were actively resisting the advance of white settlers. In 1789 General St. Clair was appointed governor of the

War with the Indians north of the Ohio

Northwest Territory, and in October, 1791, he advanced with 2000 men from Fort Washington at Cincinnati against the Indians, but he was driven back with heavy losses. It is said that when Washington learned of the disaster he flew into a violent rage. After a tedious investigation St. Clair was acquitted, but resigned his military command.

In 1794 Anthony Wayne, who had succeeded him, defeated a large body of Indians at the battle. of Fallen Timber on the Maumee River two miles from a British outpost. A year later the Indians, having learned of the signature of the Jay treaty and of Great Britain's intention of evacuating the posts, signed with Wayne the treaty of Greenville, which established a definite boundary between the Indians and the whites and opened to settlers nearly all of the present State of Ohio.

Spain closes the Missis

sippi to Americans

The treaty of 1783 fixed the southern boundary of the United States at the thirty-first parallel. At the same time both East and West Florida had been ceded by Great Britain to Spain. Spain now claimed the whole of the British province of West Florida which had extended as far north as 32° 28′ and embraced the southern half of the present States of Alabama and Mississippi. Spain also denied the right of the United States to the free navigation of the Mississippi River. This right had been granted to England in 1763 and granted by England to the United States in 1783. The closure of the river to Americans caused great dissatisfaction and excitement in Kentucky and Tennessee.

Spain also took the Creeks and Cherokees under her protection and denied the right of white traders to come among them without Spanish licenses. The settlers in Tennessee were troubled by Indian raids and took matters into their

own hands. In 1793 Sevier led a raid against the Cherokees as far as Rome, Georgia, and in 1794 Robertson marched into the Chicamauga country. These measures

with the

put a stop to the Indian disturbances in the Spanish Southwest, and in 1795 the United States and intrigues Spain came to an agreement. General Thomas Indians Pinckney succeeded in negotiating a treaty in which Spain recognized the thirty-first parallel as the boundary from the Mississippi to the Appalachicola, gave Americans the right to navigate the Mississippi, and permitted them to deposit goods at New Orleans pending their transference to ocean-going vessels.

The French

and the out

break of war

between England and

France

The most difficult problem that Washington had to face during his term of office was that presented by the war which broke out between England and France in 1793. The French Revolution had been Revolution regarded with sympathetic interest by the great body of the American people until the execution of Louis XVI in January, 1793. From this time on public sentiment was divided. The Federalists condemned the course of events in France and shrank from all political connection with the new government, while Jefferson and his followers still expressed confidence in the ultimate success of the new Republic. The United States was embarrassed by the treaties of 1778, in which we guaranteed to France her possessions in the West Indies and promised to admit French prizes to American ports in time of war. Hamilton contended that these treaties were no longer binding, as the government which had signed them had been overthrown. Jefferson, on the other hand, urged that the treaties were still in force and that the United States should live up to its obligations. Washington agreed with Jefferson that the treaties were still in force, but he held that the clause in regard to the West Indies did not apply to an offensive war such as France

Proclama

tion of neutrality, April 22, 1793

was waging. He also decided that he would have to admit French prizes, but that American ports could not be used as a base for fitting out such prizes for service against England. against England. On April 22, 1793, he issued the now famous proclamation of neutrality, laying down a principle of conduct which has guided the policy of the United States ever since. Writing a hundred years later, W. E. Hall, a leading English authority on international law, says: "The policy of the United States in 1793 constitutes an epoch in the development of the usages of neutrality. There can be no doubt that it was intended and believed to give effect to the obligations then incumbent upon neutrals. But it represented by far the most advanced existing opinions as to what those obligations were; and in some points it even went further than authoritative international custom has up to the present time advanced. In the main, however, it is identical with the standard of conduct which is now adopted by the community of nations."

Genêt's mission, 1793

Two weeks before the proclamation of neutrality was issued "Citizen" Genêt landed at Charleston, South Carolina, with a commission as minister of the newly established French Republic. He was determined to lead the United States into war with England and at once began issuing commissions to American privateers. His journey northward was one continuous series of demonstrations. He entered Philadelphia May 16, escorted by thousands of people. Washington was greatly provoked at his conduct and received him with cold formality. Genêt complained openly of the attitude of the president and expressed his determination to appeal to Congress or to the people. Jefferson explained to him fully the course which the government had decided to pursue, but in express violation of this understanding Genêt sent out the Little Sarah, a prize fitted out as a privateer. Washington ex

claimed, "Is the minister of the French Republic to set the acts of this government at defiance with impunity, and then threaten the Executive with an appeal to the people?" At the request of the American minister in Paris Genêt was recalled, but as the Robespierre faction was now in power, he was afraid to return to France and settled down quietly in New York, where he married the daughter of Governor Clinton and lived to a ripe old age.

Strained

England

Genêt's conduct brought the country to the verge of war with England. In declaring their independence the States of the American Union sacrificed the extensive trade with the British West Indies relations which as colonies they had enjoyed. In the with treaty of 1783 Great Britain refused to make. any concessions, and the loss of this trade was a serious blow to American commerce, which found practically every port on this continent closed to it. When, therefore, at the beginning of the war with England in 1793, France threw open to neutrals the trade with her West India colonies, American ships were quick to take advantage of it. Great Britain promptly ordered the seizure of all ships engaged in this trade and later included all ships carrying the property of French citizens. These orders were in violation of the principle that free ships make free goods, but England had never recognized that rule.

Hundreds of American ships were seized under the most irritating circumstances. Jefferson recommended retaliatory legislation against British commerce, but as seven eighths of our imports were British the merchants wished to avoid a breach with England. The retention of the posts in the Northwest and the impressment of American seamen constituted other grievances and the two countries seemed on the verge of war, when at the instance of Pinckney, the American minister at London, the order with reference to the seizure of ships was modified so as to release the trade

between the United States and the French West Indies. Ships carrying goods from the French colonies to European ports were still liable to seizure.

Meanwhile Jay was sent on a special mission to England, with instructions to secure the surrender of the posts in the Northwest, to arrange for the settlement of claims arising out of the seizure of American ships, and to negotiate a commercial treaty permitting American ships to engage in trade with the British West Indies. After four months of negotia

The Jay treaty, November

19, 1794

JOHN JAY.

tion a treaty was finally signed November 19, 1794. It provided for the surrender of the posts in the Northwest, for a joint commission to settle the question of British debts and the claims for the seizure of American ships, and for determining the boundary between Maine and Canada.

Article XII permitted American ships of not more than seventy tons' burden to trade with the British West Indies, provided they did not carry

to Europe either directly or from the United States any molasses, sugar, coffee, cocoa, or cotton. This arrangement raised a storm of indignation and Jay was burned in effigy in various parts of the country, while Hamilton was stoned when he undertook to speak in his defense. The West India clause was stricken out by the Senate and