His views of the war, were not those of a partisan, hence his conduct was
often censured by those who had entered heartily into the contest.
Brant has charged him with being the occasion of trouble to him, in his
efforts to arrest the march of Sullivan, and his army, into the Indian
country. Particularly at Newtown, where considerable preparations had been
made for defense. Says Col. Stone,--"Sa-go-ye-wat-ha was then twenty-nine
years old, and though it does not appear that he had yet been created a
chief, he nevertheless seems to have been already a man of influence. He
was in the practice of holding private consultations with the young
warriors, and some of the younger and less resolute chiefs, for the
purpose of fomenting discontents, and persuading them to sue for what
Brant considered, ignominious terms of peace.
"On one occasion as Brant has alleged, Red Jacket had so far succeeded in
his treachery, as to induce some of the disaffected chiefs to send a
runner into Sullivan's camp, to make known dissensions he himself had
awakened, and invite a flag of truce, _with propositions of peace to the
Indians_."
Though charged with acting criminally, it is here expressly asserted,
_that it was to obtain peace_. Peace he most earnestly desired for his
people, who were doomed to be wasted in a contest not their own.
Nor, in view of his feelings respecting the war, is it surprising he
should have incurred the displeasure of Cornplanter, while endeavoring to
bring his countrymen to make a stand against a portion of the invading
army, on the beach of Canandaigua lake, where was an Indian village of
some size.
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