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.
[Illustration: Raccoon Creek, Parke County, Indiana. The north line of
the New Purchase. Photo by Heaton]
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."