SERVICES OF THE OHIO COMPANY IN DEFEND-
ING THE UNITED STATES FRONTIER
FROM INVASION.
WHEN General Putnam undertook the
superintending of
the Ohio Company and landed with his
organized force of
pioneers at Marietta on April 7th, 1788,
he assumed a more
important and difficult task than that
of opening a wilder-
ness for cultivation and providing
houses and homes for
settlers.
On his way out from Massachusetts he
stopped over in
New York and made himself thoroughly
acquainted with the
real situation of Indian affairs in the
Northwest Territory.
He became satisfied that former treaties
were not cordially
accepted by the Indians as a finality,
and that he was facing a
war the moment he set foot on the soil
northwest of the
River Ohio. He at once undertook a
system of defences at
the cost of his Company. He did not
trust alone or mainly
to the United States troops then
stationed at Fort Harmar.
It was the duty of the government to
provide for the protec-
tion of their own citizens who had
ventured out to improve
the public domain. But Putnam was fully
aware of the
poverty and inefficiency of his
government to afford the
protection which his followers had a
right to demand. He
virtually assumed to take the place of
the United States in
this matter of defensive war against their
enemies, and to do
it at the cost of his Company.
Notwithstanding this wise foresight on
his part he indulged
in a hope of protection based upon the
fact that Fort Har-
mar had already been established at the
mouth of the Mus-
kingum. He writes to Dr. Cutler, dated
Adelphi, May 16th,
1788, about a month after his arrival,
"Should there be an
Indian war this will be a place of
general rendezvous for an
army, so that in all human probability
the settlement can
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