CHAPTER fused, unless Great Britain would make compensation,

XLV. in her turn, for the private property destroyed during the 1782. war. It was stipulated, however, that no further con

Nov. 30.

fiscations should be decreed nor prosecutions commenced; and, as a sort of salvo to the honor of Great Britain, that Congress should recommend to the states the restoration of all confiscated property. The American commissioners made no secret, however, of the certain futility of all such recommendations. For the benefit of the British merchants who had large outstanding American claims, especially against the southern planters, it was provided by a special article that all impediments should be removed to the recovery of debts due on either side.

As soon as possible after the final ratification of the treaty, the British fleets and armies were to be withdrawn from every port and place within the United States; but the articles were not to take effect till peace had first been concluded between France and Great Britain.

Two days before the signature of these preliminaries, Laurens arrived at Paris; and, faithful to the slave-holding interest which he represented, he procured the insertion of an article that no "negroes or other property" should be carried away by the evacuating troops.

Thus completed, these preliminaries were signed, and, with the exception of the secret article, were presently communicated by Franklin to Vergennes. Pointedly reproached, though with French politeness, for ungenerous distrust of France, and breach of positive instructions, in having signed this preliminary treaty without consulting the French court, Franklin replied with soft words; and Vergennes took the matter so little to heart, that, within a few days after, he agreed to advance a new loan of six millions of livres, $1,111,111, toward enabling the United States to meet the expenses of the ensaing year.

XLV.

France was inclined to favor the interests of Spain, her CHAPTER family ally; she was also very anxious speedily to terminate a war, the whole financial burden of which her 1782. American allies seemed inclined to shift upon her shoulders. Such appears to have been the only foundation for the suspicions entertained of the designs of the French court. In his whole intercourse with America Vergennes seems to have acted an honorable part, faithfully contributing, according to his best judgment, to secure the professed object of the treaty of alliance, the political and commercial independence of the United States.

While these negotiations were proceeding in Europe, military operations in America were almost at a stand. The flagging efforts of the states had been still further relaxed by the prospect of peace. Washington's army of ten thousand men, encamped near the Hudson, was reduced to great straits for provisions, and Congress was obliged May 22 to dispatch two committees, one to the northern, the other to the southern states, to represent the alarming necessities of the soldiers. Morris exerted his utmost efforts; he drew bills on Europe; he issued treasury notes, payable on short time; and, during the first few months of its existence, he obtained from the Bank of North America advances to the amount of $300,000. Assailed, however, with bitter reproaches, both in and out of Congress, and exposed to the most cruel misconstructions, this indefatigable financier was reduced to the brink of despair.

Perceiving the near approach of peace, and the utter inability of Congress to fulfill any pecuniary engagements, the officers of the army began to doubt as to their arrearages, and especially as to the promised half pay for life. There were some among them who ascribed the inefficiency of the government to its republican form. Lewis Nicola, a colonel of the Pennsylvania line, of respectable

CHAPTER character, but a foreigner by birth, was made the organ

XLV. for proposing to Washington, in an elaborate and plaus.

1782. ible letter, the establishment of a monarchy-he to be

king. How many officers were concerned in this intrigue is not known; but it serves to show that the popular dread of a standing army was not altogether without foundation. Had Washington resembled the vast majority of military heroes, hopeless as such a scheme was, in such a country and among such a people, the nation might yet have been involved in new and more desperate strugMay 22. gles. But Washington's firm and emphatic rebuke nip

ped this project in the bud.

Though operations between the main armies were suspended, war still raged, and with unusual horrors, on the western frontier. The Christian Delawares, settled on the Muskingum, had been placed in a very delicate position. It was part of their religion to renounce the use of arms, and they aimed to preserve a perfect neutrality But their villages lay directly on the war path. The hostile Indians, from the neighborhood of Detroit, on their way to the American frontier, were accustomed to demand supplies of provisions which the Delawares could not refuse; and the backwoodsmen regarded them, in consequence, "as the half-way house" of the enemy. They were suspected, at the same time, by the hostile Indians, of betraying their movements to the whites; and, in consequence of these suspicions, a large war party had recent1781. ly compelled the Christian Indians to abandon their vil Aug. lages, and to remove to Sandusky, on Lake Erie. Re

duced, during the winter, in consequence of this sudden. removal, to great distress for provisions, some of the Del1782. awares obtained leave to return to their villages on the March. Muskingum, to gather the corn left standing in the fields. Some murders, committed in the neighborhood of Pitts

XLV.

burg by a wandering party of Shawanese, being ascribed CHAPTER to the lately-returned Christian Indians, or to warriors whom they had aided and comforted, eighty or ninety men 1782. of that neighborhood marched to take vengeance. For want of a canoe, they crossed the Muskingum in a trough designed to hold maple sap, but large enough to carry two men at once. Arrived at the middle Moravian village, they found a party of Christian Indians gathering

corn.

The Indians at another neighboring village were sent for, and the whole were placed together in two houses. A council was then held to decide on their fate. Williamson, the commander, heretofore accused of too great lenity to the Indians, referred the matter to his men. Only sixteen voted for mercy; all the rest, professing a faith common on the frontier, "that an Indian has no more soul than a buffalo," were for murder. They rushed on their prey, scalping-knife in hand, and upward of ninety Indians, men, women, and children, soon lay bleeding and gasping.

Flushed by this success, a new expedition of four hund- May red and eighty men marched, under Colonels Williamson and Crawford, to complete the destruction of the Christian Indians by assailing Sandusky. They designed, at the same time, to strike a blow at the Wyandot town. Waylaid by the Indians near Sandusky, they were at- June tacked by an overwhelming force, and obliged to retreat. Many stragglers were killed; Williamson made his escape, but Crawford and many more fell into the hands of the Indians, who burned him, and his son and son-in-law, at the stake, in revenge for the cold-blooded murders on the Muskingum.

Kentucky still continued to be harassed by Indian parties from the north of the Ohio. A large body of Indians, headed by Simon Girty and other Tory refugees, having

CHAPTER entered the settlements, they were pursued by one hund XLV. red and eighty men under Colonels Todd, Trigg, and

1782. Boone, who rashly attacked them at the Big Blue Lick, where the road from Maysville to Lexington crosses the Licking. Here occurred the bloodiest battle ever fought in Kentucky. The Kentuckians lost sixty-seven men in killed and prisoners, the Indians having the advantage of the ground; nor was it without a severe struggle that the rest escaped. This, however, was the last inroad south of the Ohio by any large body of Indians.

In the southern department military operations were still carried on. Toward the close of the preceding year some Tories among the Cherokees had made a foray upon the back settlements of South Carolina, and carried off as prisoner a brother of General Pickens. With a body Jan of South Carolina and Georgia militia, Pickens invaded

and laid waste the Cherokee country. Upon the arrival Feb. of the Pennsylvania troops, Greene sent Wayne into Georgia. Clarke, who commanded there for the British, contracted his quarters, drew in his outposts, and, having ravaged and destroyed every thing in his way, retired to Savannah. The governor and council of Georgia re. moved from Augusta to Ebenezer. The people had been so impoverished by mutual plunder that even seed corn was hardly to be had. Wayne's troops had to be supplied from South Carolina. The back country was still harassed with Tory and Indian invasions. Even Wayne's June 23. camp was attacked by a body of Creek Indians, but they were repulsed with loss. The British forces soon after July 11. evacuated Savannah, carrying with them not less than five thousand negroes.

The troops in the southern department were still worse off than those under Washington. Many of the soldiers could not leave their tents for want of clothes The Leg