when the fort should be taken by storm. The beleaguered party. concluded to maintain the fort to the last extremity. The horses and cattle were collected, it is said, strange as it appears, that the enemy should have allowed it, and brought into the fort; and on the 9th of September, 1778, Boone replied to the summons of surrender, that "they were determined to defend their fort while a man was living." Contrary to all expectation, the besieged were then informed, that it was the orders of Gov. Hamilton* to take them captive, and not to destroy them, but if nine of them would come out, and treat with them, they would immediately withdraw, and return home peaceably." Time was important to. the garrison, in order to give opportunity for assistance to arrive. This had been sent for, to Col. Campbell on Holston, and this is, perhaps, the key to entertaining, on the part of Boone, [himself so experienced and prudent a warrior against Indians,] so insidi ous a proposal, carrying deception palpably on its face. The enemy's proposition was embraced; and Boone with eight others met the opposite party,† "and entered into a treaty within sixty yards. of the fort." The Indians then came forward and informed Boone "that it was customary with them on such occasions, for two Indians to shake hands with every white man in the treaty, as an evidence of entire friendship;" "they immediately grapled us,' says Boone, "but although surrounded by hundreds of savages, we extricated ourselves from them, and escaped all safe into the garrison, except one that was wounded." This was Squire Boone, brother of Daniel, the only one who was hurt by a heavy fire from the Indians. This escape seems extraordinary enough; yet it was personally confirmed to the industrious and latter biographer of Boone, by some of the actors themselves.‡ Yet they could not recollect how it was done; tho' they stated that the Indian was hardly ever equal to the white man in physical strength, and their party expecting mischief, was prepared. This treaty, and the surrender of the saltmakers at the Blue Licks, became the subject of a military investigation as to Boone's conduct. And although not in the exact order of time, it may be well to add that the result was perfectly honorable to Boone; although the charges were exhibited by Col. Richard Callaway supported by Col. Logan. So satisfactory was his defence, that Boone was pro The British commander at Detroit. † Boone's Life, 82. moted from the rank of captain to that of major. Nor is the slightest mention of the court martial in the history of the times.* The enemy "now attacked us on every side, and a constant fire ensued between us day and night for the space of nine days. During the siege an attack was made to undermine the fort, which stood only sixty yards from the river bank; as soon as this was discovered by the muddiness of the water below the fort, produced by the excavated earth, a trench was cut to intersect the mine on the bank of the river. When the besiegers found out this, by the earth thrown out of the fort, they desisted from their stratagem; and on the 20th of September, 1778, raised the siege and departed. During this formidable attack both in time and numbers, which seemed to threaten the garrison so fatally, when the enemy were assisted by white men from Canada, our people "had but two men killed and four wounded; besides a number of cattle destroyed." A degree of injury almost incredibly insignificant under such fearful odds of numbers; "while the enemy's loss amounted to thirtyseven killed, and a great number wounded." "125 pounds of bullets were picked up about the fort, besides those which had penetrated the logs of the walls." Thus most fortunately for the gallant band of pioneers, surrounded in the heart of an Indian wilderness, hundreds of miles from the settlements of their countrymen, terminated an expedition strong enough under an energetic and persevering commander with suitable followers, to have stormed every fort in the country, and have swept it clean of our countrymen. Providence ordered it otherwise, and as the author rejoices to believe, for the good of the human race, This can never be extensively or permanently promoted, under the dominion of the ignorance, brutality and ferocity incident to the savage state, all over the world. These vices were exhibited in our own barbarian ancestors, before their conquest and civilization, by the Romans. Sickly must the benevolence of that bosom be, which sighs over the triumphs of civilized life, even in its ruder forms; for they are the harbingers of brighter and better days of diffusing light, learning and religion. These are the consolations, which Heaven presents the human race for the temporary strife and distress attending the conflict between barbarism and civilization. They are the price set by Providence on the blessings of higher social happiness, humanity and peace. • Boone's Life, by Peck, and the inquiries of the indefatigable Lyman C. Draper have alone furnished this intelligence, 92. ARTICLE III. (From the American Railway Times.) The Iron Interests of the United States. We have referred to, and sincerely deprecated the attempt that is now being made in Congress to repeal the duty on foreign made iron. We think such a movement is unwise and perilous to one of the greatest, is not the greatest of American interests. Upon the first blush it would seem as if our opposition to the project, was not made with due reference to the railway wants of the country, and especially with regard to the thousand new and gigantic railway enterprises of the West and South. It is not so. We should like to see every one of these enterprises placed upon a substantial footing, so firm that nothing could prevent their rapid and immediate completion. We have none of that fear that is so loudly expressed by many in certain quarters, that we have too many railway facilities. We believe the general common sense of the country, the question of profit and loss as a commercial enterprise, will prevent this trouble, if the speculative fever of the more rash is not stimulated and fed by undue Legislative action. The majority of the persons who are now besieging Congress for land grants for railway purposes, care nothing for the good of the country or the local accommodation they prate about so glibly; they are only anxious to fill their own capacious pockets. The projects they are representing are many of them good, and if carried forward to completion, would be a benefit to the country; while others are valueless and not wanted. Allowing that the valuable part of these projects are wanted, would it be judicious to drive them forward at the present time, if by so doing they prejudice and destroy other interests of the most important national consideration? Let us be guided by a little common sense. A man in trade may think it a very fine thing to build a house costing some fifteen or twenty thousand dollars. But there are two things he will consider if he is wise, before he goes forward with his building projects. In the first place does he actually need it, and secondly, can he afford it? A negative answer to either branch of this proposition will prevent the expenditure. There are some things that man needs that he cannot afford to buy, and there are many things he can afford to buy that he does not need. Prudence then will diotate, that what he cannot afford to buy, he will let alone. If, however, forgetting the dictates of prudence, he does buy what he cannot afford, the loss will fall upon others, and so those with whom he is trading will have to suffer for his want of prudence. His creditors, perhaps, are men of small means like himself, and by his bankruptcy are involved in distress and poverty. This seems a hard case, but the community in which the man lived would think it still a harder case, if, by some sudden Legislative enactment, this man should be endowed with a power to buy his goods and provisions at half the whole sum they were compelled to pay for the same things. And it still would seem a hard case too, if by that same enactment he should be empowered to buy his goods so cheap that it would break up the entire business of his neighbors, who had for years been striving to build up a paying business upon small means. Do not some of our railway projects and their backers, taken in connection with the iron manufacturers of the United States, stand somewhat in the above relation? Let us look at a few facts. In this country we use iron material in almost everything. In fact we can find no business or occupation with which it does not enter largely, and its use is every day increasing. In this country, likewise, we have iron ores and coal in such abundance, that if the mines were properly worked, we could supply the world for centuries, and still have an overplus in the crude state beyond human calculation. The country is yet young, and from the high price of labor and the want of experience, we have been unable to work our mining riches with such facility as to compete with our trans-atlantic neighbors who have greater means and experience. The consequence has been that we have been compelled to pay the foreign manufacturers a profit upon his labor and capital, and still pay a heavy amount for transportation. Once in a great while we have so adjusted the tariff that some efforts to manufacture our own iron would be crowned with partial success, when straightway down goes the tariff and in pours foreign iron in such quantities and at such prices, that our manufacturers were compelled to stop their works and go into some other business. This game of battle-door and shuttle-cock with the iron manufacturing interests of the United States, has been played for many years, and the foreign manufacturer so well understands his game, that it always ends to his advantage and to the disadvantage of this country. The price of iron guaged by our necessities, is regulated by a league of foreign manufacturers, and they are de termined to have a monopoly of our market-to them the richess in the world. Let them understand that it is necessary to sell us at no profit for three or five years to retain our market and prevent our own manufacturing progress, and they will do it. They have the combined wealth and power to compel others to follow their lead. If the duty on foreign iron should be repealed in the United States, the price in England would immediately advance to such a point as would pay the highest profit to the foreign manufacturer, and still prevent our forges and furnaces from going into operation. The present tariff, aided by a most extraordinary consumption of iron in this country, has allowed of some increase of our own manufactures. We have begun in some little degree to get our works going again. Some of these are doing a paying business, and should the present demand continue, and the tariff remain un disturbed, in a few years we should increase very considerably our home product, and so far make some progress in achieving a par tial independence of the dictation of the foreign manufacturer. We could not do this with the present tariff, were we not aided by other circumstances of moment. It is well known that very large numbers of English iron workers have gone to the gold fields of Australia, and that consequently labor there is higher, and may continue so to be for some years. It would be wise for us at this juncture to take advantage of circumstances. Our national interest is pre-eminently the iron manufacture.-Every State in the Union is interested in it. Let the country remember the history of the cotton manufacturers in this country, and apply it to our iron interests. We now manufacture cotton cloth of almost every grade, and compete with those of England, even in her own markets. If we are wise, we shall foster our iron manufacturers to just such an end. ARTICLE IV. From Livingston's Law Reporter. Newspapers and Public Libraries. The origin of newspapers, like that of many institutions important to modern civilization, is to be referred to Italy The war which the Republic of Venice waged against Solyman II., in Dalmatia, gave rise, in 1563, to the custom in Venice of communicating the military and commercial information received, by written sheets (notizie scritte) to be read at a particular place by those desirous to learn the news, who paid for this privilege in a coin, not any longer in use, called gazetta a name which, by degrees, was transferred to the newspaper itself in Italy and France, and passed over into England.* A file of these Venetian papers, for sixty years, is still preserved in the Magliabecchi Library at Florence. The first regular paper was a monthly, written, government paper at Venice; and Chalmers, in his life of Ruddiman, informs us that "a jealous government did not allow a printed newspaper; and the Venetian Gazetta continued long after the invention of printing, to the close of the sixteenth century, and even to our own days, to be distributed in manuscript." Those who first wrote newspapers were called, by the Italians, menanti, be * Some etymologists have thought the name gazetta is to be derived from gazzera, a magpie, or, in this case, a chatterer; others from the Latin gaza, which, being colloquially lengthened into gazetta, would signify a little treasury of news. The Spanish derive it, indeed, from the Latin gaza, [Ġreek, gaza] though their newspapers, least of all, deserve the name of treasure." They have a peculiar word, wanting in our idiom, gazetista, a lover of the gazette. The German zeitung is from the ancient theidinge or theidung [the English, tiding, the Swedish, tiding ar.] |