Summary
On June 1, 1792, the State of Kentucky was admitted to the Union, and four years
later, on the same day, Tennessee also joined. During the 1790s, the US
attempted to expand its territory into the west (which constituted the land just
west of the Appalachian Mountains), where opposition lay in the foreign powers
of Spain and Britain, both of which desired control of parts of North America.
Also, Native Americans populated most of this coveted land. Each of the three
nations, as well as the Natives, struggled against the others for control of the
western territory.
The US tried to strike a balance between trying to form an alliance with the
Indians and attempting to forcibly remove them. The US tried to force peace
through military action in 1790 and 1791. These military efforts yielded little
success, and the campaign ended with the November 4, 1791 defeat of the US
troops, when the Miami Indians killed 900 men out of a force of 1400. Having
failed militarily, President Washington authorized Secretary of War
Henry Knox to proclaim that the Indian title to land would be formally
recognized by the US and would not be revoked without "free consent." Laws
punishing trespassers on Indian land accompanied this policy, as did the
beginning of an initiative to "civilize the natives. However, as in the past,
Indians resisted this initiative and clung to their cultures. The attempt to
alter relations with the Indians ended in continued stalemate.
Meanwhile, the French went to war with Britain and Spain in 1793. Northern
merchants pressed for an anti-French foreign policy, and southern planters
encouraged the government to ally itself with France. The nation was torn
between two options. French diplomat Edmond Genet traveled to the United States
to argue the French case to the US government, but he was unsuccessful in
evoking government action. On April 22, 1793, Washington issued the
Proclamation of American Neutrality, refusing to be drawn into the war.
Despite this proclamation, Genet was able to persuade southwestern settlers to
offer limited military support to the French against the Spanish in Florida and
the Mississippi Valley. Additionally, Genet enlisted nearly 1,000 Americans to
function as privateers at sea, terrorizing the British navy.
Washington exhorted his people to cease their attacks on British vessels, but it
was too late. British ministers decided that only a massive show of force would
rectify the situation. Accordingly, the British navy seized over 250 American
vessels during the winter of 1794. At the same time, British naval officers
began the practice of inspecting American vessels for British subjects, who, if
they were found, were impressed into service in the royal navy. American
sailors were often seized as well. Britain further challenged US neutrality in
February 1794. Canada's royal governor denied US claims to the land north of
the Ohio River and encouraged the Indians there to resist expansion. British
troops built Fort Miami on US territory, and the Spanish, following suit, built
Fort San Fernando on US lands in the southwest.
On the brink of war, Washington dispatched negotiators to attempt to win peace
with the encroaching forces. The first to experience success was General
Anthony Wayne, who led troops into the Northwest Territory and routed a large
contingent of Indian warriors at the Battle of Fallen Timbers on August 20,
1794. The next August, twelve Indian tribes signed the Treaty of Greenville,
which ended hostilities and opened the area now known as Ohio to settlement.
Shortly after, Jay's Treaty was signed in Britain. John Jay negotiated
a settlement which removed British troops from American land and reopened trade
with the West Indies. Finally, Thomas Pinckney negotiated the Treaty of San
Lorenzo with Spain, which granted the US unrestricted access to the Mississippi
River and removed Spanish troops from American land.
US relations with the Native Americans had grown increasingly dire by the early
1790s. Washington's military efforts in the north proved to be a complete
failure, the southern tribes had resumed hostilities with the inhabitants of the
frontier, and the Indians were unresponsive to attempts at "civilization."
Convinced that the only way to avoid the continued exile from their land at the
hands of the US government, Indian tribes allied themselves with America's
enemies. US citizens, especially those along the frontier, saw the coalitions
being built between the natives and the foreign armies. Many believed that the
only way to contest the forces of Britain and Spain, both supported by Natives,
was through an alliance with France. Many southern and western inhabitants
pressed for pro-French foreign policy, hoping that France, supported by the US,
could achieve victory in Europe, distracting the British and Spanish governments
from their preoccupation with the American West.
