But the great merit of his life, and which most entitled him to the gratitude of the American government, and the State of Pennsylvania, was his successful efforts to prevent the Six Nations uniting in the Confederacy of western Indians formed in 1790-91. Had these tribes, then the most powerful on the continent, joined that Confederacy, the bloody realities of the war that followed, would have spread over the entire western frontier of Pennsylvania, and its termination in 1794, by the victory of General WAYNE, rendered exceedingly doubtful. General ST. CLAIR anticipated and forwarned against this union, after his defeat in '91, and General KNOX, then Secretary of War, dreaded and fortified against it. But CORNPLANTER, with untiring exertions, and at the hazard of his own life, prevented such a disastrous result, and thus saved the settlers on the Allegheny and upper Ohio, from the horrors of a merciless Indian warfare. For his invaluable services in the procurement and maintenance of peace between his people and the infant nation, just recuperating from its exhausting conflict with the British lion, CORNPLANTER received the thanks and liberal donations of the government and General WASHINGTON. We are now assembled upon the homestead which CORNPLANTER lived, and where, after an eventful life, during the most eventful period of this continent, he lived and died, at peace with himself, with all the world, and, we trust, with his Merciful Creator. For many years, the appearance of his venerable form, at any point in the Valley of this beautiful river, from its source to its outlet, was the signal for a courteous and kindly greeting by all who knew him. His visitors, whether on business or for curiosity, were always treated with a dignified kindness and hospitality that would have graced the castle of a Duke, in the days of chivalry. On this beautiful spot, of his own selection, the gift of a grateful Commonwealth for appreciated merit, he spent the last forty-five years of his life, surrounded by his family and descendants, in the practice of all those virtues that adorn both civilized and savage life. He was the dauntless warrior and wisest statesman of his nation, the patriarch of his tribe and the peacemaker of his race. He was a model man from nature's mould. Truth, temperance, justice and humanity, never had a nobler incarnation or more earnest and consistent advocate than he. As we loved him personally, and revere the noble, manly character he bore, we erect this tribute to his memory, that those who live after us may know and imitate his virtues. Gy-ant-wa-chia, or Cornplanter, _The last War Chief of the Senecas, and of the Iroquois, or Six Nations._ AN HISTORICAL, SKETCH BY JAMES ROSS SNOWDEN.