University of California Berkeley 
 
<2_o 
 

 REMARKS 
 
 ON THE 
 
 PRACTICABILITY OF 
 
 EMBRACING , THEIR 
 
 COLONIZATION; 
 
 WITH AN APPENDIX. 
 
 BY ISAAC M'COY 
 
 SECOND EDITION, 
 
 NEW-YORK: 
 
 PJRINTED BY GRAY AND BUNCE, 224 CHERRY-STREET. 
 
 1829. 
 
A 
 
 3 
 
 
 
REMARKS. 
 
 CHAPTER 1 
 
 The principles on which Europeans first met the Aborigines of Ameri 
 ca followed by ruinous consequences. The Indian title to the soil 
 legal. Its legality may be acknowledged without detriment to the 
 United States. 
 
 THE design of the following pages is to exhibit the obligation which 
 the people of the United States are under, to meliorate and substantially 
 improve the condition of the Aborigines of our country, together with 
 the means for attaining this most desirable object. 
 
 From among the many things which might be said on this subject, I 
 shall endeavour to select a few, which I deem worthy of special notice. 
 
 I suppose that the increasing wretchedness of the Indian tribes with 
 whom the Europeans have come in contact ever since their settlement 
 in this country, may be traced to the degradation in which they found 
 them. They were, at that time, sunk to the level of nature, and had 
 ceased to feel the influence of a spirit of improving enterprise. Though 
 in possession of physical means for the elevation of their character, yet 
 they were destitute of mental cultivation.* 
 
 This fact produced the same effect upon all who discovered, and set-, 
 tied different portions of the country, whether Spaniards, English or 
 French. If some were cruel, and others humane, the difference origi 
 nated in the feeling each brought with them from their mother country, 
 and not in different views of the national rights of the natives. Neither 
 the one, nor the other, met the Indians as on an equality with them 
 selves. It requires no argument to prove that all agreed in supposing 
 the Indians possessed no legal title to the soil on which they were found, 
 and that they were too destitute of national character to be met on an 
 equality in negociations. That they had claims on our sympathies, has 
 never been denied by any good man that they had a legal right, as a 
 nation, to any portion of the territory, has never been admitted by any 
 government which has come in contact with them. 
 
 Thus low were the Indians sunk, either in fact, or in the estimation 
 of Europeans, on their discovery of America. They did not possess 
 moral ability to elevate themselves, nor have they since been put in pos 
 session of that ability by their more fortunate neighbours. Our views, 
 and our prejudices in relation to them, continue ; their degradation, and 
 their wretchedness remain ; the latter increasing in proportion to the 
 natural comforts of which the savage state is necessarily deprived by its 
 
proximity to that of the civilized, when the loss of the former is not 
 supplied by a transfer from the comforts of the latter. 
 
 The continuance of Indian miseries, is no more a matter of surprise, 
 than the continuance of our prejudices in relation to them. The causes 
 not being removed, improvement in their condition ought not to be anti 
 cipated* 
 
 In evidence of the assumption that the legality of Indian title, to 
 territory, has never been admitted by any European government which 
 has claimed possessions in North America, nor by the United States, 
 it is sufficient for our present purpose, to refer 
 
 1st. To an opinion expressed in a plea before the Supreme Court of 
 the United States, by one of our first statesmen, who says, "What is 
 the Indian title? It is mere occupancy for the purpose of hunting. It 
 is not like our tenures; they have no idea of a title to the soil itself. It 
 is overrun by them, rather than inhabited. It is not a true and legal 
 possession. Valid, b. 1. 81. p. 37, and 209, b. 2. p. 96. Montes 
 quieu, b. 18. c. 12. Smith's Wealth of Nations, b. 5. e. i. It is a right 
 not to be transferred, but extinguished. It is a right regulated by trea 
 ties, not by deeds of conveyance. It depends upon the law of nations, 
 not upon municipal right. Fletcher vs. Peck, Crunch. Vol. 6. p. 121."* 
 
 2d. To the opinions on this subject expressed by the Commissioners 
 at the treaty of Ghent, " The recognition of a boundary gives up to 
 the nation in whose behalf it was made, all the Indian tribes and coun 
 tries within that boundary." 
 
 3d. To the perfect accordance with the above opinions of all public 
 acts of every nation concerned in the question. 
 
 Within the jurisdiction of the United States, it is not admitted that 
 one tribe has aright to convey its nominal claim to another tribe, with 
 out the permission of the Government of the United States. Treaties,, 
 held with the Indian tribes for the extinguishment of their title, are* 
 viewed by us in the light of praiseworthy " moderation" on the part of 
 our Government, resulting from a desire " of giving ample satisfaction 
 to every pretence of prior right." 
 
 Believing that the doctrine which influenced Europeans on their dis 
 covery of America, and which has been entailed on us, is unsound, and 
 has ever boen a fruitful source of calamities to the natives, and the un 
 necessary occasion of much perplexity to the United States, I solicit the 
 reader's attention to a brief consideration of the subject. 
 
 What claim to the soil, could the people of the United States, or any 
 other people, prefer to an impartial tribunal, which the natives could 
 not plead with equal, or additional propriety? Speak we of the right 
 of discovery? The Indians are the Aborigines of the country. We 
 have not discovered an uninhabited region, but a peopled country. Let 
 us suppose the Chinese at this day to be ignorant of the country of the 
 United States ; a company of ships arrive at Jamestown, and set up a 
 claim to the whole of the United States' territories. Would we readily 
 admit that the law of nations mnde it theirs by the right of discovery? 
 They take possession; but when retiring before a people of an en- 
 
 * I quote from Morse's Indian Report, Appen. p. 283. 4. This I consider ap 
 propriate, because these opinions have, through the medium of that Report, re 
 cently been called up to the view of the public. 
 
tirely separate interest from ours, and of superior strength, could we 
 suppose, that on the great day of retribution, they would he free from 
 all accusations of injustice towards us, and that they would " then ap 
 pear in the whiteness of innocence T' Prefer your plea, and the Indian 
 adopts it against us with peculiar propriety. 
 
 But they are savages. The names we have given to the Indians are 
 merely arbitrary, and are made to signify nothing more, than that their 
 manners and customs differ from ours ; and, in our estimation, are less 
 desirable. Let us suppose invaders of our rights, urging the same plea, 
 and our question is answered. We found the natives living in those 
 modes of life which they, as a free people, chose for themselves ; and 
 we should be found by our invaders in the exercise of the same liberty. 
 Surely the round of nature cannot furnish an argument to justify the 
 taking away of a people's country, merely because the inhabitants have 
 their peculiar modes of living; when too, these modes of life, which 
 differ from those of other nations, are the result of their own free choice, 
 and have never disturbed the peace of others. 
 
 But they are merely hunters, " and what is the right of a huntsman 
 to the forest of a thousand miles, over which he has accidentally ranged 
 in quest of. prey ?" 
 
 This is not quite the fact. The Indians are huntsmen ; and so have 
 always been, to a certain extent, a large portion of our population on 
 the frontiers of our settlements. The Indians never lived wholly by 
 hunting ; and a portion of subsistence of white settlers, has almost in 
 variably been taken by the chase. But nobody ever thought that this 
 circumstance affected the legality of their titles to land. 
 
 It is not true that the Indians were merely " huntsmen, accidentally 
 passing over forests of a thousand miles." They were people at home, 
 and furnishing imperishable monuments of the antiquity of their resi 
 dence. Here they had lived longer than the existence of the oaks in 
 whose shades they reclined from time immemorial. 
 
 Their country was divided among the several tribes ; and if the 
 bounds of each was not fixed with an exactitude equal to that which 
 marks the boundaries of our several States and Territories ; yet, it was 
 with a precision which they deemed sufficient, and which we admit, 
 met the exigencies of their situation, equally as well as our lines meet 
 the circumstances of ours. War among themselves, whether on ac 
 count of disputed territory, or of some other thing, was nothing new 
 in the history of nations. It becomes us to feel for their misfor 
 tunes; but not on account thereof, to frame a pretext for possessing our 
 selves of their country. What law of nations has prescribed the amount 
 of land a people must cultivate in proportion to each individual ; the 
 portion of food they must take from the waters, or the woods ; and the 
 distances they may, and may not travel in pursuit of their occupations, 
 in order to render them eligible to the possession of territory, and to 
 national character 1 ? 
 
 We have been told, that " the pilgrims of Plymouth obtained their 
 right of possession to the territory on which they settled, by titles as 
 fair and unquestionable as any human property can be held. They 
 received their charter from their British Sovereign. The spot on which 
 they fixed had belonged to an Indian tribe, totally extirpated by that 
 devouring pestilence which had swept the country before their arrival. 
 
The country thus free from all exclusive possessions, they might have 
 taken by the natural right of occupancy."* 
 
 Now, does it not seem strange that this should be the only instance 
 since the world was made, in which a tribe of people had been " totally 
 extirpated" by a devouring pestilence 1 Is it not astonishing, that no 
 entire tribe of Indians has been destroyed ; that no state in the Union 
 has been wholly depopulated, by that devouring pestilence, since the 
 landing of the pilgrims ? 
 
 But let the nameless disease, or the yellow fever, if you please, de 
 stroy some, and drive back others, until the inhabitants shall all have left 
 the District of Columbia. Then another company from England may 
 land in that place, and set up their claims to the district, by " the natu 
 ral right of occupancy." Such a supposed reversion of fortune, fur 
 nishes its own comment. 
 
 They received their Charter from their sovereign. And what right, 
 pray, had their sovereign to charter away the lands of other people, 
 without their consent'? In that day, if the land could be called by an 
 Englishman " remote," and its inhabitants " heathen and barbarous" 
 a sufficient pretext was found for dispossessing the rightful owners, and 
 for giving it to others. It is on these grounds that we hold our " fair 
 and unquestionable titles" to the country. To what a pitch of vainness 
 must men have arrived, when they could fit out ships and men to take 
 possession of an entire country, regardless of the rights of the Aborigines, 
 and then teach their children to laud the innocence of such a trans 
 action ! 
 
 As an apology for our conduct, we have been told that these were 
 " erratic nations," incapable, by the smallness of their number, of peo 
 pling the whole country." Now I would ask for some evidence to sup 
 port this assertion. Where is the nation, or tribe, that is erratic in a na 
 tional capacity] Precisely the reverse is the fact. It is well known 
 that each tribe is peculiarly attached to its own district; and few indi 
 viduals are found who do not cling to the land of their ancestors, and 
 hover over their tombs, until forced to retire by means not to be resisted. 
 Let us be pointed to one single tribe that was, or is erratic, and so much 
 of the matter at issue shall be conceded. But it is fearlessly asserted 
 that no such tribe has ever been known to exist on our continent. 
 
 That the Indians have emigrated from one country to another, is not 
 .denied ; but it was not because they were wandering tribes, which never 
 sought or possessed a permanent residence. The Delawares, for in 
 stance, who resided many years in what is now the State of Indiana, 
 once inhabited around the Delaware bay, and at this time, most of them 
 are west of the Mississippi river. But the reasons for their exchanges 
 of country, are too well known, to allow us to denominate them a wan 
 dering nation. 
 
 Indians have, in some instances, migrated from one section of coun 
 try to another, from causes which existed wholly among themselves; 
 and we have done the same. Each tribe traverses at pleasure its own 
 district, as the business of individuals requires, and we are habitually 
 
 * It is not a want of respect for the venerable pilgrims of Plymouth, that indu 
 ces me to mention them particularly; but it is -because the sayings to which I am 
 replying-, have lately come before the public, and therefore claim particular atten 
 tion. 
 
7. 
 
 pursuing a similar course of conduct. Individual Indians, or Deputed 
 companies, occasionally pass into the territories of a tribe to which they 
 do not belong, and by common consent, attend to their private business, 
 or to the business of their tribe. So, also, among us, the people of one 
 State, are ordinarily, in the prosecution of their business, passing through 
 the territories of others. 
 
 We are told that " the Indians claim too much territory for their 
 numbers they are too thinly scattered over the country: Europeans 
 have not, therefore, deviated from the views of nature in confining them 
 within narrow limits." Precisely the same thing might be urged 
 against us by Chinese invaders. It is well known that the States 
 and territories in the Union, which are at this time partially settled, 
 would contain with convenience, and with increased convenience too, 
 more than five times the number at present inhabiting them. Our Chi 
 nese invaders might plead against us our own arguments, that the pro 
 portion of inhabitants sustained in their country, was more than tenfold 
 greater than that in ours, and, therefore, they " would not deviate from 
 the views of nature in confining us within narrower limits." 
 
 Again, it has been asserted that " the Indians have no idea of a title 
 to the soil itself." This is an assumption without the shadow of rea 
 son ; indeed, it is at variance with the recurrence of positive and well 
 known facts. It has been the misfortune of the Indian that he was in 
 capable of recording on parchment his views of this subject, or of pub 
 lishing them to the world, and pleading his own cause. But ask the 
 Commissioners of the United States, w r ho have encountered so many 
 difficulties in negotiating with the natives for cessions of their lands, and 
 they will tell you, that the assumption is untenable. Look to the whole 
 course of Indian conduct relative to the case, ever since the settlement 
 of whites on the continent, and an united voice, as of many waters, will 
 tell you. Or, visit the Indians in their tents, and they will tell you 
 themselves, and that too, in expressions of grief and despair, that, un 
 less your heart be cased in adamant, will make you both sigh and weep. 
 Indians are actually sitting by me while I pen this paragraph : I cannot 
 be mistaken. 
 
 May I not, without fear of contradiction, assert that no claim to any 
 portion of the United States' Territories, can be preferred, which will 
 not apply in favour of the Aborigines 1 Since it is not true, that their 
 iitle is " mere occupancy for the purpose of hunting," as we have been 
 told, but that this has been their home for ages, beyond the stretch of 
 mortal research, may I not say that their claims are, in many respects, 
 superior to ours, and sustained by all the rules of justice by which the 
 claims of individuals, States, and Nations, are supported ? 
 
 In defence of the conduct of England and the United States, we will 
 not plead their superior strength over that of the natives, because such 
 a plea would be too shocking to the well known humanity of those na 
 tions. What then, may we ask, has been the cause of a departure from 
 the .common usage of civilized nations in regard to the Indians, but 
 their ignorance and degradation ? 
 
 But, in the matter of Indian reform, we must take things as we find 
 them. We cannot now retrace the steps of two hundred years. And 
 further, the policy of which we complain did not originate with the 
 United States ; it was commenced prior to the existence of the Union. 
 It has been entailed on us, rather than adopted by us. Such is the 
 
8 
 
 Wisdom with which our government is constructed, that a happy tone 
 of feeling has, in many honourable instances, softened the severity of 
 maxims, to which despotic governments gave birth. 
 
 I shall omit a recital of those considerations which are designed more 
 especially to awaken our sympathies, and content myself by simply 
 stating the undeniable fact, that on our borders and within our settle 
 ments, thousands of these wretched people still exist. This fact forces 
 upon us the inquiiy, What ought to be done with them, all things con 
 sidered? They are evidently, with slight exceptions, incapable of taking 
 care of themselves. This incapacity, however, can no more affect their 
 just rights, than a fever, which would incapacitate one of our citizens 
 for business, would affect his. Found within the defined limits of the 
 United States, it becomes our Government to assume their guardianship. 
 This, it will be said, has been done. True ; but has it not been done at 
 the expense of all Indian rights ? 
 
 By our Government, provision is made for minors and invalids. It 
 would be affecting cruelty to deprive such of their just rights, to deny 
 the legality of their claims to land, and doom them and their posterity 
 to poverty and degradation ; to do more to forbid them by law, and 
 common prejudices, to hope for equal privileges with the more fortunate. 
 Assuming the guardianship of the Indians, and at the same time ad 
 mitting the legality of their claims to territoiy, would no more entitle 
 them to privileges among us which they could not judiciously exercise, 
 than the laws of a State, providing for minors and guarding their pro 
 perty, would entitle them to an active voice in the affairs of govern 
 ment. 
 
 It has been thought that by admitting the legality of Indian title to 
 soil, we should concede to them the entire right to convey the same as 
 they might choose, to foreigners., or to individuals of our own nation, 
 who would take advantage of Indian ignorance to their immediate ruin, 
 and to the great disadvantage of the United States. 
 
 But these conclusions do not necessarily follow the premises laid 
 down. A boy of ten years old might be induced to sell his patrimony 
 for a whistle. The state is at no loss to provide against such trifling. 
 It assumes the management of the property of the minor. Why ? Be 
 cause the minor is incapable of managing it himself. In this assump 
 tion, the capacity only of the minor is denied, not his rights. The le 
 gality of his claim is not predicated upon the supposition that he is to 
 become an active citizen, but upon the justice of the case. For, if the 
 minor should decease, the same law which secured the property to him, 
 points to the next legal claimant, though he also be a minor. 
 
 I cannot apprehend danger to my doctrine, from the mere circum 
 stance, that in one case the supposition rests upon a descendant of a 
 citizen of the United States ; and, in the other, upon one whose an 
 cestors have never been acknowledged as such. We are speaking of 
 things as they at this time exist. We have marked off the boundaries 
 of the United States, and have said, that " the recognition of a boundaiy 
 gives up to the nation, in whose behalf it was made, all the Indian 
 tribes and countries within that boundary." We have already said, 
 that they belonged to us ; therefore they come properly within the spirit 
 of the case stated in relation to minors. 
 
 Further, our civil institutions do positively secure the rights of aliens 
 within our territories. They are allowed to hold property in fee. Our 
 
laws secure to them their right in property while they live, and in case 
 of death, the same descends securely to their heirs. 
 
 Is it argued that minors are properly within the reach of our laws ? 
 So are the Indians. Our laws extend to the Indians, just as far as we 
 choose to have them. We do not impose on them taxes, nor any por 
 tion of the burden of our civil, or military institutions. This is so far 
 merely a remuneration for the denial to them of privileges granted to 
 other foreigners. Indians are committed to our state prisons for felony, 
 and have been regularly proceeded against, in cases of murder, convict 
 ed and hung. It cannot be denied, that the Indians are really cogni 
 zable by our laws, which are made to affect them just so far as, in the 
 wisdom of our Government, the subject requires ; and this is the case 
 in relation to minors. 
 
 In the present state of things, I cannot conceive any reason why our 
 Government may not exercise over them the necessary guardianship, 
 and still allow the legality of their claims to the lands owned by the 
 tribes severally. Nor do I discover that in admitting this, we necessa 
 rily concede any principle to our disadvantage. That portion of their 
 lands which our convenience requires us to possess, will be placed no 
 farther out of our reach than it is at present. When, in the construc 
 tion of public works, the lands of minors are found so situated as to 
 render it necessary for government to interpose, they know how to meet 
 the exigency. The land is taken, and in lieu thereof, a fair price se 
 cured to the proper owner. 
 
 If some of the Cherokees, and others in the south, who have become 
 capable of understanding and contending for their rights, not by arms, 
 but by argument, should be disinclined to part with their lands, the cir 
 cumstance would be no more vexatious to us did we admit their muni 
 cipal right. Force is not to be used in this case. Whether this for 
 bearance in our Government arises out of the questionableness of the 
 tenure by which we claim, or out of the pledges which, in our " mode 
 ration," we have given those tribes, or from both, matters not; all 
 righteous men agree that their lands cannot be forced from them. 
 
 Moreover, I hope to be able to show, that difficulties in relation to 
 any of our north-western tribes, similar to those which have recently 
 occurred with some of the southern, may easily and certainly be pre 
 vented ; and that by admitting the legality of Indian title to their seve 
 ral territories, we shall place ourselves in full view, and within conve 
 nient reach, of all the means necessary to be employed in the case. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 The Character and Condition of the Indians. 
 
 It is remarkable that with the opportunities of more than two centu 
 ries to become acquainted with the Aborigines of our country, their cha 
 racter and condition should at all times have been so imperfectly under 
 stood by us. It is thought by some, whose judgments are doubtless en 
 titled to great respect, that no other branch of public business is so little 
 
10 
 
 understood, as that which relates to Indians. So little is known even 
 by the benevolent Societies, which have been formed for their relief, 
 that missionaries who labour among the natives, usually find far more 
 trouble in managing the mistaken notions of their patrons, than they do 
 in contending with those of the people of their charge. Without pre 
 tensions to any remarkable discoveries on this subject, I beg leave to 
 state a few things relative to their character and condition, which my 
 long residence in their country has afforded me an opportunity of ob 
 serving. 
 
 I have supposed that Indian calamities, as they now exist, originated 
 in their degradation, and have until this time been cherished by the 
 same general cause. This is not a solitary case ; the condition of the 
 wretched Africans is fully in point, and strikingly illustrative of the po 
 sition we have taken. No one will venture to say that the African is 
 enslaved because of the blackness of his skin ; neither can any man of 
 sober mind, suppose the thing in itself to accord with the laws of justice 
 between man and man. The fact is, Africa, that portion at least of 
 which we speak, is too destitute of national character to command re 
 spect, and therefore, in the usage of other nations, its natives cease to 
 be treated as human beings entitled to common rights. 
 
 Her oppression is not owing to a want of physical strength to contend 
 with other nations. She is not the only nation incompetent to with 
 stand the power of her neighbours ; and yet the people of those weaker 
 nations are not shipped by thousands for slave markets. Whatever 
 Africa may suffer, she is incapable of complaining. Raise her in point 
 of talent even with Portugal, and slave ships might as well go to Ire 
 land to lade, as to Guinea. 
 
 Men as they come into existence are pretty much on an equality. 
 Whether we find the infant in the bark wigwam, or in the lordly palace, 
 it is subsequently that he is to be made the savage or the sage. For it 
 is not a question at all, whether the mental faculties of Indians gene 
 rally, are equal to those of their more enlightened neighbours. The 
 fact is universally admitted. But with them, there being a total absence 
 of the thousand means which operate to produce refinement of society, 
 they continue unimproved through every stage of life. They are chil 
 dren of nature merely, from the infant lashed to the board, to the wrin 
 kled father who bends over the tomb. 
 
 At first sight of Indians by Europeans, there became fixed in the lat 
 ter a consciousness of superiority, which still exists, and is evinced in 
 all our conduct in relation to them. We never meet an Indian on a 
 level, as we meet a white man ; we always look down upon him. 
 
 This self-complaisance may, in no small measure, be traced to the 
 odium entailed on them by Europeans, and which, unfortunately, has 
 not been removed by our better Government. They have neither been 
 allowed the privileges granted to other foreigners, nor the protection 
 granted to every citizen of the United States. Even the inhabitant of 
 a cell in a States' prison retains inviolable his right in property his 
 posterity are not forbidden to aspire above the evils occasioned by the 
 crimes of an unprincipled father. But of the Indian we say, he has no 
 legal title to the soil. In this respect he is virtually placed beneath 
 the condition of the most degraded of our own citizens. Were they 
 allowed the rights of others, the feelings- of our community generally 
 might become such as we exercise towards other poor people, but it 
 
11 
 
 seems impossible in the nature of things that the prejudices of society, 
 so destructive to them, can subside, so long as the principle exists which 
 confirms their degradation. Like Cain, they are driven out from the 
 face of the earth, and are become fugitives and vagabonds in it, and 
 every one who finds them, heaps upon them miseries according to the 
 spirit of the times. 
 
 Few, even of those who declare themselves to be devoutly in favour 
 of Indian reform, are aware of the extent of Indian degradation ; I 
 mean, the distance beneath us at which our feelings place them or, 
 of the extent of the affecting consequences. Of the latter, we may 
 judge by the facts, that since our settlement in the country, several tribes 
 have become totally extinct; while to others is left a remnant, lan 
 guishing under evils, which menace the existence of the whole Indian 
 population. 
 
 I attempt no exaggeration. My subject needs not the aid of paint 
 ing. Facts, stubborn facts, immoveable as mountains, can be pro 
 duced. 
 
 Before we proceed further, it is proper to observe, that there are 
 many, very many, abuses of power, of office, and of granted license, 
 in car intercourse with the Indians, which have never been fairly ex 
 hibited to the public ; abuses, with which our Government is in no 
 way chargeable : of which it is formally, and in most instances, totally 
 unacquainted, and which 1 shall not attempt to expose. My object is 
 not to attach blame to any individual, or to any particular class of men 
 among us. For, were errors of this kind to be corrected, which indeed 
 is desirable enough, still no more would be done, than the lopping off 
 of some of the exterior branches, while the main body and roots would 
 remain in full vigour. The axe must be applied to the root of the tree. 
 From the days of Elliot down to the present time, the grand mistake 
 in the business of Indian reform, seems to have been, applying emolli 
 ents to the surface of the sore, instead of probing the wound to the bot 
 tom. There is something among us, not among the Indians, radically 
 wrong in this business : this wrong must be righted, or the Indians must 
 be ruined, and Christians reproached. 
 
 I would ask those sorrowful hearts, which express astonishment that 
 the Indians on our north-western boundaries, should continue so long in 
 this fertile, fine country, to suffer, pine, and perish; if they suppose 
 any other race of human beings would do otherwise, under similar cir 
 cumstances 1 Our children are forced up the elevation of improvement 
 by artificial operations of a thousand kinds ; but this machinery is not 
 brought to bear in like manner on the improvement of the Indians. 
 With all the pains taken to smooth our sons of nature, too many of 
 them at last remain crooked and rough. No wonder then, if in the ab 
 sence of vital principles, the experiment of Indian reform should dis 
 appoint our hope. 
 
 You have your missionaries at Gayhead, Stockbridge, Brothertown, 
 Oneida, among the Tuscaroras, Tonawantas, Senecas, Wyandots, Ot- 
 tawas, Puttawatomies, Miamies, &c. but the most that they can do in 
 the present posture of affairs, is to soften, as it were, the pillows of the 
 dying. They have been instrumental in benefiting a few; nevertheless, 
 in a national capacity, all those tribes, as well as others near at hand, 
 west of Lake Michigan, and west of Mississippi river, continue to dwin 
 dle they are positively perishing, and perishing rapidly. 
 
12 
 
 Through the instrumentality of your missionaries, some of the natives, 
 no doubt, have become pious, and have gone, or will go, to a better 
 country in the heavens, where their condition will be ordered by princi 
 ples very different from those which have governed the conduct of men 
 towards them, while upon earth. A few have acquired some knowledge 
 of letters, and of labour ; so far this is well. But let none imagine that 
 these tribes, and many others, are, as tribes, improving their condition 
 generally. I say it, without fear of contradiction, that their condition 
 is becoming more and more miserable every year I repeat it they are 
 positively perishing. 
 
 How can it be otherwise ! What is there to induce a love of life, or 
 to stimulate to good action, with an Indian 7 Whether the reflection be 
 just or not, he views himself completely at the disposal of a people who 
 have taken from him his country ; I do not say his hunting ground, I 
 say his home, where sleep his fathers back to unknown generations ; a 
 people who declare that he never had a legal right to the soil. In ad 
 dition to this, he finds that no man treats him as an equal. The very 
 manner of salutation to an Indian, and the mode of conversation with 
 him, remind him that he is considered as an inferior. 
 
 You point your children to examples of respectability in civil society, 
 and exhort them to walk in their footsteps, in the confident expectation 
 of possessing that character which is rather to be chosen than gold and 
 silver than " precious ointment." The Indian, in view of the same 
 example, could only say, " My son, that is what the world calls a re 
 spectable, honourable man, but it is impossible for you ever to arrive at 
 similar honours." Thus from childhood the innate passion for fame, 
 essential to human greatness, when kept within the influence of meek 
 ness and prudence, is stifled by every thing which surrounds it. 
 
 But one will say, Why do not the Indians adopt habits of industry ; 
 and the circumstance itself of the acquisition of property would operate 
 powerfully to conquer the prejudices of their white neighbours, and 
 might enable them to take hold on all the means essential to their great 
 ness ? 
 
 All this is true ; but where is the spot on the continent upon which it 
 could be expected that they would feel encouraged to labour ? They 
 are at best only tenants at the will of our Government. Where is the 
 place on which they can erect houses in the hope of inhabiting them, and 
 make fields in the expectation of being allowed to cultivate them? They 
 can call no place on earth their own, and therefore it is not astonishing 
 that they should generally be disinclined to habits of industry. None 
 of the tribes have an assurance of undisturbed possession of any spot. 
 If we ought to make an exception, it would relate to the little patches 
 in New- York and the New-England States; and these, whatever may 
 be their liberties to remain, are so situated as to be exposed to destroy 
 ing evils by which their numbers are diminished much more rapidly 
 than if they were upon our frontiers, where they would be allowed room 
 to run, as the whites approached them. 
 
 I have said that among us, not among the Indians, there was some-r 
 thing radically wrong in relation to that wretched people of whom we 
 speak. In evidence of this assertion, I appeal to the fact that the con 
 dition of the Indians becomes more and more deplorable, as the whites 
 approach nearer to them. Those who are pent up by the whites on 
 small reservations in New-England, New- York, and Ohio, decline more 
 
13 
 
 rapidly in proportion to their numbers, than the tribes farther west, on 
 the borders of Michigan, Indiana, and Illinois; and the decline of these 
 latter is more rapid in proportion than those still more remote. Let it 
 stiJl be borne in mind, that wherever we discover a decrease of numbers, 
 we see an increase of calamities ; and the increase is not chiefly on ac 
 count of the wild game being chased away by the sound of the white 
 man's axe, as has sometimes been supposed. For were there not greater 
 evils to which they are subjected ; were they permanently settled, un 
 touched by any morbid atmosphere emanating from us, they would na 
 turally enlarge the field as the wild game decreased. 
 
 Numerous are the evils resulting to these people from the approach of 
 the whites ; (a poor commendation indeed of a Christian nation) but 
 perhaps all' these evils may be traced to the same general cause the 
 mark of infamy fixed upon them by the whites. As to commerce, they 
 are not approached as men entitled to just dealings, but are considered 
 as fair game for every sharper. It is true. Government has made laws 
 regulating Indian trade. But the trade is riot carried on in Washington 
 city, where the President of the United States can daily look into it. 
 It is carried on in the Indian country, extending into the forest a thou 
 sand miles from our settlements. It is not possible for Government to 
 guard the rights of the Indians in such situations ; even in the little pro 
 perty they acquire in peltries and fur. Those generally, who are em 
 ployed, as clerks, &c. and sent into the Indian country with goods, are 
 not remarkable for scruples of conscience. Our chief hope, therefore, 
 that justice in dealing will be done to the Indians, arises from competi 
 tion in trade. We have not so much cause to complain of prices as 
 nominally fixed, as we have of impositions practiced upon Indians, for 
 which they can obtain no possible redress. 
 
 The example of unprincipled white men among the natives, is ex 
 tremely pernicious, and tends greatly to debase their minds. But the 
 destroying effects of ardent spirits among them, is horrid in the extreme, 
 Whiskey, they find all over their country, but find it more plentifully as 
 they are situated nearer to the white settlements. 
 
 In these latter cases, our Government is not at all blameable, only as 
 it has rendered the Indians radically ignominious. It has made laws 
 forbidding the introduction of ardent spirits into their countiy; but it 
 has not pow r er, in the present posture of affairs, to enforce their observ 
 ance. The evils of intemperance have not been perceiveably lessened 
 by all the laws made to repress it. It is a lamentable truth, that the 
 evil increases annually, and occasions a fearful \vaste of human life ; 
 as a specimen, take the following. In the fall and winter of 1825 6, 
 in the neighbourhood of the Carey Missionary Station, near Lake 
 Michigan, twenty-five Indians were either directly murdered by the 
 hands of their own people, or otherwise lost their lives, by drunkenness. 
 
 Besides this, there is a mass of misery, indescribable in its character, 
 resulting from this same source; such as the destruction of health, 
 aggravated poverty, distresses of hundreds of half-starved children, &c. 
 Missionaries, who, after much labour by precept and example, have 
 kindled up a little spirit of improvement among the people of their 
 charge, have, again and again, had the mortification to see the same 
 almost entirely extinguished, by this irresistible evil. Under all the 
 destructive, discouraging obstacles, arising from intoxication, and from 
 numerous other sources, it is astonishing that missionaries should be 
 
14 
 
 able to collect schools, secure a tolerable attendance, and in otber re 
 spects, really improve the condition of a few. 
 
 Friends to the natives are apt to solace themselves, with the reflection 
 that the days of war and bloodshed, between the United States and the 
 Indians are past all is now peace. The Indians may pursue their 
 modes of living without the wastirigs and woes of war. But will you 
 believe me, if I say, that the Indians generally are more miserable, and 
 that they waste away faster, when at peace with us, than when at war? 
 I presume there is no doubt of this fact with any one, who has an op 
 portunity of discovering the process of Indian affairs among themselves. 
 The truth is, the hope of .bettering their condition for the present, for 
 they cannot see far off, is a prominent consideiation with them, in in 
 ducing hostilities.* 
 
 Our Government has always granted to the Indians peace, whenever 
 they asked for it. Therefore, if at any time they believed their condi 
 tion to be the worse for war with us, they knew that they could make 
 the exchange for peace. In time of war, they and we are necessarily 
 separated ; and on this account the cankerous evils which result to them 
 from coming into direct contact with us, are avoided. 
 
 I took the liberty, not long since, of suggesting that the condition of 
 those small bands who are on little reservations in New-England, New- 
 York, and Ohio, surrounded by white population, is worse than that of 
 those who have more latitude on our frontier. It is probable that they 
 may be more plentifully supplied with food and raiment, but I have no 
 hesitation in repeating that their numbers decrease faster than those of 
 the other tribes ; and that they are more debased in principle, and posi 
 tively more worthless, than those with whom I am comparing them. 
 This sentiment is the result of my own personal observation, as well as 
 of the concurrent testimony of the most authentic information. 
 
 Man is formed for society. The seclusion of the hermit is a depar 
 ture from the directions of nature. Society we must have, and if we 
 cannot be allowed that which is good, we must mingle with that which 
 is worse. The society which Indians generally find among the whites, 
 is that of the most degraded and worthless kind ; and those who are 
 pent up by the whites, feel the effect of this principle most sensibly. 
 Even the good men, who surround and pity them, do not take them 
 into their society as they would so many whites, under similar circum 
 stances. Doomed, therefore,, to mingle with their own corrupt selves, 
 and the very filth of civilized society, from infancy to old age, and from 
 generation to generation, they grow worse and worse. 
 
 What, let me ask the reader, could you hope for from your own sons 
 and daughters, were they destined to be brought up in similar circum 
 stances 1 What can be more deplorable than the condition of this 
 scattered, pealed, and perishing people ! When parents improve the 
 passing moments around the cheerful fireside, in encouraging counsel 
 to their hopeful sons and daughters, well fed and warm, let them not 
 forget the thousands of families in the wilderness, each couched around 
 a little fire, half-starved, half-naked, and homeless. 
 
 You are directing your children to habits of industry, by which they 
 may secure a competency of the blessings of nature. They are to 
 
 * Exceptions to these remarks, when applied to the southern Indians, will be 
 explained hereafter. 
 
15 
 
 have fields and houses, shops and ships. To them are explained the 
 comforts of virtue, and the pleasures of good society. To their view 
 are held up the offices of trust, honour, and profit, in the most happy 
 and flourishing government that ever existed. Now, you say, my sons 
 and my daughters, with us there are no privileged orders. God and 
 nature hold out to you these incentives to virtue, greatness, and happi 
 ness ; over which is inscribed in golden capitals, " Whosoever will, let 
 him take of them freely." Listen now,Ientreat you, to the language of yon 
 Indian father and mother, to their sons and their daughters. " Children, 
 you see and feel our wretchedness this stormy night. You have no 
 prospect before you, but that of increasing calamities. Our situation is 
 more lamentable than was that of our father and mother, and yours is 
 destined to be still more dreadful ; and every generation of us, is doom 
 ed to sink deeper, and deeper, and deeper, in woes, until the last of our 
 tribe sinks into the depths of oblivion. We are melting away before a 
 people of superior wisdom and strength; who, with lordly looks, are 
 striding over the lands on which have dwelt our fathers back to unknown 
 ages, declaring us ineligible to a participation with them in the blessings 
 which they so plentifully enjoy !" 
 
 What can we expect of a people under such circumstances, but that 
 they give up all for lost, and like too many among us, who only fancy 
 themselves in desperate circumstances, abandon themselves to drunk 
 enness, and to every abomination? We do not pretend that all their 
 poverty and sins have grown out of the circumstance of our becoming 
 their neighbours. They were poor and wicked when we first beheld 
 them. But we say, that their depravity and sufferings have been in 
 creased by our proximity to them, and their hopes cut off by our policy. 
 They are too deeply sunk in the mire, to be able to extricate themselves. 
 It therefore rests with us to say, whether they shall be left to perish, or 
 whether they can be, and shall be, " taken out of the horrible pit, and 
 miry clay, and set upon a rock, and their goings established ;" or ra 
 ther, they established in a home which they can call their own. 
 
 It has been greatly the misfortune of Indians that their white neigh 
 bours have generally supposed them to be inflexibly attached to their 
 huntings, and other wild customs. 
 
 To admit that Indians are attached to the modes of life to which 
 they have been accustomed, and to their religious ceremonies, is saying: 
 nothing more than that they are human beings ; for such is the case with 
 all people. But there is scarcely a heathen nation upon earth, of which we 
 might not, with more propriety, suppose that such attachments were 
 inflexible. The Aborigines were never, since we became ac 
 quainted with them, worshippers of Idols. We all know that there ex 
 ist among them religious ceremonies, which are taught by parents ta 
 children ; but they have no ecclesiastical idolatrous establishments, like 
 the Chinese, Burmese, or Hindoos. The Indians believe in the exist 
 ence of God the Great Spirit, and of other Good Spirits. They be 
 lieve in the existence of evil spirits ; among whom they suppose one, who 
 deserves to be styled, the " very bad spirit." 
 
 These notions of God, and of his superintending providence, have 
 had a tendency to ennoble their minds, as well as their acts, and to 
 render them superior to most heathen nations in point of liberal views.* 
 
 * It has been stated by some good, but mistaken men, that the Osages did not 
 believe in the existence of the Great Spirit, and in other kindred doctrines. Had 
 this been true it would have formed an anomaly in the history of Indian character 
 
16 
 
 Indeed, I think that, in a comparison of religious sentiments with the 
 Indians, some refined people in Christendom ought to blush at their own 
 bigotted attachments. I suppose the natives have always been in the 
 habit of killing witches ; but [ very much question if ever there was a 
 man upon the continent chased out of his country, imprisoned, or 
 whipped, for his religion, before the settlement of the whites in it. 
 
 We admit, that with all its hardships, there is something fascinating 
 in the life of the hunter ; the white man on our frontiers feels it. Yet 
 it is certain that the attachment of the Indians to a hunter's life is not 
 so obstinate but that they will voluntarily exchange it for a better, 
 whenever they become situated where the love of life, and the hope of 
 enjoyment, can be cherished in their bosoms. This has been the case 
 with the Cherokees, and some others to the south who have adopted 
 habits of civilized life. 
 
 It was not merely the diminution of the wild game which induced 
 those southern Indians to abandon the chase, for hundreds of them are 
 now decently farming on the west side of the Mississippi, contiguous to 
 good hunting grounds. They have adopted civilized habits because of 
 their superior advantages to the hunter state. These people have rea 
 dily enough relinquished attachments to Indian habits, not because 
 their prejudices were originally less obstinate than those of other tribes, 
 but because they happened to be situated where their hopes of enjoying 
 the fruits of their labours were more encouraging than those of their 
 more unfortunate northern brethren. 
 
 To the concurrent testimony of all who are engaged in the labour of 
 Indian reform, I add my own unqualified assertion, resulting from an 
 experience of more than ten years actual residence in the Indian coun 
 try, that there exists among our Indians no attachment to any pernicious 
 manners or customs, that will not yield to sound argument, righteous 
 example, and the offer of a better condition. I suppose that no heathen 
 nation on the earth can be found, so easily accessible to all the customs 
 which render civilized life blessed, and to the doctrines of the gospel, 
 which guide to heaven, as the American Indians were, when Europeans 
 first became acquainted with them. The entire absence of idolatry, of 
 established forms of religion, to which all must bend, and their ideas of 
 the existence of God, and 1 will add, of the sources of good and evil, 
 threw the door of access to them wide open. Had they not at that 
 time been trampled under our feet had they been approached as men, 
 entitled to meet their fellow men upon equitable terms had they been 
 greeted with the charities of our holy religion, our^ better things would 
 have been received by them with open arms, and every tribe would have 
 called us blessed. 
 
 In our northern districts, attempts were made in very early times, by 
 worthy men, to reform the Aborigines. While we are happy in the 
 
 and manners. Since the first edition of this manual was published, I have been 
 at most of the Osage villages, and I must say that no tribe with which I am ac 
 quainted gives more unequivocal evidence than they do, of belief in the existence 
 of God, his superintending providence, and the immortality of the soul. 
 
 An inquirer seldom has the good fortune to understand the Indian's language, 
 his modes of thinking, or his notions of decorum. The Indian generally hears 
 questions as the result of mischievous design, of impertinence, or of stupidity. 
 Against the first he cautiously guards, the second he insults, and with the last he 
 sports. Hence his answers are usually insincere. 
 
17 
 
 opinion that no effort for the christianizing of the Indians, was wholly- 
 unsuccessful, we must deeply regret, what we now distinctly perceive, 
 that those well-meant, labours were performed under all the disadvantages 
 of blind European prejudices in relation to the Indians. Those pious 
 hearts had too recently been transplanted from the sterile plains of re 
 ligious bigotry, to expand with liberal views of the character, and of the 
 just rights of man. 
 
 Missionaries in these days are enabled to profit by the days that are 
 past. But now they find the prejudices of the natives exceedingly ob 
 stinate ; they have been matured by more than two hundred years, and 
 cherished by a thousand considerations, each of which has annually 
 grown heavier and heavier: after all, let it be borne in mind, that it is 
 not inflexible attachment to the hunter state, or to other rude habits or 
 ceremonies, of which missionaries complain. It is a want of confidence 
 in the purity of our motives. The Indians feel themselves forsaken 
 and friendless. The proffered hand of friendship has, a thousand times 
 proved a snare, and the voice of kindness been deceptive. With what 
 spirit remains to them from the ravages of dissipation and despair, they 
 feel towards us, as we should feel towards invaders of our country and 
 rights, who were fattened with plentitude, and basking in affluence, on 
 the fields of our fathers, while we, with our ragged, half-starved off 
 spring, stood soliciting the elm to lend us his coat to shelter us from the 
 snow. But convince the Indians that you are true men, and not spies, 
 that though they had thought the Great Spirit deaf to their groans, and 
 all men had risen up against them, yet he does pity, they have some 
 sincere friends, and they will leap for joy. Yes, I have seen them un 
 der such circumstances melted into tears. I have seen that their confi 
 dence swelled to extremes, and in their enthusiasm they were ready to 
 deem the missionary more than an ordinary man. 
 
 Indians are not untameable. Give them a country as their own, 
 under circumstances which will enable them to feel their importance, 
 where they can hope to enjoy, unmolested, the fruits of their labours, 
 and their national recovery need not be doubted. But, let the policy 
 of our Government in relation to them, continue as it has been, and as 
 it now is, and, with the exception of the Cherokees, and their immediate 
 neighbours, I know of no tribe, nor part of a tribe, no, not one, within, 
 or near to all the frontiers of Arkansaw, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, 
 Michigan, or Ohio, nor one of those bands on small reservations in 
 New-York or New-England, of whom we can indulge any better hope 
 than that of their total extermination. Even over those whom we have 
 excepted above, a gloomy cloud is gathering, of which we shall speak 
 hereafter. 
 
 I fear the public are not fully aware of this fact, especially the Chris 
 tian public, who would more especially shudder at the thought, and who 
 have been hoping for better things. I fear, too, that missionaries are 
 sometimes afraid to tell the worst of this part of the story, lest the bene 
 volent societies and individuals at a distance, who patronize the mis 
 sions, should become discouraged, and decline the prosecution of 
 the undertaking. I know that there cannot exist with them, any sinis 
 ter motive to such a forbearance, because their labours, the labours of 
 their whole lives, are gratuitously devoted to this enterprise. But, they 
 have been eye-witnesses of Indian wickedness and sufferings. They 
 have heard fathers begging them to have mercy on them and their off- 
 
 3 
 
18 
 
 spring, and entreating them not to forsake them ; they have seen the 
 mother digging roots for her children, and have beheld the emaciated 
 frames of those who, in winter, had lived weeks upon acorns only, or 
 who, in summer, had fed for days upon boiled weeds alone. They 
 have heard the cries of children suffering with hunger, and seen the 
 frozen limbs of the half-naked sufferer. Among these wretched people 
 they have formed congregations, which delight to hear of " a better 
 country," and with whom they unite in grayer and praise. They have 
 collected scores of lovely children into their schools and families, who 
 are taught to call them fathers and mothers, and to look to them as 
 their best friends, without whose help they are undone. They have 
 heard some of these children in secret prayer, covered with the mantle 
 of night, upon their knees imploring the Lord God Almighty, to re 
 ward the kindness of their benefactors, to continue his mercies to them 
 selves, and to pity their less favoured, their suffering kindred. Under 
 these, and kindred considerations, missionaries dare not indulge a thought 
 of forsaking the people of their charge. For them they will labour, in 
 their sorrows they will sympathise, and among their tombs they will 
 be buried. It is possible that, under the influence of such zeal for the 
 temporal and eternal welfare of the Indians, missionaries may fear to 
 tell what they think might be heard with discouragement by the patrons 
 of missions. These are the reasons for the omission, if they have not 
 fully advertized the public, that the tribes to which I have just referred, 
 are perishing are perishing. If there is any missionary among the 
 tribes under consideration, who can say otherwise of the people of his 
 charge, let him publish the fact, and I will rejoice that I have been mis 
 taken, and I will join him in hosannas to the Son of David. 
 
 A brief recapitulation of the foregoing, furnishes us with the fol 
 lowing summary : Europeans brought with them to this country 
 undue prejudices against the Aborigines ; they viewed them as a con 
 temptible race, undeserving the rights of nations or of men. The com 
 mencement of their career, in matters relating to the Indians, was radi 
 cally wrong, and upon these wrong principles we have ever since acted. 
 We cannot go back and undo the errors of two hundred years. 
 We find a suffering people calling on us for sympathy and for justice, 
 the peculiarities of whose condition give extraordinary weight to their 
 claims upon both. These people, with few exceptions, are positively 
 perishing, and perishing rapidly.- They will inevitably be extirminated, 
 unless we rescue them. The present course of kindness towards them, 
 of our Government, of Societies, and of individuals, will not prevent 
 their ruin, because they continue to sink deeper and deeper in wo. 
 
 To this summary we append the following inquiries. Do we possess 
 ample means of placing this suffering people, in the enjoyment of the 
 blessings of civilized life, as participated commonly by the citizens of 
 the United States 1 Can these means be employed without injustice to 
 ourselves, as a nation, in the present posture of affairs 1 To these 
 questions I humbly, but very confidently, undertake to reply. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 In the claims of Indians to the soil, we find ample means for all the pur 
 poses of Indian reform. 
 
 I have already attempted to prove that the Indians have a legal right 
 to the soil of the territories they inhabit, until the same be by them fairly 
 transferred. We have admitted their incapacity to manage their own 
 affairs ; and have suggested the propriety of the United States assum 
 ing a guardianship of them ; and that this should not be done, at the ex 
 pense of their just rights. Admitting the legality of their claims to the 
 soil, it follows that in the same they possess property, fully adequate to 
 all the demands of the process of their reformation. This property can 
 be applied to the relief of the Indians without taking one dollar from our 
 treasury. Where then could be the loss to us 1 It would be loss, only 
 in anticipation ; one source of revenue to the United States would be 
 lessened; namely, that from the sale of public lands. But the chang 
 ing of the direction of this stream would be for the righteous purpose of 
 allowing it to water the fields to which it does rightfully belong ; and in 
 so doing, we should no more than discharge a just debt, the payment of 
 which we cannot withhold without violence to the better feelings of the 
 human heart. 
 
 Admitting that the state of society and the policy of our Government 
 imperiously require us hereafter to possess ourselves of large portions 
 of Indian territory, yet neither the one nor the other requires us to deny 
 to the Indians an equivalent. In the construction of public works, you 
 take the land of the minor, because your convenience requires it; but 
 you secure to him an ample remuneration. He is incapable of stipulat 
 ing for the terms of this remuneration ; therefore you do it for him. 
 The Indians are, also, incapable of stipulating for profitable terms. 
 It would become us to do this for them, and that too, by fixed and right 
 eous rules. 
 
 At the treaty of Chicago, signed Aug. 29, 1821, held with the Put- 
 tawatomie, and parts of the Chippewa and Ottawa tribes of Indians, 
 there were ceded to the United States, within the limits of Michigan 
 Territory, 4,472,550 acres of land, and within the State of Indiana, 
 460,800 acres, making an aggregate of 4,933,350 acres. 
 
 Twelve and a half cents per acre, which amounts to the sum of 
 $616,668:75, we suppose to be sufficient to meet all the expenses of the 
 treaty at which the purchase was made, and the expenses of surveying 
 and preparing the land for market. The minimum price of Govern 
 ment land is $1,25 per acre. At auction it often s^lls much higher. 
 But on account of expenses of purchase, and of sales, and on account 
 of unsaleable lands, our calculations reduce the real value, and say it 
 is worth, clear of all expense or purchase, &c. sixty-two and a half 
 cents per acre.* The purchase under consideration at this rate, is 
 
 * If it should occur to any one that our allowance for unsaleable lands is too 
 small, I would remind him that we are not to calculate their amount from what is 
 unsold. It is well known that millions of acres of valuable lands are now in mar- 
 
20 
 
 worth to the United States, really, $3,083,343:75. We therefore ac 
 quire, in this transaction, free of all costs, the very respectable sum 
 mentioned above, which sum we can apply to the benefit of the Indians 
 without taking a single sixpence from the property of any citizen of 
 the United States. The people to be benefitted by this sum cannot ex 
 ceed in number seven thousand souls. 
 
 In the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Louisiana, Alabama, Missi- 
 sippi, and Missouri, and in the territories of Arkansas and Michigan, 
 the United States have acquired lands from the Indians to the amount 
 of 214,219,865 acres. Let us moderate our calculations, and say the 
 land is worth to us, clear of all expense, 50 cents per acre, we then 
 have acquired in it a real property of $107,109,932:50. Let it be ob 
 served, this sum has been acquired by purchases made within only nine 
 States and Territories, out of twenty-six. And further, there yet re 
 mains in the States and Territories named, a considerable amount of 
 land to which the Indian title has not been extinguished. 
 
 The above sum would have been worthy of our government in the 
 work of Indian reform, and commensurate to all the exigencies of such 
 an enterprise. Admitting that it is greater than would have been neces 
 sary, still it could all have been applied without loss to us ; and in pro 
 portion as w r e diminish the amount to that which would have been ac 
 tually required, we find a positive profit to ourselves. 
 
 While on this point, it might not be amiss to indulge a thought occa 
 sionally on the circumstance, that millions of acres of Indian lands 
 have come into our possession without treaty, or the formalities of pur 
 chase or pay ; and on the small amount, in the aggregate, which pur 
 chased the residue, in all the states not named above. 
 
 I do not pretend to say that any plan adopted now, ought to operate 
 retrospectively. 1 have made the foregoing calculations, merely for the 
 purpose of showing what might have been done, and what may be done 
 in future, with entire convenience to us. There are yet millions, many 
 millions of acres of valuable territory, which have not been ceded to the 
 United States. It is their application only, to the benefit of the Indians, 
 that we ask. I declare myself at a loss to conceive what reasonable 
 objection any man could make to this measure. 
 
 Again, should the above be considered a sacrifice on our part, should 
 it be considered too great a change in our policy in relation to the In 
 dians, then, we would propose that they be allowed the use of those 
 funds for a given time ; say thirty years, and let the interest only of the 
 stock be employed for their benefit. This would be, in itself, only allowing 
 them the use of their lands for that period, with the express understand 
 ing that, at the expiration of the term, all their claims would be relin 
 quished to the United States for ever. By the act which creates these 
 
 ket, unsold for no other reason than because the United States acquire lands of the 
 Indians so frequently, and to such a vast extent, that great latitude is afforded to 
 purchasers to stretch over the country in the selection of favourite spots, leaving 
 behind them much valuable land, which, were it not for the reasons just now 
 assigned, would soon yield to the United States the value of one dollar and twenty- 
 five cents per acre. 
 
 Again, let Government put all their unsold lands which are now in market, at 
 seventy-five cents, and at fifty cents per acre, according to their comparative value, 
 and your markets will presently be crowded with purchasers, and unsold lands will 
 soon become scarce. 
 
funds, we acquire the Indian territory ; from which they retire, leaving 
 us the entire occupancy of the same. This, as I trust we shall learn 
 in the sequel, would be vastly better for the Indians, than the actual 
 occupancy of those lands for the same length of time. No objection, 
 therefore, arises to our proposal from the consideration of their interests. 
 And it will at first sight be abundantly obvious that the measure would 
 be greatly more advantageous to the United States than to allow them 
 to reside on those lands for that period. 
 
 Were we to allow them the interest only of the funds created by the 
 sale of their lands, after paying all expenses thereon, occasioned by 
 treaty, survey, &c. the proceeds of the treaty made at Chicago, in 1821, 
 that is to say, the interest on $3,083,343:75, at six per cent, per annum, 
 would be $185,000:62^. This annuity, as before stated, would be for 
 the benefit of about seven thousand souls. 
 
 By the same calculation, the annual interest on the sum we found 
 just now, created by the acquisition of Indian lands in nine States and 
 Territories, to wit, the sum of $107,109,932:50, would be $6,426,595:95. 
 Were we expending at this time the annual sum last mentioned, on 
 only a portion of our Indians, we should be doing no more than paying 
 them the interest of a debt which we justly owe, of the principal of 
 which, our proposal does not solicit the payment. 
 
 At the time this manual was first published in 1827, a portion of the 
 Puttawatomie tribe, in number about 3,500 owned, as was supposed, in 
 Indiana and Michigan 5,000,000 of acres. This, at sixty-two and a 
 half cents an acre, is worth $3,125,000; the interest on which, at six 
 per cent, per annum would be .$ 187,500. 
 
 Let us take another view of this subject. The Chippewas inhabit 
 along the line between the United States and Canada ; the greater por 
 tion of them on the Canada side. Let us leave them, and perhaps some 
 others, entirely out of our present calculations ; and on this account 
 leave out so much of our north-western territory, as lies north of the 
 forty-sixth degree of northern latitude. We will then suppose, upon a 
 safe calculation, that we still have remaining in the north-western terri 
 tory, that is, south of the forty-sixth degree of latitude, ana 1 north of the 
 State of Illinois, and west of lake Michigan, and east of the Mississip 
 pi river, 45,000,000 of acres. Suppose there is yet, as was the case in 
 1827, within the States of Illinois and Indiana, and the Territory of 
 Michigan, 10,000,000 of acres of Indian land, not ceded to the United 
 States, which, added to the 45,000,000 mentioned above, make 
 55,000,000 of acres. This, at the rate of sixty-two and a half cents 
 an acre, would be worth to us, free of all cost, $34,375,000. The inter 
 est on which, at six per cent, per annum, would be $2,062,500. The 
 tribes to be benefitted by the above sum are Ottawa, Puttawatomie, 
 Winebago, Menominee, Sauk, and Fox. 
 
 The plan under consideration will not suffer at all by the supposition 
 that all these lands could not, at once, be turned into profitable stock, 
 for neither would the process of Indian reform require it. The lands 
 of course would be obtained from the natives from time to time, as 
 would best suit the convenience of our Government. There would 
 also be a space of time in each case, between the ceding of it to the 
 United States, and the actual application of nett profits on the same 
 to the use of the Indians. But each case provides for itself. The be 
 nefit would commence and increase with the beginning and growth of 
 
22 
 
 the nett profits thereon. And if, as our plan proposes, the profits to the 
 Indians shall be limited to a certain number of years, that period would 
 be fixed according to the commencement of the emolument, and in pro 
 portion to the sum that would be of necessity advanced for the purpose 
 of so disposing of the Indians, as to enable the United States to settle 
 the land without inconvenience to the former. Still the amount of 
 profit to the Indians, for the property under consideration, would ulti 
 mately be the same. Without doubt, the revenue would commence, 
 and would increase on a scale sufficiently large to meet the necessities 
 of any civilizing operations that our Government might choose to adopt. 
 
 The same calculation^ will apply, with similar advantage, less or 
 more, to the Miamies, and to all others on small reservations in Ohio, 
 New-York, and New-England, and others on our borders, and who 
 might require our attention, west of the Mississippi river. 
 
 Take particular notice the sum just stated, would be provided at 
 no higher expense to us than what would be tantamount to allowing 
 the Indians to remain on their lands the aforementioned term of thirty 
 years, and then relinquishing them to us -for ever, without any further 
 consideration. The question, therefore, turns upon this single hinge 
 Can we afford the Indians the use of those lands for thirty years, upon 
 the consideration that they shall ever afterwards be ours, admitting that 
 they may enjoy such use, or its equivalent, without remaining in the way 
 of our settlements, or of our business 1 This being admitted, we take 
 possession of the lands immediately, and instead of allowing them a 
 residence thereon, apply to their use, for the same term of time, the 
 interest of a supposed real stock which we would have in the said 
 lands. 
 
 What reasonable objection could we raise, to allowing the Indians to 
 enjoy the benefits of their lands a few years longer, when we should, 
 in the mean time, derive all the advantages, of settling on those lands ? 
 
 If our Government should choose positively to invest the stockjmder 
 consideration, then there would be at the end of these years, belonging 
 to the United States, not only the country itself, but also a disposable 
 fund of $34,375,000. This, we must recollect, is only one verse in the 
 chapter. The calculations which have led us to this fund, include only 
 the Indians south of the 46th degree of northern latitude, east of the 
 Mississippi river, skirting for its southern limits the northern parts of 
 Illinois and Indiana, and extending a little distance into Michigan Ter 
 ritory, east of Lake Michigan. All others, with their millions of terri 
 tory, have been left out of our calculations. 
 
 Further, if it be necessary to make the matter still more favourable 
 on our part, let us suppose that in the operations of our present policy, 
 some of those northern tribes will occupy their present places fifteen 
 years, before the United States will have extinguished the whole of their 
 claims, and the few who will be alive, shall have fled to some more remote 
 district, according to the ordinary fate of the Indians ; still, during the 
 whole of this term of time, they are in our way, to the great annoyance 
 of the settling of the country. But, let us suppose that the plan under 
 consideration would remove them in five years ; this would secure to us 
 the earlier occupancy of ten years, of the country in question. This 
 would be placing in our hands, the stock contemplated, ten years sooner 
 than we should otherwise realize it, which would be equal to the pay 
 ment of ten years' interest to the Indians for the same term which they 
 
23 
 
 would otherwise have occupied their lands. Or, in other words, it would 
 be equal to a deduction of ten years, from the term of the thirty years, 
 which we have supposed the interest would be payable to them. 
 
 The advantages which this view of our subject discloses, must go far 
 in the recommendation of our plan. I trust we shall be able to make 
 it appear, that our plan is of a Character to justify the above conclusions ; 
 not in exact proportion of time, as mentioned above, nevertheless, in a 
 proportion more or less favourable, of which, the above calculation will 
 be found illustrative. 
 
 It is but justice to our scheme to state, which I do with a good degree 
 of confidence, that by it a current annual expenditure of the United 
 States, on about the section of country which we have last had under 
 consideration, without benefit to the Indians, of at least $65,200, will be 
 turned into the account of positive advantage to the natives, or not be 
 expended at all. And also, that another item of current annual expen 
 diture of $66,531, may be diminished more than one half. 
 
 The first item alluded to, of $65,200, is the aggregate of annuities 
 paid to those Indians within the district under consideration. There 
 has been a lamentable waste of public treasure upon Indiati treaties ;* 
 and I as confidently assert, that there is a lamentable waste of public 
 moneys in Indian annuities. Our Government is not in the habit of 
 taking their lands for nothing. But it is extremely doubtful whether 
 the thousands of dollars annually paid to the Indians, as matters are, 
 render them any service. My own opinion is, that all things consider 
 ed, their annuities are worse than useless. No person could have been 
 more favourably situated for arriving at a just conclusion on this point 
 than myself. Having been actually among them for ten years, I am 
 well acquainted with their circumstances both before and after receiving 
 annuities ; and declare that I have found no reason for inclining to a 
 different opinion from that just now expressed. I am inclined to be 
 lieve that there are few, if any, Indian Agents, who are of a different 
 opinion. 
 
 Indians usually waste much of their annuities on ardent spirits. The 
 occasion of receiving their pay collects them together into large bodies,, 
 and exposes them to greater excesses. In 1821, eight murders among 
 themselves occurred at arid near to Fort Wayne, before they left the 
 neighbourhood where their moneys had been paid to them. In the same 
 year, 1821, a few days after the close of the treaty of Chicago, when 
 of course they had the means of procuring whiskey, -seven persons, of 
 both sexes, were murdered among themselves, on the same ground, in 
 the course of twenty-four hours. If our conclusion, that the annuities 
 paid to the Indians, do them an injury rather than a service, it becomes 
 exceedingly desirable to put a stop to this' expenditure ; or rather to 
 direct its application to the positive benefit of the natives, according to 
 the design of our Government. That these annuities may be thus ap 
 plied, I believe, will be admitted by all who dispassionately consider the 
 subject. 
 
 Some pledges lately given, that it would appear that our plan provides 
 for the earlier removal of the Indians which are found in our way, than 
 
 * This remark is not intended to criminate the officers of our Government, who 
 negociate treaties, and perform other similar services. Those men proceed ac 
 cording to their instructions. The error is in the policy of the Government. 
 
24 
 
 can be hoped for from existing measures, and also provides for th# 
 abridgement of an annual expenditure which at this time amounts to 
 about $66,531, I hope to redeem a few pages hence. 
 
 Should it be asked, Why it is desirable to create a larger fund for the 
 benefit of the Indians, if what we have already bestowed upon them 
 has been wasted, and worse than wasted ? I answer, an increase of funds,, 
 to be applied in a similar way, is not desirable. That is, to put cash 
 into their hands, or to put blankets on their backs. In the two cases 
 the result is about the same. If you give them clothing, or the means 
 necessary for hunting, there are persons ready to buy the same for whis 
 key and trifles, and to shop up the very same articles to sell to the In 
 dians afterwards, for peltries and fur. 
 
 There are two items of annual expenditure of Government on the 
 Indians which have not been wasted or lost. The first is, the annual 
 appropriation of $10,000, specially for purposes of Indian reform. 
 This sum has been placed by Congress at the disposal of the President 
 of the United States. The latter has determined to apply it, not in 
 hiring men to go among the Indians to civilize them, because in many 
 instances he would unwittingly appoint unsuitable persons ; but he has 
 determined to apply it in conjunction with benevolent Associations, who 
 have embarked with zeal and Christian prudence in the work of civiliz 
 ing and evangelizing the Indians. A more judicious regulation, both as 
 it regards Congress and the President, could not be made. In this ar 
 rangement, we have the best security for the just and useful application of 
 these funds, of which the imperfection of man admits. Take as an ex 
 planation of the whole*, the details of the case as it exists within the 
 superintendency of Indian agency, at Detroit, Michigan Territory. 
 
 Schools are established in the Indian country, actually among them* 
 At these establishments youths are taught letters, and labour, both do 
 mestic, agricultural, and mechanical ; and, in a word, whatever is ne 
 cessary for the improvement of Indian condition. The men, (and the 
 women too) who are employed to manage these establishments, are re 
 gular members of Christian churches, and are accountable to the same 
 for their conduct. There are, also, special agents of religious benevolent 
 Associations, formed in various parts of the" United States, for the ex 
 press object of promoting purposes of benevolence. These Associa 
 tions are composed of men of the first standing in society. They are 
 indeed the select men of the different religious denominations. To these 
 Societies and Associations, the missionaries are accountable. The ser 
 vices of the missionaries are all gratuitous. This circumstance has a 
 powerful tendency to exclude all temptation to abuse their trust. To 
 the Societies under whose patronage they generally labour, they account 
 annually, semi-annually, or quarterly, as the case requires. In addition 
 to this, the Society orders as often as it deems it expedient, a special and 
 competent Agent to visit the establishments, and to report the condition 
 of the mission. 
 
 The missionaries are also required to report annually to the President 
 of the United States. In addition to all this, an Agent is appointed 
 by the President of the United States, to visit annually, the several es 
 tablishments, and to report. All these reports to the Societies, and to 
 the Government, are either published to the world, or are left open for 
 examination at any time. Thus guarded, we may safely calculate that 
 these funds will be applied to the very best advantage. And thus far 
 
25 
 
 we are very bold in the assertion, in every instance of the application of 
 any portion of them, blessings to the poor savages have sprung up, and 
 have caused the wilderness to resound with songs of joy. 
 
 The second item of" public expenditure on the natives, which is pro 
 fitably employed for them, is the amount arising from special stipulations 
 in treaties for education purposes ; stipulations, in the spirit of the case, 
 perfectly in accordance with the doctrine we have advanced. These 
 funds, like the direct appropriations of Congress, are placed at the dis 
 posal of the President, who wisely directs their application through the 
 sime channel as the former. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The only feasible Plan for reforming the Indians, is that of colonizing 
 
 them. 
 
 HAVING arrived at a certainty of the fact that we have at our disposal 
 more than ample means for the accomplishment of all the purposes of 
 Indian reform ; means, too, which can be applied without disadvantage 
 to us, and probably, to our own positive profit ; it now becomes us to in 
 quire, What plan will most likely be successful in accomplishing the re 
 formation of the Indians ? 
 
 Without ceremony, I offer for consideration the plan recommended 
 to the wisdom of Congress by Mr. Monroe, late President of the United 
 States, and highly commended in a Report of Mr. Calhoun, then Se 
 cretary of War, on which the first resolution was moved in that respect 
 able body by Mr. Conway, of Arkansas, which was afterwards happily 
 amended by Mr. Barbour, Secretary of War, and which has since been 
 called up to the consideration of Congress by gentlemen whose remem 
 brance will be grateful to the enlightened Indian, and to the friends of 
 Indian reform, while history lives to tell of generous deeds.* 
 
 This plan proposes the concentration of all the tribes in some suitable 
 portion of country, under such guardianship of our Government as shall 
 be found conducive to their permanent improvement ; together with the 
 guaranty, on the faith of the United States, of said 'country to them and 
 to their posterity for ever. 
 
 We have already discovered to a certainty, that some measures more 
 efficient than those heretofore employed, must be adopted, or the Indians 
 must perish. Increase the appropriations for their reform, and the ope 
 rative means of improvement will take a wider range ; but leave the 
 Indians situated as they have been, and as they now are, and they will, 
 " nevertheless, pine away and die. We may theorize by our firesides, 
 but facts will speak for them selves. The policy which has been pursued 
 with the Aborigines for about 200 years, is to pen them up on small 
 reservations, or to encourage them to retire farther back into the forests. 
 Now if ever one tribe of Indians has flourished under the circumstance of 
 either of these situations, we will hope that the like may happen again. 
 But if such an event has never occurred, we may confidently assure our 
 selves that it never will. 
 
 * Since the publication of the first edition of this Report, we have been inform 
 ed that Col. Thomas Benton, of Missouri, moved the consideration of this subject 
 in Congress, prior to the resolution submitted by Mr. Conway. 
 
 4 
 
26 
 
 Objections to our long continued policy are not merely of a negative 
 character, such as to say, " those tribes do not thrive ;" but, our objec 
 tions say positively, that the policy is ruinous, and that it has never, in a 
 single instance, failed, and never, in a single instance, will fail, to be 
 prolific in fatal consequences to the Indians. Several tribes have be 
 come totally extinct, and of some, scarcely the remembrance exists. 
 Others, once numerous and powerful, are now reduced to a few dozens, 
 or less, of poor, miserable, worthless beings ; and the condition of all 
 such is becoming more and more pitiable every year. The degrees of 
 declension and misery are in a regular gradation from those tribes which 
 have a dying remnant, up to those who are but just beginning to melt 
 down by the approach of the whites. We could easily point to parti 
 cular instances of the rapidity of decline, and of its alarming extent ; but 
 this would be consuming time in proof of what is clear to demonstra 
 tion to all who are acquainted with the history of the Indians. 
 
 We are now admonished, in terms clear and distinct, the language 
 of well-known facts, what we ought not to do. The question, therefore, 
 presents itself singly, What ought we to do ? Let the history of the Che- 
 rokees and their neighbours, teach us. 
 
 These people have been allowed to occupy a situation similar to that 
 contemplated in the colonizing plan, under consideration. So far as 
 the circumstances of their situation have been in accordance with the 
 spirit of the proposed plan, so far those tribes have thriven. By all the 
 circumstances in which there has been a departure from the spirit of our 
 plan, has their improvement been retarded. 
 
 These tribes have been permitted to live where, in some degree, they 
 could cherish a spirit of national ambition. They have felt themselves 
 somewhat at home. They owned a tract of country, sufficiently large, 
 to allow them to feel their importance as a people. Notwithstanding 
 the United States had not acknowledged their claims to soil to be legal, 
 like those of the citizens of the United States, yet such were their cir 
 cumstances, that they felt less apprehension of being 'removed, than 
 others of whom we have spoken. They were neither running before the 
 advance of white population, nor pent up on a little spot by a people 
 with whom they could not associate upon an equality. They were so 
 situated as to feel the force of incentives to improvement. They could 
 witness the prosperity of the whites, and hope, that, by imitating their 
 example, they might arrive at similar excellence. Not by mingling with 
 the whites it was among themselves alone, that they could find the sa 
 lutary mediocrity of society. Happily for them, they had latitude to 
 think, to hope, and to act. Such a situation, though materially better, 
 being far less affected by the prejudices, and by all the evils resulting 
 from the contiguity of the whites, does our colonizing scheme offer 
 " to those who are ready to perish." 
 
 The improved condition of these people not only demonstrates the 
 practicability of Indian reform, but also declares, as on housetops, that 
 we have always been in error with respect to the inveteracy of Indian 
 habits. We now know that if Indians are favourably situated for improve 
 ment, they will improve themselves. The work of civilization among 
 the Cherokees appears to have been commenced by themselves ; and, by 
 themselves, without assistance from the whites, carried forward to a very 
 hopeful and happy extent. With the exception of a well-meant, but 
 limited effort of the United Brethren, who were very worthy men, it was 
 
27 
 
 not until the year 1803 that any thing like efficient missionary labours 
 were commenced among them. Even these labours were on a limited 
 scale, and soon discontinued. In the year 1817 the American Board 
 of Commissioners for Foreign Missions commenced their successful 
 career in that country. And it was still later that the Baptist Board of 
 Missions formed an establishment in the eastern part of the nation. At 
 this time they were comparatively a civilized people. 
 
 It appears that these people had made great improvement in the arts 
 of civilized life, many years prior to 1803. " In 1806, they had as 
 sumed, to a greater extent, not only the habits, but even the form of 
 government of a civilized nation. At a kind of national meeting, they 
 formed a constitution, chose a legislative body, and passed a number of 
 laws, among which, was one act imposing taxes for public purposes." 
 In 1810, it is said their number was 12,395. There were in the nation 
 583 negro slaves, 19,500 cattle, 6,100 horses, 19,600 hogs, and 1,037 
 sheep. They had in actual operation 13 grist mills, 3 saw mills, 3 
 salt-petre works, and one powder mill. They had 30 wagons, between 
 480 and 500 ploughs, 1600 spinning wheels, 467 looms, and 49 silver 
 smiths. Circulating specie was supposed to be as plenty among them, 
 as was common among the white people of the neighbouring countries. 
 On their roads they had many public houses, and on their rivers conve 
 nient ferries. Many of them were learning different trades according 
 to their particular inclinations.* 
 
 As a further illustration of their improved state, take the following 
 extract from their national Committee and Council, published in the 
 Columbian Star, at Washington, March 11, 1826. I give the follow 
 ing resolutions as they were passed among themselves, and written down 
 with their own hands. 
 
 " Resolved by the national Committee and Council, that an agent or 
 agents shall be appointed to solicit and receive donations in money, from 
 individuals or societies through the United States, for the purpose of 
 establishing and supporting a national Academy, and for procuring two 
 sets of types, and a press for a printing office, to be established at New- 
 town, in the Cherokee nation. 
 
 " Be it further resolved, that the treasurer be, and he is, hereby author 
 ized to apply $1500, out of the public funds towards the objects herein 
 specified." This press is now in operation, and issues a weekly news 
 paper. 
 
 To the foregoing evidences of the improved and flourishing condition 
 of the Cherokees,! add extracts from the letter of David Brown, a Chero 
 kee, written by himself at Willstown, (Cherokee nation,) Sept. 2, 1825, 
 addressed to the editor of the Family Visitor, at Richmond, Virginia. 
 
 " These plains [in the Cherokee country] furnish immense pasturage, 
 and numberless herds of cattle are dispersed over them. Horses are 
 plenty, and are used for servile purposes. Numerous flocks of sheep, 
 goats, and swine, cover the valleys and hills. On the Tennessee, Usta- 
 nala, and Canasagi rivers, Cherokee commerce floats. In the plains 
 and valleys the soil is generally rich, producing Indian corn, cotton, to 
 bacco, wheat, oats, indigo, sweet and Irish potatoes. The natives car 
 ry on a considerable trade with the adjoining States, and some of them 
 export cotton in boats down the Tennessee to the Mississippi, and down 
 
 * See Brown's Hist, of Missions, 1st American Edition, Vol. 2, p. 505. 
 
28 
 
 that river to New-Orleans. Apple and peach orchards are quite com* 
 mon, and gardens are cultivated, and much attention paid to them. 
 Butter and cheese are seen on Cherokee tables. There are many pub 
 lic roads in the nation, and houses of entertainment kept by natives. 
 Numerous flourishing villages are seen in every section of the country. 
 Cotton and woollen cloths are manufactured here. Blankets of various 
 dimensions manufactured by Cherokee hands are very common. 'Al 
 most every family in the nation grows cotton for its own consumption. 
 Industry, and commercial enterprise, are extending themselves in every 
 part. Nearly all the merchants in the nation are native Cherokees, 
 Agricultural pursuits, (the solid foundation of our national prosperity,) 
 engage the chief attention of the people. Different branches in mecha 
 nics are pursued. The population is rapidly increasing. In the year 
 1819, an estimate was made of all the Cherokees. Those on the west 
 were estimated at 5,000, and those on the east of Mississippi at 10,000 
 souls. The census of this division of the Cherokees has again been 
 taken within the current year, [1825] and the returns are thus made: 
 Native citizens, 13,563 white men married in the nation, 147 white 
 women, do. 73 African slaves, 1,277. If this summary of Cherokee 
 population from the census is correct, to say nothing of those of foreign 
 extract, we find that in six years, the increase has been 3,563 souls. 
 National pride, patriotism, and a spirit of independence, mark the Che 
 rokee character. Presbyterians, Methodists, Baptists, and Moravians, 
 are the most numerous [religious] sects [in the nation.] Some of the 
 most influential characters are members of the church, and live consist 
 ently with their professions. Schools are increasing every year ; learn 
 ing is encouraged and rewarded. The female character is elevated and 
 duly respected. Indolence is discountenanced. We are out of debt, 
 and our public revenue is in a flourishing condition. Our system of 
 government, founded on republican principles, by which justice is equal 
 ly distributed, secures the respect of the people. Newtown is the seat 
 of government. The legislative power is vested in a national Commit 
 tee and Council. Members of both branches are chosen by and from 
 the people, for a limited period. In Newtown a printing press is soon to 
 be established ; also, a national library and a museum." 
 
 In view of the preceding facts, it is presumed that none will hesitate 
 to admit that the Cherokees are a civilized people. They have among 
 them men of classical education, and of refined manners. It is not pre 
 tended that every individual deserves the appellation of civilized, neither 
 does every individual whom we claim as a citizen of the United States 
 merit the title. 
 
 No one more reveres the character, or admires the valuable labours of 
 the devoted missionaries who have aided the Cherokees, than I do. We 
 make honourable mention of the excellent Moravian missionaries, and 
 of the worthy Mr. Blackburn ; but both these efforts have been too 
 limited to have a sensible bearing upon the condition of the nation. I 
 must say, it was neither missionaries, nor our benevolent Government, 
 that taught those people to raise cattle, sheep, and swine ; to build houses, 
 plant orchards, make roads, establish ferries, and houses of public en 
 tertainment ; to plough and reap, to spin and weave ; to establish a 
 form of civil government, regulated by a code of wholesome laws, &c. 
 These, and similar blessings, they had acquired prior to any efficient 
 efforts, either on the part of benevolent societies, or of our Government, 
 
for the melioration of their condition. Recently, benevolent societies, 
 and our Government, have very happily contributed to the progress of 
 improvement among these people ; but their aid has been chiefly in the 
 matters of education and religion. 
 
 I have long wondered that the fact, that the Cherokees had climbed to 
 their present elevation in the scale of civilization, without assistance 
 from any other people, except the little lately afforded them, should have 
 been so generally overlooked, by those who wrote and spake of them. 
 The omission is calculated to lead us into error in the matter of Indian 
 reform ; and I have no hesitation in saying, that it has already produced 
 this effect ; or rather, it has cherished old established errors in relation 
 to this subject. So long as the public are impressed with the belief, that 
 the Cherokees have been brought from the savage to the civilized state, 
 by means of civilizing agents which have been sent among them, no 
 thing else is dreamed of in relation to other Indians, than the employ 
 ment of similar means alone. They seem to forget that ever since the 
 year 1646, the time that Elliot commenced his ministry among the na 
 tives, we have been laboiiring for some of the more northwardly tribes, 
 and that they have, all the while, been perishing under our hands. They 
 act as if wholly ignorant of the fact, that the Cherokees have acquired 
 their greatness in the absence of the very remedies which alone they 
 seem inclined to apply to the relief of others. Doubtless, it would 
 have been fortunate for the Cherokees, if they had, all along, been am 
 ply supplied with civilizing agents. Their progress in the arts of civiliz 
 ed life would have been greatly facilitated by such auxiliaries ; but they 
 can be considered, in the work of Indian reform, nothing more than 
 auxiliaries. Benevolent Societies and Government may unite in the 
 employment of those auxiliaries, and yet the people perish place the 
 Indians in a situation favourable to their improvement, yet leave them to 
 encounter the inconvenience of the absence of those auxiliaries, and they 
 will, nevertheless, civilize themselves. 
 
 Every one can easily perceive, notwithstanding the above observa 
 tions, that in the present state of our country and of the Indians, agents 
 for civilizing and evangelizing them, (for the work ought always to be 
 thus blended,) are most desirable to the accomplishment of our under 
 taking ; and I do heartily wish that every one could, also, as distinctly 
 perceive what to me appears no less plain, that unless we colonize 
 these people, and place them in circumstances similar to those of the 
 Cherokees, they will inevitably perish. 
 
 Let it be borne in mind that I am not now theorizing ; I am stating 
 plain matters of fact, which speak for themselves >the language of 
 which I think cannot be misunderstood by any one. The inferences I 
 have made are such as all must admit. 
 
 With the improvement of outward circumstances has been the actual 
 increase in numbers of the Cherokees. This is as we might expect it, 
 and the fact serves still further to develope the causes of decrease of 
 those with whom we are contrasting them. 
 
 Can any thing in nature be more plain and convincing, than the 
 striking contrast between the miserable wretches on small reservations, 
 or those on our frontiers, not one of five hundred of whom own either 
 cattle, sheep or swine, and not one of ten thousand of whom own either 
 mill, spinning-wheel, or loom, house, or furniture ; and those flourishing 
 countries, towns, and villages, which are inhabited by the Cherokees ? 
 
30 
 
 A thousand sayings might be added corroborative of the preceding 
 remarks, and in support of the conclusions which force themselves upon 
 our judgment ; but our object is doubtless attained. There is but one 
 mode of reasoning in the case that is, so long as Indians remain un 
 der the circumstances of the one, they must dwindle ; when placed in 
 circumstances similar to the other, they will thrive. For the latter and 
 more favourable situation, the colonizing plan, and that alone, provides. 
 The causes of the opposite processes are not obscure. The one is sunk 
 into the depths of degradation, and has before it no prospects to cherish 
 hope, and a spirit of improvement while precisely the reverse is hap 
 pily the case with the other. 
 
 The colonizing plan contemplates the elevation of the Indian charac 
 ter. The degradation stamped on them by our first acts towards them, 
 is to be removed by the very first step to be taken in the measure. We 
 denied the legality of their title to the soil. We are now to assign them 
 a country, and to say to them in the language of truth, never to be re 
 voked, this is yours yours for ever. This will be beginning precisely 
 where we ought to begin, at the very point where the evil began, and 
 which has been the seat of disease ever since. 
 
 The colonizing plan proposes to place the Aborigines on the same 
 footing as ourselves ; to place before them the same opportunities of im 
 provement that we enjoy, and the same inducements to improve those 
 opportunities. The result, therefore, cannot be doubtful. The colony 
 would commence and improve, much after the manner of all new set 
 tlements of whites, which have been begun and carried forward, under 
 favourable circumstances. Improvements in houses, fields, &c. would 
 at first be rude and ordinary, but every succeeding year would add to 
 their value, and would increase the number of domestic animals, and the 
 comforts of life in general. Schools would be established among them 
 for the instruction of their youth, which, on account of the poverty of 
 the parents, as well as their ignorance of the advantages of education, 
 would, at the commencement, be charity schools. As the state of so- 
 ciety would improve, the calls for charity would diminish, until children, 
 when receiving an education, could be supported by their parents. As 
 by the acquisition of property, the necessity for hunting would be su 
 perseded, and they rendered stationary within reach of the schools, the 
 attendance of the youths would be additionally secured. While, at the 
 same time, both old and young would be kept constantly within the 
 sphere of instruction, in morality, literature, and labour. As circum 
 stances might require, schools of a higher order would be established, 
 and the number of natives qualified to fill every department in ah improv 
 ing community, in the house, the field, the shop, the school, the state, 
 and the church, would annually increase. 
 
 Experience has taught us that a fruitful source of obstacles to Indian 
 reform exists in the community of right in property, which prevails to 
 too great an extent among the Indians. In cases in which the comfort 
 of society requires the blending of property in common, we often find it 
 divided, and vice versa. The husband and the wife, for instance, have 
 their separate claims to their property; and the husband would almost 
 as soon think of selling the horse of his neighbour, without leave, as that 
 of his wife ; while their lands, in which the individuality of right, ex 
 cept in the case last stated, ought to be identified, are held in common 
 by all. 
 
31 
 
 i 
 
 This community principle, intrudes itself into the domestic and daily 
 comforts of society, to the serious disadvantage of the whole. An indo 
 lent, worthless fellow, who will not grow a hill of -corn, will, day after 
 day, spunge his more industrious countryman, as long as the latter has 
 remaining any portion of the fruit of his industry. Thus it often hap 
 pens that the most idle and improvident, live almost as plentifully as 
 the more industrious, to the encouragement of the one in indolence, and 
 to the discouragement of the other in industry. 
 
 In the colony, a section of land, of proper dimension, would be mark 
 ed off to each individual, as his own, under certain regulations securing 
 his right against the intrusions to which his imperfect judgment would 
 expose him. This circumstance could not fail to teach him to identify 
 property and individual claims, in all cases where the happiness of so 
 ciety requires it. A man could say, This land is my own, and would 
 readily infer his supreme right to all its proceeds. The right of husband 
 and wife being blended in their land, they would rationally be led to 
 make a common interest in all property, as well as in labour, joy, and 
 sorrow ; while incentives to industry and economy would present them 
 selves to them, and to their rising posterity, from a thousand sources. 
 
 Laws for the regulation of the community, would be provided by the 
 United States' Government.* These at first would be few and plain, in 
 proportion only to the wants of the case. In judicial, as well as all 
 other transactions in the community, the natives themselves would be 
 employed, so far as persons could be found possessing the requisite 
 qualifications. 
 
 Being concentrated, instead of dispersed over thousands of miles, 
 trade and intercourse with the whites, could be regulated and maintained 
 upon just and equitable principles. Ardent spirits could be effectually 
 barred out of their country. In a word, all those local evils which are 
 at present frittering away to nothing these wretched people would be 
 avoided, and the advantages which are raising the Cherokees to great 
 ness, would be enjoyed. The logical conclusion, therefore is, the result 
 would be favourable. 
 
 Here let us remark, that the Cherokees, to whose improvement we 
 appeal with so much confidence and pleasure, are acquiring their cha 
 racter and comforts amidst a pressure of opposing obstacles. The 
 evils resulting from Indian degradation in the estimation of the whites, 
 from the denial of their legal claim to the soil, &c. reach them also 
 in a lamentable degree. Yet like men who could not brook the mise 
 ries of a prison, they are, with Herculean courage, breaking their 
 fetters asunder, and extricating themselves from a labyrinth of woes. 
 The colonists under consideration would be placed in circumstances 
 far more favourable to their improvement, than have been those of the 
 Cherokees; consequently the improvement of the former would be 
 proportionably more rapid than has been that of the latter. What 
 then follows ? These miserable Indians, gathered from their wretched 
 abodes, in which they had been perishing, and placed in " a good land," 
 a land acknowledged to be their own, removed from all the baleful 
 causes of their former calamities, and possessed of all the means which 
 have given character and consequence to their countrymen and kin 
 dred, the Cherokees, not the slightest probability forbids our confident 
 
 * See this subject considered again in Chapter vi. 
 
32 
 
 expectation that they will be lifted up from the dust, to the enjoyment 
 of comforts similar to those possessed by ourselves, and that they will 
 be prepared to call those blessed who wiped away their tears. 
 
 The plan of colonizing the Indians promises to relieve us from all 
 the inconveniences arising from their hostilities ; from unwholesome 
 sentiments which foreigners have an opportunity of instilling into their 
 minds ; from their residence among us on small reservations, where 
 they have become a nuisance to society ; and from the great embarrass 
 ment which we feel, when a few, better informed than their fellows, 
 come out boldly, and plead their right to the soil, and appeal to the jus 
 tice, humanity, and strength of the United States, for the defence of 
 their claims. Had the colonizing plan been adopted fifty years ago, all 
 the perplexing difficulties which have recently occurred with our southern 
 Indians, on the subject of their claims, would have been prevented. It 
 is to be hoped that our Government will foresee, in this proposed design, 
 the remedy, and the only remedy, of evils which are otherwise likely 
 to exist, arid to multiply to the sad inconvenience of both the white and 
 red people. 
 
 Some objections to the colonizing plan, can be more properly replied 
 to, when we shall have completed our inquiries relative to the most eligi 
 ble situation for the colony. I will also add, that the suitableness of a 
 situation will increase the weight of every argument which we have ad 
 vanced in favour of the design. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 The most eligible Situation for the Colony is west of the Territory of 
 Arkansaw and the State of Missouri, and south-west of Missouri 
 river. 
 
 OUR next inquiry should be, Where shall we find the most eligible 
 situation for the colony? Notwithstanding the people of the United 
 States have spread over such a vast extent of territory which was once 
 solely the abode of Indians, yet we consider it fortunate for our subject, 
 that we possess much evidence in favour of the opinion, that the most 
 favourable position for colonizing the Indians, that our territories ever 
 afforded, remains at this time unoccupied by us. Obviously no part of 
 our sea-coast ever could have been, nor ever can be, spared for such a 
 purpose. In point of commercial advantages the shores of our Lakes 
 on the north, are second only to our sea-coasts on the east and south, 
 and do, therefore, for the same reasons, forbid them a home on their 
 borders. Place then} any where in the interior of our country, where 
 they will be surrounded by white population, and they will be still more 
 in our way, than if placed on one of our borders just mentioned. Aside 
 from vexation to us, their residence in the midst of white population 
 would be the source of much evil to them. 
 
 The North Western Territory has been spoken of as a suitable place 
 for the colonizing of the Indians. But the whole of that, with the ex- 
 
33 
 
 ception of the cold, wet regions, at the very sources of the Mississippi, 
 must soon become a most valuable portion of the Union. It doubtless 
 embraces a great deal of fertile soil, and all our maps tell us that the 
 region is uncommonly well provided with water for navigable purposes. 
 The tide of emigration of the people of the United States, is at this time 
 pressing rapidly towards it ; and I am confident that it cannot be stopped 
 on this side of it. Place them on the extreme northern limits of the ter 
 ritory, and they would be immediately adjoining Canada. Bring them 
 down to the southern part, arid they would soon be surrounded by the 
 whites ; as much so as if they had been located in the state of Indiana. 
 Carry them farther, and set them down between the Mississippi and 
 Missouri rivers, and our objections still extend to them, though, we ac 
 knowledge, with less force as it respects the valuableness of country, 
 and the speedy approach of white population. 
 
 Along the vast chain of the snow-topped Andes, or Rocky Mountains, 
 nature has spread, on each side, a barren desert, of irreclaimable steril 
 ity. To what extent this sandy desert spreads to the west of those 
 Mountains, and what exceptions to its barrenness may occur, we have 
 not the means of knowing. Dr. James allows it an average width, on 
 the east side of the mountains, of between 500 and 600 miles. We are 
 pretty confident, however, that that part of it which will be found to be 
 irreclaimable by industiy, will be far less than the above estimate makes 
 it. We shall be safe in supposing the uninhabitable desert to be at least 
 between three and four hundred miles in width. Add to this the regions 
 of the mountains, and the desert on the west, and we have an uninha 
 bitable region of five or six hundred miles in width, certainly, (with the 
 exception of a few inconsiderable valleys within the region of the moun 
 tain itself) and extending south and north into the Mexican, and Bri 
 tish territories. 
 
 This vast region is not termed 'a desert, merely on account of the 
 partial, or entire, absence of timber, but chiefly because the soil itself 
 is of a quality that cannot be rendered productive by the industry of 
 man. No portion of our territories furnish so few inducements to civil 
 ized man to seek in it a dwelling-place, as that under consideration. 
 
 This wide desert must for ever form an important border to our white 
 settlements within the valley of the Mississippi ; especially so, when we 
 consider that the streams on each side ]eadfrom the mountains, and so 
 far are calculated to direct commerce from this region, rather than to, or 
 through it. Add to the foregoing considerations the impracticability of 
 navigating most of the streams in the desert, as for instance the Platt, 
 and the entire impossibility of canalling in that thirsty region, destitute 
 of clay and stone, and we are assured that our conclusions are correct. 
 
 From observation, and information derived from others on which I 
 can rely, I suppose that soil and timber will admit of settlement about 
 200 miles west of Arkansaw Territory, and the State of Missouri. We 
 propose that above the western line of Missouri, the Missouri river shall 
 be the boundary of the Indian territory on the north-east and north, as 
 far as the mouth of Puncah river ; thence up Puncah river as far as the 
 country is habitable. By this we describe a country about 600 miles in 
 length, between the latitudes of about 33 and 43, and 200 miles in 
 width. Farther west we may suppose the country to be un^phabitable. 
 This country is generally high, healthy and rich, its extent adequate to 
 the purposes under consideration , and the climate desirable. Thus si- 
 
34 
 
 tuated, with the desert in their rear, with no important navigable stream 
 leading into their country, but precisely the reverse, with no induce 
 ments in the sterile plains behind them to tempt the enterprise of white 
 men, the colony would be on an outside of us, and less in our way than 
 could have been imagined, had not nature thus marked the hourtderies 
 for us. I cannot conceive why we may not relinquish to them this 
 country, and assure them that it shall be theirs for ever. 
 
 We admit that there is a scarcity of timber generally throughout the 
 district we have described. It contains, however, abundance of coal, 
 and experience in all prairie countries, in Indiana, Illinois, and Mis 
 souri, tells us, that where there is not a defect in the soil itself, the tim 
 ber will improve both in quantity and in quality, with the settlement of 
 the country ; because the grazing of cattle, &c. opposes the annual fires 
 which sweep over those grassy countries to the great destruction of the 
 forests, and to the prevention of the growth of shrubs which take root in 
 the prairies. By a judicious division of woodland and prairie, among 
 the first inhabitants, there would be timber sufficient to meet the wants 
 of many years ; and it is presumeable that its improvement would be 
 equal to the increasing demands of the colony. 
 
 A good grazing country must be, of all others, the best adapted to the 
 condition of a people in their transition from the hunter to the civilized 
 state. The comparative ease with which cattle were raised by our 
 southern Indians, was no doubt a circumstance that greatly facilitated 
 the improvement of their condition. In the case before us, we have 
 not, after leaving the regions of Arkansas river, the dense and exten 
 sive cane-brakes which have afforded winter's food for thousands of cat 
 tle in the south. But that this is, nevertheless, an excellent grazing 
 country, none will question ; and this very fact, I trust, will contribute 
 not a little to its commendation. The plains will afford abundance of 
 pasturage for summer, arid hay for winter. 
 
 Objections to the place we are considering, will be raised upon the 
 supposition that the native inhabitants of that country may become hos 
 tile to the colonists. 
 
 After observing that the same objections will apply with almost equal 
 weight, to perhaps any other territory that could be thought of for such 
 a purpose, we may remark that no doubt can be entertained of our being 
 able to conciliate the present inhabitants. A portion of the emoluments 
 which they would realize from the negotiations by which their claims to 
 the country would be extinguished., so far as the case should require, 
 might be expended in the improvement of their own lands, the erection 
 of buildings, the furnishing of them with domestic animals, imple 
 ments of agriculture, <fcc. So that from the very beginning, and if need 
 be, even previously to the settling of strangers in their country, they 
 would perceive the advantages which would result to them from the 
 measure. If we can purchase Indian lands and settle them with 
 white men, why may we not do the same with equal safety when the 
 settlers are Indians. The circumstance would not so readily be view 
 ed as an intrusion, as if the settlers were not of their own countrymen, 
 kindred, and colour. The effect in this respect, as in many others, 
 would be very different from that sometimes produced by the removal 
 westwardly, or northwardly, of these people in former cases ; when they 
 were left to make peace or war, as they chose, with their neighbours. 
 
35 
 
 In the present case the emigrants would he kept under the control and 
 management of the United States. The number of the first settlers 
 being small, would be more manageable ; and while they would be in 
 creasing in number, there would be an increase of restraint arising from 
 individual and common interest, from improvement of mind, and from 
 habitual regard for the regulations provided by our Government. The 
 colonists being prevented from trespassing upon their neighbours, would 
 have very little to fear from them. 
 
 It has been supposed that the colonizing plan is calculated to crowd 
 together unfeeling savages, of different tribes, with sectional feelings, and 
 old grudges, and now seconded by new causes of jealousy, the utter 
 ruin of the whole by faction and murder, must ensue. Such conclu 
 sions as these, to say the least, must be hasty. Were we to fancy a 
 dozen different tribes, some of whom were at variance with each other, 
 and all of whom possessed their national prejudices, brought together 
 on a small portion of territory, which would require their houses to be 
 within sight of each other, and their farms to be united, we might draw 
 such conclusions. But when we consider the extent of territory which 
 all will allow ought to be set apart for the ultimate objects of the design, 
 the smaliness of each party that shall first arrive, and the different pe 
 riods at which their several locations would be made, the conclusion 
 need not be drawn that they will be crowded at all. They may be 
 placed just so near to each other as a prudent regard to the condition of 
 each, in view of the whole, would suggest, and no nearer. Although 
 the different tribes, as for example, the Shawanoes, Miamies, Ottawas, 
 Puttawatomies, Sauks, Foxes, Winebagoes, Menomines, and Chippe- 
 was, might be placed upon much less ground than is at present covered 
 by them, yet the contaction of the several tribes would be precisely 
 what it is in their present situation. We apprehend a density of each 
 tribe; but the limits of each tribe or band would only come in contact 
 as they do- at present and if each were provided with the means of 
 living only as well as in their present miserable condition, there would 
 exist no greater cause of collision, than there does in the state in which 
 those several tribes are at this moment placed. But let us take particu 
 lar notice, that the several tribes would be far better supplied with the 
 comforts of life than they are at present, and therefore the grounds, in 
 all respects, on which we might fear the collision of the tribes, would 
 be proportionably lessened. 
 
 Some light will be thrown upon this part of our subject, when we 
 shall have under consideration the process of removing the several 
 tribes to the colony. Let us, however, bear in mind that no tribe, no 
 portion of a tribe, would be left in the colony subject to the influence 
 of lawless passions. No band would be destitute of the influence of 
 those benevolent institutions, which, among other useful lessons, never 
 fail to teach peace. None will be bold enough to deny that missionary 
 establishments, under the countenance of oar Government and a pru 
 dent management, can exert an extensive, and in this respect as well as 
 in others, a salutary influence. The instructions of missionaries, given 
 in the schools and from the pulpit, and the authority of our Govern 
 ment, doubtless furnish strong reasons for silencing our fears of internal 
 broils. If our Government can now interpose its authority to the set 
 tling of disputes between contending tribes, each of which spreads out 
 over hundreds of miles of forest, how much more readily could it con- 
 
36 
 
 trol the same people, if so situated that every member of the commti- 
 nity would be daily under the notice of the proper officers, and within 
 the certain influence of restraints by them imposed] 
 
 Again, it is never imagined that the Indians will be forced into the 
 colony contrary to their inclinations. And as the business of colonizing, 
 so far as relates to the natives, originates in benevolence, no unright 
 eous means will be employed to buy the consent of any to remove to 
 the colony. Sound argument alone, strengthened by an exhibition of 
 facts, and by honest engagements not liable to disappoint the hopes 
 they excite, will be resorted to. We may expect, therefore, that those 
 who will be induced first to listen to proposals to renaove, will be such 
 as are most inclined to follow the advice of our Government. The 
 very fact that a fair ingenuous course will influence them to leave their 
 former residences, and settle in the colony, augurs strongly that the 
 same honest course of conduct, the same authority, will influence them 
 to remain peaceable among themselves. I cannot here forbear the re 
 mark, that their case must involve far less grounds for civil disturbances, 
 than does the situation of these people at the present time. 
 
 I shall not do my countrymen the injustice to suppose that serious 
 objections to colonizing the Indians, or to colonizing them west of Ar- 
 kansaw Territory and Missouri State, and south-west of Missouri river, 
 will be made upon the supposition that the colonists might ultimately 
 acquire strength sufficient to tempt them to assert independent rights, 
 and to avenge supposed injuries, to the serious annoyance of the neigh 
 bouring States. The above objections would indicate an absence of 
 righteous intention on our part. If we have done them no injustice, 
 conscious integrity has nothing to fear. If we have injured them, the 
 language of the objection would be, Let us make fast the fetters, lest 
 the captives turn upon their keepers ; let us complete the work of death 
 already begun, lest the opprest should survive their sufferings and 
 avenge their wrongs. 
 
 Insulated as would be the colony in the district of country under con 
 sideration, they would have little intercourse with any people besides 
 ourselves, and could therefore inhale no seditious sentiments from abroad. 
 The geography of the country is such that no important commercial 
 intercourse with foreigners could possibly exist. Their exports would 
 necessarily be carried into or through our country, and their imports 
 would return by the same rout. These circumstances would produce 
 the same ties of connexion and mutual interest between them and us, 
 that national roads and canals effect between the several States of our 
 Union. The colony would grow up under the guardianship of our 
 Government, and would imbibe its spirit and revere its insitutions ; and 
 it could not fail to admire the enlightened age, and the humane policy 
 which gave them "beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, and the 
 garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness." The objection which 
 we have been denouncing, would extend to most cases of benevolence, 
 and forbid our helping the needy ; forbid the adopting of a hapless 
 orphan into our family, lest the beneficiary should ultimately assert an 
 improper authority. 
 
 All our Indians within the States and Territories, and those to the 
 north-west, might here obtain peaceable and undisturbed possessions, 
 which they cannot hope for in states and territories already organized. 
 
37 
 
 Should it be asked what assurance can be given to the Indians that 
 they will not be disturbed in the proposed place, as they have heretofore 
 been in others ? I answer the most unequivocal of which such a case 
 admits. The local advantages of the place are peculiar in their cha 
 racter, and as peculiarly favourable in the permanency of their posses 
 sion. It is entirely without the precincts of every organized State or 
 Territory. It would be the first instance of an Indian settlement being 
 formed under the auspices of Government, not within the limits describ 
 ed by us for states, or within territorial jurisdiction. We may not infer 
 the uncertainty of their residence from what has been, for no parallel 
 case ever occurred. It is proposed to give them a territorial form of 
 government. They would hold their territory and its immunities upon 
 the faith of the United States ; all which would be as secure to them as 
 the privileges of the Territories of Arkansas and Michigan are to their 
 inhabitants. Giving to the natives this country, would not be an abridge 
 ment of territory or privilege of any state, and consequently, none could 
 or would complain. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 On the Removal of the Indians to the Colony. 
 
 IP we have been successful in commending the proposed design of 
 colonizing the Indians ; if we have found ourselves in possession of 
 ample means ; and if we have been fortunate in the selection of place; 
 we may very properly inquire, Can the Indians be induced to accept the 
 proposals of our Government to settle in the colony ? 
 
 Proposals made a few years since, to the Stockbridge and Brother- 
 town Indians in New-York, to remove to the westward of Lake Michi 
 gan, wene objected to by many of them : notwithstanding which, a con 
 siderable settlement of these people was afterwards formed in the vicin 
 ity of Green Bay, which would have increased rapidly had it not be 
 come obvious that they could not retain permanent and peaceable pos 
 session of the place. 
 
 In 1824 proposals were made by the United States' Commissioners 
 to the Shawanoes of Waupaughkonetta, in Ohio, to remove to west 
 ward of Mississippi river. These proposals were not acceded to at the 
 time. Nevertheless, without any special interference of our Govern 
 ment, and it is believed contrary to the advice of white men, who might 
 be supposed to have considerable influence among them, and whose 
 private interest it was, that the Indians should remain in Ohio, about 
 one third part of them moved off in a body, in October, 1826, to the 
 western country which had previously been offered them. Their new 
 settlement on Ranzo river is flourishing, they are contented, and are 
 inviting others, and particularly thei$ relations in Ohio, to follow them. 
 
 Every one knows something of the strong attachments which the 
 Cherokees feel to their country east of Mississippi river ; yet we al 
 ready find thousands of this tribe west of that river. These emigrant 
 
38 
 
 Cherokees are not worthless stragglers. They possess hundreds of 
 farms, well stocked with domestic animals, and well supplied with 
 farming utensils. 
 
 Passing over the migrations of the Kickapoos of Illinois, the Dela- 
 wares, and some of the Miamies of Indiana, and the Creeks of Geor 
 gia, and many others, we assure ourselves that the cases we have cited 
 above are in point, and that they do afford convincing proof that the 
 Indians may be removed to the proposed country, and that they may be 
 removed by fair and honourable measures. 
 
 The inducements to a change of country in the cases cited above, 
 must have been incomparably less than those which our colony is ex 
 pected to offer. Most or all of them migrated from the ordinary prin 
 ciple of retiring from the whites as the latter approached, and without 
 that systematic, certain, and efficient provision for their instruction, and 
 their assistance, which the colonizing scheme proposes. We have there 
 fore good grounds to believe that so soon as they can be convinced that 
 the proposals of our Government are made in sincerity, the invitations 
 which the colony will give them, will be accepted with joy, and the 
 period hailed as the dawn of a clear day, worthy of being jubilized, 
 when " the outcasts and they that were ready to perish" shall begin to 
 return to the enjoyment of the blessings of a. peaceable and a permanent 
 HOME. 
 
 At the treaty of Wabash, Indiana, in September and October, 1826, 
 proposals were made by the United States' Commissioners, to the Put- 
 tawatomies and to the Miamies, to remove to the west of Mississippi 
 river. They were told that Government would provide them a country 
 somewhere in those regions, and furnish them with schools, smiths, &c. 
 A missionary who had spent many years among them, and whose use 
 fulness in instructing them in a knowledge of letters, and of labour, not 
 to say religion, could not be doubted by them, was offered as their guide, 
 and a promise made that the missionary operations of the establishment 
 to which he was attached, should be continued among them in their new 
 country. Notwithstanding, these Indians refused to remove. This was 
 only what we might have expected. Indeed it happened precisely ac 
 cording to the expectation of the Commissioners themselves. But this 
 circumstance furnishes no solid argument against the practicability of 
 removing these very tribes. The proposals were not, they could not be, 
 made to them under the favourable circumstances that the colonizing 
 plan anticipates. They were told that another country should be given 
 them in exchange for theirs, which should equal it in value, &c. and 
 which should be somewhere west of Mississippi river. But they could 
 not be informed in what section of those western countries theirs would 
 be, who would be their neighbours, &c. Their answer therefore was 
 precisely such as we might expect sensible men to give. Who that was 
 i not obliged to leave his country, would be willing to barter upon such 
 terms'? Since that time, a few Puttawatomies, under authority of Go 
 vernment, have explored a portion of that country. The result is, a 
 consideraJ3le number of them, together with some of their Ottawa 
 brethren, wish to remove thither. 
 
 Let Government provide the place, and a suitable person, one in whom 
 the Indians place confidence, to conduct a few of their people to visit 
 it, and report its character to their tribe, and the subject would address 
 itself to their understandings very differently from the case above cited. 
 
Those civilizing establishments which exist in some of the tribes, and 
 which enjoy the favour of our Government, could, without doubt, 
 induce a number of families to remove to the colony at any time. I 
 risk nothing in saying that I have an acquaintance with one such insti 
 tution, which could readily induce two or three hundred to follow some 
 of its members to the colony, and these should be taken from five differ 
 ent tribes. As soon, therefore, as Government shall point out the place, 
 a settlement, or settlements can be formed from this single source, of five 
 different tribes. 
 
 These settlements, let it be understood, would be formed without any 
 further intervention of our Government than the providing of the place, 
 &c. and the necessary countenance to those benevolent institutions. 
 When once some of each tribe should be actually planted in the colony, 
 under the favourable provisions of our Government, we should be pro 
 perly prepared to propose to the several tribes at home to remove. We 
 could point to the precise spot on which we designed to locate them, 
 could show them their relations on the ground, the provisions in school, 
 smitheries, &e. made for their accommodation. The honesty of our 
 intentions, and the policy of their acceptance of our proposals, would 
 be demonstrated to their understandings. They would clearly perceive 
 that the measure was very unlike the ordinary affair of removing back 
 the Indians, merely for the sake of ridding ourselves of their trouble, 
 and leaving them destitute of efficient means of improvement. Under 
 these circumstances, not the shadow of a doubt can exist, that the ma 
 jority of the tribes would readily accept the offers of our Government. 
 The circumstances of the Cherokees, Chickasaws, Choctaws, and 
 Creeks, east of Mississippi river, merit a distinct consideration in this 
 place. Most other tribes are incapable of assuming the attitude of a 
 party in making arrangements for their future residence. With these 
 it is otherwise. The Cherokees, particularly, have shown themselves 
 capable of framing a judicious constitution of civil government, and a 
 wholesome code of laws. They have come out boldly, and declared 
 their legal right to the country they at present occupy, east of the Mis 
 sissippi. All this is well. We are gratified to discover among them so 
 much manliness and good sense. Hence, we infer the readiness with 
 which they will exchange countries, as soon as they shall perceive that 
 it will be for their interest so to do . 
 
 The subject under consideration admits of demonstration. Its posi 
 tions are sustained by arguments, the force of which cannot remain 
 unfelt by the intelligent Cherokees. Men capable of forming them 
 selves into an independent government, can easily enough perceive the 
 incongruity of the supposition, that an independent state can exist within 
 the acknowleged boundaries of another independent state ! They can 
 perceive the obstacles- to their becoming citizens of the states within the 
 limits of which they are at present situated ; nor can they indulge the 
 most distant hope that we will curtail any state, much less strike one 
 from the list, for the purpose of making room for them in the south. 
 They must perceive the cloud which is daily accumulating over them, 
 and feel assured that theirs is not the place of safety. They make a 
 declaration of their rights, which will doubtless be respected, and this 
 is a proper method to secure respect. But they cannot be so blind to 
 their best interests as to refuse the proposed territory, since they cannot 
 
40 
 
 but see in this offer, the only hope of averting the stroke which threaten* 
 the existence of their nation. 
 
 The southern Indians have inducements to remove, beyond what 
 others feel. In improvement they are greatly in advance of others, 
 and therefore feel greater love of life and its enjoyments. They know 
 that in the Indian territory, their superior acquirements will give them 
 the ascendency among their brethren, and that situations of honour, trusty 
 and profit, will be occupied chiefly by themselves. The amount of 
 property which some of them possess, will not be at all unfavourable 
 to their removal. Wealth does not prevent our citizens from emigrat 
 ing to new countries. The rich as well as the poor, are willing to 
 change places when they can pretty certainly find their account in it. 
 
 In addition to aggrandizement, the spirit of Christian benevolence 
 which they have imbibed, must have great influence upon their choice 
 in favour of removal. A people who can form among themselves 
 charitable associations for the relief of those of another nation, must 
 feel great solicitude for their perishing countrymen, and could not re 
 fuse so favourable an opportunity of doing them good as would be 
 offered in the territory. There they could afford the less improved, the 
 influence of precept and example in whatever relates to time and to 
 eternity. 
 
 It is presumeable that some families would choose to remain, and be 
 come citizens of the United States. The prospect of this, would in 
 crease their anxiety for the removal of their people generally, whose 
 departure would dissipate many existing obstacles to their naturaliza 
 tion, and relieve them of a heavy burden. 
 
 But admitting that some tribes, or parts of tribes, unprepared for 
 citizenship, would cling to the lands of their fathers, and we should find 
 their objections to removal too obstinate to be conquered by the plain 
 facts and arguments which the case, as above stated, would furnish ; 
 still we would by no means despair of ultimate and complete success. 
 The main principle, which, above all others, ties them to the land of 
 their relations, can be brought under our control, and made to operate 
 in favour of their removing to the colony. 
 
 We have assumed the ground without fear, that some of the several 
 tribes could presently be taken to the colony. These would have their 
 influence with their kindred and people left behind, by whom they 
 would be occasionally visited, &c. The result of the intercourse be 
 tween the colonists in comfortable and flourishing condition, and their 
 relations left on their original possessions, who would be miserably de 
 clining under accumulating woes, is not problematical. One- after ano 
 ther would be drawn into the colony. Now, an Indian says, I will not 
 leave this country because here are my relations then, he would say, I 
 will remove to the colony because there are my kindred. The Creeks 
 who have recently settled on the Arkansas river are affectionately invit 
 ing their kindred on the east of Mississippi to join them, and the dis 
 position to emigrate thither is daily increasing. 
 
 In urging the necessity of the plan under consideration, we interpose 
 not the slightest objection to the continued operations of missionary 
 establishments as they at present exist. On the contrary, we propose 
 an increase of those institutions, and that they be carried on with ener 
 gy. For as we multiply those institutions, and extend the influence of 
 their operations, we increase the number of those best prepared by 
 
41 
 
 habit and disposition to settle in the colony. These institutions would 
 remain in the original places of the tribes, so long as the number of those 
 tribes remaining would demand their labours. These institutions would 
 direct all the pupils of their schools, on completing their several courses, 
 to the colony. These youths, assisting by their improved understand 
 ing, their affinity to their people, and the fond feelings aroused by their 
 adieus, would be powerful auxiliaries in aid of the removal of neigh 
 bouring Indians, unconnected with the schools. All would be told that 
 they were not solicited to go into a land of strangers or enemies there 
 are teachers, with some of whom you are personally acquainted our 
 brothers, men who are teaching the same things that we are in this 
 place, and who will afford you in that place the same aid that we do in 
 this, in things relating to time, and to eternity. 
 
 Finally, the inducements which would invite them into the colony, 
 and their increasing wretchedness, which would urge them to leave their 
 original residences, it is fully believed, would not only meet the design 
 of our Government, but would, in regard to the facility of their removal, 
 far exceed the expectations which had been indulged at the commence 
 ment of the undertaking. 
 
 It is proper, however, before we dismiss this part of our subject, to ob 
 serve, that notwithstanding the preceding remarks, we are well aware of 
 some formidable obstacles to the proposed removal of the Indians. 
 The obstacles to which we allude will not derive either their origin or 
 their support from the Indians themselves, but both will be found in the 
 avarice of white men, near to, or mingling with the Indians, whose in 
 terest it is for the natives to remain where they are, and in their present 
 condition. 
 
 I deeply regret the necessity of mentioning this circumstance, but 
 justice to my subject, to the Indians, and to my own conscience, demand 
 it of me. We may prepare to encounter a host of opposers, consist 
 ing of traders both licensed and unlicensed, many of them speaking 
 the Indian language fluently, and in habits of daily intercourse with 
 them, often allied by marriage, and otherwise by blood, and of many 
 others, who profit more or less by a commission from our Government, 
 for the performance of services in the Indian department. Remove the 
 Indians, and the fountain fails. Some estimate of the difficulties aris 
 ing from this quarter, may be formed on considering the influence which 
 the number of those interested persons, under their favourable oppor 
 tunities, may exert on the minds of these ignorant, uninformed people, 
 whose prejudices against us are generally inveterate, raid whose jeal 
 ousies are ever on the alert. Considering also, that in the transacting of 
 business with the Indians, Government has generally been under the 
 necessity of availing itself of the services of these very persons. The 
 story requires much delicacy in the telling, and perhaps, has never been, 
 nor will it now be plainly told, that scarce a treaty with the Indians 
 occurs, in which the Commissioners of the United States are not oblig 
 ed to shape some part of it to suit the convenience of some of this class 
 of persons. 
 
 While on this topic, let us record it to the honour of our Government 
 and of the individuals concerned, that the former has riot been so inju 
 dicious in the selection of its officers for the Indian department, whose 
 services are performed in the Indian country, as not to provide men of 
 an opposite character to that of which we have just now complained. 
 
 6 
 
42 
 
 We know that Government has in this important trust, officers who are 
 men of the most honest intention, and of irreproachable character. 
 These men, from the nature of their business, soon become well known 
 to the Government, and to the public in general. Their talents and in 
 tegrity raise them above suspicion. Should those men object to the 
 colonizing of the Indians, it would be received as the effusion of senti 
 ment, and not of selfishness. Their instructions from Government will 
 be faithfully followed, whatever may be their own private opinions. 
 Still it does not follow that we have not much, very much to fear from 
 the hundreds who will array themselves in the ranks pointed out above. 
 The object may nevertheless be attained. Our Government is not so 
 feeble as to be frustrated in a noble design which involves her own 
 character, and the national salvation of thousands of languishing suf 
 ferers within her territories, who are imploring her assistance. The 
 Government can accomplish any thing, and every thing, which the plan 
 requires, and do it with convenience to itself. 
 
 It is always to be regretted when avarice gets the advantage of the 
 judgment of men. Neither companies nor individuals of respectabili 
 ty in the Indian trade, have any thing to fear from the colonizing scheme. 
 It is well known that the fur trade has been many years on the decline, 
 and that it must necessarily continue to decline. I speak on general 
 terms. Individuals or companies may enlarge their business, and may 
 extend their trade to some sections of country less frequented by traders 
 than others, and by these and similar means realize an excess of profit. 
 We all readily enough conceive the causes of decline, so far as relates to 
 the diminution of fur-bearing and other animals, by tfee approach of 
 white settlements, and the increase of the trade. But I cannot suppose 
 that its ruin would be materially hastened by merely collecting together 
 into one body the Indians mainly. Fur-bearing animals would multi 
 ply no less, and so long as there remain forests and furs in them, there 
 will not be wanting men to take them. 
 
 The only just grounds upon which respectable traders could antici 
 pate a diminution of their profits, is the probability that the Indians 
 would leave their country, and the whites take possession of it, sooner 
 than these events would occur by the ordinary process of removing them. 
 But what are the profits of trade realized from the wretched hordes of 
 Indians in New-England, New- York, Ohio, and those on the frontiers 
 of Michigan, Indiana, and Illinois; or with the four southern tribes? 
 With some it is nothing, and with others it is a mere trifle. The fact is 
 that the trade in a great portion of the country which we naturally first 
 think of in our colonizing scheme, merits very little attention from regular 
 traders, but is left chiefly to those who have neither talents nor money 
 to enter upon business profitably. Some of the more northwardly parts 
 of the regions under consideration afford a trade sufficient to invite the 
 attention of enterprising traders ; and let it be observed that these places 
 would be the last affected by the removal of the Indians to the colony. 
 The interests of the whites and the interests of the Indians, alike re- 
 juTs that the first to be removed should be those nearest to our settle 
 ments, and of course of least importance in the fur trade. 
 
 Nearly allied to this subject is the rapid diminution of the Indians, 
 as for example, the once formidable tribe of Miamies, now reduced to 
 about one thousand souls. The number of Indians employed in the chase 
 diminishes yearly. The presumption is, that colonizing would not so 
 
43 
 
 materially accelerate the diminution of those who would engage in the 
 proper seasons in taking skins for traffic, as at first we should be inclin 
 ed to suppose. The colony providing not only for their rescue from the 
 course of casualties and crime, which is prematurely hunying them out 
 of time, but also for their positive increase in numbers, would thrive 
 upon the excess. Admitting, however, that by the opening of the 
 colony, the number of actual hunters would be lessened, which indeed 
 we believe would be the case ; yet the amount of peltries would not 
 thereby be diminished ; an individual would take the more. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Regulations of the Colony in Relation to Laws and Men. 
 
 WE have all along held out the idea that the United States would 
 provide for the colony laws and officers for the execution of them. We 
 are prone to extremes. Hitherto, in the matter of Indian reform, we 
 have done too little. When we take hold of the subject in earnest, 
 there is reason to fear we shall do too much ; and in no point is there so 
 much danger of excess as in that which relates to giving them laws and 
 men. 
 
 In the judicial department, the wants of the colony in its infancy will 
 be very few. It is not in the savage, but in the civilized state that men 
 learn to practise the intrigues of law. The whole code of Indian laws, 
 if we may apply such terms in the case, is comprised in a few regulations 
 of the most plain and simple character; and yet they extend to all their 
 wants about as well as our volumes do to ours. I am not expressing an 
 opinion with regard to either the utility or the righteousness of their 
 codes. An Indian taken from the woods, could about as readily com 
 prehend the science of chemistry, as the utility of the numerous laws 
 by which one of our States is governed. Our Government, apprized of 
 this fact, would not shock their feelings and alarm their fears by impos 
 ing on them laws, which, in their estimation, would be abstruse and 
 superfluous. 
 
 If our Government were at first to place in the colony Judges, Clerks, 
 Sheriffs, Constables, &c. &c. as might be proper in the formation of a 
 colony of people taken from our States, it would be a serious hindrance 
 rather than a help in their reformation. It would place the colonists 
 in a situation so dependent as to check in them the spirit of improve 
 ment. As persons assured of ample support from their guardians would 
 feel less ambitious of acquiring a knowledge of business, than if left to 
 provide for themselves, so these might be made to feel the influence of 
 a paralyzing dependence. 
 
 We presume that our Government would, at the commencement of 
 the settlement, furnish them merely with such agents as their immediate 
 wants would require, without anticipating subsequent ones ; and, if 
 need be, would afterwards add men and measures. It is confidently 
 believed that few, very few officers of our appointing, and of our citi- 
 
44 
 
 zens, would ever be needed. We easily perceive that in the infancy 
 of the colony they would not, and in proportion to the increase of their 
 wants for men and measures, would be an increase of competency in 
 the colonists to provide both. So far as the colonists would possess 
 tolerable capacity for the management of their own internal concerns, 
 they ought, certainly, to be allowed to exercise it. By this means they 
 would promote a spirit of national pride that would accelerate their 
 improvement in every respect. 
 
 Notwithstanding the wretched condition of the people under consi 
 deration, I presume that, from the very commencement of the settle 
 ment of the colony, they would be far better provided with men of their 
 own tribes, to manage their business of every kind, than even our 
 Government is aware of. There are many promising Indian youths of 
 moral deportment, and sterling talents, who, under the patronage of 
 benevolent societies, and the favour of Government, will have eminent 
 ly qualified themselves for usefulness in the colony. We are acquaint 
 ed with one single school in the Indian country, and that not the oldest, 
 which, in the space of three years, has placed in suitable seminaries in 
 the states of New-Jersey, New-York, Vermont, and Ohio, twelve of its 
 pupils, for the purpose of acquiring special qualifications for usefulness 
 among their countrymen. These youths belonging to four different 
 tribes, were taken from the rudest savage haunts, and taught in the Mis 
 sion School, habits of industry, and afforded that knowledge of letters, 
 which the time of their attendance allowed, and were selected from 
 among their fellow-students, as candidates for other stations among their 
 countrymen, than the field, or the shop. Two of them are studying 
 with a view to the practice of medicine, and others, with a view to ser 
 vices in the schools, in the pulpit, and in the affairs of Government.* 
 These are not solitary instances of similar preparations. 
 
 * What an unanswerable argument in favour of colonizing 1 the Indians, is found 
 in this circumstance ! The benevolence of societies and of our Government in 
 structs Indian youths, in domestic, agricultural, and mechanic arts, and in a word, 
 prepares different persons for filling 1 with acceptance every department of a civil 
 and religious community, not excepting 1 the affairs of state. But deny us the colo 
 ny, and these very amiable youths are, in a manner, put out of the world. Their 
 fine feeling's could not brook the degradation with which our prejudices would 
 daily load them, if resident among' us; and what will the knowledge they have ac 
 quired in arts and sciences profit them amoi.g their barbarous countrymen ? Where, 
 let me ask, upon the face of our continent, can the farmer make his field, or the 
 workman his shop, in the hope of the undisturbed occupancy of either, and in the 
 enjoyment of the rights of man, in common with those around him? Where will 
 those of them whom we have made men of science, find scope for the employment 
 of their acquirements? 
 
 I must again advertise my reader that I am not theorizing. My remarks are based 
 upon facts which have occurred under my personal observation. To go no further 
 than the case of the twelve Indian youths mentioned above : Their benefactors, after 
 they had brought them up from savage to civil, and even genteel manners, and had 
 reared some of them nearly and others quite to manhood, found their condition in 
 volved in a dilemma, from which the anticipation of a colony alone could deliver 
 them. The tribes to which they belonged were in their unimproved, savage, and 
 unsettled state, with slight exceptions which had recently occurred. The time 
 had arrived for these youths to. leave the institution in which they had been brought 
 up. Whither should they go * With the exceptions- drawn from our preceding 
 observations, no alternative is left but for them to return to their savage country 
 men: a people who had no use for a knowledge of letters, who were unsettled, 
 and could not give one acre of land in fee to even one of their own children ; a 
 
45 
 
 By the time of the opening of the colony, for the introduction of set 
 tlers, there will^be many who have been instructed in the Mission 
 schools, in a knowledge of domestic, mechanic, and agricultural arts, 
 ready to enter it, and to pursue these useful employments; also, many 
 who had never been connected with schools, but who, in the neighbour 
 hood of the civilizing establishments, have been influenced to adopt, in a 
 degree, the habits of civilized life. These united with the hundreds of 
 industrious and well informed Indians of the south, would furnish nearly 
 all the public men which the government would require. 
 
 These facts convince us -that it will not be necessary for the United 
 States to furnish many agents besides what may be really necessary to 
 manage affairs between one tribe and another, and the location of each, 
 &c. We must here avail ourselves of a thought that occurs, which 
 will add not a little to our arguments in support of the opinion that the 
 colonists could, pretty easily, be kept in peace among themselves ; that 
 is, the colony would be commenced with improved materials, prepared 
 by the purest Doctrines of benevolence, either in approved schools, or 
 in their neighbourhoods, and with the civilized southern Indians. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Concluding Arguments and Remarks. 
 
 We have more than once assumed that the plan of colonizing the 
 Indians, provides for the earlier removal of them than could otherwise 
 be expected. When we consider the interest which all who are engaged 
 in the work of Indian reform would feel in the colonizing of these 
 people, and their influence over, at least the pupils of their schools, and 
 the Indians in their immediate neighbourhoods; when we reflect on 
 the suitableness of the place proposed, and the assurance of assistance, 
 and of the good faith of our Government, that can be given to under- 
 
 people abandoned to every vice, without a home, without a hope! No wonder if 
 they who had sacrificed the society of friends, and the comforts of civilized life, 
 and who had .encountered extraordinary hardships in a residence in the Indian 
 country for the sake of saving" those youths from the wretchedness of their less for 
 tunate countrymen, should, after all their privations and labours, regret that these 
 fruits of their toils were under the necessity of returning- to the haunts of bar 
 barism. 
 
 I wish that I could say the evil had, in no instance, advanced further than to a 
 menace of our hopes, as in the cases stated above. But I am not so happy. I am 
 personally acquainted with many Indian youths who have been brought up by the 
 hand of benevolence, and have completed their courses in, and left the institutions, 
 who are at this moment like friendless outcasts, to whom the earth has denied a place. 
 beyond the extent of a grave half-mingling with their people, from whose wretch 
 edness and depravity they recoil, and half-mingling with the whites, where their 
 bitterness of soul becomes not less intolerable. The evil is progressing. Scores 
 of amiable Indian youths are in the schools, rising to manhood and womanhood, 
 with knowledge and virtue rendering them worthy of equality in the scale of the 
 most honoured and happy of our race, who must presently be dismissed from the 
 schools under the sickening prospects above stated. 
 
46 
 
 standing Indians of influence in their tribes, we flatter ourselves that 
 the ground we have taken will not be disputed. We trust that all will 
 agree that a nucleus to the colony could not only be formed imme 
 diately, but it could be formed under circumstances peculiarly favour 
 able to a rapid accession. Moreover, there are Creeks, Cherokees, 
 Choctaws, and Shawanoes, already in that country, all of whom have 
 made considerable advances in civilization. Delawares, Osages, Kanzas, 
 and others now there, could at once be subjected to the regulations of 
 the territory. It only remains for government to appropriate the ter 
 ritory, and establish its regulations, and we shall find the settlement 
 of the country already considerably advanced. 
 
 In view of all the circumstances relating to this matter, I think few 
 will venture to doubt that the people of whom we are speaking could, 
 with some exceptions among those of the south, be removed to the co 
 lony, just as speedily as our Government would choose. Most of them 
 are so under the controlling influence of the United States, that they 
 can be removed, without coercion, at almost any time, I mean, as 
 matters at present stand, without any colonizing measures. It would 
 be our interest indeed to have them out of our way ; but motives of hu 
 manity forbid removing them, until some provisions be made for their 
 subsequent accommodation. An almost insatiable thirst for the exten 
 sion of our settlements, prevails generally throughout the United States. 
 When the natives shall be provided with a peaceable and permanent 
 habitation, conscience and interest will alike say, Let them go. 
 
 On page 23 we expressed a hope that we should be able to make 
 it appear, that by colonizing the Indians, an item of annual expenditure 
 of our Government of some moment, would be superseded. The item 
 to which we alluded, is that allowed to Indian Agents, Sub-Agents, and 
 Interpreters. The United States have employed in the department of 
 Indian agencies, four superintendents, twenty agents, thirty-six sub- 
 agents, and thirty-eight interpreters. The salaries of the first amount 
 to $4,600; of the second, to $28,300; of the third, to $18,600; and of 
 the fourth, to $15,031 : making an aggregate of $66,531 expended an 
 nually in salaries in this department. Colonizing the Indians would, in 
 a short time, supersede one half or more of the agencies, and an equal 
 proportion of the expense, say $33,265 : 50 per annum. This is not a 
 trifling sum to be positively saved on the single item of salaries con 
 nected with Indian agencies ; and the period would arrive when no part 
 of it would be required. Add this annual saving to any supposed dis 
 advantage that would result to us from the execution of the plan, or as 
 the matter plainly appears to me, add it to the supposed real advantages 
 which the scheme promises to us, and it alike commends the design of 
 colonizing the Indians. 
 
 On this subject I have usually throughout preferred speaking in ge 
 neral terms, especially on the government of the colony. I have deemed 
 it prudent to avoid shackling our plan with small particulars, on which 
 there might be a diversity of opinion, and which might be varied, with 
 out materially affecting vital principles. When once the main lines are 
 drawn, the details can easily be filled up. The language of existing 
 measures will be easily understood, when they call for the adoption of 
 new ones. We shall deem it sufficient on this point to add our settled 
 opinion, that Government need not employ in this matter, either a great 
 number of men, or a great amount of money ; the success of the enter- 
 
47 
 
 prise will not depend upon either, or upon both. But to insure success, 
 we should begin in the proper place, and move on with system. "We 
 should first find the place, and then look out for the people to fill it. 
 And the very same acts which will furnish the people, will, at the same 
 time, provide the means for placing them in the colony.* 
 
 We cannot too soon take hold of this subject in good earnest. We 
 have already too long delayed it. Our delay has been a pecuniary loss 
 to us of thousands, may I not more properly say, of millions of dol 
 lars, and of thousands of valuable lives, wasted in wars with the In 
 dians, while at the same time, we have interposed no effectual preven 
 tive of the wastings and woos of this ill-fated people. 
 
 We are not prepared to state with precision the amount of money 
 which has been expended by the United States on Indian wars ; but we 
 believe that we shall be safe in supposing that one tenth part of the 
 amount, judiciously applied to the reformation of the Indians, on the 
 plan proposed, would have superseded all necessity for the expenditure 
 of the remaining nine tenths would have prevented most of the fright 
 ful calamities of our Indian wars ; and, instead of leaving among, and 
 near to us, a miserable and perishing people, would have ornamented 
 our happy land with another state, connected with those which do ex 
 ist, by such ties as would sit easily and advantageously upon both, em 
 bracing hundreds of thousands of happy people. 
 
 Our civilizing institutions know not whither to direct the subjects of 
 their charge on the completion of their courses. Too many, alas, of 
 those once hopeful beneficiaries are already sinking to ruin by our de 
 lay. Why should we begin the work of Indian reform, and, leaving it 
 incomplete, lose the labour and the funds we have bestowed upon it? Our 
 benevolent institutions which are at present in operation are good ; they 
 are efficient so far as we ought to expect them to be. But they cannot 
 reach the whole case. The system is incomplete. These institutions 
 cannot be expected to change the wildernesses in which they are loca 
 ted, into fruitful fields, as applied to the natives ; for it is well under 
 stood that the natives must shortly leave those places for others unknown, 
 or be exposed to more certain ruin. Those establishments can do no 
 
 * From a desire to exhibit the colonizing plan in a light as unexceptionable as 
 possible, I have not pressed the claims of the Indians to the full extent that my 
 own judgment carries me. Our proposals in respect to monied means, are made 
 more favourable to us, than comports with the justice of their cause, and the mag 
 nanimity of a wealthy and righteous nation. We can, and we ought to do more 
 for them than I have proposed, and a hope is indulged that a generous and humane 
 public will honourably protest against its littleness. 
 
 It would well comport with the character of our country, and our abundant re 
 sources, to make a direct appropriation of a respectable sum, for the immediate 
 relief of the Indians, and not wait the less expeditious progress of our plan. If we 
 were poor and could not pay our just debts, or bestow a needed charity, we could 
 find an apology for the omission of both. But we are not poor. No nation upon 
 earth can so easily discharge debts of either justice or benevolence, as ours. And 
 it is fondly hoped that in disposition we shall be found to excel, even more than in 
 means. 
 
 We have, for a few years past, been trying the experiment of an appropriation 
 for purposes of Indian reform, of $10,000 per annum. The success of the expe 
 riment has exceeded what had been our most sanguine expectations. Taught by 
 experience how to apply and where to apply, the dignity of our liberal institutions 
 calls upon us to say at once, we will apply to this object a sum becoming our cha 
 racter, and commensurate with the exigencies of the case. 
 
48 
 
 more than take the rude timbers of the forest, and prepare them for the 
 building. Here their labours end. Unless we add other operations for 
 the purposes of collecting together, and of uniting the materials, we 
 shall have the mortification of seeing the objects on which we have be 
 stowed much labour, successively perishing amidst the more neglected 
 mass. We have actually arrived at the place where we are constrained 
 to feel the want of immediate relief, such alone as the colonization 
 system provides for. 1 have not only witnessed the dilemma of those 
 who are engaged in the work of Indian reform, but also, with my own 
 ears, again and again, heard reflecting pupils of the schools, whose 
 good understanding Jed them to foresee' the darkness which intercepted 
 their march, inquire of their benefactors, " Whither shall we go, what 
 shall we do when we leave you?" I wish that one half only, of the 
 anxiety and evil which attend this stage of our work of Indian reform, 
 -could be distinctly understood by those who possess power to help. The 
 single instance of one whom I beheld weeping alone, and who, on my 
 inquiry, declared the cause of his grief to be the anxiety to which I 
 have referred above, would furnish argument in favour of colonizing 
 these people, worth volumes of speculations. 
 
 How exceedingly Discouraging must be the work of civilizing Indians, 
 to those engaged in it, under existing circumstances. They form mis 
 sionary establishments in the wilderness under great disadvantages and 
 privations, and all under the sickening reflection, that these stations 
 must soon be abandoned for others, to be made in other forests, further 
 back, to which the people for whom they toil will soon be driven. 
 With a long trial of their patience, they at length prevail on some of 
 their rude neighbours to erect houses, and enclose fields. They have 
 the satisfaction to see them beginning to raise domestic animals, and to 
 hush the cryings of their half-starved children by something like a regu 
 lar supply of wholesome food. They would congratulate themselves on 
 the prospect of receiving an ample reward for their labours ; but the 
 thought perpetually haunts them These people must soon quit their 
 fields and houses, and go back into the wilderness again, or what is 
 worse, be circumscribed to a small spot, surrounded by white popula 
 tion in which case their destiny ceases to be doubtful ; or they must be 
 made to feel the effects of State laws, to their ruin. 
 
 But with all the regret which benevolent associations feel on these 
 accounts, even when their labours are aided by the patronage of Govern 
 ment, they have not the power of improving the matter. They may 
 form new establishments, and strengthen old ones. But they have not 
 the power of procuring a single spot upon the face of the whole earth, 
 on which they may locate the people of their charge, and say, Here 
 you may " sit under your own vine and fig-tree, and none shall make 
 you afraid." This power is vested alone in Government to our Go 
 vernment we appeal we do it in behalf of a people who, with one or 
 two exceptions, cannot plead their own cause, some of whom at this mo 
 ment sit by my side. Oh that God, who made the world to be inhabited 
 by man, would grant a little space for the occupancy of these people ! 
 Would grant them some room in the sympathies of our Government! 
 
49 
 
 A BRIEF RECAPITULATION shall dose our remarks. 
 
 We have endeavoured to show that the Aborigines of our country are 
 not noxious vermin of which we ought to rid the world, but men, enti 
 tled to the rights of men. The justice of their claims to the soil they 
 inhabit, is not inferior to the most righteous and undisputed title, that 
 any people, in any part of the earth, ever preferred to a portion of it. 
 These people, whatever may have become of a portion of their pro 
 perty, or wherever may be the residue of it at present, have left a 
 wretched remnant, lingering on our borders, immersed in misery, rapidly 
 sinking into extinction, and without power to save themselves. Unless 
 our Government pluck the half-consumed brands from the fire, they will 
 soon disappear. We have the means of doing it of doing it without 
 loss to ourselves, and in all probability, with positive convenience and 
 profit. We have the best place which our portion of the continent ever 
 afforded for such a purpose, yet unoccupied by us, to give them for 
 their perpetual home, and we can conveniently and speedily remove 
 them to it. In their case there is no alternative ; without colonizing 
 them, they will inevitably perish, as past experience testifies; with it 
 they will be saved, as evidence no less indubitable has incontestably 
 proved. Shall we save them or not ? HEAVEN AND HUMANITY DIRECT 
 
 THE ANSWER ! 
 
 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 No. 1. 
 
 Reasons for Writing, tyc. . 
 
 THE following numbers arc not written from a fondness for writing, 
 nor from a supposition that I shall be able to tell what no one else 
 knows; but because I feel confident that the state of the case requires 
 something to be written at this time ; because I know of no one else 
 who will write upon this subject; and because I am, in providence, so 
 situated, that it would be particularly criminal in me to omit doing any 
 thing within my power, for the melioration of the condition of the In 
 dians. 
 
 The foregoing pages were designed, on their first publication, as an 
 appeal to our government in behalf of the Indians. We all well under 
 stand in whom authority is vested, and who sit at the helm of our pub 
 lic affairs. Of those persons, we have respectfully solicited and have 
 obtained a hearing. The reflection is pleasant, that our prayer is only 
 a response to the correct thoughts and generous feelings of the rulers 
 and lawgivers of our nation. More than ordinary interest has recently 
 been manifested on this subject, and matters obviously appear to be ap 
 proximating a crisis; and, we trust, a favourable one. As might be 
 expected, we find the wise and the good differing in the choice of mea 
 sures for the accomplishment of an end alike desirable to all. There 
 fore, every grain which can be cast into the scale of information, is at 
 this time particularly called for, and every correct thought disclosed may 
 contribute somewhat to a favourable influence on the beam. Even erro 
 neous sentiments on this subject had better become public, than be 
 allowed a secret influence upon our conduct. Let the error be known, 
 and it may be corrected. 
 
 The last two administrations have commended the measures which 
 alone, we are constrained to believe, are calculated to rescue the Indians 
 from extinction. After such respectable commendations of the subject 
 to the consideration of Congress, it may to some appear presuming for 
 us to add our entreaties and remarks; but I am confident that the mat 
 ter is not thus viewed by the parties just alluded to, who have had the 
 subject under consideration. The measures have been commended, 
 and, through the proper officers of the department, facts and arguments 
 have been stated. This was designed to elicit inquiry, information, and 
 action. 
 
 Members of Congress are the representatives of the people, whom it 
 is their happiness to serve, and especially those of their own particular 
 districts, when it can be done in accordance with the interests of the 
 whole. 
 
 Wrongs of our government in relation to the Indians, have been ex 
 pressed in terms proper enough for those who employed them, but 
 
51 
 
 which, from their plainness would be rather indecorous in me.* Now, 
 let it be known to us all that these errors of our government, of which 
 our public men speak without reserve, are not crimes particularly of our 
 representatives, nor of any class of public officers. Ours is a govern 
 ment of the people, and an error of the government is one in which the 
 pople are implicated. What our government authorities have done, 
 has been done in accordance with the general impulse of the commu 
 nity. Our public officers serve us, and have done it with fidelity unex 
 ampled in the history of the world. They are themselves an integrant 
 part of the people ; they carry with them to their seats of authority and 
 deliberation, the feelings and views of the people, and in them is formed 
 the focus of our desires. If, therefore, as is universally believed, the 
 policy of government in relation to the Indians, has heretofore been 
 wrong, a proper method of correcting the wrong would be to attempt a 
 reformation in the community in general. We, therefore, earnestly en 
 treat all into whose hands our remarks may fall, not to consider the 
 subject as belonging exclusively to the consideration of Congress, and 
 heads of departments, but one which presents itself to the serious in 
 vestigation of every benevolent person in the United States. 
 
 In illustration of my views, allow me attention to one case only, in 
 which our public functionaries have repeatedly told us errors have oc 
 curred, fraught with destruction to the Indians, to wit: the quick suc 
 cession with which treaties have been held with them for the extinguish 
 ment of their title to land. It is no more likely that these treaties ori 
 ginated with officers of government than with others. I have reason to 
 believe that Commissioners have sometimes entered upon these duties 
 with a degree of reluctance, and in compliance with the general wish, 
 rather than with their own personal inclinations. An insatiable thirst 
 for wealth and for territory pervades the community. Some enterpris 
 ing, not to say ambitious citizens, form schemes, the accomplishment of 
 which requires the extinguishment of Indian title to a certain tract of 
 country. The desires of those persons are easily diffused among others, 
 and readily find their way to our public authorities, accompanied by 
 importunities. When, therefore, we again hear of lands being pur 
 chased of the Indians, let us not say they, but we have done it. It is 
 time that all who feel interested in the welfare of the Indians should, by 
 open and candid investigation, elicit the most eligible plans for their 
 improvement, and while every one feels ready to yield, if necessary, 
 some points of minor consequence, let us endeavour to unite upon vital 
 principles, and make a simultaneous and unceasing effort. 
 
 No. II. 
 Character of Indian Missions. 
 
 Whoever dispassionately views the subject of colonizing the Indians, 
 will perceive that it is a work of time, not to be effected in a few years. 
 It so happens that self-interest is, in general, the predominant principle 
 
 * See Reports to Congress of Secretaries Calhoun and Barbour, in 1824 and 
 1826, and speeches in Congress of Messrs. M'Lean, Lumpkin, Smith, and others, 
 in 1828. 
 
52 
 
 in government ; consequently, those tribes which are least in our way, 
 we shall feel least desirous to remove. Hence we hear much said re 
 specting the removal of the southern Indians, and less respecting that 
 of others. We may, therefore, expect the necessity for missions to con 
 tinue undimiriished for many years to come. It is possible that in the 
 Indian territory, missionary operations may assume slight shades of dif 
 ference from those among the several tribes in their original places. 
 This difference will occur merely in accommodation to the circumstances 
 in which each will be placed. It will be proper to prosecute missionary 
 operations in each tribe to the greatest extent practicable, because by so 
 doing they may the more readily be induced to remove to the territory. 
 Every missionary would be influenced by the directions of the society he 
 served, by the instructions of government, and, most of all, by his own 
 solicitude for the welfare of his people, to persuade them to remove. 
 All civilizing agents would be desirous to exchange their temporary re 
 sidences among the several tribes for such as would be permanent; and 
 no pains would be spared by them to accomplish it. All the circum 
 stances of the case would facilitate the views of government. 
 
 Further, those efforts should be prosecuted with energy, because by 
 them emigrants to the territory would be prepared, in a greater or less 
 degree, for citizenship. This would tend greatly to obviate difficulties 
 which some persons have anticipated, from a supposed heterogeneous 
 assemblage of savages. Those establishments are at present too few ; 
 their increase is desirable in proportion to the interest we feel in the 
 improvement of the Indians. 
 
 At present those institutions are supported chiefly by the munificence 
 of benevolent associations and individuals, and in part by appropria 
 tions of Congress for that special purpose, and by treaty stipulations. 
 Arguments are numerous and strong in favour of the whole expense 
 being met by government, without applying a charity of any one in the 
 case. But should the benevolent perceive that the improvement of the 
 natives would be rendered precarious by withholding their bounty, they 
 would deem it not only a duty but a privilege to give. I fully believe 
 this would be the case for the following reasons. 
 
 Government allowances have generally been applied in conjunction 
 with funds of benevolent societies. (See " Remarks," page 24.) By 
 this means the application of the same has been strictly and success 
 fully guarded against abuse. This fact is the highest commendation 
 which this plan could receive as proper for time to come. When the 
 improvement of the Indians becomes a business entirely of the govern 
 ment, it will be impossible to defend it from abuse. No matter how 
 wise and well-disposed may be men in authority, the nature of the case 
 is such as past experience, in relation to our intercourse with the In 
 dians, has unquestionably proven, that it is impossible for Government 
 to oversee fhe subject so as to render its good management certain. 
 There is something of principle, something of the tenderness, patience, 
 and endurance of benevolence and religion required in the matter of 
 Indian improvement. The people whom we propose to relieve are feeble 
 and dependent; authority and strength may be requisite in providing 
 the home, and even the cradle of the infant, but it is the gentle hand, 
 guided by the tenderest feelings of the human heart, that sooths its sor 
 rows. 
 
53 
 
 In all our doings for the benefit of our fellow men, we should keep in 
 sight what human nature is in him who gives, as well as in him wha 
 receives. Such is our nature that should the matter of Indian improve 
 ment become a business of government alone, and cease to be considered 
 an enterprise of benevolence, the solicitude for success, which is one of 
 the main springs of action, even in government itself, would abate. Our 
 Presidents, Secretaries, Congressmen, &c. who have encouraged Indian 
 improvement, have all acted under the influence of principles of bene 
 volence ; not as derived from government, as such, but as being them 
 selves a part of that community in which has lately been awakened and 
 cherished to a happy extent, a spirit of " good will towards man." 
 The policy of government has remained much the same from the first, 
 with only such changes in favour of the Indians as equalled the im 
 proved state of society in the United States. 
 
 Within a few years past, more than ordinary concern for the welfare 
 of our fellow men has pervaded our country generally. The wretched 
 have every where been sought out by the hand of kindness, from the 
 obscure hovels in the suburbs of our cities, to the weather-beaten sa 
 vage who flies o'er the plain or lurks in the wood. It is this spirit of 
 humanity and kindness that has prompted our rulers and lawgivers to 
 action in the case under consideration, they being themselves a part of 
 the people who are subjects of its influence. Benevolent societies and 
 individuals, therefore, should not abate the fervency of their prayers, 
 nor lessen the amount of their charities ; rather both should be aug 
 mented, under a full conviction that, by so doing, they contribute most 
 effectually to the adoption and to the promotion of such measures of 
 government as are calculated to accomplish the end desired. Should 
 benevolent societies and individuals cease to invest funds in establish 
 ments for Indian improvement ; their missionaries, should they be care 
 ful to provide them, would become accountable to the government only, 
 and not to them. Those societies would lose both their right and their 
 inclination to direct; the present salutary effects of their watchful super 
 intendence would consequently cease. 
 
 This subject has been fruitful in speculations relative to the most eli 
 gible mode of operation. But it is fully believed that few defects of 
 magnitude can be detected in the present generally approved plan. I 
 have supposed that only one existed, viz. the schools being composed of 
 both sexes. For the same reasons which induce us to form separate 
 schools for the sexes in our states, I would advise that they be kept dis 
 tinct among the Indians, especially among those in the territory. Mo 
 dern missionary operations do not suffer ,ty a comparison with former 
 ones. The success of our labours in preparing many Indians for a bet 
 ter condition than that of their dependent relatives, is a reason which 
 strongly urges the adoption of a different policy of government. 
 
 Missionaries to the Indians enter upon labours widely different from 
 those of missionaries to most other heathen nations. Take, for exam 
 ple, a mission to Hindostan or Burmah. In either of those places it is 
 not necessary to adopt measures to render the people stationary, because 
 they are already so. While each Indian tribe knows its own limits, be 
 yond which they only occasionally pass, their present condition obliges 
 them frequently to change places. They assemble at their villages in 
 May and June, and plant and cultivate their small fields, averaging 
 about an acre to a family. They own no other domestic animals than 
 
54 
 
 horses and clogs, the former of which are not used for draught. While 
 cultivating their ground, their sustenance is chiefly obtained by hunting, 
 and by digging the wild potatoe and other roots ; consequently, they 
 are much of their time absent from their villages ever* at this season. 
 Their crops are harvested about the commencement of frosts in au 
 tumn; part of their corn and potatoes, and perhaps some few farming 
 and cooking utensils, are then deposited in secret places in holes dug 
 in the earth. This done, all, both male and female, old and young, 
 move off according to inclination, on their hunting excursions. During 
 the hunting season they move from place to place, as may be suggested 
 by the plenty of game and the prospect of grass and brush for their 
 horses. In the breaking up of winter, they make sugar from the sugar 
 maple, and, as above remarked, return to their villages at the season of 
 planting. 
 
 Should a missionary station himself in one of their villages, and even 
 succeed in securing a tolerable congregation to hear religious and other 
 instructions ; in September or October his people would leave him alone, 
 not to see the smoke of a single hut beside his own, until the following 
 May or June. Should he follow them on their huntings, his labours 
 would often be limited to a single family. Admitting that, during the 
 summer, some had profited by his instructions, a sad deterioration might 
 be expected on their return the following spring. These remarks are 
 not intended to apply to the southern tribes, but to those on the north 
 and west. 
 
 The first consideration, therefore, with those who embark in the work 
 of Indian improvement is, by what means they may be rendered sta 
 tionary. It is at once obvious that to effect this, they must be induced 
 to adopt habits of industry, must cultivate the ground on a larger scale, 
 keep domestic animals and employ them for servile purposes, and con 
 sequently must inclose their fields with fences. In prospect of the wants 
 of their future improved condition, the youths of both sexes must be in 
 structed in letters, and, as a matter inseparably connected with both 
 their present and eternal welfare, religious instruction should be im 
 parted to the greatest possible extent. But we cannot hope for much 
 progress in literature or religion, until they become so situated as to 
 make it possible for them to attend to the means which Heaven has 
 ordained should be employed for improvement in these things. 
 
 Every missionary station, therefore, that it may be efficient, must add 
 to its religious advantages a school for instruction in letters, and it must 
 become a working institution, Females must be taught to use the spin 
 ning-wheel and needle, and to perform all kinds of domestic labour; 
 and the males must be instructed in agriculture and mechanic arts. 
 These encouragements to labour must be extended beyond the precincts 
 of the schools, to the surrounding country, and all, as far as practicable, 
 and circumstances shall suggest, be encouraged to similar habits of in 
 dustry. 
 
 It will readily be perceived that a missionary to such a people as 
 these, has work before him of a very different character from what would 
 have been the case had he settled in Hindostan, and I still say, without 
 fear of contradiction, many degrees more perplexing. We mean no de 
 traction from the well-earned honours of the many worthy missionaries 
 who have laboured, or are labouring in other lands, by a comparison of 
 Indian missions with theirs. Many, very many, we rejoice to know, 
 
55 
 
 have ascended as nearly above the benefits of praise and the harm of 
 slander, as is possible for frail man to rise. We make the comparison 
 merely for the illustration of our subject, that we may understand the 
 condition of the people for whom we labour, and be able to judge how 
 to labour for them successfully. 
 
 Compared with those in foreign lands, our missionary fields are con 
 tiguous to our native places. Nevertheless, a greater proportion of mis 
 sionaries have been disappointed in the nature of their labours, on en 
 tering upon them in the Indian country, than of those who have gone 
 to distant countries. This must have been merely because they neglected 
 to consider the peculiar condition of this people. That those disap 
 pointments have occurred, is evident from the many secessions from mis 
 sionary labour among us. 
 
 Missionaries should be habitually industrious. If naturally or arti 
 ficially tempered for indolence, they may be prompted by zeal to bestir 
 themselves for a few months, but as the circumstances of their situation 
 become familiar, industry will become irksome. Without industry, a 
 missionary would be worse than nobody. Indians are remarkable for 
 their indolence in every respect. Labour, especially of the men, is 
 deemed disreputable. These impressions are unhappily cherished by 
 the manners of Indian traders in the countries through which they are 
 scattered. The hirelings in this service are almost invariably taken from 
 Canada, and are of a class of people obviously enough, even to the In 
 dians, exceedingly ignoble. Clerks and principals in the trade, make 
 as great distinctions, in their intercourse with them, as usually exists 
 between a negro slave and his master. The Indians, perceiving that 
 the labour among the whites who mingle with them is performed by me 
 nials, are additionally confirmed in their own views. The impressions 
 cherished by these examples have given the missionaries, in some 
 places, much vexation. The case might be somewhat different, could 
 theyi avail themselves of the services of servants, as some of those to 
 the south have done. 
 
 It is not enough to say to an Indian, you ought to labour, and be pro 
 vident and industrious in all your business. We must set the example. 
 
 We admit that a missionary would be but poorly employed, were he 
 to labour regularly in the field or the shop, except in cases where men 
 would have the noble self-denial to do it from choice. Most of them 
 could be otherwise employed more usefully. Manual labour may be 
 chiefly hired. Nevertheless, he should show himself not too good to 
 take hold, on any business which it was necessary to teach the natives. 
 This he may do without becoming a day-labourer. He should be in 
 dustrious, let his employments be what they might. These remarks 
 apply with equal propriety to the female department of missions. 
 
 Again, there is a promptitude in business essential to usefulness in a 
 missionary, which we can never bring some persons to observe. Each 
 item in the routine of business should be attended to precisely at the 
 proper time ; by this means we find time for every thing. But one in 
 clined to indolence will always be in the rear, and will find time for no 
 thing. 
 
 A missionary to another country, on arriving at the field of his la 
 bours, enters upon the study of the language of his people, and upon 
 the translating of the scriptures. As he proceeds in either, he sallies 
 forth to tell the news of salvation to the perishing heathen around him ; 
 
56 
 
 to circulate tracts ; &c. Servants can be obtained to attend to domes 
 tic concerns. In the establishing of schools it is not necessary to bring 
 the pupils into his family, and to impose on himself the charge of in 
 structing, managing, feeding, clothing, and lodging them, as so many 
 of his own children. If under these circumstances, he is subjected to 
 trials, which often are sore enough, such is the structure of the human 
 mind, when under the influence of grace, that his business of all others 
 is best calculated to sustain him. Being constantly engaged in labours 
 which are immediately of a missionary character, and congenial to the 
 desires of his soul ever since he left his native land, the fire of holy be 
 nevolence is kept burning in his bosom. 
 
 The missionary to the aborigines of our country leaves his place and 
 society with the same heaven-born desire to point the benighted Indian 
 to the path of virtue, and to guide him in the way to heaven. Relin 
 quishing his business in life, and consecrating himself to labours for the 
 benefit of others, without the hope of any earthly reward, beyond food 
 and raiment, or in other words, the indispensable necessaries of life, he 
 fancies himself to be quitting the busy, perplexing spheres of the world, 
 and to be entering upon a scene of labours which will perpetually ac 
 cord with the pious breathings of his soul. He, to be sure, expects to 
 encounter many privations and hardships, but these he hopes to bear 
 with cheerfulness, on account of the pleasure realized in the nature of 
 his work. 
 
 On his arrival at the field of his labours he applies himself to the 
 study of the language of the natives. He finds himself among a people 
 totally ignorant of letters. Here are no books for his assistance ; and 
 twenty chances to one if he finds a person tolerably well qualified for 
 even a common interpreter, much less one who has an idea of the sci 
 ence of language. He is forced to pick up the language as he can find 
 it. He is denied the pleasure of translating, and of circulating portions 
 of the scriptures, and other tracts, for his people have no knowledge 
 of letters. He proceeds to preach to them, but more than half the year 
 they are wandering, partly in separate families ; and during the season 
 when most about their villages, he will frequently have the grief to hear 
 that half his congregation are absent, procuring roots and weeds to 
 satisfy the cravings of hunger. Ardent spirits are distributed to them 
 all over their country, and not one of a hundred of either sex is not in 
 clined to use them intemperately. This is a sickening evil to be met 
 with wherever he goes, but is most prevalent during the season that they 
 inhabit their villages. With all these discouragements, his faith and 
 resolution might not fail him, even when mingling with his people in 
 their filthy camps, and impelled by necessity to partake of their homely 
 cookery, could he be allowed to give his undivided attention to these 
 labours, which in themselves are calculated to inspire zeal. But he is 
 not so fortunate. He must turn his attention to agriculture and to the 
 management of a farm, stocked with domestic animals, for the sake of 
 teaching the same to the people of his charge. He must become the 
 superintendent of shops in which are taught mechanic arts. Most per 
 sons with ordinary families of their own children, in situations where 
 faithful servants cannot be employed, deem their task in providing them 
 with food, raiment, lodgings, attendance in sickness, and instruction in 
 letters, labour, and morals, far from light. But the missionary has 
 added to the number of dependants on his care ten or fifteen fold, and 
 
57 
 
 these additions are wild from the woods, unaccustomed to parental re 
 straints, and from the midst of a people among whom are commonly 
 practised every thing wrong of which their state is susceptible, from the 
 vilest murders to the least offensive sins. 
 
 Even all this could be borne, could he properly keep alive the Mission 
 ary ardour of his soul, which invited him into this land of darkness. 
 But the cares and ^perplexities of the world produce a similar effect on 
 the mind, whether in a civilized, or a savage land. His secular anxie 
 ties abate the ardour of holy benevolence, and tend to banish all com 
 fortable religious desires and enjoyments, much the same as similar 
 cares would have done in his native land, and under different circum 
 stances. " Alas!" he says to himself, " I had thought of retiring from 
 the vexation of worldly engagements, and of devoting myself to exer 
 cises purely religious, instead of which I find myself tenfold deeper in 
 secular perplexities than before I came hither." 
 
 I say again, that my observations apply also to the female department, 
 with this difference, that every perplexity which the case involves falls 
 with doubled discouragement upon female missionaries. With them 
 there is less variety in business, and necessarily less of those services 
 immediately of a missionary character, desirable to all, and in them 
 selves calculated to cherish zeal. 
 
 In these remarks I am carefully avoiding exaggeration. I am sober 
 ly stating facts, and which exist around the place where I write, and at 
 many other missionary stations. The business of a missionary to the 
 Indians is calculated to unnerve the constitution, and to press down into 
 melancholy the finest flow of spirits. 
 
 A missionary in this country should possess a tact for being a man of 
 business. There are some men who can scarcely provide for themselves 
 and families a living, in the best of times. Such men are poorly qual 
 ified to teach others economy and management in the concerns of com 
 mon life. A few such persons might be of some service, should they 
 be of a condescending disposition, and always ready to be instructed by 
 others. This, however, rarely happens. Too often, in every place, 
 men are ignorant of their want of qualification for business, until they 
 ruin themselves and others by their bad management. 
 
 Indians are men of nature, possessing strong mental abilities. Few 
 people more readily perceive when they are in company of a novice, or 
 a man of slender mind, or more certainly feel contempt for such. I hope 
 my fellow-missionaries will allow a remark, which might be esteemed 
 indecorous in me were I not one of their number, and alike exposed 
 to its application. A mistake, not a little prejudicial to our cause, has 
 too extensively prevailed, that a man of very ordinary abilities would 
 answer for a missionary to uncultivated savages. It is hoped that the 
 time is not distant when the condition of the Indians being understood, 
 the fact will be admitted, that their reformation is opposed by greater 
 and more threatening obstacles than any other heathen people on earth, 
 and that consequently missions in no other country equally require men 
 of talents and business. A missionary should be a man acquainted with 
 human nature, attaching dignity to his deportment, and commanding 
 respect from all with whom he mingles. He should possess energy of 
 mind and be in the habit of governing his conduct by reason, and not 
 by the impulse of feeling. I hardly need add that every acquirement 
 will fail, should there be an absence of religious devotion. 
 
 8 
 
58 
 
 Some of our observations will not apply with equal weight to the 
 southern Indians ; and to others to the north, on small tracts of country 
 surrounded by white population ; these being generally stationary. But 
 while the school and working system is not equally demanded by their 
 circumstances, it is fully believed to be the only efficient mode of mis 
 sionary operations among Indians of every tribe. It is true, many of 
 those Indians are able and willing to give their children education, but 
 so unfortunate is their situation in general, that it cannot be expected 
 that the rising generation will receive those impressions essential to their 
 subsequent usefulness, unless admitted to the advantages of missionary 
 schools as commonly conducted. 
 
 To me it appears obvious that the school and working system cannot 
 be abandoned without endangering success; especially so, since our 
 hopes in relation to these people principally rest upon the rising gene 
 ration. We all admit that religious instruction is indispensable, and we 
 rejoice in the success which has attended it. But the Author of our 
 holy religion has appointed other means for its promotion, besides that 
 of preaching. We see that in the United States religion flourishes 
 most where society in general is best organized. There was a time 
 when Catholic missionaries, in accordance with the too prevalent opinion 
 of the day, scoured the regions of our lakes on the north, and made 
 thousands of proselytes to their religion, but the condition of the In 
 dians was not perceivably improved. I know it will be said that they 
 were proselyted to forms merely; but admitting many of them to have 
 been genuinely pious, what effect could that fact have produced on the 
 manners of the country 7 It is not sinful to live in tents and bark huts, 
 and to procure subsistence chiefly by the chase; or to appear in the In 
 dian costume. An Indian may be strictly pious, and yet pursue his na 
 tive mode of living, without incurring the slightest censure. There is 
 at this moment a living instance by my side. Nevertheless, we cannot 
 expect vital piety to abound while the state of society, if society we may 
 call it, is as it is known to be among the Indians. I include them all, 
 those who are more, as well as those who are less favourably situated. 
 
 In the colony, some variation from the school and working system 
 may be expected ; but this will occur with safety, merely in proportion 
 to the improved situation of the people. We must carry our present 
 mode of operations into the Indian territory, but happily we shall do it 
 under the impression that it will in time assume the attitude of the free 
 school systems of New-England, embracing schools of the higher order. 
 At the arrival of this period, the ministry of the gospel need not be 
 blended with education, &c. as it now is, but may be provided for in the 
 usual way. 
 
 It will be perceived that we do not distinguish between missionaries 
 who are preachers, and those who are not. It would be well for every 
 missionary station to be supplied with one minister or more, that the 
 forms of their churches might be properly attended to. But in the 
 matter of instructing Indians in religion, as well as in every thing else, 
 a man who is not a minister of the gospel may be as successful as he 
 who is. When the Indians become settled and civilized, as the whites 
 are in our states, ministers may be located among them upon the same 
 principle that they now are among us. In the present state of affairs, 
 we deem it inexpedient for missionaries who are ministers, to be re 
 quired to attend merely on parochial duties. It would be ungenerous 
 
59 
 
 in them to ask such a privilege. Imparting religious instruction is the 
 most pleasant part of the whole routine of labour. It is at the same 
 time both profitable and encouraging to the instructor. It is a privilege, 
 and not a task a privilege which all in their proper spheres should en 
 joy. I am always grieved to hear societies report distinctions between 
 missionaries, (meaning ordained ministers,) and assistants, school-teach 
 ers, farmers, mechanics, &c. ; such statements are a disparagement of 
 the latter, who deserve equally with the former. If the minister has not 
 both capacity and disposition to be either a book-keeper, school-teacher, 
 farmer, or mechanic, or a business-man in some line, I fully believe he 
 does not possess the requisite qualifications of a missionary to the In 
 dians. 
 
 No. III. 
 
 Address to Missionary Societies, on the relation between them and their 
 
 Missionaries. % 
 
 THERE are two evil propensities common to the human family, against 
 which societies should carefully guard in the choice of their missionaries, 
 viz. indolence and avarice ; the former we noticed in our last number. 
 Avarice grows up with us from infancy, and often overgrows us in riper 
 years. It is difficult for one whose first impressions received from his 
 parents were, that he was qualifying for business for the sake of acquir 
 ing property, to understand what is meant by disinterested benevolence ; 
 still more difficult is it for him to become disinterestedly benevolent. Yet 
 such he must be, or not be employed as a missionary. 
 
 The first step in guarding this point is to allow missionaries no com 
 pensation for their services. Should you offer your missionaries pay, 
 a sum of money as their own, which they would be at liberty to add to 
 their own private property, this business, like all others, would assume, 
 in many instances, a mercenary character. It will be said, let the com 
 pensation be very moderate. Light wages would not be the least safe 
 guard. You can find as ready market for offices with small salaries as 
 you can for those with higher. There are usually more candidates for 
 a petty office in a county, than there would be in proportion for a seat 
 in Congress. 
 
 It may be asked why may we not settle on a missionary a specific 
 salary, in the same way that we do on a minister of the gospel in one 
 of our churches'? I answer, 1st, for this plain reason ; your minister is 
 constantly near you, and his labours such as can be defined. When 
 any dissatisfaction occurs, you know how to dismiss him, and employ 
 another. The case assumes a different countenance when you hire a 
 man and send him a thousand miles from you into a wilderness, to do a 
 work which you do not veiy well understand yourselves, but a small part 
 of which is really of parochial character. You intend to guard this 
 affair by prescribing rules for his conduct, a departure from which 
 will incur your censure, and procure his dismissal. Theory should 
 always be founded on fact. Now it is a fact, that government has never 
 
60 
 
 been able to enforce the observance of their righteous rules and regula 
 tions relative to the intercourse of whites with the Indians. We admit 
 that in the Indian territory these difficulties as they relate to government 
 will be lessened ; but even there they cannot, in a short time, be wholly 
 prevented. 
 
 2. The case is one of peculiar character, which requires the exercise 
 of the whole man. A man is drowning ; you prevail on a broker, whoso 
 hands at the moment are filled with bills, to quit his counter and plunge 
 into the water for his relief. At the same time you advise him to hold 
 on to his money with one hand while he employs the other for the relief 
 of the sufferer ! When a man has pay coming to him for his services, 
 some attention must be bestowed upon the management of it, and so 
 much of his time and attention are necessarily diverted from the matter 
 which imperiously requires the whole of both. Large salaries would 
 vitiate the better feelings of the heart, and require, and engross consi 
 derable time in the disposition of them. The effects of small salaries 
 would be little less objectionable. If you pay them little salaries, your 
 missionaries who can accept them will be men of little minds, proud of 
 a tittle money, and will require much time to do but little business. 
 What more effectual method could be taken to induce men to neglect 
 the interests of others and attend to their own, than to be perpetually 
 giving them business of their own to attend to? 
 
 When you make the comparison between a settled minister in one of 
 your churches, and a missionary to the Indians, you seem to lose sight 
 of what must be the peculiar privations of the latter, provided he be 
 faithful and efficient. If he is a man who, while he wishes to lay by 
 for himself, will be content with small wages, I suppose him to be poor 
 ly qualified for a missionary. One whose abilities will secure him a 
 handsome income elsewhere, if salary be a sine qua non with him, will 
 not enter your service. The man whom you ought to employ is capa 
 ble of making a living, and of securing a good business in any place 
 where others can. Is it reasonable to suppose that this man, quitting a 
 profitable business, and agreeable society, and subjecting himself to the 
 vexations and privations of a missionary to the Indians, would accept 
 the petty consideration of a few hundred dollars a year as compensation 
 for his services ! 
 
 It has always grieved missionaries to hear it suggested that they ought 
 to be put upon salaries for their services, for the same reason that an 
 honourable man would be grieved were I to offer him compensation for 
 his encountering the inconvenience of cold, wet, and mud, in assisting 
 me to adjust my carriage which had been upset in the public highway. A 
 genuine missionary is prepared to say that he would not be hired to do 
 what he does, and to bear the privations and perplexities of his situa 
 tion. But there are men whom you can hire to enter upon this, or any 
 other service, and you can hire a supply with either hiirh wages or low, 
 as you may choose to offer. The seats in Congress hall could as readily 
 be filled at two dollars a day as at eight. When therefore you suggest 
 wages to a missionary, he says you are either ignorant of his situation, 
 or you have a contemptible opinion of his motives and abilities ; or 
 perhaps both. 
 
 How is it possible for you to secure prompt attention to the unpleasant 
 parts of missionary labour, when they are so far from you, and v/hile 
 ach has his separate private business to attend in conjunction with yours. 
 
61 
 
 He can observe every rule that you can prescribe, and entirely escape 
 censure ; and yet be in reality totally indifferent to the welfare of the 
 Indians, and worse than useless. This is now, and always has been 
 the case with too many in the employ of Government. Matters that 
 you can mark out, are for the most part such as will afford a vain man 
 an opportunity of puffing. This kind of business, or the appearance of 
 it, you can readily enough hire a man to perform. But the chief ex 
 cellence of a missionary consists in voluntarily doing, and enduring 
 things not to be explained in public journals ; feeling anxieties, and 
 performing services of the most unwelcome character, and which he is 
 sure will never be understood by any beside himself and his God. He 
 labours solely from the principle of doing good. He regards neither 
 money nor reputation, and sacrifices convenience, and even life. I be 
 lieve that some of the most worthy missionaries (among these are a re 
 spectable number of females) have seldom appeared <before the public. 
 They have toiled in obscurity, without complaint, until, in too many in 
 stances, health and spirits have greatly declined ; not expecting or desir 
 ing that what they did and endured, should ever be told to others to solicit 
 their sympathies, or their praise. And will you mock the sufferings of 
 such by asking them to accept of a few hundred dollars as compensa 
 tion for their services ! How would you go about hiring the unobtrusive 
 Judson to risk the horrors of another nineteen month's imprisonment in 
 Burmah, and a recurrence of his untold sorrows in relation to his de 
 parted wife and child ! Or how would you apologize for the insult, 
 were you to offer to pay him for the past ! 
 
 While upon this topic it may not be amiss to explain our views more 
 at large. We are pleased with regulations adopted inform by some, and 
 in principle t we trust, by all now employed in this service. They agree 
 to care for each other, and to provide for orphans and widows. Food, 
 raiment, medicine, and the education of their children, are indispensa 
 ble considerations in life. These they will secure if it can be done. In 
 the event of incompetency of either, they would submit to the priva 
 tion. Beyond these they seek nothing either for themselves or their 
 families. Further, whatever they may obtain by personal service ren 
 dered Government, &c. while in the discharge of missionary duties, be 
 the same either less or more, they throw into the common missionary 
 fund. Some of them receive salaries from Government of several hun 
 dred dollars, per annum, for agencies ; the services of which are exactly 
 such as their societies require of them, and which sums they could as 
 properly claim as their own private property as do any other agents of 
 Government ; but which, to the last cent, is thrown into the common 
 treasury, to be applied to the common objects of the mission. They 
 would imitate the disinterested Judson, who received from the British au 
 thorities about $1300, for a tour to Ava to serve as interpreter, and who, 
 on his return, entered the whole on the books to the credit of the society 
 he served. Let such be the relation between you and your missionaries 
 to the Indians, and none will enter your service for the sake of money, 
 or who having entered, will go with Demas after it. 
 
 After all, there may exist peculiar cases in which it would be proper 
 for a missionary to live more singly, and provide for himself more sepa 
 rately, than the foregoing observations allow. Further, a mission 
 among the southern Indians, who are comparatively civilized, will bear 
 a greater departure from the rules we have laid down, than those among 
 
62 
 
 uncultivated tribes. But, admissible variations, in the territory or else 
 where, will be either extraordinary cases, or the result of improvement 
 in the condition of the Indians, and consequently of the condition of 
 the missionaries. 
 
 When missionaries are so situated that a monthly, quarterly, or annual 
 allowance can be so regulated as to meet the wants of the year, let 
 them be thus allowanced. Some stations necessarily involve greater 
 contingencies in expenditures than others. But in general, a tolerably 
 correct calculation for expenditures of a subsequent year, may be made 
 by reference to those of the preceding. Let appropriations be made 
 accordingly. Missionaries render to their societies regular accounts of 
 receipts and disbursements. When there is a surplus of the past year, 
 it is of course placed to account of the next, and if a deficiency, it 
 should be supplied. 
 
 In the relation between missionaries and the societies they serve, I 
 suppose there has not, in any thing, been so great an omission of right 
 regulations, as in regard to the children of the former. The anxieties 
 of parents in this case, are among their sorest trials. In most other 
 heathen lands the children of missionaries may, in a degree, be kept 
 apart from those of the natives. Among the Indians it is otherwise. 
 The condition of these people renders it necessary to bring their children 
 into our families, not in the capacity of servants, because this course 
 would leave them still below mediocrity among men. Our aim is to 
 elevate the Indian character. Their youths therefore must be taught 
 not to consider themselves menials, but to feel prudently ambitious. 
 They must be treated as our own children, or as the children of a friend 
 committed to our care. Hence our own children must mingle with 
 them, learn their language, and see and hear their vices. It is desirable 
 to parents that the first impressions which their children receive, should 
 be right ones ; but in this case, the preponderance of example is twenty 
 fold on the undesirable side. In the solitude of their situation, the en 
 joyment of the society of their children would be deemed a peculiar 
 privilege, but this favour can be but partially realized. It requires no 
 argument to show that these children ought to spend a portion of their 
 time in society different from that existing in the Indian country. The 
 parents employ their whole time and attention in the field of their la 
 bours. On this, and many other accounts, the matter of providing for 
 the education of their children, necessarily devolves on the societies. 
 I once thought of offering some further reasons for the course I here 
 mention, but on reflection, the case appears too plain to allow an argu 
 ment, without an intrusion on common sense and humanity. 
 
 Every thing which relates to property with your missionaries, you 
 ought to keep securely in your own hands ; but many things respecting 
 management, you must of necessity submit to their judgment. You 
 should retain your authority, but the means of information not being 
 alike within your reach and theirs, much must be delegated to their dis 
 cretion. This would be unsafe were they hirelings. Their business 
 would be to follow your directions, and when you were obliged to leave 
 hem to direct themselves, they would most likely be directed by interest 
 and ease, if these were involved in the question, since to lay by for them 
 selves a little money would be a part of their business at their stations. But 
 there is little danger in committing business to the care of those who 
 work from principle, if they are competent in judgment. They have 
 
63 
 
 invested in the enterprise their entire services. Many of them are ena 
 bled by personal efforts to secure to purposes of their missions large 
 sums of money, every cent of which is applied to the common cause, and 
 accounted for to the societies. I am acquainted with one mission in 
 which the missionaries" have by personal exertion and management, se 
 cured to purposes of the same, considerably more than the society which 
 'patronizes it. We may safely conclude that they who evince such a 
 disposition, desire the accomplishment of the work they have undertaken, 
 and for it will employ their best judgments and task their abilities to the 
 utmost. 
 
 Societies and their missionaries should carefully guard against what 
 we might term high colouring. We are naturally fond of telling the 
 more favourable parts of the story, and rather desire the unfavourable 
 parts to sink into oblivion. I could readily point to statements respec 
 ting missionary operations, which approximate this character too nearly. 
 But I deem it sufficient to mention only this general and undoubted fact, 
 viz. a man in Europe by reading the whole of our missionary journals, 
 narratives, reports, &c. would be apt to suppose the success of our la 
 bours was such that the aborigines of our country were rapidly improv 
 ing their condition, both in respect to Christianity and civilization. 
 How would such an one be disappointed on visiting these regions, to find 
 that instead of improvement in general, they were rapidly decreasing in 
 numbers, and perishing under their accumulating misfortunes. 
 
 Both societies and missionaries are blameable in this thing. The lat 
 ter claim a pretext from the peculiarities of their situation. The views 
 of the community in general, in relation to the true condition of the In 
 dians, their character, and the character of missionary labours among 
 them, being erroneous, missionaries find great difficulty in managing 
 those impressions, which influence their patrons as well as 6ther people. 
 Few indeed are prepared for that tedious process which is usually un 
 avoidable in the work. If a missionary is not able to state a tolerable 
 degree of what would be deemed by his patrons evidence of success, and 
 in a pretty short time too after he has commenced his labours, his sup 
 porters are liable to grow impatient, and to imagine the existence of 
 some defect in him or his management. A few years ago a solitary 
 missionary and his wife commenced a station in the wilderness, among 
 entirely unimproved Indians. Aside from their destitution of associates, 
 their situation combined many inauspicious circumstances which tended 
 to retard and render difficult their labours. Aware of the danger of im 
 patience on the part of the society, they made extraordinary efforts to 
 get something positively in operation which would satisfy them. In the 
 course of about a year they collected a school of ten or eleven Indian 
 scholars. This, connected with their other doings, they considered, un 
 der their peculiar circumstances, remarkable success. Great were their 
 disappointment and chagrin on receiving a letter from the society they 
 served, far from approbatory. The society supposed the success did not 
 bear a just proportion to the time and expense employed. 
 
 As all reasonably suppose the frequent occurrence of undesirable 
 events, it is not necessary to trouble the public with minute details of 
 them. But it is absolutely necessary to give the public such a history of 
 affairs, both bad and good, as will enable a reasonable person to form a 
 correct opinion of the people of our charge. I have no reason to accuse 
 any of my missionary brethren with misrepresentation ; but there exists 
 
64 
 
 such a dread of the consequences of reporting plainly the discouraging' 
 parts of our affairs, that the liberty of discretion in furnishing ex 
 tracts from the journals, leaves untold for the present many things which 
 might induce others to say, if this be the case you had better quit your 
 labours, and we cease to expend money thereon. 
 
 Reports of missionaries usually pass through the hands of their so 
 cieties, which also sometimes manifest a partiality for the better parts. 
 It is exceedingly unfortunate for the matter of Indian improvement that 
 there are so few, beside the missionaries, who are determined to perse 
 vere in the work, even should it appear that much or even all, should 
 fail at last, and are therefore prepared to meet openly the worst of times 
 and prospects. Men of benevolent feelings, contributing to the support 
 of missions, often permit their expectations to become too sanguine, and 
 make more of occurrences at their stations than the missionaries in 
 tended or the facts justified. A favourable communication from the 
 monarch of Burmah, and the receipt of the last idols of some of our south 
 sea Islands, would be justly esteemed matters of joy. But, a message 
 to a Missionary Society, of an Indian chief expressing his high approba 
 tion of their benevolence, his intention to profit thereby, and his thank 
 fulness therefor, and the presentation of a war-club, with a declaration in 
 favour of peace, are matters worth little more than the amusement af 
 forded us by an acquaintance with the manners of these people. We 
 could easily fill our pockets with papers, sent from Indian chiefs to so 
 cieties, highly complimentary of the latter, if such a thing were desira 
 ble. The Indians delight in dictating and sending letters, and in re 
 ceiving them, but it is usually merely a matter of courtesy. A man might 
 soon load a horse with war-clubs, tomahawks, and scalping knives, all 
 accompanied by complimentary inscriptions, and declarations of inten 
 tion to exchange them for things less horrid. But this would not amount 
 to evidence that they who lately dyed them in blood, had become less 
 savage. All that could be inferred with certainty from the whole farce 
 would be, that they were in good humour when they directed the writing 
 of their letters, and yielded so many of their implements of war. 
 
 I hardly know whether I ought in this or any other place to notice the 
 malicious slanders, which have been propagated by interested opposers 
 of missions. They have usually been so glaringly absurd, as to forbid 
 credence with men of sober minds. Such slanders have generally 
 elicited inquiries which have resulted in the advantage of the mission 
 aries whom they were intended to injure. In a few instances Indians 
 have been made to say things of which they never thought, or, certainly 
 of which they never thought until instructed what to say by a malicious 
 white man. The brief catalogue of invective is obviously too invidious 
 to be the mere fruit of savage tongues. 
 
 It is much to be regretted that they who have from time to time, given 
 us scraps of history of Indian language, character, condition, &c. have al- 
 lowed|themselves to commit such egregious blunders ; very little touching 
 these subjects has yet come before the public with tolerable correctness. 
 Inquiries have usually been made precipitately, and too much reliance 
 has been placed upon the statements of negligent, illiterate, and supersti 
 tious white men, who mingle with the Indians. This fact should have 
 been left unnoticed here, were it not that the erroneous impression pro 
 duced on the public, has evidently a disadvantageous bearing upon the 
 subject of Indian improvement. 
 
65 
 
 Societies, in deciding on the usefulness of the labours of their mission 
 aries, should bear in mind the circumstances under which they severally 
 labour. In some places schools may be gathered, and other measures 
 put into operation speedily and promisingly. Missionaries who happen 
 to be thus situated will not lack support. Prayers and gifts will be 
 offered in abundance. Others may have far less to tell of, and yet, con 
 sidering the obstacles with which they contend, be entitled to a superior 
 degree of credit; these, however, will be likely to feel the effects of back 
 wardness in the supporters of missions to afford them encouragement. 
 This mis-judging of societies is not an evil merely anticipated ; it has 
 long existed, and has left some in want a ad distress when they most 
 needed assistance and encouragement. 
 
 No. IV. 
 
 Address to candidates for Missionary service and to Missionaries. 
 
 None should become missionaries without endeavouring thoroughly 
 to count the cost. Candidates for this service should ask themselves if 
 they are willing to live and die poor 1 ? To subject themselves to hunger, 
 cold, fatigue, and other privations consequent on a residence, and on 
 journeyings in a wilderness, and to load their minds with perpetual 
 anxieties ] And can you pursue these toils, and bear these anxieties, 
 when you have reason to suppose none on earth has, or ever will have 
 a tolerable idea of them, except your missionary brethren, and the God 
 you serve 1 
 
 On reading accounts of missionary operations, every Christian feels 
 more or less a holy emulation, because every one feels something of the 
 spirit of a missionary, though few are qualified to be successful ones. 
 You read of the trials of missionaries, and feel a readiness to enter 
 upon similar ones in the^ame cause. But these things appear very dif 
 ferent to the reader from what they did to those who realized them. 
 You read in the heat of zeal ; perhaps the actor had been by attendant 
 circumstances subjected to great darkness and discouragement. At the 
 distance you "stand from them, you may be able to see their connexion 
 with a happy issue; perhaps he who was the subject of them, could not 
 thus trace them, but was ready to conclude that all resulted from his 
 own misguided choice. You read in confidence that the actors were 
 discharging their duty, and when you anticipate similar trials in rela 
 tion to yourself, you do it upon the supposition that you also would be 
 doing right, Now, if we could always feel assured that we were doing 
 right, nothing would be hard, comparatively speaking. Assured of the 
 approbation of the blessed God, the Christian could rejoice at the stake. 
 But trials, are trials of faith, aggravated by the thousand wily argu 
 ments of unbelief. 
 
 The separating of missionaries from their kindred and acquaintances, 
 under the peculiarly tender associations of thought on those occasions, 
 are trials. But they occur in the warmth of your zeal. You contend 
 with them as you would with a winter's wind, when wrapped in your 
 
 9 
 
66 
 
 mantle. The departure of missionaries for the field of their labours is 
 usually a matter of notoriety, at which times the better feelings, arid a 
 great amount of feelings, are put in requisition. Most of them leave 
 port with full sails. About two thirds make short voyages, and speedy, 
 though not profitable returns ; and it is commonly remarked, that they 
 who leave port with most canvass, are soonest restored to the bosom of 
 their friends, in the land of their fathers. I would that all when en 
 tering upon missionary labours, could take admonition from the words 
 of the king of Isi <*!, " Let not him that girdeth on his harness boast 
 himself as he that pvtteth it off." 
 
 Again ; in anticipating trials, we always contrive the mode of their 
 attack, and accordingly provide in our minds the means of defence. In 
 the whole of these arrangements we are usually disappointed. The ex 
 igency must provide for itself. 
 
 In most instances missionaries not only enlist with high spirits, but 
 commence their work at their stations with increased ardour. But 
 weeks and months render their work familiar. Their hopes are seldom 
 realized in success. Disappointments follow in quick succession, till at 
 length they fancy they hear a whisper, " Who hath required this at your 
 hand?" A person once told me that he was pretty confident that he 
 was not in the path of duty, because he was favoured with less reli 
 gious enjoyment than before he became a missionary. This absence 
 of religious feeling is one of our greatest privations, and that which 
 points the sting of all our trials, yet it is nothing more than we may 
 generally expect in our situation. Heaven appointed the social privi 
 leges which Christians enjoy when surrounded by numerous brethren, 
 &c. for consoling and strengthening our minds ; in the absence, there 
 fore, of these means, we must experience the absence of their legitimate 
 effects. 
 
 As soon as the ardour produced by novelty lias subsided, missionaries 
 have evinced, so far as I have had an opportunity of observing, a dispo 
 sition to melancholy. Their seclusion from the rest of the world, their 
 disappointments, and the peculiar character of their toils and trials, all 
 tend to depress the spirits. A disposition to hypochondria as naturally 
 belongs to man, as inherent infirmity which renders him susceptible of 
 disease. The causes which irritate it abound with a missionary to the 
 Indians. Hence, while compelled to be resolute, he is painfully suspi 
 cious, clouds which gather about him are blackened, and pleasantness 
 itself is embittered. 
 
 In a former number, I dropped a hint respecting the anxiety which 
 parents feel in relation to ,their children. Of this you may suppose you 
 have formed a tolerably correct idea, but in the progress of your pil 
 grimage, you will probably have occasion to say " the half had not been 
 told you." It is difficult to become reconciled to the fact of leaving our 
 children poor, and to the application of all our exertions to the promo 
 tion of the interests of others, while not a dollar is to be laid by for our 
 children. If they should become missionaries, their condition will have 
 been settled by the example of their parents : but they may never be 
 come religious, and if they should, they may not choose to be mission 
 aries ; in either event, they must enter the world in poverty. 
 
 It sometimes also happens, that missionaries have not reason to sup 
 pose that their widows and orphans will be suitably provided for. A 
 missionary who had spent about ten years of the best part of his life 
 
67 
 
 among the Indians; who had bestowed not only all his time, but a con 
 siderable portion of his own funds in the cause of the mission, was so 
 unfortunate as to receive a communication of a discouraging character 
 on this subject. Before proper explanations could be made, an attack 
 of fever brought him so low that his life was almost despaired of. His 
 associates were not wanting in kindness, but they were few in number, 
 and so situated that he could not expect much aid from them for his 
 family. The thought of dying in the wilderness, and leaving his wife 
 and many small children to be driven to some otty place, he knew not 
 where, destitute of the comforts of life, to the mercy of an almost mer- 
 ciless*world, was accompanied by anxieties unknown to those who have 
 not been similarly situated. He said to a gentleman who had visited 
 the station, " Should I die, I shall leave my family in a deplorable con 
 dition They are provided for only in my reliance upon the 
 
 God whom I have served." 
 
 It may be objected that such sacrifices are not required. I think dif 
 ferently ; and some reasons for my opinion have been already assigned. 
 Somebody must do the work. Ordinary efforts will not succeed in the 
 almost desperate case of the Indians. Extraordinary efforts will com 
 bine extraordinary sacrifices. The question cannot remain long unan 
 swered, Whether it be not better for a few to subject themselves and 
 families to inconvenience, than to suffer a noble race of men to perish 
 from off the face of the earth. 
 
 But in the discharge of duty, reasonable trust in God is safe. The 
 man to whom we referred above was comforted by the language of Da 
 vid, " I have been young and now am old, yet have I not seen the 
 righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread." " My children," said 
 he, " may become worthless, and this might happen were I to bring 
 them up under the most favourable circumstances ; but I trust that the 
 extra risk attendant on my situation will be more than equalled by the 
 promise of God." 
 
 Finally, if you become a missionary, you must live by faith. Re 
 nouncing self-interest, you must bend your whole self to the affairs of 
 the mission. 
 
 The responsibility upon all who engage to promote Indian improve 
 ment is great, but it devolves with peculiar weight upon you who are in 
 the midst of misery, and within reach of the miserable. 
 
 Whatever may be the difficulties attending your situation, you dare 
 not indulge a thought of abandoning the people of your charge. Many 
 of them, from the child to the aged, have become personally acquainted 
 with you. They easily perceive that you are not mingling with them for 
 the purposes of trade, or of worldly profit in any way. They are at no 
 loss to discover the difference between your treatment of them, and that of 
 other white men who have been in tfeeir country ; and they as readily infer 
 that you are the persons on whom they may rely for friendship ; these 
 hopes must not be disappointed. It will not be sufficient for us to sup 
 pose that, if we retire, others will enter the field : if others should not, 
 how should we answer the complaints of these people for our forsaking 
 them? There exists a lamentable want of missionaries; none can be 
 discharged without serious loss to the cause. We may not plead the 
 inequality of labour between ourselves, and others within the circles of 
 civilized life ; for, if others can bask in plenitude, arid satisfy their con 
 sciences by an occasional contribution of their property for the benefit 
 of the heathen, we cannot. Each of us must adhere to the resolution, 
 
68 
 
 " Let others do as they may, we will use our utmost endeavours to re 
 lieve this unfortunate people." However discouraging may be our 
 prospects of success, we will not relinquish our labours. If the Indians 
 perish, they must do it while missionaries are employing all their ener 
 gies for their relief. 
 
 The children adopted into our missionary families, and admitted to 
 our schools, look to us as their guardians ; as their only friends ; while 
 they have become second in our affections to our own children. We 
 have formed acquaintance with others who manifest a similar depend- 
 ance upon our kindness. How could we call them around us, and in 
 form them that we were about to forsake them ! We say, " You have 
 been taught to look to us as substantial friends, whose only business on 
 earth was to seek your welfare. But we now must tell you that you have 
 heard our last religious discourse, and our last prayer. You must now 
 retire to the forests, to be driven from place to place, to languish under 
 the complicated woes of hunger, cold, intemperance, disease contracted 
 by intercourse with the whites, and broken-heartedness, until you pe 
 rish." What think you of such language as the following, from the 
 lips of a retiring missionary? 
 
 " My labours for you subject me to many anxieties and privations. 
 I have already borne more than would have fallen to my proportion, in 
 an equal distribution among your professed friends. I feel great anxiety 
 on account of my family, and as charity ought to begin at home, I must 
 make some provision for them. I have long been witness of your de 
 plorable condition, and know that your hasty existence will be intolera 
 ble. But, while you shelter your half-naked body from the rain or 
 snow, beneath a piece of bark; or while you dig roots, boil weeds, and 
 scrape the bark of trees for subsistence, I will console myself with a 
 comfortable fire-side, and well furnished bed and board for me and 
 mine. I regret, indeed, that you will never again be conducted to the 
 house of God, but this grief shall be assuaged by the privilege of lead 
 ing my own family to worship in houses more decent, and congrega 
 tions more agreeable, than have been realized in your country; and in 
 hearing the precepts, promises, and threatenings of the bible, such as, 
 4 Do to others as ye would that others should do to you.' l Blessed is he 
 that considereth the poor, the Lord will deliver him in time of trouble. 1 
 * He shall have judgment without mercy that hath shewed no mercy,* 
 &c. In leaving you, I deprive ybu of the only means of consoling your 
 sick and dying hours, yet I trust that God ' will make my bed in sick 
 ness, and render it, even in death, as ' soft as downy pillows are.' 
 Others have ' wandered in deserts and mountains, in caves and dens of 
 the earth; have worn sheep-skins and goat-skins; were afflicted and 
 counted not their lives dear,' in the cause of benevolence. Though 
 bound to imitate their example, I will seek ease and comfort ; better 
 for me to provide for my own brief existence on earth, and for my 
 family, than to commit myself to the providence of a merciful and 
 righteous Lord, and prosecute troublesome toils for the sake of rescuing 
 from destruction, temporal and eternal, a languishing remnant of a 
 noble race of men. I take my leave of you, in the assurance of 
 leaving you destitute of the means of relief, so far as I can deprive 
 you of them. We shall meet again at the great day of retribution ; 
 then, ask me not why I preferred the hopes of a few days' softness of 
 refined life, to the salvation of thousands of immortal souls, nor hetp 
 upon me the blame of your destruction!" 
 
69 
 
 We do not attach so much importance to a company of missionaries, 
 as to suppose that the Almighty would permit their fearfulness to effect 
 such sad consequences, but the guilt is none the less on the part of the 
 missionary. So far as he is concerned in the case above, his guilt 
 would not be greater if his callousness should not be overruled by Him 
 who sitteth in the heavens. God requires us to employ means for the 
 benefit of the bodies and the souls of our fellow men, and when we ne 
 glect the use of those means, we become guilty of the legitimate conse 
 quences of their absence, whether they occur or are prevented by the 
 hand of Providence. On a notable emergency, Mordecai said to Esther, 
 " Think not with thyself that thou shalt escape, for if thou altogether 
 hold thy peace at this time, then shall there enlargement and deliverance 
 arise to the Jews from another place, and thou shalt be destroyed." 
 
 Who would excuse the surgeon for refusing to dress the wound because 
 it had become offensive? Our work is a difficult one, requiring the 
 sacrifice of " mortal interests," but somebody must make that sacrifice. 
 Let us therefore esteem it a privilege and an honour to be selected by 
 Providence for this work. Our patience and faith are often tried ; in 
 stances of ingratitude too often occur ; and our fondest hopes are fre 
 quently blighted ; but " in due time we shall reap if we faint not." 
 
 I would not be understood as saying that circumstances may not fre 
 quently occur to justify missionaries in leaving the fields of their labours. 
 Want of health, and a hundred other considerations, will often plainly 
 evince the propriety of such a course. Indeed exceptions to all pre 
 scribed general rules must frequently be made, because called for by the 
 emergencies peculiar to the subject. 
 
 Our perplexities, however, do not all spring up in the land of our la 
 bours. Erroneous views of this subject unhappily prevail in the United 
 States, out of which grow many trials more difficult to manage than 
 those which are indigenous to the forests. The prating of the malicious, 
 who would measure our disinterestedness by their own avarice and 
 ambition, is little more than the noise of the potsherd; grating to our 
 feelings, but not hurtful to our healths. But, the virtuous and the good 
 have also their mistaken notions of the subject of Indian improvement; 
 their jealousies and doubts ; these give rise to many sad hours which 
 are understood only by Him into whose bosom we pour our plaint. 
 
 In a land of freedom as ours is, where the people think and judge for 
 themselves without external restraint; and while each has his own per 
 sonal business, which engrosses his chief attention, and thereby is in 
 duced to decide on missionary operations without the labour of examin 
 ing them thoroughly ; it must be expected that public opinion will un 
 dergo many changes. There will be times when public sentiment and 
 feelings may be awakened in a high degree, in favour of supporting 
 missions ; hearts will be tender, and hands will be liberal. But, in 
 those favourable seasons, when we are allowed so plenteously the 
 prayers, the sympathies, the counsels, and the munificence of the Chris 
 tian community, let us prepare to meet the shock of reaction. We may 
 expect it with little less certainty, than we foresee that the pinchings of 
 winter will succeed the pleasures and plenitude of autumn. Times will 
 occur, when they who have contributed somewhat to the support of 
 missions will look back and inquire, what has become of our money? 
 Be not astonished my brethren, if, after years of privation and toil, 
 which had often threatened to overcome both your resolution and your 
 
TO 
 
 ability to bear ; and if, after the most conscientious economy and man 
 agement you should be charged by many with waste and profusion in 
 applying the munificence of the public. Be not astonished, if you 
 should be represented as having lived in ease and affluence on the cha 
 rities of the supporters of missions ; these will be blows extending to the 
 heart. " It was not an enemy that reproached me, then I could have 
 borne it, neither was it he that hated me that did magnify himself against 
 me, then I would have hid myself from him. But, it was thou, a man, 
 mine equal, my GUIDE and mine acquaintance. We took sweet counsel 
 together , and walked into the house of God in company." 
 
 In the impatience of the public, plans and improvements relative to 
 missionary operations will often be devised by those who, with the best 
 motives, do not, equally with yourselves, possess the means of enabling 
 them to arrive at just decisions. Forbearance on our part, and a dispo 
 sition to submit in all cases which do not vitally affect the interests of 
 the mission, will be becoming in us. But when rules are devised for 
 the operation of our affairs which we are convinced are in themselves 
 calculated to undermine our hopes for the future, or to plunge into ruin 
 that for which we have toiled in days past, then it would be criminal if 
 we should not meekly take a decisive stand. For the regulation of our 
 conduct in this trying posture of affairs, no specific rules can be prescrib 
 ed further than, when we assume this decisive and awfully responsible 
 position, let us do it upon our knees, with eyes lifted towards the hea 
 vens, and while we extend our hand to avert the threatening evil, cry, 
 O spare ! 
 
 At present the too general impression that almost any one will an 
 swer well enough for a missionary to the Indians, frequently injures 
 both our usefulness and our feelings. If a man is in good business, 
 possesses some property, and moves in what they call the higher circles 
 in life, he is seldom thought of as suitable for a missionary to the In 
 dians. While we protest against the principle, we admit that few such 
 as last described are likely to enter our ranks, nor will any of us ever 
 blush at our acquaintance with the humbler walks of life in days past or 
 present. 
 
 We should carefully guard against selfishness in all its bearings. Let us 
 never feel uneasy lest our fare be more homely than that of our brethren. 
 With equal vigilance let us guard against jealousy, which would make 
 us fear that we did not receive a due proportion of credit for our servi 
 ces. Each should resolve to do all within his power, let others do as 
 they may ; and if my brother should neglect a part of his business, I 
 will endeavour to perform it, and my own too. As to praise for what 
 we do, or the pleasure of having our names known to others, we should 
 esteem ourselves unworthy of being missionaries if not content with the 
 approbation of " Him who seeth in secret." A candid, unvarnished his 
 tory of our affairs, is proper for us to give ; the interests of our enter- 
 prize require it, and our patrons have a right to expect it ; but we need 
 not envy those who by noise would make little labours appear great. 
 
 Yet while we glance at the out-lines of our trials, we have the satis 
 faction to know that our work abounds with pleasures as well as pains. 
 There is a peculiar sweetness in labours of benevolence, which solicit no 
 reward of money nor of praise, but merely that of seeing others made 
 happy thereby ; a sweetness unknown to the merchant who counts over 
 his daily profits, and to the ambitious who are pleased with a naihe* 
 
71 
 
 The Gospel never appears more precious than when preached in the 
 smoky wigwam of an Indian. To aid in taming the wild-man, and in 
 leading his sons and his daughters to the elevation of civilized life, and 
 to an equality in the scale of being with neighbouring nations, afford 
 pleasures which do not grow spontaneously in earth. 
 
 There are also many who, so far as they understand our situation, 
 kindly sympathize in our trials and delight to afford comfort ; to which 
 we add the pleasant reflection, that thousands only need to be made ac 
 quainted with our case, to interest their generous hearts in our behalf. 
 The society of e^.ch other is peculiarly sweet, secluded from the pursuits 
 of other men, and all consecrated to the same labours, " our hopes, 
 our fears, our aims are one, our comforts and our cares.' 7 Here secta 
 rian bitterness cannot live, and Paul and Barnabas' sharp contentions 
 are soon forgot. 
 
 Amidst our disappointments and discouragements too, we find our 
 joys ; for, our labours are not wholly lost ; they never have been in any 
 known instance of missionary effort among the Indians. We are daily 
 benefitting a few, and those of us who feel most discouraged, have reali 
 zed occurrences which have more than compensated our labours. It is 
 not all uncertainty in relation to our success. We trust that when the 
 peculiarities of the condition of the Indians become properly understood, 
 measures will be provided to afford substantial relief. The indulgence 
 of faith and hope in the case is grateful in proportion to the menacing 
 aspect of their present condition. Should we at the " set time to favour 
 the Indians" be found at our posts, and be made instrumental in con 
 tributing somewhat to its accomplishment, we shall have no reason to 
 regret our unwearied exertions in so good a cause. 
 
 We should be careful not to confine our views to the immediate sphere 
 of our labours, and hence draw conclusions in relation to the subject of 
 Indian improvement in general ; nor should we be influenced by par 
 tiality for a particular place, or a particular measure. I may be located 
 at a place at which it is desirable to remain. I have some Indians about 
 me with whom I have become acquainted, and we all feel more at home 
 in this place then we fancy we shall in any other ; and anticipate, on 
 various accounts, much inconvenience in a removal, and I may, for these 
 reasons, ask leave to remain where I am. But the question should not 
 be decided under the influence of such considerations. I should inquire 
 whether the people of my charge could not thrive better in some other 
 place, in the probable event of which my own convenience ought not to 
 be consulted. 
 
 I believe that the cause of Indian improvement is at this time suffering 
 not a little by the partiality which many feel for particular places at which 
 they labour. It is an evil which cannot be too soon corrected, and one 
 which I have reason to believe exists to an extent beyond what many 
 suppose. 
 
 -*. 
 
 ' 
 No. V. 
 
 Conclusion. 
 
 The preceding remarks lead us to the following conclusions. We have 
 within our control the means of rescuing from destruction the abort- 
 
72 
 
 gines of our country, and of elevating them to an equality with their 
 neighbours, in the scale of being and the enjoyments of life. The points 
 which vitally affect their condition are involved in the policy, and con 
 sequently are under the control, of our government. Our rulers are the 
 representatives of the people, of whom they form a part, and are acting 
 agreeably to their directions. Hence, when the people get right on the 
 subject of Indian improvement, GOVERNMENT WILL BE RIGHT. 
 
 The menacing attitude assumed by opposing obstacles admonishes us 
 that, to the strong arm of government must be united sacrifices which be 
 nevolence alone can be expected to make. No sacrifices on the part of 
 government, as such, is required in the case, for the whole process may 
 go on to the positive advantage of our nation. Were it otherwise, our 
 government would not withhold the necessary aid. It would not pause 
 to reckon dollars and cents, in an enterprize of such magnitude. The 
 sacrifices which are necessary require us to enter into the midst of their 
 poverty, sorrows, and sins, to unite our efforts with theirs, in applying to 
 their relief the comforts of life ; gently to wipe the tear of grief, kindly 
 to whisper the voice of hope, and lead them in the paths of virtue. Some 
 of us must consent to live with them upon the principle of disinterested 
 benevolence, that our attention being undivided, we may devote our en 
 tire selves to the work ; may enter freely and fully into the little and 
 disagreeable affairs of their condition ; matters which cannot be made 
 subjects of national legislation, except upon very general principles, and 
 which nevertheless vitally affect the health of the nation. 
 
 While some must consecrate their lives to the object, others must con 
 tribute of their property, all that the case demands above the provisions 
 of government. In the language of Deborah in Israel, let me ask, 
 have we among us a competent number of persons who, like " the peo 
 ple of Zebulon and Naphtali, will come to the help of the Lord against 
 the mighty, and jeopard their comforts and their lives in the desert places 
 of the earth, and ask no gain of money ?" Again, in the language of 
 Ezra, will " the people offer freely, according to their ability, for the 
 accomplishment of this work ?" The beneficent spirit of the age re 
 sponds ; we have the men ; the means ; and the disposition to use them. 
 Justice and humanity prepare to sound the trump of Jubilee, and call the 
 wandering outcasts to their kindred , their country , and their HOME.