the honor,
rights and independence of the United States.

The Indian tribes on the northwestern frontiers of the United States
became very uneasy, and the machinations of British traders and
government emissaries had stimulated the growth of that discontent into
a decidedly hostile feeling toward the nation of Republicans, then
pressing upon the domain of the savages. The suspension of the world's
commerce had diminished the amount of their traffic in furs, and the
rapid extension of American settlements northward of Ohio was narrowing
their hunting grounds and producing a rapid diminution of game. The
introduction of intoxicating liquors among the savages by white traders
and speculators had widely spread demoralization, with consequent
disease and death.

English emissaries made the savages to believe that all these evils had
been brought upon them by the encroachments of the Americans; and in the
spring of 1811, it became evident that a league was forming among the
tribes for the extermination of the frontier settlers.

Tecumseh, the Shawnee chief, shrewd, crafty and intrepid, endeavored to
emulate Pontiac, the great Ottowa chief, in the formation of an Indian
confederacy in the Northwest, for making war upon the United States. He
had a shrewd twin brother, called the prophet, whose mysterious
incantation and predictions and pretended visions and spiritual
intercourse had inspired the savage mind with great veneration for him
as a wonderful "medicine man." He and Tecumseh possessed almost
unbounded influence over the Delawares, Shawnees, Wyandots, Miamis,
Kickapoos, Winnebagoes and Chippewas.

The celebrated Shawnee chief Tecumseh, according to Drake, was born a
few years before the Revolution, at the Indian village of Piqua, on Mad
River, about six miles below the site of Springfield, Clark County,
Ohio. His tribe removed from Florida about the middle of the last
century. His father, who was a chief, fell at the bloody battle of Point
Pleasant, in 1774. From his youth, he showed a passion for war. He early
acquired an unbounded influence over his tribe for his bravery, his
sense of justice and his commanding eloquence. Like his great prototype,
Pontiac, humanity was a prominent trait in his character. He not only
was never known to ill-treat or murder a prisoner, but indignantly
denounced those who did, employing all his authority and eloquence in
behalf of the helpless. In 1798, Tecumseh removed with his follow