Logan (Ta-Ga-Jute)

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Logan (Indian name, TA-GA-JUTE), Cayuga chief; born in Shamokin, Pennsylvania, about 1725; received his English name from James Logan, secretary of the province of Pennsylvania; went beyond the Alleghanies before 1767; and in 1772, Heckewelder, the Moravian missionary, met him on the Beaver River, and observed his great mental capacity. His family were massacred by a party of white people in the spring of 1774, which was the occasion of his celebrated speech after the defeat of the Indians at Point Pleasant. He was invited to a conference with Lord Dunmore on the Scioto. He refused to have any friendly intercourse with a white man, but sent by the messenger (Colonel John Gibson, who married his sister) the following remarkable speech to the council:

Logan TaGaJute Speech

"I appeal to any white man to say if he ever entered Logan's cabin hungry and he gave him no meat; if he ever came cold and naked and he clothed him not. During the course of the last long and bloody war, Logan remained idle in his cabin, an advocate for peace. Such was my love for the whites, that my countrymen pointed as they passed and said, 'Logan is the friend of the white man.' I had even thought to have lived with you but for the injuries of one man. Colonel Cresap, the last spring, in cold blood and unprovoked, murdered all the relations of Logan, not even sparing my women and children. 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. But 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!"

Logan was mistaken; it was not Cresap who led the band of assassins. He was not then in that region. Logan's speech was translated into English, and was pronounced inimitable for eloquence and pathos. Logan fought the white people desperately afterwards, when occasion offered, in the West. At a council held at Detroit, in 1780, while maddened by strong drink, he felled his wife by a heavy blow. Supposing he had killed her, he fled. Overtaken by a troop of Indians on the southern shore of Lake Erie, he supposed them to be avengers, and frantically declared that he would slay the whole party. As he leaped from his horse he was shot dead.

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