By a singular combination of circumstances, Red-Jacket was brought forward into public life, and that to great advantage, mainly in consequence of the same incident which destroyed the influence of Corn-Planter. This, indeed, had been rather declining for some time, owing partly to his agency in effecting a large cession of Seneca land to the American Government, at the treaty of Fort Stanwix, in 1784. His loss of popularity, in fine, bitterly chagrined him, and he resolved on a desperate exertion to restore it. With this view, he undertook to practice upon the never-failing superstition of his countrymen, by persuading his brother to announce himself as a _Prophet,_--of course commissioned by the Great Spirit "to redeem the fallen fortunes of his race,"--that is, his own. The savages listened to the new pretender with all the veracious credulity which characterises the race. Among the Onondagas, previously the most drunken and profligate of the Six Nations, he acquired such an ascendancy, as to induce them to abandon the use of spirituous liquors entirely, and to observe the common laws of morality and decency in some other respects, wherein they had before been grievously deficient. Indeed, among the Confederates generally, he obtained a supremacy equal to that of the same character obtained by Elskwatawa among the western tribes, not far from the same time. The Oneidas alone rejected him. Like that notorious impostor, too, he soon availed himself, for evil purposes, of the confidence gained by the preliminary manifestation of good. A cry of "witchcraft" was raised, and a sort of examining committee of conjurers was selected to designate the offenders. And that duty was zealously discharged. The victims were actually sentenced, and would doubtless have been executed, but for the interference of the magistrates of Oneida and the officers of the garrison at Niagara. But neither the Corn-Planter nor his pious coadjutor was yet discouraged. Nothing but an accident had prevented success, and the failure only made it the more imperatively necessary to try the experiment again. Red-Jacket was publicly denounced. His accusers came forward at a great Indian council held at Buffalo Creek. "At this crisis," says an eminent writer, "he well knew that the future color of his life depended upon the powers of his mind. He spoke in his defence for near three hours. The iron brow of superstition relented under the magic of his eloquence; he declared the Prophet an impostor and a cheat; he prevailed; the Indians divided, and a small majority appeared in his favor. Perhaps the annals of history cannot furnish a more conspicuous instance of the triumph and power of oratory, in a barbarous nation, devoted to superstition, and looking up to the accuser as a delegated minister of the Almighty." [FN] * * * * * [FN] Discourse of Governor Clinton.