Part 13 (1/2)

He was with his people when they fought in alliance with the French in the year 1755. The princ.i.p.al part of the force which met and defeated the English under General Braddock was Indian, and it was through their prowess mainly, if not entirely, that the victory was gained.

What part Cornplanter took in that engagement is not known, but in the war of the Revolution, he was a war-chief, and ranked high in the estimation of his people.

In a speech addressed to President Was.h.i.+ngton in 1790, he related the manner in which the Indians came to be in alliance with the English.

”Many nations inhabited this country; but they had no wisdom, therefore they warred together. The Six Nations were powerful and compelled them to peace; the lands to a great extent were given up to them; the French came among us and built Niagara; they became our fathers and took care of us.

Sir William Johnson came and took that fort from the French; he became our father and promised to take care of us, and did so until you were too strong for his king.

”When you kindled your thirteen fires separately, the wise men that a.s.sembled at them told us that you were all brothers, the children of one great father, who regarded the red people also as his children. They called us brothers, and invited us to his protection; they told us that he resided beyond the great water, where the sun first rises; that he was a king whose power no people could resist, and that his goodness was as bright as that sun. What they said went to our hearts; we accepted the invitation, and promised to obey him. What the Seneca Nation promise, they faithfully perform; and when you refused obedience to that king, he commanded us to a.s.sist his beloved men, in making you sober. In obeying him we did no more than yourselves had led us to promise. The men that claimed this promise told us that you were children, and had no guns; that when they had shaken you, you would submit. We hearkened to them and were deceived.”

As a leader he was very active and brave, and as a partisan of the English, bore a prominent part in all of the princ.i.p.al engagements, in which the Indians were concerned during that war. He was on the war-path with Brant during the campaign of General Sullivan against the Indian towns in the Genesee country in 1779, and also when under the command of Brant and Sir John Johnson, the Indians subsequently avenged the invasion of Sullivan, by the fearful destruction they wrought in the valley of the Mohawk.

It was during this expedition that Cornplanter visited his father a second time. He was residing then in the vicinity of Fort Plain, and ascertaining where he lived, Cornplanter watched his opportunity and made his father a prisoner, but managed so adroitly, as to avoid recognition. He marched his sire ten or twelve miles up the river, and then stepped in front of him, faced about, and addressed him in the following manner:--

”My name is John O'Bail, commonly called Cornplanter. I am your son! You are my father! You are now my prisoner, and subject to the customs of Indian warfare. But you shall not be harmed: you need not fear. I am a warrior! Many are the scalps I have taken! Many the prisoners I have tortured to death! I am your son! I was anxious to see you, and greet you in friends.h.i.+p. I went to your cabin, and took you by force. But your life shall be spared. Indians love their friends and their kindred, and treat them with kindness. If now you choose to follow the fortunes of your yellow son, and to live with our people, I will cherish your old age with plenty of venison, and you shall live easy. But if it is your choice to return to your fields, and live with your white children, I will send a party of my trusty young men to conduct you back in safety. I respect you, my father: you have been friendly to Indians, and they are your friends.”

The father preferred to return to his white children, and was therefore set at liberty, and escorted back in safety to his own home.

In another address to the governor of Pennsylvania, he used this language: ”I will now tell you, that the Great Spirit has made known to me that I have been wicked; and the cause was the Revolutionary war in America. The cause of Indians having been led into sin, at that time, was that many of them, were in the practice of drinking and getting intoxicated. Great Britain requested us to join with them in the conflict against the Americans, and promised the Indians land and liquor. I myself was opposed to joining in the conflict, as I had nothing to do with the difficulty between the two parties.

”They told me they would inform me of the cause of the Revolution, which I requested them to do minutely. They then said it was on account of the heavy taxes, imposed on them by the British government, which had been for fifty years increasing upon them; that the Americans had grown weary thereof, and refused to pay, which affronted the king. There had likewise a difficulty taken place about some tea, which they wished me not to use, as it had been one of the causes that many people had lost their lives.

And the British government now being affronted, the war commenced, and the cannons began to roar in our country.

”The white people who live at Warren, called on me, some time ago to pay taxes for my land; which I objected to, as I had never been called upon for that purpose before; and having refused to pay, the white people became irritated, called upon me frequently, and at length brought four guns with them, and seized our cattle. I still refused to pay, and was not willing to let the cattle go. After a time of dispute, they returned home, and I understood the militia was ordered out to enforce the collection of the tax. I went to Warren, and to avert the impending difficulty, was obliged to give my note for the tax, the amount of which was forty-three dollars and seventy-nine cents. It is my desire that the governor will exempt me from paying taxes for my land to the white people; and also cause that the money I am now obliged to pay, may be refunded to me, as I am very poor.”

This appeal was brought before the Legislature of Pennsylvania, and an act was pa.s.sed by which the chief was exonerated from the tax.

One writer speaks of him as possessing uncommon genius, a strong and discriminating mind, and as having the power of enduring great mental application. He anxiously inquired into the evidences in support of the scripture account of creation, and of the scheme of doctrines which Christianity unfolded.

President Alden of Alleghany college, speaks with delight of a visit he made to the old chief. He found him on the banks of the Alleghany, on a piece of first rate bottom land, a little within the limits of Pennsylvania. He was the owner of thirteen hundred acres of land, on a part of which stood his village, whose inhabitants gave signs of industry and thrift.

He found it pleasant to behold the agricultural habits of the place as appeared from the numerous enclosures of buckwheat, corn and oats. He also speaks of seeing a number of oxen, cows and horses; and many logs designed for the saw mill, and the Pittsburgh market. ”Cornplanter had for some time been very much in favor of the christian religion, and hailed with joy such as professed it. When apprised of Mr. Alden's arrival he hastened to welcome him to his village, and to wait upon him. And notwithstanding his high station as a chief, having many men under his command, he chose rather, in the ancient patriarchal style, to serve his visitors himself; he therefore took care of their horses, and went into the field and cut and brought oats for them.” [Footnote: Drake's book of the Indians.]

He died at his reservation March 7th, 1836, a hundred winters having pa.s.sed over him, and was buried beneath the sheltering branches of a n.o.ble tree standing in his field. No other monument marks his grave.

CHAPTER XV.

Change in Red Jacket's views--How caused--His opposition to Christianity-- Visit of a Missionary--Missionary's speech--Red Jacket's reply--Unpleasant termination of the Council.

As time advanced, the mind of Red Jacket gradually receded from the favorable opinion he had entertained, with respect to the introduction among his people, of the customs of civilized life. Before this he regarded with favor the philanthropic designs of Was.h.i.+ngton and others, which contemplated such a change. But henceforth his influence and energies were uniformly exerted, in resisting any innovation, upon the anciently established usages of the Iroquois. Several causes seemed to influence such a result.

First of all was the condition of his people, as affected by the whites.

They had been wasted and greatly enfeebled by the wars carried on between the whites, taking sides, as in the Revolution, against each other. And in their own conflicts, though in some instances successful, they had been so effectually overcome, that no hope now remained to them of resistance by war; no matter what combinations they might be able to effect among themselves.

A still deeper source of regret, was the loss of so large a portion of their wide and beautiful country. Since parting with it, swarms of settlers had been flocking to the more favored portions, and were irresistibly advancing to full and entire possession. The idea that they could have their country to hunt in, as well after it was sold as before, was rapidly dissipated by the busy sounds, all through the forest, of the woodman's axe, and by the roar of the stately trees, as they fell down before the enterprising pioneer. The Indian brooded over this in silence, while all of these sounds, delightful to the emigrant, were as a knell of death to his ear. The eloquence of Red Jacket had been exerted in vain, to arrest the progress of the white men. Onward they swept, bidding defiance to all the obstacles in their way. They were in possession of the ancient seats of the Iroquois. The red man's inheritance, was but a beggarly portion, when compared with his former princely domain. The thought of this weighed heavily upon Red Jacket's lofty spirit, and affected materially the disposition with which he regarded the white man.

He had observed also that the Indian had not been improved, but rather made worse by intercourse with the white man. He more readily acquired his vices, than his virtues.

The schools likewise that had been established among the Indians, had not been attended with very salutary results. And some of the Indian boys that had been sent to the schools of the whites, had failed to be qualified for usefulness among white men, and were unfitted in their tastes and habits for a life among the Indians. As was observed by Red Jacket: ”they have returned to their kindred and color, neither white men nor Indians. The arts they have learned are incompatible with the chase, and ill adapted to our customs. They have been taught that which is useless to us. They have been made to feel artificial wants, which never entered the minds of their brothers. They have imbibed, in your great towns, the seeds of vices, which were unknown in the forest. They become discouraged and dissipated, --despised by the Indians, neglected by the whites, and without value to either,--less honest than the former, and perhaps more knavish than the latter.” [Footnote: Was.h.i.+ngton had always been earnest in his desire to civilize the savages, but had little faith in the expedient which had been pursued, of sending their young men to our colleges; the true means he thought, was to introduce the arts and habits of husbandry among them.-- Irving's Life of Was.h.i.+ngton.] Red Jacket was not alone in this opinion.