United States. In a
word, difficulties of various kinds were constantly recurring, which
required the most ceaseless vigilance and the shrewdest sagacity on the
part of the two brothers to obviate or overcome. The Prophet had a
clear head, if not an honest heart; courteous and insinuating in his
address, with a quick wit and a fluent tongue, he seldom came out of
any conference without rising in the estimation of those who composed
it. He was no warrior, and from the fact of his never having engaged in
a battle, the presumption has been raised that he was wanting in
physical courage. With that of cowardice, the charge of cruelty has
been associated, from the cold-blooded and deliberate manner in which
he put to death several of those who were suspected of having exercised
an influence adverse to his plans, or calculated to lessen the value of
the inspired character which he had assumed. Finally, it may be said of
him, that he was a vain, loquacious and cunning man, of indolent habits
and doubtful principles. Plausible but deceitful, prone to deal in the
marvellous, quick of apprehension, affluent in pretexts, winning and
eloquent, if not powerful in debate, the Prophet was peculiarly fitted
to play the impostor, and to excite into strong action, the credulous
fanaticism of the stern race to which he belonged. Few men, in any age
of the world, have risen more rapidly into extended notoriety; wielded,
for the time being, a more extraordinary degree of moral influence, or
sunk more suddenly into obscurity, than the Prophet.

[Footnote A: North American Review.]

TECUMSEH was near six feet in stature, with a compact, muscular frame,
capable of great physical endurance. His head was of a moderate size,
with a forehead full and high; his nose slightly aquiline, teeth large
and regular, eyes black, penetrating and overhung with heavy arched
brows, which increased the uniformly grave and severe expression of his
countenance. He is represented by those who knew him, to have been a
remarkably fine looking man, always plain but neat in his dress, and of
a commanding personal presence. His portrait, it is believed, was never
painted, owing probably to his strong prejudices against the whites.

In the private and social life of Tecumseh there were many things
worthy of notice. He was opposed, on principle, to polygamy, a practice
almost universal among his countrymen. He was married but once; and
this union, which took place at t