were, they had to bear almost the whole burden of the war during the revolutionary contest. They chose their own officers, furnished their own means, and conducted the war in their own way. Thus circumstanced, "they became a law unto themselves," and on certain occasions perpetrated acts which government was compelled to disapprove. This lawless temper of our people was never fully dissipated until the conclusion of the whisky rebellion in 1794.

The Moravian villages were situated between the settlements of the whites and the towns of the warriors, about sixty miles from the former, and not much farther from the latter. On this account they were denominated "the half-way houses of the warriors." Thus placed between two rival powers engaged in furious warfare, the preservation of their neutrality was no easy task, perhaps impossible. If it requires the same physical force to preserve a neutral station among belligerent nations that it does to prosecute a war, as is unquestionably the case, this pacific people had no chance for the preservation of theirs. The very goodness of their hearts, their aversion to the shedding of human blood, brought them into difficulties with both parties. When they sent their runners to Fort Pitt, to inform us of the approach of the war parties, or received, fed, secreted and sent home prisoners, who had made their escape from the savages, they made breaches of their neutrality, as to the belligerent Indians. Their furnishing the warriors with a resting place and provisions was contrary to their neutral engagements to us; but their local situation rendered those accommodations to the warriors unavoidable on their part, as the warriors possessed both the will and the means to compel them to give whatever they wanted from them.

The peaceable Indians first fell under suspicion with the Indian warriors and the English commandant at Detroit, to whom it was reported that their teachers were in close confederacy with the American congress, for preventing not only their own people, but also the

Delawares and some other nations, from associating their arms with those of the British for carrying on the war against the American colonies.

The frequent failures of the war expeditions of the Indians was attributed to the Moravians, who often sent runners to Fort Pitt to give notice of their approach. This charge against them was certainly not without foundation. In the spring of the year 1781 the war chiefs of the Delawares fully apprised the missionaries and their followers of their danger both from the whites and Indians, and requested them to remove to a place of safety from both. This request was not complied with, and the almost prophetic predictions of the chiefs were literally fulfilled.

In the fall of the year 1781, the settlements of the Moravians were broken up by upwards of 300 warriors, and the missionaries taken prisoners, after being robbed of almost every thing. The Indians were left to shift for themselves in the barren plains of Sandusky, where most of their horses and cattle perished from famine during the winter. The missionaries were taken prisoners to Detroit; but after an examination by the governor, were permitted to return to their beloved people again.

In the latter part of February, a party of about 150 of the Moravian Indians returned to their deserted villages on the Muskingum, to procure corn to keep their families and cattle from starving. Of these, ninety-six fell into the hands of Williamson and his party, and were murdered.

The causes which led to the murder of the Moravians are now to be detailed.

The pressure of the Indian war along the whole of the western frontier, for several years preceding the event under consideration, had been dreadfully severe. From early in the spring, until the commencement of winter, from day to day murders were committed in every direction by the Indians. The people lived in forts which were in the highest degree uncomfortable. The

men were harassed continually with the duties of going on scouts and campaigns. There was scarcely a family of the first settlers who did not, at some time or other, lose more or less of their number by the merciless Indians. Their cattle were killed, their cabins burned, and their horses carried off. These losses were severely felt by a people so poor as we were at that time. Thus circumstanced, our people were exasperated to madness by the extent and severity of the war. The unavailing endeavors of the American congress to prevent the Indians from taking up the hatchet against either side in the revolutionary contest, contributed much to increase the general indignation against them, at the same time those pacific endeavors of our government divided the Indians amongst themselves on the question of war or peace with the whites. The Moravians, part of the Delawares, and some others, faithfully endeavored to preserve peace, but in vain. The Indian maxim was, "he that is not for us is against us." Hence the Moravian missionaries and their followers were several times on the point of being murdered by the warriors. This would have been done had it not been for the prudent conduct of some of the war chiefs.

On the other hand, the local situation of the Moravian villages excited the jealousy of the white people. If they took no direct agency in the war, yet they were, as they were then called, "half-way houses" between us and the warriors, at which the latter could stop, rest, refresh themselves, and traffick off their plunder. Whether these aids, thus given to our enemies, were contrary to the laws of neutrality between belligerents, is a question which I willingly leave to the decision of civilians. On the part of the Moravians they were unavoidable. If they did not give or sell provisions to the warriors, they would take them by force. The fault was in their situation, not in themselves.

The longer the war continued, the more our people complained of the situation of these Moravian villages. It was said that it was owing to their being so near us,

that the warriors commenced their depredations so early in the spring, and continued them until so late in the fall.

In the latter end of the year 1781, the militia of the frontier came to a determination to break up the Moravian villages on the Muskingum. For this purpose a detachment of our men went out under the command of Col. David Williamson, for the purpose of inducing the Indians with their teachers to move farther off, or bring them prisoners to Fort Pitt. When they arrived at the villages they found but few Indians, the greater number of them having removed to Sandusky. These few were well treated, taken to Fort Pitt, and delivered to the commandant of that station, who after a short detention sent them home again.

This procedure gave great offense to the people of the country, who thought the Indians ought to have been killed. Col. Williamson, who, before this little campaign, had been a very popular man, on account of his activity and bravery in war, now became the subject of severe animadversion on account of his lenity to the Moravian Indians. In justice to his memory I have to say, that although at that time very young, I was personally acquainted with him, and from my recollection of his conversation, I say with confidence that he was a brave man, but not cruel. He would meet an enemy

in battle, and fight like a soldier, but not murder a prisoner. Had he possessed the authority of a superior officer in a regular army, I do not believe that a single Moravian Indian would have lost his life; but he possessed no such authority. He was only a militia officer, who could advise, but not command. His only fault was that of too easy a compliance with popular opinion and popular prejudice. On this account his memory has been loaded with unmerited reproach.

Several reports unfavorable to the Moravians had been in circulation for some time before the campaign against them. One was, that the night after they were

erated at Fort Pitt, they crossed the river and killed

or made prisoners a family of the name of Monteur. A family on Buffalo creek had been mostly killed in the summer or fall of 1781; and it was said by one of them, who, after being made a prisoner, made his escape, that the leader of the party of Indians who did the mischief was a Moravian. These, with other reports of similar import, served as a pretext for their destruction, although no doubt they were utterly false.

Should it be asked what sort of people composed the band of murderers of these unfortunate people? I answer, they were not miscreants or vagabods; many of them were men of the first standing in the country: many of them were men who had recently lost relations by the hands of the savages. Several of the latter class found articles which had been plundered from their own houses, or those of their relations, in the houses of the Moravians. One man, it is said, found the clothes of his wife and children, who had been murdered by the Indians a few days before: they were still bloody; yet there was no unequivocal evidence that these people had any direct agency in the war. Whatever of our property was found with them had been left by the warriors in exchange for the provisions which they took from them. When attacked by our people, although they might have defended themselves, they did not: they never fired a single shot. They were prisoners, and had been promised protection. Every dictate of justice and humanity required that their lives should be spared. The complaint of their villages being "halfway houses for the warriors," was at an end, as they had been removed to Sandusky the fall before. It was therefore an atrocious and unqualified murder. But by whom committed-by a majority of the campaign?For the honor of my country, I hope I may safely answer this question in the negative. It was one of those convulsions of the moral state of society, in which the voice of the justice and humanity of a majority is silenced by the clamor and violence of a lawless minority. Very few of our men imbrued their hands in the blood