It will be said, perhaps, that to harbor the idea of the Indian's
elevation, following, in any way, upon his closer assimilation with the
white; his divestiture of the badge of political serfdom, and deliverance
from even the suggestion of thraldom--all of which his enfranchisement
contemplates; or that these would assure, in greater degree, his national
weal, would be to indulge a wild chimera, which could but superinduce
the purest visionary picture of his condition under the operation
of the gift. Some might be found, as well, to discredit the notion
that there would supervene, on the consigning to the limbo of inutile
political systems of the disabling regime that now governs, an epoch,
which would witness the shaking off, by the heavy, phlegmatic red man of
the present, of his dull lethargy, with the casting behind him of former
inaction and unproductiveness; and his being moved to assert a healthy,
genuine, wholesome activity, to be directed to lofty or soulful purpose,
or expressed in high and honourable endeavour. And it might be set down
as a reasoning from the standpoint of an illusory optimism, to look for,
through any change in the Indian's political condition, the incoming of
an age, which should be distinguished by a hopeful and helpful accession
to his character of honesty, uprightness, and self-respect, or by their
conservation; or which should be the natal time for the benign rule
over him of contentment, charity, and sobriety, or for the dominance
of a seemly morality. That, likewise, might be deemed idle expectancy,
which would foresee, as a result of the changed order of things, now being
prospectively considered, a season in the Indian's experience, when should
be illustrated the greater sacredness of the marriage relation, and the
happy prevalence of full domestic inter-communion, harmony, and order;
or should be honored a more gracious definition of the woman's province,
with the license to her to embrace a kindlier lot than one decreeing for
her mere slavish labour; or project a mission, to see its fruit in the
softening and refining, and in the reviving of the slumbrous chivalry,
of the man, or to leave, mayhap, some beauteous impress on the race.
It may be maintained, indeed, that the withdrawal from the Indian of
the Government's protecting arm, and the recognition of his position,
as no longer that of a needy, grovelling annuitant, but as one of equal
footing with the white before the law, would--far from bringing blessings
in their train--promote, with other evils, a pernicious development,
with calamitous reaction upon him, of the aggrandizing instinct of
the white, who would lure and entrap him into every kind of disastrous
negotiation--its outcome, in truth, a very maelstrom of artful intrigue
and shameless rapacity, looking to the absorption of the Indian's land,
and of the few worldly possessions he now has. Nay, many would foresee
for the Indian, through the consummation of his enfranchisement, naught
but gloom and sorest plight. These would invest their picture with the
sombrest hues; and, making this assume, under their pessimist delineation,
blackest Tartarean aspect, would crown it with the exhibition of the
Indian, as one sunken, at the instance of the white, in extremest depths
of human sorrow; as plunged, engulphed, and detained in a horrible slough
of degradation and misery. Such would, in short, have an era opened up,
which should mark, at once, the exaltation of the white to a revolting
height of infamy, proclaiming the high carnival of unblushing trickery and
chicane; and should signalize the whelming of the Indian in the noxious
flood of the high-handed, unrighteous, and unprincipled practice of the
white, who would project for him, and through whose unholy machinations he
would be consigned to, a state of existence which should be the hideous
climax of physical and moral debasement.
Now I contend that the claim to ascendancy of the Indian over the white,
in respect of sagacity and cunning and craft, which this condition of
things presupposes, is not satisfactorily made out. And I can readily
conceive of the application of that astuteness, that distinguishes the
Indian in his present trading relations with the white, to the wider
field for its display, which would arise from the extended intercourse and
more frequent contact with the white, that would ensue upon the Indian's
enfranchisement; and of this astuteness operating as his efficient
shield against evil hap or worsting by the white in any coping of the
kind with him.
I do not deny, however, that there might be realization, in part, of
such painful spectacle, as has just been imagined, were enfranchisement,
_pure and simple,_ conferred upon the Indian; and I would distinctly
demur to being taken as an advocate of enfranchisement for him without
certain safeguards. Yet I honor a somewhat wide use of the term, and
discredit the system of individual election for the right (if I may
so call it)--which, I believe, obtains--with its vexatious exactions
as to mental and moral fitness, and the very objectionable feature,
to my mind, of laying upon the band, as a collective organization, the
obligation of assigning to the individual member seeking enfranchisement
so much land, thus imposing upon it, in effect, the onus of conferring
the land qualification. Let its consummation be approached gradually,
and with caution; and let a modified form of it, designed to meet
the Indian's peculiar situation, be recognized and enforced. Let the
enfranchisement be made a tentative thing; and let there be a provision
for the divestiture of the Indian of the right, in case disaster to him
should supervene upon its application.
I have spoken elsewhere of the _fact_ of the Indian's enfranchisement
prompting him, in view of the prospect of occupying various stations
of dignity in the country, which, through the extension to him of the
franchise, would be thrown open to him, to set a greater value upon
education, as qualifying him for enjoying and filling with credit these
stations. Perhaps, it would be the stricter view, and more apropos,
to regard the Indian's more thorough education as that which would lead
him to more readily perceive and better appreciate the full import and.
significance of enfranchisement; which would bring home to his mind a
clear apprehension of the duties and obligations it exacts, and enable
him, as well, to exercise the rights thereto pertaining with a wiser
foresight and greater intelligence.
Let a higher order of mental attainment than he now displays be insured,
by all means, and if possible, to the Indian; and, to this end, let
the authorities concerned invite, through the inducement of something
better than a mere bread-and-butter salary, the accession to the Reserve
of teachers, no one of whom it shall be possible for an Indian youth of
tender years to outstrip in knowledge; or shall be reduced to parrying,
as best as he can, the questionings of a pupil on points bearing upon
merely elementary education.
I would mention a prospective result of the Indian's enfranchisement,
which would suggest, forcibly, the desirability of, and the need for his
anticipatory instruction in the English language. He, unlike the German
or Frenchman, has never been able to maintain, indeed, has never had,
a literature; and I can scarcely conceive of his _tongue_ even
surviving the more general mingling with the white, which would be the
certain concomitant of enfranchisement, which, indeed, with its other
subverting tendencies, would seem to me to ordain its utter effacement.