The War in the Northwest 55 



in 1774, the British Parliament had, by the Quebec 

 Act, declared the country between the Great Lakes 

 and the Ohio to be part of Canada; and under the 

 provisions of this act the British officers continued 

 to do as they had already done that is, to hold 

 adverse possession of the land, scornfully heedless 

 of the claims of the different colonies. The coun 

 try was de facto part of Canada; the Americans 

 tried to conquer it exactly as they tried to conquer 

 the rest of Canada; the only difference was that 

 Clark succeeded, whereas Arnold and Montgom 

 ery failed. 



Of course the conquest by the backwoodsmen 

 was by no means the sole cause of our acquisition 

 of the West. The sufferings and victories of the 

 westerners would have counted for nothing, had 

 it not been for the success of the American arms 

 in the East, and for the skill of our three treaty- 

 makers at Paris Jay, Adams, and Franklin, but 

 above all the two former, and especially Jay. On 

 the other hand, it was the actual occupation and 

 holding of the country that gave our diplomats 

 their vantage-ground. When the treaty was made, 

 in 1782, the commissioners of the United States 

 represented a people already holding the whole 

 Ohio Valley, as well as the Illinois. The circum 

 stances of the treaty were peculiar; but here they 

 need to be touched but briefly, and only so far as 

 they affected the western boundaries. The United 

 States, acting together with France and Spain, had 

 just closed a successful war with England; but 



