fter their evacuation by the British. Having freed the
South from all marauders, Wayne returned, much shattered in health
from the effect of a low fever, to his old home in Pennsylvania, and
settled down to civil life, desiring, as he puts it, "to pass many
happy hours in domestic felicity with a few of our friends, unfettered
by any public employ and consequently unenvied." He was, however, made
a member of the Council of Censors, and in 1784 represented his county
in the General Assembly of Pennsylvania. He was likewise, in 1787, a
member of the Convention of the State called to ratify the
Constitution of the United States.

To better look after an estate given him by the State of Georgia, in
recognition of the services he rendered that State, Wayne settled
there, and was elected a member of Congress on January 3, 1791. He
served from October, 1791, to March, 1792, when, a contest being made,
Congress decided his election illegal and declared his seat vacant.
Almost immediately after this action, on April 3, 1792, President
Washington appointed Wayne Commander-in-Chief of the United States
Army, with the rank of Major-General; an appointment confirmed by the
Senate on the same day. No more signal act could have marked the
approval of Wayne's great services to the nation in the War of the
Revolution, than this great mark of approbation conferred by his
illustrious Chief. To him was intrusted the settlement of the
difficulties then existing with the Indians in the Northwestern
Territory. These savages, stirred up by the British, armed with
British guns, and often led by British officers, continued the warfare
on the Americans after peace had been declared between the contending
countries. Efforts to subjugate them under Generals Harmar and St.
Clair had failed.

General Wayne, whose entire life clearly shows a man prepared for what
may come, wisely drilled the force he collected to undertake this
work, for a year. He knew the value of a well-drilled and disciplined
army. Having perfected his troops, he, by easy stages, advanced into
the disturbed territory, establishing posts at various points, which
he cleverly fortified, and upon every occasion and opportunity offered
the savages peace. These offers were as often rejected. From Fort
Defiance, a fort he built and named, at the junction of the Miami and
Le Glaize rivers, he, in August, 1794, went down the Miami River, with
about one thousand men, until he came close t