The Old Northwest | Page 9

unstable as
the Scythians and Tartars. But the shortsightedness of these distant
critics can be forgiven when one recalls that Franklin himself, while
conjuring up a splendid vision of the western valleys teeming with a
thriving population, supposed that the dream would not be realized for
"some centuries." None of these observers dreamt that the territories
transferred in 1763 would have within seventy-five years a population
almost equal to that of Great Britain.
The ink with which the Treaty of Paris was signed was hardly dry
before the King and his ministers were confronted with the task of
providing government for the new possessions and of solving problems
of land tenure and trade. Still more imperative were measures to
conciliate the Indians; for already Pontiac's rebellion had been in
progress four months, and the entire back country was aflame. It must
be confessed that a continental wilderness swarming with murderous
savages was an inheritance whose aspect was by no means altogether
pleasing to the English mind.
The easiest solution of the difficulty was to let things take their course.
Let seaboard populations spread at will over the new lands; let them
carry on trade in their own way, and make whatever arrangements with
the native tribes they desire. Colonies such as Virginia and New York,
which had extensive western claims, would have been glad to see this
plan adopted. Strong objections, however, were raised. Colonies which
had no western claims feared the effects of the advantages which their
more fortunate neighbors would enjoy. Men who had invested heavily
in lands lying west of the mountains felt that their returns would be
diminished and delayed if the back country were thrown open to
settlers. Some people thought that the Indians had a moral right to
protection against wholesale white invasion of their hunting-grounds,
and many considered it expedient, at all events, to offer such
protection.
After all, however, it was the King and his ministers who had it in their

power to settle the question; and from their point of view it was
desirable to keep the western territories as much as possible apart from
the older colonies, and to regulate, with farsighted policy, their
settlement and trade. Eventually, it was believed, the territories would
be cut into new colonies; and experience with the seaboard
dependencies was already such as to suggest the desirability of having
the future settlements more completely under government control from
the beginning.
After due consideration, King George and his ministers made known
their policy on October 7, 1763, in a comprehensive proclamation. The
first subject dealt with was government. Four new provinces-- "Quebec,
East Florida, West Florida, and Grenada"*--were set up in the ceded
territories, and their populations were guaranteed all the rights and
privileges enjoyed by the inhabitants of the older colonies. The
Mississippi Valley, however, was included in no one of these provinces;
and, curiously, there was no provision whatever for the government of
the French settlements lying within it. The number and size of these
settlements were underestimated, and apparently it was supposed that
all the habitants and soldiers would avail themselves of their privilege
of withdrawing from the ceded territories.
* The Proclamation of 1763 drew the boundaries of "four distinct and
separate governments." Grenada was to include the island of that name,
together with the Grenadines. Dominico, St. Vincent, and Tobago. The
Floridas lay south of the bounds of Georgia and east of the Mississippi
River. The Apalachicola River was to be the dividing line between East
and West Florida. Quebec included the modern province of that name
and that part of Ontario lying north of a line drawn from Lake
Nipissing to the point where the forty-fifth parallel intersects the St.
Lawrence River.
The disposition made of the great rectangular area bounded by the
Alleghanies, the Mississippi, the Lakes, and the Gulf, was fairly
startling. With fine disregard of the chartered claims of the seaboard
colonies and of the rights of pioneers already settled on frontier farms,
the whole was erected into an Indian reserve. No "loving subject"
might purchase land or settle in the territory without special license;
present residents should "forthwith remove themselves"; trade should
be carried on only by permit and under close surveillance; officers were

to be stationed among the tribes to preserve friendly relations and to
apprehend fugitives from colonial justice.
The objects of this drastic scheme were never clearly stated. Franklin
believed that the main purpose was to conciliate the Indians.
Washington agreed with him. Later historians have generally thought
that what the English Government had chiefly in mind was to limit the
bounds of the seaboard colonies, with a view to preserving imperial
control over colonial affairs. Very likely both of these motives weighed
heavily in the decision. At all events, Lord Hillsborough, who presided