TREATMENT OF THE INDIANS BY THE UNITED STATES.
“We were born on this spot; our fathers lie buried in it.
Shall we say to the bones of our fathers—‘Arise and come
with us into a foreign land?’”—_Speech of a Canadian
Indian to the French invaders._
It was to be hoped that that great republic, the United States of North
America, having given so splendid an example of resistance to the
injustice of despotism, and of the achievement of freedom in a struggle
against a mighty nation, calculated to call forth all the generous
enthusiasm of brave men, would have given a practical demonstration of
true liberty to the whole world: that they would have shewn that it was
possible for a republic to exist, which was wise and noble enough to be
entirely free: that the sarcasm of Milton should not at least be thrown
at them—
License they mean when they cry liberty!
The world, however, was doomed to suffer another disappointment in this
instance, and the enemies of freedom to enjoy another triumph. The
Americans left that highest place in human legislation, the adoption
of the divine precept of doing as they would be done by, as the basis
of their constitution, still unoccupied. We had the mortification of
seeing the old selfishness which had disgraced every ancient republic,
and had furnished such destructive arguments to the foes of mankind,
again unblushingly displayed. The Americans proclaimed themselves
not noble, not generous, not high-minded enough to give that freedom
to others which they had declared, by word and by deed, of the same
price as life to themselves. They once more mixed up the old crumbling
composition of iron and clay, slavery and freedom, and moulded them
into an image of civil polity, which must inevitably fall asunder. They
published a new libel on man—in the very moment of his most heroic and
magnanimous enthusiasm—shewing him as mean and sordid. While he raised
his hand to protest to admiring and huzzaing millions, that there was
no value in life without liberty, the manacles prepared for the negroes
protruded themselves from his pocket, his impassioned action at once
took the air of theatrical rant, and the multitudes who were about to
admire, laughed out, or groaned, as they were more or less virtuous.
The pompous phrases of “Divine liberty! Glorious liberty! Liberty the
birthright of every man that breathes!” became the most bitter and
humbling mockery, and gave way to the merry sneer of Matthews—“What!
d’ye call it liberty when a man may not larrup his own nigger?”
A more natural tone was assumed as regarded the Indians. They
were declared to be free and independent nations; not citizens of
the United States, but the original proprietors of the soil, and
therefore as purely irresponsible to the laws of the United States
as any neighbouring nations. They were treated with, as such, on
every occasion; their territories and right of self-government were
acknowledged by such treaties. “There is an abundance of authorities,”
says Mr. Stuart, in his ‘Three Years in North America,’ “in opposition
to the pretext, that the Indians are not now entitled to live under
their own laws and constitutions; but it would be sufficient to refer
to the treaties entered into, year after year, between the United
States and them as separate nations.”
“There are two or three authorities, independent of state papers,
which most unambiguously prove that it was never supposed that the
state governments should have a right to impose their constitution or
code of laws upon any of the Indian nations. Thus Mr. Jefferson, in an
address to the Cherokees, says—“I wish sincerely you may succeed in
your laudable endeavours to save the remnant of your nation by adopting
industrious occupations. In this you may always rely on the counsel
and assistance of the United States.” In the same way the American
negotiators at Ghent, among whom were the most eminent American
statesmen, Mr. John Quincy Adams and Mr. Henry Clay, in their note
addressed to the British Commissioners, dated September 9, 1814, use
the following language:—“The Indians residing within the United States
are so far independent that they live under their own customs, and
not under the laws of the United States.” Chancellor Kent, of New York
state (the Lord Coke or Lord Stair of the United States), has expressly
laid it down, that “it would seem idle to contend that the Indians were
citizens or subjects of the United States, and not alien and sovereign
tribes;” and the Supreme Court of the United States have expressly
declared, that “the person who purchases land from the Indians within
their territory incorporates himself with them; and, so far as respects
the property purchased, holds his title under their protection,
_subject to their laws_: if they annul the grant, we know of no
tribunal which can revise and set aside the proceeding.” Mr. Clay’s
language is quite decided:—“The Indians residing within the United
States are so far independent that they live under their own customs,
and not under the laws of the United States; that their rights, where
they inhabit or hunt, are secured to them by boundaries defined in
amicable treaties between the United States and themselves.” Mr. Wirt,
the late Attorney-General of the United States, a man of great legal
authority, has stated it to be his opinion, “that the territory of the
Cherokees is not within the jurisdiction of the State of Georgia, but
within the sole and exclusive jurisdiction of the Cherokee nation; and
that, consequently, the State of Georgia has no right to extend her
laws over that territory.” General Washington in 1790, in a speech to
one of the tribes of Indians, not only recognizes the same national
independence, but adds many solemn assurances on behalf of the United
States. “The general government only has the power to treat with the
Indian nations, and any treaty formed and held without its authority
will not be binding.
“Here, then, is the security for the remainder of your lands. No state
nor person can purchase your lands, unless by some public treaty held
under the authority of the United States. _The general government will
never consent to your being defrauded, but it will protect you in all
your just rights._
“But your great object seems to be the security of your remaining
lands, and I have, therefore, upon this point, meant to be sufficiently
strong and clear.... That, in future, you cannot be defrauded of your
lands. That you possess the right to sell, and the right of refusing to
sell your lands.... That, therefore, the sale of your lands in future
will depend entirely upon yourselves. But that, when you find it for
your interest to sell any part of your lands, the United States must be
present, by their agent, and will be your security that you shall not
be defrauded in the bargain you make.... The United States will be true
and faithful to their engagements.”
These are plain and just declarations; and, had they been faithfully
maintained, would have conferred great honour on the United States.
How they have been maintained, all the world knows. The American
republicans have followed faithfully, not their own declarations,
but the maxims and the practices of their English progenitors. The
Indians have been declared savage and irreclaimable. They have been
described as inveterately attached to hunting and a roving life, as a
stumbling-block in the path of civilization. As perfectly incapable of
settling down to the pursuits of agriculture, social arts, and domestic
habits. It has been declared necessary, on these grounds, to push them
out of the settled territories, and every means has been used to compel
them to abandon the lands of their ancestors, and to seek a fresh
country in the wilds beyond the Mississippi. Even so respectable an
author as Malte Brun has, in Europe, advanced a doctrine in defence of
this sweeping system of Indian expatriation. “Even admitting that the
use of ardent spirits has deteriorated their habits and thinned their
numbers, we cannot suppose that the Indian population was ever more
than twice as dense as at present, or that it exceeded one person for
each square mile of surface. Now, in highly civilized countries, like
France and England, the population is at the rate of 150 or 200 persons
to the square mile. It may safely be affirmed, therefore, that the same
extent of land from which one Indian family derives a precarious and
wretched subsistence, would support 150 families of civilized men, in
plenty and comfort. But most of the Indian tribes raise melons, beans,
and maize; and were we to take the case of a people who lived entirely
by hunting, the disproportion would be still greater. _If God created
the earth for the sustenance of mankind, this single consideration
decides the question_ as to the sacredness of the Indians’ title to
the lands which they roam over, but do not, in any reasonable sense,
occupy.”—v. 224.
A more abominable doctrine surely never was broached. It breathes the
genuine spirit of the old Spaniard; and, if acted upon, would produce
an everlasting confusion. Every nation which is more densely populated
than another, may, on this principle, say to that less densely peopled
state, you are not as thickly planted as God intended you to be;
you amount only to 150 persons to the square mile, we are 200 to the
same space; therefore, please to walk out, and give place to us, who
are your superiors, and who more justly fulfil God’s intentions by
the law of density. The Chinese might fairly lay claim to Europe on
that ground; and our own swarming poor to every large park and thinly
peopled district that they happened to see.
“This single consideration,” indeed, is a very good reason why the
Indians should be advised to leave off a desultory life, and take to
agriculture and the arts; or it is a very sufficient reason why the
Europeans should ask leave to live amongst them, and thus more fully
occupy the country, in what the French geographer calls a reasonable
sense. And it remained for M. Malte Brun to show that they have ever
refused to do either the one or the other. They have, on all occasions
when the Europeans have gone amongst them, “in a reasonable sense,”
received them with kindness, and even joy. They have been willing to
listen to their instructions, and ready to sell them their lands to
live upon. But it has been the “unreasonableness” of the whites that
has everywhere soon turned the hearts, and made deaf the ears, of
the natives. We have seen the lawless violence with which the early
settlers seized on the Indians’ territories, the lawless violence
and cruelty with which they rewarded them evil for good, and pursued
them to death, or instigated them to the commission of all bloody and
desperate deeds. These are the causes why the Indians have remained
uncivilized wanderers; why they have refused to listen to the precepts
of Christianity; and why they roam over, rather than occupy, those
lands on which they have been suffered to remain. From the days of
Elliot, Mayhew, Brainard, and their zealous compeers, there have never
wanted missionaries to endeavour to civilize and christianize; but they
have found, for the most part, their efforts utterly defeated by the
wicked and unprincipled acts, the wicked and unprincipled character
of the Europeans. When the missionaries have preached to the shrewd
Indians the genuine doctrines of Christianity, they have immediately
been struck with the total discrepancy between these doctrines and
the lives and practices of their European professors. “If these are
the principles of your religion,” they have continually said, “go and
preach them to your countrymen. If they have any efficacy in them,
let us see it shewn upon them. Make them good, just, and full of this
love you speak of. Let them regard the rights and property of Indians.
You have also a people amongst you that you have torn from their own
country, and hold in slavery. Go home and give them freedom; do as your
book says,—as you would be done by. When you have done that, come
again, and we will listen to you.”
This is the language which the missionaries have had everywhere in the
American forests to contend with.[58] When they have made by their
truly kind and christian spirit and lives some impression, the spirit
and lives of their countrymen have again destroyed their labours. The
fire-waters, gin, rum, and brandy, have been introduced to intoxicate,
and in intoxication to swindle the Indians out of their furs and lands.
Numbers of claims to lands have been grounded on drunken bargains,
which in their soberness the Indians would not recognize; and the
consequences have been bloodshed and forcible expulsion. Before these
causes the Indians have steadily melted away, or retired westwards
before the advancing tide of white emigration. Malte Brun would have
us believe that in the United States there never were many more than
twice the present number. Let any one look at the list of the different
tribes, and their numbers in 1822, quoted by himself from Dr. Morse,
and then look at the numbers of all the tribes which inhabited the old
States at the period of their settlement.
In New England 2,247
New York 5,184
Ohio 2,407
Michigan and N. W. territories 28,380
Illinois and Indiana 17,006
Southern States east of Mississippi 65,122
West of Mississippi and north of Missouri 33,150
Between Missouri and Red River 101,070
Between Red River and Rio del Norte 45,370
West of Rocky Mountains 171,200
———————
471,136
The slightest glance at this table shews instantly the fact, that where
the white settlers have been the longest there the Indians have wofully
decreased. The farther you go into the Western wilderness the greater
the Indian population. Where are the populous tribes that once camped
in the woods of New York, New England, and Pennsylvania? In those
states there were twenty years ago about 8000 Indians; since then, a
rapid diminution has taken place. In the middle of the seventeenth
century, and after several of the tribes were exterminated, and after
all had suffered severely, there could not be less, according to the
historians of the times, than forty or fifty thousand Indians within
the same limits. The traveller occasionally meets with a feeble
remnant of these once numerous and powerful tribes, lingering amid the
now usurped lands of their country, in the old settled states; but
they have lost their ancient spirit and dignity, and more resemble
troops of gypsies than the noble savages their ancestors were. A
few of the Tuscaroras live near Lewistown, and are agriculturists:
and the last of the Narragansets, the tribe of Miantinomo, are to
be found at Charlestown, in Rhode Island, under the notice of the
Boston missionaries. Fragments of the Six Nations yet linger in the
State of New York. A few Oneidas live near the lake of that name, now
christianized and habituated to the manners of the country. Some of the
Senecas and Cornplanters remain about Buffalo, on the Niagara, and at
the head-waters of the Alleghany river. Amongst these Senecas, lived
till 1830, the famous orator Red-Jacket; one of the most extraordinary
men which this singular race has produced. The effect of his
eloquence may be imagined from the following passage, to be found in
“Buckingham’s Miscellanies selected from the Public Journals.”
“More than thirty years (this was written about 1822) have rolled away
since a treaty was held on the beautiful acclivity that overlooks the
Canandaigua Lake. Two days had passed away in negotiation with the
Indians for the cession of their lands. The contract was supposed to
be nearly completed, when Red-Jacket arose. With the grace and dignity
of a Roman senator he drew his blanket around him, and with a piercing
eye surveyed the multitude. All was hushed. Nothing interposed to break
the silence, save the gentle rustling of the tree-tops under whose
shade they were gathered. After a long and solemn, but not unmeaning
pause, he commenced his speech in a low voice and sententious style.
Rising gradually with the subject, he depicted the primitive simplicity
and happiness of his nation, and the wrongs they had sustained from
the usurpations of white men, with such a bold but faithful pencil,
that every auditor was soon roused to vengeance, or melted into tears.
The effect was inexpressible. But ere the emotions of admiration and
sympathy had subsided, the white men became alarmed. They were in the
heart of an Indian country, surrounded by ten times their number,
who were inflamed by the remembrance of their injuries, and excited
to indignation by the eloquence of a favourite chief. Appalled and
terrified, the white men cast a cheerless gaze upon the hordes around
them. A nod from one of the chiefs might be the onset of destruction,
but at this portentous moment _Farmers-brother_ interposed.”
In the year 1805 a council was held at Buffalo, by the chiefs and
warriors of the Senecas, at the request of Mr. Cram from Massachusets.
The missionary first made a speech, in which he told the Indians that
he was sent by the Missionary Society of Boston, to instruct them “how
to worship the Great Spirit,” and not to get away their lands and
money; that there was but one true religion, and they were living in
darkness, etc. After consultation, Red-Jacket returned, on behalf of
the Indians, the following speech, which is deservedly famous, and not
only displays the strong intellect of the race, but how vain it was to
expect to christianize them, without clear and patient reasoning, and
in the face of the crimes and corruptions of the whites.
“_Friend and brother_, it was the will of the Great Spirit that we
should meet together this day. He orders all things, and he has given
us a fine day for our council. He has taken his garment from before
the sun, and caused it to shine with brightness upon us. Our eyes are
opened that we see clearly; our ears are unstopped that we have been
able to hear distinctly the words that you have spoken. For all these
favours we thank the Great Spirit and him only.
“_Brother_, this council-fire was kindled by you. It was at your
request that we came together at this time. We have listened with great
attention to what you have said; you requested us to speak our minds
freely: this gives us great joy, for we now consider that we stand
upright before you, and can speak whatever we think. All have heard
your voice, and all speak to you as one man; our minds are agreed.
“_Brother_, you say you want an answer to your talk before you leave
this place. It is right you should have one, as you are at a great
distance from home, and we do not wish to detain you; but we will first
look back a little, and tell you what our fathers have told us, and
what we have heard from the white people.
“_Brother, listen to what we say._ There was a time when our
forefathers owned this great island. Their seats extended from the
rising to the setting sun. The Great Spirit had made it for the use of
Indians. He had created the buffalo, the deer, and other animals for
food. He made the beaver and the bear, and their skins served us for
clothing. He had scattered them over the country, and taught us how to
take them. He had caused the earth to produce corn for bread. All this
he had done for his red children, because he loved them. If we had any
disputes about hunting-grounds, they were generally settled without the
shedding of much blood; but an evil day came upon us: your forefathers
crossed the great waters, and landed on this island. Their numbers were
small; they found friends, and not enemies; they told us they had fled
from their own country for fear of wicked men, and came here to enjoy
their religion. They asked for a small seat. We took pity on them,
granted their request, and they sate down among us. We gave them corn
and meat, they gave us poison[59] in return. The white people had now
found out our country, tidings were carried back, and more came amongst
us; yet we did not fear them, we took them to be friends: they called
us brothers, we believed them, and gave them a larger seat. At length
their numbers had greatly increased, they wanted more land,—they
wanted our country! Our eyes were opened, and our minds became uneasy.
Wars took place; _Indians were hired to fight against Indians_, and
many of our people were destroyed. They also brought strong liquors
among us; it was strong and powerful, and has slain thousands.
“_Brother_, our seats were once large, and yours were very small.
You have now become a great people, and we have scarcely a place
left to spread our blankets. You have got our country, but are not
satisfied;—_you want to force your religion upon us_.
“_Brother, continue to listen._ You say that you are sent to instruct
us how to worship the Great Spirit agreeably to his mind, and if we do
not take hold of the religion which you white people teach, we shall
be unhappy hereafter. You say that you are right, and we are lost; how
do you know this? We understand that your religion is written in a
book; if it was intended for us as well as you, why has not the Great
Spirit given it to us, and not only to us, why did he not give to our
forefathers the knowledge of that book, with the means of understanding
it rightly? We only know what you tell us about it; how shall we know
when to believe, being so often deceived by the white people?
“_Brother_, you say there is but one way to worship and serve the Great
Spirit. If there is but one religion, why do you white people differ so
much about it? why not all agree, as you can all read the book?
“_Brother_, we do not understand these things. We are told that your
religion was given to your forefathers, and has been handed down
from father to son. We also have a religion which was given to our
forefathers, and has been handed down to us their children. We worship
that way. _It teaches us to be thankful for all the favours we receive;
to love each other, and to be united;—we never quarrel about religion._
“_Brother_, the Great Spirit has made us all; but he has made a great
difference between his white and red children. He has given us a
different complexion, and different customs. To you he has given the
arts; to these he has not opened our eyes. We know these things to
be true. Since he has made so great a difference between us in other
things, why may we not conclude that he has given us a different
religion according to our understanding? The Great Spirit does right:
he knows what is best for his children: we are satisfied.
“_Brother_, we do not wish to destroy your religion, or take it from
you; we only want to enjoy our own.
“_Brother_, you say you have not come to get our land or our money, but
to enlighten our minds. I will now tell you that I have been at your
meetings, and saw you collecting money from the meeting. I cannot tell
what this money was intended for, but suppose it was your minister;
and, if we should conform to your way of thinking, perhaps you may want
some from us.
“_Brother_, we are told that you have been preaching to the white
people in this place. These people are our neighbours; we are
acquainted with them: we will wait a little while, and see what effect
your preaching has upon them. If we find it does them good, makes them
honest and less disposed to cheat Indians, we will then consider again
what you have said.
“_Brother_, you have now heard our answer to your talk; and this is all
we have to say at present. As we are going to part, we will come and
take you by the hand, and hope the Great Spirit will protect you on
your journey, and return you safe to your friends.”
The Missionary, hastily rising from his seat, refused to shake hands
with them, saying “there was no fellowship between the religion of
God and the works of the devil.” The Indians smiled and retired in a
peaceable manner.[60] Which of these parties best knew the real nature
of religion? At all events the missionary was awfully deficient in the
spirit of his own, and in the art of winning men to embrace it.