. VIII. and Eel River Indians, had met Wayne in council at CHAPTER Fort Grenville. The knowledge that the Western posts were about to be given up by the British, concurred, 1795. no doubt, with Wayne's victory in bringing about this peaceful disposition. By the terms of the treaty the Aug. 3. Indian boundary was to commence on the Ohio, opposite the mouth of the Kentucky River; thence to extend north a little east to Fort Recovery, on the southeasternmost head waters of the Wabash; thence eastwardly to the Muskingum, and up the Tuscarora branch of that river to the Cayuoga portage, and by the Cayuoga to Lake Erie. All east of this line, including the eastern and southern part of the State of Ohio, a tract of some twenty-five thousand square miles, was ceded to the United States. The Indians also ceded sixteen detached portions of territory in the region west of the line above described, the present or former sites of forts or trading houses, several of them still in possession of the British, but about to be surrendered under Jay's treaty. Among these cessions were the tract opposite Louisville, granted by Virginia to General George Rogers Clarke and his soldiers for their Revolutionary services in the Illinois country; the post of Vincennes and the land adjacent; the other ancient French settlements in that region; Fort Massac, on the Ohio, opposite the mouth of the Cumberland, Fort Defiance, Fort Wayne, the fort at the foot of the Maumee Rapids, Detroit, Mackinaw, and tracts at Sandusky, Chicago, and at the mouth and head of the Illinois River. Most of these tracts were two miles square, but several were of larger extent. In consideration of these cessions, the Indians received goods to the value of $20,000 in presents, and they were promised besides an allowance annually of the value of $9500, to be distributed among the contracting tribes in certain specified proportions. CHAPTER At the exchange of prisoners which took place on this occasion, many affecting incidents occurred. The war 1795. as against Kentucky had lasted for almost twenty years, during which period a large number of white people had been carried into captivity! Wives and husbands, parents and children, who had were now restored to each other. Many of the younger captives had quite forgotten their native language, and some of them absolutely refused to leave the savage connections, into whose families they had been taken by adoption.. been, separated for years, On the Southern frontier the state of Indian relations was by no means so favorable. The greatest exertions were made by the agents of the government for the preservation of peace; but these efforts were perpetually counteracted by the reckless violence of some among the white settlers, especially in Georgia, by whom new and unprovoked bloody outrages were committed on the Indians, by which that frontier was kept in a constant state of inquietude. Before the meeting of Congress, though the result was not known till after the session commenced, two other important treaties were concluded, besides a recognition of the former treaty with Morocco, obtained from the new sovereign. After a visit to the United States, with special reference to the Algerine negotiation, Humphreys had returned again to Lisbon, commissioned to buy a peace. From Lisbon he had proceeded to Paris, on the suggestion of Monroe, to solicit the mediation of the French republic; but he left authority with Donaldson, who had accompanied him from America as consul for Tunis and Tripoli, to close a treaty at once, should a favorable opportunity occur. Under this authority, DonSept. 5. aldson signed a treaty, during Humphreys's absence at Paris, by which, in consideration of the release of the CHAPTER captives and of peace for the future, it was agreed to pay to the Dey of Algiers the round sum of $763,000, 1795. besides an annual tribute in stores of the nominal value of $24,000. But the rates at which these stores were estimated in the treaty fell so far below their real value, that this annual tribute amounted, in fact, to about $48,000. Besides this, by the custom of Algiers, an additional biennial present was required of nine or ten thousand dollars, with $20,000 more on the appointment of a consul. Of the temporary loan of a million of dollars, authorized for the Algerine negotiation, $200,000 had been obtained of the Bank of New York.To borrow the remainder had not been so easy. The great extension given by the war to the carrying trade, and other speculations on foot, had raised the rate of interest. The United States Bank, already largely a creditor of the United States, was unwilling to advance any thing more in cash. It was proposed, however, to lend the remaining $800,000 in six per cent. stock at par, held by the bank as a part of its capital. This offer was accepted, and the stock remitted to the Barings, the London agents of the American government, to be sold. But, meanwhile, the price of American stocks had begun to fall, the price of all stocks being depreciated by the large English demands for money, and the heavy premiums paid for the new loans which, it became necessary to raise to carry on the war with France. The sale was delayed in hopes of a rise; but the stock continued to go still lower, and when sold a considerable loss was experienced; to which was added another loss on the remittance to Algiers, owing to the unfavorable state of the exchanges. Nor was this the end of the matter. The dey grew so impatient at not receiving his money, CHAPTER that Barlow, who had been appointed, on Monroe's recVIII. ommendation, consul at Algiers, found it necessary to 1795. pacify him by the promise of a frigate, which involved an expense of another hundred thousand dollars, so that, in the end, the Algerine peace was pretty dearly purchased. Nor was this the only occasion on which the disturbed state of Europe interfered with the financial operations of the United States. Thus far the installments of the foreign debt had been provided for as they fell due by new loans in Holland; but that resource was now at an end. To meet an installment of one of the old Dutch loans falling due this year, another sum of $660,000 had been borrowed of the United States Bank, in six per cent. stock, and remitted to Amsterdam for sale. But, owing to the confusion growing out of the French invasion of Holland and the erection of the Batavian republic, it had been impossible to effect the sale, and the installment, in consequence, had failed to be paid. But as the reason was known, and the interest continued to be met, the failure had no injurious effect on the credit of the country. These difficulties had been foreseen by Hamilton, and it had been part of his scheme for the redemption of the public debt to convert the whole of the outstanding foreign loans, upon which interest was payable abroad, into a new domestic loan, the interest payable in Philadelphia. Such a provision had been inserted into the act of the last session, providing for the redemption of the public debt, the inducement held out to the creditor being the addition of one half of one per cent. to the annual interest. Hamilton had proposed, as an additional inducement, to make the new stock irredeemable before 1818, up to which period, according to his calculation, the re VIII. demption of the present domestic loans would exhaust CHAPTER all the disposable means of the government. Such, however, had been the clamor about irredeemable debts, that 1795. this part of Hamilton's suggestion was not adopted, the new stock being made redeemable at the pleasure of the government. The inducement held out by a stock like this was not thought sufficient by the Dutch stockholders, and only a very small amount was subscribed to the new loan. The French government availed itself, however, of this opportunity to realize at once the amount due to France, that amount being subscribed to the new loan, the certificates of which were immediately disposed of in payments of purchases made or debts contracted in America, the French government, by this operation, ceasing to be any longer a creditor of the United States. Pinckney's special mission to Spain ended in settling, at last, the long-disputed questions of the Spanish boundary and the navigation of the Mississippi. In accordance with the American claim, and in the terms of the treaty of peace with Great Britain, the Florida boundary Oct. 20. was to be the thirty-first degree of north latitude between the Mississippi and the Appalachicola, and east of the Appalachicola, a line from the junction of the Flint to the head of the St. Mary's, and thence by that river to the sea. The navigation of the Mississippi was to be free to both parties throughout its entire extent. The Americans were to enjoy a right of deposit at New Orleans for three years, at the end of which period either this privilege was to be continued, or an equivalent establishment was to be assigned them at some other convenient point on the bank of the Lower Mississippi. Neither party was to make alliances with Indian tribes living within the territories of the other, nor was either party to allow its Indians to carry hostilities into the 1 |