Phelps and Gorham Purchase
The Phelps and Gorham Purchase was the 1788 sale by the state of Massachusetts of its preemptive right to a portion of a large tract of land in western New York State owned by the Seneca nation of the Iroquois Confederacy to a syndicate of land developers led by Oliver Phelps and Nathaniel Gorham. The larger tract of land is generally known as the "Genesee tract" and roughly encompasses all that portion of New York State west of Seneca Lake, consisting of about.
According to the Treaty of Hartford, it was agreed that the Genesee tract was owned by the Senecas, was a part of and under the jurisdiction of New York State, and that Massachusetts had the preemptive right to purchase the land from the Senecas. In other words, the Senecas could sell the land only to the owner of those preemptive rights, and that those rights were owned by Massachusetts.
In 1788, Phelps and Gorham purchased these preemptive rights to the Genesee tract from Massachusetts for about $1,000,000, to be paid in three annual installments. Some sources refer to this purchase of preemptive rights as the "Phelps and Gorham purchase". On July 8, 1788, at the First Treaty of Buffalo Creek, Phelps and Gorham petitioned the Senecas to sell them the entire parcel, but the Senecas agreed to sell only the easternmost third of the tract, for $5000 and a perpetual annuity of $500 per year. This portion consisted of about east of the Genesee River plus the by Mill Yard Tract along the river's northwestern bank.
Within a year, monetary values rose and, in combination with poor sales, the syndicate was unable to make the second of three payments for the land west of the Genesee River, forcing them to default on exercising the remainder of the purchase agreement. They were also forced to sell at a discount much of the land they had already bought title to but had not yet re-sold; it was purchased by Robert Morris of Philadelphia, financier, U.S. Founding Father, and U.S. Senator.
Origins and background
Much of the land south of the St. Lawrence River and Lake Ontario, and west of the Hudson River, had been occupied by the Iroquoian-speaking Five Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy before any encounter with Europeans. Archaeological evidence suggests that Iroquoian peoples lived in the Finger Lakes region from at least 1000 CE; the nations known to the colonists are believed to have coalesced after that time, and formed their confederacy for internal peace among them.The Mohawk were the easternmost Iroquois tribe, occupying much of the Mohawk Valley west of Albany. The Onondaga and Oneida tribes lived near the eastern edge of this region of land purchases, closer to their namesake lakes, Lake Oneida and Onondaga Lake.. The Cayuga and Seneca nations lived to the west in the Finger Lakes region, with the Seneca the westernmost tribe.
Major Iroquois towns in the Finger Lakes region included the Seneca town of Gen-nis-he-yo in present-day Geneseo, Kanadaseaga near present-day Geneva, Goiogouen, Chonodote, Cayuga town in present-day Aurora, and Catherine's Town near present-day Watkins Glen.
The Iroquois nations had earlier formed a decentralized political and diplomatic Iroquois Confederacy. Allied as one of the most powerful Indian confederacies during colonial times, the Iroquois prevented most European colonization west of the middle of the Mohawk Valley and in the Finger Lakes region for nearly two centuries after first contact.
During the colonial era, some smaller tribes moved into the Finger Lakes region, seeking the protection of the Iroquois. In about 1720, the Tuscarora tribe arrived, having migrated from the Carolinas after defeat by European colonists and Indian allies. They were also Iroquoian-speaking and were accepted as "cousins", forming the Sixth Nation of the Confederacy.
In 1753 remnants of several Virginia Siouan tribes, collectively called the Tutelo-Saponi, moved to the town of Coreorgonel at the south end of Cayuga Lake. They lived there until 1779, when their village was destroyed during the Revolutionary War by allied rebel forces.
The French colonized northern areas, moving in along the St. Lawrence River from early trading posts among Algonquian-speaking tribes on the Atlantic Coast; they founded Quebec in 1608. When Samuel de Champlain explored the St. Lawrence River, he claimed the region French Canada as including Western New York. The French sent traders and missionaries there, but ceded any claim in 1759 during the French and Indian War, the North American front of the Seven Years' War, in which they were defeated by Great Britain.
During the American Revolutionary War, four of the six Iroquois nations allied with the British, hoping to push American colonists out of their territory. The Oneida and the Tuscarora became allies of the rebel Americans. Within each tribe, there were often members on either side of the war, as the tribes were highly decentralized. Led by Joseph Brant, a war leader of the Mohawk, numerous Iroquois warriors joined in British attacks against the rebels, particularly in the Mohawk and Schoharie valleys. They attacked and killed settlers, took some women and children as captives, drove off their livestock, and burned their houses and barns. The Iroquois resisted colonists encroaching into their territory, which roughly comprised the Allegheny, Genesee, Upper Susquehanna, and Chemung river basins. The Iroquois nations also raided American settlements in Western New York and along the Susquehanna River.
The colonists were angry and hungry for retaliation. In response, on July 31, 1779, George Washington, who was then commanding the Continental Army, ordered Gen. James Clinton and Gen. John Sullivan to march from Pennsylvania near present-day Wilkes-Barre to the Finger Lakes area of New York. The campaign involved mobilizing 6,200 Colonial Army troops, which represented about 25% of the entire rebel army at the time. Their orders were to
destroy all Indian villages and crops belonging to the six nations, to engage the Indian and Tory marauders under Brandt and Butler whenever possible, and to drive them so far west that future raids would be impossible.
Sullivan led his army on an expedition with the goal of subduing the Iroquois in the region. Although they did not kill many Natives, his forces destroyed much of the Iroquois homelands, including 40 villages such as the major Cayuga villages of Cayuga Castle and Chonodote and their surrounding fields. In the area from Albany to Niagara, they emptied their winter stores, which included at least 160,000 bushels of stored corn along "with a vast quantity of vegetables of every kind". These actions denied both the Iroquois and the British the food needed to sustain their war effort. The formerly self-sufficient Iroquois fled as refugees, gathering at Fort Niagara to seek food from the British. Weakened by their ordeal and famine, thousands of Iroquois died of starvation and disease. Their warriors no longer were a major factor in the war. The Continental Army took heart from their punishment of the Iroquois on the frontier.
During their advance west, Sullivan's army took a route to New York through northeast Pennsylvania. They had to cut a new road through lightly inhabited areas of the Pocono Mountains. When the troops returned to Pennsylvania, they told very favorable stories of the region that impressed potential settlers.
Treaty of Hartford
Following the American Revolution, there were a confusing collection of contradictory royal charters from James I, Charles I, and Charles II, mixed with a succession of treaties with the Dutch and with the Indians, which made the legal situation for land sales intractable. Following the war, Great Britain ceded all its claims to the territory, including lands controlled by the Iroquois, who were not consulted.To stimulate settlement, the federal government planned to release much of these millions of acres of land for sale. Before that could happen, New York and Massachusetts had to settle their competing claims for a region west of New York. The two states signed the Treaty of Hartford in December 1786. With the treaty, Massachusetts ceded its claim to the United States government, and sovereignty and jurisdiction of the region to New York State.
The treaty established Massachusett's pre-emptive rights right to negotiate with the Iroquois nations for their aboriginal title to the land ahead of New York, and also gave the two states the exclusive rights ahead of individuals to buy the land. Anyone else who wanted to purchase title to or ownership of land from the Iroquois was required to first obtain Massachusetts' approval.
After the adoption of the United States Constitution in 1787, the federal government ratified the states' compact. In April 1788, Phelps and Gorham bought the preemptive rights from Massachusetts, but this did not get them the right to develop or re-sell the land. They only obtained exclusive right to negotiate with the Iroquois and obtain clear title to the land. For this preemptive right, they paid Massachusetts $1,000,000 ). This was to be paid in three annual installments.
By an act of the Massachusetts Legislature approved April 1, 1788, it was provided that "this Commonwealth doth hereby agree, to grant, sell & convey to Oliver Phelps and Nathaniel Gorham, for a purchase price of $1,000,000, payable in three equal annual installments all the Right, Title & Demand, which the said Commonwealth has in & to the said 'Western Territory' ceded to it by the Treaty of Hartford." But first Phelps and Gorham had to go up against competing companies and persuade the Iroquois to give up their title to the land.
Council at Buffalo Creek
The New York Genesee Land Company, led by John Livingston, was one of the competitors to acquire title to these lands. He gathered several of the chiefs together at Geneva. To circumvent New York state law that only permitted the state to buy land from the natives, he negotiated a lease for a term of 999 years for all the Iroquois lands of Western New York. This included a down payment of $20,000 and an annual payment of $200 to their heirs. But when New York state learned of his agreement, it advised all parties including the natives that the lease had no standing in either Massachusetts or New York.Another competitor was the Niagara Genesee Land Company formed by Colonel John Butler, Samuel Street, and other Tory friends of the Iroquois. They tried to persuade the Iroquois to grant them a lease. Some proposed that an independent state be created in western New York.
Phelps eliminated many of his competitors by persuading them to join his syndicate. Phelps and Gorham retained 82 shares for themselves, sold 15 shares to the Niagara Genesee Land Company, and divided another 23 shares among 21 persons.
On July 8, 1788, Phelps met with the original Five Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy, including the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca nations, at Buffalo Creek. His goal was to execute a deed or treaty and obtain title to a portion of their land. The Oneida were split by internal divisions over whether they should give up their title.