Yet had his speech been reported, we might have
been as much at a loss as at present, to derive from it a just estimation
of his talents. His speeches as reported are tame when compared with the
effect produced.
The Indian was an unwritten language. The most distinguished orators of
the Iroquois confederacy, matured their thoughts in solitude without the
aid of the pen, and when uttered in the hearing of the people, they passed
forever into oblivion, only as a striking passage may hare been retained
in memory. And with them the want of a written language was thus in a
measure compensated. They made an increased effort to treasure up their
thoughts. Yet how much must necessarily have been lost! and how liable to
waste away, that which remained.
Trusting to them how imperfect must have been a reported speech! And
relying on those who transferred their speeches to a different language,
we have little assurance of any thing better than mutilated transcripts of
the original. Need we be surprised then, to find in Red Jacket's published
speeches, a tameness unworthy of his fame? Red Jacket was esteemed by the
men of his time as an orator, surpassingly eloquent.
In his speeches as reported, this does not appear. Hence, his reported
speeches fail to do him justice, or the men of his time very much
overrated his talents.
Taking the latter horn of the dilemma we impeach the judgment and good
sense of those who have gone before us.
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