To terminate hostilities.
1784. After the peace of Ryswick, Count Frontenac informed the Indians that he could not any longer support them in a war with the English, with whom his nation was now at peace. He therefore advised them to bury the hatchet and restore their captives.—Jeremy Belknap, ‘New Hampshire,’ i. 281.
1794. To use an Indian figure, may the hatchet be henceforth buried for ever, and with it all the animosities which sharpened, and which threatened to redden it.—J. Jay, ‘Letter to Lord Grenville: Corresp.,’ &c., iv. 147. (N.E.D.)
1802. We have been invited to bury the hatchet, and brighten the chain of peace.—Mr. Bayard, in reply to Mr. Giles: The Balance, Hudson, N.Y., April 6, p. 107/1.
1812. What has provoked them of late to dig up the hatchet they had so long buried? Let Mr. Madison and the majority of Congress answer.—Boston-Gazette, Dec. 17.
1843. Uncle John now proposed to bury the hatchet, and form a league of offence and defence.—B. R. Hall (‘Robert Carlton’), ‘The New Purchase,’ ii. 54.
1848. Will the time never come when we may honorably bury the tomahawk, and pass round the calumet of peace?—Mr. Jamieson of Missouri, House of Repr., Jan. 18: Cong. Globe, p. 193.
