and bearing in mind that all that he says
against the authenticity of the speech itself is confessedly mere
supposition on his part, his statement must be promptly set aside as
worthless. If true, by the way, it would conflict with (4) Craig's
statement.

This is literally all the "evidence" against the speech. It scarcely
needs serious discussion; it may be divided into two parts--one
containing allegations that are silly, and the other those that are
discredited.

There is probably very little additional evidence to be obtained, on
one side or the other; it is all in, and Logan's speech can be
unhesitatingly pronounced authentic. Doubtless there have been verbal
alterations in it; there is not extant a report of any famous speech
which does not probably differ in some way from the words as they were
actually spoken. There is also a good deal of confusion as to whether
the council took place in the Indian town, or in Dunmore's camp;
whether Logan was sought out alone in his hut by Gibson, or came up
and drew the latter aside while he was at the council, etc. In the
same way, we have excellent authority for stating that, prior to the
battle of the Great Kanawha, Lewis reached the mouth of that river on
October 1st, and that he reached it on October 6th; that on the day
of the attack the troops marched from camp a quarter of a mile, and
that they marched three quarters; that the Indians lost more men than
the whites, and that they lost fewer; that Lewis behaved well, and
that he behaved badly; that the whites lost 140 men, and that they
lost 215, etc., etc. The conflict of evidence as to the dates and
accessory details of Logan's speech is no greater than it is as to the
dates and accessory details of the murder by Greathouse, or as to all
the preliminaries of the main battle of the campaign. Coming from
backwoods sources, it is inevitable that we should have confusion on
points of detail; but as to the main question there seems almost as
little reason for doubting the authenticity of Logan's speech, as for
doubting the reality of the battle of the Great Kanawha.

END OF VOL. I.

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by Theodore Roosevelt

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