The Corporation of the City of New York to Major General Jacob Brown in testimony of the high sense they entertain of his valor and skill in defeating the British forces superior in number, at the battles of Chippewa and Bridgewater on the 5th and 25th of July, 1814.
FOR PEACE AND FRIENDSHIP
Unusual in the Museum’s collection of presentation silver is the treaty pipe ([fig. 7]) formally presented to the Delaware Indians in 1814 by General William Henry Harrison at the conclusion of the second Treaty of Greenville.
The treaty was intended to commit the Indians to active resistance in the American cause during the War of 1812. General Harrison and Lewis Cass had 88 been appointed commissioners by the U.S. Government to conclude the treaty. On July 8, 1814, General Harrison read to the Indians a message from the President of the United States, and afterward he presented to the Wyandotte, Delaware, and Shawnee Indian tribes large silver pipes elegantly ornamented and engraved with emblems signifying the protection and friendship of the United States.[5]
Figure 7.––Peace pipe presented to the Delaware Indians by Gen. William Henry Harrison in 1814. Bequest of Victor J. Evans. In Bureau of American Ethnology. (Acc. 113604, cat. 362061; Smithsonian photos 44571, 44571-A.)
The pipe presented to the Delaware Indians has an urn-shaped bowl with a bead-edged cover bearing acanthus-leaf decorations. The S-shaped stem is 21 inches long and only one-fourth inch in diameter. The great length of the stem was necessary to cool the smoke; the S-shape added rigidity to the silver. The piece undoubtedly is the work of a competent craftsman but it bears no identifying mark.[6]
Although not exactly a pipe of peace, another pipe in the collections of the Museum represents a gesture of friendship between nations. It is a meerschaum pipe[7] with a silver lid on the bowl and with a silver mouthpiece. The lid bears this inscription: