Duane James

James Duane of the Continental Congress Writes to New York Governor Clinton About Treaty with Six Nations and Military Quotas

"how great will be the political Advantages! We shall acquire a Right of Soil to encourage the Settlement & the Population of our Country, encrease our Trade, and augment our strength: and consequently our Security and national Importance...."

JAMES DUANE, Autograph Letter Signed, to [George Clinton], [March 21, 1779, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania]. 2 pp., 8" x 12.625", with separate half-leaf with docketing, 8" x 6.375". Lack of dateline and salutation suggests this leaf is the final two pages of a longer letter. Expected folds; tear on center fold repaired, slightly affecting text on p1 and signature on p2.

Complete Transcript

"Indeed if we had nothing but our immediate safety in view this would be a most Salutary Measure: But how great will be the political Advantages! We shall acquire a Right of Soil to encourage the Settlement & the Population of our Country, encrease our Trade, and augment our strength: and consequently our Security and national Importance: and we shall be thereby enabled to provide for our soldiers who deserve our care, and to pay our Taxes without Distress. I do not mean that the proposed Estimate shoud be made out with critical Exactness: The Members of the Assembly, with your Excellency's Assistance, can place it on a [sufficient?] Ground, for Treaty.

I ask pardon for being so particular on a subject you so well understand: But as the Policy & even necessity of the Proposition makes a deep Impression on my Mind: I coud not avoid enforcing it.

Congress have been under a necessity of leaving it to the states to fill up their Quotas of the army in their own way: Virginia having taken her Measures, without consulting us, & their Assembly being adjourned before the Account reached this City. She has been so excessively liberal as to grant 400 Dollars & 300 acres to every Volunteer who shall enlist in her Battallions during the war. While states thus interfere no general system can be adopted: but each must be left to its own Prudence. Our plan was to give a sufficient Bounty and recommend it to the different Legislatures to [repair?] from partial Bounties. I think it would have been wise. As we are still under a necessity of emitting money, the people being averse to Loans, we are called upon from all Quarters to recommend a large additional Tax. Nothing else can aid our currency. I wish to hear the Opinion of our state. We are seldom favour'd with their Directions: I therefore have not so much Confidence as the genl. [gentlemen] who are more frequently instructed by the Sense of their constituen[cy.]

I have the Honour to be, with the utmost respect, Sir"

Your Excellency's most obedient humble Servant,

Jas Duane

Historical Background

The Five Nations of the Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, and Mohawk united in a confederation at the beginning of the thirteenth century. Around 1720, the Tuscarora were admitted as a sixth member of the Iroquois Confederacy. As English colonists moved westward onto land claimed by the Six Nations, local conflict erupted. The Boundary Line Treaty of 1768 was supposed to establish a boundary between colonial settlers and Native American lands, but sustained pressure by English colonial settlers continued to cause conflict. By the time of the American Revolutionary War, the Six Nations occupied much of northern and western New York. Initially attempting to remain neutral between Great Britain and its thirteen colonies, the Six Nations Confederacy divided. The majority supported England to a greater or lesser degree, but the Oneida and Tuscarora gave substantial support to the Americans. Duane likely refers here to the possibility of a treaty with all or a portion of the Six Nations to increase the territorial extent of the United States.

Although the Treaty of Paris of 1783 ended the Revolutionary War, it made no provisions for the Six Nations. A separate 1784 Treaty of Fort Stanwix established the first Native American reservation. The Six Nations were to occupy much of western New York, but Pennsylvania representatives negotiated a land transaction with the Six Nations to secure land north to the present boundary between New York and Pennsylvania. Although the United States ratified the treaty in 1785, the Six Nations never ratified it, and it soon became a dead letter, as American settlers continued to encroach on Native American lands.

During the Revolutionary War, approximately 230,000 soldiers served in the Continental Army, though never more than 48,000 at one time. Approximately 145,000 militiamen supplemented the Continental Army. To encourage enlistment, towns, states, and Congress offered bounty in both cash and grants of land. Such inducements varied considerably from state to state and even within states.

James Duane (1733-1797) was born in New York City and read law in an attorney's office. Admitted to the bar in 1754, he established a lucrative law practice and owned a house in Manhattan, another in the country, and an estate of 36,000 acres near Schenectady, New York. He served as a member of New York's Committee of Sixty, represented New York in the Continental Congress from 1774 to 1784, and signed the Articles of Confederation in 1778. He served on the committee that drafted New York's constitution in 1777. Duane was a member of the Federalist Party and served in the New York Senate from 1783 to 1790. The Council of Appointment appointed him as the 44th Mayor of New York in 1784, and he served in that position until 1789. In September 1789, President George Washington appointed him as the first judge of the United States District Court for the District of New York, where he sat until ill health forced his resignation in 1794.

George Clinton (1739-1812) was born to Irish parents in the colony of New York. He served in the French and Indian War first on a privateer in the Caribbean and then in the militia. After studying law, he began his practice in 1764, and also served in the New York Provincial Assembly from 1768 to 1776. Commissioned as a brigadier general in both the militia and the Continental Army, Clinton became the first governor of the State of New York in July 1777 and held the position until 1795 and again from 1801 to 1804. As a Democratic-Republican, Clinton served as Vice President to both President Thomas Jefferson and President James Madison (1805-1812).

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