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THE INDIANS IN CONTACT WITH THE WHITES. 159

ing, in 1807, a cession of all that portion of the territory not before ceded which was bounded on the west by the principal meridian, and extended on the north to the line of White Rock in Lake Huron.

This was a very valuable acquisition; and no complaint has reached us of any overreaching or other unfairness on the part of the governor in obtaining it. But ever since their encounter with Wayne, the Indian tribes of the Northwest had been rapidly sinking into degradation, and the most of them no longer exercised much freedom of will. In their intercourse with white people they were constantly brought in contact with all that was low and base in civilized life, with the inevitable result of adding to their native vices many that were new and in their effects more destructive than those they were born to. When not on the war-path, or on their great hunts, they were easily mastered by their passion for intoxicating drinks; and several classes of white people were ready to cater to this passion for selfish purposes of their own. It was often the case that a treaty of cession by the Indians was an arrangement which scheming persons among them had contrived to bring about for their own interest, and which the Indians were made to conclude with little volition of their own. Reservations in the nature of grants for the benefit of traders and interpreters and their half-breeds came to be

a common feature in such treaties; and though these were always nominally made at the desire of the Indians, the management which had created the desire was not often such as would bear the light. What was said of an Indian treaty a little later was already coming to be true. "An Indian treaty now lies chiefly between the various traders, agents, creditors, and half-breeds of the tribes, on whom custom and necessity have made the degraded chiefs dependent, and the government agents. When the former have seen matters so far arranged that their self-interest and various schemes and claims are likely to be fulfilled, and allowed to their hearts' content, the silent acquiescence of the Indians follows of course; and till this is the case the treaty can never be amicably effected." 1

But the governor, by the time his treaty was concluded, saw plain indications that trouble was brewing. He heard well-authenticated rumors that a prophet was among the Indians throughout all the West, practicing his arts and incantations, and urging in the name of the Great Spirit, for whom he assumed to speak, that they should league themselves together for protection against the white men. A great chieftain was also coming upon the stage, who perceived very clearly that the system pursued by the United States was "a mighty water ready to overflow his people;

1 Blanchard's Discoveries and Conquests in the Northwest, 402.

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TECUMSEH'S POLICY.

161

and he was laboring earnestly among the tribes in the effort to form a confederacy "to prevent any tribe from selling land without the consent of the others." This was "the dam he was erecting to resist this mighty water." The scheme of Tecumseh, even though it had been peacefully intended, must necessarily have excited alarm among the white people; for it sprang from a feeling of antagonism to their encroachments, and must depend for its success upon the prevalence of unfriendly sentiments among the tribes. That such sentiments were already spreading was perceived by those who were brought in contact, officially or otherwise, with the Indians; and the tendency in that direction increased rapidly as the relations between the United States and Great Britain became unsettled and threatening. There had never been any complete sundering of ties between the Indians of the Northwest and their old employers; they were still to some extent pensioners upon Great Britain for services during the Revolutionary War; and as they had nothing to fear from British aggression, there were no suspicions to weaken the former friendship. If war broke out between the United States and Great Britain, the Indians were likely to take the part of their old allies; and if the Indians on their part felt inclined to war, they naturally hoped for the assistance of the nation which they plainly perceived had no friendly feeling for the

Americans. What Governor Hull saw very distinctly was that in the event of war the little settlement on the frontier of civilization, whose destinies were committed to his care, would be encompassed by foes so numerous and so bloodthirsty that they might overwhelm and destroy it before the distant assistance upon which exclusively he must depend could be made effective.

Such was the state of affairs when the "dam" which Tecumseh had arranged broke away under premature pressure with such destructive force in the battle of the Tippecanoe. John Randolph truthfully said: "It was our own thirst for territory, our own want of moderation that had driven these sons of nature to desperation of which we felt the effects."

CHAPTER IX.

WAR, AND THE CONQUEST AND RECONQUEST OF MICHIGAN.

IN February, 1812, Governor Hull was in Washington, and reports which gave him great concern were continually coming to him of hostile conduct on the part of the Indians. For a long time the relations between the United States and Great Britain had been growing more and more critical; and if, as there was every reason to fear, war should be declared, no part of the country was so exposed to attack or so difficult of defense as the territory of which he was governor. The people in a petition to Congress the preceding December had justly said that the whole territory was a double frontier, with British on one side and Indians on the other, and they prayed for further protection of military posts and for an additional force at Detroit. There was so little agriculture in the territory that the garrison they already had at Detroit must be dependent for supplies in part at least upon Ohio; and a wilderness of two hundred miles separated that frontier post from the Ohio settlements. Through this wilderness

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