The Indian World of George Washington by Colin G. Calloway

Author:Colin G. Calloway
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780190652180
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2018-02-04T05:00:00+00:00

in trying to apply a comprehensive policy for the whole frontier and attempting to negotiate and enforce fair treaties, Washington found himself in the same position as the Crown before the Revolution.80 The Trade and Intercourse Act, first passed by Congress in July 1790 and subsequently strengthened, embodied Washington and Knox’s principles. It also bore striking similarities to the Proclamation of 1763 that Washington had railed against, evaded, and undermined. The act stipulated that traders in Indian country must be licensed by Congress and no sales of lands by Indians “shall be valid to any person or persons, or to any state, whether having the right of pre-emption to such lands or not, unless the same shall be made and duly executed at some public treaty, held under the authority of the United States.” Like the proclamation, the act sought to minimize frontier conflict by centralizing land transactions and declared invalid any land deals not approved by Congress.81 It provided the kind of federal regulation of Indian affairs that Washington wanted.

In October 1791 Washington asked Attorney General Edmund Randolph to examine the laws of the federal government relating to Indian affairs, in particular those that provided protections for the Indians’ lands, restrained states or individuals from buying them, and prohibited unauthorized trade. Randolph was also to suggest auxiliary laws to deal with any defects in the existing laws, so that the executive could enforce them. Unless the government took such measures and imposed adequate penalties to “check the spirit of speculation in lands,” the nation would be constantly embroiled in conflict and “appear faithless in the eyes not only of the Indians but of the neighboring powers also.” Agents of the Tennessee Yazoo Company were at that moment advertising land for settlement in the Muscle Shoals region in the great bend of the Tennessee River, despite disapproval of the Creeks and Cherokees, and probably the Choctaws and Chickasaws as well.82 Blount and Sevier were both part of the Tennessee Yazoo Company.83

In his annual message to Congress, delivered on October 25, 1791, Washington laid out six basic principles that should govern United States Indian policy:

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