CHAPTER XV

OLD-FASHIONED PRACTICE IN RUTHLESSNESS

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UCH barbarities cried to heaven for relief. News of them stirred the hearts of the people of the East and passed on

across the sea to arouse the wholesome indignation of great-hearted Englishmen and women who could not believe them at first. But Dr. Benjamin Franklin carried with him a number of documentary reports which furnished proof positive. From that moment the sympathies of the English people were with the Americans and against their ruthless government. Here is an extract from one document in the case against barbarities. It is quoted from a letter sent by a carrier who was captured, and was addressed to the British governor-general: "May it please your excellency:

"At the request of a Seneca chief I hereby send to your excellency, under care of James Hoyd, eight packages of scalps, cured, dried, hooped and painted with all the triumphal marks and of which consignment this is an invoice and explanation.

"Package No. 1. Contains 43 scalps of Congress soldiers, inside painted red and marked with small black dot to show they were killed by bullets. Those painted brown and marked with a hoe denote that the soldiers were killed while working on their farms. Those marked with a black ring denote that the persons were surprised at night; those marked with a black hatchet denote that persons were killed with a tomahawk.

"Package No. 2. Ninety-eight farmers' scalps. A white circle shows that they were surprised in the daytime. Those marked with a red foot show that the men stood their ground and fought in defense of their wives and families.

"Package No. 3. Ninety-seven farmers' scalps. The green hoops denote that they were killed in the fields.

"No. 4. One hundred and two farmers' scalps; eighteen are marked with a yellow flame to show that they died by

torture. The one with a black hand attached belonged to a clergyman.

"No. 5. Eighty-eight scalps of women. Those with the

braided hair were mothers.

“No. 6. One hundred ninety-three boys' scalps.

"Number 7. Two hundred eleven girls' scalps.

"No. 8. One hundred twenty-two scalps of all sorts, among them are 29 infant scalps. (This is not a full record, nor the worst of it, but it is enough.)

"The chief of the Senecas sends this message: 'Father, we send you here these many scalps that you may see that we are not idle friends. We wish you to send them to the Great King that he may regard them and be refreshed; and that he may see our faithfulness in destroying his enemies and be convinced that his presents to us are appreciated.'

This one consignment contained 954 scalps, each one evidence of murder, and murder incited and procured by unscrupulous agents who were trying to make a personal record as holders of American territory, regardless of the cost.

It was horrors like these which made Edmund Burke fulminate against his own government with the most bitter invective and which led William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, to exclaim in his speech of Nov. 18, 1777: "If I were an American, as I am an Englishman, while a foreign troop was landed in my country I would never lay down my arms—never, never, never!"

The American people were much of the same mind, and while some of them employed the appeal to arms and force, others, like Benjamin Franklin, appealed to the humanity of the British government. Failing there, Dr. Franklin went to France and enlisted the aid of that government, which, with its loan of money, arms, ships and men, enabled us to win our independence.

All this is now history nearly a century and a half old, but it is still reasonable and proper that every reader should view the facts in the light of the times in which they occurred, bearing in mind the conditions which prevailed at the time. As has been previously stated, it is the common case that when civilized

men become long associated with barbarians they lose some of their thin veneer and make a partial reversion toward a state of barbarism.

A state of war begets a number of curious conditions. The final issue of all wars is supposed to be determined by superior skill in generalship and weight of numbers under arms. This is not always the case. Psychology plays an important part. A people who believe they are fighting in a just cause and contending for the natural rights and liberties of themselves and their fellow citizens will fight valiantly and hold on grimly in the face of repeated failures. Even when there seems to be ample justification for a war and a certain portion of a nation is eager for it, there is always an element which prefers avoidance of conflict and a compromise of the disputed matters.

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The governing powers generally avoid a declaration of war until they have prepared the minds of the people by propaganda so that the public sentiment is practically unanimous for war and the available fighting men are worked up to a state of sionate hatred toward the opposing government or faction. The most common method employed for propagating the war spirit in a nation is by repeated recitals of wrongs, real and fancied and, when the occasion will permit, by recitals of atrocities committed by "the other fellow" and careful suppression of their own atrocities.

We need look no farther back than 1914 to find startling proofs of this practically universal practice. Before the armies of Germany were launched against the Belgian frontier telegraphic reports of attacks on the German frontier and the dropping of bombs from French aeroplanes on German towns were broadcasted and published in every newspaper in the empire. That false propaganda fired the patriotism of millions of Germans who were but a moment before individually opposed to the war. On the other hand, from the moment the invasion began there was a frenzied publication of atrocities on the part of the German troops. This was to fire the patriotism of the French and Belgian people to such a pitch that they would fight to the last man in the defense of their countries and their wives

and children. The real atrocities were bad enough but even those were somewhat exaggerated. Atrocities are almost inseparable from warfare.

Human nature was much the same in the days of the American Revolution, in the War of 1812 and in the Civil War. Even from the far Philippines came occasional stories of "treating 'em rough" as in the case of the "water cure." At the outbreak of the Revolution we had statesmen who seemed to hold rank considerably above those who are in sight today. The most astute and far-sighted of these was Dr. Benjamin Franklin, who is said to have employed a line of propaganda that cut deep on both sides like a double-edged sword. There had been atrocities aplenty and they were not confined to one side. Dr. Franklin naturally wished to inspire his fellow patriots with a real passion for unwavering resistance and at the same time he wished to powerfully impress the people of Great Britain with the fact that the employment of barbarians in warfare meant the employment of barbarous methods that would be practiced by primitive wild men who, in the heat of passion, could not be controlled by the civilized man's discipline.

Just how much of his propaganda was true or to what extent it was exaggerated is hard to say at this time but his use of it had the desired effect in both countries. A fairly large minority of the British people sympathized with us in the war, and some of the ablest of them denounced the policies of their government as they did more than 100 years later at the time of the Boer war. With these facts in mind we can read Dr. Franklin's propaganda with clearer understanding. The spirit of fair play and a profound respect for the natural rights of the individual man are striking characteristics of the British people, and these things are a part of our own inheritance.

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CHAPTER XVI

BUILDING OF FORT LErnoult

O discourage Indian raids into Ohio Gen. Brodhead was sent into the territory with a force of men, and a stockaded fort called Fort Laurens was built at Tuscarawas about 90 miles south of Sandusky. This alarmed the authorities at Detroit, who realized that their stockaded town would be defenseless before artillery attack, so Capt. Richard Beringer Lernoult, who was commandant under Lieut.-Gov. Hamilton, laid out a fort on the higher ground now bounded by Fort, Lafayette, Griswold and Wayne streets, and work was rushed on the construction from Nov. I until the latter part of February of 1778.

This fort was connected with the town below by a covered passage and later the stockade of the town was extended so as to include the fort, which in honor of the builder was named Fort Lernoult. For further defense nine vessels were built in a shipyard on the River Rouge, in the vicinity of the present Woodmere Cemetery, and manned and armed for defense of Detroit. This work was begun in 1777 and continued for several

years.

During the year 1778 two noted frontiersmen were captured in the Ohio country by the Indians and brought to Detroit. They were Simon Kenton and Daniel Boone of Kentucky. Three times on the way to Detroit the Indians decided to burn Kenton at the stake, for he was a noted Indian fighter, but each time Simon Girty saved him. Kenton escaped from Detroit and made his way alone through the wilderness to Kentucky. Capt. Lernoult tried to ransom Boone at Detroit, but the Indians took him back to Chillicothe and from there he made his escape.

The British authorities in the West carried their fire-in-therear policy to great lengths, their idea being so to harass the