(B.) p. 265. The reflections I was led into on viewing this

passage of the Potomac through the Blue Ridge were, that this

country must have suffered some violent convulsion, and that

the face of it must have been changed from what it probably

was some centuries ago; that the broken and ragged faces of the

mountain on each side the river; the tremendous rocks, which

are left with one end fixed in the precipice, and the other jutting

out, and seemingly ready to fall for want of support, the bed of

the river for several miles below obstructed, and filled with the

loose stones carried from this mound; in short, everything on

which you cast your eye evidently demonstrates a disrupture and

breach in the mountain, and that, before this happened, what is

now a fruitful vale, was formerly a great lake or collection of

water, which possibly might have here formed a mighty cascade,

or had its vent to the ocean by the Susquehanna, where

the Blue Ridge seems to terminate. Besides this, there are other

parts of this country which bear evident traces of a like convulsion.

From the best accounts I have been able to obtain, the

place where the Delaware now flows through the Kittatinney

mountain, which is a continuation of what is called the North

Ridge, or mountain, was not its original course, but that it passed

through what is now called "the Wind-gap," a place several

miles to the westward, and about a hundred feet higher than

the present bed of the river. This Wind-gap is about a mile

broad, and the stones in it such as seem to have been washed

for ages by water running over them. Should this have been

the case, there must have been a large lake behind that mountain,

and by some uncommon swell in the waters, or by some

convulsion of nature, the river must have opened its way through

a different part of the mountain, and meeting there with less obstruction,

carried away with it the opposing mounds of earth,

and deluged the country below with the immense collection of

waters to which this new passage gave vent. There are still

remaining, and daily discovered, innumerable instances of such

a deluge on both sides of the river, after it passed the hills above

the falls of Trenton, and reached the Champaign. On the New

Jersey side, which is flatter than the Pennsylvania side, all the

country below Croswick hills seems to have been overflowed to

the distance of from ten to fifteen miles back from the river, and

to have acquired a new soil by the earth and clay brought down

and mixed with the native sand. The spot on which Philadelphia

stands evidently appears to be made ground. The different

strata through which they pass in digging to water, the

acorns, leaves, and sometimes branches, which are found above

twenty feet below the surface, all seem to demonstrate this. I

am informed that at Yorktown in Virginia, in the bank of York

river, there are different strata of shells and earth, one above another,

which seem to point out that the country there has undergone

several changes; that the sea has, for a succession of ages,

occupied the place where dry land now appears; and that the

ground has been suddenly raised at various periods. What a

change would it make in the country below, should the mountains

at Niagara, by any accident, be cleft asunder, and a passage

suddenly opened to drain off the waters of Erie and the

upper lakes! While ruminating on these subjects, I have often

been hurried away by fancy, and led to imagine, that what is

now the bay of Mexico, was once a champaign country; and

that from the point or cape of Florida, there was a continued

range of mountains through Cuba, Hispaniola, Porto Rico, Martinique,

Guadaloupe, Barbadoes, and Trinidad, till it reached the

coast of America, and formed the shores which bounded the

ocean, and guarded the country behind; that by some convulsion

or shock of nature, the sea had broken through these

mounds, and deluged that vast plain, till it reached the foot of

the Andes; that being there heaped up by the trade winds, always

blowing from one quarter, it had found its way back, as it

continues to do, through the Gulf between Florida and Cuba,

carrying with it the loom and sand it may have scooped from

the country it had occupied, part of which it may have deposited

on the shores of North America, and with part formed the banks

of Newfoundland. But these are only the visions of fancy.

(3.) p. 283. There is a plant, or weed, called the Jamestown

weed,[67] of a very singular quality. The late Dr. Bond informed

me, that he had under his care a patient, a young girl, who had

put the seeds of this plant into her eye, which dilated the pupil

to such a degree, that she could see in the dark, but in the light

was almost blind. The effect that the leaves had when eaten

by a ship's crew that arrived at Jamestown, are well known.[68]

(4.) p. 312. Monsieur Buffon has indeed given an afflicting

picture of human nature in his description of the man of America.

But sure I am there never was a picture more unlike the

original. He grants indeed that his stature is the same as that

of the man of Europe. He might have admitted, that the Iroquois

were larger, and the Lenopi, or Delawares, taller than people

in Europe generally are. But he says their organs of generation

are smaller and weaker than those of Europeans. Is this

a fact? I believe not; at least it is an observation I never heard

before.--"They have no beard." Had he known the pains

and trouble it costs the men to pluck out by the roots the hair

that grows on their faces, he would have seen that nature had

not been deficient in that respect. Every nation has its customs.

I have seen an Indian beau, with a looking-glass in his

hand, examining his face for hours together, and plucking out

by the roots every hair he could discover, with a kind of tweezer

made of a piece of fine brass wire, that had been twisted round

a stick, and which he used with great dexterity.--"They have

no ardor for their females." It is true they do not indulge those

excesses, nor discover that fondness which is customary in Europe;

but this is not owing to a defect in nature but to manners.

Their soul is wholly bent upon war. This is what procures

them glory among the men, and makes them the admiration of

the women. To this they are educated from their earliest youth.

When they pursue game with ardor, when they bear the fatigues

of the chase, when they sustain and suffer patiently hunger and

cold; it is not so much for the sake of the game they pursue, as

to convince their parents and the council of the nation that they

are fit to be enrolled in the number of the warriors. The songs

of the women, the dance of the warriors, the sage counsel of

the chiefs, the tales of the old, the triumphal entry of the warriors

returning with success from battle, and the respect paid to

those who distinguish themselves in war, and in subduing their

enemies; in short, everything they see or hear tends to inspire

them with an ardent desire for military fame. If a young man

were to discover a fondness for women before he has been to

war, he would become the contempt of the men, and the scorn

and ridicule of the women. Or were he to indulge himself with

a captive taken in war, and much more were he to offer violence

in order to gratify his lust, he would incur indelible disgrace.

The seeming frigidity of the men, therefore, is the effect of

manners, and not a defect of nature. Besides, a celebrated warrior

is oftener courted by the females, than he has occasion to

court; and this is a point of honor which the men aim at. Instances

similar to that of Ruth and Boaz[69] are not uncommon

among them. For though the women are modest and diffident,

and so bashful that they seldom lift up their eyes, and scarce

ever look a man full in the face, yet, being brought up in great

subjection, custom and manners reconcile them to modes of acting,

which, judged of by Europeans, would be deemed inconsistent

with the rules of female decorum and propriety. I once

saw a young widow, whose husband, a warrior, had died about

eight days before, hastening to finish her grief, and who, by

tearing her hair, beating her breast, and drinking spirits, made

the tears flow in great abundance, in order that she might grieve

much in a short space of time, and be married that evening to

another young warrior. The manner in which this was viewed

by the men and women of the tribe, who stood round, silent

and solemn spectators of the scene, and the indifference with

which they answered my question respecting it, convinced me

that it was no unusual custom. I have known men advanced

in years, whose wives were old and past child-bearing, take

young wives, and have children, though the practice of polygamy

is not common. Does this savor of frigidity, or want of ardor

for the female? Neither do they seem to be deficient in natural

affection. I have seen both fathers and mothers in the deepest

affliction, when their children have been dangerously ill; though

I believe the affection is stronger in the descending than the ascending

scale, and though custom forbids a father to grieve immoderately

for a son slain in battle. "That they are timorous

and cowardly," is a character with which there is little reason

to charge them, when we recollect the manner in which the

Iroquois met Monsieur ----, who marched into their country;

in which the old men, who scorned to fly, or to survive the capture

of their town, braved death, like the old Romans in the

time of the Gauls, and in which they soon after revenged themselves

by sacking and destroying Montreal. But above all, the

unshaken fortitude with which they bear the most excruciating

tortures and death when taken prisoners, ought to exempt them

from that character. Much less are they to be characterized as a

people of no vivacity, and who are excited to action or motion

only by the calls of hunger and thirst. Their dances in which

they so much delight, and which to an European would be the

most severe exercise, fully contradict this, not to mention their

fatiguing marches, and the toil they voluntarily and cheerfully

undergo in their military expeditions. It is true, that when at

home, they do not employ themselves in labor or the culture of

the soil; but this again is the effect of customs and manners,

which have assigned that to the province of the women. But it

is said, they are averse to society and a social life. Can anything

be more inapplicable than this to a people who always live

in towns or clans? Or can they be said to have no "republic,"

who conduct all their affairs in national councils, who pride

themselves in their national character, who consider an insult

or injury done to an individual by a stranger as done to the

whole, and resent it accordingly? In short, this picture is not

applicable to any nation of Indians I have ever known or heard

of in North America.

(5.) p. 340. As far as I have been able to learn, the country

from the sea coast to the Alleghany, and from the most southern

waters of James river up to Patuxen river, now in the State of

Maryland, was occupied by three different nations of Indians,

each of which spoke a different language, and were under separate

and distinct governments. What the original or real names

of those nations were, I have not been able to learn with certainty;

but by us they are distinguished by the names of Powhatans,

Mannahoacs, and Monacans, now commonly called Tuscaroras.

The Powhatans, who occupied the country from the

sea shore up to the falls of the rivers, were a powerful nation,

and seem to have consisted of seven tribes, five on the western

and two on the eastern shore. Each of these tribes was subdivided

into towns, families, or clans, who lived together. All

the nations of Indians in North America lived in the hunter

state, and depended for subsistence on hunting, fishing, and the

spontaneous fruits of the earth, and a kind of grain which was

planted and gathered by the women, and is now known by the

name of Indian corn. Long potatoes, pumpkins of various kinds,

and squashes, were also found in use among them. They had

no flocks, herds, or tamed animals of any kind. Their government

is a kind of patriarchal confederacy. Every town or family

has a chief, who is distinguished by a particular title, and whom

we commonly call "Sachem." The several towns or families

that compose a tribe, have a chief who presides over it, and the

several tribes composing a nation have a chief who presides over

the whole nation. These chiefs are generally men advanced in

years, and distinguished by their prudence and abilities in council.

The matters which merely regard a town or family are settled

by the chief and principal men of the town; those which

regard a tribe, such as the appointment of head warriors or captains,

and settling differences between different towns and families,

are regulated at a meeting or council of the chiefs from the

several towns; and those which regard the whole nation, such as

the making war, concluding peace, or forming alliances with the

neighboring nations, are deliberated on and determined in a national

council composed of the chiefs of the tribe, attended by

the head warriors and a number of the chiefs from the towns,

who are his counsellors. In every town there is a council house,

where the chief and old men of the town assemble, when occasion

requires, and consult what is proper to be done. Every

tribe has a fixed place for the chiefs of the towns to meet and

consult on the business of the tribe; and in every nation there

is what they call the central council house, or central council

fire, where the chiefs of the several tribes, with the principal

warriors, convene to consult and determine on their national affairs.

When any matter is proposed in the national council, it is

common for the chiefs of the several tribes to consult thereon

apart with their counsellors, and when they have agreed, to deliver

the opinion of the tribe at the national council; and, as

their government seems to rest wholly on persuasion, they endeavor,

by mutual concessions, to obtain unanimity. Such is

the government that still subsists among the Indian nations bordering

upon the United States. Some historians seem to think,

that the dignity of office of Sachem was hereditary. But that

opinion does not appear to be well founded. The sachem or

chief of the tribe seems to be by election. And sometimes persons

who are strangers, and adopted into the tribe, are promoted

to this dignity, on account of their abilities. Thus on the arrival

of Captain Smith, the first founder of the colony of Virginia,

Opechancanough, who was Sachem or chief of the Chickahominies,

one of the tribes of the Powhatans, is said to have

been of another tribe, and even of another nation, so that no certain

account could be obtained of his origin or descent. The

chiefs of the nation seem to have been by a rotation among the

tribes. Thus when Captain Smith, in the year 1609, questioned

Powhatan (who was the chief of the nation, and whose proper

name is said to have been Wahunsonacock) respecting the succession,

the old chief informed him, "that he was very old, and

had seen the death of all his people thrice;[70] that not one of these

generations were then living except himself; that he must soon

die, and the succession descend in order to his brother Opichapan,

Opechancanough, and Catataugh, and then to his two sisters,

and their two daughters." But these were appellations designating

the tribes in the confederacy. For the persons named

are not his real brothers, but the chiefs of different tribes. Accordingly

in 1618, when Powhatan died, he was succeeded by

Opichapan, and after his decease, Opechancanough became chief

of the nation. I need only mention another instance to show

that the chiefs of the tribes claimed this kindred with the head

of the nation. In 1622, when Raleigh Crashaw was with Japazaw,

the Sachem or chief of the Potomacs, Opechancanough,

who had great power and influence, being the second man in

the nation, and next in succession to Opichapan, and who was

a bitter but secret enemy to the English, and wanted to engage

his nation in a war with them, sent two baskets of beads to the

Potomac chief, and desired him to kill the Englishman that was

with him. Japazaw replied, that the English were his friends,

and Opichapan his _brother_, and that therefore there should be no

blood shed between them by his means. It is also to be observed,

that when the English first came over, in all their conferences

with any of the chiefs, they constantly heard him make

mention of his _brother_, with whom he must consult, or to whom

he referred them, meaning thereby either the chief of the nation,

or the tribes in confederacy. The Manahoacks are said to have

been a confederacy of four tribes, and in alliance with the Monacans,

in the war which they were carrying on against the

Powhatans.

To the northward of these there was another powerful nation

which occupied the country from the head of the Chesapeake

bay up to the Kittatinney mountain, and as far eastward as Connecticut

river, comprehending that part of New York which lies

between the Highlands and the ocean, all the State of New

Jersey, that part of Pennsylvania which is watered, below the

range of the Kittatinney mountains, by the rivers or streams falling

into the Delaware, and the county of Newcastle in the State

of Delaware, as far as Duck creek. It is to be observed, that

the nations of Indians distinguished their countries one from

another by natural boundaries, such as ranges of mountains or

streams of water. But as the heads of rivers frequently interlock,

or approach near to each other, as those who live upon a

stream claim the country watered by it, they often encroached

on each other, and this is a constant source of war between the

different nations. The nation occupying the tract of country

last described, called themselves Lenopi. The French writers

call them Loups; and among the English they are now commonly

called Delawares. This nation or confederacy consisted

of five tribes, who all spoke one language. 1. The Chihohocki,

who dwelt on the west side of the river now called Delaware, a

name which it took from Lord De la War, who put into it on

his passage from Virginia in the year ----, but which by the

Indians was called Chihohocki. 2. The Wanami, who inhabit

the country called New Jersey, from the Rariton to the sea. 3.

The Munsey, who dwelt on the upper streams of the Delaware,

from the Kittatinney mountains down to the Lehigh or western

branch of the Delaware. 4. The Wabinga, who are sometimes

called River Indians, sometimes Mohickanders, and who had their

dwelling between the west branch of Delaware and Hudson's river,

from the Kittatinney Ridge down to the Rariton; and 5. The

Mahiccon, or Manhattan, who occupied Staten Island, York

Island (which from its being the principal seat of their residence

was formerly called Manhattan), Long Island, and that part of

New York and Connecticut which lies between Hudson and

Connecticut rivers, from the highland, which is a continuation

of the Kittatinney Ridge down to the Sound. This nation had

a close alliance with the Shawanese, who lived on the Susquehanna

and to the westward of that river, as far as the Alleghany

mountains, and carried on a long war with another powerful nation

or confederacy of Indians, which lived to the north of them

between the Kittatinney mountains or highlands, and the Lake

Ontario, and who call themselves Mingoes, and are called by the

French writers Iroquois, by the English the Five Nations, and

by the Indians to the southward, with whom they were at war,

Massawomacs. This war was carrying on in its greatest fury,

when Captain Smith first arrived in Virginia. The Mingo warriors

had penetrated down the Susquehannah to the mouth of

it. In one of his excursions up the bay, at the mouth of Susquehannah,

in 1608, Captain Smith met with six or seven of

their canoes full of warriors, who were coming to attack their

enemies in the rear. In an excursion which he had made a few

weeks before, up the Rappahannock, and in which he had a

skirmish with a party of the Manahoacs, and taken a brother of

one of their chiefs prisoner, he first heard of this nation. For

when he asked the prisoner why his nation attacked the English?

the prisoner said, because his nation had heard that the

English came from under the world to take their world from

them. Being asked, how many worlds he knew? he said, he

knew but one, which was under the sky that covered him, and

which consisted of Powhatans, the Manakins, and the Massawomacs.

Being questioned concerning the latter, he said, they

dwelt on a great water to the North, that they had many boats, and

so many men, that they waged war with all the rest of the world.

The Mingo confederacy then consisted of five tribes; three who

are the elder, to wit, the Senecas, who live to the West, the Mohawks

to the East, and the Onondagas between them; and two

who are called the younger tribes, namely, the Cayugas and

Oneidas. All these tribes speak one language, and were then

united in a close confederacy, and occupied the tract of country

from the east end of Lake Erie to Lake Champlain, and from

the Kittatinney and Highlands to the Lake Ontario and the river

Cadaraqui, or St. Lawrence. They had some time before that,

carried on a war with a nation, who lived beyond the lakes, and

were called Adirondacks. In this war they were worsted; but

having made a peace with them, through the intercession of the

French who were then settling Canada, they turned their arms

against the Lenopi; and as this war was long and doubtful, they,

in the course of it, not only exerted their whole force, but put

in practice every measure which prudence or policy could devise

to bring it to a successful issue. For this purpose they bent

their course down the Susquehannah, and warring with the Indians

in their way, and having penetrated as far as the mouth

of it, they, by the terror of their arms, engaged a nation, now

known by the name of Nanticocks, Conoys, and Tuteloes, and

who lived between Chesapeake and Delaware bays, and bordering

on the tribe of Chihohocki, to enter into an alliance with

them. They also formed an alliance with the Monicans, and

stimulated them to a war with the Lenopi and their confederates.

At the same time the Mohawks carried on a furious war

down the Hudson against the Mohiccons and River Indians, and

compelled them to purchase a temporary and precarious peace,

by acknowledging them to be their superiors, and paying an annual

tribute. The Lenopi being surrounded with enemies, and

hard pressed, and having lost many of their warriors, were at

last compelled to sue for peace, which was granted to them on

the condition that they should put themselves under the protection

of the Mingoes, confine themselves to raising corn, hunting

for the subsistence of their families, and no longer have the

power of making war. This is what the Indians call making

them women. And in this condition the Lenopi were when

William Penn first arrived and began the settlement of Pennsylvania

in 1682.

(6.) p. 342. From the figurative language of the Indians, as

well as from the practice of those we are still acquainted with,

it is evident that it was and still continues to be, a constant custom

among the Indians to gather up the bones of the dead, and

deposit them in a particular place. Thus, when they make

peace with any nation with whom they have been at war, after

burying the hatchet, they take up the belt of wampum, and say,

"We now gather up all the bones of those who have been slain,

and bury them," &c. See all the treaties of peace. Besides,

it is customary when any of them die at a distance from home,

to bury them, and afterwards to come and take up the bones

and carry them home. At a treaty which was held at Lancaster

with the Six Nations, one of them died, and was buried in the

woods a little distance from the town. Some time after a party

came and took up the body, separated the flesh from the bones

by boiling and scraping them clean, and carried them to be deposited

in the sepulchres of their ancestors. The operation was

so offensive and disagreeable, that nobody could come near them

while they were performing it.

(7.) p. 350. The Osweàtchies, Connosedàgoes and Cohunnegagoes,

or, as they are commonly called, Caghnewàgos, are of

the Mingo or Six Nation Indians, who, by the influence of the

French missionaries, have been separated from their nation, and

induced to settle there.

I do not know of what nation the Augquàgahs are, but suspect

they are a family of the Senecas.

The Nanticocks and Conòies were formerly of a nation that

lived at the head of Chesapeake bay, and who, of late years,

have been adopted into the Mingo or Iroquois confederacy, and

make a seventh nation. The Monacans or Tuscaroras, who

were taken into the confederacy in 1712, making the sixth.

The Saponies are families of the Wanamies, who removed

from New Jersey, and with the Mohiccons, Munsies, and Delawares,

belonging to the Lenopi nation. The Mingos are a war

colony from the Six Nations; so are the Cohunnewagos.

Of the rest of the Northern tribes I never have been able to

learn anything certain. But all accounts seem to agree in this,

that there is a very powerful nation, distinguished by a variety

of names taken from the several towns or families, but commonly

called Tàwas or Ottawas, who speak one language, and live

round and on the waters that fall into the western lakes, and extend

from the waters of the Ohio quite to the waters falling into

Hudson's bay.

FOOTNOTES:

[67] Datura pericarpiis erectis ovatis. Linn.

[68] An instance of temporary imbecility produced by them is

mentioned, Beverl. H. of Virg. b. 2, c. 4.

[69] When Boaz had eaten and drank, and his heart was merry,

he went to lie down at the end of the heap of corn; and

Ruth came softly, and uncovered his feet, and laid her

down. Ruth, iii. 7.

[70] This is one generation more than the poet ascribes to the

life of Nestor:

Tö d' ede duo men geneai meropö anthröpön

Ephthiath oi oi prosthen ama traphen ed' egneonto

En Pulö egathee, meta de tritatoisin anassen.

II. Hom. II. 250.

Two generations now had passed away,

Wise by his rules, and happy by his sway;

Two ages o'er his native realm he reign'd,

And now th' example of the third remained.

POPE.

No. II.

In the summer of the year 1783, it was expected that

the assembly of Virginia would call a Convention for the

establishment of a Constitution. The following draught of

a fundamental Constitution for the Commonwealth of Virginia

was then prepared, with a design of being proposed in such

Convention had it taken place.

To the citizens of the commonwealth of Virginia, and all

others whom it may concern, the delegates for the said commonwealth

in Convention assembled, send greeting:

It is known to you and to the world, that the government of

Great Britain, with which the American States were not long

since connected, assumed over them an authority unwarrantable

and oppressive; that they endeavored to enforce this authority

by arms, and that the States of New Hampshire, Massachusetts,

Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania,

Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South

Carolina, and Georgia, considering resistance, with all its train

of horrors, as a lesser evil than abject submission, closed in the

appeal to arms. It hath pleased the Sovereign Disposer of all

human events to give to this appeal an issue favorable to the

rights of the States; to enable them to reject forever all dependence

on a government which had shown itself so capable of

abusing the trusts reposed in it; and to obtain from that government

a solemn and explicit acknowledgment that they are free,

sovereign, and independent States. During the progress of that

war, through which we had to labor for the establishment of our

rights, the legislature of the commonwealth of Virginia found it

necessary to make a temporary organization of government for

preventing anarchy, and pointing our efforts to the two important

objects of war against our invaders, and peace and happiness

among ourselves. But this, like all other acts of legislation,

being subject to change by subsequent legislatures, possessing

equal powers with themselves; it has been thought expedient,

that it should receive those amendments which time and trial

have suggested, and be rendered permanent by a power superior

to that of the ordinary legislature. The general assembly therefore

of this State recommend it to the good people thereof, to

choose delegates to meet in general convention, with powers to

form a constitution of government for them, and to declare those

fundamentals to which all our laws present and future shall be

subordinate; and, in compliance with this recommendation, they

have thought proper to make choice of us, and to vest us with

powers for this purpose.

We, therefore, the delegates, chosen by the said good people

of this State for the purpose aforesaid, and now assembled in

general convention, do in execution of the authority with which

we are invested, establish the following constitution and fundamentals

of government for the said State of Virginia:

The said State shall forever hereafter be governed as a commonwealth.

The powers of government shall be divided into three distinct

departments, each of them to be confided to a separate body of

magistracy; to wit, those which are legislative to one, those

which are judiciary to another, and those which are executive

to another. No person, or collection of persons, being of one

of these departments, shall exercise any power properly belonging

to either of the others, except in the instances hereinafter

expressly permitted.

The legislature shall consist of two branches, the one to be

called the House of Delegates, the other the Senate, and both

together the General Assembly. The concurrence of both of

these, expressed on three several readings, shall be necessary to

the passage of a law.

Delegates for the general assembly shall be chosen on the last

Monday of November in every year. But if an election cannot

be concluded on that day, it may be adjourned from day to day

till it can be concluded.

The number of delegates which each county may send shall

be in proportion to the number of its qualified electors; and the

whole number of delegates for the State shall be so proportioned

to the whole number of qualified electors in it, that they shall

never exceed three hundred, nor be fewer than one hundred.

Whenever such excess or deficiency shall take place, the House

of Delegates so deficient or excessive shall, notwithstanding this,

continue in being during its legal term; but they shall, during

that term, re-adjust the proportion, so as to bring their number

within the limits before mentioned at the ensuing election. If

any county be reduced in its qualified electors below the number

authorized to send one delegate, let it be annexed to some

adjoining county.

For the election of senators, let the several counties be allotted

by the senate, from time to time, into such and so many districts

as they shall find best; and let each county at the time of electing

its delegates, choose senatorial electors, qualified as themselves

are, and four in number for each delegate their county is

entitled to send, who shall convene, and conduct themselves, in

such manner as the legislature shall direct, with the senatorial

electors from the other counties of their district, and then choose,

by ballot, one senator for every six delegates which their district

is entitled to choose. Let the senatorial districts be divided

into two classes, and let the members elected for one of

them be dissolved at the first ensuing general election of delegates,

the other at the next, and so on alternately forever.

All free male citizens, of full age, and sane mind, who for one

year before shall have been resident in the county, or shall

through the whole of that time have possessed therein real property

of the value of ----; or shall for the same time

have been enrolled in the militia, and no others, shall have a

right to vote for delegates for the said county, and for senatorial

electors for the district. They shall give their votes personally,

and _vivâ voce_.

The general assembly shall meet at the place to which the

last adjournment was, on the forty-second day after the day of

election of delegates, and thenceforward at any other time or

place on their own adjournment, till their office expires, which

shall be on the day preceding that appointed for the meeting of

the next general assembly. But if they shall at any time adjourn

for more than one year, it shall be as if they had adjourned

for one year precisely. Neither house, without the concurrence

of the other, shall adjourn for more than one week, nor to any

other place than the one at which they are sitting. The governor

shall also have power, with the advice of the council of

State, to call them at any other time to the same place, or to a

different one, if that shall have become, since the last adjournment,

dangerous from an enemy, or from infection.

A majority of either house shall be a quorum, and shall be

requisite for doing business; but any smaller proportion which

from time to time shall be thought expedient by the respective

houses, shall be sufficient to call for, and to punish, their non-attending

members, and to adjourn themselves for any time not

exceeding one week.

The members, during their attendance on the general assembly,

and for so long a time before and after as shall be necessary for

travelling to and from the same, shall be privileged from all personal

restraint and assault, and shall have no other privilege

whatsoever. They shall receive during the same time, daily

wages in gold or silver, equal to the value of two bushels of

wheat. This value shall be deemed one dollar by the bushel

till the year 1790, in which, and in every tenth year thereafter,

the general court, at their first sessions in the year, shall cause a

special jury, of the most respectable merchants and farmers, to

be summoned, to declare what shall have been the averaged

value of wheat during the last ten years; which averaged value

shall be the measure of wages for the ten subsequent years.

Of this general assembly, the treasurer, attorney general, register,

ministers of the gospel, officers of the regular armies of this

State, or of the United States, persons receiving salaries or emoluments

from any power foreign to our confederacy, those who

are not resident in the county for which they are chosen delegates,

or districts for which they are chosen senators, those who

are not qualified as electors, persons who shall have committed

treason, felony, or such other crime as would subject them to infamous

punishment, or who shall have been convicted by due

course of law of bribery or corruption, in endeavoring to procure

an election to the said assembly, shall be incapable of being

members. All others, not herein elsewhere excluded, who may

elect, shall be capable of being elected thereto.

Any member of the said assembly accepting any office of profit

under this State, or the United States, or any of them, shall

thereby vacate his seat, but shall be capable of being re-elected.

Vacancies occasioned by such disqualifications, by death, or

otherwise, shall be supplied by the electors, on a writ from the

speaker of the respective house.

The general assembly shall not have power to infringe this

constitution; to abridge the civil rights of any person on account

of his religious belief; to restrain him from professing and supporting

that belief, or to compel him to contributions, other than

those he shall have personally stipulated for the support of that

or any other; to ordain death for any crime but treason or murder,

or military offences; to pardon, or give a power of pardoning

persons duly convicted of treason or felony, but instead thereof

they may substitute one or two new trials, and no more; to pass

laws for punishing actions done before the existence of such

laws; to pass any bill of attainder of treason or felony; to prescribe

torture in any case whatever; nor to permit the introduction

of any more slaves to reside in this State, or the continuance

of slavery beyond the generation which shall be living on the

thirty-first day of December, one thousand eight hundred; all

persons born after that day being hereby declared free.

The general assembly shall have power to sever from this

State all or any parts of its territory westward of the Ohio, or of

the meridian of the mouth of the Great Kanhaway, and to cede

to Congress one hundred square miles of territory in any other

part of this State, exempted from the jurisdiction and government

of this State so long as Congress shall hold their sessions

therein, or in any territory adjacent thereto, which may be tendered

to them by any other State.

They shall have power to appoint the speakers of their respective

houses, treasurer, auditors, attorney general, register, all

general officers of the military, their own clerks and serjeants,

and no other officers, except where, in other parts of this constitution,

such appointment is expressly given them.

The executive powers shall be exercised by a _Governor_, who

shall be chosen by joint ballot of both houses of assembly, and

when chosen shall remain in office five years, and be ineligible a

second time. During his term he shall hold no other office or

emolument under this State, or any other State or power whatsoever.

By executive powers, we mean no reference to those

powers exercised under our former government by the crown as

of its prerogative, nor that these shall be the standard of what

may or may not be deemed the rightful powers of the governor.

We give him those powers only, which are necessary to execute

the laws (and administer the government), and which are not in

their nature either legislative or judiciary. The application of

this idea must be left to reason. We do however expressly deny

him the prerogative powers of erecting courts, offices, boroughs,

corporations, fairs, markets, ports, beacons, light-houses, and sea-marks;

of laying embargoes, of establishing precedence, of retaining

within the State, or recalling to it any citizen thereof,

and of making denizens, except so far as he may be authorized

from time to time by the legislature to exercise any of those

powers. The power of declaring war and concluding peace, of

contracting alliances, of issuing letters of marque and reprisal,

of raising and introducing armed forces, of building armed vessels,

forts, or strongholds, of coining money or regulating its

value, of regulating weights and measures, we leave to be exercised

under the authority of the confederation; but in all cases

respecting them which are out of the said confederation, they

shall be exercised by the governor, under the regulation of such

laws as the legislature may think it expedient to pass.

The whole military of the State, whether regular, or of

militia, shall be subject to his directions; but he shall leave the

execution of those directions to the general officers appointed by

the legislature.

His salary shall be fixed by the legislature at the session of

the assembly in which he shall be appointed, and before such

appointment be made; or if it be not then fixed, it shall be the

same which his next predecessor in office was entitled to. In

either case he may demand it quarterly out of any money which

shall be in the public treasury; and it shall not be in the power

of the legislature to give him less or more, either during his continuance

in office, or after he shall have gone out of it. The

lands, houses, and other things appropriated to the use of the

governor, shall remain to his use during his continuance in office.

A _Council of State_ shall be chosen by joint ballot of both

houses of assembly, who shall hold their offices seven years, and

be ineligible a second time, and who, while they shall be of the

said council, shall hold no other office or emolument under this

State, or any other State or power whatsoever. Their duty

shall be to attend and advise the governor when called on by

him, and their advice in any case shall be a sanction to him.

They shall also have power, and it shall be their duty, to meet

at their own will, and to give their advice, though not required

by the governor, in cases where they shall think the public good

calls for it. Their advice and proceedings shall be entered in

books to be kept for that purpose, and shall be signed as approved

or disapproved by the members present. These books shall be

laid before either house of assembly when called for by them.

The said council shall consist of eight members for the present;

but their numbers may be increased or reduced by the legislature,

whenever they shall think it necessary; provided such reduction

be made only as the appointments become vacant by death, resignation,

disqualification, or regular deprivation. A majority of

their actual number, and not fewer, shall be a quorum. They

shall be allowed for the present ---- each by the year, payable

quarterly out of any money which shall be in the public treasury.

Their salary, however, may be increased or abated from

time to time, at the discretion of the legislature; provided such

increase or abatement shall not, by any ways or means, be made

to affect either then, or at any future time, any one of those then

actually in office. At the end of each quarter their salary shall

be divided into equal portions by the number of days on which,

during that quarter, a council has been held, or required by the

governor, or by their own adjournment, and one of those portions

shall be withheld from each member for every of the said

days which, without cause allowed good by the board, he failed

to attend, or departed before adjournment without their leave.

If no board should have been held during that quarter, there

shall be no deduction.

They shall annually choose a _President_, who shall preside in

council in the absence of the governor, and who, in case of his

office becoming vacant by death or otherwise, shall have authority

to exercise all his functions, till a new appointment be

made, as he shall also in any interval during which the governor

shall declare himself unable to attend to the duties of his office.

The _Judiciary_ powers shall be exercised by county courts

and such other inferior courts as the legislature shall think proper

to continue or to erect, by three superior courts, to wit, a Court

of Admiralty, a general Court of Common Law, and a High

Court of Chancery; and by one Supreme Court, to be called the

Court of Appeals.

The judges of the high court of chancery, general court, and

court of admiralty, shall be four in number each, to be appointed

by joint ballot of both houses of assembly, and to hold their

offices during good behavior. While they continue judges, they

shall hold no other office or emolument, under this State, or any

other State or power whatsoever, except that they may be delegated

to Congress, receiving no additional allowance.

These judges, assembled together, shall constitute the Court

of Appeals, whose business shall be to receive and determine appeals

from the three superior courts, but to receive no original

causes, except in the cases expressly permitted herein.

A majority of the members of either of these courts, and not

fewer, shall be a quorum. But in the Court of Appeals nine

members shall be necessary to do business. Any smaller numbers

however may be authorized by the legislature to adjourn

their respective courts.

They shall be allowed for the present ---- each by the year,

payable quarterly out of any money which shall be in the public

treasury. Their salaries, however, may be increased or abated,

from time to time, at the discretion of the legislature, provided

such increase or abatement shall not by any ways or means, be

made to affect, either then, or at any future time, any one of

those then actually in office. At the end of each quarter their

salary shall be divided into equal portions by the number of days

on which, during that quarter, their respective courts sat, or should

have sat, and one of these portions shall be withheld from each

member for every of the said days which, without cause allowed

good by his court, he failed to attend, or departed before adjournment

without their leave. If no court should have been

held during the quarter, there shall be no deduction.

There shall, moreover, be a _Court of Impeachments_, to consist

of three members of the Council of State, one of each of the superior

courts of Chancery, Common Law, and Admiralty, two

members of the house of delegates and one of the Senate, to be

chosen by the body respectively of which they are. Before

this court any member of the three branches of government, that

is to say, the governor, any member of the council, of the two

houses of legislature, or of the superior courts, may be impeached

by the governor, the council, or either of the said houses or

courts, and by no other, for such misbehavior in office as would

be sufficient to remove him therefrom; and the only sentence

they shall have authority to pass shall be that of deprivation and

future incapacity of office. Seven members shall be requisite to

make a court, and two-thirds of those present must concur in the

sentence. The offences cognizable by this court shall be cognizable

by no other, and they shall be triers of the fact as well

as judges of the law.

The justices or judges of the inferior courts already erected,

or hereafter to be erected, shall be appointed by the governor, on

advice of the council of State, and shall hold their offices during

good behavior, or the existence of their courts. For breach

of the good behavior, they shall be tried according to the laws

of the land, before the Court of Appeals, who shall be judges of

the fact as well as of the law. The only sentence they shall

have authority to pass shall be that of deprivation and future incapacity

of office, and two-thirds of the members present must

concur in this sentence.

All courts shall appoint their own clerks, who shall hold their

offices during good behavior, or the existence of their court;

they shall also appoint all other attending officers to continue

during their pleasure. Clerks appointed by the supreme or superior

courts shall be removable by their respective courts.

Those to be appointed by other courts shall have been previously

examined, and certified to be duly qualified, by some two

members of the general court, and shall be removable for breach

of the good behavior by the Court of Appeals only, who shall

be judges of the fact as well as of the law. Two-thirds of the

members present must concur in the sentence.

The justices or judges of the inferior courts may be members

of the legislature.

The judgment of no inferior court shall be final, in any civil

case, of greater value than fifty bushels of wheat, as last rated

in the general court for setting the allowance to the members

of the general assembly, nor in any case of treason, felony, or other

crime which should subject the party to infamous punishment.

In all causes depending before any court, other than those of

impeachments, of appeals, and military courts, facts put in issue

shall be tried by jury, and in all courts whatever witnesses shall

give testimony _vivâ voce_ in open court, wherever their attendance

can be procured; and all parties shall be allowed counsel

and compulsory process for their witnesses.

Fines, amercements, and terms of imprisonment left indefinite

by the law, other than for contempts, shall be fixed by the jury,

triers of the offence.

The governor, two councillors of State, and a judge from each

of the superior Courts of Chancery, Common Law, and Admiralty,

shall be a council to revise all bills which shall have

passed both houses of assembly, in which council the governor,

when present, shall preside. Every bill, before it becomes a law,

shall be represented to this council, who shall have a right to advise

its rejection, returning the bill, with their advice and reasons

in writing, to the house in which it originated, who shall proceed

to reconsider the said bill. But if after such reconsideration,

two-thirds of the house shall be of opinion that the bill should

pass finally, they shall pass and send it, with the advice and

written reasons of the said Council of Revision, to the other

house, wherein if two-thirds also shall be of opinion it should

pass finally, it shall thereupon become law; otherwise it shall

not.

If any bill, presented to the said council, be not, within one

week (exclusive of the day of presenting it) returned by them,

with their advice of rejection and reasons, to the house wherein

it originated, or to the clerk of the said house, in case of its adjournment

over the expiration of the week, it shall be law from

the expiration of the week, and shall then be demandable by

the clerk of the House of Delegates, to be filed of record in his

office.

The bills which they approve shall become law from the time

of such approbation, and shall then be returned to, or demandable

by, the clerk of the House of Delegates, to be filed of record

in his office.

A bill rejected on advice of the Council of Revision may

again be proposed, during the same session of assembly, with

such alterations as will render it conformable to their advice.

The members of the said Council of Revision shall be appointed

from time to time by the board or court of which they

respectively are. Two of the executive and two of the judiciary

members shall be requisite to do business; and to prevent the

evils of non-attendance, the board and courts may at any time

name all, or so many as they will, of their members, in the particular

order in which they would choose the duty of attendance

to devolve from preceding to subsequent members, the preceding

failing to attend. They shall have additionally for their services

in this council the same allowance as members of assembly have.

The confederation is made a part of this constitution, subject

to such future alterations as shall be agreed to by the legislature

of this State, and by all the other confederating States.

The delegates to Congress shall be five in number; any three

of whom, and no fewer, may be a representation. They shall

be appointed by joint ballot of both houses of assembly for any

term not exceeding one year, subject to be recalled, within the

term, by joint vote of both the said houses. They may at the

same time be members of the legislative or judiciary departments,

but not of the executive.

The benefits of the writ of Habeas Corpus shall be extended,

by the legislature, to every person within this State, and without

fee, and shall be so facilitated that no person may be detained in

prison more than ten days after he shall have demanded and

been refused such writ by the judge appointed by law, or if none

be appointed, then by any judge of a superior court, nor more

than ten days after such writ shall have been served on the person

detaining him, and no order given, on due examination, for

his remandment or discharge.

The military shall be subordinate to the civil power.

Printing presses shall be subject to no other restraint than

liableness to legal prosecution for false facts printed and published.

Any two of the three branches of government concurring in

opinion, each by the voice of two-thirds of their whole existing

number, that a convention is necessary for altering this constitution,

or correcting breaches of it, they shall be authorized to

issue writs to every county for the election of so many delegates

as they are authorized to send to the general assembly, which

elections shall be held, and writs returned, as the laws shall have

provided in the case of elections of delegates of assembly, _mutatis mutandis_,

and the said delegates shall meet at the usual

place of holding assemblies, three months after date of such

writs, and shall be acknowledged to have equal powers with this

present convention. The said writs shall be signed by all the

members approving the same.

_To introduce this government_, the following special and temporary

provision is made.

This convention being authorized only to amend those laws

which constituted the form of government, no general dissolution

of the whole system of laws can be supposed to have taken

place; but all laws in force at the meeting of this convention,

and not inconsistent with this constitution, remain in full force,

subject to alterations by the ordinary legislature.

The present general assembly shall continue till the forty-second

day after the last Monday of November in this present year.

On the said last Monday of November in this present year, the

several counties shall by their electors qualified as provided

by this constitution, elect delegates, which for the present shall

be, in number, one for every ---- militia of the said county,

according to the latest returns in possession of the governor,

and shall also choose senatorial electors in proportion thereto,

which senatorial electors shall meet on the fourteenth day

after the day of their election, at the court house of that county

of their present district which would stand first in an alphabetical

arrangement of their counties, and shall choose senators in

the proportion fixed by this constitution. The elections and returns

shall be conducted, in all circumstances not hereby particularly

prescribed, by the same persons and under the same

forms as prescribed by the present laws in elections of senators

and delegates of assembly. The said senators and delegates

shall constitute the first general assembly of the new government,

and shall specially apply themselves to the procuring an

exact return from every county of the number of its qualified

electors, and to the settlement of the number of delegates to be

elected for the ensuing general assembly.

The present governor shall continue in office to the end of the

term for which he was elected.

All other officers of every kind shall continue in office as they

would have done had their appointment been under this constitution,

and new ones, where new are hereby called for, shall be

appointed by the authority to which such appointment is referred.

One of the present judges of the general court, he consenting

thereto, shall by joint ballot of both houses of assembly,

at their first meeting, be transferred to the High Court of Chancery.

No. III.

An Act for establishing Religious Freedom, passed in the

Assembly of Virginia in the beginning of the year 1786.

Well aware that Almighty God hath created the mind free;

that all attempts to influence it by temporal punishments or burdens,

or by civil incapacitations, tend only to beget habits of

hypocrisy and meanness, and are a departure from the plan of

the Holy Author of our religion, who being Lord both of body

and mind, yet chose not to propagate it by coercions on either,

as was in his Almighty power to do; that the impious presumption

of legislators and rulers, civil as well as ecclesiastical, who,

being themselves but fallible and uninspired men have assumed

dominion over the faith of others, setting up their own opinions

and modes of thinking as the only true and infallible, and as

such endeavoring to impose them on others, hath established

and maintained false religions over the greatest part of the

world, and through all time; that to compel a man to furnish

contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he

disbelieves, is sinful and tyrannical; that even the forcing him

to support this or that teacher of his own religious persuasion, is

depriving him of the comfortable liberty of giving his contributions

to the particular pastor whose morals he would make his

pattern, and whose powers he feels most persuasive to righteousness,

and is withdrawing from the ministry those temporal rewards,

which proceeding from an approbation of their personal

conduct, are an additional incitement to earnest and unremitting

labors for the instruction of mankind; that our civil rights

have no dependence on our religious opinions, more than our

opinions in physics or geometry; that, therefore, the proscribing

any citizen as unworthy the public confidence by laying

upon him an incapacity of being called to the offices of trust

and emolument, unless he profess or renounce this or that religious

opinion, is depriving him injuriously of those privileges

and advantages to which in common with his fellow citizens he

has a natural right; that it tends also to corrupt the principles

of that very religion it is meant to encourage, by bribing, with a

monopoly of worldly honors and emoluments, those who will

externally profess and conform to it; that though indeed these

are criminal who do not withstand such temptation, yet neither

are those innocent who lay the bait in their way; that to suffer

the civil magistrate to intrude his powers into the field of opinion

and to restrain the profession or propagation of principles, on

the supposition of their ill tendency, is a dangerous fallacy, which

at once destroys all religious liberty, because he being of course

judge of that tendency, will make his opinions the rule of judgment,

and approve or condemn the sentiments of others only as

they shall square with or differ from his own; that it is time

enough for the rightful purposes of civil government, for its officers

to interfere when principles break out into overt acts

against peace and good order; and finally, that truth is great and

will prevail if left to herself, that she is the proper and sufficient

antagonist to error, and has nothing to fear from the conflict,

unless by human interposition disarmed of her natural weapons,

free argument and debate, errors ceasing to be dangerous when

it is permitted freely to contradict them.

_Be it therefore enacted by the General Assembly_, That no

man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship,

place or ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained,

molested, or burthened in his body or goods, nor shall

otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief;

but that all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to

maintain, their opinions in matters of religion, and that the

same shall in nowise diminish, enlarge, or affect their civil capacities.

And though we well know this Assembly, elected by the people

for the ordinary purposes of legislation only, have no power

to restrain the acts of succeeding assemblies, constituted with the

powers equal to our own, and that therefore to declare this act

irrevocable, would be of no effect in law, yet we are free to declare,

and do declare, that the rights hereby asserted are of the

natural rights of mankind, and that if any act shall be hereafter

passed to repeal the present or to narrow its operation, such act

will be an infringement of natural right.

AN APPENDIX

RELATIVE TO THE MURDER OF LOGAN'S FAMILY.[71]

The "Notes on Virginia" were written, in Virginia, in the

years 1781 and 1782, in answer to certain queries proposed to

me by Monsieur de Marbois, then secretary of the French legation

in the United States; and a manuscript copy was delivered

to him. A few copies, with some additions, were afterwards,

in 1784, printed in Paris, and given to particular friends.

In speaking of the animals of America, the theory of M. de Buffon,

the Abbe Raynal, and others presented itself to consideration.

They have supposed there is something in the soil, climate, and

other circumstances of America, which occasions animal nature

to degenerate, not excepting even the man, native or adoptive,

physical or moral. This theory, so unfounded and degrading to

one-third of the globe, was called to the bar of fact and reason.

Among other proofs adduced in contradiction of this hypothesis,

the speech of Logan, an Indian chief, delivered to Lord Dunmore

in 1774, was produced, as a specimen of the talents of the

aboriginals of this country, and particularly of their eloquence;

and it was believed that Europe had never produced anything

superior to this morsel of eloquence. In order to make it intelligible

to the reader, the transaction, on which it was founded,

was stated, as it had been generally related in America at the

time, and as I had heard it myself, in the circle of Lord Dunmore,

and the officers who accompanied him; and the speech itself

was given as it had, ten years before the printing of that

book, circulated in the newspapers through all the then colonies,

through the magazines of Great Britain, and periodical publications

of Europe. For three and twenty years it passed uncontradicted;

nor was it ever suspected that it even admitted contradiction.

In 1797, however, for the first time, not only the

whole transaction respecting Logan was affirmed in the public

papers to be false, but the speech itself suggested to be a forgery,

and even a forgery of mine, to aid me in proving that the man

of America was equal in body and in mind, to the man of Europe.

But wherefore the forgery; whether Logan's or mine, it

would still have been American. I should indeed consult my

own fame if the suggestion, that this speech is mine, were suffered

to be believed. He would have just right to be proud who

could with truth claim that composition. But it is none of mine;

and I yield it to whom it is due.

On seeing then that this transaction was brought into question,

I thought it my duty to make particular inquiry into its

foundation. It was the more my duty, as it was alleged that,

by ascribing to an individual therein named, a participation in

the murder of Logan's family, I had done an injury to his character,

which it had not deserved. I had no knowledge personally

of that individual. I had no reason to aim an injury at

him. I only repeated what I had heard from others, and what

thousands had heard and believed as well as myself; and which

no one indeed, till then, had been known to question. Twenty-three

years had now elapsed, since the transaction took place.

Many of those acquainted with it were dead, and the living dispersed

to very distant parts of the earth. Few of them were

even known to me. To those however of whom I knew, I

made application by letter; and some others, moved by a regard

for truth and justice, were kind enough to come forward, of

themselves, with their testimony. These fragments of evidence,

the small remains of a mighty mass which time has consumed,

are here presented to the public, in the form of letters, certificates,

or affidavits, as they came to me. I have rejected none

of these forms, nor required other solemnities from those whose

motives and characters were pledges of their truth. Historical

transactions are deemed to be well vouched by the simple declarations

of those who have borne a part in them; and especially

of persons having no interest to falsify or disfigure them. The

world will now see whether they, or I, have injured Cresap, by

believing Logan's charge against him; and they will decide between

Logan and Cresap, whether Cresap was innocent, and Logan

a calumniator?

In order that the reader may have a clear conception of the

transactions, to which the different parts of the following declarations

refer, he must take notice that they establish four different

murders. 1. Of two Indians, a little above Wheeling. 2.

Of others at Grave Creek, among whom were some of Logan's

relations. 3. The massacre at Baker's bottom, on the Ohio, opposite

the mouth of Yellow Creek, where were other relations

of Logan. 4. Of those killed at the same place, coming in

canoes to the relief of their friends. I place the numbers 1, 2,

3, 4, against certain paragraphs of the evidence, to indicate the

particular murder to which the paragraph relates, and present

also a small sketch or map of the principal scenes of these butcheries,

for their more ready comprehension.

* * * * *

_Extract of a letter from the Honorable Judge Innes, of

Frankfort in Kentucky, to Thomas Jefferson, dated Kentucky,

near Frankfort, March 2d, 1799._

I recollect to have seen Logan's speech in 1775, in one of the public

prints. That Logan conceived Cresap to be the author of the murder at

Yellow Creek, it is in my power to give, perhaps, a more particular

information, than any other person you can apply to.

In 1774 I lived in Fincastle county, now divided into Washington,

Montgomery and part of Wythe. Being intimate in Col. Preston's family,

I happened in July to be at his house, when an express was sent to him

as County Lieut. requesting a guard of the militia to be ordered out for

the protection of the inhabitants residing low down on the north fork of

Holston river. The express brought with him a War Club, and a note which

was left tied to it at the house of one Robertson, whose family were cut

off by the Indians, and gave rise for the application to Col. Preston,

of which the following is a copy, then taken by me in my memorandum book.

"Captain Cresap,--What did you kill my people on Yellow Creek

for? The white people killed my kin at Conestoga, a great

while ago; and I thought nothing of that. But you killed my

kin again, on Yellow Creek, and took my Cousin Prisoner. Then

I thought I must kill too; and I have been three times to war

since; but the Indians are not angry; only myself.

"July 21st, 1774. Captain JOHN LOGAN."

With great respect, I am, Dear Sir, your most obedient servant,

HARRY INNES.

* * * * *

Alleghany County, ss. }

State of Pennsylvania.}

Before me, the subscriber, a justice of the peace in and for said county,

personally appeared John Gibson, Esquire, an associate Judge of same

county, who being duly sworn, deposeth and saith that he traded with

the Shawanese and other tribes of Indians then settled on the Siota in

the year 1773, and in the beginning of the year 1774, and that in the

month of April of the same year, he left the same Indian towns, and

came to this place, in order to procure some goods and provisions, that

he remained here only a few days, and then set out in company with a

certain Alexander Blaine and M. Elliot by water to return to the towns

on the Siota, and that one evening as they were drifting in their canoes

near the Long Reach on the Ohio, they were hailed by a number of white

men on the South West shore, who requested them to put ashore, as they

had disagreeable news to inform them of; that we then landed on shore;

and found amongst the party, a Major Angus M'Donald from West Chester,

a Doctor Woods from same place, and a party as they said of one hundred

and fifty men. We then asked the news. They informed us that some of the

party who had been taken up, and improving lands near the Big Kanhawa

river, had seen another party of white men, who informed them that they

and some others had fell in with a party of Shawanese, who had been

hunting on the South West side of the Ohio, that they had killed the whole

of the Indian party, and that the others had gone across the country to

Cheat river with the horses and plunder, the consequence of which they

apprehended would be an Indian war, and that they were flying away. On

making inquiry of them when this murder should have happened, we found

that it must have been some considerable time before we left the Indian

towns, and that there was not the smallest foundation for the report,

as there was not a single man of the Shawanese, but what returned from

hunting long before this should have happened.

We then informed them that if they would agree to remain at the place

we then were, one of us would go to Hock Hocking river with some of

their party, where we should find some of our people making canoes, and

that if we did not find them there, we might conclude that everything

was not right. Doctor Wood and another person then proposed going with

me; the rest of the party seemed to agree, but said they would send and

consult Captain Cresap, who was about two miles from that place. They

sent off for him, and during the greatest part of the night they behaved

in the most disorderly manner, threatening to kill us, and saying the

damned traders were worse than the Indians and ought to be killed. In

the morning Captain Michael Cresap came to the camp. I then gave him

the information as above related. They then met in council, and after an

hour or more Captain Cresap returned to me, and informed that he could

not prevail on them to adopt the proposal I had made to them, that as he

had a great regard for Captain R. Callender, a brother-in-law of mine

with whom I was connected in trade, he advised me by no means to think

of proceeding any further, as he was convinced the present party would

fall on and kill every Indian they met on the river, that for his part

he should not continue with them, but go right across the country to

Red-Stone to avoid the consequences. That we then proceeded to Hocking

and went up the same to the canoe place where we found our people at

work, and after some days we proceeded to the towns on Siota by land.

On our arrival there, we heard of the different murders committed by

the party on their way up the Ohio.

This Deponent further saith that in the year 1774, he accompanied Lord

Dunmore on the expedition against the Shawanese and other Indians on the

Siota, that on their arrival within fifteen miles of the towns, they were

met by a flag, and a white man of the name of Elliot, who informed Lord

Dunmore that the Chiefs of the Shawanese had sent to request his Lordship

to halt his army and send in some person, who understood their language;

that this Deponent, at the request of Lord Dunmore and the whole of the

officers with him, went in; that on his arrival at the towns, Logan, the

Indian, came to where the deponent was sitting with the Corn-Stalk, and

the other chiefs of the Shawanese, and asked him to walk out with him;

that they went into a copse of wood, where they sat down, when Logan,

after shedding abundance of tears, delivered to him the speech, nearly

as related by Mr. Jefferson in his notes on the State of Virginia; that

he the deponent told him that it was not Col. Cresap who had murdered

his relations, and that although his son Captain Michael Cresap was with

the party who killed a Shawanese chief and other Indians, yet he was

not present when his relations were killed at Baker's, near the mouth

of Yellow Creek on the Ohio; that this Deponent on his return to camp

delivered the speech to Lord Dunmore; and that the murders perpetrated

as above were considered as ultimately the cause of the war of 1774,

commonly called Cresap's war.

JOHN GIBSON.

Sworn and subscribed the 4th April, 1800, at Pittsburg, before

me,

JER. BARKER.

* * * * *

_Extract of a letter from Col. Ebenezer Zane, to the honorable

John Brown, one of the senators in Congress from Kentucky;

dated Wheeling, Feb. 4th, 1800._

[Sidenote: 1]

I was myself, with many others, in the practice of making improvements

on lands upon the Ohio, for the purpose of acquiring rights to the same.

Being on the Ohio at the mouth of Sandy Creek, in company with many

others, news circulated that the Indians had robbed some of the Land

jobbers. This news induced the people generally to ascend the Ohio. I

was among the number. On our arrival at the Wheeling, being informed

that there were two Indians with some traders near and above Wheeling,

a proposition was made by the then Captain Michael Cresap to waylay

and kill the Indians upon the river. This measure I opposed with much

violence, alleging that the killing of those Indians might involve the

country in a war. But the opposite party prevailed, and proceeded up

the Ohio with Captain Cresap at their head.

In a short time the party returned, and also the traders, in a canoe;

but there were no Indians in the company. I inquired what had become of

the Indians, and was informed by the traders and Cresap's party that they

had fallen overboard. I examined the canoe, and saw much fresh blood and

some bullet holes in the canoe. This fully convinced me that the party

had killed the two Indians, and thrown them into the river.

[Sidenote: 2]

On the afternoon of the day this action happened, a report prevailed that

there was a camp, or party of Indians on the Ohio below and near the

Wheeling. In consequence of this information, Captain Cresap with his

party, joined by a number of recruits, proceeded immediately down the

Ohio for the purpose, as was then generally understood, of destroying

the Indians above mentioned. On the succeeding day, Captain Cresap and

his party returned to Wheeling, and it was generally reported by the

party that they had killed a number of Indians. Of the truth of this

report I had no doubt, as one of Cresap's party was badly wounded, and

the party had a fresh scalp, and a quantity of property, which they

called Indian plunder. At the time of the last-mentioned transaction,

it was generally reported that the party of Indians down the Ohio were

Logan and his family; but I have reason to believe that this report was

unfounded.

[Sidenote: 3]

Within a few days after the transaction above mentioned, a party of

Indians were killed at Yellow Creek. But I must do the memory of Captain

Cresap the justice to say that I do not believe that he was present at

the killing of the Indians at Yellow Creek. But there is not the least

doubt in my mind, that the massacre at Yellow Creek was brought on by

the two transactions first stated.

All the transactions, which I have related happened in the latter end of

April 1774; and there can scarcely be a doubt that they were the cause

of the war which immediately followed, commonly called Dunmore's War.

I am with much esteem, yours, &c,

EBENEZER ZANE.

* * * * *

_The certificate of William Huston of Washington county, in

the State of Pennsylvania, communicated by David Riddick,

Esquire, Prothonotary of Washington county, Pennsylvania; who

in the letter enclosing it says "Mr. William Huston is a man

of established reputation in point of integrity."_

I William Huston of Washington county, in the State of Pennsylvania, do

hereby certify to whom it may concern, that in the year 1774, I resided

at Catfishes camp, on the main path from Wheeling to Redstone; that

Michael Cresap, who resided on or near the Potomac river, on his way up

from the river Ohio, at the head of a party of armed men, lay some time

at my cabin.

[Sidenote: 2]

I had previously heard the report of Mr. Cresap having killed some

Indians, said to be the relations of "Logan" an Indian Chief. In a

variety of conversations with several of Cresap's party, they boasted

of the deed; and that in the presence of their chief. They acknowledged

they had fired first on the Indians. They had with them one man on a

litter, who was in the skirmish.

[Sidenote: 3]

I do further certify that, from what I learned from the party themselves,

I then formed the opinion, and have not had any reason to change the

opinion since, that the killing, on the part of the whites, was what I

deem the grossest murder. I further certify that some of the party, who

afterwards killed some women and other Indians at Baker's bottom, also

lay at my cabin, on their march to the interior part of the country;

they had with them a little girl, whose life had been spared by the

interference of some more humane than the rest. If necessary I will make

affidavit to the above to be true. Certified at Washington, this 18th

day of April, Anno Domini, 1798.

WILLIAM HUSTON.

* * * * *

_The certificate of Jacob Newland, of Shelby County, Kentucky,

communicated by the Honorable Judge Innes, of Kentucky._

[Sidenote: 2]

[Sidenote: 3]

In the year 1774, I lived on the waters of Short Creek, a branch of the

Ohio, twelve miles above Wheeling. Some time in June or in July of that

year, Capt. Michael Cresap raised a party of men, and came out under

Col. M'Daniel, of Hampshire County, Virginia, who commanded a detachment

against the Wappotommaka towns on the Muskinghum. I met with Capt. Cresap,

at Redstone fort, and entered his company. Being very well acquainted with

him, we conversed freely; and he, among other conversations, informed me

several times of falling in with some Indians on the Ohio some distance

below the mouth of Yellow Creek, and killed two or three of them; and that

this murder was before that of the Indians by Great-house and others, at

Yellow Creek. I do not recollect the reason which Capt. Cresap assigned

for committing the act, but never understood that the Indians gave any

offence. Certified under my hand this 15th day of November, 1799, being

an inhabitant of Shelby county, and State of Kentucky.

JACOB NEWLAND.

* * * * *

_The Certificate of John Anderson, a merchant in Fredericksburg,

Virginia; communicated by Mann Page, Esquire, of Mansfield,

near Fredericksburg, who in the letter accompanying it, says,

"Mr. John Anderson has for many years past been settled

in Fredericksburg, in the mercantile line. I have known

him in prosperous and adverse situations. He has always

shown the greatest degree of Equanimity, his honesty and

veracity are unimpeachable. These things can be attested

by all the respectable part of the town and neighborhood of

Fredericksburg."_

[Sidenote: 1]

[Sidenote: 3]

Mr. John Anderson, a merchant in Fredericksburg, says, that in the

year 1774, being a trader in the Indian country, he was at Pittsburg,

to which place he had a cargo brought up the river in a boat navigated

by a Delaware Indian and a white man. That on their return down the

river, with a cargo, belonging to Messrs. Butler, Michael Cresap fired

on the boat, and killed the Indian, after which two men of the name of

Gatewood, and others of the name of Tumblestone,[72] who lived on the

opposite side of the river from the Indians, with whom they were on the

most friendly terms, invited a party of them to come over and drink with

them; and that, when the Indians were drunk, they murdered them to the

number of six, among whom was Logan's mother.

[Sidenote: 4]

That five other Indians uneasy at the absence of their friends, came

over the river to inquire after them; when they were fired upon, and

two were killed, and the others wounded. This was the origin of the war.

I certify the above to be true to the best of my recollection.

Attest DAVID BLAIR, 30th June, 1798. JOHN ANDERSON.

* * * * *

_The Deposition of James Chambers, communicated by David

Riddick, Esquire, Prothonotary of Washington county,

Pennsylvania, who, in the letter enclosing it, shows that he

entertains the most perfect confidence in the truth of Mr.

Chambers._

WASHINGTON COUNTY, ss.

[Sidenote: 2]

[Sidenote: 3]

[Sidenote: 4]

[Sidenote: 2]

[Sidenote: 2]

Personally came before me Samuel Shannon, Esquire, one of the

Commonwealth Justices for the County of Washington in the State of

Pennsylvania, James Chambers, who, being sworn according to law, deposeth

and saith that in the spring of the year 1774, he resided on the frontier

near Baker's bottom on the Ohio; that he had an intimate companion, with

whom he sometimes lived, named Edward King; that a report reached them

that Michael Cresap had killed some Indians near Grave Creek, friends

to an Indian, known by the name of "Logan;" that other of his friends,

following down the river, having received intelligence, and fearing to

proceed, lest Cresap might fall in with them, encamped near the mouth

of Yellow Creek, opposite Baker's bottom; that Daniel Great-house had

determined to kill them; had made the secret known to the deponent's

companion, King; that the deponent was earnestly solicited to be of the

party, and, as an inducement, was told that they would get a great deal

of plunder; and further, that the Indians would be made drunk by Baker,

and that little danger would follow the expedition. The deponent refused

having any hand in killing unoffending people. His companion, King, went

with Great-house, with divers others, some of whom had been collected

at a considerable distance under an idea that Joshua Baker's family was

in danger from the Indians, as war had been commenced between Cresap

and them already; that Edward King, as well as others of the party,

did not conceal from the deponent the most minute circumstances of this

affair; they informed him that Great-house, concealing his people, went

over to the Indian encampments and counted their number, and found that

they were too large a party to attack with his strength; that he then

requested Joshua Baker, when any of them came to his house, (which they

had been in the habit of,) to give them what rum they could drink, and

to let him know when they were in a proper train, and that he would

then fall on them; that accordingly they found several men and women at

Baker's house; that one of these women had cautioned Great-house, when

over in the Indian camp, that he had better return home, as the Indian

men were drinking, and that having heard of Cresap's attack on their

relations down the river, they were angry, and, in a friendly manner,

told him to go home. Great-house, with his party, fell on them, and

killed all except a little girl, which the deponent saw with the party

after the slaughter; that the Indians in the camp hearing the firing,

manned two canoes, supposing their friends at Baker's to be attacked, as

was supposed; the party under Great-house prevented their landing by a

well-directed fire, which did execution in the canoes; that Edward King

showed the deponent one of the scalps. The deponent further saith, that

the settlements near the river broke up, and he the deponent immediately

repaired to Catfish's camp, and lived some time with Mr. William Huston;

that not long after his arrival, Cresap, with his party, returning from

the Ohio, came to Mr. Huston's and tarried some time; that in various

conversations with the party, and in particular with a Mr. Smith, who

had one arm only, he was told that the Indians were acknowledged and

known to be Logan's friends which they had killed, and that he heard

the party say, that Logan would probably avenge their deaths.

[Sidenote: 2]

[Sidenote: 3]

They acknowledged that the Indians passed Cresap's encampment on the bank

of the river in a peaceable manner, and encamped below him; that they

went down and fired on the Indians and killed several; that the survivors

flew to their arms and fired on Cresap, and wounded one man, whom the

deponent saw carried on a litter by the party; that the Indians killed

by Cresap were not only Logan's relations, but of the women killed at

Baker's one was said and generally believed to be Logan's sister. The

deponent further saith, that on the relation of the attack by Cresap

on the unoffending Indians, he exclaimed in their hearing, that it was

an atrocious murder; on which Mr. Smith threatened the deponent with

the tomahawk; so that he was obliged to be cautious, fearing an injury,

as the party appeared to have lost, in a great degree, sentiments of

humanity as well as the effects of civilization. Sworn and subscribed

at Washington, the 20th day of April, Anno Domini 1798.

Before SAMUEL SHANNON. JAMES CHAMBERS.

* * * * *

Washington County, ss.

[Sidenote: SEAL.]

I, David Reddick, prothonotary of the court of common pleas, for the

county of Washington in the State of Pennsylvania, do certify that Samuel

Shannon, Esq., before whom the within affidavit was made, was, at the

time thereof, and still is, a justice of the peace in and for the county

of Washington aforesaid; and that full credit is due to all his judicial

acts as such as well in courts of justice as thereout.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and affixed the seal

of my office at Washington, the 26th day of April, Anno Dom. 1798.

DAVID REDDICK.

* * * * *

_The certificate of Charles Polke, of Shelby County, in

Kentucky, communicated by the Hon. Judge Innes, of Kentucky,

who in the letter enclosing it, together with Newland's

certificate, and his own declaration of the information given

him by Baker, says, "I am well acquainted with John Newland,

he is a man of integrity. Charles Polke and Joshua Baker both

support respectable characters."_

[Sidenote: 3]

[Sidenote: 2]

About the latter end of April or beginning of May 1774, I lived on the

waters of Cross creek, about sixteen miles from Joshua Baker, who lived

on the Ohio, opposite the mouth of Yellow Creek. A number of persons

collected at my house, and proceeded to the said Baker's and murdered

several Indians, among whom was a woman said to be the sister of the

Indian chief, Logan. The principal leader of the party was Daniel

Great-house. To the best of my recollection the cause which gave rise

to the murder was a general idea that the Indians were meditating an

attack on the frontiers. Capt. Michael Cresap was not of the party; but

I recollect that some time before the perpetration of the above fact it

was currently reported that Capt. Cresap had murdered some Indians on

the Ohio, one or two, some distance below Wheeling.

Certified by me, an inhabitant of Shelby county and State of Kentucky,

this 25th day of November, 1799.

CHARLES POLKE.

* * * * *

_The Declaration of the Hon. Judge Innes, of Frankfort, in

Kentucky._

[Sidenote: 3]

[Sidenote: 1]

On the 14th of November, 1799, I accidentally met upon the road Joshua

Baker, the person referred to in the certificate signed by Polke, who

informed me that the murder of the Indians in 1774, opposite the mouth

of Yellow Creek, was perpetrated at his house by thirty-two men, led on

by Daniel Great-house; that twelve were killed and six or eight wounded;

among the slain was a sister and other relations of the Indian chief,

Logan. Baker says, Captain Michael Cresap was not of the party; that some

days preceding the murder at his house two Indians left him and were on

their way home; that they fell in with Capt. Cresap and a party of land

improvers on the Ohio, and were murdered, if not by Cresap himself, with

his approbation; he being the leader of the party, and that he had this

information from Cresap.

HARRY INNES.

* * * * *

_The Declaration of William Robinson._

William Robinson, of Clarksburg, in the county of Harrison, and State of

Virginia, subscriber to these presents, declares that he was, in the year

1774, a resident on the west fork of Monongahela river, in the county

then called West Augusta, and being in his field on the 12th of July,

with two other men, they were surprised by a party of eight Indians,

who shot down one of the others and made himself and the remaining one

prisoners; this subscriber's wife and four children having been previously

conveyed by him for safety to a fort about twenty-four miles off; that

the principal Indian of the party which took them was Captain Logan; that

Logan spoke English well, and very soon manifested a friendly disposition

to this subscriber, and told him to be of good heart, that he would not

be killed, but must go with him to his town, where he would probably be

adopted in some of their families; but above all things, that he must

not attempt to run away; that in the course of the journey to the Indian

town he generally endeavored to keep close to Logan, who had a great

deal of conversation with him, always encouraging him to be cheerful and

without fear; for that he would not be killed, but should become one of

them; and constantly impressing on him not to attempt to run away; that

in these conversations he always charged Capt. Michael Cresap with the

murder of his family; that on his arrival in the town, which was on the

18th of July, he was tied to a stake and a great debate arose whether he

should not be burnt; Logan insisted on having him adopted, while others

contended to burn him; that at length Logan prevailed, tied a belt of

wampum round him as the mark of adoption, loosed him from the post and

carried him to the cabin of an old squaw, where Logan pointed out a person

who he said was this subscriber's cousin; and he afterwards understood

that the old woman was his aunt, and two others his brothers, and that

he now stood in the place of a warrior of the family who had been killed

at Yellow Creek; that about three days after this Logan brought him a

piece of paper, and told him he must write a letter for him, which he

meant to carry and leave in some house where he should kill somebody;

that he made ink with gun powder, and the subscriber proceeded to write

the letter by his direction, addressing Captain Michael Cresap in it,

and that the purport of it was, to ask "why he had killed his people?

That some time before they had killed his people at some place, (the

name of which the subscriber forgets,) which he had forgiven; but since

that he had killed his people again at Yellow Creek, and taken his

cousin, a little girl, prisoner; that therefore he must war against the

whites; but that he would exchange the subscriber for his cousin." And

signed it with Logan's name, which letter Logan took and set out again

to war; and the contents of this letter, as recited by the subscriber,

calling to mind that stated by Judge Innes to have been left, tied to

a war club, in a house where a family was murdered, and that being read

to the subscriber, he recognizes it, and declares he verily believes it

to have been the identical letter which he wrote, and supposes he was

mistaken in stating as he has done before from memory, that the offer

of exchange was proposed in the letter; that it is probable that it was

only promised him by Logan, but not put in the letter; while he was with

the old woman, she repeatedly endeavored to make him sensible that she

had been of the party at Yellow Creek, and, by signs, showed him how

they decoyed her friends over the river to drink, and when they were

reeling and tumbling about, tomahawked them all, and that whenever she

entered on this subject she was thrown into the most violent agitations,

and that he afterwards understood that, amongst the Indians killed at

Yellow Creek, was a sister of Logan, very big with child, whom they

ripped open, and stuck on a pole; that he continued with the Indians

till the month of November, when he was released in consequence of the

peace made by them with Lord Dunmore; that, while he remained with them,

the Indians in general were very kind to him; and especially those who

were his adopted relations; but above all, the old woman and family in

which he lived, who served him with everything in their power, and never

asked, or even suffered him to do any labor, seeming in truth to consider

and respect him as the friend they had lost. All which several matters

and things, so far as they are stated to be of his own knowledge, this

subscriber solemnly declares to be true, and so far as they are stated on

information from others, he believes them to be true. Given and declared

under his hand at Philadelphia, this 28th day of February, 1800.

WILLIAM ROBINSON.

* * * * *

_The deposition of Colonel William M'Kee, of Lincoln County,

Kentucky, communicated by the Hon. John Brown, one of the

Senators in Congress from Kentucky._

Colonel William M'Kee of Lincoln county, declareth, that in autumn,

1774, he commanded as a captain in the Bottetourt Regiment under Colonel

Andrew Lewis, afterwards General Lewis; and fought in the battle at the

mouth of Kanhaway, on the 10th of October in that year. That after the

battle, Colonel Lewis marched the militia across the Ohio, and proceeded

towards the Shawnee towns on Sciota; but before they reached the towns,

Lord Dunmore, who was Commander-in-Chief of the army, and had, with a

large part thereof, been up the Ohio about Hockhockin, when the battle

was fought, overtook the militia, and informed them of his having since

the battle concluded a treaty with the Indians; upon which the whole

army returned.

And the said William declareth that, on the evening of that day on

which the junction of the troops took place, he was in company with Lord

Dunmore and several of his officers, and also conversed with several who

had been with Lord Dunmore at the treaty; said William, on that evening,

heard repeated conversations concerning an extraordinary speech at the

treaty, or sent there by a chieftain of the Indians named Logan, and

heard several attempts at a rehearsal of it. The speech as rehearsed

excited the particular attention of said William, and the most striking

members of it were impressed on his memory.

And he declares that when Thomas Jefferson's "Notes on Virginia" were

published, and he came to peruse the same, he was struck with the

speech of Logan as there set forth, as being substantially the same,

and accordant with the speech he heard rehearsed in the camp as aforesaid.

Signed, WILLIAM M'KEE.

DANVILLE, December 18th, 1799.

We certify that Colonel William M'Kee this day signed the original

certificate, of which the foregoing is a true copy, in our presence.

JAMES SPEED, Junior.

J. H. DEWEES.

* * * * *

_The Certificate of the Honorable Stevens Thompson Mason, one

of the Senators in Congress from the State of Virginia._

"Logan's Speech, delivered at the Treaty, after the battle in which

Colonel Lewis was killed in 1774."

[Here follows a copy of the speech agreeing verbatim with that printed

in Dixon and Hunter's Virginia Gazette of February 4, 1775, under the

Williamsburg head. At the foot is this certificate.]

"The foregoing is a copy taken by me, when a boy, at school, in the year

1775, or at farthest in 1776, and lately found in an old pocket-book,

containing papers and manuscripts of that period.

STEVENS THOMPSON MASON.

"January 20th, 1798."

* * * * *

_A copy of Logan's speech, given by the late General Mercer,

who fell in the battle of Trenton, January 1776, to Lewis

Willis, Esquire, of Fredericksburg, in Virginia, upwards of

twenty years ago, (from the date of February 1798,) communicated

through Mann Page, Esquire._

"The speech of Logan, a Shawanese chief, to Lord Dunmore."

[Here follows a copy of the speech, agreeing verbatim with that in the

Notes on Virginia.]

A copy of Logan's speech from the Notes on Virginia having been sent

to Captain Andrew Rodgers, of Kentucky, he subjoined the following

certificate.

In the year 1774 I was out with the Virginia Volunteers, and was in the

battle at the mouth of Canhawee, and afterwards proceeded over the Ohio

to the Indian towns. I did not hear Logan make the above speech; but

from the unanimous accounts of those in camp, I have reason to think

that said speech was delivered to Dunmore. I remember to have heard the

very things contained in the above speech, related by some of our people

in camp at that time.

ANDREW RODGERS.

* * * * *

_The declaration of Mr. John Heckewelder, for several years

a missionary from the society of Moravians, among the western

Indians._

In the spring of the year 1774, at a time when the interior part of

the Indian country all seemed peace and tranquil, the villagers on the

Muskingum were suddenly alarmed by two runners (Indians), who reported

"that the Big Knife (Virginians) had attacked the Mingo settlement,

on the Ohio, and butchered even the women with their children in their

arms, and that Logan's family were among the slain." A day or two after

this several Mingoes made their appearance; among whom were one or two

wounded, who had in this manner effected their escape. Exasperated to a

high degree, after relating the particulars of this transaction, (which

for humanity's sake I forbear to mention,) after resting some time on

the treachery of the Big Knives, of their barbarity to those who are

their friends, they gave a figurative description of the perpetrators;

named Cresap as having been at the head of this murderous act. They made

mention of nine being killed, and two wounded; and were prone to take

revenge on any person of a white color; for which reason the missionaries

had to shut themselves up during their stay. From this time terror daily

increased. The exasperated friends and relations of these murdered women

and children, with the nations to whom they belonged, passed and repassed

through the villages of the quiet Delaware towns, in search of white

people, making use of the most abusive language to these (the Delawares),

since they would not join in taking revenge. Traders had either to hide

themselves, or try to get out of the country the best way they could. And

even at this time, they yet found such true friends among the Indians,

who, at the risk of their own lives, conducted them, with the best part

of their property, to Pittsburg; although, (shameful to relate!) these

benefactors were, on their return from this mission, waylaid, and fired

upon by whites, while crossing Big Beaver in a canoe, and had one man, a

Shawanese, named Silverheels, (a man of note in his nation,) wounded in

the body. This exasperated the Shawanese so much, that they, or at least

a great part of them, immediately took an active part in the cause; and

the Mingoes, (nearest connected with the former,) became unbounded in

their rage. A Mr. Jones, son to a respectable family of this neighborhood

(Bethlehem), who was then on his passage up Muskinghum, with two other

men, was fortunately espied by a friendly Indian woman, at the falls

of Muskinghum; who through motives of humanity alone, informed Jones

of the nature of the times, and that he was running right in the hands

of the enraged; and put him on the way, where he might perhaps escape

the vengeance of the strolling parties. One of Jones's men, fatigued by

travelling in the woods, declared he would rather die than remain longer

in this situation; and hitting accidentally on a path, he determined to

follow the same. A few hundred yards decided his fate. He was met by a

party of about fifteen Mingoes, (and as it happened, almost within sight

of White Eyes town,) murdered, and cut to pieces; and his limbs and flesh

stuck up on the bushes. White Eyes, on hearing the scalp halloo, ran

immediately out with his men, to see what the matter was; and finding

the mangled body in this condition, gathered the whole and buried it.

But next day when some of the above party found on their return the body

interred, they instantly tore up the ground, and endeavored to destroy

or scatter about, the parts at a greater distance. White Eyes, with the

Delawares, watching their motions, gathered and interred the same a second

time. The war party finding this out, ran furiously into the Delaware

village, exclaiming against the conduct of these people, setting forth

the cruelty of Cresap towards women and children, and declaring at the

same time, that they would, in consequence of this cruelty, serve every

white man they should meet with in the same manner. Times grew worse

and worse, war parties went out and took scalps and prisoners, and the

latter, in hopes it might be of service in saving their lives, exclaimed

against the barbarous act which gave rise to these troubles and against

the perpetrators. The name of Great-house was mentioned as having been

accomplice to Cresap. So detestable became the latter name among the

Indians, that I have frequently heard them apply it to the worst of

things; also in quieting or stilling their children, I have heard them

say, hush! Cresap will fetch you; whereas otherwise, they name the Owl.

The warriors having afterwards bent their course more toward the Ohio,

and down the same, peace seemed with us already on the return; and this

became the case soon after the decided battle fought on the Kanhaway.

Traders, returning now into the Indian country again, related the story

of the above-mentioned massacre, _after the same manner, and with the

same words_, we have heard it related hitherto. So the report remained,

and was believed by all who resided in the Indian country. So it was

represented numbers of times, in the peaceable Delaware towns, by the

enemy. So the christian Indians were continually told they would one day

be served. With this impression, a petty chief hurried all the way from

Wabash in 1779, to take his relations (who were living with the peaceable

Delawares near Coshachking) out of the reach of the Big Knives, in whose

friendship he never more would place any confidence. And when this man

found that his numerous relations would not break friendship with the

Americans, nor be removed, he took two of his relations (women) off by

force, saying, "The whole crop should not be destroyed; I will have seed

out of it for a new crop;" alluding to, and repeatedly reminding those

of the family of Logan, who he said had been real friends to the whites,

and yet were cruelly murdered by them.

In Detroit, where I arrived the same Spring, the report respecting the

murder of the Indians on the Ohio (amongst whom was Logan's family) was

the same as related above; and on my return to the United States in the

fall of 1786, and from that time, whenever and wherever in my presence,

this subject was the topic of conversation, I found the report still the

same; viz. that a person, bearing the name of Cresap, was the author,

or perpetrator of this deed.

Logan was the second son of Shikellemus, a celebrated chief of the

Cayuga nation. This chief, on account of his attachment to the English

government, was of great service to the country, having the confidence of

all the Six Nations, as well as that of the English, he was very useful

in settling disputes, &c., &c. He was highly esteemed by Conrad Weisser,

Esq., (an officer for government in the Indian department), with whom

he acted conjunctly, and was faithful unto his death. His residence was

at Shamokin, where he took great delight in acts of hospitality to such

of the white people whose business led them that way.[73] His name and

fame were so high on record, that Count Zinzendorf, when in this country

in 1742, became desirous of seeing him, and actually visited him at his

house in Shamokin.[74] About the year 1772, Logan was introduced to me

by an Indian friend, as son to the late reputable chief Shikellemus,

and as a friend to the white people. In the course of conversation

I thought him a man of superior talents than Indians generally were.

The subject turning on vice and immorality, he confessed his too great

share of this, especially his fondness for liquor. He exclaimed against

the white people for imposing liquors upon the Indians; he otherwise

admired their ingenuity; spoke of gentlemen, but observed the Indians

unfortunately had but few of these as their neighbors, &c. He spoke of

his friendship to the white people, wished always to be a neighbor to

them, intended to settle on the Ohio, below Big Beaver; was (to the best

of my recollection) then encamped at the mouth of this river, (Beaver,)

urged me to pay him a visit, &c. Note. I was then living at the Moravian

town on this river, in the neighborhood of Cuskuskee. In April 1773,

while on my passage down the Ohio for Muskinghum, I called at Logan's

settlement; where I received every civility I could expect from such of

the family as were at home.

Indian reports concerning Logan, after the death of his family, ran

to this; that he exerted himself during the Shawanese war, (then so

called,) to take all the revenge he could, declaring he had lost all

confidence in the white people. At the time of negotiation, he declared

his reluctance in laying down the hatchet, not having (in his opinion)

yet taken ample satisfaction; yet, for the sake of the nation, he would

do it. His expressions, from time to time, denoted a deep melancholy. Life

(said he) had become a torment to him: he knew no more what pleasure was:

he thought it had been better if he had never existed, &c., &c. Report

further states, that he became in some measure delirious, declared he

would kill himself, went to Detroit, drank very freely, and did not seem

to care what he did, and what became of himself. In this condition he

left Detroit, and on his way between that place and Miami was murdered.

In October, 1781, (while as prisoner on my way to Detroit,) I was shown

the spot where this should have happened. Having had an opportunity

since last June of seeing the Rev. David Zeisberger, senior, missionary

to the Delaware nation of Indians, who had resided among the same on

Muskinghum, at the time when the murder was committed on the family of

Logan, I put the following questions to him; first, who he had understood

it was that had committed the murder on Logan's family? and secondly,

whether he had any knowledge of a speech sent to Lord Dunmore by Logan,

in consequence of this affair, &c. To which Mr. Zeisberger's answer

was: That he had, from that time when this murder was committed to the

present day, firmly believed the common report (which he had never heard

contradicted) viz., that one Cresap was the author of the massacre; or

that it was committed by his orders; and that he had known Logan as a boy,

had frequently seen him from that time, and doubted not in the least,

that Logan had sent such a speech to Lord Dunmore on this occasion,

as he understood from me had been published; that expressions of that

kind from Indians were familiar to him; that Logan in particular was a

man of quick comprehension, good judgment and talents. Mr. Zeisberger

has been a missionary upwards of fifty years; his age is about eighty;

speaks both the language of the Onondagoes and the Delawares; resides at

present on the Muskinghum, with his Indian congregation; and is beloved

and respected by all who are acquainted with him.

JOHN HECKEWELDER.

* * * * *

_From this testimony the following historical statement

results:_

In April or May, 1774, a number of people being engaged in looking out

for settlements on the Ohio, information was spread among them, that the

Indians had robbed some of the land-jobbers, as those adventurers were

called. Alarmed for their safety, they collected together at Wheeling

Creek. [75]Hearing there that there were two Indians and some traders a

little above Wheeling, Captain Michael Cresap, one of the party, proposed

to waylay and kill them. The proposition, though opposed, was adopted.

A party went up the river, with Cresap at their head, and killed the

two Indians.

[76]The same afternoon it was reported that there was a party of Indians

on the Ohio, a little below Wheeling. Cresap and his party immediately

proceeded down the river, and encamped on the bank. The Indians passed

him peaceably, and encamped at the mouth of Grave Creek, a little below.

Cresap and his party attacked them, and killed several. The Indians

returned the fire, and wounded one of Cresap's party. Among the slain of

the Indians were some of Logan's family. Colonel Zane indeed expresses a

doubt of it; but it is affirmed by Huston and Chambers. Smith, one of the

murderers, said they were known and acknowledged to be Logan's friends,

and the party themselves generally said so; boasted of it in presence

of Cresap; pretended no provocation; and expressed their expectations

that Logan would probably avenge their deaths.

Pursuing these examples, [77]Daniel Great-house, and one Tomlinson,

who lived on the opposite side of the river from the Indians, and were

in habits of friendship with them, collected, at the house of Polke,

on Cross Creek, about 16 miles from Baker's Bottom, a party of 32 men.

Their object was to attack a hunting encampment of Indians, consisting

of men, women, and children, at the mouth of Yellow Creek, some distance

above Wheeling. They proceeded, and when arrived near Baker's Bottom,

they concealed themselves, and Great-house crossed the river to the

Indian camp. Being among them as a friend, he counted them, and found

them too strong for an open attack with his force. While here, he was

cautioned by one of the women not to stay, for that the Indian men were

drinking, and having heard of Cresap's murder of _their relations_ at

Grave Creek, were angry, and she pressed him in a friendly manner, to go

home; whereupon, after inviting them to come over and drink, he returned

to Baker's, which was a tavern, and desired that when any of them should

come to his house he would give them as much rum as they would drink.

When his plot was ripe, and a sufficient number of them were collected

at Baker's, and intoxicated, he and his party fell on them and massacred

the whole, except a little girl, whom they preserved as a prisoner.

Among these was the very woman who had saved his life, by pressing him to

retire from the drunken wrath of her friends, when he was spying their

camp at Yellow Creek. Either she herself, or some other of the murdered

women, was the sister of Logan, very big with child, and inhumanly and

indecently butchered; and there were others of his relations who fell

here.

The party on the other side of the river,[78] alarmed for their friends

at Baker's, on hearing the report of the guns, manned two canoes and

sent them over. They were received, as they approached the shore, by a

well-directed fire from Great-house's party, which killed some, wounded

others, and obliged the rest to put back. Baker tells us there were

twelve killed, and six or eight wounded.

This commenced the war, of which Logan's war-club and note left in the

house of a murdered family, was the notification. In the course of it,

during the ensuing summer, a great number of innocent men, women, and

children, fell victims to the tomahawk and scalping knife of the Indians,

till it was arrested in the autumn following by the battle at Point

Pleasant, and the pacification with Lord Dunmore, at which the speech

of Logan was delivered.

Of the genuineness of that speech nothing need be said. It was known to

the camp where it was delivered; it was given out by Lord Dunmore and his

officers; it ran through the public papers of these States; was rehearsed

as an exercise at schools; published in the papers and periodical works

of Europe; and all this, a dozen years before it was copied into the

Notes on Virginia. In fine, General Gibson concludes the question for

ever, by declaring that he received it from Logan's hand, delivered it

to Lord Dunmore, translated it for him, and that the copy in the Notes

on Virginia is a faithful copy.

The popular account of these transactions, as stated in the Notes

on Virginia, appears, on collecting exact information, imperfect and

erroneous in its details. It was the belief of the day; but how far

its errors were to the prejudice of Cresap, the reader will now judge.

That he, and those under him, murdered two Indians above Wheeling; that

they murdered a large number at Grave Creek, among whom were a part of

the family and relations of Logan, cannot be questioned; and as little

that this led to the massacre of the rest of the family at Yellow Creek.

Logan imputed the whole to Cresap, in his war-note and peace-speech: the

Indians generally imputed it to Cresap: Lord Dunmore and his officers

imputed it to Cresap: the country, with one accord, imputed it to him:

and whether he were innocent, let the universal verdict now declare.

[Illustration: Map]

* * * * *

_The declaration of John Sappington, received after the

publication of the preceding Appendix._

I, JOHN SAPPINGTON, declare myself to be intimately acquainted with all

the circumstances respecting the destruction of Logan's family, and do

give in the following narrative, a true statement of that affair:

"Logan's family (if it was his family) was not killed by Cresap, nor

with his knowledge, nor by his consent, but by the Great-houses and

their associates. They were killed 30 miles above Wheeling, near the

mouth of Yellow Creek. Logan's camp was on one side of the river Ohio,

and the house, where the murder was committed, opposite to it on the

other side. They had encamped there only four or five days, and during

that time had lived peaceably and neighbourly with the whites on the

opposite side, until the very day the affair happened. A little before

the period alluded to, letters had been received by the inhabitants from

a man of great influence in that country, and who was then, I believe,

at Capteener, informing them that war was at hand, and desiring them

to be on their guard. In consequence of those letters and other rumors

of the same import, almost all the inhabitants fled for safety into the

settlements. It was at the house of one Baker the murder was committed.

Baker was a man who sold rum, and the Indians had made frequent visits

at his house, induced, probably, by their fondness for that liquor. He

had been particularly desired by Cresap to remove and take away his rum,

and he was actually preparing to move at the time of the murder. The

evening before, a squaw came over to Baker's house, and by her crying

seemed to be in great distress. The cause of her uneasiness being asked,

she refused to tell; but getting Baker's wife alone, she told her that

the Indians were going to kill her and all her family the next day, that

she loved her, did not wish her to be killed, and therefore told her

what was intended, that she might save herself. In consequence of this

information, Baker got a number of men, to the amount of twenty-one, to

come to his house, and they were all there before morning. A council

was held, and it was determined that the men should lie concealed in

the back apartment; that if the Indians did come, and behaved themselves

peaceably, they should not be molested; but if not, the men were to show

themselves, and act accordingly. Early in the morning, seven Indians,

four men and three squaws, came over. Logan's brother was one of them.

They immediately got rum, and all, except Logan's brother, became very

much intoxicated. At this time all the men were concealed, except the

man of the house, Baker, and two others who staid out with him. Those

Indians came unarmed. After some time Logan's brother took down a coat

and hat, belonging to Baker's brother-in-law, who lived with him, and

put them on, and setting his arms a-kimbo, began to strut about, till at

length coming up to one of the men, he attempted to strike him, saying,

"White man, son of a bitch." The white man, whom he treated thus, kept

out of his way for some time; but growing irritated, he jumped to his

gun, and shot the Indian as he was making to the door with the coat

and hat on him. The men who lay concealed then rushed out, and killed

the whole of them, excepting one child, which I believe is alive yet.

But before this happened, one with two, the other with five Indians,

all naked, painted, and armed completely for war, were discovered to

start from the shore on which Logan's camp was. Had it not been for this

circumstance, the white men would not have acted as they did; but this

confirmed what the squaw had told before. The white men, having killed,

as aforesaid, the Indians in the house, ranged themselves along the bank

of the river, to receive the canoes. The canoe with the two Indians came

near, being the foremost. Our men fired upon them and killed them both.

The other canoe then went back. After this, two other canoes started,

the one containing eleven, the other seven, Indians, painted and armed

as the first. They attempted to land below our men, but were fired upon;

had one killed, and retreated, at the same time firing back. To the best

of my recollection there were three of the Great-houses engaged in this

business. This is a true representation of the affair from beginning to

end. I was intimately acquainted with Cresap, and know he had no hand

in that transaction. He told me himself afterwards, at Redstone Old

Fort, that the day before Logan's people were killed, he, with a small

party, had an engagement with a party of Indians on Capteener, about

forty-four miles lower down. Logan's people were killed at the mouth of

Yellow Creek, on the 24th of May, 1774; and the 23d, the day before,

Cresap was engaged as already stated. I know, likewise, that he was

generally blamed for it, and believed by all who were not acquainted

with the circumstances to have been the perpetrator of it. I know that

he despised and hated the Great-houses ever afterwards on account of it.

I was intimately acquainted with General Gibson, and served under him

during the late war, and I have a discharge from him now lying in the

land-office at Richmond, to which I refer any person for my character,

who might be disposed to scruple my veracity. I was likewise at the

treaty held by Lord Dunmore with the Indians, at Chelicothe. As for the

speech said to have been delivered by Logan on that occasion, it might

have been, or might not, for anything I know, as I never heard of it till

long afterwards. I do not believe that Logan had any relations killed,

except his brother. Neither of the squaws who were killed was his wife.

Two of them were old women, and the third, with her child, which was

saved, I have the best reason in the world to believe was the wife and

child of General Gibson. I know he educated the child, and took care of

it, as if it had been his own. Whether Logan had a wife or not, I can't

say; but it is probable that as he was a chief, he considered them all

as his people. All this I am ready to be qualified to at any time.

JOHN SAPPINGTON.

Attest, SAMUEL M'KEE, Junr.

* * * * *

Madison County, Feb. 13th, 1800.

I do certify further, that the above-named John Sappington told me, at

the same time and place at which he gave me the above narrative, that

he himself was the man who shot the brother of Logan in the house, as

above-related, and that he likewise killed one of the Indians in one of

the canoes, which came over from the opposite shore.

He likewise told me, that Cresap never said an angry word to him about

the matter, although he was frequently in company with Cresap, and indeed

had been, and continued to be, in habits of intimacy with that gentleman,

and was always befriended by him on every occasion. He further told me,

that after they had perpetrated the murder, and were flying into the

settlement, he met with Cresap (if I recollect right, at Redstone Old

Fort); and gave him a scalp, a very large fine one, as he expressed it,

and adorned with silver. This scalp, I think he told me, was the scalp

of Logan's brother; though as to this I am not absolutely certain.

Certified by

SAMUEL M'KEE, Junr.

FOOTNOTES:

[71] In connection with this appendix see letter to Governor

Henry, printed as Note in p. 309.

[72] The popular pronunciation of Tomlinson, which was the real

name.

[73] The preceding account of Shikellemus, (Logan's father,)

is copied from manuscripts of the Rev. C. Pyrlæus, written

between the years 1741 and 1748.

[74] See G. H. Loskiel's history of the Mission of the United

Brethren, &c. Part II. Chap. 11, Page 31.

[75] First murder of the two Indians by Cresap.

[76] Second murder on Grave Creek.

[77] Massacre at Baker's Bottom, opposite Yellow Creek, by

Great-house.

[78] Fourth murder, by Great-house.