of infatuation ought not to be ascribed to any country. And, at the present crisis, for reasons well known, an unprovoked war from Great Britain, on this country, would argue a degree of madness greater than any other circumstances that can well be imagined. With all the objections, therefore, to the treaty, which I have stated, I hope it will not now be carried into effect, and that an opportunity will take place for reconsidering the subject, on principles more just and favorable to the United States. VOL. I.-12 RED JACKET 1752-1830 Red Jacket, or Sagoyewatha, "He keeps them awake," was born at Old Castle, near Geneva, New York, in 1752. Little is known of the earlier years of his life except that he was frequently employed as a carrier of dispatches during the War of the Revolution for officers of the British army. Red Jacket did not bear a good reputation for personal courage and prowess. He was better known for the power he possessed to rouse his countrymen to war than to lead them in battle. So much, it is said, did he lack in physical courage that he drew upon himself the contempt and open taunts of Brant, the Mohawk chief, though in later life he behaved splendidly on the American side, especially in the action near Fort George in 1813. On the death of Brant he became one of the most important men among the Six Nations. The time when he attained his chieftainship is not known, but it was some time before the council at Fort Stanwix in 1784. At this council he opposed the treaty about to be negotiated between the United States and the Six Nations, and, it is said, all his warriors were carried away by his eloquence. The treaty was negotiated, however, in spite of his opposition. In 1810 he gave valuable information to the American government by informing it of Tecumseh's attempt to induce the Senecas to join the Western combination. Red Jacket will always remain an interesting figure in the closing history of his people. His character is a combination so unique that he presents an ever-tempting subject for psychological study. A thorough Indian in dress and in his contempt for the customs, manners, and language of the whites, he was, moreover, a pronounced enemy of Christianity and its missionaries. He was an orator by nature; his eyes were fine, and his address, especially when he spoke in council, almost majestic. His character was singularly contradictory. Lacking essentially in firmness, he yet displayed a marked tenacity of purpose. of surpassing power, he, at times, descended to the ruses of the demagogue. Still, he was a patriot and loved his nation, whose extinction he clearly foresaw in the not distant future. His “ Reply to Samuel Dexter ranks as one of his most characteristic speeches. An orator Red Jacket enjoyed the friendship of Washington and of Lafayette. Late in life he became addicted to the excessive use of alcoholic stimulants. He died in 1830, and no monument marked his last resting-place until his remains were removed and reinterred in Buffalo in Forest Lawn Cemetery under the auspices of the Buffalo Historical Society in 1884. B REPLY TO SAMUEL DEXTER* ROTHER: We yesterday received your speech, which removed all uneasiness from our minds. We then told you that should it please the Great Spirit to permit us to rise in health this day, you should hear what we have come to say. Brother: The business on which we are now come is to restore the friendship that has existed between the United States and the Six Nations, agreeably to the direction of the commissioner from the fifteen fires of the United States. He assured us that whensoever, by any grievances, the chain of friendship should become rusty, we might have it brightened by calling on you. We dispense with the usual formality of having your speech again read, as we fully comprehended it yesterday, and it would therefore be useless to waste time in a repetition of it. Brother: Yesterday you wiped the tears from our eyes that we might see clearly; you unstopped our ears that we might hear; and removed the obstructions from our throats that we might speak distinctly. You offered to join with us in tearing up the largest pine tree in our forests, and under it to bury the tomahawk. We gladly join with you, brother, in this work, and let us heap rocks and stones on the root of this tree, that the tomahawk may never again be found. Brother: Your apology for not having wampum is sufficient, and we agree to accept of your speeches on paper, to evince our sincerity in wishing the tomahawk forever buried. We accompany a repetition of our assurances with these strings. [Strings of wampum.] Brother: We always desire, on similar melancholy occa A succession of outrages upon the Indians residing along the Pennsylvania border, resulting at different times in the murder of several of their people, induced the Senecas and Tuscaroras in February, 1801, to send a deputation of their chiefs to the seat of the Federal Government, which, since the last Seneca embassage, had been transferred from Philadelphia to the city o Washington. Red Jacket was at the head of this deputation, which was received formally, with an appropriate speech, by the acting Secretary at War, Samuel Dexter, on the tenth of February. On the eleventh, Red Jacket replied, setting forth the business of his mission. |