In the Treaty of Paris of 1783, Great Britain gave up its claims to the trans-Appalachian region and, said one British diplomat, left the Indian nations “to the care of their [American] neighbours.” Care was hardly the right word: many white Americans wanted to destroy native communities. “Cut up every Indian Cornfield and burn every Indian town,” proclaimed Congressman William Henry Drayton of South Carolina, so that their “nation be extirpated and the lands become the property of the public.” Other leaders, including Henry Knox, Washington’s first secretary of war, favored assimilating native peoples into Euro-American society. Knox proposed the division of tribal lands among individual Indian families, who would become citizens of the various states. Indians resisted both forms of domination and fought to retain control of their lands and cultures. In the ensuing struggle, the United States emerged as an expansive power, determined to control the future of the continent.