In the house there were several new members, and the number of those
opposed to the policy of the administration had been considerably
increased, the elections in several of the states having been warmly
contested. Jonathan Trumbull, son of the patriotic governor of
Connecticut, was chosen speaker.

In his address, the president congratulated Congress on the general
prosperity of the country, the success of its financial measures, and
the disposition generally manifested to submit to the excise law. He
dwelt at considerable length upon Indian affairs, recommending a just,
impartial, and humane policy toward the savages, as the best means of
securing peace on the frontier. He announced that the site of the
federal capital had been selected and the city laid out on the bank of
the Potomac. He again called their attention to the subject of a
reorganization of the post-office department, the establishment of a
mint, the adoption of a plan for producing uniformity in weights and
measures, and making provision for the sale of the public lands of the
United States.

The expedition against the Indians in the northwest had, meanwhile, been
in progress, with varying fortunes, sometimes successful and sometimes
not. At length painful rumors, and finally positive statements, came
that a terrible calamity had overtaken St. Clair and his command. These
troops had assembled in the vicinity of Fort Washington (now Cincinnati)
early in September, and consisted nominally of two thousand regulars and
one thousand militia, including a corps of artillery and several
squadrons of horse. They were compelled to cut a road through the
wilderness, and erect forts to keep up communication between the Ohio
and the Wabash, the base of their operations. Desertions were numerous,
and the refuse of western population often filled the places of these
delinquents. Insubordination prevailed; and, to increase St. Clair's
difficulties, he was so afflicted with the gout that he could not walk,
and had to be lifted on and off his horse.

At length the little army, reduced to fourteen hundred effective men,
rank and file, by desertion and the absence of a corps sent to apprehend
deserters, had penetrated to a tributary of the Wabash fifteen miles
south of the Miami villages, and almost a hundred from Fort Washington.
There, before sunrise on the fourth of November, while the main body
were encamped in two lines on rising ground, and the militia upon a high