Lot 2
THOMAS GAGE
(1721 - 1787) English general and colonial governor of Massachusetts, commander in chief in North America who used troops to seize military stores precipitating the Battle of Lexington and Battle of Bunker Hill, resigned 1775. Fine content A.L.S. "Thos. Gage" 3pp. legal folio, New York, Jan. 16, 1768 to Sir William Johnson, Superintendent of Indian Affairs concerning relations with various tribes and enforcing the Proclamation Line of 1763 against encroaching settlers. He writes, in most part: "...The opinion you give of the general causes of the discontent of the savages, which originate from our growing power and their jealousy of our designs against them, I know no remedy against, but by doing them all the justice we can. If we can remove the settlers from their encroachments it will be a manifestation of our earnest desire to do them justice. And they have seen a person executed in New Jersey for the murther of an Indian, which must in some measure shew them we do what we can to give them satisfaction for the murter of their peoples, which tho only one example, is more than they have given us for the many white people they have killed at different times. If the Indians and patentees of Kagadorosseras come to a serious agreement to mutual satisfaction, I should think it no difficult matter to get an act of assembly to validate the releases and make them sufficient to bar all future pretentions. Mr. [George] Croghan will acquaint you of his proceedings in the Detroit and Fort Pitt &c and of the circumstances of the murther of the people upon the Ohio by the Indians of Saguinam. It's to be hoped that Lieut. Governor Fauquiere will grant the meeting desired by the Shawnese and Delawares and give them all the satisfaction in his power. I shall grant a temporary warrant immediately on Mr. Mortier for the £500 which you desire to receive, which will be accounted for hereafter. The sooner Mr. Roberts returns it will be certainly best there are affidavits and a multiplicity of papers on both sides. The Cherokees are with you at an unlucky season of the year but if we can't make peace for ourselves, I don't see how we are to succeed for them. It seems determined by the last packet to erect governments in the interior country I suppose at the Detroit and the Illinois, where else I can't guess unless Fort Pitt. In which shape this is to be done or what attempts of this nature are made. There are fifteen barrels of pork, and 24 of flower [sic] lying at Albany for your use and ordered to be delivered whenever you should sent for it....". Gage's assessment of the situation was very much on the mark. Following the end of the French and Indian War, the Iroquois and other tribes in the trans-Appalachian West were no longer able to play the French against the British in order to preserve their territorial integrity. That realization helped prompt Pontiac's Rebellion in 1763. At the time Gage commanded all British forces in America and oversaw its suppression. The Royal Proclamation Line of 1763 set the boundary between British colonial settlements and Indian territory much to the chagrin of land-hungry colonists who were already penetrating the trans-Appalachian West. In response to European encroachment, Sir William Johnson sought to fix the boundary of the Proclamation Line further west to satisfy the demands of British land speculators and settlers. Negotiations between the Six Nations together with representatives of New Jersey, Virginia, and Pennsylvania resulted in the Treaty of Fort Stanwix that was signed on November 5, 1768. In exchange for over £10,000, the Six Nations ceded claims to large tracts of land including much of western Pennsylvania as well as modern-day Kentucky and West Virginia. The Six Nations did not have the right to cede much of the land to the southward (which was controlled by the Cherokee and Shawnee) thus setting the stage for Lord Dunmore's War in 1774. The more defined Proclamation Line did little to ease the pressure and white settlers continued to encroach on Indian lands and became a principal complaint by those who chose to rebel from British rule in 1775. A few minor creases, else very fine condition.
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