CHAPTER III.
TREATY OF 1804, AND BLACK HAWK’S VERSION.
On December 31st, 1804, the President submitted this treaty to the
Senate, which ratified it immediately.
In justice to Black Hawk, his relation of all incidents leading up to
this treaty, from the departure of French rule to its ratification,
which he always insisted was the bone of contention between himself and
the whites, will be given, and in justice to the Americans, his
inaccuracies, their logical deductions and the manner in which he played
the same against the facts will also be given.
In the first edition of his autobiography, published in Boston in 1834,
page 25, after concluding his sorrow at the advent of the Americans, he
stated:
“Some time afterwards, a boat came up the river, with a young American
chief (Lieutenant, afterwards General, Zebulon M. Pike), and a small
party of soldiers. We heard of him (by runners) soon after he had
passed Salt River. Some of our young braves watched him every day, to
see what sort of people he had on board. The boat at length arrived at
Rock River, and the young chief came on shore with his interpreter,
made a speech, and gave us some presents. We, in return, presented him
with meat and such provisions as we could spare.
“We were all well pleased with the speech of the young chief. He gave
us good advice; said our American father would treat us well. He
presented us an American flag, which was hoisted. He then requested us
to pull down our British flags, and give him our British medals,
promising to send us others on his return to St. Louis. This we
declined, as we wished to have _two fathers_.”
“* * * We did not see any Americans again for some time, being
supplied with goods by British traders.”
“Some moons after this young chief descended the Mississippi, one of
our people killed an American and was confined in the prison at St.
Louis for the offense. We held a council at our village to see what
could be done for him, which determined that Quash-qua-me,
Pa-she-pa-ho, Ou-che-qua-ka and Ha-she-quar-hi-qua should go down to
St. Louis, see our American father, and do all they could to have our
friend released by paying for the person killed; thus covering the
blood, and satisfying the relations of the man murdered; that being
the only means with us of saving a person who had killed another, and
we then thought it was the same way with the whites.
“The party started with the good wishes of the whole nation, hoping
they would accomplish the object of their mission. The relatives of
the prisoner blacked their faces and fasted–hoping the Great Spirit
would take pity on them, and return the husband and father to his wife
and children. Quash-qua-me and party remained a long time absent. They
at length returned, and encamped a short distance below the village,
but did not come up that day, nor did any person approach their camp.
They appeared to be dressed in _fine coats_, and had _medals_! From
these circumstances we were in hopes that they had brought good news.
Early the next morning the Council Lodge was crowded. Quash-qua-me and
party came up, and gave us the following account of their mission: ‘On
their arrival at St. Louis they met their American father, and
explained to him their business, and urged the release of their
friend. The American chief told them he wanted land, and they agreed
to give him some on the west side of the Mississippi, and some on the
Illinois side, opposite the Jeffreon. When the business was all
arranged, they expected to have their friend released to come home
with them. But about the time they were ready to start, their friend
was let out of prison, who ran a short distance, and was shot dead.
This was all they could recollect of what was said and done. They had
been drunk the greater part of the time they were in St. Louis.’
“This was all myself or nation knew of the treaty of 1804. It has been
explained to me since. I find by that treaty all our country east of
the Mississippi, and south of the Jeffreon, was ceded to the United
States for one thousand dollars a year! I leave it to the people of
the United States to say whether our nation was properly represented
in this treaty, or whether we received a fair compensation for the
extent of country ceded by those four individuals. I could say much
about this treaty, but I will not at this time. It has been the origin
of all our difficulties.”[14]
During the years 1803 and 1804, the British were in their ugliest humor
toward the Americans, and no effort to aggravate, yea murder, the
frontier was spared. In the face of those atrocities and in face of the
further fact that on January 9th, 1789, a solemn treaty of friendship
was made between the United States and the Sacs, at Fort Harmar, signed
by Te-pa-kee and Kesh-e-yi-va, the 14th article of which is as follows:
“The United States of America do also receive into their friendship and
protection the nations of the Pottiwatimas and Sacs, and do hereby
establish a league of peace and amity between them respectively; and all
the articles of this treaty, so far as they apply to these nations, are
to be considered as made and concluded in all, and every part, expressly
with them and each of them,”[15] it would seem in extreme bad taste for
Black Hawk to desire a continuance of British paternity and British
provisions, and flout British authority in the faces of those Americans
who were the sufferers. A sane man would expect something to happen.
Black Hawk stated and emphasized the fact that Pike went up the
Mississippi and returned before the treaty of 1804 was made, when as a
matter of fact he went up the river in 1805 and returned in 1807. Now if
he committed such glaring errors in matters of passing importance, what
can be expected in matters of graver importance? And where can the
intelligent student draw the line between fact and fabrication?
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[Illustration: GOV. WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON.]
[Illustration: LIEUT. ZEBULON M. PIKE.]
[Illustration: COL. AUGUSTE CHOUTEAU.]
[Illustration: COL. PIERRE CHOUTEAU.]
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Much else that Black Hawk has said is altogether incorrect as well as
preposterous. There can be no excuse for his untruthful statement that
but four chiefs signed the treaty, because there were five, as the
record itself discloses, and Pash-e-pa-ho, the then principal chief of
the Sac nation, was one of them. Nor can it be seen that he strengthened
his standing with the public to charge William Henry Harrison, the most
upright of men, with giving the Indian emissaries fine clothes and
medals as part consideration for their signatures, and with stupefying
them with liquor and finally murdering outright the prisoner, and it is
certainly regrettable to find in his narrative no mention of the
sorrowing wife and weeping children of the murdered American who never
returned to his hearthstone.
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