Statesman; born in
England, Jan. 26, 1716; third son of the first
Duke of
Dorset,
lord-lieutenant of
Ireland; was educated there; entered the army, and rose to the rank of lieutenant-general.
He entered Parliament in 1761, and was made colonial secretary in 1775, ever evincing a most vindictive spirit towards the
Americans.
He became so unpopular at home that, during the
London riots in 1780, he felt compelled to barricade his house in the city.
So consonant were his views with those of the
King that he was a great favorite at court.
His influence over the young
King at the time of his coronation, and soon afterwards, was so well known that a handbill appeared with the words, “No Lord George
[
64]
Sackville!
No Petticoat Government!”
alluding to the influence of the monarch's mother.
He died in
England, Aug. 26, 1785.
Lord George seemed to take pride an comfort in employing agents who would
incite the savages of the wilderness to fall on the
Americans.
He complained of the humanity of
Carleton, who, in the autumn of 1776, hesitated to employ the Indians in war; but in
Hamilton, governor of
Detroit, he found a ready agent in the carrying out of his cruel schemes,
Early in September (1776) that functionary wrote he had assembled small parties of Indians in council, and that the Ottawas, Chippewas, Wyandottes, and Pottawattomies, with the Senecas, would “fall on the scattered settlers on the
Ohio and its branches” ; and saying of the
Americans, “Their arrogance, disloyalty, and imprudence has justly drawn upon them this deplorable sort of war.”
It was
Germain and his agents (sometimes unworthy ones) who excited the Indians to scalp and murder the white settlers, without distinction of age or sex, all along the frontier line from New York to
Georgia.
He reproved every commander who showed signs of mercy in his conduct in this business.
