[Sidenote:  The British minister Jackson. Source-Book, 212-213]

254.  Two British Ministers.—­Soon after Madison’s inauguration a new British minister came to Washington.  His name was Erskine, and he was very friendly.  A treaty was speedily made on conditions which Madison thought could be granted.  He suspended non-intercourse with Great Britain, and hundreds of vessels set sail for that country.  But the British rulers soon put an end to this friendly feeling.  They said that Erskine had no authority to make such a treaty.  They refused to carry it out and recalled Erskine.  The next British minister was a person named Jackson.  He accused Madison of cheating Erskine and repeated the accusation.  Thereupon Madison sent him back to London.  As the British would not carry out the terms of Erskine’s treaty, Madison was compelled to prohibit all intercourse with Great Britain.

[Sidenote:  Still another policy. McMaster, 229-230.]

[Sidenote:  French trickery.]

[Sidenote:  British trickery.]

255.  British and French Trickery.—­The scheme of non-intercourse did not seem to bring the British and the French to terms much better than the embargo had done.  In 1810, therefore, Congress set to work and produced a third plan.  This was to allow intercourse with both Great Britain and France.  But this was coupled with the promise that if one of the two nations stopped seizing American ships and the other did not, then intercourse with the unfriendly country should be prohibited.  Napoleon at once said that he would stop seizing American vessels on November 1 of that year if the British, on their part, would stop their seizures before that time.  The British said that they would stop seizing when Napoleon did.  Neither of them really did anything except to keep on capturing American vessels whenever they could get a chance.

[Sidenote:  Indians of the Northwest. Eggleston, 242.]

[Sidenote:  Tecumthe.]

256.  Indian Troubles, 1810.—­To this everlasting trouble with Great Britain and France were now added the horrors of an Indian war.  It came about in this way.  Settlers were pressing into Indiana Territory west of the new state of Ohio.  Soon the lands which the United States had bought of the Indians would be occupied.  New lands must be bought.  At this time there were two able Indian leaders in the Northwest.  These were Tecumthe, or Tecumseh, and his brother, who was known as “the Prophet.”  These chiefs set on foot a great Indian confederation.  They said that no one Indian tribe should sell land to the United States without the consent of all the tribes of the Confederation.

[Sidenote:  Battle of Tippecanoe, 1811.]