<George Washington a terrorist? Balderdash!>
What do you call a military campaign, designed and carried out, not to defeat an enemy army, but to cause starvation by destroying all food and food-production in the enemy nation, burn all housing, and drive off the entire civilian population? If not "terrorist", would you prefer "ethnic cleansing"?
...early in 1779, George Washington began planning a major campaign against the principal Indian enemy, the “Six Nations” of the Iroquois. As an old Indian-fighter, he knew that this foe was elusive and, therefore, not readily vulnerable to defeat in battle; but the Indians could be reached through destruction of their fields and villages, in a “scorched earth” operation...Sullivan reported the destruction of forty Indian towns and at least one hundred sixty thousand bushels of corn. phmc.state.pa.us
Washington writes to General John Sullivan; "The immediate objects are total destruction and devastation of their settlements....[The Indian country] is not to be merely over run, but destroyed." Washington was well aware of the circumstances, proposed to defeat the enemy not by winning battles but by invoking the aid of war's ancient ally, famine...
Sullivan's combined forces marched with the greatest caution destroying all settlements, corn and vegetables in the fields or in storage, on route. Leaving virtually nothing that would be in anyway of aid to the Indians.
the-roundup.com
"There was nothing but bare soil and timber, not a mouthful of any kind of sustenance, not even enough to keep a child one day from perishing form hunger."-Seneca surivor of Sullivan's campaign, Mrs. Jimison
The flying campaign, charged with destruction, had now fairly begun. "The Indians shall see," said Sullivan, "that there is malice enough in our hearts to destroy every thing that contributes to their support," and cruelly was that menace executed. The Indians fled before him like frightened deer to cover, and the wail of desolation was heard throughout their pleasant land, from the Susquehanna to the Genesee. Village after village was laid waste, and fields and orchards were desolated. Kendaia was swept from existence [September 6, 1779.]; other and smaller villages were annihilated; and on the 7th of September the conquerors sat down before Kanadaseagea, the capital of the Senecas, near the head of the beautiful lake of that name. Sixty well-built houses, surrounded by fine orchards of apple, peach, and pear trees, became a prey to the army. Not a roof was left to shelter the sorrowing inhabitants on their return – not a fruit-tree to shade them or to give them sustenance – not an ear of corn of all the abundance that lay before the invaders when they approached, was saved from the devouring flames.
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Flourishing and fruitful orchards were cut down; hundreds of gardens were desolated; the inhabitants were driven into the forests to starve, and were hunted like wild beasts...
Cornplanter, a chief of the Senecas, standing before President Washington, said, in the course of a long speech: "When your army entered the country of the Six Nations, we called you "The Town Destroyer"; and to this day, when that name is heard, our women look behind them and turn pale, and our children cling close to the necks of their mothers." 216.239.37.100
This garden spot of the upper Mohawk Valley had been devastated and almost depopulated by the Revolutionary War...Governor Clinton and some of the personages of the State met the prominent chiefs of the Iroquois in what is known as "The Great Council," at Fort Stanwix in 1788, which resulted in the ceding to the whites of the whole of the Indian territory except the Oneida reservation.
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"We are a powerful confederacy," the Onondaga leader Canasatego had advised colonials officials back in 1744, "and by your observing the same methods our wise forefathers have taken, you will acquire fresh strength and power." The words prompted a bright young journalist name Benjamin Franklin to make a study of the Iroquois system. Franklin discovered a fine working example of representative democracy, with an unwritten constitution that spelled out checks and balances, rules of procedure, limits of power, and a stress on individual liberty. Deeply impressed, Franklin drew up a scheme, called the Albany Plan, for joining the Thirteen Colonies into a similar confederation.
Franklin's proposal languished for several decades. Then, at Philadelphia, the delegates turned to its provisions; much of the final Constitution thus came to reflect Iroquois ideals. So, too, did an important piece of national symbolism: the American eagle. Like the majestic bird that guards the Iroquois Tree of Peace, the American eagle stands for unity and power. There is one further echo. The Iroquois eagle holds six arrows, one for each of the Six Nations; the United States eagle grasps 13 arrows, a reminder of its 13 original member states.
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