Red Jacket was no fabled warrior; his favourite weapon was his eloquence, never a musket. Colonel McKenney compared him to Cicero, a man who better understood how to lead his countrymen to war instead of leading them into battle.

[...]

In March 1792, Red Jacket led fifty Iroquois chiefs into Philadelphia as guests of Washington and his cabinet. General St.Clair had been routed in a bloody defeat in the previous fall, a bitter reverse to the hopes of the young Republic. It was feared that the British might again arm the still powerful Iroquois Confederacy and its warrior would fall on the feeble settlements of the Niagara frontier and again leave the Mohawk in flames. Red Jacket was the principal speaker at this lengthy council in which the Iroquois chiefs finally, reluctantly, agreed to act as mediators between the United States and the warring tribes of the west.

[...]

"We stand a small island in the bosom of the greats waters. We are encircled-we are encompassed. The evil spirits ride upon the blasts and the waters are disturbed. They rise, they press upon us and the waves will settle over us and we shall disappear forever. Who then lives to mourn us, white man ? None. What marks our extermination ? Nothing. We are mingled with the common elements."

[...]

"Brother: You think us ignorant and uninformed. Go then and teach the whites. Select for example the people of Buffalo. We will be the spectator and remain silent. Improve their morals and refine their habits. Make them less disposed to cheat the Indians. Make the whites less inclined to make the Indian drunk and to take away their lands. Let us know the tree by the blossoms and the blossoms by the fruit. When this shall be made clear to our minds we may be more willing to listen to you. I have spoken."