Constantine republican. [volume] (Constantine, Mich.) 1836-1838, 1836-11-16
From the Knickerbocker
INDIAN ELOQUENCE.

There is q mine of truth in the reply of
Red Jacket, when called a warrior "A
acarrior p said he; / am an orator. was
born an orator.
No where can be found poetic thought
clothed in more captivating simplicity of
expression, than in the answer of Tecum.
sch TO Governor Harrison, in the confer.
ence at Vincennes. 1t contains a high
moral rebuke, and sarcasm, heightened
in effect by an evident consciousness of lof.
tiness above the reach of insult. AT the
close of his address, he found that no chair
had been placed for him, neglect which
Governor Harrison ordered to be remedied
as soon as discovered. Suspecting, per.
haps, that it was more an affront than a
mistake, with an air of dignity, elevated
almost to haughtiness, he declined the seat
offered, with the words, Your father re.
quests you to take chair, and answered.
ashe calmly disposed himselfon the ground
my father! The sun is my father, and the
earth is my mother. will reposc upon
her BOSOM
'You have arms said Seminole CHIEF
lately to General Clinch, 'and so have we ;
you have powder and lead, and so have we
you have men and so have we; your men
will fight and so will ours, till the last drop
of the Seminole's blood has moistened his
hunting ground This needs no comment.
Intrepidity is its character.
Turn to Red Jackets graphic descrip-
ton of the fraud which has purloined their
territory, and shame ming!es somewhat
with our pity. Brothers, at the treaties
held for the purchase Of our lands, the
white men, with sweet voices and smiling
faces, told us they loved us, and that they
would not cheat us, but that the Kings
children on the other side of the lake would
cheat us. When we go on the other side
of the lake, the Kings children tell us your
people will cheat us. These things puzzle
our heads, and we believe that the Indians
must take care Of themselves, and moi
trust either in your people or in the Kings
children. Brothers, our seats were once
large, and yours very small. You have
now become great people, and we have
scarcely place left TO spread our blankets.
True, and soon their graves will be all
they shall retain oftheir once ample hunt
ing grounds. Their strength is wasted,
their countless warriors dead, their forces
laid low, and their burial places upturned by
the ploughshare. There was time when
the war.cry of Powhattan, Delaware,
or an Abenabnis, struck terror to the heart
ofthe pale faces but now the Seminole is
singing his last battle-song.
Some of the speeches of Shenandoah, q
celebrated Oneida chief, contain the truesi
touches Unnatural eloquence. He lived to
a great age, and in his last Grafton in coun.
Gil, he opened with the following SUBJ
lime and beautiful sentence Brothers,
am an aged hemlock. The winds of an
hundred years have whistled through my
branches, and | am dead at the top
Every reader who has seen tall hemlocls,
with a dry and leafless top surmounting its
dark and green foliage, will feel the force
of the simile--' am dead at the top His
memory, and all the vigorous powers Of
youth had departed forever.
Not less felicitous was the close OF q
speech made by Pushmataha, venerable
chief Of western tribe, at council held
we blieye, in Washington, many years
since. In abiding to his extreme age, and
to the probability that he might not even
survive the journey back to his tribe, he
said : my children will walk through the
forests, and the Great Spirit will whisper in
the tree-tops, aad the flowers will spring up
in the trails--but Pushmataha will hear moi
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