Treaty at Fort Stanwix

Corn Plant was one of the parties to the treaty at Fort Stanwix in 1784, when a large cession of territory was made by the Indians. At the treaty of Fort Harmer, five years afterwards he took the leading part in conveying an immense tract of country to the American Government, and became so unpopular that his life was threatened by his incensed tribe.  But this chief, and those who acted with him, were induced to make liberal concessions by motives of sound policy; for the Six Nations, having fought on the royal side during the War of the Revolution, and the British Government having recognized our independence, and signed a peace without stipulating for the protection of her misguided allies, they were wholly at our mercy. In an address sent to the President of the United States in 1790 by Corn Plant, Half Town and Big Tree, occurs the following:

     "Father: We will not conceal from you that the Great Spirit and not men has preserved Corn Plant from the hands of his own nation, for they ask continually, 'Where is the land upon which our children and their children after them are to lie down? You told us that the line drawn from Pennsylvania to Lake Ontario would mark it forever on the East, and the line running from Beaver Creek to Pennsylvania would mark it On the West, and we see it is not so; for first comes one and then another and takes it away by order of that people which you tell us promised to secure it to us.

     He is silent, for he has nothing to answer. When the sun goes down he opens his heart before the Great Spirit, and earlier than the sun appears again upon the hills he gives thanks for his protection during the night, for he feels that among men become desperate by the injuries they have received, it is God only that can protect him."

     In reply to this address, President Washington remarked: "The merits of Corn Plant and his friendship for the United States are well known to me, and shall not be forgotten; and as a mark of the esteem of the United States, I have directed the Secretary of War to make him a present of $250, either in money or goods, as Corn Plant shall like best."

     In his efforts to preserve peace with his powerful neighbors, Corn Plant incurred alternately the suspicion of both parties, the whites imputing him a secret agency in the depredations of lawless individuals of his nation, while the Senecas were sometimes jealous of his apparent fame with the whites, and regarded him as a pensionary of their oppressors. His course, however, was prudent and consistent, and his influence very great.

     He resided on the banks of the Alleghany river, a few miles below the junction, upon a tract of fine land within the limits of Pennsylvania, and not far from the line between that State and New York. He owned thirteen hundred acres of land, of which six hundred were comprehended within the village occupied by his people. The Chief favored the Christian religion and welcomed those who came to teach it.

    

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Abeel and Allied Families

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