The Indians
were for the moment daunted by a peace which left them without allies;
and the feeble Federal Government attempted for the first time to aid
and control the West by making treaties with the most powerful frontier
tribes. Congress raised a tiny regular army, and several companies were
sent to the upper Ohio to garrison two or three small forts which were
built upon its banks. Commissioners (one of whom was Clark himself) were
appointed to treat with both the northern and southern Indians. Councils
were held in various places. In 1785 and early in 1786 utterly fruitless
treaties were concluded with Shawnees, Wyandots, and Delawares at one or
other of the little forts. [Footnote: State Department MSS., No. 56, p.
333, Letter of G. Clark, Nov. 10, 1785; p. 337, Letter of G. Clark to R.
Butler, etc.; No. 16, p. 293; No. 32, p. 39.]
Treaty of Hopewell.
About the same time, in the late fall of 1785, another treaty somewhat
more noteworthy, but equally fruitless, was concluded with the Cherokees
at Hopewell, on Keowee, in South Carolina. In this treaty the
Commissioners promised altogether too much. They paid little heed to the
rights and needs of the settlers.
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