It is hardly necessary to add, that nothing more was heard from Little
Billy concerning his cowardice on that day.

This charge of cowardice was owing in a great degree to the orator's
position. He was not on the popular side. The majority of his people were
against him. Had he acted in accordance with their wishes, it is a
question whether anything would ever have been said about his deficiency
in courage. And this supposition is strengthened by the fact, that at a
subsequent period in his history, a little display of courage, when acting
in accordance with the wishes of his people, gained for him a marked
degree of approbation, and gave rise to the affirmation, "_the stain fixed
upon his character, was thus wiped away by his good conduct in the
field_." [Footnote: McKenney's Indian Biography.]

In opposing the wishes of his people, when bent on a war of which he did
not approve, he gained the epithet of _coward_. With less intelligence,
and less moral courage, he might have seconded the views of his nation,
and been ranked a brave.

Hence, though we do not claim for Red Jacket the possession of qualities,
adapted to make him conspicuous as a military chieftain, we are disposed
to attribute to him the higher courage of acting in accordance with his
own convictions of propriety and duty. "He was born an orator, and while
morally brave, lacked the stolid insensibility to suffering and slaughter,
which characterized the war-captains of his nation." [Footnote: Bryant's
address.]

We readily concede that Red Jacket was fitted by nature to excel in
councils of peace, rather than in enterprises of war; to gain victories in
a conflict of mind with mind rather than in physical strife, on the field