HARRISON 



2703 



HARRISON 



the boy from a future which he dreaded. 

 Washington approved his purpose to be a sol- 

 dier, and in August, 1791, commissioned him an 

 ensign in the First Infantry, then stationed at 

 Fort Washington, Ohio. 



During the next seven years Harrison served 

 in various campaigns against the Indians. In 

 1792 he was appointed lieutenant and aid-de- 

 camp to General Anthony Wayne, and Wayne's 

 victory over the Indians in the battle of Fallen 

 Timbers, on the Maumee River, was due in 

 part to the plan of march suggested by Lieu- 

 tenant Harrison. In May, 1797, Harrison was 

 promoted to the rank of captain, and placed in 

 command of Fort Washington, where he re- 

 mained until he resigned his commission in 

 June, 1798. 



Immediately after his resignation from the 

 army President John Adams appointed him 

 secretary of the Northwest Territory, under 

 General Arthur St. Clair, as governor (see 

 NORTHWEST TERRITORY). After a year he re- 

 signed this position to take his seat in Congress 

 as the first delegate from the Northwest Ter- 

 ritory and the first delegate from any territory 

 of the United States. Up to this time the 

 public lands in the West had been sold only 

 in large tracts, a practice which favored the 

 rich and made it impossible for the poor man 

 to obtain a homestead. Through Harrison's 

 efforts Congress authorized the division of land 

 into small tracts and thus laid the foundation 

 of the present homestead laws (which see). He 

 was also instrumental in securing the division 

 of the Northwest into two parts. The west- 

 ern part, or territory of Indiana, included the 

 present states of Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois 

 and Indiana, and in 1801 Harrison was ap- 

 pointed its first governor and superintendent 

 of Indian affairs. So satisfactory were his 

 services that he was reappointed by Presidents 

 Jefferson and Madison, and held the position 

 until 1812. 



Governor of Indiana Territory. At the time 

 of Harrison's appointment in 1801 the terri- 

 tory of Indiana had a widely-scattered popu- 

 lation of nearly 5,000 people. Harrison's task 

 was not merely to give these people a gov- 

 ernment, but to keep peace with the Indians 

 and thereby open the West to more settlers. 

 Within a year he had established friendly rela- 

 tions with several of the Indian tribes, and 

 all in all he negotiated thirteen treaties, by 

 which the Indians ceded to the United States 

 more than three million acres of land along 

 the White and Wabash rivers. While the 



questions of land rights and the relations of 

 the Indians to the new government were thus 

 being adjusted, this very adjustment led to 

 the most serious difficulty Harrison had to face. 



The various cessions made by the tribes were 

 bitterly condemned by a few well-known chiefs, 

 among them Tecumseh, a chief of the Shaw- 

 nees, on the ground that the consent of all the 

 tribes, not of one or several, was necessary to 

 make a legal sale. Agents of the British gov- 

 ernment, the action of a few speculators who 

 drove Indians from their lands, and the vio- 

 lent preaching of Tecumseh's brother, Ellskwa- 

 tawa, commonly called the "Prophet," all com- 

 bined to spread discontent among the tribes. 

 See TECUMSEH. 



In an attempt to avert an Indian uprising, 

 Harrison invited Tecumseh to a two-day con- 

 ference at Vincennes, the territorial capital. 

 The chief arrived at Vincennes on August 12, 

 1810, not with thirty men, as requested, but 

 with 400 armed warriors. It required all Har- 

 rison's coolness to prevent bloodshed on the 

 first day of the council; when the meeting 

 came to an end without result, Harrison, un- 

 armed and accompanied only by an interpreter, 

 made a visit to Tecumseh's camp, in the hope 

 that the chiefs would feel less hostile when 

 they were not under the guns of the fort. The 

 daring of the visit of two unarmed men walk- 

 ing coolly into the midst of a band of savages 

 merely waiting for a signal to kill every white 

 man, impressed the Indians but did not change 

 their minds. In the following spring Indian 

 thefts and plundering became so frequent that 

 Harrison threatened punishment if the raids 

 did not cease. At another council, in the sum- 

 mer of 1811, Tecumseh professed his friendli- 

 ness to the white men; but Harrison, now 

 convinced of the chief's double-dealing, won 

 over the government at Washington to his plan 

 for checkmating the Indians. 



Harrison's purpose was to build a fort on 

 the Wabash River not far from Tippecanoe, 

 where the "Prophet" had established his vil- 

 lage. The announcement of this plan brought 

 several hundred volunteers to Vincennes, and 

 in September, 1811, Harrison with 900 men 

 left the capital. Near the site of Terre Haute 

 he built Fort Harrison, and, leaving a garrison 

 there, pressed on to Tippecanoe. On the sixth 

 of November the little army had reached a 

 point about a mile and a half from the Indian 

 camp, when it was met by messengers who 

 requested a council. The next day was fixed 

 for a meeting, but early in the morning the 



