126 The Winning of the West 



Indian country though these expeditions offered 

 the one hope of subduing the savages and prevent 

 ing their inroads. By 1786 the settlers generally, 

 including all their leaders, such as Clark, 24 had be 

 come convinced that the treaties were utterly futile, 

 and that the only right policy was one of resolute 

 war. 



In truth the war was unavoidable. The claims 

 and desires of the two parties were irreconcilable. 

 Treaties and truces were palliatives which did not 

 touch the real underlying trouble. The white set 

 tlers were unflinchingly bent on seizing the land 

 over which the Indians roamed but which they did 

 not in any true sense own or occupy. In return 

 the Indians were determined at all costs and haz 

 ards to keep the men of chain and compass, and 

 of axe and rifle, and the forest-felling settlers who 

 followed them, out of their vast and lonely hunt 

 ing-grounds. Nothing but the actual shock of 

 battle could decide the quarrel. The display of 

 overmastering, overwhelming force might have 

 cowed the Indians; but it was not possible for the 

 United States, or for any European power, ever to 

 exert or display such force far beyond the limits 

 of the settled country. In consequence the warlike 

 tribes were not then, and never have been since, 

 quelled save by actual hard fighting, until they were 

 overawed by the settlement of all the neighboring 

 lands. 



Nor was there any alternative to these Indian 



44 Do., No. 50, p. 279. Clark to R. H. Lee. 



