George Rogers Clark and the War in the West

6 / The After Years

6 THE AFTER YEARS his reputation. The apex of his career was reached at Vincennes on February 25, 1779, when he accepted the surrender of Henry Hamilton. Although he performed valuable services between that time and the date of his separation from military service in 1783, his detractors succeeded in tarnishing his reputation before he resumed civilian life, and his postwar years diminished rather than enhanced his renown. Only occasionally after 1783 were there glimpses of the man who had displayed exceptional qualities of leadership during the war. His traducers must have enjoyed witnessing his decline. Men scorned and insulted him who had fawned for his attention a few years earlier. His precarious financial and legal condition rendered a business career impossible. Many years after his death, Clark's estate received some $30,000 from Virginia in at least partial discharge of the state's debt to him, but during his lifetime Clark was hounded by creditors for debts he had contracted on behalf of the state. Since his property was subject to seizure, the family agreed to take care of him, and what holdings he had were concealed as much as possible in family property and enterprises. Clark dabbled in a number of undertakings, but none was worthy of his talents, which rusted in disuse. The 100 E O R G ER O G E R SC L A R Kl i v e dt o ol o n gf o rt h eg o o do f G Virginia officers elected him superintendent-surveyorto select, survey,and allocate the lands granted to them, and Clark retained that position until 1788, although he did not devote much personal attention to it. Some of his best work was done in Indian negotiations, a field in which he had few peers. His reputation remained higher among the Indians than in Kentucky and Virginia, and he continued to exert a great deal of influence with the tribes. Despite the provisions of the peace treaty, the British continued to occupy Detroit and a number of other posts, from which the United States government was not strong enough to dislodge them. Indians continued to inflict damage in the Kentucky counties, and the impending migrationof settlers in large numbers across the Ohio would lead inevitably to conflict unless the Indians could be persuaded to relinquish at least part of their lands to the axe and plow of the frontiersman . Clark was one of the United States commissioners who met with representatives of several tribes at Fort Mclntosh in early 1785. The Indians present agreed to give up Shawnee lands in southern Ohio, but Clark was not able to persuade the Shawnees themselves to participate in the councils until January 1786. Negotiating with his vast knowledge of the Indian mind and using other tribes skillfully to exert pressure on the reluctant Shawnees, Clark was largely responsible for the treaty that was signed on February 1. But the Indians soon formed the Wabash Confederacy to drive out the whites, including even the French, who had usually been immune to Indian attacks.Vincennes was threatened for three days, and several lives were lost in Kentucky as small raiding parties again crossed the Ohio into Jefferson County. Clark was one of fifty-five prominent citizens who sent an urgent plea for help to Colonel Logan, who forwarded it to Patrick Henry. "I don't think that this country, even in its infant state, bore so gloomy an aspect as it does at present," Clark warned Governor Henry, predicting 101 that a "great part of these beautiful settlements will be laid waste unless protected by volunteers penetrating into the heart of the enemy's country. Nothing else will do."1 As the raids spread into other Kentucky counties, demands increased for Clark to come out of retirement and lead another expedition. The matter was complicated by Virginia's cession of the lands beyond the Ohio; was that area not now the responsibility of the United States government? Did Virginia have the right to send her militia outside her boundaries unless requested to do so? But Congress balked at the expense of an expedition, and the militia officers in the western counties of Virginia were told to take action if necessary to defend themselves . Henry warned Congress that an expedition against the Wabash Indians was likely; he was not told to prevent it. Patrick Henry's close friend and...