of Tecumseh but the determination evinced by your Government
to wrest, from the hands of his tribe, their last remaining
favorite haunts on the Wabash?"

"This cannot be denied, but it was utterly impossible we
could forego the possession of countries bordering so
immediately on our settlements. Had we pushed our
colonization further, leaving the tribes of the Wabash
in intermediate occupation, we ran the risk of having
oar settlers cut off in detail, at the slightest assumed
provocation. Nay, pretexts would have been sought for
the purpose, and the result of this would have been the
very war into which we were unavoidably led. The only
difference was, that, instead of taking up arms to avenge
our slaughtered kinsmen, we anticipated the period that
must sooner or later have arrived, by ridding ourselves
of the presence of those from whose hostility we had
every thing to apprehend."

"The expediency of these measures," said the General,
"no one, Major, can of course doubt; the only question
at issue is their justice, and in making this remark it
must be obvious there is no particular allusion to the
United States, further than that country serves to
illustrate a general principle. I am merely arguing
against the right of a strong power to wrest from a weaker
what may be essential to its own interest, without
reference to the comfort, or wishes, or convenience of
the latter."