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1794. two from Bedford county in Pennsylvania, met at Parkinson's Ferry to take into consideration the state of the western country. On the 28th and 29th of the same month, there was a conference at Brownsville (Redstone Old Fort) between commissioners from the United States and the state of Pennsylvania, and conferees, appointed by the standing committee of the Insurgents. On the 11th of September, 560 of the inhabitants of Fayette county declared their determination to submit to the laws of the United States; and intelligence was given to government of a prevalent disposition in that county to behave peaceably, and with a due submission to the laws. The president, having ordered out a suitable number of the militia, proceeded in October to Bedford, whence he gave out instructions to governor Lee, of Maryland, whom he appointed to conduct the militia army for the suppression of the insurgents. Governor Lee marched his troops, amounting to 15,000 men, into the western counties of Pennsylvania; and, on the approach of this respectable force, the insurgents laid down their arms, and solicited the clemency of government. The same delegates, who met at Parkinson's Ferry on the 14th of August, met there again on the 2d of October, and gave to the government assurances of submission. Their last meeting was on the 24th of October, when they gave renewed assurances of submission; and it soon after appeared, that an armed force was no longer necessary to support the civil authority. Eighteen of the insurgents were tried for treason, but not convicted. During the scene of insurgency, no person was killed, excepting major McFarlane, who was killed in an attack on the inspector's house at the commencement of the insurrection, and two men who were killed by some of the army on their march.1

Acts for

ports;

Congress passed an act in March for fortifying and garrisoning fortifying the principal ports in the United States. An act was also passed to provide a naval armament. By this act, the president was authorized to provide, equip, and employ four ships to carry 44 naval arma- guns each; and two ships to carry 36 guns each. The reason assigned for the act was, on account of depredations committed by the Algerine corsairs on the commerce of the United States.

and for a

ment.

1 Proceedings of the Executive of the United States, respecting the Insurgents, 1794. Findlay's History of the Insurrection. The first meeting of the malcontents was at a place called Redstone Old Fort on the 27th of July, 1791; the second, on the 7th of September, at Pittsburgh. Another meeting was holden at Pittsburgh on the 21st of August, 1792. In June, 1793, the inspector of the revenue was burnt in effigy in Alleghany county, at a place, and on a day, of some public election, with much display, and without interruption, in the presence of magistrates and other public officers. In November, an armed party in the night attacked the house of Wells, an excise officer, compelled him to surrender his commission and books, and required him to publish a resignation of his office within two weeks in the newspapers, on pain of having his

house burnt.

In the same month congress passed an embargo law, prohibiting 1794. all trade from the United States to any foreign port or place for the space of thirty days, and empowering the president to carry Embargo. it into effect.

succeeds

General St. Clair having resigned the command of the army General after his defeat, major general Wayne had been appointed to Wayne succeed him. The natives were still disposed for war. The gen. St. most hostile tribes were the Wyandots, Delawares, Shawanoes, Clair. and Miamis. After the total failure of negotiation with them

the preceding year, the campaign was opened. To bring the Indian war to a prosperous termination, it was judged necessary not campaign merely to expel the Indians, but to prevent their return, and opened. for this purpose to hold the country by a chain of permanent posts. Not being able to execute this plan during the autumn, the general had contented himself with collecting his army and penetrating about six miles in advance of Fort Jefferson, where he established himself for the winter in a camp called Greensville. After fortifying this camp, he took possession of the ground on which the Americans had been defeated in 1791; and there another fort was erected, called Fort Recovery. The Fort Reopening of the campaign was unavoidably protracted until near covery. midsummer. Early in August, general Wayne reached the con- Aug. 8. fluence of the Au Glaize and the Miamis of the lakes, where were the richest and most extensive settlements of the western Indians; and here he threw up some works of defence and protection for magazines. About thirty miles from the mouth of the Au Glaize was a post occupied by the British, on the Miamis of the lakes, in the vicinity of which was collected the whole strength of the enemy, understood to be somewhat less than 2000 men. The continental legion was not much inferior in number; and a re-enforcement of about 1100 mounted militia from Kentucky, commanded by general Scott, gave the army of Wayne a decided superiority in strength. Though it was well understood that the Indians had determined to give him battle; yet, in pursuance of the pacific policy of the United States, the general sent messengers to the several hostile tribes assembled in his front, inviting them to appoint deputies to meet him for the purpose of negotiating a permanent peace.

The American army on the 15th of August marched down the Miamis, and on the 18th arrived at the rapids, where they halted the next day to erect a temporary work for the protection of the baggage, and to reconnoitre the enemy. The Indians were advantageously posted behind a thick wood, and behind the British fort. On the morning of the 20th, the American army advanced in columns: the legion, with its right flank, covered by A battle. the Miamis; one brigade of mounted volunteers, commanded by

20.

1794. general Todd, on the left; the other, under general Barbee, in the rear; and a select battalion, commanded by major Price, moving in front of the legion, in advance. After marching about five miles, major Price received a heavy fire from a concealed enemy, which compelled him to retreat. The Indians had taken a position almost inaccessible, in a thick wood in front of the British works, where they were formed in three lines, with a very extended front, their line stretching to the west, at right angles with the river, about two miles; and their first effort was to turn the left flank of the American army. On the discharge of the first rifle, the legion was formed in two lines. The front was ordered to advance with trailed arms, reserving their fire until they had forced the enemy from his covert at the point of the bayonet, and, after a discharge, to press the fugitives too closely to permit them to reload their pieces. Perceiving the aim of the enemy to turn the American left, the general ordered the second line to support the first. The legion cavalry, led by captain Campbell, was ordered to penetrate between the Indians and the river, to charge their left flank; and general Scott, with the mounted volunteers, to make a circuit, and turn their right flank. These orders were executed with great spirit and comIndians de- plete success. An impetuous charge, made by the first line of infantry, entirely broke the enemy's line; a rapid pursuit succeeded; and in the course of one hour the Indians were driven more than two miles, through thick woods, within gun shot of the British fort. In this decisive battle, the loss of the Americans, in killed and wounded, including officers, was 107. Among the slain were captain Campbell, and lieutenant Fowles, both of whom fell in the first charge. The American troops engaged in the battle did not amount to 900; the number of Indians was 2000.

feated.

Army re

turns to Au

Glaize.

After remaining on the banks of the Miamis, in front of the field of battle, three days, during which time the houses and cornfields above and below the fort were burnt, general Wayne, on the 28th, returned with the army to Au Glaize, having destroyed all the villages and corn within fifty miles of the river.

The Indians still continuing hostilities, their whole country was laid waste, and forts were erected in the heart of their settlements. The effect of the battle of the 20th of August was Effects of instantly and extensively felt. To the victory, gained by the the victory. Americans, is ascribed the rescue of the United States from a general war with the Indians northwest of the Ohio; and its influence is believed to have extended to the Indians in Georgia.1

1 Marshall, v. c. 8.

The foreign and domestic debts of the United States on the 1794. 1st day of January amounted to a little more than 74 millions of dollars.1

Union College was founded at Schenectady; Greenville Col- Colleges. lege, at Tennesee; and Bowdoin College, at Brunswick, in Massachusetts, District of Maine.

rations.

The Massachusetts Historical Society, the Boston Library Societies Society, and the Massachusetts Charitable Fire Society, were and corpoincorporated. A Medical Society was instituted in Vermont; and a Medical Society in South Carolina incorporated. A Society for the promotion of Christian Knowledge and Piety was instituted at New York. The Insurance Company of North America, and the Insurance Company of Pennsylvania, were incorporated.

A violent tornado was experienced at New Milford, in Con- Tornado. necticut, on the 22d of June.

A fire broke out at a ropewalk, near Gray's wharf in Boston, Fire in on the 30th of July, and consumed 7 ropewalks and 43 dwell- Boston. ing houses. The whole number of buildings destroyed was 96; and the damage was estimated at 210,000 dollars.

The yellow and scarlet fevers prevailed in New Haven; of N. Haven. which upwards of 100 persons died.2

A bridge was built over the Pascataqua, seven miles above Bridges. Portsmouth; a bridge over the Merrimack, between Haverhill

and Bradford; and a bridge over the Mohawk river, a mile below Cohoez Falls.

A theatre was opened in Federal street, in Boston.

Theatre.

A treaty between the United States and the Cherokees was Treaties concluded on the 26th of June; between the United States and with the the Six Nations of Indians, on the 11th of November; between Indians. the United States and the Oneida, Tuscarora, and Stockbridge Indians, on the 2d of December.3

John Witherspoon, president of the college in New Jersey, Deaths. died, in the 73d year of his age; Richard Henry Lee, late

1 These debts are stated "as they appeared on the public books;" but, after a deduction for different kinds of stock, purchased in by means of the sinking fund, and other deductions, the result was, "that 48 millions of dollars in specie, about £10,000,000 sterling, would purchase or discharge all the debts of the United States, which they owe to individuals, or to bodies politic other than themselves." Coxe.

2 The deaths in that city, during the year, were: of yellow fever, 63; of scarlet, 50; consumption and lingering diseases, 51; other infirmities, diseases, &c. 15; died at sea, 12. The census of the city in 1791 gave 3471 souls. 3 These treaties were ratified by the president 21 January, 1795.

4 For Dr. Witherspoon's character, see Dr. Rodgers's Sermon on the occasion of his death; Miller's Retrospect, ii. 376; and Allen's Biographical Dictionary.

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1794. president of congress, at his seat in Virginia, in his 64th year ;1 John Sullivan, late president of New Hampshire, and a major general in the revolutionary war, aged 54;2 and the baron Steuben, also a major general in the American war, aged 61 years.3

Thanksgiving.

Galliopolis.

Georgia.

Colleges.

Treaties

with Spain;

Algiers ;

and the Indians.

1795.

THE 19th day of February was observed, agreeably to a proclamation of president Washington, as a day of thanksgiving throughout the United States.

Congress passed an act to authorize a grant of lands to the French inhabitants of Galliopolis.

The legislature of Georgia passed an act, authorizing the sale of a large tract of its western territory.4

Beaufort and Winnsborough Colleges, in South Carolina, and Bowdoin College,5 in the District of Maine, were incorporated.

A treaty of peace was concluded between the United States and Spain, by Thomas Pinckney, in October; and a treaty between the United States and the Dey of Algiers, by colonel Humphreys, on the 28th of November. Major general Wayne, in behalf of the United States, concluded a treaty of peace at Greenville, in August, with the chiefs of the Wyandots, Delawares, Shawanoes, Ottawas, Chippewas, Putawatimes, Miamis, Eelriver, Weéas, Kickapoos, Piankoshaws, and Kaskaskias. By this treaty the Indians ceded the post of Detroit, and a considerDetroit and able tract of adjacent land, to the United States. A tract of adjacent lands ceded land was ceded on the main, to the north of the island on which to U. States. the post of Michilimakinack stands, to measure six miles on lakes Huron and Michigan, and to extend three miles back from the water of the lake or strait. De Bois Blanc, or White Wood Island, was also ceded; the voluntary gift of the Chippewas.

1 Memoir of the Life of Richard Henry Lee, and his Correspondence with the most distinguished men in America and Europe, illustrative of their characters, and of the events of the American Revolution; by his Grandson Richard H. Lee, of Leesburg, Virginia.

2 Allen's Biog. and Hist. Dictionary, Art. Sullivan.

3 Baron Steuben died at Steubenville, New York. Allen, Biog.

4 By virtue of this act, about 20,000 acres of that territory were sold, and the purchase money, 500,000 dollars, was paid into the state treasury; but the legislature, at a session in 1796, declared the act, which authorized the sale, to be unconstitutional and void, and ordered it to be burnt.

5 This college, which was named in respect to the Hon. James Bowdoin, its most liberal patron, was opened in 1802. Its first president was the Rev. Dr. Joseph M'Keen; its first commencement was in 1806.

6 Michilimakinack is within the line of the United States, and has since been delivered up by the British. For Detroit, see 1796.

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