Chapter Six: Tying Up the Loose Ends of War, For Now
As of March 1791, Vermont’s status was up in the air as far as anyone could tell. The plebiscite that would determine its fate occurred in July. Options included joining the British province of Quebec or the Republic of New England, maintaining its independence as a separate republic, or merging into New York. Most Vermonters viewed a merger with New York as a near-death sentence by most Vermonters, so much so that joining British Quebec was preferable, even if that was a last resort. This idea had been toyed with during the North American War of Independence when representatives from Vermont negotiated to join British Quebec. Negotiations broke down in response to the British surrender at Yorktown in 1781, and the independence of the Thirteen Colonies was near certain. After the Revolution, it became clear Vermont only intended to maintain independence temporarily, and eventual admission into the United States was its goal since it could not survive on its own indefinitely. This goal fell apart in 1790 as New York withdrew from the Articles of Confederation and split the United States in half, effectively declaring the Union void. This meant that the only viable choice would be to join New England, with the remaining question being to merge with New Hampshire, as it had previously claimed the territory, or as a separate state. In July 1791, Vermont voted to join the Republic of New England as a state, which New York reluctantly accepted.
The resolution process in the southern part of the old USA was more tumultuous than one might expect. A ceasefire was declared on October 20, 1791, and negotiations would begin on February 7, 1792. While there were some representatives of the natives in attendance, the main parties in negotiations were the governments of the Confederacy of Greater Carolina, Kentucky, and Virginia. On one hand, North Carolina still legally owned all the land between the Appalachians and the Mississippi River between Georgia to the south and the nations of Virginia and Kentucky to the North. On the other hand, the Blue Ridge Mountains effectively served as a barrier to settlement until the 1770s, when migration began in defiance of the Proclamation of 1763. Initially refusing to recognize any of these new settlements, they developed their own culture independent of North Carolina and subsequently refused willful subjugation by their parent state for several years. It was clear something would have to give. Eventually, both parties would find a semi-suitable compromise. North Carolina would grant the over-mountain men their independence as soon as the conflict with the Cherokees and Creeks concluded. The Cumberland settlers feared for their safety, which North Carolina saw as a concern about potential independence. The only caveat was that North Carolina and the CGC would keep the territory that formerly comprised the unrecognized state and country of Franklin.
With tentative agreements made on the future of Tennessee, the focus shifted to the natives. A proposed settlement with the Cherokee would dictate how they would interact with the white settlers surrounding them in all directions. They would legally be under the protection of the Confederacy of Greater Carolina, Virginia, Kentucky, and later Tennessee. While it established initial terms, raids on Cumberland Valley settlers in the Cumberland Valley occurred in the spring and continued into the summer before warfare resumed six months later following another invasion of the area led by the Chickamauga Cherokees (under the Chief Doublehead). Muskogee warriors led a raid on the eastern districts in Tennessee the following year. In October 1793, the climactic battle at Etowah Cliffs led to a Cherokee defeat and later to a peace treaty between the Cherokees and the southern state governments in June 1794 that reaffirmed land cessions to these states. On November 7, 1794, another treaty recognized the formal end of the conflict with the Cherokee and required no additional land cessions. The Muscogee then turned solely to the Chickasaw, which was a much smaller, less prominent affair. Tenessee's independence would soon be finalized as a result. Its fate would be further cemented when, to avoid dependence on the Spanish, a merger with Kentucky would take effect, and it would become part of the new nation of Transylvania, allied to Virginia.
There was one part of the North American Continent that New England, New York, the rump United States of America, Virginia, and Transylvania all pursued: the old Northwest Territory. Dating back to colonial times, the states of Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, and Virginia claimed parts of the territory. New York gave up its claims first, ceding everything west of Lake Ontario to the new United States in 1782. Virginia followed suit in 1784 and let go of all its claims north of the Ohio River. In 1785, Massachusetts ceded its western lands, which were based on the original sea-to-sea grant from the British Crown. Finally, in 1786, Connecticut relinquished its claims, outside the Western Reserve. All bets were off when New York withdrew from the Articles of Confederation in 1790. They immediately reclaimed all of its ceded territory north of the Ohio River. In reality, they put much of their focus on Ohio Country, which was a volatile battleground between the states, the British, and Native Americans. In addition to the Western Reserve in the Northeast of Ohio Country, New Englanders under the Ohio Company of Associates settled the southeastern portion in 1788 at Marietta along the Ohio River. That same year, John Cleves Symmes of New Jersey purchased roughly 487 square miles of land between the Great Miami River and the Little Miami River. Even Virginia, which only had the Virginia Military District along the Ohio River, started opening the district to settlement. Things would soon shortly come to a head, all while things in Europe were also escalating.