Perhaps actually fighting with it, we dont know. Certainly, it would have been a mark of status and pride and one of the only examples of late 18th century 34inchlong hunting sword from paris, france. I think we are very fortunate here at the Neville Public Museum here in brown county to have pieces of American History that resound across generations. What you are seeing is elements that we are focusing on a specific timeperiod of contact. Native american and european populations are coming going. The material culture, the artifacts, the paintings, all illustrate the points of crossroads on a highway that has brought people to this landscape for millennia. It just happens to be a very interesting snapshot in time of when cultures collide, ultimately integrate, and then celebrate their identity for future generations. Find out where cspans local content vehicles are going next. Youre watching American History tv. All weekend, every weekend on cspan3. The American Revolution and before he was elected the first president of the United States, George Washington retired from public life. Up next, Edward Larson focuses on washington and how he contributed to western expansion and his efforts to link the east and west through the Potomac River. George Washingtons Mount Vernon hosted this hourlong event. Thank you so much. I wish my parents could have heard that. It would have made my father very proud and my mother actually would have believed you. There you gofment [laughter] for me as you suggested, this lecture concludes an amazing year. As it began just a year ago when the library airy, fred w. Smith library for George Washington and i was able to take a seat. During that year, i learned what a treasure all of you have in mount vernon. Led by the staff, the they are extraordinarily dedicated and extraordinarily loyal. For 150 years, the mount vernon laidies association has kept this place special. And with a new library, the orientation and education center, no crop of those women have done a better job have done a better john job. Among those were remarkable women. Well, let me begin tonight with a question. Retirement, today we think of a retirement as golf, bridge, a condo in florida with no grass to mow, but what it move to George Washington . He used the word often in 1783 as as the revolutionary war was winding down and he was preparing to resign his position mount vernon would be the seat of my retirement from the bustle of the busy world, washington wrote in one typical letter. Yet, what did he envision that retirement to be . He was only 51 years old and the most celebrated man in america, if not the world. The master of one of virginias largest plantations and both deeply committed to and profoundly concerned about the future of his newly independent country. To retire means to rest. He knew that would not be the case. First, he had plenty to do on the plantation. An almost entire suspension of everything which related to my own estate for nearly nine years has accumulated an abundance of work for me. Washington observed in 1784. He was a hands on manager by nature. But conditions at mount vernon accented this trait. I made no money from my estate during the nine years away from it, washington explained and he needed to write this unsustainable situation. He rode the circuit of his fine farms. He rode those around here and theyre now all subdivisions around here every morning, monday through saturday, observing his some 200 workers, most of them black slaves. After noons were spent planning ways to improve his livestock. He antie entertained a steady stream of visitors who arrived, often unannounced, to greet the celebrated general and inevitably stay for dinner and the night. Unless someone pops up unexpectedly, washington noted in 1798, mrs. Washington and myself will do what i believe has not been done within the last 20 years by us, that is to sit down to dinner by ourselves. This period, of course, covered his years at mount vernon following his retirement in 1783. Second, no matter how much he hoped to unload it, he still dare carried the weight of a country on his shoulder. Washington knew from experience that the articles of confederation did not confer enough power on the Central Government to preserve the union and protect the people. In some of his last major acts as commander in chief he sent a circular letter to the states, urging them to revise the articles and he offered a plan for a peace time army. After retiring, he never stopped championshipping those themes in public and private. A strong Central Government was needed to promote prosperity at home, gain respect abroad and expand westward. On going developments under the confederation as the states pulled apart and the economy deteriorated reconfirmed his fears. As early as 1782, he was complaining about the the deranged state of Public Affairs and writing to another governor about expanding National Powers. In such letters, he showed little signs of settle into a quiet retirement. Washingtons two retirement concerns establishing his own estate and the United States combined in his vision for the american west. Intent on securing his fortune in land, prior to the war, washington obtained large undeveloped tracks on the frontier in western pennsylvania and virginia. With peace, he sought to capitalize on that investment. And like so Many Americans he viewed the west as key to the countrys future as being both an out outlet for individual opportunity and a source for economic expansion. Thus, after spending the first nine months of his socalled retirement trying to restore order to his plantation, washington headed west to inspect his frontier holdings. This trip it turned out crystallized his hopes and his fears for the country and drew washington back into the pub lick. In a sense, his long journey back from retirement, to the Constitutional Convention and the presidency began with his trip west in 1784. Now ill talk about wearns role washingtons role during my next two lectures. Tonight let me focus on his grand western adventure. The trip began well enough. Washington set out by horsebacking. This is a map from the period. Of course, you can see mount vernon and the chesapeake and the potomac down here. Hes going to go across up here towards pittsburgh and the west. Washington set out on horseback on september 1 with three slaves or servants and his long time friend and physician james craig for a planned six week overland trek. Craigs son and washingtons nephew soon joined them. Washington knew roughly what to expect. He had crossed the territory several times during the 1740s and as a clone cal militia officer in the colonial militia officer. On those trips he sometimes traveled light and often slept under only a blanket. Not this time. Although the party planned to stay in private homes whenever possible for nights without lodging, they carried a tent for a four for the four gentlemen and a tent for the servants. They brought supplies with them such as fishing gear, they followed the Potomac River in a westerly direction and then leaving the river took a more northerly track towards pittsburgh. The potomac which literally kept through a parallel low ridges. On this trip washington favored the virginia side where he owned scattered tracks that he leased to farmers. Trotting on his great horse at a gait of about five miles per day, washington reached cumberland on the 10th day. The Potomac Valley below cumberland had become an integral part of the Eastern States by 1784. Many of its set letters had cast their settle settleors. His tenants paid what they could toward their long past due rent and cheered him on hi his way. To this point the trip went well. The troubles began after he left the settled land east of the algainies and began toward southwestern pennsylvania. As a colonial militia officer, washington had helped cut a pathway through the wilderness to supply and support a matsive massive british assaults and had rereat treated in terror acrossed it. 12 days after leaving mount vernon the road took him along. The all um rain had begun by this time, turning brad ox road into muddy trough. In reality, it was as much as when he surrenderered it to the french 30 years earlier. Washington had posted it for lease but so far no takers. With the baggage bogged down in the rain and mud, washington rushed ahead to reach a much larger track at a place called washingtons bottom. In time for the scheduled auction of a mill that he owned. Since 1772 simpson had been washingtons agent in manage managing this mill. Washingtons advanced the capital. Simpson provided the labor. And they would share the profits. But there were no profits or none at least that simpson ever reported. Rarely charitable when it came to business, by 1775 rnings washington dismissed simpson as a man of extreme stupidity. But he was soon to preoccupied by war to wind down the partnerships. By wars end washington suspected simpson of something much worse, fraud. More than anything resolving this long festering dispute with simpson prompted washingtons trip west. In july, washington advertised the farm for sale, the stocks and slaves its farm for lease, the stocks and slaves for sale and the mill, this mill for auction. He went to see those matters through. Well, accustomed to having his way with subordinates, washingtons frustration only mounted when he encountered his partner in simpsons home turf. On inspection, the water mill built by simpson with washingtons money lacked sufficient water power to operate. And the plots leased by simpson as washingtons agent to individual settleors while washington was at war offered little promise. The tenants struck washington as a people of a lower order. He collected what he could from them in rent and arranged some new leases. But when he tried to auction the mill, there were no bidders. It was worthless. Simpson tried to get him to invest more and make it better, but washington said i will not throw bad money after good. Washington wanted to get out of this place as soon as possible after the auction, but a settled rain forced him to say with simpson for three more nights. Well, if this seems like washingtons perg torrey then hell awaited at the next stop. A foretaste of the coming torment arrived. It came in the form of cedars from washingtons 2,813 track at nearby millers run. Heres a picture of some of their descendents. The american frontier always attracted more than the share of religious groups seeking their zion in the wilderness. Members of one such ban, the cedars, had the misfortune of staking their claim to the frontier for up to a frontier haven on land already claimed by the father of their country. Having known for a decade that washington claimed the land where they squatted, upon learning that he was on his way to assert his rights, they sent a delegation to deter and dissuade him. The cedars and im quoting from washingtons diey here. They came to diary here. They came to inquire about my rights. He saw through their pretext of reasonableness and would not concede anything without visiting the track themselves. When the two sides met again at millers run, both asserting their rights, the trouble insued. Such conflicts were common at the time. At the time claimants to undeveloped land could base their right on a government grant, survey or some improvement or on occupancy, whichever happened first. Washington and most speculateors use the former method of course. The cedars and many front earsman use the latter. Washington hired a surveyor in 1771 and built an unoccupied cabin on it in 1772. The cedars moved in 1773 and claimed the land by occupancy. One of the cabins they built was built so close to the previous cabin that you couldnt open its door. Washington at their they refused but offered to pay a modest price to avoid contention. Washington favored renting over selling his frontier property. As the cedars explained their religious convictions against leasing it, a lease from anyone who wasnt of a similar religious view, washington softened somewhat. He offered to sell but then the side could not agree on a price. Rather than pay much, the seed ars would fight the claim in court. Washington would devote the next two years to substantiate his warrant and survey. Both were shaky. In the end though, thanks to a good lawyer, washington won the case and the cedars moved on with the frontier. It did not hurt that the judge hearing that case was a signor of the declaration and an old friend of washington. A former governor of two states, delaware and pennsylvania. From millers run washington planned to proceed southwest to his largest frontier holdings, nearly 30,000 acres near the ohio river in what is now West Virginia. Word had spread of danger ahead, however. Washington wrote in his diary, the indians it is said were in too discontent a move for me to expose myself to their insults. They were provoked by incursions into their land northwest of the ohio river which they claimed as their territory and a failure of congress to negotiate a peace revolutione leading attack on a native village northwest of the ohio, washingtons then local agent was captured, beaten, scalped and slowly roasted to death. Washington obviously did not want to sufficient a similar fate or risk a possible kidnapping for ran son. I thought it better to return. His new local agent, the successor to the one when had been killed later informed to washington that some of the natives had actually heard about his intended visit and were waiting to trap and capture him. Think of how that might have changed American History. Well, the trip as we recounted it, disorientity disorientated and disconcerted washington. It was as if the frontier and the people were conspiring to frustrate his plans. Even before turning back, the cascading setbacks forced him to confront issues on his personal finance and in the countrys future that he might have put off had he stayed home. On a personal level his plans for retirement roo lied on income from his large Land Holdings from several properties. With america supposedly at peace, washington had fwon west to make these three assets profittable in the postwar economy. He found though no present potential for revenue in the first, settleors occupying the second and hostile tribes restricting access to the third. Removing them, washington decided, would require government action. A lack of National Power and resources lay at the heart of the matter. A year had past since britain signed a treaty recognizing american sovereignty yet british troops continued to occupy north of the ohio river. Set aside by britain for those native tribes by the proclamation of 1763, which you can see the line there, this district later known as the northwest territory, remained under control of probritish tribes. With virtually no funds or forces, the United States government was powerless to deter this frontier. Moreover, virginia had seated its claim, making its defense a national problem. If congress could settle those lands if not it risked losing them to a foreign power and with them americas future. This became washingtons future. As he saw it, the danger was not limited to the territory northwest of the ohio river, but encompassed the intire entire frontier. He wrote, the western settlors stand as it were on a pivot the touch of a feather would turn them anyway. Spain controlled the mountains of the mississippi. Set lors britain controlled the great lakes and the Saint Lawrence river. Native tribes still occupied most of the territory claimed by the out west of the appalachian mountains. He detected little loyalty to the United States in settlors he encountered on the frontier. He wrote the ties are weakening every day will soon be no bond. If then the trade of that country shall flow through the mississippi or the Saint Lawrence, if the inhabitants there of shall form commercial connections, then in a few years the unconnected with us all together. For got of the country in his own finances he confluid colluded washington had one such tie principally in mind, potomac riff navigation. Washington had dreamed of a Potomac River navigation long before independence made it a cause. There you see where the navigation would go. Not only could such a water way improve access to his frontier holdings, it would channel western trade through the mouth of the potomac near here, near mount vernon. Both would increase his welt wealth. Little had actually changed in washingtons thinking about the projects in since 1754 when he first suggested using the Potomac River to carry supplies. Prive out funds were raised to improve navigation on the river below cumberland. Construction began on a bypass canal by 1775, but the revolutionary war intervened to put the entire prodgeebt on hold. Now he wanted to revive it and expand it. At the time, no one knew what navigation could be extended beyond cumberland along one of the Potomac Rivers up land trib terrys to reach a branch of the ohio river. Accurate maps of the upper potomac and Ohio River System simply did not exist. Accordingly, on the Outward Bound leg of his western journey in september of 1784, washington asked people along the way about the head waters of the potomac and of the ohio and where the two systems came closest together. Although the answers often conflicted, he recorded all of them in the hopes of later determining the best transit route. To reach his frontier holdings, washingtons party left to follow the Overland Route to the ohio valley, the standard method. His travels cut short before reaching his property. Washington decided to salvage what he could of the trip by working his way back through the unchartered wilderness in search of water ways. A gray haired retired general, americas leading citizen set off o