After the conclusion of peace, he resumed, with his accustomed energy, the superintendence of the civil interests of the Senecas. The division of the tribe into parties,—the Christian and Anti-Christian,—was now completely distinct; the former being headed by Little-Billey, Captain Pollard, and other noted chiefs; and the latter by Red-Jacket, with young Corn-planter and several more spirited assistants, whose names are appended to the following memorial to the Governor of New-York. This was the composition of Red-Jacket It had been preceded by a private letter from himself to the Governor, which had probably produced little or no effect.
"To the Chief of the Council-fire at Albany.
"Brother!
"About three years ago, our friends of the great council-fire at Albany, wrote down in their book that the priests of white people should no longer reside on our lands, and told their officers to move them off whenever we complained. This was to us good news, and made our hearts glad. These priests had a long time troubled us, and made us bad friends and bad neighbors. After much difficulty we removed them from our lands; and for a short time have been quiet and our minds easy. But we are now told that the priests have asked liberty to return; and that our friends of the great council-fire are about to blot from their book the law which they made, and leave their poor red brethren once more a prey to hungry priests.
"Brother!—Listen to what we say. These men do us no good. They deceive every body. They deny the Great Spirit, which we, and our fathers before us, have looked upon as our Creator. They disturb us in our worship. They tell our children they must not believe like our fathers and mothers, and tell us many things that we do not understand and cannot believe. They tell us we must be like white people—but they are lazy and won't work, nor do they teach our young men to do so. The habits of our women are worse than they were before these men came amongst us, and our young men drink more whiskey. We are willing to be taught to read, and write, and work, but not by people who have done us so much injury. Brother!—we wish you to lay before the council-fire the wishes of your red brethren. We ask our brothers not to blot out the law which has made us peaceable and happy, and not to force a strange religion upon us. We ask to be let alone, and, like the white people, to worship the Great Spirit as we think it best. We shall then be happy in filling the little space in life which is left us, and shall go down to our fathers in peace." [FN]
[FN] Niles's Register, Vol. XXVIII; 1828.
This unique document was subscribed with the mark of Red-Jacket first, and then followed those of Corn-Planter, Green-Blanket, Big-Kettle, Robert Bob, Twenty-Canoes, senior and junior, Two-Guns, Fish-Hook, Hot-Bread, Bare-Foot, and many other staunch advocates of the same principles. It was presented to the Assembly, but we have not learned that any efficient order was taken upon it. About the same time, Red-Jacket made an earnest appeal to his Quaker neighbors,—a people always beloved by the Indians,—with the same design. He told them that those whites who pretended to instruct and preach to his people, stole their horses and drove off their cattle, while such of the Senecas as they nominally converted from heathenism to Christianity, only disgraced themselves by paltry attempts to cover the profligacy of the one with the hypocrisy of the other.
The Pagans were generally opposed to the cession of land, but foreign influence, united with that of their antagonists at home, sometimes proved too strong for them. At a treaty held with the tribe in 1826, eighty-two thousand acres of fine territory were given up. Red-Jacket opposed the measure in an eloquent appeal to the Indian feelings of his countrymen, but the effort gained him but few votes.
The speech which has perhaps added most to his reputation was a thoroughly Pagan one, delivered not long previous to the affair just mentioned to a council at Buffalo, convened at the request of a missionary from Massachusetts, with the view of introducing and recommending himself to them in his religious capacity. The Missionary made a speech to the Indians, explaining the objects for which he had called them together. It was by no means, he said, to get away their lands or money. There was but one religion, and without that they could not prosper. They had lived all their lives in gross darkness. Finally he wished to hear their objections, if any could be made; and the sooner, the better, inasmuch as some other Indians whom he had visited, had resolved to reply to him in accordance with their decision.