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MAY 19, 1830.]

Removal of the Indians.

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with the assurance that the protection of the United States moval to the distant wilderness? The people whom we should follow them there. Here they are to have a per- are to remove are Indians, it is true; but let us not be demanent home. Here the arm of the white man shall not luded by names. We are legislating on the fate of men be long enough to reach them. In a few years the ad-dependent on us for their salvation or their ruiu. They are vanced guard of your population is upon them; their flank Indians, but they are not all savages; they are not any of is turned, their rear is cut off. The Territory of Arkan- them savages. They are not wild hunters. They are, at least sas, in which there is an estimated population of one to some of the southern Indians are, a civilized people. They the square mile, is sadly crowded; there is no room for have not, in all their tribes, purged off every relic of barthe Indians; they must leave their settlements, just begin- barisin, but they are essentially a civilized people. They ning to thrive, their houses, their farms, their schools and are civilized not in the same degree that we are, but in the churches, and remove beyond the frontier, to a new per- same way that we are. I am well informed that there is manent home. Two parties of Creeks have followed the probably not a single Cherokee family that subsists excluexample, and gone to their permanent home on lands just sively in the ancient savage mode. Each family has its allotted to the Choctaws and Cherokees. It will probably little farm, and derives a part at least of its support from be among their first occupations to fight for their title to agriculture or some other branch of civilized industry. this land of refuge; particularly when seventy-five thou- Are such men eavages? Are such men proper persons to sand recruits come pouring in, (driven forward by "a be driven from home, and sent to hunt buffalo in the dis few troops," who, we are told, will be needed to aid in tant wilderness? They are planters and farmers, tradesthis voluntary removal,) and who are to find their perma-people and mechanics. They have cornfields and orchards, uent home in the wilderness already granted away.

Sir, if you really do carry out this policy, its wretched objects will indeed come to a permanent home in its execution, of a nature different to that you profess to contemplate. You will soon drive them up to that bourne from which neither emigrant nor traveller returns.

This is the effect, whatever be the provisions of the bill. But let us contemplate it more closely. What is, in the general, the necessary character of a ineasure like thisa forced removal of whole tribes of Indians from their native districts to a distant wilderness? I will give it, sir, not in my own language, but in that of the President of the United States at the commencement of the session:

"The condition and ulterior destiny of the Indian tribes within the limits of some of our States, have become objects of much interest and importance. It has long been the policy of Government to introduce among them the arts of civilization, in the hope of gradually reclaiming them from a wandering life. This policy has, however, been coupled with another wholly incompatible with its success. Professing a desire to civilize and settle them, we have, at the same time, lost no opportunity to purchase their lands, and thrust them farther into the wilderness, By this means, they have not only been kept in a wandering state, but been led to look on us as unjust and indif ferent to their fate. Thus, though lavish in its expenditures upon the subject, Government has constantly defeated its own policy; and the Indians, in general, receding farther and farther to the West, have retained their savage habits. A portion, however, of the southern tribes, having mingled much with the whites, and made some progress in the arts of civilized life, have lately attempted to erect an independent Government within the limits of Georgia and Alabama. These States, claiming to be the only sovereigns within their territories, extended their laws over the Indians, which induced the latter to call upon the United States for protection."

Such is the President's view of the effect of removing Indians westward. Those who have been removed, have been kept wandering and savage. Some who have staid, have made great progress in civilization; but having undertaken the establishment of fixed laws and a permanent Government," agreeably to the provisions of a treaty negotiated with them by the President himself, and approved by the Georgia Senators, that State has extended laws over them which will have the effect of driving them into the wilderness, and against these laws the President cannot protect them! One scarce believes that it is in this way that a project for a general, sweeping removal of all the Indians against their will, to the distant wilderness, is to be introduced to our favorable notice.

Let us view this subject, sir, in a practical light. Let us not talk of it by a name, but consider it as a thing. What sort of a process is it when actually gone through, this re

looms and workshops, schools and churches, and orderly
institutions. Sir, the political communities of a large por-
tion of civilized and christian Europe might well be proud
to exhibit such a table of statistics as I will read you.
[Here Mr. E. read the following table:]

“A statistical table exhibiting the population of the Cherokee
nation as enumerated in 1824, agreeably to a resolution
of the Legislative Council; also of property, &c. as stated.
Population,

Male negroes,
Grand total of males and females,
Female negroes,
Total number of females, -
Females over forty years of age,
Females from fifteen to forty years,
Total number of males,
Females under fifteen years of age,

- 610 }

15,560

667 1,277

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13,783

6,900

782

3,108

3,010

6,883

352

Males over fifty-nine years of age,
Males from eighteen to fifty-nine years of age,
Add for those who have since removed into the
Males under eighteen years of age,

3,027 3,054

500

nation from North Carolina, who were living in that State on reservations, "Remarks.-There are one hundred and forty-seven white men married to Cherokee women, and sixty-eight Cherokee men married to white women.

"There are eighteen schools in the nation, and three hundred and fourteen scholars of both sexes, thirty-six gristmills, thirteen saw-mills, seven hundred and sixty-two looms, two thousand four hundred and eighty-six spinning wheels, one hundred and seventy two wagons, two thousand nine hundred and twenty-three ploughs, seven thousand six hundred and eighty-three horses, twenty-two thousand five hundred and thirty-one black cattle, forty-six thousand seven hundred and thirty-two swine, two thousand five hundred and sixty-six sheep, four hundred and thirty goats, sixty two blacksmith's shops, nine stores, two tan-yards, and one powder-mill, besides many other items not enumerated; and there are several public roads, and ferries, and turnpikes, in the nation."

These, sir, are your barbarians; these are your savages; these your hunters, whom you are going to expel from their homes, and send out to the pathless prairies of the West, there to pursue the buffalo, as he ranges periodically from south to north, and from north to south; and you will do it for their good!

But I shall be told, perhaps, that the Cherokees are more advanced than their red brethren in civilization, They may be so, but to a less extent I imagine than is generally thought. What is the condition of the Choctaws? I quote a letter from one of the misionaries to that tribe, communicated to the Senate by the department of War during the present session. After stating that a very

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Removal of the Indians.

[ΜΑΥ 19, 1830.

great and general reformation of the vice of intemperance for such a document, in possession of the department.) s had, within a few years, taken place, Mr. Kingsbury proceeds:

"The result of a census taken in 1828, in the north-east district, was as follows, viz. population, five thousand six hundred and twenty-seven; neat cattle, eleven thousand six hundred and sixty-one; horses, three thousand nine hundred and seventy-four; oxen, one hundred and twelve; hogs, twenty-two thousand and forty-seven; sheep, one hundred and thirty six; spinning wheels, five hundred and thirty; looms, one hundred and twenty-four; ploughs, three hundred and sixty; wagons, thirty-two; blacksmith's shops, seven; coopers' shops, two; carpenters' shops, two; white men with Choctaw families, twenty-two; schools, five; scholars in the course of instruction, about one hundred and fifty. In one clan, with a population of three hundred and thirteen, who eight years ago were almost entirely destitute of property, grossly intemperate, and roaming from place to place, there are now one hundred and eighty-eight horses, five hundred and eleven cattle, eight hundred and fifty-three hogs, seven looms, sixty-eight spinning wheels, thirty-five ploughs, six oxen, one school, and twenty or twenty-four scholars.*

letter, which tells you that the Choctaws, except where the schools are, and where the half breeds live, are, it every sense of the word, genuine Indians. No geners! improvement in any thing appears to pervade the country. I will rely more on this expression of opinion, when I am better informed of the disinterestedness of its source. Such are the people we are going to remove from their homes: people, living, as we do, by husbandry, and the mechanic arts, and the industrious trades; and so much the more interesting, as they present the experiment of a pe ple rising from barbarity into civilization. We are going to remove them from these their homes to a distant wil derness. Whoever heard of such a thing before? Whoever read of such a project? Ten or fifteen thousand families, to be rooted up, and carried hundreds, aye, a thousand of miles into the wilderness! There is not such a thing is the annals of mankind. It was the practice-the barbarous and truly savage practice-of the polished nations of antiquity to bring home a part of the population of conquered countries as slaves. It was a cruel exercise of the rights of the conqueror, as then understood, and in turi prastised, by all nations. But in time of peace, toward u "Another evidence of the progress of improvement offending communities, subject to our sovereignty indeed, among the Choctaws, is the organization of a civil Govern- but possessing rights guarantied to them by more than ment. In 1826, a general council was convened, at which one hundred treaties, to remove them, against their will, the constitution was adopted, and legislative powers were by thousands, to a distant and a different country, where delegated to a national committee and council, whose acts, they must lead a new life, and form other habits, and enwhen approved by the chiefs, became the supreme laws of counter the perils and hardships of a wilderness: sir, I the land. I have now before me a manuscript code, con- never heard of such a thing; it is an experiment on human taining twenty-two laws, which have been enacted by the life and human happiness of perilous novelty. Gentlemes, constituted authorities, and, so far as I know, carried into who favor the project, cannot have viewed it as it is. They complete execution. Among the subjects embraced by think of a march of Indian warriors, penetrating, with their these laws, are theft, murder, infanticide, marriage, poly-accustomed vigor, the forest or the cane brake-they gamy, the making of wills, and settling of estates, trespass, think of the youthful Indian bunter, going forth exultingly false testimony, what shall be considered lawful enclosures to the chase. Sir, it is no such thing. This is all past; it around fields, &c. is a matter of distant tradition, and poetical fancy. They

"A great desire for the education of their children, have nothing now left of the Indian, but his social and po furnishes another proof of the advancement of the Choctaws. litical inferiority. They are to go in families, the old and Petitions are frequently made, requesting the establishment the young, wives and children, the feeble, the sick. And of new schools. Numbers more have applied for admission how are they to go! Not in luxurious carriages; they are to the boarding sshools than could be received. Nothing poor. Not in stage coaches; they go to a region where is now wanting but suitable persons and adequate means to extend the advantages of education to all parts of the Choctaw nation.

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The preaching of the gospel has, within the two past years, been attended with very happy effects. To its influence must be ascribed much of that impulse which has recently been given to the progress of civilization in the more favored parts of the nation. The light which the gospel has diffused, and the moral princip'es it has impart ed to the adult Choctaws, have laid a foundation for stability and permanency in their improvements. In this district, eighty-two natives, principally heads of families, are members of the church. All these, with one exception, have maintained a consistent christian character, and would do honor to any christian community."

there are none. Not even in wagons, nor on horseback, for they are to go in the least expensive manner possible. They are to go on foot; nay, they are to be driven by con tract. The price has been reduced, and is still further to be reduced, and it is to be reduced, by sending them by contract. It is to be screwed down to the least farthing, to eight dollars per head. A community of civilized peo ple, of all ages, sexes, and conditions of bodily health, are to be dragged hundreds of miles, over mountains, rivers, and deserts, where there are no roads, no bridges, ne habitations, and this is to be done for eight dollars a head; and done by contract. The question is to be, what is the least for which you will take so many hundred families, averaging so many infirm old men, so many little children, so many lame, feeble, and sick? What will you contraet Nor is the condition of the Chickasaws less advanced for? The imagination sickens at the thought of what will and improving. From the official return of Colonel happen to a company of these emigrants, which may prove McKenney, it appears that their numbers are but about less strong, less able to pursue the journey than was antifour thousand. They are estimated by him to possess cipated. Will the contractor stop for the old men to rest, eight hundred houses, of an average value of one hundred for the sick to get well, for the fainting women and chiland fifty dollars, with some that must have cost one or dren to revive? He will not; he cannot afford to. And two thousand. He supposes them to have ten mills, fifty this process is to be extended to every family, in a popaworkshops, enclosures of fields to the value of fifty thou- lation of seventy-five thousand souls. This is what we sand dollars; and an average of stock to each, of two call the removal of the Indians! horses, two cows, five hogs, and a dozen of poultry.

I know, sir, that there is in the same document on the civilization of the Indians, communicated to the Senate, (meagre at the best, compared with the ample materials

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It is very easy to talk of this subject, reposing on these luxurious chairs, and protected by these massy walls, and this gorgeous canopy, from the power of the elements. Removal is a soft word, and words are delusive. But let gentlemen take the matter home to themselves and their neighbors. There are seventy-five thousand Indians to be removed. This is not much less than the population of

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two congressional districts. We are going, then, to take a population of Indians, of families, who live as we do in houses, work as we do in the field, or the workshop, at the plough and the loom, who are governed as we are by laws, who send their children to school, and who attend themselves on the ministry of the christian faith, to march them from their homes, and put them down in a remote, unexplored desert. We are going to do it—this Congress is going to do it-this is a bill to do it. Now let any gentleman think how he would stand, were he to go home, and tell his constituents that they were to be removed, whole counties of them-they must fly before the wrath of insupportable laws-they must go to the distant desert, beyond the Arkansas-go for eight dollars a head, by contract that this was the policy of the Government-that the bill had passed-the money was voted-you had voted for it-and go they must.

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cover the valleys and hills. On Tennessee, Ustanala, and Canasagi rivers, Cherokee commerce floats. The climate is delicious and healthy; the winters are mild. The spring clothes the ground with its richest scenery. Cherokee flowers, of exquisite beauty, and variegated hues, meet, and fascinate the eye in every direction. In the plains and valleys the soil is generally rich, producing Indian corn, cotton, tobacco, wheat, oats, indigo, sweet and Irish potatoes. The natives carry on considerable trade with the adjoining States, and some of them export cotton, in boats, down the Tennessee to the Mississippi, and down that river to New Orleans. Apple and peach orchards are quite common, and gardens are cultivated,and much attention paid to them. Butter and cheese are seen on Cherokee tables. There are many public roads in the nation, and houses of entertainment kept by natives. Numerous and flourishing villages are seen in every section of the country. Cotton and woollen cloths are manufactured here. Blankets, of various dimensions, manufactured by Cherokee hauds, are very common. Almost every family in the nation grows cotton for its own consumption. Industry and commercial enterprise are extending themselves in every part, Nearly all the merchants in the nation are native Cherokees. Agricultural pursuits (the most solid foundation of our national prosperity) engage the chief attention of the people. Different branches in mechanics are pursued. The population is rapidly increasing."

Is the case any the less strong because it applies to these poor, unrepresented tribes, "who have no friends to spare!" If they have rights, are not those rights sacred -as sacred as ours-as sacred as the rights of any congressional district? Are there two kinds of rights, rights of the strong, which you respect because you must; and rights of the weak, on which you trample, because you dare I ask gentlemen again to think what this measure is, not what it is called. To reflect on the reception it would meet with, if proposed to those who are able to make their wishes respected, and especially if proposed Such is the land which at least one large community to them for their good. Why, sir, if you were to go to of these Indians are to leave. Is it not too much for human the least favored district in the Union-the poorest soil-nature to bear, that unoffending tribes. for no alleged the severest climate-the most unhealty region, and ask crime, in profound peace, should be rooted up from their them thus to remove, were it but to the next State, they hereditary settlement, in such a land, and hurried off to would not listen to you; they would not stir an inch. But such a one as I shall presently show to the House? to take up hundreds and thousands of families, to carry them off unmeasured distances, and scatter them over a wilderness unknown to civilized man, they would think you insane to name it! What sort of a region these unhappy tribes are to be removed to, I will presently inquire: Let us see what sort of a region they are to leave. And now, sir, I am going to quote an account, which I candidly admit to be in all likelihood overstated. It proceeds from a patriotic native pen; and who can rest within the limits of exact reality, in describing the merits of a beloved native land? I believe it a little colored, but the elements of truth are there. It is plain, from the circumstance and detail, that it is substantially correct. At any rate, since I have been a member of Congress, it has been twice, and I believe three times communicated from the War Department as official information. It is from a letter written by David Brown, a native Cherokee, of mixed blood, dated Willstown, (Cherokee Nation), Septem, ber 2, 1825.

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Sir, they are attached to it; it is their own; and though, by your subtleties of State logic, you make it out that it is not their own, they think it is, they love it as their own. It is the seat of their council fires-not always illegal, as your State laws now call them. The time has been, and that not very distant, when, had the King of France, or of Spain, or of England, talked of its being illegal for the Choctaws or the Cherokees to meet at their council fire, they would have answered, "come and prevent us." It is the soil in which are gathered the bones of their fathers. This idea, and the importance attached to it by the Indians, has been held up to derision by one of the officers of the Government. He has told the Indians that "the bones of their fathers cannot benefit them, stay where they are as long as they may." I touch with regret on that upon which the gentleman from New York has laid his heavy hand. I have no unkind feeling towards the individual who has unadvisedly made this suggestion. But the truth is, this is the very point on which the Indian race, "The Cherokee nation, you know, is in about thirty-sensitive on all points, is most peculiarly alive. It is profive degrees north latitude; bounded on the north and west by the State of Tennessee, on the south by Alabama, and on the east by Georgia and North Carolina. This country is well watered; abundant springs of pure water are found in every part. A range of majestic and lofty mountains stretch themselves across the nation. The northern part of the nation is hilly and mountainous. In the southern and western parts there are extensive and fertile plains, covered partly with tall trees, through which beautiful streams of water glide. These plains furnish immense pasturage, and numberless herds of cattle are dispersed over them. Horses are plenty, and are used for servile purposes. Numerous flocks of sheep, goats, and swine

Having bestowed some reflection upon the subject, in conclusion I would suggest for your consideration, whether the best and cheapest mode of removing the Indians, should they consent to go, would not be by contract at so much per head. I feel perfectly safe in hazarding the opinion that it will not cost on an average more than eight dollars per head, to remove every Indian east of the Mississippi to the country which has been selected for them west of it." Letter of the Second Auditor to the Secretary of War, 12th April, 1830.

verbial. Governors Cass and Clark, in their official report, the last winter, tell you that" we will not sell the spot which contains the bones of our fathers," is almost always the first answer to a proposition for a sale. The mysterious mounds which are seen in different parts of the country, the places of sepulture for tribes that have disappeared, are objects of reverence to the remnants of such tribes, as long as any such remain. Mr. Jefferson, in his Notes on Virginia tells you of such a case. Unknown Indians came through the country, by a path known to themselves, through the woods, to visit a mound in his neighborhood. Who they were, no one knew, or whence they came, nor what was the tribe to whose ashes they had made their pilgrimage. It is well known that there are tribes who celebrate the great feast of the dead; an awful but affecting commemoration. They gather up the bones of all who have died since the last return of the festival, cleanse them

Proceedings of the Indian Board, in the city of New York, with Col. McKenney's Address, page 42. L

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[MAY 19, 1830. from their impurities, collect them in a new deposit, and much did he see of it ?how far did he go westward! For cover them again with the sod. Shall we, in the compla-ty-eight miles only. He admits that the land is good only cency of our superior light, look without indulgence on for two hundred miles west from Arkansas; and threethe pious weakness of these children of nature? Shall we quarters of this he took on trust, for he went only fortytell them that the bones of their fathers, which they visit eight miles into it, in a westerly direction. Is this an eafter the lapse of ages, which they cherish, though clothed ploration on which we can depend-a hasty excursion, for in corruption, can do them no good? It is as false in phi-a few miles, into the district to which we are to transplant losophy as in taste. The man who reverences the ashes the Indians? Sir, it would do to write a paragraph up of his fathers, who hopes that posterity will reverence his, in a newspaper; it would serve as a voucher for an article is bound by one more tie to the discharge of social duty. in a gazetteer. But, good heavens! will this warrant Now, sir, whither are these Indians, when they are re-in taking up dependent tribes of fellow-beings from their moved, to go? I confess I am less informed than I could homes, and marching them, at a venture, into this remete wish. I thank the gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. desert, upon the borders of which au agent has just set he HEMPHILL] for his amendment. It does credit to his saga- foot! From the time that Mr. McCoy left St. Louis till city. It is just what is wanted. I say we all want infor- he got back there, was just sixty-two days. His description mation. We are going, in a very high-handed way, to is as follows; and I quote the passage, because it contains throw these Indians into the western wilderness. I call the strength of his recommendation: upon every gentleman who intends to vote for this bill, to ask himself if he has any satisfactory information as to the character of that region. I say it is a terra incognita. It has been crossed, but not explored. No one knows its recesses but the wild Indians who hunt over it. I have made some notes of this country, however, with which I will trouble the House:

66

I may not be so fortunate as to meet with many whe concur with me in opinion relative to the country under consideration, (I mean the whole described in our remarks] yet I hesitate not to pronounce it, in my estimation, very good, and well adapted to the purposes of Indian settlement I thing I risk nothing in supposing that no State or Terti tory in the Union embraces a tract of equal extent and fer In regard to this extensive section of country, (be-tility, so little broken by lands not tillable, to that lying tween the meridian of the Council Bluffs and the Rocky south of Kanzas and on the upper branches of Osage and Mountains,) we do not hesitate in giving the opinion that it is Neosho, the extent of which I have not been able to aster almost wholly unfit for cultivation, and, of course, uninha- tain. This country, also, has its defects, the greatest of bitable by a people depending upon agriculture for their which is the scarcity of timber; but, by a judicious division subsistence. Although tracts of fertile land, considerably among the inhabitants, of woodland and prairie, there will extensive, are occasionally to be met with, yet the scarcity be found a sufficiency of the former, in connexion with of wood and water, almost uniformly prevalent, will form coal, to answer the purpose in question, with tolerable an insuperable obstacle in the way of settling the country. convenience." This objection rests not only on the immediate section under consideration, but applies with equal propriety to a much larger portion of the country-[north and south]. The whole of this region seems peculiarly adapted as a range for buffaloes, wild goats, and other wild game, incalculable multitudes of which find ample pasturage and subsistence upon it."-Long, vol. II, page 361. And shall we send men who have been brought up in the cornfield, the workshop, and at the loom, to hunt buffalo and wild goats in this uninhabitable desert?

Mr. Nuttall, an exceedingly intelligent and scientific traveller, who visited this country in 1819, thus speaks of a portion of it:

I

Again: "The greatest defect in this country, (and I am sorry it is of so serious a character,) is the scarcity of tim ber. If fields be made in the timbered land, which most persons who have been accustomed to timbered countries are inclined to do, the Indians more especially, because often unprepared with teams for breaking prairie, timber will soon become too scarce to sustain the population, which the plan under consideration contemplates. I trust that I need offer no apology for supposing that measures ought to be adopted immediately for marking off to each settler, or class of settlers, the amount of timbered land really necessary for their use, severally, and no more. The timber, generally, is so happily distributed, in streaks and To give my reader some idea of the laborious exer: groves, that each farm may be allowed the amount of tim tions which these people make to obtain a livelihood, ber requisite, and then extend back into the prairie lands need only relate that the Osages had now returned to their for quantity. The prairies, being almost universally rich, village, from a tallow hunt, in which they had travelled and well situated for cultivation, afford uncommon facil not less than three hundred miles up the Arkansas, and had ties for the operation of such a method. By pursuing this crossed the saline plains situated between that river and plan, wood, after a few years, will increase in quantity an the Canadian. In this hunt, they say that ten villages of nually, in proportion as the grazing of stock, and the inte themselves and friends (as the Kanzas, who speak nearly rests of the inhabitante, shall check the annual burnings af the same language, are called) joined for common safety. those prairies. These regulations, essential to the future They were, however, attacked by a small scout of the prosperity of the territory, cannot be made without the Pawnees, and lost one of their young men, who was much existence of the superintendency of which I speak. Let esteemed, and, as I myself witnessed, distractingly lament-it be said that the country within such and such boundaries ed by the father, of whom he was the only son. They say the country through which they passed is so destitute of timber that they had to carry along their tent poles, and to make fire of the bison ordure," Page 182.

Sir, the gentleman from Ohio, the other day, moved a resolution asking for information on this subject. The House felt that it wanted the information; his resolution was adopted. And what did we get in reply? Twenty-two lines from a letter written by Governor Clark, five years ago, and he had never seen the country to which the title of the Osages and Kanzas had, when he wrote the letter, just been extinguished! This is the official information which is to guide us in deciding the fate of thousands and tens of thousands of fellow-beings! Then we have the testimony of Mr. McCoy. He saw the country. But how

shall be given to the Indians, for the purposes under con sideration. Next establish such a course of things as will render it possible to make a fair distribution of it among its inhabitants, in view of their numbers and circumstances, and which will secure to them the possibility of future prosperity."

I believe, sir, that Mr. McCoy is a very worthy and be nevolent person. Having been connected with a mission to some northwestern band of Indians, which has been nearly or quite broken up by the encroachments of whites, he appears to have considered removal as the greatest good for all Indians, under all circumstances. While the Indians, whom he conducted, were evidently dissatisfied with the country, he makes the best of it. He was there a very short time, and penetrated a short distance, but tells

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us "the prairies are almost universally rich," and that even the single farins can be laid off with a patch of woodland. He could not possibly know this to be true. He saw as much of this country as a traveller would see of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, who should go by the straightest road from Philadelphia to Harper's ferry, and thence back to Washington. This region is said to be six hundred miles long and two hundred and fifty broad. Mr. McCoy's whole line of march within it, going and returning, was about four hundred miles.

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Shawnees, Piankeshaws, &c. and settle them on the Kanzas river. And it is also necessary that some assistance should be given to remove them there, and, when there, to assist them in preparing the earth for cultivation and provisions, till they can raise a support. Without this aid, the Indians will be more wretched than they were before they moved.

The Shawnees and Delawares of Cape Girardeau, who were twenty years ago, doing well, with good houses, little farms, with stock in abundance, are now in distress, roving in small parties in every part of the country, in pursuit of subsistence. Those who have come from Ohio, will, if not supported, in a short time be in the same situation. "The distresses of the Indians of this superintendency are so great and extensive, and complaints so frequent, that it is and has been impossible for me to report them. I therefore have taken on myself a great deal in acting as I thought best; I have not troubled the Government with numerous occurrences, which they could not remedy."

As for the project of settling each Indian family by a Government superintendency; persuading them to spare he wood; counting out such a number of trees as is absoutely necessary; and thus making provision" for the posibility of future prosperity," and for "tolerable conveience," in respect to fuel, it defies gravity. The wildest lelusions, by which waste lands in distant countries are buffed off by jobbers, do not go beyond this. One coarse act, like that which I have already cited from Mr. Nuttall, howing the wretched shifts to which the Osages were put Sir, General Clark is your most experienced superintendor fuel, is worth a volume of those well meaning specula-ent of Indian affairs; and his superintendency lies in this Fions on the providence, thrift, and foresight of the Indians, vaunted Indian Canaan, beyond the Mississippi. Let us husbanding their timber. This incontestible want of learn wisdom from the fate of the Shawnees and Delaimber in the region in question, would make it uniuhabit- wares, who in twenty years, have sunk from the possesble to the thriftiest people on earth. Sir, mere benevo- sion of comfortable farms and competence, to abject roving ence, piety, and zeal do not qualify a person to promulgate poverty. One statement more from an official letter of pinions which are to affect the well-being and lives of General Clark, of March 1, 1826, and I leave this topic. housands of fellow-men. You tell an Indian, shivering a the winter over the wretched substitute for fuel, which fr. Nuttal describes, that there is a possibility," some rears hence, of his having wood enough to enable him to et along with "tolerable convenience," if he is very provi | ent in the mean time!

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"The condition of many tribes west of the Mississippi, is the most pitiable that can be imagined. During several seasons in every year, they are distressed by famine, in which many die for the want of food, and during which the living child is often buried with the dead mother, because no one can spare it as much food as would sustain it through its helpless infancy. This description applies to the Sioux and Osages, and many others; but I mention those because they are powerful tribes, and live near our borders, and my official station enables me to know the exact truth. It is in vain to talk to people in this condition about learning and religion."

This is the country to which the Indians are to be moved. This is the fertile (region in which they are to be placed. This their prospect of improvement.

What are the Indians to do after they get here? The riginal plan of going over the Mississippi was to find amole range for the chase. That object was sanctioned by Mr. efferson, in 1808, when proposed by the imigrating poron of the Cherokees. It now seems abandoned; and we re told of raising their character, of putting them on an quality with ourselves, and fixing them on snug farms of much woodland and so much prairie. Can they pursue peir accustomed occupations in this new region? Can any aan, on his responsibility, say, they will find wood and The worthy chairman of the committee told us of the ater, and soil, and access to market, and convenience of causes of their degeneracy, seated in the nature or in the avigation, like what they have left! No man can say it. habit, the second nature, of the Indians. I admit the truth What does experience teach? The Cherokees in Arkansas, of the representation; I am sorry there is so much foundaster encountering great hardships, were doing well, and, tion for it. My hopes have never been over sanguine of fter ten years' residence, have been pushed farther west-elevating the race to a high degree of civilization; although ard. A lavish expenditure by the Government, and the within a few years better hopes have been authorized, than ntiring benevolence of the pious and liberal, have re-esta- ever before. But these causes of degeneracy exist. The lished them in seeming comfort; but the result is yet to Indians, it, is said, suffer from the proximity of the whites, e seen. We are already threatened with a general Indian and the jealousy and hostility between them, and the conwar on the frontier. But the case of the Cherokees of scious inferiority of the Indian. But this is not remedied rkansas is the only one which is not a deplorable failure. west of Arkansas; they will have a white population crowdWhat says General Clark, writing to the department, 10th ing on them there. There is one already. We are told December, 1827 "I must request you to draw the atten- they are improvident. Be it so; will they not be improvion of the Secretary of War to the moving or emigrating dent there? Mr. McCoy tells us, this happy land has but adians, who are continually coming on to this side of the little timber, and yet thinks that, if left to themselves, lississippi. Those that have come on, and not permanent- they would go in and cut it down; and that there must be settled, (many of them,) are scattered for the purpose of a sort of Government forester, to parcel it out for them, rocuring subsistence; and frequent complaints are made and keep them from wasting it. We are told they have gainst them by the white people, and considerable ex- an innate propensity to intemperance. Will they cease to ense incurred in reconciling the difficulties." bave it in the wild of Arkansas? If they thirsted for spitits by the pleasant banks of the Ustanala and Coosawattee, will they abstain in the salt prairies and parched deserts of the West? What safeguard will they have there, which they have not here? Surely, sir, as they are removed from a surrounding civilization, as they cease to breathe the very temperate atmosphere of the Atlantic States, there is reason to fear that the causes of degeneracy will remain in all their intensity, while the checks will be fewer, and the remedies weaker.

This scattering to procure subsistence," (leading to omplaints by the whites, and expense in reconciling diffiulties,) I take to be a periphrasis for roving about, beging and stealing. Again: "The tribes on this side of the fississippi are wretched, and moving from place to place. have just heard that the several scattering bands, who esided near Fort Towson, have moved near Alexandria, n the Red river.

"It will be necessary that authority be given, as soon as ossible, to exchange lands with the Delawares, Kickapoos, | I have already hinted that this great project fails in the

VOL. VI.-135.

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