Oneida Indians Declare Neutrality
Introduction
The Oneida tribes are Native American people who are among the founding nations of the Iroquois Confederacy in upstate New York. During the American Revolution, the Oneidas and five other tribes of the Iroquois Confederacy maintained a policy of neutrality initially. This paper will give a detailed discussion of the issue.
Discussion
Why did the Oneida Indians declare Neutrality?
Oneida Indians declared neutrality because they felt that they could not meddle into a dispute that involved two brothers. The dispute was between old and New England and the Oneida Indians felt that these were two brothers of the same blood. They felt equal affection for the two disputing nations and were unwilling to join on either side. The Oneida Indians were for peace and hence opted to declare neutrality.
The decision of the Oneida Indians to declare neutrality was not in the best interest of their tribal nation. This is because despite advocating neutrality and attempting to restore consensus among the six tribes of the Confederacy, their neutrality stance did not last long and quickly crumbled. Eventually, the Oneida Indians had to choose a side after neutrality crumbled. This step divided the Oneida Indians since some decided to side with the rebels while others decided to side with the British. The pro-British Oneida Indians were minor but became numerous later on. As the war continued, the Oneida Indians’ stand became more dire and this led to destruction of the key Oneida settlement at Kanonwalohale and defection of a large number of Oneida Indians. It is therefore evident that the decision of the Oneida Indians was not in the best interest of their tribal nation. Other nations did not follow suite due to the fact that each and every nation had a common stand or side that it fully supported. None of them was willing to take a neutral stand.
Philadelphia Convention
Compromises between the conflicting interests and the elite views of government
One of the compromises was slavery. The question of regulating slavery led to conflict between the south and the North with several states from the Southern part refusing to join the union if at all slavery was not catered for in the new constitution. The most contentious issue relation got slavery was the question on whether the slaves were to be counted as part of the population during determination of representation in the United Sates Congress or whether they would be considered as property and hence not entitled representation. The three-fifth compromise was finally proposed and adopted by the Philadelphia convention.
The other contentious issue that was under compromise was slave trade. Ten states had outlawed slave trade while three states threatened to leave the convention if at all slave trade were banned. The delegates to the convention did not want convention ratification to fail because of conflict over slavery hence; they postponed the decision on the salve trade. The compromise that was worked out in order to deal with the contentious issue of slave trade was that of giving the congress the power to ban the importation of slaves after a period of at least 20 years, in 1808.
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