The means of retaliating injuries which might be inflicted on British commerce were stated, but those means, it was said, ought not hastily to be adopted, the more especially, as the existing government of the United States had discovered dispositions more favourable to a liberal and fair intercourse between the two countries, than had been manifested by the respective states.

For several reasons it was deemed adviseable not suddenly to disturb the existing state of things, but to regulate the trade of the two nations by a treaty, the stipulations of which should be equal, and mutually beneficial, provided such a treaty could be formed without a departure from those principles which were considered as fundamental.
[Sidenote: General Wayne appointed to the command of the army.] No abatement of hostility having taken place among the north-western Indians, the preparations for terminating the war by the sword were earnestly pressed.

Major General Wayne was appointed to succeed General St.Clair, who resigned the command of the army; and the utmost exertions were made to complete it to the establishment; but the laws furnished such small inducements to engage in the service, that the highest military grades, next to that of Commander-in-chief, were declined by many to whom they were offered; and the recruiting business advanced too slowly to authorize a hope that the decisive expedition which was meditated, could be prudently undertaken in the course of the present year.

Meanwhile, the public clamour against the war continued to be loud and violent.

It was vehemently asserted, that if the intentions of the government respecting the savages were just and humane, those intentions were unknown to them, and that their resentments were kept up by the aggressions of whites, and by the opinion that their expulsion from the country they occupied was the object of the hostilities carried on against them.