From James Madison to John Armstrong, 28 July 1814
To John Armstrong
July 28. 1814
The Treaty of Greenville in 1795. may be the basis of the new Treaty, with any improvements which may be eligible under existing circumstances.1
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The former allowances to the Indians may be continued; and if deemed necessary by the Comrs., enlarged. Those suspended by the war should not be made up unless indispensable to keep the Indians quiet; as present supplies will suffice for actual wants, and retrospective allowances, might encourage perfidy.2
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The treatment of the Indians refusing to join in the war, must be left very much to the judgment of the Comrs.; who ought to manage their interests & their fears, so as best to guard agst. their joining the Enemy. Where co-operation cannot be obtained, neutrality shd be aimed at.3
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If reserves of land for a chain of posts, as a barrier agst. hostilities of the British, & of the Indians seduced by them, can be obtained without impairing the friendly dispositions of the Tribes, an article to that effect is desireable. These dispositions however ought not at the present crisis to be endangered. The reserves if stipulated should contemplate, spots of 6 miles square; at suitable distances, and extending from L. Michigan, to the Mississippi on one side and to the Western boundary of the Michigan Territory, on the other.4
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The idea conveyed in the memorandum sent to the Secy. of War June the 18th.5 will be found to meet the question of the Comrs. relative to a remuneration of Indians for their services. They were to be prepared, by explanations at the Treaty (verbal of course wch. the Comrs. make an alternative) for being employed, under military arrangements as in other cases. And these arrangements can be immediately made, if immediately necessary. The extent, & the immediate object, of them, belong regularly to the commanding officer of the District. In his distant situation the duty must devolve on the next in Command who may be instructed to avail himself of the Counsel & influence of the Commissrs. The expedition recommended by them, may be critically important, in the event of a failure of that under Cro[g]han & Sinclair. The number of militia suggested, to be joined by the warriors at Greenville, & the rangers in the Indiana Territory, will doubtless be readily obtained from the Govr. of Kentucky, or more convenien[t]ly perhaps from the State of Ohio.6
It was not intended to preclude a road, as pointed out by Genl. Worthington, which it was supposed would willingly be yielded by the Indians holding the Country thro’ which it would pass.7 The Commissrs. should be at liberty however, to wave the subject, if in the least unacceptable to the Indians.
The appointmt. of an influential Supertendent [sic] of Indian affairs, as recommended, merits consideration.8 A superintendency was heretofore vested in the Govr. of Michigan. The range of it is not precisely recollected.
J.M.
Draft (DLC); Tr (DLC, series 3). Draft headed by JM, probably at a later date: “Memorandum on the letter (returned to the War Department) from Genl. Harrison and Govr. Cass of July 17. 1814. relative to a Treaty with the Indians to be entered into at Greenville.” Tr includes a nearly identical heading.
1. In their 17 July 1814 letter to Armstrong, Indian treaty commissioners William Henry Harrison and Lewis Cass wrote: “If it is intended that this Treaty shall be final with the Hostile Tribes some provision will be necessary upon several points comprehended in the Treaty of Greenville—such as the surrender of murderers &c &c—We should neither have felt nor expressed doubts upon some of these subjects, had not your instructions, and apparently with emphasis, restricted the Treaty first to three & finally to two articles” (DNA: RG 107, LRRS, H-32:8; printed in Papers of William Henry Harrison [microfilm ed.], reel 10). For the instructions, see Armstrong to JM, 15 June 1814, and JM to Armstrong, 18 June 1814, 7:559, 560 n. 2, 569, 570 n. 4. Article 9 of the 1795 Treaty of Greenville stipulated that “for injuries done by individuals, on either side, no private revenge or retaliation shall take place; but, instead thereof, complaint shall be made by the party injured, to the other” (, Indian Affairs, 1:563).
2. JM here addressed Harrison and Cass’s question as to whether “the annuities to such of [the hostile Tribes] as now come forward to this Treaty shall be continued? shall the annuities suspended by the War be paid them?” The fourth article of the 1795 Treaty of Greenville promised annuities in specified amounts to the participating tribes “henceforward, every year, forever.” Those tribes included the Miamis and Potawatomies, which the commissioners identified as now largely hostile to the United States (DNA: RG 107, LRRS, H-32:8; , Indian Affairs, 1:563).
3. Harrison and Cass requested instructions on this topic, but also noted, in a separate paragraph, that the Indians currently treating with the United States would not “remain neutral. . . . Their education their habits, their passions impel them to war. . . . if they are not for us they will be against us” (DNA: RG 107, LRRS, H-32:8).
4. Harrison and Cass did not specifically refer to the possibility of land cessions by the Indians; however, the precedent had been established by the third article of the 1795 Treaty of Greenville, in which the Indians ceded sixteen tracts of land, generally six miles square each, constituting a “chain of posts” designed to facilitate U.S. travel through Indian territory (, Indian Affairs, 1:562).
6. For the Lake Huron expedition led by Lt. Col. George Croghan and Capt. Arthur Sinclair, see ibid., 545 n. 2. Harrison and Cass predicted that if this effort proved unsuccessful, the Potawatomies living near the southern tip of Lake Michigan would join with other hostile tribes to “strike upon the frontiers.” They advised that a force composed of five hundred mounted militia, “all the friendly Indians,” and perhaps also the Indiana Territory rangers be sent to attack the hostile Indians and destroy their crops (DNA: RG 107, LRRS, H-32:8).
7. JM referred to a 15 June 1814 letter to Armstrong from Sen. Thomas Worthington of Ohio, endorsing the request in the enclosed 21 May 1814 letter from Daniel C. Cooper for aid from the federal government in building a road from Dayton, Ohio, to Vincennes, Indiana Territory. Armstrong wrote on the cover of Worthington’s letter: “Gen. Worthington stated that he had spoken to the President on the subject of these letters. W[h]ence arose the addition to the instructions” (DNA: RG 107, LRRS, W-26:8). On 29 July 1814, a week after the treaty was signed on 22 July, Armstrong sent Harrison and Cass instructions modified in accord with JM’s comments in this letter (DNA: RG 75, LSIA; 7:377 n. 5).
8. Harrison and Cass emphasized that the United States could obtain significant military advantages while reducing costs by employing “some influential man acquainted with Indian manners & customs” to coordinate the work of securing Indian loyalties (DNA: RG 107, LRRS, H-32:8).