ing incited to war by Conolly's letter, murdered some peaceful
Indians, among whom there were certainly some friends and possibly
some relations of Logan (see testimony of Col. Ebenezer Zane, in
Jefferson's Notes, and "American Pioneer," I., 12; also Clark's letter
in the Jefferson Papers); but that he had no share in the massacre of
Logan's family at Yellow Creek by Greathouse and his crew two or three
days afterwards. The two massacres occurring so near together,
however, produced the impression not only among the Indians but among
many whites (as shown in the body of this work), that Cresap had been
guilty of both; and this Logan undoubtedly believed, as can be seen by
the letter he wrote and left tied to a war club in a murdered
settler's house. This was an injustice to Cresap; but it was a very
natural mistake on Logan's part.

After the speech was recited it attracted much attention; was
published in newspapers, periodicals, etc., and was extensively
quoted. Jefferson, as we learn from his Papers at Washington, took it
down in 1775, getting it from Lord Dunmore's officers, and published
it in his "Notes," in 1784; unfortunately he took for granted that its
allegations as regards Cresap were true, and accordingly prefaced it
by a very unjust attack on the reputed murderer. Until thirteen years
after this publication, and until twenty-three years after the speech
had been published for the first time, no one thought of questioning
it. Then Luther Martin, of Maryland, attacked its authenticity, partly
because he was Cresap's son-in-law, and partly because he was a
Federalist and a bitter opponent of Jefferson. Like all of his
successors in the same line, he confused two entirely distinct things,
viz., the justice of the charge against Cresap, and the authenticity
of Logan's speech. His controversy with Jefferson grew very bitter. He
succeeded in showing clearly that Cresap was wrongly accused by Logan;
he utterly failed to impugn the authenticity of the latter's speech.
Jefferson, thanks to a letter he received from Clark, must have known
that Cresap had been accused wrongly; but he was irritated by the
controversy, and characteristically refrained in any of his
publications from doing justice to the slandered man's memory.

A Mr. Jacobs soon afterwards wrote a life of Cresap, in which he
attempted both of the feats aimed at by Martin; it is quite an
interesting production, but exceedingly weak in its arguments. Nev