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Show Chapter IV Land Ordinance of 1785 After the surrender of Cornwallis at York-town and the signing of the Treaty of Paris that ended the Revolution, the issues most urgently demanding the attention of the Congress of the Confederation, aside from revenue, were Indians and lands. England had made its peace with the young Nation but the Indians had not and were not anxious to do so. To them, Americans-whether speculating land companies, squatters, or traders-were landgrabbers who gouged in trade, offered cheap and inferior goods, were stingy about gifts, and watered their liquor. Worse still, they had in the past used most unfair means to gain the signatures of chieftains to treaties involving the surrender of land the Indians wanted to retain in tribal use. Veterans Seek Land Demobilization of the Continental Army and of the militia of the states set thousands of soldiers footloose at a time when economic activity in the country was at a low point. The men had been promised land bounties but these could not yet be located in the Military Tracts in either New York or Ohio because of various delaying factors, including the recalcitrance of the Indians and slowness in getting the lands surveyed. Furthermore, most of the rank and file had to sell their rights for cash to take care of themselves and their families for a time. In this situation, the Genesee or Ohio lands which some of them had seen on the march appeared very attractive. Many veterans swarmed into the West, especially from Virginia, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania where squatting had long existed and was, indeed, tolerated and sanctioned. They rushed across the Ohio and into Kentucky and Tennessee where Indians still claimed the land and threatened to bring on renewed warfare. Indians Retard Ohio Settlement Though the framers of the Articles of Confederation had tried to place control over Indian affairs with the Confederation, some states still felt that they had prime responsi-bilityfor relations with the Indians within their borders. Both Georgia and North Carolina jeopardized the efforts of the Confederation to maintain peace. The central government was weak and unable to prevent intrusions into Indian-claimed land and to show at the same time both generosity and military might to the natives; thus it was impossible to negotiate binding treaties that would open the Ohio country to sale and settlement and to establish peace along the frontier.1 The Ohio Indians became increasingly restless as they watched squatters and speculators move into areas they cherished. They resented deeply the treaties made with various tribal chiefs committing unrepresented but powerful tribes to cessions of part of their land. Three successive treaties negotiated at 1 F. P. Prucha, American Indian Policy in the Formative Tears (Cambridge, Mass., 1962), pp. 41 ff.; W. H. Mohr, Federal Indian Relations, 1774-1788, passim. 59 |