THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TREATY OF
GREENE VILLE*
BY PRESTON SLOSSON
To Voltaire is ascribed the remark that
Penn's Treaty with
the Indians was the only treaty not
sworn to and the only one not
broken. No doubt he did not intend his
epigram to be taken too
seriously, but it is tragic truth that
most treaties, whether signed
in European palaces or in rough frontier
forts, with great civilized
nations or with primitive savage tribes,
have been broken. But
if Voltaire had lived a little longer he
could have added, "There
was another treaty between American
settlers and Indian tribes-
men, made not by a Quaker but by a
soldier, which was never
broken by its authors." In the
words of Rufus King, "It was a
grand tribute to General Wayne that no
chief or warrior who
gave him the hand at Greenville ever
after 'lifted the hatchet'
against the United States."1 Other
conflicts were indeed to
arise between land-hungry settlers and
distrustful Indians, but
these were contests by other men, on
other issues and for different
frontiers.
Let us first take a look at the
background of Wayne's double
victory, in war and in peace. Thanks
largely to the efforts of
George Rogers Clark, the northwest
country had been retained
by the young American republic, and
thanks to that masterpiece
of constructive statesmanship, the
Ordinance of 1787, plans were
already on foot for its orderly
settlement. But the land was an
unconquered wilderness, the Indian
tribes were hostile and British
agents from Canada held strategic points
with their forts. On
maps the United States reached the
Mississippi; in living fact
the nation reached only the Ohio. Almost
as much as Kentucky,
the Ohio country deserved the title of
"dark and bloody ground."
Here Algonquian tribes had clashed with
Iroquois in a kind of
* Presented at the one hundred and
fiftieth anniversary of the signing of the
Treaty of Greene Ville, at Greenville, Ohio, August 2,
1945.
1 Rufus King, Ohio, First Fruits of the Ordinance of 1787 (Boston, 1903), 262.
2
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
No Man's Land savage warfare; and here
the first settlers from
the East were regarded as trespassers on
Indian hunting grounds.
The Indians of the Northwest Territory
were a remarkable
race of men. To be sure, they never
reached the high level of
civilization of the Aztecs, Mayas and
Incas of the Mexican,
Central American and Peruvian plateaus.
They did not live in
cities, nor commonly on farms. Simple
hunters of the woodland,
they were sparsely scattered over an
immense area. In all likeli-
hood, the Old Northwest contains today a
hundred inhabitants for
every Indian who roamed its forests in
1795.
But a people can be formidable in other
ways besides number.
Like the ancient Spartans the forest
Indians were a people made
for war. They could pass through
unbroken wooded country
leaving no more trace than an army of
ghosts. They had craft,
skill and cunning to supplement their
hardihood and valor. They
were as hard to bind by treaty as it is
to hold a handful of quick-
silver; time and again American agents
would think they had
reached a final settlement, only to
discover that they had infuriated
one tribe by making an agreement with
its rival, or that they had
bought land from some inferior chieftain
who had no right to
sell. Among the native leaders were men
of character, power and
dignity, such as Blue Jacket of the
Shawnees, Little Turtle of the
Miamis, and, greatest of all, Tecumseh,
who was the ablest ally the
British found in the War of 1812.
The British position in the Northwest
from 1783 to 1795 was
a peculiar one. They were on soil which
belonged, by right of
treaty, to the United States. They found
excuses, however, for
remaining. For one thing they insisted
that the United States
had not fulfilled all the promises of
the treaty which closed the
American Revolution, and the western
forts were kept as surety
that the claims of British loyalists
dispossessed of property during
the Revolution would be paid. Again,
they urged that a sort of
Indian buffer-state be maintained
between the Great Lakes and
the Ohio River, where both Americans and
British could trade but
neither would settle in such numbers as
to disturb the natives.
This policy naturally pleased the
Indians. It was scarcely in
TREATY OF GREENE VILLE 3
human nature that the British would not
take advantage of this
native good will to turn the Indians
into military allies. In vain
the cautious British home government
urged that nothing be done
which might tend to provoke war with the
United States; the
actual agents, the men on the spot,
found it necessary to sell, and
sometimes even to give, arms and
supplies to the Ohio tribes to
keep their favor. This double policy of
authorities in London and
their local agents in Canada and the
Northwest caused the British
to present one face to the Americans and
another to the Indians.2
Doubtless some Canadians expected that
war would break
out soon in any event between Britain
and the United States. In
1794, Lord Dorchester recklessly told an
assembly of Indian chiefs
that war might come "within the
course of the present year; and,
if so, a line must be drawn by the
Warriors." The British home
government rebuked him for such
provocative and undiplomatic
language, but Lieutenant-Colonel John
Butler told another Indian
conference that there was a "great
prospect" of war.3 Lieutenant-
Governor John G. Simcoe built a new fort
at the rapids of the
Miami in open defiance of American
demands that the British
give up their old forts in the
Territory. A very small incident
along the territorial frontier might
have touched off another war
with Britain eighteen years before it
came in 1812.
General Anthony Wayne had to face other
foes besides the
untamed wilderness, the hostile Indian
tribes, the unfriendly Brit-
ish traders, the halting and hesitating
politicians of the Atlantic
seaboard. He had to recover the prestige
of American arms, badly
tarnished by the greatest defeat that
the Indians had ever inflicted
on an American army. General Arthur St.
Clair, a brave officer
in the confidence of George Washington
and Governor of the
Northwest Territory, had been surprised
by a large force of Indian
braves in 1791 and his ill-disciplined
force was almost wiped out.
More than six hundred Americans had been
slain and other hun-
2 There is an excellent study of this
inconsistent British policy, and the motives
behind it, in A.
C. McLaughlin's paper, "The Western Posts
and the British Debts"
(American Historical Association
Report, 1894); and a more recent account
in Beverley
W. Bond's The Foundations
of Ohio, Carl Wittke, ed., The
History of the State of Ohio
(Columbus, 1941), 328-38.
3 McLaughlin, loc. cit., 439-40.
4
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
dreds wounded. The Indians had
discovered that the white man
was not invincible. Tribes that had been
hesitating whether to
fight the Americans or to make treaty
with them were now con-
vinced that they were able to hold the
line of the Ohio River
against all comers.
Where diplomats and soldiers alike had
failed before him,
Major-General Anthony Wayne was ordered
to carry into the
Ohio country both the olive branch and
the sword: to make an
enduring peace with the native tribes
and crush any resistance
which they might offer. Some thought
that the gallant veteran
of the Revolution was not the man for
the post. No one ques-
tioned his courage; but St. Clair, too,
had been personally brave.
Was not Wayne rash and overdaring? Had
he not the nickname
of "Mad Anthony?" Or even
granting that he might prove a
sufficiently cautious general to defeat
the Indians, would he have
the patience to conciliate them? Could
he avoid trouble with the
British? These misgivings were very
natural at the time and
only success could refute them.
The military issue was settled at the
Battle of Fallen Timbers
on August 20, 1794, nearly a year
before the Greene Ville Treaty
was concluded. This well-planned, well-fought fight crushed
at a blow the allied Indian tribes and
wiped out the memory of
St. Clair's defeat. Then the Indians had
another disillusionment.
The British, instead of joining in the
war, closed the gates of
Fort Miami on their braves. Under the very
shadow of the guns,
Wayne's forces destroyed the trading
post of Alexander McKee,
the most active British agent in
supplying firearms to the tribes,
and burned the standing corn. Major
Campbell, commanding the
fort, protested at this close approach
of General Wayne to a Brit-
ish garrison; the answer to this was
easy and obvious--what was
a British fort doing on the soil of the
United States? The British
government had no desire to risk a
general war, especially on an
issue in which they were clearly in the
wrong, and in the mean-
time negotiations were going ahead
across the Atlantic for "Jay's
Treaty" by which the British
consented to abandon their forts in
the Northwest Territory. But the Indians
knew little of the
TREATY OF GREENE VILLE 5
considerations of world diplomacy which
restrained the British,
and all that they could see was the shut
gates and the silent guns
of a British fort.
Now Wayne was ready to prepare his
peace. The peace con-
ference was to be held at Fort Greene
Ville, named after Wayne's
good friend Nathaniel Greene, whom some
authorities consider
second in ability only to Washington
among the officers of the
American Revolution. The Indians were
slow to come. They
were wary, suspicious and distrustful of
white men in general,
and their recent defeat had embittered
as well as discouraged them.
British agents still warned them not to
trust American promises.
They had their own factions and parties,
and scarcely healed
tribal feuds. Every previous negotiator
had made the mistake
of dealing with the Indians in a hurry;
obtaining the marks or
signatures of a few chiefs for a few
gifts and then assuming
that all the tribes were bound by that
agreement.
It was precisely at this point that
Wayne showed his genius.
His treaty differed only in detail from
St. Clair's unsuccessful
Treaty at Fort Harmar in 1789, and this
in turn rested on the
Treaty of Fort McIntosh in 1785,
supplemented by a Treaty at
Fort Finney with the Shawnees in 1786.
These treaties were
honestly made (which is more than can be
said for all the Indian
treaties in American history), but they
always left the Indians
feeling they had been rushed into an
agreement which they had
not really understood, and by which they
were not rightly bound.
Wayne was resolved that this time there
should be no chance of
honest error or of dishonest
misrepresentation. All chiefs of all
tribes should come, with as many
warriors as would attend them.
He would explain matters to them all;
over and over again if
necessary, as one teaches the
multiplication table to a backward
child. They were not to be made drunk,
or be dazzled with gifts
or promises, or be puzzled by legal
forms. They should be talked
to in the terms they understood, and be
free to raise any objections
they wished, until at last every tribe
was sincerely convinced either
that the land cessions demanded of them
were right and just, or
that resistance to them would be
hopeless folly. Wayne's soldiers
6 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
murmured and
complained: If we are not to fight the Indians any
more, why not
go home? Why wait on the pleasure of savages?
With an iron
patience he held to his course and negotiated for
weary months
to bring the tribes together. The conference itself
was not a
brief one, it lasted from June 16 to August 1O; much
longer than
most of the diplomatic conferences which have marked
the course of
the present war. But the greatest test of Wayne's
patience was
the preliminary work of getting the Indians to come
at all.
In this work
of gathering the tribes, Wayne was greatly
assisted by
French interpreters, who were legally British subjects
but who cared
little whether the Union Jack or the Stars and
Stripes
floated over their heads so long as they could peacefully
continue their
fur trade with the Indians. A number of them
signed as
witnesses to the Treaty of Greene Ville, and Dr. F.
Clever Bald
says that "their labors were invaluable in making that
treaty
possible. By inducing the savages to trust General Wayne,
they performed
an inestimable service to the United States."4
Apparently,
like George Rogers Clark before him, Wayne had
the abilities
necessary to sway the doubtful French Canadians
from the
British cause to the American in the Old Northwest.
When the full
conference assembled there were 1,130 Indians
representing a
dozen different tribes.5 They
negotiated after the
Indian
fashion, with long and leisurely debate, much eating and
drinking and
picturesque ceremonies. Wayne they addressed as
"Elder
Brother"; he spoke to them as "Younger Brothers." Coun-
cil fires were
lit, pipes of peace burned, belts of white wampum
delivered,
captives exchanged. At the opening day of the con-
ference, June
16, Wayne welcomed the Braves in the name of
4 Dr.
F. Clever Bald's pamphlet, How Michigan Men Helped Make the Treaty of
Greenville (1945). The author is University War Historian of the
University of Michi-
gan. The
writer wishes to take occasion here to thank Dr. Bald, and Dr. Randolph G.
Adams of the
Clements Library of American History, for giving him access to manu-
script materials connected with the Greene Ville Treaty,
especially some photostats of
Wayne's letters preserved by the Historical Society of
Pennsylvania.
5 Wyandots
-----------180 Chippewa
--------- 46 Wea
and
Delawares
---------381 Potawatomi
--------240 Piankishaw
------ 12
Shawnee -----------143 Miami and Eel Kickapoos
and
Ottawa
------------- 45 River 73 Kaskaskia
----- 10
TREATY OF GREENE VILLE 7
the "Fifteen Fires"; that is
to say, the fifteen states in the Ameri-
can Union. He said, in part:
I have cleared this ground of all brush
and rubbish, and opened
roads to the east, to the west, to the
north and to the south, that all
nations may come in safety and ease to
meet me. The ground on
which this council house stands is
unstained with blood, and is as pure
as the heart of General Washington, the
great chief of America . . .
I have this day kindled the council fire
of the United States: we will
now cover it up, and keep it alive,
until the remainder of the different
tribes assemble.
On the fourth of July, Wayne celebrated the nineteenth an-
niversary of the Declaration of
Independence, carefully explaining
the ceremonies to the Indian guests. By
July 15, enough of the
chiefs and warriors had assembled for
Wayne to open practical
business negotiations. He read and
explained the earlier treaties
which the Indians had not observed.
There followed some days
of very shrewd bargaining, quite like a
European peace conference,
in which elaborate courtesies and
formalities decently draped the
self-interests of the diplomats. It
would be the greatest of mis-
takes to assume that because a man is a
half-naked barbarian that
he is therefore given to what is called
"shirt-sleeve diplomacy."
On the contrary, in many primitive
societies etiquette is both more
elaborate and more rigidly observed than
it is among civilized men.
Wayne knew well that an Indian would
forgive an injury before
he would an insult, and that any
inattention to his rank and dignity
would be counted as such an insult.
One incident may suffice to give some
idea of the spirit of the
negotiations. Little Turtle, the shrewd
Miami chief who had
called Wayne "a chief who never
sleeps" during the Fallen Tim-
bers campaign, arose in his place on
July 22 and addressed Wayne
in tones of dignified remonstrance:
You have pointed out to us the boundary
line between the Indians
and the United States, but I now take
the liberty to inform you, that
that line cuts off from the Indians a
large portion of country which
has been enjoyed by my forefathers time
immemorial, without molesta-
tion or dispute. The print of my
ancestors' houses are everywhere
to be seen in this portion. . . . I was
much surprised to find that my
other brothers differed so much from me
on this subject: for their
conduct would lead one to suppose that
the Great Spirit, and their
8
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
forefathers, had not given them the same
charge that was give [sic]
to me, but, on the contrary, had
directed them to sell their lands to
any white man who wore a hat, as soon as
he should ask it of them.
Two days later, on July 24, Wayne
replied. He pointed out
that the lands had been twice paid for
already, once at the Treaty
of McIntosh, again at the Treaty of
Muskingum (or Fort Har-
mar), but "notwithstanding that
these lands have been twice paid
for . . . such is the justice and
liberality of the United States, that
they will now, a third time, make
compensation for them." As for
Little Turtle's argument that the
Indians should keep forever
the lands given by the Great Spirit to
their forefathers, Wayne
stated, "It appears to me that, if
the Great Spirit, as you say,
charged your forefathers to preserve
their lands entire for their
posterity, they have paid very little
regard to the sacred injunction:
for I see they have parted with those
lands to your fathers the
French, and the English are now, or have
been, in possession of
them all . . . The English and French
both wore hats; and yet
your forefathers sold them, at various
times, portions of your
lands." One can see the grave
Indian warriors exchanging smiles
at Wayne's effective irony.
Then Wayne read from the Treaty of
Versailles, closing the
American Revolutionary War, and from
Jay's Treaty, still hot
from the pens of its authors, the
clauses by which the Northwest
had passed to the United States and by
which the British agreed
to give up their forts within its
bounds. Even Little Turtle was
convinced. On July 28 he said, "I
do not believe the hatchet was
ever before buried so deep. I fancy it
has always, heretofore, been
cast into shallow running water, which
has washed it up on dry
land"--a very good way indeed of
phrasing the difference between
the Treaty of Greene Ville and previous
attempts at pacifying the
Indians. By the end of July the conference had unanimously
agreed on the terms of peace, but it
required a few days longer
to prepare the engrossed treaty copy on
parchment for the formal
signing, on August third. Speechmaking
and feasting continued
TREATY OF GREENE VILLE 9
a few days longer but the diplomatic
negotiations which led to
the treaty had passed into history.6
The Treaty of Greene Ville stipulated,
in brief, for peace and
friendship; the return of prisoners of
war; the cession of certain
lands, and payment for them in goods
worth $20,000, together
with an annual addition of $9,500; the
right of Indians to hunt
peaceably in ceded territory; the right
of the Americans to cer-
tain roads and river portages;
guarantees against unlawful settle-
ment, dishonest trading, and acts of
violence by either side. The
ceded territory took in all southern and
central Ohio, a small part
of Indiana, and sixteen isolated but
often very important outposts,
such as "the post of Detroit"
and "one piece of land six miles
square, at the mouth of the Chicago
river, emptying into the
southwest and of Lake Michigan."7
Today many more people
live in the tracts of Indian country
ceded at Greene Ville than
lived in the whole United States when
the treaty was made.
Now that the Indian had buried the
hatchet and the English-
man had retired to Canada, the American
pioneer had still one
more enemy to face--the wilderness. The
region which is now
the State of Ohio was forested almost
throughout its extent. The
Reverend James B. Finley, an early
Methodist circuit rider, thus
enthusiastically describes the
countryside around Chillicothe:
The lofty sugar-tree (maple), spreading
its beautiful branches;
the graceful elm, waving its tall head,
the monarch of the forest; the
black and white walnut; the giant oak,
the tall hickory; the cherry
and hackberry; the spicewood with its
fragrance; the papaw, with its
luscious fruit; the wild plum; the rich
clusters of grapes which, hanging
from the massy vines, festooned the
forest; and, beneath all the wild
6 The official account of the negotiations may be read in American
State Papers,
IV (Washington, 1832), Indian Affairs, I, 564-83. There are many
interesting secondary
accounts, such as Frazer E. Wilson, The
Treaty of Greenville (Piqua, 1894); Beverley
W. Bond, Jr., The Foundations of Ohio, 347-48; C. E. Slocum, The Ohio Country (New
York, 1910), 131-43; Thomas Boyd, Mad Anthony
Wayne (New York, 1929), 305-22,
and others.
7 The text of the Treaty of Greene Ville
is in American State Papers, IV, Indian
Affairs, I, 562-63. Maps of the treaty line are given in
many books; the one in E. H.
Roseboom and F. P. Weisenburger's A
History of Ohio (New York, 1934), 93, super-
imposes the treaty line and the chief land grants on a
modern county map of Ohio.
10
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
rye, green as a wheatfield, mixed with
the prairie and buffalo clover--
all formed a garden of nature most
enchanting to behold.8
Enchanting to behold, yes; but there was
another side to the
forest, as the pioneer knew only too
well. To quote from another:
Only those who first cleared off these
rough and sterile hills, who
erected the first rough cabins . . .
with blankets and quilts for doors and
oiled paper for window-glass, with
chimneys built of split sticks and
mud . . . value properly the comforts of
a good modern home. Only
those who have grubbed the thick
underbrush and saplings; who have
used the ax in deadening and felling the
heavy timber, the maul and
wedge in making the first rails; who
have chopped up the trees, piled the
brush, and then been smoked almost blind
while burning the logs and
brush . . . can have any idea of the
pleasure there is in contemplating
a beautiful, smooth lawn, without a
stump or log. None but those
who have held the first plow, amid
roots, stumps, stones and trees,
while the faithful team was pulling and
jerking it along, with the roots
breaking and flying back against the
plowman's shins . . . can really
enjoy the delight that this same plowman
feels while holding the plow
as it moves slowly along . . . without a
root or stump to obstruct it.9
Labor played a bigger part than capital
in the early days of
the West. Cheap land attracted the poor,
whereas the hardships of
pioneering repelled the well-to-do.
William Allen White, the fa-
nous Kansas journalist, has pointed out
that when his own an-
cestors John and Fear White, crossed the
mountains from New
England and New York to Ohio at the
beginning of the nineteenth
century they had. "practically
nothing that Abraham did not have
when he and his tribe trekked out of the
land of Ur three thousand
years before. John and Fear had the
tamed horse, the tamed cow,
the domestic chicken and the tamed pig.
They had fire and the
lever and the wheel . . . Fear Perry
wove the wool that made the
garments of her family. She knew the
secrets of dyeing that the
mothers in Israel knew. And John could
work with iron and
hammer at steel . . . Except for the gun
and the book, Abraham
with a little tinkering would have been
able to understand every-
thing that John had in his covered
wagon."10
8 Rev.
James B. Finley, Autobiography, or Pioneer Life in the West (Cincinnati,
1853), 105.
9 Isaac J. Finley,
and Bufus Putnam, Pioneer Record and Reminiscences of the
Early Settlers and Settlements of
Ross County, Ohio (Cincinnati, 1871),
5-7.
10 William Allen White,
The Changing West (1939), 4.
TREATY OF GREENE VILLE 11
Few and simple as were the tools of the
pioneer, they gave
him the advantages he needed in his
struggle with untamed nature.
The iron-bladed ax and iron-shod plow
cleared the forest and
furrowed the soil. The boat-bottomed,
canvas-topped wagon could
be floated across any ordinary stream.
Wild game and wild grains,
fruits and berries, were so abundant
that food was seldom a seri-
ous problem, though the pioneer often
went many weary and dan-
gerous miles to find a "salt
lick" where the deer were wont to get
salt. "Wild meat," says one
pioneer, "without bread or salt, was
often their food for weeks together. If
they obtained bread, the
meal was pounded in mortar or ground on
a hand-mill. Hominy
was a good substitute for bread, or
parched corn pounded and
sifted, then mixed with a little sugar
and eaten dry; or mixed
with water as a beverage. On this coarse
fare the people were
remarkably healthy and cheerful."11
He adds, "The men's apparel was
most made of deer's skin.
This, well dressed, was made into
hunting shirts, pantaloons,
coats, waistcoats, leggins and moccasins
. . . Deer's hair or oak
leaves was generally put into the
moccasins, and worn in place
of stockings and socks. The household
furniture consisted of
stools, and bedsteads made with forks
driven into the ground and
poles laid on these . . . and on this
beds made of oak leaves . . .
They rocked their children in a sugar
trough or pack-saddle."12
These brave men and braver women who
settled the Ohio
country were neither the first American
pioneers nor the last.
From the first settlement in Virginia to
the last in Alaska the
whole American story has been one of
westward settlement. But
the opening up of Ohio has a special
importance. In this compact
and central region between the Great
Lakes and the Ohio River
was the gateway through which the men
from Connecticut, from
New York, from Virginia, from
Pennsylvania, could pass to the
new frontiers in Michigan, Illinois, the
Great Plains, the Rockies,
the Oregon country. It was the hand of
Wayne which swung wide
the gate.
11 Finley, Pioneer Life, 69.
12
Ibid., 70.