willing to do injustice to the Indians, or pursue a course of treatment, that would not be for their good. Arguments could be offered on both sides, and every one stood in the light, which happened at the time to shine upon him.

The incipient measure proposed was for an extraordinary appropriation by Congress, to defray the expenses of removing those tribes, who had already been persuaded to go; which, it was said by those who urged it, did not necessarily involve, or decide the question of a general removal. The measure, however, it was discovered, would be vigorously contested, and with doubtful issue. At this moment an article appeared in the North American Review for January 1830, from which I have quoted the first sentence of this chapter, and which was supposed to have had a controlling influence over the question in Congress now under consideration. It was an able—and, so far as the nature of the subject admitted, a plausible argument for the removal of the Indians. It is not to be inferred, that this highly respectable periodical was, or is devoted to the policy, which this article advocated; for it generously admitted a conflicting argument on the same question during the same year, although too late to answer a material purpose. The article for

January was doubtless received by courtesy, and out of respect to the distinguished individual, who offered it.

The leading purpose of that article seems to have been to prove, first, that with all the expenditures of benevolence, of money, and of labour, which have been exhausted upon the Indians for two hundred years, they are none the better, and are perishing without hope; consequently, that a radical and thorough change of treatment is indispensable to the preservation of their existence, and if possible in any case, indispensable to their improvement; and finally, that a removal of the eastern tribes to the unoccupied territories of the West, is the only remedy and the last hope. And incidentally, (and unfortunately I may add) in the course of this argument it seems also to be made out, that the Indians are in fact incapable of improvement; that the original policy of the European nations, in assuming jurisdiction and asserting a seizen in fee over the American continent, irrespective of the rights of the aboriginal tenants, was just and proper, and consequently, that the United States are justified in following this example; that, as the Indian tribes, by their own intractable perverseness, have already dwindled to a very small remnant, the value of justice, in its distributions

to them, is to be estimated by the number of individuals who are to enjoy its benefits; that, as Providence has evidently designed the earth for culture, a race of men, who will not improve it, and who will not themselves be improved, are not to stand in the way of those, who are ready to take possession, and fulfil the purposes of Heaven; and finally, it seems to be proved, though not asserted, that the sooner these Indians, so utterly irreclaimable, are removed from the face of the earth, the better.

That it was in the heart of the writer of this article to furnish a warrant for this concatenation of deductions, I do not pretend to say-charity would hope better things. But to show they are not without foundation, I will quote a few passages from the Review in question:

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'Existing for two centuries in contact with civilized people, they (the Indians) have resisted, and successfully too, every effort to meliorate their condition, and to introduce among them the most common arts of life. Their moral and intellectual condition has been equally stationary. And in the whole circle of their existence, it would be difficult to point to a single advantage, which they have derived from their acquaintance with Europeans. All this is without a parallel in the history of the world. That it is not to

be attributed to indifference, or neglect [of their white neighbours] we have shown. There must then be an inherent [?] difficulty, arising from the institutions, character, and condition of the Indians themselves."

"Our efforts to stand between the living and the dead, to stay this tide, which is spreading around and over them, have long been fruitless, and are now hopeless. And equally fruitless and hopeless are the attempts to impart to them, in their present situation, the blessings of religion, the benefits of science and the arts, and the advantages of an efficient and stable government. The time seems to have arrived, when a change in our principles and practice is necessary; when some new effort must be made to meliorate the condition of the Indians, if we would not be left without a living monument of their misfortunes, or a living evidence of our desire to repair them."

"The position occupied by the Indians is an anomaly in the political world, and the questions connected with it are eminently practical, depending upon peculiar circumstances, and changing with them." [!!]

"What tribe has been civilized by all this expenditure of treasure, and labour, and care?" "From the St. Lawrence to the Gulf of

Mexico, under the French, or British, or Spanish, or American rule, where is the tribe of Indians, who have changed their manners, who have become incorporated with their conquerors, or who have exhibited any just estimate of the improvements around them, or any wish to participate in them?"

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They stand alone among the great family of man, a moral phenomenon, rather to be surveyed and observed, than to be described and explained;" -"a distinct variety of the human race;"

wild, and fierce, and irreclaimable, as the animals, their co-tenants of the forests."

Thus much of the nature of the Indian-a discouraging picture, indeed, and if it be a fair one, a remediless and hopeless prospect! It is confessed, that these passages are detached, and selected and arranged, not very studiously, yet somewhat perhaps in a climacteric order. They are, however, if I have made no mistake, exact copies; and I am not aware, that the grouping of them here does injustice to the current of the text. They only express and support my impressions.

And really, I know not in what terms to express my astonishment at these statements. My readers will not have forgotten the Stockbridge tribe, and the other New York Indians,