Character of Philip Schuyler—His management of the Indians.
PHILIP SCHUYLER, who, on the death of his father, succeeded to the
inheritance I have been describing, was a person of a mild, benevolent
character, and of an excellent understanding, which had received more
culture than was usual in that country. But whether he had returned to
Europe, for the purpose of acquiring knowledge in the public seminaries
there, or had been instructed by any of the French protestants, who were
sometimes retained in the principal families for such purposes, I do not
exactly know; but am led rather to suppose the latter, from the
connexion which always subsisted between that class of people and the
Schuyler family.
When the intimacy between this gentleman and the subject of these
memoirs took place, she was a mere child; for the colonel, as he was
soon after called, was ten years older than herself. This was singular
there, where most men married under twenty. But his early years were
occupied by momentous concerns; for, by this time, the public safety
began to be endangered by the insidious wiles of the French Canadians,
to whom our frontier settlers began to be formidable rivals in the fur
trade, which the former wished to engross. In process of time, the
Indians, criminally indulged with strong liquors by the most avaricious
and unprincipled of the traders, began to have an insatiable desire for
them, and the traders’ avidity for gain increased in the same
proportion.
Occasional fraud on the one hand gave rise to occasional violence on the
other. Mutual confidence decayed, and hostility betrayed itself, when
intoxication laid open every thought. Some of our traders were, as the
colonies alleged, treacherously killed, in violation of treaties
solemnly concluded between them and the offending tribes.
The mediation and protection of the Mohawk tribes, were, as usual,
appealed to. But these shrewd politicians saw evidently the value of
their protection to an unwarlike people, who made no effort to defend
themselves; and who, distant from the source of authority, and
contributing nothing to the support of government, were in a great
measure neglected. They began also to observe, that their new friends
were extending their possessions on every side, and conscious of their
wealth and increasing numbers, did not so assiduously cultivate the good
will of their faithful allies as formerly. These nations, savage as we
may imagine them, were as well skilled in the arts of negociation as the
most polite Europeans. They waged perpetual war with each other about
their hunting grounds—each tribe laying claim to some vast wild
territory, destined for that purpose, and divided from other districts
by boundaries which we should consider as merely ideal, but which they
perfectly understood. Yet these were not so distinctly defined as to
preclude all dispute—and a casual encroachment on this imaginary deer
park, was a sufficient ground of hostility; and this, not for the value
of the few deer or bears which might be killed, but that they thought
their national honour violated by such an aggression. That system of
revenge, which subsisted with equal force among them all, admitted of no
sincere conciliation till the aggrieved party had obtained at least an
equal number of scalps and prisoners for those that they had lost. This
bloody reckoning was not easily adjusted. After a short and hollow
truce, the remaining balance on either side afforded a pretext for new
hostilities, and time to solicit new alliances, for which last purpose
much art and much persuasive power of eloquence were employed.
But the grand mystery of Indian politics was the flattery, the
stratagem, and address employed in detaching other tribes from the
alliance of their enemies. There could not be a stronger proof of the
restless and turbulent nature of ambition, than these artful
negociations, the consequences of perpetual hostility, where one would
think there was so little ground for quarrel; and that amongst a people,
who, individually, were by no means quarrelsome or covetous, and seemed,
in their private transactions with each other, impressed with a deep
sense of moral rectitude; who reasoned soundly, reflected deeply, and
acted in most cases consequentially. Property there was none, to afford
a pretext for war, excepting a little possessed by the Mohawks, which
they knew so well how to defend, that their boundaries were never
violated—
“For their awe and their fear were upon all nations round about.”
Territory could not be the genuine subject of contention in these thinly
peopled forests, where the ocean and the pole were the only limits of
their otherwise boundless domain. The consequence attached to the
authority of chiefs, who, as such, possessed no more property than
others, and had not the power to command a single vassal for their own
personal benefit, was not such as to be the object of those wars. Their
chief privilege was that of being first in every dangerous enterprise.
They were loved and honoured, but never, that I have heard of, traduced,
envied, or removed from their painful pre-eminence.
The only way in which these wars can be accounted for, is, first, from
the general depravity of our nature, and from a singularly deep feeling
of injury, and a high sense of national honour. They were not the hasty
out-breakings of savage fury, but were commenced in the most solemn and
deliberate manner, and not without a prelude of remonstrances from the
aggrieved party, and attempts to sooth and conciliate from the other.
This digression must not be considered as altogether from the purpose.
To return to the Indians, whose history has its use in illustrating that
of mankind: they now became fully sensible of the importance they
derived from the increased wealth and undefended state of the
settlement. They discovered, too, that they held the balance between the
interior settlements of France and England, which, though still distant
from each other, were daily approximating.
The Mohawks, though always brave and always faithful, felt a very
allowable repugnance to expose the lives of their warriors in defence of
those who made no effort to defend themselves; who were neither
protected by the arms of their sovereign, nor by their own courage. They
came down to hold a solemn congress, at which the heads of the Schuyler
and Cuyler families assisted; and where it was agreed that hostilities
should be delayed for the present—the hostile nations pacified by
concessions and presents, and means adopted to put the settlement into a
state of defence against future aggressions.
On all such occasions, when previously satisfied with regard to the
justice of the grounds of quarrel, the Mohawks promised their hearty
co-operation. This they were the readier to do, as their young brother
Philip, (for so they styled Colonel Schuyler,) offered not only to head
such troops as might be raised for this purpose, but to engage his two
brothers, who were well acquainted with the whole frontier territory, to
serve on the same terms. This was a singular instance of public spirit
in a young patriot, who was an entire stranger to the profession of
arms, and whose sedate equanimity of character was adverse to every
species of rashness or enthusiasm. Meantime, the provisions of the
above-mentioned treaty could not be carried into effect, till they were
ratified by the assembly at New-York, and approved by the governor. Of
this there was little doubt; the difficulty was to raise and pay the
troops. In the interim, while steps were taking to legalize this
project, in 1719, the marriage between Colonel Schuyler and his cousin
took place under the happiest auspices.
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