ng tide of men, women and children sweeping
down the Ohio, to settle in Kentucky, seemed to verify all that the
British agents had told the Indians respecting the American intentions.
The depredations on the Ohio river, the plundering of boats, and murder
of immigrants and settlers, were on the increase. Governor St. Clair had
been given instructions by congress on the 26th day of October, 1787, to
negotiate if possible an effectual peace. He was to feel out the tribes,
ascertain if possible their leading head men and warriors and attach
them to the interests of the United States. The primary object of the
treaty was declared to be the removing of all causes of controversy, and
the establishment of peace and harmony between the United States and the
Indian tribes. On July 2nd, 1788, he was given additional instructions
and informed that the sum of twenty thousand dollars had been
appropriated, in addition to six thousand dollars theretofore set aside,
for the specific purpose of obtaining a boundary advantageous to the
United States, "and for further extinguishing by purchase, Indian
titles, in case it can be done on terms beneficial to the Union."
Congress was evidently seeking to carry out the letter and spirit of the
Ordinance, and to extinguish the Indian right of occupancy, by fair
negotiation and purchase.

Time will not be taken here to enumerate the many difficulties
encountered by General St. Clair in the negotiation of the treaty at
Fort Harmar. The violent opposition of Joseph Brant and the Indian
department of the British government will be treated under another head.
Suffice it to say that President Washington always considered this as a
fair treaty. In the instructions given by the government to General
Rufus Putnam in 1792, this language occurs: "You may say that we
conceive the treaty of Fort Harmar to have been formed by the tribes
having a just right to make the same, and that it was done with their
full understanding and free consent."

Tarhe, a prominent chief of the Wyandots, said at the treaty of
Greenville, in 1795, to General Wayne: "Brother, you have proposed to us
to build our good work on the treaty of Muskingum (Fort Harmar); that
treaty I have always considered as founded upon the fairest principles *
* * I have always looked upon that treaty to be binding upon the United
States and us Indians." The same boundaries were fixed between the
United States and the Wyandots and Delawares, as were