William Henry Harrison

“ In the treaty of Greenville the chiefs promised to take the traders under their protection, but there is no specific mode of redress pointed out. Their treatment of the traders shows that they consider them entirely at their mercy, and they do frequently rob and abuse them. This insecurity to the persons and properties of the traders is the reason that so few decent and respectable men are employed in the Indian trade, which, with a few exceptions, is in the hands of the greatest villains in the world, and the authors of all those falsehoods which so frequently agitate the Indians. ”

“ 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 ”

“ As to their fear, we presume that our strength and their weakness is now so visible that they must see we have only to shut our hand to crush them, and that all our liberalities to them proceed from motives of pure humanity only. Should any tribe be fool-hardy enough to take up the hatchet at any time, the siezing the whole country of that tribe and driving them across the Missisipi, as the only condition of peace, would be an example to others, and a furtherance of our final consolidation. ”

“ The Kaskaskias being reduced to a few families, I presume we may purchase their whole country for what would place every individual of them at his ease, and be a small price to us: say by laying off for each family wherever they would chuse it as much rich land as they could cultivate, adjacent to each other, inclosing the whole in a single fence, and giving them such an annuity in money or goods for ever as would place them in happiness ”

“ They consider the existing regulations contained in the ordinance for the government of the Territory of the United States, which requires a freehold of fifty acres as a qualification for an elector of the General Assembly, as limiting too much the elective franchise. They conceive the vital principle of a free Government is, that taxation and representation should go together after a residence of sufficient length to manifest the intention of becoming a permanent inhabitant, and to evince, by conduct orderly and upright, that a person is entitled to the rights of an elector. ”

“ I do not indeed apprehend in the least that the neighbouring tribes have any inclination to make open war upon us—I fear only the effect of some sudden resentment arrising from their constant intercourse with the people of this town. In this intercourse causes of irritation are constantly produced twice within a few weeks an appeal was made to arms by both parties—one occasioned by some drunken Indians attempting to force a House in which one was killed and an other wounded. The other at the time when the two white men were killed as above mentioned. ”

“ To accomplish those objects I beg leave, Sir, respectfully to recommend to the President, that a deputation from each of the neighboring tribes, viz: the Delawares, Potawatamies, Miamis, Eel river Indians, Weas, Kickapoos, Sacks, and Kaskaskias should be assembled early in the ensuing summer, and that some person on the part of the United States be empowered to agree with them on the permanent boundaries between theirs and the lands of the United States at this place and the Illinois, country. ”

“ It is the ardent wish of the President of the United States, as well from a principle of humanity, as from duty and sound policy, that all prudent means in our power should be unremittingly pursued for carrying into effect the benevolent views of congress relative to the Indian nations within the jurisdiction of the United States. ”

“ Your Petitioners therefore pray, That a law may be passed for their relief, giving the right of Pre-emption to all those who may have so settled on the public lands, and also as one of the more sure means of populating the Country as of enhancing the value of the United States lands remaining undisposed of in the Territory. They further pray, that provision may be made in the said Law for securing a certain part of every Section of Such public land to those who will actually settle and cultivate the same. ”

“ The price at which the land is sold enables any body to become a purchaser; one thousand acres being frequently given for an indifferent horse or a rifle gun. And as a formal deed is made reciting the grant of the court (made as it is pretended under the authority of the State of Virginia) many ignorant persons have been induced to part with their little all to obtain this ideal property, and they will no doubt endeavor to strengthen their claim, as soon as they have discovered the deception, by an actual settlement. ”

“ 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. ”

“ It is my decided opinion that the U. S. have the right to treat with either of the Tribes who were parties to the Treaty of Greeneville. Motives of humanity will always prevent them from purchasing lands which cannot be conveniently spared and the interest of those who without having any just claim to the land but who may desire their support from it will be attended to. These principles are exemplified by the Treaties made with two Tribes for one tract of land when a complete and legal title might perhaps have been obtained by the extinction of the claims of one. ”

“ I do not know of any pretensions to land on the part of individuals without the acknowledged boundary of the lands of the LInited States, but those which are made by the Illinois and Wabash companies; these companies are composed nearly of the same persons, and their claims include almost the whole country between the Lakes, the Mississippi, the Ohio, and the Indian boundary line, running from the mouth of the Kentucky river to the northern boundary of the United States. ”

“ Amongst the variety of objects which engage my attention, as peculiarly interesting to our territory, none appeared to me of so much importance as the adoption of a system for the sale of public lands, which would give more favorable terms to that class of purchasers who are likely to become actual settlers, than was offered by the existing laws upon that subject: conformably to this idea I procured the passage of a resolution at an early period of the session for the appointment of a committee to take the matter into consideration. ”

“ At our trading houses too we mean to sell so low as merely to repay cost and charges so as neither to lessen or enlarge our capital. This is what private traders cannot do, for they must gain; they will consequently retire from the competition, and we shall thus get clear of this pest without giving offence or umbrage to the Indians. In this way our settlements will gradually circumscribe and approach the Indians, and they will in time either incorporate with us as citizens of the United States or remove beyond the Missisipi. ”

“ The violent opposition which the Turtle has made to the Delaware and Piankeshaw Treaties is easily accounted for. Conscious of the superiority of his Talents over the rest of his race and colour he sighs for a more conspicuous theatre to display them. Opportunities for exhibiting his eloquence occur too seldom to satisfy his vanity and the subjects which are generally discussed in the councils of the few chiefs who adhere to him, are too contemptible to gratify his ambition. ”

“ This poisonous liquor not only incapasitates them from obtaining a living by Hunting but it leads to the most attrocious crimes—killing each other has become so customary amongst them that it is no longer a crime to murder those whom they have been most accustomed to estem and regard. Their Chiefs and their nearest relations fall under the strokes of their Tomhawks & Knives. This has been so much the case with the three Tribes nearest us—the Peankashaws, Weas, & Eel River Miamis that there is scarcely a Chief to be found amongst them. ”

“ 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. ”

“ That this labor, demonstrable the dearest of any, can only be employed to advantage in the cultivation of products more valuable than any known to that quarter of the United States: that the committee deem it highly dangerous and inexpedient to impair a provision wisely calculated to promote the happiness and prosperity of the Northwestern country, and to give strength and security to that extensive frontier. ”

“ No Tax could be collected with so much facility, or paid with so much Ease; and none can be more equitable, as all the other Traders in the Country contribute fifteen Dollars yearly towards the Support of County Establishments. Your Memorialist therefore prays, that a law may be passed, authorizing and requiring the Superintendant of Indian Affairs or other persons empowered to issue Licences to Indian Traders, within the Indiana Territory, to receive for each Licence issued, such a Sum for the Use of the said Territory, as in your wisdom may be thought reasonable. ”

“ The people of Kentucky living on the Ohio from the mouth of the Kentucky river down the Mississippi make a constant practice of crossing over on the Indian lands opposite to them every fall to kill deer, bear, and buffaloe—the latter from being a great abundance a few year's ago is now scarcely to be met with, in that whole extent. ”

“ My Children, let us all exert ourselves to shield from future danger this sacred plant: let us cut off the branches which are withered and decayed, and extirpate the weeds which have hitherto retarded its growth, and then let us entwine our arms around its trunk, that the vicious and unruly may be unable to injure it. ”

“ Your memoralists beg leave further to represent, That the quantity of lands in the Territory open for Settlement is by no means sufficiently large to admit of a population adequate to the purposes of Civil Government. ”

“ Combined with these views, and to be prepared against the occupation of Louisiana by a powerful and enterprising people, it is important that setting less value on interior extension of purchases from the Indians, we bend our whole views to the purchase and settlement of the country on the Missisipi from it's mouth to it's Northern regions, that we may be able to present as strong a front on our Western as on our Eastern border, and plant on the Missisipi itself the means of it's own defence. ”

“ Whether some thing ought not to be done to prevent the reproach which will attach to the American Character by the exterpation of so many human beings, I beg leave most respectfuly to submit to the Consideration of the President—That this exterpation will happen no one can doubt who knows the astonishing annual decrease of these unhappy beings. ”

“ You know the constant state of warfare in which you have lived has reduced some of your most powerful nations to a 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. ”

“ The Socks a very large nation which Inhabit the Waters of the Illinois River are not bound by any treaty—and will not deliver up horses or prisones in their possession. I have reason to believe that there are several persons still with them which were taken during the late war. They say they are very willing to treat if they are put upon the same footing that the rest of the Indian Nations are. ”