CHAPTER X
AN INDIAN DEMOSTHENES
RED JACKET, THE SENECA
A SENECA WARRIOR
RED JACKET was the greatest orator ever born to the American race. President Jefferson said of the words quoted at the close of the preceding chapter: "I may challenge the whole orations of Demosthenes and Cicero, and of any more eminent orator, if Europe has furnished more eminent, to produce a single passage superior to the speech of Logan." Yet that speech is the only notable one which, so far as we know, was ever made by the famous sachem, who afterwards died of strong drink. But Red Jacket delivered many that will live. His eloquence at times reached the loftiest flights; his sarcasm and irony were unequalled, and the effect of his wonderful addresses was surpassed by no orator of ancient or modern times. He was never a noted warrior, and when he was once asked as to his exploits in the field, he replied: "A warrior! I am an Orator; I was born an Orator!"
The Indian name of Red Jacket, like most Indian names, is variously spelled, the most common being Sagoyewatha. He was chief of the Senecas, had white blood in his veins, and was born about the middle of the eighteenth century.
We know comparatively little of the military career of Red Jacket. It is certain that he fought with his tribe against the Americans during the Revolution, and was their enemy in the troublous times that followed in the West. He was never a great warrior or leader, and although he displayed bravery at times, he was surpassed in that respect by many of his people, who won less fame than he. It has even been charged more than once that the Seneca sachem showed a timidity amounting almost to cowardice,—a crime unpardonable with his race, and which would have brought disgrace to him but for his marvelous eloquence.
Red Jacket's one ambition was to become the greatest orator of his race, and as has been already stated, he gained that honor. The poet Halleck declared he possessed: