As has been hinted, Red Jacket became addicted to the use of liquor, as his years increased. He indulged at times to such an extent that even his own people felt scandalized. It was impossible that such an aggressive leader should not make enemies. More than one of his acts offended members of his tribe. Conscious of his own mental superiority, he left no doubt of the estimation in which he held others. He was not always tactful, and the attention paid to him by whites roused much jealousy. After plotting together, these enemies formed a plan for taking his chieftaincy from him in the autumn of 1827, they "impeached" him. A series of charges were brought against the orator, embracing about all the crimes a man is capable of committing. Had Red Jacket been guilty of a tenth of them, he deserved hanging. It was his drinking habits which really brought the issue to a head. The charges were signed by twenty-six leading Senecas who declared Red Jacket deposed. But the fiery old orator was not the one tamely to submit to such injustice. Knowing that it was useless to appeal to his own particular tribe, he appealed to the Six Nations themselves, and, within a month of his deposition, the chiefs representing all the different tribes assembled in Grand Council, at the upper council house of the Seneca reservation. The hearing was conducted with dignity. The charges were read and the action of the Seneca council stated. After several speeches, Red Jacket rose to his feet with all his former kingly majesty. He was old and his bad habits had wrought havoc with the once iron frame, but his eye had lost none of its fire, his voice none of its persuasive power, and for the occasion he was Red Jacket, the supreme orator. His address was cunning, convincing and resistless. He swept every obstacle like chaff from before him. Even his enemies were thrilled by his eloquence. His victory was absolute. He was restored to his former rank and held it to the end. Red Jacket's intemperate habits hastened his death, which took place in his own cabin, near Buffalo, in the month of January, 1830. The voice of the matchless orator, the "Last of the Senecas," was never to be heard again. CHAPTER XI LITTLE TURTLE FIRST AN ENEMY, THEN A FRIEND At the close of the Revolution, the boundaries of the United States were the Mississippi River on the west, the St. Lawrence and Great Lakes on the north, and the thirty-first parallel on the south. But for the famous expedition of Captain George Rogers Clark in 1778, the western boundary would have been the Allegheny Mountains. Clark was an elder brother of Captain William Clark, who, with Captain Merriwether Lewis, made his memorable journey across the continent to the Pacific, a quarter of a century later.