FROM HENRY DUNDAS TO J. G. SIMCOE. Lt. Govr. Simcoe. Separate. Sir: WHITEHALL, 4th July, 1794. I have attentively perused the Report contained in your Letter of the 23rd of February last respecting the mode of defence laid down for both the Canadas, and I shall with great satisfaction take the advantage of submitting it, as far as may be necessary to the Consideration of His Majesty's Confidential Servants.With respect to such parts of the Report, as relate to the defence of Upper Canada, you are already in a great measure acquainted with my Opinions, and I have only to refer you to my Letters dated the 2d Octr, 1793, and the 16th March and 11th May, 1794. As many suggestions, contained in your Report, are essentially connected with the Question now under discussion with the United States, relative to the Forts, I shall not fail to avail myself of the information the Report contains, in the progress of those discussions, and shall from time to time convey to you, such directions, as may thence become requisite. Your Letter and Inclosure of the 28th of February last, is in every respect satisfactory, and you may rely upon my attending to the wishes you have therein expressed relative to Captain Stephenson's suggestions, who I am confident acted as he did, at least with very good intentions, and I must add that several of the suggestions that he proposed merited my Attention, independent of coming under the sanction, as they did, of your name. I am, &c. HENRY DUNDAS. Endorsed:-Draft. To Lt. Govr. Simcoe. July 1794. Separate. EXTRACT OF A LETTER FROM NIAGARA, UPPER CANADA, DATED THE 4th JULY (1794). We are in daily expectation of hearing of something being done betwixt General Wayne and the Confederate Indians, as there are great numbers of the latter come from Michilimackinac to reinforce those already acting against the former. There is some noise at present among the Six Nations, owing to the Americans building a Fort near Presqu'Isle. A party was sent to order them off but they refused going-General Chapin went along with them and when they came to the Fort they fired some cannon and all their small arms by way of a salute, and the same when departing. They have returned and are now holding a council at Buffaloe Creek. Most people think they will go and reduce it by force; a thing so near the seat of Government must be productive of some serious events-perhaps too serious. Our fort at the Miami is almost built, and the double line at this fort comes on very well; there are an hundred men daily employed on the fortifications and the Queens Rangers are crossing over from York, (a town in Upper Canada.) There are two Battalions to be raised, one in Lower and one in Upper Canada, and all the regiments in the country are recruiting. New York Diary, July 30, 1794. (Reprinted in the Gazette of the United States of Philadelphia, July 31, 1794.) ADVERTISEMENT FOR RECRUITS. His Majesty's Garrison of Niagara. TEN GUINEAS BOUNTY Money will be given to all Gentlemen Volunteers, who are willing to enlist themselves in His Majesty's 5th Regiment of Foot now in the Garrison of Niagara on being approved of at the Head Quarters of the Regiment, they will be Clothed, accoutred, victualled and paid agreeable to His Majesty's Regulations. Active men such as are fit for Service, not less than 5 feet 5 inches high, between 16 & 40 years of age, will receive every encouragement at the Garrison, at Forts Erie and Chippawa, at Queenstown Landing and at the Drum Head. GOD SAVE THE KING. (Printed in the Upper Canada Gazette, July, August and September, 1794). TO ALL LOYAL AND GALLANT SUBJECTS. WANTED for His Majesty's 1st American Regiment or Queen's Rangers, of which His Excellency Lieut. Governor Simcoe is Colonel Commandant: Fifty active young men. Gentlemen Volunteers shall receive TEN GUINEAS Bounty Money each on their approval at the Head Quarters of the Regiment, enter into free quarters, be clothed, accoutred, victualled and paid agreeable to His Majesty's Regulations, none need apply to Lieut. Brooking at Niagara but such as are perfectly fit for the most active service, at least Five feet four and a half inches high, Healthy and Stout. (Printed in the Upper Canada Gazette, July, August and September, 1794.) No. 37. FROM LORD DORCHESTER TO HENRY DUNDAS. QUEBEC, 5 July 1794. Sir: A. B. I have the honor of your Letter marked private of the 9th May. The inclosed Papers contain the last intelligence I have received from Upper Canada, by which it appears that General Wayne's Army is advancing, and that the Indians some time in May last, obtained an advantage over D-E. one of his convoys. C. F. Colonel Simcoe informs me that Lieutenant Colonel England has represented to him that he has no confidence in any assistance he can draw from the Militia in case of an attack upon Detroit, also that the People in the Genesees have stopped some other Passengers at the three River Point; but no attack on Oswego as yet seems to be seriously intended. The firing reported to have been heard by Captain Baker and his crew, On Lieutenant Brooking's arrival at Oswego was found to have been imaginary. He further mentions that "the disaffection of the St. Regis and Caghnawaga Indians from the British Interests is universally credited by the gentlemen who reside in their neighbourhood," also, "that it is believed that the People of the United States have already collected Anchors and a considerable quantity of cordage for the purpose of building Craft at Le Boeuf on the road to Presque Isle." I am with great Respect & Esteem Sir, The Right Honble Henry Dundas. Your most obedient humble servant DORCHESTER. Endorsed: A-Quebec 5th July 1794. Lord Dorchester R. 20th Septr. No. 37. ans. (Six Inclosures.) No. 26. FROM J. G. SIMCOE TO HENRY DUNDAS. NIAGARA, July 5th, 1794. Sir: I do myself the honor of acknowledging your dispatch of the 16th of March, No. 4. I am most sensibly gratified that my Conduct in respect to the Commissioners of the United States & the American Indians met with your Approbation. The difficulties of the situation are more easily tolerated than described & consisting of a variety of petty & trifling details cannot, Sir, be communicated by letter with that precision which circumstances possibly may render necessary. However seeing in an English Newspaper that the propriety of the Conduct of this Government has been questioned in the House of Lords, & knowing that ultimately it may become the subject of particular discussion; I think it proper to communicate to you, Sir, the last Speech which has been delivered on my part to the Six Nations, whose determinations will soon be of material consequence, together with such observations as may be necessary to elucidate this Speech, & which may be considered as a Summary of the transactions of this Government. It may not be improper to observe, that the original & material aggression of the United States appears to have been their Government immediately changing the relative situation in which the Peace of 1783 had left the contending parties, namely themselves & Great Britain, by endeavouring to possess themselves of the whole of the Indian Territories by fraudulent or by forcible means, & in Consequence by the Annihilation of this intermediate power between them & the British Possessions occasioning the destruction of the whole of the Commerce & endangering the safety of His Majesty's Provinces. To prove this intended alteration, the Act of Congress for the formation of the New States, & the names given to them by the Committee of which Mr. Jefferson was President are sufficient Evidences. That it was done by fraudulent means, appears upon the very face of the purchases made from the Indians; & his Majesty's honored name is brought into attaint by the Governors of the Country to give a Sanction to their purposes. The Fraud consists in the affirmation that the Indian Territory had been given away as "the Price of Peace." This is the term which Governor Sinclair made use of, & which the Corn Planter on the 9th of February, 1791, intimates in his Speech to the President Washington to be the language of the People, who purchased the Lands from the Indians, & demands from him an Explanation in the following terms, "What the Commissioners had said about the Land having been ceded to them at the Peace, our Chiefs considered as intended only to lessen the Price, & they passed it by with very little notice, but since that time we have heard so much from others, about the right to our Lands the King gave when you made Peace with him, that it is our earnest desire that you will tell us what it means." To this & to other material points the President avoids a reply.-I presume, Sir, that you possess the Speech-It was therefore a main object of my Determination the moment I read Governor Sinclair's Speech to do away the effects of it as far as in me lay; I did so to the Indian Nations; & their successive Victories having at various times, extorted from the Government of the States satisfactory Explanations, that His Majesty had not given away their Lands, I used every prudent means in my power to get the Commissioners to consolidate & substantiate the Declaration, but I believe I should have failed of success, had not the Indian Council refusing to admit them to a Conference unless they would explicitly give up the Claims to the ratification of the Treaty of Muskinghum, effected by a mixture of fraud & force, rendered it necessary for them to give some further Explanations, that might so far conciliate the Confidence of the Savages as to induce them to admit the Commissioners to a Personal Treaty, without the absolute promise of what they had no authority to grant. Upon these Considerations, the Commissioners made as they chose to term it, the Concession which tho' I formerly transmitted it to you Sir, in the Body of the Speech, I think it proper to select upon this particular occasion. This Concession establishes the fact that the Government of the United States thro' its former Commissioners had fraudulently made use of the King's Name, to wrest the Lands from the Indian Nations, as was particularly exemplified in the Corn Planters most admirable Speech, (& indeed upon all occasions) and it establishes the fact by the most uncontrovertible Evidence, & in the most uncontrovertible manner, namely that of these Commissioners condemning the Claims & constructions of their Predecessors. The Answer of the Indians to this Speech & to what the Commissioners called the Concessions therein Contained has been transmitted to you-It is only necessary for me to observe, that so various were the Artifices of the United States, & so successful had their Emissaries been in sowing Jealousies & Apprehensions among the Indians, that it is reasonable to believe had the Commissioners been once admitted to a personal Conference at their Council fire, they would have obtained whatever their Prudence or their Avarice might have inclined them to have demanded. It rests only for me to observe Sir, that I have always considered an Article of the Treaty of Utrecht to be the only authentic Document that defines the State of the Indians, as far as it respects the European Nations, whose line of Demarcation as limited by themselves for their own mutual Guidance gives to the Indians & their respective traders the most perfect freedom therein, & considers the natives as entirely independent.-In that Spirit I early suggested to the Merchants of Montreal to consider the Question & their opinion I had the honor of transmitting to you from Lower Canada-Gordon's observation in his History of the late War written under the Sanction of Washington is the most desirable Evidence (of what tho' a matter of notoriety would otherwise be denied) that the Infringement of the stipulated Situation of the Indians on the Part of France was the occasion of the former War, & indeed both in the Treaty of Fort Harmar, or Muskinghum, & with the Cherokees, the United States seem to admit this Article by endeavouring to obviate its effects, in making it an Express Stipulation, that no Persons shall trade with the Nations with whom they are treating, but by the license of the Governors of the United States; a Circumstance which of itself is an aggression as it effects a material change in the Situation of the two Countries, subsequently to the Treaty of Peace. It may therefore be safely affirmed, that the Establishment of a Government in Upper Canada, was absolutely necessary for the preservation of the British Commerce against the Aggressions of the United States, & I have the satisfaction to believe that had it been delayed another Year not an Indian Nation would have been otherwise than hostile to his Majesty's Subjects, the Consequences of which might have been fatal to the British Empire in America. I offer these observations Sir, as elucidatory of the Speech delivered by the Major of Brigade Littlehales, & that in case of Hostilities with the United States It may appear as far as respects the Indian Nations, that his Majesty's Government has not been the Aggressors; & well knowing that the use of the Indians which necessity must enforce (tho' as a Military Man I place no dependance on their Assistance) will become the Subject of barbarous Declamation. I think it not untimely to enclose the Evidence of a very respectable man, Capn. Elliot that these very Indians who have made a resistance against the fraud & force of the United States were at the beginning of the late Rebellion tampered with by the Agents of those who occasioned it, prior to their having been in any Instance offered the Hatchet by the King's Officers & Superintendants. I have the honor to be with the most perfect Respect, Sir, I send this by a party of Saganas,' who returned yesterday from Fort Recovery, where the whole body of Indians except the Delawares, who had gone another 1 From Saginaw Bay, Mich. S.C.-21 |