We also desire that they may be accompanied by some Friend, or
Quaker, to attend the council."
On the 19th of February, 1793, General Benjamin Lincoln, Beverly Randolph
and Colonel Pickering were commissioned by the president to attend the
great Indian council at Miami Rapids, in the ensuing spring.
Meanwhile the Indians, dissatisfied with the views of the president, as
transmitted by the Six Nations, held another council at Au Glaize in
February, and framed a very explicit address to the Six Nations, affirming
they would listen to no proposition from the United States, that did not
concede the Ohio river, as the boundary line between them, and the Indian
country. They desired the United States to be fully apprised of this,
before sending their delegation; and they notified the Six Nations of a
private council at Miami Rapids, before meeting the American
commissioners, to adjust their opinions, so as to speak but one language
at the council; they further declared their intention not to meet the
commissioners at all, until assured they had authority to conclude a
treaty on this basis.
In this determination they were encouraged, and sustained by the British
Indian Department of Canada. President Washington, in a letter to Mr. Jay,
our minister in London, writing in 1794, very clearly sets forth the work
thus accomplished.--He says:--"There does not remain a doubt, in the mind
of any well informed person in this country, not shut against conviction,
that all the difficulties we encounter with the Indians, their
hostilities, the murder of helpless women and children, along our
frontiers, result from the conduct of agents of Great Britain in this
country.
Pages:
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120