remove those intended for the whites--that the red men
were accustomed to sit upon the earth, which was their mother, and that
they were always happy to recline upon her bosom.'" *

* James Hall, "Memoir of William Henry Harrison," pp. 113-114.

The chieftain's equivocal conduct aroused fresh suspicion, but he was
allowed to proceed with the oration which he had come to deliver. Freely
rendered, the speech ran, in part, as follows:

"I have made myself what I am; and I would that I could make the red
people as great as the conceptions of my mind, when I think of the Great
Spirit that rules over all. I would not then come to Governor Harrison
to ask him to tear the treaty [of 1809]; but I would say to him,
Brother, you have liberty to return to your own country. Once there was
no white man in all this country: then it belonged to red men, children
of the same parents, placed on it by the Great Spirit to keep it, to
travel over it, to eat its fruits, and fill it with the same race--once
a happy race, but now made miserable by the white people, who are never
contented, but always encroaching. They have driven us from the great
salt water, forced us over the mountains, and would shortly push us into
the lakes--but we are determined to go no further. The only way to stop
this evil is for all red men to unite in claiming a common and equal
right in the land, as it was at first, and should be now--for it never
was divided, but belongs to all.... Any sale not made by all is not
good."

In his reply Harrison declared that the Indians were not one nation,
since the Great Spirit had "put six different tongues in their heads,"
and argued that the Indiana lands had been in all respects properly
bought from their rightful owners. Tecumseh's blood boiled under this
denial of his main contention, and with the cry, "It is false," he gave
a signal to his warriors, who sprang to their feet and seized their
war-clubs. For a moment an armed clash was imminent. But Harrison's
cool manner enabled him to remain master of the situation, and a
well-directed rebuke sent the chieftain and his followers to their
quarters.

On the following morning Tecumseh apologized for his impetuosity and
asked that the conference be renewed. The request was granted, and again
the forest leader pressed for an abandonment of the policy of purchasing
land from the separate tribes. Harrison told him that the question was
for the President, rather than for