243 



ted in America at tiie time, and as I had heard it my- 

 self, in the circle of Lord Dunmore, and the officers 

 who accompanied him : and the speech itself was given 

 as it had, ten years before the })rinting of that book, cir- 

 culated in the nevvspa])ers through all the then colonies, 

 through the magazines of Great-Britain, and the peri- 

 odical publications of Europe. For three antl twenty 

 years it passed uncontradicted ; nor was it ever suspect- 

 ed that it even admitted contradiction. In 1797, how- 

 ever, for the first time, not only the whole transaction 

 respecting Logan was affirmed in the public papers to 

 be false, but the speech itself suggested to be a forgery, 

 and even a forgery of mine, to aid me in proving that 

 the man of America was equal in body and in mind, to 

 the man in Europe. But wherefore the forgery ; whe- 

 ther Logan's or mine, it would still have been Ameri- 

 can. I should indeed consult my own fame if the sug- 

 gestion, that this speech is mine, were suffered to be 

 believed. He would have a just right to be proud who 

 could with truth claim that composition. But it is none 

 of mine ; and I yield it to whom it is due. 



On seeing then that this transaction was brought into 

 question, I thought it my duty to make particular enquiry 

 into its foundation. It was the more my duty, as it was 

 alleged that, l)y ascribing to an individual therein nam- 

 ed, a participation in the murder of Logan's family, I 

 had done an injury to his character, which it had not 

 deserved. I had no knowledge personally of that indi- 

 vidual. I had no reason to aim an injury at him. I only 

 repeated what I had heard from others, and what thou- 

 sands had heard and believed as well as myself; and 

 which no one indeed, till then, had been known to ques- 

 tion. Twenty-three years had now elapsed, since the 

 transaction took place. Many of those acquainted with 

 it were dead, and the living dispersed to very distant 

 ])arts of the earth. Few of them were even known to 

 me. To those however of whom I knew, I made ap- 

 plication by letter ; and some others, moved by a regard 

 for truth and justice, were kind enough to come forward, 

 of themselves, with their testimony. These fragments 



