A treaty with the Six Nations of the Iroquois had been signed
on 11 November 1794 at Canandaigua, and by 9 January 1795
the Senate had ratified that and treaties with the Oneidas and the Cherokees.
Postmaster General Timothy Pickering was an experienced negotiator.
He had just become Secretary of War on January 2 when Henry Knox retired.
President Washington in a letter to Virginia’s
Chief Justice Edmund Pendleton on January 22 wrote,
I hope, and believe, that the spirit of anarchy
in the western counties of this State (to quell which
the force of the Union was called for) is entirely subdued;
and although to effect it, the community has been saddled
with a considerable expense, yet I trust no money
could have been more advantageously expended;
both as it respects the internal peace and welfare
of this country, and the impression it will make on others.
The spirit with which the Militia turned out, in support
of the Constitution, and the laws of our country,
at the same time that it does them immortal honor,
is the most conclusive refutation that could have been given
to the assertions of Lord Sheffield, and the predictions
of others of his cast, that without the protection of
Great Britain, we should be unable to govern ourselves;
and would soon be involved in anarchy and confusion.
They will see that republicanism is not the phantom
of a deluded imagination: on the contrary, that
under no form of government, will laws be better supported,
liberty and property better secured, or happiness
be more effectually dispensed to mankind.
The successes of our Army to the westward has,
already, been productive of good consequences.
They have dispelled a cloud which lowered very heavily
in the northern hemisphere (the six nations);
and though we have received no direct advices
from General Wayne since November, there is reason
to believe that the Indians with whom we are, or were
at war in that quarter, together with their abetters,
begin to see things in a different point of view;
but what effect these favorable changes may have on the
Southern Indians, is not easy, at this moment, to decide.
I accord fully in opinion with you, that the plan of
annual presents in an abstract view, unaccompanied
with other measures, is not the best mode of
treating ignorant Savages, from whose hostile conduct
we experience much distress; but it is not to be overlooked,
that they, in turn, are not without serious causes
of complaint, from the encroachments which are
made on their lands by our people; who are not to be
restrained by any law now in being, or likely to be enacted.
They, poor wretches, have no Press through which
their grievances are related; and it is well known, that
when one side only of a Story is heard, and often repeated,
the human mind becomes impressed with it, insensibly.
The annual presents however, which you allude to,
are not given so much with a view to purchase peace,
as by way of retribution for injuries,
not otherwise to be redressed.
These people are very much irritated by the continual
pressure of land speculators and settlers on one hand;
and by the impositions of unauthorized,
and unprincipled traders (who rob them
in a manner of their hunting) on the other.
Nothing but the strong arm of the Union, or in other words,
energetic laws, can correct these abuses; but here!
jealousies, and prejudices (from which I apprehend
more fatal consequences to this government than
from any other source) aided by local situations,
and perhaps by interested considerations,
always oppose themselves to efficient measures.
My communications to Congress at the last and present
Session, have proceeded upon similar ideas with those
expressed in your letter, namely, to make fair treaties
with the Savage tribes, (by this I mean, that they shall
perfectly understand every article and clause of them
from correct and repeated interpretations); that these
treaties shall be held sacred, and the infractors
on either side punished exemplarily;
and to furnish them plentifully with goods under
wholesome regulations, without aiming at higher prices
than is adequate to cover the cost, and charges.
If measures like these were adopted, we might hope
to live in peace and amity with these borderers;
but not whilst our citizens, in violation of law and justice,
are guilty of the offences I have mentioned,
and are carrying on unauthorized expeditions against them;
and when, for the most atrocious murders, even of those
of whom we have the least cause of complaint,
a Jury on the frontiers, can hardly be got to listen
to a charge, much less to convict a culprit.
The madness of European powers, and the calamitous
situation into which all of them are thrown by the present
ruinous war, ought to be a serious warning to us,
to avoid a similar catastrophe, as long as we can
with honor and justice to our national character.
What will be the result of Mr. Jay’s mission,
is more than I am able, at this moment, to disclose.
Charged as he has been with all matters in dispute
between the two countries (not, as has been insinuated in some
of the Gazettes, merely to that of spoliation) it may easily
be conceived that there would be a large field of discussion;
but upon what principle (except that of piracy) to account
for the conduct of the Bermudian privateers, at this stage
of the negotiation, is beyond my comprehension
on any fair ground of conjecture; as it must swell the bill.1
The 11th Amendment to the United States Constitution, having
been ratified by twelve states, went into effect on 7 February 1795 as:
The Judicial power of the United States shall not
be construed to extend to any suit in law or equity,
commenced or prosecuted against one of the
United States by Citizens of another State,
or by Citizens or Subjects of any Foreign State.
That year the Democratic-Republican Societies formed
in the previous two years stopped meeting.
Timothy Pickering would run the War Department
until he became Secretary of State on December 10.
In four years Pickering had implemented the expansion of post offices from 89 to 450.
Because there were so many political refugees coming to America,
Congress required
five years of residence before a person could be naturalized as a citizen.
They passed the bill on January 26, and Washington signed it three days later.
Hamilton left the cabinet on January 31 to return to his law practice in New York.
His able assistant Oliver Wolcott Jr. succeeded him as Treasury Secretary,
and Wolcott would serve in that position until the end of 1800.
Washington promoted canals of the James and Potomac rivers.
When he learned that the value of his land had increased by $32,000,
he promised that the money would be used for a national university in Virginia.
His gift of $20,000 in James River Canal shares went to Liberty Hall Academy
which would be renamed Washington Academy in 1796,
and after the Civil War it became Washington and Lee University.
On March 3 Washington summoned the United States Senate to convene
on June 8 to receive and deliberate on communications for the public good.
Jay’s Treaty would be submitted to them on that day.
On March 15 Washington wrote this letter to Thomas Jefferson:
My mind has always been more disposed to apply the
shares in the inland navigations of Potomac & James River
(which were left to my disposal by the legislature of
Virginia) towards the endowment of a University in the
United States, than to any other object it had contemplated.
In pursuance of this idea, and understanding that other
means were in embryo, for establishing so useful a
seminary in the federal city; I did on the 20th of January
last announce to the Commissioners thereof, my intention
of vesting in perpetuity the fifty shares I hold under
that act in the navigation of Potomac; as an additional
mean of carrying the plan into effect; provided it should
be adopted upon a scale so liberal & so extensive,
as to embrace a complete system of education.
I had but little hesitation in giving the federal district
a preference of all other places for this Institution,
& for the following reasons:
1st on account of its being the permanent Seat of the
government of this Union, and where the laws and policy of
it must be better understood than in any local part thereof.
2d because of its centrality.
3d because one half (or near it) of the district of Columbia
is within the Commonwealth of Virginia;
and the whole of the state not inconvenient thereto.
4th because as part of the endowment it would be useful;
but alone would be inadequate to the end.
5th because many advantages, I conceive, would result
from the Jurisdiction which the general government
will have over it, which no other spot would possess.
And lastly as this Seminary is contemplated for the
completion of education, and study of the sciences
(not for boys in their rudiments) it will afford the
Students an opportunity of attending the debates in
Congress, and thereby becoming more liberally & better
acquainted with the principles of law and government.
My judgment and my wishes point equally strong to the
application of the James River shares to the same object,
at the same place; but considering the source from
whence they were derived, I have in a letter I am
writing to the Executive of Virginia on this subject,
left the application of them to a Seminary
within the state to be located by the Legislature.
Hence you will perceive that I have
in a degree anticipated your proposition.
I was restrained from going the whole length of
the suggestion by the following considerations:
1st I did not know to what extent or when any plan
would be so matured for the establishment of a University,
as would enable any assurance to be given to the
application of Mr. D’Ivernois.
2d the propriety of transplanting the Professors in a body
might be questioned for several reasons; among others
because they might not be all good characters;
nor all sufficiently acquainted with our language;
and again, having been at variance with the levelling party
of their own country, the measure might be considered as
an aristocratical movement by more than those who,
without any just cause that I have been able to discover,
are continually sounding the alarm bell of aristocracy.
and 3d because it might preclude some of the first
Professors in other countries from a participation;
among whom some of the most celebrated characters
in Scotland in this line I am told might be obtained.
Something but of what nature I am unable to inform you,
has been written by Mr. Adams to Mr. D’Ivernois.
Never having viewed my intended donation as more than a
part of the means that was to set this establishment afloat;
I did not incline to go too far in the encouragement of
Professors before the plan should assume a more formal
shape—much less to induce an entire College to migrate.
The enclosed is the answer I have received from the
Commissioners: from which and the ideas I have here
expressed, you will be enabled to decide on the best
communication to be made to Mr. D’Ivernois.
My letter to the Commissioners has bound me to the
fulfilment of what is therein engaged; and if the legislature
of Virginia in considering the subject should view it in the
same light I do, the James River shares will be added
thereto; for I think one good Institution of this sort is to be
preferred to two imperfect ones; which without other aids
than the shares in both navigations is more likely to fall
through, than to succeed upon the plan I contemplate.
Which, in a few words, is to supersede the necessity of
sending the youth of this country abroad for the purpose of
education (where too often principles & habits not friendly
to a republican government are imbibed, which are not
easily discarded) by instituting such a one of our own,
as will answer the end; and by associating them in the
same seminary, contribute to wear off those prejudices,
& unreasonable jealousies, which prevent or weaken
friendships & impair the harmony of the Union.2
On 8 April 1795 Secretary of War Pickering sent a long letter to
General Anthony Wayne advising him what terms to offer the Indians
based on the Treaty of Fort Harmar.
He noted that the main reasons why the Indians had not adhered to the treaties
of Fort McIntosh, Fort Miami, and Fort Harmar were the following:
1. That the Chiefs who treated were not an adequate
representation of the Nations to whom the lands belonged.
2. That they were compelled by threats
to subscribe some of the treaties.
3. That the claim of the United States
to the full property of the Indians’ lands,
under color of the treaty of 1783
with Great Britain was unfounded and unjust.3
John Jay had reached London on 15 June 1794, and on July 15 he wrote
to Washington that the British Lt. Governor of Upper Canada (1791-96) John Simcoe
under Governor General Carleton (Dorchester) had been ordered to leave Ohio.
By August 1 the British had promised justice in
regard to the American ships they had captured.
Foreign Minister Grenville learned from a dispatch in September
from George Hammond, the British minister to the United States,
that Hamilton had assured him that the Americans
would not join the League of Armed Neutrality.
Knowing this enabled Grenville to gain better terms from
John Jay in the comprehensive treaty they were negotiating.
On 19 November 1794 Jay and Grenville had agreed on a lengthy treaty,
though the first two copies were captured by the French at sea,
and the third did not reach President Washington until 7 March 1795.
Financial claims on United States war debts and British compensation
for the ships were to be decided by two joint commissions, but there was
to be no compensation paid for slaves taken away during the Revolutionary War.
Canadian traders were allowed to operate south of the border,
and furs brought back were not taxed differently.
On 25 March 1795 the House of Representatives voted 62-37
to demand all the Jay Treaty papers, but Washington refused to provide them.
After a month of debate the House majority switched from Madison to President Washington.
Four French spies were traveling around the west opposing the treaty,
and on May 25 Washington directed Secretary of War Pickering
to give the names of two of them to General Wayne.
On June 8 President Washington gave the documents to the Senate.
They quickly rejected Jay’s Treaty but then on June 24 approved it
without the clause prohibiting molasses, sugar, coffee, cocoa, or cotton
from leaving the United States in American ships.
Jay and the government had kept the terms of the treaty secret
from the newspapers and the general public.
The Jeffersonian press criticized the treaty, and Benjamin F. Bache’s Aurora in June
objected to the people being kept in the dark.
Finally Senator Pierce Butler of South Carolina leaked a copy of the treaty
to Madison who sent it to be printed by Bache as a pamphlet on July 1.
Jay had returned to New York and learned that the state had elected him Governor,
and he resigned as Chief Justice on June 28.
Hamilton declined that office, and Washington nominated John Rutledge
while the Senate was in recess, making him Chief Justice of the Supreme Court
until the Senate returned and rejected him on December 28.
Most of the opposition to Jay’s Treaty was
because of Article 12 on trade in the West Indies.
On 8 June 1795 Washington and Vice President John Adams
discussed removing it to save the treaty.
One week later Hamilton helped the Federalists rewrite Article 12.
American ships were allowed to trade with the British West Indies,
though the their tonnage was limited and restricted to goods
manufactured in the United States or the British West Indies.
The treaty left out the British reimbursing Americans for property
taken by the British during the Revolution, and the treaty did not stop
the Royal Navy from impressing into service citizens of the United States.
In Article 5 both nations agreed not to incite Native Americans
and to restrain the tribes within their borders.
On June 22 Aaron Burr proposed eliminating several articles and modifying others.
This and similar amendments were defeated.
On June 24 the United States Senate barely managed to get
a 20-10 two-thirds vote to ratify the Treaty without Article 12.
On July 2 the Aurora office began selling for 25 cents copies of the treaty they printed.
On 3 July 1795 Washington wrote to Hamilton,
The treaty of Amity, Commerce and Navigation, which
has lately been before the Senate, has, as you will perceive,
made its public entry into the Gazettes of this city.
Of course the merits, & demerits of it will
(especially in its unfinished state) be freely discussed.
It is not the opinions of those who were determined
(before it was promulgated) to support, or oppose it,
that I am solicitous to obtain; for these I well know
rarely do more than examine the side to which they lean;
without giving the reverse the consideration it deserves;
possibly without a wish to be apprised of the reasons,
on which the objections are founded.
My desire is to learn from dispassionate men, who
have knowledge of the subject, and abilities to judge of it,
the genuine opinion they entertain of each article
of the instrument; and the result of it in the aggregate.
In a word, placed on the footing the matter now stands,
it is, more than ever, an incumbent duty on me, to do
what propriety, and the true interest of this country
shall appear to require at my hands on so important
a subject, under such delicate circumstances.
You will be at no loss to perceive, from what I have
already said, that my wishes are, to have the favorable,
and unfavorable side of each article stated,
and compared together; that I may see the bearing
and tendency of them: and, ultimately,
on which side the balance is to be found.
This treaty has, I am sensible, many relations,
which, in deciding thereon, ought to be attended to;
some of them too are of an important nature.
I know also, that to judge with precision of its commercial
arrangements, there ought likewise to be an intimate
acquaintance with the various branches of commerce
between this Country and Great Britain as it now stands;
as it will be placed by the treaty; and as it may affect our
present, or restrain our future treaties with other nations.
All these things I am persuaded you have given
as much attention to as most men; and I believe that
your late employment under the General government
afforded you more opportunities of deriving knowledge
therein, than most of them who had not studied
and practiced it scientifically,
upon a large & comprehensive scale.
I do not know how you may be occupied at present;
or how incompatible this request of mine
may be to the business you have in hand.
All I can say is, that however desirous I may be of availing
myself of your sentiments on the points I have enumerated,
and such others as are involved in the treaty,
& the resolution of the Senate;
(both of which I send you, lest they should not be at hand)
it is not my intention to interrupt you in that business;
or, if you are disinclined to go into the investigation
I have requested, to press the matter upon you:
for of this you may be assured, that with the most
unfeigned regard—and with every good wish
for your health & prosperity.PS. Admitting that his B. Majesty will consent
to the suspension of the 12th. article of the treaty,
is it necessary that the treaty should again go to the Senate?
or is the President authorized by the Resolution
of that body to ratify it without?4
On July 4 a mob in Philadelphia burned copies of the Treaty and effigies of John Jay.
Yankees protesting went so far as to burn a British privateer in Boston Harbor.
The British Council resumed their order that allowed
the Royal Navy to seize American merchant ships.
On July 13 Edmund Randolph told the British Minister Hammond that
the President could not ratify the treaty as long as that order was present.
On 16 July 1795 Rutledge made a speech at a meeting in Charleston
vehemently attacking Jay and the treaty that was published in at least 13 newspapers.
When the Senate reconvened in December,
they rejected by a 10-14 vote Rutledge‘s nomination.
On July 18 Alexander Hamilton as a citizen tried to speak
in favor of the treaty in front of City Hall in New York.
He was pelted with stones and fled.
Two days later many treaty opponents rallied in Philadelphia.
Republican newspapers reported there were 5,000 people
while the Federalists estimated only 1,500.
Robert R. Livingston of New York had been criticizing the treaty as “Cato.”
Washington on July 22 informed the Cabinet that
he would not ratify the treaty unless the order was repealed;
the British must agree to stop the illegal seizing of American ships.
The French considered the Jay Treaty a violation
of their alliance with the United States since 1778.
Also on the 22nd a series of letters began appearing
in the New York Argus signed by “Camillus.”
Alexander Hamilton was credited with writing thirty of the best,
and Rufus King was acknowledged as the author of eight.
They objected to public meetings that passed resolutions
condemning the treaty without discussing its provisions.
They argued that the treaty would be good for the United States,
that it does not violate other treaties,
and that not ratifying it could lead to war against England.
Hamilton argued that a traitorous party was supporting France.
He believed that the Republicans were trying to prevent
Jay or John Adams from succeeding Washington.
The President found that James Monroe was too partisan toward the French,
and he recalled him in July.
On 28 July 1795 Washington sent to the selectmen of Boston this message:
Gentlemen: In every act of my administration
I have sought the happiness of my fellow-citizens.
My system for the attainment of this object has
uniformly been to overlook all personal, local and partial
considerations: to contemplate the United States,
as one great whole: to confide, that sudden impressions,
when erroneous, would yield to candid reflection:
and to consult only the substantial
and permanent interests of our country.
Nor have I departed from this line of conduct,
on the occasion, which has produced the resolutions,
contained in your letter of the 13th instant.
Without a predilection for my own judgment,
I have weighed with attention every argument
which has at any time been brought into view.
But the Constitution is the guide which I never can abandon.
It has assigned to the President the power of making
treaties, with the advice and consent of the Senate:
It was doubtless supposed that these two branches
of government would combine, without passion,
and with the best means of information, those facts
& principles, upon which the success of our foreign relations
will always depend: that they ought not to substitute
for their own conviction the opinions of others;
or to seek truth thro’ any channel but that
of a temperate and well informed investigation.
Under this persuasion, I have resolved
on the manner of executing the duty now before me.
To the high responsibility, attached to it, I freely submit;
and you, gentlemen, are at liberty to make these
sentiments known, as the grounds of my procedure.
While I feel the most lively gratitude for the many instances
of approbation from my country; I can no otherwise
deserve it than by obeying the dictates of my conscience.5
The President sent Charles Cotesworth Pinckney to France in the fall.
Monroe would defend his years in France and criticize Washington in his 473-page
A View of the Conduct of the Executive, in the Foreign Affairs of the United States:
Connected with the Mission to the French Republic, During the Years 1794, 5, and 6.
The book was published in 1798.
Secretary of War Pickering encouraged a treaty with the
sachems and war chiefs of all the tribes northwest of the Ohio.
In Wayne’s treaty at Greenville on 3 August 1795 about 1,100 chiefs and warriors from
the Shawnee, Delaware, Ottawa, Potawatomi, Wyandot, Miami, Chippewa, Kickapoo,
Wea, Piankashaw, and Kaskaskia tribes ceded 25,000 square miles in southern Ohio
to the United States for $20,000 and a promise of $10,000 a year if they behaved.
Hamilton favored it,
but Secretary of State Randolph objected to the order for capturing provisions.
On August 11 Washington and Edmund Randolph were going over
a memorial for the British minister Hammond suggesting ratification
if the British Council repealed its predatory order.
Timothy Pickering interrupted and gave Washington a letter
he examined in another room and then asked Pickering to explain.
He accused Randolph of being a traitor.
They suspected that Randolph was selling secrets to the French.
Randolph said he would explain, and then he threatened to resign and walked out.
Washington accepted his resignation.
War Secretary Pickering handled the State Department during the transition.
On August 18 Washington and Randolph signed the Jay treaty.
The next day Washington showed Randolph a letter from the French Minister
Jean Antoine Fauchet stating that Randolph had given him valuable information
and that France would give Randolph thousands of dollars
if he helped French interests in the whiskey conflict.
After a 45-minute discussion while Randolph was in another room waiting,
he appeared to be guilty.
The British had captured Fauchet’s dispatches at sea and turned them over
to the American government in July to influence the treaty debate.
United States Attorney General Bradford died on August 23,
and Washington appointed the Virginia lawyer Charles Lee.
After Senate approval he became Attorney General on December 1,
and he remained in that position during the Adams administration.
The French recalled Minister Fauchet, and he left on August 31.
He would be replaced by Pierre Auguste Adet.
On 20 September 1795 General Anthony Wayne reported that the British forts
at Michilimackinac, Niagara, and Oswego had been politely transferred to the Americans.
Washington needed a Secretary of State,
and on October 9 he wrote this letter to Patrick Henry:
Dear Sir: Whatever may be the reception of this letter;
truth and candor shall mark its steps.
You doubtless know that the Office of State is vacant,
and no one can be more sensible than yourself
of the importance of filling it with a person of abilities,
and one in whom the public would have confidence.
It would be uncandid not to inform you that
this office has been offered to others, but it is as true
that it was from a conviction in my mind that
you would not accept it (until Tuesday last
in a conversation with General, (late Governor,) Lee,
he dropped sentiments which made it less doubtful)
that it was not offered first to you.
I need scarcely add, that if this appointment could
be made to comport with your own inclination
it would be as pleasing to me,
as I believe it would be acceptable to the public.
With this assurance, and under this belief
I make you the offer of it.
My first wish is, that you would accept it;
the next is that you would be so good as to give me
an answer as soon as you conveniently can,
as the public business in that department
is now suffering for want of a Secretary.
I persuade myself, Sir, it has not escaped your
observation, that a crisis is approaching that must,
if it cannot be arrested, soon decide whether
order and good government shall be preserved
or anarchy and confusion ensue.
I can most religiously aver I have no wish,
that is incompatible with the dignity, happiness
and true interest of the people of this country.
My ardent desire is, and my aim has been
(as far as depended upon the Executive Department,)
to comply Strictly with all our engagements,
foreign and domestic; but to keep the U States free
from political connections with every other Country.
To see that they may be independent of all,
and under the influence of none.
In a word, I want an American character, that the powers
of Europe may be convinced we act for ourselves
and not for others; this in my judgement, is the only way
to be respected abroad and happy at home and not by
becoming the partisans of Great Britain or France,
create dissentions, disturb the public tranquility, and destroy,
perhaps forever the cement which binds the Union.
I am satisfied these sentiments cannot be otherwise than
congenial to your own; your aid therefore in carrying them
into effect would be flattering and pleasing to Dr. Sir &c.6
Republicans continued to oppose the Jay Treaty with Britain,
and on October 23 Bache’s Aurora of Philadelphia accused Washington
of overdrawing his $25,000 salary and suggested he be impeached.
Some settlers in Kentucky did not like the shipping restrictions that
Spain imposed on the Mississippi River trade, and they considered seceding.
Washington in October appointed Thomas Pinckney as a special envoy to Spain,
and after delays he reached Madrid on 28 June 1795.
He negotiated the Treaty of San Lorenzo that was signed by him
and Spain’s Secretary of State Manuel de Godoy on October 27, giving the United States
large territory that would become Alabama and Mississippi north of the 31st parallel,
navigation rights on the Mississippi River, and a trading post in New Orleans.
Spain still held the colony of Louisiana, and the Mississippi River
was recognized as the boundary between the two nations.
Treasury Secretary Wolcott assured the British that the United States had no desire to ally
with Spain or any other nation because they had learned from the alliance with France.
On 29 November 1795 Washington met with warriors from eleven tribes.
The Fourth Congress convened on December 7,
and Washington presented his Seventh Annual Message to them on December 8:
I trust I do not deceive myself when I indulge
the persuasion, that I have never met you at any period,
when more than at the present, the situation
of our public affairs has afforded just cause
for mutual congratulation; and for inviting you, to join
with me in profound gratitude to the Author of all good,
for the numerous, and extraordinary blessings we enjoy.
The termination of the long, expensive,
and distressing war in which we have been engaged
with certain Indians North west of the Ohio, is placed
in the option of the United States, by a treaty which
the Commander of our army has concluded,
provisionally, with the hostile tribes in that region.
In the adjustment of the terms, the satisfaction
of the Indians was deemed worthy no less of the policy,
than of the liberality of the United States,
as the necessary basis of durable tranquility.
This object, it is believed, has been fully attained.
The articles agreed upon, will immediately be
laid before the Senate, for their consideration.
The Creek and Cherokee Indians, who alone
of the Southern tribes had annoyed our frontier,
have lately confirmed their pre-existing treaties with us;
and were giving evidence of a sincere disposition
to carry them into effect, by the surrender
of the prisoners and property they had taken:
But we have to lament, that the fair prospect in this quarter,
has been once more clouded by wanton murders,
which some Citizens of Georgia are represented to have
recently perpetrated on hunting parties of the Creeks;
which have again subjected that frontier to disquietude
and danger; which will be productive of further expense;
and may occasion more effusion of blood.
Measures are pursuing to prevent or mitigate the usual
consequences of such outrages; and with the hope
of their succeeding, at least to avert general hostility.
A letter from the Emperor of Morocco, announces to me
his recognition of our Treaty made with his father,
the late Emperor; and consequently
the continuance of peace with that Power.
With peculiar satisfaction I add that information has been
received from an Agent deputed on our part to Algiers,
importing, that the terms of the Treaty with the Dey
and Regency of that country, had been adjusted
in such a manner, as to authorize the expectation
of a speedy peace; and the restoration of our
unfortunate fellow-citizens from a grievous captivity.
The latest advices from our Envoy at the Court
of Madrid, give moreover, the pleasing information
that he had assurances of a speedy, and
satisfactory conclusion of his negotiation.
While the event, depending upon unadjusted particulars,
cannot be regarded as ascertained, it is agreeable
to cherish the expectation of an issue, which securing
amicably, very essential interests of the United States,
will at the same time lay the foundation of lasting harmony
with a power, whose friendship we have uniformly,
and sincerely desired to cultivate.
Though not before officially disclosed to the
House of Representatives, you, Gentlemen, are all apprized,
that a Treaty of Amity, Commerce, and Navigation
has been negotiated with Great Britain;
and that the Senate have advised and consented
to its ratification, upon a condition
which excepts part of one article.
Agreeably thereto, and to the best judgment I was able
to form of the public interest, after full and mature
deliberation, I have added my sanction.
The result on the part of His Britannic Majesty, is unknown.
When received, the subject will, without delay
be placed before Congress.
This interesting summary of our affairs with regard to
the foreign powers between whom and the United States
controversies have subsisted, and with regard also to
those of our Indian neighbors with whom we have been
in a state of enmity or misunderstanding,
opens a wide field for consoling and gratifying reflections.
If by prudence and moderation on every side
the extinguishment of all the causes of external discord
which have heretofore menaced our tranquility,
on terms compatible with our national rights and honor,
shall be the happy result; how firm and how precious
a foundation will have been laid for accelerating,
maturing, and establishing the prosperity of our country!
Contemplating the internal situation as well as
the external relations of the United States,
we discover equal cause for contentment and satisfaction.
While many of the nations of Europe, with their American
Dependencies, have been involved in a contest unusually
bloody, exhausting, and calamitous, in which the evils
of foreign war have been aggravated by
domestic convulsion and insurrection; in which
many of the arts most useful to society have been
exposed to discouragement and decay; in which
scarcity of subsistence has imbittered other sufferings;
while even the anticipations of a return of the blessings
of peace and repose are alloyed by the sense of heavy
and accumulating burthens, which press upon
all the departments of industry and threaten
to clog the future springs of Government:
Our favored country, happy in a striking contrast,
has enjoyed tranquility; a tranquility the more satisfactory
because maintained at the expense of no duty.
Faithful to ourselves,
we have violated no obligation to others.
Our Agriculture, Commerce, and Manufactures prosper
beyond former example, the molestations of our trade
(to prevent a continuance of which, however,
very pointed remonstrances have been made)
being over-balanced by the aggregate benefits
which it derives from a Neutral position.
Our population advances with a celerity,
which exceeding the most sanguine calculations,
proportionally augments our strength and resources,
and guarantees our future security.
Every part of the union displays indications of rapid
and various improvement, and with burthens
so light as scarcely to be perceived;
with resources fully adequate to our present exigencies;
with Governments founded on genuine principles
of rational liberty, and with mild and wholesome laws;
is it too much to say, that our country exhibits a spectacle of
national happiness never surpassed if ever before equaled?
Placed in a situation every way so auspicious,
motives of commanding force impel us, with sincere
acknowledgment to heaven, and pure love to our country,
to unite our efforts to preserve, prolong,
and improve, our immense advantages.
To cooperate with you in this desirable work
is a fervent, and favorite wish of my heart.
It is a valuable ingredient in the general estimate
of our welfare, that the part of our country, which
was lately the scene of disorder and insurrections,
now enjoys the blessings of quiet and order.
The misled have abandoned their errors, and pay
the respect to our Constitution and laws which is due
from good citizens, to the public authorities of the society.
These circumstances, have induced me to pardon generally,
the offenders here referred to; and to extend forgiveness
to those who had been adjudged to capital punishment.
For though I shall always think it a sacred duty,
to exercise with firmness and energy,
the Constitutional powers with which I am vested,
yet it appears to me no less consistent with the public good,
than it is with my personal feelings,
to mingle in the operations of government,
every degree of moderation and tenderness,
which the national justice, dignity, and safety may permit.
Gentlemen: Among the objects which will claim your
attention in the course of the session, a review
of our Military establishment is not the least important.
It is called for by the events which have changed,
and may be expected still further to change,
the relative situation of our frontiers.
In this review, you will doubtless allow due weight
to the considerations, that the questions between us,
and certain foreign powers, are not yet finally adjusted;
that the war in Europe is not yet terminated;
and that our Western Posts, when recovered,
will demand provision for garrisoning and securing them.
A statement of our present military force
will be laid before you by the department of war.
With the review of our Army establishment,
is naturally connected that of the Militia.
It will merit inquiry, what imperfections in the existing plan,
further experience may have unfolded.
The subject is of so much moment, in my estimation,
as to excite a constant solicitude that the consideration
of it may be renewed, till the greatest
attainable perfection shall be accomplished.
Time is wearing away some advantages for
forwarding the object, while none better deserves
the persevering attention of the public councils.
While we indulge the satisfaction, which the actual
condition of our Western borders so well authorizes,
it is necessary that we should not lose sight
of an important truth, which continually receives
new confirmations, namely, that the provisions
heretofore made with a view to the protection
of the Indians, from the violence of the lawless part
of our frontier inhabitants are insufficient.
It is demonstrated that these violence
can now be perpetrated with impunity.
And it can need no argument to prove, that unless
the murdering of Indians can be restrained,
by bringing the murderers to condign punishment,
all the exertions of the government to prevent destructive
retaliations, by the Indians, will prove fruitless;
and all our present agreeable prospects illusory.
The frequent destruction of innocent women and children,
who are chiefly the victims of retaliation,
must continue to shock humanity; and
an enormous expense to drain the Treasury of the Union.
To enforce upon the Indians the observance of Justice,
it is indispensable that there shall be
competent means of rendering justice to them.
If these means can be devised by the wisdom of Congress;
and especially if there can be added an adequate provision
for supplying the necessities of the Indians
on reasonable terms, (a measure the mention of which
I the more readily repeat, as in all the conferences
with them they urge it with solicitude)
I should not hesitate to entertain a strong hope,
of rendering our tranquility permanent.
I add with pleasure, that the probability
even of their civilization is not diminished,
by the experiments which have been thus far
made under the auspices of Government.
The accomplishment of this work, if practicable,
will reflect undecayed lustre on our national character,
and administer the most grateful
consolations that virtuous minds can know.Gentlemen of the House of Representatives:
The state of our revenue with the sums which have been
borrowed and reimbursed, pursuant to different acts of
Congress, will be submitted from the proper Department;
together with an estimate of the appropriations necessary
to be made for the service of the ensuing year.
Whether measures may not be advisable to reinforce
the provision of the redemption of the public debt,
will naturally engage your examination.
Congress have demonstrated their sense to be,
and it were superfluous to repeat mine, that
whatsoever will tend to accelerate the honorable extinction
of our Public Debt, accords as much with the true interest of
our country, as with the general sense of our Constituents.Gentlemen of the Senate
and of the House of Representatives:
The Statements, which will be laid before you
relative to the Mint will shew the situation of that institution;
and the necessity of some further Legislative provisions
for carrying the business of it more completely into effect;
and for checking abuses which appear
to be arising in particular quarters.
The progress in providing materials for the Frigates,
and in building them; the state of the fortifications
of our harbors, the measures which have been pursued
for obtaining proper sites for Arsenals and
for replenishing our Magazines with military stores;
and the steps which have been taken toward the execution
of the law for opening a trade with the Indians;
will likewise be presented for the information of Congress.
Temperate discussion of the important subjects,
which may arise in the course of the Session,
and mutual forbearance where there is
a difference of opinion, are too obvious,
and necessary for the peace happiness and welfare
of our country, to need any recommendation of mine.7
On December 18 Edmund Randolph published A Vindication in 103 pages that was very critical of Washington.
The President had made the Secretary of War Timothy Pickering the Secretary of State on December 10.
He began working with Quakers who had an Indian Affairs Committee work with the tribes.
Cornplanter had built a sawmill in 1795.
In a letter to Dr. James Anderson on December 24 Washington wrote,
In politics, as in religion, my tenets are few and simple:
the leading one of which, and indeed that which
embraces most others, is to be honest and just ourselves,
and to exact it from others;
meddling as little as possible in their affairs
where our own are not involved.
If this maxim was generally adopted Wars would cease,
and our swords would soon be converted into reap-hooks,
and our harvests be more abundant, peaceful, and happy….
But alas! the millennium will not I fear appear in our days.
The restless mind of man can not be at peace;
and when there is disorder within, it will appear without,
and soon or late will show itself in acts.
So it is with Nations, whose mind is only the aggregate
of those of the individuals, where the Government is
Representative, and the voice of a Despot, where it is not.8
On 1 January 1796 the new French Minister Pierre Antoine Adet
presented President Washington with a French flag.
James Monroe had given France an American flag,
and they had displayed it with their flag in the French Assembly.
Washington and the Federalists did not want to display the French flag,
and it was put in the archives.
The Swiss-American Albert Gallatin had been elected a Senator from Pennsylvania
for three months but then was removed on 28 February 1794
because he had not lived in the United States for nine years before the election.
In 1796 he became a Republican member of the House of Representatives.
The Republicans’ leader Madison had not run for re-election in 1796,
and the party replaced him with Gallatin.
He began working on reforming some of Hamilton’s
financial policies especially deficit spending.
Washington appointed as Secretary of War James McHenry,
who had been a surgeon in the Revolutionary War.
He was confirmed on 27 January 1796, and he served until May 1800.
After the Senate rejected the nomination of John Rutledge of South Carolina,
Senator Oliver Ellsworth of Connecticut became Chief Justice
with Samuel Chase of Maryland as an Associate Justice.
Alexander Hamilton resigned on January 31 and was succeeded by
the Comptroller Oliver Wolcott Jr. who served as Treasury Secretary until the end of 1800.
On February 1 Washington launched advertising to rent four of his Mount Vernon farms,
and he offered 41,000 acres by the Ohio River for sale.
On March 1 Washington wrote to Congress that the Treaty of
Amity Commerce and Navigation concluded by the United States and Britain
had been
duly ratified and that ratifications had been exchanged with London on 28 October 1795.
He directed that the Treaty be promulgated and provided a copy for Congress.
On 2 March 1796 in the House the Representative Edward Livingston of New York
requested that the President provide the original instructions
given to John Jay for the treaty negotiation.
The United States Senate ratified the Treaty of San Lorenzo
with Spain on March 7, and Spain did so on April 25.
In the recent treaties about 600,000 square miles
had been added to the territory of the United States.
The Jay-Grenville Treaty had been signed by King George III,
and Washington proclaimed it to go into effect on 1 March 1796.
Two days later the Senate approved the treaty with Spain.
On March 7 Washington proclaimed a treaty that had been made
with the Dey Hassan Pasha of Algiers on 5 September 1795.
To prevent the Barbary pirates from attacking American ships the United States
paid him a $642,000 ransom and promised him $21,600 a year worth of
gunpowder, shot, oak planking, pine masts, and other supplies.
The Senate ratified the treaty without objections.
By 1796 all but 7% of the Anglo-American carrying trade was in American ships.
British creditors brought litigation to collect debts from Americans,
and an appeal reached the Supreme Court in Ware v. Hylton.
The court upheld the treaty as the supreme law that
made the government responsible for its obligations.
In Hylton v. United States on 8 March 1796 the court defended
the federal government’s authority to impose an indirect tax on carriages.
That summer the Supreme Court heard a case involving the French privateer
La Vengeance asserting its admiralty jurisdiction beyond the limits of common law.
In this case rather than each justice giving his opinion in turn, for the first time
Chief Justice Ellsworth delivered the opinion for the majority, and Justice Chase dissented.
When the American public learned of the terms
in the Jay Treaty in March, there arose much opposition.
On March 24 the House approved Livingston’s motion for the documents.
The Supreme Court Chief Justice Ellsworth advised President Washington that
this request for power on making treaties was unwarranted and dangerous.
On March 30 Washington wrote to the House of Representatives,
With the utmost attention I have considered your
resolution of the 24th instant, requesting me to lay
before your House, a copy of the instructions to the
Minister of the United States who negotiated the Treaty
with the King of Great Britain, together with the
correspondence and other documents relative to that
Treaty, excepting such of the said papers, as any existing
negotiation may render improper to be disclosed.
In deliberating upon this subject, it was impossible for me
to lose sight of the principle, which some have avowed
in its discussion; or to avoid extending my views
to the consequences which must flow
from the admission of that principle.
I trust that no part of my conduct has ever indicated
a disposition to withhold any information which
the Constitution has enjoined upon the President as a duty
to give, or which could be required of him by either
House of Congress, as a right; and with truth I affirm,
that it has been, as it will continue to be,
while I have the honor to preside in the Government,
my constant endeavor to harmonize with the other
branches thereof; so far as the trust delegated to me
by the People of the United States, and my sense
of the obligation it imposes “to preserve, protect
and defend the Constitution” will permit.
The nature of foreign negotiations requires caution;
and their success must often depend on secrecy:
and even when brought to a conclusion, a full disclosure
of all the measures, demands, or eventual concessions,
which may have been proposed or contemplated,
would be deemed impolitic: for this might have a
pernicious influence on future negotiations, or produce
immediate inconveniences, perhaps danger and mischief,
in relation to the other powers.
The necessity of such caution and secrecy was one cogent
reason for vesting the power of making Treaties
in the President, with the advice and consent of the Senate,
the principle, on which that body was formed,
confining it to a small number of Members.
To admit then a right in the House of Representatives
to demand, and to have as a matter of course,
all the papers respecting a negotiation with a foreign power,
would be to establish a dangerous precedent.
It does not occur that the inspection of the papers asked
for can be relative to any purpose under the cognizance
of the House of Representatives, except that of an
impeachment, which the resolution has not expressed.
I repeat, that I have no disposition to withhold any
information which the duty of my station will permit,
or the public good will require to be disclosed:
and in fact, all the Papers affecting the negotiation with
Great Britain were laid before the Senate, when the Treaty
itself was communicated for their consideration and advice.
The course which the debate has taken, on the resolution
of the House, leads to some observations on the mode of
making treaties under the Constitution of the United States.
Having been a member of the General Convention,
and knowing the principles on which the Constitution
was formed, I have ever entertained but one opinion
on this subject; and from the first establishment
of the Government, to this moment, my conduct has
exemplified that opinion, that the power of making treaties
is exclusively vested in the President, by and with the advice
and consent of the Senate, provided two thirds of the
Senators present concur, and that every treaty so made,
and promulgated, thenceforward
became the Law of the land.
It is thus, that the treaty making power has been
understood by foreign Nations: and in all the treaties
made with them, we have declared, and they have believed,
that when ratified by the President with the advice
and consent of the Senate, they became obligatory.
In this construction of the Constitution every House of
Representatives has heretofore acquiesced;
and until the present time, not a doubt or suspicion
has appeared to my knowledge that
this construction was not the true one.
Nay, they have more than acquiesced: for till now,
without controverting the obligation of such treaties,
they have made all the requisite provisions
for carrying them into effect.
There is also reason to believe that this construction
agrees with the opinion entertained by the State
Conventions, when they were deliberating
on the Constitution, especially by those who objected to it,
because there was not required, in commercial treaties,
the consent of two thirds of the whole number
of the members of the Senate, instead of two thirds
of the Senators present; and because in treaties
respecting territorial and certain other rights and claims,
the concurrence of three fourths of the whole number
of the members of both Houses
respectively, was not made necessary.
It is a fact declared by the General Convention and
universally understood that the Constitution of the
United States was the result of
a spirit of amity and mutual concession.
And it is well known that under this influence the
smaller States were admitted to an equal representation
in the Senate with the larger States; and that this branch
of the government was invested with great powers:
for on the equal participation of those powers:
the sovereignty and political safety of the smaller
States were deemed essentially to depend.
If other proofs than these, and the plain letter of the
Constitution itself, be necessary to ascertain the point
under consideration, they may be found in the journals
of the General Convention, which I have deposited
in the office of the department of State.
In these journals it will appear that a proposition was made,
“that no Treaty should be binding on the United States,
which was not ratified by a Law;”
and that the proposition was explicitly rejected.
As therefore it is perfectly clear to my understanding,
that the assent of the House of Representatives
is not necessary to the validity of a treaty:
as the treaty with Great Britain exhibits,
in itself all the objects requiring legislative provision;
and on these the papers called for can throw no light:
and as it is essential to the due administration of the
government, that the boundaries fixed by the constitution
between the different departments should be preserved
A just regard to the Constitution and to the duty
of my Office, under all the circumstances of this case,
forbids a compliance with your request.9
Republicans in the House of Representatives in March
opposed to the Jay Treaty tried to prevent funding its implementation.
James Madison made a long speech against the treaty and its funding.
The House voted 61-38 for the President to turn over all papers related to the treaty.
The documents had already been submitted to the Senate
which made them available to the House.
Washington, because of separation of powers, had refused to comply with their request.
The French minister Pierre Adet urged opposition to the treaty and even sent
General Victor Collot to explore how the French could conquer Louisiana
with possible help from western American states that he hoped would secede.
The Federalist Fisher Ames spoke eloquently for the treaty in the House on April 28.
The next day the Pennsylvania Republican Frederick Muhlenberg,
chairman of the House Committee of the Whole, broke a tie vote to get the issue out
of committee, and later his brother-in-law, a fanatical Republican, slashed him with a knife.
Finally on April 30 the House in a sectional vote of 51-48 funded the Jay Treaty.
In 1796 the United States had a standing army of about 3,000 men.
Federalist opposition was overcome,
and Tennessee was admitted into the Union as the 16th state on June 1.
To avoid war and get a commercial treaty with the United States
the British in the Jay Treaty promised to evacuate their posts on the frontier by 1 June 1796.
American troops occupied Detroit and Fort Miami on July 11,
and the last British outpost at Michilimackinac was taken over in October.
Washington learned that the Minister James Monroe in France was criticizing his policies,
and in July he recalled Monroe and replaced him with Charles Cotesworth Pinckney.
Monroe left France on December 9 and returned to Philadelphia and published
A View of the Conduct of the Executive in the
Foreign Affairs of the United States in 473 pages.
Washington read it and filled the margins with his critical comments.
The French were attacking neutral ships carrying British goods.
Pinckney reached Paris in December and was publicly snubbed.
Washington had been asking for government to support establishing factors
and trading posts for the Indian nations in his Annual Messages to Congress since 1793.
Finally in 1796 the Congress approved the factories
and appropriated $150,000 to support that.
On August 29 President Washington in Philadelphia
presented this Address to the Cherokee Nation:
My beloved Cherokees,
Many years have passed
since the White people first came to America.
In that long space of time many good men have
considered how the condition of the Indian natives
of the country might be improved;
and many attempts have been made to effect it.
But, as we see at this day,
all these attempts have been nearly fruitless.
I also have thought much on this subject,
and anxiously wished that the various Indian tribes,
as well as their neighbors, the White people,
might enjoy in abundance all the good things
which make life comfortable and happy.
I have considered how this could be done;
and have discovered but one path
that could lead them to that desirable situation.
In this path I wish all the Indian nations to walk.
From the information received concerning you,
my beloved Cherokees, I am inclined to hope that you are
prepared to take this path and disposed to pursue it.
It may seem a little difficult to enter;
but if you make the attempt,
you will find every obstacle easy to be removed.
Mr. Dinsmoor, my beloved agent to your nation, being here,
I send to you this talk by him.
He will have it interpreted to you,
and particularly explain my meaning.
Beloved Cherokees,
You now find that the game with which your woods
once abounded, are growing scarce;
and you know when you cannot meet a deer
or other game to kill, that you must remain hungry;
you know also when you can get no skins by hunting,
that the traders will give you neither powder nor clothing;
and you know that without other implements
for tilling the ground than the hoe,
you will continue to raise only scanty crops of corn.
Hence you are sometimes exposed
to suffer much from hunger and cold;
and as the game are lessening in numbers
more and more, these sufferings will increase.
And how are you to provide against them?
Listen to my words and you will know.
My beloved Cherokees,
Some among you already experience
the advantage of keeping cattle and hogs:
let all keep them and increase their numbers,
and you will ever have a plenty of meat.
To these add sheep,
and they will give you clothing as well as food.
Your lands are good and of great extent.
By proper management you can raise live stock
not only for your own wants, but to sell to the White people.
By using the plow you can
vastly increase your crops of corn.
You can also grow Wheat, (which makes the best bread)
as well as other useful grain.
To these you will easily add flax and cotton,
which you may dispose of to the White people,
or have it made up by your own women
into clothing for yourselves.
Your wives and daughters can soon learn to spin
and weave; and to make this certain,
I have directed Mr. Dinsmoor to procure all the necessary
apparatus for spinning and weaving,
and to hire a woman to teach the use of them.
He will also procure some plows and other implements
of husbandry, with which to begin the improved cultivation
of the ground which I recommend, and employ
a fit person to shew you how they are to be used.
I have further directed him to procure some cattle
and sheep for the most prudent and industrious men,
who shall be willing to exert themselves in tilling the ground
and raising those useful animals.
He is often to talk with you on these subjects, and give you
all necessary information to promote your success.
I must therefore desire you to listen to him;
and to follow his advice.
I appointed him to dwell among you as the Agent of the
United States, because I judged him to be a faithful man,
ready to obey my instructions and to do you good.
But the cares of the United States
are not confined to your single nation.
They extend to all the Indians dwelling on their borders.
For which reason other agents are appointed;
and for the four southern nations there will be a general
or principal agent who will visit all of them,
for the purpose of maintaining peace and friendship
among them and with the United States;
to superintend all their affairs;
and to assist the particular agents with each nation
in doing the business assigned them.
To such general or principal agent
I must desire your careful attention.
He will be one of our greatly beloved men.
His whole time will be employed in contriving how to do you
good, and you will therefore act wisely to follow his advice.
The first general or principle agent will be Colonel Benjamin
Hawkins, a man already known and respected by you.
I have chosen him for this office because he is esteemed
for a good man; has a knowledge of Indian customs,
and a particular love and friendship
for all the Southern tribes.
Beloved Cherokees,
What I have recommended to you
I am myself going to do.
After a few moons are passed I shall leave
the great town and retire to my farm.
There I shall attend to the means of increasing my cattle,
sheep and other useful animals; to the growing of corn,
wheat, and other grain, and to the employing of women
in spinning and weaving; all which I have recommended
to you, that you may be as comfortable and happy as plenty
of food, clothing and other good things can make you.
Beloved Cherokees,
When I have retired to my farm, I shall hear of you;
and it will give me great pleasure to know that
you have taken my advice, and are walking
in the path which I have described.
But before I retire, I shall speak to my beloved man,
the Secretary of War, to get prepared some medals,
to be given to such Cherokees as by following
my advice shall best deserve them.
For this purpose Mr. Dinsmoor is from time to time
to visit every town in your nation.
He will give instructions to those who desire to learn
what I have recommended.
He will see what improvements are made;
who are most industrious in raising cattle; in growing corn,
wheat, cotton and flax; and in spinning and weaving;
and on those who excel these rewards are to be bestowed.
Beloved Cherokees,
The advice I here give you is important as it regards
your nation; but still more important as the event
of the experiment made with you
may determine the lot of many nations.
If it succeeds, the beloved men of the United States
will be encouraged to give the same assistance to all
the Indian tribes within their boundaries.
But if it should fail, they may think it vain to make any
further attempts to better the condition of any Indian tribe;
for the richness of the soil and mildness of the air
render your country highly favorable
for the practice of what I have recommended.
Beloved Cherokees,
The wise men of the United States
meet together once a year, to consider
what will be for the good of all their people.
The wise men of each separate state also meet together
once or twice every year, to consult and do what is good
for the people of their respective states.
I have thought that a meeting of your wise men
once or twice a year would be alike useful to you.
Every town might send one or two of its wisest counsellors
to talk together on the affairs of your nation,
and to recommend to your people whatever
they should think would be serviceable.
The beloved agent of the United States
would meet with them.
He would give them information of those things
which are found good by the white people,
and which your situation will enable you to adopt.
He would explain to them the laws made by the great
council of the United States, for the preservation of peace;
for the protection of your lands;
for the security of your persons; for your improvement
in the arts of living, and for promoting your general welfare.
If it should be agreeable to you that your wise men
should hold such meetings, you will speak your mind
to my beloved man, Mr. Dinsmoor, to be communicated
to the President of the United States,
who will then give such directions as shall be proper.
Beloved Cherokees,
That this talk may be known to all your nation,
and not forgotten, I have caused it to be printed,
and directed one, signed by my own hand,
to be lodged in each of your towns.
The Interpreters will, on proper occasions,
read and interpret the same to all your people.
Beloved Cherokees,
Having been informed that some of your chiefs wished
to see me in Philadelphia, I have sent them word
that I would receive a few of the most esteemed.
I now repeat that I shall be glad to see
a small number of your wisest chiefs;
but I shall not expect them ’till November.
I shall take occasion to agree with them on the running
of the boundary line between your lands and ours,
agreeably to the treaty of Holston.
I shall expect them to inform me what chiefs
are to attend the running of this line,
and I shall tell them whom I appoint to run it;
and the time and place of beginning may then be fixed.
I now send my best wishes to the Cherokees,
and pray the Great Spirit to preserve them.10
Washington advised them to give up the traditional hunting and gathering
for the farming and ranching of civilization.
The women could spin and weave.
Washington himself was going to be retiring to his farm to take care of his corn, wheat,
and other grain and his cattle, sheep, and other useful animals,
and he offered to continue to help the Cherokees.
In autumn chiefs from the Shawnees, Wyandots, Delawares, Ottawas,
Ojibwas,
Miamis, Potawatomis, Eel River, Weas, Piankashaws, Kickapoos, and Kaskaskias
gathered in Detroit and then went to Philadelphia to meet with the “great father” Washington.
Notes
1. The Writings of George Washington from Original Manuscript Sources 1745-1799,
Volume 34: October 11, 1794-March 29, 1796 ed. John C. Fitzpatrick, p. 98-99.
2. Washington Writings, p. 908-910.
3. The Indian and the White Man ed. Wilcomb E. Washburn, p. 347.
4. Washington Writings, p. 913-914.
5. George Washington to Boston Citizens, July 28, 1795 (online).
6. Washington Writings, p. 918-919.
7. Ibid., p. 919-924.
8. The Writings of George Washington from Original Manuscript Sources 1745-1799,
Volume 34, p. 407.
9. Washington Writings, p. 930-932.
10. Ibid., p. 956-960.
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