Enter HARRISON and five COUNCILLORS.

HARRISON. Here are despatches from the President,
As well as letters from my trusted friends,
Whose tenor made me summon you to Council.

[Placing papers on table.]

1ST COUNCILLOR. Why break good news so gently? Is it true War is declared 'gainst England?

HARRISON. Would it were! That war is still deferred.
Our news is draff, And void of spirit, since New
England turns
A fresh cheek to the slap of Britain's palm.
Great God! I am amazed at such supineness.
Our trade prohibited, our men impressed,
Our flag insulted—still her people bend,
Amidst the ticking of their wooden clocks,
Bemused o'er small inventions. Out upon't!
Such tame submission yokes not with my spirit,
And sends my southern blood into my cheeks,
As proxy for New England's sense of shame.

2ND COUNCILLOR. We all see, save New England, what to
do;
But she has eyes for her one interest—
A war might sink it. So the way to war
Puzzles imagining.

HARRISON. There is a way
Which lies athwart the President's command.
The reinforcements asked for from Monroe
Are here at last, but with this strict injunction,
They must not be employed save in defence,
Or in a forced attack.

[Taking up a letter.]

Now, here is news, Fresh from the South, of bold
Tecumseh's work,
The Creeks and Seminoles have conjoined,
Which means a general union of the tribes,
And ravage of our Southern settlements.
Tecumseh's master hand is seen in this,
And these fresh tidings tally with his threats
Before he left Vincennes.

3RD COUNCILLOR. You had a close Encounter with him here.

HARRISON. Not over close, Nor dangerous—I saw he would
not strike.
His thoughts outran his threats, and looked beyond
To wider fields and trials of our strength.

4TH COUNCILLOR. Our tree is now too bulky for his axe.

HARRISON. Don't underrate his power! But for our States
This man would found an empire to surpass
Old Mexico's renown, or rich Peru.
Allied with England, he is to be feared
More than all other men.

1ST COUNCILLOR. You had some talk In private, ere he vanished to the South?

HARRISON. Mere words, yet ominous. Could we restore
Our purchases, and make a treaty line,
All might be well; but who would stand to it?

2ND COUNCILLOR. It is not to be thought of.

OTHER COUNCILLORS. No, no, no.

HARRISON. In further parley at the river's edge,
Scenting a coming war, he clapped his hands,
And said the English whooped his people on,
As if his braves were hounds to spring at us;
Compared our nation to a whelming flood,
And called his scheme a dam to keep it back—
Then proffered the old terms; whereat I urged
A peaceful mission to the President.
But, by apt questions, gleaning my opinion,
Ere I was ware, of such a bootless trip,
He drew his manly figure up, then smiled,
And said our President might drink his wine
In safety in his distant town, whilst we—
Over the mountains here—should fight it out:
Then entering his bark, well-manned with braves,
Bade me let matters rest till he returned
From his far mission to the distant tribes,
Waved an adieu, and, in a trice, was gone.

2ND COUNCILLOR. Your news is but an earnest of his work.

4TH COUNCILLOR. This Chief's dispatch should be our own
example.
Let matters rest, forsooth, till he can set
Our frontier in a blaze! Such cheap advice
Pulls with the President's, not mine.

HARRISON. Nor mine! The sum of my advice is to attack
The Prophet ere Tecumseh can return.

5TH COUNCILLOR. But what about the breach of your instructions?

HARRISON. If we succeed we need not fear the breach—
In the same space we give and heal the wound.

[Enter a Messenger, who hands letters to HARRISON.]

Thank you, Missouri and good Illinois—
Your governors are built of western clay.
Howard and Edwards both incline with me,
And urge attack upon the Prophet's force.
This is the nucleus of Tecumseh's strength—
His bold scheme's very heart. Let's cut it out.
Yes! yes! and every other part will fail.

1ST COUNCILLOR. Let us prepare to go at once!

2ND COUNCILLOR. Agreed.

3RD COUNCILLOR. I vote for war.

5TH COUNCILLOR. But should the Prophet win?

4TH COUNCILLOR. Why then, the Prophet, not Tecumseh, kills us— Which has the keener axe?

1ST COUNCILLOR. Breech-clouted dogs! Let us attack them, and, with thongs of fire, Whip their red bodies to a deeper red.

HARRISON. This feeling bodes success, and with success
Comes war with England; for a well-won fight
Will rouse a martial spirit in the land
To emulate our deeds on higher ground.
Now hasten to your duties and prepare:
Bronzed autumn comes, when copper-colored oaks
Drop miserly their stiff leaves to the earth;
And ere the winter's snow doth silver them,
Our triumph must be wrought.

[Exeunt.]