave its enthusiastic support. Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois +voted unitedly for the bills of 1820, 1824, 1828, and 1832. The +principal western champion of the protective policy was Henry Clay, a +Kentuckian; but the Northwest supported the policy more consistently +than did Clay's own State and section. + +On the National Bank the position of the Northwest was no less emphatic. +The people were little troubled by the question of constitutionality; +but believing that the bank was an engine of tyranny in the hands of an +eastern aristocracy, they were fully prepared to support Jackson in his +determination to extinguish that "un-American monopoly." + +There were other subjects upon which agreement was reached either with +difficulty or not at all. One of these was the form of local government +which should be adopted. Southerners and New Englanders brought to their +new homes widely differing political usages. The former were accustomed +to the county as the principal local unit of administration. It was +a relatively large division, whose affairs were managed by elective +officers, mainly a board of commissioners. The New Englanders, on the +other hand, had grown up under the town-meeting system and clung to the +notion that an indispensable feature of democratic local government is +the periodic assembling of the citizens of a community for legislative, +fiscal, and electoral purposes. The Illinois constitution of 1818 was +made by Southerners, and naturally it provided for the county system. +But protest from the "Yankee" elements became so strong that in the +new constitution of 1848 provision was made for township organization +wherever the people of a county wanted it; and this form of government, +at first prevalent only in the northern counties, is now found in most +of the central and southern counties as well. + +The most deeply and continuously dividing issue in the Northwest, as in +the nation, at large, was negro slavery. Although written by Southern +men, the Ordinance of 1787 stipulated that there should be "neither +slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said territory, otherwise +than in the punishment of crimes whereof the party shall have been duly +convicted." If the government of the Northwest had been one of laws, and +not of men, this specific provision would have made the territory free +soil and would have relieved the inhabitants from all interest in the +"peculiar institution." But the laws never execute themselves--least of +all in frontier communities. In point of fact, considerable numbers of +slaves were held in the territory until the nineteenth century was far +advanced. As late as 1830 thirty-two negroes were held in servitude in +the single town of Vincennes. Slavery could and did prevail to a limited +extent because existing property rights were guaranteed in the Ordinance +itself, in the deed of cession by Virginia, in the Jay Treaty of 1794, +and in other fundamental acts. The courts of the Northwest held +that slave-owners whose property could be brought under any of +these guarantees might retain that property; and although no court +countenanced further importation, itinerant Southerners--rich +planters traveling in their family carriages, with servants, packs of +hunting-dogs, and trains of slaves, their nightly camp-fires lighting +up the wilderness where so recently the Indian hunter had held +possession--occasionally settled in southern Indiana or Illinois and +with the connivance of the authorities kept some of their dependents in +slavery, or quasi-slavery, for decades. + +Of actual slaveholders there were not enough to influence public +sentiment greatly. But the people of Southern extraction, although +neither slave holders nor desiring to become such, had no strong moral +convictions on the subject. Indeed, they were likely to feel that the +anti-slavery restriction imposed an unfortunate impediment in the way of +immigration from the South. Hence the persistent demand of citizens +of Indiana and Illinois for a relaxation of the drastic prohibition of +slavery in the Ordinance of 1787. In 1796 Congress was petitioned from +Kaskaskia to extend relief; in 1799 the territorial Legislature was +urged to bring about a repeal; in 1802 an Indiana territorial convention +at Vincennes memorialized Congress in behalf of a suspension of the +proviso for a period of ten years. Not only were violations of the law +winked at, but both Indiana and Illinois deliberately built up a system +of indenture which partook strongly of the characteristics of slavery. +After much controversy, Indiana, in 1816, framed a state constitution +which reiterated the language of the Northwest Ordinance, but without +invalidating titles to existing slave property; while Illinois was +admitted to the Union in 1818 with seven or eight hundred slaves upon +her soil, and with a constitution which continued the old system of +indenture with slight modification. + +In a heated contest in Illinois in 1824 over the question of calling a +state convention to draft a constitution legalizing slavery the people +of Northern antecedents made their votes tell and defeated the project. +But, like other parts of the Northwest, this State never became a unit +on the slavery issue. Certainly it never became abolitionist. By +an almost unanimous vote the Legislature, in 1837, adopted joint +resolutions which condemned abolitionism as "more productive of evil +than of moral and political good"; and in Congress in the preceding +year the delegation of the State had given solid support to the "gag +resolutions," which were intended to deny a hearing to all petitions on +the slavery question. + +Throughout the great era of slavery controversy the Northwest was +prolific of schemes of compromise, for the constant clash of Northern +and Southern elements developed an aptitude for settlement by agreement +on moderate lines. The people of the section as a whole long clung to +popular, or "squatter," sovereignty as the supremely desirable solution +of the slavery question--a device formulated and defended by two of +the Northwest's own statesmen, Cass and Douglas, and relinquished +only slowly and reluctantly under the leadership, not of a New England +abolitionist, but of a statesman of Southern birth who had come to the +conclusion that the nation could not permanently exist half slave and +half free. + +Cass, Douglas, Lincoln--all were adopted sons of the Northwest, and the +career of every one illustrates not only the prodigality with which the +back country showered its opportunities upon men of industry and +talent, but the play and interplay of sectional and social forces in the +building of the newer nation. Cass and Douglas were New Englanders. +One was born at Exeter, New Hampshire, in 1782; the other at Brandon, +Vermont, in 1813. Lincoln sprang from Virginian and Kentuckian stocks. +His father's family moved from Virginia to Kentucky at the close of the +Revolution; in 1784 his grandfather was killed by lurking Indians, and +his father, then a boy of six, was saved from captivity only by a lucky +shot of an older brother. Lincoln himself was born in 1809. Curiously +enough, Cass and Douglas, the New Englanders, played their roles on the +national stage as Jackson Democrats, while Lincoln, the Kentuckian of +Virginian ancestry, became a Whig and later a Republican. + +Cass and Douglas were well-born. Cass's father was a thrifty +soldier-farmer who made for his family a comfortable home at Zanesville, +Ohio; Douglas's father was a successful physician. Lincoln was born +in obscurity and wretchedness. His father, Thomas Lincoln, was a +ne'er-do-well Kentucky carpenter, grossly illiterate, unable or +unwilling to rise above the lowest level of existence in the pioneer +settlements. His mother, Nancy Hanks, whatever her antecedents may have +been, was a woman of character, and apparently of some education. But +she died when her son was only nine years of age. + +Cass and Douglas had educational opportunities which in their day were +exceptional. Both attended famous academies and received instruction +in the classics, mathematics, and philosophy. Both grew up in an +environment of enlightenment and integrity. Lincoln, on the other hand, +got a few weeks of instruction under two amateur teachers in Kentucky +and a few months more in Indiana--in all, hardly as much as one year; +and as a boy he knew only rough, coarse surroundings. When, in 1816, the +restless head of the family moved from Kentucky to southern Indiana, +his worldly belongings consisted of a parcel of carpenters' tools and +cooking utensils, a little bedding, and about four hundred gallons of +whiskey. No one who has not seen the sordidness, misery, and apparent +hopelessness of the life of the "poor whites" even today, in the +Kentucky and southern Indiana hills, can fully comprehend the chasm +which separated the boy Lincoln from every sort of progress and +distinction. + +All three men prepared for public life by embracing the profession that +has always, in this country, proved the surest avenue to preferment--the +law. But, whereas Cass arrived at maturity just in time to have an +active part in the War of 1812, and in this way to make himself the most +logical selection for the governorship of the newly organized Michigan +Territory, Douglas saw no military service, and Lincoln only a few weeks +of service during the Black Hawk War, and both were obliged to seek fame +and fortune along the thorny road of politics. Following admission to +the bar at Jacksonville, Illinois, in 1834, Douglas was elected public +prosecutor of the first judicial circuit in 1835; elected to the state +Legislature in 1836; appointed by President Van Buren registrar of the +land office at Springfield in 1837; made a judge of the supreme court of +the State in 1841; and elected to the national House of Representatives +in 1843. Resourceful, skilled in debate, intensely patriotic, and +favored with many winning personal qualities, he drew to himself men +of both Northern and Southern proclivities and became an influential +exponent of broad and enduring nationalism. + +Meanwhile, after a first defeat, Lincoln was elected to the Illinois +Legislature in 1834, and again in 1836. When he gathered all of his +worldly belongings in a pair of saddlebags and fared forth to the new +capital, Springfield, to settle himself to the practice of law, he had +more than a local reputation for oratorical power; and events were +to prove that he had not only facility in debate and familiarity with +public questions, but incomparable devotion to lofty principles. In the +subsequent unfolding of the careers of Lincoln and Douglas--especially +in the turn of events that brought to each a nomination for the +presidency by a great party in 1860--there was no small amount of good +luck and sheer accident. But it is equally true that by prodigious +effort Kentuckian and Vermonter alike hewed out their own ways to +greatness. + +It was the glory of the Northwest to offer a competence to the needy, +the baffled, the discouraged, the tormented of the eastern States and of +Europe. The bulk of its fast-growing population consisted, it is true, +of ordinary folk who could have lived on in fair comfort in the older +sections, yet who were ambitious to own more land, to make more money, +and to secure larger advantages for their children. But nowhere else was +the road for talent so wide open, entirely irrespective of inheritance, +possessions, education, environment. Nowhere outside of the +trans-Alleghany country would the rise of a Lincoln have been possible. + + + +Chapter XI. The Upper Mississippi Valley + +While the Ohio country--the lower half of the States of Ohio, Indiana, +and Illinois--was throwing off its frontier character, the remoter +Northwest was still a wilderness frequented only by fur-traders +and daring explorers. And that far Northwest by the sources of the +Mississippi had been penetrated by few white men since the seventeenth +century. The earliest white visitors to the upper Mississippi are +not clearly known. They may have been Pierre Radisson and his +brother-in-law, Menard des Grosseilliers, who are alleged to have +covered the long portage from Lake Superior to the Mississippi in +or about 1665; but the matter rests entirely on how one interprets +Radisson's vague account of their western perambulations. At all events, +in 1680--seven years after the descent of the river from the Wisconsin +to the Arkansas by Marquette and Joliet--Louis Hennepin, under +instructions from La Salle, explored the stream from the mouth of the +Illinois to the Falls of St. Anthony, where the city of Minneapolis now +stands, five hundred miles from the true source. + +There the matter of exploration rested until the days of Thomas +Jefferson, when the purchase of Louisiana lent fresh interest to +northwestern geography. In 1805 General James Wilkinson, in military +command in the West, dispatched Lieutenant Zebulon M. Pike with a party +of twenty men from St. Louis to explore the headwaters of the great +river, make peace with the Indians, and select sites for fortified +posts. From his winter quarters near the Falls, Pike pushed northward +over the snow and ice until, early in 1806, he reached Leech Lake, in +Cass County, Minnesota, which he wrongly took to be the source of the +Father of Waters. It is little wonder that, at a time when the river and +lake surfaces were frozen over and the whole country heavily blanketed +with snow, he should have found it difficult to disentangle the maze of +streams and lakes which fill the low-lying region around the headwaters +of the Mississippi, the Red River, and the Lake of the Woods. In 1820 +General Cass, Governor of Michigan, which then had the Mississippi for +its western boundary, led an expedition into the same region as far +as Cass Lake, where the Indians told him that the true source lay +some fifty miles to the northwest. It remained for the traveler and +ethnologist Henry Schoolcraft, twelve years later, to discover Lake +Itasca, in modern Clearwater County, which occupies a depression near +the center of the rock-rimmed basin in which the river takes its rise. + +It was not these infrequent explorers, however, who opened paths for +pioneers into the remote Northwest, but traders in search of furs and +pelts--those commercial pathfinders of western civilization. There is +scarcely a town or city in the State of Wisconsin that does not owe its +origin, directly or indirectly, to these men. Cheap and tawdry enough +were the commodities bartered for these wonderful beaver and otter +pelts--ribbons and gewgaws, looking-glasses and combs, blankets and +shawls of gaudy color. But scissors and knives, gunpowder and shot, +tobacco and whiskey, went also in the traders' packs, though traffic in +fire-water was forbidden. These goods, upon arrival at Mackinac, were +sent out by canoes and bateaux to the different posts, where they were +dealt out to the savages directly or were dispatched to the winter camps +along the far-reaching waterways. Returning home in the spring, the +bucks would set their squaws and children at making maple sugar or +planting corn, watermelons, potatoes, and squash, while they themselves +either dawdled their time away or hunted for summer furs. In the autumn, +the wild rice was garnered along the sloughs and the river mouths, and +the straggling field crops were gathered in--some of the product being +hidden in skillfully covered pits, as a reserve, and some dried for +transportation in the winter's campaign. The villagers were now ready to +depart for their hunting-grounds, often hundreds of miles away. It was +then that the trader came and credits were wrangled over and extended, +each side endeavoring to get the better of the other. * + + + * Thwaites, "Story of Wisconsin," p. 156. + + +This traffic was largely managed by the British in Canada until 1816, +when an act of Congress forbade foreign traders to operate on United +States soil. But a heavier blow was inflicted in the establishment of +John Jacob Astor's American Fur Company, which was given a substantial +monopoly of Indian commerce. From its headquarters on Mackinac Island +this great corporation rapidly squeezed the clandestine British agents +out of the American trade, introduced improved methods, and built up a +system which covered the entire fur-bearing Northwest. + +Of this remoter Northwest, the region between Lakes Erie and Michigan +was the most accessible from the East; yet it was avoided by the first +pioneers, who labored under a strange misapprehension about its +climate and resources. In spite of the fact that it abounded in rich +bottom-lands and fertile prairies and was destined to become one of +the most bountiful orchards of the world, it was reported by early +prospectors to be swampy and unfit for cultivation. Though Governor Cass +did his best to overcome this prejudice, for years settlers preferred to +gather mainly about Detroit, leaving the rich interior to fur-traders. +When enlightenment eventually came, population poured in with a rush. +Detroit--which was a village in 1820--became ten years later a thriving +city of thirty thousand and the western terminus of a steamboat line +from Buffalo, which year after year multiplied its traffic. By the +year 1837 the great territory lying east of Lake Michigan was ready for +statehood. + +Almost simultaneously the region to the west of Lake Michigan began to +emerge from the fur-trading stage. The place of the picturesque trader, +however, was not taken at once by the prosaic farmer. The next figure +in the pageant was the miner. The presence of lead in the stretch of +country between the Wisconsin and Illinois rivers was known to the +Indians before the coming of the white man, but they began to appreciate +its value only after the introduction of firearms by the French. The +ore lay at no great depth in the Galena limestone, and the aborigines +collected it either by stripping it from the surface or by sinking +shallow shafts from which it was hoisted, in deerskin bags. Shortly +after the War of 1812 American prospectors pushed into the region, and +the Government began granting leases on easy terms to operators. In 1823 +one of these men arrived with soldiers, supplies, skilled miners, and +one hundred and fifty slaves; and thereafter the "diggings" fast became +a mecca for miners, smelters, speculators, merchants, gamblers, and +get-rich-quick folk of every sort, who swarmed thither by thousands from +every part of the United States, especially the South, and even from +Europe. "Mushroom towns sprang up all over the district; deep-worn +native paths became ore roads between the burrows and the +river-landings; sink-holes abandoned by the Sauk and Foxes, when no +longer to be operated with their crude tools, were reopened and found to +be exceptionally rich, while new diggings and smelting-furnaces, fitted +out with modern appliances, fairly dotted the map of the country." * + + + * Thwaites, "Story of Wisconsin". p. 163. + + +Galena was the entrepot of the region. A trail cut thither from Peoria +soon became a well-worn coach road; roads were early opened to Chicago +and Milwaukee. In 1822 Galena was visited by a Mississippi River +steamboat, and a few years later regular steamboat traffic was +established. And it was by these roadways and waterways that homeseekers +soon began to arrive. + + +The invasion of the white man, accompanied though it was by treaties, +was bitterly resented by the Indian tribes who occupied the Northwest +above the Illinois River. These Sioux, Sauk and Foxes, and Winnebagoes, +with remnants of other tribes, carried on an intermittent warfare for +years, despite the efforts of the Federal Government to define tribal +boundaries; and between red men and white men coveting the same lands +causes of irritation were never wanting. In 1827 trouble which had been +steadily brewing came to the boiling-point. Predatory expeditions in the +north were reported; the Winnebagoes were excited by rumors that +another war between the United States and Great Britain was imminent; +an incident or even an accident was certain to provoke hostilities. The +incident occurred. When Red Bird, a petty Winnebago chieftain dwelling +in a "town" on the Black River, was incorrectly informed that two +Winnebago braves who had been imprisoned at Prairie du Chien had been +executed, he promptly instituted vengeance. A farmer's family in the +neighborhood of Prairie du Chien was massacred, and two keel-boats +returning down stream from Fort Snelling were attacked, with some loss +of life. The settlers hastily repaired the old fort and also dispatched +messengers to give the alarm. Galena sent a hundred militiamen; a +battalion came down from Fort Snelling; Governor Cass arrived on the +spot by way of Green Bay; General Atkinson brought up a full regiment +from Jefferson Barracks, near St. Louis; and finally Major Whistler +proceeded up the Fox with a portion of the troops stationed at Fort +Howard, on Green Bay. + +When all was in readiness, the Winnebagoes were notified that, unless +Red Bird and his principal accomplice, Wekau, were promptly surrendered, +the tribe would be exterminated. The threat had its intended effect, +and the two culprits duly presented themselves at Whistler's camp on +the Fox-Wisconsin portage, in full savage regalia, and singing their war +dirges. Red Bird, who was an Indian of magnificent physique and lofty +bearing, had but one request to make--that he be not committed to +irons--and this request was granted. At Prairie du Chien, whither the +two were sent for trial, he had opportunities to escape, but he refused +to violate his word by taking advantage of them. Following their trial, +the redskins were condemned to be hanged. Unused to captivity, however, +Red Bird languished and soon died, while his accomplice was pardoned by +President Adams. In 1828 Fort Winnebago was erected on the site of Red +Bird's surrender. + +The Winnebagoes now agreed to renounce forever their claims to the lead +mines. Furthermore, in the same year, the site of the principal Sauk +village and burying-ground, on Rock River, three miles south of the +present city of Rock Island, was sold by the Government, and the Sauk +and Foxes resident in the vicinity were given notice to leave. Under +the Sauk chieftain Keokuk most of the dispossessed warriors withdrew +peacefully beyond the Mississippi, and two years later the tribal +representatives formally yielded all claims to lands east of that +stream. Some members of the tribe, however, established themselves on +the high bluff which has since been known as Black Hawk's Watch Tower +and defied the Government to remove them. + +The leading spirit in this protest was Black Hawk, who though neither +born a chief nor elected to that dignity, had long been influential in +the village and among his people at large. During the War of 1812 he +became an implacable enemy of the Americans, and, after fighting with +the British at the battles of Frenchtown and the Thames, he returned +to Illinois and carried on a border warfare which ended only with the +signing of a special treaty of peace in 1816. For years thereafter he +was accustomed to lead his "British band" periodically across northern +Illinois and southern Michigan to the British Indian agency to receive +presents of arms, ammunition, provisions, and trinkets; and he was a +principal intermediary in the British intrigues which gave Cass, as +superintendent of Indian affairs in the Northwest, many uneasy days. He +was ever a restless spirit and a promoter of trouble, although one must +admit that he had some justice on his side and that he was probably +honest and sincere. Tall, spare, with pinched features, exceptionally +high cheekbones, and a prominent Roman nose, he was a figure to command +attention--the more so by reason of the fact that he had practically no +eyebrows and no hair except a scalp-lock, in which on state occasions he +fastened a flaming bunch of dyed eagle feathers. + +Returning from their hunt in the spring of 1830, Black Hawk and his +warriors found the site of their town preempted by white settlers and +their ancestral burying-ground ploughed over. In deep rage, they set +off for Malden, where they were liberally entertained and encouraged to +rebel. Coming again to the site of their village a year later, they +were peremptorily ordered away. This time they resolved to stand their +ground, and Black Hawk ordered the squatters themselves to withdraw +and gave them until the middle of the next day to do so. Black Hawk +subsequently maintained that he did not mean to threaten bloodshed. But +the settlers so construed his command and deluged Governor Reynolds with +petitions for help. With all possible speed, sixteen hundred volunteers +and ten companies of United States regulars were dispatched to the +scene, and on the 25th of June, they made an impressive demonstration +within view of the village. In the face of such odds discretion seemed +the better part of valor, and during the succeeding night Black Hawk and +his followers quietly paddled across the Mississippi. Four days later +they signed an agreement never to return to the eastern banks without +express permission from the United States Government. + +On the Indian side this compact was not meant to be kept. Against the +urgent advice of Keokuk and other leaders, Black Hawk immediately +began preparations for a campaign of vengeance. British intrigue lent +stimulus, and a crafty "prophet," who was chief of a village some +thirty-five miles up the Rock, made it appear that aid would be given by +the Potawatomi, Winnebagoes, and perhaps other powerful peoples. In the +first week of April, 1832, the disgruntled leader and about five hundred +braves, with their wives and children, crossed the Mississippi at Yellow +Banks and ascended the Rock River to the prophet's town, with a view to +raising a crop of corn during the summer and taking the war-path in the +fall. + +The invasion created much alarm throughout the frontier country. The +settlers drew together about the larger villages, which were put as +rapidly as possible in a state of defense. Again the Governor called for +volunteers, and again the response more than met the expectation. Four +regiments were organized, and to them were joined four hundred regulars. +One of the first persons to come forward with an offer of his services +was a tall, ungainly, but powerful young man from Sangamon County, +who had but two years before settled in the State, and who was at once +honored with the captaincy of his company. This man was Abraham Lincoln. +Other men whose names loom large in American history were with the +little army also. The commander of the regulars was Colonel Zachary +Taylor. Among his lieutenants were Jefferson Davis and Albert Sidney +Johnston, and Robert Anderson, the defender of Fort Sumter in 1860, was +a colonel of Illinois volunteers. It is said that the oath of allegiance +was administered to young Lincoln by Lieutenant Jefferson Davis! + +Over marshy trails and across streams swollen by the spring thaws the +army advanced to Dixon's Ferry, ninety miles up the Rock, whence a +detachment of three hundred men was sent out, under Major Stillman, +to reconnoitre. Unluckily, this force seized three messengers of peace +dispatched by Black Hawk and, in the clash which followed, was cut +to pieces and driven into headlong flight by a mere handful of red +warriors. The effect of this unexpected affray was both to stiffen +the Indians to further resistance and to precipitate a fresh panic +throughout the frontier. All sorts of atrocities ensued, and Black +Hawk's name became a household bugaboo the country over. + +Finally a new levy was made ready and sent north. Pushing across the +overflowed wilderness stretches, past the sites of modern Beloit and +Madison, this army, four thousand strong, came upon the fleeing enemy +on the banks of the Wisconsin River, and at Wisconsin Heights, near the +present town of Prairie du Sac, it inflicted a severe defeat upon +the Indians. Again Black Hawk desired to make peace, but again he was +frustrated, this time by the lack of an interpreter. The redskins' +flight was continued in the direction of the Mississippi, which they +reached in midsummer. They were prevented from crossing by lack of +canoes, and finally the half-starved band found itself caught between +the fire of a force of regulars on the land side and a government supply +steamer, the Warrior, on the water side, and between these two the +Indian band was practically annihilated. + + Thus ended the war--a contest originating in no general uprising +or far-reaching plan, such as marked the rebellions instigated by +Pontiac and Tecumseh, but which none the less taxed the strength of +the border populations and opened a new chapter in the history of the +remoter northwestern territories. Black Hawk himself took refuge with +the Winnebagoes in the Dells of the Wisconsin, only to be treacherously +delivered over to General Street at Prairie du Chien. Under the terms of +a treaty of peace signed at Fort Armstrong (Rock Island) in September, +the fallen leader and some of his accomplices were held as hostages, +and during the ensuing winter they were kept at Jefferson Barracks (St. +Louis) under the surveillance of Jefferson Davis. In the spring of +1833 they were taken to Washington, where they had an interview with +President Jackson. "We did not expect to conquer the whites," Black Hawk +told the President; "they had too many houses, too many men. I took up +the hatchet, for my part, to revenge injuries which my people could no +longer endure. Had I borne them longer without striking, my people would +have said, 'Black Hawk is a woman--he is too old to be a chief he is no +Sauk.'" After a brief imprisonment at Fortress Monroe, where Jefferson +Davis was himself confined at the close of the Civil War, the captives +were set free, and were taken to Philadelphia, New York, up the Hudson, +and finally back to the Rock River country. + +For some years Black Hawk lived quietly on a small reservation near Des +Moines. In 1837 the peace-loving Keokuk took him with a party of Sauk +and Fox chiefs again to Washington, and on this trip he made a visit to +Boston. The officials of the city received the august warrior and his +companions in Faneuil Hall, and the Governor of the commonwealth paid +them similar honor at the State House. Some war-dances were performed on +the Common for the amusement of the populace, and afterwards the party +was taken to see a performance by Edwin Forrest at the Tremont Theatre. +Here all went well, except that at an exciting point in the play where +one of the characters fell dying the Indians burst out into a war-whoop, +to the considerable consternation of the women and children present. + +A few months after returning to his Iowa home, Black Hawk, now +seventy-one years of age, was gathered to his fathers. He was buried +about half a mile from his cabin, in a sitting posture, his left hand +grasping a cane presented to him by Henry Clay, and at his side a supply +of food and tobacco sufficient to last him to the spirit land, supposed +to be three days' travel. "Rock River," he said in a speech at a Fourth +of July celebration shortly before his death, "was a beautiful country. +I liked my town, my cornfields, and the home of my people. I fought +for it. It is now yours. Keep it, as we did. It will produce you good +crops." + + +The Black Hawk War opened a new chapter in the history of the Northwest. +The soldiers carried to their homes remarkable stories of the richness +and attractiveness of the northern country, and the eastern newspapers +printed not only detailed accounts of the several expeditions but highly +colored descriptions of the charms of the region. Books and pamphlets by +the score helped to attract the attention of the country. The result +was a heavy influx of settlers, many of them coming all the way from +New England and New York, others from Pennsylvania and Ohio. Lands +were rapidly surveyed and placed on sale, and surviving Indian +hunting-grounds were purchased. Northern Illinois filled rapidly with a +thrifty farming population, and the town of Chicago became an entrepot. +Further north, Wisconsin had been organized, in 1836, as a Territory, +including not only the present State of that name but Iowa, Minnesota, +and most of North and South Dakota. As yet the Iowa country, however, +had been visited by few white people; and such as came were only hunters +and trappers, agents of the American Fur and other trading companies, +or independent traders. Two of the most active of these free-lances +of early days--the French Canadian Dubuque and the Englishman +Davenport--have left their names to flourishing cities. + +To recount the successive purchases by which the Government freed Iowa +soil from Indian domination would be wearisome. The Treaty of 1842 with +the Sauks and Foxes is typical. After a sojourn of hardly more than a +decade in the Iowa country, these luckless folk were now persuaded to +yield all their lands to the United States and retire to a reservation +in Kansas. The negotiations were carried out with all due regard for +Indian susceptibilities. Governor Chambers, resplendent in the uniform +of a brigadier-general of the United States army, repaired with his +aides to the appointed rendezvous, and there the chiefs presented +themselves, arrayed in new blankets and white deerskin leggings, with +full paraphernalia of paint, feathers, beads, and elaborately decorated +war clubs. Oratory ran freely, although through the enforced medium +of an interpreter. The chiefs harangued for hours not only upon the +beautiful meadows, the running streams, the stately trees, and the other +beloved objects which they were called upon to surrender to the white +man, but upon the moon and stars and rain and hail and wind, all of +which were alleged to be more attractive and beneficent in Iowa than +anywhere else. The Governor, in turn, gave the Indians some good advice, +urging them to live peaceably in their new homes, to be industrious and +self-supporting, to leave liquor alone, and, in general, to "be a credit +to the country." When every one had talked as much as he liked, the +treaty was solemnly signed. + +The "New Purchase" was thrown open to settlers in the following spring; +and the opening brought scenes of a kind destined to be reenacted scores +of times in the great West during succeeding decades--the borders of the +new district lined, on the eve of the opening, with encamped settlers +and their families ready to race for the best claims; horses saddled +and runners picked for the rush; a midnight signal from the soldiery, +releasing a flood of eager land-hunters armed with torches, axes, +stakes, and every sort of implement for the laying out of claims with +all possible speed; by daybreak, many scores of families "squatting" on +the best pieces of ground which they had been able to reach; innumerable +disputes, with a general readjustment following the intervention of the +government surveyors. + +The marvelous progress of the upper Mississippi Valley is briefly told +by a succession of dates. In 1838 Iowa was organized as a Territory; +in 1846 it was admitted as a State; in 1848 Wisconsin was granted +statehood; and in 1849 Minnesota was given territorial organization with +boundaries extending westward to the Missouri. + + +Thus the Old Northwest had arrived at the goal set for it by the +large-visioned men who framed the Ordinance of 1787; every foot of +its soil was included in some one of the five thriving, democratic +commonwealths that had taken their places in the Union on a common +basis with the older States of the East and the South. Furthermore, the +Mississippi had ceased to be a boundary. A magnificent vista reaching +off to the remoter West and Northwest had been opened up; the frontier +had been pushed far out upon the plains of Minnesota and Iowa. Decade +after decade the powerful epic of westward expansion, shot through with +countless tales of heroism and sacrifice, had steadily unfolded before +the gaze of an astonished world; and the end was not yet in sight. + + + + +Bibliographical Note + + +There is no general history of the Northwest covering the whole of +the period dealt with in this book except Burke A. Hinsdale, The Old +Northwest (1888). This is a volume of substantial scholarship, though +it reflects but faintly the life and spirit of the people. The nearest +approach to a moving narrative is James K. Hosmer, "Short History of +the Mississippi Valley" (1901), which tells the story of the Middle West +from the earliest explorations to the close of the nineteenth century, +within a brief space, yet in a manner to arouse the reader's interest +and sympathy. A fuller and very readable narrative to 1796 will be found +in Charles Moore, "The Northwest under Three Flags" (1900). Still more +detailed, and enlivened by many contemporary rasps and plans, is Justin +Winsor, "The Westward Movement" (1899), covering the period from the +pacification of 1763 to the close of the eighteenth century. Frederick +J. Turner, "Rise of the New West" (1906) contains several interesting +and authoritative chapters on western development after the War of 1812; +and John B. McMaster, "History of the People of the United States" (8 +vols., 1883-1913), gives in the fourth and fifth volumes a very good +account of westward migration. + +An excellent detailed account of the settlement and development of a +single section of the Northwest is G. N. Fuller, "Economic and Social +Beginnings of Michigan," Michigan Historical Publications, Univ. Series, +No.1 (1916). A very readable book is R. G. Thwaites, "The Story of +Wisconsin" (rev. ed., 1899), containing a full account of the early +relations of white men and red men, and of the Black Hawk War. Mention +may be made, too, of H. E. Legler, "Leading Events of Wisconsin History" +(1898). + +Among the volumes dealing with the diplomatic history of the Northwest, +mention should be made of two recent studies: C. W. Alvord, "The +Mississippi Valley in British Politics" (2 vols., 1917), and E. S. +Corwin, "French Policy and the American Alliance" (1916). + +Aside from Lincoln, few men of the earlier Northwest have been made the +subjects of well-written biographies. Curiously, there are no modern +biographies, good or bad, of George Rogers Clark, General St. Clair, +or William Henry Harrison. John R. Spears, "Anthony Wayne" (1903) is +an interesting book; and Andrew C. McLaughlin, "Lewis Cass" (1891), +and Allen Johnson, "Stephen A. Douglas" (1908) are excellent. Lives +of Lincoln that have importance for their portrayal of western society +include: John T. Morse, Jr., "Abraham Lincoln" (2 vols., 1893); John G. +Nicolay and John Hay, "Abraham Lincoln, a History" (10 vols., 1890); and +Ida M. Tarbell, "Life of Abraham Lincoln" (new ed., 2vols., 1917). + +The reader will do well, however, to turn early to some of the works +within the field which, by reason of their literary quality as well as +their scholarly worth, have attained the dignity of classics. Foremost +are the writings of Francis Parkman. Most of these, it is true, deal +with the history of the American interior prior to 1763. But "Frontenac +and New France under Louis XIV" (Frontenac edition, 1915), and "A +Half-Century of Conflict" (2 vols., same ed.) furnish the necessary +background; and "The Conspiracy of Pontiac" (2 vols., same ed.) is +indispensable. Parkman's work closes with the Indian war following the +Treaty of 1763. Theodore Roosevelt's "Winning of the West" (4 vols., +1889-96) takes up the story at that point and carries it to the collapse +of the Burr intrigues during the second administration of Thomas +Jefferson. This work was a pioneer in the field. In the light of recent +scholarship it is subject to criticism at some points; but it is based +on careful study of the sources, and for vividness and interest it +has perhaps not been surpassed in American historical writing. A third +extensive work is Archer B. Hulbert, "Historic Highways of America" +(16 vols., 1902-05). In writing the history of the great land and +water routes of trade and travel between East and West the author found +occasion to describe, in interesting fashion, most phases of western +life. The volumes most closely related to the subject matter of the +present book are: "Military Roads of the Mississippi Valley" (VIII); +"Waterways of Western Expansion" (IX); "The Cumberland Road" (X); and +"Pioneer Roads and Experiences of Travellers" (XIXII). Mention should be +made also of Mr. Hulbert's "The Ohio River, a Course of Empire" (1906). + +Further references will be found appended to the articles on Illinois, +Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin in "The Encyclopaedia Britannica" +(11th edition). + +Opportunity to get the flavor of the period by reading contemporary +literature is afforded by two principal kinds of books. One is +reminiscences, letters, and histories written by the Westerners +themselves. Timothy Flint's "Recollections of the Last Ten Years" (1826) +will be found interesting; as also J. Hall, "Letters from the West" +(1828), and T. Ford, "History of Illinois" (1854). + +The second type of materials is books of travel written by visitors +from the East or from Europe. Works of this nature are always subject +to limitations. Even when the author tries to be accurate and fair, +his information is likely to be hastily gathered and incomplete and +his judgments unsound. Between 1800 and 1840 the Northwest was visited, +however, by many educated and fair-minded persons who wrote readable +and trustworthy descriptions of what they saw and heard. A complete +list cannot be given here, but some of the best of these books are: John +Melish, "Travels in the United States of America in the Years 1806 & +1807 and 1809, 1810 & 1811" (2 vols., 1810; William Cobbett, A Year's +Residence in the United States of America (1818); Henry B. Fearon, +Sketches of America (1818); Morris Birkbeck, Letters from Illinois +(1818); John Bradbury, "Travels in the Interior of America in the Years +1809, 1810, and 1811" (1819); Thomas Hulme, "Journal made during a Tour +in the Western Countries of America, 1818-1819" (1828); and Michael +Chevalier, "Society, Manners, and Politics in the United States" (1839). +Copies of early editions of some of these works will be found in +most large libraries. But the reader is happily not dependent on this +resource. Almost all of the really important books of the kind are +reprinted, with introductions and explanatory matter, in Reuben G. +Thwaites, "Early Western Travels, 1714-1846" (32 vols., 1904-07), which +is one of our chief collections of historical materials. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Old Northwest, by Frederic Austin Ogg + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE OLD NORTHWEST *** + +***** This file should be named 3014.txt or 3014.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/0/1/3014/ + +Produced by The James J. Kelly Library of St. Gregory's +University, and Alev Akman + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +http://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at http://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit http://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/3014.zip b/3014.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..4d57aff --- /dev/null +++ b/3014.zip diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2d5903a --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #3014 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3014) diff --git a/old/oldno10.txt b/old/oldno10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4ad8ecd --- /dev/null +++ b/old/oldno10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4907 @@ +The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Old Northwest, A Chronicle of the +Ohio Valley and Beyond, by Frederic Austin Ogg + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the laws for your country before redistributing these files!!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. + +Please do not remove this. + +This should be the first thing seen when anyone opens the book. +Do not change or edit it without written permission. The words +are carefully chosen to provide users with the information they +need about what they can legally do with the texts. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*These Etexts Prepared By Hundreds of Volunteers and Donations* + +Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and +further information is included below. We need your donations. + +Presently, contributions are only being solicited from people in: +Texas, Nevada, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, South Dakota, +Iowa, Indiana, and Vermont. As the requirements for other states +are met, additions to this list will be made and fund raising will +begin in the additional states. These donations should be made to: + +Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +PMB 113 +1739 University Ave. +Oxford, MS 38655 + + +Title: The Old Northwest, A Chronicle of the Ohio Valley and Beyond + +Author: Frederic Austin Ogg + +Release Date: January, 2002 [Etext #3014] +[Yes, we are about one year ahead of schedule] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Old Northwest, A Chronicle of the +Ohio Valley and Beyond, by Frederic Austin Ogg +******This file should be named oldno10.txt or oldno10.zip****** + +Corrected EDITIONS of our etexts get a new NUMBER, oldno11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, oldno10a.txt + +This Book, Volume 19 In The Chronicles Of America Series, Allen +Johnson, Editor, Was Donated To Project Gutenberg By The James J. +Kelly Library Of St. Gregory's University; Thanks To Alev Akman. + +Project Gutenberg Etexts are usually created from multiple editions, +all of which are in the Public Domain in the United States, unless a +copyright notice is included. Therefore, we usually do NOT keep any +of these books in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +We are now trying to release all our books one year in advance +of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing. +Please be encouraged to send us error messages even years after +the official publication date. + +Please note: neither this list nor its contents are final till +midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement. +The official release date of all Project Gutenberg Etexts is at +Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month. A +preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment +and editing by those who wish to do so. + +Most people start at our sites at: +http://gutenberg.net +http://promo.net/pg + + +Those of you who want to download any Etext before announcement +can surf to them as follows, and just download by date; this is +also a good way to get them instantly upon announcement, as the +indexes our cataloguers produce obviously take a while after an +announcement goes out in the Project Gutenberg Newsletter. + +http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext02 +or +ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext02 + +Or /etext01, 00, 99, 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90 + +Just search by the first five letters of the filename you want, +as it appears in our Newsletters. + + +Information about Project Gutenberg (one page) + +We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work. The +time it takes us, a rather conservative estimate, is fifty hours +to get any etext selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright +searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc. This +projected audience is one hundred million readers. If our value +per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2 +million dollars per hour this year as we release fifty new Etext +files per month, or 500 more Etexts in 2000 for a total of 3000+ +If they reach just 1-2% of the world's population then the total +should reach over 300 billion Etexts given away by year's end. + +The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away One Trillion Etext +Files by December 31, 2001. [10,000 x 100,000,000 = 1 Trillion] +This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers, +which is only about 4% of the present number of computer users. + +At our revised rates of production, we will reach only one-third +of that goal by the end of 2001, or about 3,333 Etexts unless we +manage to get some real funding. + +Something is needed to create a future for Project Gutenberg for +the next 100 years. + +We need your donations more than ever! + +Presently, contributions are only being solicited from people in: +Texas, Nevada, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, South Dakota, Iowa, +Indiana, and Vermont. Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +has been approved as a 501(c)(3) organization by the US Internal +Revenue Service (IRS). Donations are tax-deductible to the extent +permitted by law. As the requirements for other states are met, +additions to this list will be made and fund raising will begin in the +additional states. + +All donations should be made to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation. Mail to: + +Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +PMB 113 +1739 University Avenue +Oxford, MS 38655 [USA] + +We are working with the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +to build more stable support and ensure the future of Project +Gutenberg. + +We need your donations more than ever! + +You can get up to date donation information at: + +http://www.gutenberg.net/donation.html + + +*** + +You can always email directly to: + +Michael S. Hart <hart@pobox.com> + +hart@pobox.com forwards to hart@prairienet.org and archive.org +if your mail bounces from archive.org, I will still see it, if +it bounces from prairienet.org, better resend later on. . . . + +We would prefer to send you this information by email. + + +Example command-line FTP session: + +ftp ftp.ibiblio.org +login: anonymous +password: your@login +cd pub/docs/books/gutenberg +cd etext90 through etext99 or etext00 through etext02, etc. +dir [to see files] +get or mget [to get files. . .set bin for zip files] +GET GUTINDEX.?? [to get a year's listing of books, e.g., GUTINDEX.99] +GET GUTINDEX.ALL [to get a listing of ALL books] + + +**The Legal Small Print** + + +(Three Pages) + +***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS**START*** +Why is this "Small Print!" statement here? You know: lawyers. +They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with +your copy of this etext, even if you got it for free from +someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our +fault. So, among other things, this "Small Print!" statement +disclaims most of our liability to you. It also tells you how +you can distribute copies of this etext if you want to. + +*BEFORE!* YOU USE OR READ THIS ETEXT +By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm +etext, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept +this "Small Print!" statement. If you do not, you can receive +a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this etext by +sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person +you got it from. If you received this etext on a physical +medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request. + +ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM ETEXTS +This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etexts, +is a "public domain" work distributed by Professor Michael S. Hart +through the Project Gutenberg Association (the "Project"). +Among other things, this means that no one owns a United States copyright +on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and +distribute it in the United States without permission and +without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth +below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this etext +under the Project's "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark. + +Please do not use the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark to market +any commercial products without permission. + +To create these etexts, the Project expends considerable +efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain +works. Despite these efforts, the Project's etexts and any +medium they may be on may contain "Defects". Among other +things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other +intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged +disk or other etext medium, a computer virus, or computer +codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment. + +LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES +But for the "Right of Replacement or Refund" described below, +[1] the Project (and any other party you may receive this +etext from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext) disclaims all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including +legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR +UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT, +INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE +OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE +POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. + +If you discover a Defect in this etext within 90 days of +receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any) +you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that +time to the person you received it from. If you received it +on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and +such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement +copy. If you received it electronically, such person may +choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to +receive it electronically. + +THIS ETEXT IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS". NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS +TO THE ETEXT OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT +LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A +PARTICULAR PURPOSE. + +Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or +the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the +above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you +may have other legal rights. + +INDEMNITY +You will indemnify and hold the Project, its directors, +officers, members and agents harmless from all liability, cost +and expense, including legal fees, that arise directly or +indirectly from any of the following that you do or cause: +[1] distribution of this etext, [2] alteration, modification, +or addition to the etext, or [3] any Defect. + +DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm" +You may distribute copies of this etext electronically, or by +disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this +"Small Print!" and all other references to Project Gutenberg, +or: + +[1] Only give exact copies of it. Among other things, this + requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the + etext or this "small print!" statement. You may however, + if you wish, distribute this etext in machine readable + binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form, + including any form resulting from conversion by word + processing or hypertext software, but only so long as + *EITHER*: + + [*] The etext, when displayed, is clearly readable, and + does *not* contain characters other than those + intended by the author of the work, although tilde + (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may + be used to convey punctuation intended by the + author, and additional characters may be used to + indicate hypertext links; OR + + [*] The etext may be readily converted by the reader at + no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent + form by the program that displays the etext (as is + the case, for instance, with most word processors); + OR + + [*] You provide, or agree to also provide on request at + no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the + etext in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC + or other equivalent proprietary form). + +[2] Honor the etext refund and replacement provisions of this + "Small Print!" statement. + +[3] Pay a trademark license fee to the Project of 20% of the + gross profits you derive calculated using the method you + already use to calculate your applicable taxes. If you + don't derive profits, no royalty is due. Royalties are + payable to "Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation" + the 60 days following each date you prepare (or were + legally required to prepare) your annual (or equivalent + periodic) tax return. Please contact us beforehand to + let us know your plans and to work out the details. + +WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO? +The Project gratefully accepts contributions of money, time, +public domain etexts, and royalty free copyright licenses. +If you are interested in contributing scanning equipment or +software or other items, please contact Michael Hart at: +hart@pobox.com + +*END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.07.00*END* + + + + +The Old Northwest, A Chronicle Of The Ohio Valley And Beyond + +By Frederic Austin Ogg + +New Haven: Yale University Press +Toronto: Glasgow, Brook & Co.91 +London: Humphrey Milford +Oxford University Press + +1919 + +CONTENTS + +I. PONTIAC'S CONSPIRACY +II. "A LAIR OF WILD BEASTS" +III. THE REVOLUTION BEGINS +IV. THE CONQUEST COMPLETED +V. WAYNE, THE SCOURGE OF THE INDIANS +VI. THE GREAT MIGRATION +VII. PIONEER DAYS AND WAYS +VIII. TECUMSEH +IX. THE WAR OF 1812 AND THE NEW WEST +X. SECTIONAL CROSS CURRENTS +XI. THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI VALLEY +BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + + +The Old Northwest + +Chapter I. Pontiac's Conspiracy + +The fall of Montreal, on September 8, 1760, while the plains +about the city were still dotted with the white tents of the +victorious English and colonial troops, was indeed an event of +the deepest consequence to America and to the world. By the +articles of capitulation which were signed by the Marquis de +Vaudreuil, Governor of New France, Canada and all its +dependencies westward to the Mississippi passed to the British +Crown. Virtually ended was the long struggle for the dominion of +the New World. Open now for English occupation and settlement was +that vast country lying south of the Great Lakes between the Ohio +and the Mississippi--which we know as the Old Northwest--today +the seat of five great commonwealths of the United States. + +With an ingenuity born of necessity, the French pathfinders and +colonizers of the Old Northwest had chosen for their settlements +sites which would serve at once the purposes of the priest, the +trader, and the soldier; and with scarcely an exception these +sites are as important today as when they were first selected. +Four regions, chiefly, were still occupied by the French at the +time of the capitulation of Montreal. The most important, as well +as the most distant, of these regions was on the east bank of the +Mississippi, opposite and below the present city of St. Louis, +where a cluster of missions, forts, and trading-posts held the +center of the tenuous line extending from Canada to Louisiana. A +second was the Illinois country, centering about the citadel of +St. Louis which La Salle had erected in 1682 on the summit of +"Starved Rock," near the modern town of Ottawa in Illinois. A +third was the valley of the Wabash, where in the early years of +the eighteenth century Vincennes had become the seat of a colony +commanding both the Wabash and the lower Ohio. And the fourth was +the western end of Lake Erie, where Detroit, founded by the +doughty Cadillac in 1701, had assumed such strength that for +fifty years it had discouraged the ambitions of the English to +make the Northwest theirs. + +Sir Jeffrey Amherst, to whom Vaudreuil surrendered in 1760, +forthwith dispatched to the western country a military force to +take possession of the posts still remaining in the hands of the +French. The mission was entrusted to a stalwart New Hampshire +Scotch-Irishman, Major Robert Rogers, who as leader of a band of +intrepid "rangers" had made himself the hero of the northern +frontier. Two hundred men were chosen for the undertaking, and on +the 13th of September the party, in fifteen whaleboats, started +up the St. Lawrence for Detroit. + +At the mouth of the Cuyahoga River, near the site of the present +city of Cleveland, the travelers were halted by a band of Indian +chiefs and warriors who, in the name of their great ruler +Pontiac, demanded to know the object of their journeying. Parleys +followed, in which Pontiac himself took part, and it was +explained that the French had surrendered Canada to the English +and that the English merely proposed to assume control of the +western posts, with a view to friendly relations between the red +men and the white men. The rivers, it was promised, would flow +with rum, and presents from the great King would be forthcoming +in endless profusion. The explanation seemed to satisfy the +savages, and, after smoking the calumet with due ceremony, the +chieftain and his followers withdrew. + +Late in November, Rogers and his men in their whaleboats appeared +before the little palisaded town of Detroit. They found the +French commander, Beletre, in surly humor and seeking to stir up +the neighboring Wyandots and Potawatomi against them. But the +attempt failed, and there was nothing for Beletre to do but +yield. The French soldiery marched out of the fort, laid down +their arms, and were sent off as prisoners down the river. The +fleur-de-lis, which for more than half a century had floated over +the village, was hauled down, and, to the accompaniment of +cheers, the British ensign was run up. The red men looked on with +amazement at this display of English authority and marveled how +the conquerors forbore to slay their vanquished enemies on the +spot. + +Detroit in 1760 was a picturesque, lively, and rapidly growing +frontier town. The central portions of the settlement, lying +within the bounds of the present city, contained ninety or a +hundred small houses, chiefly of wood and roofed with bark or +thatch. A well-built range of barracks afforded quarters for the +soldiery, and there were two public buildings--a council house +and a little church. The whole was surrounded by a square +palisade twenty-five feet high, with a wooden bastion at each +corner and a blockhouse over each gateway. A broad passageway, +the chemin du ronde, lay next to the palisade, and on little +narrow streets at the center the houses were grouped closely +together. + +Above and below the fort the banks of the river were lined on +both sides, for a distance of eight or nine miles, with little +rectangular farms, so laid out as to give each a water-landing. +On each farm was a cottage, with a garden and orchard, surrounded +by a fence of rounded pickets; and the countryside rang with the +shouts and laughter of a prosperous and happy peasantry. Within +the limits of the settlement were villages of Ottawas, +Potawatomi, and Wyandots, with whose inhabitants the French lived +on free and easy terms. "The joyous sparkling of the bright blue +water," writes Parkman; "the green luxuriance of the woods; the +white dwellings, looking out from the foliage; and in the +distance the Indian wigwams curling their smoke against the +sky--all were mingled in one broad scene of wild and rural +beauty." + +At the coming of the English the French residents were given an +opportunity to withdraw. Few, however, did so, and from the +gossipy correspondence of the pleasure-loving Colonel Campbell, +who for some months was left in command of the fort, it appears +that the life of the place lost none of its gayety by the change +of masters. Sunday card parties at the quarters of the commandant +were festive affairs; and at a ball held in celebration of the +King's birthday the ladies presented an appearance so splendid as +to call forth from the impressionable officer the most +extravagant praises. A visit in the summer of 1761 from Sir +William Johnson, general supervisor of Indian affairs on the +frontier, became the greatest social event in the history of the +settlement, if not of the entire West. Colonel Campbell gave a +ball at which the guests danced nine hours. Sir William +reciprocated with one at which they danced eleven hours. A round +of dinners and calls gave opportunity for much display of +frontier magnificence, as well as for the consumption of +astonishing quantities of wines and cordials. Hundreds of Indians +were interested spectators, and the gifts with which they were +generously showered were received with evidences of deep +satisfaction. + +No amount of fiddling and dancing, however, could quite drown +apprehension concerning the safety of the post and the security +of the English hold upon the great region over which this fort +and its distant neighbors stood sentinel. Thousands of square +miles of territory were committed to the keeping of not more than +six hundred soldiers. From the French there was little danger. +But from the Indians anything might be expected. Apart from the +Iroquois, the red men had been bound to the French by many ties +of friendship and common interest, and in the late war they had +scalped and slaughtered and burned unhesitatingly at the French +command. Hardly, indeed, had the transfer of territorial +sovereignty been made before murmurs of discontent began to be +heard. + +Notwithstanding outward expressions of assent to the new order of +things, a deep-rooted dislike on the part of the Indians for the +English grew after 1760 with great rapidity. They sorely missed +the gifts and supplies lavishly provided by the French, and they +warmly resented the rapacity and arrogance of the British +traders. The open contempt of the soldiery at the posts galled +the Indians, and the confiscation of their lands drove them to +desperation. In their hearts hope never died that the French +would regain their lost dominion; and again and again rumors were +set afloat that this was about to happen. The belief in such a +reconquest was adroitly encouraged, too, by the surviving French +settlers and traders. In 1761 the tension among the Indians was +increased by the appearance of a "prophet" among the Delawares, +calling on all his race to purge itself of foreign influences and +to unite to drive the white man from the land. + +Protests against English encroachments were frequent and, though +respectful, none the less emphatic. At a conference in +Philadelphia in 1761, an Iroquois sachem declared, "We, your +Brethren, of the several Nations, are penned up like Hoggs. There +are Forts all around us, and therefore we are apprehensive that +Death is coming upon us." "We are now left in Peace," ran a +petition of some Christian Oneidas addressed to Sir William +Johnson, "and have nothing to do but to plant our Corn, Hunt the +wild Beasts, smoke our Pipes, and mind Religion. But as these +Forts, which are built among us, disturb our Peace, and are a +great hurt to Religion, because some of our Warriors are foolish, +and some of our Brother Soldiers don't fear God, we therefore +desire that these Forts may be pull'd down, and kick'd out of the +way." + +The leadership of the great revolt that was impending fell +naturally upon Pontiac, who, since the coming of the English, had +established himself with his squaws and children on a wooded +island in Lake St. Clair, barely out of view of the +fortifications of Detroit. In all Indian annals no name is more +illustrious than Pontiac's; no figure more forcefully displays +the good and bad qualities of his race. Principal chief of the +Ottawa tribe, he was also by 1763 the head of a powerful +confederation of Ottawas, Ojibwas, and Potawatomi, and a leader +known and respected among Algonquin peoples from the sources of +the Ohio to the Mississippi. While capable of acts of +magnanimity, he had an ambition of Napoleonic proportions, and to +attain his ends he was prepared to use any means. More clearly +than most of his forest contemporaries, he perceived that in the +life of the Indian people a crisis had come. He saw that, unless +the tide of English invasion was rolled back at once, all would +be lost. The colonial farmers would push in after the soldiers; +the forests would be cut away; the hunting-grounds would be +destroyed; the native population would be driven away or +enslaved. In the silence of his wigwam he thought out a plan of +action, and by the closing weeks of 1762 he was ready. Never was +plot more shrewdly devised and more artfully carried out. + +During the winter of 1762-63 his messengers passed stealthily +from nation to nation throughout the whole western country, +bearing the pictured wampum belts and the reddened tomahawks +which symbolized war; and in April, 1763, the Lake tribes were +summoned to a great council on the banks of the Ecorces, below +Detroit, where Pontiac in person proclaimed the will of the +Master of Life as revealed to the Delaware prophet, and then +announced the details of his plan. Everywhere the appeal met with +approval; and not only the scores of Algonquin peoples, but also +the Seneca branch of the Iroquois confederacy and a number of +tribes on the lower Mississippi, pledged themselves with all +solemnity to fulfill their prophet's injunction "to drive the +dogs which wear red clothing into the sea." While keen-eyed +warriors sought to keep up appearances by lounging about the +forts and begging in their customary manner for tobacco, whiskey, +and gunpowder, every wigwam and forest hamlet from Niagara to the +Mississippi was astir. Dusky maidens chanted the tribal +war-songs, and in the blaze of a hundred camp-fires chiefs and +warriors performed the savage pantomime of battle. + +A simultaneous attack, timed by a change of the moon, was to be +made on the English forts and settlements throughout all the +western country. Every tribe was to fall upon the settlement +nearest at hand, and afterwards all were to combine--with French +aid, it was confidently believed--in an assault on the seats of +English power farther east. The honor of destroying the most +important of the English strongholds, Detroit, was reserved for +Pontiac himself. + +The date fixed for the rising was the 7th of May. Six days in +advance Pontiac with forty of his warriors appeared at the fort, +protested undying friendship for the Great Father across the +water, and insisted on performing the calumet dance before the +new commandant, Major Gladwyn. This aroused no suspicion. But +four days later a French settler reported that his wife, when +visiting the Ottawa village to buy venison, had observed the men +busily filing off the ends of their gunbarrels; and the +blacksmith at the post recalled the fact that the Indians had +lately sought to borrow files and saws without being able to give +a plausible explanation of the use they intended to make of the +implements. + +The English traveler Jonathan Carver, who visited the post five +years afterwards, relates that an Ottawa girl with whom Major +Gladwyn had formed an attachment betrayed the plot. Though this +story is of doubtful authenticity, there is no doubt that, in one +way or another, the commandant was amply warned that treachery +was in the air. The sounds of revelry from the Indian camps, the +furtive glances of the redskins lounging about the settlement, +the very tension of the atmosphere, would have been enough to put +an experienced Indian fighter on his guard. + +Accordingly when, on the fated morning, Pontiac and sixty +redskins, carrying under long blankets their shortened muskets, +appeared before the fort and asked admission, they were taken +aback to find the whole garrison under arms. On their way from +the gate to the council house they were obliged to march +literally between rows of glittering steel. Well might even +Pontiac falter. With uneasy glances, the party crowded into the +council room, where Gladwyn and his officers sat waiting. "Why," +asked the chieftain stolidly, "do I see so many of my father's +young men standing in the street with their guns?" "To keep them +in training," was the laconic reply. + +The scene that was planned was then carried out, except in one +vital particular. When, in the course of his speech professing +strong attachment to the English, the chieftain came to the point +where he was to give the signal for slaughter by holding forth +the wampum belt of peace inverted, he presented the emblem--to +the accompaniment of a significant clash of arms and roll of +drums from the mustered garrison outside--in the normal manner; +and after a solemn warning from the commandant that vengeance +would follow any act of aggression, the council broke up. To the +forest leader's equivocal announcement that he would bring all of +his wives and children in a few days to shake hands with their +English fathers, Gladwyn deigned no reply. + +Balked in his plans, the chief retired, but only to meditate +fresh treachery; and when, a few days later, with a multitude of +followers, he sought admission to the fort to assure "his +fathers" that "evil birds had sung lies in their ears," and was +refused, he called all his forces to arms, threw off his +disguises, and began hostilities. For six months the settlement +was besieged with a persistence rarely displayed in Indian +warfare. At first the French inhabitants encouraged the +besiegers, but, after it became known that a final peace between +England and France had been concluded, they withheld further aid. +Throughout the whole period, the English obtained supplies with +no great difficulty from the neighboring farms. There was little +actual fighting, and the loss of life was insignificant. + +By order of General Amherst, the French commander still in charge +of Fort Chartres sent a messenger to inform the redskins +definitely that no assistance from France would be forthcoming. +"Forget then, my dear children,"--so ran the admonition--"all +evil talks. Leave off from spilling the blood of your brethren, +the English. Our hearts are now but one; you cannot, at present, +strike the one without having the other for an enemy also." The +effect was, as intended, to break the spirit of the besiegers; +and in October Pontiac humbly sued for peace. + +Meanwhile a reign of terror spread over the entire frontier. +Settlements from Forts Le Boeuf and Venango, south of Lake Eric, +to Green Bay, west of Lake Michigan, were attacked, and ruses +similar to that attempted at Detroit were generally successful. A +few Indians in friendly guise would approach a fort. After these +were admitted, others would appear, as if quite by chance. +Finally, when numbers were sufficient, the conspirators would +draw their concealed weapons, strike down the garrison, and begin +a general massacre of the helpless populace. Scores of pioneer +families, scattered through the wilderness, were murdered and +scalped; traders were waylaid in the forest solitudes; border +towns were burned and plantations were devastated. In the Ohio +Valley everything was lost except Fort Pitt, formerly Fort +Duquesne; in the Northwest, everything was taken except Detroit. + +Fort Pitt was repeatedly endangered, and the most important +engagement of the war was fought in its defense. The relief of +the post was entrusted in midsummer to a force of five hundred +regulars lately transferred from the West Indies to Pennsylvania +and placed under the command of Colonel Henry Bouquet. The +expedition advanced with all possible caution, but early in +August, 1763, when it was yet twenty-five miles from its +destination, it was set upon by a formidable Indian band at Bushy +Run and threatened with a fate not un-like that suffered by +Braddock's little army in the same region nine years earlier. +Finding the woods full of redskins and all retreat cut off, the +troops, drawn up in a circle around their horses and supplies, +fired with such effect as they could upon the shadowy forms in +the forest. No water was obtainable, and in a few hours thirst +began to make the soldiery unmanageable. Realizing that the +situation was desperate, Bouquet resorted to a ruse by ordering +his men to fall back as if in retreat. The trick succeeded, and +with yells of victory the Indians rushed from cover to seize the +coveted provisions--only to be met by a deadly fire and put to +utter rout. The news of the battle of Bushy Run spread rapidly +through the frontier regions and proved very effective in +discouraging further hostilities. + +It was Bouquet's intention to press forward at once from Fort +Pitt into the disturbed Ohio country. His losses, however, +compelled the postponement of this part of the undertaking until +the following year. Before he started off again he built at Fort +Pitt a blockhouse which still stands, and which has been +preserved for posterity by becoming, in 1894, the property of the +Pittsburgh chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. +In October, 1764, he set out for the Muskingum valley with a +force of fifteen hundred regulars, Pennsylvania and Virginia +volunteers, and friendly Indians. By this time the great +conspiracy was in collapse, and it was a matter of no great +difficulty for Bouquet to enter into friendly relations with the +successive tribes, to obtain treaties with them, and to procure +the release of such English captives as were still in their +hands. By the close of November, 1764, the work was complete, and +Bouquet was back at Fort Pitt. Pennsylvania and Virginia honored +him with votes of thanks; the King formally expressed his +gratitude and tendered him the military governorship of the newly +acquired territory of Florida. + +The general pacification of the Northwest was accomplished by +treaties with the natives in great councils held at Niagara, +Presqu'isle (Erie), and Detroit. Pontiac had fled to the Maumee +country to the west of Lake Erie, whence he still hurled his +ineffectual threats at the "dogs in red." His power, however, was +broken. The most he could do was to gather four hundred warriors +on the Maumee and Illinois and present himself at Fort Chartres +with a demand for weapons and ammunition with which to keep up +the war. The French commander, who was now daily awaiting orders +to turn the fortress over to the English, refused; and a +deputation dispatched to New Orleans in quest of the desired +equipment received no reply save that New Orleans itself, with +all the country west of the river, had been ceded to Spain. The +futility of further resistance on the part of Pontiac was +apparent. In 1765 the disappointed chieftain gave pledges of +friendship; and in the following year he and other leaders made a +formal submission to Sir William Johnson at Oswego, and Pontiac +renounced forever the bold design to make himself at a stroke +lord of the West and deliverer of his country from English +domination. + +For three years the movements of this disappointed Indian leader +are uncertain. Most of the time, apparently, he dwelt in the +Maumee country, leading the existence of an ordinary warrior. +Then, in the spring of 1769, he appeared at the settlements on +the middle Mississippi. At the newly founded French town of St. +Louis, on the Spanish side of the river, he visited an old +friend, the commandant Saint Ange de Bellerive. Thence he crossed +to Cahokia, where Indian and creole alike welcomed him and made +him the central figure in a series of boisterous festivities. + +An English trader in the village, observing jealously the honors +that were paid the visitor, resolved that an old score should +forthwith be evened up. A Kaskaskian redskin was bribed, with a +barrel of liquor and with promises of further reward, to put the +fallen leader out of the way; and the bargain was hardly sealed +before the deed was done. Stealing upon his victim as he walked +in the neighboring forest, the assassin buried a tomahawk in his +brain, and "thus basely," in the words of Parkman, "perished the +champion of a ruined race." Claimed by Saint-Ange, the body was +borne across the river and buried with military honors near the +new Fort St. Louis. The site of Pontiac's grave was soon +forgotten, and today the people of a great city trample over and +about it without heed. + + + +Chapter II. "A Lair Of Wild Beasts" + +Benjamin Franklin, who was in London in 1760 as agent of the +Pennsylvania Assembly, gave the British ministers some wholesome +advice on the terms of the peace that should be made with France. +The St. Lawrence and the Great Lakes regions, he said, must be +retained by England at all costs. Moreover, the Mississippi +Valley must be taken, in order to provide for the growing +populations of the seaboard colonies suitable lands in the +interior, and so keep them engaged in agriculture. Otherwise +these populations would turn to manufacturing, and the industries +of the mother country would suffer. + +The treaty of peace, three years later, brought the settlement +which Franklin suggested. The vast American back country, with +its inviting rivers and lakes, its shaded hills, and its sunny +prairies, became English territory. The English people had, +however, only the vaguest notion of the extent, appearance, and +resources of their new possession. Even the officials who drew +the treaty were as ignorant of the country as of middle Africa. +Prior to the outbreak of the war no widely known English writer +had tried to describe it; and the absorbing French books of +Lahontan, Hennepin, and Charlevoix had reached but a small +circle. The prolonged conflict in America naturally stimulated +interest in the new country. The place-names of the upper Ohio +became household words, and enterprising publishers put out not +only translations of the French writers but compilations by +Englishmen designed, in true journalistic fashion, to meet the +demands of the hour for information. + +These publications displayed amazing misconceptions of the lands +described. They neither estimated aright the number and strength +of the French settlements nor dispelled the idea that the western +country was of little value. Even the most brilliant Englishman +of the day, Dr. Samuel Johnson, an ardent defender of the treaty +of 1763, wrote that the large tracts of America added by the war +to the British dominions were "only the barren parts of the +continent, the refuse of the earlier adventurers, which the +French, who came last, had taken only as better than nothing." As +late indeed as 1789, William Knox, long Under-Secretary for the +Colonies, declared that Americans could not settle the western +territory "for ages," and that the region must be given up to +barbarism like the plains of Asia, with a population as unstable +as the Scythians and Tartars. But the shortsightedness of these +distant critics can be forgiven when one recalls that Franklin +himself, while conjuring up a splendid vision of the western +valleys teeming with a thriving population, supposed that the +dream would not be realized for "some centuries." None of these +observers dreamt that the territories transferred in 1763 would +have within seventy-five years a population almost equal to that +of Great Britain. + +The ink with which the Treaty of Paris was signed was hardly dry +before the King and his ministers were confronted with the task +of providing government for the new possessions and of solving +problems of land tenure and trade. Still more imperative were +measures to conciliate the Indians; for already Pontiac's +rebellion had been in progress four months, and the entire back +country was aflame. It must be confessed that a continental +wilderness swarming with murderous savages was an inheritance +whose aspect was by no means altogether pleasing to the English +mind. + +The easiest solution of the difficulty was to let things take +their course. Let seaboard populations spread at will over the +new lands; let them carry on trade in their own way, and make +whatever arrangements with the native tribes they desire. +Colonies such as Virginia and New York, which had extensive +western claims, would have been glad to see this plan adopted. +Strong objections, however, were raised. Colonies which had no +western claims feared the effects of the advantages which their +more fortunate neighbors would enjoy. Men who had invested +heavily in lands lying west of the mountains felt that their +returns would be diminished and delayed if the back country were +thrown open to settlers. Some people thought that the Indians had +a moral right to protection against wholesale white invasion of +their hunting-grounds, and many considered it expedient, at all +events, to offer such protection. + +After all, however, it was the King and his ministers who had it +in their power to settle the question; and from their point of +view it was desirable to keep the western territories as much as +possible apart from the older colonies, and to regulate, with +farsighted policy, their settlement and trade. Eventually, it was +believed, the territories would be cut into new colonies; and +experience with the seaboard dependencies was already such as to +suggest the desirability of having the future settlements more +completely under government control from the beginning. + +After due consideration, King George and his ministers made known +their policy on October 7, 1763, in a comprehensive proclamation. +The first subject dealt with was government. Four new provinces-- +"Quebec, East Florida, West Florida, and Grenada"*--were set up +in the ceded territories, and their populations were guaranteed +all the rights and privileges enjoyed by the inhabitants of the +older colonies. The Mississippi Valley, however, was included in +no one of these provinces; and, curiously, there was no provision +whatever for the government of the French settlements lying +within it. The number and size of these settlements were +underestimated, and apparently it was supposed that all the +habitants and soldiers would avail themselves of their privilege +of withdrawing from the ceded territories. + +* The Proclamation of 1763 drew the boundaries of "four distinct +and separate governments." Grenada was to include the island of +that name, together with the Grenadines. Dominico, St. Vincent, +and Tobago. The Floridas lay south of the bounds of Georgia and +east of the Mississippi River. The Apalachicola River was to be +the dividing line between East and West Florida. Quebec included +the modern province of that name and that part of Ontario lying +north of a line drawn from Lake Nipissing to the point where the +forty-fifth parallel intersects the St. Lawrence River. + + +The disposition made of the great rectangular area bounded by the +Alleghanies, the Mississippi, the Lakes, and the Gulf, was fairly +startling. With fine disregard of the chartered claims of the +seaboard colonies and of the rights of pioneers already settled +on frontier farms, the whole was erected into an Indian reserve. +No "loving subject" might purchase land or settle in the +territory without special license; present residents should +"forthwith remove themselves"; trade should be carried on only by +permit and under close surveillance; officers were to be +stationed among the tribes to preserve friendly relations and to +apprehend fugitives from colonial justice. + +The objects of this drastic scheme were never clearly stated. +Franklin believed that the main purpose was to conciliate the +Indians. Washington agreed with him. Later historians have +generally thought that what the English Government had chiefly in +mind was to limit the bounds of the seaboard colonies, with a +view to preserving imperial control over colonial affairs. Very +likely both of these motives weighed heavily in the decision. At +all events, Lord Hillsborough, who presided over the meetings of +the Lords of Trade when the proclamation was discussed, +subsequently wrote that the "capital object" of the Government's +policy was to confine the colonies so that they should be kept in +easy reach of British trade and of the authority necessary to +keep them in due subordination to the mother country, and he +added that the extension of the fur trade depended "entirely upon +the Indians being undisturbed in the possession of their +hunting-grounds."* + +* But as Lord Hillsborough had just taken office and adopted +bodily a policy formulated by his predecessor, he is none too +good an authority. See Alvord's "Mississippi Valley in British +Politics," vol. I, pp. 203-4. + + +It does not follow that the King and his advisers intended that +the territory should be kept forever intact as a forest preserve. +They seem to have contemplated that, from time to time, cessions +would be secured from the Indians and tracts would be opened for +settlement. But every move was to be made in accordance with +plans formulated or authorized in England. The restrictive policy +won by no means universal assent in the mother country. The Whigs +generally opposed it, and Burke thundered against it as "an +attempt to keep as a lair of wild beasts that earth which God, by +an express charter, has given to the children of men." + +In America there was a disposition to take the proclamation +lightly as being a mere sop to the Indians. But wherever it was +regarded seriously, it was hotly resented. After passing through +an arduous war, the colonists were ready to enter upon a new +expansive era. The western territories were theirs by charter, by +settlement, and by conquest. The Indian population, they +believed, belonged to the unprogressive and unproductive peoples +of the earth. Every acre of fertile soil in America called to the +thrifty agriculturist; every westward flowing river invited to +trade and settlement as well, therefore, seek to keep back the +ocean with a broom as to stop by mere decree the tide of +homeseekers. Some of the colonies made honest attempts to compel +the removal of settlers from the reserved lands beyond their +borders, and Pennsylvania went so far as to decree the death +penalty for all who should refuse to remove. But the law was +never enforced. + + +The news of the cession of the eastern bank of the Mississippi to +the English brought consternation to the two or three thousand +French people living in the settlements of the Kaskaskia, +Illinois, and Wabash regions. The transfer of the western bank to +Spain did not become known promptly, and for months the habitants +supposed that by taking up their abode on the opposite side of +the stream they would continue under their own flag. Many of them +crossed the Mississippi to find new abodes even after it was +announced that the land had passed to Spain. + +>From first to last these settlements on the Mississippi, the +Wabash, and the Illinois had remained, in French hands, mere +sprawling villages. The largest of them, Kaskaskia, may have +contained in its most flourishing days two thousand people, many +of them voyageurs, coureurs-de-bois, converted Indians, and +transients of one sort or another. In 1765 there were not above +seventy permanent families. Few of the towns, indeed, attained a +population of more than two or three hundred. All French colonial +enterprise had been based on the assumption that settlers would +be few. The trader preferred it so, because settlements meant +restrictions upon his traffic. The Jesuit was of the same mind, +because such settlements broke up his mission field. The +Government at Paris forbade the emigration of the one class of +people that cared to emigrate, the Huguenots. + +Though some of the settlements had picturesque sites and others +drew distinction from their fortifications, in general they +presented a drab appearance. There were usually two or three +long, narrow streets, with no paving, and often knee-deep with +mud. The houses were built on either side, at intervals +sufficient to give space for yards and garden plots, each +homestead being enclosed with a crude picket fence. Wood and +thatch were the commonest building materials, although stone was +sometimes used; and the houses were regularly one story high, +with large vine-covered verandas. Land was abundant and cheap. +Every enterprising settler had a plot for himself, and as a rule +one large field, or more, was held for use in common. In these, +the operations of ploughing, sowing, and reaping were carefully +regulated by public ordinance. Occasionally a village drew some +distinction from the proximity of a large, well-managed estate, +such as that of the opulent M. Beauvais of Kaskaskia, in whose +mill and brewery more than eighty slaves were employed. + +Agriculture was carried on somewhat extensively, and it is +recorded that, in the year 1746 alone, when there was a shortage +of foodstuffs at New Orleans, the Illinois settlers were able to +send thither "upward of eight hundred thousand weight of flour." +Hunting and trading, however, continued to be the principal +occupations; and the sugar, indigo, cotton, and other luxuries +which the people were able to import directly from Europe were +paid for mainly with consignments of furs, hides, tallow, and +beeswax. Money was practically unknown in the settlements, so +that domestic trade likewise took the form of simple barter. +Periods of industry and prosperity alternated with periods of +depression, and the easy-going habitants--"farmers, hunters, +traders by turn, with a strong admixture of unprogressive Indian +blood"--tended always to relapse into utter indolence. + +Some of these French towns, however, were seats of culture; and +none was wholly barren of diversions. Kaskaskia had a Jesuit +college and likewise a monastery. Cahokia had a school for Indian +youth. Fort Chartres, we are gravely told, was "the center of +life and fashion in the West." If everyday existence was humdrum, +the villagers had always the opportunity for voluble conversation +"each from his own balcony"; and there were scores of Church +festivals, not to mention birthdays, visits of travelers or +neighbors, and homecomings of hunters and traders, which invited +to festivity. Balls and dances and other merrymakings at which +the whole village assembled supplied the wants of a people +proverbially fond of amusement. Indeed, French civilization in +the Mississippi and Illinois country was by no means without +charm. + +Kaskaskia, in the wonderfully fertile "American Bottom," +maintained its existence, in spite of the cession to the English, +as did also Vincennes farther east on the Wabash. Fort Chartres, +a stout fortification whose walls were more than two feet thick, +remained the seat of the principal garrison, and some traces of +French occupancy survived on the Illinois. Cahokia was deserted, +save for the splendid mission-farm of St. Sulpice, with its +thirty slaves, its herd of cattle, and its mill, which the +fathers before returning to France sold to a thrifty Frenchman +not averse to becoming an English subject. A few posts were +abandoned altogether. Some of the departing inhabitants went back +to France; some followed the French commandant, Neyon de +Villiers, down the river to New Orleans; many gathered up their +possessions, even to the frames and clapboards of their houses, +and took refuge in the new towns which sprang up on the western +bank. One of these new settlements was Ste. Genevieve, +strategically located near the lead mines from which the entire +region had long drawn its supplies of shot. Another, which was +destined to greater importance, was St. Louis, established as a +trading post on the richly wooded bluffs opposite Cahokia by +Pierre Laclede in 1764. + +Associated with Laclede in his fur-trading operations at the new +post was a lithe young man named Pierre Chouteau. In 1846-- +eighty-two years afterwards--Francis Parkman sat on the spacious +veranda of Pierre Chouteau's country house near the city of St. +Louis and heard from the lips of the venerable merchant stories +of Pontiac, Saint-Ange, Croghan, and all the western worthies, +red and white, of two full generations. "Not all the magic of a +dream," the historian remarks, "nor the enchantments of an +Arabian tale, could outmatch the waking realities which were to +rise upon the vision of Pierre Chouteau. Where, in his youth, he +had climbed the woody bluff, and looked abroad on prairies dotted +with bison, he saw, with the dim eye of his old age, the land +darkened for many a furlong with the clustered roofs of the +western metropolis. For the silence of the wilderness, he heard +the clang and turmoil of human labor, the din of congregated +thousands; and where the great river rolls down through the +forest, in lonely grandeur, he saw the waters lashed into foam +beneath the prows of panting steamboats, flocking to the broad +levee." + +Pontiac's war long kept the English from taking actual possession +of the western country. Meanwhile Saint-Ange, commanding the +remnant of the French garrison at Fort Chartres, resisted as best +he could the demands of the redskins for assistance against their +common enemy and hoped daily for the appearance of an English +force to relieve him his difficult position. In the spring of +1764 an English officer, Major Loftus, with a body of troops +lately employed in planting English authority in "East Florida" +and "West Florida," set out from New Orleans to take possession +of the up-river settlements. A few miles above the mouth of the +Red, however, the boats were fired on, without warning, from both +banks of the stream, and many of the men were killed or wounded. +The expedition retreated down the river with all possible speed. +This display of faintheartedness won the keen ridicule of the +French, and the Governor, D'Abadie, with mock magnanimity, +offered an escort of French soldiery to protect the party on its +way back to Pensacola! Within a few months a second attempt was +projected, but news of the bad temper of the Indians caused the +leader, Captain Pittman, to turn back after reaching New Orleans. + +Baffled in this direction, the new commander-in-chief, General +Gage, resolved to accomplish the desired end by an expedition +from Fort Pitt. Pontiac, however, was known to be still plotting +vengeance at that time, and it seemed advisable to break the way +for the proposed expedition by a special mission to placate the +Indians. For this delicate task Sir William Johnson selected a +trader of long experience and of good standing among the western +tribes, George Croghan. Notwithstanding many mishaps, the plan +was carried out. With two boats and a considerable party of +soldiers and friendly Delawares, Croghan left Fort Pitt in May, +1765. As he descended the Ohio he carefully plotted the river's +windings and wrote out an interesting description of the fauna +and flora observed. All went well until he reached the mouth of +the Wabash. There the party was set upon by a band of Kickapoos, +who killed half a dozen of his men. Fluent apologies were at once +offered. They had made the attack, they explained, only because +the French had reported that the Indians with Croghan's band +were Cherokees, the Kickapoos' most deadly enemies. Now that +their mistake was apparent, the artful emissaries declared, their +regret was indeed deep. + +All of this was sheer pretense, and Croghan and his surviving +followers were kept under close guard and were carried along with +the Kickapoo band up the Wabash to Vincennes, where the trader +encountered old Indian friends who soundly rebuked the captors +for their inhospitality. Croghan knew the Indian nature too well +to attempt to thwart the plans of his "hosts." Accordingly he +went out with the band to the upper Wabash post Ouiatanon, where +he received deputation after deputation from the neighboring +tribes, smoked pipes of peace, made speeches, and shook hands +with greasy warriors by the score. Here came a messenger from +Saint-Ange asking him to proceed to Fort Chartres. Here, also, +Pontiac met him, and, after being assured that the English had no +intention of enslaving the natives, declared that he would no +longer stand in the conquerors' path. Though in unexpected +manner, Croghan's mission was accomplished, and, with many +evidences of favor from the natives, he went on to Detroit and +thence to Niagara, where he reported to Johnson that the +situation in the West was ripe for the establishment of English +sovereignty. + +There was no reason for further delay, and Captain Thomas +Sterling was dispatched with a hundred Highland veterans to take +ever the settlements. Descending the Ohio from Fort Pitt, the +expedition reached Fort Chartres just as the frosty air began to +presage the coming of winter. On October 10, 1765,--more than two +and a half years after the signing of the Treaty of Paris,-- +Saint-Ange made the long-desired transfer of authority. General +Gage's high-sounding proclamation was read, the British flag was +run up, and Sterling's red-coated soldiery established itself in +the citadel. In due time small detachments were sent to Vincennes +and other posts; and the triumph of the British power over +Frenchman and Indian was complete. Saint-Ange retired with his +little garrison to St. Louis, where, until the arrival of a +Spanish lieutenant-governor in 1770, he acted by common consent +as chief magistrate. + +The creoles who passed under the English flag suffered little +from the change. Their property and trading interests were not +molested, and the English commandants made no effort to displace +the old laws and usages. Documents were written and records were +kept in French as well as English. The village priest and the +notary retained their accustomed places of paternal authority. +The old idyllic life went on. Population increased but little; +barter, hunting, and trapping still furnished the means of a +simple subsistence; and with music, dancing, and holiday +festivities the light-hearted populace managed to crowd more +pleasure into a year than the average English frontiersman got in +a lifetime. + +For a year or two after the European pacification of 1763 Indian +disturbances held back the flood of settlers preparing to enter, +through the Alleghany passes, the upper valleys of the westward +flowing rivers. Neither Indian depredations nor proclamations of +kings, however, could long interpose an effectual restraint. The +supreme object of the settlers was to obtain land. Formerly there +was land enough for all along the coasts or in the nearer +uplands. But population, as Franklin computed, was doubling in +twenty-five years; vacant areas had already been occupied; and +desirable lands had been gathered into great speculative +holdings. Newcomers were consequently forced to cross the +mountains--and not only newcomers, but all residents who were +still land-hungry and ambitious to better their condition. + +To such the appeal of the great West was irresistible. The +English Government might indeed regard the region as a "barren +waste" or a "profitless wilderness," but not so the Scotch-Irish, +Huguenot, and Palatine homeseekers who poured by the thousands +through the Chesapeake and Delaware ports. Pushing past the +settled seaboard country, these rugged men of adventure plunged +joyously into the forest depths and became no less the founders +of the coming nation than were the Pilgrims and the Cavaliers. + +Ahead of the home-builder, however, went the speculator. It has +been remarked that "from the time when Joliet and La Salle first +found their way into the heart of the great West up to the +present day when far-off Alaska is in the throes of development, +'big business' has been engaged in western speculation."* In +pre-revolutionary days this speculation took the form of +procuring, by grant or purchase, large tracts of western land +which were to be sold and colonized at a profit. Franklin was +interested in a number of such projects. Washington, the Lees, +and a number of other prominent Virginians were connected with an +enterprise which absorbed the old Ohio Company; and in 1770 +Washington, piloted by Croghan, visited the Ohio country with a +view to the discovery of desirable areas. Eventually he acquired +western holdings amounting to thirty-three thousand acres, with a +water-front of sixteen miles on the Ohio and of forty miles on +the Great Kanawha. + +* Alvord, Mississippi Valley in "British Politics," vol. I, p.86. + + + +In 1773 a company promoted by Samuel Wharton, Benjamin Franklin, +William Johnson, and a London banker, Thomas Walpole, secured the +grant of two and a half million acres between the Alleghanies and +the Ohio, which was to be the seat of a colony called Vandalia. +This departure from the policy laid down in the Proclamation of +1763 was made reluctantly, but with a view to giving a definite +western limit to the seaboard provinces. The Government's purpose +was fully understood in America, and the project was warmly +opposed, especially by Virginia, the chartered claimant of the +territory. The early outbreak of the Revolutionary War wrecked +the project, and nothing ever came of it--or indeed of any +colonization proposal contemporary with it. By and large, the +building of the West was to be the work, not of colonizing +companies or other corporate interests, but of individual +homeseekers, moving into the new country on their own +responsibility and settling where and when their own interests +and inclinations led. + + + +Chapter III. The Revolution Begins + +One of the grievances given prominence in the Declaration of +Independence was that the English Crown had "abolished the free +system of English laws in a neighbouring province, establishing +therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its boundaries so +as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for +introducing the same arbitrary rule into these colonies." The +measure which was in the minds of the signers was the Quebec Act +of 1774; and the feature to which they especially objected was +the extension of this peculiarly governed Canadian province to +include the whole of the territory north of the Ohio and east of +the Mississippi. + +The Quebec Act was passed primarily to remedy a curious mistake +made by King George's ministers eleven years earlier. The +Proclamation of 1763 had been intended to apply to the new French +speaking possessions in only a general way, leaving matters of +government and law to be regulated at a later date. But through +oversight it ordained the establishment of English law, and even +of a representative assembly, precisely as in the other new +provinces. The English governors were thus put in an awkward +position. They were required to introduce English political forms +and legal practices. Yet the inexperience and suspicion of the +people made it unwise, if not impossible, to do so. When, for +example, jury trial was broached, the peasants professed to be +quite unable to understand why the English should prefer to have +matters of law decided by tailors and shoemakers rather than by a +judge; and as for a legislature, they frankly confessed that +assemblies "had drawn upon other colonies so much distress, and +had occasioned so much riot and bloodshed, that they had hoped +never to have one." + +The Act of 1774 relieved the situation by restoring French law in +civil affairs, abolishing jury trial except in criminal cases, +rescinding the grant of representative government, and confirming +the Catholic clergy in the rights and privileges which they hard +enjoyed under the old regime. This would have aroused no great +amount of feeling among New Englanders and Virginians if the new +arrangements had been confined to the bounds of the original +province. But they were not so restricted. On the contrary, the +new province was made to include the great region between the +Alleghanies and the Mississippi, southward to the Ohio; and it +was freely charged that a principal object of the English +Government was to sever the West from the shore colonies and +permanently link it with the St. Lawrence Valley rather than with +the Atlantic slope. + +At all events, the Quebec Act marked the beginning of civil +government in the great Northwest. On November 9, 1775, Henry +Hamilton appeared as Lieutenant-Governor at the new capital, +Detroit. Already the "shot heard round the world" had been fired +by the farmers at Lexington; and Hamilton had been obliged to +thread his way through General Montgomery's lines about Montreal +in the guise of a Canadian. Arrived at his new seat of authority, +he found a pleasant, freshly fortified town whose white +population had grown to fifteen hundred, including a considerable +number of English-speaking settlers. The country round was +overrun with traders, who cheated and cajoled the Indians without +conscience; the natives, in turn, were a nondescript lot, showing +in pitiful manner the bad effects of their contact with the +whites. + +As related by a contemporary chronicler--a Pennsylvanian who +lived for years among the western tribes--an Indian hunting party +on arriving at Detroit would trade perhaps a third of the +peltries which they brought in for fine clothes, ammunition, +paint, tobacco, and like articles. Then a keg of brandy would be +purchased, and a council would be held to decide who was to get +drunk and who to keep sober. All arms and clubs were taken away +and hidden, and the orgy would begin. It was the task of those +who kept sober to prevent the drunken ones from killing one +another, a task always hazardous and frequently unsuccessful, +sometimes as many as five being killed in a night. When the keg +was empty, brandy was brought by the kettleful and ladled out +with large wooden spoons; and this was kept up until the last +skin had been disposed of. Then, dejected, wounded, lamed, with +their fine new shirts torn, their blankets burned, and with +nothing but their ammunition and tobacco saved, they would start +off down the river to hunt in the Ohio country and begin again +the same round of alternating toil and debauchery. In the history +of the country there is hardly a more depressing chapter than +that which records the easy descent of the red man, once his +taste for "fire water" was developed, to bestiality and +impotence. + +The coming on of the Revolution produced no immediate effects in +the West. The meaning of the occurrences round Boston was but +slowly grasped by the frontier folk. There was little indeed that +the Westerners could do to help the cause of the eastern +patriots, and most of them, if left alone, would have been only +distant spectators of the conflict. But orders given to the +British agents and commanders called for the ravaging of the +trans-Alleghany country; and as a consequence the West became an +important theater of hostilities. + +The British agents had no troops with which to undertake military +operations on a considerable scale, but they had one great +resource--the Indians--and this they used with a reckless +disregard of all considerations of humanity. In the summer of +1776 the Cherokees were furnished with fifty horse-loads of +ammunition and were turned loose upon the back country of Georgia +and the Carolinas. Other tribes were prompted to depredations +farther north. White, half-breed, and Indian agents went through +the forests inciting the natives to deeds of horror; prices were +fixed on scalps--and it is significant of the temper of these +agents that a woman's scalp was paid for as readily as a man's. + +In every corner of the wilderness the bloody scenes of Pontiac's +war were now reenacted. Bands of savages lurked about the +settlements, ready to attack at any unguarded moment; and +wherever the thin blue smoke of a settler's cabin rose, prowlers +lay in wait. A woman might not safely go a hundred yards to milk +a cow, or a man lead a horse to water. The farmer carried a gun +strapped to his side as he ploughed, and he scarcely dared +venture into the woods for the winter's supply of fuel and game. +Hardly a day passed on which a riderless horse did not come +galloping into some lonely clearing, telling of afresh tragedy on +the trail. + +The rousing of the Indians against the frontiersmen was an odious +act. The people of the back country were in not the slightest +degree responsible for the revolt against British authority in +the East. They were non-combatants, and no amount of success in +sweeping them from their homes could affect the larger outcome. +The crowning villainy of this shameful policy was the turning of +the redskins loose to prey upon helpless women and children. + +The responsibility for this inhumanity must be borne in some +degree by the government of George III. "God and nature," wrote +the Earl of Suffolk piously, "hath put into our hands the +scalping-knife and tomahawk, to torture them into unconditional +submission." But the fault lay chiefly with the British officers +at the western posts--most of all, with Lieutenant-Governor +Hamilton at Detroit. Probably no British representative in +America was on better terms with the natives. He drank with them, +sang war-songs with them, and received them with open arms when +they came in from the forests with the scalps of white men +dangling at their belts. A great council on the banks of the +Detroit in June, 1778, was duly opened with prayer, after which +Hamilton harangued the assembled Chippewas, Hurons, Mohawks, and +Potawatomi on their "duties" in the war and congratulated them on +the increasing numbers of their prisoners and scalps, and then +urged them to redoubled activity by holding out the prospect of +the complete expulsion of white men from the great interior +hunting-grounds. + +Scarcely were the deputations attending this council well on +their way homewards when a courier arrived from the Illinois +country bringing startling news. The story was that a band of +three hundred rebels led by one George Rogers Clark had fallen +upon the Kaskaskia settlements, had thrown the commandant into +irons, and had exacted from the populace an oath of allegiance to +the Continental Congress. It was reported, too, that Cahokia had +been taken, and that, even as the messenger was leaving +Kaskaskia, "Gibault, a French priest, had his horse ready saddled +to go to Vincennes to receive the submission of the inhabitants +in the name of the rebels." + +George Rogers Clark was a Virginian, born in the foothills of +Albemarle County three years before Braddock's defeat. His family +was not of the landed gentry, but he received some education, and +then, like Washington and many other adventuresome young men of +the day, became a surveyor. At the age of twenty-two he was a +member of Governor Dunmore's staff. During a surveying expedition +he visited Kentucky, which so pleased him that in 1774 he decided +to make that part of the back country his home. He was even then +a man of powerful frame, with broad brow, keen blue eyes, and a +dash of red in his hair from a Scottish ancestress--a man, too, +of ardent patriotism, strong common sense, and exceptional powers +of initiative and leadership. Small wonder that in the rapidly +developing commonwealth beyond the mountains he quickly became a +dominating spirit. + +With a view to organizing a civil government and impressing upon +the Virginia authorities the need of defending the western +settlements, the men of Kentucky held a convention at Harrodsburg +in the spring of 1775 and elected two delegates to present their +petition to the Virginia Assembly. Clark was one of them. The +journey to Williamsburg was long and arduous, and the delegates +arrived only to find that the Legislature had adjourned. The +visit, none the less, gave Clark an opportunity to explain to the +new Governor--"a certain Patrick Henry, of Hanover County," as +the royalist Dunmore contemptuously styled his successor--the +situation in the back country and to obtain five hundred pounds +of powder. He also induced the authorities to take steps which +led to the definite organization of Kentucky as a county of +Virginia. + +In the bloody days that followed, most of the pioneers saw +nothing to be done except to keep close guard and beat off the +Indians when they came. A year or two of that sort of desperate +uncertainty gave Clark an idea. Why not meet the trouble at its +source by capturing the British posts and suppressing the +commandants whose orders were mainly responsible for the +atrocities? There was just one obstacle: Kentucky could spare +neither men nor money for the undertaking. + +In the spring of 1777 two young hunters, disguised as traders, +were dispatched to the Illinois country and to the neighborhood +of Vincennes, to spy out the land. They brought back word that +the posts were not heavily manned, and that the French-speaking +population took little interest in the war and was far from +reconciled to British rule. The prospect seemed favorable. +Without making his purpose known to anyone, Clark forthwith +joined a band of disheartened settlers and made his way with them +over the Wilderness Trail to Virginia. By this time a plan on the +part of the rebels for the defense of the Kentucky settlements +had grown into a scheme for the conquest of the whole Northwest. + +Clark's proposal came opportunely. Burgoyne's surrender had given +the colonial cause a rosy hue, and already the question of the +occupation of the Northwest had come up for discussion in +Congress. Governor Henry thought well of the plan. He called +Thomas Jefferson, George Mason, and George Wythe into conference, +and on January 2, 1778, Clark was given two sets of orders--one, +for publication, commissioning him to raise seven companies of +fifty men each "in any county of the Commonwealth" for militia +duty in Kentucky, the other, secret, authorizing him to use this +force in an expedition for the capture of the "British post at +Kaskasky." To meet the costs, only twelve hundred pounds in +depreciated continental currency could be raised. But the +Governor and his friends promised to try to secure three hundred +acres of land for each soldier, in case the project should +succeed. The strictest secrecy was preserved, and, even if the +Legislature had been in session, the project would probably not +have been divulged to it. + +Men and supplies were gathered at Fort Pitt and Wheeling and were +carried down the Ohio to "the Falls," opposite the site of +Louisville. The real object of the expedition was concealed until +this point was reached. On learning of the project, the men were +surprised, and some refused to go farther. But in a few weeks one +hundred and seventy-five men, organized in four companies, were +in readiness. The start was made on the 24th of June. Just as the +little flotilla of clumsy flatboats was caught by the rapid +current, the landscape was darkened by an eclipse of the sun. The +superstitious said that this was surely an evil omen. But Clark +was no believer in omens, and he ordered the bateaux to proceed. +He had lately received news of the French alliance, and was surer +than ever that the habitants would make common cause with his +forces and give him complete success. + +To appear on the Mississippi was to run the risk of betraying the +object of the expedition to the defenders of the posts. Hence the +wily commander decided to make the last stages of his advance by +an overland route. At the deserted site of Fort Massac, nine +miles below the mouth of the Tennessee, the little army left the +Ohio and struck off northwest on a march of one hundred and +twenty miles, as the crow flies, across the tangled forests and +rich prairies of southern Illinois. + +Six days brought the invaders to the Kaskaskia River, three miles +above the principal settlement. Stealing silently along the bank +of the stream on the night of the 4th of July, they crossed in +boats which they seized at a farmhouse and arrived at the +palisades wholly unobserved. Half of the force was stationed in +the form of a cordon, so that no one might escape. The remainder +followed Clark through an unguarded gateway into the village. + +According to a story long current, the officials of the post were +that night giving a ball, and all of the elite, not of Kaskaskia +alone but of the neighboring settlements as well, were joyously +dancing in one of the larger rooms of the fort. Leaving his men +some paces distant, Clark stepped to the entrance of the hall, +and for some time leaned unobserved against the door-post, grimly +watching the gayety. Suddenly the air was rent by a warwhoop +which brought the dancers to a stop. An Indian brave, lounging in +the firelight, had caught a glimpse of the tall, gaunt, buff and +blue figure in the doorway and had recognized it. Women shrieked; +men cursed; the musicians left their posts; all was disorder. +Advancing, Clark struck a theatrical pose and in a voice of +command told the merrymakers to go on with their dancing, but to +take note that they now danced, not as subjects of King George +but as Virginians. Finding that they were in no mood for further +diversion, he sent them to their homes; and all night they +shivered with fear, daring not so much as to light a candle lest +they should be set upon and murdered in their beds. + +This account is wholly unsupported by contemporary testimony, and +it probably sprang from the imagination of some good frontier +story-teller. It contains at least this much truth, that the +settlement, after being thrown into panic, was quickly and easily +taken. Curiously enough, the commandant was a Frenchman, +Rocheblave, who had thriftily entered the British service. True +to the trust reposed in him, he protested and threatened, but to +no avail. The garrison, now much diminished, was helpless, and +the populace--British, French, and Indian alike--was not disposed +to court disaster by offering armed resistance. Hence, on the +morning after the capture the oath of fidelity was administered, +and the American flag was hoisted for the first time within view +of the Father of Waters. After dispatching word to General +Carleton that he had been compelled to surrender the post to "the +self-styled Colonel, Mr. Clark," Rocheblave was sent as a captive +to Williamsburg, where he soon broke parole and escaped. His +slaves were sold for five hundred pounds, and the money was +distributed among the troops. Cahokia was occupied without +resistance, and the French priest, Father Pierre Gibault, whose +parish extended from Lake Superior to the Ohio, volunteered to go +to Vincennes and win its inhabitants to the American cause. + +Like Kaskaskia and Cahokia, the Wabash settlement had been put in +charge of a commandant of French descent. The village, however, +was at the moment without a garrison, and its chief stronghold, +Fort Sackville, was untenanted. Gibault argued forcefully for +acceptance of American sovereignty, and within two days the +entire population filed into the little church and took the oath +of allegiance. The astonished Indians were given to understand +that their former "Great Father," the King of France, had +returned to life, and that they must comply promptly with his +wishes or incur his everlasting wrath for having given aid to the +despised British. + +Thus without the firing of a shot or the shedding of a drop of +blood, the vast Illinois and Wabash country was won for the +future United States. Clark's plan was such that its success was +assured by its very audacity. It never occurred to the British +authorities that their far western forts were in danger, and they +were wholly unprepared to fly to the defense of such distant +posts. British sovereignty on the Mississippi was never +recovered; and in the autumn of 1778 Virginia took steps to +organize her new conquest by setting up the county of Illinois, +which included all her territories lying "on the western side of +the Ohio." + + + +Chapter IV. The Conquest Completed + +Lieutenant-Governor Hamilton had many faults, but sloth was not +one of them; and when he heard what had happened he promptly +decided to regain the posts and take the upstart Kentucky +conqueror captive. Emissaries were sent to the Wabash country to +stir up the Indians, and for weeks the Detroit settlement +resounded with preparations for the expedition. Boats were built +or repaired, guns were cleaned, ammunition was collected in +boxes, provisions were put up in kegs or bags, baubles for the +Indians were made or purchased. Cattle and wheels, together with +a six-pounder, were sent ahead to be in readiness for use at +various stages of the journey. + +Further weeks were consumed in awaiting reenforcements which +never came; and in early October, when the wild geese were +scudding southward before the first snow flurries of the coming +winter, the commandant started for the reconquest with a motley +force of thirty-six British regulars, forty-five local +volunteers, seventy-nine local militia, and sixty Indians. +Reenforcements were gathered on the road, so that when Vincennes +was reached the little army numbered about five hundred. From +Detroit the party dropped easily down the river to Lake Erie, +where it narrowly escaped destruction in a blinding snowstorm. By +good management, however, it was brought safely to the Maumee, up +whose sluggish waters the bateaux were laboriously poled. A +portage of nine miles gave access to the Wabash. Here the water +was very shallow, and only by building occasional dikes to +produce a current did the party find it possible to complete the +journey. As conferences with the Indians further delayed them, it +was not until a few days before Christmas that the invaders +reached their goal. + +The capture of Vincennes proved easy enough. The surrender, none +the less, was made in good military style. There were two iron +three-pounders in the wretched little fort, and one of these was +loaded to the muzzle and placed in the open gate. As Hamilton and +his men advanced, so runs a not very well authenticated story, +Lieutenant Helm stood by the gun with a lighted taper and called +sternly upon the invaders to halt. The British leader demanded +the surrender of the garrison. Helm parleyed and asked for terms. +Hamilton finally conceded the honors of war, and Helm +magnanimously accepted. Hamilton thereupon drew up his forces in +a double line, the British on one side and the Indians on the +other; and the garrison--one officer and one soldier--solemnly +marched out between them! After the "conquerors" had regained +their equanimity, the cross of St. George was once more run up on +the fort. A body of French militia returned to British allegiance +with quite as much facility as it had shown in accepting American +sovereignty under the eloquence of Father Gibault; and the French +inhabitants, gathered again in the church, with perfectly +straight faces acknowledged that they had "sinned against God and +man" by taking sides with the rebels, and promised to be loyal +thereafter to George III. + +Had the British forces immediately pushed on, this same scene +might have been repeated at Kaskaskia and Cahokia. Clark's +position there was far from strong. Upon the expiration of their +term of enlistment most of his men had gone back to Kentucky or +Virginia, and their places had been taken mainly by creoles, +whose steadfastness was doubtful. Furthermore, the Indians were +restless, and it was only by much vigilance and bravado that they +were kept in a respectful mood. All this was well known to +Hamilton, who now proposed to follow up the recapture of the +Mississippi posts by the obliteration of all traces of American +authority west of the Alleghanies. + +The difficulties and dangers of a midwinter campaign in the +flooded Illinois country were not to be lightly regarded, and +weeks of contending with icy blasts and drenching rains lent a +seat by an open fire unusual attractiveness. Hence the completion +of the campaign was postponed until spring--a decision which +proved the salvation of the American cause in the West. As means +of subsistence were slender, most of the Detroit militia were +sent home, and the Indians were allowed to scatter to their +distant wigwams. The force kept at the post numbered only about +eighty or ninety whites, with a few Indians. + +Clark now had at Kaskaskia a band of slightly over a hundred men. +He understood Hamilton's army to number five or six hundred. The +outlook was dubious, until Francois Vigo, a friendly Spanish +trader of St. Louis, escaping captivity at Vincennes, came to +Kaskaskia with the information that Hamilton had sent away most +of his troops; and this welcome news gave the doughty Kentuckian +a brilliant idea. He would defend his post by attacking the +invaders while they were yet at Vincennes, and before they were +ready to resume operations. "The case is desperate," he wrote to +Governor Henry, "but, sir, we must either quit the country or +attack Mr. Hamilton." He had probably never heard of Scipio +Africanus but, like that indomitable Roman, he proposed to carry +the war straight into the enemy's country. "There were +undoubtedly appalling difficulties," says Mr. Roosevelt, "in the +way of a midwinter march and attack; and the fact that Clark +attempted and performed the feat which Hamilton dared not try, +marks just the difference between a man of genius and a good, +brave, ordinary commander." + +Preparations were pushed with all speed. A large, flat-bottomed +boat, the Willing, was fitted out with four guns and was sent +down the Mississippi with forty men to ascend the Ohio and the +Wabash to a place of rendezvous not far from the coveted post. By +early February the depleted companies were recruited to their +full strength; and after the enterprise had been solemnly blessed +by Father Gibault, Clark and his forces, numbering one hundred +and thirty men, pushed out upon the desolate, windswept prairie. + +The distance to be covered was about two hundred and thirty +miles. Under favorable circumstances, the trip could have been +made in five or six days and with little hardship. The rainy +season, however, was now at its height, and the country was one +vast quagmire, overrun by swollen streams which could be crossed +only at great risk. Ten days of wearisome marching brought the +expedition to the forks of the Little Wabash. The entire region +between the two channels was under water, and for a little time +it looked as if the whole enterprise would have to be given up. +There were no boats; provisions were running low; game was +scarce; and fires could not be built for cooking. + +But Clark could not be turned back by such difficulties. He +plunged ahead of his men, struck tip songs and cheers to keep +them in spirit, played the buffoon, went wherever danger was +greatest, and by an almost unmatched display of bravery, tact, +and firmness, won the redoubled admiration of his suffering +followers and held them together. Murmurs arose among the +creoles, but the Americans showed no signs of faltering. For more +than a week the party floundered through the freezing water, +picked its way from one outcropping bit of earth to another, and +seldom found opportunity to eat or sleep. Rifles and powder-horns +had to be borne by the hour above the soldiers' heads to keep +them dry. + +Finally, on the 23d of February, a supreme effort carried the +troops across the Horseshoe Plain, breast-deep in water, and out +upon high ground two miles from Vincennes. By this time many of +the men were so weakened that they could drag themselves along +only with assistance. But buffalo meat and corn were confiscated +from the canoes of some passing squaws, and soon the troops were +refreshed and in good spirits. The battle with the enemy ahead +seemed as nothing when compared with the struggle with the +elements which they had successfully waged. No exploit of the +kind in American history surpasses this, unless it be Benedict +Arnold's winter march through the wilderness of Maine in 1775 to +attack Quebec. + +Two or three creole hunters were now taken captive, and from them +Clark learned that no one in Vincennes knew of his approach. They +reported, however, that, although the habitants were tired of the +"Hair-Buyer's" presence and would gladly return to American +allegiance, some two hundred Indians had just arrived at the +fort. The Willing had not been heard from. But an immediate +attack seemed the proper course; and the young colonel planned +and carried it out with the curious mixture of bravery and +braggadocio of which he was a past master. + +First he drew up a lordly letter, addressed to the inhabitants of +the town, and dispatched it by one of his creole prisoners. +"Gentlemen," it ran, "being now within two miles of your village +with my army...and not being willing to surprise you, I take +this step to request such of you as are true citizens, and +willing to enjoy the liberty I bring you, to remain still in your +houses. And those, if any there be, that are friends to the King, +will instantly repair to the fort and join the Hair-Buyer General +and fight like men." Having thus given due warning, he led his +"army" forward, marching and counter-marching his meager forces +among the trees and hills to give an appearance of great numbers, +while he and his captains helped keep up the illusion by +galloping wildly here and there on horses they had confiscated, +as if ordering a vast array. At nightfall the men advanced upon +the stockade and opened fire from two directions. + +Not until a sergeant reeled from his chair with a bullet in his +breast did the garrison realize that it was really under attack. +The habitants had kept their secret well. There was a beating of +drums and a hurrying to arms, and throughout the night a hot +fusillade was kept up. By firing from behind houses and trees, +and from rifle pits that were dug before the attack began, the +Americans virtually escaped loss; while Hamilton's gunners were +picked off as fast as they appeared at the portholes of the fort. +Clark's ammunition ran low, but the habitants furnished a fresh +supply and at the same time a hot breakfast for the men. In a few +hours the cannon were silenced, and parleys were opened. Hamilton +insisted that he and his garrison were "not disposed to be awed +into an action unworthy of British subjects," but they were +plainly frightened, and Clark finally sent the commandant back to +the fort from a conference in the old French church with the +concession of one hour's time in which to decide what he would +do. To help him make up his mind, the American leader caused half +a dozen Indians who had just returned from the forests with white +men's scalps dangling at their belts to be tomahawked and thrown +into the river within plain view of the garrison. + +Surrender promptly followed. Hamilton and twenty-five of his men +were sent off as captives to Virginia, where the commandant +languished in prison until, in 1780, he was paroled at the +suggestion of Washington. On taking, an oath of neutrality, the +remaining British sympathizers were set at liberty. For a second +time the American flag floated over Indiana soil, not again to be +lowered. + +Immediately after the capitulation of Hamilton, a scouting-party +captured a relief expedition which was on its way from Detroit +and placed in Clark's hands ten thousand pounds' worth of +supplies for distribution as prize-money among his deserving men. +The commander's cup of satisfaction was filled to the brim when +the Willing appeared with a long-awaited messenger from Governor +Henry who brought to the soldiers the thanks of the Legislature +of Virginia for the capture of Kaskaskia and also the promise of +more substantial reward. + +The whole of the Illinois and Indiana country was now in American +hands. Tenure, however, was precarious so long as Detroit +remained a British stronghold, and Clark now broadened his plans +to embrace the capture of that strategic place. Leaving Vincennes +in charge of a garrison of forty men, he returned to Kaskaskia +with the Willing and set about organizing a new expedition. +Kentucky pledged three hundred men, and Virginia promised to +help. But when, in midsummer, the commander returned to Vincennes +to consolidate and organize his force, he found the numbers to be +quite insufficient. From Kentucky there came only thirty men. + +Disappointment followed disappointment; he was ordered to build a +fort at the mouth of the Ohio--a project of which be had himself +approved; and when at last he had under his command a force that +might have been adequate for the Detroit expedition, he was +obliged to use it in meeting a fresh incursion of savages which +had been stirred up by the new British commandant on the Lakes. +But Thomas Jefferson, who in 1779 succeeded Henry as Governor of +Virginia, was deeply interested in the Detroit project, and at +his suggestion Washington gave Clark an order on the commandant +of Fort Pitt for guns, supplies, and such troops as could be +spared. On January 22, 1781, Jefferson appointed Clark +"brigadier-general of the forces to be embodied on an expedition +westward of the Ohio." Again Clark was doomed to disappointment. +One obstacle after another interposed. Yet as late as May, 1781, +the expectant conqueror wrote to Washington that he had "not yet +lost sight of Detroit." Suitable opportunity for the expedition +never came, and when peace was declared the northern stronghold +was still in British hands. + +Clark's later days were clouded. Although Virginia gave him six +thousand acres of land in southern Indiana and presented him with +a sword, peace left him without employment, and he was never able +to adjust himself to the changed situation. For many years he +lived alone in a little cabin on the banks of the Ohio, spending +his time hunting, fishing,and brooding over the failure of +Congress to reward him in more substantial manner for his +services. He was land-poor, lonely, and embittered. In 1818 he +died a paralyzed and helpless cripple. His resting place is in +Cave Hill Cemetery, Louisville; the finest statue of him stands +in Monument Circle, Indianapolis--"an athletic figure, scarcely +past youth, tall and sinewy, with a drawn sword, in an attitude +of energetic encouragement, as if getting his army through the +drowned lands of the Wabash."* + +* Hosmer, "Short History of the Mississippi Valley." p. 94. + + +The capture of Vincennes determined the fate of the Northwest. +Frontier warfare nevertheless went steadily on. In 1779 Spain +entered the contest as an ally of France, and it became the +object of the British commanders on the Lakes not only to recover +the posts lost to the Americans but to seize St. Louis and other +Spanish strongholds on the west bank of the Mississippi. In 1780 +Lieutenant-Governor Patrick Sinclair, a bustling, garrulous old +soldier stationed at Michilimackinac, sent a force of some nine +hundred traders, servants, and Indians down the Mississippi to +capture both the American and Spanish settlements. An attack on +St. Louis failed, as did likewise a series of efforts against +Cahokia and Kaskaskia, and the survivors were glad to reach their +northern headquarters again, with nothing to show for their pains +except a dozen prisoners. + +Not to be outdone, the Spanish commandant at St. Louis sent an +expedition to capture British posts in the Lake country. An +arduous winter march brought the avengers and their Indian allies +to Fort St. Joseph, a mile or two west of the present city of +Niles, Michigan. It would be ungracious to say that this post was +selected for attack because it was without a garrison. At all +events, the place was duly seized, the Spanish standard was set +up, and possession of "the fort and its dependencies" was taken +in the name of his Majesty Don Carlos III. No effort was made to +hold the settlement permanently, and the British from Detroit +promptly retook it. Probably the sole intention had been to add +somewhat to the strength of the Spanish position at the +forthcoming negotiations for peace. + +The war in the West ended, as it began, in a carnival of +butchery. Treacherous attacks, massacres, burnings, and +pillagings were everyday occurrences, and white men were hardly +less at fault than red. Indeed the most discreditable of all the +recorded episodes of the time was a heartless massacre by +Americans of a large band of Indians that had been Christianized +by Moravian missionaries and brought together in a peaceful +community on the Muskingum. This slaughter of the innocents at +Gnadenhutten ("the Tents of Grace") reveals the frontiersman at +his worst. But it was dearly paid for. From the Lakes to the Gulf +redskins rose for vengeance. Villages were wiped out, and +murderous bands swept far into Virginia and Pennsylvania, evading +fortified posts in order to fall with irresistible fury on +unsuspecting traders and settlers. + +In midsummer, 1782, news of the cessation of hostilities between +Great Britain and her former seaboard colonies reached the back +country, and the commandant at Detroit made an honest effort to +stop all offensive operations. A messenger failed, however, to +reach a certain Captain Caldwell, operating in the Ohio country, +in time to prevent him from attacking a Kentucky settlement and +bringing on the deadly Battle of Blue Licks, in which the +Americans were defeated with a loss of seventy-one men. George +Rogers Clark forthwith led a retaliatory expedition against the +Miami towns, taking prisoners, recapturing whites, and destroying +British trading establishments; and with this final flare-up the +Revolution came to an end in the Northwest. + +The soldier had won the back country for the new nation. Could +the diplomat hold it? As early as March 19, 1779,--just three +weeks after Clark's capture of Vincennes,--the Continental +Congress formally laid claim to the whole of the Northwest; and a +few months later John Adams was instructed to negotiate for peace +on the understanding that the country's northern and western +boundaries were to be the line of the Great Lakes and the +Mississippi. When, in 1781, Franklin, Jefferson, Jay, and Laurens +were appointed to assist Adams in the negotiation, the new +Congress of the Confederation stated that the earlier +instructions on boundaries represented its "desires and +expectations." + +It might have been supposed that if Great Britain could be +brought to accept these terms there would be no further +difficulty. But obstacles arose from other directions. France had +entered the war for her own reasons, and looked with decidedly +more satisfaction on the defeat of Great Britain than on the +prospect of a new and powerful nation in the Western Hemisphere. +Furthermore, she was in close alliance with Spain; and Spain had +no sympathy whatever with the American cause as such. At all +events, she did not want the United States for a neighbor on the +Mississippi. + +The American commissioners were under instructions to make no +peace without consulting France. But when, in the spring of 1782, +Jay came upon the scene of the negotiations at Paris, he +demurred. He had been for some time in Spain, and he carried to +Paris not only a keen contempt for the Spanish people and Spanish +politics, but a strong suspicion that Spain was using her +influence to keep the United States from getting the territory +between the Lakes and the Ohio. France soon fell under similar +suspicion, for she was under obligations, as everyone knew, to +satisfy Spain; and little time elapsed before the penetrating +American diplomat was semiofficially assured that his suspicions +in both directions were well founded. + +The mainspring of Spanish policy was the desire to make the Gulf +of Mexico a closed sea, under exclusive Spanish control. This +plan would be frustrated if the Americans acquired an outlet on +the Gulf; furthermore, it would be jeopardized if they retained +control on the upper Mississippi. Hence, the States must be kept +back from the great river; safety dictated that they be confined +to the region east of the Appalachians. + +An ingenious plan was thereupon developed. Spain was to resume +possession of the Floridas, insuring thereby the coveted unbroken +coast line on the Gulf. The vast area between the Mississippi and +the Appalachians and south of the Ohio was to be an Indian +territory, half under Spanish and half under American +"protection." The entire region north of the Ohio was to be kept +by Great Britain, or, at the most, divided--on lines to be +determined--between Great Britain and the United States. From +Rayneval, confidential secretary of the French foreign minister +Vergennes, Jay learned that the French Government proposed to +give this scheme its support. + +Had such terms as these been forced on the new nation, the +hundreds of Virginian and Pennsylvanian pioneers who had given up +their lives in the planting of American civilization in the back +country would have turned in their graves. But Jay had no notion +of allowing the scheme to succeed. He sent an emissary to England +to counteract the Spanish and French influence. He converted +Adams to his way of thinking, and even raised doubts in +Franklin's mind. Finally he induced his colleagues to cast their +instructions to the winds and negotiate a treaty with the mother +country independently. + +This simplified matters immensely. Great Britain was a beaten +nation, and from the beginning her commissioners played a losing +game. There was much haggling over the loyalists, the fisheries, +debts; but the boundaries were quickly drawn. Great Britain +preferred to see the disputed western country in American hands +rather than to leave a chance for it to fall under the control of +one of her European rivals. + +Accordingly, the Treaty of Paris drew the interior boundary of +the new nation through the Great Lakes and connecting waters to +the Lake of the Woods; from the most northwestern point of the +Lake of the Woods due west to the Mississippi (an impossible +line); down the Mississippi to latitude 31 degrees; thence east, +by that parallel and by the line which is now the northern +boundary of Florida, to the ocean. Three nations, instead of two, +again shared the North American Continent: Great Britain kept the +territory north of the Lakes; Spain ruled the Floridas and +everything west of the Mississippi; the United States held the +remainder--an area of more than 825,000 square miles, with a +population of three and one half millions. + + + +Chapter V. Wayne, The Scourge Of The Indians + +"This federal republic," wrote the Spanish Count d'Aranda to his +royal master in 1782, "is born a pigmy. A day will come when it +will be a giant, even a colossus. Liberty of conscience, the +facility for establishing a new population on immense lands, as +well as the advantages of the new government, will draw thither +farmers and artisans from all the nations." + +Aranda correctly weighed the value of the country's vast +stretches of free and fertile land. The history of the United +States has been largely a story of the clearing of forests, the +laying out of farms, the erection of homes, the construction of +highways, the introduction of machinery, the building of +railroads, the rise of towns and of great cities. The Germans of +Wisconsin and Missouri, the Scandinavians of Minnesota and the +Dakotas, the Poles and Hungarians of Chicago, the Irish and +Italians of a thousand communities, attest the fact that the +"farmers and artisans from all the nations" have had an honorable +part in the achievement. + +In laying plans for the development of the western lands the +statesmanship of the evolutionary leaders was at its best. In the +first place, the seven States which had some sort of title to +tracts extending westward to the Mississippi wisely yielded these +claims to the nation; and thus was created a single, national +domain which could be dealt with in accordance with a consistent +policy. In the second place, Congress, as early as 1780, pledged +the national Government to dispose of the western lands for the +common benefit, and promised that they should be "settled and +formed into distinct republican states, which shall become +members of the federal union, and have the same rights of +sovereignty, freedom; and independence as the other states." + +Finally, in the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 there was mapped out +a scheme of government admirably adapted to the liberty-loving, +yet law-abiding, populations of the frontier. It was based on the +broad principles of democracy, and it was sufficiently flexible +to permit necessary changes as the scattered settlements +developed into organized Territories and then into States. +Geographical conditions, as well as racial inheritances, +foreordained that the United States should be an expanding, +colonizing nation; and it was of vital importance that wholesome +precedents of territorial control should be established in the +beginning. Louisiana, Florida, the Mexican accessions, Alaska, +and even the newer tropical dependencies, owe much to the +decisions that were reached in the organizing of the Northwest a +century and a quarter ago. + +The Northwest Ordinance was remarkable in that it was framed for +a territory that had practically no white population and which, +in a sense, did not belong to the United States at all. Back in +1768 Sir William Johnson's Treaty of Fort Stanwix had made the +Ohio River the boundary between the white and red races of the +West. Nobody at the close of the Revolution supposed that this +division would be adhered to; the Northwest had not been won for +purposes of an Indian reserve. None the less, the arrangements of +1768 were inherited, and the nation considered them binding +except in so far as they were modified from time to time by new +agreements. The first such agreement affecting the Northwest was +concluded in 1785, through George Rogers Clark and two other +commissioners, with the Wyandots, Delawares, Chippewas, and +Ottawas. By it the United States acquired title to the +southeastern half of the present State of Ohio, with a view to +surveying the lands and raising revenue by selling them. +Successive treaties during the next thirty years gradually +transferred the whole of the Northwest from Indian hands to the +new nation. + +Officially, the United States recognized the validity of the +Indian claims; but the pioneer homeseeker was not so certain to +do so. From about 1775 the country south of the Ohio filled +rapidly with settlers from Virginia and the Carolinas, so that by +1788 the white population beyond the Blue Ridge was believed to +be considerably over one hundred thousand. For a decade the +"Indian side," as the north shore was habitually called, was +trodden only by occasional hunters, traders, and explorers. But +after Clark's victories on the Mississippi and the Wabash, the +frontiersmen grew bolder. By 1780 they began to plant camps and +cabins on the rich bottom-lands of the Miamis, the Scioto, and +the Muskingum; and when they heard that the British claims in the +West had been formally yielded, they assumed that whatever they +could take was theirs. With the technicalities of Indian claims +they had not much patience. In 1785 Colonel Harmar, commanding at +Fort Pitt, sent a deputation down the river to drive the +intruders back. But his agents returned with the report that the +Virginians and Kentuckians were moving into the forbidden country +"by the forties and fifties," and that they gave every evidence +of proposing to remain there. Surveyors were forthwith set to +work in the "Seven Ranges," as the tract just to the west of the +Pennsylvania boundary was called; and Fort Harmar was built at +the mouth of the Muskingum to keep the over-ardent settlers back. + +The close of the Revolution brought not only a swift revival of +emigration to the West but also a remarkable outburst of +speculation in western land. March 3, 1786, General Rufus Putnam +and some other Continental officers met at the "Bunch of Grapes" +Tavern in Boston and decided that it would be to their advantage +to exchange for land in the Seven Ranges the paper certificates +in which they had been paid for their military services. +Accordingly an "Ohio Company" was organized, and Dr. Manasseh +Cutler--"preacher, lawyer, doctor, statesman, scientist, land +speculator"--was sent off to New York to push the matter in +Congress. The upshot was that Congress authorized the sale of one +and a half million acres east of the Scioto to the Ohio Company, +and five million acres to a newly organized Scioto Company. + +The Scioto Company fell into financial difficulties and, after +making an attempt to build up a French colony at Gallipolis, +collapsed. But General Putnam and his associates kept their +affairs well in hand and succeeded in planting the first legal +white settlement in the present State of Ohio. An arduous winter +journey brought the first band of forty-eight settlers, led by +Putnam himself, to the mouth of the Muskingum on April 7, 1788. +Here, in the midst of a great forest dotted with terraces, cones, +and other fantastic memorials of the mound-builders, they erected +a blockhouse and surrounded it with cabins. For a touch of the +classical, they called the fortification the Campus Martius; to +be strictly up to date, they named the town Marietta, after Marie +Antoinette, Queen of France. In July the little settlement was +honored by being made the residence of the newly arrived Governor +of the Territory, General Arthur St. Clair. Before the close of +the year Congress sold one million acres between the two Miamis +to Judge Symmes of New Jersey; and three little towns were at +once laid out. To one of them a pedantic schoolmaster gave the +name L-os-anti-ville, "the town opposite the mouth of the +Licking." The name may have required too much explanation; at all +events, when, in 1790, the Governor transferred the capital +thither from Marietta, he rechristened the place Cincinnati, in +honor of the famous Revolutionary society to which he belonged. + +Land speculators are confirmed optimists. But Putnam, Cutler, +Symmes, and their associates were correct in believing that the +Ohio country was at the threshold of a period of remarkable +development. There was one serious obstacle--the Indians. +Repeated expeditions from Kentucky had pushed most of the tribes +northward to the headwaters of the Miami, Scioto, and Wabash; and +the Treaty of 1785 was supposed to keep them there. But it was +futile to expect such an arrangement to prove lasting unless +steadily backed up with force. In their squalid villages in the +swampy forests of northern Ohio and Indiana the redskins grew +sullen and vindictive. As they saw their favorite hunting-grounds +slipping from their grasp, those who had taken part in the +cession repented their generosity, while those who had no part in +it pronounced it fraudulent and refused to consider themselves +bound by it. Swiftly the idea took hold that the oncoming wave +must be rolled back before it was too late. "White man shall not +plant corn north of the Ohio" became the rallying cry. + +Back of this rebelliousness lay a certain amount of British +influence. The Treaty of 1783 was signed in as kindly spirit as +the circumstances would permit, but its provisions were not +carried out in a charitable manner. On account of alleged +shortcomings of the United States, the British Government long +refused to give up possession of eight or ten fortified posts in +the north and west. One of these was Detroit; and the officials +stationed there systematically encouraged the hordes of redskins +who had congregated about the western end of Lake Erie to make +all possible resistance to the American advance. The British no +longer had any claim to the territories south of the Lakes, but +they wanted to keep their ascendancy over the northwestern +Indians, and especially to prevent the rich fur trade from +falling into American hands. Ammunition and other supplies were +lavished on the restless tribes. The post officials insisted that +these were merely the gifts which had regularly been made in +times of peace. But they were used with deadly effect against the +Ohio frontiersmen; and there can be little doubt that they were +intended so to be used. + +By 1789 the situation was very serious. Marauding expeditions +were growing in frequency; and a scout sent out by Governor St. +Clair came back with the report that most of the Indians +throughout the entire Northwest had "bad hearts." Washington +decided that delay would be dangerous, and the nation forthwith +prepared for its first war since independence. Kentucky was asked +to furnish a thousand militiamen and Pennsylvania five hundred, +and the forces were ordered to come together at Fort Washington, +near Cincinnati. + +The rendezvous took place in the summer of 1790, and General +Josiah Harmar was put in command of a punitive expedition against +the Miamis. The recruits were raw, and Harmar was without the +experience requisite for such an enterprise. None the less, when +the little army, accompanied by three hundred regulars, and +dragging three brass field-pieces, marched out of Fort Washington +on a fine September day, it created a very good impression. All +went well until the expedition reached the Maumee country. On the +site of the present city of Fort Wayne they destroyed a number of +Indian huts and burned a quantity of corn. But in a series of +scattered encounters the white men were defeated, with a loss of +nearly two hundred killed; and Harmar thought it the part of +wisdom to retreat. He had gained nothing by the expedition; on +the contrary, he had stirred the redskins to fresh aggressions, +and his retreating forces were closely followed by bands of +merciless raiders. + +Washington knew what the effect of this reverse would be. +Accordingly he called St. Clair to Philadelphia and ordered him +to take personal command of a new expedition, adding a special +warning against ambush and surprise. Congress aided by voting two +thousand troops for six months, besides two small regiments of +regulars. But everything went wrong. Recruiting proved slow; the +men who were finally brought together were poor material for an +army, being gathered chiefly from the streets and prisons of the +seaboard cities; and supplies were shockingly inadequate. + +St. Clair was a man of honest intention, but old, broken in +health, and of very limited military ability; and when finally, +October 4, 1791, he led his untrained forces slowly northwards +from Fort Washington, he utterly failed to take measures either +to keep his movements secret or to protect his men against sudden +attack. The army trudged slowly through the deep forests, +chopping out its own road, and rarely advancing more than five or +six miles a day. The weather was favorable and game was abundant, +but discontent was rife and desertions became daily occurrences. +As most of the men had no taste for Indian warfare and as their +pay was but two dollars a month, not all the commander's threats +and entreaties could hold them in order. + +On the night of the 3d of November the little army--now reduced +to fourteen hundred men--camped, with divisions carelessly +scattered, on the eastern fork of the Wabash, about a hundred +miles north of Cincinnati and near the Indiana border. The next +morning, when preparations were being made for a forced march +against some Indian villages near by, a horde of redskins burst +unexpectedly upon the bewildered troops, surrounded them, and +threatened them with utter destruction. A brave stand was made, +but there was little chance of victory. "After the first on set," +as Roosevelt has described the battle, "the Indians fought in +silence, no sound coming from them save the incessant rattle of +their fire, as they crept from log to log, from tree to tree, +ever closer and closer. The soldiers stood in close order, in the +open; their musketry and artillery fire made a tremendous noise, +but did little damage to a foe they could hardly see. Now and +then through the hanging smoke terrible figures flitted, painted +black and red, the feathers of the hawk and eagle braided in +their long scalp-locks; but save for these glimpses, the soldiers +knew the presence of their somber enemy only from the fearful +rapidity with which their comrades fell dead and wounded in the +ranks." + +At last, in desperation St. Clair ordered his men to break +through the deadly cordon and save themselves as best they could. +The Indians kept up a hot pursuit for a distance of four miles. +Then, surfeited with slaughter, they turned to plunder the +abandoned camp; otherwise there would have been escape for few. +As it was, almost half of the men in the engagement were killed, +and less than five hundred got off with no injury. The survivors +gradually straggled into the river settlements, starving and +disheartened. + +The page on which is written the story of St. Clair's defeat is +one of the gloomiest in the history of the West. Harmar's +disaster was dwarfed; not since Braddock and his regulars were +cut to pieces by an unseen foe on the road to Fort Duquesne had +the redskins inflicted upon their hereditary enemy a blow of such +proportions. It was with a heavy heart that the Governor +dispatched a messenger to Philadelphia with the news. Congress +ordered an investigation; and in view of the unhappy general's +high character and his courageous, though blundering, conduct +during the late campaign, he was exonerated. He retained the +governorship, but prudently resigned his military command. + +The situation was now desperate. Everywhere the forests resounded +with the exultant cries of the victors, while the British from +Detroit and other posts actively encouraged the belief not only +that they would furnish all necessary aid but that England +herself was about to declare war on the United States. Eventually +a British force from Detroit actually invaded the disputed +country and built a stockade (Fort Miami) near the site of the +present city of Toledo, with a view to giving the redskins +convincing evidence of the seriousness of the Great White +Father's intentions. Small wonder that, when St. Clair sought to +obtain by diplomacy the settlement which he had failed to secure +by arms, his commissioners were met with the ultimatum: +"Brothers, we shall be persuaded that you mean to do us justice, +if you agree that the Ohio shall remain the boundary line between +us. If you will not consent thereto, our meeting will be +altogether unnecessary." + +It is said that Washington's first choice for the new western +command was "Light-Horse Harry" Lee. But considerations of rank +made the appointment inexpedient, and "Mad Anthony" Wayne was +named instead. Wayne was the son of a Pennsylvania frontiersman +and came honestly by his aptitude for Indian fighting. In early +life he was a surveyor, and in the Revolution he won distinction +as a dashing commander of Pennsylvania troops at Ticonderoga, +Brandywine, Germantown, Stony Point, and other important +engagements. Finally he obtained a major-general's commission in +Greene's campaign in Georgia, and at the close of the war he +settled in that State as a planter. His vanity--displayed chiefly +in a love of fine clothes--brought upon him a good deal of +criticism; and Washington, who in a Cabinet meeting characterized +him as "brave and nothing else," was frankly apprehensive lest in +the present business Wayne's impetuosity should lead to fresh +disaster. Yet the qualities that on a dozen occasions had enabled +Wayne to snatch success from almost certain defeat--alertness, +decisiveness, bravery, and sheer love of hard fighting--were +those now chiefly in demand. + +The first task was to create an army. A few regulars were +available; but most of the three or four thousand men who were +needed had to be gathered wheresoever they could be found. A call +for recruits brought together at Pittsburgh, in the summer of +1792, a nondescript lot of beggars, criminals, and other +cast-offs of the eastern cities, no better and no worse than the +adventurers who had taken service under St. Clair. Few knew +anything of warfare, and on one occasion a mere report of Indians +in the vicinity caused a third of the sentinels to desert their +posts. But, as rigid discipline was enforced and drilling was +carried on for eight and ten hours a day, by spring the survivors +formed a very respectable body of troops. The scene of operations +was then transferred to Fort Washington, where fresh recruits +were started on a similar course of development. Profitting by +the experience of his predecessors, Wayne insisted that +campaigning should begin only after the troops were thoroughly +prepared; and no drill-master ever worked harder to get his +charges into condition for action. Going beyond the ordinary +manual of arms, he taught the men to load their rifles while +running at full speed, and to yell at the top of their voices +while making a bayonet attack. + +In October, 1793, the intrepid Major-General advanced with +twenty-six hundred men into the nearer stretches of the Indian +country, in order to be in a position for an advantageous spring +campaign. They built Fort Greenville, eighty miles north of +Cincinnati, and there spent the winter, while, on St. Clair's +fatal battle-field, an advance detachment built a post which they +hopefully christened Fort Recovery. Throughout the winter +unending drill was kept up; and when, in June, 1794, fourteen +hundred mounted militia arrived from Kentucky, Wayne found +himself at the head of the largest and best-trained force that +had ever been turned against the Indians west of the Alleghanies. +Even before the arrival of the Kentuckians, it proved its worth +by defending its forest headquarters, with practically no loss, +against an attack by fifteen hundred redskins. + +On the 27th of July the army moved forward in the direction of +the Maumee, with closed ranks and so guarded by scouts that no +chance whatever was given for surprise attacks. Washington's +admonitions had been taken to heart, and the Indians could only +wonder and admire. News of the army's advance traveled ahead and +struck terror through the northern villages, so that many of the +inhabitants fled precipitately. When the troops reached the +cultivated lands about the junction of the Maumee and Auglaize +rivers, they found only deserted huts and great fields of corn, +from which they joyfully replenished their diminished stores. +Here a fort was built and given the significant name Defiance; +and from it a final offer of peace was sent out to the hostile +tribes. Never doubting that the British would furnish all +necessary aid, the chieftains returned evasive answers. Wayne +thereupon moved his troops to the left bank of the Maumee and +proceeded cautiously downstream toward the British stronghold at +Fort Miami. + +A few days brought the army to a place known as Fallen Timbers, +where a tornado had piled the trunks and branches of mighty trees +in indescribable confusion. The British post was but five or six +miles distant; and there behind the breastworks which nature had +provided, and in easy reach of their allies, the Indians chose to +make their stand. On the morning of the 20th of August, Wayne, +now so crippled by gout that he had to be lifted into his saddle, +gallantly led an assault. The Indian fire was murderous, and a +battalion of mounted Kentuckians was at first hurled back. But +the front line of infantry rushed up and dislodged the savages +from their covert, while the regular cavalry on the right charged +the enemy's left flank. Before the second line of infantry could +get into action the day was won. The whole engagement lasted less +than three-quarters of an hour, and not a third of Wayne's three +thousand men actually took part in it. + +The fleeing redskins were pursued to the walls of the British +fort, and even there many were slain. The British soldiery not +only utterly failed to come to the relief of their hard-pressed +allies, but refused to open the gates to give them shelter. The +American loss was thirty-three killed and one hundred wounded. +But the victory was the most decisive as yet gained over the +Indians of the Northwest. A warfare of forty years was ended in +as many minutes. + +>From the lower Maumee, Wayne marched back to Fort Defiance, and +thence to the junction of the St. Mary's and St. Joseph rivers, +where he built a fort and gave it the name still borne by the +thriving city that grew up around it--Fort Wayne. Everywhere the +American soldiers destroyed the ripened crops and burned the +villages, while the terrified inhabitants fled. In November the +army took up winter quarters at Fort Greenville. + +At last the Americans had the upper hand. Their arms were feared; +the British promises of help were no longer credited by the +Indians; and it was easy for Wayne to convince the tribal +representatives who visited him in large numbers during the +winter that their true interest was to win the good-will of the +United States. In the summer of 1795 there was a general +pacification. Delegation after delegation arrived at Fort +Greenville, until more than a thousand chiefs and braves were in +attendance. The prestige of Wayne was still further increased +when the news came that John Jay had negotiated a treaty at +London under which the British posts on United States soil were +finally to be given up; and on August 3rd Wayne was able to +announce a great treaty wherein the natives ceded all of what is +now southern Ohio and southeastern Indiana, and numerous tracts +around posts within the Indian country, such as Fort Wayne, +Detroit, and Michilimackinac--strategic points on the western +waterways. "Elder Brother," said a Chippewa chief in the course +of one of the interminable harangues delivered during the +negotiation, "you asked who were the true owners of the land now +ceded to the United States. In answer, I tell you, if any nations +should call themselves the owners of it, they would be guilty of +falsehood; our claim to it is equal; our Elder Brother has +conquered it." The United States duly recognized the Indian title +to all lands not expressly ceded and promised the Indians annual +subsidies. The terms of the treaty were faithfully observed on +both sides, and for fifteen years the pioneer lived and toiled in +peace. + +Wayne forthwith became a national hero. Returning to Philadelphia +in 1796, he was met by a guard of honor, hailed with the ringing +of bells and a salute of fifteen guns, and treated to a dazzling +display of fireworks. Congress voted its thanks, and Washington, +whose fears had long since vanished, added his congratulations. +There was one other service on the frontier for the doughty +general to render. The British posts were at last to be +surrendered, and Wayne was designated to receive them. By +midsummer he was back in the forest country, and in the autumn he +took possession of Detroit, amid acclamations of Indians, +Americans, Frenchmen, and Englishmen alike. But his work was +done. On the return journey he suffered a renewed attack of his +old enemy, gout, and at Presqu'isle (Erie) he died. A blockhouse +modeled on the defenses which he built during his western +campaign marks his first resting-place and bears aloft the flag +which he helped plant in the heart of the Continent. + + + +Chapter VI. The Great Migration + +While the fate of the Northwest still hung in the balance, +emigration from the eastern States became the rage. "Every small +farmer whose barren acres were covered with mortgages, whose +debts pressed heavily upon him, or whose roving spirit gave him +no peace, was eager to sell his homestead for what it would bring +and begin life anew on the banks of the Muskingum or the Ohio."* +Land companies were then just as optimistic and persuasive as +they are today, and the attractions of the western country lost +nothing in the telling. Pamphlets described the climate as +luxurious, the soil as inexhaustible, the rainfall as both +abundant and well distributed, the crops as unfailingly +bountiful; paid agents went among the people assuring them that a +man of push and courage could nowhere be so prosperous and so +happy as in the West. + +* McMaster, "History of the People of the United States," vol. +III, p. 461. + + +As early as 1787 an observer at Pittsburgh reported that in six +weeks he saw fifty flatboats set off for the downriver +settlements; in 1788 forty-five hundred emigrants were said to +have passed Fort Harmar between February and June. Most of these +people were bound for Kentucky or Tennessee. But the census of +1790 gave the population north of the Ohio as 4,280, and after +Wayne's victory the proportion of newcomers who fixed their +abodes in that part of the country rapidly increased. For a +decade Ohio was the favorite goal; and within eight years after +the battle at Fallen Timbers this region was ready for admission +to the Union as a State. Southern Indiana also filled rapidly. + +For a time the westward movement was regarded as of no +disadvantage to the seaboard States. It was supposed that the +frontier would attract a population of such character as could +easily be spared in more settled communities. But it became +apparent that the new country did not appeal simply to +broken-down farmers, bankrupts, and ne'er-do-wells. Robust and +industrious men, with growing families, were drawn off in great +numbers; and public protest was raised against the "plots to +drain the East of its best blood." Anti-emigration pamphlets were +scattered broadcast, and, after the manner of the day, the +leading western enterprises were belabored with much bad verse. A +rude cut which gained wide circulation represented a stout, +ruddy, well-dressed man on a sleek horse, with a label, "I am +going to Ohio," meeting a pale and ghastly skeleton of a man, in +rags, on the wreck of what had once been a horse, with the label, +"I have been to Ohio." + +The streams of migration flowed from many sources. New England +contributed heavily. Marietta, Cincinnati, and many other rising +river towns received some of the best blood of that remote +section. The Western Reserve--a tract bordering on Lake Erie +which Connecticut had not ceded to the Federal Government--drew +largely from the Nutmeg State. A month before Wayne set out to +take possession of Detroit, Moses Cleaveland with a party of +fifty Connecticut homeseekers started off to found a settlement +in the Reserve; and the town which took its name from the leader +was but the first of a score which promptly sprang up in this +inviting district. The "Seven Ranges," lying directly south of +the Reserve, drew emigrants from Pennsylvania, with some from +farther south. The Scioto valley attracted chiefly Virginians, +who early made Chillicothe their principal center. In the west, +and north of the Symmes tract, Kentuckians poured in by the +thousands. + +Thus in a decade Ohio became a frontier melting-pot. Puritan, +Cavalier, Irishman, Scotch-Irishman, German--all were poured into +the crucible. Ideals clashed, and differing customs grated +harshly. But the product of a hundred years of cross-breeding was +a splendid type of citizenship. At the presidential inaugural +ceremonies of March 4, 1881, six men chiefly attracted the +attention of the crowd: the retiring President, Hayes; the +incoming President, Garfield; the Chief-Justice who administered +the oath, Waite; the general commanding the army, William T. +Sherman; the ex-Secretary of the Treasury, John Sherman; and "the +Marshal Ney of America," Lieutenant-General Sheridan. Five of the +six were natives of Ohio, and the sixth was a lifelong resident. +Men commented on the striking group and rightly remarked that it +could have been produced only by a singularly happy blending of +the ideas and ideals that form the warp and woof of Americanism. + +Amalgamation, however, took time; for there were towering +prejudices and antipathies to be overcome. The Yankee scorned the +Southerner, who reciprocated with a double measure of dislike. +The New England settlers were, as a rule, people of some +education; not one of their communities long went without a +schoolmaster. They were pious, law-abiding, industrious; their +more easygoing neighbors were likely to consider them over- +sensitive and critical. But the quality that made most impression +upon others was their shrewdness in business transactions. They +could drive a bargain and could discover loopholes in a contract +in a fashion to take the average backwoodsman off his feet. +"Yankee tricks" became, indeed, a household phrase wherever New +Englander and Southerner met. Whether the Yankee talked or kept +silent, whether he was generous or parsimonious, he was always +under suspicion. + +What of the "Long Knives" from Virginia, the Carolinas, and +Kentucky who also made the Ohio lands their goal? Of books they +knew little; they did not name their settlements in honor of +classic heroes. They were not "gentlemen"; many of them, indeed, +had sought the West to escape a society in which distinctions of +birth and possessions had put them at a disadvantage. They were +not so pious as the New Englanders, though they were capable of +great religious enthusiasm, and their morals were probably not +inferior. Their houses were poorer; their villages were not so +well kept; their dress was more uncouth, and their ways rougher. +But they were a hardy folk--brave, industrious, hospitable, and +generous to a fault. + +In the first days of westward migration the favorite gateway into +the Ohio Valley was Cumberland Gap, at the southeastern corner of +the present State of Kentucky. Thence the Virginians and +Carolinians passed easily to the Ohio in the region of Cincinnati +or Louisville. Later emigrants from more northern States found +other serviceable routes. Until the opening of the Erie Canal in +1825, New Englanders reached the West by three main avenues. Some +followed the Mohawk and Genesee turnpikes across central New York +to Lake Erie. This route led directly, of course, to the Western +Reserve. Some traveled along the Catskill turnpike from the +Hudson to the headwaters of the Allegheny, and thence descended +the Ohio. Still others went by boat from Boston to New York, +Philadelphia, or Baltimore, in order to approach the Ohio by a +more southerly course. + +The natural outlet from Pennsylvania was the Ohio River. +Emigrants from the western parts of the State floated down the +Allegheny or Monongahela to the main stream. Those from farther +east, including settlers from New Jersey, made the journey +overland by one of several well-known roads. The best of these +was a turnpike following the line that General Forbes had cut +during the French and Indian War from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh +by way of Lancaster and Bedford. Baltimore was a favorite point +of departure, and from it the route lay almost invariably along a +turnpike to Cumberland on the upper Potomac, and thence by the +National Road across the mountains to Wheeling. In later days +this was the route chiefly taken from Virginia, although more +southerly passes through the Blue Ridge were used as outlets to +the Great Kanawha, the Big Sandy, and other streams flowing into +the Ohio farther down. + +Thus the lines of westward travel which in the East spread +fan-shape from Maine to Georgia converged on the Ohio; and that +stream became, and for half a century remained, the great pathway +of empire. Most of the emigrants had to cover long distances in +overland travel before they reached the hospitable waterway; +some, especially in earlier times, made the entire journey by +land. Hundreds of the very poor went afoot, carrying all their +earthly possessions on their backs, or dragging them in rude +carts. But the usual conveyance was the canvas-covered wagon-- +ancestor of the "prairie schooner" of the western plains--drawn +over the rough and muddy roads by four, or even six, horses. In +this vehicle the emigrants stowed their provisions, household +furniture and utensils, agricultural implements, looms, seeds, +medicines, and every sort of thing that the prudent householder +expected to need, and for which he could find space. Extra horses +or oxen sometimes drew an additional load; cattle, and even +flocks of sheep, were occasionally driven ahead or behind by some +member of the family. + +In the years of heaviest migration the highways converging on +Pittsburgh and Wheeling were fairly crowded with westward-flowing +traffic. As a rule several families, perhaps from the same +neighborhood in the old home, traveled together; and in any case +the chance acquaintances of the road and of the wayside inns +broke the loneliness of the journey. There were wonderful things +to be seen, and every day brought novel experiences. But exposure +and illness, dread of Indian attacks, mishaps of every sort, and +the awful sense of isolation and of uncertainty of the future, +caused many a man's stout heart to quail, and brought anguish +unspeakable to brave women. Of such joys and sorrows, however, is +a frontier existence compounded; and of the growing thousands who +turned their faces toward the setting sun, comparatively few +yielded to discouragement and went back East. Those who did so +were usually the land speculators and people of weak, irresolute, +or shiftless character. + +An English traveler, Morris Birkbeck, who passed over the +National Road through southwestern Pennsylvania in 1817, was +filled with amazement at the number, hardihood, and determination +of the emigrants whom he encountered. + +"Old America seems to be breaking up [he wrote] and moving +westward. We are seldom out of sight, as we travel on this grand +track, towards the Ohio, of family groups, behind and before +us.... A small wagon (so light that you might almost carry it, +yet strong enough to bear a good load of bedding, utensils and +provisions, and a swarm of young citizens--and to sustain +marvelous shocks in its passage over these rocky heights) with +two small horses; sometimes a cow or two, comprises their all; +excepting a little store of hard-earned cash for the land office +of the district; where they may obtain a title for as many acres +as they possess half-dollars, being one fourth of the purchase +money. The wagon has a tilt, or cover, made of a sheet, or +perhaps a blanket. The family are seen before, behind, or within +the vehicle, according to the road or the weather, or perhaps the +spirits of the party.... A cart and single horse frequently +affords the means of transfer, sometimes a horse and pack-saddle. +Often the back of the poor pilgrim bears all his effects, and his +wife follows, naked-footed, bending under the hopes of the +family."* + +* Quoted in Turner, "Rise of the New West," pp. 79-80. + + +Arrived at the Ohio, the emigrant either engaged passage on some +form of river-craft or set to work to construct with his own +hands a vessel that would bear him and his belongings to the +promised land. The styles of river-craft that appeared on the +Ohio and other western streams in the great era of river +migration make a remarkable pageant. There were canoes, pirogues, +skiffs, rafts, dugouts, scows, galleys, arks, keelboats, +flatboats, barges, "broadhorns," "sneak-boxes," and eventually +ocean-going brigs, schooners, and steamboats. The canoe served +the early explorer and trader, and even the settler whose +possessions had been carried over the Alleghanies on a single +packhorse. But after the Revolution the needs of an awakening +empire led to the introduction of new types of craft, built to +afford a maximum of capacity and safety on a downward voyage, +without regard for the demands of a round trip. The most common +of these one-way vessels was the flatboat. + +A flatboat trip down the great river was likely to be filled with +excitement. The sound of the steam-dredge had never been heard on +the western waters, and the streambed was as Nature had made it, +or rather was continually remaking it. Yearly floods washed out +new channels and formed new reefs and sand-bars, while logs and +brush borne from the heavily forested banks continually built new +obstructions. Consequently the sharpest lookout had to be +maintained, and the pilot was both skilful and lucky who +completed his trip without permitting his boat to be caught on a +"planter" (a log immovably fixed in the river bed), entangled in +the branches of overhanging trees, driven on an island, or dashed +on the bank at a bend. Navigation by night and on foggy days was +hazardous in the extreme and was avoided as far as possible. If +all went well, the voyage from Pittsburgh to Cincinnati could be +completed in six or eight days; but delays might easily extend +the period to a month. + +One grave danger has not been mentioned--the Indians. From the +moment when the slow-moving flatboat passed beyond the protection +of a white settlement, it was liable to be fired on, by day or by +night, by redskins; and the better-built boats were so +constructed as to be at least partially bullet-proof. Sometimes +extra timber was used to give safety; sometimes the cargo was +specially placed with that aim in view. The Indians rarely went +beyond the water's edge. Their favorite ruse was to cause captive +or renegade whites to run along the bank imploring to be saved. +When a boat had been decoyed to shore, and perhaps a landing had +been made, the savages would pour a murderous fire on the +voyagers. This practice became so common that pioneer boats +"shunned the whites who hailed them from the shores as they would +have shunned the Indians," and as a consequence many whites +escaping from the Indians in the interior were refused succor and +left to die. + +When the flatboat reached its destination, it might find service +as a floating store, or even as a schoolhouse. But it was likely +to be broken up, so that the materials in it could be used for +building purposes. Before sawmills became common, lumber was a +precious commodity, and hundreds of pioneer cabins in the Ohio +Valley were built partly or wholly of the boards and timbers +taken from the flatboats of their owners. Even the "gunnels" were +sometimes used in Cincinnati as foundations for houses. In later +days the flatboat, if in reasonably good condition, was not +unlikely to be sold to persons engaged in trading down the +Mississippi. Loaded with grain, flour, meats, and other backwoods +products, it would descend to Natchez or New Orleans, where its +cargo could be transferred to ocean-going craft. But in any case +its end was the same; for it would not have been profitable, even +had it been physically possible, to move the heavy, ungainly +craft upstream over long distances, in order to keep it +continuously in service. + + + +Chapter VII. Pioneer Days And Ways + +Arrived on the lower Ohio, or one of its tributaries, the pioneer +looked out upon a land of remarkable riches. It was not a Mexico +or a Peru, with emblazoned palaces and glittering temples, nor +yet a California, with gold-flecked sands. It was merely an +unending stretch of wooded hills and grassy plains, bedecked with +majestic forests and fructifying rivers and lakes. It had no +treasures save for the man of courage, industry, and patience; +but for such it held home, broad acres, liberty, and the coveted +opportunity for social equality and advancement. + +The new country has been commonly thought of, and referred to by +writers on the history of the West, as a "wilderness"; and +offhand, one might suppose that the settlers were obliged +literally to hew their way through densely grown vegetation to +the spots which they selected for their homes. In point of fact, +there were great areas of upland--not alone in the prairie +country of northern Indiana and Illinois, but in the hilly +regions within a hundred miles of the Ohio--that were almost +treeless. On these unobstructed stretches grasses grew in +profusion; and here roamed great herds of herbivorous +animal-kind--deer and elk, and also buffalo, "filing in grave +procession to drink at the rivers, plunging and snorting among +the rapids and quicksands, rolling their huge bulk on the grass, +rushing upon each other in hot encounter, like champions under +shield." Along the watercourses ducks, wild geese, cranes, +herons, and other fowl sounded their harsh cries; gray squirrels, +prairie chickens, and partridges the hunter found at every turn. + +Furthermore, the forests, as a rule, were not difficult to +penetrate. The trees stood thick, but deer paths, buffalo roads, +and Indian trails ramified in all directions, and sometimes were +wide enough to allow two or three wagons to advance abreast. +Mighty poplars, beeches, sycamores, and "sugars" pushed to great +heights in quest of air and sunshine, and often their +intertwining branches were locked solidly together by a heavy +growth of grape or other vines, producing a canopy which during +the summer months permitted scarcely a ray of sunlight to reach +the ground. There was, therefore, a notable absence of +undergrowth. When a tree died and decayed, it fell apart +piecemeal; it was with difficulty that woodsmen could wrest a +giant oak or poplar from its moorings and bring it to the ground, +even by severing the trunk completely at the base. Here and there +a clean swath was cut through a forest, for perhaps dozens of +miles, by a hurricane. This gave opportunity for the growth of a +thicket of bushes and small trees, and such spots were equally +likely to be the habitations of wild beasts and the hiding-places +of warlike bands of redskins. + +There were always adventurous pioneers who scorned the +settlements and went off with their families to fix their abodes +in isolated places. But the average newcomer preferred to find a +location in, or reasonably near, a settlement. The choice of a +site, whether by a company of immigrants wishing to establish a +settlement or by an individual settler, was a matter of much +importance. Some thought must be given to facilities for +fortification against hostile natives. There must be an adequate +supply of drinking-water; and the location of innumerable pioneer +dwellings was selected with reference to free-flowing springs. +Pasture land for immediate use was desirable; and of course the +soil must be fertile. As a rule, the settler had the alternative +of establishing himself on the lowlands along a stream and +obtaining ground of the greatest productiveness, with the almost +certain prospect of annual attacks of malaria, or of seeking the +poorer but more healthful uplands. The attractions of the +"bottoms" were frequently irresistible, and the "ague" became a +feature of frontier life almost as inevitable as the proverbial +"death and taxes." + +The site selected, the next task was to clear a few acres of +ground where the cabin was to stand. It was highly desirable to +have a belt of open land as a protection against Indians and wild +beasts; besides, there must be fields cleared for tillage. If the +settler had neighbors, he was likely to have their aid in cutting +away the densest growth of trees, and in raising into position +the heavy timbers which formed the framework and walls of his +cabin. Splendid oaks, poplars, and sycamores were cut into +convenient lengths, and such as could not be used were rolled +into great heaps and burned. Before sawmills were introduced +lumber could not be manufactured; afterwards, it became so +plentiful as to have small market value. + +Almost without exception the frontier cabins had log walls; and +they were rarely of larger size than single lengths would permit. +On an average, they were twelve or fourteen feet wide and fifteen +or eighteen feet long. Sometimes they were divided into two +rooms, with an attic above; frequently there was but one room +"downstairs." The logs were notched together at the corners, and +the spaces between them were filled with moss or clay or covered +with bark. Rafters were affixed to the uppermost logs, and to one +another, with wooden pins driven through auger holes. In earliest +times the roof was of bark; later on, shingles were used, +although nails were long unknown, and the shingles, after being +laid in rows, were weighted down with straight logs. + +Sometimes there was only an earth floor. But as a rule +"puncheons," i.e., thick, rough boards split from logs, were laid +crosswise on round logs and were fastened with wooden pins. There +was commonly but a single door, which was made also of puncheons +and hung on wooden hinges. A favorite device was to construct the +door in upper and lower sections, so as to make it possible, when +there came a knock or a call from the outside, to respond without +offering easy entrance to an unwelcome visitor. In the days when +there was considerable danger of Indian attacks no windows were +constructed, for the householder could defend only one aperture. +Later, square holes which could be securely barred at night and +during cold weather were made to serve as windows. Flat pieces of +sandstone, if they could be found, were used in building the +great fireplace; otherwise, thick timbers heavily covered with +clay were made to serve. In scarcely a cabin was there a trace of +iron or glass; the whole could be constructed with only two +implements--an ax and an auger. + +Occasionally a family carried to its new home some treasured bits +of furniture; but the difficulty of transportation was likely to +be prohibitive, and as a rule the cabins contained only such +pieces of furniture as could be fashioned on the spot. A table +was made by mounting a smoothed slab on four posts, set in auger +holes. For seats short benches and three-legged stools, +constructed after the manner of the tables, were in common use. +Cooking utensils, food-supplies, seeds, herbs for medicinal +purposes, and all sorts of household appliances were stowed away +on shelves, made by laying clapboards across wooden pins driven +into the wall and mounting to the ceiling; although after sawed +lumber came into use it was a matter of no great difficulty to +construct chests and cupboards. Not infrequently the settler's +family slept on bear skins or blankets stretched on the floor. +But crude bedsteads were made by erecting a pole with a fork in +such a manner that other poles could be supported horizontally in +this fork and by crevices in the walls. Split boards served as +"slats" on which the bedding was spread. For a long time +"straw-ticks"--large cloth bags filled with straw or sometimes +dry grass or leaves--were articles of luxury. Iron pots and +knives were necessities which the wise householder carried with +him from his eastern or southern home. In the West they were hard +to obtain. The chief source of supply was the iron-manufacturing +districts of Pennsylvania and Virginia, whence the wares were +carried to the entrepots of river trade by packhorses. The +kitchen outfit of the average newcomer was completed with a few +pewter dishes, plates, and spoons. But winter evenings were +utilized in whittling out wooden bowls, trenchers, and noggins or +cups, while gourds and hard-shelled squashes were turned to +numerous uses. The commonest drinking utensil was a long-handled +gourd. + +The dress of the pioneer long remained a curious cross between +that of the Indians and that of the white people of the older +sections. In earlier times the hunting-shirt--made of linsey, +coarse nettle-bark linen, buffalo-hair, or even dressed +deerskins--was universally worn by the men, together with +breeches, leggings, and moccasins. The women and children were +dressed in simple garments of linsey. In warm weather they went +barefooted; in cold, they wore moccasins or coarse shoes. + +Rarely was there lack of food for these pioneer families. The +soil was prodigal, and the forests abounded in game. The piece de +resistance of the backwoods menu was "hog an' hominy"; that is to +say, pork served with Indian corn which, after being boiled in +lye to remove the hulls, had been soaked in clear water and +cooked soft. "Johnny cake" and "pone"--two varieties of +cornbread--were regularly eaten at breakfast and dinner. The +standard dish for supper was cornmeal mush and milk. As cattle +were not numerous, the housewife often lacked milk, in which case +she fell back on her one never-failing resource--hominy; or she +served the mush with sweetened water, molasses, the gravy of +fried meat, or even bear's oil. Tea and coffee were long unknown, +and when introduced they were likely to be scorned by the men as +"slops" good enough perhaps for women and children. Vegetables +the settlers grew in the garden plot which ordinarily adjoined +the house, and thrifty families had also a "truck patch" in which +they raised pumpkins, squashes, potatoes, beans, melons, and corn +for "roasting ears." The forests yielded game, as well as fruits +and wild grapes, and honey for sweetening. + +The first quality for which the life of the frontier called was +untiring industry. It was possible, of course, to eke out an +existence by hunting, fishing, petty trading, and garnering the +fruits which Nature supplied without man's assistance. And many +pioneers in whom the roving instinct was strong went on from year +to year in this hand-to-mouth fashion. But the settler who +expected to be a real home-builder, to gain some measure of +wealth, to give his children a larger opportunity in life, must +be prepared to work, to plan, to economize, and to sacrifice. The +forests had to be felled; the great logs had to be rolled +together and burned; crops of maize, tobacco, oats, and cane +needed to be planted, cultivated, and harvested; live-stock to be +housed and fed; fences and barns to be built; pork, beef, grain, +whiskey, and other products to be prepared for market, and +perhaps carried scores of miles to a place of shipment. + +All these things had to be done under conditions of exceptional +difficulty. The settler never knew what night his place would be +raided by marauding redskins, who would be lenient indeed if they +merely carried off part of his cattle or burned his barn. Any +morning he might peer out of the "port hole" above the cabin door +to see skulking figures awaiting their chance. Sickness, too, was +a menace and a terror. Picture the horrors of isolation in times +of emergency--wife or child suddenly taken desperately ill, and +no physician within a hundred miles; husband or son hovering +between life and death as the result of injury by a falling tree, +a wild beast, a venomous snake, an accidental gun-shot, or the +tomahawk of a prowling Indian. Who shall describe the anxiety, +the agony, which in some measure must have been the lot of every +frontier family? The prosaic illnesses of the flesh were +troublesome enough. On account of defective protection for the +feet in wet weather, almost everybody had rheumatism; most +settlers in the bottom-lands fell victims to fever and ague at +one time or another; even in the hill country few persons wholly +escaped malarial disorders. "When this home-building and land- +clearing is accomplished," wrote one whose recollections of the +frontier were vivid, "a faithful picture would reveal not only +the changes that have been wrought, but a host of prematurely +brokedown men and women, besides an undue proportion resting +peacefully in country graveyards." + +The frontiersman's best friend was his trusty rifle. With it he +defended his cabin and his crops from marauders, waged warfare on +hostile redskins, and obtained the game which formed an +indispensable part of his food supply. At first the gun chiefly +used on the border was the smooth-bored musket. But toward the +close of the eighteenth century a gunsmith named Deckhard, living +at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, began making flintlock rifles of +small bore, and in a short time the "Deckhard rifle" was to be +found in the hands of almost every backwoodsman. The barrel was +heavy and from three feet to three feet and a half in length, so +that the piece, when set on the ground, reached at least to the +huntsman's shoulder. The bore was cut with twisting grooves, and +was so small that seventy bullets were required to weigh a pound. +In loading, a greased linen "patch" was wrapped around the +bullet; and only a small charge of powder was needed. The grin +was heavy to carry and difficult to hold steadily upon a target; +but it was economical of ammunition, and in the hands of the +strong-muscled, keen-eyed, iron-nerved frontiersman it was an +exceedingly accurate weapon, at all events within the ordinary +limits of forest ranges. He was a poor marksman who could not +shoot running deer or elk at a distance of one hundred and fifty +yards, and kill ducks and geese on the wing; and "boys of twelve +hung their heads in shame if detected in hitting a squirrel in +any other part of the body than its head." + +Life on the frontier was filled with hard work, danger, and +anxiety. Yet it had its lighter side, and, indeed, it may be +doubted whether people anywhere relished sport more keenly or +found more pleasure in their everyday pursuits. The occasional +family without neighbors was likely to suffer from loneliness. +But few of the settlers were thus cut off, and as a rule +community life was not only physically possible but highly +developed. Many were the opportunities that served to bring +together the frontiersmen, with their families, throughout a +settlement or county. Foremost among such occasions were the +log-rollings. + +After a settler had felled the thick-growing trees on a plot +which he desired to prepare for cultivation, he cut them, either +by sawing or by burning, into logs twelve or fifteen feet in +length. Frequently these were three, four, or even five feet in +diameter, so that they could not be moved by one man, even with a +team of horses. In such a situation, the settler would send word +to his neighbors for miles around that on a given day there would +be a log-rolling at his place; and when the day arrived six, or a +dozen, or perhaps a score, of sturdy men, with teams of horses +and yokes of oxen, and very likely accompanied by members of +their families, would arrive on the scene with merry shouts of +anticipation. By means of handspikes and chains drawn by horses +or oxen, the great timbers were pushed, rolled, and dragged into +heaps, and by nightfall the field lay open and ready for the +plough--requiring, at the most, only the burning of the huge +piles that had been gathered. + +Without loss of time the fires were started; and as darkness came +on, the countryside glowed as with the light of a hundred huge +torches. The skies were reddened, and as a mighty oak or poplar +log toppled and fell to the ground, showers of sparks lent the +scene volcanic splendor. Bats and owls and other dim-eyed +creatures of the night flew about in bewilderment, sometimes +bumping hard against fences or other objects, sometimes plunging +madly into the flames and contributing to the general holocaust. +For days the great fires were kept going, until the last remnants +of this section of the once imposing forest were consumed; while +smoke hung far out over the country, producing an atmospheric +effect like that of Indian summer. + +Heavy exertion called for generous refreshment, and on these +occasions the host could be depended on to provide an abundance +of food and drink. The little cabin could hardly be made to +accommodate so many guests, even in relays. Accordingly, a long +table was constructed with planks and trestles in a shady spot, +and at noon--and perhaps again in the evening--the women folk +served a meal which at least made up in "staying qualities" what +it lacked in variety or delicacy. The principal dish was almost +certain to be "pot-pie," consisting of boiled turkeys, geese, +chickens, grouse, veal, or venison, with an abundance of +dumplings. This, with cornbread and milk, met the demands of the +occasion; but if the host was able to furnish a cask of rum, his +generosity was thoroughly appreciated. + +In the autumn, corn-huskings were a favorite form of diversion, +especially for the young people; and in the early spring +neighbors sometimes came together to make maple sugar. A wedding +was an important event and furnished diversion of a different +kind. From distances of twenty and thirty miles people came to +attend the ceremony, and often the festivities extended over two +or three days. Even now there was work to be done; for as a rule +the neighbors organized a house-building "bee," and before +separating for their homes they constructed a cabin for the newly +wedded pair, or at all events brought it sufficiently near +completion to be finished by the young husband himself. + +Even after a day of heavy toil at log-rolling, the young men and +boys bantered one another into foot races, wrestling matches, +shooting contests, and other feats of strength or skill. And if a +fiddler could be found, the day was sure to end with a +"hoe-down"--a dance that "made even the log-walled house +tremble." No corn-husking or wedding was complete without +dancing, although members of certain of the more straitlaced +religious sects already frowned upon the diversion. + +Rough conditions of living made rough men, and we need not be +surprised by the testimony of English and American travelers, +that the frontier had more than its share of boisterous fun, +rowdyism, lawlessness, and crime. The taste for whiskey was +universal, and large quantities were manufactured in rude stills, +not only for shipment down the Mississippi, but for local +consumption. Frequenters of the river-town taverns called for +their favorite brands--"Race Horse," "Moral Suasion," "Vox +Populi," "Pig and Whistle," or "Split Ticket," as the case might +be. But the average frontiersman cared little for the niceties of +color or flavor so long as his liquor was cheap and produced the +desired effect. Hard work and a monotonous diet made him +continually thirsty; and while ordinarily he drank only water and +milk at home, at the taverns and at social gatherings he often +succumbed to potations which left him in happy drunken +forgetfulness of daily hardships. House-raisings and weddings +often became orgies marked by quarreling and fighting and +terminating in brutal and bloody brawls. Foreign visitors to the +back country were led to comment frequently on the number of men +who had lost an eye or an ear, or had been otherwise maimed in +these rough-and-tumble contests. + +The great majority of the frontiersmen, however, were sober, +industrious, and law-abiding folk; and they were by no means +beyond the pale of religion. On account of the numbers of Scotch- +Irish, Presbyterianism was in earlier days the principal creed. +although there were many Catholics and adherents of the Reformed +Dutch and German churches, and even a few Episcopalians. About +the beginning of the nineteenth century sectarian ascendancy +passed to the Methodists and Baptists, whose ranks were rapidly +recruited by means of one of the most curious and characteristic +of backwoods institutions, the camp-meeting "revival." The years +1799 and 1800 brought the first of the several great waves of +religious excitement by which the West--especially Ohio, Indiana, +Kentucky, and Tennessee was periodically swept until within the +memory of men still living. + +Camp-meetings were usually planned and managed by Methodist +circuit-riders or Baptist itinerant preachers, who hesitated not +to carry their work into the remotest and most dangerous parts of +the back country. When the news went abroad that such a meeting +was to take place, people flocked to the scene from far and near, +in wagons, on horseback, and on foot. Pious men and women came +for the sake of religious fellowship and inspiration; others not +so pious came from motives of curiosity, or even to share in the +rough sport for which the scoffers always found opportunity. The +meeting lasted days, and even weeks; and preaching, praying, +singing, "testifying," and "exhorting" went on almost without +intermission. "The preachers became frantic in their +exhortations; men, women, and children, falling as if in +catalepsy, were laid out in rows. Shouts, incoherent singing, +sometimes barking as of an unreasoning beast, rent the air. +Convulsive leaps and dancing were common; so, too, 'jerking,' +stakes being driven into the ground to jerk by, the subjects of +the fit grasping them as they writhed and grimaced in their +contortions. The world, indeed, seemed demented."* Whole +communities sometimes professed conversion; and it was considered +a particularly good day's work when notorious disbelievers or +wrong-doers--"hard bats," in the phraseology of the frontier--or +gangs of young rowdies whose only object in coming was to commit +acts of deviltry, succumbed to the peculiarly compelling +influences of the occasion. + +* Hosmer, "Short History of the Mississippi Valley," p. 116. + + +In this sort of religion there was, of course, much wild +emotionalism and sheer hysteria; and there were always people to +whom it was repellent. Backsliders were numerous, and the person +who "fell from grace" was more than likely to revert to his +earlier wickedness in its grossest forms. None the less, in a +rough, unlearned, and materialistic society such spiritual +shakings-up were bound to yield much permanent good. Most western +people, at one time or another, came under the influence of the +Methodist and Baptist revivals; and from the men and women who +were drawn by them to a new and larger view of life were +recruited the hundreds of little congregations whose +meeting-houses in the course of time dotted the hills and plains +from the Alleghanies to the Mississippi. As for the hard-working, +honest-minded frontier preachers who braved every sort of danger +in the performance of their great task, the West owes them an +eternal debt of gratitude. In the words of Roosevelt, "their +prejudices and narrow dislikes, their raw vanity and sullen +distrust of all who were better schooled than they, count for +little when weighed against their intense earnestness and heroic +self-sacrifice." + +Nor was education neglected. Many of the settlers, especially +those who came from the South, were illiterate. But all who made +any pretense of respectability were desirous of giving their +children an opportunity to learn to read and write. Accordingly, +wherever half a dozen families lived reasonably close together, a +log schoolhouse was sure to be found. In the days before public +funds existed for the support of education the teachers were paid +directly, and usually in produce, by the patrons. Sometimes a +wandering pedagogue would find his way into a community and, +being engaged to give instruction for two or three months during +the winter, would "board around" among the residents and take +such additional pay as he could get. More often, some one of the +settlers who was fortunate enough to possess the rudiments of an +education undertook the role of schoolmaster in the interval +between the autumn corn-gathering and the spring ploughing and +planting. + +Instruction rarely extended beyond the three R's; but +occasionally a newcomer who had somewhere picked up a smattering +of algebra, Latin, or astronomy stirred the wonder, if not also +the suspicion, of the neighborhood. Schoolbooks were few and +costly; crude slates were made from pieces of shale; pencils were +fashioned from varicolored soapstone found in the beds of small +streams. No frontier picture is more familiar or more pleasing +than that of the farmer's boy sitting or lying on the floor +during the long winter evening industriously tracing by firelight +or by candlelight the proverb or quotation assigned him as an +exercise in penmanship, or wrestling with the intricacies of +least common denominators and highest common divisors. It is in +such a setting that we get our first glimpse of the greatest of +western Americans, Abraham Lincoln. + + + +Chapter VIII. Tecumseh + +Wayne's victory in 1795, followed by the Treaty of Fort +Greenville, gave the Northwest welcome relief from Indian +warfare, and within four years the Territory was ready to be +advanced to the second of the three grades of government provided +for it in the Ordinance of 1787. A Legislature was set up at +Cincinnati, and in due time it proceeded to the election of a +delegate to Congress. Choice fell on a young man whose name was +destined to a permanent place in the country's history. William +Henry Harrison was the son of a signer of the Declaration of +Independence, the scion of one of Virginia's most honored +families. Entering the army in 1791, he had served as an +aide-de-camp to Wayne in the campaign which ended at Fallen +Timbers, and at the time of his election was acting as Secretary +of the Territory and ex-officio Lieutenant-Governor. + +Although but twenty-six years of age, and without a vote in the +House of Representatives, Harrison succeeded in procuring from +Congress in 1800 an act dividing the Territory into two distinct +"governments," separated by the old Greenville treaty line as far +as Fort Recovery and then by a line running due north to the +Canadian boundary. The division to the east was named Ohio, that +to the west Indiana; and Harrison was made Governor of the +latter, with his residence at Vincennes. In 1802 the development +of the back country was freshly emphasized by the admission of +Ohio as a State. + +Meanwhile the equilibrium between the white man and the red again +became unstable. In the Treaty of 1795 the natives had ceded only +southern Ohio, southeastern Indiana, and a few other small and +scattered areas. Northward and westward, their country stretched +to the Lakes and the Mississippi, unbroken except by military +posts and widely scattered settlements; and title to all of this +territory had been solemnly guaranteed. As late as 1800 the white +population of what is now Indiana was practically confined to +Clark's Grant, near the falls of the Ohio, and a small region +around Vincennes. It numbered not more than twenty-five hundred +persons. But thereafter immigration from the seaboard States, and +from the nearer lands of Kentucky and Tennessee, set in on a new +scale. By 1810 Indiana had a white population of twenty-five +thousand, and the cabins of the energetic settlers dotted river +valleys and hillsides never before trodden by white man. + +In this new rush of pioneers the rights of the Indians received +scant consideration. Hardy and well-armed Virginians and +Kentuckians broke across treaty boundaries and possessed +themselves of fertile lands to which they had no valid claim. +White hunters trespassed far and wide on Indian territory, until +by 1810 great regions, which a quarter of a century earlier +abounded in deer, bear, and buffalo, were made as useless for +Indian purposes as barren wastes. Although entitled to the +protection of law in his person and property, the native was +cheated and overawed at every turn; he might even be murdered +with impunity. Abraham Lincoln's uncle thought it a virtuous act +to shoot an Indian on sight, and the majority of pioneers agreed +with him. + +"I can tell at once," wrote Harrison in 1801, "upon looking at an +Indian whom I may chance to meet whether he belongs to a +neighboring or a more distant tribe. The latter is generally +well-clothed, healthy, and vigorous; the former half-naked, +filthy, and enfeebled by intoxication, and many of them without +arms excepting a knife, which they carry for the most villainous +purposes." The stronger tribes perceived quite as clearly as did +the Governor the ruinous effects of contact between the two +peoples, and the steady destruction of the border warriors became +a leading cause of discontent. Congress had passed laws intended +to prevent the sale of spiritucus liquors to the natives, but the +courts had construed these measures to be operative only outside +the bounds of States and organized Territories, and in the great +unorganized Northwest the laws were not heeded, and the ruinous +traffic went on uninterrupted. Harrison reported that when there +were only six hundred warriors on the Wabash the annual +consumption of whiskey there was six thousand gallons, and that +killing each other in drunken brawls had "become so customary +that it was no longer thought criminal." + +Most exasperating, however, from the red man's point of view was +the insatiable demand of the newcomers for land. In the years +1803, 1804, and 1805 Harrison made treaties with the remnants of +the Miami, Eel River, Piankeshaw, and Delaware tribes-- +characterized by him as "a body of the most depraved wretches on +earth"--which gained for the settlers a strip of territory fifty +miles wide south of White River; and in 1809 he similarly +acquired, by the Treaty of Fort Wayne, three million acres, in +tracts which cut into the heart of the Indian country for almost +a hundred miles up both banks of the Wabash. The Wabash valley +was richer in game than any other region south of Lake Michigan, +and its loss was keenly felt by the Indians. Indeed, it was +mainly the cession of 1809 that brought once more to a crisis the +long-brewing difficulties with the Indians. + +About the year 1768 the Creek squaw of a Shawnee warrior gave +birth at one time to three boys, in the vicinity of the present +city of Springfield, Ohio.* One of the three barely left his name +in aboriginal annals. A second, known as Laulewasikaw, "the man +with the loud voice," poses in the pages of history as "the +prophet." The third brother was Tecumseh, "the wild-cat that +leaps upon its prey," or "the shooting star," as the name has +been translated. He is described as a tall, handsome warrior-- +daring and energetic, of fluent and persuasive speech, given to +deep reflection, an implacable hater of the white man. Other +qualities he possessed which were not so common among his people. +He had perfect self-command, a keen insight into human motives +and purposes, and an exceptional capacity to frame plans and +organize men to carry them out. His crowning scheme for bringing +together the tribes of the Middle West into a grand democratic +confederacy to regulate land cessions and other dealings with the +whites stamps him as perhaps the most statesmanlike member of his +race. + +* Authorities differ as to the facts of Tecumseh's birth. His +earliest biographer, Benjamin Drake, holds that he was "wholly a +Shawanoe" and that he was a fourth child, the Prophet and another +son being twins. William Henry Harrison spoke of Tecumseh's +mother as a Creek. + + +While yet hardly more than a boy, Tecumseh seems to have been +stirred to deep indignation by the persistent encroachment of the +whites upon the hunting-grounds of his fathers. The cessions of +1804 and 1805 he specially resented, and it is not unlikely that +they clinched the decision of the young warrior to take up the +task which Pontiac had left unfinished. At all events, the plan +was soon well in hand. A less far-seeing leader would have been +content to call the scattered tribes to a momentary alliance with +a view to a general uprising against the invaders. But Tecumseh's +purposes ran far deeper. All of the Indian peoples, of whatever +name or relationships, from the Lakes to the Gulf and from the +Alleghanies to the Rockies, were to be organized in a single, +permanent confederacy. This union, furthermore, was to consist, +not of chieftains, but of the warriors; and its governing body +was to be a warriors' congress, an organ of genuine popular rule. +Joint ownership of all Indian lands was to be assumed by the +confederacy, and the piecemeal cession of territory by petty +tribal chiefs, under pressure of government agents, was to be +made impossible. Only thus, Tecumseh argued, could the red man +hope to hold his own in the uneven contest that was going on. + +The plan was brilliant, even though impracticable. Naturally, it +did not appeal instantly to the chieftains, for it took away-- +tribal independence and undermined the chieftain's authority. +Besides, its author was not a chief, and had no sanction of birth +or office. Its success was dependent on the building of an +intertribal association such as Indian history had never known. +And while there was nothing in it which contravened the professed +policy of the United States, it ran counter to the irrepressible +tendency of the advancing white population to spread at will over +the great western domain. + +By these obstacles Tecumseh was not deterred. With indefatigable +zeal he traveled from one end of the country to the other, +arguing with chiefs, making fervid speeches to assembled +warriors, and in every possible manner impressing his people with +his great idea. The Prophet went with him; and when the orator's +logic failed to carry, conviction, the medicine-man's +imprecations were relied upon to save the day. Events, too, +played into their hands. The Leopard-Chesapeake affair,* in 1807, +roused strong feeling in the West and prompted the +Governor-General of Canada to begin intrigues looking to an +alliance with the redskins in the event of war. And when, late in +the same year, Governor Hull of Michigan Territory indiscreetly +negotiated a new land cession at Detroit, the northern tribes at +once joined Tecumseh's league, muttering threats to slay the +chiefs by whom the cession had been sanctioned. + +* See "Jefferson and his Colleagues," by Allen Johnson (in "The +Chronicles of America"). + + +In the spring of 1808 Tecumseh and his brother carried their +plans forward another step by taking up their residence at a +point in central Indiana where Tippecanoe Creek flows into the +Wabash River. The place--which soon got the name of the Prophet's +Town--was almost equidistant from Vincennes, Fort Wayne, and Fort +Dearborn; from it the warriors could paddle their canoes to any +part of the Ohio or the Mississippi, and with only a short +portage, to the waters of the Maumee and the Great Lakes. The +situation was, therefore, strategic. A village was laid out, and +the population was soon numbered by the hundred. Livestock was +acquired, agriculture was begun, the use of whiskey was +prohibited, and every indication was afforded of peaceful intent. + +Seasoned frontiersmen, however, were suspicious. Reports came in +that the Tippecanoe villagers engaged daily in warlike exercises; +rumor had it that emissaries of the Prophet were busily stirring +the tribes, far and near, to rebellion. Governor Harrison was not +a man to be easily frightened, but he became apprehensive, and +proposed to satisfy himself by calling Tecumseh into conference. + +The interview took place at Vincennes, and was extended over a +period of two weeks. There was a show of firmness, yet of good +will, on both sides. The Governor counseled peace, orderliness, +and industry; the warrior guest professed a desire to be a friend +to the United States, but said frankly that if the country +continued to deal with the tribes singly in the purchase of land +he would be obliged to ally himself with Great Britain. To +Harrison's admonition that the redskins should leave off drinking +whiskey--"that it was not made for them, but for the white +people, who alone knew how to use it"--the visitor replied +pointedly by asking that the sale of liquor be stopped. + +Notwithstanding the tenseness of the situation, Harrison +negotiated the land cessions of 1809, which cost the Indians +their last valuable hunting-grounds in Indiana. The powerful +Wyandots promptly joined Tecumseh's league, and war was made +inevitable. Delay followed only because the Government at +Washington postponed the military occupation of the new purchase, +and because the British authorities in Canada, desiring +Tecumseh's confederacy to attain its maximum strength before the +test came, urged the redskins to wait. + +For two more years--while Great Britain and the United States +hovered on the brink of war--preparations continued. Tribe after +tribe in Indiana and Illinois elected Tecumseh as their chief, +alliances reached to regions as remote as Florida. In 1810 +another conference took place at Vincennes; and this time, +notwithstanding Harrison's request that not more than thirty +redskins should attend, four hundred came in Tecumseh's train, +fully armed. + +"A large portico in front of the Governor's house [says a +contemporary account] had been prepared for the purpose with +seats, as well for the Indians as for the citizens who were +expected to attend. When Tecumseh came from his camp, with about +forty of his warriors, he stood off, and on being invited by the +Governor, through an interpreter, to take his seat, refused, +observing that he wished the council to be held under the shade +of some trees in front of the house. When it was objected that it +would be troublesome to remove the seats, he replied that 'it +would only be necessary to remove those intended for the whites-- +that the red men were accustomed to sit upon the earth, which was +their mother, and that they were always happy to recline upon her +bosom.'"* + +* James Hall, "Memoir of William Henry Harrison," pp. 113-114. + + +The chieftain's equivocal conduct aroused fresh suspicion, but he +was allowed to proceed with the oration which he had come to +deliver. Freely rendered, the speech ran, in part, as follows: + +"I have made myself what I am; and I would that I could make the +red people as great as the conceptions of my mind, when I think +of the Great Spirit that rules over all. I would not then come to +Governor Harrison to ask him to tear the treaty [of 1809]; but I +would say to him, Brother, you have liberty to return to your own +country. Once there was no white man in all this country: then it +belonged to red men, children of the same parents, placed on it +by the Great Spirit to keep it, to travel over it, to eat its +fruits, and fill it with the same race--once a happy race, but +now made miserable by the white people, who are never contented, +but always encroaching. They have driven us from the great salt +water, forced us over the mountains, and would shortly push us +into the lakes--but we are determined to go no further. The only +way to stop this evil is for all red men to unite in claiming a +common and equal right in the land, as it was at first, and +should be now--for it never was divided, but belongs to all.... +Any sale not made by all is not good." + +In his reply Harrison declared that the Indians were not one +nation, since the Great Spirit had "put six different tongues +in their heads," and argued that the Indiana lands had been in +all respects properly bought from their rightful owners. +Tecumseh's blood boiled under this denial of his main contention, +and with the cry, "It is false," he gave a signal to his +warriors, who sprang to their feet and seized their war-clubs. +For a moment an armed clash was imminent. But Harrison's cool +manner enabled him to remain master of the situation, and a +well-directed rebuke sent the chieftain and his followers to +their quarters. + +On the following morning Tecumseh apologized for his impetuosity +and asked that the conference be renewed. The request was +granted, and again the forest leader pressed for an abandonment +of the policy of purchasing land from the separate tribes. +Harrison told him that the question was for the President, rather +than for, him, to decide. "As the great chief is to determine the +matter," responded the visitor grimly, "I hope the Great Spirit +will put sense enough into his head to induce him to direct you +to give up this land. It is true he is so far off he will not be +injured by the war. He may sit still in his town, and drink his +wine, while you and I will have to fight it out." + +Still the clash was averted. Once more, in the summer of 1811, +Tecumseh appeared at Vincennes, and again the deep issue between +the two peoples was threshed out as fruitlessly as before. +Announcing his purpose to visit the southern tribes to unite them +with those of the North in a peaceful confederacy, the chieftain +asked that during his absence all matters be left as they were, +and promised that upon his return he would go to see President +Madison and "settle everything with him." + +Naturally, no pledge of the kind was given, and no sooner had +Tecumseh and twenty of his warriors started southward on their +mission to the Creeks than Harrison began preparations to end the +menace that had been so long hanging over the western country. +Troops were sent to Harrison; and volunteers were called for. As +fast as volunteers came in they were sent up to the Wabash to +take possession of the new purchase. Reinforcements arrived from +Pittsburgh and from Kentucky, and in a short while the Governor +was able to bring together at Fort Harrison, near the site of the +present city of Terre Haute, twenty-four companies of regulars, +militia, and Indians, aggregating about nine hundred well-armed +men. + +Late in October this army, commanded by Harrison in person, set +forth for the destruction of the Tippecanoe rendezvous. On the +way stray redskins were encountered, but the advance was not +resisted, and to his surprise Harrison was enabled to lead his +forces unmolested to within a few hundred yards of the Prophet's +headquarters. Emissaries now came saying that the invasion was +wholly unexpected, professing peaceful intentions, and asking for +a parley. Harrison had no idea that anything could be settled by +negotiation, but he preferred to wait until the next day to make +an attack; accordingly he agreed to a council, and the army went +into camp for the night on an oak-covered knoll about a mile +northwest of the village. No entrenchments were thrown up, but +the troops were arranged in a triangle to conform to the contour +of the hill, and a hundred sentinels under experienced officers +were stationed around the camp-fires. The night was cold, and +rain fell at intervals, although at times the moon shone brightly +through the flying clouds. + +The Governor was well aware of the proneness of the Indians to +early morning attacks, so that about four o'clock on the 7th of +November he rose to call the men to parade. He had barely pulled +on his boots when the forest stillness was broken by the crack of +a rifle at the farthest angle of the camp, and instantly the +Indian yell, followed by a fusillade, told that a general attack +had begun. Before the militiamen could emerge in force from their +tents, the sentinel line was broken and the red warriors were +pouring into the enclosure. Desperate fighting ensued, and when +time for reloading failed, it was rifle butt and bayonet against +tomahawk and scalping knife in hand-to-hand combat. For two hours +the battle raged in the darkness, and only when daylight came +were the troops able to charge the redskins, dislodge them from +behind the trees, and drive them to a safe distance in the +neighboring swamp. Sixty-one of Harrison's officers and men were +killed or mortally wounded; one hundred and twenty-seven others +suffered serious injury. The Governor himself probably owed his +life to the circumstance that in the confusion he mounted a bay +horse instead of his own white stallion, whose rider was shot +early in the contest. + +The Indian losses were small, and for twenty-four hours +Harrison's forces kept their places, hourly expecting another +assault. "Night," wrote one of the men subsequently, "found every +man mounting guard, without food, fire, or light and in a +drizzling rain. The Indian dogs, during the dark hours, produced +frequent alarms by prowling in search of carrion about the +sentinels." There being no further sign of hostilities, early on +the 8th of November a body of mounted riflemen set out for the +Prophet's village, which they found deserted. The place had +evidently been abandoned in haste, for nothing--not even a fresh +stock of English guns and powder--had been destroyed or carried +off. After confiscating much-needed provisions and other +valuables, Harrison ordered the village to be burned. Then, +abandoning camp furniture and private baggage to make room in the +wagons for the wounded, he set out on the return trip to +Vincennes. A company was left at Fort Harrison, and the main +force reached the capital on the 18th of November. + +Throughout the western country the news of the battle was +received with delight, and it was fondly believed that the +backbone of Tecumseh's conspiracy was broken. It was even +supposed that the indomitable chieftain and his brother would be +forthwith surrendered by the Indians to the authorities of the +United States. Harrison was acclaimed as a deliverer. The +legislatures of Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois formally thanked +him for his services; and if, as his Federalist enemies charged, +he had planned the whole undertaking with a view to promoting his +personal fortunes, he ought to have been satisfied with the +result. It was the glamour of Tippecanoe that three decades +afterwards carried him into the President's chair. + +In precipitating a clash while Tecumseh, the master-mind of the +fast-growing confederacy, was absent, the Prophet committed a +capital blunder. When reproached by his warriors, he declared +that all would have gone well but for the fact that on the night +before the battle his squaw had profanely touched the pot in +which his magic charms were brewed, so that the spell had been +broken! The explanation was not very convincing, and ominous +murmurings were heard. Before the end of the year, however, word +came to Vincennes that the crafty magician was back at +Tippecanoe, that the village had been rebuilt, and that the lives +of the white settlers who were pouring into the new purchase were +again endangered. + +Still more alarming was the news of Tecumseh's return in January, +1812, from a very successful visit to the Creeks, Choctaws, and +Cherokees. He began by asking leave to make his long-projected +visit to Washington to obtain peace from the President, and he +professed deep regret for "the unfortunate transaction that took +place between the white people and a few of our young men at our +village." To the British agent at Amherstburg he declared that +had he been on the spot there would have been no fighting at +Tippecanoe. It is reasonable to suppose that in this case there +would have been, at all events, no Indian attack; for Tecumseh +was thoroughly in sympathy with the British plan, which was to +unite and arm the natives, but to prevent a premature outbreak. +The chieftain's presence, however, would hardly have deterred +Harrison from carrying out his decision to break up the +Tippecanoe stronghold. + +The spring of 1812 brought an ominous renewal of depredations. +Two settlers were murdered within three miles of Fort Dearborn; +an entire family was massacred but five miles from Vincennes; +from all directions came reports of other bloody deeds. The +frontier was thrown into panic. A general uprising was felt to be +impending; even Vincennes was thought to be in danger. "Most of +the citizens of this country," reported Harrison, on the 6th of +May, "have abandoned their farms, and taken refuge in such +temporary forts as they have been able to construct. Scores fled +to Kentucky and to even more distant regions. + +Tecumseh continued to assert his friendship for his "white +brothers" and to treat the battle at Tippecanoe as a matter of no +moment. The murders on the frontier he declared to be the work of +the Potawatomi, who were not under his control, and for whose +conduct he had no excuse. But it was noted that he made no move +to follow up his professed purpose to visit Washington in quest +of peace, and that he put forth no effort to restrain his +over-zealous allies. It was plain enough that he was simply +awaiting a signal from Canada, and that, as the commandant at +Fort Wayne tersely reported, if the country should have a war +with Great Britain, it must be prepared for an Indian war as +well. + + + +Chapter IX. The War Of 1812 And The New West + +The spring of 1812 thus found the back country in a turmoil, and +it was with a real sense of relief that the settlers became aware +of the American declaration of war against Great Britain on the +18th of June. More than once Governor Harrison had asked for +authority to raise an army with which to "scour" the Wabash +territory. In the fear that such a step would drive the redskins +into the arms of the British, the War Department had withheld its +consent. Now that the ban was lifted, the people could expect the +necessary measures to be taken for their defense. In no part of +the country was the war more popular; nowhere did the mass of the +able-bodied population show greater eagerness to take the field. + +According to official returns, the Westerners were totally +unprepared for the contest. There were but five garrisoned posts +between the Ohio and the Canadian frontier. Fort Harrison had +fifty men, Fort Wayne eighty-five, Fort Dearborn fifty-three, +Fort Mackinac eighty-eight, and Detroit one hundred and twenty--a +total force of fewer than four hundred. The entire standing army +of the United States numbered but sixty-seven hundred men, and it +was obvious that the trans-Alleghany population would be obliged +to carry almost alone the burden of their own defense. The task +would not be easy; for General Brock, commanding in upper Canada, +had at least two thousand regulars and, as soon as hostilities +began, was joined by Tecumseh and many hundred redskins. + +While the question of the war was still under debate in Congress, +President Madison made a requisition on Ohio for twelve hundred +militia, and in early summer the Governors of Indiana and +Illinois called hundreds of volunteers into service. Leaving +their families as far as possible under the protection of +stockades or of the towns, the patriots flocked to the +mustering-grounds; many, like Cincinnatus of old, deserted the +plough in midfield. Guns and ammunition in sufficient quantity +were lacking; even tents and blankets were often wanting. But +enthusiasm ran high, and only capable leadership was needed to +make of these frontier forces, once they were properly equipped, +a formidable foe. + +The story of the leaders and battles of the war in the West has +been told in an earlier volume of this series.* It will be +necessary here merely to call to mind the stages through which +this contest passed, as a preliminary to a glimpse of the +conditions under which Westerners fought and of the new position +into which their section of the country was brought when peace +was restored. So far as the regions north of the Ohio were +concerned, the war developed two phases. The first began with +General William Hull's expedition from Ohio against Fort Malden +for the relief of Detroit, and it ended with the humiliating +surrender of that important post, together with the forced +abandonment of Forts Dearborn and Mackinac, so that the Wabash +and Maumee became, for all practical purposes, the country's +northern boundary. This was a story of complete and bitter +defeat. The second phase began likewise with a disaster--the +needless loss of a thousand men on the Raisin River, near +Detroit. Yet it succeeded in bringing William Henry Harrison into +chief command, and it ended in Commodore Perry's signal victory +on Lake Erie and Harrison's equally important defeat of the +disheartened British land forces on the banks of the Thames +River, north of the Lake. At this Battle of the Thames perished +Tecumseh, who in point of fact was the real force behind the +British campaigns in the West. Tradition describes him on the eve +of the battle telling his comrades that his last day had come, +solemnly stripping off his British uniform before going into +battle, and arraying himself in the fighting costume of his own +people. + +* See "The Fight for a Free Sea," by Ralph D. Paine (in "The +Chronicles of America"). + + +For two-thirds of the time, the war went badly for the +Westerners, and only at the end did it turn out to be a brilliant +success. The reasons for the dreary succession of disasters are +not difficult to discover. Foremost among them is the character +of the troops and officers. The material from which the regiments +were recruited was intrinsically good, but utterly raw and +untrained. The men could shoot well; they had great powers of +endurance; and they were brave. But there the list of their +military virtues ends. + +The scheme of military organization relied upon throughout the +West was that of the volunteer militia. In periods of ordinary +Indian warfare the system served its purpose fairly well. Under +stern necessity, the self-willed, independence-loving +backwoodsmen could be brought to act together for a few weeks or +months; but they had little systematic training, and their +impatience of restraint prevented the building up of any real +discipline. There were periodic musters for company or regimental +drill. But, as a rule, drill duty was not taken seriously. +Numbers of men failed to report; and those who came were likely +to give most of their time to horse-races, wrestling-matches, +shooting contests--not to mention drinking and brawling--which +turned the occasion into mere merrymaking or disorder. The men +brought few guns, and when drills were actually held these +soldiers in the making contented themselves with parading with +cornstalks over their shoulders. "Cornstalk drill" thus became a +frontier epithet of derision. It goes without saying that these +troops were poorly officered. The captains and colonels were +chosen by the men, frequently with more regard for their +political affiliations or their general standing in the community +than for their capacity as military commanders; nor were the +higher officers, appointed by the chief executive of territory, +state, or nation, more likely to be chosen with a view to their +military fitness. + +So it came about, as Roosevelt has said, that the frontier people +of the second generation "had no military training whatever, and +though they possessed a skeleton militia organization, they +derived no benefit from it, because their officers were +worthless, and the men had no idea of practising self-restraint +or obeying orders longer than they saw fit."* When the War of +1812 began, these backwoods troops were pitted against British +regulars who were powerfully supported by Indian allies. The +officers of these untrained American troops were, like Hull, +pompous, broken-down, political incapables; while to the men +themselves may fairly be applied Amos Kendall's disgusted +characterization of a Kentucky muster: "The soldiers are under no +more restraint than a herd of swine. Reasoning, remonstrating, +threatening, and ridiculing their officers, they show their sense +of equality and their total want of subordination." Not until the +very last of the war, when under Harrison's direction capable and +experienced officers drilled them into real soldiers, did these +backwoods stalwarts become an effective fighting force. + +* "Winning of the West," vol. IV, p. 246. + + +There were also shortcomings of another sort. None was more +exasperating or costly than the lack of means of transportation. +Even in Ohio, the oldest and most settled portion of the +Northwest, roads were few and poor; elsewhere there were +practically none of any kind. But the regions in which the war +was carried on were far too sparsely populated to be able to +furnish the supplies, even the foodstuffs, needed by the troops; +and materials of every sort had to be transported from the East, +by river, lake, and wilderness trail. Up and down the great +unbroken stretches between the Ohio and the Lakes moved the +floundering supply trains in the vain effort to keep up with the +armies, or to reach camps or forts in time to avert starvation or +disaster. Pack-horses waded knee-deep in mud; wagons were dragged +through mire up to their hubs; even empty vehicles sometimes +became so embedded that they had to be abandoned, the drivers +being glad to get off with their horses alive. Many times a +quartermaster, taking advantage of a frost, would send off a +convoy of provisions, only to hear of its being swamped by a thaw +before reaching its destination. One of the tragedies of the war +was the suffering of the troops while waiting for supplies of +clothing, tents, medicines, and food which were stuck in swamps +or frozen up in rivers or lakes. + +Beset with pleurisy, pneumonia, and rheumatism in winter, with +fevers in summer, and subject to attack by the Indians at all +times, these frontier soldiers led an existence of exceptional +hardship. Only the knowledge that they were fighting for their +freedom and their homes held them to their task. An interesting +sidelight on the conditions under which their work was done is +contained in the following extract from a letter written by a +volunteer in 1814: + +"On the second day of our march a courier arrived from General +Harrison, ordering the artillery to advance with all possible +speed. This was rendered totally impossible by the snow which +took place, it being a complete swamp nearly all day. On the +evening of the same day news arrived that General Harrison had +retreated to Portage River, eighteen miles in the rear of the +encampment at the rapids. As many men as could be spared +determined to proceed immediately to re-enforce him.... At +two o'clock the next morning our tents were struck, and in half +an hour we were on the road. I will candidly confess that on that +day I regretted being a soldier. On that day we marched thirty +miles under an incessant rain; and I am afraid you will doubt my +veracity when I tell you that in eight miles of the best of the +road, it took us over the knees, and often to the middle. The +Black Swamp would have been considered impassable by all but men +determined to surmount every difficulty to accomplish the object +of their march. In this swamp you lose sight of terra firma +altogether--the water was about six inches deep on the ice, which +was very rotten, often breaking through to the depth of four or +five feet. The same night we encamped on very wet ground, but the +driest that could be found, the rain still continuing. It was +with difficulty we could raise fires; we had no tents; our +clothes were wet, no axes, nothing to cook with, and very little +to eat. A brigade of pack-horses being near us, we procured from +them some flour, killed a hog (there were plenty of THEM along +the road); our bread was baked in the ashes, and our pork we +broiled on the coals--a sweeter meal I never partook of. When we +went to sleep it was on two logs laid close to each other, to +keep our bodies from the damp ground. Good God! What a pliant +being is man in adversity.* + +* Dawson. "William H. Harrison," p. 369. + + +The principal theater of war was the Great Lakes and the lands +adjacent to them. Prior to the campaign which culminated in +Jackson's victory at New Orleans after peace had been signed, the +Mississippi Valley had been untrodden by British soldiery. The +contest, none the less, came close home to the backwoods +populations. Scores of able-bodied men from every important +community saw months or years of toilsome service; many failed to +return to their homes, or else returned crippled, weakened, or +stricken with fatal diseases; crops were neglected, or had only +such care as could be given them by old men and boys; trade +languished; Indian depredations wrought further ruin to life and +property and kept the people continually in alarm. Until 1814, +reports of successive defeats, in both the East and West, had a +depressing influence and led to solemn speculation as to whether +the back country stood in danger of falling again under British +dominion. + +It was, therefore, with a very great sense of relief that the +West heard in 1815 that peace had been concluded. At a stroke +both the British menace and the danger from the Indians were +removed; for although the redskins were still numerous and +discontented, their spirit of resistance was broken. Never again +was there a general uprising against the whites; never again did +the Northwest witness even a local Indian war of any degree of +seriousness save Black Hawk's Rebellion in 1832. Tecumseh +manifestly realized before he made his last stand at the Thames +that the cause of his people was forever lost. + +For several years the unsettled conditions on the frontiers had +restrained any general migration thither from the seaboard +States. But within a few months after the proclamation of peace +the tide again set westward, and with an unprecedented force. +Men who had suffered in their property or other interests from +the war turned to Indiana and Illinois as a promising field in +which to rebuild their fortunes. The rapid extinction of Indian +titles opened up vast tracts of desirable land, and the +conditions of purchase were made so easy that any man of ordinary +industry and integrity could meet them. Speculators and promoters +industriously advertised the advantages of localities in which +they were interested, boomed new towns, and even loaned money to +ambitious emigrants. + +The upshot was that the population of Indiana grew from +twenty-five thousand in 1810 to seventy thousand in 1816, when +the State was admitted to the Union. Illinois filled with equal +rapidity, and attained statehood only two years later. Then the +tide swept irresistibly westward across the Mississippi into the +great regions which had been acquired from France in 1803. As +late as 1819, the Territory of Missouri, comprising all of the +Louisiana Purchase north of the present State of Louisiana, had a +population of only twenty-two thousand, including many French and +Spanish settlers and traders. But in 1818 it had a population of +more than sixty thousand, and was asking Congress for legislation +under which the most densely inhabited portion should be set off +as the State of Missouri. Thus the Old Northwest was not merely +losing its frontier character and taking its place in the nation +on a footing with the seaboard sections; it was also serving as +the open gateway to a newer, vaster, and in some respects richer +American back country. + +In the main, southern Indiana and Illinois--as well as the +trans-Mississippi territory--drew from Kentucky, Tennessee, +Virginia, and the remoter South. North of the latitude of +Indianapolis and St. Louis the lines of migration led chiefly +from New England, New York, and Pennsylvania. But many of the +settlers came, immediately or after only a brief interval, from +Europe. The decade following the close of the war was a time of +unprecedented emigration from England, Scotland, Ireland, and +Germany to the United States; and while many of the newcomers +found homes in the eastern States, where they in a measure offset +the depopulation caused by the westward exodus, a very large +proportion pressed on across the mountains in quest of the cheap +lands in the undeveloped interior. During these years the western +country was repeatedly visited by European travelers with a view +to ascertaining its resources, markets, and other attractions for +settlers; and emigration thither was powerfully stimulated by the +writings of these observers, as well as by the activities of +sundry founders of agricultural colonies. + +"These favorable accounts," wrote Adlard Welby, an Englishman who +made a tour of inspection through the West in 1819, "aided by a +period of real privation and discontent in Europe, caused +emigration to increase tenfold; and though various reports of +unfavorable nature soon circulated, and many who had emigrated +actually returned to their native land in disgust, yet still the +trading vessels were filled with passengers of all ages and +descriptions, full of hope, looking forward to the West as to a +land of liberty and delight--a land flowing with milk and honey-- +a second land of Canaan.* + +* Thwaites, "Early Western Travels," vol. XII, p. 148. + + +After the dangers from the Indians were overcome, the main +obstacle to western development was the lack of means of easy and +cheap transportation. The settler found it difficult to reach the +Legion which he had selected for his home. Eastern supplies of +salt, iron, hardware, and fabrics and foodstuffs could be +obtained only at great expense. The fast-increasing products of +the western farms--maize, wheat, meats, livestock--could be +marketed only at a cost which left a slender margin of profit. +The experiences of the late war had already proved the need of +highways as auxiliaries of national defense. It required a month +to carry goods from Baltimore to central Ohio. None the less, +even before the War of 1812, hundreds of transportation companies +were running four-horse freight wagons between the eastern and +western States; and in 1820 more than three thousand wagons-- +practically all carrying western products--passed back and forth +between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, transporting merchandise +valued at eighteen million dollars. + +Small wonder that western producer and eastern dealer alike +became interested in internal improvements; or that under the +double stimulus of private and public enterprise Indian trails +fast gave way to rough pioneer roadways, and they to carefully +planned and durable turnpikes. Long before the War of 1812, +Jefferson, Gallatin, Clay, and other statesmen had conceived of a +great highway, or series of highways, connecting the seaboard +with the interior as the surest and best means of promoting +national unity and strength; and, in the act of Congress of 1802 +admitting the State of Ohio, a promising beginning had been made +by setting aside five per cent of the money received from the +sale of public lands in the State for the building of roads +extending eastward to the navigable waters of Atlantic streams. +In 1808 Secretary Gallatin had presented to Congress a report +calling for an outlay on internal improvements of two million +dollars of federal money a year for ten years; and in 1811 the +Government had entered upon the greatest undertaking of its kind +in the history of the country. + +This enterprise was the building of the magnificent highway known +to the law as the Cumberland Road, but familiar to uncounted +emigrants, travelers, and traders--and deeply embedded in the +traditions of the Middle States and the West--as the National +Road. Starting at Cumberland, Maryland, this great artery of +commerce and travel was pushed slowly through the Alleghanies, +even in the dark days of the war, and by 1818 it was open for +traffic as far west as Wheeling. The method of construction was +that which had lately been devised by John McAdam in England, and +involved spreading crushed limestone over a carefully prepared +road-bed in three layers, traffic being permitted for a time over +each layer in succession. This "macadamized" surface was curved +to permit drainage, and extra precautions were taken in +localities where spring freshets were likely to cause damage. + +Controversy raged over proposals to extend the road to the +farthest West, to provide its upkeep by a system of tolls, and to +build similar highways farther north and south. But for a time +constitutional and legal difficulties were swept aside and +construction continued. Columbus was reached in 1833, +Indianapolis about 1840; and the roadway was graded to Vandalia, +then the capital of Illinois, and marked out to Jefferson City, +Missouri, although it was never completed to the last-mentioned +point by federal authority. When one reads that the original cost +of construction mounted to $10,000 a mile in central +Pennsylvania, and even $13,000 a mile in the neighborhood of +Wheeling, one's suspicion is aroused that public contracts were +not less dubious a hundred years ago than they have been known to +be in our own time. + +The National Road has long since lost its importance as the great +connecting link of East and West. But in its day, especially +before 1860, it was a teeming thoroughfare. Its course was lined +with hospitable farmhouses and was dotted with fast-growing +villages and towns. Some of the latter which once were +nationally famed were left high and dry by later shifts of the +lines of traffic, and have quite disappeared from the map. +Throughout the spring and summer months there was a steady +westward stream of emigrants; hardly a day failed to bring before +the observer's eye the creaking canvas-covered wagon of the +homeseeker. Singly and in companies they went, ever toward the +promised land. Wagon-trains of merchandise from the eastern +markets toiled patiently along the way. Speculators, peddlers, +and sightseers added to the procession, and in hundreds of +farmhouses the womenfolk and children gathered in interested +groups by the evening fire to hear the chance visitor talk +politics or war and retail with equal facility the gossip of the +next township and that of Washington or New York. Great +stage-coach lines--the National Road Stage Company, the Ohio +National Stage Company, and others--advertised the advantages of +their services and sought patronage with all the ingenuity of the +modern railroad. Taverns and roadhouses of which no trace remains +today offered entertainment at any figure, and of almost any +character, that the customer desired. Eastward flowed a steady +stream of wagon-trains of flour, tobacco, and pork, with great +droves of cattle and hogs to be fattened for the Philadelphia or +Baltimore markets. + +At almost precisely the same time that the first shovelful of +earth was turned for the Cumberland Road, people dwelling on the +banks of the upper Ohio were startled by the spectacle of a large +boat moving majestically down stream entirely devoid of sail, +oar, pole, or any other visible means of propulsion or control. +This object of wonderment was the New Orleans, the first +steamboat to be launched on western waters. + +The conquest of the steamboat was speedy and complete. Already in +1819 there were sixty-three such craft on the Ohio, and in 1834-- +when the total shipping tonnage, of the Atlantic seaboard was +76,064, and of the British Empire 82,696--the tonnage afloat on +the Ohio and Mississippi was 126,278. Vessels regularly ascended +the navigable tributaries of the greater streams in quest of +cargoes, and while craft of other sorts did not disappear, the +great and growing commerce of the river was revolutionized. + +In the upbuilding of steamboat navigation the thriving, bustling, +boastful spirit of the West found ample play. Steamboat owners +vied with one another in adorning their vessels with bowsprits, +figureheads, and all manner of tinseled decorations, and in +providing elegant accommodations for passengers; engineers and +pilots gloried in speed records and challenged one another to +races which ended in some of the most shocking steamboat +disasters known to history. The unconscious bombast of an +anonymous Cincinnati writer in Timothy Flint's "Western Monthly +Review" in 1827 gives us the real flavor of the steamboat +business on the threshold of the Jacksonian era: + +"An Atlantic cit, who talks of us under the name of backwoodsmen, +would not believe, that such fairy structures of oriental +gorgeousness and splendor as the Washington, the Florida, the +Walk in the Water, The Lady of the Lake, etc., etc., had ever +existed in the imaginative brain of a romancer, much less, that +they were actually in existence, rushing down the Mississippi, as +on the wings of the wind, or plowing up between the forests, and +walking against the mighty current 'as things of life,' bearing +speculators, merchants, dandies, fine ladies, everything real, +and everything affected, in the form of humanity, with pianos, +and stocks of novels, and cards, and dice, and flirting, and +love-making, and drinking, and champagne, and on the deck, +perhaps, three hundred fellows, who have seen alligators, and +neither fear whiskey, nor gun-powder. A steamboat, coming from +New Orleans, brings to the remotest villages of our streams, and +the very doors of the cabins, a little Paris, a section of +Broadway, or a slice of Philadelphia, to ferment in the minds of +our young people, the innate propensity for fashions and +finery.... +Cincinnati will soon be the centre of the "celestial empire," as +the Chinese say; and instead of encountering the storms, the +seasickness, and dangers of a passage from the Gulf of Mexico +to the Atlantic, whenever the Erie Canal shall be completed, the +opulent southern planters will take their families, their dogs +and parrots, through a world of forests, from New Orleans to +New York, giving us a call by the way. When they are more +acquainted with us, their voyage will often terminate here."* + +* Vol. I., p. 25 (May, 1827). + + +The new West was frankly materialistic. Yet its interests were by +no means restricted to steamboats, turnpikes, crops, exports, and +moneymaking. It concerned itself much with religion. One of the +most familiar figures on trail and highway was the circuit-rider, +with his Bible and saddlebags; and no community was so remote, or +so hardened, as not to be raised occasionally to a frenzy of +religious zeal by the crude but terrifying eloquence of the +revivalist. For education, likewise, there was a growing regard. +Nowhere did the devotion of the Western people to the twin ideas +of democracy and enlightenment find nobler expression than in the +clause of the Indiana constitution of 1816 making it the duty of +the Legislature to provide for "a general system of education, +ascending in a regular gradation from township schools to a state +university, wherein tuition shall be gratis, and equally open to +all." This principle found general application throughout the +Northwest. By 1830 common schools existed wherever population was +sufficient to warrant the expense; academies and other secondary +schools were springing up in Cincinnati, Louisville, St. Louis, +and many lesser places; state universities existed in Ohio and +Indiana; and Baptists, Methodists, and Presbyterians had begun to +dot the country with small colleges. Literature developed slowly. +But newspapers appeared almost before there were readers; and +that the new society was by no means without cultural, and even +aesthetic, aspiration is indicated by the long-continued rivalry +of Cincinnati and Lexington, Kentucky, to be known as "the Athens +of the West." + + + +Chapter X. Sectional Cross Current + +The War of 1812 did much in America to stimulate national pride +and to foster a sense of unity. None the less, the decade +following the Peace of Ghent proved the beginning of a long era +in which the point of view in politics, business, and social life +was distinctly sectional. New England, the Middle States, the +South, the West all were bent upon getting the utmost advantages +from their resources; all were viewing public questions in the +light of their peculiar interests. In the days of Clay and +Calhoun and Jackson the nation's politics were essentially a +struggle for power among the sections. + +There was a time when the frontier folk of the trans-Alleghany +country from Lakes to Gulf were much alike. New Englanders in the +Reserve, Pennsylvanians in central Ohio, Virginians and +Carolinians in Kentucky and southern Indiana, Georgians in +Alabama and Mississippi, Kentuckians and Tennesseeans in Illinois +and Missouri--all were pioneer farmers and stock-raiser's, +absorbed in the conquest of the wilderness and all thinking, +working, and living in much the same way. but by 1820 the +situation had altered. The West was still a "section," whose +interests and characteristics contrasted sharply with those of +New England or the Middle States. Yet upon occasion it could act +with very great effect, as for instance when it rallied to the +support of Jackson and bore him triumphantly to the presidential +chair. Great divergences, however, had grown up within this +western area; differences which had existed from the beginning +had been brought into sharp relief. Under play of climatic and +industrial forces, the West had itself fallen apart into +sections. + +Foremost was the cleavage between North and South, on a line +marked roughly by the Ohio River. Climate, soil, the cotton gin, +and slavery combined to make of the southern West a great +cotton-raising area, interested in the same things and swayed by +the same impulses as the southern seaboard. Similarly, economic +conditions combined to make of the northern West a land of small +farmers, free labor, town-building, and diversified manufactures +and trade. A very large chapter of American history hinges on +this wedging apart of Southwest and Northwest. To this day the +two great divisions have never wholly come together in their ways +of thinking. + +But neither of these western segments was itself entirely a unit. +The Northwest, in particular, had been settled by people drawn +from every older portion of the country, and as the frontier +receded and society took on a more matured aspect, differences of +habits and ideas were accentuated rather than obscured. Men can +get along very well with one another so long as they live apart +and do not try to regulate their everyday affairs on common +lines. + +The great human streams that poured into the Northwest flowed +from two main sources--the nearer South and New England. Ohio, +Indiana, and Illinois were first peopled by men and women of +Southern stock. Some migrated directly from Virginia, the +Carolinas, and even Georgia. But most came from Kentucky and +Tennessee and represented the second generation of white people +in those States, now impelled to move on to a new frontier by the +desire for larger and cheaper farms. Included in this Southern +element were many representatives of the well-to-do classes, who +were drawn to the new territories by the opportunity for +speculation in land and for political preferment, and by the +opening which the fast-growing communities afforded for lawyers, +doctors, and members of other professions. The number of these +would have been larger had there been less rigid restrictions +upon slaveholding. It was rather, however, the poorer whites--the +more democratic, non-slaveholding Southern element--that formed +the bulk of the earlier settlers north of the Ohio. + +There was much westward migration from New England before the War +of 1812, but only a small share of it reached the Ohio country, +and practically none went beyond the Western Reserve. The common +goal was western New York. Here again there was some emigration +of the well-to-do and influential. But, as in the South, the +people who moved were mainly those who were having difficulty in +making ends meet and who could see no way of bettering their +condition in their old homes. The back country of Maine, New +Hampshire, Vermont, and western Massachusetts was filled with +people of this sort--poor, discontented, restless, without +political influence, and needing only the incentive of cheap +lands in the West to sever the slender ties which bound them to +the stony hillsides of New England. + +After 1815 New England emigration rose to astonishing +proportions, and an increasing number of the homeseekers passed-- +directly or after a sojourn in the Lower Lake country of New +York--into the Northwest. The opening of the Erie Canal in 1825 +made the westward journey easier and cheaper. The routes of +travel led to Lakes Ontario and Erie, thence to the Reserve in +northern Ohio, thence by natural stages into other portions of +northern Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, and eventually into +southern Michigan and Wisconsin. Not until after 1830 did the +stalwart homeseekers penetrate north of Detroit; the great +stretches of prairie between Lakes Erie and Michigan, and to the +south--left quite untouched by Southern pioneers--satisfied every +desire of these restless farmers from New England. + +For a long time Southerners determined the course of history in +the Old Northwest. They occupied the field first, and they had +the great advantage of geographical proximity to their old homes. +Furthermore, they lived more compactly; the New Englanders were +not only spread over the broader prairie stretches of the north, +but scattered to some extent throughout the entire region between +the Lakes and the Ohio.* But by the middle of the century not +only had the score of northern counties been inundated by the +"Yankees" but the waves were pushing far into the interior, where +they met and mingled with the counter-current. Both Illinois and +Indiana became, in a preeminent degree, melting-pots in which was +fused by slow and sometimes painful processes an amalgam which +Bryce and other keen observers have pronounced the most American +thing in America. + +* In 1820 the population of Indiana was confined almost entirely +to the southern third of the State, although the removal of the +capital, in 1825, from Corydon to Indianapolis was carried out in +the confidence that eventually that point would become the +State's populational as it was its geographical center. When, in +1818, Illinois was admitted to the Union its population was +computed at 40,000. The figure was probably excessive; at all +events, contemporaries testify that so eager were the people for +statehood that many were counted twice, and even emigrants were +counted as they passed through the Territory. But the census of +1880 showed a population of 55,000, settled almost wholly in the +southern third of the State, with narrow tongues of inhabited +land stretching up the river valleys toward the north. Two slave +States flanked the southern end of the commonwealth; almost half +of its area lay south of a westward prolongation of Mason and +Dixon's line. Save for a few Pennsylvanians, the people were +Southern; the State was for all practical purposes a Southern +State. As late as 1883 the Legislature numbered fifty-eight +members from the South, nineteen from the Middle States, and only +four from New England. + + +Of the great national issues in the quarter-century following the +War of 1812 there were some upon which people of the Northwest, +in spite of their differing points of view, could very well +agree. Internal improvement was one of these. Roads and canals +were necessary outlets to southern and eastern markets, and any +reasonable proposal on this subject could be assured of the +Northwest's solid support. The thirty-four successive +appropriations to 1844 for the Cumberland Road, Calhoun's "Bonus +Bill" of 1816, the bill of 1822 authorizing a continuous national +jurisdiction over the Cumberland Road, the comprehensive "Survey +Bill" of 1824, the Maysville Road Bill of 1830--all were backed +by the united strength of the Northwestern senators and +representatives. + +So with the tariff. The cry of the East for protection to infant +industries was echoed by the struggling manufacturers of +Cincinnati, Louisville, and other towns; while a protective +tariff as a means of building up the home market for foodstuffs +and raw materials seemed to the Westerner an altogether +reasonable and necessary expedient. Ohio alone in the Northwest +had an opportunity to vote on the protective bill of 1816, and +gave its enthusiastic support. Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois voted +unitedly for the bills of 1820, 1824, 1828, and 1832. The +principal western champion of the protective policy was Henry +Clay, a Kentuckian; but the Northwest supported the policy more +consistently than did Clay's own State and section. + +On the National Bank the position of the Northwest was no less +emphatic. The people were little troubled by the question of +constitutionality; but believing that the bank was an engine of +tyranny in the hands of an eastern aristocracy, they were fully +prepared to support Jackson in his determination to extinguish +that "un-American monopoly." + +There were other subjects upon which agreement was reached either +with difficulty or not at all. One of these was the form of local +government which should be adopted. Southerners and New +Englanders brought to their new homes widely differing political +usages. The former were accustomed to the county as the principal +local unit of administration. It was a relatively large division, +whose affairs were managed by elective officers, mainly a board +of commissioners. The New Englanders, on the other hand, had +grown up under the town-meeting system and clung to the notion +that an indispensable feature of democratic local government is +the periodic assembling of the citizens of a community for +legislative, fiscal, and electoral purposes. The Illinois +constitution of 1818 was made by Southerners, and naturally it +provided for the county system. But protest from the "Yankee" +elements became so strong that in the new constitution of 1848 +provision was made for township organization wherever the people +of a county wanted it; and this form of government, at first +prevalent only in the northern counties, is now found in most of +the central and southern counties as well. + +The most deeply and continuously dividing issue in the Northwest, +as in the nation, at large, was negro slavery. Although written +by Southern men, the Ordinance of 1787 stipulated that there +should be "neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said +territory, otherwise than in the punishment of crimes whereof the +party shall have been duly convicted." If the government of the +Northwest had been one of laws, and not of men, this specific +provision would have made the territory free soil and would have +relieved the inhabitants from all interest in the "peculiar +institution." But the laws never execute themselves--least of all +in frontier communities. In point of fact, considerable numbers +of slaves were held in the territory until the nineteenth century +was far advanced. As late as 1830 thirty-two negroes were held in +servitude in the single town of Vincennes. Slavery could and did +prevail to a limited extent because existing property rights were +guaranteed in the Ordinance itself, in the deed of cession by +Virginia, in the Jay Treaty of 1794, and in other fundamental +acts. The courts of the Northwest held that slave-owners whose +property could be brought under any of these guarantees might +retain that property; and although no court countenanced further +importation, itinerant Southerners--rich planters traveling in +their family carriages, with servants, packs of hunting-dogs, and +trains of slaves, their nightly camp-fires lighting up the +wilderness where so recently the Indian hunter had held +possession"--occasionally settled in southern Indiana or Illinois +and with the connivance of the authorities kept some of their +dependents in slavery, or quasi-slavery, for decades. + +Of actual slaveholders there were not enough to influence public +sentiment greatly. But the people of Southern extraction, +although neither slave holders nor desiring to become such, had +no strong moral convictions on the subject. Indeed, they were +likely to feel that the anti-slavery restriction imposed an +unfortunate impediment in the way of immigration from the South. +Hence the persistent demand of citizens of Indiana and Illinois +for a relaxation of the drastic prohibition of slavery in the +Ordinance of 1787. In 1796 Congress was petitioned from Kaskaskia +to extend relief; in 1799 the territorial Legislature was urged +to bring about a repeal; in 1802 an Indiana territorial +convention at Vincennes memorialized Congress in behalf of a +suspension of the proviso for a period of ten years. Not only +were violations of the law winked at, but both Indiana and +Illinois deliberately built up a system of indenture which +partook strongly of the characteristics of slavery. After much +controversy, Indiana, in 1816, framed a state constitution which +reiterated the language of the Northwest Ordinance, but without +invalidating titles to existing slave property; while Illinois +was admitted to the Union in 1818 with seven or eight hundred +slaves upon her soil, and with a constitution which continued the +old system of indenture with slight modification. + +In a heated contest in Illinois in 1824 over the question of +calling a state convention to draft a constitution legalizing +slavery the people of Northern antecedents made their votes tell +and defeated the project. But, like other parts of the Northwest, +this State never became a unit on the slavery issue. Certainly it +never became abolitionist. By an almost unanimous vote the +Legislature, in 1837, adopted joint resolutions which condemned +abolitionism as "more productive of evil than of moral and +political good"; and in Congress in the preceding year the +delegation of the State had given solid support to the "gag +resolutions," which were intended to deny a hearing to all +petitions on the slavery question. + +Throughout the great era of slavery controversy the Northwest was +prolific of schemes of compromise, for the constant clash of +Northern and Southern elements developed an aptitude for +settlement by agreement on moderate lines. The people of the +section as a whole long clung to popular, or "squatter," +sovereignty as the supremely desirable solution of the slavery +question--a device formulated and defended by two of the +Northwest's own statesmen, Cass and Douglas, and relinquished +only slowly and reluctantly under the leadership, not of a New +England abolitionist, but of a statesman of Southern birth who +had come to the conclusion that the nation could not permanently +exist half slave and half free. + +Cass, Douglas, Lincoln--all were adopted sons of the Northwest, +and the career of every one illustrates not only the prodigality +with which the back country showered its opportunities upon men +of industry and talent, but the play and interplay of sectional +and social forces in the building of the newer nation. Cass and +Douglas were New Englanders. One was born at Exeter, New +Hampshire, in 1782; the other at Brandon, Vermont, in 1813. +Lincoln sprang from Virginian and Kentuckian stocks. His father's +family moved from Virginia to Kentucky at the close of the +Revolution; in 1784 his grandfather was killed by lurking +Indians, and his father, then a boy of six, was saved from +captivity only by a lucky shot of an older brother. Lincoln +himself was born in 1809. Curiously enough, Cass and Douglas, the +New Englanders, played their roles on the national stage as +Jackson Democrats, while Lincoln, the Kentuckian of Virginian +ancestry, became a Whig and later a Republican. + +Cass and Douglas were well-born. Cass's father was a thrifty +soldier-farmer who made for his family a comfortable home at +Zanesville, Ohio; Douglas's father was a successful physician. +Lincoln was born in obscurity and wretchedness. His father, +Thomas Lincoln, was a ne'er-do-well Kentucky carpenter, grossly +illiterate, unable or unwilling to rise above the lowest level of +existence in the pioneer settlements. His mother, Nancy Hanks, +whatever her antecedents may have been, was a woman of character, +and apparently of some education. But she died when her son was +only nine years of age. + +Cass and Douglas had educational opportunities which in their day +were exceptional. Both attended famous academies and received +instruction in the classics, mathematics, and philosophy. Both +grew up in an environment of enlightenment and integrity. +Lincoln, on the other hand, got a few weeks of instruction under +two amateur teachers in Kentucky and a few months more in +Indiana--in all, hardly as much as one year; and as a boy he knew +only rough, coarse surroundings. When, in 1816, the restless head +of the family moved from Kentucky to southern Indiana, his +worldly belongings consisted of a parcel of carpenters' tools and +cooking utensils, a little bedding, and about four hundred +gallons of whiskey. No one who has not seen the sordidness, +misery, and apparent hopelessness of the life of the "poor +whites" even today, in the Kentucky and southern Indiana hills, +can fully comprehend the chasm which separated the boy Lincoln +from every sort of progress and distinction. + +All three men prepared for public life by embracing the +profession that has always, in this country, proved the surest +avenue to preferment--the law. But, whereas Cass arrived at +maturity just in time to have an active part in the War of 1812, +and in this way to make himself the most logical selection for +the governorship of the newly organized Michigan Territory, +Douglas saw no military service, and Lincoln only a few weeks of +service during the Black Hawk War, and both were obliged to seek +fame and fortune along the thorny road of politics. Following +admission to the bar at Jacksonville, Illinois, in 1834, Douglas +was elected public prosecutor of the first judicial circuit in +1835; elected to the state Legislature in 1836; appointed by +President Van Buren registrar of the land office at Springfield +in 1837; made a judge of the supreme court of the State in 1841; +and elected to the national House of Representatives in 1843. +Resourceful, skilled in debate, intensely patriotic, and favored +with many winning personal qualities, he drew to himself men of +both Northern and Southern proclivities and became an influential +exponent of broad and enduring nationalism. + +Meanwhile, after a first defeat, Lincoln was elected to the +Illinois Legislature in 1834, and again in 1836. When he gathered +all of his worldly belongings in a pair of saddlebags and fared +forth to the new capital, Springfield, to settle himself to the +practice of law, he had more than a local reputation for +oratorical power; and events were to prove that he had not only +facility in debate and familiarity with public questions, but +incomparable devotion to lofty principles. In the subsequent +unfolding of the careers of Lincoln and Douglas--especially in +the turn of events that brought to each a nomination for the +presidency by a great party in 1860--there was no small amount of +good luck and sheer accident. But it is equally true that by +prodigious effort Kentuckian and Vermonter alike hewed out their +own ways to greatness. + +It was the glory of the Northwest to offer a competence to the +needy, the baffled, the discouraged, the tormented of the eastern +States and of Europe. The bulk of its fast-growing population +consisted, it is true, of ordinary folk who could have lived on +in fair comfort in the older sections, yet who were ambitious to +own more land, to make more money, and to secure larger +advantages for their children. But nowhere else was the road for +talent so wide open, entirely irrespective of inheritance, +possessions, education, environment. Nowhere outside of the +trans-Alleghany country would the rise of a Lincoln have been +possible. + + + +Chapter XI. The Upper Mississippi Valley + +While the Ohio country--the lower half of the States of Ohio, +Indiana, and Illinois--was throwing off its frontier character, +the remoter Northwest was still a wilderness frequented only by +fur-traders and daring explorers. And that far Northwest by the +sources of the Mississippi had been penetrated by few white men +since the seventeenth century. The earliest white visitors to the +upper Mississippi are not clearly known. They may have been +Pierre Radisson and his brother-in-law, Menard des Grosseilliers, +who are alleged to have covered the long portage from Lake +Superior to the Mississippi in or about 1665; but the matter +rests entirely on how one interprets Radisson's vague account of +their western perambulations. At all events, in 1680--seven years +after the descent of the river from the Wisconsin to the Arkansas +by Marquette and Joliet--Louis Hennepin, under instructions from +La Salle, explored the stream from the mouth of the Illinois to +the Falls of St. Anthony, where the city of Minneapolis now +stands, five hundred miles from the true source. + +There the matter of exploration rested until the days of Thomas +Jefferson, when the purchase of Louisiana lent fresh interest to +northwestern geography. In 1805 General James Wilkinson, in +military command in the West, dispatched Lieutenant Zebulon M. +Pike with a party of twenty men from St. Louis to explore the +headwaters of the great river, make peace with the Indians, and +select sites for fortified posts. From his winter quarters near +the Falls, Pike pushed northward over the snow and ice until, +early in 1806, he reached Leech Lake, in Cass County, Minnesota, +which he wrongly took to be the source of the Father of Waters. +It is little wonder that, at a time when the river and lake +surfaces were frozen over and the whole country heavily blanketed +with snow, he should have found it difficult to disentangle the +maze of streams and lakes which fill the low-lying region around +the headwaters of the Mississippi, the Red River, and the Lake of +the Woods. In 1820 General Cass, Governor of Michigan, which then +had the Mississippi for its western boundary, led an expedition +into the same region as far as Cass Lake, where the Indians told +him that the true source lay some fifty miles to the northwest. +It remained for the traveler and ethnologist Henry Schoolcraft, +twelve years later, to discover Lake Itasca, in modern Clearwater +County, which occupies a depression near the center of the rock- +rimmed basin in which the river takes its rise. + +It was not these infrequent explorers, however, who opened paths +for pioneers into the remote Northwest, but traders in. search of +furs and pelts--those commercial pathfinders of western +civilization. There is scarcely a town or city in the State of +Wisconsin that does not owe its origin, directly or indirectly, +to these men. Cheap and tawdry enough were the commodities +bartered for these wonderful beaver and otter pelts--ribbons and +gewgaws, looking-glasses and combs, blankets and shawls of gaudy +color. But scissors and knives, gunpowder and shot, tobacco and +whiskey, went also in the traders' packs, though traffic in +fire-water was forbidden. These goods, upon arrival at Mackinac, +were sent out by canoes and bateaux to the different posts, where +they were dealt out to the savages directly or were dispatched to +the winter camps along the far-reaching waterways." Returning +home in the spring, the bucks would set their squaws and children +at making maple sugar or planting corn, watermelons, potatoes, +and squash, while they themselves either dawdled their time away +or hunted for summer furs. In the autumn, the wild rice was +garnered along the sloughs and the river mouths, and the +straggling field crops were gathered in--some of the product +being hidden in skillfully covered pits, as a reserve, and some +dried for transportation in the winter's campaign. The villagers +were now ready to depart for their hunting-grounds, often +hundreds of miles away. It was then that the trader came and +credits were wrangled over and extended, each side endeavoring to +get the better of the other."* + +* Thwaites, "Story of Wisconsin," p. 156. + + +This traffic was largely managed by the British in Canada until +1816, when an act of Congress forbade foreign traders to operate +on United States soil. But a heavier blow was inflicted in the +establishment of John Jacob Astor's American Fur Company, which +was given a substantial monopoly of Indian commerce. From its +headquarters on Mackinac Island this great corporation rapidly +squeezed the clandestine British agents out of the American +trade, introduced improved methods, and built up a system which +covered the entire fur-bearing Northwest. + +Of this remoter Northwest, the region between Lakes Erie and +Michigan was the most accessible from the East; yet it was +avoided by the first pioneers, who labored under a strange +misapprehension about its climate and resources. In spite of the +fact that it abounded in rich bottom-lands and fertile prairies +and was destined to become one of the most bountiful orchards of +the world, it was reported by early prospectors to be swampy and +unfit for cultivation. Though Governor Cass did his best to +overcome this prejudice, for years settlers preferred to gather +mainly about Detroit, leaving the rich interior to fur-traders. +When enlightenment eventually came, population poured in with a +rush. Detroit--which was a village in 1820--became ten years +later a thriving city of thirty thousand and the western terminus +of a steamboat line from Buffalo, which year after year +multiplied its traffic. By the year 1837 the great territory +lying east of Lake Michigan was ready for statehood. + +Almost simultaneously the region to the west of Lake Michigan +began to emerge from the fur-trading stage. The place of the +picturesque trader, however, was not taken at once by the prosaic +farmer. The next figure in the pageant was the miner. The +presence of lead in the stretch of country between the Wisconsin +and Illinois rivers was known to the Indians before the coming of +the white man, but they began to appreciate its value only after +the introduction of firearms by the French. The ore lay at no +great depth in the Galena limestone, and the aborigines collected +it either by stripping it from the surface or by sinking shallow +shafts from which it was hoisted, in deerskin bags. Shortly after +the War of 1812 American prospectors pushed into the region, and +the Government began granting leases on easy terms to operators. +In 1823 one of these men arrived with soldiers, supplies, skilled +miners, and one hundred and fifty slaves; and thereafter the +"diggings" fast became a mecca for miners, smelters, speculators, +merchants, gamblers, and get-rich-quick folk of every sort, who +swarmed thither by thousands from every part of the United +States, especially the South, and even from Europe. "Mushroom +towns sprang up all over the district; deep-worn native paths +became ore roads between the burrows and the river-landings; +sink-holes abandoned by the Sauk and Foxes, when no longer to be +operated with their crude tools, were reopened and found to be +exceptionally rich, while new diggings and smelting-furnaces, +fitted out with modern appliances, fairly dotted the map of the +country."* + +* Thwaites, "Story of Wisconsin". p. 163. + + +Galena was the entrepot of the region. A trail cut thither from +Peoria soon became a well-worn coach road; roads were early +opened to Chicago and Milwaukee. In 1822 Galena was visited by a +Mississippi River steamboat, and a few years later regular +steamboat traffic was established. And it was by these roadways +and waterways that homeseekers soon began to arrive. + + +The invasion of the white man, accompanied though it was by +treaties, was bitterly resented by the Indian tribes who occupied +the Northwest above the Illinois River. These Sioux, Sauk and +Foxes, and Winnebagoes, with remnants of other tribes, carried on +an intermittent warfare for years, despite the efforts of the +Federal Government to define tribal boundaries; and between red +men and white men coveting the same lands causes of irritation +were never wanting. In 1827 trouble which had been steadily +brewing came to the boiling-point. Predatory expeditions in the +north were reported; the Winnebagoes were excited by rumors that +another war between the United States and Great Britain was +imminent; an incident or even an accident was certain to provoke +hostilities. The incident occurred. When Red Bird, a petty +Winnebago chieftain dwelling in a "town" on the Black River, was +incorrectly informed that two Winnebago braves who had been +imprisoned at Prairie du Chien had been executed, he promptly +instituted vengeance. A farmer's family in the neighborhood of +Prairie du Chien was massacred, and two keel-boats returning down +stream from Fort Snelling were attacked, with some loss of life. +The settlers hastily repaired the old fort and also dispatched +messengers to give the alarm. Galena sent a hundred militiamen; a +battalion came down from Fort Snelling; Governor Cass arrived on +the spot by way of Green Bay; General Atkinson brought up a full +regiment from Jefferson Barracks, near St. Louis; and finally +Major Whistler proceeded up the Fox with a portion of the troops +stationed at Fort Howard, on Green Bay. + +When all was in readiness, the Winnebagoes were notified that, +unless Red Bird and his principal accomplice, Wekau, were +promptly surrendered, the tribe would be exterminated. The threat +had its intended effect, and the two culprits duly presented +themselves at Whistler's camp on the Fox-Wisconsin portage, in +full savage regalia, and singing their war dirges. Red Bird, who +was an Indian of magnificent physique and lofty bearing, had but +one request to make--that he be not committed to irons--and this +request was granted. At Prairie du Chien, whither the two were +sent for trial, he had opportunities to escape, but he refused to +violate his word by taking advantage of them. Following their +trial, the redskins were condemned to be hanged. Unused to +captivity, however, Red Bird languished and soon died, while his +accomplice was pardoned by President Adams. In 1828 Fort +Winnebago was erected on the site of Red Bird's surrender. + +The Winnebagoes now agreed to renounce forever their claims to +the lead mines. Furthermore, in the same year, the site of the +principal Sauk village and burying-ground, on Rock River, three +miles south of the present city of Rock Island, was sold by the +Government, and the Sauk and Foxes resident in the vicinity were +given notice to leave. Under the Sauk chieftain Keokuk most of +the dispossessed warriors withdrew peacefully beyond the +Mississippi, and two years later the tribal representatives +formally yielded all claims to lands east of that stream. Some +members of the tribe, however, established themselves on the high +bluff which has since been known as Black Hawk's Watch Tower and +defied the Government to remove them. + +The leading spirit in this protest was Black Hawk, who though +neither born a chief nor elected to that dignity, had long been +influential in the village and among his people at large. During +the War of 1812 he became an implacable enemy of the Americans, +and, after fighting with the British at the battles of Frenchtown +and the Thames, he returned to Illinois and carried on a border +warfare which ended only with the signing of a special treaty of +peace in 1816. For years thereafter he was accustomed to lead his +"British band" periodically across northern Illinois and southern +Michigan to the British Indian agency to receive presents of +arms, ammunition, provisions, and trinkets; and he was a +principal intermediary in the British intrigues which gave Cass, +as superintendent of Indian affairs in the Northwest, many uneasy +days. He was ever a restless spirit and a promoter of trouble, +although one must admit that he had some justice on his side and +that he was probably honest and sincere. Tall, spare, with +pinched features, exceptionally high cheekbones, and a prominent +Roman nose, he was a figure to command attention--the more so by +reason of the fact that he had practically no eyebrows and no +hair except a scalp-lock, in which on state occasions he fastened +a flaming bunch of dyed eagle feathers. + +Returning from their hunt in the spring of 1830, Black Hawk and +his warriors found the site of their town preempted by white +settlers and their ancestral burying-ground ploughed over. In +deep rage, they set off for Malden, where they were liberally +entertained and encouraged to rebel. Coming again to the site of +their village a year later, they were peremptorily ordered away. +This time they resolved to stand their ground, and Black Hawk +ordered the squatters themselves to withdraw and gave them until +the middle of the next day to do so. Black Hawk subsequently +maintained that he did not mean to threaten bloodshed. But the +settlers so construed his command and deluged Governor Reynolds +with petitions for help. With all possible speed, sixteen hundred +volunteers and ten companies of United States regulars were +dispatched to the scene, and on the 25th of June, they made an +impressive demonstration within view of the village. In the face +of such odds discretion seemed the better part of valor, and +during the succeeding night Black Hawk and his followers quietly +paddled across the Mississippi. Four days later they signed an +agreement never to return to the eastern banks without express +permission from the United States Government. + +On the Indian side this compact was not meant to be kept. Against +the urgent advice of Keokuk and other leaders, Black Hawk +immediately began preparations for a campaign of vengeance. +British intrigue lent stimulus, and a crafty "prophet," who was +chief of a village some thirty-five miles up the Rock, made it +appear that aid would be given by the Potawatomi, Winnebagoes, +and perhaps other powerful peoples. In the first week of April, +1832, the disgruntled leader and about five hundred braves, with +their wives and children, crossed the Mississippi at Yellow Banks +and ascended the Rock River to the prophet's town, with a view to +raising a crop of corn during the summer and taking the war-path +in the fall. + +The invasion created much alarm throughout the frontier country. +The settlers drew together about the larger villages, which were +put as rapidly as possible in a state of defense. Again the +Governor called for volunteers, and again the response more than +met the expectation. Four regiments were organized, and to them +were joined four hundred regulars. One of the first persons to +come forward with an offer of his services was a tall, ungainly, +but powerful young man from Sangamon County, who had but two +years before settled in the State, and who was at once honored +with the captaincy of his company. This man was Abraham Lincoln. +Other men whose names loom large in American history were with +the little army also. The commander of the regulars was Colonel +Zachary Taylor. Among his lieutenants were Jefferson Davis and +Albert Sidney Johnston, and Robert Anderson, the defender of Fort +Sumter in 1860, was a colonel of Illinois volunteers. It is said +that the oath of allegiance was administered to young Lincoln by +Lieutenant Jefferson Davis! + +Over marshy trails and across streams swollen by the spring thaws +the army advanced to Dixon's Ferry, ninety miles up the Rock, +whence a detachment of three hundred men was sent out, under +Major Stillman, to reconnoitre. Unluckily, this force seized +three messengers of peace dispatched by Black Hawk and, in the +clash which followed, was cut to pieces and driven into headlong +flight by a mere handful of red warriors. The effect of this +unexpected affray was both to stiffen the Indians to further +resistance and to precipitate a fresh panic throughout the +frontier. All sorts of atrocities ensued, and Black Hawk's name +became a household bugaboo the country over. + +Finally a new levy was made ready and sent north. Pushing across +the overflowed wilderness stretches, past the sites of modern +Beloit and Madison, this army, four thousand strong, came upon +the fleeing enemy on the banks of the Wisconsin River, and at +Wisconsin Heights, near the present town of Prairie du Sac, it +inflicted a severe defeat upon the Indians. Again Black Hawk +desired to make peace, but again he was frustrated, this time by +the lack of an interpreter. The redskins' flight was continued in +the direction of the Mississippi, which they reached in +midsummer. They were prevented from crossing by lack of canoes, +and finally the half-starved band found itself caught between the +fire of a force of regulars on the land side and a government +supply steamer, the Warrior, on the water side, and between these +two the Indian band was practically annihilated. + + Thus ended the war--a contest originating in no general uprising +or far-reaching plan, such as marked the rebellions instigated by +Pontiac and Tecumseh, but which none the less taxed the strength +of the border populations and opened a new chapter in the history +of the remoter northwestern territories. Black Hawk himself took +refuge with the Winnebagoes in the Dells of the Wisconsin, only +to be treacherously delivered over to General Street at Prairie +du Chien. Under the terms of a treaty of peace signed at Fort +Armstrong (Rock Island) in September, the fallen leader and some +of his accomplices were held as hostages, and during the ensuing +winter they were kept at Jefferson Barracks (St. Louis) under the +surveillance of Jefferson Davis. In the spring of 1833 they were +taken to Washington, where they had an interview with President +Jackson. "We did not expect to conquer the whites," Black Hawk +told the President; "they had too many houses, too many men. I +took up the hatchet, for my part, to revenge injuries which my +people could no longer endure. Had I borne them longer without +striking, my people would have said, 'Black Hawk is a woman--he +is too old to be a chief he is no Sauk.'" After a brief +imprisonment at Fortress Monroe, where Jefferson Davis was +himself confined at the close of the Civil War, the captives were +set free, and were taken to Philadelphia, New York, up the +Hudson, and finally back to the Rock River country. + +For some years Black Hawk lived quietly on a small reservation +near Des Moines. In 1837 the peace-loving Keokuk took him with a +party of Sauk and Fox chiefs again to Washington, and on this +trip he made a visit to Boston. The officials of the city +received the august warrior and his companions in Faneuil Hall, +and the Governor of the commonwealth paid them similar honor at +the State House. Some war-dances were performed on the Common for +the amusement of the populace, and afterwards the party was taken +to see a performance by Edwin Forrest at the Tremont Theatre. +Here all went well, except that at an exciting point in the play +where one of the characters fell dying the Indians burst out into +a war-whoop, to the considerable consternation of the women and +children present. + +A few months after returning to his Iowa home, Black Hawk, now +seventy-one years of age, was gathered to his fathers. He was +buried about half a mile from his cabin, in a sitting posture, +his left hand grasping a cane presented to him by Henry Clay, and +at his side a supply of food and tobacco sufficient to last him +to the spirit land, supposed to be three days' travel. "Rock +River," he said in a speech at a Fourth of July celebration +shortly before his death, "was a beautiful country. I liked my +town, my cornfields, and the home of my people. I fought for it. +It is now yours. Keep it, as we did. It will produce you good +crops." + + +The Black Hawk War opened a new chapter in the history of the +Northwest. The soldiers carried to their homes remarkable stories +of the richness and attractiveness of the northern country, and +the eastern newspapers printed not only detailed accounts of the +several expeditions but highly colored descriptions of the charms +of the region. Books and pamphlets by the score helped to attract +the attention of the country. The result was a heavy influx of +settlers, many of them coming all the way from New England and +New York, others from Pennsylvania and Ohio. Lands were rapidly +surveyed and placed on sale, and surviving Indian hunting-grounds +were purchased. Northern Illinois filled rapidly with a thrifty +farming population, and the town of Chicago became an entrepot. +Further north, Wisconsin had been organized, in 1836, as a +Territory, including not only the present State of that name but +Iowa, Minnesota, and most of North and South Dakota. As yet the +Iowa country, however, had been visited by few white people; and +such as came were only hunters and trappers, agents of the +American Fur and other trading companies, or independent traders. +Two of the most active of these free-lances of early days--the +French Canadian Dubuque and the Englishman Davenport--have left +their names to flourishing cities. + +To recount the successive purchases by which the Government freed +Iowa soil from Indian domination would be wearisome. The Treaty +of 1842 with the Sauks and Foxes is typical. After a sojourn of +hardly more than a decade in the Iowa country, these luckless +folk were now persuaded to yield all their lands to the United +States and retire to a reservation in Kansas. The negotiations +were carried out with all due regard for Indian susceptibilities. +Governor Chambers, resplendent in the uniform of a +brigadier-general of the United States army, repaired with his +aides to the appointed rendezvous, and there the chiefs presented +themselves, arrayed in new blankets and white deerskin leggings, +with full paraphernalia of paint, feathers, beads, and +elaborately decorated war clubs. Oratory ran freely, although +through the enforced medium of an interpreter. The chiefs +harangued for hours not only upon the beautiful meadows, the +running streams, the stately trees, and the other beloved objects +which they were called upon to surrender to the white man, but +upon the moon and stars and rain and hail and wind, all of which +were alleged to be more attractive and beneficent in Iowa than +anywhere else. The Governor, in turn, gave the Indians some good +advice, urging them to live peaceably in their new homes, to be +industrious and self-supporting, to leave liquor alone, and, in +general, to "be a credit to the country." When every one had +talked as much as he liked, the treaty was solemnly signed. + +The "New Purchase" was thrown open to settlers in the following +spring; and the opening brought scenes of a kind destined to be +reenacted scores of times in the great West during succeeding +decades--the borders of the new district lined, on the eve of the +opening, with encamped settlers and their families ready to race +for the best claims; horses saddled and runners picked for the +rush; a midnight signal from the soldiery, releasing a flood of +eager land-hunters armed with torches, axes, stakes, and every +sort of implement for the laying out of claims with all possible +speed; by daybreak, many scores of families "squatting" on the +best pieces of ground which they had been able to reach; +innumerable disputes, with a general readjustment following the +intervention of the government surveyors. + +The marvelous progress of the upper Mississippi Valley is briefly +told by a succession of dates. In 1838 Iowa was organized as a +Territory; in 1846 it was admitted as a State; in 1848 Wisconsin +was granted statehood; and in 1849 Minnesota was given +territorial organization with boundaries extending westward to +the Missouri. + + +Thus the Old Northwest had arrived at the goal set for it by the +large-visioned men who framed the Ordinance of 1787; every foot +of its soil was included in some one of the five thriving, +democratic commonwealths that had taken their places in the Union +on a common basis with the older States of the East and the +South. Furthermore, the Mississippi had ceased to be a boundary. +A magnificent vista reaching off to the remoter West and +Northwest had been opened up; the frontier had been pushed far +out upon the plains of Minnesota and Iowa. Decade after decade +the powerful epic of westward expansion, shot through with +countless tales of heroism and sacrifice, had steadily unfolded +before the gaze of an astonished world; and the end was not yet +in sight. + + + +Bibliographical Note + +There is no general history of the Northwest covering the whole +of the period dealt with in this book except Burke A. Hinsdale, +The Old Northwest (1888). This is a volume of substantial +scholarship, though it reflects but faintly the life and spirit +of the people. The nearest approach to a moving narrative is +James K. Hosmer, "Short History of the Mississippi Valley" +(1901), which tells the story of the Middle West from the +earliest explorations to the close of the nineteenth century, +within a brief space, yet in a manner to arouse the reader's +interest and sympathy. A fuller and very readable narrative to +1796 will be found in Charles Moore, "The Northwest under Three +Flags" (1900). Still more detailed, and enlivened by many +contemporary rasps and plans, is Justin Winsor, "The Westward +Movement" (1899), covering the period from the pacification of +1763 to the close of the eighteenth century. Frederick J. Turner, +"Rise of the New West" (1906) contains several interesting and +authoritative chapters on western development after the War of +1812; and John B. McMaster, "History of the People of the United +States" (8 vols., 1883-1913), gives in the fourth and fifth +volumes a very good account of westward migration. + +An excellent detailed account of the settlement and development +of a single section of the Northwest is G. N. Fuller, "Economic +and Social Beginnings of Michigan," Michigan Historical +Publications, Univ. Series, No.1 (1916). A very readable book is +R. G. Thwaites, "The Story of Wisconsin" (rev. ed., 1899), +containing a full account of the early relations of white men and +red men, and of the Black Hawk War. Mention may be made, too, of +H. E. Legler, "Leading Events of Wisconsin History" (1898). + +Among the volumes dealing with the diplomatic history of the +Northwest, mention should be made of two recent studies: C. W. +Alvord, "The Mississippi Valley in British Politics" (2 vols., +1917), and E. S. Corwin, "French Policy and the American +Alliance" (1916). + +Aside from Lincoln, few men of the earlier Northwest have been +made the subjects of well-written biographies. Curiously, there +are no modern biographies, good or bad, of George Rogers Clark, +General St. Clair, or William Henry Harrison. John R. Spears, +"Anthony Wayne" (1903) is an interesting book; and Andrew C. +McLaughlin, "Lewis Cass" (1891), and Allen Johnson, "Stephen A. +Douglas" (1908) are excellent. Lives of Lincoln that have +importance for their portrayal of western society include: John +T. Morse, Jr., "Abraham Lincoln" (2 vols., 1893); John G. Nicolay +and John Hay, "Abraham Lincoln, a History" (10 vols., 1890); and +Ida M. Tarbell, "Life of Abraham Lincoln" (new ed., 2vols., +1917). + +The reader will do well, however, to turn early to some of the +works within the field which, by reason of their literary quality +as well as their scholarly worth, have attained the dignity of +classics. Foremost are the writings of Francis Parkman. Most of +these, it is true, deal with the history of the American interior +prior to 1763. But "Frontenac and New France under Louis XIV" +(Frontenac edition, 1915), and "A Half-Century of Conflict" (2 +vols., same ed.) furnish the necessary background; and "The +Conspiracy of Pontiac" (2 vols., same ed.) is indispensable. +Parkman's work closes with the Indian war following the Treaty of +1763. Theodore Roosevelt's "Winning of the West" (4 vols., +1889-96) takes up the story at that point and carries it to the +collapse of the Burr intrigues during the second administration +of Thomas Jefferson. This work was a pioneer in the field. In the +light of recent scholarship it is subject to criticism at some +points; but it is based on careful study of the sources, and for +vividness and interest it has perhaps not been surpassed in +American historical writing. A third extensive work is Archer B. +Hulbert, "Historic Highways of America" (16 vols., 1902-05). In +writing the history of the great land and water routes of trade +and travel between East and West the author found occasion to +describe, in interesting fashion, most phases of western life. +The volumes most closely related to the subject matter of the +present book are: "Military Roads of the Mississippi Valley" +(VIII); "Waterways of Western Expansion" (IX); "The Cumberland +Road" (X); and "Pioneer Roads and Experiences of Travellers" +(XIXII). Mention should be made also of Mr. Hulbert's "The Ohio +River, a Course of Empire" (1906). + +Further references will be found appended to the articles on +Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin in "The +Encyclopaedia Britannica" (11th edition). + +Opportunity to get the flavor of the period by reading +contemporary literature is afforded by two principal kinds of +books. One is reminiscences, letters, and histories written by +the Westerners themselves. Timothy Flint's "Recollections of the +Last Ten Years" (1826) will be found interesting; as also J. +Hall, "Letters from the West" (1828), and T. Ford, "History of +Illinois" (1854). + +The second type of materials is books of travel written by +visitors from the East or from Europe. Works of this nature are +always subject to limitations. Even when the author tries to be +accurate and fair, his information is likely to be hastily +gathered and incomplete and his judgments unsound. Between 1800 +and 1840 the Northwest was visited, however, by many educated and +fair-minded persons who wrote readable and trustworthy +descriptions of what they saw and heard. A complete list cannot +be given here, but some of the best of these books are: John +Melish, "Travels in the United States of America in the Years +1806 & 1807 and 1809, 1810 & 1811" (2 vols., 1810; William +Cobbett, A Year's Residence in the United States of America +(1818); Henry B. Fearon, Sketches of America (1818); Morris +Birkbeck, Letters from Illinois (1818); John Bradbury, Travels in +the Interior of America in the Years 1809, 1810, and 1811" +(1819); Thomas Hulme, "Journal made during a Tour in the Western +Countries of America, 1818-1819" (1828); and Michael Chevalier, +"Society, Manners, and Politics in the United States" (1839). +Copies of early editions of some of these works will be found in +most large libraries. But the reader is happily not dependent on +this resource. Almost all of the really important books of the +kind are reprinted, with introductions and explanatory matter, in +Reuben G. Thwaites, "Early Western Travels, 1714-1846" (32 vols., +1904-07), which is one of our chief collections of historical +materials. + + + + +End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Old Northwest, A Chronicle +of the Ohio Valley and Beyond, by Frederic Austin Ogg + diff --git a/old/oldno10.zip b/old/oldno10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b0851d6 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/oldno10.zip |
