INDIAN WAR-ST. CLAIR'S DEFEAT.

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4.

It was the middle of September before St. Clair, with CHAP. an army of about two thousand men, began his march from Fort Washington, the little stockade fort on the site 1791. of the present city of CINCINNATI. It was his object to open a way, and establish a line of posts from the Ohio to the Maumee, and there build and garrison a strong fort, as a check upon the marauding Indians. Two of these posts he had already established. The militia who joined the army from Kentucky, were insubordinate, and, as the army could move but very slowly in cutting its way through the wilderness, they grew impatient, and finally numbers of them returned home. The Chickasaw warriors also deserted, and his force was reduced to fourteen hundred Nov. men. When he reached the head-waters of the Wabash, his army was surprised by Little Turtle, a celebrated Miami chief, and the Indians, who had hitherto contrived to keep out of sight. The militia fled immediately, and threw the regulars into confusion, who could not regain their order, nor sustain the attack. St. Clair was in his tent prostrated by illness and not able to mount his horse, and when Colonel Butler fell, the army commenced its retreat, or rather flight, abandoning every thing. Fortunately, plunder had more attractions for the savages than pursuit of the fugitives. The remnant of the army returned to Fort Washington, and the whole frontier was again defenceless. St. Clair resigned his command, and the President appointed General Wayne, whom we have seen so daring in the battles of the Revolution, to lead the next expedition; for the sake of connection the account of this will be given here.

An attempt was made to negotiate a peace, but without success; in the mean while Wayne was at Fort Washington, earnestly engaged in recruiting and organ- 1794. izing his army. With his usual energy he pushed his forces rapidly forward to the scene of St. Clair's defeat, June. and there built a fort which he named Recovery. This

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CHAP. fort the Indians besieged for two days, but were at length driven off. Six weeks after he suddenly marched to the 1794. Maumee. The Indians were taken by surprise. They took position amidst some fallen timber, prostrated by a hurricane, in order to avoid the cavalry, of which they had a great fear. Wayne ordered the infantry to charge with Aug. the bayonet through the timber. The Indians were immediately routed, and scattered in all directions. The fertile valleys of the neighborhood were covered with cornfields; these fields of grain were destroyed up to the very gates of the British fort, which Wayne could scarcely restrain his army from attacking. Thus, in a campaign of ninety days, he had marched three hundred miles, the greater part of the road cut by the army, had completely broken the Indian power, destroyed their provisions for the next winter, and established a full garrisoned fort in Nov. the midst of their country. He now returned to Greenville, on the Miami, to winter-quarters.

1795.

The following summer eleven hundred warriors, representatives from the western tribes, met Wayne at that Aug. place and made a treaty which secured peace to the frontier. Their friends the British were about to evacuate the western posts, and they found it more to their advantage to submit. They ceded at this time nearly all the territory of what is now the State of Ohio, for which they were paid. For twenty years the Indians had made incursions into Kentucky, and during that time they had carried off a great number of captives. By this treaty all these captives were to be restored to their friends. It was a moving spectacle to see parents endeavoring to find their children, who, years before, had been taken from their homes, some of them had forgotten their native language, some preferred to stay with their savage captors rather than return to civilized life. Many husbands and wives who had been separated for years, were restored to each other.

CONFLICT OF OPINIONS-JEFFERSON.

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The conflict of opinions, in regard to the adoption of CHAP the Constitution, had created two parties; the Federalist and the Anti-Federalist: the one, the administration 1792. and its friends; the other, those opposed to its policy. As the Constitution became more and more popular, opposition was specially made to Hamilton's management of the financial affairs of the government. Time has proved the wisdom of his policy, which has continued, in the main, to be that of the government from that day to this.

"He was made Secretary of the Treasury; and how he fulfilled the duties of such a place, at such a time, the whole country perceived with delight, and the whole world saw with admiration. He smote the rock of the national resources, and abundant streams of revenue gushed forth. He touched the dead corpse of the Public Credit, and it sprang upon its feet." 1

In this opposition Jefferson, the Secretary of State, performed a secret but active part. Having been some years in France, as American Minister, he had returned home thoroughly imbued with French politics. He disliked Adams almost as much as he did Hamilton, and he seems to have been haunted with the idea that these two members of the cabinet were, in disguise, either monarchists or aristocrats; that they were devising plans to change the republican form of the government; and that Washington was misled by them. He noticed and recorded every remark which seemed to him suspicious, made by these gentlemen, when in the hours of unreserved social intercourse. While ostensibly the friend of Washington and his administration, he was in communication with the opposition, and diffusing his opinions in his private correspondence. Measures, which at one time he himself had approved, he now feared might have lurking in them some latent principle which might lead to the establishment of

'Daniel Webster.

XXXIX.

CHAP a monarchy. His party thought it expedient to repudiate the name, Anti-Federalists, and assume that of REPUBLI 1793. CAN, at the same time proclaiming they were the only true friends of the people. An incessant warfare commenced against the policy of the government, accompanied with scurrilous abuse of the President.

1789.

The assumption of the State debts; the national bank; the manner of raising the revenue; the funding system, by which provision was made to pay the interest on the national debt, were, in the eyes of the opposition, so many cunningly-devised plans to create friends among the rich, and in the end subvert the liberties of the country.

The public interest demanded it, and after much solicitation from the leading members of the government, Washington consented to serve for a second term. He was unanimously chosen. Adams was re-elected VicePresident; he receiving seventy-seven electoral votes, and George Clinton, of New York, fifty.

Two months and a half after the first inauguration of Washington as President, a bloody revolution broke out in France. The people of the United States looked with much interest upon the French people struggling for liberty. But it was soon evident that the state of the nation's morals, political as well as private, forbade the success of the French republic. The remembrance of the alliance with France, by which they had received aid in the time of need, elicited the sympathy of the American people. The republican party wished to form an alliance with the new Republic, while Washington, and the majority of his cabinet, as well as the more judicious statesmen, were in favor of neutrality. The unheard-of cruelties, which, in the name of liberty, had been practised in France for a year or two, had cooled the zeal of many. One party had succeeded by guillotining the leaders of its rival; the amiable Louis, who had aided the Americans

NEUTRALITY PROCLAIMED-CITIZEN GENET.

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in their struggle for liberty, had been murdered by his CHAP. subjects; and Lafayette was forced to flee. Strange that such "excesses and horrible butcheries" found apologists 1793. in the United States.

While the public mind was thus divided, came Edmond Charles Genet or Citizen Genet" as he was styled, as minister of the French Republic. He brought the intelligence that France had declared war against England. Now the opposition, urged on by their hatred to the latter power, wished to enter into an alliance with France, and thus involve the country in war. But Washington and his cabinet, in spite of these clamors, promptly proclaimed neutrality as the policy of the United States, and also warned the people not to commit acts inconsistent with the proclamation of neutrality, nor with the strictest impartiality towards the belligerents. The wisdom of the Government saved the country from a multitude of evils.

Genet took advantage of the sympathy manifested for France by a portion of the American people, and began to fit out privateers against English commerce. This was an insult to the dignity of the government, and a violation of the proclaimed neutrality. But the partisans of France were determined that the country should be committed to an alliance with the great sister Republic in the old world.

About this time numerous societies, modelled after the famous Jacobin clubs in Paris, began to be formed in various parts of the Union. The more ultra assumed the title of Democratic, while others preferred to call themselves Democratic Republican. They made strenuous efforts to influence the public mind in favor of French politics, and drive the government from its determination not to interfere in the quarrels of Europe. The President and his policy were assailed in terms of unmeasured abuse. The principal organ of this abuse was the Gazette news

April.