on which he may take the rounds; and on different points of which, he may accumulate, or dissipate, the objects of his passions, for war, avarice, or debauch, as they shall happen to preponderate, and opportunities present themselves.

It may perhaps be said, the war of 1811 was fermenting in the remnants of dissatisfaction, which ensued the treaty of Greenville, from that time; and that if General Harrison had not commenced it, the Indians would. Besides that this assertion, if made, has no evidence adequate to a rational support when applied to the war of 1811, it is well known that the Indians had been made easy as to the only circumstance about which they had expressed discontent; their independence as nations; which was apparently implicated by that treaty.— The project of a general confederacy among them not to sell any more land by partial treaties, nor without the consent of the confederation, had not offensive war for its object; although resistance to encroachment, was undoubtedly one of its primary principles.

In any other than Indians, an idea so worthy of the most ardent patriotism, and of the most enlightened policy, would have merited a prompt adoption, and should have conferred immortality on its author. It is sometimes a resource of the weak against the strong. Had it been reduced to practice by the Grecian states, they could not have been enslaved by Phillipwhile the United States, now the rival of imperial crowns, without its fraternising influence, would still have been British colonies. To civilized Americans, to all weak nations, the principle of federal union, where consolidation cannot be admitted, is a prize of inestimable value; and to be realized if practicable.

It has often been said, that the Indians had been stimulated, and prepared for war, by the British, and that General Harrison only anticipated the blow.

Justice requires that truth only, should be told, or believed. That the British expected the United States to declare war against them for some time before it was done, and in that event intended to employ the Indians, are facts not to be ques

tioned. That they intended to begin the war, would, if asserted, require proof:-not that there is supposed to be any thing in their morality to render it questionable, but an invincible objection to it is found in their interests at the time; as connected with their European wars, and their weakness on the American continent.

The same sense of weakness, without doubt, induced them to engage the Indians in case of hostilities. Nor does any declamation on the side of the United States' government, compensate for the folly of making war on those Indians, in advance, rather than conciliating them; and even holding out to them the idea of employment, in case of war with Great Britain. If the United States wanted the humanity to restrain them from carrying war, (its consequences were not to be restrained,) into a dependent, but unoffending territory, they can merit but little credit with the man of reflection, for omitting, or in the first instance, refusing, to engage the Indians in the field, in the event of war. Besides, knowing that the British had more interest and influence among the Indians, than they had; the party in power might cautiously reserve to themselves the right of censuring a conduct on the part of the British, which was to give them credit with their adherents in proportion as they had abstained from both the example and imitation of their opponents, at whatever loss.

Not, however, to forestall the subject, but carefully to attend to the facts, which are known; it is to be stated, that the first human blood spilt after the peace of 1795, between the parties to this war, is believed to have been that of one, or more Indians, killed within the present state of Indiana, by a party from Breckenridge county, in 1806 or 7: about which a prosecution was attempted by the attorney for the United States.

A rescue, after arrest, being effected, a prosecution was also commenced against those concerned, for that; but afterwards dismissed, for want of law to support it, as it was thought, by an order from the attorney general, communing with President Jefferson, who sanctioned the noli prosequi.

If there was any instance before this, of an Indian's killing any white person, it is thought not to have gotten into print, the

receptacle for such things: nor is any tradition of the fact now recollected. The peace, certainly was not violated on the part of the Indians, or it would have been known, and recorded.

To turn a little back-In 1809, Governor Harrison held a treaty with the Delawares, Miamies, and Potawatomies, from whom he purchased for the United States, a large territory lying on both sides of the Wabash, and extending up the river for sixty miles above Vincennes. Previous to this time, and for about one year, the Prophet, a chief of the Shawanee tribe, and brother to Tecumseh, had led a band, or colony, of several hundred men, to the north bank of the Wabash, opposite Tippecanoe, where they were settled, and living, when the aforesaid treaty was concluded at fort Wayne. And although this carried the territorial line within about thirty miles of the Prophet's town, he had not been invited to the treaty.

It is not asserted, that Governor Harrison, was bound to notice, and respect his occupancy, his hunting grounds, or the boundary claimed by him. Nor will it be insisted, that the Prophet, and his adherents, were bound to preserve their respect, or good temper, towards Governor Harrison. It is not always that little men are insensible to the slights and disrespect put upon them by the great man. Nor is feeling of this nature less acute in the unlettered man of the forest, who has been elevated to command, than in the more polished citizen, under similar circumstances. Could Governor Harrison have seen his equal in the Prophet, he would undoubtedly have respected his rights, both territorial and magisterial; but, thought weak, he was treated with inattention, if not with disrespect.

What must have also heightened the chagrin resulting from these transactions, in both the brothers, is, that even Tecumseh was not at the treaty, and that it was in direct contravention of the grand principle of union, and common property; which they had both embraced with the utmost fervour, and were exerting, each in his own way, the full force of his genius to effectuate.

Very soon after this treaty was made, the discontents of both Tecumseh and the Prophet, were openly and repeatedly uttered. Their experience could but teach them, that when

boundaries were once prescribed to the white people, they were soon filled up, and then pressed to be extended, or soon overleaped. They could but apprehend, that they would in a short time have the Long Knife for their neighbours, or be compelled to remove again, as they had previously been from Greenville. While the utmost uneasiness and discontent were observed to pervade their councils.

By way of repelling complaints, Governor Harrison said, "it never had been suggested, that they could plead even the title of occupancy to the lands"--which however, before the claim. was made, as he had not given them a day of hearing, wherein to make it, the land was conveyed, by formal instrument, to the United States. Notwithstanding this very cogent reason of the governor, which implies a statute of limitations, and as much of the common law doctrines of disseisin as Tecumseh or the Prophet may be supposed to know-but who cannot be disgraced by adhering to the right of possession; as that is, even at common law, the last link in the chain of title, the keystone in the arch of conquest; that possession they had, and that should have been respected. When did not possession constitute Indian title? When was more than possession ever réquired to evidence such title? unless it was by Governor Harrison? What records of courts leet, or courts baron, had the Miamies, to produce to Governor Harrison, whereby to esta blish their right? But "their property had been acknowledged by the first white people."

That might have been for twenty years, and twice as much, and their title then, not a year old, as good as it was the day before the Prophet dispossessed them. For, all the law learning displayed by the governor on this subject notwithstanding, it may be safely affirmed, that the possession of the Prophet and his tribe, was not the possession of the Miamies; but that the possession, being in the case the sum and substance of right and title, was in the nearest hunters. And a decisive evidence of it, if more was wanted, is, that the Miamies remonstrated, and the Prophet would not give up--but continued to hold, as a conquest, if you please, both town and country. N**

VOL. II.

The just and upright governor, after all, that none should have aught against him, at the great man's palace, or the little man's pen, cites Tecumseh to Vincennes, his own stronghold, to make known his claims; and mocks him, with a taunt, that if he can establish his claim to be "good," his honour being the judge, he shall have his land, or an equivalent. An equivalent!! to the high-born soul of Tecumseh; an equivalent for a country!!! The governor might conceive it! Tecumseh could not. Hear what the noble savage said, when in audience:

"It is true I am a Shawanee. My forefathers were warriors; their son is a warrior. From them I only take my existence; from my tribe I take nothing. I am the maker of my own fortune; and oh! that I could make that of my red people, and of my country, as great as the conceptions of my mind, when I think of the Spirit that rules the universe. I would not then come to Governor Harrison, to ask him to tear the treaty, and to obliterate the landmark; but I would say to him, Sir, you have permission to return to your own country. The being within, communing with past ages, tells me, that once, nor until lately, there was no white men on this continent; that it then all belonged to red men, children of the same parents, placed on it by the Great Spirit that made them, to keep it, to traverse it, to enjoy its productions, and to fill it with the same race— once a happy race; since made miserable by the white people; who are never contented, but always encroaching. The way, and the only way, to check and to stop this evil, is, for all the red men to unite in claiming a common and equal right in the land; as it was at first, and should be yet; for it never was divided, but belongs to all, for the use of each. That no part has a right to sell, even to each other, much less to strangers; those who want all, and will not do with less."

He said, "That the white people have no right to take the land from the Indians; because, they had it first, it is theirs; they may sell, but all must join; any sale not made by all, is not valid: the late sale is bad; it was made by a part only:part do not know how to sell; it requires all, to make a bargain for all. That all the red men had equal rights to the un

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