Seven Year WarWAR FOR EMPIRE

French & Indian War

Winston Churchill: first world war

WARS FOR EMPIRE

• I. French & Indian War• II. Revolutionary War• III. 1787 NW Ordinance & Constitution

FRONTIER WAR

In the late 1740s, William Trent, an Englishman engaged in the fur trade with Ohio Country Indians, built a trading post at the headwaters of the Ohio River. Trent and other English traders prospered, easily trading with Ohio Country natives and others in northwestern Pennsylvania as the Allegheny and the Monongahela came together to form the Ohio River.

In the early 1750s, the French attempted to deny England access to the Ohio Country. In 1754, a French military force captured Trent's outpost and began to construct Fort Duquesne. The French also captured several other English settlements in western Pennsylvania. France's seizure of land that the English and their colonists claimed would eventually lead to the French and Indian War.

Tanaghrisson.

WORLDS IN MOTIONSenator John Heinz History Center

Death of Joseph Coulon de Villiers, Sieur de Jumonville , May 28, 1754: Washington or Seneca Half-King Tanaghrisson?

Benjamin Franklin Observations Concerning the Increase of Mankind, Peopling of Countries

the Prince that acquires new Territory, if he finds it vacant, or removes the Natives to give his own People Room; the Legislator that makes effectual Laws for promoting of Trade, increasing Employment, improving Land by more or better Tillage; securing Property, etc. and the Man that invents new Trades, Arts or Manufactures, may be properly called Fathers of their Nation, as they are the Cause of the Generation of Multitudes

First American Political Cartoon. 9 May 1754

The Confidence of the French in this Undertaking seems well-grounded on the present disunited State of the British Colonies, and the extreme Difficulty of bringing so many different Governments and Assemblies to agree in any speedy and effectual Measures for our common defense and Security;

Death of Gen. Wolfe on the Plains of Abraham. The Battle of the Plains of Abraham, also known as the Battle of Quebec, was a pivotal battle in the Seven Years' War. It

began on 13 September 1759, was fought between the British Army and Navy, and the French Army, on a plateau just outside the walls of Quebec City.

Outcome of War.• The Anglo-French hostilities were ended in 1763 by the Treaty of Paris,

which involved a complex series of land exchanges, the most important being France's cession to Spain of Louisiana, and to Great Britain the rest of New France except for the islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon. France was given the choice of retrieving either New France or its Caribbean island colonies of Guadeloupe and Martinique, and chose the latter to retain these lucrative sources of sugar, writing off New France as an unproductive, costly territory. France also returned Minorca to the British. Spain lost control of Florida to Great Britain, but received part of New Orleans and the Louisiana Territory west of the Mississippi River from the French. The exchanges suited the British as well, as their own Caribbean islands already supplied ample sugar, and with the acquisition of New France and Florida, they now controlled all of North America east of the Mississippi.

PONTIAC, OTTAWA CHIEF• Pontiac subscribed to the religious beliefs of

Neolin, a prophet among the Delaware Indians during the 1760s. Neolin encouraged his fellow Indians to forsake all English goods and customs. He felt that the natives' dependence on these items had infuriated their gods. The reason why the Native Americans in the Ohio Country currently suffered at the hands of the English was because they had forgotten the true ways of their people. European ways would condemn the Indians to the natives' equivalent of eternal suffering. Indians had to separate from white ways and not become dependent on them. Although Neolin urged the natives to reject all European customs, missionaries from the Moravian Church heavily influenced his views of the Great Spirit.

Pricketts Fortconstructed in 1774, provided a place of refuge from American Indian attack for early settlers. It was built at the confluence of Pricketts Creek and the Monongahela River within 10 miles of three major American Indian trails. The Fort, which covers a 110 by 110 foot square, was built by the community militia and is named after Captain Jacob Prickett.

Yellow Creek Massacreflows into the Ohio some forty miles above Wheeling.

• Logan’s friendly relations with white settlers changed with the Yellow Creek Massacre of 30 April 1774. A group of Virginia frontiersmen led by Daniel Greathouse murdered a number of Mingos, among them Logan’s brother, (commonly known as John Petty), and at least two other close female relatives, one of them pregnant and caring for her infant daughter. Her children were fathered by John Gibson a prominent trader in the region. These Mingo had been living near the mouth of Yellow Creek, and had been lured to the cabin of Joshua Baker, a settler and rum trader who lived across the Ohio River from their village. The Natives in Baker’s cabin were all murdered, except for the infant child, who was spared with the intention of giving her to her father. At least two canoes were dispatched from the Yellow Creek village, but they were repelled by Greathouse’s men concealed along the river. In all, approximately a dozen were murdered in the cabin and on the river. Logan was not present in the area when the massacre took place and was summoned to return by runners.

Logan’s Lament

• I appeal to any white man to say, if ever he entered Logan's cabin hungry, and he gave him not meat; if ever he came cold and naked, and he clothed him not. During the course of the last long and bloody war, Logan remained idle in his cabin, an advocate for peace. Such was my love for the whites, that my countrymen pointed as they passed, and said, Logan is the friend of the white men. I have even thought to live with you but for the injuries of one man. Col. Cresap, the last spring, in cold blood, and unprovoked, murdered all the relations of Logan, not sparing even my women and children. There runs not a drop of my blood in the veins of any living creature. This has called on me for revenge. I have sought it: I have killed many: I have fully glutted my vengeance. For my country, I rejoice at the beams of peace. But do not harbour a thought that mine is the joy of fear. Logan never felt fear. He will not turn on his heel to save his life. Who is there to mourn for Logan? Not one.

4 July 1776 “a decent respect to the opinions of mankind”

• Writing the Declaration of Independence, by J.L.G. Ferris, showing Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and John Adams at Jefferson's lodgings, on the corner of Seventh and High (Market) streets in Philadelphia, to review a draft of the Declaration of Independence.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that

among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just

powers from the consent of the governed.

• “He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.”

• “He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.”

The Frontier War

George Rogers Clark1752-1818

Clark’s Illinois Campaign• In 1777, the War intensified in Kentucky. Armed and encouraged by British

lieutenant governor Henry Hamilton at Fort Detroit, Native Americans, waged war and raided the Kentucky settlers in hopes of reclaiming the region as their hunting ground. The Continental Army could spare no men for an invasion of the Northwest. Defense was left entirely to the local men. Clark participated in several skirmishes against the Native American raiders. As a leader of the defense of Kentucky, Clark believed that the best way to end these raids was to seize British outposts north of the Ohio River.

• In July 1778, Clark and about 175 men crossed the Ohio River at Fort Massac and marched to Kaskaskia, taking it on the night of July 4. Cahokia, Vincennes, and several other villages and forts in British territory were subsequently captured without firing a shot, because most of the French-speaking and American Indian inhabitants were unwilling to take up arms on behalf of the British. To counter Clark's advance, Henry Hamilton reoccupied Vincennes with a small force.

In February 1779, Clark went to Vincennes in a surprise winter expedition, capturing the Brit Hamilton in the process. The winter expedition was Clark's most significant military achievement and became the source of his reputation as an early American military hero. When news of his victory reached General Washington, Clark's success was celebrated and used to encourage the alliance with France. Virginia capitalized on Clark's success by laying claim to the whole of the Old Northwest, calling it Illinois County, Virginia.

GnadenhuttenThe Moravians had established mission communities from Georgia to New York in the 1740s, but these were gradually moved westward as the increasing pressures of settlement forced the Moravian experiments further away from "civilization." The Moravians believed that their communities could exist separate from both the negative influences of European society and the pagan customs of non-Christianized Indians. The settlements of Gnadenhutten, Salem and New Schonbrunn were established in the early 1770s where Delawares, Mohicans, and other tribal affiliations all comingled to form religious utopias.

• When war came, some Delawares decided to take up arms against the Americans, and moved closer to Detroit, settling on the Scioto and Sandusky Rivers. Those Delawares sympathetic to the United States remained at Coshocton, signing a treaty with the Americans in 1778, through which they hoped to establish the Ohio Country as an Indian state within the new United States. The third group consisted of the Moravian converts.

• White Eyes, the Delaware leader who had negotiated the treaty with the United States, was murdered in 1778 by an American militiaman (although the killing was kept secret at the time), and the Delawares at Coshocton eventually joined the war against the Americans. Coshocton was destroyed by an expedition out of Fort Pitt led by Colonel Daniel Brodhead on April 19, 1781, and the residents fled to the north. However, the Christian Indians at the Moravian villages, including Gnadenhutten, were unarmed noncombatants and thus unmolested.

However, the brutal frontier war was still raging, and in early March of 1782 a raiding party of 160 Pennsylvania militiamen under Colonel David Williamson set off to the Moravian towns to burn them in an effort to keep the abandoned villages from being used by war parties. Contrary to some apologists of Williamson's raid, it was neither organized or sanctioned by any authority. It was an adhoc expedition formed by local frontiersmen who wanted to destroy the villages which they perceived as staging areas for Indian raids.

Sandusky Campaign, Spring 1782

A volunteer expedition and not a regular army operation, the men elected their officers. The candidates for the top position were David Williamson, the militia colonel who had commanded the Gnadenhütten expedition, and William Crawford, a retired Continental Army colonel. Crawford, a friend and land agent of George Washington, was an experienced soldier and frontiersman. He was a veteran of these kinds of operations, having destroyed two Mingo villages during Dunmore's War in 1774.

Washington’s orders.• In September 1781, General William

Irvine was appointed commander of the Western Department of the Continental Army, which was headquartered at Fort Pitt. Although a major British army under Lord Cornwallis had surrendered at Yorktown in October 1781, virtually ending the war in the east, the conflict on the western frontier continued. Irvine quickly learned that the Americans living on the frontier wanted the army to launch an expedition against Detroit to end ongoing British support for the American Indian war parties. Irvine investigated, then wrote to George Washington, the American commander-in-chief, on December 2, 1781:

Preparations

• .• It is, I believe, universally

agreed that the only way to keep Indians from harassing the country is to visit them. But we find, by experience, that burning their empty towns has not the desired effect. They can soon build others. They must be followed up and beaten, or the British, whom they draw their support from, totally driven out of their country. I believe if Detroit was demolished, it would be a good step toward giving some, at least, temporary ease to this country

Col. Wm. Crawford• Washington agreed with Irvine's

assessment that Detroit had to be captured or destroyed in order to end the war in the west. In February 1782, Irvine sent Washington a detailed plan for an offensive. Irvine estimated that with 2,000 men, five cannons, and a supply caravan, he could to capture Detroit. Washington replied that the bankrupt U.S. Congress would be unable to finance the campaign, writing that "offensive operations, except upon a small scale, can not just now be brought into contemplation."

Burning of Colonel Crawford, Frank Halbedel, 1915(Wyandot County Historical Society)

During the retreat following the Battle of Sandusky, Colonel Crawford and an unknown number of his men were captured. The Indians executed many of these captives in retaliation for the Gnadenhutten massacre . Crawford's execution was particularly brutal: he was tortured for at least two hours before being burned at the stake. His execution was widely publicized in the United States, worsening the already-strained relationship between Native Americans and European Americans.

TREATY OF PARIS

The Treaty of Paris, signed on September 3, 1783, ratified by the Congress of the Confederation on January 14, 1784, and by the King of Great Britain on April 9, 1784 (the ratification documents were exchanged in Paris on May 12, 1784), formally ended the American Revolutionary War between the Kingdom of Great Britain and the United States of America.

WARS OF EMPIRE

On September 3, Britain also signed separate agreements with France and Spain, and (provisionally) with the Netherlands. In the treaty with Spain, the colonies of East and West Florida were ceded to Spain (without any clearly defined northern boundary, resulting in disputed territory resolved with the Treaty of Madrid), as was the island of Minorca, while the Bahama Islands, Grenada and Montserrat, captured by the French and Spanish, were returned to Britain. The treaty with France was mostly about exchanges of captured territory (France's only net gains were the island of Tobago, and Senegal in Africa), but also reinforced earlier treaties, guaranteeing fishing rights off Newfoundland. Dutch possessions in the East Indies, captured in 1781, were returned by Britain to the Netherlands in exchange for trading privileges in the Dutch East Indies.

Benjamin West's painting of the delegations at the Treaty of Paris: John Jay, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Henry Laurens, and William Temple Franklin. The British delegation refused to pose, and the painting was never completed.

"Gentlemen, you will permit me to put on my spectacles, for I have not only grown gray but almost blind in the

service of my country."

Newburgh Conspiracy15 March 1783

Born out of growing loss of morale and confidence was a conspiracy to undertake a coup d'etat and establish a military dictatorship for the young United States. The Newburgh incident was unique in that it was initiated within the corps of officers, the very elite of the military.

• What caused these officers to consider so bold a plan, so foreign to the very concepts of democracy and the republic for which they had fought? Primarily, impatience with a Congress that by 1782 was largely without dynamic leadership and, even worse, was bankrupt. The Articles of Confederation, ratified in 1781, gave the Congress power to maintain a wartime army, but not the power to levy the taxes needed to pay it. That power was retained by states unwilling or unable to impose it on their citizens to the extent needed to adequately fund the operations of the new United States.

• Thus, by the summer of 1782, Congress had but $125,000 of a required $6 million . It could not pay the interest on loans due its creditors or meet the military payroll. Most states were reluctant to grant Congress authority to raise funds directly. Robert Morris, the superintendent of finances, observed that the Articles of Confederation gave Congress the " privilege of asking everything" while giving the states the "prerogative of granting nothing."

Washington’s response…

• While I give you these assurances, and pledge my self in the most unequivocal manner, to exert whatever ability I am possessed of, in your favor let me entreat you, gentlemen, on your part, not to take any measures, which, viewed in the calm light of reason, will lessen the dignity, & sully the glory you have hitherto maintained let me request you to rely on the plighted faith of your country, and place a full confidence in the purity of the intentions of Congress; that, previous to your dissolution as an Army they will cause all your accounts to be fairly liquidated, as directed in their resolutions, which were published to you two days ago and that they will adopt the most effectual measures in their power, to render ample justice to you, for your faithful and meritorious Services. And let me conjure you, in the name of our common country as you value your own sacred honor as you respect the rights of humanity; as you regard the military & national character of America, to express your utmost horror & detestation of the man who wishes, under any specious pretences, to overturn the liberties of our country, & who wickedly attempts to open the flood gates of civil discord, & deluge our rising empire in blood.

…at Newburgh

• But how are they to be promoted? The way is plain, says the anonymous addresser. If war continues, remove into the unsettled country, there establish yourselves, and leave an ungrateful country to defend itself. But who are they to defend? — Our wives, our children, our farms, and other property which we leave behind us. Or in this state of hostile seperation, are we to take the two first (the latter cannot be removed) — to perish in a wilderness, with hunger cold & nakedness? — If peace takes place, never sheath your sword says he until you have obtained full and ample justice. This dreadful alternative, of either deserting our country in the extremest hour of her distress, or turning our arms against it, (which is the apparent object, unless Congress can be compelled into instant compliance) has something so shocking in it, that humanity revolts at the idea.

• March 15, 1783

Washington’s Headquarters, Newburgh

Washington to James DuaneSeptember 7, 1783

Unless some such measures as I have here taken the liberty of suggesting are speedily adopted one of two capital evils, in my opinion, will inevitably result, and is near at hand; either that the settling, or rather overspreading the Western Country will take place, by a parcel of Banditti, who will bid defiance to all Authority while they are skimming and disposing of the Cream of the Country at the expence of many suffering Officers and Soldiers who have fought and bled to obtain it, and are now waiting the decision of Congress to point them to the promised reward of their past dangers and toils, or a renewal of Hostilities with the Indians, brought about more than probably, by this very means.

Washington to Duane• At first view, it may seem a little extraneous, when I

am called upon to give an opinion upon the terms of a Peace proper to be made with the Indians, that I should go into the formation of New States; but the Settlmt. of the Western Country and making a Peace with the Indians are so analogous that there can be no definition of the one without involving considerations of the other. for I repeat it, again, and I am clear in my opinion, that policy and oeconomy point very strongly to the expediency of being upon good terms with the Indians, and the propriety of purchasing their Lands in preference to attempting to drive them by force of arms out of their Country; which as we have already experienced is like driving the Wild Beasts of the Forest which will return us soon as the pursuit is at an end and fall perhaps on those that are left there; when the gradual extension of our Settlements will as certainly cause the Savage as the Wolf to retire; both being beasts of prey tho' they differ in shape. In a word there is nothing to be obtained by an Indian War but the Soil they live on and this can be had by purchase at less expence, and without that bloodshed, and those distresses which helpless Women and Children are made partakers of in all kinds of disputes with them.

NORTHWEST ORDINANCE

Freedom of Worship• The civil rights provisions of the ordinance

foreshadowed the Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution. Many of the concepts and guarantees of the Ordinance of 1787 were incorporated in the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights. In the Northwest Territory, various legal and property rights were enshrined, religious tolerance was proclaimed, and it was enunciated that since "Religion, morality, and knowledge, being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged." The right of habeas corpus was written into the charter, as was freedom of religious worship and bans on excessive fines and cruel and unusual punishment. Trial by jury and a ban on ex post facto laws were also rights granted.

FREEDOM OF WORSHIP

Touro Synagogue (1658), Newport, RI

"It is not only the oldest Synagogue in America but also one of the oldest symbols of liberty. No better tradition exists than the history of Touro Synagogue's great contribution to the goals of freedom and justice for all.“ President John F. Kennedy, September 15, 1963

To the Hebrew Congregation in Newport Rhode Island

G. Washington, 1790

TO BIGOTRY NO SANCTION • The Citizens of the United States of America have a right to

applaud themselves for having given to mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy: a policy worthy of imitation. All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship. It is now no more that toleration is spoken of, as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people, that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent national gifts. For happily the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens, in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.

Ordinance on Religious Liberty• Sec. 13. And, for extending the fundamental principles of civil and religious liberty,

which form the basis whereon these republics, their laws and constitutions are erected; to fix and establish those principles as the basis of all laws, constitutions, and governments, which forever hereafter shall be formed in the said territory: to provide also for the establishment of States, and permanent government therein, and for their admission to a share in the federal councils on an equal footing with the original States, at as early periods as may be consistent with the general interest:

• Sec. 14. It is hereby ordained and declared by the authority aforesaid, That the following articles shall be considered as articles of compact between the original States and the people and States in the said territory and forever remain unalterable, unless by common consent, to wit:

• Art. 1. No person, demeaning himself in a peaceable and orderly manner, shall ever be molested on account of his mode of worship or religious sentiments, in the said territory.

Slavery and/or ExpansionNorthwest Ordinance 1787

North of the Ohio.

NW Ordinance, 1787.

• Art. 6. There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said territory, otherwise than in the punishment of crimes whereof the party shall have been duly convicted: Provided, always, That any person escaping into the same, from whom labor or service is lawfully claimed in any one of the original States, such fugitive may be lawfully reclaimed and conveyed to the person claiming his or her labor or service as aforesaid

May 25 to September 17, 1787,

fraunces tavern, new yorkSite of Washington’s Farewell in 1783, meetings of Continental Congress, Nov. 6, 1786 – Oct. 30, 1787

NW Ordinance, 1787

• July 12 Const. Conv stalled: Davie of SC, “deprive southern states of representation of their blacks”

• Jul 13 Cont. Cong: Title changed from “western territory” to “NW of the River Ohio.”

• Jul 16 Const Conv: States have equal representation in Senate

John Adams• Dec 26, 1787: In the course

of last summer, two authorities have appeared … The first is an ordinance of Congress of the 13th of July 1787, for the government of the territory of the United States northwest of the river Ohio. The second is the report of the convention in Philadelphia of the 17rh of September 1787…

• C. 1816

William Stevens Smith• The new system, which

seems admirably calculated to unite their interests and affections, and bring them to an uniformity of principles and sentiments, is equally well combined to unite their wills and forces as a single nation; a result of accommodations cannot be supposed to reach the idea of perfection of any one.

• Adams son-in-law

In the summer of 1787, two documents, the NW Ordinance & the Constitution formed the new

single government.

COOPER UNION, NEW YORK CITYGreat Hall

Lincoln at Copper Union

In this address, February 27, 1860, Lincoln argues that the Constitution as interpreted by the 39 signers of the document allows for federal control over the spread of slavery into the federal territories. This speech helped establish Lincoln as one of the leaders of the Republican Party.

What he said.

Now, it so happens that these amendments were framed by the first Congress which sat under the Constitution—the identical Congress which passed the act already mentioned, enforcing the prohibition of slavery in the Northwestern Territory. Not only was it the same Congress, but they were the identical, same individual men who, at the same session, and at the same time within the session, had under consideration, and in progress toward maturity, these Constitutional amendments, and this act prohibiting slavery in all the territory the nation then owned. The Constitutional amendments were introduced before, and passed after the act enforcing the Ordinance of '87; so that, during the whole pendency of the act to enforce the Ordinance, the Constitutional amendments were also pending.

“Our fathers who made the government, made the ordinance of 1787.” Lincoln, Cincinnati, 1859.

American expansion was

part of the original intent.

An Ordinance for the government of the

Territory of the United States northwest of the

River OhioJuly 13, 1787

The authors of the Northwest Ordinance , probably Nathan Dane (MA) and Rufus King(MA/ME), spelled out a plan that was subsequently used as the country expanded to the Pacific.