a few tolerable pictures, but finally gave up art, and went to France to experiment there in many inventions with which his fertile brain teemed. Fortunately he

met in Paris, Robert Livingston, whom Jef

ferson had sent as minister. Fulton told him about a pet project of his to make boats move through the water by steam. The idea was not an original one with Fulton. Many others had experimented with steam, and twenty years earlier, an American named John Fitch had actually succeeded in propelling boats by steam in regular trips for several weeks, on the Delaware River from Philadelphia to Trenton. But

for want of money, pow

erful influence, and other

Ir Fallon

adverse causes, Fitch had failed to establish steamboat navigation and for years all attempts to make it successful had been dropped. Fulton was poor, as most great inventors have been, but Livingston furnished him with money, and the result of their combined efforts was the steamboat lying off the pier on the Hudson on this afternoon in September, 1807, ready to make her first trip to Albany. You can fancy what anxiety Fulton felt on this momentous day. On the dock the crowd of people, disbelieving in such a miracle as the moving a ship by steam, laughed and jeered at Fulton and his foolish undertaking. As the piston began to move slowly up and down, the wheels to splash up the water on the pier, and the boat to move away, how the people must have wondered. I fancy Fulton's heart must almost have stopped beating. She went on bravely, scaring all the other boats out of her track. They burned pine wood in those days, instead of coal, and as it grew dark the smoke pipe sent up a

glittering column of sparks. The people on the banks of the Hudson, who had not heard of this new monster of the seas, as they beheld her

passing by in the evening, thought it was some supernatural appearance, and many declared it was not the work of man but of Satan.

of five miles an hour, and forced people to believe in the power of steam to propel vessels. Fulton thought that in time a boat might reach six miles an hour, but probably never more than six. Now, our great Hudson River steamboats go to Albany at the rate of twenty miles an hour.

Am I not right in calling this the greatest event of Jefferson's administrations? Wars, treaties, and political intrigues, become small in importance when compared with such wonderful inventions as the steamboat and telegraph.

CHAPTER VII.

MADISON'S PRESIDENCY.

Character of Madison. - Tecumseh. - William Henry Harrison, Governor of Indiana. -The Visit of Tecumseh. - The Prophet. - Battle of Tippecanoe. - Impressment of American Sailors on English Ships. - The Leopard and Chesapeake. War declared against England. -Flogging of an American Sailor. - War Feeling in United States.

THE Country did a very good thing for itself when it made James Madison of Virginia its president. He was a near and dear friend of Thomas Jeffer

son, and like him a Republican in politics. Quiet, and rather reserved in his manner, he was a man who gained the respect and confidence. even of those who did not agree with him. Almost always dressed in plain black broadcloth, he looked, as he was, a plain, scholarly, unpretending gentleman. The tendency to fine clothes and bright colors in the dress was fast wear

of men,

ing out in this republic.

There was a striking con

trast between the inau

Jan Medison

with white silk stockings, and the plain black suit of Madison, made from cloth manufactured in the United States.

When Madison took his seat in the presidential chair there was peace and prosperity in the country. But there was a strong prospect that peace would not be long continued. The Indians on the border had been very quiet since Anthony Wayne subdued them, but now there were symptoms of gathering trouble among them. There had arisen among the Shawnee Indians a chief of superior intellect and far-sightedness to the rest of his race. He was endeavoring to stir up the Indians to resist the constant invasion of the white man; to prevent them from being pushed off their pleasant hunting-grounds, and driven farther and farther west. This man's name was Tecumseh. Tecumseh in Indian dialect means "Flying Tiger," or "Tiger leaping at his prey."

Indiana, where Tecumseh's tribe lived, had just been divided from Michigan and Illinois, and made a Territory. Its governor was William Henry Harrison, who had been one of the officers in Wayne's campaign against the Indians. Harrison had bought a piece of land on the Wabash River from the chiefs of Tecumseh's tribe, and was about to take possession of it. When Tecumseh heard of this, he came with an armed band of warriors to the settlement where the governor lived, and told him he wished to talk with him about the purchase. Governor Harrison asked him to enter his house, but Tecumseh refused. The air of the white man's dwelling stifled him. He wanted to speak in the open air.

When they were all assembled, one of Harrison's officers asked the chief to sit beside the governor, saying, "Tecumseh, your father requests you to seat yourself."

The savage repeated contemptuously, "My father! The sun is my father. The earth is my mother. On her bosom I will repose," and seated himself on the ground.

In simple and eloquent speech Tecumseh laid his cause for complaint before the governor. He declared that the lands of the broad West belonged to all the Indian tribes in common; that one tribe had no right to sell a tract without the sanction of all the others. Harrison laughed at this claim; he answered him that the tribes spoke different languages and were different nations; that his bargain with the Shawnees was a just one; and he should keep the land. In the middle of his speech Tecumseh started to his feet with raised war-club. At the same moment the other warriors also started up with cries of rage, brandishing their weapons.

Harrison and his men, many of them unarmed, snatched whatever was nearest at hand to defend themselves. The Indians grew calmer, and the storm passed over without bloodshed. Tecumseh said he was sorry for his violence, and declared he was willing to have peace if the whites would leave him undisturbed in the possession of the land.

The meeting ended without further result. But from that time Harrison feared at any time an outbreak of the Indians. Tecumseh, filled with the idea of union between all the tribes a noble idea and worthy of a more civilized hero — journeyed from tribe to tribe trying to form a confederation. He visited the Cherokees, the Creeks, the Choctaws, all intelligent and warlike tribes, and was untiring in his efforts to inspire them with his spirit.

While Tecumseh was absent he left the tribe under the control of his twin brother, who was known among the savages as "The Prophet." He pretended to be able to foretell future events, and to be aided by powers from the Great Spirit, which would enable him to bring his people victory in war. The savages had great reverence for the Prophet, and believed devoutly in all that he professed to do. At this time Harrison was constantly hearing rumors of threatened uprising among the people of the Prophet. These rumors decided him at length to go and break up their town, which was on the Tippecanoe, a branch of the Wabash River, not far from the governor's fort. He accordingly led his forces through the forests and marshes to the banks of the river, and there fought the Prophet and his men, driving them from their town, and scattering them over the country. When Tecumseh returned from his patriotic journey, he found the tribe broken up and dispersed, his plans fruitless, and could only vow future vengeance against his enemies. He knew the Americans were on the point of war with England again, and inflaming all the Indians who would listen to him with his own desire for revenge, he hastened to offer himself and his warriors to the British officers, to fight against the United States. This trouble with the Indians broke out in the fall of 1811, and in June of the next year, this country, for a second time, declared war with England. In order that you may understand the cause of this, I must relate to you a few events that had been leading to war, almost ever since the nation had been independent of British rule.

It was hardly to be expected that Great Britain should give up