[Rising.]

3RD OFFICER. Yes, faith, he loves us all, and means to
keep
Locks of our hair for memory. Here goes.

[All rise_.] Servants and soldiers carry
chairs and benches to the grove, followed by_
GENERAL HARRISON _and others, who seat themselves -
TECUMSEH and his followers still standing in the
lower part of the grove_.

HARRISON. We have not met to bury our respect,
Or mar our plea with lack of courtesy. The Great Chief
knows it is his father's wish That he should sit by
him.

TECUMSEH. My father's wish! My father is the sun; the
earth my mother

[Pointing to each in turn.]

And on her mighty bosom I shall rest.

[TECUMSEH _and his followers seat themselves on the
grass_.]

HARRISON. (Rising.) I asked Tecumseh to confer
with me,
Not in war's hue, but for the ends of peace.
Our own intent - witness our presence here,
Unarmed save those few muskets and our swords.
How comes it, then, that he descends on us
With this o'erbearing and untimely strength?
Tecumseh's virtues are the theme of all;
Wisdom and courage, frankness and good faith -
To speak of these things is to think of him!
Yet, as one theft makes men suspect the thief -
Be all his life else spent in honesty -
So does one breach of faithfulness in man
Wound all his after deeds. There is a pause
In some men's goodness like the barren time
Of those sweet trees which yield each second year,
Wherein what seems a niggardness in nature;
Is but good husbandry for future gifts.
But this tree bears, and bears most treacherous fruit!
Here is a gross infringement of all laws
That shelter men in council, where should sit
No disproportioned force save that of reason -
Our strong dependence still, and argument,
Of better consequence than that of arms,
If great Tecumseh should give ear to it.

TECUMSEH. (Rising.) You called upon Tecumseh and
he came!
You sent your messenger, asked us to bring
Our wide complaint to you - and it is here!

[Waving his arm toward his followers.]

Why is our brother angry at our force,
Since every man but represents a wrong?
Nay! rather should our force be multiplied!
Fill up your streets and overflow your fields,
And crowd upon the earth for standing room;
Still would our wrongs outweigh our witnesses,
And scant recital for the lack of tongues.
I know your reason, and its bitter heart,
Its form of justice, clad with promises -
The cloaks of death! That reason was the snare
Which tripped our ancestors in days of yore -
Who knew not falsehood and so feared it not:
Men who mistook your fathers' vows for truth,
And took them, cold and hungry, to their hearts.
Filled them with food, and shared with them their
homes,
With such return as might make baseness blush.
What tree e'er bore such treacherous fruit as this?
But let it pass! let wrongs die with the wronged!
The red man's memory is full of graves.
But wrongs live with the living, who are here -
Inheritors of all our fathers' sighs,
And tears, and garments wringing wet with blood.
The injuries which you have done to us
Cry out for remedy, or wide revenge.
Restore the forests you have robbed us of -
Our stolen homes and vales of plenteous com!
Give back the boundaries, which are our lives,
Ere the axe rise! aught else is reasonless.