rnmental authority was almost as lax
among the whites as among the Indians, and the leaders on each side who
wished for peace were hopelessly unable to restrain their fellows who
did not. Under such circumstances, the sword, or rather the tomahawk,
was ultimately the only possible arbiter.

Treaties with Northwestern Indians.

The treaties entered into with the northwestern Indians failed for
precisely the opposite reason. The treaty at Hopewell promised so much
to the Indians that the whites refused to abide by its terms. In the
councils on the Ohio the Americans promised no more than they could and
did perform; but the Indians themselves broke the treaties at once, and
in all probability never for a moment intended to keep them, merely
signing from a greedy desire to get the goods they were given as an
earnest. They were especially anxious for spirits, for they far
surpassed even the white borderers in their crazy thirst for strong
drink. "We have smelled your liquor and it is very good; we hope you
will give us some little kegs to carry home," said the spokesmen of a
party of Chippewas, who had come from the upper Great Lakes. [Footnote:
_Do._, Letters of H. Knox, No. 150, vol. i., p. 445.] These frank
savages, speaking thus in behalf of their far northern brethren, uttered
what was in the minds of most of the Indians who attended the councils
held by the United States Commissioners. They came to see what they
could get, by begging, or by promising what they had neither the will
nor the power to perform. Many of them, as in the case of the Chippewas,
were from lands so remote that they felt no anxiety about white
encroachments, and were lured into hostile encounter with the Americans
chiefly by their own overmastering love of plunder and bloodshed.

Nevertheless, there were a few chiefs and men of note in the tribes who
sincerely wished peace. One of these was Cornplanter, the Iroquois. The
power of the Six Nations had steadily dwindled; moreover, they did not,
like the more western tribes, lie directly athwart the path which the
white advance was at the moment taking. Thus they were not drawn into
open warfare, but their continual uneasiness, and the influence they
still possessed with the other Indians, made it an object to keep on
friendly terms with them. Cornplanter, a valiant and able warrior, who
had both taken and given hard blows in warring against the Americans,
was among the chiefs and ambassadors wh