crops, as Sullivan did those of the Senecas in 1779.' In this he succeeded, but in two battles [Oct. 17 and 22, 1790], near the present village of Fort Wayne, in Indiana, he was defeated, with considerable loss. The following year, an expedition of Kentucky volunteers, under General Scott, marched against the Indians on the Wabash. General Wilkinson led a second expedition against them, in July following, and in September, General St. Clair,' then governor of the North-west Territory, marched into the Indian country, with two thousand men. While in camp near the northern line of Darke county, Ohio, on the borders of Indiana, he was surprised and defeated [Nov. 4, 1791] by the Indians, with a loss of about six hundred men.

The defeat of St. Clair produced great alarm on the whole north-western frontier. Even the people of Pittsburg" did not feel secure, and the border settlers called loudly for help. Fortunately the Indians did not follow up the advantage they had gained, and for a while hostilities ceased. Commissioners were appointed to treat with them, but through the interference of British officials, their negotiations were fruitless. General Wayne had been appointed, in the mean while, to succeed St. Clair in military command, and apprehending that the failure of the negotiations would be followed by an immediate attack upon the frontier settlements, he marched into the Indian country in the autumn of 1793. He spent the winter at Greenville, near the place of St. Clair's defeat, where he built Fort Recovery. The following summer [1794] he pushed forward to the Maumee River, and built Fort Defiance; and on the St. Mary's he erected Fort Adams as an intermediate post. On the 16th of August he went down the Maumee, with three thousand men, and not far from the present Maumee City,' he fought and defeated the Indians, on the 20th of the same month. He then laid waste their country, and after a successful campaign of about ninety days, he went into winter quarters at Greenville. There, the following year, the chiefs and warriors of the western tribes, in all about eleven hundred, met [August 3, 1795] commissioners of the United States, made a treaty of peace, and ceded to the latter a large tract of land in the present States of Michigan and Indiana. After that, the United States had very little trouble with the western Indians until just before the breaking out of the war of 1812-15.o

Party spirit, which had been engendered during the discussions of the Federal Constitution," gradually assumed distinct forms, and during the second session of the second Congress, it became rampant among the people, as well as in the national legislature. Hamilton and Jefferson, the heads of distinct departments" in Washington's cabinet, differed materially concerning important public measures, and then, under the respective leadership of those statesmen,

3

4 Page 205.

Page 298.

In Darke county, Ohio.

1 Page 304. 2 Page 276. 6 At the junction of the Au Glaize with the Maumee River, in the south-east part of Williams county, Ohio.

In the town of Waynesfield.

near by.

The British then occupied a fort at the Maumee Rapids,

8 The British held possession of Detroit, and nearly all Michigan, until 1796. See page 380. Page 409. " Page 367.

0

10

Page 360,

were drawn those lines of party distinction known as Federalist and Republican, which continued for a quarter of a century. The Federalist party was composed of those who favored great concentration of power in the general government. The Republicans, on the contrary, were for diffusing power among the people. Here were antagonistic points of great difference, and the warfare between the parties was acrimonious in the extreme.

During the summer of 1792, very little of public interest occurred, except the admission [June 1] of Kentucky' into the Union, but the marshalling of forces for the presidential election, which was to take place in the autumn. Washington yearned for the quiet of private life, and had expressed his determination to withdraw from public station on the expiration of his presidential term; but it was made evident to his mind, that the great majority of the people desired his continuance in office, and that the public safety demanded it. Under these circumstances, he consented to be a candidate, and he and Adams were re-elected by large majorities.

2

Yet the Republican party was daily gaining strength, partly from developments within the body politic of the United States, and partly from events then transpiring in Europe. A bloody revolution was in progress in France. The people there had abolished monarchy, and murdered their king, and the new Republic in name (a political chaos in reality), having the avowed sympathies of the Republican party in America, sent M. Genet' as its minister to the United States, to obtain the co-operation of the American people. The French Republic had declared war against England, Spain, and Holland, and needed transatlantic assistance. Remembering the recent alliance, and sympathizing with all efforts for popular freedom, the Republican party here, and also many of the Federalists, received Genet (who arrived at Charleston, South Carolina, in April, 1793) with open arms, and espoused his cause.

4

But Genet's zeal outstripped his prudence, and defeated his plans. Without waiting for an expression of opinions or intentions from the government of the United States, he began to fit out privateers in our ports, to depredate upon English, Dutch, and Spanish property; and when Washington prudently issued [May 9, 1793] a proclamation, declaring it to be the duty and the inter

'Kentucky, which had been settled chiefly by Virginians, and was claimed as a part of the territory of that State, was now erected into a sovereign member of the confederation. Its first settlement, as we have seen [note 2, page 300], was at Boonesboro', by Daniel Boone, in 1775.

There was a general burst of enthusiasm in the United States, on receipt of the intelligence of the advent of Liberty in France, and public demonstrations of it were made in several places. In Boston, an ox, roasted whole, was placed upon a car drawn by sixteen horses, and with the American and French flags displayed from its horns, was paraded through the streets, followed by carts, bearing bread and two hogsheads of punch, which were distributed among the people. A civic feast was held at Faneuil Hall, over which Samuel Adams [note 1, page 221] presided. In Philadelphia the anniversary of the French alliance [page 283] was celebrated by a public dinner, at which General Mifflin [page 352] presided; and in other places festivals were held.

Edmund Charles Genet was the son of a distinguished public man in France. He married, in this country, a daughter of Governor George Clinton [note 5. page 350], and remained in the United States. He died at Greenbush, opposite Albany, in 1834, aged about seventy-two years. Page 283. Note 1, page 246.

These cruisers brought captured vessels into our ports, and French consuls actually held courts of admiralty, and authorized the sale of the prizes. All this was done before Genet was recognized as a minister by the American government.

est of the people of the United States to preserve a strict neutrality toward the contending powers of Europe, Genet persisted, and tried to excite hostility between our people and their government. Washington finally requested and obtained his recal, and Fauchet, who succeeded him in 1794, was instructed to assure the President that the French government disapproved of Genet's conduct. No doubt the prudence and firmness of Washington, at this time, saved our Republic from utter ruin.

A popular outbreak in western Pennsylvania, known in history as The Whiskey Insurrection, gave the new government much trouble in 1794. An excise law, passed in 1791, which imposed duties on domestic distilled liquors, was very unpopular. A new act, passed in the spring of 1794, was equally unpopular; and when, soon after the adjournment of Congress, officers were sent to enforce it in the western districts of Pennsylvania, they were resisted by the people, in arms. The insurrection became general throughout all that region, and in the vicinity of Pittsburg many outrages were committed. Buildings were burned, mails were robbed, and government officers were insulted and abused. At one time there were between six and seven thousand insurgents under arms. The local militia would have been utterly impotent to restore order, if their aid had been given. Indeed, most of the militia assembled in response to a call made by the leaders of the insurgents, and these composed a large portion of the "rebels." The insurgent spirit extended into the border counties of Virginia; and the President and his cabinet, perceiving, with alarm, this imitation of the lawlessness of French politics, took immediate steps to crush the growing hydra. The President first issued two proclamations [August 7, and September 25], but without effect. After due consideration, and the exhaustion of all peaceable means, he ordered out a large body of the militia of Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, who marched to the insurgent district, in October [1794], under the command of General Henry Lee, then governor of Virginia. This last argument was effectual; and soon this insurrection, like that of Shays's, of Massachusetts, some years earlier, which threatened the stability of the Federal Government, was allayed.

2

Another cloud was now rising in the political horizon. While these internal commotions were disturbing the public tranquillity, a bitter feeling was growing up between the American and British governments. Each accused the other of infractions of the treaty of 1783,' and the disputes, daily assuming a more bitter tone, threatened to involve the two nations in another war. The Americans complained that no indemnification had been made for negroes carried away at the close of the Revolution; that the British held military posts on their frontiers, contrary to the treaty; that British emissaries had excited the hostility of the Indians; and that, to retaliate on France, the English had

2 Page 353.

1 Page 333. 9 Page 348. During the last two years of the war in the Carolinas and Georgia, and at the final evacuation, the British plundered many plantations, and sold the negroes in the West Indies.

Note 8, page 374.

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• Page 373.