On the seventh of August the governor informed the secretary that he
should call, in a peremptory manner, on all the tribes, to deliver up
such of their people as had been concerned in the murder of our
citizens; that from the Miamis he should require an absolute disavowal
of all connection with the Prophet; and that to all the tribes he would
repeat the declaration, that the United States have manifested through
a series of years, the utmost justice and generosity towards their
Indian neighbors; and have not only fulfilled all the engagements which
they entered into with them, but have spent considerable sums to
civilize them and promote their happiness; but if, under those
circumstances, any tribe should dare to take up the tomahawk against
their fathers, they must not expect the same lenity that had been shown
them at the close of the former war, but that they would either be
exterminated or driven beyond the Mississippi.

In furtherance of this plan, the governor forwarded speeches to the
different tribes, and instructed the Indian agents to use all possible
means to recall them to a sense of duty. He also wrote to the governors
of Illinois and Missouri, on the subject of the border difficulties, in
the hope that a general and simultaneous effort might avert an appeal
to arms.

In the month of September, the Prophet sent assurances to governor
Harrison of his pacific intentions, and that his demands should be
complied with; but about the same time some horses were stolen in the
neighborhood of his town, and the whites who went in pursuit of them
were fired upon by the Indians. Early in October the governor moved,
with a considerable body of troops, towards the Prophet's town, with
the expectation that a show of hostile measures would bring about an
accommodation with the Indians of that place. On the 10th of October,
one of the sentinels around his camp was fired on by the Indians, and
severely wounded. About the same time the Prophet sent a messenger to
the chiefs of the Delaware tribe, who were friendly to the United
States, requiring, them to say whether they would or would not join him
in the war against them; that he had taken up the tomahawk and would
not lay it down but with his life, unless their wrongs were redressed.
The Delaware chiefs immediately visited the Prophet, for the purpose of
dissuading him from commencing hostilities. Under these circumstances
there seemed to be no alternative for governor