1794

 

__________ 

“Experience the kindness and friendship of the United States of America and the invaluable blessings of peace and tranquility.” 

“Mad Anthony” Wayne to the Native Americans

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The British remained antagonistic to the young United States,
sometimes paying Native Americans for scalps.

 

June 30: The Ohio History Connection adds detail to the story of the clash of Native Americans vs. settlers to control the lands that would become the seventeenth state in the Union. 

A combined force of 1,500 Shawnee, Delaware, Ottawa, Miami, and Ojibwa attacked a pack train returning from Fort Recovery [built the previous December] to Fort Greene Ville. Little Turtle, Blue Jacket, and Simon Girty led the assault. The attack was made less than one thousand feet from Fort Recovery. Of the 140 American soldiers escorting the wagons, the American Indian forces killed or wounded fifteen. They also seized three hundred horses. American Indian casualties amounted to three dead warriors. Soon after this attack, the American Indians, emboldened by their earlier success, launched a night attack against Fort Recovery. The 250 American soldiers succeeded in defending the fort but lost twenty-two men. The American Indians suffered forty dead and twenty wounded.

 

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August 20: The following comes from The Great Republic by Morris. After the defeats of Harmar in 1790, and St. Clair, in 1791:

 

Wayne’s Victory over the Indians 

Washington determined that no more blunders should be made, and appointed Anthony Wayne to command of the next expedition. He raised a large force, moved cautiously, and took every precaution against surprise, as Washington had told him to do. He had 4,000 men under his command, and the consummate woodcraft and tricks of the red men failed to deceive him. At the Fallen Timbers, near the present city of Toledo, he met a large force, August 20, 1794, of Canadians and Indians, completely routed them, killed a great many, with slight loss to himself, and so crushed the confederation of tribes that they gave no more trouble for a long time.

 

Mrs. Hendricks picks up the same story: 

General Wayne continued his march into the heart of Indian country, but before attempting to capture the point where the Miami villages were located, he thought best to offer the tribes a last opportunity to enter into a treaty of peace. In a report to the secretary of war General Wayne, after stating that he had given the Indians such opportunity, said: “But, should war be their choice, their blood be upon their own heads. America shall no longer be insulted with impunity. To an all-powerful God I therefore commit myself and gallant army.” In the address he sent to the tribes General Wayne kindly entreated them to lay down their arms and “experience the kindness and friendship of the United States of America and the invaluable blessings of peace and tranquility.”

 

In a council of the confederate tribes, Little Turtle made every effort to induce them to accept General Wayne’s offers of peace, but some of the chiefs accusing him of cowardice he said no more, but sorrowfully led his warriors forth to battle. On August 20th, 1794, on the Bank of the Maumee, near Presque Isle, about two miles south of the site of Maumee City, the two armies met. The engagement was quick and decisive, General Wayne gaining complete victory over the savages, who fled in every direction. Not only were the armies of the two races led by notable warriors in this engagement – Wayne and Little Turtle – but they were assisted by those who, in after years, became conspicuous figures in the history of the northwest. William Henry Harrison, at that time a lieutenant, was General Wayne’s aide-de-camp and Tecumseh, the famous Shawnee chief, fought bravely in Little Turtle’s band. (91/82)

 

Benjamin Andrews gives a similar description: “Wayne advanced with great skill and pursued the Indians to the Maumee Rapids. Nearby, an English fort, against the treaty, stood fifty miles inside U.S. territory.” After failing to work out a peace agreement, Wayne “attacked, routed the enemy, and mercilessly ravaged the country, burning crops and villages.” (2/277) 

NOTE TO TEACHERS: It might work to have students write a headline and a short article for a newspaper run by Native Americans, describing the defeat of the confederated times.

 

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“Those who mean well and have served the cause of liberty.” 

August 15: James Monroe is made ambassador to France. Ammon calls him an “ardent francophile.”  

As further proof that America was not an unfeeling spectator of France’s valiant struggle, he submitted the resolutions of both Houses of Congress and Randolph’s letter, adding on his own authority that the President had requested him to inform France that Washington also shared these sentiments. If he could promote harmony between the two nations, Monroe would deem it “the happiest event of my life, and return hereafter with the consolation, which those who mean well and have served the cause of liberty [,] alone can feel.” These were no empty phrases. Not until he read this address did Washington begin to comprehend the gulf which separated the administration from the republican opposition.

 

 

In London, John Jay was appalled, protesting, in Ammon’s words, “that these ill-considered remarks had jeopardized his negotiations. He was especially aggrieved that Monroe had not considered the effect his remarks would have on public opinion in England.”  The Secretary of State advised Monroe to be careful not to let his private views color public statements – but said he “still had the power to cultivate the French republic with zeal.” Monroe felt that the United States “would best serve its own interests by taking advantage of the deep involvement of the European powers in the war to seize the posts [disputed forts on U.S. soil] and to open the Mississippi by force; neither Spain nor England was in a position to retaliate.” 

“A few months later he suggested to Madison that the United States should seize the posts, invade Canada and occupy the Bermudas as a means of forcing Britain to acknowledge American claims: “…this would be acting like a nation and we should then be respected as such here and in England.” (24/121, 128) 

Federalists were appalled when Monroe also met with Irish revolutionaries, and scandalized by his friendship with Thomas Paine. Paine had a disastrous drinking problem later, one friend saying, “he drank like a fish.” 

Ammon writes, “Accepting the premise that the survival of freedom in America was dependent upon the advancement of republicanism in Europe, Monroe saw no impropriety in these friendships.” (24/135, 136) 

As for Eliza, Mr. and Mrs. Monroe’s eight-year-old, her experience attending French schools served to turn her into a snob, so much so that she was “highly unpopular with her contemporaries.” (24/139) 

As for Jay, Monroe suspected “principles and crooked policy…[were] disguised under the appearance of great sanctity and decorum. He considered Jay’s Treaty a personal “mortification.” (24/141, 145) 

He was also highly critical of the president: 

Most of the monarchs of the earth practice ingratitude in their transactions with other powers ... but Mr. Washington has the merit of transcending, not the great men of the antient [sic] republicks, but the little monarchs of the present day in preaching it as a public virtue. God only knows, but such a collection of vain, superficial blunderers, to say no worse of them, were never ... before placed at the head of any respectable state. (24/155)