President Monroe's treaty with the Indian tribes...

Item # 708174

June 22, 1819

NEW HAMPSHIRE PATRIOT & STATE GAZETTE, Concord, June 22, 1819 The front page has a full column taken up with a treaty with various Indian tribes in the state of Ohio, signed at its conclusion by the President: James Monroe, and the "X" signatures of many Indian chiefs, tribes including the Senecas, Oettawas, Wyandottes, Shawanees, and Ottawas.
Four pages, a bit irregular at the spine, never-trimmed margins, good condition.

background: The presence of this treaty on the front page of a 1819 New Hampshire newspaper underscores a pivotal, yet somber, era of American expansionism known as the Treaty of the Foot of the Rapids. By printing the full text alongside the "X" marks of leaders from the Wyandot, Seneca, and Shawnee nations, the Patriot documented the systematic legal mechanism used to dissolve Indigenous sovereignty in the Ohio Valley. For the tribes involved, this document represented a transition from land ownership to a precarious reservation system, as they ceded nearly four million acres to the United States in exchange for small annuities and specific land grants. For the federal government under James Monroe, the publication of this proclamation served as a public victory, signaling to Easterners that the "Old Northwest" was officially secure for white settlement and agricultural development.