He proposed to Governor Harrison, to make the contemplated journey to Washington; but, as the Governor expressed a determination that he could not go in the capacity which he deemed suitable to his standing, the idea was abandoned. Thenceforth, whatever his intentions had been, he determined upon the necessity of fighting; and it naturally followed, whatever had been his disposition towards the British authorities,—theirs towards him was sufficiently plain,—that he should no longer hesitate to avail himself of every fair opportunity of cooperation.
Still, it was necessary to preserve appearances until matters were ready for disclosure; and, of course,—such were the consequences of the recent defeat, and such the disposition of many vacillating or opposing tribes,—there was an extremely difficult part to be acted. Some of the speeches made at a grand council of twelve tribes, held in May, 1812, at Mississiniway, will throw light upon the subject. The Wyandots began—a tribe universally regarded as the head of the great Indian family:
"Younger brothers!"—said the speaker—"You that reside on the Wabash, listen to what we say; and in order that you may distinctly hear and clearly understand our words, we now open your ears and place your hearts in the same position they were placed in by the Great Spirit when he created you.
"Younger brothers!—We are sorry to see your path filled with thorns and briars, and your land covered with blood. Our love for you has caused us to come and clean your paths and wipe the blood off your land, and take the weapons that have spilled this blood from you, and put them where you can never reach them again.
"Younger brothers!—This is done by the united voice of all your elder brothers, that you now see present, who are determined not to be disobeyed. This determination of your elder brothers, to put an entire stop to the effusion of blood, has met with the approbation of our fathers, the British, who have advised all the red people to be quiet and not meddle in quarrels that may take place between the white people."
Tecumseh, who found himself in a small minority on this occasion, replied thus:
"Elder brothers!—We have listened with attention to what you have said to us. We thank the Great Spirit for inclining your hearts to pity us; we now pity ourselves; our hearts are good; they never were bad. Governor Harrison made war on my people in my absence; it was the Great Spirit's will he should do so. We hope it will please Him that the white people may let us live in peace. We will not disturb them; neither have we done it, except when they come to our village with the intention of destroying us. We are happy to state to our brothers present, that the unfortunate transaction that took place between the white people and a few of our young men at our village, has been settled between us and Governor Harrison; and I will further state, that had I been at home, there would have been no blood shed at that time.
"We are sorry to find that the same respect has not been paid to the agreement between us and Governor Harrison, by our brothers, the Potawatamies. However, we are not accountable for the conduct of those over whom we have no control. Let the chiefs of that nation exert themselves, and cause their warriors to behave themselves, as we have done and will continue to do with ours.
"Should the bad acts of our brothers, the Potawatamies, draw on us the ill will of our white brothers—and they should come again and make an unprovoked attack on us at our village—we will die like men—but we will never strike the first blow."
The Potawatamies could not overlook such an attack, and their speaker noticed it in terms which reflected severely on the "pretended Prophet," who was said to have caused all the difficulty among their young men. He added,—"We have no control over these few vagabonds, and consider them not belonging to our nation; and will be thankful to any people that will put them to death, wherever they are found. As they are bad people, and have learnt to be so from the pretended Prophet, and as he has been the cause of setting those people on our white brothers, we hope he will be active in reconciling them. As we all hear him say, his heart is inclined for peace, we hope we may all see this declaration supported by his future conduct, and that all our women and children may lay down to sleep without fear."