DISCOURSE.

MR. PRESIDENT, AND GENTLEMEN OF THE SOCIETY:

A deep solicitude has been manifested in the history and fortunes of the Indian race. Of the various topics which the discovery of America presented for philosophic discussion, there is none which has so long sustained its interest with the public, or produced conclusions which are more largely the result of gratuitous assumption, or ingenious speculation. Two centuries have but little abated the curiosity with which we regard a people, whose origin is involved in mystery, and whose prominent traits, of features and character, are so widely different from our own. They are identified with the history of our settlement, with the policy of our internal legislation, and with the growth and expansion of our moral and political institutions. American scenery owes to them, one of its most permanent moral associations. Their mythology has peopled our lakes and forests with an invisible creation of super human existences. And their fate and fortune has interwoven throughout our history, many of the most attractive scenes of peril and achievement, which mark its pages. (Note I.)

While the continent itself was supposed to be a groupe of islands contiguous to, or a prolongation of northern Asia, the identity of the population was not doubted. But the moment this error was exploded, and the progress of discovery proved the total separation of the two continents, the attention of the learned was directed to their origin, and the probable time and mode of their migration. On these subjects, ingenuity and research have been exhausted: and the question remains, perhaps, as enigmatical now, as it was at the commencement of the inquiry.

Taking manners and customs, as the tests of comparison, they have been assimilated to various nations of Europe and Asia. But in these comparisons, too great a bearing to certain pre-conceived theories of migration, has impaired the value of the results. Writers have proceeded on the erroneous principle of establishing an identity of race, from such resemblances as could be found, without bringing forward the numerous points of disagreement. The resemblances alone have been employed as proofs, and the dissimilarities overlooked.

It would not, perhaps, be difficult, did the purposes of literary disputation require it, to exhibit twenty discrepancies where one coincidence has been pointed out. By pursuing the course of proof, which is here reprobated, it would be an easy task, to array as strong a body of facts, indicating a Gælic, a Hindoo, or a Magyar origin, as have ever been adduced to prove their descent from the tribes of Palestine or Tartary. (Note II.)

No great stress should be laid on a resemblance in the mere external manners and customs of barbaric tribes, situated in distant parts of the earth, without a concurrence in language and religion. Similarity of situation and resources may be supposed to lead to striking resemblances in customs, dress, and domestic economy, without necessarily

implying affiliation. The fertility of human invention is not so great, but that most men will adopt the same resources, under like circumstances. Place separate tribes of the same stock of men in distant portions of a tropical country, in which cane and bananas are indigenous, and they will continue to subsist on bananas, and cover their lodges with cane. But if one of these tribes migrate to a latitude where the bark of the betula must serve as their shelter, and the northern rice plant supply their food, they will soon reconcile themselves to the substitutes. dependence, therefore, is to be placed upon the permanency of customs, which are the result of external and accidental causes; which must change with every change of climate, and vary with every mutation of fortune?

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Language furnishes a more stable and sure guide, in the comparison of distant branches of the human race. even here the same tendency is found to employ as a tes timony the resemblances only, and to withhold all notice of the discrepancies. To render this means effectual, grammars and vocabularies should be formed both of the indigenous and foreign languages. And when this has been accomplished by a uniform system of alphabetical notation, philologists may hope to contribute their share of intellectual light on the difficult, and for the present, abandoned question of the proximate origin of the Indian race. Even with such materials, great caution will be required to avoid the labyrinth of etymology. The principles of concordance, and of inflection and combination, furnish more certain evidences of remote affiliation, than even sound. Change of accent, which is in slow progress in all languages, will alone constitute a difference in unwritten idioms. But the syntax of a language may be supposed to remain, when the words themselves have undergone considerable, and even complete changes.

A comparison of personal features and peculiar institutions, involving their opinions in medicine and religion, is important. And these topics have been generally employ. ed with less danger from theory and hypothesis. An ancient writer mentions the blue eyes, yellow hair, and identity of form and features of the Germanic tribes, during the first century, as a proof of their being an unmixed and indigenous race. The question is one, rather of physiology than geography. But we may perhaps, with equal reason refer to the prevalence of hazle eyes, black hair and prominent cheek bones, among the North American tribes. Stature is liable to considerable variations from climate. But we do not know that any writer has noticed the slightest characteristic difference in the color of the eyes and hair, and the expansion of the cheek bones, between the tribes situated within the arctic circle, or under the tropics.

History can be applied only to what is known of the Indian tribes, within a comparatively recent era. Oral tradition is important as an auxiliary species of information; but it is nearly useless when unsupported by written or monumental history. From the tendency of the Indian tribes to exalt themselves in prowess and original consequence, and to supply the lapses of history by stretches of the imagination, a continual caution is required in recording traditionary information; and a constant reference to cotemporary authorities, both oral and printed. All unwritten tradition, extending beyond the era of Columbus, may be considered as entitled to little credit. It is not in the nature of their institutions to preserve the memory of events beyond a few generations. And were they more prone to exercise their intellectual faculties, the rigour of their situation has, at all times, absorbed their principal care. Without letters, without syllabic signs, and with only a