Page:Messages and Letters of William Henry Harrison Vol. 1.djvu/121

Rh  and disrespectful conduct and explained the artifices by which the Owl had mislead and embarrassed their affairs I was obliged to have the conclusion of the council to Wm. Wells set out on my return as I had upwards of thirty miles to ride on that day to the place where my boat had been left on the Wabash and the Water was falling so rapidly as to make the utmost expedition necessary to secure my passage. The Miamis were induced to take this step by the persuasions of the Owl and his object was to strengthen his party by gaining over the Delawares an object which engaged the Turtle's attention at that time also. The charges which the Turtle has brought against me in his address to the President, I should have passed over without an observation if he had not hinted at the use of unfair means in procuring the consent of the Indians to the Treaties, I have made with them and as I have never before that I recollect informed you of my mode of proceeding on these occasions I have thought it proper to do so at the present moment. Whenever the Indians have assembled for any public purpose the use of ardent spirits has been strictly interdicted until the object for which they were convened was accomplished and if in spite of my vigilance it had been procured a stop was immediately put to all business until it was consumed and its effects completely over. Every conference with the Indians has been in public. All persons who chose to attend were admitted and the most intelligent and respectable characters in the neighborhood specially invited to witness the fairness of the transaction. No treaty has ever been signed until each article was particularly and repeatedly explained by the most capable and confidential interpreters. Sketches of the tract of country about to be ceded have always been submitted to the Indians and their own rough delineations made on the floor with a bit of charcoal have proved their perfect comprehension of its situation and extent.

As I am convinced that it will be almost impossible to get the Miami and Potawatomi chiefs here under present circumstances I have held myself in readiness to proceed to Fort Wayne immediately upon the receipt of your answer when I hope to be indulged with your particular instructions. By an indirect channel I am informed that it is in contemplation to continue the United States road which is completed as far as Dayton on the Miami to this place. I fear that it