n of military duty for the defense of
the State; that all men of the legal military age should be armed,
enrolled, and held responsible for different degrees of military service."
In furtherance of these principles a scheme was submitted providing for
military service by the citizens of the United States beginning at
eighteen years of age and terminating at sixty. The response of Congress
was the Act of April 30, 1790, authorizing a military establishment "to
the number of one thousand two hundred and sixteen non-commissioned
officers, privates, and musicians," with permission to the President to
call State Militia into service if need be, "in protecting the inhabitants
of the frontiers." Washington, in noting in his diary his approval of the
act, observed that it was not "adequate to the exigencies of the
government and the protection it is intended to afford."

The Indian troubles in the Southwest were made particularly serious by the
ability of the head-chief of the Creek nation, Alexander McGillivray, the
authentic facts of whose career might seem too wildly improbable even for
the uses of melodrama. His grandmother was a full-blooded Creek of high
standing in the nation. She had a daughter by Captain Marchand, a French
officer. This daughter, who is described as a bewitching beauty, was taken
to wife by Lachland McGillivray, a Scotchman engaged in the Indian trade.
A son was born who, at the age of ten, was sent by his father to
Charleston to be educated, where he remained nearly seven years receiving
instruction both in English and Latin. This son, Alexander, was intended
by his father for civilized life, and when he was seventeen he was placed
with a business house in Savannah. During the Revolutionary War the father
took the Tory side and his property was confiscated. The son took refuge
with his Indian kinsfolk, and acquired in their councils an ascendancy
which also extended to the Seminole tribe. His position and influence made
his favor an important object with all powers having American interests.
During the war the British conferred upon him the rank and pay of a
colonel. In 1784, as the representative of the Creek and Seminole nations,
he formed a treaty of alliance with Spain, by the terms of which he became
a Spanish commissary with the rank and pay of a colonel.

Against the State of Georgia, the Creek nation had grievances which
McGillivray was able to voice with a vigor and an eloquence that compelled