Father! We thank you from our hearts, that we now know there is a country we may call our own, and on which we may lay down in peace. We see that there will be peace between your children and our children, and our hearts are very glad. We will persuade the Wyandotts, and other western nations, to open their eyes and look towards the bed which you have made for us, and to ask of you a bed for themselves and their children, that will not slide from under them. We thank you for your presents to us, and rely on your promise to instruct us in raising corn, as the white people do; the sooner you do this the better for us. And we thank you for the care you have taken to prevent bad men from coming to trade among us. If any come without your license we will turn them back; and we hope our nation will determine to spill all the rum which shall hereafter be brought to our towns.
Father! We are glad to hear that you determine to appoint an agent that will do us justice in taking care that bad men do not come to trade among us; but we earnestly entreat you that you will let us have an interpreter, in whom we can confide, to reside at Pittsburg. To that place our people, and other nations, will long continue to resort. There we must send what news we hear, when we go among the western nations, which we are determined shall be early in the spring. We know Joseph Nicholson, and he speaks our language so that we clearly understand what you say to us, and we rely on what he says. If we were able to pay him for his services we would do it, but when we meant to pay him, by giving him land, it has not been confirmed to him; and he will not serve us any longer, unless you will pay him. Let him stand between us we entreat you.
Father! You have not asked any security for peace on our part, but we have agreed to send you nine Seneca boys to be under your care for education. Tell us at what time you will receive them, and they shall be sent at the time you shall appoint. This will assure you that we are indeed at peace with you, and determined to continue so. If you can teach them to become wise and good men, we will take care that our nation shall be willing to receive instruction from them.
SPEECH OF CORNPLANTER,
TO PRESIDENT WASHINGTON, PHILADELPHIA, FEBRUARY 28, 1797.
Father! I thank the Great Spirit for protecting us through the various paths which we have trod since I was last at this place. As I am told you are about to retire from public business, I have come to pay my last address to you as the Great Chief of the Fifteen Fires, and am happy to find that I have arrived here in time to address you once more as father, and to advise with you on the business of our nation. You have always told us that the land which we live upon is our own and that we may make such use of it as we think most conducive to our own comfort, and the happiness of posterity.
Father! I wish, whilst I am able to do business, to provide for the rising generation. Our forefathers thought that their posterity would pursue their tracks, and support themselves by their hunts, as they did in the extensive forests given them by the Great Spirit, and by them transmitted to us. But the great revolution among the white people in this country has extended its influence to the people of my color. Turn our faces which way we will, we find the white people cultivating the ground which our forefathers hunted over, and the forests which furnished them with plenty, now afford but a scanty subsistence for us, and our young men are not safe in pursuing it. If a few years have made such a change, what will be the situation of our children when those calamities increase?
Father! To those points I wish to draw your attention, and once more to have your candid and friendly advice on what will be the best for the present race, and how we can best provide for posterity. Your people have a different mode of living from ours; they have trades and they have education, which enables them to take different pursuits, by which means they maintain themselves, provide for their children and help each other.