Thomas Jefferson Papers

Enclosure II: Hugh Mercer’s Copy of Logan’s Speech, 13 February 1798

II
Hugh Mercer’s Copy of Logan’s Speech

The Speech of Logan a Shawanees Cheif to Ld. Dunmore

I appeal to any white man to say if ever he1 enter.d Logans Cabin hungrey and I gave him not Meat if ever he came Cold, or naked and I gave him not cloths, during the course of the last long & bloody War, Logan remained Idle in his Tent2 an advocate for peace nay such was my love for the Whites that those of my own Country pointed at me as they passed by & said Logan is the friend of white Men, I had even thoughts of living with You but for the Injustice of one Man, Colo. Cressap, the last spring in cold blood & unprovock.d cut of all the relations of Logan not sparing even my Women & Children. There runs not a drop of the3 blood of Logan in the Veins of any human creature, This call.d on me for revenge, I have saught it, I have kill.d many. I have fully gluted my Vengeance for my Country, I rejoice at the beams of peace. but do not harbour a thought that mine is the Joy of fear. Logan never felt fear he will not turn his heel4 to save his life. who is there left to mourn for Logan. not one

MS (DLC: TJ Papers, 1:131); undated; in an unidentified hand; endorsed in same hand: “Logans Spe[ech]”; endorsed by TJ: “copy of Logan’s speech given by the late Genl. Mercer upwards of 20. years ago (from the date of Feb. 98) to Lewis Willis, who delivered it to Mann Page to be forwarded to Th:J. See M. Page’s letter Feb. 13. 98.”

TJ gave this version of Logan’s lamentation a place in the Appendix to the Notes on Virginia, but only by way of a heading that traced the document’s provenance, TJ omitting the text of the address as “agreeing verbatim with that in the Notes on Virginia.” There are a few variations in wording between the speech in TJ’s Notes and the document above (Notes, ed. Peden description begins Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, ed. William Peden, Chapel Hill, 1955 description ends , 63, 245).

Logan a shawanees cheif: although the Shawnees were prominent in Dunmore’s War, Logan was a Mingo; see note to TJ to John Gibson, 31 May 1797.

1. The word “came” is canceled here.

2. Word interlined in place of “Cabbin.”

3. Word interlined in place of an illegible cancellation.

4. Word interlined in place of “head.”

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    Title
    Enclosure II: Hugh Mercer’s Copy of Logan’s Speech, 13 February 1798
    Date
    13 February 1798

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    Cite as
    “Enclosure II: Hugh Mercer’s Copy of Logan’s Speech, 13 February 1798,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-30-02-0070. [Original source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 30, 1 January 1798 – 31 January 1799, ed. Barbara B. Oberg. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2003, p. 103.]