the United States Government was resolved
not to have a direct or indirect war with the Creeks; and he closed by
reiterating, with futile insistency, that the instruction to the
Cherokees not to permit Creek war parties against the whites to come
through their country, did not warrant their using force to stop them.
[Footnote: Robertson MSS., Pickering to Blount, March 23, 1795.] He
failed to point out how it was possible, without force, to carry out
these instructions.

A more shameful letter was never written, and it was sufficient of
itself to show Pickering's conspicuous incapacity for the position he
held. The trouble was that he represented not very unfairly the
sentiment of a large portion of the Eastern, and especially the
Northeastern, people. When Blount visited Philadelphia in the summer of
1793 to urge a vigorous national war as the only thing which could bring
the Indians to behave themselves, [Footnote: Blount MSS., Blount to
Smith, June 17, 1793.] he reported that Washington had an entirely just
idea of the whole Indian business, but that Congress generally knew
little of the matter and was not disposed to act. [Footnote: Robertson
MSS., Blount to gentleman in Cumberland, Philadelphia, Aug. 28, 1793.]
His report was correct; and he might have added that the congressmen
were no more ignorant, and no more reluctant to do right, than their
constituents.

Misconduct of the Federal Government.

The truth is that the United States Government during the six years from
1791 to 1796 behaved shamefully to the people who were settled along the
Cumberland and Holston. This was the more inexcusable in view of the
fact that, thanks to the example of Blount, Sevier, and Robertson, the
Tennesseeans, alone among the frontiersmen, showed an intelligent
appreciation of the benefits of the Union and a readiness to render it
loyal support. The Kentuckians acted far less rationally; yet the
Government tolerated much misconduct on their part, and largely for
their benefit carried on a great national war against the Northwestern
Indians. In the Southwest almost all that the Administration did was to
prohibit the frontiersmen from protecting themselves. Peace was finally
brought about largely through the effect of Wayne's victory, and the
knowledge of the Creeks that they would have to stand alone in any
further warfare; but it would not have been obtained at all if Sevier
and the other frontier leaders had not carried on