St. Clair and Wayne 35 



the Indians conciliated, they would become attached 

 to the United States, and the expense of managing 

 them, for the next half century, would be only some 

 fifteen thousand dollars a year. 2 He probably rep- 

 resented, not unfairly, the ordinary Eastern view of 

 the matter. He had not the slightest idea of the 

 rate at which the settlements were increasing, though 

 he expected that tracts of Indian territory would 

 from time to time be acquired. He made no allow- 

 ance for a growth so rapid that within the half-cen- 

 tury six or eight populous States were to stand 

 within the Indian-owned wilderness of his day. He 

 utterly failed to grasp the central features of the 

 situation, which were that the settlers needed the 

 land, and were bound to have it within a few years ; 

 and that the Indians would not give it up, under no 

 matter what treaty, without an appeal to arms. 



In the South the United States Commissioners, in 

 endeavoring to conclude treaties with the Creeks 

 and Cherokees, had been continually hampered by 

 the attitude of Georgia and the Franklin frontiers- 

 men. The Franklin men made war and peace with 

 the Cherokees just as they chose, and utterly refused 

 to be bound by the treaties concluded on behalf of 

 the United States. Georgia played the same part 

 with regard to the Creeks. The Georgian authori- 

 ties paid no heed whatever to the desires of Con- 

 gress, and negotiated on their own account a series 

 of treaties with the Creeks at Augusta, Gal'phinton, 

 and Shoulderbone, in 1783, 1785, and 1786. But 



8 American State Papers, Vol. IV, Indian Affairs, I, p. 13. 



