Description:

CONGRESS APPOINTS COMMISSIONERS TO NEGOTIATE AND SIGN TREATIES WITH THE IROQUOIS CONFEDERACY
CHARLES THOMSON (1729-1824) Irish born American patriot, unanimously elected first Secretary of the Continental Congress in 1774 and held the post until 1789, chosen to notify Washington of his election to the Presidency. NEGOTIATING PEACE WITH THE IROQUOIS AND EXPENDING AMERICA WESTWARDS Historically important manuscript D.S. "Chas Thomson Scy.", 1p. legal folio, [Philadelphia], June 3, 1784, a resolution of the Continental Congress, naming GEORGE ROGERS CLARKE (1752-1818), OLIVER WOLCOTT (1726-1797), NATHANIEL GREENE (1742-1786), RICHARD BUTLER (1743-1791), STEPHEN HIGGINSON (1743-1828), and PHILLIP SCHUYLER (1733-1804) as commissioners, charged with negotiating treaties of peace with Native American tribes within the contemporary boundaries of the United States, with specific mention made of the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy. In part: "... Whereas we have judged it proper that one or more Convention or Conventions be held with the Indians residing within the boundaries of the United States of America in the northern and middle Departments, comprehending the whole of the Indians known by the name of the Six Nations [Iroquois], and all to the northward and westward of them, and as far south as the Cherokees exclusive, for the purposes of receiving them into the favour and protection of the United States and of establishing boundary lines of property for separating and dividing the settlements of the Citizens of the United States of America from the Indian Villages and hunting grounds, and thereby extinguishing as far as possible, all occasion of future animosities, disquiet and vexation ..." The document also notes that Greene and Higginson have declined the offer, and appoints BENJAMIN LINCOLN (1733-1810) and ARTHUR LEE (1740-1792) to replace them. Two of these commissioners, Wolcott and Butler, negotiated the Second Treaty of Fort Stanwix with the Iroquois, which granted the U.S. all lands of the Ohio Territory west of the Niagara River. As the status of Indian lands had been overlooked in the creation of the Treaty of Paris between the United States and Great Britain, this treaty sought to establish peace between the Iroquois and the nascent nation. Many of the Six Nations refused to recognize the treaty; they held that their delegates had not been granted the power to give away such large tracts of land, and also because the majority of the Six Nations did not live in the Ohio territory. The tribes who did reside in the Ohio Country, including the Shawnee, the Mingo, and the Delaware, rejected the treaty. Commissioners Clarke, Butler and Lee also negotiated the Treaty of Fort McIntosh in 1785, and Clarke negotiated the Treaty of Fort Finney in 1786. These two treaties, negotiated with the above-listed tribes, solidified American claims in Ohio. The document is engrossed at the introduction and conclusion in Thomson''s hand, with a blind-embossed Great Seal, and is docketed on the verso, with a separate docketed cover identifying this copy of the commission as that granted to Oliver Wolcott. A 2" vertical tear at the bottom edge affects Thomson''s signature, and the document bears extensive old archival tape repairs to splits on the verso, else very good.

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December 10, 2016 11:00 AM EST
Wilmington, DE, US

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