Chief Logan's Speech

Tahgahjute, known as Chief John Logan, a Mingo chief and Iroquoian ambassador, arbiter, orator, statesman, and warrior, declared that he had shown generosity to white visitors and had remained in his cabin as an advocate for peace during the last long and bloody war, so much so that his countrymen called him the friend of the white men. He said he had even thought to live with them until, the previous spring, Colonel Cresap murdered all Logan's relations in cold blood and without provocation, sparing neither women nor children. Logan said this destruction of his family called him to revenge, which he pursued by killing many, while still rejoicing in peace for his country and insisting that his grief was not fear, for he would not turn to save his own life. He ended by asking who was left to mourn for Logan and answered, not one. Thomas Jefferson, in Notes on the State of Virginia, praised this address by Logan to Lord Dunmore, the Governor of Virginia, as unsurpassed even by the orations of Demosthenes and Cicero.

West Virginia · United States