James Madison Papers
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To James Madison from a Meeting of Citizens of the Indiana Territory, 4 November 1810 (Abstract)

§ From a Meeting of
Citizens of the Indiana Territory

4 November 1810. Praises JM for the “firmness and patriotic Zeal” of his conduct toward the European belligerents while also complaining of the activities of Great Britain and its sympathizers in corrupting “our aboriginal neighbours.” Expresses confidence in the administration of territorial governor William Henry Harrison “on the late momentous occasion of Indian affairs.”1 Assumes that JM is familiar with Harrison’s virtues but declares that the governor merits “the entire confidence” of the people of Indiana and that he is “entitled to the Patronage of the President of the United States—and … worthy of employ in any station.”

RC (DNA: RG 59, TP, Indiana, vol. 1). 4 pp. Signed by William Fleming and Willis Stucker on behalf of a “numerous assemblage of a people occupying a respectable section of the Indiana Territory.” Printed under the date of 11 Nov. 1810 in Esarey, Letters of Harrison description begins Indiana Historical Commission, Governors Messages and Letters, vols. 7 and 9, Messages and Letters of William Henry Harrison, ed. Logan Esarey (2 vols.; Indianapolis, 1922). description ends , 1:485–87.

1This was probably a reference to Harrison’s confrontation with the Shawnee leader Tecumseh at a council held in August at Vincennes (see John Smith to JM, 7 Sept. 1810, and enclosure, PJM-PS description begins Robert A. Rutland et al., eds., The Papers of James Madison: Presidential Series (3 vols. to date; Charlottesville, Va., 1984—). description ends , 2:532–33). After the council, Harrison had sought War Department authority to march a detachment of regular troops and territorial militia to the upper line of the 1809 Fort Wayne purchase in order to “have erected a strong picketed work” that would be “beyond the reach of an assault from the Indians.” JM refused to sanction the operation for “various” reasons, among them being “the lateness of the season and the existing state of things in West Florida which may require the whole of our disposable force on the Western waters” (Harrison to William Eustis, 5 and 10 Oct. 1810, Eustis to Harrison, 26 Oct. 1810, Esarey, Letters of Harrison description begins Indiana Historical Commission, Governors Messages and Letters, vols. 7 and 9, Messages and Letters of William Henry Harrison, ed. Logan Esarey (2 vols.; Indianapolis, 1922). description ends , 1:474–75, 475–76, 482).

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