Page:Historic highways of America (Volume 8).djvu/123

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
ST. CLAIR'S CAMPAIGN
119

at Fort Pitt. Governor Arthur St. Clair was created Major-general and placed in command of the new army. Brigadier-general Richard Butler was appointed second in command. The object of the campaign was to establish a line of military posts from Fort Washington on the Ohio to the Maumee, where, at the Miami village at the junction of the St. Mary and St. Joseph, a strong fort was to be built, "for the purpose of awing and curbing the Indians in that quarter, and as the only preventative of future hostilities."[1] In present day terms the army was to march from Cincinnati, Ohio, and erect a fort on the site of Fort Wayne, Indiana. In every order the underlying theory of the Government is plain—the one end sought was peace. "This [peace] is of more value than millions of uncultivated acres," were the words of the Secretary of War in St. Clair's instructions.[2] It was a war of self-defense, not a war of conquest.

  1. Id., p. 172. This project was suggested by General St. Clair the year previous, but was not countenanced by the Government. American State Papers, vol. iv (Indian Affairs, vol. i), p. 100.
  2. Id., p. 172.