Having heard that Wells might be reinstated in the Indian Department, John Johnston, Wells’ bitterest enemy at Fort Wayne, wrote immediately to Harrison saying:
I think you will have to give up all idea of taking up —— [Johnston usually referred to Wells by a dash in the letter] again. He is too unprincipled to be employed anywhere, except as an interpreter, and under your own eye.... I could detail to you a thousand instances of his total disregard of everything that is held sacred by honest and honorable men. Admitting he was restored here again ... he would be useless to you and the government; for the latter never would put any confidence in his representations, and the public interest would thereby suffer. He has so long travelled in the crooked, miry paths of intrigue and deception, that he never could be made to retrace his steps, and pursue a straight, fair, and honorable course, such as might be creditable to himself and useful to his country. My opinion of him is made up from a long residence at this post, and an intimate knowledge of his character, both public and private ... the sooner all hope of his reestablishment is at an end, it will be the better, for he is becoming a pest here, and will move off if he finds he cannot be reinstated.[8]
Under Article 9 of the treaty of Fort Wayne, part of the land cession of the Indians was valid only with the consent of the Kickapoo tribe. On December 9, they signed a separate treaty and in it added another tract this time subject to the consent of the Miamis. Johnston accused Wells and Little Turtle of stirring up opposition among the Miamis against the new cession of land.
Harrison’s displeasure with Wells became more intense when he learned that a false story was circulated among the Indians around Fort Wayne after the treaty, charging Harrison with buying the lands for his own use and that of the people of Vincennes. What part Wells played in this is not clear. Harrison believed him to be to a large extent responsible, primarily by acting as an agent for William McIntosh, a Scotch Tory. McIntosh was eager to prevent the settling of the new land, as he had acquired title to it from the French at Vincennes.
The situation was made even more delicate and dangerous by the fact that Tecumseh and the Prophet refused absolutely to recognize the validity of the Fort Wayne treaty.
In October, the Indians were called to Fort Wayne on Harrison’s order, in order that Johnston might stop the spread of false stories circulating about the treaty. During the council, Johnston brought up the question that he found was being agitated among the Indians, that is petitioning for the removal of Governor Harrison, on the grounds of misconduct in office. Johnston thought that Wells was the one responsible for the petition, and told the Indians, “that whoever advised them to it was a wicked bad man and not their friend.”[9] The Owl, a Miami chief, maintained that all the mischief going on among them had sprung from Wells and Little Turtle. Johnston also reported that Wells had gone to Washington in an attempt to regain his old position as Indian agent, and Johnston hoped that if Wells failed, he would leave Fort Wayne.
Johnston’s report confirmed Harrison in his belief that Wells was acting as an agent for William McIntosh, by spreading the false stories concerning the governor’s relations with the tribes. The question of Wells’ connection with McIntosh deserves some attention as the quarrel between McIntosh and Harrison was more than one of mere personalities. Their dispute was involved in that of the land speculators and Indian traders on the one hand and the government authority, represented primarily by the governor, on the other. Harrison did all in his power to check the purchase of the Indian lands by speculators and traders. It has been noted above that he prevented the sale of the Fort Wayne lands owned by the government for fear of these lands being purchased by unscrupulous traders. It is possible that Wells fell in line with McIntosh in the latter’s quarrel with the governor. Johnston hints that Wells was eager to trade with the Indians himself, and it is to be remembered that Wells and Peter Audrian tried to prevent the execution of the treaty with the Delawares in 1805.[10]
In the fall of 1810, Harrison brought a libel suit against William McIntosh for slander in regard to the alleged misconduct in the treaty negotiations and general mismanagement of the Indian affairs in the territory on the part of the governor. The trial became a test between the land speculators and Indian traders and Harrison. By the time the trial was over, it included a complete examination of Harrison’s conduct as territorial governor. Connected with the affair were the “Letters of Decius”, a series of attacks on the governor by an Irish lawyer, Isaac Darneille.[11] Considerable attention was directed to the trial throughout the Northwest; the Cincinnati and Frankfort papers carried lengthy accounts of it. The jury gave a verdict in favor of Harrison, and granted him damages of four thousand dollars.
In respect to Wells, it is surprising to learn that he testified at the trial in behalf of Harrison, stating that he found the governor’s manner of dealing with the Indians in the councils at all times just. At first glance, it would seem as though Harrison had been wrong in accusing Wells of scheming with McIntosh, and it is possible that Harrison may have been. However, such a contradiction of previous action is in keeping with the pattern of Wells’ character and life. William Wells was undoubtedly an intelligent and shrewd man, but with this ability was combined a capacity for intrigue for his own benefit, which prevented his superiors from relying on him and most of the Indians in his later life from trusting in him. In trying to play the part of a “Talleyrand” in Indian affairs, Wells failed miserably. Why he chose this manner of accomplishing his purposes is unknown. Possibly his connection with both the white and red races prompted him to believe himself a mediator, who, incidentally, could profit by the differences between the two.
Wells had many enemies and a few friends among both races. If there is any value in the observation, it is to be noted that most of his friends were made in his early life, while his enemies were made after he became Indian agent at Fort Wayne. Among the Indians, Little Turtle was Wells’ most intimate associate, although Five Medals, Blue Jacket, and many of the older chiefs were also counted among his friends. Richardville, one of the shrewdest of the Miamis, did not trust Wells. The Prophet and Tecumseh, as well as Winamac and the White Loon hated Wells. Harrison admitted shortly before Wells’ unexpected death that Wells deserved some credit from the circumstance that the line that separated his friends among the chiefs from his enemies was precisely the same as one Harrison would have designated to separate the friends of the American cause from its enemies.