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for whose welfare and happiness his thoughts were anxiously employed. Are these delightful plains, which were made by the Great Spirit to afford nourishment for his children, to be for ever deluged with blood? Will foolish men never learn that war and bloodshed are as offensive to the maker of us all, as they are destructive of the happiness of those which might engage in it?
"My Children, aim your arrows at the buffaloe, the bear, and the deer, which are provided for your use, but spare your brother man; let those whom the Great Spirit has placed upon the same Island, live in peace with each other. Let the nations to whom it has pleased God to give abundance of the comforts of life, share them with their neighbors who may be deficient.
"My Children, by this principle your great father, the President of the United States is strongly actuated; he bids me inform you that it is his ardent wish to see you prosperous and happy; he has directed me to take every means in my power to have you instructed in those arts, which the Great Spirit has long ago communicated to the white people, and from which they derive food and clothing in abundance.
"My Children, some of you whom I now address are old and wise men, who have lived long enough to see that the kind of life you lead is neither productive of happiness to yourselves, nor acceptable to the Great Spirit. You know the constant state of warfare in which you have lived has reduced some of your most powerful nations to mere handful; and even in time of peace, the difficulty of procuring provisions at some seasons of the year is so great, that your women are unable to raise a sufficient number of children to supply the constant waste occasioned by the excessive use of that most pernicious liquor, whiskey.
"My Children, the Great Spirit must assuredly have been angry with us when he discovered to man the mode of making this mischievous liquid. You well know the innumerable miseries which this fatal liquor has produced amongst you. Many of your young men spend the whole profit of their hunting in whiskey, and their children and old fathers are left to struggle with cold and hunger. Nay more, when reason is driven away by the intoxicating draft- what shocking scenes have been exhibited. The knife of a brother is aimed at a brother's life, and the tomahawk of the son is frequently buried in the head of his father; and those beautiful plains which were only to be stained by the blood of the deer and buffaloe are crimsoned with the gore of your best chiefs and warriors.
"But my Children, let us turn away our eyes from those shocking scenes, and let us unite our endeavors to introduce other manners amongst the generation which is now growing up.
"Your father, the President, has directed me to inform you, that he wishes you to assemble your scattered warriors, and to
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form towns and villages, in situations best adapted to cultivation; he will cause you to be furnished with horses, cattle, hogs, and implements of husbandry, and will have persons provided to instruct you in the management of them. My children, turn your thoughts seriously to this important object. You know that the game which afforded you subsistence is yearly becoming more scarce, and in a short time you will be left without resource, and your wives and children will in vain ask you for food.
"My Children, it is very easy for you to avoid this calamity. A great many years ago the white people subsisted as you do now upon the wild beasts of the forest. When those were becoming scarce, the Great Spirit communicated to them the method of raising grain for bread, and taught them to bring the ox and the horse under their subjection, though they had been as wild as your deer and buffaloe, and thus to assist them in cultivating the earth.
"My Children, our Great Father, who lives in heaven, has admirably contrived this earth for the comfort and happiness of his children; but from the beginning he has made it a law that man should earn his food by his own exertions; the beasts of the forest cannot be taken without trouble and fatigue; nor can bread or clothing be made without considerable labor. It is necessary that the grain should be deposited in the earth, and the intruding beasts kept off and noxious weeds destroyed; the munificent Deity performs the rest. He sends the rain and the dew to fertilize the soil and give vigor to the tender plants, and causes the sun to ripen and perfect the fruit.
"There is nothing so pleasing to God as to see his children employed in the cultivation of the earth. He gave command to our ancestors to increase and multiply until the whole earth should be filled with inhabitants. But you must be sensible my Children that this command could not be obeyed if we were all to depend upon the chace for our subsistence. It requires an immense extent of country to supply a very few hunters with food, and the labor and fatigue which the wives of hunters undergo and their constant exposure to the inclemency of the seasons make the raising of a very few children a matter of the greatest difficulty.
"My Children, you may perhaps think that the plan I have recommended is too difficult to be effected; but you may depend upon it that with the proper exertions on your part there is no doubt of its success. The experiment has been fairly tried with your brothers the Creeks and Cherokees. Many individuals of the former have herds of cattle consisting of some hundreds together with an abundance of corn and vegetables. This has had a most happy effect on their population, and all their wigwams are already filled with children.
"At any rate let me entreat you to make the experiment, for
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the sake of the rising generation; although it may be difficult for an old man to change entirely the mode of life in which he has been brought up, with children it is otherwise; they can be formed to any thing, can be made to assume any shape like the young shoots of the willow or the tender branches of the vine."
Soon after the council was opened, the Governor perceived that the minds of the greater part of the chiefs had been poisoned, and that they came prepared to reject any propositions that might be made to them; he therefore postponed the subject of the lands until each particular chief could be sounded, and his real disposition ascertained. In effecting this latter object, he was more fully convinced of the arts which had been practised upon them to defeat the object of the council, and to make them look upon every thing which came from the United States with an eye of suspicion. Most of the chiefs had shortly before made a visit to M'Kee, the Indian agent, and had received from him presents to a considerable amount. One, called the Little Turtle, was of the number- and though the measure of holding the council had been particularly recommended by him, he refused to attend, assigning as his reason, that the jealousy with which the chiefs viewed the footing on which he stood with the United States, would make his presence rather more injurious than serviceable. But it was the opinion of captain Wells, who had been Indian agent for the United States, that he had been bought over by the British. However that might have been, it was evident that he used all his influence to prevent the Indians attending the meeting; and among other expedients, he appointed a meeting of the chiefs at the Tawa towns, at the very time on which they were to have attended the Governor at the council.
As soon as the Governor thought the subject of the boundaries of the lands of the United States in the neighborhood of Vincennes could be mentioned with propriety, he urged the claim to the tract granted to the Wabash company as the one which had been set apart for the use of the settlement of Vincennes.
Although the subject was brought forward in terms the most guarded, it was received with marked indignation. They first of all declared that such a gift had never been made, that the land from Point Coupee to the mouth of White river had been lent by their ancestors to the French- but that it had never been sold or given, and that it was to be used only for purposes of commerce.
They said that it had been often foretold to them that the period would arrive when their country would entirely be usurped by the white people, and they earnestly besought the Governor not to insist upon their giving up any part of it at that time.
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They further stated that admitting the grant had been made by the Piankishaws, it could not be binding on them, as the Piankishaws owned but a small part of the country; and further that they had been always told by the agents of the United States, that their claims would be very small. This was found by the Governor to be strictly true. At the treaty which general Putnam had held with them, the subject was mentioned, and they declared that the grant made by their ancestors to the French extended no further than the high lands round the town of Vincennes, which did not amount to more than 7 or 8000 acres. Captain Wells also declared, that governor St. Clair directed him to inform the Indians, that a surveyor's chain should not be stretched on the opposite side of White river, and that the few settlements on them should be withdrawn.
On further investigation the Governor found, that the sales were made by the Indians to the Wabash company, through the influence of the French citizens of Vincennes, who were induced to exert themselves in behalf of the company in consideration of the tract between Point Coupee and White river, and 90 leagues in depth being set apart for their use; this combined with other circumstances impressed the Governor with a belief that in the whole transaction the Indians had been imposed upon. Of one thing he had no doubt, and that was, that none but the chiefs over whom the French of Vincennes had the greatest ascendancy were concerned in the transaction.
The Governor could not obtain any satisfactory information as to the depth of the tract originally given to Monsieur De Vincennes- but he was inclined to think that it was never considered to have extended beyond White river, as the object of making an establishment was purely that of making it a trading post.
On hearing the grounds of the claim made by the Governor, the chiefs asked one day to consider of it, and then they flatly refused to acknowledge it, declaring that such a claim could not have existed for so long a time without its having been mentioned to them; that the Great Spirit was angry with them for having parted with so much of their lands, and they were determined to offend him in that way no longer.
Under these circumstances it required the utmost exertions of the Governor to bring them to a better temper; and in this, he, with the assistance of captain Wells, completely succeeded upon terms which are inserted below. The Governor not thinking himself vested with powers sufficient for a formal treaty, chose to put the business in that shape, particularly as the land which they agreed to give up was not what was claimed under treaty, but was rather a compromise, or equivalent for the claim; and he also conceived that the signature of the chiefs who were formally empowered to sign a treaty in behalf of the tribes,
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would be as obligatory as if it were signed by all the chiefs, and the trouble and expence of getting them together would be entirely avoided.
At the desire of the chiefs, it was agreed, that the treaty should be signed at Fort Wayne, when the four persons who were appointed on their part were to meet, at any time, such persons as might be appointed by the President for that purpose.
The chiefs at this council could not be prevailed upon to name what compensation they would have for the salt spring, most of them was for giving it as a present, but others said they wanted horses, guns, powder and ball for it:- Neither would they agree to say that it was sold or given, but that it might be used by the United States, so long as the Great Spirit produced water there.
Upon the whole the council went off much better than was expected from first appearances. And though at the commencement the chiefs exhibited much ill humour, and violent opposition to the proposed arrangements, yet the address of the Governor overcame all obstacles; and those who were acquainted with the subject declared, they never saw the chiefs who were present, so well disposed towards the United States.
Here follows the memorandum of agreement which was afterwards ratified at Fort Wayne.
"In a conference, holden by William Henry Harrison, Governor and commander in chief in and over the Indian Territory, and intendant of Indian affairs, and the Sachems and Chiefs of the Potawatamy, Kickapoo, Eel River, Kaskaskia, Wea, and Piankishaw nations, the said Sachems and Chiefs aforesaid have nominated and appointed the Little Turtle, Richarville, To-pinee-bik, and Winemak, or a majority of them, to finally settle and adjust a treaty with such agent or agents as may be appointed on behalf of the United States, which shall be established on the following article, to wit:
"That the United States shall relinquish all claim to lands in the neighborhood of Vincennes, excepting the following described tract, which we the undersigned Sachems and Chiefs for ourselves and the nations we represent, do by these presents authorize and empower you, the said Little Turtle, Richarville, To-pinee-bik, and Winemak, or a majority of you, to transfer and make over to the United States in consideration of the relinquishment above mentioned, the tract of land comprised within the following lines and boundaries, to wit: beginning at Point Coupee on the Wabash river, thence running a westwardly line four leagues, thence southwardly by a line drawn parallel to the general course of the Wabash river until it will be intersected by a westwardly line drawn from the confluence of the White river and Wabash river, thence from the point of intersection aforesaid along the said line by the confluence of the White and Wabash rivers in an easterly direction twenty-four leagues,
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