Whole nations are at times moved with a sort of religious fervor or frenzy which extends to all ranks and stations. During these periods strange mental phenomena are at times apparent, great social and political movements are inaugurated, and the whole complexion of affairs seems to undergo a rapid and sometimes radical change. Such a movement occurred among the Indian tribes of Ohio and those along the Wabash about the beginning of the year 1806. At this time a part of the scattered and broken remnants of the Shawnee tribe had been gathered together under the Prophet and Tecumseh at Greenville, Ohio. In November of the year before the Prophet had "assembled a considerable number of Shawnees, Wyandots, Ottawas and Senecas, at Wapakoneta, on the Auglaize river, when he unfolded to them the new character with which he was clothed, and made his first public effort in that career of religious imposition, which in a few years was felt by the remote tribes of the upper lakes, and on the broad plains which stretched beyond the Mississippi." The appearance of the Prophet was not only highly dramatic but extremely well-timed. The savage mind was filled with gloomy forebodings. The ravages of "fire-water," the intermixture of the races, the trespassing of the white settlers on the Indian domain, and the rapid disappearance of many of the old hunting grounds, all betokened a sad destiny for the red man. Naturally superstitious, he was prepared for the advent of some divine agency to help him in his distress. No one understood this better than the Prophet. He may have been the dupe of his own imposture, but impostors are generally formidable. He was no longer Laulewasikaw, but Tenskwatawa, "The Open Door." "He affected great sanctity; did not engage in the secular duties of war or hunting; was seldom in public; devoted most of his time to fasting, the interpretation of dreams, and offering sacrifices to spiritual powers; pretended to see into futurity and to foretell events, and announced himself to be the mouth-piece of God."

The first assemblage at Wapakoneta, was later followed by a series of pilgrimages to Greenville, which shortly spread alarm among the white settlers. Hundreds of savages flocked around the new seer from the rivers and lakes of the northwest and even from beyond the Mississippi. In May of 1807 great numbers passed and re-passed through Fort Wayne. In a letter of date August 20th, 1807, from William Wells, the United States Indian agent at the last named place, to Governor Harrison at Vincennes, Wells relates that the lake Indians from the vicinity of Mackinac are flocking to Greenville; that the Prophet is instilling the doctrine that in a few years the Great Spirit will destroy every white man in America, and that the inhabitants of Detroit are fortifying themselves against attack. To all these savage gatherings the Prophet preached the new propaganda. He denounced drunkenness, and said that he had gone up into the clouds and had seen the abode of the Devil; that there he saw all the drunkards and that flames of fire continually issued from their mouths, and that all who used liquor in this world would suffer eternal torment in the next; he advocated a return to pristine habits and customs, counseling the tribes "to throw away their flints and steels, and resort to their original mode of obtaining fire by percussion. He denounced the woolen stuffs as not equal to skins for clothing; he commended the use of the bow and arrow. As to inter-marriage between the races, all this was prohibited. The two races were distinct and must remain so. Neither could there be any separate or individual ownership of any of the Indian lands; these were the common heritage of all. The weak, aged and infirm were to be cherished and protected; parental authority was to be obeyed. In conclusion, he never failed to proclaim that the Great Spirit had gifted him with the divine power to 'cure all diseases and to arrest the hand of death, in sickness, or on the battlefield'."

The happening of these events soon attracted the attention of the British agents at Malden, just below Detroit, and on the Canadian side. McKee was there and Matthew Elliott. The old hatred of all things American still burned in their bosoms. "England and France," says Ridpath, "were now engaged in deadly war. The British authorities struck blow after blow against the trade between France and foreign nations; and Napoleon retaliated. The plan adopted by the two powers was, as already narrated, to blockade each others' ports, either with paper proclamations or with men-of-war. By such means the commerce of the United States was greatly injured. Great Britain next set up her peculiar claim of citizenship, that whosoever is born in England remains through life the subject of England. English cruisers were authorized to search American vessels for persons suspected of being British subjects, and those who were taken were impressed as seamen in the English navy. On the twenty-second of June, 1807, the frigate Chesapeake was hailed near Fortress Monroe by a British man-of-war called the Leopard. British officers came on board and demanded to search the vessel for deserters. The demand was refused and the ship cleared for action. But before the guns could be charged the Leopard poured in a destructive fire, and compelled a surrender. Four men were taken from the captured ship, three of whom proved to be American citizens. Great Britain disavowed this outrage and promised reparation; but the promise was never fulfilled."

In the event of a renewal of hostilities between the United States and Great Britain, it would evidently be the mission of McKee and Elliott to brighten the bond of friendship between the Indian tribes and the king; re-establish, so far as possible, the old savage confederacy, and use it both as a barrier against any attempted invasion of Canada, and as a weapon of offense against the western states and settlements. The Shawnees were wholly in the interest of the British. The Potawatomi, Ottawas and Chippewas who resided in the neighborhood of Detroit were, as Harrison says, "the most perfidious of their race," and Wells reported to Harrison, that in case of war, the Indian tribes would be against the United States. In a letter of July eleventh, 1807, Harrison wrote to the Department of War that a respectable trader from Detroit had informed him "that McKee, the British Indian agent, was lately seen to pass up the Miami of the Lake to Greenville where the Prophet resided, and where there has been a considerable collection of Indians for many weeks." The frontiers were generally alarmed, and in September the Governor dispatched the interpreter, John Conner, with a talk to the Shawnees requiring the immediate removal of the "impostor" from the territory, and the dispersion of the warriors he had collected about him. "The British," he writes, "could not have adopted a better plan to effect their purpose of alienating from our government the affections of the Indians than employing this vile instrument. It manifests at once their inveterate rancour against us and their perfect acquaintance with the Indian character."

But to return to the Prophet. His fame, bruited far and wide, soon aroused the jealousy of many of the neighboring chiefs and medicine men. They saw their power dwindling away and their authority diminishing. They took steps to check the advancing tide of fanaticism, but were at once adroitly met by the introduction of an inquisition into witchcraft, which had been almost universally believed in by the tribes, but against which the Prophet now hurled the most direful anathemas. He declared that anyone who dealt in magic or "medicine juggleries" should never taste of future happiness, and must be instantly put to death. His deluded and awe-struck followers promptly began a systematic searching out and persecution of "witches," and all under his personal direction. The finger of the seer often pointed at a prominent warrior or chieftain, or some member of their household. The Prophet's mere denunciation was proof enough. The victim went to the torture of death by fire, or some other fate equally revolting. Among the Delawares, especially, the most shocking cruelty ensued, and finally these things came to the ears of the Governor at Vincennes. He immediately sent a "speech" by special messenger to the headmen and chiefs of the Delaware tribe beseeching them to cast aside all fallacious doctrines, to denounce the Prophet and to drive him out of their midst. In the course of this "speech" he said: "Demand of him some proof at least, of his being the messenger of the Deity. If God has really employed him, He has doubtless authorized him to perform miracles that he may be known and received as a prophet. If he is really a prophet, ask of him to cause the sun to stand still, the moon to alter its course, the rivers to cease to flow, or the dead to rise from their graves."

The language of the Governor proved to be unfortunate. On June sixteen, 1806, there was a total eclipse of the sun in northern latitudes for a period of about five minutes, at about a half an hour before midday, and this event had long been heralded by the astronomers of that time, and had come to the ears of the Prophet through intercourse with some white friends. The crafty savage was not slow to act. He told his followers that on a certain fixed day, and at a time when the sun was at the height of its power, he would place the same under his feet, and cause darkness to come over the face of the earth. On the day announced, the Prophet stood among his fearful band, awaiting the hour. The day was wholly clear and without clouds, but at the appointed time the terrified savages saw a disc of blackness gradually pass over the face of the sun; the birds became agitated and flew to cover; the skulking dogs drew near their masters; almost absolute darkness fell on all about; the stars of heaven appeared in the zenith, and in the midst of it all, the Prophet exclaimed: "Did I not testify truly? Behold! Darkness has shrouded the sun!" The account of that day, faithfully set forth by J. Fennimore Cooper, then a youth, is filled with strange relations of the unnatural appearance of all earthly things; of the sudden awe and fear that came into the minds of all; how women stood near their husbands in silence and children clung to their mothers in terror, and if these were the emotions experienced in a civilized community, made fully aware of the coming event, what must have been the impression produced on the superstitious mind of the savage, wholly unenlightened in the ways of science? From that day, the power of the savage Prophet was secure until the spell of his magic was forever broken by Harrison's soldiers at Tippecanoe.

It is not certain at what precise period in his career, whether in 1806 or 1807, or later, the Prophet was tempted by British gold and British overtures. President Jefferson once wrote to John Adams as follows: "I thought there was little danger in his making proselytes from the habits and comforts they had learned from the whites, to the hardships and privations of savagism, and no great harm if he did. But his followers increased until the British thought him worth corrupting, and found him corruptible." Neither is it certain at what precise period Tecumseh put his brother-priest behind him and assumed the lead. That he had cunningly pretended to have great respect and reverence while the Prophet was practicing on the superstition of the tribes; that he took no steps to stop the inquisitions which were destroying the influence of the chiefs and medicine men; that he stood ready at the opportune moment to push the brother-priest into the back-ground and form a confederacy with himself as the recognized head, will not now admit of controversy.

In 1806 Tecumseh was about thirty-eight years of age, a finished athlete, a renowned hunter, and of great reputation as a bold and fearless orator. Probably no red man ever born had a better knowledge of the various treaties that had been consummated between the races. "For all those qualities which elevate man far above his race; for talent, tact, skill, bravery as a warrior; for high-minded, honorable and chivalrous bearing as a man; in fine, for all those elements of greatness which place him a long way above his fellows in savage life, the name and fame of Tecumseh will go down to posterity in the west, as one of the most celebrated of the aborigines of this continent." This is the estimate of Judge Law, of Vincennes.

In his youth he had been under the tutelage of his elder brother, Cheeseekau, who taught him "a love for the truth, a contempt of everything mean and sordid, and the practice of those cardinal Indian virtues, courage in battle and fortitude in suffering." In one of the early Shawnee raids along the Ohio he had witnessed the burning of a white man at the stake; the scene was so horrifying to him that he made his associates promise never to torture another person. The spoils of the hunt he divided with the aged and unfortunate. At the time of the Prophet's rise he had already matched his prowess in battle against such men as Simon Kenton and his associates and had proven both his skill as a tactician and his courage as a fighter.

An illustration of Tecumseh's chivalry toward his foes, is pleasingly set forth in Smith's Historical Sketches of Old Vincennes; "Early in the year 1811, Governor Harrison, with a view to ascertaining the cause of the dissatisfaction of the Prophet, and, if possible, pacify him, deputed one of his most sagacious and trusty advisers with a competent interpreter to hold a council with him and his chiefs, including his brother warrior chief, Tecumseh. It is learned from history that these gentlemen arrived at the village one evening and were received in an apparently friendly manner by the Prophet and assigned a tent for the night with an appointment for a council the next morning. It is said the Prophet's wife was considered a queen among the Indian women, as well as by her husband. Before retiring for the night the interpreter observed an unusual stir among the squaws, and motions made toward their tent, and caught menacing glances and gestures toward them, and so told the ambassador, but he made light of the matter and the interpreter's suspicions that treachery was intended, and when night came on he was soon asleep in peace and quiet. But not so with the vigilant interpreter, who kept awake and had his guns near at hand. About midnight a tap was heard at the door and his name, in the Shawnee language, was called. He found Tecumseh at the door. He had called to warn him of impending assassination by the queen and squaws, who had held a council and determined on their death in spite of the protests of himself and others who told them it would be base treachery to kill messengers of peace who were their visitors. He told the visitors to rise and go with him. They went silently through the village and down into a wooded ravine near the river, where a noise was made as if to call wild turkeys, sounds well recognized by all hunters in early days; an answer was returned, and soon two men appeared with the ambassador's horses, which they speedily mounted and rode swiftly away, accompanied by two guides furnished by Tecumseh, and were soon well on their return trip to Vincennes."

No true portrait of this celebrated Indian is in existence. The following graphic description of him, however, is given by Stanley Hatch, who had a personal acquaintance with him in times of peace: "The general appearance of this remarkable man was uncommonly fine. His height was about five feet nine inches, judging him by my own height when standing close to him, and corroborated by the late Col. John Johnston, for many years Indian agent at Piqua. His face oval rather than angular; his nose handsome and straight; his mouth beautifully formed, like that of Napoleon I, as represented in his portraits; his eyes clear, transparent hazel, with a mild, pleasant expression when in repose, or in conversation; but when excited in his orations or by the enthusiasm of a conflict, or when in anger, they appeared like balls of fire; his teeth beautifully white, and his complexion more of a light brown or tan than red; his whole tribe as well as their kindred the Ottawas, had light complexions; his arms and hands were finely formed; his limbs straight; he always stood very erect and walked with a brisk, elastic, vigorous step; invariably dressed in Indian tanned buckskin; a perfectly well fitting hunting frock descending to the knee, and over his under clothes of the same material; the usual cape and finish of yellow fringe about the neck; cape, edges of the front opening and bottom of the frock; a belt of the same material in which were his side arms (an elegant silver-mounted tomahawk and a knife in a strong leather case); short pantaloons connected with neatly fitting leggings and moccasins, with a mantle of the same material thrown over his left shoulder, used as a blanket in camp and as a protection in storms. Such was his dress when I last saw him, on the seventeenth of August, 1812, on the streets of Detroit; mutually exchanging tokens of recognition with former acquaintances in years of peace, and passing on, he, to see that his Indians had all crossed to Malden, as commanded, and to counsel with his white allies in regard to the next movement of the now really commenced War of 1812. He was then in the prime of life, and presented in his appearance and noble bearing one of the finest looking men I have ever seen."

The striking circumstances of his birth, the ascendency of his brother, the Prophet, his burning hatred of the white race; his skill as a hunter and valor as a warrior; above all his wonderful eloquence and thorough knowledge of all the Indian treaties of the past, gave Tecumseh an influence and authority among the tribes far beyond that of any of the braves or sachems of that day. If at the first his imagination had not dared to scale the heights of power, he later boldly threw aside all disguise, and by his powerful advocacy of a communistic ownership of all the Indian lands by the tribes in common, he aimed both a blow at the ancient authority claimed by the Indian chieftains, and at the validity of every treaty ever negotiated between the two races of men. The sum and substance of Tecumseh's doctrine is thus succinctly stated by Judge Law: "That the Great Spirit had given the Indians all their lands in common to be held by them as such and not by the various tribes who had settled on portions of it—claiming it as their own. That they were squatters having no 'pre-emption right,' but holding even that on which they lived as mere 'tenants in common' with all the other tribes. That this mere possession gave them no title to convey the land without the consent of all. That no single tribe had the right to sell, that the power to sell was not vested in their chiefs, but must be the act of the warriors in council assembled of all the tribes, as the land belonged to all—no portion of it to any single tribe."

If these tenets were to hold, it was clear that any authority claimed by the chiefs to represent their respective tribes in the sale or barter of any of the Indian domain was without foundation; that any treaty not negotiated and ratified by a common council of all the warriors of all the tribes, was null and void; that Wayne's Treaty of 1795 was nullum pactum; that the claim of the white settlers to any of the lands north of the Ohio was without force, and that they were trespassers and mere licensees from the beginning. The doctrine thus enunciated was not entirely new. Joseph Brant had claimed that the land was the common property of the tribes, but he had never declared that the sanction of all the warriors was necessary to a conveyance. But the plausible eloquence of Tecumseh, coming at a time when the star of the red man was setting; when every passing day witnessed the encroachment of the white settlers, gave a new ray of hope to the fainting tribes. The warriors, carried away by the dreams and incantations of the Prophet, and sustained by the burning words of a new leader, who promised them a restoration of their former glory, cast aside with contempt all the articles and solemn agreements of the past, and were ready to take up the tomahawk in patriotic defense of their lands and homes. Thus did Tecumseh look forward to the establishment of "a great and permanent confederation—an empire of red men, of which he should be the leader and emperor."



CHAPTER XIX

PROPHET'S TOWN

—The capital of the Shawnee Confederacy in the heart of the Miami country.

Before entering upon the final details of the struggle between Harrison and Tecumseh, it may not be uninteresting to recur to a point of time just before the Treaty of Fort Wayne, when the two Indian leaders removed from the neighborhood of the white settlements at Greenville, Ohio, and established the Prophet's Town on the Wabash river in the month of June, 1808. This was to be the spot from whence should emanate all those brilliant schemes of the brothers to merge the broken tribes into a confederacy; to oppose the further advance of the white settlers, and with the aid of the British power in Canada, to drive them back beyond the waters of the Ohio. It was, as General Richard P. DeHart has aptly remarked, "the seat of Indian diplomacy and strategy for many years."

In leading their followers to this new field, the brothers were guided by certain lines of policy which were both remarkable in their conception, and signal for their farsightedness. The rendezvous at Greenville had been marked by intense enthusiasm, hundreds of red men flocking thither to imbibe the new faith and to commune with the Prophet; so many in fact, that Governor Harrison had ordered them to be supplied from the public stores at Fort Wayne in order to avert trouble. But it was evident to the new leaders that all this congregating did not turn aside starvation; that warriors could not be held together who were hungry and who lacked corn; that the proximity of white traders was conducive to drunkenness; that if back of outward appearances any warlike exercises were to be indulged, or the emissaries and arms of the British were to be received, that these things would require secrecy and seclusion until the plot was ripe; that some strategic position must be secured on one of the great waterways of the interior, within quick striking distance of the settlements and easily accessible to the British posts.

Such a spot was the site of the old French and Indian trading post on the right bank of the Wabash and about ten miles above the present city of Lafayette. To the west about one and one-quarter miles is the marble shaft of the Battleground, and going from thence east across the fields and open woodlands you come to the fringe of woods that still lines the river. You have walked over the old Indian corn fields and are now standing on the exact location of the old Prophets's Town. The scene is one of great beauty even at this day, when the forest has been despoiled and nature ravished of her choicest charms. Here, the river extends in an almost unbroken line for three or four miles, bordered by sycamores and maples, and with a wealth of clinging vines, crab-apple blossoms and blooming flowers on either bank. The old trading post of Petit Piconne was located on a series of high cliffs, crowned with huge forest trees, and commanding the river through vistas of foliage. The face of these cliffs is frequently broken by sharp ravines, that extend on back among the hills with many devious windings. At the foot of the steep slopes, extends a long, narrow tableland of forest bordering directly upon the river; this is interspersed with springs of fresh water that burst from the hillsides. On the cliffs stood the camps and cabins of the warriors and their followers; below, and on the tableland and next to the water, the horses were tethered, and canoes were drawn up out of the river.

Thither the Prophet and his brother now turned their eyes. The whole upper valley, including the basins of the Tippecanoe and the Wildcat, was the rightful possession of the Miamis and the Weas, but the brothers now secured a pretended right or license from the Kickapoos and the Potawatomi to establish a camp. The Miamis of the north, and the Delawares of the south, were alike alarmed. The Delawares in particular had been the friends of the white people and adherents of the Governor. They divined, and divined truly, that the Prophet's plans ultimately involved mischief. To avoid a possible war they sent a deputation of chiefs to the Prophet, who refused to see them, but deputed Tecumseh to answer their remonstrances. On this mission he was entirely successful. By threats and persuasion he turned them back, although they had received strict instructions from their tribe to oppose a new settlement. On a visit shortly afterwards by John Conner, interpreter for the Delawares, on a search for stolen horses, he found the Prophet safely ensconced in his chosen position, with a following of thirty or forty Shawnees, and about ninety others, consisting of Potawatomi, Chippewas, Ottawas and Winnebagoes.

The location selected was certainly ideal. "By a short portage the Indians could go by canoe to Lake Erie or Lake Michigan, or by the Wabash reach all the vast system of watercourses to the north and west. It was only twenty-four hours' journey by canoe, at a favorable stage of water, down stream to Vincennes, the capital of the white man's territory;" the British post at Malden was only a few days distant. As to the Indian tribes, the Prophet's Town was almost centrally located in the Miami confederacy; to the north as far as the post of Chicago and Lake Michigan extended the realm of the Potawatomi; on the Vermilion below, and to the west of the main stream, lay the villages of the Kickapoos, whose hardy warriors, second only to the Wyandots, had accepted the new faith; the Sacs and Foxes, the Winnebagoes, Ottawas, Chippewas and Wyandots, were all within easy reach, and secret embassies and negotiations might be carried on without much fear of detection.

The brothers now resolved to pursue the following course—to wean their followers entirely away from the use of whiskey, which was fast destroying their military efficiency; to teach them, if possible, the ways of labor, so that they might raise corn and other products of the earth, and thus supply their magazines against a time of war; to dupe the Governor into the belief that their mission was one of peace, and undertaken solely for the moral uplift and betterment of the tribes—in the meantime, by the constant practice of religious ceremonies and rites, to work on the superstition of the warriors; win them, if need be, from the chieftains who might counsel peace, and by a series of warlike sports and exercises, hold together the young bucks and train them for the inevitable conflict between the races.

What strange mysticism did the Prophet practice to make the Indians of the Wabash "abandon whiskey, discard textile clothing, return to skins, throw away their witch-bags, kill their dogs, and abandon the white man's ways, even to giving up flint and steel for making fires?" That he had gained fame and ascendency among the neighboring tribes since the episode of the eclipse in 1806, is testified to by the fact that when Richard McNemar, the Shaker, visited him in 1807, at Greenville, Ohio, he found a temple of worship one hundred fifty feet in length, surrounded by wigwams and cottages, and the Indians then told McNemar that they all believed implicitly in the Prophet and that he could "dream to God." The Prophet had at that time also gone so far as to institute the confessional, and all sinful disclosures were made to himself and four accompanying chiefs. The question was asked: "Do they confess all the bad things they ever did?" Answer: "All from seven years old. And cry and tremble when they come to confess." A sort of nature or sun worship had already been introduced. McNemar thus describes a salutation to the lord of the day: "Next morning, as soon as it was day, one of their speakers mounted a log, near the southeast corner of the village, and began the morning service with a loud voice, in thanksgiving to the Great Spirit. He continued his address for near an hour. The people were all in their tents, some at the distance of fifteen or twenty rods; yet they could all distinctly hear, and gave a solemn and loud assent, which sounded from tent to tent, at every pause. While we stood in his view, at the end of the meeting house, on rising ground, from which we had a prospect of the surrounding wigwams, and the vast open plain or prairie, to the south and east, and which looked over the big fort, toward the north, for the distance of two miles, we felt as if we were among the tribes of Israel, on their march to Canaan."

By weird incantations, symbolic ceremonies, and practice of the black art, the Prophet had gone far. He was now regarded as invulnerable, and his person sacred. But that which gave point to his oracles, and authority to his imposture, was his Shawnee hatred of the pale face. To incite their growing jealousy and malice, he told his dupes, that the white man had poisoned all their land, and prevented it from producing such things as they found necessary to their subsistence. The growing scarcity of game, the disappearance of the deer and buffalo before the white settlements, were indisputable proofs of his assertions. Says Harrison: "The game which was formerly so abundant, is now so scarce as barely to afford subsistence to the most active hunters. The greater part of each tribe are half the year in a state of starvation, and astonishing as it may seem, these remote savages have felt their full share of the misfortunes which the troubles in Europe have brought upon the greater part of the world. The exclusion of the English from the continent of Europe, where they were accustomed to dispose of the greater part of the peltries imported from Canada, has reduced the price of those articles almost to nothing; the Indians can scarcely procure for them the necessary ammunition, and they are often induced to forego the purchase of this necessary article to gratify their passion for whiskey." All these evils were attributed by the Prophet to the extension of the American settlements. To drive back these invaders who polluted the soil and desecrated the graves of their fathers—what more was needed to incite the savage warriors to a crusade of blood and extermination? About this time it was noticed that the Potawatomi of the prairies, who were under the influence of the Prophet, were frequently holding religious exercises, but that these exercises were always concluded with "warlike sports, shooting with bows, throwing the tomahawk, and wielding the war-club."

In the meantime, the relation of these religious ceremonies at the Prophet's Town and their seemingly good effect upon the red man, completely disarmed the Governor for the time being. He now entertained the idea that the great Indian leader might be "made a useful instrument in effecting a radical and salutary change in the manners and habits of the Indians." To stop the use of ardent spirits and to encourage the cultivation of corn, were two important steps, as the Governor thought. Events which succeeded but added to Harrison's deception. In June, 1808, messengers appeared at Vincennes, and one of them stated that he had listened to the Prophet for upwards of three years, and had never heard anything but good advice. "He tells us we must pray to the Great Spirit who made the world and everything in it for our use. He tells us that no man could make the plants, the trees, and the animals, but they must be made by the Great Spirit, to whom we ought to pray, and obey in all things. He tells us not to lie, to steal, or to drink whiskey; and not to go to war, but to live in peace with all mankind. He tells us also to work and to make corn."

In August of the same year, the crafty Prophet himself appeared and remained at Vincennes for more than two weeks. The Governor was surprised at the great address and ease with which he handled his followers, and had the pleasure of listening to a speech, in which the Prophet professed the most pacific intentions, constantly haranguing his retinue upon the evils of war and liquor, and holding out to them the advantages of temperance and peace. It seems that the Governor even made a few personal experiments to determine whether the Indians were in earnest about their pretensions, but could induce none of them to touch fire-water. The interview closed to the entire satisfaction of the Governor, the Prophet promising to keep him fully informed as to anything that might be inimical to the settlements, and receiving in return many presents from the Governor in the way of implements of husbandry, arms, powder and other things which the Indians claimed that they were in sore need of. On the first of September, 1808, in a communication to Henry Dearborn, Secretary of War, the Governor wrote as follows: "The celebrated Shawnee Prophet has just left me after a visit of more than two weeks. He is rather possessed of considerable talents, and the art and address with which he manages the Indians is really astonishing. I was not able to ascertain whether he is as I at first supposed, a tool of the British or not. His denial of being under any such influence was strong and apparently candid. He says that his sole purpose is to reclaim the Indians from the bad habits they have contracted, and to cause them to live in peace and friendship with all mankind, and declares that he is particularly instructed to that effect by the Great Spirit. He frequently harangued his followers in my presence, and the evils attendant upon war and the use of ardent spirits was his constant theme. I cannot say how successful he may be in persuading them to lay aside their passion for war, but the experiment made to determine whether their refusal to drink whiskey proceeded from principle, or was only empty profession, established the former beyond all doubt. Upon the whole, Sir, I am inclined to think the influence which the Prophet has acquired will prove rather advantageous than otherwise to the United States."

How vain this trust! Scarcely had the Prophet returned to his town, before he was entertaining an emissary and spy of the British government, who urged war on the United States. In the following spring of 1809, the Chippewas, Ottawas and Potawatomi were being urged by the Prophet to take up arms against the inhabitants of Vincennes, and to destroy the settlers along the Ohio, as far up as Cincinnati. Reports of these proceedings were confirmed by Michael Brouillette, an Indian trader, and by Touissant Dubois, a confidential agent of the Governor. Harrison probably averted an Indian attack, by promptly organizing two additional companies of militia and throwing them into the vicinity of Fort Knox, to guard the approaches to the capital by land and water. The Indians, however, seeing this prompt action, deserted the Prophet and returned to their homes. The Governor was not fooled a second time. The Prophet again visited him in the summer of 1809, and made the same old pretensions of peace. But the Governor forced him to admit that he had entertained the British the fall before, and that he had been invited, as he said, to join a league of the Sacs and Foxes against the whites in the early spring, and he could make no satisfactory explanation as to why he had not imparted these facts to the government, when he had been solemnly enjoined so to do. From this time on, the Prophet was regarded with a just suspicion, and Harrison diligently regarded every movement of the new faith.



CHAPTER XX

HARRISON'S VIGILANCE

—His personal courage and activities save the frontier capital.

The spring of 1810 opened with peril to Vincennes. The eternal vigilance of Harrison alone saved the day. The fall before had witnessed the making of the Treaty of Fort Wayne and the acquisition of the New Purchase; this had strengthened the claims of the Prophet and Tecumseh for a closer union of the tribes, and had given added force to their argument in favor of a communistic ownership of all the land. What right had the old village chiefs to dispose of the common domain without the consent of the warriors who had fought to maintain it? The Great Spirit gave the soil in common to all the tribes; what single tribe could alienate any particular portion of it?

Reliable word came to the Governor in April that the Prophet had assembled one thousand souls at the Prophet's Town, with probably three hundred fifty or four hundred men among them, consisting principally of Kickapoos and Winnebagoes, "but with a considerable number of Potawatomis and Shawnees and a few Chippewas and Ottawas;" that the French traders along the Wabash had been warned by the Prophet's followers to separate themselves from the Americans at Vincennes for trouble was brewing; that the Indians at Tippecanoe had refused to buy ammunition of the traders, saying that they had a plenty, and could get plenty more without paying for it; that Matthew Elliott, the British agent at Malden, was busy with plot and intrigue against the United States. But Harrison was surrounded by some of the best scouts and confidential agents that a frontier official ever commanded—among them Touissant Dubois, Joseph Barron and Michael Brouillette. He kept awake and on the alert.

Tecumseh now assumed a more active leadership. The day had arrived for the statesman and warrior to sound the alarm, form an active league and confederacy of all the tribes, and with tomahawk in hand, resist any further advancement on the part of the whites. As Harrison afterwards remarked, he appeared today on the Wabash, a short time later on the shores of Lake Erie or Lake Michigan, and then upon the Mississippi. Everywhere he was masterful, eloquent, convincing, and "made an impression favorable to his purpose." At one time during the early summer it is known that he was at Detroit, and he was probably in close communication with his British allies, although he professed to hate them.

About May, 1810, a council of all the tribes of the Wabash and those to the north was called at the river St. Joseph of Lake Michigan. The whole situation was fraught with danger, for Harrison had reason to believe that many of the tribes had already received the tomahawk and were meditating a combined attack on the settlements. Subsequent events proved that his fears were well founded. He immediately dispatched John Conner to the Delawares and "pointed out to them the unavoidable destruction which awaited all the tribes which should dare to take up the hatchet against their fathers, and the great danger that the friendly tribes would incur, if war should be kindled, from the difficulty of discriminating friend from foe."

A messenger was dispatched in haste after the deputies of the tribes deputed to the council, with full instructions dictated by the Governor, to urge these facts upon the assembled tribes. In addition, the Governor in response to the demand of a company of officers, merchants, and others at Vincennes, at once called two companies of militia into active service, established alarm posts upon the frontier, and used all available means at hand to put himself in readiness for war. Fortunately, the Delawares remained faithful. If Winamac is to be believed, the Prophet in person urged upon the council an immediate surprise of Detroit, Fort Wayne, the post at Chicago, St. Louis and Vincennes, and a junction with the tribes of the Mississippi, but the "forcible representations" of the Delaware deputies, who were looked upon as "grandfathers," prevented the adoption of his plans. It seems that the younger men and some of the war lords of the smaller bands were ready to go to war, but the sachems and older village chieftains who had participated in the treaty of the year before held aloof. The Chippewas, Ottawas and Potawatomi refused to take up arms, the council broke up without any concerted action, and Winamac and the Potawatomi were sent to the Governor to make report of the proceedings. When Winamac arrived at Vincennes in the latter part of June, he reported that as he passed through the Prophet's Town an attempt was made to assassinate him—so enraged was the Prophet at his failure on the St. Joseph. Winamac further told the Governor that about the time of the council the Prophet had proposed to the younger warriors that the principal chiefs of all the tribes should be murdered; that they were the ones who had brought about a sale of the Indian lands, and that their, the warriors' hands, would never be untied until they were rid of them. The brothers were baffled in another mission. Tecumseh urged the Shawnees at Wapakoneta, Ohio, to join the league. A letter of John Johnston, Indian agent at Fort Wayne, informed the Governor that, the Shawnees refused even to enter into council with him.

The ugly temper into which the Indians had now worked themselves is well illustrated by the episode of the salt. Shortly prior to the fifteenth of June, a boat came up the Wabash to the Prophet's Town laden with salt for the use of the tribes, according to the terms of a former treaty. The men in charge of the boat reported that the Prophet, and some Kickapoos with him at the time, refused to receive it, and he was directed to leave the salt on the bank of the river until Tecumseh should return; Tecumseh being reported as at Detroit. On his return trip home the master of the boat was directed to re-load the salt; that the Indians would have nothing to do with it. "Whilst the hands were rolling in the barrels, the brother of the Prophet seized the master and several others by the hair, and shaking them violently, asked them if they were Americans. They, however, were all young Frenchmen. They also insulted Mr. Brouillette, and called him an American dog, and a young Potawatomi chief directed his men to plunder his house, which was immediately done, depriving him of all his provisions, tobacco, etc." Michael Brouillette was the French trader heretofore referred to, and was the personal agent and scout of General Harrison. He kept on hand a few Articles of trade to disguise his real character.

On one of their embassies, however, the brothers were successful. One of the most influential of the tribes in council was the Wyandots or Hurons, now greatly reduced in numbers, but still of great prestige and power among the red men. Harrison always ranked their warriors among the best, and General Wayne at Greenville had delivered to them the original duplicate of the treaty. In a speech by Massas, a Chippewa chief, to General Wayne, he referred to this tribe as "our uncles, the Wyandots," and this was the designation generally employed by all the tribes. It was plain that if the Wyandots could be won over to the new cause, a great diplomatic victory would be gained and the influence of the new movement greatly augmented. The Prophet accordingly sent a deputation to the Wyandots, "expressing his surprise that the Wyandots, who had directed the councils of the other tribes, as well as the treaty with the white people, should sit still, and see the property of the Indians usurped by a part," and he expressly desired to see the treaties and know what they contained. The Wyandots were greatly flattered by these attentions, and answered "that they had nothing nearer their hearts, than to see all the various tribes united again as one man—that they looked upon everything that had been done since the treaty of Greenville as good for nothing—and that they would unite their exertions with those of the Prophet, to bring together all the tribes, and get them to unite to put a stop to the encroachments of the white people." It seems that the Wyandots were also the keepers of the great belt, which had formerly been a symbol of the union of the tribes at the time of the war with Anthony Wayne. They now came in deputation to the Prophet's Town, carrying this great belt with them, and producing it among the clans of the Miami at the villages of the Mississinewa, accused them of deserting their Indian friends and allies. The tribes at Mississinewa sent for the Weas and accompanied the deputation to Tippecanoe.

Though thwarted on the St. Joseph and among the Shawnees, it was plain that a strict espionage would have to be maintained over the proceedings at the Prophet's Town, and especially over the Prophet himself. The heart of this priest was filled with plots of assassination and murder. Grosble, an old Indian friend of the Governor, informed him that the Prophet had at one time planned a wholesale slaughter at Vincennes, and that it had been arranged that the Prophet should enter the Governor's house with ten or twelve of his followers and slay him. To the Prophet may be attributed most of the horse-stealing expeditions, the insults to messengers and agents, and the plans for the murder of the older Indian chiefs. While Tecumseh either countenanced these transactions, or else was unable to control them, he seems, with strange sagacity for a savage, to have at all times realized that the assassination of Harrison, the stealing of a few horses, or the slaughter of a few white men on the border, would really never accomplish anything save to intensify the feeling between the races. While never comprehending the great forces of civilization and of the government which he was resisting, he seems to have steadily kept in mind that a handful of naked savages at the Prophet's Town would avail him nothing; that in order to effectively strike he must have back of him a substantial body of warriors recruited from all the confederated tribes, well victualled, armed and equipped, and equal in number to the armies of his adversary. He knew the Indian character well enough to know that they would never long resist a superior force. If he could keep his rash and impulsive brother in leash long enough to form a permanent and powerful league, then he had hopes of ultimate success. But there was the great danger, in fact, the very peril that finally engulfed him. The Prophet with that fatal egotism of the fanatic, vainly imagined that he was more than a match for the Governor, and in the absence of his brother, let his vindictive hate and malice destroy the last dream of empire.

In the latter part of the month of June, Harrison sent Dubois and Brouillette to the Prophet's Town to take note of what was going on. They reported that while the tribes of the Mississinewa, the Weas and Kickapoos were living in expectation of trouble, that there was no immediate danger, as the defection of the tribes at the St. Joseph had upset the plans of the brothers. Dubois requested the Prophet to state the grounds of his complaint, if he had any, against the United States. The Prophet answered in the language of Brant, that the Indians had been cheated of their lands and that no sale was good unless made by all the tribes. On the fourth of July, four canoes, filled with the Prophet's followers, passed the Wea village at Terre Haute, and Harrison sent out the militia to discover what had become of them. One of these canoes came down the river to a Shaker settlement sixteen miles above Vincennes. The Indians there attended meeting on Sunday, the Prophet professing to believe in the Shaker creed, (without, however, practicing celibacy), and then finished the day's proceedings by stealing five horses. They made no attempt to cover their tracks, but the Governor stopped any pursuit, as he "had been informed some time before, that one of their plans to bring on the war, was to send out parties to steal horses, and, if they were pursued, to kill their pursuers." This was plainly the work of the Prophet. More alarming stories came in. It was said that the Sacs and Foxes were awaiting the signal from the Prophet to take up arms; that a party of them had visited the British superintendent, and that Elliott had said to a Miami at Maiden "My son, keep your eyes fixed on me—my tomahawk is now up—be you ready, but do not strike till I give the signal." Harrison in the light of all these events, determined to send Barron, his trusted interpreter, to the Prophet's Town. The reception of Barron is thus dramatically related; "He was first conducted ceremoniously to the place where the Prophet, surrounded by a number of Indians, was seated. Here he was left standing at a distance of about ten feet from the Indian prophet. 'He looked at me,' said Barron, 'for several minutes, without speaking or making any sign of recognition, although he knew me well. At last he spoke, apparently in anger. 'For what purpose do you come here?' said he, 'Brouillette was here; he was a spy. Dubois was here; he was a spy. There is your grave; look on it!' The Prophet then pointed to the ground near the spot where I stood."

No harm was done him, however. Tecumseh interceded and the Governor's messenger was finally received with respect. Barron delivered a speech of Harrison's to the Prophet in the presence of Tecumseh. The purport of this address was, that while the Governor said he believed that there had been an attempt to raise the tomahawk, that the old chain of friendship between the Indians and whites might still be renewed; that there were two roads open, one leading to peace, and the other to misery and ruin; that it was useless to make war against the Seventeen Fires, as their blue-coats were more numerous than the sands of the Wabash; that if complaint was made as to the purchase of the Indian lands, that the Governor was willing to send the principal chiefs to Washington to make this complaint to the President in person; that everything necessary for the journey should be prepared and a safe return guaranteed.

On this visit Barron held much personal converse with Tecumseh and lodged with him in a cabin. He professed to be much pleased with Harrison's speech, observing that he had not seen him since he was a young man seated at the side of General Wayne. He disclaimed any intention of trying to make war, but said that it would be impossible to remain on friendly terms with the United States unless they abandoned the idea of trying to make settlements farther to the north and west, and unless they acknowledged the principle that all the lands were held by the tribes in common. Said he: "The Great Spirit gave this great island to his red children; he placed the whites on the other side of the big water; they were not contented with their own, but came to take ours from us. They have driven us from the sea to the lakes, we can go no further. They have taken upon themselves to say this tract belongs to the Miamis, this to the Delawares, and so on, but the Great Spirit intended it as the common property of all the tribes, nor can it be sold without the consent of all. Our father tells us, that we have no business upon the Wabash, the land belongs to other tribes, but the Great Spirit ordered us to come here and here we shall stay."

Tecumseh now resolved on that famous meeting with the Governor at Vincennes. Harrison had long known that there were those in his midst who were inimical to his plans and who had opposed his purpose of the fall before, but he did not learn until afterwards the full extent of their treachery. It seems that Tecumseh had been given to understand that about half of the population of Vincennes were friendly to his cause. An American had visited him during the winter of 1809-10 who informed him that Harrison had no authority whatever from the government to make the purchase; that the Governor had only two years more to remain in office, and that if Tecumseh could prevail upon the Indians to refuse their annuities under the treaty until the Governor "was displaced, as he would be, and a good man appointed as his successor, he would restore to the Indians all the lands purchased from them." How far these representations may have deceived Tecumseh into the belief that he was dealing with a man who was tottering to the fall, is not certainly known. He determined at any rate, to make a show of force. If the Governor was a weakling who sat insecurely in his seat, and was fearful of public clamor, here was an opportunity to display that fact. As he remarked to Barron, he had not seen the Governor since he was "a very young man," sitting at the side of General Wayne. The Governor was younger in years than Tecumseh, and no doubt the Shawnee was disposed to regard him with contempt. To appear suddenly at the capital of the white man with a band of armed warriors; to openly and haughtily declare his purpose of resisting the pretensions of the Governor and to pour out his insolence upon the heads of the chieftains who had dared to sell the lands—what a grand culmination of all his plans this would be, if it had the desired effect! There was nothing to lose, everything to gain. He resolved to try it. Accordingly, on the 12th day of August, there swept down the river to Fort Knox, eighty canoes, filled with naked savages painted in the most terrific manner. All of them were armed and ready for attack. At their head was the great war chief, described by Major George R. Floyd, commandant at the fort, as "about six feet high, straight, with large, fine features, and altogether a daring, bold looking fellow." The conference with the Governor was appointed for the morrow.



CHAPTER XXI

THE COUNCIL AT VINCENNES

—The dramatic meeting between Harrison and Tecumseh.—Tecumseh announces his doctrine of the common ownership of the Indian lands.

The great house of the Governor at Vincennes is situated inland from the Wabash river about six hundred feet, and there formerly stood in front of this house and next to the river a grove of walnut trees which afforded a gracious shade. It was here, that on a bright, sunshiny day in August, the dramatic meeting occurred between the Shawnee chief and Governor Harrison. Local tradition has preserved a tale that the Governor had secreted in the great parlor of his house a company of one hundred well-armed soldiers to provide against any treachery on the part of the red men, and computations, have been made to show that the room would accommodate that number of infantry, but this story must be regarded with suspicion.

Tecumseh and his party seem to have arrived at the place of rendezvous in canoes and by way of the river. He appeared on the scene with a retinue of forty warriors accoutered in the elaborate costume of the ceremonial, with painted bodies and feathered headdress, and fully armed with war clubs and tomahawks. The chief himself, invariably wore a simple dress of Indian tanned buckskin, with a mantle of the same material thrown over the left shoulder. In his belt he carried an elegant silver mounted tomahawk and a hunting knife in a leathern case. "Tall, athletic and manly, dignified, but graceful," he stood as the chosen exponent of his people's wrongs, ready to voice their plaints in the "musical and euphonious" accents of the Shawnee tongue.

A close observer of the savages of that day has stated that, "those who have been familiar with the Indians of the northwest, when they were Indians, and took sufficient interest in them as a race to study with care their customs, laws and usages, are aware that when attending councils with other nations or tribes, or with our agents, that they were always acting a part, a kind of diplomatic drama." To Tecumseh the moment appeared propitious. The time had arrived to put the youthful Governor of thirty-seven years to the test. Harrison was attended by the judges of the supreme court; General Gibson, the secretary; Major G. R. Floyd, and other officers of the regular army, and a guard of twelve men from the garrison under the command of Lieutenant Jennings; there was also a large assemblage of citizens present, who had been invited thither to hear what Tecumseh had to present. The stage was well set, and the bold and insolent heart of the savage rose high. "As he came in front of the dais, an elevated portion of the place upon which the Governor and the officers of the territory were seated, the Governor invited him, through his interpreter, to come forward and take a seat with him and his counsellors, premising the invitation by saying 'That it was the wish of the Great Father, the President of the United States, that he should do so'. The chief paused for a moment, as the words were uttered and the sentence finished, and raising his tall form to its greatest height, surveyed the troops and the crowd around him. Then with his keen eyes fixed on the Governor for a single moment, and turning them to the sky above, with his sinewy arms pointed toward the heavens, and with a tone and manner indicative of supreme contempt, for the paternity assigned him, said in a voice whose clarion tones were heard throughout the whole assembly: 'My Father?—The sun is my father—the earth is my mother—and on her bosom I will recline!"

Thus the council opened. The Governor, with a short sword at his side, seated on the platform with his officers and advisers; the Indians in front of him seated on the grass; to the left, the Potawatomi chief, Winamac, with one of his young men, extended on the green, and all about the eager and curious faces of the crowd, now wrought up to a high state of tension by the sarcastic retort of the Indian chieftain. The speech that followed, "was full of hostility from beginning to end." Tecumseh began in a low voice and spoke for about an hour. "As he warmed with his subject his clear tones might be heard, as if 'trumpet-tongued' to the utmost limits of the assembled crowd who gathered around him." The interpreter Barron, was an illiterate man and the beauty and eloquence of the chief's oration was in great part lost. He denounced with passion and bitterness the cruel murder of the Moravian Indians during the Revolutionary War, the assassination of friendly chieftains and other outrages, and said that he did not know how he could ever be a friend of the white man again; that the tribes had been driven by the Americans "toward the setting sun, like a galloping horse," and that they would shortly push them into the lakes where they could neither stand nor walk; that the white people had allotted each separate tribe a certain tract of land so as to create strife between them, and so that they might be destroyed; that he and his brother had purposed from the beginning to form a confederation of all the tribes to resist any further encroachment of the whites; that the Great Spirit had given all the land in common to the Indians, and that no single tribe had a right to alienate any particular portion of it. He declared that the Treaty of Fort Wayne had been made with the consent of only a few; that it was largely brought about by the threats of Winamac, and that a reluctant consent had been wrung from the Weas because they were few in number. So fierce and vitriolic became his abuse of Winamac that that chieftain primed his pistols and seemed ready at any moment to take Tecumseh's life. The speaker went on to declare: "that if the government would not give up the lands that were purchased from the Miamis, Delawares, Potawatomis, etc., that those who were united with him, were determined to fall upon those tribes and destroy them. That they were determined to have no more chiefs, but in the future to have everything under the direction of the warriors;" that the Governor would see what would be done to the village chiefs who had sold the land, and unless he restored it he would be a party to the killing of them.

The bold and defiant attitude of the speaker, and the tone of insolence that pervaded all his words, astonished even the Governor. A weak or corrupt man would have trembled in his place and been at a loss how to answer. Not so with Harrison. All who knew him, says John Law, were willing to acknowledge his courage, both moral and physical. He knew that the treaty of Fort Wayne had been concluded under the instructions of government; that his dealings with the tribes had been open-handed and fair, even with the insignificant Weas of the lower waters; that the "unwarranted and unwarrantable" pretensions of Tecumseh were made largely for their effect upon the audience, and after Tecumseh's remarks had been openly interpreted by Barron, he arose without tremor or hesitation to deny the chief's assertions. He spoke no doubt with some degree of force, for he undoubtedly understood by now that Tecumseh would never have given utterance to many of his charges, without entertaining a belief that they would meet the approval of some traitorous faction of the assembly. He answered: "That the charges of bad faith against our government, and the assertion that injustice had been done the Indians in any treaty ever made, or any council ever held with them by the United States, had no foundation in fact. That in all their dealings with the red men, they had ever been governed by the strictest rules of right and justice. That while other civilized nations had treated them with contumely and contempt, ours had always acted in good faith with them. That so far as he individually was concerned, he could say in the presence of the "Great Spirit" who was watching over their deliberations, that his conduct, even with the most insignificant tribe, had been marked with kindness, and all his acts governed by honor, integrity and fair dealing. That he had uniformly been the friend of the red men, and that it was the first time in his life that his motives had been questioned, or his actions impeached. It was the first time in his life that he had ever heard such unfounded claims put forth, as Tecumseh set up, by any chief, or any Indian, having the least regard for truth or the slightest knowledge of the intercourse between the Indians and the white men, from the time this continent was first discovered. That as to the claim of Tecumseh that all the Indians were but one nation, and owned the lands in common, that this could not be maintained; that at the time the white men arrived on the continent they had found the Miamis in possession of the Wabash; that the Shawnees were then residents of Georgia, from which they had been driven by the Creeks; that the lands in question had been purchased from the Miamis who were the original owners of it; that if the Great Spirit had intended that the tribes should constitute but one nation, he would not have put different tongues in their heads, but taught them all to speak a language that all could understand; that the Miamis had been benefited by the annuities of the government and that the Seventeen Fires had always been punctual in the payment of them; that the Shawnees had no right to come from a distant country and control the Miamis in the disposal of their own property."

An event now took place, that but for the quick presence of mind and decisive action of the Governor, might have terminated in bloodshed. Harrison had taken his seat and Barron had interpreted his reply to the Shawnees, and was turning to the Miamis and Potawatomi, when Tecumseh excitedly sprang to his feet and told Barron to tell the Governor that he lied. Barron, who as a subordinate in the Indian department, had great respect for his superiors, was seeking to mollify the harshness of this language, when he was again interrupted by Tecumseh, who said: "No! No! Tell him he lies!" The Governor noticed Tecumseh's angry manner, but thought he was seeking to make some explanation, when his attention was directed to Winamac, who was cocking his pistol, and a moment later, General Gibson, who understood the Shawnee language, said to Lieutenant Jennings: "Those fellows intend mischief; you had better bring up the guard." In an instant all was confusion. The warriors on the grass sprang to their feet brandishing their war clubs and tomahawks; Harrison extricated himself from his chair and drew his sword to defend himself; Major Floyd drew a dirk, and the Methodist minister Winans ran to the Governor's house, got a gun, and stood by the door to protect the family. Such of the citizens as could, armed themselves with brickbats. In the midst of this turmoil the guard came running up and were about to fire on the Indians, when Harrison quickly interposed and commanded them not to do so. He now demanded a full explanation, and when the intemperate words of Tecumseh were explained, told him he was a bad man and that he would hold no further communication with him; that as he had come there under the protection of the council fire, he might go in safety, but that he must immediately leave the neighborhood. The firm stand and commanding attitude of the Governor at once quieted the storm, and Tecumseh and his followers leisurely withdrew and retired to their camp. That night two companies of militia were brought in from the country, but no trouble occurred, and the time passed quietly until morning.



It was a part of the local tradition of later years, that when Tecumseh called the Governor a liar, that quick as a flash he arose to his feet, drew his sword and was about to resent the insult, when his friends interfered and prevented the blow. This story seems improbable, from the fact that the Governor was aware that many unarmed citizens were present, and that any rash or inconsiderate action on his part would precipitate a conflict that could only end in blood and carnage. He knew, moreover, that Tecumseh, by all the rules of civilized intercourse, even among open belligerents, was entitled to protection while engaged in council, and it is not probable that as brave a man as Harrison would violate these rules by becoming the aggressor. Instead, by quick word of command, he recalled the excited chief to his senses, dismissed him at once, and averted a catastrophe.

In the solitude of his camp that evening Tecumseh was forced to acknowledge defeat. The young Governor instead of quailing had remained firm—it was plain that he was the chosen plenipotentiary of his government in all the treaties that had been effected. Moreover, in his reply, the Governor had not only emphatically repudiated all insinuations of unfairness toward the red man, but he had put the chief himself on the defensive by showing that he was an interloper who sought to control the rightful possessions of others. At last, it was the stolid savage who lost his self control, and the Governor, who by his respect for the laws of the council fire had brought the flush of shame to the chieftain's cheek. That night, as he afterwards admitted at Fort Meigs, he felt a rising respect in his breast for the first magistrate of the territory. He was doomed in after years to associate with the cowardly and contemptible Proctor, whom he called a "miserable old squaw," but from the day of this council he paid the involuntary tribute to Harrison that one brave man always pays to another, though ranged on a hostile side.

Thoroughly convinced that his conduct of the day previous had been highly impolitic, the chieftain, at the dawn of day, sent for Barron, and said that he desired a further interview, declaring that he had no intention of attacking the Governor on the day before, and that he had been advised to pursue the course he did on the counsel of certain white men; disclosing to Barron the circumstances heretofore related as to the visit of certain persons at the Prophet's Town, who had said that the Governor had no right to make the purchase of the lands on the Wabash; that he was unpopular and would be removed from office, and that then the lands would be restored. The Governor would not receive Tecumseh, however, until due apology had been made through the interpreter, and ample provision had been made for the protection of the citizens by ordering the local company of Captain Jones to parade morning and evening, and hold themselves ready for instant action. The Governor also took the precaution to be well armed, as did several of his friends.

At this second council, Tecumseh's whole demeanor was changed. While remaining "firm and intrepid, he said nothing that was in the least insolent." He now disclosed in open council what he had theretofore told Barron as to the visits of the white men, and again declared that he had no intention of harming the Governor. Harrison now informed the chief that he was about to cause a survey to be made of the New Purchase, and he desired to know whether this process would be attended with any danger. Tecumseh at once replied that he and those affiliated with him were determined "that the old boundary line should continue, and that the crossing it would be attended with bad consequences." His words were severally confirmed by a Wyandot, a Kickapoo, a Potawatomi, an Ottawa, and a Winnebago, who each openly avowed that their tribes had entered into the Shawnee confederacy, and that Tecumseh had been chosen as their leader and chief.

This second council does not seem to have been of great length. In it, Tecumseh entirely abandoned any attempt at bluster, but firmly and positively stated to the Governor that he would not consent to the sale of the Indian lands, and that any attempt to survey them would be met with resistance. This frank and open statement, elicited a response equally frank from the Governor. He told Tecumseh that his claims would be transmitted in full to the President of the United States, and the reply of the President at once communicated to him when received, but that he was convinced that the President would never admit "that the lands on the Wabash, were the property of any other tribes, than those who had occupied and lived upon them," and as these lands had been fairly and openly purchased at Fort Wayne, that the right of the United States would be "supported by the sword." With these words the interview terminated.

That night the Governor reflected. If the words of Tecumseh as uttered in council, were sincere and genuine, they amounted to an open declaration of war—the government must either entirely recede from the ground it had taken, and restore the lands, or prepare for the coming conflict. Concerning this issue there must be no doubt. The Governor therefore resolved to repair to the headquarters of Tecumseh in person, and there, removed from the atmosphere of a council, hold private intercourse with the chieftain and read his intentions. He had hit upon this expedient once before in the proceedings at Fort Wayne, and the experiment had proven successful. Accordingly, the following morning, throwing aside all considerations of personal danger, he suddenly appeared at the tent of Tecumseh, accompanied only by the interpreter Barron. He was most politely received. Proceeding at once to the main point, he asked the chief if the declarations he had made in his two public interviews were his real sentiments. Tecumseh answered that they certainly were; that he had no grievance against the United States except the matter as to the purchase of the Indian lands, and that he would go to war with very great reluctance; that if Harrison would prevail upon the President to give back the lands, and promise never to consummate any more purchases, without the consent of all the tribes, that he would be the faithful ally of the Americans and assist them in all their wars with the British. "He said he knew the latter were always urging the Indians to war for their own advantage, and not to benefit his countrymen; and here he clapped his hands, and imitated a person who halloos at a dog, to set him to fight with another, thereby insinuating that the British thus endeavored to set the Indians on the Americans." He said further that he had rather be a friend of the Seventeen Fires, but if they would not accede to his demands that he would be forced to join the English. The memory of Wayne, the commanding figure and dauntless courage of the present Governor, had had their effect; compared to the vile and sneaking agents of the British government, who, in the security of their forts, had formerly offered bounties for American scalps, and urged the Indians to a predatory warfare, the American leaders stood out in bold relief as both men and warriors. Tecumseh recognized this, but the die was cast and his purposes were unchangeable. Stripped of all its savage propensities, the heart of the Shawnee was really of heroic mould. Concerning that great principle of the survival of the fittest, he knew nothing; of the onrushing forces of civilization and progress he had no just comprehension; but as the rising sun of the new republic appeared, he saw the light of his race fading into obscurity, and patriotically resolved to stand on his lands and resist to the last. Misinformed, misguided, he sought an alliance with the British to stem the tide; instead of delaying, this but accelerated the decline of the tribes. Tecumseh, when it was too late, discovered that the promises of the British agents were false, and soon after his death the feeling engendered against the tribes, on account of their alliance with the English and the many atrocities they had committed, drove them beyond the Mississippi. But he who fights for his native land and from devotion to principle, however wrong, must always be entitled to the respect of the brave.

If coolness and courage had had their effect on the one hand, the candor and honesty of his adversary, when met face to face, had also moved the Governor. In after years, in an address before the Historical Society of Ohio, Harrison said: "I think it probable that Tecumseh possessed more integrity than any other of the chiefs who attained to much distinction." He now repeated again that he would forward to the government all the propositions of the chief, but that there was little probability that they would be accepted. "Well," said Tecumseh, "as the great chief is to determine the matter, I hope the Great Spirit will put sense enough into his head, to induce him to direct you to give up this land. It is true, he is so far off, he will not be injured by the war; he may still sit in his town and drink his wine, whilst you and I will have to fight it out." The conference ended with an appeal by Harrison, that in the event of war, no outrages should be committed on women and children and those who were unable to resist. This, the chief manfully acceded to, and said he would adhere to his promise.

Thus ended this remarkable conference participated in by the two greatest figures then in the western world. The one representing the advancing tide of immigration that was to build the cities and plow the fields of a new empire; the other representing the forlorn hope of a fast decaying race that was soon to be removed from the pathways of civilization.

Those who have vainly sought to make it appear that Harrison afterwards wrongfully passed over the northern boundary line of the New Purchase to provoke a fight and bring on a conflict, have certainly scanned the records of this council at Vincennes with but little care. The truth is, that the two principal figures in that affair parted each other's company fully realizing that hostilities were at hand. To say that Harrison was bound to sit helplessly in his capital while his enemies gathered a force sufficient to overwhelm him, and all without a move on his part to avert a calamity, but illustrates the foolishness of the whole contention. Immediately on the breaking up of the council, Tecumseh departed with a portion of his braves to organize and cement a federation of the tribes; Harrison, in the meantime, ordering an additional body of troops under Captain Cross at Newport, Kentucky, to come to the relief of the settlements, and redoubling his vigilance to avoid the surprise of a sudden attack. Without hesitation however, he wrote the surveyor-general to make a survey; the lines to be run under the protection of the militia.

The Governor was informed by the Weas, that during the progress of the proceedings, they had been urged by four persons at Vincennes, whose names they furnished, to join the Prophet and insist upon a return of the lands. False representations were also made to the chiefs of this tribe that the purchase at Fort Wayne was made without the consent or knowledge of the President, and that a council of the Miamis had been called on the Mississinewa, to make full inquiry. The treasonable designs of this coterie came to naught. Whether British agencies were actually at work within the town, or whether the actions of this clique were prompted by the jealousy of the Governor's political enemies, will probably never be fully known. Be that as it may, like all cravens of their kind when the danger became imminent they slunk out of view, and Harrison found himself surrounded by the brave and valorous of every settlement, both in the vicinity of Vincennes and on the borders of Kentucky.

Much conjecture had been indulged in, as to whether Tecumseh actually meditated an attack at the time of the first council. That his impulsive action might well have led to disastrous consequences, but for the cool, quick command of the Governor, may well be conceded, but that he formed any premeditated design before coming to the council, must admit of some doubt. The reasoning of Drake possesses cogency. He states that Tecumseh's probable purpose in attending the meeting with a considerable force was to "make a strong impression upon the whites as to the extent of his influence among the Indians, and the strength of his party. His movement in the council may have been concerted for the purpose of intimidating the Governor; but the more probable suggestion is that in the excitement of the moment, produced by the speech of the Governor, he lost his self-possession and involuntarily placed his hand upon his war club, in which movement he was followed by the warriors around him, without any previous intention of proceeding to extremities. Whatever may have been the fact, the bold chieftain found in Governor Harrison a firmness of purpose and an intrepidity of manner which must have convinced him that nothing was to be gained by any effort at intimidation, however daring."



CHAPTER XXII

THE SECOND AND LAST COUNCIL

—The last meeting between the two leaders before Harrison marched into the Indian country.

What strange fatality directed the minds of the Shawnee brothers to repel all friendly advances on the part of the American government, and to listen to the poisonous council of Matthew Elliott and the other British agents who had so often deceived their race, may not easily be divined. Brant had been bribed, Little Turtle and the Blue Jacket basely deserted in the hour of defeat, and two English treaties negotiated without a line in either to the advantage of the red man, but notwithstanding all these facts, both Tecumseh and the Prophet were now in full and constant communication with Malden, Canada.

Rapid strides were made by the brothers in the closing months of 1810. Not only were the village chiefs and sachems shorn of all their old-time authority, and the power of determination lodged in the hands of the warriors, but the belt of union circulated by the Prophet among the tribes "to confine the great water and prevent it from overflowing them," brought many accessions both to the confederacy and to the Shawnee influence. It was reported that when this belt was exhibited to Elliott and he saw that so many tribes had united against the United States that he danced with joy. About the first of November, Tecumseh himself arrived at Malden on a visit to the British agency. He remained there until some time after the twenty-fourth of December. The nature of his conferences with Elliott may be inferentially arrived at from the following. An Indian council had, during the preceding autumn, been convened at Brownstown, near Detroit. A resolution had there been entered into to prevent the sale of any more lands to the United States and this step had been taken at the suggestion of Elliott. According to the report of the Wea chiefs, the British agent had informed the tribes that England and France had now made peace, and would soon unite their arms "to dispossess the Americans of the lands they had taken from the Indians." The Shawnee land doctrine had become popular. "The Indians," writes Harrison, "appear to be more uneasy and dissatisfied than I ever before saw them, and I believe that the Prophet's principle, that their land should be considered common property, is either openly avowed or secretly favored by all the tribes west of the Wabash." The tribes of the Lakes looked upon the Wabash as the land of promise. The Winnebagoes were already present in considerable numbers at the Prophet's Town, and the Wyandots had formed a camp in close proximity to that place. The Six Nations were reported to be in motion and demanding the privilege of settling in the Wabash valley. Could all these tribes be assembled in the face of the advancing American settlements, they would serve the double purpose of checking this advance and furnishing a protective barrier to Canada in case of a war between Great Britain and the United States. Tecumseh and Elliott were joined in the fellowship of a mutual interest.

The Miami chiefs looked upon this presumptuous conduct of the Shawnee leaders with high disapproval. Their tribes were the rightful proprietors of the soil, and the establishment of the Prophet had been effected without their consent. But much of their ancient authority had passed away. Many of their young warriors were carried away by the mad fanaticism of the Prophet and vainly imagined that they could drive the white man back across the Ohio. Unless the hands of the Miami leaders were upheld, they could not long resist the pressure of the surrounding tribes and must give their sanction to the Prophet's scheme.

Harrison was fully convinced that the old village chiefs would willingly place themselves under the protection of the government, and surrender their claims for a suitable annuity, rather than submit to any domination on the part of their neighbors. The Governor was plainly in favor of forming an alliance with the Miamis, of dispersing the followers of the Prophet, and paving the way for further extinguishment of the Indian title. He urged that the narrow strip on the west side of the Greenville cession, in the eastern part of the Indiana territory, would soon be filled with new settlers; that the backwoodsmen were not men "of a disposition to content themselves with land of an inferior quality when they see in their immediate neighborhood the finest country as to soil in the world occupied by a few wretched savages;" that the Territory was fast advancing to statehood, and that the members of the Territorial legislature were heartily in favor of smoothing the way to further purchases.

The Governor also earnestly pressed the government to establish a strong post on the Wabash in the upper portion of the New Purchase. The citizens of Vincennes had been thoroughly alarmed by the presence of so large a gathering of red men at the council in August. Murders were frequent, and horse-stealing was an everyday occurrence. To adopt a policy of vacillation with a savage was to confess weakness. The Prophet was openly declaring to Brouillette, the Governor's agent, that no survey of the new lands would be permitted. Immigration was ebbing, and the selling and settling of the newly acquired territory was wholly out of the question so long as the purchasers could not be assured of protection. The display of a strong force of regulars and mounted militia, the establishment of a strong position on the borders of the Indian country, would not only dishearten the followers of the Prophet and discourage further accessions to his banner, but strengthen the hands of those Miami chieftains who still preserved their allegiance to the United States. Any expeditionary force to be employed was to be headed by the Governor himself, who had taken a very active part in the training of the frontier militiamen, and who now offered his services voluntarily and without compensation.

The Federal authorities moved slowly. It was evident that the old indifference as to the welfare of the western world still prevailed. Some strange hallucination led the Washington authorities to believe that friendly relations might be sustained with a band of savages who were carried away by a religious frenzy, and who were daily giving ear to British whisperings. The consequences were that a party of mounted dragoons organized by Judge Benjamin Parke to protect Vincennes and who made a demand for pistols and swords, did not receive their equipment until late in the following spring, and then the swords were found to be of iron; that no orders were issued to form a friendly alliance with the Miami chiefs, and hold them steadfast; that the small detachment of one hundred and twenty or one hundred and thirty regulars under Captain Cross did not arrive until the third of October, and that no instructions were received from the government, until all forage for the horses had disappeared from the woods, and it was too late in the season to undertake an expedition.

With the opening of the spring of 1811, the insolence and effrontery of the Shawnee leaders measurably increased. About the first of April twelve horses were stolen from the settlement of Busseron, about twenty miles above Vincennes. The pillaging bands of the Potawatomi, directly under the influence of the Prophet, were committing robberies and murders on the Illinois and Missouri frontiers. In the issue of August 18th, 1810, of the Western Sun, of Vincennes, appeared this paragraph: "Extract of a letter from a gentleman at St. Louis, to his friend in this place, dated August 3rd, 1810. 'On my return from the garrison up the Missouri, I stayed at Captain Cole's, who just returned from the pursuit of some Indians that had stolen horses from the settlement—they came in view of the Indians on the prairie, and pursued on until night, and encamped, made fires, etc., in the woodland, and not apprehending any danger from the Indians, lay down to sleep—some time after midnight, they were fired upon by the Indians, and four men killed."

What had happened was this: There is a grove about three or four miles southwest of Morocco, in Newton County, Indiana, named Turkey Foot grove, and another of the same name about forty miles south of it, and two or three miles southeast of the town of Earl Park. In this region dwelt Turkey Foot, at the head of a lawless band of the prairie Potawatomi. They had kept the frontiers of Illinois in terror for months and had caused considerable anxiety both to Governor Harrison and to Governor Ninian Edwards of the Illinois Territory. In a spirit of devilish mischief and led on by the hope of plunder, the chief and his followers had ridden hundreds of miles across the grand prairies of Indiana and Illinois, had forded the Mississippi, and pierced to the outposts of Loutre island in the Missouri river, below the present town of Hermann, and from fifty to seventy miles west of St. Louis, had stolen a bunch of horses there, and made good their escape, after committing one of the foulest murders recorded in the early history of that territory.

As soon as the theft of the horses was discovered, great excitement prevailed, as horses were very valuable to the early pioneer. A rescue party was organized, composed of Samuel Cole, and William T. Cole, Temple, Patton, Murdock and Gooch, and after pursuing the Indians all day, they came in sight of them on a large prairie, but the horses of Cole's party were so tired that Cole had to give up the chase, and an encampment was made in a small woodland. After midnight, and when all were in slumber, the stealthy savages returned, surrounded the camp, and on the first attack killed Temple, Patton and Gooch. Murdock sought shelter under the bank of a creek near by, but William T. Cole was attacked by two savages, one in front and one in the rear. In the rencounter Cole was stabbed in the shoulder, but wrenched a knife from one of his assailants and killed him. The other Indian escaped in the darkness.

This murder and larceny combined, was brought to the attention of Governor Harrison by the then acting governor of the Louisiana Territory. Later, documentary proof was furnished by Governor Howard. Harrison sent William Wells and John Conner to Tippecanoe to demand restitution of the stolen property. Four horses were delivered up, and a promise made by the Shawnee leaders to procure the remainder, but this was never done. Wells found out that the Potawatomi banditti who had committed these murders were directly under the influence of Tecumseh and the Prophet, but he was given to understand that the murderers had fled to the Illinois river, and that no attempt would be made to apprehend them. Tecumseh boldly attempted to excuse all these outrages in a subsequent conference with the Governor.

Wells had much conversation at this time with Tecumseh, who "openly and positively avowed his determination to resist the encroachments of the white people." Wells told the Shawnee chief that he would never be able to accomplish his designs, but Tecumseh replied that Wells would live to see the contrary. About this time a friendly Kickapoo chief arrived at Vincennes and told the Governor that he was determined to put him on his guard against the Prophet and his brother. "He said that their pacific professions were not to be relied upon; that he had heard them speaking to the Indians for several years and in that time he had never heard anything that they said but war and hatred against the United States. That the delivering up of the horses which were occasionally stolen was merely intended to lull our vigilance and to prevent us from discovering their designs until they were ripe for execution. That they frequently told their young men that they would defeat their plans by their precipitancy. That in their harangues to the Indians they frequently requested those who would not join their confederacy, to keep their secret. That they always promised them a rich harvest of plunder and scalps, declaring that the first stroke would put them in possession of an ample supply of arms, ammunition and provisions."

On the second of May, General William Clark, of St. Louis, wrote to the Governor informing him that the Prophet had sent the belt to the Mississippi tribes, inviting them to join in a war against the United States, and declaring that the war would be begun by an attack on Vincennes. About the same time word was brought that the Sacs had acceded to the hostile confederacy, and that the Potawatomi in the region of Chicago were on the warpath. A party of surveyors employed by the surveyor-general to divide the New Purchase into townships, were seized and bound by a party of Weas, their arms taken from them, and the engineers driven in terror to Cincinnati. In the fore part of June, a pirogue sent up the Wabash with the annual supply of salt for the Indian tribes was seized by the Prophet and every barrel taken. The excuse given was, that the Prophet had two thousand warriors to feed, and that he had taken none on the previous year. Pierre La Plante, Harrison's agent at the Prophet's Town, reported that only about one hundred warriors were present at the time, but that Tecumseh was shortly expected to arrive with a considerable reinforcement from the lakes. About the twentieth of June, five Shawnees and ten Winnebagoes of the Prophet's party invaded Vincennes bringing a number of rifles and tomahawks to be repaired. They were boldly accused by some Potawatomi of Topenebee's faction to be meditating war against Harrison and to be making observations on the situation of affairs within the town.

So threatening and warlike were the actions of the Shawnee leaders that the Governor now addressed a communication to the Secretary of War, demanding that the Fourth United States Regiment at Pittsburgh, under the command of Colonel John Parke Boyd, be sent forward immediately for the defense of the frontiers. The government was in part aroused from its state of lethargy. Recent advices from Governor Edwards had announced a series of murders and depredations on the Illinois frontier, and the citizens of Vincennes were in constant dread and apprehension. The Governor said that he could not much longer restrain his people, and that there was danger of them falling on the Indians and slaying friend and foe alike, from their inability to discriminate the various tribes. By a letter of the seventeenth of July, the Governor received word that the aforementioned regiment, with a company of riflemen, had been ordered to descend the Ohio, and that Colonel Boyd was to act under the advice and command of the Governor himself. If necessary, this force was to be employed in an attack upon the Prophet, but the Governor was given positive orders not to march them up the river or to begin hostilities, until every other expedient had failed. Hedged about by timid restrictions and foolish admonitions, the course of the Governor was rendered extremely difficult. One thing, however, he had firmly resolved to do. The Prophet's forces must soon be scattered.

In the meantime, Harrison had dispatched Captain Walter Wilson, of the Territorial militia, with a speech to the Prophet's Town. The Captain was well received by Tecumseh. Harrison's talk was plain and to the point. He informed the Shawnee brothers that he was well aware of their design to unite the tribes, murder the Governor, and commence a war upon his people. That their seizure of the salt sent up the Wabash was ample proof of their hostile intention. That they had no prospect of success, for his hunting shirt men were as numerous as the mosquitoes on the shores of the Wabash. That if they were discontented with the sale of the lands at Fort Wayne, that he (the Governor) would furnish them the means to visit the President of the United States, and they might then state their claims in full and receive justice, but that they must not come to Vincennes with a large retinue, as this would not be permitted. If they came they must only be attended by a few of their young men. This last proposition, Tecumseh promptly acquiesced in and sent word to the Governor that he expected to be in Vincennes in about eighteen days, and that all matters would then be settled in "peace and happiness."