167. Clark takes the fort; what we got by his victory; his
grave.--After a long and desperate fight Clark took Fort Vincennes
and hoisted the Stars and Stripes over it in triumph. The British
never got it back again. Most of the Indians were now glad to make
peace, and to promise to behave themselves.
By Clark's victory the Americans got possession of the whole western
wilderness up to Detroit. When the Revolutionary War came to an end,
the British did not want to give us any part of America beyond the
thirteen states on the Atlantic coast. But we said, The whole west,
clear to the Mississippi, is ours; we fought for it; we took it; we
hoisted our flag over its forts, and _we mean to keep it_. We did
keep it.
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