James H. Merrell

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James H. Merrell | Notes and Documents: "I desire all that I have said ... may be taken down aright": Revisiting Teedyuscung's 1756 Treaty Council Speeches | The William and Mary Quarterly, 63.4 | The History Cooperative

Notes and Documents

"I desire all that I have said ... may be taken down aright": Revisiting Teedyuscung's 1756 Treaty Council Speeches

ON November 13, 1756, a Delaware Indian leader named Teedyuscung stood up to speak at a treaty council with English colonists in Easton, Pennsylvania, a frontier town some fifty miles up the Delaware River from Philadelphia. He was there to continue peace talks that he and his colonial counterparts had begun the previous summer. Vital to ending the terrible border war then raging was the Condolence Ceremony, a Native American ritual designed to heal hearts aching from sorrow and anger. Beginning that rite, the Delaware said:

Brother, The Times are not now as they were in the Days of our Grandfathers; then it was Peace, but now War and Distress; I am sorry for what has happened, and I now take and wipe the Tears from your Eyes, as there is great Reason for Mourning ... —I take away the Blood from your Bodies, with which they are sprinkled: I clear the Ground, and the Leaves, that you may sit down with Quietness: I clear your Eyes, that when you see the Day-light you may enjoy it.

On the other hand, perhaps Teedyuscung put it like this:

You are not ye same as your Grand fathers
Bror I also now take & wipe ye tears from your Eyes as there is a great reason of mourning ... he takes & wipes all ye Blood from your Body & clears ye place yt you may sit down takes ye Blood from ye Leaves yt you may sit down wth quietness yt wn you see ye Day light you may enjoy it[.] ¹

Or maybe his words were these:

Brother I also now takes & wipes the Tears from Your Eyes as there is Great Reason for it ... that their places may be Clear & that they may Sit Down in peace & ampl wipe off the blood which is Sprinkled on You which was not the Case with Your fathers[.]

Three days later, urging Pennsylvanians to carry on the work of peace by uncovering and redressing the grievances (termed "Uneasiness") that had caused Indians to go to war, Teedyuscung spoke as follows:

God, that is above, hath furnished us both with Powers and Abilities.—As for my own Part, I must confess, to my Shame, I have not made such Improvements of the Power given me as I ought; but as I look on you to be more highly favoured from above than I am, I would desire you, that we would join our Endeavours to promote the good Work; and that the Cause of our Uneasiness, begun in the Times of our Forefathers, may be removed; and if you look into your Hearts, and act according to the Abilities given you, you will know the Grounds of our Uneasiness in some Measure from what I said before.

It could be that the Delaware headman phrased it this way:

Or perhaps he simply said:

As we now esteem you much, that you are able, you can easily judge what was the Grounds of our Uneasiness.²

These versions of Teedyuscung's words are among several that different colonists wrote down that autumn. The first and longest excerpt in each set is also the most famous and the most often consulted and quoted: Benjamin Franklin, who was at the council (but apparently did not take notes as Teedyuscung spoke), edited and published the minutes of the congress some months later. Reading Franklin's rendition alongside the others raises questions about just what the Delaware leader said. Did he apologize or not? Did he say that he was ashamed of himself or not? Did he indeed pronounce the colonists God's chosen people who were "more highly favoured from above" than the Indians?

. . .

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