[Footnote A:  On the authority of colonel John Ruland.]

Tecumseh entertained a high and proper sense of personal character—­was equally bold in defending his own conduct, and condemning that which was reprehensible in others.  In 1811, he abandoned his intention of visiting the President, because he was not permitted to march to Washington at the head of a party of his warriors.  As an officer in the British army, he never lost sight of the dignity of his rank, nor suffered any act of injustice towards those under his command to pass without resenting it.  On one occasion, while the combined British and Indian forces were quartered at Malden, there was a scarcity of provisions, the commissary’s department being supplied with salt beef only, which was issued to the British soldiers, while horse flesh was given to the Indians.  Upon learning this fact, Tecumseh promptly called on general Proctor, remonstrated against the injustice of the measure, and complained, indignantly, of the insult thus offered to himself and his men.  The British general appeared indifferent to what was said; whereupon, the chief struck the hilt of Proctor’s sword with his hand, then touched the handle of his own tomahawk, and sternly remarked, “You are Proctor—­I am Tecumseh;” intimating, that if justice was not done to the Indians, the affair must be settled by a personal rencontre between the two commanders.  General Proctor prudently yielded the point.[A]

[Footnote A:  On the authority of the Rev. Wm. H. Raper.]

But few of the numerous speeches made by Tecumseh have been preserved.  Tradition speaks in exalted terms of several efforts of this kind, of which no record was made.  All bore evidence of the high order of his intellectual powers.  They were uniformly forcible, sententious and argumentative; always dignified, frequently impassioned and powerful.  He indulged neither in sophism nor circumlocution, but with bold and manly frankness, gave utterance to his honest opinions.  Mr. Ruddell, who knew him long and intimately, says, that “he was naturally eloquent, very fluent, graceful in his gestures, but not in the habit of using many; that there was neither vehemence nor violence in his style of delivery, but that his eloquence always made a strong impression on his hearers.”  Dr. Hunt, of Clark county, Ohio, has remarked, that the first time he heard Henry Clay make a speech, his manner reminded him, very forcibly, of that of Tecumseh, in the council at Springfield, in the year 1807, on which occasion he made one of his happiest efforts.

Our present minister to France, Mr. Cass, has said, with his usual discrimination, that “the character of Tecumseh, in whatever light it may be viewed, must be regarded as remarkable in the highest degree.  That he proved himself worthy of his rank as a general officer in the army of his Britannic majesty, or even of his reputation as a great warrior among all the Indians of the north-west, is, indeed, a small title