stealing was punishable by fine and whipping. Gambling, profane swearing, and Sabbath-breaking, were each punishable by fine. Bigamy was punishable by fine, whipping, and disfranchisement. The law provided for the punishment of disobedient children and servants, by the following section:

"If any children or servants shall, contrary to the obedience due to their parents or masters, resist or refuse to obey their lawful commands, upon complaint thereof to a justice of the peace, it shall be lawful for such justice to send him or them so offending, to the jail or house of correction, there to remain until he or they shall humble themselves to the said parent's or master's satisfaction. And, if any child or servant shall, contrary to his bounden duty, presume to assault or strike his parent or master, upon complaint and conviction thereof, before two or more justices of the peace, the offender shall be whipped not exceeding ten stripes."

Certain portions of the common law of England were declared, by the revised code of 1807, to be in force in the Indiana territory. These portions of the common law were designated in an act which was comprised in the following words:"An act declaring what laws shall be in force" [in the Indiana territory.] "The common law of England, all statutes or acts of the British parliament made in aid of the common law, prior to the 4th year of the reign of king James the First (excepting the 2d section of the 6th chapter of 43d Elizabeth, the 8th chapter, 13th Elizabeth, and the 9th chapter, 37th Henry VIII,) and which are of a general nature, not local to that kingdom—and also the several laws in force in this territory-shall be the rule of decision, and shall be considered as of full force until repealed by legislative authority."

Three landoffices, for the disposal of the public lands, were established within the boundaries of the Indiana territory, by an act of congress, approved on the 26th of March, 1804. One of these offices was established at Detroit, in Wayne county, for the sale of the lands lying north of the State of Ohio, to which the Indiana title had been extinguished. Another was established at Vincennes, in Knox county, for the sale of the lands to which the Indian title had been extinguished, and which were included within the boundaries fixed by the treaty concluded with the Indians at Fort Wayne, on the 7th of June,

1803. At this office John Badollet was the first register, and Nathaniel Ewing, the first receiver. The third landoffice was established at Kaskaskia, in Randolph county, for the sale of such of the lands included within the boundaries fixed by the treaty of the 13th of August, 1803, (with the Kaskaskia tribe of Indians,) as were not claimed by any other Indian tribe. A fourth office, for the sale of public lands in the Indiana territory, was established at Jeffersonville, in Clark county, by an act of congress, approved on the 3d of March, 1807. The town of Jeffersonville was laid out, at the falls of the river Ohio, in 1802, according to a plan which was proposed by Mr. Jefferson, who was then President of the United States.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

INDIAN AFFAIRS-TECUMSEH AND THE PROPHET.

IN a message which was delivered before the territorial legislature of Indiana, in 1806, Governor Harrison stated that he had received from all the Indian tribes, under his superintendence, "the most solemn assurances of a disposition, on their part, to preserve inviolate their relations of amity with the United States." The same message contains the following passages in relation to the condition of Indian affairs at that period:

"They [the Indians] will never have recourse to arms-I speak of those in our immediate neighborhood-unless driven to it by a series of injustice and oppression. Of this they already begin to complain; and I am sorry to say that their complaints are far from being groundless. It is true that the general government has passed laws for fulfilling, not only the stipulations contained in our treaty, but also those sublimer duties which a just sense of our prosperity and their wretchedness seem to impose. The laws of the territory provide, also, the same punishment for offenses committed against Indians

as against white men. Experience, however, shows that there is a wide difference in the execution of those laws. The Indian always suffers, and the white man never. This partiality has not escaped their penetration, and has afforded them an opportunity of making the proudest comparisons between their own observance of treaties and that of their boasted superiors. If, in your review of our penal code, gentlemen, any regulation should suggest itself which would promise more impartiality in the execution of the laws in favor of those unhappy people, the adoption of it will be highly acceptable to the government of the United States and honorable to yourselves. But should you suppose it dangerous to make any discrimination in their favor, I pray you to lose no opportunity of inculcating, among your constituents, an abhorrence of that unchristian and detestable doctrine which would make a distinction of guilt between the murder of a white man and an Indian."

The principal matters of which the Indians complained, in their interviews with Governor Harrison between the years 1805 and 1810, were the encroachments of the white people upon the lands which belonged to the Indians, the invasion of their hunting-grounds, and the unjustifiable killing of some of their people. These complaints were not groundless; but neither the laws of the United States nor those of the Indiana territory were sufficiently strong to prevent the evil conduct of a few bad white men.

In the early part of the year 1805, the Shawanee warrior, Te-cum-seh, and his brother, Law-le-was-i-kaw, (which signifies the loud voice,) resided at one of the Delaware villages which stood on the borders of the west fork of White river, within the present boundaries of Delaware county. Some time in the course of the year 1805, Law-le-was-i-kaw took upon himself the character of a prophet, and assumed the name of Pems

* "You call us your children," said an old chief to me-"Why do you not make us as happy as our fathers, the French, did? They never took from us our lands indeed, they were in common between us. They planted where they pleased; and they cut wood where they pleased; and so did we. But, if a poor Indian attempts to take a little bark from a tree to cover him from the rain, up comes a white man and threatens to shoot him, claiming the tree as his own."-[LETTER FROM GOVERNOR HARRISON TO THE Secretary OF WAR.]

now,