Logan (Iroquois leader)
Logan the Orator (c. 1723 – 1780) was a Cayuga orator and war leader born of one of the Six Nations of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. After his 1760s move to the Ohio Country, he became affiliated with the Mingo, a tribe formed from Seneca, Cayuga, Lenape and other remnant peoples. He took revenge for family members killed by Virginian long knives in 1774 in what is known as the Yellow Creek Massacre. His actions against settlers on the frontier helped spark Dunmore's War later that year.
Quotes
[edit]- I appeal to any white man to say, if ever he entered Logan's cabin hungry, and he gave him not meat: if ever he came cold and naked, and he cloathed him not. During the course of the last long and bloody war Logan remained idle in his cabin, an advocate for peace. Such was my love for the whites, that my countrymen pointed as they passed, and said, "Logan is the friend of white men." I have even thought to live with you, but for the injuries of one man. Colonel Cresap, the last spring, in cold blood, and unprovoked, murdered all the relations of Logan, not even sparing my women and children. There runs not a drop of my blood in the veins of any living creature. This called on me for revenge. I have sought it: I have killed many: I have fully glutted my vengeance: for my country I rejoice at the beams of peace. But do not harbor a thought that mine is the joy of fear. Logan never felt fear. He will not turn on his heel to save his life. Who is there to mourn for Logan?—Not one.
- Speech to Lord Dunmore (1775), in Thomas Jefferson, An Appendix to the Notes on Virginia relative to the Murder of Logan's Family (Philadelphia: S. H. Smith, 1800), p. 50
External links
[edit]
- Herbert Croft, Love and Madness (Dublin: J. and R. Byrn, 1780), pp. 34–5
- William Maginn, The Military Sketch-Book (London: H. Colburn, 1827), vol. 2, p. 254:
- I may say with the great North American Chief,—"There runs not one drop of my blood in any living creature."
- "Hugh Mercer's Copy of Logan's Speech, February 13, 1798". Founders Online (NARA)