DISCOURS
ON THE
F THE OHIO.
IN WHICH THE OPINIONS OF THE CONQUEST OF THAT VALLEY BY THE IROQUOIS, OR
SIX NATIONS, IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY, SUPPORTED BV CADWALLADER
COLDEN, OF NEW YORK, GOVERNOR POWNAL, OF MASSACHUSETTS, DR.
FRANKLIN, THE HON. DE WITT CLINTON, OF NEW YORK, AND
JUDGE HAYWOOD, OF TENNESSEE, ARE EXAMINED AND
— CONTESTED.
TO WHICH ARE PREFIXED
SOME REMARKS ON THE STUDY OF HISTORY.
[PREPARED AT THE REQUEST OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF OHIO.]
BY WM. HENRY HARRISON,
OF NORTH BEND.
i( Ns incognita pro cognitis habeamus."— -Cicero.
CINCINNATI;
1838.
^
PRINTED AT THE OFFICE OF THE CINCINNATI EXPRESS.
A
DISCOURSE.
Gentlemen of the Historical Society: —
No opinion has been more generally entertained in every
civilized community, than that which asserts the importance
of the study of History, as a branch of education. And al-
though there are few, if any, who would controvert this pro-
position, it will scarcely be denied, that there is no study at
this day, so much neglected. We every where meet with
men possessed of much intelligence, great scientific attain-
ments, high standing in those professions which require pro-
found study and deep research, who have neglected to inform
themselves, not only of the circumstances which influenced
the rise and progress, the decline and fall of the most cele-
brated nations of antiquity, but who are extremely deficient
in the knowledge of the history of their own country. If
we search for the causes which have produced this state of
things, one, perhaps the most efficient, will be found in the
great increase of works of fiction, and the fascinating charac-
ter with which they have been clothed, by the great geniuses
who have been employed upon them. It is the perusal of
these, which occupies the attention of the wealthy, and fills
the leisure moments of the man of business.
I am loathe to give another reason for this decline in the taste
for historical reading, because it indicates, also, a decline in
patriotism. I allude to the inordinate desire for the accumu-
lation of riches, which has so rapidly increased in our coun-
try, and which, if not arrested, will ere long effect a deplora-
ble change in the character of our countrymen. This basest
of passions, this *' meanest of amours," could not exhibit it-
(4)
self in a way to be more destructive of republican principles,
than by exerting an influence on the course of education
adopted for our youth. The effects upon the moral condi-
tion of the Nation would be like those which would be pro-
duced upon the verdant valley of our State, if some quality
inimical to vegitable life, were to be imparted to the sources
of the magnificent river by which it is adorned and fertiliz-
ed.
It is in youth, and in early youth, that the seeds of that pa-
triotism must be sown, which is to continue to bloom through
life. No one ever began to be a patriot in advanced age; that
holy fire must be lighted up when the mind is best suited to
receive with enthusiasm, generous and disinterested impres-
sions. If it is not then " the ruling passion" of the bosom, it
will never be at an age when every action is the result of
cool calculation, and the basis of that calculation too often
the interest oi the individual. This has been the prevailing
opinion with every free people throughout every stage of ci-
vilization? from the roving savage tribe to the numerous and
polished nation; from the barbarous Pelasgi to the glorious
era of Miltiades and Cimon, or the more refined and lux-
urious age of Pericles and Xenophon. By all, the same
means were adopted. With all, it was the custom to present
to their youth the examples of the heroic achievements of
their ancestors, to inspire them with the same ardour of de-
votion to the welfare of their country. As it regards the ar-
gument, it matters not whether the history was written or
unwritten, whether in verse or prose, or how communicated;
whether by national annals, to which all had access ; by recita-
tion in solemn assemblies, as at the Olympic and other games
of Greece; in the songs of bards, as amongst the Celts and
Scandinavians; or in the speeches of the aged warriors, as
was practiced by the Wyandots, Delawares, Shawanaes,and
other tribes of our own country. Much fiction, was, no
doubt, passed off on these occasions, as real history; but as it
was believed to be true, that was sufficient to kindle the spi-
rit of emulation in the cause of patriotism among those to
whom these recitations, songs, and speeches were addressed.
(5)
In the remarks I have made, it is by no means my inten-
tion to deny the good effects which have been derived from
some of the works of fiction, and that they have greatly as-
sisted
14 To raise the genius, and to mend the heart."
But this result is better effected by authentic history. A-
mongst the former of these the Telemachus of Fenelon stands
almost unrivalled for the beauty of the narrative, the purity
of the morals it inculcates, the soundness of many of the
principles of government it advances, and the masterly man-
ner in which the passions of youth are subdued and brought
under the control of wisdom and virtue. But I think it will
not be contended that these lessons, excellent as they are,
can have as beneficial an effect as many of the narratives to
be found in real history. The reason is obvious. The youth
for instance, for whose special benefit the book 1 have men-
tioned was written, knowing that it was a fiction, might very
readily persuade himself that the task of forming his conduct
upon that attributed to the son of Ulysses, was too much forhim
or any one else to accomplish, the character being drawn,
not from nature, but from the imagination of the author.
On the contrary, how many thousands of youth have been
encouraged to pursue a career of usefulness and true glory
by the examples to be found in the history of Greece and
Rome.
The manner in which Telemachus is made to sacrifice his
love for Eucharis, for the accomplishment of the pious object
of his travels, forms a "beautiful lesson ; and his deep contrition
and regret for having given way to the violence of his pas-
sions in his contest with Hippias, is still a better one. But
authentic history furnishes examples of forbearance, in mat-
ters of this kind, which are infinitely preferable.
In relation to the first, the cases of Scipio Africanus and
Alexander the Great, may be quoted. And as it regards the
control of the temper, where its unrestrained violence might
produce great mischief, Grecian history furnishes us with
one of more value than all of a similar character which are
(0)
to be found in all the works of fiction, from the origin of let-
ters to the present day. I refer to the well known anecdote
recorded of Themistocles in his difference with Eurybiades,
the Spartan Admiral and Commander-in-chief of the allied
fleet, immediately preceding the battle of Salamis. The ima-
gination of no writer can conceive an effect so great, to
be produced by dignified forbearance, under gross insult, as
that of Themistocles on this occasion.*
Take from the anecdote the intended blow which the
superior refinement of modern manners would not tolerate,
and how often might it prove a useful example to men hold-
ing inferior stations in a Republic, to meet the passionate
violence of those in power, with moderation and firmness, and
thus avert from their country an impending calamity, having
its origin either in mistaken policy or designed usurpation of
power.
The works of fiction which have had the greatest effect in
fixing the love of country in the youthful bosom, are unques-
tionably those in which the characters and the leading fea-
tures are taken from real history. This is the case with most
of the ancient tragedies, as well as most of those of Shaks-
peare; and it is doubtless from this circumstance, that the
beneficial effects upon mankind attributed to them by Mr.
Pope, in his prologue to the tragedy of Cato, have been pro-
duced. That beautiful production (the tragedy) would itself
lose the greater portion of the interest which is felt in its
perusal, if we did not know from undoubted history, that the
sentiments and feelings of Cato were such as he is there made
to utter, and his actions such as are there described. -All
well calculated to
" Make mankind in conscious virtue bold.,,
The effect, however, which Mr. Pope attributes to tragedy
in changing the "savage natures" of tyrants, is not so appa-
rent. Miserable indeed, would be the situation of mankind,
if that ^were their reliance to escape oppression. But I
conceive that the operation, as well of tragedy as history
* Sec note A., in the Appendix.
(7)
itself, is more direct. Instead of palliating and lessening the
evil when it shall have existence, their great object is (and
such is certainly their effect) to prevent its occurrence. In-
stead of softening the hearts of tyrants, to harden those of
the people against all tyrants and usurpers, whatever may
be the degree of usurpation or the character of the tyranny,
and to warn them of the insiduous means by which their
confidence is obtained, for the purpose of being betrayed.
If I truly estimate the value of a knowledge of history,
gentlemen, by the citizens of a Republic, you will unite with
me in deploring the existence of any circumstances which
would have a tendency to supercede or lessen the attention
which was once paid to it in our seminaries of learning,
and more especially if one of the causes should be found in
the increasing love of riches, rendering our youth impatient
of studies which are not essential to enable them to enter
upon the professional career which they have chosen, as the
means of obtaining that wealth which is so universally sought
after.
As your association, gentlemen, was formed for the pur-
pose of procuring and preserving materials for the history of
our own State, rather than to encourage attention to that
of other countries, these remarks may be considered a di-
gression; I shall, therefore, add nothing more on that sub-
ject, but proceed to present to you some notices and remarks
more in accordance with the wishes expressed in your
invitation to prepare this paper.
It is somewhat remarkable that Ohio, admitted into the
Union before either of the other north-western States, so far
ahead of either in point of population, and having its position
precisely intermediate between them and the European col-
onies, from whence the emigration to all of them came, should
have been the last that was settled.
Fifty-five years ago, there was not a christian inhabitant
within the bounds which now compose the State of Ohio.
And if a few years anterior to that period, a traveler had
been passing down the magnificent river which forms our
southern boundary, he might not have seen in its whole
(8)
course of eleven hundred miles, a single human being — cer-
tainly not a habitation, nor the vestige of one, calculated
for the residence of man. He might, indeed, have seen
indications that it was not always thus. His eye mi^ht
have rested upon some stupendous mound, or lengthened
lines of ramparts, and traverses of earth still of consid-
erable elevation, which proved that the country had once
been possessed by a numerous and laborious people. —
But he would have seen, also, indubitable evidences that
centuries had passed away since these remains had been
occupied by those for whose use they had been reared.
Whilst ruminating upon the causes which had occasioned
their removal, he would not fail to arrive at the conclusion,
that their departure, (if they did depart) must have been a
matter of necessity. For no people, in any stage of civili-
zation, would willingly have abandoned such a country; en-
deared to them as it must have been, by long residence and
the labor they had bestowed upon it. Unless, like the de-
scendants of Abraham, they had fled from the face of a
tyrant and the oppressions of unfeeling task-masters. If
they had been made to yield to a more numerous or more
gallant people, what country had received the fugitives?
and what has become of the conquerors? Had they, too,
been forced to fly before a new swarm from some northern
or southern hive? Still would the question recur, what had
been their fate ? And why had so large a portion of a coun-
try, so beautiful and inviting, so abounding in all that is desi-
rable in the rudest as well as the most advanced state of
society, been left as a haunt for the beasts of the forest, or
as an occasional arena for distant savages to mingle in mor-
tal conflicts? To aid us in coming to any thing like a satis-
factory conclusion in answer to those questions, we possess
only a solitary recorded fact. For every thing else, we
must search amidst the remains which are still before us, for
all that we wish to know of the history and character of
this ancient and nameless people. And although the result
of such an examination may be far from satisfactory, it will not
be entirely barren of information. We learn first, from the
(9)
extensive country covered by their remains, that they were
a numerous people. Secondly, that they were congregated
in considerable cities, from the extensive works with which
several favorite situations are covered. Thirdly, that they
were essentially an agricultural people; because, collected
as they were in great numbers, they could have depended
upon the chase, but for a small portion of their subsistence;
and there is no reason to believe that they were in the pos-
session of domestic animals, as the only one known to the
American continent before the arrival of the Europeans (the
Lama of Peru) was unsuited by nature to endure the rigors
of a winter in this latitude. The impossibility of assigning
any other purpose to which the greater number, and many of
the largest of these remains, could be applied, together with
other appearances scarcely to be misunderstood, confirm the
fact that they possessed a national religion; in the celebra-
tion of which, all that was pompous, gorgeous and imposing,
that a semi-barbarous nation could devise, was brought into
occasional display. That there were a numerous priesthood,
and altars often smoking with hecatombs of victims. These
same circumstances, also indicate, that they had made no
inconsiderable progress in the art of building, and that their
habitations had been ample and convenient, if not neat or
splendid. Man in every age and nation has provided for his
own defence against the elements, before he even designates
any peculiar spot for the worship of his God* In rigorous
climates the hut will always precede the uncovered altar of
earth or stone, and the well built city before the temple is
mn.Hp.jn j|Kgpt its spires to the skies.
"^ Tnus much do these ancient remains furnish us, as to the
condition and character of the people who erected them. I
have persuaded myself that I have gleaned from them, also,
some interesting facts in their history. It may, however, be
proper first to remark, that the solitary recorded fact to which
I have alluded to enable us to determine their ultimate fate,
is that which has been furnished to us by the historians of
Mexico.
The pictural records of that nation, ascribe their origin to
B
(10)
the Astecks, a people who are said to have arrived first in Mex-
ico about the middle of the seventh centurv. An American
author, the Rt. Rev. Bishop Madison, of Virginia, having
with much labor investigated this subject, declares his convic-
tion that these Astecks are one and the same people with those
who once inhabited the Valley of the Ohio. The probabili-
ties are certainly in favor of this opinion. Adopting it, there-
fore, and knowing by it the date of their arrival on the north
west frontier of Mexico, we refer again to the works they
have left us to gain what knowledge we can of the cause and
manner of their leaving the Ohio valley. For the reasons for-
merly stated, I assume the fact that they were compelled to fly
from a more numerous or more gallant people. No doubt the
contest was long and bloody, and that the country, so long their
residence, was not abandoned to their rivals until their numbers
were too much reduced to continue the contest. Taking in-
to consideration all the circumstances which can be collect-
ed from the works they have left on the ground, I have come
to the conclusion that these people were assailed both from
their northern and southern frontier; made to recede from
both directions, and that their last efforts at resistance was
made on the banks of the Ohio. I have adopted this opinion,
from the different character of their works, which are there
found, from those in the interior. Great as some of the lat-
ter are, and laborious as was the construction, particularly
those of jCircleville and Newark, I am pursuaded they were
never intended for military defences. On the contrary, those
upon the Ohio River were evidently designed for that pur-
r£&sfl—*J The three that I have examined, those of Marietta,
^^Cincinnati, and the mouth of the Great Miami, particularl
the latter, have a military character stamped upon them which
™ cannot be mistaken. The latter work, and that at Circleville,
never could have been erected by the same people, if intend-
ed for military purposes. The square, at the latter place, has
such a number of gateways, as seem intended to facilitate the
entrance of those who would attack it. And both it, and
the circle were completely commanded by the mound, ren-
dering it an easier matter to take, than defend it. The En-
(11)
gineers, on the contrary, who directed the execution of the
Miami Work, appear to have known the importance of flank
defences. And if their bastions are not as perfect, as to form,
as those which are in use in modern Engineering, their posi-
tion as well as that of the long lines of curtains are precisely
as they should be. I have an other conjecture as to this Miami
Fortress. If the people of whom we have been speaking
were really the Astecks, the direct course of their journey to
Mexico, and the facilities which that mode of retreat would
afford, seems to point out a descent of the Ohio as the line
of that retreat.
This position, then, (the lowest which they appear to have
fortified on the Ohio,) strong by nature, and improved by the
expenditure of great labor, directed by no inconsiderable
degree of skill, would be the last hold they would occupy and
the scene of their last efforts to retain possession of the coun-
try they had so long inhabited. The interest which every
one feels, who visits this beautiful and commanding spot,
wrould be greatly heightened, if he could persuade himself of
the reasonableness of my deductions, from the facts I have
stated. That this elevated ridge, from which are now to be
seen flourishing villages, and plains of unrivalled fertility,
possessed by a people in the full enjoyment of peace and lib-
erty, and all that peace and liberty can give, whose matrons,
like those of Sparta, have never seen the smoke of an ene-
my's fire, once presented a scene of war, and war in its most
horrid form, where blood is the object, and the deficiences of
the field made up by the slaughter of innocence and imbeci-
lity. That it was here that a feeble band was collected,
" remnant of mighty battlesfought in vain," to make a last ef-
fort for the country of their birth, the ashes of their ancestors^
and the altars of their Gods. That the crisis was met with
fortitude, and sustained with valor, need not to be doubted.
The ancestors of Quitlavaca and Gautimosin, and their de-
voted followers, could not be cowards. But their efforts
were vain, and flight or death were the sad alternatives.
Whatever might >be their object in adopting the former,
whether, like the Trojan remnant, to seek another country,
(id)
aand happier walls,*' or like that of Ithome, to procure present
safety and renovated strength, for a distant day of vengeance,
we have no means of ascertaining. But there is every rea-
son to believe, that they were the founders of a great Empire,
and that ages before they assumed the more modern and dis-
tinguished name of Mexicans, the Astecks had lost in the more
mild and uniform climate of Anahuac, all remembrance of the
banks of the Ohio. But whatever may have been their fate,
our peculiar interest in them ceases after their departure
from the Miami.* In relation to their conquerors, I have little
to say, and, perhaps, that little not very satisfactory. Al-
though I deny the occupation of the banks of the Ohio, for cen-
turies before its discovery by the Europeans, I think that there
are indubitable marks of its being thickly inhabited by a race of
men, inferior to the authors of the great works we have been
considering, after the departure of the latter. Upon many
places remains of pottery, pipes, stone hatchets, and other
articles, are found in great abundance, which are evidently of
inferior workmanship to those of the former people. But I
have one other fact to offer, which furnishes still better evi-
dence of my opinion. I have before mentioned Cincinnati
as one of the positions occupied by the more civilized people.
When I first saw the upper plain on which that city stands, it
was literally covered with low lines of embankments. I
had the honor to attend Gen. Wayne, two years afterwards,
in an excursion to examine them. We were employed the
greater part of a day in August, 1793, in doing so. The
number and variety of figures in which these lines were
drawn,, was almost endless, and as I have said, almost cover-
ed the plain. Many so faint, indeed, as scarcely to be fol-
lowed, and often for a considerable distance entirely obliter-
ated, but by careful examination, and following the direction,
they could be again found. Now, if these lines were ever of
the height of the others made by the same people, (and they
must have been, to have answered any valuable purpose.) or
unless their erection was many ages anterior to the others,
* See note B., in the Appendix.
there must have been some other cause than the attrition of
the rain (for it is a dead level) to bring them down to their
then state. That cause I take to have been continued culti-
vation. And as the people who erected them, would not
themselves destroy works which had cost them so much la*
bor, the solution of the question can only be found in the
long occupancy, and cultivation of another people, and the
probability is, that that people were the conquerors of the
ossessors. "To the quesuonoT'TITe'iate ot the former,
the cause of no recent vestige of settlements being found
on the Ohio, I can offer only a conjecture; but one which ap-
pears to me to be far from improbable. Since the first settle-
ment of the Ohio by the whites, they have been visited by
two unusually destructive freshets, one in 1793, and the oth-
er in 1 832. The latter was from five to seven feet higher than
the former. The latter was produced by a simultaneous fall
of rain, upon an unusually extensive frozen surface. The
learned Doctor Locke, of Cincinnati, calculated the number
of inches of rain that fell, and as far as it could be ascertain-
ed, the extent of surface which was subjected to it, and his
conclusion was, that the height of the water at Cincinnati did
not account, after allowing for evaporation, etc., for all the
water that fell. In other words, that with the same fall of
rain, other circumstances concurring, the fresh might have
been some feet higher. Now these causes might have com-
bined at another time to pour the waters of the tributary
streams into the main trunk more nearly together, and thus pro-
duce a height of water equal to that described by an Indian,
Chief, (to which he said he was an eye witness,) to Gen. Wil-
kinson, at Cincinnati, in the fall of 1792. And which, if true,
must have been several feet, (eight or ten,) at least, higher
than that of 1 83*2. The occurrence of such a flood, when the
banks of the Ohio were occupied by numerous Indian towns
and villages, nearly all of which must have been swept off,
was well calculated to determine them to a removal, not only
from actual suffering, but from the suggestions of superstitu-
tion; an occurrence so unusual, being construed into a warn-
ing from heaven, to seek a residence upon the smaller streams.
(14)
Before the remembrance of these events had been obliterated
by time, the abandoned region would become an unusual re-
sort for game, and a common hunting ground for the hostile
tribes of the North and South, and, of course, an arena for
battle. Thus it remained when it was first visited by the
whites.
I Having given all the facts which I could collect, and some
^^Oheconiectures I have formed in relation to the most an- *j
cient people who have inhabited our State, Ijiext procej
make some remarks upon the tribes who were our immei
ate predecessors.
From our long acquaintance with these tribes, extending
considerably beyond the commencement of out Revolution-
ary War, and from the intimate connexion which has subsist-
ed between them and us, since the treaty of Greenville, in
1795, it may be presumed that we are as well acquainted with
iheir history as we could be, when our reliance must be plac-
ed on their statements, and traditions, or by comparing
those with the lew facts which could be collected from other
sources.
The tribes resident within the bounds of this State when
the first white settlement commenced, were the Wyan-
dots, Miamis, Shawnees, Delawares, a remnant of the Mo-
heigans, (who had uniled themselves with the Delawares.)
and a band of the Ottowas. There may also have been, at
this time, some bands from the Seneca and Tuscaroras tribes
of the Iroquois or Six Nations, remaining in the Northern
part of the State. But whether resident or not, the country
for some distance West of the Pennsylvania line, certainly
belonged to them. From this, their Western bouundary,
{wherever it might be, but certainly East of the Scioto,) the
claims of the Miamis' and Wyandots' commenced. The
claims of the latter were veiy limited, and cannot well be
admitted to extend further South than the dividing ridge be-
tween the waters of the Scioto and Sandusky rivers; nor
further West than the Auglaise. Whilst the Miamis' and
their kindred tribes are conceived to be the just proprietors
of all the remaining part of the country Northwest of the
(15)
Ohio, and South of the southerly bend of Lake Michigan and
the Illinois river. I am aware that this is not the common-
ly received opinion, and that a contrary one was promul-
gated more than eighty years ago, and sustained by the ef-
forts of some of the most distinguished men of our country.
A subject which has engaged the attention of our immortal
Franklin, and into the discussion of which, we are told, "the
late De Witt Clinton, of New York, entered with much ai*-
dor," will certainly not be deemed unworthy our attention
on this occasion; even if it did not form a part of the history
of the country which we have embraced in our plan. The
proposition against which I contend, asserts the right, at the
period of which I am speaking, of all the country watered
by the Ohio, to the Iroquois, or Six Nations, in consideration
of their having conquered the tribes which originally possess-
ed it. This confederacy, it is said, possessed, "at once, the am-
bition of the Romans for conquest, and their martial talents
for securing its5' Like that celebrated ancient people, too,
they manifested in the hour of victory, "a moderation equal
to the valor which they displayed in achieving it;" the con-
quered nations being always spared, and either incorporated
in their confederacy, or subjected to so small a tribute as to
amount merely to an acknowledgement of the supremacy of
their conquerors. That under the guidance of this spirit, and
this policy, they had extended their conquest westward to the
Mississippi; and south to the Carolinas, and the confines of
Georgia, a space embracing more than half of the whole ter-
ritory of the Union, before the acquisition of Louisiana, and
Florida. I have nothing to do, at this time, with the con-
quests in other directions, but I shall endeavor to prove that
their alledged subjugation of the North Western tribes, rests
upon no competent authority; and that the favored region
which we now call our own, as well as that possessed by our
immediate contiguous western sisters, has been for many
centuries as it now is,
" The land of the free and the home of the brave."
I neither deny the martial spirit of the Iroquois, nor the
(16)
magnanimity of their policy to some of the tribes whom they
subdued: both are well established. But I comtend, that whilst
they had a fair field for the exercise of all that they possessed
of the former, in a war with an ancient tribe of Ohio, they had
no opportunity for the display of the latter, from the indomita-
ble valor of the comparatively small nation which had dared
to oppose itself to the extension of their power. That a por-
tion of the country was subdued, both parties admit; as they
do, also, that if the termination of this war enabled the Iro-
quois somewhat to extend the limits of their empire, they
found it a desert, without a warrior to adopt into their nation,
or a female to exhibit in their triumphant returns to their vil-
lages.
I will now proceed to state the grounds upon which rests
the claims of the Iroquois, to be considered the conquerors of
the country to the Mississippi, and between the Ohio and the
Lakes.
The history of the Iroquois, or Six Nations, was written by
Cadwallader Colden,Esq., of New York, who was a member
of the King's council, and Surveyor General of the Province,
twenty-five or thirty years before the Revolutionary War.
I have never seen this work, and shall be obliged to use
the account of its contents, as far as relates to the claims of
conquests made by the Iroquois, as given by Mr. Butler, in his
recent history of Kentucky. According to the authorites
quoted by this gentleman, the position occupied by the Iro-
quois, when the first French settlement w7as made in Canada,
was " on the banks of the St. Lawrence, above Quebec,
" and that from thence they extended their conquests on both
" sides of the lakes Ontario, Erie and Huron. In this ca-
" reer of conquest, w7ith a magnanimity and sagacious spirit,
" worthy of the ancient Romans, and superior to all their
" contemporary tribes, they successively incorporated the
" victims of their arms with their own confederacy." He
goes on to say, condensing the account given in a work
printed by Dodsley, in 1755, entitled "Present State of
North America," as follows: — "In 1673, these tribes are rep-
" resented as having conquered the Ollinois, or Illinois, re-
(17)
** siding on the Illinois river, and they are, likewise, at the
« same time, said to have conquered and incorporated the
«* Satanas, Chawanons or Shawanons, whom they had forme r-
" ly driven from the lakes. To these conquests they are said
" by the same high authority, to have added the Twightwas,
" (Tewieiewes,) as they are called in the journal of Major
" Washington. About the same time, they carried their vic-
« torious arms to the Illinois and Mississippi, westward-, and
*• to Georgia, southward. About the year 1711, they incor-
" porated the Tuscaroras, when driven from Carolina." —
« The tribes in question," says Gov. Pownal, in his adminis-
tration of the British Colonies, "about the year 1664, car-
" ried their arms as far south as Carolina, and as far west as
" the Mississippi, over a vast country which extended twelve
*; hundred miles in length, and about six hundred in breadth,
" when they destroyed whole nations, of whom there are no
" accounts remaining among the English. The rights of
" these tribes to the hunting lands of Ohio, meaning the riv-
" er of that name, may be fairly proved by the conquest they
w made in subduing the Shawonoes, Delawares, Tiwictewees^
" and Oillinois, as they stood possessed thereof at the peace of
H Ryswick, in 1697." In support of these pretentions, he
further quotes a paper from the pen of Dr. Franklin, who up-
on the authority of Lewis Evans, a gentleman who was said
by the Doctor to be possessed of great American knowledge,
asserting that "the Shawonoes, who were formerly one of the
" most considerable nations of these parts of America ; whose
" seat extended from Kentucky southwestward, to the Mis-
" sissippi, have been subdued by the confederate, or Six Na-
" tions, and the country since became their property." But
it seems that, notwithstanding the bold assertions of the
above named authors, it became necessary at a council held
in the year 1744, to apply to the Six Nations themselves, to
know the extent of their claims. That it was favorable
enough, may be reasonably supposed. Their particular an-
swer will be quoted below. At another treaty with the Six
Nations, held at Fort Stanwix, in New York, in 1768, the
Indians were again called upon to state the extent of their
C
(18)
claims upon the Ohio. This they are said to have done in the
following words, addressed to their Agent, Sir Wm. John-
son:—" You who know all our affairs must be sensible that
our rights go much further south than the Kenhawa, and that
we have a very good, and clear title as far south as the Che-
rokee river, which we cannot allow to be the right of any
other Indians, without doing wrong to our posterity, and act-
ing unworthy of those warriors who fought and conquered
it." Upon the strength of this declaration, the title of the
Iroquois to the valley of the Ohio was purchased for £10,
476, 13s, 6d, sterling, for the crown.
It will at once be perceived that the mass of testimony in
favor of the extensive conquests of the Iroquois, rests upon
their own assertions. A fair offset to them will be found in
the account which the North Western Indians have given of
their own history. But beibie I have recourse to this, I will
endeavor to clear the way by examining the only two au-
thorities which have been adduced in suppoi t oi the preten-
sions of the Iroquois. The first and most important is to be
found in Colden's history of the Six Nations. That author,
upon the authority, he says, of certain ancient French auth-
ors, declares that in 1672 the Iroquois had conquered the Oil-
linois, or Illinois, the Chowetans, or Shawanaes, whom they
had formally driven from the lakes, and in 1685, thirteen years
after the Tiwictewees, orMiamis. Mr. Butler, in the intro-
duction to his history, gives an account of the early voyages
of discovery, to the west of Lake Michigan, made under the
Governor of Canada. The first of these was made by Father
Marquette. His principal object was to find the great river
of the west, of which they had often heard, but by accounts
so uncertain, that it was a matter of dispute, whether it pour-
ed its mighty mass of water into the Gulf of California, that
of Mexico, or into the Atlantic Ocean, on the coast of Vir-
ginia. This father proceeded with a party, in two canoes
in the year 1673, to the west side of Lake Michigan; and
coasting it southwardly to the Bay des Puans, (Green Bay,)
ascended the Fox river to the portage, communicating with
the Wisconsin, and down the latter to the Mississippi. Pur-
(19)
suing their voyage on that river as low down as the Arkan-
sas, whence they returned up the river, and, by a fortunate
circumstance, under the guidance of seme of the natives, en-
tered the Illinois river, (of the existence of which they had
no previous knowledge.) and ascending it, reached the south-
erly bend of Lake michigan, and returned to Green Bay by
a better and shorter route. It was on this voyage that the
French of Canada appear to have first heard of the Illinois
river or the Illinois Indians. And yet it is asserted that pre-
viously to this year, their near neighbors, with whom they
had an intimate and every day intercourse, had penetrated
to'the great river, to search for which, was the principal object
of the voyage, and upon its banks had subdued a powerful
nation, which from information I received from a credible
eye witness many years afterwards, were estimated to pos-
sess four thousand warriors. There were two other routes
than that taken by Marquette, by which the Iroquois might
have reached the Illinois. By descending the Alleghany
river, which flowed through their own country, and then
by the Ohio to the Mississippi. But one more direct and
easier was furnished by the the assent of the Miami, of the
lake, and the descent of the Wabash to the mouth of Tippe-
canoe, the head navigation of which is not very distant ei-
ther from lake Michigan or the Illinois river. If any expedi-
tion of this kind had ta! en place, it must have been known
to the French of Canada, and that route would have been tak-
en by father Marquette, rather than the comparatively difrL
cult and circutrous one of lake Michigan, the Fox and Ouis.
consin rivers. The above account of the conquests of th&
Iroquois, fixes that of the Tiwictewees, a tribe of the Mi-
amis, in the year 1685; that is thirteen years after the con*
quest of the Illinois tribes of the same nation. This story
would have been more credible if the periods of these con-
quests had been reversed, and that of the Tiwictewees, as-
signed to the earlier era, as it is well known that that tribe of
the Miamis was always the most easterly of their nation, and
hence they must have been put out of the way before their
brothers of the Illinois could be struck. In the above quota"
(20)
tion, the conquest of the Shawanoes is said to have happened
simultaneously with that of the Tiwictewees. But there is no-
thing said of their location at that period. From the con-
struction of the sentence in the narrative it seems to be in-
tended to convey the idea that it was upon the same expedi-
tion that it was effected, and that the tribes were contiguous
or rather upon the same line of operation, (one of them being
first conquered, and then the other.) And such was precise-
ly the fact as to the position of these tribes at another period
— but that period was one hundred years after that which is
given by the supposed French writer. The other authority
to which I referred,- as sustaining the Iroquois pretensions, is
the admission made by the Cherokees, who attended the
treaty of Stanwix in 1766. These chiefs are represented
to have laid some skins at the feet of the head men of the
Iroquois, saying, t; that they were theirs, as they had killed
the animals from which they wrere taken, on this side of
the big river." This ; big river,' the author who records the
anecdote, (Judge Haywood, in his history of Tennessee,) as-
serts to be the Tennessee, "as that was the way in which the
Cherokees were accustomed to designate it." Now if all the
statements here made be true, and I doubt not that they are,
so far from admitting the inference to be correct, I think
the very reverse would be the construction put upon what
they said, by every person who is acquainted with the me-
thod of speaking peculiar to the Indians. It was a remarkable
peculiarity of these people, before their manners and mode
of expression were somewhat modified by their intercourse
with the whites, and that they were always averse to refer to
either men or things by their appropriate names, even if they
were acquainted with them. They preferred to describe a
man, or a river, or a town, by some quality or remarkable
feature, rather than designate the object by a name. When allud*
ing to one of their own nation, in his presence, they would say,
instead of his name, ;; that man with a pipe in his mouth," —
** that man with a lame leg," &c, &c. If a hunter encamp-
ed upon a branch of the Scioto, had killed a deer upon that
river, he would say, upon being asked, that he had killed it
(21)
upon the " big river." And the same phrase would be used
if the question was asked on the Sciota, near to its mouth, if
the deer had been killed on the banks of the Ohio. When,
therefore, a b'g river was referred to, for the purpose of
marking the spot where any particular event occurred, it
must be always understood to mean the largest river near to
them. Having crossed the Ohio on their route to Fort Stan-
wix, they never could have intended to refer to the Tennes-
see as the " big river," when they must have well known that
it was a tributary to the former.
I will now proceed, gentlemen, to give you a condensed
account of the information I received in the course of along
intercourse with the North Western Tribes, commencing at
the treaty of Greenville, in 1795, and which constitutes one
of the grounds upon which I restrict the conquest of the Iro-
quois, in the valley of the Ohio, to a line, at any rate, east
of the Scioto. No better opportunity could be afforded than
that which I possessed, to obtain correct information in re-
lation to the ancient history, and the territorial claims of the
several tribes and nations, because it was derived from dis-
cussions in councils, where conflicting parties were represent-
ed and encouragement given to elicit a full exposure of all
the facts and circumstances which could have any influence
in support of their respective pretensions. I will add, too,
that there was no motive that could iufluence an Agent of the
Government to countenance the unjust pretensions of any
tribe, and reject those which were better founded. All of them
had placed themselves under the exclusive protection of the
United States, and all had bound themselves to make no sale
of any part of their lands to any other civilized power.
Rejecting, then the accounts which have been given by the
pens of a few individuals, (more intent upon exalting the
fame of a particular nation, than upon giving a true history,)
who assert the early conquest of the half civilized nation
which once inhabited Ohio, by the united efforts of the Leni
Lanapes or Delawares, and Mingwe or Iroquois, on their
passage from the northwest part of our Continent, to the
shores of the Atlantic; I commence my narrative at the time
(22)
when the position of all the great tribes or nations which have
ever advanced any claim to the fair and fertile country be-
tween the lakes, the Ohio and Mississippi, was as follows. —
The chronology I cannot precisely fix, but it was at a period,
centuries after the possession of the country by the authors
of the ancient works which we have mentioned, or those
who conquered them, as the then possessors had not the least
knowledge or tradition relative to the one or the other. —
There are circumstances, however, which induce me to fix
the time somewhere about the middle of the seventeenth cen-
tury. At that time, then, the Mingwe, or far famed Iroquois,
remained in their original seats, compressed between the in-
hospitable region of Labrador, and the great Lenape, (or, as
we call them, Delaware,) nation, which confined them on the
south. Westwardly, they had made some conquest, and
with the sagacity, which has caused ihem to be compared to
the conquerors of the world; in the commencement of their
progress, they adopted ihe conqercd tribes into their confed-
eracy. I am ignorant of the northern boundary of the Le-
napes at this period. It is probable that it had been consider-
ably pressed in by the Iroquois. They still, however possess-
ed the greater part of New York, New Jersey and Pennsyl-
vania. Ascending the lakes and leaving the Iroquois territo-
ry, the Wyandots or Hurons, presented themselves. A large
portion of this nation were, at that time, north of lake Erie,
but the greater part occupied the country from the Miami
Bay eastwardly along what is now denominated the Western
Reserve, and extending across the country southwardly, to
the Ohio. Westward of this territory commenced that of
the Miami nation, or rather confedracy, possessing a larger
number of warriors, at that period, than could be furnished
by any of the aboriginal nations of North America, before
or since. Their territory embraced all of Ohio, west of the
Scioto — all of Indiana, and that part of Illinois, south of the
Fox river, and Wisconsin, on which frontier they were in-
termingled with the Kickapoos and some other small tribes.
Of this immense territory, the most beautiful portion was
unoccupied. Numerous villages were to be found on the
(23)
Scioto and the head waters of the two Miamies, of the Ohio.
On the .Miami of the lake, and its southern tributaries, and
throughout the whole course of the Wabash, at least as low
as Chippecoke, (the town of Brush Wood,) now Vincennes.
But the beautiful Ohio rolled its 6; amber tide*' until it payed
its tribute to the father of waters, through an unbroken soli-
tude. At that time, before, and for a century after, its banks
were without a town or a village, or even a single cottage,
the curling smoke of whose chimney would give the promise
of comfort and refreshment to a weary traveler. If such
an appearance should have presented itself to one who was
aware of his situation, it would have been the signal for flight,
well knowing that it must proceed from some sequestered
dell, and that the fire from which it proceeded had been light-
ed by a party of warriors, who, having interposed the liver
between themselves and those who might have commenced a
pursuit on the line of their retreat, might consider themselves
safe in indulging in the luxury of a cooked meal, and a dry
couch, after a laborious and protracted march, in which pri-
vations of every description, consistent with their success
and safety, were enjoined by the rigid rules of their disci*
pline. No traveler, acquainted with the Indian character
would seek the hospitalities of such a fire-side. Whatever
might have been the result of their expedition, the interview
would prove fatal to him. If it had been successful, the ap?
petite for blood would be inflamed, rather than satisfied, and
if otherwise, the scalp of an unfortunate stranger might be
substituted for the similar trophy, which their bad fortune or
bad management had not permitted them to tear from tho
head of t'^eir acknowledged enemy.
We left the Mingwe or Iroquois, strengthened by the in-
corporation, into their confederacy, of some conquered tribes,
but not yet able to burst through the impediments, which op-
posed their progress to the west and south. Their success
however, in the latter direction, was soon equal to their. i&-*
most hopes. We possess none of the details of the war
waged with the Lenapes, but we know that it resulted in the
entire submission of the latter, and that to prevent any fur
(24)
ther interruption from them in their extensive schemes of
conquest, they adopted a plan to humble and degrade them?
as novel as it was effectual. To those who are acquainted
with the general character of the American Indians, and to
those particularly who know the conduct of the Delawares
when under the command of the renowned Bocanghelas, in
their wars against the United States, and that of the gallant
Nicoming, who commanded a band of forty of his country-
men in our service in the war of 1813, it will seem almost
impossible that the fact which I am about to relate, can be
supported upon good authority. But the best authority can
be adduced in support of it, since it is acknowledged by all
the parties who were concerned in it. Singular as it may
seem, then, it is nevertheless true, that the Lenapes < upon the
dictation of the Iroquois, agreed to lay aside the character of
warriors and to assume that of women. This fact is undis-
puted, but nothing can be more different than the account
which is given of the manner in which it was brought about
and the motives for adopting it, on the part of the Lenapes.
The latter assert that they were cajoled into it by the artifi-
ces of the Iroquois, who discanted largely upon the honor
which was to be acquired by their assuming the part of peace
makers between belligerent tribes, and which could never be
so effectual as when done in the character of the sex which
never make war. The Lenapes consented, and agreed that their
chiefs and warriors from thenceforth should be considered as
women. The version of this transaction as given by the Iro-
quois, is, that ihey demanded and the Lenapes were made to
yield to this humiliating concession, as the only means of aveit-
ing impending destruction. The Rev. Mr. Heckwelder, in a
communication to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, la-
bored, with more zeal than success, to establish the Delaware
account. But even if he had succeeded in making his read-
ers believe that the Delawares, when they submitted to the
degradation proposed to them by their enemies, were influ-
enced, not by fear, but by the benevolent desire to put a stop
to the calamities of war, he has established for them the re-
(25)
putaticm of being the most egregiious dupes and fools that
the world has ever seen. This is not often the case with In-
dian Sachems. They are rarely cowards, but still more rare-
ly are they deficient in sagacity and discernment to de-
tect any attempt to impose upon them. I sincerely wish
I could unite with the worthy German, in removing this stig-
ma upon the Delawares. A long and intimate knowledge of
them in peace and war, as enemies and friends, has left upon
my mind the most favorable impressions of their character
for bravery, generosity and fidelity to their engagements.
The Iroquois being thus freed from any apprehension of an
attack, from their ancient enemies, upon their southern border,
prepared to force the barrier which had so long opposed their
westward progress. This was not a barrier of mountains —
not a rampart of earth or stone, but one similar to that which
protected for ages, the open streets and avenues of Sparta— r-
a rampart of warrior's bosoms, equal in bravery, and in the
love of their country, to any which that far-famed state, or
either of her distinguished rivals, ever sent to the field. — ■
From the position which I have ascribed to the Hurons, or
Wyaridots, it will be perceived that I allude to that celebra-
ted tribe. There is much difficulty in fixing the chronology
of many of the most important events in the history of the
Indians, at the period to which I now refer. There are no
means by which we can ascertain when the war between the
Iroquois and the Hurons commenced, or how long it lasted.
Whether it was carried on before they were both furnished
with European arms, or after they had become acquainted
with the use of them, and both had been supplied by the Eu-
ropean nation, to which they severally adhered, cannot be
correctly ascertained. There are circumstances, however,;
which induce me to believe that they had long fought with
weapons of their own manufacture; but that the great battle
which terminated the contest, was made more bloody and dis-
astrous from the use of fire arms. If that was the case, it
must have been after the year 1701, which was the epoch of
the alliance between the English and the Iroquois. Previous-
ly to that event, the French had been extremely cautious in
D
(26)
placing the destructive arms of the Europeans, in the hands
of the Indians. But, as by means of the English, the Iro-
quois had, in a few years, become completely armed, the
French authorities were obliged to change their policy in
this respect, and it was thought then, that the Hurons were
enabled to meet the Iroquois upon terms equal as to arms, al-
though the disparity of numbers was greatly in favor of the
latter. The Wyandots assert, that the last great battle was
fought in canoes upon lake Erie, and that all, or nearly all ,
the warriors of both nations perished. Although the actual
loss of the two nations, in this battle, is said to have been
equal, the consequences were far from being so. The small-
er and weaker party, Were unable again to bring into the
field, a force, which in point of numbers, could bear any rea-
sonable proportion to their enemies. After standing at bay
for some time, they yielded to the storm which they had not
the physical force to resist, and retired to the shores of lake
Michigan. The history of this remarkable tribe is not end-
ed with this change of situation. They returned after some
years, to their original seats, and in all the subsequent wars
of this country, continued to manifest their superiority over
the other tribes, who, upon every occasion, yielded to them
the palm of victory.
The display of martial courage and high patriotic feeling,.
©n the part of the youth of a nation, has frequently been the
result of fortuitous causes, which, ceasing to operate, their
effect is soon dissipated, and the national character again
sinks to its former level. Such was the case with Thebes.
By the example and precepts of Epaminondes and Pelopidas,
the bosoms of the Theben youth were lighted with unwonted
nres, which rendered them invincible. But with the death
of these great men, the spirit of the nation again sank, and
the presence of the sacred band, was no longer the signal of
victory. With Sparta, it was otherwise. That unbending-
spirit, that proud superiority, which the Spartan youth dis-
played in every situation, and which induced him to seek a
death, in the service of his country as the most enviable dis-
tinction, was the result of impressions fixed upon the mind in
(27)
the earliest periods of life, and continued through the stages of
minority. Other lessons might occasionally be taught, but
this being always present to the mind of the youth, the love
of country and the obligation to die whenever her service re*
quired the sacrifice, suppressed or weakened every other pas-
sion of the soul, and it reigned triumphant. This accounts
for the uniform character of the Spartan warriors, through a
long lapse of ages. And this, too, was the source of the
bravery which I have assigned to the Wyandots,in the com-
mencement of the eighteenth century, and which I knew
them to possess at its close. To die for the interest or hon-
or of his tribe, and to consider submission to an enemy the
lowest degradation, were the daily lessons impressed upon
the dawning reason of the child, and continued through all
the stages of youth. Facts, in support of what is here
asserted, will be given in a subsequent part of the narra-
tive.
The departure of the Wyandots, gave the long wished for
opportunity to the Iroquois to advance into Ohio. And that
they did advance as far as the Sandusky, either at that period
or some time after, is admitted. But there is no evidence,
whatever, to show that they made a conquest of the Miamis,
other than their own assertions, and that of the English
agents, residing amongst them, who obtained their informa-
tion from the Indians themselves. Whilst the want of such
acknowledgement on the part of the Miamis, a number of facts,
susceptible of proof, and with all the inconsistencies and in-
deed, palpable absurdities, with which the Iroquois accounts
abound, form such a mass of testimony, positive, negative,
and circumstantial, as should, I think, leave no reasonable
doubt that the pretensions of the latter, to the conquest of the
country, from the Scioto to the Mississippi, are entirely
groundless. In the accounts which the Miamis gave of them-
selves, there was never any reference to a war with the Iro-
quois, whilst they declared that they had been fighting with
the southern Indians, (Cherokees and Chickasaws,) for so
many ages, that they had no account of any period when
there was peace with them. At the treaty of Greenville, and
(28)
at all the subsequent treaties, made for the extinguishment of
their title to the extensive tract which I have assigned to
them above, no suggestion was made of any claim of the
Iroquois to any part, and there were, upon most of those oc-
casions, those present, who would have eagerly embraced the
opportunity to disparage the character of the Miamis, by ex-
hibiting these as a conquered and degraded people. The
Iroquois were not represented at the treaty of Greenville, but
previously to its being held, they took care to inform General
Wayne that the Delawares were their subjects— that they
had conquered them and put petticoats upon them. But neither
claimed to have conquered the Miamis, nor have any title to
any part of the country in the occupancy of the latter.
The French had establishments in the Illinois country in
the latter part of the 17th century, and upon the authority oi*
the learned and Rev. Dr. Brute, present bishop of Yincennes,
Mr. Butler, in his recent history of Kentucky, asserts that
Vincennes was a missionary post, so early as the year 1700:
at that period the Miami nation is represented by all French
accounts as very numerous, and in the undisputed possession
of all the country I have claimed for them. I have myself seen
a very old and respectable citizen of St. Louis, who recollect-
ed when the five tribes of the nation who went under the ap-
pellation of Illinois tribes, could bring into the field four thou-
sand warriors, and yet they did not compose the strength of
the nation which was to be found strung along the banks of the
Wabash and its tributary streams, and no doubt far into Ohio.
In the year 1734, M. De Vincennes, a captain in the French
army, found them in possession of the whole of the Wabash,
and their principal town, occupying the site of Fort Wayne,
which was actually the key of the country below. This officer
was the first Frenchman who followed the route of the Miami
of the Lake, and the Wabash, in passing from Canada to their
western settlements, and in doing so at this time, throws some
light upon the chronology of some of the events to which I
have referred. Long before this period, the French must have
known of the shorter and easier route, and no reason can be
assigned for their having never used it, but from its being the
(29)
seat of war on some portion of it which rendered it unsafe.
This war I suppose to be that between the Wyandots and
Iroquois, and although I would fix its termination earlier by
some years than the expedition of De Vincennes, yet being
an experiment, it is probable that it required some time to as-
certain its entire safety, nor is it at all impossible that the
Tiwictewees (always the most eastern of the Miami tribes)
were not upon the most friendly terms with the Iroquois. In-
deed, the probality is, that there was war between them, but
not of a decisive character, and if any conquests were made,
or any part of the territory of the Miamis conquered, it must
have been of trifling extent; if victories had been gained, their
effects were evanescent and of no use to the conquerors.
De Vincennes, in 1734, found them (the Miamis) in the pos-
session of the entire Wabash, and in 1751, the Tiwictewees
were visited at their towns, on the Scioto, one hundred and
fifty miles from the mouth, by Mr. Gest, of Virginia, whose
journal has been lately published by Mr. Sparks, amongst the
Washington papers. Mr. Gest remarks, that they were there
"in amity with the six nations," and adds, that they "appeared
to him to be a very superior people" to their supposed con-
querors. Amongst the inconsistencies to be found in the de-
claration of those who support the pretension of the Iroquois
on this side of the Ohio, I shall at this time mention but one.
After broadly asserting the claim of conquest to the Mississip-
pi, it seems that in 1781, Col. Croghan, who is represented to
have been an agent with the Iroquois, for the thirty years pre-
ceeding, limited their right "on the south east side of the Ohio,
to the Cherokee (Tennessee) river, and to the Big Miami, a
stony river on the north west side." Even this reduced claim
to the territory within one state, will not be admitted, as it has
been shown that the Tiwictewees were in full possession of
the Scioto, upwards of one hundred miles above the Miami,
where they were visited by Mr. Gest, and presenting nothing
to indicate a conquered people. I have no doubt that their
pretensions to extensive conquests on the south east side of
the Ohio, are also untenable. Dr. Franklin asserts, that at a
treaty held in 1 744, the chiefs of the six nations, upon being
(30)
questioned as to their title, made this reply} "that all the
world knew that they had conquered the nations living on
the Susquehanna, the Cohongoranto, (now Potomac,) and
back of the Virginia mountains." The Doctor further as-
serts, upon the authority of Mitchell, the author of a work
which had been published at the solicitation of the British
board of Trade and Plantations, "that the six nations had ex-
tended their territories ever since the year 1 672, when they sub-
dued and were incorporated with the Shawanoes, the native
proprietors of those countries." Besides which "they claim a
right of conquest over the Illinois and all the Mississippi as
far as they extend." I have already disposed of the Illinois
portion of these pretended conquests, and I will now show
that the whole account of the subjugation of the Shawanoes
by the Iroquois, is still more clearly destitute of foundation.
The fact, in relation to the Indian tribes, who have resided
on our Northwest frontiers for a century past, is better known,
than that the Shawanoes came from Florida and Georgia
about the middle of the eighteenth century. They passed
through Kentucky (along the Cumberland river) on their way
to the Ohio. But that their passage was rather a rapid one,
is proved from these circumstances. Black Hoof, their late
principal chief, (with whom I had been acquainted since the
treaty of Greenville,) was born in Florida, before the re-
moval of his tribe. He died at Wapocconata, in this state,
only three or four years ago. As I do not know his age, at
the time of his leaving Florida, nor at his death, I am not
able to fix with precision the date of the emigration. But it
is well known that they were at the town which still bears
their names on the Ohio, a few miles below the mouth of the
Wabash, sometime before the commencement of the Revo-
lutionary war; that they remained there some years before
they removed to the Scioto, when they were found by Gov-
ernor Dunmore, in the year 1774. That their jremoval from
Florida was a matter of necessity, and their progress from
thence, a flight, rather than a deliberate march, is evident
from their appearance when they presented themselves upon
the Ohio and claimed the protection of the Miamis. They
(31)
are represented by the chiefs of the latter, as well as those of
the Delawares, as supplicants for protection, not against the
Iroquois, but against the Creeks and Seminoles, or some other
southern tribe, who had driven them from Floiida, and
they are said to have been literally sans provant et sans
culottes. As during this rapid flight, was the first and only
time that the Shawanoes had ever been in Kentucky, the
story of their having been conquered, and their right to the
country obtained by the six nations, in consequence of that
conquest, nearlyacenlury before^ must , be considered
an entire fabrication. TrTr^riistory of the Shawanoes-
was brought forward at a council held at Vincennes
in the year 1810, to resist the pretensions advanced by
the far famed Tecumthey to an interference with the Miamis
in the disposal of their lands. However galling to this chief,
the reference to these facts might have been, he was unable
to deny them, as will be seen by an examination of the pro-
ceedings of this council, preserved in McAffee's history of the
Western war. These facts prove most clearly, that the six
nations never did acquire a title to the country between the
Kentucky river and the Tennessee, by the subjugation of the
Shawanoes, unless it was when that tribe was passing through
it nearly a century subsequent to the period in which it is
said to have taken place. If it should be asserted that the
Shawanoes might have occupied the country in question be-
fore the year 1674, and have been then driven off by the
Iroquois and sought refuge in Florida, from whence they
again returned after a lapse of seventy or eighty years, the
answer is that they give no such account of themselves, nor
are there any traces in the country itself, to show that it had
been occupied either by the Shawanoes or any other tribe, for
some ages at least before the period fixed for its conquest by
the Iroquoisr All the early voyages on the Ohio, and all the
first emigrants to Kentucky, represent the country as being to-
tally destitute of any recent vestiges of settlement. Mr. But-
ler, in his history of Kentucky, remarks in the text, that "no
Indian towns, within recent times, were known to exist with-
in this territory, either mJientucky or the lower Tennessee;"
(32)
but in a note he says, "'there are vestiges of Indian towns
near Harrodsburg, on Sait river, and at other points, but they
are of no recent date. '% 1 he same author,and all others assert,
" that this interjacent country, between the Indians of the
South, and those Northwest of ihe Ohio, was kept as com-
mon hunting ground or field of battle, as the resentments or
or inclinations of the adjoining tribes prompted to the one or
the other." The total absence of all vestiges of settlement,
ofadateas late as the period of tfrealledg^t^^Djrifln^s^k^jj^,
conclusive testimony agamst \i*j\ he process by which
nature restores the forest tonsoriginal state, after being
once cleared, is extremely slow. In our rich lands, it is, in-
deed, soon covered again with timber, but the character of
the growth is entirely different, and continues so, through
many generations of men. In several places on the Ohio, par-
ticularly upon the farm which I occupy, clearings were made
in the first settlement, abandoned, and _ suffered to grow up.
Some of them, now to be seen, of nearly fifty years growth,
have made so little progress towards attaining the appearance
of the immediately contiguous forest, as to induce any man of
reflection, to determine, that at least ten times fifty years would
be necessary before its complete assimilation could be effected.
The sites of the ancient works on the Ohio, present precisely
the same appearance as the circumjacent forest. You
find on them, all that beautiful variety of trees, which gives
such unrivalled richness to our forests. This is particular-
ly the case, on the fifteen acres included within the walls of
the work, at the mouth of the Great Miami, and the relative
proportions of the different kinds of timber, are about the
same. The first growth, on the same kind of land, once clear-
ed, and then abandoned to nature, on the contrary, is more
homogenious — often stinted to one, or two, or at most three
kinds of timber. If the ground had been cultivated, yellow
locust, in many places, will spring up as thick as garden peas*
If it has not been cultivated, the black and white walnut will
be the prevailing growth. The rapidity wTith which these
trees grow for a time, smothers the attempt of other kinds
to vegetate and grow in their shade. The more thrifty in «
»
V
(33)
dividuals soon overtop the weaker of their own kind which
sicken and die, In this way there is soon only as many left
as the earth*wiihwel4^cr{7po1trToln¥turity. All this^timeTTrie'
squirrels may plant the seed of those trees which serve them
for food, and by neglect suffer them to remain, — it wdl be in
vain; the birds may drop the kernels, the ex'.ernal pulp of
which have contributed to their nourishment, and divested of
which they are in the best state for germinating, still it will
be of no avail; the winds of heaven may waft the winged
seeds of the sycamore, cotton wood and maple, and a friendly
shower may bury them to the necessary depth in the loose
and fertile soil — but still wiihout success. The roots below
rob them of moisture and the canopy of limbs and leaves
above, intercept the rays of the sun and the dews of heaven:
the young giants in possession, like another kind of aris-
tocracy, absorb the whole means of subsistence and leave
the mass to perish at their feet. This state of things will
not, however, always continue. If the process of nature is
slow and circuitous, in putting down usurpation and establish-
ing the equality which she loves, and which is the great char-
acterest'c of her principles, it is sure and effectual. The pre-
ference of the soM for the first growth, ceases with its maturi-
ty. It admits of no succession, upon the principles of legi-
timacy. The long undisputed masters of the forest may be
thiuned by the lightning, the tempest, or by diseases peculiar
to themselves; and whenever, this is the case, one of the oft
rejected of another family, will find between its decaying
roots, shelter and appropriate food; and springing into vigor-
ous growth, will soon push its green foliage to the skies,
through the decayed and withering limbs of its blasted and
dying adversary. The soil itself, yield. ng it a more liberal sup-
port than any scion from the former occupant. It will easi.
ly be conceived what a length of time it will require for a
denuded tract of land, by a process so slow, again to clothe
itselt with the amazing variety of foliage which is the char-
acteristic of the forests of this region. Of what immense age
then, must be those works, so often referred to, covered, as has
been supposed by those who have the best opportunity of
Am
(34;
examining them, with the second growth after the ancient
rDrest state had been regained!
But setting aside all that has been advanced adverse to the
claims of the Six Nations, to be the extensive conquerors that
they have so long been considered, there are I think, insure
perable arguments to be found against it, drawn from the
nature of man in every age, and from the state in which they
were at that period. They have been compared to the Ro-
mans—but in what did the resemblance consist? Like that
celebrated people they might have been ambitious of exten-
ding their influence, and like them, constant in adhering to a
course of policy adopted to secure it. But there the parallel
must end. The ingredient in the composition of a Roman
army, to which all their conquests are justly attributed, they
did not, and in the state of society to which they were ad-
vanced, they could not have possessed. I allude to that bond
By which an army of many thousands are brought to a har-
mony and unity of action, as if they were possessed of but
one spirit and one mind. Without this, no distant foreign
conquests ever have been or ever can be made. In every con-
siderable collection of men in arms, in every state of society,
the elements of faction, disunion and final dissolution are al-
ways to be found. If the warriors of the Iroquois did not
possess this spirit in a superior degree, they greatly differ
from the kindred tribes of this country, with whom I have
been acquainted. To have conquered the numerous tribes
between their frontier and the Mississippi, in the short
period assigned to it, an army of many thousands would
have been requisite. How would an army of that size
be supported? The game of the forest flies before the march
of an army, and the state in which these Indians were
at that time, being without beasts of burden (and hav-
ing a natural horror of exercising that quality of the Roman
soldiers themselves) they would be unable to apply the
superabundance of one day to the wants of another. The
power to move men in masses, to be efficient, is one of the
highest evidences of civilization. The manner of making
war amongst the North American Indians was totally differ-
(35)
«nt> They endeavored to wear away their enemy, by sur-
prising and butchering, now a family, less frequently a hun-
ting camp, but rarely a village. If the hostile parties were
in juxtaposition, as the Sacs and Foxes and the Illinois
Miamis, a few years would determine the contest. But if
they were separated by a large tract of unoccupied territory,
as the north west and southern Indians, ages might pass over
without any thing decisive being affected. An erroneous
opinion has prevailed in relation to the character of the Indians
of North America. By many, they are supposed to be stoics,
who willingly encounter deprviations. The very reverse is
the fact; if they belong to either of the classes of Philoso-
phers which prevailed in the declining ages of Greece and
Rome, it is to that of Epicureans. For no Indian will forego
an enjoyment or suffer an inconvenience, if he can avoid it.
But under peculiar circumstances: when for instance he is
stimulated by some strong passion — but even the gratification
of this, he is ever ready to postpone, whenever its accomplish-
ment is attended with unlocked for danger, or unexpected
hardships. Hence their military operations were alwa}Ts
feeble — -their expeditions few and far between, and much the
greater number abandoned without an efficient stroke, from
whim, caprice or an aversion to encounter difficulties.
But if the Indian will not, like Cato, throw from him "the
pomps and pleasures,'- with which his good fortune furnishes
him—when evils come which he cannot avoid, when " the
stings and arrows of outrageous fortune,*' full thick upon him,
then will he call up all the spirit of the man into his bosom,
and meet his fate, however hard, like " the best Roman of
them all." With all these facts before me, I cannot persuade
myself, that the Six Nations ever extended their conquests
in the manner that has been stated. Their attempts to con-
quer the numerous and warlike tribes on the Mississippi,
wrould have been rendered abortive, in one of the two ways
mentioned in the apothegm of Henry the IV, in relation to
Spain: — "If a small army should be sent, they would be de-
feated: if a larger one, it would starve." The extensive con-
quests made by the Shepherds of Scythia, during the middle
(36)
ages, both in Asia and Europe, oppose no argument against
the theory I have attempted to establish. There is no point
of comparison in the situation of a people who, to an abund-
ance and variety of the domestic animals, which furnish food
and clothing, add the possession of the horse, superior to any
of them, and equally useful in peace as in war, and those who
have none of these aid-s.
At the general peace of Utrecht, in 1712, the French were
made to acknowledge the Iroquois as being under the exclu-
sive protection of Great Britain. As a counterpoise to the
strength which the alliance with these tribes brought to their
rival, the former power soon employed themselves in secur-
ing the friendship of the more western tribes. But although
these great rival powers became parties in the war which was
kindled in Europe, upon the death of the Emperor, Charles
the VI., their subjects in the interior of the American conti-
nent, as well as the Indian tribes, were suffered to remain in
quiet. But in that which was commenced in 1755, both par-
ties claimed the assistance of their respective Indian allies.
The Six Nations gave their powerful aid to the English, whilst
the North Western Indians ranged themselves on the side of
the French, and contributed largely, by their assistance, to
the defeat of General Braddock, and to procrastinate the fall
of Fort Du Quesne, and other western posts. The peace of
Paris, in 1763, terminated the war between France and Eng-
land, and the entire cession of all the French dominions in
North America, to the latter power, seemed to promise a
lasting peace w*ith the Indians. Such, however, was not the
case. One year of bloody war, after the English had gained
possession of all the Western posts, desolated the frontiers,
and the important fortress of Michillimackinac was taken,
and Detroit, Fort Pitt, and Niagara, had nearly suffered a
like fate. In these enterprises, the Indians of Ohio, the
Wyandots, Delawares, and Shawanoes acted a conspicuous
part. A treaty of peace was at length effected through the
instrumentality of the Six Nations. It was not, however,
kept with good faith by the Indians, who continued to com-
mit occasional depiedations upon the frontiers of Pennsylva-
(37)
&ia and Viiginia, throughout the ten following years, until the
year 1774, a grand expedition under the command of the
titled Governor of Virginia, against the Indians of Ohio, re-
sulted in the celebrated battle of Kenhawa, by the left wing
of the army, whilst that under the immediate orders of the
Governor, penetrated to a short distance of the Shawanoes
towns on the Scioto, when a precipitate treaty was conclud-
ed, and the Governor hastened to his capital to provide against
a storm of a different character, of the approach of which he
had seen evidences which could not be misunderstood. In the
year 1775, Great Britain determined to compel her colonics
to submit to her arbitrary mandates, with that recklessness
of means for which she has ever been remarkable, whenever
a purpose of aggrandisement, or vengeance, was to be secur-
red, by the influence of the trades, by large donations, and
larger promises, engaged all the North Western Indians in
her cause, with a view to the devastation of the frontiers.
Attempts were made by Congress to avert this calamity, by
convincing the Indians that they had no interest in the quar-
rel, and that the wiser path, was to observe a perfect neuiral-
ity. Nothing can shew the anxiety of Congress, to effect
this object, in stronger colors than the agreement entered into
with the Delaware tribes, at a treaty concluded at Pittsburgh,
in 1778. By an article in that treaty, the United States pro-
posed that a state should be formed, to be composed of the
Delawares and other tribes, and contracted to admit them,
when so formed, as one of the members of the Union. But
this, as it might perhaps have been afterwards considered, en-
viable distinction weighed but little in the eyes of the Indians,
compared to the present advantages of arms and equipments,
clot. ling and trinkets, which were profusely distributed by
the agents of Great Britain. It is not my design to detain
you with any of the details of this war, or that which imme-
diately followed the war of the Revolution, and which con-
tinued to the peace of Greenville, in 1795. The latter, ei-
ther belongs to the history of the adjacentStates,or to the gen-
eral history of the United States. But to give a general idea
of the Indian tribes who have been once the residents and pro--
(38)
prietors of our State, abstracted as much as possible from our
own history. No doubt can be entertained, that, although
constrained to acknowledge the Independence of the United
Slates, the government of Great Britain si ill indulged the
hope, that at some distant period it would be able again to
reduce them to subjection. No other reason can be assigned
for the close connexion which they continued to keep up
with the tribes within our territorial boundary, and their con-
stant and liberal supply to them of the means of committing
depredations upon our settlements. For the first few years
the military equipments were more cautiously supplied. But
after the failure of the expedition under General Harmer,and
the total defeat of our army, in JNJay 1791, under the com-
mand of Gen. St. Clair, the Government of Great Britain be-
lieved the propitious moment had arrived, so ardently wished
for, to wipe off the stain which had been fixed upon their
military renown, in the former war with America, and again
to replace, in the diadem of their sovereign, what wras de-
nominated by the greatest of her statesmen, "the brightest
jewel that it had contained." The mask was not, however,
entirely thrown off'. For, in the Spring of 1793, Great Bri-
tain tendered her services as a mediator of peace with the
hostile tribes. The offer was accepted, and three of our most
distinguished citizens were commissioned, under the guaran-
tee of safety, by the British, to meet the Indians at tke rapids
of the Miami of the Lake. This conference resulted in a
conviction of the insincerity of the British, and that there
was no hope of effecting a peace upon any honorable terms,
but by first convincing the Indiaus of our military superiori-
ty.* A lesson of this sort was in preparation for their use,
under the auspicies of one of the hero's of the Revolution.
The delay of a second summer, produced by the abortive nc-
gociation was employed by him to make its success more cer-
tain. On the 20th of August, 17S4, within the bounds of our
own State, and within view of the scene of the Council, of
the previous year, the eyes of the Indians were opened to the
* See Note C, in Appendix.
(39)
fallacies of British promises, and to their entire inability to
resist an American army, when properly directed. The aid
furnished them by the British, being open and palpable, fully
sufficed to shew their entire disregard of the principles of
neutrality, but was still far behind their promises, and the ex-
pectations of the Indians. In despite of the opposition of the
British agents, the Indian Chiefs applied to the commanding
General for an armistice. This being granted, was followed, in
the succeeding year, by a general peace. The tribes which
had been united in the war against the U. States, were the
Wyandots, Delawares, Shawanoes, Chippewas, Ottowas, Po-
towatomies, Miamis, Eel River tribes, and Weas. The three
last constitute, indeed, but one tribe, but, in consideration of
the country which was ceeded by the treaty, being really
their property, this division of their nation was admitted by
General Wayne^ the Commissioner, in order to give them a
larger share of the annuities which wrere stipulated to be:
paid by the United States.'
The above mentioned Indian tribes could not have brought
into the field more than three thousand warriors at any time?
saving the ten years preceeding the treaty of Greenville, al-
though a few years before the Miamis, alone, could have fur-
nished more than that number. The constant war with our
frontier, had deprived them of many of their warriors, but
the ravages of the small pox, was the principal cause of this
great decrease of their numbers. They composed, however,
a body of the finest light troops in the world. And, had they
been under an efficient system of discipline, or possessed en-
terprise equal to their valor, the settlement of the country
would have been attended with much greater difficulty than
was encountered in accomplishing it, and their final subjuga-
tion delayed for some years. The Wyandots, the leading
tribe of the confederacy, and that in whose custody the great
calumet, the symbol of their union, was entrusted, had au-
thority to call a council of the chiefs of the several tribes, to
consult upon their affairs. But there was no mode of en-
forcing their decision, and the execution of any plan of oper-
ations, that might have been determined on, depended entire-
(40)
)y upon the good pleasure of those who were to execute it,
At one time it was thought, indeed, that they had adopted
the very judicious plan of cutting off the convoys of the ar-
my, by a constant succession of detachments. This was,
however, soon abandoned. And under the influence of the
confidence which they had acquired, as well in their valor as
their tactics, fom their repeated success, they again deter-
mined to commit the fate of themselves and their country, to
the issue of a general battle. This was all that was wanted
by the American commander. By this fatal determination
they had already prepared the wreath of laurels which was
to adorn his brow, by their complete and total discomfi-
ture. The tactics which had been adopted for the Amer-
ican Legion, had been devised with a reference to all
the subtilities, which those of the Indians were well known
to possess. It united the apparently opposite qualities of
compactness and flexibility, and a facility of expansion un-
der any circumstances, and in any situation, which rendered
utterly abortive the peculiar tact of the Indians in assailing
the flanks of their adversaries. The correctness of the theo-
ry, which dictated this plan, was proved in the trial, and con-
firmed the truth of the sententious motto of a military socie-
ty, even where Indians are the enemies: — "Scientia in bello,
pax."
It may be proper that I should say something more as to
the character of the now scattered and almost extinct tribes
which so long and so successfully resisted our arms, and who
for many years after, stood in the relation of dependants, ac-
knowledging themselves under our exclusive protection.
Their character, as warriors, has been already remarked up-
on. Their bravery has never been questioned, although
there was certainly a considerable difference between the
several tribes, in this respect. With all Lut the Wyandots,
flight in battle, when meeting with unexpected resistr.nee, or
obstacle, brought with it no disgrace. It was considered
rather as a principle of tactics. And I think it may be fair-
ly considered as having its source in that peculiar temperament
of mind, which they often manifested, of not pressing fortune
(41)
under any sinister circumstances, but patiently waiting until
the chances of a successful issue appeared to be favorable.
With the Wyandots, it was otherwise. Their youth were
taught to consider any thing that had the appearance of an
acknowledgment of the superiority of an enemy, as disgrace-
ful. In the battle of the Miami Rapids, of thirteen Chiefs, of
that tribe, who we represent, one only survived, and he bad-
ly wounded.* . '
As it regards their moral and intellectual qualities, the dif-
ference between the tribes was still greater. • The Shawa-
noes, Delawares, and Miamis, were much superior to the other
members of the confederacy. I have known individuals
among them, of very high order of talents, but these were
not generally to be relied upon for sincerity. The Little
Turtle, of the Miami Tribe, wras of this description, as was
the Blue Jacket, a Shawanoe Chief. I think it probable that
Tecumthey possessed more integrity than any other of the
Chiefs, who attained to much distinction, but he violated a
solemn engagement, which he had freely contracted, and
there are strong suspicions of his having formed a treacher-
ous design, which an accident only prevented him from ac-
complishing. Sinister instances are, however, to be found in
the conduct of great men, in the history of almost all civil-
ized nations. But these instances are more than counter-
balanced by the number of individuals of high moral charac-
ter, which w^ere to be found amongst the principal, and sec-
ondary Chiefs, of the four tribes above mentioned. This
was particularly the case with Tache, or the Crane, the
Grand Sachem of the Wyandots, and Black Hoof, the Chief
of the Shawanoes. Many instances might be adduced to
show the possession, on the part of these men, of an uncom-
mon degree of disinterestedness and magnanimity, and strict
performance of their engagements, under circumstances
which would be considered by many as justifying evasion.
But one of the brightest parts of the character of those In-
dians, is' their sound regard to the obligations of friendship*
* See Note D., in Appendix.
F
(42)
A pledge of this kind, once given by an Indian, of any char-
acter, becomes the ruling passion of his soul, to which every
other was made to yield. He regards it as superior to every
other obligation. And the life of his friend would be requir-
ed at the hands of him, (or his tribe,) who had taken it, even
if it had occurred in a fair field of battle, and in the perform-
ance of his duty as a warrior. An event might have occur-
red in the late wTar with Great Britain, and their allies, in
which a most striking exemplification of this principle would
have been exhibited. In the autumn of 1793, the chief, Stiff
Knee, of the Seneca tribe, who had been the friend of Gen.
Richard Butler, who had fallen on the fatal 4th of November
1791, joined the army of General Wayne, for the purpose
of avenging his death. The advance upon the enemy hav-
ing been arrested, from the lateness of the season, and the
troops placed in cantonments for the winter, impatient of
the delay, the Chief earnestly solicited the General to be per-
mitted to go with a detachment to attack one of the posi-
tions of the enemy. This request was, of course, refused.
To satisfy him, and to prevent his going alone, the General
informed him that, an ample opportunity of vengeance would
be offered in the spring. But the soul of the warrior could
not brook this delay. To the officer with whom he lodged, he
expatiated upon the insupportable weight by which his mind
was oppressed, at the postponement of the day of retribution
for the death of his brother, whose spirit was constantly call-
ing on him for vengeance. Upon one of these occasions, he
said, that, denied an opportunity of performing this sacred
obligation, nothing remained but to convince his friend how
readily he would have died for him, and before his arm could
be caught, he plunged a poignard in his bosom. I am satis-
fled that this is not the proper time to enquire how far the
United States have fulfilled the obligations imposed upon them
by their assuming, at the treaty of Greenville, the character
of the sole protectors of the tribes who were parties to it, a
stipulation often repeated in subsequent treaties. But I will
take this opportunity of declaring, that, if the duties it im-
posed, Were not faithfully executed, during the Administration
(43)
of Mr. Jefferson, and Mr. Madison, as far as the power vest-
ed by the laws in the Executive, would permit, the immediate
agents of the Government are responsible, as the directions
given to them were clear and explicit, not only to fulfil with
scrupulous fidelity, all the treaty obligations, but upon all oc-
casions, to promote the happiness of these dependant people,
as far as attention and expenditure of money could effect
these objects.
J-
Note A.
The object of Themistocles was to induce the Council of War to adopt hii
opinion of fighting the Persians, in the narrow strait which separates the Is-
land of Salamis from the main, which would prevent them from being sur-
rounded by the immensely superior fleet of the latter. The Commander of
the Spartan squadron, and those of the other States within the Isthmus of Co-
rinth, were desirous to retreat to the shores of Peloponnesus, in the vicinity of
which the army of the Peloponnesian Greeks had been assembled, for the pur-
pose of guarding the Isthmus, which afforded the only land entrance to that
portion of the country. Themistocles endeavored to convince the Council,
that if they abandoned the favorable position which the Straits of Salamis af-
forded, and attempted a retreat to the coast of Peloponnesus, they would b«
pursued by the Persians, and obliged to fight in the open sea, which would
enable the enemy to surround their comparatively small force, and that defeat
would be inevitable. The Grecian fleet being destroyed, the Persians would
be enabled to turn the position of the army, which would be deprived of all
the advantages in defending it. He was, also, afraid that the fleet wou'd sepa-
rate, each squadron repairing to the harbor of the State to which it belonged,
preferring (as is the case in all confederacies, where there is no common head
in the government, with power to enforce obedience to its decrees,) the inter-
est of the individual member to which it belonged, to the common good. The
debate became warm; and the Spartan Commander losing his self command,
raised his staff to strike his opponent. The noble Athenian, full of confidence
in the measures he had recommended, for the destruction of their common
enemy, and of enthusiasm in the cause of liberty and civilization, attempted
neither to avert the blow, or resent the indignity. His remark, " strike, bu:
hear me," seemed rather to invite it, as the price of the attention of his enrag-
ed commander, to arguments which he knew could not be answered.
Eurybiades, awed by the indomitable firmness of the Athenian, calmed hi«
(46)
nassion, submitted himself to the mighty genius of his rival, and Greece
was saved.
Note B.
The circumstances which militate most against the supposition of the iden«
tity of the Astecks, with the authors of the extensive ancient works in Ohio,
is the admitted fact, that the latter entered the valley of Anahuac, from the
North West, that is, from California, which is much out of the direct route
from the Ohio to Mexico. A strong argument in favor of it, is the simi-
larity of the remains which are found in that region, (California,) as well as
in Mexico itself, with those in the valley of the Ohio. I am not informed
whether there are any such in the intermediate country, between the lower
Mississippi and California. But if there are none, it will serve rather to con-
firm and strengthen my opinion, that the fugitives from the Ohio, were like
those from Troy, a mere remnant, whose numbers were too small to erect
works of so much labor, as those they had left behind had required, but after
their strength had been increased, by a residence for some time in California,
the passion for such works had returned with the ability to erect them.
The similarity, in point of form and mode of construction, between the
works now lo be seen in all the countries I have mentioned, (Onio, Mexico,
and California,) prove that they must have been erected by the same, or a kin-
dred people, derived from the same stock, and if the latter, the separation
took place after the custom of such erections had commenced.
If the opinion is adopted, that the Astecks were never in Ohio, but had pur-
sued the direct route from Asia, (whence it is believed they all came,) to
California, along the coast of the Pacific Ocean, and that the authors of the
Ohio erection, were from the same continent and stock, the questions may be
asked: — Where did the separation take place1? Was it before they left Asia,
or after their arrival upon the American continent? Are there any works
similar to those in Ohio, Mexico, and California, to be found in the North East
of Asia, or between the Pacific and the Rocky Mountains, or on the route which
that branch of the nation would have pursued, which bent their course to-
wards the valley of the Ohio? If these questions are answered in the nega-
tive, it will thus go far to prove that the practice of constructing such works
originated in the latter, and that those who erected them, were the same peo-
ple who afterwards sojourned in California, and finally settled in the valley of
Anahuac, or Mexico. If we adopt the opinion that they were totally a dis-
tinct people, or were different branches of the same original Asiatic stock,
we must believe also that they each fell into the practice of erecting extensive
works, of the same form, and of the same materials, (in a manner not known
to be practised by any other people,) without any previous knowledge to guide
them, and without any intercourse. This, to say the least of it, is very im-
probable.
If the Astecks were not the authors of the Ohio works, we can only account
(47)
for the ultimate fate of those who were, by supposing that they were entirely
extirpated, preferring, like the devoted Numantians, to be buried under the
ruins of their own walls, to seeking safety by an ignominious flight.
I find no difficulty from the facts mentioned in the text, in adopting the
opinion, that these people were conquered by those who were less civilized
than themselves. An enlightened nation, whose military institutions are
founded upon scientific principles, and which relies upon its own citizens for
protection, will never be subdued by savages, nor by those who have made
little progress in civilization. They may be beaten in a battle, indeed, in
many battles, as was the case when the barbarians of Gaul and Germany, who
first broke through the boundaries of the Roman Republic, and in our day
and nation, when the North Western Indians defeated our armies in two suc-
cessive campaigns, as they had previously done those of Great Britain. But
their triumphs will be terminated as soon as the causes which produce them,
are ascertained, and a change effected in the plan ot operations, or in the
mode of forming the troops, to meet the exigency, as was the case in the for-
mer, under the direction of Caius Marius, and in our own, under the direction
of Anthony Wayne. But it is quite otherwise, with those who have made
such small progress in civilization, as to be unable to make war upon fixed and
scientific principles. I have assigned to the nameless nation of our valley,
the character of an agricultural people, and this is precisely the state, (without
military institutions) in which a nation is most weak, and most easily conquer-
ed, by those who still depend upon the chase for food, or who have advanced
still farther, and draw their subsistence from flock.'s and herds of their own
rearing. The labors of agriculture serve to form the body to endure the toils
and hardships incident to a military life. There is something, too, in that
kind of employment which serves to kindle a spirit of independence in the
bosom, and nurture the feelings of patriotism. Hence, it has happened, that
agricultural nations, which had engrafted a system of military instruction, with
the ordinary education of youth, have always been the most renowned in war,
and most difficult to be conquered.
" Hanc olim veteres vitam coluere Sabini,
Hanc Remus et frater; sic Fortis Etruria crevit,
Scilicet et rerum facta est pulcherrima Roma,
Septemq; una sibi muro circumdedit arces.
2d. Geoegics.
But whilst the occupation of the husbandman furnishes the best materials
for making good soldiers, as well from the qualities it imparts to the mind, as
the strength and activity which the body receives from constant exercise, and
nutritive aliment, it teaches nothing of the military art. The hunter, on the
contrary, is already a soldier, as far, at least, as individual qualities can make
him so. But the pastoral life, (not that which the Poets have furnished, the
pictures drawn from their own imaginations, but that which authentic history
describes,) furnishes, not only men suited to war, by their personal qualities,
but armies which have acquired, from their congregated mode of life, a degree
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of discipline, and a knowledge of the most important operations of war.
There is nothing in the employment of the agriculturist, or artisan, which
bears any resemblance to military duty. The citizens employed in such la-
bor, (exclusively,) cease to be soldiers, and the agricultural, or manufactnring
nation, which adopts no system of military instruction, for its youth, must de-
pend upon the employment; of mercenaries for its protection, or it will become
a prey to the first invader. The German, or Scythian hordes which obtained,
from the fears, or the weakness of the Roman Emperors, settlements within
their borders, were unable, after a few years, to resist the new swarms from
the same hives, which pressed upon them, and which adhered to their origi-
nal mode of life and manners. But the most extraordinary instance of the
superiority of savages, in war,' to an agricultural people, who neglect military
institutions, is furnished by the history of our own parent Isle, in the applica-
tion of the Britons for assistance, to a Roman Emperor, after the abandon-
ment of their Island, by troops of the latter. It is impossible for language to
convey, at once, a more dastardly spirit, and consciousness of extreme imbe-
cility, than that used by the British Deputies, on this occasion. " The Cale-
donian savages," say they, li drive us to the Ocean, and the Ocean again repels
us back upon our enemies."
The fate of our predecessors, in the occupancy of our fine country, was, no
doubt, long procrastinated by their patience of labor, and knowledge in the
art of fortification. By similar means, and by the application of a chemical
discovery, to the purposes of their defence, the tottering fabrick of the lower
Roman Empire, was for many ages sustained, and long after the* "naked and
trembling legions" had declined to meet their barbarous adversaries in an
equal field. The Ohio fortresses were not erected for defence against a casu-
al invasion. The size of their walls, and the solidity of their construction,
shews that the danger which they were intended to avert, was of constant re-
currence. But whilst their persons were safe, behind bulwarks impregnable
to savages, they might behold, from their summits, the devastation of their ri-
pened fields. The seed time, indeed, as well as that of the harvest, might be
marked by a crafty foe: and thus the hopes of reaping even a portion of tho
gifts of Autumn, be destroyed by want of opportunity to perforin the inuis-
pensible labors of Spring.
It appears, however, that no exertion was omitted to avert their impending
fate. The work to which I have referred, at the mouth of the Great Miami,
was a citadel, more elevated than the Acropolis, of Athens, although easier of
access, as i» is not like the latter, a solid rock, but on three sides as nearlv
perpendicular as could be, to be composed of earth. A large space of the
lower ground, was, however, enclosed by walls, uniting it with the Ohio.
The foundation of that, (being of stone, as well as those of the citadel,) that
forms the Western defence, is still very visible where it crosses the Miami,
which, at the period of its erection, must have discharged itself into the Ohio
much lower down than it now does. I have never been able to discover the
Eastern wall of this enclosure, but if its direction from the citadel to the Ohio,
* Their delensive armor was laid a ide in the reign of the Emperor Gratian.
(49)
was such as it should have been, to embrace the largest space, with the iesst
labor, there could not have been less than three hundred acres enclosed. The
same land, at this day, will produce, under the best cultivation, from seventy
to one hundred bushels of corn, per acre. IJnder such as was then, probably*
bestowed upon it, there would be much less, but still sufficient to contribute
much, to the support of a considerable settlement of people, remarkable, be.
yond all others, for abstemiousness in their diet.*
If we had the means of investigating closely the causes which led to the
disasters of this nation, one, not the least in effect, would, 1 think, be found in
their abominable religion, which taught the propitiation of the Deity, not b>
the sacrifice of the firstlings of flocks and herds, which, being the gift of God
toman, he might again offer to his Maker, in gratitude for blessings received,
or to obtain others which he sought, but by the immolation by man of his fel-
low man; that only creature of all that were created, whom the Creator re-
served for himself, to fulfil his purposes, and minister to his glory.
It is a little remarkable, that whilst the savages, (those in the hunter state,)
throughout the American Continent, should acknowledge the superintendence
of the world by one God, and that, a God of mercy and love: those who were
a little farther advanced in civilization, who congregated together in cities.-,
and villages, and who drew their subsistence from the fruits of the earth, pro-
duced by their own patient labor, should clothe the God, or Gods, whom they
worship, with attributes, and passions, which are only to be appeased by a
Sacrifice of blood, and that blood poured out from the bosoms of their fellow
men*
It w^uld seem, then, that the first advances in civilization, were equally un-
favorable Vo liberty, and to the proper understanding of the obligations due
from man to his Maker. In the first stages of society, the political institutions
are few and inefficient, and whatever force they may possess, are applicable,
rather to their foreign, than their domestic transactions. Each individual is
the guardian of his own rights, and acquiring from it a high idea of his per-
sonal independence, is willing to respect the equal claims of others. If the
social ties are few they are proportionally strong: and the scene of attach-
ment to the tribe or Nation to which he belongs, is never felt, in greater force
in any future stage of civilization. An injury offered to any individual, be-
longing to it, from one of another tribe, would be considerad his own, and his
life would be willingly risked to redress or avenge it. His ideas of religion*
are derived from the spark which God has furnished to every bosom, and from
the great book of nature, which is constantly spread before him. As these
lights are in possession of all, he is willing that all should form their opinions
from them, to suit themselves. But these feelings and sentiments, so univer-
sal in the H unter State, seems soon to disappear, when men begin to congregate
in towns, and especially when the idea of individual property is established.
In such a state of society, disputes and collisions will constantly arise, and it
* When the Spaniards, under Cortes, were subsisted by the hospitality of
the Mexicans, and other South American Indians, they complained that one
Spaniard would consume more in one day, than would suffice ten Indians.
G
(50)
becomes necessary that the hitherto independent individual, should surrender
some portion of his rights, the more certainly to secure those which he re"
serves. But, in his inexperience, the guards with which he attempts to protect
the latter, are loo feeble to resist the assault' which are made upon them. By
one set of his former equals, whom he has contributed to elevate to power, the
whole of his political rights are usurped, and he becomes a slave; by another,
his conscience is taken into keeping, and he is a monster. Strange, but true
as strange, that as men progress in the arts which enable them to live with
more ease and comfort, they should lose the dignity of character and inde-
pendence, which had distinguished them in the earlier stngps of society. That
they, who were once so jealous of their liberties, should become the willing
instruments for enslaving others; who had seen, in the operation of Nature's
God, nothing but love to mankind, and the grant of equal power to all, should
admit the pretensions of men, like themselves, to speak in the name of the
Creator, to claim the right to punish supposed breaches of his will ; and worse
than all, to clothe him with the forms, the cruelty, and ferocity of the most
savage monsters of the desert. But such was the condition of the Mexicans,
when first visited by the Europeans, and such, no doubt, was that of the As-
tecks in the valley of the Ohio. The temples of Circleville, Grave Creek and
Newark, no doubt, annually streamed with the blood (if not of thousands,
like those of Cholula, and Pvtexico,) of hundreds of human beings.
At the period of the arrival of the Spaniards in Mexico, the profusion of vic-
tims demanded for sacrifice, was supplied by prisoners taken in war. Dr.
Robertson, objects to the account given by all the early Spanish historians^ 53
to the number of these victims, upon the ground of the effect it would nave
upon population. He adopts the opinion of Las Casas, that if there htul been
such a waste of the human species, the country never could haVe attained
that degree of populousness, for which it was remarkable.* This' reasoning is
not, however, sufficient to overthrow the possitive assertion of so many co-
temporary historians. For many years before the arrival of the Spaniards, the
Mexicans had been engnged in successful wars; and as it was the inviolable
practice to sacrifice every prisoner, the number might have reached, for sev-
eral years preceding the arrival of Cortes, even the highest number which
the historians referred to, have mentioned, without conflicting with their as-
sertions, as to the populousness of the country. For, in relation to the latter,
these writers must have referred not to the conqurered nations, but to the
conquerors, or those, the Tlascalans for instance, who had not submitted to the
Mexican power. It is asserted by Capt. Cook in his 3d Voyage, that the prac-
tice of sacrificing human victims, pervaded all the Islands of the Pacific
Ocean ; and that it produced a very decided effect upon the population.! The
want of prisoners of war, was supplied from their own people. When this
distinguished navigator was last at Otaheite, a civil war was raging. The
party attached to the head Chief, or King, had been unsuccessful. After each
disaster, sacrifices of this kind were offered to their God, to obtain more fa-
vorable results. One of the Chiefs, upon being questioned upon the subject,
Vol. 3d, page 198-9. t Cook's Voyage, Vol. 1st, page 348.
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