During this short session, full official reports of Harmer's expedition were laid before Congress; and his repulse, and the increasing danger to the western settlements from the Indians on the frontier, caused that body to authorize an addition to the standing military force of a second regiment of infantry, nine hundred strong. By the same act the president was authorised to appoint, for such term as he should think proper, a major-general and a brigadier-general, and to call into service, in addition to the militia, a corps of two thousand six months' levies, and a body of mounted volunteers.
The conduct of the troops under Harmer was stigmatized as disgraceful. It was thought proper to place the new expedition about to be organized under the command of another officer. St. Clair was then at the seat of government. He was governor of the Northwestern territory, and well acquainted with the country and the movements of the Indians; and Washington, having confidence in his old friend and companion-in-arms, conferred upon him the general command. Yet suffering chagrin and mortification because of the disasters to Harmer's expedition on account of Indian ambuscades, the president, when he took leave of St. Clair, warned him against them in a most solemn manner, saying: “You have your instructions from the secretary of war. I had a strict eye to them, and will add but one word—beware of surprise! You know how the Indians fight. I repeat it—beware of a surprise!”
At that time, three famous Seneca chiefs from western New York—Corn-Planter, Half Town, and Big Tree—were at the seat of government, and offered to visit their dusky brethren in the Ohio region, and try to persuade them to bury the hatchet. Washington, who had a most earnest desire for peace with the savages, accepted their offer, saying: “By this humane measure you will render these mistaken people a great service, and probably prevent their being swept off the face of the earth. The United States require that these people should only demean themselves peaceably.” He concluded his remarks with the following words, which were indicative of a scheme for civilizing the Indians which had occupied his mind for a long time: “When you return to your country, tell your nation that it is my desire to promote their prosperity, by teaching them the use of domestic animals, and the manner that the white people plough and raise so much corn; and if, upon consideration, it would be agreeable to the nation at large to learn those arts, I will find some means of teaching them, at such places within their country as shall be agreed upon.”
With the admission of Kentucky and Vermont into the Union as sovereign states, and providing for the increase and pay of the army, the first Congress closed its labors. They had, within two years, performed a great work; and no body of men, except those who composed the continental Congress during the earlier years of the Revolution, so fairly deserve our sincere gratitude as they. Within that time, with Washington at their head, they had set in motion the machinery of the federal government, laid the foundations of its policy, and placed the United States firmly in the position of a leading nation among the states of the world.
The term of service of the first Congress expired on the third of March, 1791; but Washington did not leave Philadelphia for Mount Vernon until late in the month.
FOOTNOTES:
[29] Washington's residence in New York was first at Osgood's house, No. 10 Cherry street, which by subsequent changes was made to front on Franklin square. He afterward occupied the more commodious house of Mr. M'Comb, where the French minister, M. de Moustier, had resided. It was on Broadway, west side, below Trinity church. That was the one alluded to in Washington's letter. An English traveller who visited the president there described the drawing-room as “lofty and spacious; but,” he added, “the furniture was not beyond that found in the dwellings of opulent Americans in general, and might be called plain for its situation. The upper end of the room had glass doors, which opened upon a balcony, commanding an extensive view of the Hudson river and the Jersey shore opposite.”
[30] Mr. Custis relates that Fraunces, the steward, once purchased the first shad of the season for the president's table, as he knew Washington to be extravagantly fond of fish. He placed it before Washington at table as an agreeable surprise. The president inquired how much he paid for the shad. “Two dollars,” was Fraunces's reply. “Take it away,” said the president—"I will not encourage such extravagance in my house.” Fraunces had no scruples of that kind, and the fish was devoured by himself and other members of the household.
[31] The act imposed a duty varying from twenty to forty cents a gallon, according to strength, on imported liquors; and an excise on domestic liquors varying, according to the strength, from nine to twenty-five cents a gallon on those distilled from grain, and from eleven to thirty cents on those made from molasses or other imported product. Stringent regulations were made for the collection of this excise.