The French war closed in the year 1763, by the treaty of Utrecht. The Indian tribes were at peace with each other and with their white neighbors. It was about this time that Cornplanter married a wife, an Indian woman of his own tribe. When that important event took place, he, himself, informs us, that he was not well provided for housekeeping. He "had no gun, and his wife no kettle." Under the impression that his father would provide these useful articles for him, he made a journey to Albany, to see him. But he was disappointed. In Cornplanter's own account of the interview, he says: "When I started home my father gave me no provision to eat on the way. He gave me neither kettle nor gun. Neither did he tell me that the United States were about to rebel against the government of England." This conduct was alike unnatural and unjust. For, if the result of the French war had impoverished the Indian trader, of which we have no knowledge, he, at least, might have given his son some information of the dark clouds which were beginning to gather between England and the colonies, and which soon afterwards brought on the Revolutionary war. Cornplanter, in the address just referred to, intimates that it was a want of knowledge of the questions in dispute, in conjunction with other causes which he mentions in his address to Washington, in 1790, led the Confederacy to take part, in favor of the King of England, in the war which ensued.
He says, in the address referred to, he was opposed to joining in the conflict, inasmuch as the Indians had nothing to do with the difficulties that existed between the two parties. If he had more clearly understood the points in dispute his opposition might have been more effective. When Brant, early in the year 1777, with his Mohawks, had organized a hostile expedition, in connection with some loyalists of that region, to attack Unadilla, in New York, on the Upper Susquehanna, an embassy of Sachems and war Chiefs of the Senecas and Cayugas repaired to Oghwago, to which place Brant had advanced, to remonstrate with him against further hostilities to the Americans. Brant yielded to their councils and protestations, and withdrew, with his Indians and refugees, into the Cayuga country. Brant's exertions and interference had much to do in inducing the Six Nations to take part against the united colonies. Not long after the above occurrence, in an interview with General Herkimer, of the Revolutionary army, he said: "The Indians were in concert with their King, as their fathers had been. The King's belts, of Wampum, are yet lodged with them, and they cannot violate their pledges. General Herkimer and his followers have joined the Boston people against their sovereign. And, although the Boston people were resolute, yet the King would humble them. That General Schuyler was very smart on the Indians, at the treaty of German Flats, but, at the same time, was not able to afford the smallest article of clothing; and finally, that the Indians had formerly made war on the white people, when they were all united, and as they were now divided the Indians were not frightened."[L]
[L] Stone's life of Brant, quoting from the Herkimer papers and annals of Tryon county.
But when the representative Chiefs of the Confederacy at Oswego, at a general council held in the summer of 1777, decided to take up the hatchet for the King of England, Cornplanter and his tribe considered themselves bound by the decision. His nation was at war, and he had to be at war. As the boys say at school, "when you are in Rome, you must do as Rome does." In his address to Washington, at Philadelphia, in 1790, he justifies, or at least palliates the conduct of his nation in taking the side of the King, in the following eloquent and impressive words: "Father, when you kindled your thirteen fires separately, the wise men assembled at them told us you were all brothers—the children of one great Father, who regarded the red people as his children. They called us brothers, and invited us to their protection. They told us that he resided beyond the great water, where the sun first rises, and that he was a King, whose power no people could resist, and that his goodness was as bright as the 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. When you refused obedience to that King, he commanded us to assist his beloved men in making you sober. In obeying him, we did no more than yourselves had led us to promise. We were deceived; but your people teaching us to confide in that King, had helped to deceive us, and we now appeal to your heart. Is all the blame ours?"
In addition to these considerations, thus cautiously presented by Cornplanter, it is well known that the hostilities commenced on the north-western frontier of Virginia, by the cruel and unprovoked war waged against the Indians by the land-jobbers, under the direction of the notorious Captain Michael Cresap, had a decided effect upon the Six Nations, in determining on which side they would take in the conflict which soon followed. The atrocious murder of the family of Logan, by Cresap, is well known, and need not be repeated on this occasion. Logan was the son of Shikellimus, a distinguished Cayuga Sachem. James Logan, an eminent member of the Colonial Council of Pennsylvania, was the friend of Shikellimus; the Sachem had named his son for Mr. Logan. Conrad Weiser, the well known Indian agent and interpreter, writing from Tulpehocken, in Berks county, under date of July 6, 1747, to Secretary Peters, says: "Shikellimus gives his respects to his; old friend, Mr. Logan. He intends to see him in Philadelphia before next fall."[M] Shikellimus had been sent by the Six Nations to preside over and govern the Delawares, Shawanees, Conoys, Nantikokes, Monseys and Mohicans. This interesting fact shows the superior power and authority of the Six Nations, and that these tribes were subordinate to them. Shikellimus resided at Shamokin, a large Indian village near the junction of the North and West Branches of the Susquehanna river, the site of the present borough of Sunbury, in Northumberland county, Pennsylvania. This memorable Sachem, governed these tribes with ability and integrity, for a great many years.
[M] Colonial Records of Pennsylvania.
Logan had a temporary residence on, Kishicokelas creek, a beautiful limestone spring, a mile or two above the wild gorge where the creek passes Jack's mountain, (now in Mifflin county, Pennsylvania). Here he lived several years. This was before the year 1768, when, by the treaty of Fort Stanwix, the Indians relinquished to the proprietary government all that region of country. He then moved with his family to the country beyond the Ohio, and fixed his cabin below Wheeling, where, a few years later, his whole family were barbarously murdered. On the Sciota, in 1774, he delivered his well known speech to Lord Dunmore, first published in Mr. Jefferson's notes on Virginia. A careful historian, Mr. Day, says: "That it is now well authenticated that Logan, himself, composed the speech, and that the common supposition, that Mr. Jefferson was the author of it, is an error."
It is well known that Logan, born at Shamokin, where the Moravians had a missionary station, received some rudimental education from them, and was baptized; his father, Shikellimus, giving him the name Logan, after his friend James Logan, the Secretary of the Province. Logan's speech, on the occasion referred to, though often published, I insert here. It was as follows: "I appeal to any white man to say, if ever he entered Logan's cabin hungry, and he gave him not meat; if ever he came naked, and he clothed him not. During the course of the last long and bloody war, Logan remained idle in his cabin, an advocate for peace. Such was my love for the whites that my countrymen pointed, as they passed, and said, 'Logan is the friend of white men.' I had even thought to have lived with you, but for the injuries of one man, Colonel Cresap, the last spring in cold blood, and unprovoked, murdered all the relations of Logan, not even sparing my women and children. There runs not a drop of my blood in the veins of any living creature. This called on me for revenge. I have sought it. I have killed many. I have fully glutted my vengeance. For my country I rejoice at the beams of peace. But do not harbor a thought that mine is the joy of fear. Logan never felt fear. He will not turn his heel to save his life. Who is there to mourn for Logan? Not one."
The cruel murder of the family of Logan, (himself a distinguished Chief, and the friend of the whites and of peace,) made a deep impression upon the Six Nations, and was probably one of the causes which induced them to take up the hatchet for the King of England. The final decision, as already stated, was made at Oswego, where the representative Chiefs and warriors were assembled, being, drawn thither by the united exertions of Sir John Johnston and Colonel John Butler, aided by Brant, the indefatigable and bitter enemy of the united colonies. The British commissioners promised the Indians an ample reward if they would assist the English to subdue the rebel colonies. The Chiefs, in reply, stated that they were bound, by the treaties at German Flats and Albany, to be neutral to the war. Their objections, however, were overcome, by the commissioners telling them, "that the people of the colonies were few in number, and would be easily subdued; and that, on account of their disobedience to the King, they justly merited all the punishment that it was possible for white men and Indians to inflict upon them." "The King," they said, "was rich and powerful, both in money and subjects. His rum was as plenty as the water in Lake Ontario, and his men as numerous as the sands upon its shore. And the Indians were assured that if they would assist in the war, and persevere in their friendship for the King, until its close, they should never want for goods or money." Overcome by these importunities, and by a recital of the injuries they had received from some of the people of the colonies, aided by a display of a large quantity of trinkets, blankets, clothes, guns, and other articles and implements, the Indians concluded a treaty of alliance with Great Britain, and took up the hatchet against the united colonies. At the close of the treaty, each Indian was presented with a suit of clothes, a brass kettle, a gun, a tomahawk and scalping-knife, a quantity of ammunition and a piece of gold. Mary Jemison, from whom we quote this statement, says, "as late as 1823, the brass kettles received at Oswego, were in use by the Senecas." Here Cornplanter, no doubt, secured the "gun and kettle" which he had, in vain, expected from his father. And the contrast between these munificent gifts, and the fact stated by Brant, that General Schuyler, at the treaty of German Flats, was not able to afford to the Indians the smallest article of clothing, no doubt assisted to turn the scale in favor of the King.