aristocrats," but who in reality contributed more to the growth and
prosperity of the frontier posts than any other element. From this class
of Virginians, some of them men of learning and attainment, Harrison
selected his retainers and henchmen. Chief among them was Benjamin
Parke, one of the commanders at Tippecanoe, and the founder of the State
law library in after years; and also Waller Taylor and Thomas Randolph,
two of his aides in the Wabash campaign and of his immediate military
family. These men, together with Harrison, comprised the "inner circle,"
who administered the affairs of Knox County and Vincennes, and at that
time Knox County held the lead and control in public transactions
throughout the Territory. That they favored the suspension of the sixth
article of the Ordinance of 1787, prohibiting slavery in the Northwest
Territory, is now established history. But they also organized the
courts and the representative assemblies of that day; enacted and
enforced the public laws, and set about to establish institutions of
learning. Harrison in particular was a friend of the schools. Besides
that, these men and their followers organized the militia, gave the
woodsmen a training in the manual of arms, and exercised a wide-awake
and eternal vigilance for the safety of the frontier. The military
instinct of the early Virginian was one of the great factors that
determined the conquest and established the permanent peace of the new
land.

Probably no magistrate was ever invested with greater powers in a new
country than was General Harrison in the first years of his
governorship. "Amongst the powers conferred upon him, were those,
jointly with the judges, of the legislative functions of the Territory;
the appointment of all the civil officers within the territory, and all
the military officers of a grade inferior in rank to that of general,
commander in chief of the militia--the absolute and uncontrolled power
of pardoning all offenses--sole commissioner of treaties with the
Indians, with unlimited powers, and the power of confirming, at his
option, all grants of land." That he was left in control of these powers
both under the administrations of President Jefferson and President
Madison is sufficient confirmation of the trust and confidence they
reposed in him. In the years to follow, he was to conduct a great number
of difficult negotiations with the chiefs and head warriors of the
Delawares, Shawnees, Miamis, Pota