Washington’s 2nd Term

Foreign Affairs

1790s

• War threatened between England & Spain• Spain had captured 3 Brit ships off Vancouver Isle• US policy: Neutral if war– But… what if Brits march through MS valley to attack

Spain?• Hamilton: We remain neutral• Jefferson: claim nothing; use this as bargaining chip for W.I.

trade– Spain gives in to Brit demands

• Hamilton secret assures Brits of our neutrality

Diplomatic relations w/ Brits

• We send T. Pinckney• They send us G. Hammond• 1793: War breaks out between England &

France– England more feared here than France– Jefferson: treaty w/ France still binding• Be neutral in deed but Say Nothing• To announce neutrality would Insult French & destroy

negotiations w/ Brits

Washington listens to Hamilton

• Issues Neutrality Proclamation– Admits Genet to US– Bargaining power is gone• Jefferson resigns

Genet is a fool

• Commissioned Amer ships to privateer under French flag!– Sets up courts to condemn ships they capture– Arranged expedition to attack Spanish New

Orleans

• GW demands Genet’s recall

English Rule of 1756: ports closed to neutrals in peace cannot be opened in war

• Brit navy seizes American ships trading in French W.I.– Brits had been trying to starve Fr out of W.I.• Hence: closed ports

Early Indian wars

• McGillivray, Creek chief breaks treaty as soon as possible– Gen Harmar sent to crush Miamis in OH; defeated– St. Clair sent in 1791; defeated

Back story: English Colonial Policy toward Indians

• New England:– Some resisted whites; others sought

accommodation– Others become dependent upon white culture– Some survive; others displace or decimated by

settlers– Misunderstandings happen– Mutual trade interspersed w/ epidemics of Small

Pox & warfare

Dutch & French

• Merchants explore; fur trade develops• Establish stable, amicable relations w/ indians

• English- more interested in Fish & farms– Goal: subordination, not reciprocity

Indian way of life

• Dependent upon nature• Religious beliefs: Animism & Polytheism– Creator provides– Mother Earth• Rain dances, rituals, ceremonies & taboos• A culture whose fate depends upon supernatural

powers

Indian policies

• Tribes had no unity• Often squabble over disputed land, hunting

grounds• Coastal areas devastated by Sm Pox– ‘A widowed land’– Tribes on E. coast down from 100,000 in 1610 to 13k

– 15k by 1675• Puritan attitude: heathens doing devil’s work;

epidemics= divine harvests clearing out region of indians

Puritan policy continued

• Missionaries sought to convert tribes; establish special ‘Praying towns’

• 1675: hundreds of converts settled there– Murder of a Praying Indian who had attended Harvard

• Plymouth colony tried, executed 3 Indians for crime• Retaliation- Indians attack settlements all over MA &

Plymouth – 20,000 killed: King Philip’s War AKA: Metacomet’s War

• Pattern= relentless encroachment on Indian lands continues

Southern tribes

• Florida- Carolinas: GA, AL, MS– Farming, hunting, fishing based cultures– Matrilineal clans: raised potatoes, beans, corn– Men hunt, wage war– Early 1700s- Trade: Creeks w/ English- deerskins for

hoes, copper kettles, knives, beads, blankets, clothes• Trade spreads, leads to contagion, diseases depopulate area• English provide firearms, rum: incentive to capture other

tribesmen to be sold as slaves

South, continued

• Raid on Spanish Florida- destroyed missions,– Killed hundreds of Indians, Spaniards• Enslaved hundreds• S Carolina had 1400 Indian slaves, 2900 black slaves,

5,000 whites in 1710

• Uprising against Whites in South: early 1700s

Iroquois League

• European settlement in 17th Century intensified Indian tribal wars

• Interior NY- Iroquois nation forges strong alliance: outnumbered Dutch & English traders– By 1625: fur becomes scarce– Iroquois use firearms to raid hunting grounds of

Hurons & Eries in Canada (Beaver Wars)– Iroquois gain control over large part of NE N.

Amer

French & English use Indian allies in colonial wars

• King William’s war Queen Anne’s war from Canada to Carolinas– Indians enraged by continuous encroachment,

attack English settlers

After F & I War• French removed from continent• Pontiac, chief of Ottawa's, seized Ft. Detroit

– Wiped out every British fort in OH ex. Ft Detroit & Ft Pitt– No peace until 1766

• 1763: Proclamation limits colonial settlement east of Appalachians

• 1768: Treaties of Ft. Stanwix at Hard Labor, SC: Iroquois and Cherokee gave up land in Ohio & got boundaries in GA

• 1770 Treaty of Lochaber- Indians gave up claims from NC to VA: opens land below OH River & west– Speculators form syndicate- sought vast domain of W.VA & E.

KY• Vandalia- doesn’t survive Revolution

Revolution

• Settlers push into KY, past Cumberland River• George Rogers Clark took outposts in Illinois

Country (VA)– American expedition W PA; attacks Iroquois

there & W NY– Led by Mohawk Joseph Brant, Iroquois killed

hundreds Militiamen on PA frontier– GW dispatched Gen J Sullivan- Aug 79:• Devastated Iroquois, Seneca & Cayuga villages• Broke power of Iroquois Federation for all time

KY

• Daniel Boone & small band led assault on 400 Indians at Boonesborough– No Indians talk Cherokees into striking frontier

settlements at VA & Carolinas• Retaliation is swift; prevents Indian assistance for

Cornwallis in So Campaign

Indian Relations under Articles of Confederation

• Treaties w/ Indians:• Ft. Stanwix 1784 ceded W NY, PA• Hopewell, 1785 Cherokee gave up S. Carolina,

W. N. Carolina & large parts of KY, TN• 1785: OH tribes drop claims to most of OH

GW’s policies

• Indian Wars: 1793-5– “Mad” Anthony Wayne leads expedition into NW

territory w/ 2600: built Ft. Greenville• Attacked Aug. ‘94• Chippewa, Shawnee, Ottawa, Potawatomie at Battle of

Fallen Timbers– Indians took heavy losses– Treaty of Greenville 1795: US pays $10,000 annuity & gets

from 12 tribes, rights to SE Quarter of NW Territory (OH)