"BROTHER: You say that the President has sent us word that it is for our interest to dispose of our lands. You tell us that there is a good tract of land at Allegany. This too is very extraordinary. Our feet have covered every inch of that reservation. A communication like this has never been made to us, at any of our councils. The President must have been disordered in mind, when he offered to lead us off by the arms, to the Allegany reservation. I have told you of the treaty we made with the United States. Here is the belt of wampum, that confirmed that treaty. Here too is the parchment. You know its contents. I will not open it. Now the tree of friendship is decaying; its limbs are fast falling off. You are at fault.
"Formerly we called the British brothers. Now we call the President, our Father. Probably among you, are persons with families of children. We consider ourselves the children of the President. What would be your feelings, were you told that your children were to be cast upon a naked rock, there to protect themselves? The different claims you tell us of, on our lands, I cannot understand. We are placed here by the Great Spirit, for purposes known to him. You have no right to interfere. You told us that we had large and unproductive tracts of land. We do not view it so. Our seats, we consider small; and if we are left here long, by the Great Spirit, we shall stand in need of them. We shall be in want of timber. Land after many years' use wears out; our fields must be renewed, and new ones improved, so that we have no more land in our reservations than we want. Look at the white people around us, and back. You are not cramped for lands. They are large. Look at that man. [Footnote: Mr. Ellicott, agent of the Holland Land Company.] If you want to buy, apply to him. He has lands enough to sell. We have none to part with. You laugh, but do not think I trifle. I am sincere. Do not think we are hasty in making up our minds. We have had many councils, and thought for a long time upon this subject. We will not part with any, not with one of our reservations.
"We recollect that Mr. Ogden addressed his speech to you, therefore I have spoken to you. Now I will speak to Mr. Ogden.
"BROTHER: You recollect when you first came to this ground, that you told us you had bought the pre-emptive right. A right to purchase given you by the government. Remember my reply. I told you, you had been unfortunate in buying. You said you would not disturb us. I then told you as long as I lived, you must not come forward to explain that right. You have come. See me before you. You have heard our reply to the commissioner sent by the President. I again repeat that, one and all, chiefs and warriors, we are of the same mind. We will not part with any of our reservations. Do not make your application anew, nor in any other shape. Let us hear no more of it. Let us part as we met, in friendship."
Col. Stone refers to the kindness of Major Joseph Delafield, for the speeches made at this council, as given in his work, and the most important of which is presented here; they were taken down at the time from the lips of the interpreter, who stated that "he could not translate some of Red Jacket's figurative flights, they were too wild and difficult to be rendered in English, and he did not attempt it." Much doubtless that served to give point and zest to his speech, was either omitted, or lost its force, in being transferred to our language. The writer of the sketch previously alluded to, among several points in this speech which were impressed on his memory, mentions one not found in the above. "The gentleman says, that our great Father says, we can go Allegany, and have a good foothold forever; yes, a good foothold, for it is all rock."
Though the efforts of the Ogden Company to obtain the consent of the Indians to sell their remaining lands, were at this time unsuccessful, they were nevertheless repeated. The demand of Red Jacket, "do not make your application anew, nor in any other shape," was unheeded.
Col. Stone, on the authority of the Hon. Albert Tracy, mentions a treaty held for this same purpose in 1822 or 1823, in which Red Jacket replied to a speech made by the commissioner, and also by Governor Ogden, entering, as in the preceding speech, upon a regular and connected history of the transactions of the Indians with the whites, up to that time, and in the course of his speech, used the language very happily alluded to by Mr. Bryant, in his memorial address.
At the close of the speech that has been quoted almost entire, some of his people desired him to apologize for one or two utterances he had made, regarding them as rude, and adapted to awaken unpleasant reflections. He refused, saying, "NO, IT HAS GONE FORTH, LET IT STAND." A circumstance doubtless alluded to, in the words which immediately follow: "Often the fierceness of his temper, the righteous indignation that swelled his bosom, impelled him to hurl defiance at his foes, and to use language, the possible consequences of which, caused the more timid and abject of his followers, to tremble with apprehension. But Red Jacket would retract not a single word, although a majority of the chiefs, would sometimes secretly deprecate the severity of his utterances."
"Again on other occasions, sorely beset and almost despairing, he would essay to melt the hearts of the pitiless pursuers of his people, and give utterance to such touching words as these:
"We first knew you a feeble plant, which wanted a little earth whereon to grow. We gave it to you, and afterward, when we could have trod you under our feet, we watered and protected you; and now you have grown to be a mighty tree, whose top reaches the clouds, and whose branches overspread the whole land; whilst we, who were then the tall pine of the forest, have become the feeble plant and need your protection."