The Winning of the West, Volume 4: Louisiana and the Northwest, 1791-1807Roosevelt, Theodore
History
The Winning of the West, Volume 4: Louisiana and the Northwest, 1791-1807
Roosevelt, Theodore
Northwest, Old -- History; United States -- Territorial expansion; West (U.S.) -- History
All these causes combined to make the Creeks sue for peace. To its shame
and discredit the United States Government at first proposed to repeat
towards the Chickasaws the treachery of which the British had just been
guilty to the Northern Indians; for it refused to defend them from the
Creeks, against whom they had been acting, partly, it is true, for their
own ends, but partly in the interest of the settlers. The frontiersmen,
however, took a much more just and generous view of the affair. Mansker
and a number of the best fighters in the Cumberland district marched to
the assistance of the Chickasaws; and the frontier militia generally
showed grateful appreciation of the way both the Upper Cherokees and the
Chickasaws helped them put a stop to the hostilities of the Chickamaugas
and Creeks. Robertson got the Choctaws to interfere on behalf of the
Chickasaws and to threaten war with the Creeks if the latter persisted
in their hostilities. Moreover, the United States agents, when the
treaty was actually made, behaved better than their superiors had
promised, for they persuaded the Creeks to declare peace with the
Chickasaws as well as with the whites. [Footnote: Robertson MSS.,
Robertson to Blount, Jan. 13, 1795; Blount to Robertson, Jan. 20, 1795,
and April 26, 1795; Robertson to Blount, April 20, 1795; _Knoxville
Gazette_, Aug. 25, 1792, Oct. 12, 1793, June 19, 1794, July 17, Aug. 4
and Aug. 15, 1794; American State Papers, pp. 284, 285, etc., etc.] Many
of the peaceful Creeks had become so alarmed at the outlook that they
began to exert pressure on their warlike brethren; and at last the
hostile element yielded, though not until bitter feeling had arisen
between the factions. The fact was, that the Creeks were divided much as
they were twenty years later, when the Red Sticks went to war under the
inspiration of the Prophet; and it would have been well if Wayne had
been sent South, to invade their country and anticipate by twenty years
Jackson's feats. But the nation was not yet ready for such strong
measures. The Creeks were met half way in their desire for peace; and
the entire tribe concluded a treaty the provisions of which were
substantially those of the treaty of New York. They ceased all
hostilities, together with the Cherokees.
Fatuity of Timothy Pickering.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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