Messages and Letters of William Henry Harrison/Harrison Address to Indian council
Harrison's Address to Indian Council[1]
August 12, 1802
Dawson, Harrison, 22-25
My Children—
I have been, for a considerable time, desirous of having a general council composed of the chiefs and wise men of all the different tribes, whose concerns have been committed to my management, by your great father, the President of the United States.
Since my first arrival in this country, you well know how extremely anxious I have been to preserve your peace and harmony, not only between you and your white brethren, but between each particular tribe of my red children.
When the tomahawk was raised some time ago by some of your inconsiderate and rash young men, and your blood already began to flow, you know what pains I took to arrest the fury of the bloody weapon and to bury it where I thought it could never again be found.
My children, the great tree of peace which was planted at Greenville, I have watered and cultivated with the greatest care, and I have cherished the hope that this tree would spread its branches over the whole of this great Island,, and that the white and red people would smoke the pipe of friendship under its shade till the end of time.
But in spite of all my care, this fair and flourishing tree has been severely wounded by the rash and inconsiderate young men of both colors; and but a very few weeks ago, it received a most terrible gash, and one, which I much fear, will endanger the very existence of those large branches which hang over the Illinois river.
My Children, let us all exert ourselves to shield from future danger this sacred plant: let us cut off the branches which are withered and decayed, and extirpate the weeds which have hitherto retarded its growth, and then let us entwine our arms around its trunk, that the vicious and unruly may be unable to injure it.
My Children whilst your father, the President, was forming plans for your future happiness, and was communicating to me his directions upon the subject of clearing your understandings, and making you acquainted with those arts by which the white people are enabled to live with so much ease and comfort, how much must he have been grieved and surprised to hear that two of his people had been murdered by some of those very persons for whose welfare and happiness his thoughts were thus anxiously employed. Are these delightful plains, which were made by the Great Spirit to afford nourishment for his children, to be for ever deluged with blood? Will foolish men never learn that war and bloodshed are as offensive to the maker of us all, as they are destructive of the happiness of those which might engage in it?
My Children, aim your arrows at the buffaloe, the bear, and the deer, which are provided for your use, but spare your brother man; let those whom the Great Spirit has placed upon the same Island, live in peace with each other. Let the nations to whom it has pleased God to give abundance of the comforts of life, share them with their neighbors who may be deficient.
My Children, by this principle your great father, the President of the United States is strongly actuated; he bids me inform you that it is his ardent wish to see you prosperous and happy; he has directed me to take every means in my power to have you instructed in those arts, which the Great Spirit has long ago communicated to the white people, and from which they derive food and clothing in abundance.
My Children, some of you whom I now address are old and wise men, who have lived long enough to see that the kind of life you lead is neither productive of happiness to yourselves, nor acceptable to the Great Spirit. You know the constant state of warfare in which you have lived has reduced some of your most powerful nations to a mere handful; and even in time of peace, the difficulty of procuring provisions at some seasons of the year is so great, that your women are unable to raise a sufficient number of children to supply the constant waste occasioned by the excessive use of that most pernicious liquor, whiskey.
My Children, the Great Spirit must assuredly have been angry with us when he discovered to man the mode of making this mischievous liquor. You well know the innumerable miseries which this fatal liquor has produced amongst you. Many of your young men spend the whole profit of their hunting in whiskey, and their children and old fathers are left to struggle with cold and hunger. Nay more, when reason is driven away by the intoxicating draft—what shocking scenes have been exhibited. The knife of a brother is aimed at a brother's life, and the tomahawk of the son is frequently buried in the head of his father; and those beautiful plains which were only to be stained by the blood of the deer and buffaloe are crimsoned with the gore of your best chiefs and warriors.
But my Children, let us turn away our eyes from those shocking scenes, and let us unite our endeavors to introduce other manners amongst the generation which is now growing up.
Your father, the President, has directed me to inform you, that he wishes you to assemble your scattered warriors, and to form towns and villages, in situations best adapted to cultivation; he will cause you to be furnished with horses, cattle, hogs, and implements of husbandry, and will have persons provided to instruct you in the management of them. My children, turn your thoughts seriously to this important object. You know that the game which afforded you subsistence is yearly becoming more scarce, and in a short time you will be left without resource, and your wives and children will in vain ask you for food.
My Children, it is very easy for you to avoid this calamity. A great many years ago the white people subsisted as you do now upon the wild beasts of the forest. When those were becoming scarce the Great Spirit communicated to them the method of raising grain for bread, and taught them to bring the ox and the horse under their subjection though they had been as wild as your deer and buffaloe and thus to assist them in cultivating the earth.
My Children, our Great Father, who lives in heaven has admirably contrived this earth for the comfort and happiness of his children; but from the beginning he has made it a law that man should earn his food by his own exertions: the beasts of the forest cannot be taken without trouble and fatigue; nor can bread or clothing be made without considerable labor. It is necessary that the grain should be deposited in the earth, and the intruding beasts kept off and noxious weeds destroyed; the munificent Deity performs the rest. He sends the rain and the dew to fertilize the soil and give vigor to the tender plants, and causes the sun to ripen and perfect the fruit.
There is nothing so pleasing to God as to see his children employed in the cultivation of the earth. He gave command to our ancestors to increase and multiply until the whole earth should be filled with inhabitants. But you must be sensible my Children that this command could not be obeyed if we were all to depend upon the chase for our subsistence. It requires an immense extent of country to supply a very few hunters with food, and the labor and fatigue which the wives of hunters undergo and their constant exposure to the inclemency of the seasons make the raising of a very few children a matter of the greatest difiiculty.
My Children, you may perhaps think that the plan I have recommended is too difilcult to be effected; but you may depend upon it that with the proper exertions on your part there is no doubt of its success. The experiment has been fairly tried with your brothers the Creeks and Cherokees. Many individuals of the former have herds of cattle consisting of some hundreds together with an abundance of corn and vegetables. This has had a most happy effect on their population and all their wigwams are already filled with children.
At any rate let me entreat you to make the experiment, for the sake of the rising generation; although it may be difficult for an old man to change entirely the mode of life in which he has been brought up, with children it is otherwise; they can be formed to any thing, can be made to assume any shape like the young shoots of the willow or the tender branches of the vine.
- ↑ This council was called at Vincennes and got to business September 2. Kaskaskias, Kickapoos, Weas, Eel river Miamies, Piankeshaws and Pottawattomies attended. Compare the letter from the Sec. of War, Feb. 23. 1802. and Harrison's letters of Feb. 26. above for purpose. See also the report of this council under date of September 17, 1802.