ainst the white man." These things occurred shortly prior to the
Tippecanoe campaign, but a condition similar to this had existed for
some time before the Treaty of Fort Wayne. The Governor was not
insensible to the true state of affairs. He once said: "I wish I
could say the Indians were treated with justice and propriety on all
occasions by our citizens, but it is far otherwise. They are often
abused and maltreated, and it is rare that they obtain any satisfaction
for the most unprovoked wrongs." But he also recognized the fact, that
the two races, so incompatible in habits, manners, customs and tastes,
could not dwell in peace together; that the progress of the white
settlements ought not to and could not on that account be stayed; that
it was up to him as the chief magistrate of the western country and as
Commissioner of Indian Affairs, to solve if he could, the troublous
problem before him, and he accordingly instructed Mr. John Johnston, the
Agent of Indian Affairs, to assemble the tribes at Fort Wayne for the
purpose of making a new treaty.

[Illustration: Governor William Henry Harrison]

There were many false sentimentalists of that day, who not unlike their
modern brethren, wept many crocodile tears over the fate of the "poor
Indian." They charged that the Governor, in the ensuing negotiations,
resorted to trickery, and that he availed himself of the threats and
violence of Winamac, the Potawatomi chief, in order to bring the
hesitating tribes to the terms of the purchase. In the face of the
revealed and undisputed facts of history, these facts were and are
entirely false, and were evidently put in motion by the disgruntled
office seekers at Vincennes as food for the foolish.

The position of Governor Harrison during the whole course of his
administration seems to have been this: he sought to ameliorate the
miserable condition of the savages at all times; sought by all means
within his power to bring to punishment those who committed outrages
against them; constantly demanded that the illegal traffic in liquor be
stopped. However, neither Governor Harrison nor any other man, however
powerful, could stop the hand of fate, or abrogate the eternal law of
the survival of the fittest. After every endeavor to put a stop to
abuses, and to quiet the impending storm on the frontier, he resorted to
the next, and seemingly only available means of putting an end to the
difficulty. That is, he provided for the separation