Gen. William Henry Harrison Secures the Site For Negotiating the Treaty of Greenville with the Indians

At the Battle of the Thames in 1813, Harrison led the Americans to a decisive victory over British troops and their Indian allies, with the great chief Tecumsah being killed. This American victory led to the re-establishment of U.S. control over the Northwest frontier. The death of Tecumseh was a crushing blow to the Indian alliance he had created, and it effectively dissolved. Shortly after the battle, Harrison signed an armistice at Detroit with the chiefs or representatives of several tribes. He then transferred most of his regulars eastward to the Niagara River and went himself to Washington where he was acclaimed a hero. However, after a comparatively petty dispute, his political foe Secretary of War John Armstrong maneuvered Harrison into his resigning his commission as Major General on May 11, 1814. Armstrong accepted the resignation.

You will please instruct the officer who may command those troops that he is to be subject to the orders of the commissioners.

The President remained confident in Harrison and wanted to utilize his experience in dealing with Indian tribes (and warring against them). So the very day after Harrison officially resigned his commission, Madison appointed him to negotiate a treaty with the north-western Indian tribes. Michigan Governor Lewis Cass was named to assist in this mission. The focus of the negotiations would be to secure peace on the frontier and have the Indians turn their warriors against the British. The idea of demanding land cessions from the Indians was dropped at Harrison’s assistence, as it would complicate the negotiations and, he felt, after the war the land could be obtained with little trouble. Negotiations were to begin on July 5, 1814, but were postponed a few days, ostensibly because Harrison wanted the council house moved, but more likely because both Cass and some Indian tribes had not yet arrived. The Shawnee came on July 7, as did Cass, and on that day Harrison notified the tribes that negotiations would commence the next day. He also acted to make sure, with so many Indians there, that there would be sufficient American troops on site to defend the place should the need occur.

Letter Signed, Greenville, Ohio, July 7, 1814, to Othniel Looker, acting Governor of Ohio, with its address panel reading “Now at Dayton, Ohio.” “Since my letter of yesterday General Cass has arrived and informs that the troops here are to be withdrawn immediately from this place, a circumstance I was unacquainted with at the time I wrote to you last. General Cass and myself have therefore determined that as some troops are necessary to preserve good order & guard the public stores, it will be proper that [you] forward two full companies of those who may now be on their march nearest to this place.” He adds a P.S. “You will please instruct the officer who may command those troops that he is to be subject to the orders of the commissioners.” The address panel is still present, though separated.

The nearby troops Harrison refers were doubtless part of a two-pronged offensive under way at that very time. American troops under Colonel George Croghan, U.S. commander at Detroit, attempted to retake Fort Mackinac in Michigan, while a second force operated against Prairie du Chein on the Mississippi River. The goal of these attacks was to establish American control in the Upper Great Lakes. At Prairie du Chein the Americans were initially successful, but that was the case at Fort Mackinac. The attack there was not successful.

On July 22, 1814, a treaty of peace and friendship was concluded between the United States and the  Wyandot, Delaware, Shawnee, Seneca, and Miamie Indians. The document, known as the Second Treaty of Greenville, resulted in the tribes agreeing to become active allies of the United States, should hostilities with Great Britain continue. This treaty publicly marked an American policy of alliance with these Indians, and it caused the British peace negotiators at Ghent to abandon their Indian allies, thus hastening the end of the War of 1812.