y Prophet. Proselytes are multiplied, and his
followers increase in number. Even Tecumseh becomes a believer, and,
seizing upon the golden opportunity, he mingles with the pilgrims, wins
them by his address, and, on their return, sends a knowledge of his
plan of concert and union to the most distant tribes. And now commenced
those bodily and mental labors of Tecumseh, which were never
intermitted for the space of five years. During the whole of this
period, we have seen that his life was one of ceaseless activity. He
traveled, he argued, he commanded: to-day, his persuasive voice was
listened to by the Wyandots, on the plains of Sandusky--to-morrow, his
commands were issued on the banks of the Wabash--anon, he was paddling
his bark canoe across the Mississippi; now, boldly confronting the
governor of Indiana territory in the council-house at Viacennes, and
now carrying his banner of union among the Creeks and Cherokees of the
south. He was neither intoxicated by success, nor discouraged by
failure; and, but for the desperate conflict at Tippecanoe, would have
established the most formidable and extended combination of Indians,
that has ever been witnessed on this continent That he could have been
successful in arresting the progress of the whites, or in making the
Ohio river the boundary between them and the Indians of the north-west,
even if that battle had not been fought, is not to be supposed. The
ultimate failure of his plan was inevitable from the circumstances of
the case. The wonder is not that he did not succeed, but that he was
enabled to accomplish so much. His genius should neither be tested by
the magnitude of his scheme, nor the failure in its execution, but by
the extraordinary success that crowned his patriotic labors. These
labors were suddenly terminated in the hour when the prospect of
perfecting the grand confederacy was brightest. By the battle of
Tippecanoe--fought in violation of his positive commands and during his
absence to the south,--the great object of his ambition was frustrated,
the golden bowl was broken at the fountain; that ardent enthusiasm
which for years had sustained him, in the hour of peril and privation,
was extinguished. His efforts were paralyzed, but not his hostility to
the United States. He joined the standard of their enemy, and fought
beneath it with his wonted skill and heroism. At length the contest on
the Thames was at hand. Indignant at the want of courage or military
s