t often have thought his
wrongs over in the same terms, brooding upon them with an aching
heart, but not with hate so much as grief. The speech was made at the
Chillicothe town where Lord Dunmore treated with the Ohio tribes for
peace in the August after Logan had written his letter, but it was not
spoken in the council. Logan held aloof from the council, and Dunmore
sent to his cabin for him. It is said by some that his messenger was
the great renegade Simon Girty, who had not yet turned against his own
people, and was then, with his friend Simon Kenton, a scout in Dunmore's
service. Others say that the messenger was a young man named Gibson, but
whoever he was, Logan met him at the door, and coming out into the woods
sat down under a tree which was long known as Logan's Elm. Here, with a
burst of tears, he told the story of his wrongs in language which cannot
be forgotten as long as men have hearts to thrill for others' sorrows.

[Illustration: Logan's Elm 149]

"I appeal to any white man to say if ever he entered Logan's cabin and
I gave him not meat; if ever he came cold and naked and I gave him
not clothing. During the course of the last long and bloody war Logan
remained in his tent an advocate of peace. Nay, such was my love for the
whites that those of my own country pointed at me as they passed, and
said, 'Logan is the friend of the white man.' I had even thought to
live with you but for the injuries of one man. Colonel Cresap, the
last spring, in cold blood and unprovoked, cut off all the relatives of
Logan, not sparing even my women and children. There runs not a drop
of my blood in the veins of any human creature. This called on me for
revenge. I have sought it. I have killed many. I have fully glutted my
vengeance. For my country I rejoice at the beams of peace. Yet do not
harbor the thought that mine is the joy of fear. Logan never felt fear.
He will not turn on his heel to save his life. Who is there to mourn for
Logan? Not one."

This speech, or rather this message, which Logan sent to Lord Dunmore,
has come down to us in two forms, one which Dunmore's officers wrote out
from the report of the message, and one which Thomas Jefferson framed
upon it. They do not differ greatly, and I have given Jefferson's
version here, because it best expresses the noble mind of a noble man,
a savage, indeed, but far less savage than many of the white men of that
day or any day. A pioneer of Western Pennsylvania, Willia