The Winning of the West, Volume 3: The Founding of the Trans-Alleghany Commonwealths, 1784-1790Roosevelt, Theodore
History
The Winning of the West, Volume 3: The Founding of the Trans-Alleghany Commonwealths, 1784-1790
Roosevelt, Theodore
Northwest, Old -- History; United States -- Territorial expansion; West (U.S.) -- History
The Indians who did come in to treat were sullen, and at first always
insisted on impossible terms. They would finally agree to mutual
concessions, would promise to keep their young men from marauding, and
to allow surveys to be made, provided the settlers were driven off all
lands which the Indians had not yielded; and after receiving many gifts,
would depart. The representatives of the Federal Government would then
at once set about performing their share of the agreement, the most
important part of which was the removal of the settlers who had built
cabins on the Indian lands west of the Ohio. The Federal authorities,
both military and civil, disliked the intruders as much as they did the
Indians, stigmatizing them as "a banditti who were a disgrace to human
nature." There was no unnecessary harshness exercised by the troops in
removing the trespassers; but the cabins were torn down and the sullen
settlers themselves were driven back across the river, though they
protested and threatened resistance. Again and again this was done; not
alone in the interest of the Indians, but in part also because Congress
wished to reserve the lands for sale, with the purpose of paying off the
public debt. At the same time surveying parties were sent out. But in
each case, no sooner had the Federal Commissioners and their
subordinates begun to perform their part of the agreement, than they
were stopped by tidings of fresh outrages on the part of the very
Indians with whom they had made the treaty; while the surveying parties
were driven in and forced to abandon their work. [Footnote: State Dept.
MSS., No. 30, p. 265; No. 56, p. 327; No. 163, pp. 416, 418, 422, 426.]
Both Sides Bent on War.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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