Harrison Calls to Session Indiana Territorial Legislature That 1st Petitioned Congress

Indiana Territory was organized in 1800 as the first new jurisdiction created from lands of the Northwest Territory, and William Henry Harrison was made its governor. He also served as superintendent of Indian affairs, a key position as Indiana was then the frontier. On September 30, 1809, Harrison concluded a treaty with several tribes by which they sold to the United States about 3,000,000 acres of land on the Wabash and White Rivers. This, and other treaties of cession that had been made, were condemned by Indian leader Tecumseh and other chiefs. In the spring of 1811, they launched Indian raids on white settlements and the Governor sent word to Tecumseh that, unless they should cease, the Indians would be punished. Tecumseh himself appeared at Harrison’s capital of Vincennes on July 27, 1811, with 300 followers. After unproductive talks, Harrison determined to establish a military post near Tecumseh’s town of Tippecanoe on the upper Wabash. On September 26, he took the militia from Vincennes and marched into Indian-controlled land, and on October 28 completed a fort near the site of Terre Haute. That day he left a garrison there and pressed forward toward Tippecanoe. The battle of that name took place on November 7 and resulted in the flight of the Indians and a victory that made Harrison famous. He was thereafter known as “Old Tippecanoe.”

The Indiana Territorial Legislature was initially supposed to meet on October 1, 1811, but by mid-August, with Harrison enmeshed with Tecumseh, it was evident that that date would be impractical. On August 11, Harrison issued a proclamation calling the Legislature into session on October 28. This document is that proclamation.

Document Signed as territorial governor, Vincennes, Indiana, August 21, 1811. “Whereas the meeting of the Legislature of the Indiana Territory cannot be conveniently held on the first Monday of October next, the day to which it stood prorogued, I have thought proper further to prorogue the same to Monday the twenty-eighth of that month, at which time the members of the Legislative Council [Senate] and of the House of Representatives are required to give their attendance at this town of Vincennes.” 

On October 14, in the midst of the Tippecanoe military campaign and apparently seeing that it would not end on time for an October 28 session, he postponed the gathering until November 11. This date proved safe, as it was four days after the battle had occurred. The Second Session of the Third General Assembly of Indiana Territory met from November 11 to December 19, 1811. Its chief order of business was statehood, and it petitioned Congress to admit Indiana as an equal member of the Union. The War of 1812 delayed this process, but when the request was renewed in 1816, it resulted in statehood for Indiana. This is our first document calling a legislative body into session.