The Life and times of Sa-go-ye-wat-ha, or Red-Jacket

Front matter

., .1.1.1,1.

CORNELL

UNIVERSITY

Preface

The original design of the late William L. Stone, in writing his Indian histories, contemplated a complete account of the great Iroquois Confederacy, from the discovery to the present time. This history was to be embraced in four distinct works: the Earlij History of the Iroquois from the discovery to the year 1735 ; the Life of Sir William Johnson, the Life of Brant, and the Life of Red Jacket. Circumstances, which are explained in the Life of Brant, induced the preparation of that work first: afterward, the present work was written ; and shortly before his death the Life and Times of Sir William Johnson was begun.

The design of the lives of Johnson and Brant was not merely to embrace the biographies of the principal personages themselves, but, under the shadow of their names, to preserve the history of the Six Illations during their lives ; and, also, to gather up and reduce to form, in the life of the latter, the rich materials of the previously unwritten border history of the American revolution.

The present volume, containing the life of the great Seneca orator, was constructed upon the same plan. After the death of Brant, Red Jacket became the man of greatest distinction among the Six !N^ations; and, in writing his life, vi Peepace.

the author has used him as he did Eraut, as the principal figure in iUustrating the history of the Six ISTations down to the conckision of the treaty for the sale of the residue of the Seneca lands, in the autumn of 1838. That treaty, since carried into execution, extinguished the confederacy of the A-QUA-NU-scHi-o-Ni, or United People, — a confederacy, the duration of which is lost in the shadowy ohscurity of tradition for ages before the sound of the white woodman's axe rang upon the solemn stillness of the forest continent. The Life of Bed Jacket, therefore, may be considered as the continuation and conclusion of the History of the Six Nations. While, however, the lives of Johnson, Brant and Red Jacket, taken together, are intended as a complete history of the Six Nations from the year 1735 to 1838, and, as such, have been printed uniformly, yet each work of the series forms in itself a distinct narrative.

One division of the work meditated by the author remains to be executed, viz : the yet earlier history of the Iroquois Confederacy, from the discovery down to the year 1735, when Mr. Johnson first settled among the Mohawks in the valley of their own beautiful river. This work it is my hope to write as soon as circumstances will permit.

" In regard to the present volume," says Mr. Stone in his preface to the first edition of this work, " the author can only say that he has made it as full and perfect as the materials which he has been able to collect would allow. The subject of the memoir, it must be remembered, could speak but very httle Enghsh, and could not write at all. He could therefore maintain no written correspondence, and

Preface. vii

consequently left no letters, or other written memorials, to aid Ms biographer. Such was not the fact in the case of Brant, whose papers were of vast assistance. It must also be kept in mind that Brant was a man of war, and Red Jacket a man of peace. Hence in a memoir of the latter a far smaller amount of stirring and bloody iDcident is to be anticipated, than in one of the former. Indeed in this respect the books are widely dissimilar. And yet it is hoped that it will be found not altogether devoid of interest. The name of E,ed Jacket, as the great orator of the Six IsTations, is among those most famihar to the American ear ; and this volume is the first complete record of his forensic efforts that has ever appeared. JS^either diligence nor expense has been spared to make the collection perfect of all the chieftain's speeches, and notes of speeches, that have been preserved. These have been arranged in the text, according to the dates of their delivery, and in connexion with the history of the occasions and events which called them forth. The author is aware that to this feature of his arrangement some may object that the text of the narrative should not be thus interrupted, and that the speeches might better have been thrown back into an appendix. But he thinks differently. Had they been thus disposed of they would not have been read, such being the usual destiny of speeches, letters and documents crowded together at the end of almost every book of history. And certainly , when they ar^ read, they are likely to be better understood and appreciated, if taken in their proper historical connexion — illustrating the occasions or viii Preface.

events by wliieli they were elicited, and in turn receiving such illustrations from the historian as seem to be required.

In several instances the narrative, notes and appendix have been made fuller in the present edition than in the former. This the editor has been enabled to do by the aid of manuscripts collected by the author after the work had passed through the press.

As the Life of Red Jacket was the last historical work

which Mr. Stone lived to complete, it has been deemed not inappropriate to accompany the present volume by a sketch of his life and writings. This has accordingly been written by his son, who, with this explanation, now offers a new edition of Red Jacket to the public.

William L. Stone.

Saratoga Springs^ January \st^ 1866.

THE

LIFE AND WRITINGS

OF

The father of the subject of the present memoir was the Rev. William Stone, a congregational clergyman, and a great grand-son of Governor Leete of Connecticut, well known in connection with the regicides, Groffe and Whalley. He was a native of Gruilford, and was directly descended, on the side both of father and mother, from two of the Puritan band of colonists, who, in 1639, planted that town. Never was there a settlement formed of more rigid Puritans than that of Guilford, and there is no town in New England where the peculiarities of that noble race of men have been more faithfully transmitted from father to son than in that. In his habits of thinking, his style of writing, and his undeviable principles of civil and religious liberty, he belonged more to the age of the Pilgrims than to his own. He was, moreover, a soldier of the revolution, as well as of the church militant. In the earlier part of the war he left his books and went into the army to relieve a brother who was in ill health. The brother died, but patriotism, in those days, was something more than a name, and the love of country induced him to enlist for the additional term of three years, during which he saw much service. He was at the battles of White Plains, Brandywine and Monmouth; suffered with the American army during that dreary winter at Valley Forge ; and was present at the execution of Andre. " I shall ever remember your grand-father," said the late General Wilcox of Killingworth to the writer, "for in the army he always carried a Hebrew Bible and the whole works of Josepbus in his knapsack." When peace was declared and the army disbanded, he retired, like a great majority of the soldiers, poor in the goods of this world, but rich in those noble sentiments which the revolution had inspired. He, however, completed his studies at Yale, married, and accepted a parish in the then extensive town of New- Paltz, Ulster county, New York — the Reverend Stanley Griswold (afterward governor of Michigan under Mr. Jefferson) preaching the ordination sermon.

While at New-Paltz, his son, the subject of the present sketch, was born on the 20th of April, 1Y92 ; and shortly after he gave up his parish, and, removing into the valley of the Susquehanna, began clearing a piece of land which he had recently purchased. The country was at that time a complete wilderness, full of savage men and savage beasts ; and the adventures of young Stone, during his early pioneer life, formed the material which was afterward wrought up by him into stirring border tales. ^ During his boyhood his days were passed in cultivating his father's farm, and his nights in acquiring a knowledge of Latin and Greek under the supervision of his father, who was a thorough master of the ancient languages. When seventeen years of age, chancing to see in a newspaper an advertisement for a printer's apprentice, he with difficulty obtained permission of his parents — who could ill' spare him — to apply for the situation. The sun was just sinking behind the hills, when, with a single Mexican quarter in his pocket and a small bundle of clothes in his hand, he set out on his journey through the woods to Cooperstown, which he reached the next morning at sunrise, having walked forty miles during the night. Colonel John H. Prentiss, the

1 In conBection with his early pioneer life Mr. Stone used to relate the following amusing anecdote — various versions of which have been frequently given in school reading books. One day, while eating his dinner in a saw-mill which he tended for his father, he descried a bear coming down upon him full tilt. Having no weapon by him he left his dinner on the saw-log, and forgetting to stop the saw, clambered up onto a rafter. The bear came into the mill, and seating himself on the log began eating the dinner. Presently the log carried the bear to the saw, which grazed the animal's back. He gave a growl and moved a little. Again the saw scratched him, and again he moved. At length, upon the saw repeating its familiarity the third time, he turned, hugged the saw with a defiant growl, and, before he could extricate himself, was sawn half in two. The meat furnished the family with food for seyer^l^yeeks.

editor of the Cooperstown Federalist, pleased with his energy, at once gave him the situation on the condition that his parents should clothe him for three years. The means, however, both of father and son, must have been exceedingly limited, since in a letter, written by the former at this time to his son, occurs the following passage : " I would willingly procure you a good hat if I could but, at present have no other way than buying at Burlington [N. Y.] and settling for it out of the next proceeds of that farm. Could you get one in that way, not exceeding five dollars in value, you have my liberty." Long, however, before the articles of apprenticeship had expired, he was transferred to a wider field.

Previous to the year 1811 the county of Herkimer had been one of the strongest democratic counties in the state — a character which it retained until within a recent period. A democratic newspaper had for several years been published in the village of Herkimer, and the prominent federalists of the county were anxious to have a paper that would be published in accordance with their political creed. With this view a subscription was started, and a sum, of the moderate amount of about seven hundred dollars, was raised for the purpose of establishing a federal newspaper. A press and types were procured, and Colonel Prentiss came over to Herkimer to put the materials in order and to publish the paper. In due time The Herkimer American appeared, and was for a few weeks conducted by Colonel Prentiss in person. Having fairly started the paper he returned to Cooperstown, leaving it under the direction of his brother. The latter, however, proved not a prudent manager, and after a time, Mr. Stone, then a journeyman printer, was sent over as a laborer in the office at Herkimer, and as an assistant to the nominal conductor of the paper. It was not long, however, after his arrival at Herkimer, before the entire management of the paper was entrusted to him; Mr. Thurlow Weed,^ then a journeyman printer, being sent

IMr. Weed was at this time a democrat. It happened that jnst before an election — there being no democratic printing press within several miles — Mr. Weed asked of Mr. Stone the privilege of using his press to strike off the democratic tickets. This was good humoredly granted by the federalist editor ; and the entire night was spent by the democratic apprentice in striking off tickets and handbills. Mr. Weed was paid for his night's work five dollars, which, he often remarks with pardonable pride, was the first five dollars he ever earned.

12 The Life and Whitings op

over from Cooperstown by Colonel Prentiss to assist in the labor of tbe office. He remained in tlie paper as subordinate to Mr. Prentiss for a year, when he was enabled, in 1813, to purchase from him his entire interest in it, which was then published under his own name as proprietor and editor. It was, however, at first, up hill work. " As to your pecuniary embarrassments," his father wrote to him, at this time, "I expected you must meet and do with them as well as you can. This is always the case when people enter into business without the requisite means or sufficient capital ; and to you it must be but a poor consolation to be informed that I can affi^rd no pecuniary aid whatever. However, you must faithfully husband all the means you can attain to, and use strict economy, diligence and attention to your business if you wish to succeed." That he did succeed is evident from the fact that within a year after the above was written, he was able to meet all his notes to Mr. Prentiss in full .

" Mr. Stone was at this time," writes the venerable Lauren Ford, who knew him well, " a young man, unacquainted with mankind and the ways of the world, but, at this early period, evincing the possession of those qualities and characteristics which subsequently conducted him to distinction among the prominent newspaper editors of the country. A cheerful, buoyant, and social temper, a resolution that courageously encountered and overcame difficulties that sometimes appeared insurmountable, an ardent desire to improve himself by reading the best authors that were within his reach, and by associating with persons of education and intelligence — accompanied by a character for personal honesty and integrity that never in his after life was called in question — these were the prominent characteristics of the inexperienced young man of whom I am writing. His industry, also, in whatever he undertook was remarkable. On entering his printing office a visitor would find him with his coat off, his sleeves rolled up above his elbows, either at the case distributing a stick of types, or at the old fashioned Kamage press, at one time pulling the devil's tail, and at another distributing ink upon the form with the rolls — then the only method of performing this part of a printer's business."

In his endeavors to fit himself for the profession which he had chosen he was also greatly aided by his father. In their correspondence at this time, passages often occur of which the following are fair samples: "When you write, always be plain, precise, and exact in your expressions, and labor after accuracy of thought, and a neat arrangement of words. While a shortness of hand is really important and useful, grammatical precision is highly interesting to a young man in your business and employ. Two or three of your papers have come to hand. They are, at least, as good as I expected, if not better. Some little inaccuracies of spelling were discovered (perhaps the fault of the compositors), but none of them of any real importance, and such I have frequently found in the Spectator and other city papers. I am very much pleased to hear of your good usage and real contentment where you reside, and the entire confidence which they place in yoti. Endeavor to merit and not abuse that confidence in all your conduct, life, and actions ; and labor by a discreet, friendly and upright behavior to command the esteem of all good men.'' In another letter, also, from his father at this period occurs the following passage: ''Permit me to observe in the ^ obituary ' of the last American^ you say, ' accidentally terminated his existence' — an epithet employed to convey an idea of chance in respect to man's final end and cessation of being. Accident, meaning strictly chance, can never be with Grod who pervadeth and disposeth all things for his own glory according to his own pleasure. To terminate, also, signifieth to bound, limit by a goal or end ; and terminate existence can never be admitted with those who hold to the immutability of man before Grod, and the immutability of the human soul. The foregoing remarks have been ofiered to impress you with the importance of extreme precission in the use of words and phrases you may choose. No one but yourself will see these strictures, and by them I intend you good."^

Connected with his first assuming the responsibility of editorship lln another letter his father writes — "I remarked in a late number of your paper a piece extracted from the Halcyon Luminary^ published in New York. This little piece of verse was very equivocal and faulty, being founded upon an ambiguous translation of a period at or near the time of St. John. The critical scholar would fault the translation as erroneous, and the sentiment of the verse as much more. Tou will do well to be cautious how and what extracts you may make from this or any work, which, under the special pleas of uncommon religious benevolence and spiritual penetration into the arcana of revelation, is covertly undermining Christianity, and intentionally laboring to bring into disrespect the whole Christian economy."

is an incident which is still remembered in the Mohawk valley. " I have a distinct reccollection," writes Mr. Ford, " of the first specimen of Mr. Stone's own composition that he ever published in his paper. The occasion was as follows : The mails between Utica and Albany were then carried in the old fashioned stage wagons of Jason Porter, and two days were spent in making the trip between the two points. A single bag of very moderate dimensions contained the mail for all the intermediate post ofiices, and was opened at every office on the road. The whole contents of the mail bag were emptied upon a table or upon the floor of the office, and the package for the particular office selected. The remaining packages were then returned to the bag, which was sent forward to the next town in the stage wagon. Great irregularities and carelessness were said to exist in the management of the post office at Utica — packages were missent or mislaid; the mail bag was sent ofi" without being locked, and other grievances were also alleged.

"In regard to this state of things Mr. Stone wrote a brief article occupying a few lines in the paper. Before it was published the editor came to the office, in which I was then a student, to consult me on two points, first, in regard to the literary execution of the article, and secondly, respecting the matter which it contained. The tone and manner of the piece were decidedly spicy and trenchant. Upon enquiry I was assured that every statement of fact contained in it was substantially true, and could easily be proved to be so. I therefore advised him to publish it, and the next number of the Herhimer American contained the important article. It occupied a space of fifteen or twenty lines. Such was the humble commencement of the literary and editorial career of Mr. Stone. The sequel is worth mentioning.

" A few days aft^r this publication Mr. Stone received a letter from a distinguished lawyer, written in behalf of the Utica postmaster, complaining, in very decided tones, of the libellous character of the article, demanding a retraction of the charges, and an apology for the publication ; and concluding with a threat of a prosecution for the libel unless these demands were promptly complied with. Here was a dilemma. The young editor was alarmed, and again came to me for assistance. Upon making more particular enquiry respecting the matters stated in the obnoxious article, I was again assured by the editor that every matter of fact stated was strictly true, and could be proved with ease beyond doubt or cavil. I accordingly again advised Mr. Stone to prepare and publish a second article, reiterating what had been stated in the first, and challenging the Utica postmaster to commence his threatened prosecution without delay. According to this advice a second article was published. Prudence prevailed in the councils at Utica, and the threatened prosecution was never commenced." Perhaps it was in reference to this incident that his father at this time wrote him a friendly word of caution. " You write, my son, with a pen dipped in vinegar. Whatever you propose to efiect in this way cannot be very flattering to the cause of humanity or advance social good in the conamunity. I think you must soften down, if not entirely leave this sarcastic and satirical way of writing."

Another incident, connected with his residence at Herkimer^ deserves mention, as illustrating the difficulties encountered in those early days, in obtaining news for the press.

During the last war with Great Britain the route of the present Central rail road, through the state, was that through which intelligence from the army and navy on the northern and western frontier of the United States was transmitted to Albany and Washington, A very great anxiety to learn the news pervaded all classes of citizens. The transmission of intelligence was slow, and not unfrequently a week would elapse after an event occurred at Buffiilo, before it would be known in Albany. Mr. Stone was in the habit of watching the arrival, at Herkimer, of the stage from the west, and while the driver was changing his horses the editor was busily employed in obtaining from the passengers such information, respecting affairs on the frontier, as appeared to be authentic. In a few hours a Herkimer American Extra would appear, containing in a very few lines all the intelligence that he had collected. These Extras were very much sought after, and were freely distributed through the post office and otherwise in the various parts of the country. The arrival of the stage at Herkimer from the west was quite irregular in point of time ; and the editor has been frequently known to spend a great part of the night at the stage office, waiting for the arrival of the stage, to obtain the desired information.

Mr. Stone continued the publication of the Herhimer American until the year 1814, when he sold his interest in the establishment to Mr. Edward P. Seymour, and removed to Hudson, having purchased the Northern Whig in that city, of which he immediately became the editor.

While residing at Hudson he married a daughter of Rev. Francis Waylaud of Saratoga Springs, and sister of Rev. Dr. Wayland, late president of Brown University — a lady highly gifted, and of cultivated understanding, whose tasted and sympathies were peculiarly in harmony with his own. In all his literary labors she was his associate, counselor and companion ; and it was a frequent remark of his, that he never considered any work finished until it had received her approving smile. She was also a woman of truly Christian principles, and, in this respect, her influence over her husband and all around her, was felt as the dew — watering, refreshing, and making green the barren places of life.

After remaining in Hudson for two years he sold out and removed to Albany, having purchased the Albany Daily Advertiser^ which was united with the Albany Gazette^ published by Websters & Skinners. While thus employed an incident occurred, which is thus related by Hammond in his Political History of New York. "William L. Stone was then the conductor of the Albany Daily Advertiser^ a leading federal paper. It was known to us all, that Colonel Stone, although a federalist, was a decided friend to Grovernor Clinton, and was determined, when he could do so with effect, to devote his paper to his support. There were at that time, as there had been before and have since been, many persons in attendance on the legislature as agents to procure charters for banking and other companies. Mr. Sharpe, of New York, and several other Bucktail members, took it into their heads to deliver several severe philippics against the lobby, expressing their suspicions that these agents would attempt to corrupt the members of the legislature. Mr. James 0. Morse, a respectable lawyer from Otsego county, since first judge of that county, a keen, sarcastic writer, and who himself occasionally visited Albany for the purpose of procuring a charter for the Central bank, wrote a communication tending to ridicule Mr. Sharpe and others, on account of the apprehensions they aifected to entertain of the danger of bribery and corruption by the lobby. Mr. Morse, among other things, proposed, in his communication, that a wall should be erected around the Capitol, so strong and high as to secure Mr.

Sharpe and his friends from the apprehended danger of an attack from the lobby. This article appeared in Colonel Stone's paper; the suggestion I have mentioned being the most offensive part of it. Colonel Stone usually attended the senate to report the proceedings of that body for his own paper, i Mr. Hart was pleased to consider this good natured paragraph intended to take off some of the leading Bucktails of the assembly, as a contempt of the senate, and forthwith moved a resolution that William L. Stone be excluded from the bar of the senate. Mr. Hart soon found that such a resolution would not be approved by that body, and therefore requested that it might lay on the table; but at the instance of Colonel Stone Mr. P. R. Livingston soon afterward, highly to his credit, called for the consideration of the resolution, and Mr. Stone, though he declined disclosing the name of the author of this treasonable article, having assured the president of the senate that he did not intend, by its publication, to treat either branch of the legislature disrespectfully, it was unanimously decided that no farther proceedings should be had in the matter. Here was a causeless attack made upon a newspaper editor; in principle wrong, because its tendency was to abridge the liberty of the press, and also to convert a friend into an enemy, with no other object than to gratify the personal pique of the man." After working faithfully in Albany for two years Mr. Stone settled with his employers, they turning over to him all their bad debts for pay, amounting in all to six thousand dollars. In a few days he found that the men whose notes he held had all failed. ^' Yesterday," he wrote to his father, "I thought I was worth six thousand dollars, to-day not a cent; but he who feeds the ravens when they cry will certainly feed his children." Though rendered utterly destitute by the dishonesty of his employers, he kept up good courage; and it was not long before an opening appeared. In 1819 he removed to

1 Mr. Stone, it is believed, was the first reporter admitted by the courtesy of both branches of the legislature within the bar, for the purpose of reporting t^heir proceedings.

Hartford, and succeeded Theodore Dwiglit in the editorship of the Hartford Mirror — a newspaper distinguished, during the earlier years of its existence, for its vigilant and spicy vindication of federalism. At the time, however, that Mr. Stone assumed its management, federalism had received its death blow. In the mind of the masses it had become tainted with a tendency to monarchy and a sympathy for England — suspicions which, it must be confessed, appeared to have foundation in the conduct of some of its leaders, especially John Adams. The latter, after becoming the candidate of the federalists, went over to the opposition. The son, John Quincy, followed the example of the father ; Burr had killed Hamilton in a duel, and had subsequently sunk into contempt, besides proving treacherous and unreliable — and in addition to all this, the election of Oliver Wolcott in 1817 as democratic governor of Connecticut — the strong hold of federalism — completed its overthrow. This being the complexion of affairs, at the time of Mr. Stone's assuming the editorial charge of the Mirror^ that paper became for a time — while the scattered debris of the old parts were consolidating themselves into a new one — more of a literary than a political organ. The two years he spent in Hartford were, therefore, taken up in the quiet pursuits of literature. Under his auspices a literary club was formed, composed of J. M. Wainwright (the bishop), S. Gr. Goodrich (Peter Parley), Isaac Toucey, S. H. Huntington and others — each of whom took turns weekly in editing a magazine, called the Knights of the Round Tabic. "Mr. Stone,'' writes the Hon. Isaac Toucey, "was Sir Lancelot Longstaff, and the president of the club, and was the life and soul of it."

In the spring of 1821 he succeeded Mr. Zachariah Lewis in the editorship of the New York Commercial Advertiser^ becoming at the same time one of its proprietors. During the earlier years of connection with the Commercial, that paper was enriched with many gems from the pens of Lucretia Davidson, Percival and Sands, with the latter two of whom Mr. Stone was on terms of close intimacy, i Indeed, the last finished composition of the lamented Sands was a