An Account of Sa-Go-Ye-Wat-Ha, or Red Jacket, and His People, 1750-1830

by John Niles Hubbard

Other circumstances however, impart interest to his history. His was the last great name of a nation, and he is entitled to remembrance, on the soil which was once the home of his fathers. And though linked with a melancholy association, as connected with the waning history of a people that once laid a claim to greatness, but are now fast passing into obscurity, it is not on this account the less attractive, but presents another reason for our regard.

Such was the name of SA-GO-YE-WAT-HA, or, as he has more commonly been called, Red Jacket. Having risen, by the force of his eloquence, from an obscure station to the highest rank among his people, he became conspicuous in all of those great transactions, in which they gradually relinquished a title to their old hunting grounds, and gave place to the intrusive white man. And he lived to see his nation pass from the pride of their ancient dominion, to so humble an inheritance, that his last days were embittered with the thought, that the red men were destined to become extinct. With him has ceased the glory of their council fire, and of their name.

His origin, as we have intimated, was obscure. He must be introduced, as he has come down to us, without rank or pedigree. His pedigree nature acknowledged, and gave him a right to become great among her sons. His birth is a matter of fact, its time and place, circumstances of conjecture. Some affirm that he was born at the Old Seneca Castle, near the foot of Seneca lake, not far from 1750. [Footnote: Hist. of North American tribes by Thos. L. McKenney.]

Another tradition awards the honor of his birth to a place at, or near
Canoga, on the banks of the Cayuga lake. [Footnote: Schoolcraft's Report.]

Who were his parents? and what, his early history? As the wave casts upon the shore some treasured fragment, and then recedes to mingle with its parent waters, so their names, and much of his early history have been lost in the oblivion of the past.

So likewise it is uncertain, as to the time when the wonderful powers of his genius began to be developed, or as to the steps by which he arrived at the high distinction of orator among his people.

Whether by dint of study he gained the requisite discipline of mind, and acquired that elegance of diction for which he was distinguished; whether by repeated trial and failure, accompanied by a proud ambition, and an unyielding purpose, he reached, like Demosthenes, the summit of his aspirations; or, assisted more by nature than by art, emerged, like Patrick Henry at once, into the grand arena of mind, and by a single effort attained distinction and fame, is to be gathered more from circumstances than from facts.

It is generally conceded, however, that the powers of his intellect were of the highest order. Captain Horatio Jones, the well known interpreter and agent among the Indians, and than whom no one was more intimately acquainted with this orator of the Seneca nation, was accustomed to speak of him as the greatest man that ever lived. "For," said he, "the great men of our own and of other times, have become so by education; but RED JACKET WAS AS NATURE MADE HIM. Had he enjoyed their advantages, he would have surpassed them, since it can hardly be supposed that they, without these, would have equalled him." [Footnote: Conversation of the author with Col. Wm. Jones, of Geneseo, Livingston Co., N. Y., son of Capt. Horatio Jones.]

Some allowance should be made for this statement, perhaps, on the ground that Mr. Jones was a warm admirer of the orator's genius; yet his admiration sprang from an intimate knowledge of him, seen under circumstances, that afforded the best opportunity of forming a just opinion of his talents; and these, he maintained, "were among the noblest that nature ever conferred upon man."

But genius, while it may have smoothed the way, may not have spared him the pains, by which ordinary minds ascend to greatness. For since it is so universally the fact, that the path to eminence, is rugged and steep, and the gifts of fame seldom bestowed but in answer to repeated toil; curiosity would inquire by what means one, who was reputed a barbarian, gained the highest distinction ever awarded to civilized man. It is not enough to reply simply, "that nature made him so," or to receive, without qualification, his own proud assertion, "I AM AN ORATOR, I WAS BORN AN ORATOR." The laws of mind are the same for peasants, and princes in intellect; great minds as well as small, must take measures to compass their object, or leave it unattained.