naked merits, would be so trifling, as to astonish the world, that they could ever have been carried. There will doubtless be a reaction, though it is to be feared, it may come too late for the Indianscertainly too late to save the honour of the nation in this particular.

The great moral causes of this state of Indian affairs in America, as here developed, I trust, will demonstrate at least four important features: -First, that the great original sin is chargeable on the arrogant assumptions over Indian rights by those European Governments, which first took possession of America. They created and instituted a current of social relations between the native tribes and those invaders of their territories, which nothing but the better principles of a better age can rectify. Secondly, they disclose the unfortunate and potent influence of the crime of slavery, in relation to Indian rights. Thirdly, the judiciary of the United States have solemnly declared, that these measures are in violation of the institutions and engagements of the Government. And lastly, the virtue of the people, as a body, is not to be judged by these

events.

It is anticipated, that these facts will be adduced, to demonstrate the imperfection of the American Government, the liability of its insti

232 MORAL CAUSES OF INDIAN WRONGS.

tutions to be perverted, the want of harmony in the working of its parts, and the danger of overthrow. These speculations we cannot control. The events have occurred-they can neither be concealed, nor defended; and it is proper, not only, that the facts should be fairly stated and the causes developed, but that the world should understand, that the injustice is no where more deeply felt and deplored, than on the very ground where it has been committed, and that those who sustain the violence make but a small fraction of the American community.

CHAPTER XV.

THE LATE INDIAN WAR IN AMERICA OF 1832, AND A VINDICATION OF THE INDIANS FROM THE CHARGE OF WAGING UNPROVOKED HOSTILITIES AGAINST THE WHITES.

"SEVERE as is the lesson to the Indians, it was rendered necessary by their unprovoked aggressions." So says the President of the United States, in his message to Congress, delivered at the opening of the session in December, 1832, in reference to the termination of Indian hostilities, which had been waged in the upper regions of the Mississippi, during the spring and summer of that year, between the United States and the allied tribes of the Sauks and Foxes. In this connexion, the President gives a very brief account of this war, praises the promptitude and efficiency of the troops, which were sent to quell the disturbances and chastise these barbarians; and congratulates

says,

Congress on the successful termination of the affair. The Indians, it would seem, suffered severely. And the severity of their chastisement, the President "was rendered necessary by their unprovoked aggressions." "Unprovoked." And thus, from the first settlement of America, down to this time, the world have been told and made to believe, that the hostilities, waged by Indians on the white settlements, were unprovoked. The Indians have never had an opportunity to show cause." And the cruelties of their warfare have been customarily such, as not only to excite horror at the tale of their barbarities; but as to create a universal prejudice, and prepare the minds of all to believe, that a people, who could be guilty of these atrocities, might easily be supposed capable of making aggression without provocation, merely from the love of blood and plunder. Besides, it is not very natural for any community, by their official organs, to commit such a libel on themselves, as to confess before the world, that they deserved the wars and ravages, which may have been brought upon them. They are always sure to clear their own side of all fault. It is so in all breaches between civilized nations; and so far as I have observed, in all contests between civilized communities and barbarians. Barbarians, doubtless,

have reasons among themselves satisfactory; but they have no means of recording them, to be submitted to posterity, and no means of publishing them to the world at the time. Generally the history of Indian wars in America, proves the Indians always in the wrong—to have made their aggressions "unprovoked." From books, every child, every man, and all the world receive this impression. In addition to this, as is natural enough, the Indian is robbed of all sympathy, in the condition of his discomfiture, by the story and recollection of his savage cruelties of the scalps he has taken, of the women and children he has butchered, and of the captives he has carried away and sacrificed by torture. There is no chance of his obtaining a hearing, much less of a vindication, so long as the very thought of him, as an enemy, affrights and shocks humanity.

Myself, from the nursery to the school, and from the school to manhood, and by all my reading, had been thoroughly imbued with this doctrine-that Indians wage war "unprovoked," and butcher without mercy. I have given sufficient reasons, in a former discussion akin to this, why the American Aborigines, in war, must be expected to conduct it in their own way. And I do not expect, by any abatements I can offer,