Mr. Jefferson’s Hammer: William Henry Harrison and the Origins of American Indian Policy

Wikipedia says he is noted for the longest inaugural speech, but the shortest tenure, given that he died 30 days after being sworn in. Perhaps if he had spoken less during his swearing in, he’d have lived longer in office. Here’s what Mr. Jefferson’s Hammer: William Henry Harrison and the Origins of American Indian Policy by Robert M Owens had to say about our ninth president.

William Henry Harrison was born on February 9, 1773, at the Harrison family manor of Berkeley, in Charles City County, Virginia. He was the seventh child born to Benjamin Harrison V and Elizabeth Bassett Harrison. Benjamin Harrison V was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence and the whole family was raised with this sense of American Manifest Destiny. During the Revolution, while Benjamin Harrison V was fighting, the family home was ransacked by Benedict Arnold’s troops when they ran through Virginia.

William Henry Harrison attended Hampden-Sydney College from 1787-1790 but left without obtaining a degree due to the school turned towards Puritan revivalism, and the Harrison’s were Episcopalians. He kind of bounced around a bit, spent a short time at a school in Southampton, before moving to Richmond to live with his brother Benjamin IV, and study medicine under Dr. Leiper. However, while in Richmond, he started to look towards joining a Quaker emancipation society…which would never do for the son of a Virginia planter. William Henry was immediately pulled from Richmond and sent to Philadelphia, where he was living when he received word his father had died on April 24, 1791. Now, lest anyone get the idea that William Henry took the occasion of his father’s death to go full Quaker and became a good guy…No. Stop right there. Let’s hear the whole story before making such a rash guess. What he did do, was ask for a commission as an ensign in the army, which was signed by President Washington on August 16, 1791.

And while the war with Britain was most definitely over at that time, the need for an army became more clear. See, as part of the Peace of 1783, Britain had agreed to cede the lands between the Mississippi River and the Appalachian Mountains to the United States. And while troop withdrawals were slow and a contributing factor to the War of 1812, the bigger problems were the Native American tribes who had allied with Britain and were left behind with British weaponry. Eventually, the American Government began to believe that while Americans would surely spread west, the Natives also had a right to their lands. And so, the best recourse was to buy the lands. Again…don’t go thinking this was all noble and dignified on the part of the American’s. There’s some chicanery to come.

Now, Ensign Harrison was, by all reports, studious, and wanted to do a good job. He was not quite a teetotaler, but he definitely did not partake of liquor at the same level of the rest of the military.  Harrison found himself under the direction of Brigadier General James Wilkinson, who was an amoral traitor, being that he was on Spain’s payroll until 1807. But Wilkinson and Harrison got along well, and Harrison was eager to carry out orders, so much so that when Wilkinson directed that anyone caught drunk outside the walls of Fort Washington should be given 50 lashes. Harrison took that to mean ANYONE, not just soldiers, and when a civilian ordnance worker was found drunk, Harrison promptly administered the prescribed punishment. Harrison was arrested by civilian authorities, but Wilkinson intervened and wrote to President Washington, explaining the situation. Harrison was promoted to Lieutenant and only spent one night in jail as a result of the affair.

Lieutenant Harrison’s star continued to rise, and he eventually found himself aide-de-camp to General Wayne at the Battle of Fallen Timbers, where Harrison rode through the thick of battle to deliver orders.

Following this battle with the Native American’s, General Wayne would start the process that became standard operating procedure in dealing with the native tribes: offer them money to go away. That essentially sums up the policy. But it gets so much worse as I read my way through the book.

By the mid-1790’s, Harrison is looking to marry. His first interest as most likely Hetty Morris, daughter of his own benefactor Robert Morris. However, Hetty Morris apparently spurned his advances, instead marrying the younger brother of John Marshall. Harrison then turned his eyes to Anna Symmes, daughter of Judge John Cleves Symmes. Judge Symmes did not approve the marriage and turned down Harrison’s request for his daughter’s hand…probably because Symmes had been one of the judges on the above-mentioned case where Harrison beat a civilian ordnance officer. Symmes, it seems, was not impressed with Harrison’s ability to get out of trouble by appealing to the President. However, Anna was in love, so when Symmes was away on business, Anna and William Henry eloped, and were married on November 25, 1795. They would ultimately have 10 children, 9 of whom survived to adulthood. Harrison stayed in the army just long enough to be promoted to Captain in 1797, then resigned in the spring of 1798, at which point in time he was appointed the position if secretary of the Northwest Territory. He was 25 years old. And during much of his time as secretary, he was also acting as the de facto governor of the Northwest Territory, as the actual governor, Arthur St. Clair, was living in Pennsylvania.

Then, on October 3, 1799, Harrison was elected to the be the territory’s delegate to Congress. This was an important position, but held no real power, as territorial delegates were not allowed a vote in Congress. They could voice their opinions, though, and that was important for the territories. Being present in the nation’s capital (at that time Philadelphia) also got Harrison noticed by President Adams, who nominated Harrison for the role of Governor of the newly created Indiana Territory on May 12, 1800, which nomination was confirmed by congress the next day. The salary was $2,000 per annum, with an additional $800 for the dual role of Indian affairs commissioner. Before accepting the position, Harrison quite cannily approached Jefferson and received confirmation from Jefferson that if he should win the next presidential election, Jefferson would not summarily dismiss Harrison. Harrison did not intend to be a St. Clair. He would be present in the territory, or he would not accept the position. And he did not want to move his pregnant wife and their growing family to a backwater end of nowhere, far from civilization, if the position would be for less than a year.

As the Indian affairs commissioner, Harrison was basically the minister plenipotentiary to the tribes. Meaning he was acting with the full faith of the sitting president and secretary of state, to act as ambassador to the tribes. And at first, it seems as though he was genuinely concerned for their welfare. And maybe he was. It’s never wise to judge a man 200 years dead based on the morals of today. He was concerned about the poverty, poor health, knife fights, and alcohol abuse he saw. “Poverty, Harrison felt, could cripple a man’s liberty just as completely as a tyrannical king.” (p. 52) Much like 20th century prohibitionists, he tried to limit the flow of alcohol to the native tribes, which did not work, given the ready availability of supply and the happy demand for it. He did not automatically assume that whites were the innocent party when conflicts arose between settlers and the native tribes, and he did try to be impartial in meting out punishment. But he was also under orders to try and trick the tribes out of their land.

In February 1803, President Jefferson wrote a letter to Governor Harrison, regarding how he wanted to treat with the native tribes:

“Our system is to live in perpetual peace with the Indians, to cultivate an affectionate attachment from them, by everything just and liberal which we can do for them within the bounds of reason, and by giving them effectual protection against wrongs from our own people. The decrease of game rendering their subsistence by hunting insufficient, we wish to draw them to agriculture, spinning and weaving…When they withdraw themselves to the culture of a small piece of land, they will perceive how useless to them are their extensive forest, and will be willing to pare them off from time to time in exchange for necessaries for their farms and families. To promote this disposition to exchange lands, which they have to spare, and we want, we shall push our trading uses, and be glad to see them run in debt, because we observe that when these debts get beyond what the individuals can pay, they become willing to lop them off by a cession of lands.” (p. 76)

Basically…that. Out hung them…which was being handily driven by the fur trades. Force them in to farming by showing them the superiority of how we live as farmers. They’ll start selling the forests because hey, they don’t need to hunt anymore, why would they need a forest? Let them buy on credit to expand their farms, because really…one bad year and they can’t pay their debts. We can then force them to sell more land to pay those debts. Pernicious and evil.

The author Robert M. Owens does point out that it was probably not seen as evil back then. Ethnocentrism is a pretty standard way of thinking, and most people tend to think their way is best. But with that letter, Harrison as launched on a campaign to extinguish Indian land titles. Which he did by forcing one shady land cession deal after another on the Tribes. He would invite all the tribes to a council, then only meet with specific tribal elders who were friendly to American interests. He would buy lands from one tribe who did not have any actual interest or ownership in the lands being sold, basically buying them out from underneath the actual owner.

But as Robert M. Owens points out “It bear mentioning that William Henry Harrison, like Thomas Jefferson and other leading American officials, did not hate Indians per se. They were certainly ravenous, often patronizing, and even unethical when it came to buying up Indian lands. Unlike their view of blacks, though, they did not draw the strictest racial lines with Indians.” (pp 81-82). Basically, as long as the tribe in question was compliant, there were no problems.

In addition to his responsibilities as the Indian affairs commissioner, Harrison’s job as Governor of the territory included moving the territory forwards toward statehood. And he rushed through some of those votes so that he could maintain a stranglehold on power, essentially assuring himself a rubber stamp government that would green light whatever he sought to do. And by no means did everyone in the Indiana Territory agree with his policies. Not with how he was managing the land cessions with the Indians. And not how he handled the slave question.

As part of the Northwest Ordnance of 1787, slavery was not supposed to be legal in the northwest territories, including the territory of Indiana. But Harrison was a Son of Virginia, and part of being a landowning gentleman meant the right to own slaves. So, Harrison swung an end run around the ordnance. By allowing indentured servants. When a person moved to Indiana territory with slaves, they had 30 days to register those slaves as indentured servants. Which SOUNDS like a good thing. At least as an indentured servant, the slave might have a chance at freedom. But indentures could be anywhere from 15 years to 99 years. Average indenture for a white indentured servant was 5 to 7 years. And if the former slave rejected the terms of indenture, then the owner had 60 days to emancipate or sell them back south. Guess how many were emancipated?

During this same year that this rule was being established, the brother of Shawnee warrior Tecumseh had a vision. Lalawethika had been, for lack of a better descriptor, a loser. He was an alcoholic, he had no skills, he was not a warrior. In April 1805, he fell over by the fire. His family thought he may have died. When he came out of his trance, he announced that he was Lalawethika no more. Now he was Tenskwatawa, “He who opens the Door.” He came to be called The Prophet. And he had nothing but anger and rejection towards American’s and the way of life they were expounding on. And understand, this was not a rejection of white man. He had no complaints about the British, French, or Spanish. It was specifically American underhandedness that he was rejecting.

During this same time, several of the tribes underwent a series of witch hunts. And Harrison shrewdly noted that those accused of witchcraft were those who were friendly towards American goals. So in April 1806, he challenged Tenskwatawa. Said hey, if you’re truly a prophet, why don’t you cause the sun to stand still or rivers to alter their course. Make the dead rise from their graves? He published his challenge in a newspaper on April 12, 1806. Apparently, he did not think Tenskwatawa could read. He also did not think Tenskwatawa was aware of astronomy. Unfortunately for Harrison, he was wrong on both counts. On June 16, 1806, Tenskwatawa told the Shawnee that he would bring about a Black Sun. He made this announcement right before a complete solar eclipse started. Then he announced he would bring the sun back, right as the eclipse was ending. Kind of a neat historical reversal, given that Columbus used a similar trick in Jamaica.

The Prophet’s status as a man to believe was assured. Harrison was left eating a massive pie of crow. And into this moment in history, rode Aaron Burr, with his abortive attempt at a national coup.

Now, touched on in the books I read about Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, but did not discuss in my reviews, was a curious episode involving former vice-president Aaron Burr. Burr was Thomas Jefferson’s vice-president from 1801 to 1805. Now, the election in 1800 that put Jefferson in the White House was too close to call and went before the legislature to determine who would be president and who would be vice-president. Adams, having come in a distant third, was not up for consideration. Jefferson eventually bluffed congress and was made president. Burr was a resentful VP. When his term ended in 1805, the shadow of his infamous duel with Alexander Hamilton precluded him being elected for a second term as VP, and Burr struck out on his own.

All of this is relevant to the life of William Henry Harrison, because unbeknownst to him, but known to his former patron the Brigadier General James Wilkinson, Burr was looking to break off the western territories and form his own country, with himself in charge of course. And Wilkinson, knowing this, recommended Burr to Harrison. For whatever reason, whether he just disliked Burr or whether his political senses were tingling, Harrison did not warm to Burr, and Burr’s effort to pull the Indiana territory into the plot died on their meeting.

And it’s unlikely that Burr came right out and said “Hey, wanna join me in rebellion.” Harrison was the son of one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence and believed himself to be a true patriot. He never would have agreed to such a thing. But Burr’s advances were rebuffed, however subtle they may have been. And Wilkinson, being an ever-wily reader of the winds, realized Burr was heading for catastrophe, and sold him out to Congress and the President. And Harrison, having never been drawn into Burr’s plots, was in a very good position with President Jefferson. However, one of Harrison’s friends, Davis Floyd, WAS embroiled in Burr’s plots. And when President Jefferson sent out word that Burr and any conspirators were to be arrested and held for treason, Floyd fled to Indiana territory, and immediately began serving in the territorial legislature, under the patronage of Harrison.

I’d like to say this was a misstep on Harrison’s path, but it truly was not. Harrison wrote letters on Floyd’s behalf, and while ultimately Floyd was taken into custody, tried, and found guilty, his sentence was to serve 3 hours in jail and pay a $10 fine. This seems remarkably light for a man accused of treason; however, Burr was found not guilty of all charges by a sympathetic judge. It would hardly do to hold the underling guilty and let the major player go. So, Floyd resumed his duties as territorial legislature.

At the same time, the pro/anti-slavery debate in the territory was heating up. And here was some interesting history I had not known about. What was taught to me in school was that there was the pro-slavery party and the abolitionists. Those were the battle lines historically drawn. There was a third demographic which played a heavy part in the northwest territory. They disliked slavery not because they were against slavery as an institution, per se. They disliked black people and didn’t want them in the territory. And so, they were very anti-slavery. That is where the Indiana territory lay.

And when the Indiana Territory was created, it was a huge part of the northwest geography, comprised of modern-day Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Ohio. Basically, the eastern districts of Indiana and Ohio were anti-slavery, with the Illinois district pro-slavery. Which is interesting. Because also in the Thomas Jefferson book, I read about one of his secretaries, Edward Coles, became the second governor of Illinois and deliberately brought all his slaves to Illinois for the express purpose of freeing them and giving them land, as Virginia laws prohibited manumission. Anyway, back to this book.

Harrison, while he was undoubtedly serving up dirty dealings with the Native American’s, at the same time did try to protect them from the more blatantly racist aspects of living with American Settlers, and author Robert M Owens cites many instances where a Native American is injured, killed, or robbed by settlers and Harrison goes above and beyond what might have been expected to find justice for the wronged parties. And it’s all written to support his basic premise, that Harrison was not inherently racist himself, but was very much a product of his time, which meant a heavy paternalistic attitude that favored white settlers.

Ultimately, the Illinoisans were granted their request and broke off into their own territory, and by 1810 the Indiana territory had been settled into its current geographical layout.

So, this chapter was a brief respite from Harrison as governor and more of what life was like in the Indiana territory at this time. Robert M Owns goes in to how the courts and laws were written for the needs of white males (ok, that’s a fair critique of history), but he doesn’t go overboard about how unfair the system was, and how it was rigged against anyone not white and male. It was simply history. It is what it is. Learn from it and move on.

He recites newspaper ads that highlight the racism that absolutely existed at the time, finds court records regarding lawsuits, and goes over the history of dueling in what was once considered the wild west of the United States. While I have not read any books about Dodge City, assuming Hollywood hasn’t lied, dueling in Indiana was tame in comparison.

In 1809, Illinois was granted it’s wish and became its own territory. Indiana did not yet have the required population of 60,000 men to be considered for statehood, so Harrison remained the governor of that territory. For now.

And as he had lost on the slavery question, and the people of Indiana did not want black people in the state at all, the people began a concentrated campaign to overturn his end run around anti-slavery laws in the northwest territories…the deliberate overturned his ordinance to allow the transition of slaves to indentured servants. Now, this is not to say that ALL the people of Indiana were racists who just didn’t want black people in Indiana. But enough of them were to make an impact on history.

He brought multiple land cession deals before the tribes, using his tried-and-true divide and conquer strategy. And some of them were successful. But one of the points the author drives home, repeatedly throughout the book, is that so much of what ailed the United States during western expansion, was their own heavy-handed policies with the Native Tribes. Americans tended to blame the British, French, and Spanish, without ever once reflecting on their own dirty dealings with the tribes as a possible source of their tribulations. “Part of the motivation for securing Indian lands was to force Indians to relinquish their independence and accept American sovereignty, thereby reducing British influence. In so doing, Harrison and the Americans felt they were safeguarding peace. Instead, rapid land acquisitions made the old British-Indian alliance viable once more.” (p. 201).

At the same time Harrison was dealing with the overturning of the laws he had enacted for his own convenience, he started dealing with Tecumseh. Tecumseh was a well-educated and brilliant orator. As the author says at the end of the book, Harrison never won in a fair fight. And so, he had to fight dirty. While things are slowly heating up with Britain, eventually culminating in the War of 1812, Harrison is still wheeling and stealing from the Native tribes. And finally, Tecumseh called bullshit.

They had a meeting at Harrison’s home at Grouseland in 1810, which very nearly came to blows. Eventually, Harrison backed down, and the talks resumed, with nothing being resolved. Before he left, Tecumseh advised that he would be leaving for another meeting, and asked Harrison not to do anything until he returned. I like to think that his request was because he saw something honorable in Harrison. But it’s just as possible he was merely testing that honor. And it that was the case, Harrison failed.

As soon as Tecumseh left the Indiana territory, Harrison called up the militia, borrowing friends from Kentucky and Ohio to fill out his ranks, and rode on Tecumseh’s home camp at Prophetstown on the shores of the Tippecanoe River, where Tecumseh’s brother, the Prophet Tenskwatawa, was living with members of Tecumseh’s group of Shawnee. There can be no question that Harrison’s intent was peaceful. However, whether through hubris or poor supply, Harrison failed to set up proper defenses when making camp that night. Tenskwatawa took a group of warriors and attacked Harrison. While both sides suffered losses, and Harrison eventually claimed it as a victory, in reality, the Shawnee lost 50 to Harrison’s 188. Only political spin-doctoring kept Harrison from losing everything. And the eventual outbreak of official war with Britain.

When America declared war in 1812, Harrison pulled his family back from the frontier to Ohio, and resigned as governor of Indiana, instead taking up a position of Major General with the Army. “Harrison was a brave officer, but at Tippecanoe and during the War of 1812, it seems he did his best when his enemies were either outnumbered or very poorly led. As with his political battles in Indiana, it does not appear that Harrison ever won a fair fight.” (p. 233).

Eventually, after a series of lackluster battles as pithily described in the preceding quote, Harrison was outmaneuvered by the Secretary of War John Armstrong, and tendered his resignation to President Madison, effectively retiring from public life in 1814. Harrison did briefly resume his job as Indian affairs plenipotentiary, effecting a few more land deals, before retiring from that position. He served as Senator from Ohio before serving as Minister to Columbia. Then in 1840 he was chosen to run against Martin van Buren for the presidency. He ran as the log cabin candidate, and political theater took on a whole new meaning during his campaign, with his campaign party actually assembling log cabins wherever he was giving speeches. He was billed as a humble man of the people…this man, the man who built an enormous estate in Indiana territory, trying to recapture the grand estates of Virginia, a man perpetually in debt as he tried to grab ahold of a gentleman’s status to which he had been born, but had no the money to support the lifestyle. They tried to show that he drank hard cider, just like the average working man. And he won. Mostly due to van Buren’s own failed campaign strategy and the panic that consumed van Buren’s term as president from 1837 to 1841.

Then Harrison delivered a two-hour long inauguration speech in the pouring rain, contracted pneumonia, and died, 31 days after taking office, becoming the first president to die in office, thus providing another hallmark test of the Constitution. The first was during the Adams/Jefferson race. Would Adams actually hand over power to Jefferson, having lost the race. Now we had to see how the country would do, when a man not directly elected had to take over the presidency. And in steps President John Tyler. But that’s next months’ president.

This review was originally posted on YouTube on December 26, 2021, but is now on Rumble and PodBean.