I have recently examined Mr. Ketchum's history of Buffalo and the Senecas. The facts he presents corroborate the views I have presented of the character and services of Cornplanter. I am surprised, however, to notice that he expresses an opinion adverse to our Chief. He does him great injustice when he says; "There is no doubt that Cornplanter was at heart in the British interest, up to the period of Wayne's victory in 1794." He also makes the extraordinary assertion, that Cornplanter acted in concert with Brant, during the period of the Indian troubles in Ohio, after the Revolutionary war!

The contrary most clearly appears by the whole course of conduct of our Chief; as well as by his speeches, his letters and his participation in treaties. With Brant, Cornplanter never was on friendly terms, and after the war of the Revolution, their policy, and even personal relations, were adverse and hostile. Mr. Ketchum, himself, shows that there existed between these Chiefs "a personal dislike."

While Cornplanter was aiding Washington and his agents, Colonels Proctor and Pickering, and others, to preserve peace with the hostile Indians of the west, and conciliate the Six Nations, Brant was the agent of the British to keep up the war, and he even sent some of his warriors to join the enemy, when they took up the hatchet; he made his home with the British, and was in constant communication with Colonels Gordon and M'Kee, the commanders at Niagara and Detroit, and with other British officers.

The writer referred to adds the following: "As a warrior, whatever may be thought or said by whites, Cornplanter, in the estimation of the Indians who were their contemporaries, was the superior of Brant. The Senecas were a nation of warriors; and it will be admitted that they did the most of the fighting for the Six Nations, during nearly two centuries of their history, with which we are conversant. From the time Cornplanter came on the stage, (and he entered upon the war path early,) down to the close of the Revolutionary war, he had no superior, and few equals as a warrior. His other qualifications will be judged by the record he has left in his speeches and letters, and in the archives of our State and National Government."—Vol. 1, p. 411.

I am content to let the personal and political character of our Chief be judged by the records thus referred to. And I think I have shown in this Memorial, from these records, that Cornplanter was not only a distinguished warrior, statesman and orator, but that he was, after the close of the Revolutionary war, the active, faithful and devoted friend of the government and people of the United States. And that he also well deserves the inscription on the monument erected by Pennsylvania to his memory, "Distinguished for talent, courage, eloquence, sobriety and love for his tribe and race, to whose welfare he devoted his time, his energies and his means, during a long and eventful life."

There is one trait in the character of Cornplanter, not heretofore noticed, which is referred to by Colonel Proctor in his narrative, and which I think ought to be presented here. Colonel Proctor was sent by Washington, to visit Cornplanter, to engage him and other Chiefs, to go on an embassy of peace to the Western Indians. He traveled by way of Wyoming and the Susquehanna. I quote from his narrative, under the date of March 20, 1791.

"This day we set forward for Captain Waterman Baldwin's, above Wilkesbarre; arrived there in the evening, halted for him part of two days, as I had orders to take him with me to the residence of The Cornplanter, at which place he was intended to act as instructor to the Indian youth, as also a director in the mode and management of agriculture, for the use and benefit of the Indians. This gentleman was made prisoner by Cornplanter during the late war, (Revolution,) and was treated by him with remarkable tenderness, until legally exchanged."