n board British vessels, and kept in
slavery in the royal service for years. American seamen were thus
pressed into foreign service, even within the jurisdiction of the United
States. The remonstrances of the latter government against these
outrages were unheeded, and bitter feelings were engendered.

And yet another serious cause of difficulty with, and resentment toward
Great Britain existed in the hostile position of the Indian tribes in
the Northwest. Abortive attempts were made by the United States'
commissioners to form a treaty with some of them. The Indians insisted
upon making the Ohio river the boundary between themselves and the white
people, and to this they inflexibly adhered. It was generally believed
that the government of Canada encouraged them to persevere in this
claim. Indeed, information obtained from the Indians themselves made the
suspicion plausible, and the justice of that suspicion was enforced by
the tenacity with which the British held on to the western posts, under
the pretext, however, that the portion of the treaty of 1783 relating to
the payment of debts to British creditors, contracted by Americans
previous to the Revolution, had not yet been fulfilled by the government
of the United States, or promised to be by any decisions of the federal
courts.

These several causes of complaint against the British government, viewed
superficially by the people, caused great irritation in the public mind,
and a corresponding sympathy for France, the avowed and active enemy of
Great Britain. That sympathy, as we have seen, gave strength to the
insolent pretensions of Genet. Added to this was a decision in the
federal court at Richmond, which declared that, according to the treaty
of 1783, debts due from American citizens to British merchants previous
to the Revolution must be paid. This gave intensity to the excitement,
and the cry of usurpation on the part of the federal judiciary, which
had frequently been raised by the opposition, now went over the land
with vehement cadence.

The relations of the United States with Spain rather strengthened
Genet's position. The Mississippi river was still closed to the
Americans; and the Creek and Cherokee Indians, evidently encouraged by
Spanish emissaries among them, assumed a position hostile to the United
States. It was also asserted that propositions had been made by Spain to
Great Britain inimical to the United States. These facts and rumors
inflamed the