Father! The last time I was here I mentioned to you that my mind was
uneasy in regard to Mr. OLIVER PHELPS'S purchase, to which you desired me
to make my mind easy, and said that you would inquire into the business.
On my return I met Mr. PHELPS at Canandaigua, where he promised to give
me a piece of land and to build me a house, and give me some cattle. With
this I was satisfied, till I saw him again sometime after, when he, to my
surprise, had almost forgotten it; but when I put him in mind of it, he
gave me a horse and ten cattle, but refused the house and land because
land had raised so much in value.
Father! To one thing more I wish your attention. When I was returning
home the last time I was here, I was plundered by some of your unruly
people of several things, amongst which was a paper, given me by General
PARSONS, entitling me to one mile square of land at Muskingum, which I
have never been able to recover, and without your friendly assistance
must lose the land.[AD]
[AD] This is the land granted by the Ohio company referred to in Colonel
SNOWDEN'S Historical Sketch. It thus appears that CORNPLANTER'S title
papers for this land were stolen from him.
Father! I congratulate you on your intended repose from the fatigues and
anxiety of mind which are constant attendants on high public stations,
and hope that the same good Spirit which has so long guided your steps as
a father to a great nation, will still continue to protect you, and make
your private reflections as pleasant to yourself as your public measures
have been useful to your people.
SPEECH OF CORNPLANTER,
TO THE GOVERNOR OF PENNSYLVANIA, FEBRUARY, 1822.
I feel it my duty to send a speech to the Governor of Pennsylvania at
this time, and inform him of the place where I was from, which was at
Connewaugus, on the Genessee river.
When I was a child I played with the butterfly, the grasshopper and the
frogs; and as I grew up, I began to pay some attention, and play with
the Indian boys in the neighborhood, and they took notice of my skin
being of a different color from theirs, and spoke about it. I inquired
of my mother the cause, and she told me that my father was a residenter
in Albany. I still eat my victuals out of a bark dish. I grew up to be
a young man, and married me a wife, and I had no kettle nor gun. I then
knew where my father lived, and went to see him, and found he was a white
man, and spoke the English language. He gave me victuals while I was at
his house, but when I started home, he gave me no provision to eat on the
way. He gave me neither kettle nor gun, neither did he tell me that the
United States were about to rebel against the government of England.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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