are told that your religion was given to your forefathers and has been handed down from father to son. We also have a religion which was given to our forefathers and has been handed down to us, their children. We worship in that way. It teaches us to be thankful for all the favors we receive, to love each other, and to be united. We never quarrel about religion.

Brother, the Great Spirit has made us all, but He made a great difference between His white and His red children. He has given us different complexions and different customs. To you He has given the arts. To these He has not opened our eyes. We know these things to be true. Since He has made so great a difference between us in other things, why may we not conclude that He has given us a different religion according to our understanding? The Great Spirit does right. He knows what is best for His children; we are satisfied.

Brother, we do not wish to destroy your religion or take it from you. We only want to enjoy our own.

Brother, you say you have not come to get our land or our money, but to enlighten our minds. I will tell you that I have been at your meetings, and saw you collect money from the meeting. I cannot tell what this money was intended for, but suppose that it was for your minister; and, if we should conform to your way, perhaps you may want some from us.

Brother, we are told that you have been preaching to the white people in this place. These people are our neighbors. We are acquainted with them. We will wait a little while and see what effect your preaching has upon them. If we find it does them good,

makes them honest, and less disposed to cheat Indians, we will then consider again of what you have said.

Brother, you have now heard our answer to your talk, and this is all we have to say at present. As we are going to part, we will come and take you by the hand, and hope the Great Spirit will protect you on your journey and return you safe to your friends.

TO GOVERNOR HARRISON 1

TECUMSEH
(1810)

TECUMSEH (1768-1813), chief of the Shawnee Indians, was born near Springfield, Ohio. He took a prominent part in the Indian wars, and in 1805 attempted to organize all the western Indians in a confederacy against the whites. At the outbreak of hostilities with Great Britain in 1812, he went to Canada with a band of Shawnees, and was a useful ally of the British during the War of 1812. For his services in this campaign he was made brigadier general in the British army. He was killed in the battle of the Thames, 1813.

It is true I am a Shawnee. My forefathers were warriors. Their son is a warrior. From them I take only my existence; from my tribe I take nothing. I

am the maker of my own fortune; and oh! that I

1 Delivered to Governor Harrison at Vincennes, Indiana, in 1810. In Tecumseh's absence the Indians had sold to the Americans lands on both sides of the Wabash River.

could make that of my red people, and of my country, as great as the conceptions of my mind, when I think of the Spirit that rules the universe. I would not then come to Governor Harrison,1 to ask him to tear the treaty and to obliterate the landmark; but I would say to him, "Sir, you have liberty to return to your own country.'

The being within, communing with past ages, tells me that once, nor until lately, there was no white man on this continent; that it then all belonged to red men, children of the same parents, placed on it by the Great Spirit that made them, to keep it, to traverse it, to enjoy its productions, and to fill it with the same race, once a happy race, since made miserable by the white people, who are never contented, but always encroaching. The way, and the only way, to check and to stop this evil, is for all the red men to unite in claiming a common and equal right in the land, as it was at first, and should be yet; for it never was divided, but belongs to all for the use of each. No part has a right to sell, even to each other, much less to strangers, those who want all, and will not do with less.

The white people have no right to take the land from the Indians, because they had it first; it is theirs. They may sell, but all must join. Any sale not made by all is not valid. The late sale is bad. It was made by a part only. Part do not know how to sell. It requires all to make a bargain for all. All red men have equal rights to the unoccupied land. The right of occupancy is as good in one place as in another. There cannot be two occupations in the same place. The first

1 William Henry Harrison (1773-1841), ninth president of the United States, the victor of Tippecanoe and the Thames.

excludes all others. It is not so in hunting or traveling; for there the same ground will serve many, as they may follow each other all day; but the camp is stationary, and that is occupancy. It belongs to the first who sits down on his blanket or skins which he has thrown upon the ground; and till he leaves it, no other has a right.

WAR WITH GREAT BRITAIN 1

BY A NEW ENGLAND FARMER

(1812)

GREAT BRITAIN stands in a situation which may be called unexampled. Her marine power is greater than that of any other nation since we have any authentic histories of civilized societies. Opposed to her is the gigantic domination of France, enjoyed and swayed by one of the most ambitious, daring, successful, and unprincipled men 2 whom the world has produced a man who has shown that he neither respects the venerable institutions of religion, nor the faith of treaties, nor the established laws of civilized nations, — a declared enemy to the ancient dynasties of monarchical states, as well as to the humble citizens of free republics. 1 This selection is not an extract from a speech, but rather from an essay. It is, however, suitable for declamation, and illustrates better than most speeches of the period the attitude of a majority of New Englanders toward the War of 1812. The author was John Lowell (1769-1840), a political writer of the time. He was familiar with public affairs and had served as a legislator. The whole essay is entitled, "A Dispassionate Enquiry into the Reasons Alleged by Mr. Madison for Declaring an Offensive and Ruinous War against Great Britain."

2 Napoleon Bonaparte, emperor of the French.

He has spared no people whom his arms could subdue, and there are none whom he has subdued that he has not reduced to the lowest stage of servitude and misery.

Against this monstrous power Great Britain, by means of her marine force, has been alone enabled to make a successful stand, and it is immaterial to us whether this opposition on her part proceeds from a general regard to the interests of all free and independent states, or whether she is influenced by her own interests or by her ambition. The effect upon us is the same, and we have only to ask ourselves whether we have most to apprehend from the absolute success of the arms of France or from the mere capacity of Great Britain to resist the tyrant who threatens her with destruction. If the chances between these two combatants were equal, if it were as probable that Great Britain would subdue France as that France will subdue Great Britain, then we should only have to ask ourselves which would be most likely to abuse their power, and we ought in that case to wish success to that nation which has manifested the greatest disposition to justice and moderation.

Britain is ruled by her citizens she is essentially free, and no nation abhors more than she does the tyrannical principles which actuate the ruler of France.

Our interest, then, in the strongest case which could be put would be in favor of the predominance of British power rather than that of France.

Recollect the old maxim of our revolution, which is more important to be applied to New England and the commercial states NOW than it was THEN: United we stand, divided we fall.