Trace crossed the Wabash River and its subsidiary. Thousands emigrated from the East as well as the South to settle central Indiana. This caused conflict with the Native Americans, who had lost the Northwest Indian War and the War of 1812. The sheer numbers of emigrants, many Catholic, helped qualify Indiana for admission as a separate state, with Corydon as its first capital. However, the capital was soon moved north, ultimately to Indianapolis on the National Road. The state line at the Wabash River little affected missionaries such as Bruté and Badin. However, Bardstown was across the falls of the Ohio River, and Kentucky, unlike Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, was a slave state. Slavery had become a significant spiritual as well as an economic issue in the new nation. Rome split the diocese of Bardstown and created the Diocese of Vincennes, Indiana, in 1834, the year after the Treaty of Tippecanoe caused many Potawatomi to relocate across the Mississippi River. However, others remained, particularly the assimilated metis. In 1834, despite his protest of ill health, melancholy, and some difficulty with conversation in English ("I lose the half of it and I am not understood"), Bruté accepted the position of Bishop of Vincennes and crossed the Appalachian Mountains to serve in the newly created diocese, which encompassed all of modern-day Indiana plus eastern Illinois. He became the new diocese's first bishop and was consecrated in the same year at the Cathedral of St. Louis. On March 7, 1835, Bruté became a U.S. citizen, partly because of land ownership requirements. The entire diocese had but three priests, including the Bishop as well as Simon Lalumiere and one other who was on loan for a year from the Diocese of St. Louis. The new bishop soon traveled to France to recruit priests and seek funds to build St. Francis Xavier Cathedral, a library, seminary, and parochial schools. In addition to his episcopal duties and pastoral work, Bruté taught theology in his seminary and one of his academies. His correspondence with leaders of the church in America and with many in France was extensive. He maintained a correspondence with Hugues Felicité Robert de Lamennais, whom he tried to reconcile with the Church both by his letters from this country and conferring with him during one of his visits to France, but without success. In 1836, Bruté returned from a trip to France with several