Agent of Indian Affairs, to assemble the tribes at Fort Wayne for the purpose of making a new treaty. [Illustration: Governor William Henry Harrison] There were many false sentimentalists of that day, who not unlike their modern brethren, wept many crocodile tears over the fate of the "poor Indian." They charged that the Governor, in the ensuing negotiations, resorted to trickery, and that he availed himself of the threats and violence of Winamac, the Potawatomi chief, in order to bring the hesitating tribes to the terms of the purchase. In the face of the revealed and undisputed facts of history, these facts were and are entirely false, and were evidently put in motion by the disgruntled office seekers at Vincennes as food for the foolish. The position of Governor Harrison during the whole course of his administration seems to have been this: he sought to ameliorate the miserable condition of the savages at all times; sought by all means within his power to bring to punishment those who committed outrages against them; constantly demanded that the illegal traffic in liquor be stopped. However, neither Governor Harrison nor any other man, however powerful, could stop the hand of fate, or abrogate the eternal law of the survival of the fittest. After every endeavor to put a stop to abuses, and to quiet the impending storm on the frontier, he resorted to the next, and seemingly only available means of putting an end to the difficulty. That is, he provided for the separation of the two races as far as possible so as to prevent the conflicts between them; he provided for the payment of annuities for their support and so that they might purchase horses and cattle and implements of husbandry, and thus enter gradually upon the pursuits of peace. That the plan was not feasible does not detract from the fairness and benevolence of the proposer. He was but following the uniform custom which the government had at that time adopted and which the best minds of that age endorsed. He could not foresee, in the light of that day, that the red men of the forest would not accept the ways of civilization, and that all attempts of the government, however charitable, would be wasted and in vain.