The Life of George Washington, Vol. 5: Commander in Chief of the American Forces During the War; which Established the Independence of his Country and First; President of the United StatesMarshall, John
History
The Life of George Washington, Vol. 5: Commander in Chief of the American Forces During the War; which Established the Independence of his Country and First; President of the United States
Marshall, John
Generals -- United States -- Biography; Presidents -- United States -- Biography; Washington, George, 1732-1799
On the third of August, a definitive treaty was concluded by General
Wayne with the hostile Indians north-west of the Ohio, by which the
destructive and expensive war which had long desolated that frontier,
was ended in a manner perfectly agreeable to the United States. An
accommodation had taken place with the powerful tribes of the south
also; and to preserve peace in that quarter, it was only necessary to
invest the executive with the means of restraining the incursions
which the disorderly inhabitants of the southern frontier frequently
made into the Indian territory; incursions, of which murder was often
the consequence.
Few subjects had excited more feeling among the people, or in the
government of the United States, than the captivity of their fellow
citizens in Algiers. Even this calamity had been seized as a weapon
which might be wielded with some effect against the President.
Overlooking the exertions he had made for the attainment of peace, and
the liberation of the American captives; and regardless of his
inability to aid negotiation by the exhibition of force, the
discontented ascribed the long and painful imprisonment of their
unfortunate brethren to a carelessness in the administration
respecting their sufferings, and to that inexhaustible source of
accusation,--its policy with regard to France and Britain.
[Sidenote: Treaty with Algiers.]
After the failure of several attempts to obtain a peace with the
regency of Algiers, a treaty was, at length, negotiated on terms
which, though disadvantageous, were the best that could be obtained.
The exertions of the executive to settle the controversy with Spain
respecting boundary, and to obtain the free use of the Mississippi,
had been unavailing. A negotiation in which Mr. Short and Mr.
Carmichael were employed at Madrid, had been protracted by artificial
delays on the part of the Spanish cabinet, until those ministers had
themselves requested that the commission should be terminated.
[Sidenote: Treaty with Spain.]
At length, Spain, embarrassed by the war in which she was engaged,
discovered symptoms of a temper more inclined to conciliation, and
intimated to the secretary of state, through her commissioners at
Philadelphia, that a minister, deputed on the special occasion, of
higher rank than Mr. Short, who was a resident, would be able to
expedite the negotiation. On receiving this intimation, the President,
though retaining a high and just confidence in Mr. Short, nominated
Mr. Pinckney, in November, 1794, as envoy extraordinary to his
Catholic Majesty. Mr. Pinckney repaired in the following summer to
Madrid, and a treaty was concluded on the 20th of October, in which
the claims of the United States, on the important points of boundary,
and the Mississippi, were fully conceded.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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