The American Indians Part 42

But while we admire the zeal and boldness with which the limits of the trade were extended, we regret that a belief in the necessity of using ardent spirits caused them to be introduced, in any quant.i.ty, among the North West tribes.

Other regions have been explored to spread the light of the gospel. This was traversed to extend the reign of intemperance, and to prove that the love of gain was so strongly implanted in the breast of the white man, as to carry him over regions of ice and snow, woods and waters, where the natives had only been intruded on by the Musk Ox and the Polar bear.

n.o.body will deem it too much to say, that wherever the current of the fur trade set, the nations were intoxicated, demoralized, depopulated.

The terrible scourge of the small pox, which broke out in the country north west of Lake Superior in 1782, was scarcely more fatal to the natives, though more rapid and striking in its effects, than the power of ardent spirits. Nor did it produce so great a moral affliction. For those who died of the varioloid, were spared the death of ebriety. Furs were gleaned with an iron hand, and rum was given out with an iron heart. There was no remedy for the rigors of the trade; and there was no appeal. Beaver was sought with a thirst of gain as great as that which carried Cortez to Mexico, and Pizarro to Peru. It had deadened the ties of humanity, and cut asunder the cords of private faith.[43] Like the Spaniard in his treatment of Capolicon, when the latter had given him the house full of gold for his ransom, he was himself basely executed.

So the northern chief, when he had given his all, gave himself as the victim at last. He was not, however, consumed at the _stake_, but at the _bottle_. The sword of his executioner was _spirits_--his gold, _beaver skins_. And no mines of the precious metals, which the world has ever produced, have probably been more productive of wealth, than the fur-yielding regions of North America.

[43] The murder of Wadin, the cold-blooded a.s.sa.s.sination of Keveny, and the shooting of Semple, are appealed to, as justifying the force of this remark.

But while the products of the chase have yielded wealth to the white man, they have produced misery to the Indian. The latter, suffering for the means of subsistence, like the child in the parable, had asked for bread, and he received it; but, with it, he received a scorpion. And it is the sting of the scorpion, that has been raging among the tribes for more than two centuries, causing sickness, death, and depopulation in its track. It is the venom of this sting, that has proved emphatically

"----the blight of human bliss!

Curse to all _states_ of man, but most to _this_."

Let me not be mistaken, in ascribing effects disproportionate to their cause, or in overlooking advantages which have brought along in their train, a striking evil. I am no admirer of that sickly philosophy, which looks back upon a state of nature as a state of innocence, and which cannot appreciate the benefits the Indian race have derived from the discovery of this portion of the world by civilized and Christian nations. But while I would not, on the one hand, conceal my sense of the advantages, temporal and spiritual, which hinge upon this discovery, I would not, on the other, disguise the evils which intemperance has caused among them; nor cease to hold it up, to the public, as a great and destroying evil, which was early introduced--which has spread extensively--which is in active operation, and which threatens yet more disastrous consequences to this unfortunate race.

Writers have not been wanting, who are p.r.o.ne to lay but little stress upon the destructive influence of ardent spirits, in diminis.h.i.+ng the native population, and who have considered its effects as trifling in comparison to the want of food, and the enhanced price created by this want.[44] The abundance or scarcity of food is a principle in political economy, which is a.s.sumed as the primary cause of depopulation. And, as such, we see no reason to question its soundness. If the value of labor, the price of clothing and other necessary commodities, can be referred to the varying prices of vegetable and animal food, we do not see that the fact of a people's being civilized or uncivilized, should invalidate the principle; and when we turn our eyes upon the forest we see that it does not. A pound of beaver, which in 1730, when animal food was abundant, was worth here about a French crown, is now, when food is scarce and dear, worth from five to six dollars; and consequently, one pound of beaver _now_ will procure as much food and clothing as five pounds of the like quality of beaver _then_. It is the failure of the race of furred animals, and the want of industry in hunting them, that operate to produce depopulation. And what, we may ask, has so powerful an effect in destroying the energies of the hunter, as the vice of intemperance? Stupefying his mind, and enervating his body, it leaves him neither the vigor to provide for his temporary wants, nor the disposition to inquire into those which regard eternity. His natural affections are blunted, and all the sterner and n.o.bler qualities of the Indian mind prostrated. His family are neglected. They first become objects of pity to our citizens, and then of disgust. The want of wholesome food and comfortable clothing produce disease. He falls at last himself, the victim of disease, superinduced from drinking.

[44] The North American Review. Sanford's History of the United States, before the Revolution.

Such is no exaggerated picture of the Indian, who is in a situation to contract the habit of intemperance. And it is only within the last year or eighteen months--it is only since the operation of Temperance principles has been felt in this remote place, that scenes of this kind have become unfrequent, and have almost ceased in our village, and in our settlement. And when we look abroad to other places, and observe the spread of temperance in the wide area from Louisiana to Maine, we may almost fancy we behold the accomplishment of Indian fable. It is related, on the best authority, that among the extravagances of Spanish enterprise, which characterized the era of the discovery of America, the natives had reported the existence of a fountain in the interior of one of the islands, possessed of such magical virtues, that whoever bathed in its Waters would be restored to the bloom of youth and the vigor of manhood. In search of this wonderful fountain historians affirm, that Ponce de Leon and his followers ranged the island. They only, however, drew upon themselves the charge of credulity. May we not suppose this tale of the salutary fountain to be an Indian allegory of temperance? It will, at least, admit of this application. And let us rejoice that, in the era of temperance, we have found the spring which will restore bloom to the cheeks of the young man, and the panacea that will remove disease from the old.

When we consider the effects which our own humble efforts as inhabitants of a distant post have produced in this labor of humanity, have we not every encouragement to persevere? Is it not an effort sanctioned by the n.o.blest affections of our nature--by the soundest principles of philanthropy--by the highest aspirations of Christian benevolence? Is it not the work of patriots as well as Christians? Of good citizens as well as good neighbors? Is it not a high and imperious duty to rid our land of the foul stain of intemperance? Is it a duty too hard for us to accomplish? Is there anything unreasonable in the voluntary obligations by which we are bound? Shall we lose property or reputation by laboring in the cause of temperance? Will the debtor be less able to pay his debts, or the creditor less able to collect them? Shall we injure man, woman or child, by das.h.i.+ng away the cup of intoxication? Shall we incur the charge of being denominated fools or madmen? Shall we violate any principles of morality, or any of the maxims of Christianity? Shall we run the risk of diminis.h.i.+ng the happiness of others, or putting our own in jeopardy? Finally, shall we injure man--shall we offend G.o.d?

If neither of these evils will result--if the highest principles of virtue and happiness sanction the measure--if learning applauds it, and religion approves it--if good must result from its success, and injury cannot accrue from its failure, what further motive need we to impel us onward, to devote our best faculties in the cause, and neither to faint nor rest till the modern hydra of intemperance be expelled from our country?

VENERABLE INDIAN CHIEF.

The Cattaraugus (N.Y.) Whig, of a late date, mentions that Gov.

Blacksnake, the Grand Sachem of the Indian nation, was recently in that place. He resides on the Alleghany Reservation, about twenty miles from the village; is the successor of Corn Planter, as chief of the Six Nations--a nephew of Joseph Brant, and uncle of the celebrated Red Jacket. He was born hear Cayuga Lake in 1749, being now ninety-six years of age. He was in the battle of Fort Stanwix, Wyoming, &c., and was a warm friend of Gen. Was.h.i.+ngton during the Revolution. He was in Was.h.i.+ngton's camp forty days at the close of the Revolution--was appointed chief by him, and now wears suspended from his neck a beautiful silver medal presented to him by Gen. Was.h.i.+ngton, bearing date 1796.

FATE OF THE RED RACE IN AMERICA:

THE POLICY PURSUED TOWARDS THEM BY GOVERNMENT, AND THE PRESENT CONDITION OF THE TRIBES WHO HAVE REMOVED WEST OF THE MISSISSIPPI.[45]

[45] Democratic Review, 1844.

The removal of the Indian Tribes within our State boundaries, to the west of the Mississippi, and their present condition and probable ultimate fate, have been the topic of such frequent speculation, misunderstanding, and may we not add, misrepresentation, within a few years past, both at home and abroad, that we suppose some notice of them, and particularly of the territory they occupy, and the result, thus far, of their experiment in self-government, drawn from authentic sources, may prove not unacceptable to the public.

The nomadic and hunter states of society never embraced within themselves the elements of perpetuity. They have ever existed, indeed, like a vacuum in the system of nature, which is at every moment in peril, and subject to be filled up and destroyed by the in-rus.h.i.+ng of the surrounding element. Civilisation is that element, in relation to non-agricultural and barbaric tribes, and the only question with respect to their continuance as distinct communities has been, how long they could resist its influence, and at what particular era this influence should change, improve, undermine, or destroy them. It is proved by history, that two essentially different states of society, with regard to art and civilisation, cannot both prosperously exist together, at the same time. The one which is in the ascendant will absorb and destroy the other. A wolf and a lamb are not more antagonistical in the system of organic being, than civilisation and barbarism, in the great ethnological impulse of man's diffusion over the globe. In this impulse, barbarism may temporarily triumph, as we see it has done by many striking examples in the history of Asia and Europe. But such triumphs have been attended with this remarkable result, that they have, in the end, reproduced the civilisation which they destroyed. Such, to quote no other example, was the effect of the prostration of the Roman type of civilisation by the warlike and predatory tribes of Northern Europe.

Letters and Christianity were both borne down, for a while, by this irresistible on-rush; but they were thereby only the more deeply implanted in the stratum of preparing civilisation; and in due time, like the grain that rots before it reproduces, sprang up with a vigor and freshness, which is calculated to be enduring, and to fill the globe.

Civilisation may be likened to an absorbent body, placed in contact with an anti-absorbent, for some of the properties of which it has strong affinities. It will draw these latter so completely out, that, to use a strong phrase, it may be said to eat them up. Civilisation is found to derive some of the means of its perfect development from letters and the arts, but it cannot permanently exist without the cultivation of the soil. It seems to have been the fundamental principle on which the species were originally created, that they should derive their sustenance and means of perpetuation from this industrial labor.

Wherever agricultural tribes have placed themselves in juxtaposition to hunters and erratic races, they have been found to withdraw from the latter the means of their support, by narrowing the limits of the forest and plains, upon the wild animals of which, both carnivorous and herbivorous, hunters subsist. When these have been destroyed, the grand resources of these hunters and pursuers have disappeared. Wars, the introduction of foreign articles or habits of injurious tendency, may accelerate the period of their decline--a result which is still further helped forward by internal dissensions, and the want of that political foresight by which civil nations exist. But without these, and by the gradual process of the narrowing down of their hunting grounds, and the conversion of the dominions of the bow and arrow to those of the plough, this result must inevitably ensue. There is no principle of either permanency or prosperity in the savage state.

It is a question of curious and philosophic interest, however, to observe the varying and very unequal effects, which different types of civilisation have had upon the wild hordes of men with whom it has come into contact. And still more, perhaps, to trace the original efficiency, or effeminacy of the civil type, in the blood of predominating races, who have been characterized by it. In some of the European stocks this type has remained nearly stationary since it reached the chivalric era.

In others, it had a.s.sumed a deeply commercial tone, and confined itself greatly to the drawing forth, from the resources of new countries, those objects which invigorate trade. There is no stock, having claims to a generic nationality, in which the _principle of progress_ has, from the outset, been so strongly marked, as in those hardy, brave and athletic tribes in the north of Europe, for whom the name of Teutons conveys, perhaps, a more comprehensive meaning, than the comparatively later one of Saxons. The object of this race appears continually to be, and to have been, to do more than has previously been done; to give diffusion and comprehension to designs of improvement, and thus, by perpetually putting forth new efforts, on the globe, to carry on man to his highest destiny. The same impulsive aspirations of the spirit of progress, the same energetic onwardness of principle which overthrew Rome, overthrew, at another period, the simple inst.i.tutions of the woad-stained Britons; and, whatever other aspect it bears, we must attribute to the same national energy the modern introduction of European civilisation into Asia.

When these principles come to be applied to America, and to be tested by its native tribes, we shall clearly perceive their appropriate and distinctive effects. In South America, where the type of chivalry marked the discoverers, barbarism has lingered among the natives, without being destroyed, for three centuries. In Canada, which drew its early colonists exclusively from the feudal towns and seaports, whose inhabitants had it for a maxim, that they had done all that was required of good citizens, when they had done all that had been _previously done_, the native tribes have remained perfectly stationary. With the exception of slight changes in dress, and an absolute depreciation in morals, they are essentially at this day what they were in the respective eras of Cartier and Champlain. In the native monarchies of Mexico and Peru, Spain overthrew the gross objects of idolatrous wors.h.i.+p, and intercalated among these tribes the arts and some of the customs of the 16th century. With a very large proportion of the tribes but little was attempted beyond military subjugation, and less accomplished. The seaboard tribes received the ritual of the Romish church. Many of those in the interior, comprehending the higher ranges of the Andes and Cordilleras, remain to this day in the undisturbed practice of their ancient superst.i.tions and modes of subsistence. It is seen from recent discoveries, that there are vast portions of the interior of the country, unknown, unexplored and undescribed. We are just, indeed, beginning to comprehend the true character of the indigenous Indian civilisation of the era of the discovery. These remarks are sufficient to show how feebly the obligations of letters and Christianity have been performed, with respect to the red men, by the colonists of those types of the early European civilisation, who rested themselves on feudal tenures, military renown, and an ecclesiastical system of empty ceremonies.

It was with very different plans and principles that North America was colonized. We consider the Pilgrims as the embodiment of the true ancient Teutonic type. Their Alaric and Brennus were found in the pulpit and in the school-room. They came with high and severe notions of civil and religious liberty. It was their prime object to sustain themselves, not by conquest, but by cultivating the soil. To escape an ecclesiastical tyranny at home, they were willing to venture themselves in new climes. But they meant to triumph in the arts of peace. They embarked with the Bible as their s.h.i.+eld and sword, and they laid its principles at the foundation of all their inst.i.tutions, civil, literary, industrial, and ecclesiastic. They were pious and industrious themselves, and they designed to make the Indian tribes so. They bought their lands and paid for them, and proceeded to establish friendly neighborhoods among the tribes. Religious truth, as it is declared in the Gospel, was the fundamental principle of all their acts. In its exposition and daily use, they followed no interpretations of councils at variance with its plain import. This every one was at liberty to read.

Placed side by side with such an enlightened and purposed race, what had the priests of the system of native rites and superst.i.tions to expect?

There could be no compromise of rites--no partial conformity--no giving up a part to retain the rest--as had been done in the plains of Central America, Mexico and Yucatan. No toleration of pseudo-paganism, as had been done on the waters of the Orinoco, the Parana and the Paraguay.

They must abandon the system at once. The error was gross and total.

They must abjure it. They had mistaken darkness for light; and they were now offered the light. They had wors.h.i.+pped Lucifer instead of Immanuel.

This the tribes who spread along the sh.o.r.es of the North Atlantic were told, and nothing was held back. They founded churches and established schools among them. They translated the entire Bible, and the version of David's Psalms, and the Hymns of Dr. Watts, into one of their languages.

Two types of the human race, more fully and completely antagonistical, in all respects, never came in contact on the globe. They were the alpha and omega of the ethnological chain. If, therefore, the Red Race declined, and the white increased, it was because civilisation had more of the principles of endurance and progress than barbarism; because Christianity was superior to paganism; industry to idleness; agriculture to hunting; letters to hieroglyphics; truth to error. Here lie the true secrets of the Red Men's decline.

There are but three princ.i.p.al results which, we think, the civilized world could have antic.i.p.ated for the race, at the era of the discovery.

1. They might be supposed to be subject to early extermination on the coasts, where they were found. A thousand things would lead to this, which need not be mentioned. Intemperance and idleness alone were adequate causes. 2. Philanthropists and Christians might hope to reclaim them, either in their original positions on the coasts, or in agricultural communities in adjacent parts. 3. Experience and forecast might indicate a third result, in which full success should attend neither of the foregoing plans, nor yet complete failure. There was nothing, exactly, in the known history of mankind, to guide opinion. A mixed condition of things was the most probable result. And this, it might be antic.i.p.ated, would be greatly modified by times and seasons, circ.u.mstances and localities, acting on particular tribes. Nothing less could have been expected but the decline and extinction of some tribe, whilst the removal of others, to less exposed positions, would be found to tell upon their improvement. The effects of letters and Christianity would necessarily be slow; but they were effects, which the history of discovery and civilisation, in other parts of the world, proved to be effective and practical. What was this mixed condition to eventuate in?--how long was it to continue? Were the tribes to exercise sovereign political jurisdiction over the tracts they lived on? Were they to submit to the civilized code, and if so, to the penal code only, or also to the civil? Or, if not, were they to exist by amalgamation with the European stocks, and thus contribute the elements of a new race? These, and many other questions, early arose, and were often not a little perplexing to magistrates, legislatures, and governors. It was evident the aboriginal race possessed distinctive general rights, but these existed contemporaneously, or intermixed with the rights of the discoverers. How were these separate rights to be defined? How were the weak to be protected, and the strong to be restrained, at points beyond the ordinary pale of the civil law? If a red man killed a white, without the ordinary jurisdiction of the courts, could he be seized as a criminal? And if so, were civil offences, committed without the jurisdiction of either territory, cognizable in either, or neither?

Could there be a supremacy within a supremacy? And what was the limit between State and United States laws? Such were among the topics entering into the Indian policy. It was altogether a mixed system, and like most mixed systems, it worked awkwardly, confusedly, and sometimes badly. Precedents were to be established for new cases, and these were perpetually subject to variation. Legislators, judges, and executive officers were often in doubt, and it required the wisest, shrewdest, and best men in the land to resolve these doubts, and to lay down rules, or advice, for future proceeding in relation to the Red Race. It will be sufficient to bear out the latter remark, to say, that among the sages who deemed this subject important, were a Roger Williams, a Penn, a Franklin, a Was.h.i.+ngton, a Jefferson, a Monroe, a Crawford, and a Calhoun.

It must needs have happened, that where the Saxon race went, the principles of law, justice, and freedom, must prevail. These principles, as they existed in England at the beginning of the sixteenth century, were transferred to America, with the Cavaliers, the Pilgrims, and the Quakers, precisely, as to the two first topics, as they existed at home.

Private rights were as well secured, and public justice as well awarded here, as there. But they also brought over the aristocratic system, which was upheld by the royal governors, who were the immediate representatives of the crown. The doctrine was imprescriptible, that the fee of all public or unpatented lands was in the crown, and all inhabitants of the realm owed allegiance and fealty to the crown. This doctrine, when applied to the native tribes of America, left them neither fee-simple in the soil, nor political sovereignty over it. It cut them down to va.s.sals, but, by a legal solecism, they were regarded as a sort of free va.s.sals. So long as the royal governments remained, they had the usufruct of the public domain--the right of fis.h.i.+ng, and hunting, and planting upon it, and of doing certain other acts of occupancy; but this right ceased just as soon, and as fast, as patents were granted, or the public exigency required the domain. The native chiefs were quieted with presents from the throne, through the local officers, and their ideas of independence and control were answered by the public councils, in which friends.h.i.+ps were established, and the public tranquillity looked after. Private purchases were made from the outset, but the idea of a public treaty of purchase of the soil under the proprietary and royal governors, was not entertained before the era of William Penn.

It remained for the patriots of 1775, who set up the frame of our present government, by an appeal to arms, to award the aboriginal tribes the full proprietary right to the soil they respectively occupied, and to guarantee to them its full and free use, until such right was relinquished by treaty stipulations. So far, they were acknowledged as sovereigns. This is the first step in their political exaltation, and dates, in our records, from the respective treaties of Fort Pitt, September 17, 1778, and of Fort Stanwix, of October 22, 1784. The latter was as early after the establishment of our independence, as these tribes--the Six Nations, who, with the exception of the Oneidas, sided with the parent country--could be brought to listen to the terms of peace. They were followed by the Wyandots, Delawares, and Chippewas, and Ottowas, in January, 1785; by the Cherokees, in November of the same year; and by the Choctaws and Shawnees, in January, 1786. Other western nations followed in 1789; the Creeks did not treat till 1790. And from this era, the system has been continued up to the present moment. It may be affirmed, that there is not an acre of land of the public domain of the United States, sold at the land offices, from the days of General Was.h.i.+ngton, but what has been acquired in this manner. War, in which we and they have been frequently involved, since that period, has conveyed no _territorial right_. We have conquered them, on the field, not to usurp territory, but to place them in a condition to observe how much more their interests and permanent prosperity would be, and have ever been, promoted by the plough than the sword. And there has been a prompt recurrence, at every mutation from war to peace, punctually, to that fine sentiment embraced in the _first_ article of the _first_ treaty ever made between the American government and the Indian tribes, namely, that all offences and animosities "shall be mutually forgiven, and buried in deep oblivion, and never more be had in remembrance."[46]

[46] Treaty of Fort Pitt, 1778.

The first step to advance the aboriginal man to his natural and just political rights, namely, the acknowledgment of his _right to the soil_, we have mentioned; but those that were to succeed it were more difficult and complex in their bearings. Congress, from the earliest traces of their action, as they appear in their journals and public acts, confined the operation of the civil code to the territory actually acquired by negotiation, and treaties duly ratified by the Senate, and proclaimed, agreeably to the Const.i.tution, by the President. So much of this public territory as fell within the respective _State lines_, fell, by the terms of our political compact, under _State laws_, and the jurisdiction of the State courts; and as soon as new tracts of the Indian territory, thus within State boundaries, were acquired, the State laws had an exact corresponding extension until the whole of such Indian lands had been acquired. This provided a definite and clear mode of action, and if it were sometimes the subject of doubt or confliction, such perplexity arose from the great extension of the country, its spa.r.s.ely settled condition, and the haste or ignorance of local magistrates. And these difficulties were invariably removed whenever the cases came into the Supreme Court of the United States.

Without regard to the area of the States, but including and having respect only to the territories, and to the vast and unincorporated wilderness, called the "Indian country," Congress provided a _special code_ of laws, and from the first, held over this part of the Union, and holds over it now, full and complete jurisdiction. This code was designed chiefly to regulate the trade carried on at those remote points between the white and red men, to preserve the public tranquillity, and to provide for the adjudication of offences. Citizens of the United States, carrying the pa.s.sport, license, or authority of their government, are protected by their papers thus legally obtained; and the tribes are held answerable for their good treatment, and if violence occur, for their lives. No civil process, however, has efficacy in such positions; and there is no compulsory legal collection of debts, were it indeed practicable, on the Indian territories. The customs and usages of the trade and intercourse, as established from early times, prevail there. These customs are chiefly founded on the patriarchal system, which was found in vogue on the settlement of the country, and they admit of compensations and privileges founded on natural principles of equity and right. The Indian criminal code, whatever that is, also prevails there. The only exception to it arises from cases of Americans, maliciously killed within the "Indian country," the laws of Congress providing, that the aggressors should be surrendered into the hands of justice, and tried by the nearest United States courts.

These preliminary facts will exhibit some of the leading features of the mixed system alluded to. Its workings were better calculated for the early stages of society, while population was spa.r.s.e and the two races, as bodies, kept far apart, than for its maturer periods. As the intervening lands became ceded, and sold, and settled, and the tribes themselves began to put on aspects of civilisation, the discrepancies of the system, and its want of h.o.m.ogeneousness and harmony, became more apparent. Throughout the whole period of the administrations of Was.h.i.+ngton, and John Adams, and Jefferson, a period of twenty years, the low state of our population, and the great extent and unreclaimed character of the public domain, left the Indians undisturbed, and no questions of much importance occurred to test the permanency of the system as regards the welfare of the Indians. Mr. Jefferson foresaw, however, the effect of encroachments beyond the Ohio, and with an enlightened regard for the race and their civilisation, prepared a new and consolidated code of all prior acts, with some salutary new provisions, which had the effect to systematize the trade and intercourse, and more fully to protect the rights of the Indians. This code served, with occasional amendments, through the succeeding administrations of Madison, Monroe, and John Quincy Adams, into that of General Jackson, when, in 1834, the greatly advanced line of the frontiers, the multiplied population, and necessarily increased force of the Indian department, and the large amount of Indian annuities to be paid, called for its thorough revision, and a new general enactment was made.

Previously, however, to this time, during the administration of Mr.

Monroe, it was perceived that the Indian tribes, as separate communities, living in, and surrounded by, people of European descent, and governed by a widely different system of laws, arts, and customs, could not be expected to arrive at a state of permanent prosperity while thus locally situated. The tendency of the Saxon inst.i.tutions, laws, and jurisprudence, was to sweep over them. The greater must needs absorb the less. And there appeared, on wise and mature reflection, no reasonable hope to the true friends of the native race, that they could sustain themselves in independency or success as foreign elements in the midst of the State communities. It was impossible that two systems of governments, so diverse as the Indian and American, should co-exist on the same territory. All history proved this. The most rational hope of success for this race, the only one which indeed appeared practical on a scale commensurate with the object, was to remove them, with their own consent, to a position entirely without the boundaries of the State jurisdictions, where they might a.s.sert their political sovereignty, and live and develope their true national character, under their own laws.

The impelling cause for the action of the government, during Mr.

Monroe's administration, was the peculiar condition of certain tribes, living on their own original territories, within the State boundaries, and who were adverse to further cessions of such territory. The question a.s.sumed its princ.i.p.al interest in the State of Georgia, within which portions of the Creek and Cherokee tribes were then living. About ten millions of acres of lands were thus in the occupancy of these two tribes. As the population of Georgia expanded and approached the Indian settlements, the evils of the mixed political system alluded to began strongly to evince themselves. In the progress of the dispersion of the human race over the globe, there never was, perhaps, a more diverse legal, political, and moral amalgamation attempted, than there was found to exist, when, in this area, the descendants from the old Saxons, north-men and Hugenots from Europe, came in contact with the descendants (we speak of a theory) of the idle, pastoral, unphilosophic, non-inductive race of central Asia, living in the genial climate and sunny valleys of Georgia and Alabama.

The American government had embarra.s.sed itself by stipulating at an early day, with the State of Georgia, to extinguish the Indian t.i.tle within her boundaries, at the earliest practicable period, when it could be done "peaceably and on reasonable conditions." The Indians, as they advanced in agriculture, became averse to sell. The Georgians, as they increased in numbers, became importunate for the territory to which they had, in this event, the reversionary right. The President was frequently importuned by the State authorities. The Indians were frequently brought to consider the subject, which was one that increased its importance with years.

We have deemed it proper to put this matter in its right att.i.tude in relation to the great question of Indian removal; and as furnis.h.i.+ng, as it did, reasons for the early consideration and action of the government. It is not our intention to pursue the Georgia question disjunctively--we have neither time nor s.p.a.ce for it here, and will only further premise, that it is susceptible of some very different views from those often premised of it.[47] That it was one of the prominent considerations which led the administration of Monroe to take up betimes the general question of the Indian tribes, is well known and remembered, and apparent from a perusal of the public doc.u.ments of the era.

[47] We have only s.p.a.ce to say here, that the cession of the Georgia lands was subsequently made by the Lower Creeks under the chieftaincy of General M'Intosh, who was the first to affix his signature to it. For this act he paid the penalty of his life; the Upper Creeks and their adherents, having a.s.sembled in arms, surrounded his house, and fired three hundred b.a.l.l.s into it, killing its unhappy, but distinguished inmate.

Governed by such considerations, Mr. Monroe communicated a special message to Congress on the 27th of January, 1825, recommending the removal of all the tribes within the States and Territories, and providing for their future "location and government." This is the official date and foundation of the plan of removal, which has been so generally, and may we not add, so successfully and propitiously to the best interests of the tribes, carried into effect. "Being deeply impressed with the opinion," observes this venerated statesman, who has, years since, gone to join the patriot spirits who achieved our independence--"that the removal of the Indian tribes from the land which they now occupy, within the limits of the several States and Territories, to the country lying westward and northward thereof, within our acknowledged boundaries, is of very high importance to the Union, and may be accomplished on conditions, and in a manner, to promote the interests and happiness of those tribes, the attention of the government has been long drawn, with great solicitude, to the object.

"For the removal of the tribes within the limits of the State of Georgia, the motive has been peculiarly strong, arising from the compact with that State, whereby the United States are bound to extinguish the Indian t.i.tle to the lands within it, whenever it may be done peaceably, and on reasonable conditions.