was that of Spain. Lord
Dorchester, Governor of Canada, assured the home Government that "the
flimsy texture of republican government" could not long hold the Western
settlements in the Union. In 1789, the Lords of Trade reported that it
was a matter of interest for Great Britain "to prevent Vermont and
Kentucke, and all other settlements now forming in the Interior parts of
the great Continent of North America, from becoming dependent upon the
Government of the United States, or of any other Foreign Country, and to
preserve them on the contrary in a State of Independence and to induce
them to form Treaties of Commerce and Friendship with Great Britain."

President Washington had hardly taken the oath of office when a war
cloud appeared on the western horizon. Certain British vessels, bound
for Nootka Sound to establish a trading-post, were seized by Spanish
authorities in a way which provoked bitter resentment. In the early
months of 1790, war seemed imminent. The situation was full of peril for
the United States, for war would inevitably bring about military
operations directed against Florida and Louisiana, and neither party was
likely to respect the neutrality of the United States. The prospect of a
conquest of the Spanish colonies by Great Britain alarmed the
Administration. "Embraced from the St. Croix to the St. Mary's on the
one side by their possessions, on the other side by their fleet," wrote
Jefferson, "we need not hesitate to say that they would soon find means
to unite to them all the territory covered by the ramifications of the
Mississippi." Representations were therefore made to the British
Government that "a due balance on our borders is not less desirable to
us than a balance of power in Europe has always appeared to them."

Fortunately the war cloud vanished as rapidly as it had formed. In the
fall of 1790, Spain and England entered into a convention which averted
hostilities. Yet the situation on both flanks of our long frontier was
full of peril. Spain intrigued with the Creeks of the Southwest, while
the British authorities in Canada encouraged the Indians north of the
Ohio in their hostility to the white settlers. The attitude of the
Indians along the Maumee and Wabash Rivers was so menacing that Governor
St. Clair sent a punitive expedition against them; but the effect upon
the Indians was so slight that a second expedition was set on foot in
the following year. With a force of fourteen hundred