Robert Dinwiddie Quotes

The French had launched a sneak attack on the English settlement at Schenectady, NY. The English had not provided enough security to Schenectady and now considered withdrawing from the upstate area. Contrary to the popular conception of all the Indians being invaded by the Whites and fighting it, here these Indians were urging the English to hang on and stay in the area. The Mohawk were one of the tribes of the Iroquois confederation which were very sophisticated, somewhat democratice, and very powerful economically and militarily. To them, the English were good trading partners and unlike the French tended to conform with Iroquis norms, rules and mores. It also illustrated the closeness of the alliance of these Indians with the English against the French in the French & Indian Wars.

Clinton was a founder of the society and considered an excellent historian. When giving this presentation he had documentation and academic references for each of the statements.

Clark’s men had English Colonel Hamilton under siege by making him think there were many more Americans in Clarks army than the real 180 or so. He tried to get Hamilton to surrender by threatening if they had to take the fort they would treat Hamilton and the British as murderers—Hamilton had paid hostile Indians for American scalps. At that point a party of Clark’s men arrived with 4 or 5 Indian prisoners who had been captured raiding
civilian farms. After the Indians were executed, Hamilton agreed to surrender.

Roger’s Rangers of the French & Indian War were the first using unconventional warfare and invented the “deep raid” when they went in stealth all the way to Quebec and defeated the Abnaki Indians in their home village rather than defend against the Indians’ French coordinated attacks on upper York State. Rogers was portrayed by Spencer Tracy in the film Northwest Passage depicting the raid. All the men were killed but the women and children were captured and released with the exception of 5 teenagers who the Rangers took with them. This was one of the first formal “Rules of War” in what was otherwise a viciously uncivilized war.

Abu Ghraib was the prison in Iraq where prisoners were brutalized and treated illegally and immorally. Seymour Hirsh was the Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist who broke the story. Levy contrasted that where the Algerian War was full of such atrocities but French intellectuals and press would not publicize it. It didn’t stop for the whole war.

The rationale for paying these Indians was given in the beginning of the treaty. See {612283}. In addition the treaty provided for the Federal government to build a flour mill and a saw mill and provide technical staff to operate and maintain them. In an interesting gesture the Federal government rebuilt a church that had been the house of worship for some Oneida Presbyterians. The English and the other Iroquois had burned the church to the ground. See {621968}. This is one of the few times in history, and certainly the first time, that the Federal government constructed a church for a particular sect. The other tribes of the Iroquois nation had allied themselves with the English. See {583726}. Only the Oneida joined the colonist cause. At the end of the war, the other Iroquois tribes were run out of the country and they escaped to Canada. The Oneida, in contrast, were rewarded by the Federal government and integrated into New York State society.

Marquis de Seignelay. This shows that the concept of ethnic cleansing has been around for some time. The only thing that prevented the French from implementing the plan was that they couldn’t defeat the Iroquois. There is a certain irony here in that the Iroquois were very much allied with the British even during the American Revolution. After that war, the Iroquois were run out of their traditional lands, not by the French but by the Americans. And where did they go and resettle? Up to then British Canada, the very area where the French so feared them.

Some of the Indian tribes who were allied with the French, raided the farms and settlements of upper New York State, committing many atrocities. Amhurst allowed Rogers Rangers to carry the war to the enemy; the Rangers traveled to St. Francis in Canada and attacked the Indian tribe in their home village, killing all the men, and despite Amhurst’s orders, some of the women. The other women and children were released. This was the first successful American commando raid. Rogers had almost no casualties in the raid, but lost many men to starvation and disease on the long trek home.

Hull surrendered a few days later.

Americans General William Hull had crossed the Canadian border with 2500 men announcing his intention to invade. Brock’s appeal to the loyalty of English-Canadians to fight off the Americans was in their self-interest as English. He argued that if Canada weakened or the Americans temporarily conquered Canada, they could not hold it, and Napoleon's France would re-colonize Canada. In short, fight against the Americans and keep the French out.

The Catawabas fought in the South with the English against the French and Spanish. In this case they asked for “military assistance” which was provided in terms of the fort which was built and provision of powder and ammunition. Later the Catawabas sided with the Americans in the Revolution.

The Abenaki Indians from Canada had come South and raided many of the settlements of upstate New York. In the process, they committed many atrocities killing civilian men, women and children. Amhurst ordered Robert Rogers and his rangers to attack the Abenaki home villiage in Canada on a famous punitive raid. The Rangers, did indeed, raid the Abenaki and wiped out all the males of the tribe that were in the camp at the time. Amhurst hated Indians, but still had his standards regarding the killing of women and children, but was perfectly willing to kill all the mature males. There were no Geneva Conventions at the time. The same general introduced biological warfare by giving Indians smallpox infected blankets. See {619646}

This argument, condemned by many Englishmen, was essentially, it is moral to do whatever you God made you able to do a principle that was refuted in Christianity, Judiasm and most other religions. See {620562} for Clinton’s history of white encouragement of Indian scalping.

The Seminole Wars were one of the low points in American military behavior. With the specific permission of Commanding General Jesup, the soldiers were to loot the homes and personal possessions of the enemy civilians as well as fighters, but he favored extermination and there were many atrocities. He even seized the Seminole Leaders who had been invited for Peace Talks.