But besides that open one, there was a secret treaty to which the Grand Chief and the United States only, were parties. It contained a stipulation, that after two years the Indian trade should be turned to points in the United States. It provided for annual stipends to be paid to designated chiefs. McGillivray himself was appointed Indian agent of the United States, with the rank of a Brigadier-General, and the yearly pay of twelve hundred dollars.[46] These treaties were the grounds of severe criticism upon McGillivray. By the open treaty, it was said, he made a surrender of the Oconee county for an inadequate consideration. But the obvious answer to that objection was, that he had exhausted every expedient that his clear and fertile mind could command, to stay the encroachments of the Georgians without a war, an alternative which would have eventually ended in crushing his people. Besides, the plighted faith of the United States, that no farther encroachments should be made upon them, was to them a consideration far exceeding every other; for history had not then declared, as it has since, how frail a barrier against encroachments upon Indian territory is the plighted faith of the nation. Whatever personal advantages he derived from the secret treaty, whether pecuniary or in dignity, inured to the benefit of his people. To honor him was to give consideration to them; and they regarded the tributes which his abilities drew from the British, the Spaniards, and the Americans, as so many offerings made to the power of the nation. That each of those tributaries complained that he was not their dupe, is alike a proof of his ability, and his fidelity to his people.