As for the _Black coats_, Mr.
Calhoun had told him at Washington four years before, that the Indians
must treat with them as they thought proper; the government would not
interfere. "I will not consent," said he, sagaciously identifying his
disgrace with his opposition to the Christians, "I will not consent
silently to be trampled under foot. As long as I can raise my voice, I
will oppose such measures. As long as I can stand in my moccasins, I will
do all I can for my nation. Ah! it grieves my heart, when I look around me
and see the situation of my people, in old times united and powerful, now
divided and feeble. I feel sorry for my nation. Many years have I guided
my people. When I am gone to the other world, when the Great Spirit calls
me away, who among them can take my place?" [Footnote: Thatcher's Indian
Biography.]
No adequate account of this speech has been preserved. It is said he spoke
three hours in his own defense; that it was a masterly effort, and equal
to the speeches he used to make in his palmiest days. [Footnote:
Conversation of the author with Wm. Jones, Seneca chief.]
Though greatly dilapidated in his powers by intemperance, he was
thoroughly aroused on this occasion, and the eloquence, pathos, and fire
of a former day, shed around him the luster of a superior mind, and his
people for the time, forgot and forgave his delinquencies, and by
unanimous consent, reinstated him in office and power.
Thus by means of one more great exertion of this wonderful faculty, by
which he controlled the minds of his people, they were led to reverse the
decision that had been made against him, and though he stood among them
but the blasted trunk of that tree, which, in its full and luxuriant
prime, cast a deep and mellowing shade over their closing history, and
invested it still with the appearance of strength; they resolved he should
yet wear the title, that better befitted him in other days, though it
served but slightly to hide the deformity, wrought in his noble nature, by
the demon of intemperance.
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