THE INDIAN TRIBES, THEIR POLITICAL RELATIONS, &c.
Before we introduce the particular business, intrusted to the
Commission, sent to Green Bay, in 1830; and in whose company I happened
to be, in their voyage through the Lakes; it will be quite necessary
to the reader’s clear understanding of the general and future current
of our story--that I should summon his attention to a few remarks on
the present condition and political relations of the Indian Tribes,
comprehended within the jurisdiction of the United States; and to the
treatment they have generally received, since the occupation of North
America by the descendants of Europeans.
Just at present, however, I have more especially in view the condition
and relations of the Indian Tribes of the State of New York; although
I shall hereafter have occasion to extend my views, by more particular
observations, not only of all the Indians within the territories of
the United States; but of those also, who fall under the jurisdiction
of the government of Great Britain, in the Canadas.
It is sufficient for the present, to remark:--that although there
has generally been an _ostensible_ respect paid by Europeans, in
their occupancy and gradual encroachments on the territories of North
America, to the territorial rights of the aboriginal Tribes, by holding
public councils with them, and formally negotiating for such of their
lands, as have not been acquired by force and conquest;--yet it is
a dishonourable truth, not difficult of being made out, that the
superior capacity of Europeans, in bargaining and over-reaching, has
almost uniformly characterized their pretended and formal purchases.
The Indians have always been and are now childlike and simple, and
from their habitual and total desuetude of the commercial arts, are
ever open to commercial impositions. It is well known, that they have
been accustomed to resign, by solemn compact, the most valuable and
most extensive territories, for mere toys--or for the most trifling
considerations. I am aware it may be and is said, that an adequate and
fair value rendered, would be of no use to them--that in many, perhaps,
in most cases, when money is put to their disposal, it would ever be
prejudicial to their moral, and thus to their political interests.
And for this assumption there might be some apology, if the parental
guardianship, at first arrogated, were well and conscientiously
sustained throughout. But the misfortune and the crime--is--that a
bargain is held as a bargain, with Indians, as with all other nations.
The rapid growth and rising prosperity of European colonies in America,
and their political and social interests have operated to induce them
to forget their parental and moral obligations to the Aborigines.
The fact has uniformly been:--that when they have failed to provoke
hostilities, and thus to acquire the opportunity of conquest, they
have negotiated away the lands of the natives, for the most trifling
considerations; until only a few and small patches are left, that they
can call their own, within the territories settled by the whites; and
the ultimate possession of those small tracts is already anticipated by
those who covet them.
It may be observed respecting the Indians, who fall within the
jurisdiction of the United States, that for the most part, the national
government asserts the sole right of negociating for their lands. It
has happened, however, that the lands belonging to the smaller tribes
of the northern and eastern States, and consequently their political
existence and relations, have long since fallen under the control of
the State governments, within whose limits they are found. It had
also happened, before the rights of Indians had been so thoroughly
discussed, that the _pre-emption right_ of the individual States thus
concerned, was transferred, or negotiated for valuable considerations
to rich capitalists, now corporate companies, and thus converted into
a stock, the value of which in the market depends entirely upon the
nearer or more remote prospects of the removal of the Indians--in other
words, of their ejectment. Of course it becomes the interest of these
stock-holders, or pre-emption right companies, to use all possible
means of accomplishing the end they have in view; and from the almost
incalculable increase of the value of the stock, they can well afford
to be at any expense, that may be necessary. And the actual expense,
having been hitherto successful, still multiplies the value of the
investments to an indefinite amount. I cannot venture to specify the
amount of increase in the value of this stock, having no certain
data, only that it has been immense on the original fund; which, in
the first instance, was a loan to the State, the history of which,
in its successive changes, I am not able to trace. The Indian lands,
thus subjected to the speculations of land-jobbers, have risen in
value to an amount that cannot be told, by the increase of the white
population with which they are surrounded. This peculiar condition
of Indian rights is more particularly applicable to the State of New
York, although it is virtually the same thing, when the right of
pre-emption is in the government, only that the government, having a
higher responsibility, is likely to be more honourable in its course of
negotiation.
It is due to the State of New York to say, that in the original
negotiations, by which this exclusive right of purchasing Indian lands
was resigned to these capitalists, the present operation of it to the
disadvantage of the Indians was not anticipated.
It may be imagined, however, that the many causes operating upon these
Indians to constrain their removal are accidentally thrown very much
under the control of those who are interested; and that, when they
are obliged to go, as soon they must,--and many of them have already
gone, as will yet be seen,--they have no power to bring their lands
into an open market, but are compelled to accept of a price, which may
satisfy the cupidity of the pre-emption right companies--which is a
very trifling fraction of their real value at the moment. It is said,
indeed, that the Indians are not _forced_ away--that their removal
is voluntary. So far as the technicalities of _legal_ compulsion are
concerned, this may be true; but they are _morally_ compelled; the
causes brought to act upon them to induce this decision, are in fact
irresistible.
As to the more numerous tribes of Indians, immediately connected with
the national government of the United States, and who have larger and
more momentous interests at stake, we shall by and by have occasion to
notice more particularly their relations and prospects. It may in this
place be observed generally, that the original principles asserted and
the practice pursued by those European powers, who first laid their
claims and their hands upon the American continent, and parcelled it
out among themselves, laid the foundation for all the misfortunes of
the American Aborigines. Their rights then were no more regarded, than
those of the brute creation; and the arrogance of those claims, and
the consequences resulting from them, will doubtless become more and
more the wonder of the world, as society advances, and the rights of
all men shall be better defined. They actually formed the basis and
prescribed the modes of a new constitution of society between emigrant
Europeans and the aboriginal Americans--a state of society which has
been in operation for ages, and the unfortunate influence of which will
extend for ages yet to come, if it does not thoroughly and for ever
annihilate those numerous, interesting, and in many respects noble and
manly tribes, whose origin and early history time nor chance has yet
unfolded. Society once constituted, on a large and momentous scale,
is not easily changed; and we shall yet have occasion to see, that
even the American republicans, in the face and in direct contradiction
of their own declared principles, have entrenched themselves on this
original ground to defend their treatment of the Indians. Like African
slavery, entailed upon them by the sins of former generations, they
have presumed to hold, by the law of precedent and the right of
prescription, the nobler race of the red men of America, in a condition
of grievous disadvantage, and subjected them to an unrelieved doom
of the greatest injustice. They plead the high authority of long
established national law in relation to barbarians--an apology, indeed,
for want of a better reason, but no justification. It was natural, that
the treatment originally instituted should continue; the relations
first formed, for reasons of State, gradually become subject to the
inexorable laws of State necessity. What one generation had done,
another might think itself authorized, nay, in a manner, might deem
itself compelled, to do. The injustice became incorporated with the
essential economy and with the ordinary administration of society. Like
slavery it could never find a remedy, except in the sacrifice of some
great interests, which had long enjoyed the right of prescription; and
reformation, in the practical application of political morality, it
is too well known, is but gradually and slowly attained, even after
a distinct and public recognition of better principles has been long
and universally made. We shall see, that the American Indians are even
yet treated most unjustly, and most inconsistently with recognized
principles; and while we boldly assert the rightful claims of the
oppressed, it will be no more than fair to keep constantly in view the
origin and history of the wrong, and the manner in which it has passed
from generation to generation.
Some recent measures of the American government, in endeavouring to
effect the removal of the Indian tribes on the east of the Mississippi
to the west of it, have agitated the public mind in that country to
an unprecedented degree, and occasioned the fullest and most public
discussion of Indian rights in every possible form; and although
the Supreme Court of the United States, the third and a co-ordinate
branch of the government, has finally settled the great principles
of the question to their own honour and to the honour of the nation,
and thus far made an atonement to the injured and to the world for a
practical course of injury, which, having passed an important crisis,
cannot be so easily arrested, even with all the advantages of such a
decision--that decision is notwithstanding an event of the greatest
importance.[7] It will have its weight in the nation, and its influence
over the world. It is of the highest possible authority, and may fairly
be quoted, as an expression of the public opinion of the country,
notwithstanding that the accidental combination of certain political
causes has transiently sustained a course of administration opposed
to it. And although it will be my duty in these pages to expose the
injuries done to the American Indians, and to speak with great freedom,
as an impartial regard to the common rights of man demands, I am proud
to find myself sustained by the decisions of that venerable tribunal.
What would otherwise be to the dishonour of my country, and which can
never be concealed, I shall the less reluctantly handle, being in such
company. The acknowledgment, and if possible, the confirmation of the
rights of American Aborigines, is a cause which belongs to all nations;
it is at least and practically a common cause between the people of
Great Britain and the United States, as each of these governments
has nearly an equal number of this race under its jurisdiction, and
is necessarily obliged to legislate for their weal, or woe. I regard
the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States, as involving
and settling principles, from which neither of these two nations can
in sobriety and justice depart; and while I shall freely expose any
violation of these principles, that may come in my way, I consider,
that I am not only discharging a duty to a long oppressed and injured
people, but I am proud, in being able to appeal to the above-named
decision of the American Supreme Court, the authority and destined
influence of which is at least as much a subject of national triumph,
as the heretofore injurious treatment done to the Indians, is a subject
of regret--and but for this atonement, an occasion of shame, nay, in
any case, a shame.
It happens, as before suggested, that Great Britain is involved in
a like responsibility, in regard to American Aborigines, as the
government of the United States. Not, that the subject, in the hands
of the British government, is in the same shape; but it is, at best,
in a bad shape. These two nations, which ought to cherish the kindest
feelings towards each other, and which possess unrivalled powers
to benefit mankind, are alike and simultaneously responsible for
the exercise of a direct ameliorating influence, by legislation and
government, over two unfortunate and depressed classes of the human
race: the Africans and American Indians. The condition of the former
class, and the duties which they may rightfully claim from these two
Governments, I do not at present undertake to discuss.
It is sufficient for my present purpose, and perhaps it may not be
deemed improper to state the fact: that, as the British territories,
in North America, are very extensive, and all of them peopled by
these tribes, they must be numerous; and many of them so remote in
the western and northern regions, that even a tolerably accurate
census has probably never yet been obtained. Whether their numbers
are equal to those within the jurisdiction of the United States, is
not material. I would take liberty here to mention another thing,
not because I am solicitous to bring the British government into the
same condemnation;--but yet I am sufficiently informed--that the
government of the Canadas is in the habit of assuming and asserting
the right of removing the Indians, without their consent, from the
lands they have occupied from time immemorial. It is true, that the
British population of the Canadas has never crowded so hard upon the
Indians, as the population of the United States; and consequently has
never brought their rights so urgently and so publicly in question.
And farther: as the government of the Canadas is not accustomed even
to _moot_ the question of the territorial rights of the Indians, but
assumes the disposal of them, as parents assign a place for their
children, in their own discretion, there has been no occasion of
controversy--neither is controversy possible, until the Indians are
admitted in court, as a party,--unless they resort to the tomahawk.
In _principle_, therefore, and in practice, so far as there has been
occasion for it, it is unnecessary to say, how much less the government
of the Canadas is in fault, in regard to the acknowledgment of Indian
rights, than the government of the United States;--except that, the
former has never promised, so far as I know, and then violated
promise. The rapid extension of the population of the Union, and the
old and public engagements of the government with the Indian tribes,
guaranteeing their rights, have brought those rights into public and
earnest discussion. And it must be confessed, that notwithstanding
the public registry of treaties, and notwithstanding the recent
solemn decision of the Supreme Judiciary of the nation, defining and
affirming the rights of the Indians in all that they ask, those rights
are yet in a train of actual violation. The decision of a Court is
not sufficiently active to arrest and turn such an immense tide of
injustice in a day.
So far, therefore, as there may be any disclosures in these pages
of a dishonourable political character, it will be seen, that they
are, in a great measure, equally applicable to the two governments
of Great Britain and the United States;--except that, by accidental
circumstances, the great question has come earlier to its crisis, under
the administration of the latter, than of the former. It is a grave
truth, that neither community can say to the other: You are guilty of a
great sin in this matter. The world and heaven have laid the charge at
the door of each: Ye are both alike responsible, and both guilty.