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.