MDDM Ch. 28 Notes & Questions

[jbor]

on 15/1/02 2:23 PM, John Bailey at johnbonbailey at hotmail.com wrote:

> 277.10 ‘as he was not offering his Services out of love for those inexpensive
> Tokens with which he is synonymous...” Who, Cresap? Or Bouquet? Either way,
> I can’t make much sense of this sentence, beyond the obvious later part of
> the paragraph, ie. it’s all about the money.

I think the "inexpensive Tokens" line is a reference to a bouquet, as in a
compliment or show of praise (i.e. "bouquets and brickbats"). So, Bouquet
"was not offering his Services" just for the greater glory of colonial
America at all, according to George. He is, in Washington's eyes, merely
another mercenary, a "Deliverer whose appetite for Profit matches his
self-confidence." It's quite a scathing attack (and somewhat hypocritical,
considering George's own eagerness to talk real estate with M & D and have
his man-servant invest in those "Dismal Swamp Land Company shares". 279.32)

Bouquet had commanded the Anglo-American forces to success in the war
against the French, and had had a run-in or two with Washington over
military strategy (as well as land claims) along the way it seems:

http://www.constitution.org/jw/acm_3-m.txt

[ ... ]

    Washington had advanced his idea of the proper way to reduce Fort
DuQuesne. Like Braddock, he wanted to set out from Fort Cumberland with 1000
to 1400 men. There the similarity of the two plans of the two men parted
company. Washington preferred to use frontiersmen who knew how to survive
the wilderness, but those who had been subjected to a significant amount of
militia discipline. He gave no thought to carrying siege cannon as Braddock
had. Had Washington's plan been followed either in 1755 or 1757, it is hard
to understand what the army would have done had it confronted the French
force secure within the walls of one of the strongest forts in America. In
any event, Washington was to repeat this suggestion in 1757, following
Braddock's defeat, when Colonel Henry Bouquet was planning to move more
directly westward, beginning at Fort Bedford. Bouquet rejected all parts of
Washington's suggestion.

[ ... ] After Braddock's defeat, command of the British and provincial
forces in Pennsylvania fell to a Swiss officer Colonel Henry Bouquet
(1719-1765). No fool he, Bouquet studied Amerindian tactics before setting
out to conquer western Pennsylvania and destroy Fort DuQuesne.

[ ... ]

    Following the peace treaty with France which ended the colonial and
other phases of the Seven Years war, signed at Paris on 10 February 1763,
the British government sought to firm up its relations with the Amerindians
by limiting settlements in Indian territory. The home government, by the
Proclamation of 1763, closed the vast territory France had ceded between the
Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River. The document drew a line
connecting the supposed sources of rivers flowing into the Atlantic Ocean,
commonly known as the Eastern Continental Divide, and forbade any colonial
government to grant any land speculators, trading companies or settlers
titles, warrants or patents for land west of that line. Houses and farms
existing beyond the demarcation line were burned and land returned to the
Amerindians as part of the first reservations. Traders operating among the
Amerindians had sold them rum, firearms and other implements of war, had
cheated them and gotten the men drunk so as to debauch their wives. All
traders were to be licensed and such permits withdrawn from traders who
ignored the law. The reaction among the citizens who comprised the militia
was predictable. Many were speculators, traders and potential settlers. Some
thought they had been promised land within the now proscribed area as
bounties for enlisting as volunteers. Others had seen the British army burn
their homes. Most were in no mood to support any aspect of British policy,
especially military policy.
    No sooner had the Seven Years ended than the conspiracy of Pontiac
began.

[ ... ]

best