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THE BATTLE FIELDS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 MAUMEE VALLEY 
 
 A Collection of Historical Addresses 
 
 DELIVERED BEFORE 
 
 THE SONS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, 
 
 District of Columbia Society, 
 
 March 18, 1896. 
 
 WASHINGTON CITY 
 1896 
 
r 4 
 
 WALTER H. CHASE, 
 WILLIAM V. COX, 
 
 Committee on Publication. 
 
 MARCUS BENJAMIN, 
 Editor. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 By Dr. G. Brown Goode, 
 
 President of the District of Columbia Society, 
 Sons of the American Revolution. 
 
 THE Society of the Sons of the American 
 Revolution was organized to take part in 
 measures tending to foster the development 
 of American patriotism, among which a not un- 
 important one is the preservation of historic sites 
 and marking them by monuments. 
 
 The War of the Revolution did not cease with 
 the treaty of Paris, but continued until the con- 
 quest of the West had been accomplished and the 
 rights of our people secured by the success of our 
 second conflict with Great Britain. It is, therefore, 
 very appropriate that we should listen to-night to 
 a series of papers on the acquisition of the North- 
 west and the struggle with the Indians and Great 
 Britain, up to and including the War of 1812. 
 
 This region was traversed during the War of 
 the Revolution by that intrepid soldier George 
 Rogers Clark. He, with his band of Kentuckians, 
 met the Indians at Harrodsburg in 1776, defeated 
 them in 1777, and ultimately in 1779 compelled the 
 British commander at Vincennes to capitulate. 
 Thus was ended the English occupancy, and thus 
 were made possible the negotiations for the pos- 
 
4 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 session of the vast regions beyond the Alleghenies 
 subsequently conceded by Great Britain. 
 
 The papers to be read this evening relate to these 
 battles in the Northwest. Bills are now before 
 Congress providing for the permanent preserva- 
 tion, as the property of the Nation, of the ground 
 upon which these battles were fought. This is a 
 matter of national importance, not only on account 
 of historical association, but because here are 
 buried over two thousand soldiers from every State 
 then in the Union. The securing of these sites 
 will be equivalent to the erection of permanent 
 monuments to the memory of men and events 
 of the utmost significance in the history of the 
 struggle of " the winning of the West." 
 
 It is little less than a national disgrace that there 
 should have been no monuments erected to com- 
 memorate these battles, so important to the history 
 of the United States. 
 
 The more formal papers of the evening will be 
 preceded by a brief address on Indian methods of 
 warfare intended to make the narratives which 
 follow more intelligible. 
 
Methods of Indian Warfare, 
 
 By Professor Otis T. Mason, 
 
 Smithsonian Institution. 
 
 BY WAY of introduction to the addresses of 
 the distinguished speakers who are to fol- 
 low me, I have been invited to make 
 some remarks upon the Indian tribes engaged in 
 the wars about Maumee River, and their methods 
 of fighting. 
 
 There were three great stocks of Indians center- 
 ing in this portion of the northwest territory; the 
 Algonquian stock covered the largest area, embrac- 
 ing eastern and southern Canada, the New England 
 States, Maryland, Virginia, and the territory drained 
 by the Ohio River and the eastern tributaries of 
 the Mississippi. These Indians depended partly 
 upon agriculture and partly upon hunting and fish- 
 ing for their subsistence. 
 
 The Iroquoian stock was to be found on both 
 sides of the Upper Saint Lawrence River and all 
 about Lake Ontario, Lake Erie, and the southern 
 shores of Lake Huron. Some of their weaker tribes 
 had pushed their way to the head waters of the 
 Chesapeake Bay. A large branch of the Iroquoian 
 stock was to be found also in the mountain region 
 where the States of Virginia, Tennessee, Carolina, 
 and Georgia meet. 
 
6 METHODS OF INDIAN WARFARE. 
 
 On the west side of the Algonquian were the 
 Siouan tribes, who resided mostly west of the 
 Mississippi River and reached as far as the western 
 shore of Lake Michigan. 
 
 Before describing the methods of warfare prac- 
 ticed by all of the Indians of these three stocks, it 
 is well to remember that in war there are only 
 three methods of killing a man, namely, by pierc- 
 ing weapons, by cutting weapons, by bruising 
 weapons. These were represented in pre-Colum- 
 bian times by the war spear, the stone knife or 
 dagger, and clubs of various kinds. As soon as 
 these Indians entered into trade relationship with 
 the whites, whether English, Dutch, French or 
 Spanish, in exchange for their furs they received 
 muskets and bullets to replace their arrows, 
 swords, scalping knives as substitutes for their 
 stone knives, and cannon balls for clubs. In the 
 use of these the savages soon became proficient, 
 and it is no disparagement to the brave soldiers 
 who conducted for many years the wars in the 
 northwest, to say that the various tribes engaged 
 fought desperately with these new weapons for 
 their homes. As to their tactics they had none, 
 if we judge them from the point of view of 
 European warfare. In point of fact, they lived in 
 that primitive state of society in which the fight- 
 ing against men and wild beasts have not been 
 differentiated. It was customary for them to select 
 some spot where the deer were wont to frequent 
 and alongside of the valley leading to this place 
 they placed rude fences made of strong poles. 
 Through this drive they effectually enticed and 
 forced their victims until the latter were in an 
 
METHODS OF INDIAN WARFARE. 7 
 
 ambuscade where they were quickly and energeti- 
 cally dispatched. 
 
 The Indian, therefore, used for his tactics 
 methods similar to those employed in hunting 
 the deer, the bear, and the wolf. His strategy 
 consisted of the same ingenious device, by means 
 of which he inveigled the white man into an am- 
 buscade just as successfully as he allured animals 
 into traps. We are not surprised, therefore, in 
 reading the history of the campaigns in the 
 Northwest to learn that over and over again many 
 of the best troops were destroyed by being lead 
 into ambushes. It was the Indian's method of 
 entrapping a wild beast applied to warfare with 
 those who were better equipped with firearms. 
 They did not acquire the tactics and strategy of 
 the white man, but employed new weapons with 
 old methods. 
 
 It is not within my province to discuss methods 
 of Indian strategy, although it could be easily 
 demonstrated that the white man, knowing the 
 tactics of the civilized warfare, repeatedly adopted 
 the methods of the savage. The aboriginal tribes 
 had the misfortune to ally themselves with the 
 French against the English and subsequently with 
 the English against the Americans, and as a result 
 were twice deprived of their land by an inter- 
 national code which was unknown to them. 
 
 At the close of the last century the Indians in 
 the Northwest, instigated by foreign foes, fought 
 with desperation against the Americans the last 
 great fight for the possession of the aboriginal 
 homes. 
 
Settlement of the Northwest Territory, 
 
 With the Struggles Against the Indians and British 
 in the Maumee Valley, 1788-1813. 
 
 By Mr. William Van Zandt Cox, 
 
 National Museum. 
 
 THE West has been so busy in making 
 History that it has been compelled to leave 
 it to Eastern writers to chronicle. Have 
 they done their part as satisfactorily as the 
 makers? I am free to confess that no series of 
 events in the entire history of this Country has 
 been more completely lost sight of than those 
 between 1788-18 13, by means of which the results 
 of the War of the Revolution were confirmed 
 to this Country. 
 
 It is surprising to find in the " Narrative and 
 Critical History of America," edited by so able a 
 writer as Justin Winsor, that no prominence is 
 given to those campaigns that gave to America the 
 empire of the Northwest. Indeed so little im- 
 portance is attached to them that in the article on 
 "Wars of the United States between 1789-185 1" 
 only nine and one-half lines are given to the 
 Harmer, St. Clair, and Wayne Campaigns (Vol. 
 VII, p. 357). Something, however, is said in the 
 appendix by the editor. In contrast, the War with 
 Tripoli fills eighteen pages. 
 
 The hope of American history is in the Patriotic 
 Societies, the members of which are doing so 
 
^^jfA^ 
 
 From the Cyclo of American Biotrraphy 
 Copyright," IMbS, by D. Appleton & Co. 
 
SETTLEMENT OF THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY. 9 
 
 much to encourage historical research and preserve 
 the memories of the men who achieved the in- 
 dependence of the American people. 
 
 I have always considered myself fortunate in 
 having been born in the State of Ohio. When I 
 reflect that I was born on the banks of the 
 Muskingum, made memorable in 1788 by the land- 
 ing of the boat containing Rufus Putnam's band of 
 pioneers, the "Mayflower of the great North- 
 west," I know that I am a subject for congratu- 
 lation. 
 
 Of whom did this earnest band of home-seekers 
 and home builders consist? 
 
 They were soldiers of the Revolution, the Ameri- 
 can Revolution, together with their wives and 
 their children, destined by an all wise Providence 
 to be the founders of new American States. 
 
 "Fresh from the Revolution's fire 
 They came, to hew the empire's way 
 
 Through trackless wastes and to inspire 
 The sunlight of young Freedom's day." 
 
 Five states in the Northwest Territory were 
 founded. The names of these are also American: 
 Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin, a 
 galaxy of peerless states in the history of our 
 Nation, that stand resplendant as the stars on the 
 blue field of our Country's flag. 
 
 These brave men and women, still filled with 
 the courage of '76, were, as events show, equal to 
 the task before them. Like their pilgrim fathers, 
 they felled the trees of the forests and built their 
 homes; with their trusty rifles by their sides, they 
 cleared the ground and planted their corn. They 
 
10 SETTLEMENT OF THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY. 
 
 endured hardships that only men and women 
 would be willing to suffer for the sake of con- 
 science, homes and liberty. 
 
 Foes lurked on every side, for in these forests 
 dwelt the Shawnees, the Chippewas, the Dela- 
 wares, the Ottawas, the Wyandots, the Potta- 
 watomis and the warlike Miamis, who, instigated 
 by the British, were quick to form alliance against 
 the new settlers. For two years the Frontiers- 
 men suffered from scalping knife and tomahawk, 
 and then a small body of regulars enlisted in 
 Pennsylvania and New Jersey, were placed under 
 the command of General Harmer, with orders to 
 march against the Indian towns and inflict such 
 punishment as would prevent future depredations. 
 
 Reinforced by over a thousand of militia from 
 Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Kentucky, General Harmer 
 started from Fort Washington (now Cincinnati) on 
 September 30, 1790, to execute the plans of Presi- 
 dent Washington. 
 
 Harmer, on October 19, met the Indians under 
 Little Turtle at the junction of the St. Mary and 
 St. Joseph rivers, in the present state of Indiana, 
 and was disastrously defeated, failing in his mis- 
 sion and losing many of his brave officers and men. 
 
 President Washington was greatly distressed 
 and disappointed at Harmer's misfortune and 
 designated General Arthur St. Clair, the first 
 Governor of the Northwest Territory, who was 
 inaugurated at Marietta July 15, 1788, to take com- 
 mand and surpress the Indian invasions. 
 
 On September 17, 1791, with an army number- 
 ing twenty-three hundred men, he marched from 
 Fort Washington and erected Fort Hamilton on 
 
SETTLEMENT OF THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY. I I 
 
 the Miami, the first of a line of forts that was to 
 extend to Lake Erie. On October 12 the construc- 
 tion of Fort Jefferson was begun. On November 3 
 the army reached the Wabash. On November 4 
 Little Turtle, with his warriors, surprised St. 
 Clair and defeated a second army within a year. 
 
 When Washington read the message from St. 
 Clair announcing his reverses, it is said that he 
 threw it down and paced the floor in anger, using 
 language that is not considered appropriate for 
 even state occasion. 
 
 The Ohio settlements were in terror. The en- 
 tire Country was aroused at the thought of the 
 veterans of '76 and their families being massacred 
 by the red men and at the instigation of the old 
 enemy, the British. 
 
 By popular consent General Anthony Wayne of 
 Pennsylvania, the daring hero of the Revolution, 
 was selected by Washington to protect the fron- 
 tier. He consented to serve on the condition that 
 he was not to begin his campaign until his ranks 
 were full and his men thoroughly disciplined. 
 
 In June, 1792, General Wayne proceeded to 
 Pittsburg and began organizing and vigorously 
 drilling his "Legion." 
 
 From Pittsburg he floated his army down the 
 Ohio and established a camp called Hobson's 
 Choice, near Cincinnati. On October 7, 1793, he 
 started on his march to Lake Erie, and soon after 
 he established winter quarters at Fort Greenville, 
 in Darke County. 
 
 On Christmas, the place made memorable by St. 
 Clair's defeat was re-occupied. ''Here ".said he, 
 "where the blood of our brothers has enriched 
 
I 2 SETTLEMENT OF THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY. 
 
 the ground, we will make our first stand; we will 
 here erect a fort, and we will not be surprised or 
 ambushed." And Fort Recovery was built. On 
 the last day of June the largest body of Indians 
 that had up to that time ever marched against a 
 frontier's post, over two thousand in number, 
 attacked Fort Recovery and was repulsed. The 
 successful defense of the fort discouraged the 
 Indians and gave confidence to the Americans. 
 
 In July, 1794, Fort Adams, on St. Mary's River, 
 was erected. In August Fort Defiance was built 
 at the junction of the Auglaize with the Maumee. 
 
 Proceeding on his march down that river he 
 built Fort Deposit on August 18th, where the 
 superfluous baggage of the army was placed. 
 
 Two days later he came upon the Indians 
 strongly entrenched behind a windrow of fallen 
 trees that had been blown down by a tornado. 
 He at once ordered the infantry to advance with 
 trailed arms and dislodge the Indians from their 
 hiding places. They were not to fire except at 
 close range and into their backs. This was to be 
 followed by a charge with fixed bayonets, Wayne's 
 favorite method of attack, the one that had gained 
 for him in the Revolution his reputation for daring 
 fighting and dauntless courage. His men re- 
 sponded to these orders with a will, and at the 
 same time the cavalry, with drawn sabers, charged 
 the left flank of the enemy with all the enthusiasm 
 and energy of their leader. Although encouraged 
 to make another stand by Turkey Foot, then in 
 command, the Indians fled in disorder. The 
 victory was complete, and Ohio and Indiana were 
 at last free from organized Indian incursions. 
 

 From the Cyclo ol American Biography. 
 Copyright, ls8a, by D. Appleton & Co. 
 
SETTLEMENT OF THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY. I } 
 
 The battle of Fallen Timber, for such is its 
 name, was fought under the walls of Fort Miami. 
 Alarmed at the defeat of his allies, Major Camp- 
 bell, commanding the British Post, was anxious to 
 know in what light he was to view Wayne's near 
 approach to his garrison. Wayne wrote him as 
 follows: — "I think I may, without breach of de- 
 corum, observe to you, that, were you entitled to 
 an answer, the most full and satisfactory one was 
 announced to you from the muzzles of my small 
 arms, yesterday morning, in the action against the 
 horde of savages in the vicinity of your post, 
 which terminated gloriously to the American arms; 
 but, had it continued until the Indians, etc., were 
 driven under the influence of the post and guns you 
 mention, they would not have much impeded the 
 progress of the victorious army under my com- 
 mand as no such post was established at the com- 
 mencement of the present war between the Indians 
 and the United States/' 
 
 Major Campbell replied, saying among other 
 things, "I have forborne, for these two days past, 
 to resent those insults you have offered to the 
 British flag flying at this fort, by approaching 
 within pistol shot of my works, not only singly, 
 but in numbers, with arms in their hands. Neither 
 is it my wish to wage war with individuals; but, 
 should you, after this, continue to approach my 
 post in the threatening manner you are at this 
 moment doing, my indispensable duty to my king 
 and country, and the honor of my profession, will 
 oblige me to have recourse to those measures 
 which thousands of either nation may hereafter 
 have cause to regret." 
 
14 SETTLEMENT OF THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY. 
 
 Thereupon General Wayne called his attention 
 to his occupying a post within the limits of the 
 United States, adding : "This, sir, appears to be 
 an act of the highest aggression, and destructive 
 to the peace and interest of the Union. Hence, it 
 becomes my duty to desire, and I do hereby desire 
 and demand, in the name of the President of the 
 United States, that you immediately desist from 
 any further act of hostility or aggression, by for- 
 bearing to fortify, and by withdrawing the troops, 
 artillery, and stores, under your order and direc- 
 tion, forthwith, and removing to the nearest post 
 occupied by His Britannic Majesty's troops at the 
 peace of 1783, and which you will be permitted to 
 do unmolested by the troops under my command." 
 
 It was the policy of Great Britain, you will 
 observe, over a hundred years ago, to erect forts 
 and take position and possession on lines other 
 than those prescribed in treaties. 
 
 Fort Miami, however, was not attacked by 
 Wayne, his foresight suggesting the desirability of 
 erecting a block house nearer the mouth of the 
 Maumee. This was built and so expeditiously, 
 that he called it Fort Industry, and it is within the 
 limits of Toledo, in the very heart of the city. 
 
 On August 27, 1794, the army took up its return 
 march, destroying every village and corn field as 
 far as Defiance. 
 
 The Miami villages were reached in turn, and at 
 the very spot where Harmer had been defeated 
 four years previously, a fort was erected, This 
 place now bears the name of Fort Wayne, Indiana. 
 
 Having accomplished the objects of his cam- 
 paign Wayne started with the main body of his 
 
SETTLEMENT OF THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY. I 5 
 
 army for Fort Greenville. Here, in negotiating the 
 famous Greenville treaty with thirteen tribes of 
 Indians, he proved himself to be as great a diplo- 
 mat and statesman as he had shown himself to be 
 a soldier. 
 
 On the staff of General Wayne during this cam- 
 paign was Lieutenant William Henry Harrison, who 
 was destined to achieve eminence and to complete 
 the victories begun by his General. 
 
 On September 17, 18 12, General Harrison having 
 the year before defeated at Tippecanoe, "The 
 Prophet," brother of Tecumseh, was placed in 
 command of the army of the West and Northwest. 
 
 In February, 18 13, he arrived on the Maumee 
 and built Fort Meigs. 
 
 Early in May this fort was attacked by a force of 
 thirty-two hundred British and Indians under 
 Proctor and Tecumseh. It was on the west side 
 of the Maumee that Colonel Dudley, while at- 
 tempting to capture a battery, was ambuscaded 
 and lost his life together with 685 of his 810 im- 
 petuous Kentuckians. Few men taken escaped 
 alive. It is said that when Tecumseh saw the 
 American prisoners being murdered, he asked 
 Proctor why he had not put a stop to the inhuman 
 massacre, Proctor replied, "your Indians cannot be 
 commanded." "Begone" said Tecumseh, in 
 thundering tones, "you are unfit to command, go 
 and put on petticoats." 
 
 The attack on Fort Meigs continued several days 
 but was finally successfully repelled, the enemy 
 withdrawing to Fort Maiden, in Canada, the stra- 
 tegic center of British operations in the Northwest. 
 
1 6 SETTLEMENT OF THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY. 
 
 In July, largely reinforced, and during General 
 Harrison's absence to Lower Sandusky, the British 
 and Indians again attacked Fort Meigs and for a 
 second time in two months were compelled to 
 raise the siege. 
 
 On July 4, General Harrison, remembering the 
 historic date, patriotically ordered a National salute 
 fired in honor of the "return of the day which gave 
 liberty and independence to the United States of 
 America." He ordered men under sentence and in 
 confinement released, Court Martials dissolved, and 
 all troops reported fit for duty were to receive an 
 extra gill of whiskey. It may be inferred that they 
 received it, for the order concludes "this will be 
 fatigue day." 
 
 In August, Port Stephenson (now Fremont) 
 was attacked by the British and Indians. Major 
 Croghan, a youth who had just passed his twenty- 
 first year, was in command of the Fort, and wrote 
 to General Harrison, " we have determined to 
 maintain this place, and by heavens we can " — 
 and he did, and was promptly promoted. 
 
 Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, of Rhode 
 Island, had at this time about finished the con- 
 struction of a flotilla at Erie. His fleet, consisting 
 of the Lawrence and Niagara, carrying twenty 
 guns each, and seven small vessels carrying four- 
 teen guns, had been built, manned, and equipped 
 in the wilderness, men and munitions having been 
 brought from points four hundred miles distant. 
 
 He, in the presence of the enemy, succeeded in 
 getting his vessel over the bar into Lake Erie. On 
 this point Knapp says : 
 
 'The same course which insured the safety of 
 
g^WK 
 
 co^ry 
 
 From the Cyclo of American Biography. 
 Copyright, 1888, by D. Appleton & Co*. 
 
SETTLEMENT OF THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY. I J 
 
 the ships while building seemed to prevent their 
 being of any service. The two largest drew 
 several feet more water than there was on the bar. 
 The inventive genius of Commodore Perry, how- 
 ever, soon surmounted the difficulty. He placed 
 large scows on each side of the largest ship, filled 
 them so as to sink to the water's edge then attached 
 them to the ship by strong pieces of timber and 
 pumped out the water. The scows then buoyed 
 up the ship so as to pass the bar in safety." 
 
 Unfurling sail, Perry proceeded to Put-in-Bay. 
 On September 10, 1813, he hoisted the American 
 jack on the Lawrence. When the crews saw it 
 and read on it the dying words of Captain James 
 Lawrence of the illfated Chesapeake, " Don't give 
 up the ship," they sent up cheer after cheer. 
 
 Every ship now prepared for action and at once 
 bore down upon the enemy's fleet. 
 
 A terrific fire was opened on the Lawrence, 
 which was not replied to until her short range 
 guns could be brought into effective service. 
 
 Keeping on her course her sides were pierced in 
 all directions, men were killed and wounded in 
 every part of the ship. Realizing the danger 
 of his position, Commodore Perry ordered all sail 
 made and renewed his efforts to close in upon the 
 enemy's vessels. 
 
 When every brace and bow line on the Lawrence 
 had been shot away and she became unmanage- 
 able, the Commodore decided to shift his flag to 
 the Niagara. 
 
 A boat was ordered in which with a gallant 
 crew he started on his perilous trip. He reached 
 the Niagara through musketry and broad-sides, 
 
1 8 SETTLEMENT OF THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY. 
 
 and amid cheers, again had the inspiring American 
 jack hoisted. 
 
 Orders were issued to the entire fleet for close 
 action. The enemy's ships were hemmed in and 
 raked with grape and cannister until every one had 
 struck its colors. Never was victory more com- 
 plete. 
 
 Perry then wrote his famous despatch, "We 
 have met the enemy and they are ours." The 
 receipt of which General Harrison celebrated by 
 ordering a movement upon Maiden, using the 
 captured vessels for transports. 
 
 The enemy retreated, but was overtaken on 
 October 5th, a battle was fought and another 
 victory for the Americans gained. Proctor had 
 been put to flight, Tecumseh had been slain, and 
 the supremacy of the Northwest forever estab- 
 lished. 
 
 The lives of twenty-five hundred American 
 heroes were sacrificed in these engagements 
 against the combined efforts of the Indians and 
 the British, and to-night they sleep in unmarked 
 graves on the shores of Put-in-Bay and on the 
 banks of the Maumee. 
 
Efforts made by the Maumee Valley 
 
 Monumental Association towards 
 
 preserving Historic Sites in 
 
 Northwestern Ohio. 
 
 By Hon. James H. Southard, 
 
 Member of Congress from Ohio. 
 
 THE condition of the sites of the battle grounds 
 of the Maumee Valley, including the burial 
 places on Put-in-Bay Island, of those who 
 lost their lives in the battle of Lake Erie, is a 
 matter in which the people of our section of 
 the country are, and for sometime past have 
 been, taking a lively interest. It is much to be 
 regretted that these places, important as they 
 are in a historic sense, should have been allowed 
 to pass out of the possession of the general 
 government and into private hands, and to re- 
 main without any markings other than the rude 
 designations which have been inspired by the 
 patriotism of those who now own them. It seems 
 almost unaccountable that this should have been 
 permitted. Certainly it cannot be that a people 
 whose pride and patriotism are acknowledged 
 have so soon forgotten the heroic achievements of 
 their countrymen, when those achievements were 
 so important and so far-reaching in their results. 
 General Anthony Wayne's greatest battle and vic- 
 tory over the Indians at Fallen Timber practically 
 reclaimed and saved to the United States what 
 was then known as the great Northwest. 
 
20 PRESERVING SITES IN NORTHWESTERN OHIO. 
 
 The battle of Lake Erie was the most important 
 naval achievement of the war of 1812. Marble 
 and canvas have been made to do service in com- 
 memorating this event. All Americans are proud 
 of the skill, endurance, and bravery of Commodore 
 Perry and his men. The genius of the artist has 
 preserved the memory of that great commander, 
 but the graves of the men who died in that 
 terrible conflict are entirely unmarked and uncared 
 for except in the rudest and most temporary way. 
 It is stated that at one time the share of the plow- 
 man was allowed to turn up the bones of these 
 heroes as though they had been the bones of 
 beasts, instead of those of patriots who died in 
 the cause of liberty and justice. Not a little of 
 the fame of General Harrison was won in success- 
 fully resisting the two attempts of the allied Eng- 
 lish and Indians to reduce the stronghold of Fort 
 Meigs in the war of 18 12. 
 
 Fort Meigs is on the southeast bank of the 
 Maumee River, about twelve miles from its mouth, 
 and near the village of Perrysburg. Fallen Timber 
 is on the opposite bank, and about one and a half 
 miles further up the river, and Fort Miami is also 
 on the opposite side about the same distance down 
 the river. Inside, and immediately without the 
 walls of Fort Meigs, are the graves of those who 
 were killed during the two sieges of this fort, and 
 also many hundred brave Kentuckians of Colonel 
 Dudley's command who were massacred by the 
 English forces under Proctor, and the Indians under 
 Tecumseh, during the early part of the year 181 3. 
 Nature has provided these patriots with a beautiful 
 resting place, but not a stone or other protection 
 
PRESERVING SITES IN NORTHWESTERN OHIO. 21 
 
 has been provided, and the exact burial spots are 
 known only by the memory of one or two persons 
 who have been spared beyond the years ordinarily 
 allotted to man. The outlines of Fort Meigs are 
 well preserved, as are also those of Fort Miami. 
 
 Among the other places of historic interest in 
 the Maumee Valley, is Fort Wayne, in the State 
 of Indiana, where General Harmer suffered defeat 
 with terrible loss in 1790. Fort Defiance, at the 
 junction of the Maumee and Auglaize Rivers, was 
 built by Anthony Wayne in 1794, and Fort In- 
 dustry was built in the same year. 
 
 In 1885 an organization was formed and incor- 
 porated known as the Maumee Valley Monumental 
 Association, the object of which is to procure the 
 acquirement by the government of these several 
 sites, and the marking of the same by appropriate 
 monuments, and to otherwise disseminate and 
 perpetuate a knowledge of the important his- 
 torical facts and events of the Maumee Valley. 
 Chief Justice Morrison R. Waite was the first 
 president of the association, and to the time of 
 his death was an active promoter of the work for 
 which it was formed. 
 
 In 1888 the Secretary of War was authorized and 
 directed by act of Congress to cause an ''examina- 
 tion and inspection to be made of the historic 
 grounds, locations, and military works of the 
 Maumee Valley." In pursuance of which, a sur- 
 vey and map of each of said sites was made and 
 embodied in a report to Congress in December of 
 that year. The efforts of the Maumee Valley 
 Monumental Association have resulted in arousing 
 a sentiment in favor of purchasing and preserving 
 
22 PRESERVING SITES IN NORTHWESTERN OHIO. 
 
 these historic places. At the centennial celebra- 
 tion of the victory of Anthony Wayne at Fallen 
 Timber August 20th, 1894, it is said that more than 
 ten thousand people were present. The associa- 
 tion holds a meeting annually on one of these his- 
 toric spots, and the meetings are always large and 
 enthusiastic. 
 
 Less than one hundred years ago northwestern 
 Ohio was a dense forest and the Maumee Valley 
 was very sparsely settled, but now the territory 
 comprised within a radius of one hundred and 
 twenty-five miles contains at least three or four 
 million people. Fort Meigs and Fort Miami, and 
 Fallen Timber are located near thriving villages, 
 and are easily accessible by rail and by water. 
 Put-in-Bay Island has become a summer resort, 
 and is visited annually by thousands coming from 
 all parts of the country. 
 
 Many patriotic and enterprising citizens of the 
 States of Ohio, Indiana, and elsewhere, have taken 
 part in the effort to secure the purchase and preser- 
 vation of these sites, prominent among whom may 
 be mentioned the Hon. D. W. H. Howard, whose 
 voice and pen have been earnestly employed for 
 many years in the endeavor to arouse public in- 
 terest in the preservation of their historic grounds, 
 and the Hon. Samuel F. Hunt, of Cincinnati, whose 
 addresses at the centennial gatherings at Fort 
 Washington, Fort Recovery, Fort Defiance and 
 Fallen Timber are chapters in the history of 
 this period. The knowledge that the Sons of the 
 American Revolution are taking an active part in 
 the good work gives assurance that something 
 will be accomplished in the near future. 
 
The Present Condition of the Historic 
 
 Sites in the Maumee Valley and on 
 
 the Island of Put-in-Bay. 
 
 By Colonel W. H. Chase, 
 
 Of the Ohio Society of the Sons of the American Revolution. 
 
 THE present condition of the historic sites in 
 the Maumee Valley and on the Island of 
 Put-in-Bay is the subject I bring before you 
 to-night. If you were to take a boat ride from 
 Lake Erie down through Maumee Bay, twelve 
 miles from the Lake you would first land almost 
 opposite Fort Industry, where now stands the 
 thriving city of Toledo with 125,000 inhabitants. 
 Seven miles south of Fort Industry on the west 
 bank of the Maumee you would come to what 
 was known as Fort Miami. Follow the river 
 three miles farther south, you will find on the west 
 bank of the river the battlefield of Fallen Timber, 
 and half way between these two, on the east bank 
 of the river, the site of Fort Meigs. 
 
 The most historical sites in the Maumee Valley 
 are the three battlefields that I have enumerated: 
 Fallen Timber, Fort Meigs, and Fort Miami. 
 
 Fort Miami was established in 1680 by an ex- 
 pedition sent there by Frontenac, the French Gov- 
 ernor of Canada. It was at that time both a mili- 
 tary and a trading post, but was abandoned in a 
 
24 PRESENT CONDITION OF THE HISTORIC SITES 
 
 few years. In 1785, two years after the treaty of 
 1783, it was re-occupied by Glencoe, the British 
 Governor of Canada, who held it as a military post. 
 And it was so held by the English at the time 
 when Anthony Wayne defeated the Indian Allies 
 under Little Turtle and Turkey Foot in the battle 
 of Fallen Timber, on August 20, 1794. It was 
 temporarily abandoned by the English in 1795, 
 but again occupied by them later and held until 
 they were finally driven out after the defeat of 
 Proctor and Tecumseh by Harrison, in 181 3. The 
 northwestern angle of this Fort and a portion of 
 each adjacent curtain together with the greater 
 part of the demilune in advance of the northern 
 front are still in a fair state of preservation and can 
 be easily traced. The northwestern bastion can 
 be fairly inferred, but the south, or river front, has 
 been destroyed. The site is contained in the town 
 of Miami and covers 5^ acres. 
 
 It was at Fallen Timber on August 20, 1794, that 
 General Anthony Wayne engaged the allied Indian 
 forces under Little Turtle, attacking them with such 
 impetuosity that resistance was impossible. They 
 had chosen their battlefield among the fallen trees, 
 prostrated by a recent hurricane, forming a fortifi- 
 cation such as, to the savages, seemed impreg- 
 nable, and making indeed an almost impassable 
 obstruction to Wayne's mounted troops. But like 
 the wind that had laid low the forest, Wayne came 
 upon the savages, and his soldiers partaking of his 
 own fiery, irresistible courage and impetuosity, 
 swept everything before them. Short as was the 
 battle it was destruction to the savages and deci- 
 sive of all further Indian warfare in the northwest. 
 
^r 
 
 WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON 
 
IN THE MAUMEE VALLEY AND PUT-IN-BAY. 25 
 
 The battlefield lies on the west bank of the river, 
 and is cultivated for farming purposes. The area 
 comprised within this field is about 2y 2 acres. 
 
 Fort Meigs lies about half way between the two 
 points mentioned, but on the eastern bank of the 
 river. Here it was that General Harrison in the 
 autumn of 18 12 set his army to work throwing up 
 the battlements and fortifications which eighty- 
 four years after their construction are, in many 
 respects, as perfect and complete as when they 
 withstood the sieges of Proctor and Tecumseh. 
 The lines of the fortification are all, or nearly all, 
 complete, except where they have been destroyed 
 by roads or cultivation. Unfortunately these 
 comprise some of the most interesting portions, 
 such as the battery at the eastern end of the fort, 
 and the works, of whatever character, at the 
 southwest corner, together with the connection 
 between the latter and the nearest lines are still 
 traceable. The Fort itself covers over fifty-five 
 acres, and in its present state of preservation, is 
 one of the most interesting historical sites in the 
 country, and especially so because here lie buried 
 between twelve hundred and fifteen hundred 
 heroes who fell in and around Fort Meigs and 
 Fort Miami in defense of their flag. 
 
 The slaughtered dead of General Harmer's little 
 army lie buried in the low bank of the river at the 
 Ford of the Maumee, now Fort Wayne, where they 
 were cut down by the tomahawk in such numbers 
 that the river was dammed by their bodies, and 
 some of the Indians crossed over upon them with- 
 out wetting their moccasins. 
 
2(5 PRESENT CONDITION OF THE HISTORIC SITES 
 
 Wayne's dead lie buried on the most elevated 
 portion of the battlefield of Fallen Timber, over 
 a portion of which passes the public highway, 
 where hourly the traffic of the farmer and of a 
 great city passes without a thought of the sacred 
 dust so ignominiously disturbed. 
 
 When General O. M. Poe, of the United States 
 Engineers visited this spot a few years ago, he 
 found the corn-field of a Frenchman covering 
 nearly all the ground where these slaughtered 
 soldiers of nearly a century lie buried. A few of 
 the graves just outside of the corn-rows were still 
 plainly to be seen. 
 
 Who were the soldiers who comprised the 
 rank and file of General Anthony Wayne's army? 
 They were the veterans of the American Revolu- 
 tion. The armies of St. Clair, of Harmer, and of 
 Wayne were almost entirely composed of men 
 who had followed Washington and other heroes 
 in the war of the Revolution. It is for that 
 reason that the patriotic societies of the war of the 
 Revolution are urging action for the preservation 
 of these battlefields. 
 
 The dead of Fort Meigs lie at four different 
 places, some of them widely separated from the 
 others. There are over one thousand buried in 
 and just outside the walls of the Fort. One grave 
 only, that of Lieutenant Walker, is marked. This 
 by a rough bit of river stone about eight inches 
 square, placed there by the hand of some sorrow- 
 ing comrade. A few others lie scattered around 
 this spot, but none are marked. They can only 
 be found by close and careful investigation. 
 Two hundred and fifty of the Pittsburg Blues lie 
 
IN THE MAUMEE VALLEY AND PUT-IN-BAY. 
 
 27 
 
 across the ravine under the remains of an old 
 wheat stack. Colonel Dudley's gallant six hun- 
 dred lie east on a high knoll on the bluff of 
 the river, and the ground is so filled and leveled 
 by time that one can hardly dream that from five 
 to six hundred soldiers lie beneath the sod. 
 
 The brave and intrepid savage chief, Turkey 
 Foot, who was one of the commanders of the 
 allied tribes at the battle of Fallen Timber is 
 buried near a large rock weighing three or four 
 tons, known as Turkey Foot Rock, and thousands 
 of people visit the spot yearly. I am glad that it 
 is there, for it marks the important battle ground 
 of Anthony Wayne. The lower half of Turkey 
 Foot Rock is imbedded in the soil, by the road- 
 side. The visible portion presents a rounded 
 oblong surface, six feet long, three feet wide, 
 and three and a half feet high. On its top is the 
 track of a turkey's foot rudely carved by an 
 Indian's tomahawk. No Indian ever approached it 
 without placing on it a piece of tobacco. In single 
 file they often passed without halting, each one in 
 silence and sorrow placing his tribute there. After 
 the tribes were sent west of the Mississippi, a few 
 came back to look once more on the fair valley. 
 They never omitted this token of love and honor 
 at Turkey Foot Rock. Shall the pale face fall 
 below the Indian in grateful remembrance ? A 
 century has passed since Wayne led our soldiers 
 to victory on this same field and not a single stone 
 marks the resting place of those who fought under 
 his command. Yes, the answer is sure to come 
 in a series of noble monuments, in this valley, 
 worthy of the nation and of the race. One should 
 
28 PRESENT CONDITION OF THE HISTORIC SITES 
 
 rise on the brow of Presque Isle hill, in the 
 memory of him who swept like a whirlwind 
 over the field of Fallen Timber. 
 
 For nearly twenty years more or less effort has 
 been made to save these graves, and the time has 
 now come when it must be done, or the project 
 abandoned forever. All of these burying places 
 are on private property, and yet this property 
 once belonged to the United States. It was sold 
 in 1 8 1 7 to private individuals, the Government 
 probably unaware at the time that in this transac- 
 tion it was bargaining away the bodies of its 
 preservers. Some of the bones have already been 
 unearthed. At Fort Meigs not one of them has, 
 so far, been disturbed, but the owner of the prop- 
 erty, Michael Hayes, who so nobly sacrificed a 
 large portion of the best of his farm out of respect 
 for the achievements of his sleeping tenants, is 
 rapidly approaching the end of his own life, and 
 then the property will pass into the hands of 
 several heirs. For nearly a century nature alone 
 has guarded these graves wherein rest a nation's 
 heroes. 
 
 "A tremulous sigh, as the gentle night wind 
 Through the forest boughs softly is creeping, 
 While the stars up above with their glittering eyes 
 Keep guard for the brave that are sleeping." 
 
 The burial place on Put-in-Bay Island, where 
 sleep their last sleep those heroes who, under the 
 leadership of the intrepid Perry, fell in that con- 
 flict of the lake which forever swept the British 
 from our northern shores, is now marked by a 
 circular inclosure, about thirty feet in diameter, 
 
IN THE MAUMEE VALLEY AND PUT-IN-BAY. 29 
 
 consisting of a few wooden posts in the last stages 
 of decomposition, connected by an iron chain, 
 while a rough stone at the foot of a willow tree is 
 said to mark the exact location of the graves. 
 Sixty feet away is the Bay and between passes a 
 road, sunken some eighteen inches below the level 
 of the ground. It is said that in grading this road 
 some years ago, human bones were excavated and 
 reinterred within the inclosure. 
 
 No more important and glorious victory can be 
 found in American history than that of Commo- 
 dore Perry. As an evidence of this is the 
 magnificent painting hung in the stairway of the 
 Capitol on the Senate side. Yet what shall I say 
 of a Government, which, proud of this matchless 
 achievement, unhesitatingly has spent $25,000 for 
 adornment, and yet, up to the present time, has 
 not contributed one cent to preserve the graves 
 of those who made the adornment possible. A 
 matchless revelation upon canvas, but not one 
 word upon marble. 
 
 The grateful citizens of Edinburgh have erected 
 on Colton hill, overlooking the Scottish capital, a 
 memorial of surpassing proportions to commemo- 
 rate the great victory of Trafalgar. The inscrip- 
 tion recites that it is placed there not so much to 
 express their unavailing sorrow for "Nelson's death, 
 not to celebrate the matchless glories of his life, 
 but, by his noble example, to teach their sons to 
 emulate what they admire, and, when duty re- 
 quires, like him, to die for their country. In like 
 spirit, stately shafts should, at no distant day, 
 commemorate these grounds, enriched by the blood 
 of the men who so freely gave their lives at duty's 
 
30 PRESENT CONDITION OF THE HISTORIC SITES, ETC. 
 
 call and which is consecrated by the sleeping 
 dust of our noble brave who to-day rest in name- 
 less graves. 
 
 "On fame's eternal camping ground 
 Their silent tents are spread, 
 And glory guards, with solemn round, 
 The bivouac of the dead. 
 
 Now wreck, nor change, nor winter's blight, 
 
 Now time's remorseless doom 
 Shall dim one ray of glory's light 
 
 That gilds your nameless tomb." 
 
The Influence of the Wayne and Harri- 
 son Campaigns on the Settlement 
 of the Northwest. 
 
 By the Hon. Stephen A. Northway, 
 
 Member of Congress from Ohio. 
 
 EVENTS are measured by what is involved in 
 them and what is accomplished, and not by 
 their magnitude. A small affair may mark 
 the foundation of a nation or a nation's liberty, 
 whereas a great event may involve much of mag- 
 nificence to the world, and yet nothing of conse- 
 quence to mankind. 
 
 There are but few incidents in history that loom 
 above the dead level of events. The battle of 
 Marathon, fought 490 years before Christ, was not 
 a great event, but the Greeks, ten thousand of 
 them, under Miltiades, overcame the Persians and 
 turned back Asiatic invasion. The battle of Chal- 
 ons, 45 1 years after Christ, was a small affair, and 
 yet in it Attila, who was called the "Scourge of 
 God," was defeated, and with it ended the Asiatic 
 invasion. The battle of Tours, 732 years after 
 Christ, was a small affair, and yet in it Charles 
 Martel overcame the Saracens and protected for- 
 ever the glory of Europe. In 1066 William the 
 Norman assumed the English Crown, and from 
 this event sprang the English people and the Eng- 
 lish tongue. In the battle of Saratoga in 1777, 
 where General Gates defeated General Burgoyne, 
 
32 SETTLEMENT OF THE NORTHWEST. 
 
 there were not many soldiers involved, and yet it 
 was the turning point in the American Revolution, 
 for the victory won in that battle brought France 
 as an ally, and so brought victory to our country. 
 
 These were small events, yet wonderful in sig- 
 nificance to the world. 
 
 Away out in the Northwest, beyond the reach 
 of mails, beyond the reach of communication, — in 
 the dark deep forests of Ohio, and Indiana, and 
 Michigan, there was displayed a heroism that will 
 live while immortality shall crown a human being. 
 Men "fought as heroes fought, and died as heroes 
 died," without any of the surroundings of glory 
 that attach to the battle fought in the face of the 
 world. Not a large number of men were involved, 
 but wonderful consequences attached to their acts. 
 The forces involved in the campaigns of Wayne 
 and Harrison were not large, but the mortality 
 stands ready, to challenge all history in numbers. 
 The brave men slain in these campaigns outnumber 
 those slain in any other campaign where an equal 
 number were involved. In some of these battles 
 the forces were completely or nearly wiped out ; 
 few lived to tell the tale. Brave men leaving their 
 wives and children and homes, marched into a 
 deadly enemy's country, beyond the reach of civi- 
 lization, and cut their way through dense forests 
 to reach the enemy, and then laid down their lives 
 in defence of their country. These men will yet 
 bloom in immortal fields, and their names will 
 stand like the fixed stars in the firmament, forever 
 to shine upon our nation, while we have a nation. 
 
 Wayne's campaign was a short one, extending 
 only from April, 1792, to the treaty of Greenville, 
 
SETTLEMENT OF THE NORTHWEST. 33 
 
 August 3, 1795. During that time he formed his 
 army at Pittsburg, moved across the country to 
 Fort Washington, then across the State of Ohio to 
 the northward, where the battle of Fallen Timber 
 was fought, after having marched hundreds of 
 miles through swamp lands and primitive forests. 
 
 All of the Indian tribes of the West or North- 
 west were banded together in warfare; and when 
 we speak of the Northwest, it must be remem- 
 bered that the term "Northwest," as used then, 
 did not signify any country west of the Mississippi 
 River. 
 
 "Mad" Anthony Wayne carried on a cam- 
 paign against these Indian tribes. They were 
 banded together for some purpose. Some histor- 
 ians contend that it is a historical fact resting upon 
 very substantial grounds, that England incited the 
 Indian tribes to carry on this warfare. England, 
 when the treaty of 1783 was signed, agreed to 
 evacuate all territory in the Northwest, and to 
 leave this country entirely to ourselves, but failed 
 to do so, for reasons best known to itself. England 
 never ran a very swift race to carry out any such 
 treaty. In the Wayne campaign there were no 
 British soldiers engaged, and yet the battle of Fal- 
 len Timber was fought almost under the British 
 guns at Fort Miami, and when the Indian chief 
 retreated, he passed directly under the guns of the 
 British fort, which remained silent. The Indians 
 were put forward to fight that campaign. The 
 British troops very likely believed that the Indians 
 were capable of coping with anything which the 
 Americans could send against them, and if they 
 could but throw a barrier across the Northwest, 
 
34 SETTLEMENT OF THE NORTHWEST. 
 
 all that country westward to the Pacific Ocean 
 would have been to England what Canada is to- 
 day. 
 
 Wayne's campaigns were fought against the 
 Indians alone; Harrison's against the Indians and 
 British combined. Wayne's campaign was a short 
 but bloody one. The courage of the man who had 
 fought for his country for seven years in the War 
 of the Revolution flamed out again in immortal 
 glory far out in the forests of Ohio. 
 
 Wayne negotiated the treaty of Greenville in 
 1795, and on December 15 of that year, looking 
 out upon the blue waters, he passed from earth, 
 and was buried at the foot of the flag at Fort Erie. 
 
 I do not know that there is anything very singu- 
 lar in the nature of the disease that a man should 
 die of. Yet curiously enough General Wayne died 
 of the gout ; and Little Turtle, thirty years after 
 he defeated St. Clair, died also of the gout, and 
 was accorded the burial of a soldier. 
 
 The defeat of the Indian tribes broke the spirit 
 of the tribes. While they were willing and ready 
 to fight— ready to rush into conflict — they wanted 
 an ally. Wayne's campaigns had satisfied the 
 Indians that unaided they could not throw an 
 effectual barrier in front of the American troops, 
 and so in the next campaign they fought under 
 British allies. 
 
 And so it was Wayne who first effectually 
 cleared the way to the great Northwest. See how 
 instinctively the savages, as well as the British, 
 anticipated the fact. Their forts were only seven 
 or eight miles from the city of Toledo. The sav- 
 ages were located directly along the line of the 
 
SETTLEMENT OF THE NORTHWEST. 35 
 
 Ohio River, and here they carried on their depre- 
 dations; and we are told that from 1783 to 1790 
 more than fifteen hundred men, women and 
 children were brutally butchered along the Ohio 
 River in that region, as they were passing up and 
 down. Kentucky claims that it holds within its 
 borders the "dark and bloody ground." Ohio 
 also claims that title, and while Ohio's braves 
 fought on Ohio's soil, it gave us the right to say 
 too that we fought on dark and bloody ground. 
 
 I shall not go into the history that leads to the 
 Harrison campaign. Suffice it to say that we met 
 with two or three defeats and one surrender. 
 
 General Harrison organized his campaign for 
 what purpose ? The British were holding the line 
 in the Northwest. At Fort Miami, on the Maumee 
 River, a little way up from Lake Erie, they were 
 inciting the savages to warfare. In 1796 the 
 Northwest Territory contained a population of 
 about 5,000. Immigrants were seeking homes in 
 the Northwest. People from Virginia and the 
 Carolinas came to settle in the Northwest. Ohio 
 had been admitted to the Union in 1803, the only 
 State carved out of the Northwest Territory, and 
 people were naturally looking to that country for 
 a settlement. Immigration poured in from the 
 East. It struck Ohio in the northeast corner — that 
 is, after the settlement of Marietta, in 1788. The 
 first settlement of the Western Reserve was in 
 Ashtabula, in the very northeast corner of the 
 county in the northeast corner of Ohio. Before 
 there was any settlement at Cleveland, before 
 there was any county in what is known as the 
 Western Reserve, in 1796 immigration struck that 
 
36 SETTLEMENT OF THE NORTHWEST. 
 
 county, moving westward. They moved all along 
 the shore of the lake. 
 
 English ships appeared. If they could throw a 
 cordon of men directly across the path of immi- 
 gration, and check it, the Northwest might yet be 
 saved. 
 
 I need not recount what England did to the 
 Americans from 1806 to 181 3. She denied to us 
 the right of neutrals, and ours was the only 
 nation on the globe affected by its orders in 
 council, taking our men from vessels and impress- 
 ing them into service everywhere. We were 
 weak: England saw its opportunity. If it could 
 destroy our commerce and close out from us the 
 Northwest, it would have an empire; and so it 
 was necessary that the campaign of Harrison 
 should be entered upon, and it was entered upon, 
 and in 181 3 the British finally surrendered. After 
 the terrible massacre of the River Raisin; after the 
 battle of Tippecanoe, where Tecumseh was not, 
 but his twin brother, Prophet, was; after these, 
 then came the other battles, and the final surren- 
 der, and England was obliged to yield its last hold 
 along the line of the Northwest. 
 
 The victory of Wayne destroyed the Indian 
 power as a power alone. The victory of Harrison 
 destroyed the combined Indian and English power 
 in the Northwest; and while we may have had the 
 Northwest despite all that, yet those victories as- 
 suredly gave us the great Northwest in this country, 
 and made it possible for our nation to place one 
 hand upon the blue waters of the Atlantic, and the 
 other upon the rolling waters of the Pacific, and 
 to say that this is one country and our country, 
 
SETTLEMENT OF THE NORTHWEST. 37 
 
 and that the boast of the American may be as 
 great as that of the Briton who glories that the 
 sun never ceases to shine upon Her Majesty's 
 dominions. 
 
 Americans can make the same proud claim for 
 their country, for when the sun goes downward 
 through the gateways of the westward its occi- 
 dental rays light up the mountains and glaciers of 
 Alaska, while at the same time its oriental rays 
 dance and play along the hill tops and upon the 
 sparkling waters of Maine. 
 
 Out of this Northwest saved by the brave Wayne 
 and the gallant Harrison, we have carved five great 
 empires, — Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and 
 Wisconsin; and where the Indian war whoop was 
 sounded less than a century ago, to-day there are 
 millions of men and women engaged in peaceful 
 pursuits; surrounded by all the luxuries of civiliza- 
 tion; surrounded by all that goes to make life de- 
 sirable. 
 
 Where stood the forests of ninety years ago, we 
 have a great and teeming city; and where the 
 bloody battlefields were ninety years ago, we have 
 beautiful villages and magnificent farms. 
 
 What a change! When you stop to think of 
 the result that was wrought by those campaigns, 
 you can ask yourself whence this change, and it 
 is impossible for one to answer it in a single night. 
 Imagination may aid some, but words are power- 
 less. Imagination can picture the continent and 
 the many teeming happy people, but you cannot 
 describe the result. Here we are to-night, Sons 
 of the American Revolution, taking a just pride in 
 the fact that we are descended from the host of 
 
38 SETTLEMENT OF THE NORTHWEST. 
 
 Revolutionary soldiers who made themselves im- 
 mortal on Revolutionary fields. I can imagine 
 how, years from now, the descendants of your- 
 selves and your children will swell with pride 
 when they think of the fact that along back through 
 the years and away back yonder, some ancestor 
 made himself immortal in defending his country; 
 will take pride in the fact that his children or grand- 
 children or great-grandchildren banded themselves 
 together as the Sons of the American Revolution 
 or Daughters of the American Revolution, taking 
 pride in the fact that they had a glorious ancestor, 
 and that they were doing what they could to per- 
 petuate his memory. 
 
 Let me commend to you your gallant effort, 
 your heroic effort. Preserve the facts of history. 
 Gather them up. Gather up all of them to the 
 end that you may realize the glories of the past, 
 the glories of a common ancestry, the glories of a 
 country made free and grand and great by the 
 heroic efforts of your fathers and your grand- 
 fathers, and here pledge anew your devotion to a 
 common country, swearing loyalty to your country 
 that never more shall any hand be lifted against 
 her life unless that hand shall be struck by all the 
 powers of the millions of our countrymen. 
 
The Northwest as Affected by the 
 Treaty of Ghent. 
 
 By Thomas Wilson, LL.D., 
 
 Formerly U. S. Consul at Ghent. 
 
 THE direct cause of the war of 1812 was 
 the exercise by Great Britain of the right 
 of search of American vessels on the 
 high seas. 
 
 An indirect cause was Great Britain's interference 
 with the rights of the people on the northwestern 
 frontier in their respective dealings with the 
 Indians. The treaty of 1783 with Great Britain did 
 not bring peace with the Indian tribes on the north- 
 west, and so, while the United States were at 
 peace with Great Britain, the war continued with 
 the Indians, of which the incidents have been de- 
 scribed by the other speakers. 
 
 In these performances the British soldiery and 
 the British Government stood back of the Indians. 
 It was the policy of the British Government to 
 maintain its frontiers as far south as possible, and 
 then to keep a strip or border of neutral ground 
 between the British and Americans, which should 
 be held by the Indians as a barrier against the 
 Americans. The British thought the Indians could 
 push that frontier farther south on the American 
 territory than England could, and to her, Indian 
 occupation was equivalent to British occupation, 
 
40 THE NORTHWEST AS AFFECTED 
 
 for Britain could then use it — not, perhaps, to the 
 exclusion of the Indians, but as outposts and 
 strongholds against the Americans. 
 
 The British kept on good terms with the Indians; 
 they made them their allies against the Americans; 
 permitted them to occupy the land, and did not 
 attempt to despoil them of it nor move them to 
 some distant reservation. Therefore they were 
 friends. Great Britain continually acted for her 
 best interests. She sought to use the Indian as a 
 buffer between her people and those of the United 
 States, and her own occupation was thus rendered 
 much safer against attack from the Americans. 
 This was a wisely selfish policy on the part of 
 Great Britain. 
 
 In the meanwhile the Indian conflicts with the 
 United States continued or broke out sporadically. 
 The defeats of the Indians each time made them 
 less aggressive, less obstinate, and more easily 
 handled. When the action of Great Britain on the 
 high seas nerved the Government of the United 
 States to take a stand, war was declared. 
 
 The United States authorities vainly sought 
 peace, but so long as the British instigated the 
 tribes to war, the savages never thought of ceas- 
 ing hostilities. The supine indifference of the 
 people at large forced the administration to try 
 every means to obtain peace before adopting the 
 only manly and honorable course, a vigorous war. 
 The frontiersmen looked at the Regular Army with 
 suspicion, and regarded the British and Indians 
 with an equal hatred; they knew that the presence 
 of the British in the Lake Posts meant Indian war, 
 and they knew that whether they behaved well or 
 
BY THE TREATY OF GHENT. 4 1 
 
 ill the Indians would war on them until the tribes 
 suffered some signal overthrow; meanwhile they 
 coveted the Indian lands with a desire as simple 
 as it was brutal. Nor were revenge and the desire 
 for Indian lands the only motives for aggression; 
 meaner feelings were mixed with the greed for 
 unfilled prairie and unfelled forests, and fierce long- 
 ing for blood. It was about this time the idea 
 was formulated that "the only good Indian was a 
 dead Indian." Then war was declared and prose- 
 cuted with such success as we know, until at last 
 our people got tired of it, and a conference was 
 agreed upon between the contending nations to 
 be held at Ghent in the attempt to make a Treaty 
 of Peace. What was done at that conference, 
 how the treaty was made, and how it affected the 
 people of the Northwest, will comprise the rest of 
 this paper. 
 
 The Commissioners on behalf of the United 
 States were John Quincy Adams, Jonathan Russell, 
 Albert Gallatin, James A. Bayard and Henry Clay. 
 They met with the British Commissioners, and 
 each party presented the points on which they had 
 been instructed by their respective Governments. 
 
 While Mr. Adams was, as the representative of 
 the New England people, especially those on the 
 coast, greatly interested in the fisheries, it is not to 
 be supposed that he neglected or was willing to 
 give up, the contention against Great Britain in 
 regard to the Indians. He reports a discussion 
 with Mr. Goulborn, one of the English Commis- 
 sioners, from which he became satisfied of the 
 violence and bitterness of the British against the 
 
42 THE NORTHWEST AS AFFECTED 
 
 Americans, and the determination of its commis- 
 sioners to adhere to its Indian barrier proposition. 
 Mr. Goulborn declared in unmistakable terms, the 
 belief of himself and his colleagues, that the 
 United States Government, or at least a large 
 number of its people, had designs upon Canada, 
 and their astonishment that Canada had not been 
 attacked at the outset ; that nothing had saved it 
 but the excellent disposition and military arrange- 
 ments of the governor who commanded there ; 
 that, in order to guard against this in' future, it 
 was necessary to make a barrier against our set- 
 tlement upon which neither party should en- 
 croach. He admitted that their proposition of 
 disarmament of the United States upon the lakes 
 had the same purpose — the security of Canada. 
 He declared the Indians to be in themselves a 
 secondary object, but that they could be thus 
 used for the advantage of Great Britain, while 
 as her allies in the war she must make provi- 
 sion to include them in the treaty of peace. 
 
 Mr. Adams said, in reply, that wherever the 
 Indians would form settlements and cultivate 
 lands, their possessions were undoubtedly to be 
 respected, and always were respected, by the 
 United States; that some of them had become 
 civilized in a considerable degree, but the greater 
 part of the Indians could never be prevailed upon 
 to adopt this mode of life; their habits, attach- 
 ments and prejudices were so averse to settlement 
 that they could not reconcile themselves to other 
 conditions than those of wandering hunters. It 
 was impossible for such people ever to be said to 
 have landed possessions. Their only right to land 
 
BY THE TREATY OF GHENT. 43 
 
 was a right to use it as a hunting ground, and 
 when those lands became necessary or convenient 
 for the purposes of civilized settlement, the system 
 adopted by the United States was, by amicable ar- 
 rangement with them, to compensate them for 
 renouncing the right of hunting upon them, and 
 for removing to remoter regions better suited to 
 their purposes and mode of life. Between it and 
 taking the lands for nothing, or exterminating the 
 Indians who had used them, there was no alter- 
 native. 1 o condemn vast regions of territory to 
 perpetual barrenness and solitude, to the end that 
 a few savages might hunt wild beasts upon it, was 
 a species of game law that a nation descended 
 from the Britons would never endure. It was as 
 incompatible with the moral, as with the physical, 
 nature of things. If Great Britain meant to pre- 
 clude forever the people of the United States from 
 settling and cultivating these territories, she need 
 not think to do it by means of a treaty. She must 
 formally undertake, and accomplish, the utter ex- 
 termination of our people. If the Government of 
 the United States should ever submit to such a 
 stipulation, which it was hoped they would not, 
 all its force, and that of Britain combined, would 
 not suffice to carry it into execution. It was op- 
 posing a feather to a torrent. The population of 
 the United States in 1810 passed seven million, 
 and now it undoubtedly passed eight. As it con- 
 tinued to increase in such proportions, was it in 
 human experience, or in human power, to check 
 its progress by a bond of paper purporting to ex- 
 clude posterity from the natural subsistence they 
 would derive from the cultivation of the soil? 
 
44 THE NORTHWEST AS AFFECTED 
 
 Such a treaty, instead of closing the old sources of 
 discussion, would only open new ones. A war 
 thus finished would immediately be followed by 
 another, and Great Britain would ultimately find 
 that she must substitute the project of extermina- 
 ting the whole American people for that of oppos- 
 ing against them her barrier of savages. 
 
 It is useless to repeat the arguments, for and 
 against, made by and before the Commission. 
 They were varied only with the discussion over 
 the British demand for free navigation of the 
 Mississippi and the right of fisheries. 
 
 Our Commissioners were pertinacious, full of 
 courage, always polite, kept on good terms with 
 the British Commissioners, discussed minor points 
 when they failed on major, and never allowed the 
 discussions to close on any point with a decision 
 against them, or beyond the possibility of renewal 
 at a more favorable time. They could have broken 
 off the negotiations almost any day, but that was 
 not their policy. In order to succeed they must 
 not only hold the opposing commissioners, but they 
 must convince and convert them — they must over- 
 power them with their arguments or their elo- 
 quence, or wheedle or flatter them, or in some 
 way overcome their opposition and secure an 
 agreement. 
 
 The treaty as agreed on provided for the estab- 
 lishment of peace, return of possessions, and release 
 of prisoners, but most important for the north- 
 west, it provided for the appointment of commis- 
 sioners to run the frontier line between the United 
 States and Canada and the British possessions from 
 
BY THE TREATY OF GHENT. 45 
 
 the Bay of Fundy through the Great Lakes to the 
 Stony Mountains. 
 
 The treaty, victory as it was for the United 
 States, is more remarkable for what it omits 
 than what it contains. Every principle which 
 each Government presented at the beginning, 
 was ignored and omitted. No reference was 
 made in the treaty to the right of Great Britain 
 to establish a paper blockade. Nothing was said 
 about the right of search on the high seas, nor 
 the impressment of sailors, nor the extra-terri- 
 torial rights of British subjects ; yet by the 
 arguments of the American commissioners these 
 doctrines were overthrown as effectually as if 
 they had been expressly negatived in the treaty. 
 The British Government has never since claimed 
 them as rights for itself, nor recognized them as 
 rights in others. England's pretensions in this 
 regard were extinguished in the discussion over 
 this treaty as completely as were Spain's by the 
 loss of her great Armada. The contest for equal 
 rights on the high seas, begun by Philip II. 300 
 years ago in the British channel and continued 
 on the German Ocean amid blood and carnage, 
 was finished in peace at Ghent by the triumph of 
 American diplomacy. 
 
 Our Commissioners at Ghent turned their atten- 
 tion to the northern boundary between the two 
 countries, and it was by them forever settled so as 
 to make the foundation of the future greatness 
 of the United States. The Commissioners even 
 builded wiser than they knew; they provided for 
 the acquisition of the Great West which is our 
 pride and strength. What would be our condi- 
 
46 THE NORTHWEST AS AFFECTED, ETC. 
 
 tion or what the value of the Revolution if Great 
 Britain had been successful at Ghent in her conten- 
 tion for an Indian barrier? The Rocky Mountains, 
 Yellowstone Park, the Dakotas, Washington, Idaho, 
 Oregon, with their great agricultural and mineral 
 wealth, would have been lost. Nor is this all; for 
 the United States would have lost the great lakes 
 and a territory which now forms some of our 
 strongest and richest States. The treaty of 1783 
 gave to Great Britain the free navigation of the 
 Mississippi River from its source to its mouth; the 
 treaty of Ghent by its silence annulled this right. 
 I have demonstrated the truth of the proposition 
 advanced by your president as a justification for 
 your Society of the Revolution engaging itself in 
 the history of the Northwest, that is, that the war 
 of the Revolution involved and included the war 
 of 18 12. I add that the fruits of the Revolu- 
 tionary victory were secured by the treaty of 
 Ghent, and that these fruits were obtained by the 
 superior management of the United States case by 
 its Commissioners at Ghent. Their positions 
 then taken became crystalized into the acknowl- 
 edged rights of the American people, admitted by 
 all and denied by none.