he Ohio. The Federal authorities,
both military and civil, disliked the intruders as much as they did the
Indians, stigmatizing them as "a banditti who were a disgrace to human
nature." There was no unnecessary harshness exercised by the troops in
removing the trespassers; but the cabins were torn down and the sullen
settlers themselves were driven back across the river, though they
protested and threatened resistance. Again and again this was done; not
alone in the interest of the Indians, but in part also because Congress
wished to reserve the lands for sale, with the purpose of paying off the
public debt. At the same time surveying parties were sent out. But in
each case, no sooner had the Federal Commissioners and their
subordinates begun to perform their part of the agreement, than they
were stopped by tidings of fresh outrages on the part of the very
Indians with whom they had made the treaty; while the surveying parties
were driven in and forced to abandon their work. [Footnote: State Dept.
MSS., No. 30, p. 265; No. 56, p. 327; No. 163, pp. 416, 418, 422, 426.]

Both Sides Bent on War.

The truth was that while the Federal Government sincerely desired peace,
and strove to bring it about, the northwestern tribes were resolutely
bent on war; and the frontiersmen themselves showed nearly as much
inclination for hostilities as the Indians. [Footnote: _Do._, Indian
Affairs. Letter of P. Muehlenberg, July 5, 1784.] They were equally
anxious to intrude on the Government and on the Indian lands; for they
were adventurous, the lands were valuable, and they hated the Indians,
and looked down on the weak Federal authority. [Footnote: _Do._, Report
of H. Knox, April, 1787.] They often made what were legally worthless
"tomahawk claims," and objected almost as much as the Indians to the
work of the regular Government surveyors. [Footnote: _Do._, 150, vol.
ii., p. 548.] Even the men of note, men like George Rogers Clark, were
often engaged in schemes to encroach on the land north of the Ohio:
drawing on themselves the bitter reproaches not only of the Federal
authorities, but also of the Virginia Government, for their cruel
readiness to jeopardize the country by incurring the wrath of the
Indians. [Footnote: draper MSS. Benj. Harrison to G. R. Clark, August
19, 1784.] The more lawless whites were as little amenable to authority
as the Indians themselves; and at the very moment when a peace was being
negotiated one side or