TECUMSEH.

TECUMSEH, one of the most remarkable warriors and orators of the aboriginal tribes of America, was born on the Scioto river, in Ohio, about the year 1770. He was the son of a Shawanee warrior. At an early period of his life he seems to have commenced his savage operations against the whites. His first exploit of which there is any record, was performed near Hacker's creek, in the month of May, 1792, when, with a small band of warriors, he surprised the family of John Waggoner, and carried them into captivity. After this he was engaged in various incursions upon the settlements of the whites, and often intercepted the boats as they passed and repassed on the Ohio river. It is said that, in 1806, he and his brother the Prophet formed a plan of uniting all the western tribes of Indians, in opposition to the Americans, and previous to the war of 1812, he visited all the southern tribes, for the same purpose. Wherever he went he called councils of their tribes, and, with a bold and commanding eloquence, exhausted every topic calculated to operate on their minds, and alienate their affections. His speeches had a powerful influence amongst all those nations, with the Creeks particularly, although the more considerate rejected his interference. In the course of his harangues, he was accustomed to reproach them with their civilization; and, in the keenest and most sarcastic manner, contrasted their degenerate effeminacy with every thing that was great and noble in the estimation of the Indians. Against the United States he pronounced the most furious abuse, and by every method endeavored to establish in the minds of his hearers a belief that the humane system for their improvement, which had been established by the Americans, was but a plan to deprive them of "the homes of their fathers."

Among the many strange, and some strongly characteristic events in his life, the council which General Harrison held with the Indians at Vincennes, in 1811, affords an admirable instance of the sublimity which sometimes distinguished his eloquence. The chiefs of some tribes had come to complain of a purchase of lands which had been made from the Shawanees and other tribes. (This council effected nothing, but broke up in confusion, in consequence of Tecumseh having called General Harrison "a liar.") It was in the progress of the long talks that took place in the conference, that Tecumseh, having finished one of his speeches, looked round, and seeing every one seated, while no seat was prepared for him, a momentary frown passed over his countenance. Instantly, General Harrison ordered that a chair should be given him. Some person presented one, and bowing, said to him, "Warrior, your father, General Harrison, offers you a seat." Tecumseh's dark eye flashed: "My father!" he exclaimed, indignantly extending his arm towards the heavens; "the sun is my father, and the earth is my mother; she gives me nourishment, and I repose upon her bosom." As he ended, he sat down suddenly on the ground.

In the late war between the United States and Great Britain, Tecumseh was an ally of the British, and held the rank of brigadier-general. He distinguished himself at the battle of Brownstown, on the fifth of August, 1812, and a few days after led his Indians with great bravery in the conflict between the English forces and the Americans under General Miller. He was killed at the battle of the Thames, on the fifth of October, after making a most desperate stand, in conjunction with the British under General Proctor, against the American troops under the command of General Harrison.

"Tecumseh received the stamp of greatness from the hand of nature, and had his lot been

cast in a different state of society, he would have shone as one of the most distinguished of men. He was endowed with a powerful mind, with the soul of a hero. There was an uncommon dignity in his countenance and manners; by the former he was easily discovered after death, among the rest of the slain, for he wore no insignia of distinction. When girded with a silk sash, and told by General Proctor that he was made a brigadier in the British service, for his conduct at Brownstown and Magagua, he returned the present with respectful contempt. Born with no title to command but his native greatness, every tribe yielded submission to him at once, and no one ever disputed his precedence. Subtle and firm in war, he was possessed of uncommon eloquence; his speeches might bear a comparison with those of the most celebrated orators of Greece or Rome. His invective was terrible, as may be seen in the reproaches which he applied to General Proctor, a few days previous to his death. His form was uncommonly elegant; his stature about six feet, and his limbs were perfectly proportioned. He was honorably interred by the Americans, who respected him, as an inveterate, but a magnanimous enemy. He left a son, who, when his father fell, was about seventeen years of age, and who fought by his side. To this son, the King of England, in 1814, sent a present of a handsome sword, as a mark of respect for the memory of his father.*

SPEECH AT VINCENNES.

In 1809 Governor Harrison purchased of the Delawares and other tribes of Indians, a large tract of country on both sides of the Wabash, and extending up the river sixty miles above Vincennes. Tecumseh was absent during the time of the negotiation, and at his return expressed great dissatisfaction with the sale. On the twelfth of August of the next year (1810) he met the governor in council at Vincennes, when he addressed him as follows: t

It is true I am a Shawanee. My forefathers were warriors. Their son is a warrior. From them I only take my existence; from my tribe I take nothing. I am the maker of my own fortune; and oh! that I 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, 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 al

* Biography and History of the Indians of North America, by Samuel G. Drake: National Intelligencer, 1813: Memoirs of Harrison; and the New York Gazette, 1813.

+ Drake's Biography and History of the Indians of North America.

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 excludes all others. It is not so in hunting or travelling; 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.*

Having thus explained his reasons against the validity of the purchase, Tecumseh took his seat amidst his warriors.

* Mr. Drake, the author from whom this speech is taken, expresses some doubts of the correctness of this version of it; but adds: "nevertheless it may give the true meaning. One important paragraph ought to be added, which was, 'that the Americans had driven them from the sea-coast, and that they would shortly push them into the lakes, and that they were determined to make a stand where they were.'"

SPEECH TO GENERAL PROCTOR.

The following speech, "in the name of the Indian chiefs and warriors to Major General Proctor, as the representative of their Great Father-the King," is supposed to have been delivered a short time prior to the battle of the Thames, on the fifth of October, 1813.*

FATHER, listen to your children! you have them now all before you. The war before this our British father gave the hatchet to his red children, when old chiefs were alive. They are now dead. In that war our father was thrown on his back by the Americans, and our father took them by the hand without our knowledge; and we are afraid that our father will do so again at this time.

Summer before last, when I came forward with my red brethren, and was ready to take up the hatchet, in favor of our British father, we were told not to be in a hurry, that he had not yet determined to fight the Americans.

Listen! When war was declared, our father stood up and gave us the tomahawk, and told us that he was ready to strike the Americans; that he wanted our assistance, and that he would certainly get us our lands back, which the

Americans had taken from us.

Listen! You told us, at that time, to bring forward our families to this place, and we did so:-and you promised to take care of them, and that they should want for nothing, while the men would go and fight the enemy. That we need not trouble ourselves about the enemy's garrisons; that we knew nothing about them, and that our father would attend to that part of the business. You also told your red children,

*This speech was published in the National Intelligencer

in 1818, with the subjoined introduction:

that you would take good care of your garrison here, which made our hearts glad.

is true we gave you little assistance. It is hard Listen! When we were last at the Rapids, it to fight people who live like ground-hogs.

Father, listen! Our fleet has gone out; we know they have fought: we have heard the great guns: but know nothing of what has happened to our father with one arm. Our ships have gone one way, and we are much astonished to see our father tying up every thing and preparing to run away the other, without letting his red children know what his intentions are. You always told us to remain here and take care of our lands. It made our hearts glad to hear that was your wish. Our great father, the King, is the head, and you represent him. You always told us that you would never draw your foot off British ground; but now, father, we see you are drawing back, and we are sorry to see our father doing so without seeing the enemy. We must compare our father's conduct to a fat animal that carries its tail upon its back, but when affrighted, it drops it between its legs and runs off.

Listen, Father! The Americans have not yet defeated us by land; neither are we sure that they have done so by water-we therefore wish to remain here and fight our enemy, should they make their appearance. If they defeat us, we will then retreat with our father.

At the battle of the Rapids, last war, the Americans certainly defeated us; and when we retreated to our father's fort in that place, the gates were shut against us-We were afraid that it would now be the case, but instead of that, we now see our British father preparing to march out of his garrison.

Father! You have got the arms and ammunition which our great father sent for his red children. If you have an idea of going away, "The gentleman to whom we are indebted for the follow-give them to us, and you may go and welcome, ing speech, informs us it was found among General Proctor's papers after his flight. It is undoubtedly genuine. Its truth makes it severe; its language gives force and point to the

truth."

for us. Our lives are in the hands of the Great Spirit. We are determined to defend our lands, and if it is his will, we wish to leave our bones upon them.

DANIEL WEBSTER.

EBENEZER WEBSTER, the father of the subject of the present sketch, was an independent and frugal farmer, who enjoyed the confidence and respect of his fellow-citizens, and for some time served them both in a military and civil capacity. During the Seven Years War, he distinguished himself as a soldier in the ranks of Sir Jeffrey Amherst, and General Wolfe; and was present at the battles of Bennington and White Plains, in the war of the Revolution. At the time of his death, in 1806, he had occupied for several years, the position of judge of the Court of Common Pleas, for the county of Rockingham, in New Hampshire. He was twice married. His second wife, the mother of Ezekiel and Daniel Webster, was Abigail Eastman, a woman of Welsh extraction, and "like the mothers of so many men of eminence, she was a woman of more than ordinary intellect, and possessed a force of character which was felt throughout the humble circle in which she moved. She was proud of her sons and ambitious that they should excel. Her anticipations went beyond the narrow sphere in which their lot seemed to be cast, and the distinction attained by both, and especially by the younger, may well be traced in part to her early promptings and judicious guidance."

Daniel Webster was born in the town of Salisbury, New Hampshire, on the eighteenth day of January, 1782. His early opportunities for education were exceedingly limited. The village school, kept during the few months of winter, by persons illy qualified for the task, was the scene of his youthful instruction, and thither he daily went, on foot, trusting for an occasional ride with the miller or the blacksmith, whose course lay in the same direction with his own. These advantages Mr. Webster enjoyed much more than his older brothers; partly because he evinced a greater desire for learning, and partly because his father thought he was of too frail a constitution for any robust employment. "But Joe, his eldest half brother, who was somewhat of a wag, used to say that 'Dan was sent to school, in order that he might know as much as the other boys."" As soon as he was able to read, which must have been when he was very young, for he says, in his letter to Master Tappan, "I have never been able to recollect the time when I could not read the Bible," he manifested an ardent desire for books, and owing to the scarcity of them in the neighborhood of his father's house, he read the old ones over and over, till he had committed most of their contents to memory. Before he was fourteen years of age, he could repeat the whole Essay on Man, and at a subsequent period he committed to memory Watts' Psalms and Hymns.

In the spring of 1796, Mr. Webster left his father's house and went to Exeter, where he entered Phillips Academy, at that time the only institution in the State, with the exception of Dartmouth College, above the rank of a district school. Here he remained only a few months, but during that brief period, receiving the aid and encouragement of the celebrated Joseph Stevens Buckminster, who was a member of the senior class of the Academy, he made rapid advancement in his studies. A singular fact of his connection with this school has been related by Mr. Webster himself. "I believe," says he, "I made tolerable progress in most branches which I attended to while in this school; but there was one thing I could not do. I could not make a declamation. I could not speak before the school. The kind and excellent

Buckminster sought especially to persuade me to perform the exercise of declamation, like other boys, but I could not do it. Many a piece did I commit to memory, and recite and rehearse in my own room, over and over again; yet when the day came, when the school collected to hear declamations, when my name was called, and I saw all eyes turned to my seat, I could not raise myself from it. Sometimes the instructors frowned, sometimes they smiled. Mr. Buckminster always pressed and entreated, most winningly, that I would venture. But I never could command sufficient resolution." *

At the termination of his studies in Exeter, Mr. Webster returned to Salisbury, and shortly after was placed under the instruction of the Rev. Samuel Woods, in Boscawen, to prepare for College. While with Mr. Woods he applied himself with the greatest zeal to his studies, and "learned all that his preceptor could teach." He read Virgil and Cicero, and at the same time devoted much of his leisure to reading and the study of general literature. Here, for the first time, he met Don Quixote in English. "I began to read it," he said, in a conversation with Mr. March, "and it is literally true that I never closed my eyes till I had finished it; nor did I lay it down any time for five minutes; so great was the power of this extraordinary book on my imagination."

In August, 1797, Mr. Webster entered the freshman class of Dartmouth College. Here he devoted himself attentively to the prescribed studies, at the same time spending many of his hours in general reading; especially in English history and literature. He took part in the publication. of a college periodical, often contributing original articles to its pages, besides making selections for it from the current books and magazines. During his college life he maintained a high reputation among his classmates for wit and talent. "It is, known," says Mr. Ticknor, "in many ways, that by those who were acquainted with him at this period of life, he was already regarded as a marked man, and that to the more sagacious of them the honors of his subsequent career have not been unexpected." In the intervals of his student life, he was engaged in teaching school, not only for the purpose of providing a means of his own support, but to aid his elder brother, who was at that time preparing to enter college.

Mr. Webster graduated in August, 1801, and immediately commenced the study of law in the office of Mr. Thompson, a neighbor of his father. Here he continued until "he felt it necessary to go somewhere and do something to earn a little money." To this end he took charge of an academy at Fryeburg, in Maine. In September, 1802, he returned to his legal studies with Mr. Thompson, where he remained until the spring of 1804. He now went to Boston and obtained admission as a student in the office of Christopher Gore, at that time one of the principal lawyers, and among the most eminent men of the State. With Mr. Gore he remained until his admission to the bar in March, 1805. About this time he received a letter from his father, in which he was informed that the appointment of clerk in the Court of Common Pleas, for the county of Hillsborough, in New Hampshire, had been procured for him, and he was advised to hasten home and take possession of the office. His father considered the appointment as a very favorable position, but Mr. Webster, before deciding to accept it thought it most proper to consult with his preceptor, Mr. Gore. The case being laid before him, that gentleman suggested that should he accept the office, he would probably remain a mere clerk of the court all his life, and advised him to refuse it. He accordingly declined, and soon after opened an office at Boscawen, not far from his father's residence, where he commenced practice. His personal appearance at this period of his life, has been described by one who was present at the trial of one of his first cases, as "a tall, gaunt young man, with rather a thin face, but all the peculiarities of feature and complexion by which he was distinguished in later life. The case alluded to, was concerning the property of a certain sheep, of the value of thirty shillings or thereabouts; and was tried in a long hall, before a justice of the peace, and the assembled idlers of the village. The case was argued at great length, and though Mr. Webster, who had not yet become known, did not seem to attract any great attention, he spoke and reasoned after the same fashion, with the same plainness, point and force, for which he has since been so much celebrated." †

* Reminiscences of Congress, by Charles W. March, page 12.

+ Sketches of the American Bar. Knickerbocker. May, 1833.