32 



HISTORY OF STEUBEN COUNTY, NEW YORK. 



mitting the justness of the claim, but saying they were peace 

 ambassadors, and had no authority to dispose of lands. 

 The council broke up after distributing presents and leaving 

 the Indians a supply of provisions for subsistence while 

 waiting to meet the United States commissioners. 



" The treaty of Fort Stanwix followed, conducted by the 

 United States commissioners, Oliver Woolcott, Richard 

 Butler, and Arthur Lee. No record of the proceedings 

 exists in our pubiic archives ; the general result is, however, 

 known. Terms of peace were concluded ; the western 

 boundaries of the Six Nations were so fixed as to enlarge 

 the ' carrying-place' on the Niagara River they had pre- 

 viously ceded to the King of G-reat Britain, and starting 

 from the mouth of Buffalo Creek, was to be a line running 

 due south to the northern boundary of Pennsylvania ; thence 

 west to the end of said boundary ; thence south along the 

 west boundary of said State to the river Ohio. The treaty 

 was eiFected with considerable difficulty, a large number of 

 the Indians insisting that it should be general and embrace 

 the Western Indians, so that all questions of boundaries 

 could be settled at once. Brant was absent, transacting 

 some business with the Grovernor of Canada. Had he been 

 present, it is doubtful whether any treaty would have been 

 concluded. Red Jacket, then a youth, made his first pub- 

 lic speech, and as Levasseur (who derived his information 

 from Lafayette) says, ' His speech was a masterpiece, and 

 every warrior who heard him was carried away with his 

 eloquence.' He strongly protested against ceding away the 

 hunting-grounds of his people at the West, and boldly ad- 

 vocated a renewal of the war. The better counsels of Corn- 

 planter, however, prevailed. The so highly-extolled elo- 

 quence of Red Jacket had little in it of practicability. The 

 Six Nations agreed to surrender all their captives, most of 

 whom had been brought to the treaty-ground for that pur- 

 pose. The commissioners on behalf of the United States 

 guaranteed to the Six Nations the quiet possession of the 

 lands they occupied, which was recognized as embracing all 

 of New York west of the cessions they had made under 

 English dominion. 



COUNCIL AT FORT HERKIMER. 



" The next council of the commissioners of New York, 

 after the one that has been named, was convened at Fort 

 Herkimer, in June, 1785. This was with the Oneidas and 

 Tuscaroras. Gov. Clinton made an opening speech, in 

 which, after defining their rights, and advising them that 

 the State had the exclusive right to purchase, informed 

 them that it was understood they were prepared to sell 

 some of their lands south of the Unadilla ; and, if so, the 

 commissioners were ready to purchase. After nearly two 

 days' deliberation the Governor's speech was replied to by 

 ^ Petrus, the minister.' The orator said his people were 

 averse to parting with lands ; alluded to the frauds that had 

 been practiced upon the Mohawks before the Revolution ; 

 said, ' the German Flats people, when they were poor, ap- 

 plied to us for lands, and they were friends ; but now they 

 are rich, they do not use us kindly.' The speech was one 

 of consummate ability ; especially did the chief turn the 

 tables upon the Governor in a frequent allusion to his for- 

 mer advice to the Indians to keep their lands. Days of 



deliberation and speech-making succeeded, the Indians 

 making proposition to lease a small quantity of land, then 

 to sell a small quantity of their poorest land, but failing to 

 come up to what the commissioners required. In a speech 

 made by the Grasshopper, he alluded to the attempt by the 

 British agents, made during the war, to induce the Tusca- 

 roras and Oneidas to join them. He said, * They told us 

 by joining the Americans we would get lice, as they were 

 only a lousy people ; but, however, although they expressed 

 the Americans were lousy, they have, although lousy, over- 

 come their enemies.' 



" The commissioners finally succeeded in purchasing the 

 land lying between the Unadilla and Chenango Rivers, 

 south of a line drawn east and west through those streams, 

 and north of the , Pennsylvania line, etc., for which they 

 paid eleven thousand five hundred dollars, and distributed 

 among them a liberal amount of goods, trinkets, and pro- 

 visions. In finally announcing the conclusion to sell the 

 land, the Grasshopper said, ' This news about selling our 

 lands will make a great noise in the Six Nations, when they 

 hear we have sold so much ; and, therefore, we hope we 

 shall not be applied to any more for any of our country.' 

 How was the future curtained before the simple backwoods 

 diplomatist ! Little did he think that the narrow strip of 

 land thus grudgingly and unwillingly parted with would be 

 added to and widened out until his people were mostly 

 shorn of their broad possessions." 



THE LESSEE COMPANIES. 



One great difficulty in the way of negotiating treaties 

 with the Indians was the organization and operations of 

 two joint lessee companies. " The constitution of the 

 State forbade the purchase of the fee in lands of the In- 

 dians by individuals, reserving the right to the State alone." 



To evade this, and come in posssession of the lands, an 

 association of individuals was organized in the winter of 

 1787-88, who styled themselves the " New York Genesee 

 Land Company." The company was composed of some 

 eighty or ninety persons, mostly residing upon the Hudson 

 River, many of whom were wealthy and influential. The 

 principal seat of the company was at Hudson. Dr. Caleb 

 Benton, John Livingston, and Jared Coffin were the chief 

 managers. At the same time a branch company was organ- 

 ized in Canada, called the " Niagara Genesee Land Com- 

 pany." John Butler, Samuel Street, John Powell, and 

 Benjamin Barton were principal members of this, — all but 

 the last named residents of Canada. This branch organi- 

 zation enabled the company to avail themselves of the then 

 potent influence of Col. John Butler with the Six Nations 

 and the influence of his associates. 



Benjamin Barton, the father of the late Benjamin Bar- 

 ton, Jr., of Lewiston, was an active member of the associ- 

 ation. Soon after the close of the Revolution he had 

 engaged in the Indian trade and as a drover from New 

 Jersey via the Susquehanna River, to the British garrison 

 at Niagara. By this means he had become well acquainted 

 with the Senecas, was adopted by them, and had taken, 

 while a youth, Henry O'Bail, the son of Cornplanter, and 

 placed him in a school in New Jersey. 



In addition to the influence thus acquired, there belonged 



