, 1917-01-25
9. ~ Ed strN Canpsnp

forming the little fort neal Vincennes
from a place w~retchedly neglected into
an adequate stronghold. Vigo whis-
pered to David that the boy was Capt.
Zachary Taylor from Kentucky, who
had been placed in command at Fort
Knox but a few weeks previously.
II trust" went on Harrison, that
Mr.. Eustis will be thoughtful enough
to bring my letter to the attention of
your uncle, President Madison. 1
would like him to know sthat we are
well pleased with your work"
Taylor flushed through his tan with
pleasure. He would have liked to say
that he hoped that Harrison might
some day occupy the presidential chair,
but he was as taciturn as most of the
men of the frontier; far less would
he have permitted himself to dream
that the great office might be his own.
Wflliam Henry Harrison Vincennes
was lis years old; the man thirty
eight. There had never been anything
commonplace in the existence of place
or man. Each had already had a his
tory whose telling must nov the heart
more than with a trumpet.
The face of the man was the face
of the soldLer-strong, resolute, proud,
indomitable. But it was likewise the
face of the man of the people, the
man in whom they trusted for his
calm patience and his warm friendli-
ness. With what unfaltering devotion
had they come to rely on him! And
how the men and women of the wilder
ness, seeing that tall and martial fig
ure pass, paused to mark that long,
grave face, the eyes deep-set under
bushy brows on either side the lengthy,
humorous nose, and smiled in love and
deep regard in answer to the slow
smile of the wide and kindly mouth.
What had he not done for them!
He was a warm admirer of the
democratic jefferson and he was an
a%ristocrat of the new territory. STEPPED
in the classic scholarship of the Old
Dominion, the son of n signer of the
Declaration of Independence, at
eighteen he had chosen to leave be-
hind him the culture of the older
states and to plunge into the rude but
generous wilderness. At twenty-eight
he was governor of the Indiana terri
tory. At thirty, master of an empire
of 15O,O00.000 acres, ruler over a prov
ince twice as large as England and
Ireland. larger. indeed, than all of
France.
Within the ten years following his
appointment as governor, the negotia-
tor, with absolute power. of treaties
which added to the new nation fifty
millions of acres, a domain large as
England and Scotland combined. At
thirty-one, holding in his hand for five
months the destinies of n tract of
100000 square miles, an imperial
province greater han any other n
man ever controlled in the history of
the United States, before or since -.
Opposed to him the great protago-
mist of the tragic drama of the savage
Tecumseh. Ruler of five indian tribes,
master mind OF the great Indian con-
federacy of another score of tribes.
Chief of 5000 warriors, ranging over
100000 miles of territory.
Harrison had policed the same terri
tory with exactly twenty backwoods-
men. Twenty men to guard an empire.
They threaded their ways through
the wilderness from st. Louis to De-
troit. They reported to him at Vim
me
On this enormous stage the curtain
is about to be lifted IN the titanic duel
of the West.
The group of men, lolling in the
shadows by the jefferson house, began
TO speak of the latest dispatches from
the East. News had just come that
The younger Wellesley had driven Mas
sena's French columns of The field of
Fuentes-de-Onor adding to the lau-
rels gained at Talavera and Busaco.
Napoleon was beginning to wonder
at this Englishman. The Little Corpo-
raj himself was snarling at the Rus
sian bear; the White Gar was dis
obeylng his commands to starve the
trade of England by closing the ports
of the Continent. England, driven to
desperation, was Selling American sea-
men on the pretext that they were
Englishmen, and forcing them to serve
against the French and still the gov
eminent at Washington kept up It's
endless attempts to stop these Insults
by words, words, words.
The little group of Westerners I'M
der the stars of the wilderness felt
themselves hopelessly remote from the
world of leadership; their affairs
seemed petty and narrow. David u
renee alone. gazing silently over the