Early struggles--Red Jacket's opportunity for trial--Council at Fort
Stanwix--Red Jacket's office of Sachem--Red Jacket's opposition to the
proposed treaty--Excitement created by his speech--Allayed by Cornplanter
--His influence in deciding the treaty--How it affected him.
How long and toilsome the way, ere the ambitious aspirant passes from the
low grounds of obscurity, to the dazzling heights of fame! How many hours
of anxious toil, through wearisome days and nights, protracted through
months and years, are passed, before the arena even is entered, where the
race commences in earnest! How many struggling emotions between hope and
fear, encouragement and doubt, promise and despair, mark the experience,
and clothe it with the sublimity and interest that belong to action in its
highest forms!
Did this child of nature cherishing the bright dream from early life,
never suffer from these contending emotions, ere he awoke finally to the
consciousness of the reality, where he could exclaim, I am an orator, yes,
I AM AN ORATOR!
This idea Red Jacket began now to cherish. He had practiced in his native
wilds, the forest depths had echoed back those strains of eloquence, that
had struggled for utterance in his impassioned bosom, and their force
being expended here, served but to awaken a still stronger desire to try
his powers, where he could have the answering sympathy of human hearts.
His fame and greatness were yet to be achieved. With the inward
consciousness of strength that would secure for him the eminence he
desired, he awaited eagerly the opportunity for its exercise. This
opportunity came.
When the storm of war had rolled by, the hour came for deliberation, and
council. England and America had concluded peace, and the jurisdiction of
the country of the Iroquois had been surrendered to the United States.
Still no provision had been made by the crown for those tribes that had
freely fought in her defence. They were left to make their own peace, or
prosecute the war on their own account. Their attitude was yet hostile. No
expedition of importance was undertaken, but the border men were
constantly annoyed by Indians, who drove away their horses and cattle, and
committed other acts of depredation. And the inhabitants of the frontier
had suffered so severely from the Indian tribes during the war, that these
acts served to awaken still deeper feelings of hostility toward them, and
led some openly to recommend that the Indians be driven from their lands,
and that these be forfeited to the State.
These councils were strenuously resisted by the general government. The
humane and considerate Washington thought it wiser to try and conciliate
them, and if possible win their confidence and esteem, claiming that their
lands, when needed, could be obtained at a cheaper rate by negotiation and
purchase, than by war and conquest.
This course, the excellence of which experience has fully demonstrated,
was finally adopted, and in pursuance of this design, a general council of
the Iroquois was convened at Fort Stanwix, in the fall of 1784. It was
attended by Oliver Wolcott, Richard Butler, and Arthur Lee, who were
appointed commissioners on the part of the United States. The different
tribes of the Iroquois were represented, and Red Jacket was present, and
took an active part in its deliberations. He had now been elected to the
office of Sachem; at what time precisely, is not known, but probably not
far from the close of the war of the Revolution.
The manner in which he gained this office has been ascribed by some to
artifice as well as the force of his eloquence. Col. Stone says, that
"aspiring to the rank of chief, he not only wrought upon the minds of his
people, by the exertion of that faculty which was ever with them a high
standard of merit, but he succeeded in availing himself of the
superstitious constitution of his race, to effect his purpose. His first
essay was to dream that he was, or should be a chief, and that the Great
Spirit was angry that his nation had not advanced him to that dignity.
This dream, with the necessary variations, he repeated until, fortunately
for him, the small pox broke out among the Senecas. He then proclaimed the
loathsome infliction a judgment sent by the Great Spirit, to punish them
for their ingratitude to him. The consequence ultimately was, that by
administering flattery to some, working upon the superstitious fears of
others, and by awakening the admiration of all by his eloquence, he
reached the goal of his ambition." [Footnote: Col. Stone's Life and Times
of Thayendanegea and Life and Times of Red Jacket. This statement has been
denied by some, who affirm that his eloquence was the sole cause of his
elevation. If this representation came from Brant, it may be recollected
that between Red Jacket and Brant there did not exist a very strong
attachment, and statements made by one concerning the other, would not be
likely to bear the coloring of a very warm friendship.]
However this may have been, it is certain this course was not necessary to
establish Red Jacket's position among his people. The circumstances of
their history created a necessity for his transcendent abilities, and the
light of his genius, though it may have been obscured for a time, must
eventually have shone forth, in its original beauty and splendor.
Red Jacket was now called upon to assist in the deliberations of his
people, and from this time to the day of his death, we find him connected
with, and bearing an important part in all of their public transactions.
The council at Fort Stanwix was the first occasion in which he appeared
before the public. It was a meeting of no small moment. With an anxious
heart the Indian left his home and wended his way, through his native
forests, to the place where he was to meet in council, the chiefs of the
thirteen fires. His own tribes had been wasted, by a long and bloody war.
The nation they had so long clung to, and by whose artifice they had been
led to engage in the strife, stood confessedly vanquished. A new power had
arisen in the land, what bearing would it have on their future fortunes?
With the importance of this gathering none were more deeply impressed than
Red Jacket.--Yonder he stands, alone;--his knit brow, and searching glance
indicate a process of thought, which stirs deeply the emotions of the
inner man.--Tread lightly, lest you disturb the silent evolutions of that
airy battalion, that is wheeling into rank and file, thoughts that
discharged in words, reach the mark and do execution.--Now he wears a look
of indignation, which presently turns to one of proud defiance, as he
contemplates the encroaching disposition of the white race.--Now you may
detect an air of scorn, and his eye flashes fire, as he regards them at
first a feeble colony, which might easily have been crushed by the strong
arm of the Iroquois.--A feeling of deep concern directly overspreads his
features, as he thinks of their advancing power, and of the prospect of
their surpassing even the glory of his own ancestry.--A still deeper shade
steals over him as he thinks of the waning fortunes of his people.--
Presently his countenance is lighted up;--his feelings are all aglow,--a
bright thought, has entered his mind.--He conceives the idea of the union
of the entire race of red men, to resist the encroachments of the whites.
--Are they not yet strong? And united, would they not yet be, a
formidable power?
With anxious and matured thoughts, Red Jacket comes to this council
gathering. Its bearing on his nation and race, he deeply scans, and
treasures up those burning thoughts, with which he is to electrify, and
set on fire the bosoms of his countrymen.
Of the proceedings of this council, little is known aside from the bare
treaty itself. By this treaty perpetual peace and amity were agreed upon
between the United States, and the Iroquois, and the latter ceded to the
United States, all their lands lying west of a line commencing at the
mouth of a creek four miles east of Niagara, at a place on Lake Ontario
called Johnson's Landing; thence south, in a direction always four miles
east of the portage, or carrying-path, between Lakes Erie and Ontario, to
the mouth of Buffalo creek, on Lake Erie; thence due south to the north
boundary of the state of Pennsylvania; thence west to the end of said
boundary; thence south along the west boundary of the state of
Pennsylvania to the Ohio river.
In consideration of this surrender to the United States of their claim to
western lands, the Iroquois were to be secure in the peaceful possession
of the lands they inhabited in the state of New York.
This treaty Red Jacket strenuously resisted. He regarded the proposed
cession of lands as exorbitant and unjust, and summoned all the resources
of his eloquence to defend his position. The course of his argument and
the various means he took to enforce it, we have no means of adequately
presenting. A few hints respecting it, and the testimony of those present
as to the effect produced, is all we have to guide us in forming any
estimate of its merits.
After giving a vivid representation of the encroachments already made upon
them by the whites, and of the advances they were making in numbers and
power, as well as extent of territory, he reminded his hearers of the
ancient glory of the Iroquois, and contrasted it with their present wasted
and feeble condition. They had been passing through a mighty convulsion,
the hurricane had swept over their dwellings, their homes were laid waste,
their country made desolate.
He directed them to the extensive dominion they had exercised. Their
empire was wide, on the north, and east, and south, and west, there were
none to stay their hand, or limit their power. A broad continent was open
to them on every side, and their seats were large. But now they were met
by a people to whom they had surrendered a large portion of their lands,
and "they are driving us on toward the setting sun. They would shut us in,
they would close up the path to our brethren at the west. We demand an
open way."
They had no right, he affirmed, to part with their western lands. Their
laws, their ancient usages forbade it. They ought never to decide a
question so momentous as this, without giving all the parties a hearing,
who have any interest in its decision. They should be present and join in
their deliberations. Their brethren at the west had a right to be
consulted in this matter.--It would be unworthy of the name, and exalted
fame of the Iroquois, to decide the question without reference to them.--
It was a question that affected deeply the interests of the entire race of
red men on this continent. He declared finally that rather than yield to
the exorbitant demands of the treaty, they should take up their arms, and
prosecute the war on their own account.
Such is the scanty outline of a speech that made a wonderful impression on
the minds of all his people who were present. During the progress of his
speech, their emotions were wrought up to a pitch, that seemed to betoken
a rising storm, and at times it seemed as though it needed but a spark to
set on fire a flame that was ready to burst out with consuming force.
Those present, who did not understand the language of the orator, were
deeply interested in his voice, his manner of elocution, and his perfect
and inimitable action. They caught fire from his eye, and felt the
inspiration, which was kindled in the minds of all who listened to him
understandingly. When he sat down his work was accomplished. There was but
one heart among his people. From this time on, he was the peerless orator
of his nation.
A very interesting sketch of Red Jacket as an orator, refers, for the
existence of the facts which form the basis of its statements, to a treaty
held at Canandaigua in 1794. It has been copied by Drake, and published in
almost every sketch of the orator's life. Mr. Stone questions its
truthfulness on the ground that there is no notice of it in any notes of
this council taken at the time, and because also there was evidently an
absence of the peculiar circumstances, which the speech referred to, seems
to demand. Still he introduces it under the supposition that if delivered
there at all, it might have been during the excitement produced among the
Indians, by the rejection from the council, by Col. Pickering, of one
Johnson, a messenger from Brant, who had been invited to be present at
that council. Yet this is by no means probable, as Red Jacket would have
been far from rising into eloquence on an occasion, which from his known
relations to the proud Mohawk, he would naturally view with satisfaction,
instead of resentment. The more probable supposition is, that the writer
caught up this as a traditionary statement, which, owing to the lapse of
time and the uncertainty of memory, had been changed in one or two of its
items, and receiving it as correct, penned it in good faith, as having
transpired at that treaty. It is a correct presentation of some of the
points in the orator's speech on this occasion, and is as follows:
[Footnote: Mr. Stone justly supposes this speech might have been made at
the treaty of Fort Stanwix in 1784.]
"... The witnesses of the scene will never forget the powers of native
oratory. Two days had passed away in negotiation with the Indians for a
cession of their lands. The contract was supposed to be nearly completed,
when Red Jacket arose. With the grace and dignity of a Roman Senator, he
drew his blanket around him, and with a piercing eye surveyed the
multitude. All was hushed. Nothing interposed to break the silence, but
the rustling of the leaves. After a long and solemn, but not unmeaning
pause, he commenced in a low voice, and sententious style. Rising
gradually with the subject, he depicted the primitive simplicity and
happiness of his nation, and the wrongs they had sustained from the
usurpations of white men, with such a bold and faithful pencil, that every
auditor was soon roused to vengeance, or melted to tears. The effect was
inexpressible. But ere the emotions of admiration and sympathy had
subsided, the white men became alarmed. They were in the heart of an
Indian country, surrounded by ten times their number, who were inflamed by
a remembrance of their injuries, and excited to indignation by the
eloquence of a favorite chief. Appalled and terrified, the white men cast
a cheerless gaze on the hordes around them. A nod from the chiefs might be
the onset of destruction. At this portentious moment, Farmer's Brother
interposed. He replied not to his brother chief, but with a sagacity truly
aboriginal, he caused the cessation of the council, introduced good cheer,
commended the eloquence of Red Jacket, and before the meeting had
reassembled, with the aid of other prudent chiefs, he had moderated the
fury of his nation to a more salutary view of the question before them."
The commissioners replied, but without making much headway on account of
the agitation and excitement, produced by the orator's speech; that by the
common usages of war they might lay claim to a much larger extent of
territory; that their demand was characterized by great moderation, and
insisted on their yielding to the terms proposed.
There was little disposition among them to yield the point, yet the treaty
was finally brought to a successful issue, by the influence of
Cornplanter.
Cornplanter was a noble specimen of the Indian race. He had all the
sagacity for which his people were distinguished, and was equally active,
eloquent and brave. He was well qualified by his talents to engage in the
legislative councils of his nation, and was unsurpassed by any, for
prowess and daring in the bloody field of strife. No chief, Thayendanegea
not excepted, had gained higher laurels for personal valor, and none
commanded more fully the confidence and esteem of his nation. His people
looked up to him as a tower of strength, and when he spake, his words fell
upon them with the weight of great authority. Better acquainted than his
junior associate with the details of war, and understanding likewise the
wasted and feeble condition of his people, and having learned in the late
conflict something of the power of the enemy they would have to encounter,
he regarded the idea of their resistance as wholly impracticable, and
advised a compliance with the terms of the treaty. Though he regretted the
loss of any more territory, he wisely concluded it was better to lose a
part, than to be deprived of all. And by throwing his influence decidedly
in favor, he succeeded finally in quieting the minds of his people, and in
persuading them to accede to the proposals made.
It is a matter of regret that so few traces are left, of Red Jacket's
speech on this occasion. Yet had his speech been reported, we might have
been as much at a loss as at present, to derive from it a just estimation
of his talents. His speeches as reported are tame when compared with the
effect produced.
The Indian was an unwritten language. The most distinguished orators of
the Iroquois confederacy, matured their thoughts in solitude without the
aid of the pen, and when uttered in the hearing of the people, they passed
forever into oblivion, only as a striking passage may hare been retained
in memory. And with them the want of a written language was thus in a
measure compensated. They made an increased effort to treasure up their
thoughts. Yet how much must necessarily have been lost! and how liable to
waste away, that which remained.
Trusting to them how imperfect must have been a reported speech! And
relying on those who transferred their speeches to a different language,
we have little assurance of any thing better than mutilated transcripts of
the original. Need we be surprised then, to find in Red Jacket's published
speeches, a tameness unworthy of his fame? Red Jacket was esteemed by the
men of his time as an orator, surpassingly eloquent.
In his speeches as reported, this does not appear. Hence, his reported
speeches fail to do him justice, or the men of his time very much
overrated his talents.
Taking the latter horn of the dilemma we impeach the judgment and good
sense of those who have gone before us. Assuming the former, we present an
admitted and proclaimed fact. His contemporaries, while they conceded to
him the highest attributes and accomplishments of eloquence, unite in
affirming that his reported speeches come far short of the original.
_Captain Horatio Jones_, a favorite interpreter, has frequently
declared,--"_it is impossible to do Red Jacket justice_." The peculiar
shade given to the idea, its beauty in its own native idiom, was often
entirely lost in the transfer. In much the same way, Captain Jasper
Parrish, of Canandaigua, has frequently been heard to speak, when
referring to the forensic efforts of the orator.
And besides, those passages that were most deeply fraught with eloquence,
were often lost entirely, from the fact that the way having been prepared
by a recital of those details that are reported, the reporter himself has
been carried away by the very flood that surrounded, uplifted, and carried
away the mass of those who heard him speak. So that the only note that
would be made, of a passage of considerable length, is given in one or two
short sentences. [Footnote: Conversation of the author with Col. Wm.
Jones.]
By the generality of the Iroquois, the terms of the treaty at Fort Stanwix
were regarded as severe; and though the services of the renowned
Cornplanter were engaged by the commissioners, in an effort to persuade
the disaffected into a reconciliation with it, the attempt was but
partially successful, and was made at the expense of his own high standing
among his people. They were not easily reconciled, and were so much
displeased with his conduct on this, and one or two subsequent occasions,
that they even threatened his life. A circumstance he touchingly refers to
in a speech addressed to General Washington.
"Father," said he, "we will not conceal from you that the great God and
not man, has preserved Cornplanter, from the hands of his own nation. For
they ask continually--where is the land which our children, and their
children after them are to lie down upon? When the Sun goes down he opens
his heart before God, and earlier than the sun appears upon the hills, he
gives thanks for his protection during the night; for he feels that among
men become desperate by their danger, it is God only that can preserve
him."