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MICHIGAN CHAPTER 17 Close of the Revolution and Surrender of Michigan to the United States
It was not until later, when John Jacob Astor came into the field with the American Fur Company, that the United States furnished a rival capable of competing in the markets of the world and of expanding the enterprise to the far-off Pacific slope. Governor Haldimand did his best to hold for his countrymen this important trade. He saw what some of his predecessors had seen long before him, - that to let the Americans into the country to destroy the forests, to build homes, to clear and cultivate the land, meant an early and total extinction of the fur bearing animals and the consequent end of the trade which they furnished. His policy had a tendency to hold the country from settlement, to turn back the American pioneer. These influences may not appear on the surface and are not distinctly mentioned in the official correspondence, but it seems evident that they bad much weight. Governor Haldimand writing to his successor, General Barry St. Leger, declares that he has thought it his duty "uniformly to oppose the different attempts made by the American States to get possession of the posts in the upper country until his majesty's orders for that purpose shall be received, and my conduct upon that occasion having been approved, I have only to recommend to you a strict attention to the same. "
There were some questions of quite minor importance which were greatly magnified. The treaty of peace guaranteed that congress would take under immediate consideration the full payment in sterling coin of debts owing to British subjects by Americans. It was claimed that this guaranty had not been maintained in good faith, and that loyalists had been thwarted in all efforts to regain possession of their estates.
MICHIGAN
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