nursery fills much faster than my strong box and if our future progress in this way is as great as it has been and our Government should adopt the Roman policy of bestowing rewards on those who contribute most to the population of the country I do not despair of obtaining the Highest premium. I have taken the liberty to enclose herewith a paragraph from the Farmers library the vehicle of the abuse which a certain Isaac Darneille has poured upon me for many months past under the signature of Decius and which I believe was forwarded to you subscribed with his own name-This recantation was not extorted by the dread of powder and ball or steel-Arguments which I have long declined the use of in private quarrels but from the dread of the indignation of 12 of the Citizens of Kentucky who were about to decide upon the merits of his accusations. I am sorry to inform you that the Indians on the Illinois river and the neighbourhood of the Lakes discover a good deal of that kind of restlessness & Jealousy which usually precede a rupture and if the information I have just received be correct there is a probability that we shall shortly receive some pretty strong manifestations of the enmity of the Sacs and Kickapoos. An elderly Squaw who resides at the principal Wea village about 50 miles from the place has communicated to me through a trader of unquestionable veracity that about 10 days ago a Kickapoo arrived in their village with a war belt inviting the Weas to join his nation and the Sacs in a war against the United States. The belt and speech were delivered as the squaw says to the Wea chiefs-She further said that she had conversed with the bearer of the belt & demanded the reasons which induced the Kickapoos to go to war with the Americans who were strong enough to destroy all the Indians in a very short time. He answered that all this was well understood but that they had received so many injuries from the Americans that they were determined to perish to a man rather than not revenge them-I do not believe this tale altho I think it highly probable that some part of the Conversation passed be 2. Isaac Darneille was the second lawyer in the Illinois country, arriving in 1794 at Cahokia. He seems to have been a preacher in Maryland but in the west he played the Chesterfield in a social way and engaged in land speculation and law for a livelihood. He was engaged in a number of discreditable episodes and finally became a school teacher in western Ky. where he died in 1830. He had a good classical education. His Letters of Decius was the most talked of book in the territory for a time and caused the governor much trouble. Reynolds, Pioneer Illinois, 221 tween the Kickapoo & the squaw. I have the highest confidence in the Wea chief-I know he has a warm friendship for me & I am sure he would have communicated the proposition which the Kickapoos are said to have made to him if there was really any such made-The affair however deserves attention & I shall take care to have it properly investigatedthe result of my enquiries shall be communicated to the Secretary of War by the next mail. In a letter which I did myself the honor to write to you some time in the last Summer I took the liberty to request the Appointment of Judge of this Territory if a vacancy should occur for my brother in law Mr Coupland whose embarrassed Circumstances would have been much relieved by such an appointment—If however Mr Coupland should not be deemed a proper person or should decline the office I beg leave to solicit it for my friend Mr [Benjamin] Parke our Delegate to Congress who is also the Attorney General of the Territory & who unites all the qualifications requisite for such an appointment I believe that he would be more acceptable to the people of the Territory as a Judge than any other who could be appointed. I have the Honor to be Dear Sir your faithful & obliged Hume Servt. The PRESIDENT of the United States WILLM HENRY HARRISON recd July 28 HARRISON TO MENARD, COMMISSION July 12, 1806 Fergus Hist. Series 31, Early Illinois 35 WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON, Governor and Commander in Chief of the Indiana Territory, to PIERRE MENARD, Esq'r, Greeting: Reposing special trust and confidence in your fidelity, courage and good conduct, I have appointed you a Lietutenant Colonel Commandant of the first regiment of the Militia of the county of Randolph and you are hereby appointed accordingly. You are therefore carefully and diligently to discharge the duty of Lieut. Colo. Commandt. in leading, ordering and exercising the said regiment in arms, both inferior officers and soldiers, and to keep them in good order and discipline, and they are hereby commanded to obey you as their Lieutenant Colo. Commandt. and you are yourself to observe and follow such orders and instructions as you shall from time to time receive from me or your superior officers. In testimony whereof, I have hereunto caused the seal (Seal) of the territory to be affixed, the twelfth day of July in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and six and of the Independence of the United States of America the thirty first. By the Governor's Command, Indiana Territory SS. WILLM. HENRY HARRISON Before me the subscriber (authorRandolph County ized by Dedimus Protestatem from the Governor of said Territory, dated the third day of May, 1806, to administer the oaths of office to all officers civil and military of said county) personally appeared PETER MENARD, Esquire, and took the oaths of office as Colonel of the first Regiment of Militia of Randolph County as required by law. Given under my hand at Kaskaskia the 18th day of July, 1806. MICH. JONES PROCLAMATION: ON SELLING LIQUOR TO INDIANS July 26, 1806 Executive Journal, 13 A proclamation was Issued by the Governor prohibiting the sale of ardent Spirits to any Indian or Indians at this place or within 30 miles of the same during the Conference or Council which is about to be held with the diferent tribes of Indians. [Abstract] WILKINSON TO HARRISON September 19, 1806 Parton, Aaron Burr, vol. II, 50 Shall I say in return I have a boon to ask of you, of no ordinary import? No, I will not! because the commutation would dishonor my application; but I will demand from your friendship a boon, in its influence coextensive with the Union; a boon, perhaps on which that Union may much depend; a boon, which from my knowledge of men, motives, and principles, will be acceptable to those whose politics we are bound to support. If you ask, what is this important boon which I so earnestly crave? I will say to you, return the bearer to the councils of our country, where his talents and abilities. are all-important at the present moment. But you continue, how is this to be done? By your fiat! Let Mr. [Benjamin] Parks adhere to his profession; convene your Solomons and let them return him (Colonel Burr) to Congress. If you taste this proposition, speak to him, and he will authorize you to purchase, if necessary, an estate for him in your Territory.1 HARRISON TO BISSELL DEAR SIR GROUSELAND 8th Oct. 1806 Bissell Mss. No. 8, St. Louis Mercantile Library You must by this time suppose me one of the worst correspondents in the World & I have no inclination to deny the charge for all my friends tell me so & what every one believes must be true. I wrote to you however about six weeks ago by Col. [Francis] Vigo but as that gentleman did not visit your post as he intended when he set out from this place the letter was returned to me & I intended to have written by Mr. [Charles] Gratiot but he left this place without my knowing it having called at my house when I was absent. Your letter of the 4th of April last was duly received & removed every difficulty with regard to the affair of T. Harrison-indeed I never had an idea that Lt. Pike for whom I have a great esteem & friendship had done anything more in that affair than what would have been considered when subjected to the most serious scrutiny as an act of imprudence Such as I myself have committed whilst in a military command & such as all men of ardent minds are likely to commit. I have appointed Mr. [Gratiot?] Quater a magistrate & I am very glad to find from are mutual friend 1. This is only a fragment of the letter. Compare Wilkinson's testimony at Burr's trial when he said he would go to jail rather than produce the entire letter from Harrison. Whittlock that he will be agreeable to you. I intended to have given him a letter to your requesting your advice and assistance in the performing of his duty respecting which he may be at a loss from his limited acquaintance with our language manners & laws-I think that a good understanding between you may be production of mutual advantages & tend to preserve tranquility in the settlement adjacent to your post. With much Respect & Esteem I am Dr. Sir, Your Humbl. Servt. WILL. H. HARRISON HARRISON: MESSAGE TO LEGISLATURE November 3, 1806 Dillon, History of Indiana, 423-424 In a message which was delivered before the territorial legislature of Indiana, in 1806, Governor Harrison stated that he had received from all the Indian tribes, under his superintendence, "the most solemn assurances of a disposition, on their part, to preserve inviolate their relations of amity with the United States." The same message contains the following passages in relation to the condition of Indian affairs at that period: They [the Indians] will never have recourse to arms, I speak of those in our immediate neighborhood, unless driven to it by a series of injustice and oppression. Of this they already begin to complain; and I am sorry to say that their complaints are far from being groundless. It is true that the general government has passed laws for fulfilling, not only the stipulation contained in our treaty, but also those sublimer duties which a just sense of our prosperity and their wretchedness seem to impose. The laws of the territory provide, also the same punishment for offenses committed against Indians as against white men. Experience, however, shows that there is a wide difference in the execution of those laws. The Indian always suffers, and the white man never. This partiality has not escaped their penetration, and has afforded them an opportunity of making the proudest comparisons between their own observance of treaties and that of their boasted superiors. If, in your review of our penal code, gentlemen, any regulation should suggest itself which would |