378 The Winning of the West 



(4) Mr. Neville B. Craig, in "Olden Time," says 

 in 1847 that "many years before a Mr. James Mc- 

 Kee, the brother of Mr. William Johnson's deputy, 

 had told him that he had seen the speech in the 

 handwriting of one of the Johnsons . . . before it 

 was seen by Logan." This is a hearsay statement 

 delivered just seventy-three years after the event, 

 and it is on its face so wildly improbable as not to 

 need further comment, at least until there is some 

 explanation as to why the Johnsons should have 

 written the speech, how they could possibly have 

 gotten it to Logan, and why Gibson should have 

 entered into the conspiracy. 



(5) A Benjamin Tomlinson testifies that he be- 

 lieves that the speech was fabricated by Gibson; he 

 hints, but does not frankly assert, that Gibson was 

 not sent after Logan, but that Girty was ; and swears 

 that he heard the speech read three times and that 

 the name of Cresap was not mentioned in it. 



He was said in later life to bear a good repu- 

 tation; but in his deposition he admits under oath 

 that he was present at the Yellow Creek murder 

 ("Olden Time," II, 61 ; the editor, by the way, 

 seems to call him alternately Joseph and Benja- 

 min) ; and he was therefore an unconvicted crimi- 

 nal, who connived at or participated in one of the 

 most brutal and cowardly deeds ever done on the 

 frontier. His statement as against Gibson's would 

 be worthless anyhow; fortunately his testimony as 

 to the omission of Cresap's name from the speech is 

 also flatly contradicted by Clark. With the words 



