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MAY 19, 1830.]

Removal of the Indians.

[H. OF R.

iver, which limits the northern boundary of the Choctaws (bable that, by a conciliatory system, the expense of manag that quarter."

On the 3d of February, 1826, Mr. Secretary Barbour's eport on the subject of Indian colonization was made. In 1828, Mr. Adams submitted to Congress his views on his topic; and at the same session was presented Mr. Secreury Porter's report. These he would not now stop parcularly to examine. He might advert to them herefter. Every gentlemen, he presumed, had read them, nd he would be fully borne out in the assertion that they greed, substantially, and in principle, with the suggestions f Mr. Monroe and Mr. Calhoun. On these documents, he ould offer only one reflection. From the days of Mr. efferson to the present, this policy had been steadily kept view by the Government. It had always been deemed ise, practicable, and just. Why, then, are we told it new and visionary that we have not sufficient informaon on which to act? that the plan has not been duly condered and matured? Have so many eminent men amused hemselves by throwing out crude notions to Congress and e people, upon a question so deeply affecting the intersts of the Union and the lives and happiness of thousands f their fellow-beings? Have they dared to practise a deeption on the country and has this deception been reeated through four administrations?

Mr. W. said, before he left this part of the subject, he would advert to what had been said as to to the supposed pinion of General Washington and his cabinet as to the ights of the Indians, and the policy to be pursued towards em. He, too, had had access to the original documents on ne files of the Senate; and he begged leave to quote a art of them, for the purpose of showing that the course dopted was considered as one of expediency chiefly, if ot solely.

The paper he should read was a communication from eneral Knox, the Secretary of War, to the President of he United States, dated 15th June, 1789.

"The United States, having come into the possession of overeignty, and an extensive territory, must unavoidably e subject to the expenses of such a condition.

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ing the said Indians, and attaching them to the United
States, for the next ensuing period of fifty years, may, on
an average, cost fifteen thousand dollars annually.
"A system of coercion and oppression, pursued from
time to time, for the same period, as the convenience of
the United States might dictate, would probably amount
to a much greater sum of money. But the blood and in-
justice which would stain the character of the nation would
be beyond all pecuniary calculation.

"As the settlements of the whites shall approach near to the Indian boundaries established by treaties, the game will be diminished, and the lands being valuable to the Indians only as hunting grounds, they will be willing to sell further tracts, for small considerations. By the expiration, therefore, of the above period, it is most probable that the Indians will, by the invariable operation of the causes which have hitherto existed in their intercourse with the whites, be reduced to a very small number."

Mr. W. next adverted to the course of the late administration, on the subject of this Cherokee Government. In October or November, 1827, the commissioners of the United States, General Cocke and Messrs. Davidson and Gray, communicated to Mr. Barbour, Secretary of War, the Cherokee constitution, which they say was formed by white men and half breeds, who fill nearly all the offices, rule the people, and dispose of the annuities at pleasure." In their journal, July 7, they state that they learned from Elias Boudinot, that the council adjourned without settling their business amicably, and some of the old Indians were very much dissatisfied, and intended to raise opposition to their new mode of Government, by a constitution.t

On the 26th January, 1828, Governor Forsyth addressed the President, enclosing a copy of the Cherokee constitu tion, and asked what measures had been taken to prevent the formation of a new Government within the State of Georgia.

On the 21st February, Mr. W. introduced a resolution of inquiry on the same subject. On the 22d it was modiThe time has arrived when it is highly expedient that fied at the suggestion of the honorable gentleman from liberal system of justice should be adopted for the va- New York, [Mr. STORRS] and laid on the table at the sugious Indian tribes within the limits of the United States.gestion of the honorable gentleman from Kentucky, [Mr. By having recourse to the several Indian treaties made WICKLIFFE.] On the 29th the resolution was again moy the authority of Congress since the conclusion of the war with Great Britain, excepting those made, January, 789, at Fort Harmar, it would appear that Congress were f opinion that the treaty of peace of 1783 absolutely in ested them with the fee of all the Indian lands within the imits of the United States; that they had the right to ssign or retain such portions as they should judge proDer. But it is manifest, from the representations of the confederated Indians, at the Huron village, in December, 786, that they entertained a different opinion, and that hey were the only rightful proprietors of the soil; and it ppears, by the resolve of the 2d of July, 1788, that Congress so far conformed to the idea, as to appropriate a sum of money solely to the purpose of extinguishing the Indian laims to lands they had ceded to the United States, and or obtaining regular conveyances of the same. This obect was accordingly accomplished at the treaty of Fort Harmar, in January, 1789.

dified by the mover, and was then again laid on the table, on the motion of the gentleman from New York, [Mr. STORRS.] On the 3d of March it passed. When the docu ments in answer to the resolution came in, it appeared, that, on the 23d February, two days after the resolution was introduced, the letter of Mr. Barbour, the Secretary of War, to H. Montgomery, agent for the Cherokees, was written. By this letter the agent was "directed by the President to converse with the chiefs, and inform them that he wishes them distinctly to understand that this act of theirs cannot be viewed in any other light than as regulations of a purely municipal character; and which he wishes them distinctly to understand, will not be recog nised as changing any one of the relations under which they stood to the General Government prior to the adoption of said constitution." Among the same documents was communicated a letter from the officer at the head of what has been called the bureau of Indian Affairs, [Col The principle of the Indian right to the lands they McKenney] to the Secretary of War, in which he expossess being thus conceded, the dignity and interest of the presses himself thus: "I think it much to be regretted nation will be advanced by making it the basis of the fu- that the idea of sovereignty should have taken such deep ture administration of justice towards the Indian tribes. hold of these people. It is not possible for them to erect The whole number of Indian warriors, south of the themselves into a state of such independence, and a sepaOhio, and east of the Mississippi, may be estimated at four-rate and distinct Government; and the sooner they are enteen thousand; those to the northward of the Ohio, and to lightened on the subject, I think the better. The most the southward of the lakes, at about five thousand. In they can ever hope for, if they retain their possessions addition to these, the old men, women, and children may be estimated at three for one warrior, the whole amounting to seventy-six thousand souls. It is highly proVOL. VI-137.

64

Doc. 1st Sess. 20th Cong. pp. 5, 8, 9. + lb. p.9.

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within the States, is to hold them under the laws of the States as citizens."

[MAY 19, 1831

Mr. W. asked leave to refer the House to one or two juš cial decisions:

reignty as the circumstances of the people would aller them to exercise."

At the opening of the next session of Congress, Presi "The United States maintain, as all others have ma dent Adams in his message expressed himself thus: "The tained, that discovery gave an exclusive right to extin attention of Congress is particularly invited to that part of guish the Indian title of occupancy, either by purchase u the report of the Secretary of War which concerns the ex-conquest, and gave also a right to such a degree of son isting system of our relations with the Indian tribes. At the establishment of the Federal Government, under the present constitution of the United States, the principle was adopted of considering them as foreign and independent powers, and also as proprietors of lands. They were, moreover, considered as savages, whom it was our policy and our duty to use our influence in converting to christianity, and in bringing within the pale of the constitution.

"As independent powers, we negotiated with them by treaties; as proprietors, we purchased of them all the lands which we could prevail upon them to sell; as brethren of the human race, rude and ignorant, we endeavored to bring them to the knowledge of religion and letters. The ultimate design was to incorporate in our own institutions that portion of them which could be converted to the state of civilization.

"It has never been doubted that either the Unite States or the several States had a clear title to all the lands within the boundary lines described in the treaty peace of 1783, subject only to the Indian right of o paney, and that the exclusive power to extinguish the right was vested in that Government which might e stitutionally exercise it."

The case of Jackson and Goodel, in New York, Ind been referred to, and made the subject of much disc sion. He took that case to be thus:

Land had been granted by the State to an individed Indian for military services. His Indian heir alienated i to a white man. The supreme court determined that the Indian must be considered a citizen, that bis Indian ber took by descent, as the heir of a citizen, and that the statutes of the State in restraint of Indian alienations, u they then existed, did not extend to the alienation of st individual Indian conveying land granted to his Indian ar cestor for military services.

"In the practice of European States, before our revolution, they had been considered as children to be governed; as tenants at discretion, to be dispossessed as occasion might require; as hunters, to be indemnified by trifling concessions for removal from the grounds from which their game was extirpated. In changing the system, it The court of errors held it was not necessary, to deter would seem as if a full contemplation of the consequences mine the question of citizenship, that the patent was a of the change had not been taken. We have been far express legislative grant, enabling the Indian heir to hold more successful in the acquisition of their lands, than in im- That the laws in restraint of Indian alienation, then parting to them the principles, or inspiring them with the force, extended to individual Indians as well as to trites spirit of civilization. But, in appropriating to ourselves That, if it were necessary to decide the question of eit their hunting grounds, we have brought upon ourselves zenship, the Indian could not be deemed a citizen. the obligation of providing them with subsistence; and There is much speculative reasoning, certainly, on the when we have had the rare good fortune of teaching them condition of the Indians; and what is the conclusion? That the arts of civilization and the doctrines of christianity, they are placed under our protection, and subject to we have unexpectedly found them forming, in the midst our coercion, so far as the public safety requires, and no of ourselves, communities claiming to be independent of further." ours, and rivals of sovereignty within the territories of the If they are admitted to be under the protection, and members of our Union. This state of things requires that subject to the coercion of the States, so far as the puble a remedy should be provided-a remedy, which, while safety requires, and the State must be the judge how far it shall do justice to those unfortunate children of nature, that is, which I take to be the meaning of the Chancellor; may secure to the members of our confederation their I do not perceive the wide difference on the point between rights of sovereignty and of soil. As the outline of a pro-him and the Chief Justice of the supreme court of New ject to that effect, the views presented in the report of the York, who, in delivering the opinion of that court, says: Secretary of War are recommended to the consideration Their condition has been gradually changing, until they of Congress." have lost every attribute of sovereignty, and become es tirely dependent upon, and subject to our Government.”

Now, sir, [said Mr. W.] if the "rights of sovereignty and soil" in the States were not, in the view of the President, invaded by this state of things, what remedy could be requisite to secure them?

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Next, sir, [said Mr. W.] let us refer to Mr Secretary Porter's report. What does he say? Nothing can be more clear to one who has marked the progress of population and improvement, and is conversant with the principles of human action, than that these Indians will not be permitted to hold the reservations on which they live with in the States, by their present tenure, for any considerable period. If, indeed, they were not disturbed in their possessions by us, it would be impossible for them long to subsist, as they have heretofore done, by the chase, as their game is already so much diminished as to render it frequently necessary to furnish them with provisions in order to save them from starvation. In their present destitute and deplorable condition, and which is constantly growing more helpless, it would seem to be not only the right, but the duty of the Government, to take them under its paternal care, and to exercise over their persons and property the salutary rights and duties of guardianship."

With the purpose of showing how this matter of Indian title and sovereignty had been considered by our courts,

66

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The Chancellor himself, in his commentaries, declares, 'the peculiar character a d habits of the Indian nations rendered them incapable of sustaining any other relations with the whites, than that of dependence and pupilage. There was no other way of dealing with them, than that of keeping them separate, subordinate, and dependent, with a guardian care thrown around them for their protection."

"It is the law of the land," says Chancellor Kent, speak ing of the titles derived from conquest and discovery, "and no court of justice can permit the right to be de turbed by speculative reasonings on abstract rights."

Mr. W. said he would offer a remark or two on the Indian intercourse acts. The first act, 22d July, 1790, makes no peculiar provision, with respect to Indians with in the jurisdiction of a State.

The second act, 1st March, 1793, provides, section 13: "That nothing in this act shall be construed to preves any trade or intercourse with the Indians living on lands surrounded by settlements of the citizens of the United States, and being within the jurisiction of the individual States." The third act, 27th May, 1796, is the same, see tion 19, except that it reads "ordinary jurisd etion.” de

The fourth act, 3d March, 1799, is the same as the last, s

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s also the act of the 30th March, 1802. These acts the ommittee of Congress, upon the memorial of Georgia, in 797, admitted required revision, but alleged it was too ate in the session to act upon them.

Let us pause now, [said Mr. W.] and consider for a monent the policy we have pursued towards the Indians, and ts consequences. We gave to their cessions of land the ormality of bargains, and some of the empty solemnities of treaties.

We established houses of trade among them, at a heavy expense.

[H. of R.

years, I am well acquainted with their circumstances both before and after receiving annuities, and declare that I have found no reason for inclining to a different opinion from that just now expressed. I am inclined to believe that there are few, if any, Indian agents who are of a different opinion.

Next as to agents.

Their interest in preserving the present state of things and often in obstructing the policy of the Government, is apparent. They are frequently under temptations from this interest to neglect or violate their duty. The misWe appointed agents and sub-agents, and provided chievous effects of this influence, extended over the hem with missionaries, schoolmasters, and blacksmiths. Indians through the instrumentality of sub-agents, artifiWhat have been the consequences? And first as to treaties, cers, storekeepers, and other white men, permitted to We incurred the expense of assembling and subsisting reside in the nation, were well known. More than one he Indians, during several ineffectual attempts to treat agent had been strongly suspected of using this influence By allowing them this show of independence, we flattered for sinister purposes: he need not particularize. He might he pride and encouraged the obstinacy of the savages, appeal to the statement made before the New York Sohereby obstructing our own views. We were often com-ciety for aiding the emigration of the Indians, and would belled to buy the same land over two or three times, from ask the attention of the House to another passage in Mr. lifferent tribes. McCoy's valuable pamphlet.

The purchase money was immediately dissipated by he Indians, often before they left the treaty ground. We were compelled to offer inducements to the chiefs or their assent to cessions, in the shape of presents, or as hey have been termed, bribes.

This produced dissatisfaction among our own citizens, whose consciences were offended by these practices, hough inevitable in all treaties with barbarous nations; and hence no treaty could latterly be negotiated without loud complaints of bribery and fraud.

Next followed the modification of the principle of treaties, contained in the Cherokee treaty of 1817, the Creek treaty of 1826, and the treaty of 1828 with the Cherokees of Arkansas, by which the enrolment of individuals, with their own consent, as emigrants heyond the Mississippi, was provided for, and inducements offered them, similar in character to those in the present bill. Then followed the laws of the pretended Cherokee Government, punishing, with cruel and sanguinary punishments, any who should presume to sell their improvements, emigrate. or treat for a sale of land, or meet United States' commissioners to treat for a cession, according to the ancient and established usages. To these succeeded the law of Georgia, intended merely to meet this state of things, and to punish those who should attempt to punish the native Cherokees, most of whom were willing to emigrate, for the exercise of their own free will.

Next as to trading houses.

They entailed on us a heavy expense-they were liable to great abuses they lent us little or no aid in maintaining an influence over the Indian tribes.

After a fair trial they were deliberately abolished by Congress.

Then as to the payment of annuities. They have been found of little benefit to the mass of the common Indians. He would refer the House to the testimony of the reverend Mr. McCoy, a gentleman worthy of all credit, and speaking after much experience from his own observation.

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The first item alluded to, of sixty-five thousand two hundred dollars, is the aggregate of annuities paid to those Indians within the district under consideration. There has been a lamentable waste of public treasure upon In diau treaties, and I as confidently assert that there is a lamentable waste of public moneys in Indian annuities. Our Government is not in the habit of taking their lands for nothing. But it is extremely doubtful whether the thousands of dollars, anuually paid to the Indians, as matters are, render them any service. My own opinion is, that, all things considered, their annuities render them no service at all, or worse than none, No person could have been more favorably situated for arriving at a just conclusion on this point; being actually among them for nine

"It is proper, however, before we dismiss this part of our subject, to observe, that, notwithstanding the preceding remarks, we are well aware of some formidable obstacles to the proposed removal of the Indians. The obstacles to which we allude will not derive either their origin or their support from the Indians themselves, but both will be found in the avarice of white men, near to, or mingling with, the Indians, whose interest it is for the natives to remain where they are, and in their present condition."

"I deeply regret the necessity of inentioning this circumstance; but justice to my subject, to the Indians, and to my own conscience, demands it of me. We may prepare to encounter a host of opposers, consisting of traders, both licensed and unlicensed; many of them speaking the Indian language fluently, and in habits of daily intercourse with them, often allied by marriage, and otherwise by blood; of many others, who profit more or less by a commission from our Government, for the performance of services in the Indian Department. Remove the Indians, and the fountain fails. Some estimate of the difficulties arising from this quarter, may be formed, on considering the influence which the number of those interested persons, under these favorable opportunities, may exert on the minds of these ignorant, uninformed people, whose prejudices against us are generally inveterate, and whose jea lousies are ever on the alert; considering, also, that in the transacting of business with the Indians, Government has generally been under the necessity of availing itself of the services of these very persons. The story requires much delicacy in the telling, and, perhaps, has never been, nor will it now be plaiuly told, that scarce a treaty with the Indians occurs, in which the commissioners of the United States are not obliged to shape some part of it to suit the convenience of some of this class of persons.”

Again: As to schools and missionaries.

In speaking of the missionaries, and their representations of the condition and wishes of the Indians, be intended to do justice to the labors and motives of these pious and often disinterested men. That they were often misled, and in their turn contributed much to mislead others, was indisputable. They were often tempted to suppress every unfavorable statement, lest the faithful and charitable should weary in the good work. On this subject he would quote the observations of Mr. McCoy, himself a missiona ry, and zealously and honestly devoted to the welfare of the Indians.

"Societies and their missionaries should carefully guard against what we might term high coloring. We are naturally fond of telling the more favorable parts of the story, and rather desire the unfavorable parts to sink into oblivion. I could readily point to statements respecting missionary operations, which approximate this character too

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All the new States,

Peninsula of Michigan,
Arkansas,
Florida,

[MAY 19, 1830.

1.000

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1.877

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23,000

19,00

4,050

6,900

5,631

61,

9,949

7,200

nearly; but I deem it sufficient to mention only this ge| Tennessee, neral and undoubted fact, viz. a man in Europe, by read. Ohio, ing the whole of our missionary journals, narratives, re- Mississippi, ports, &c. would be apt to suppose the success of our Alabama. labors was such, that the aborigines of our country were Louisiana, rapidly improving their condition, both in respect to chris- Indiana, tianity and civilization. How would such a one be disap- Illinois, pointed on visiting these regions, to find, that, instead of im- Missouri, provement in general, they were rapidly decreasing in numbers, and perishing under their accumulated misfortunes." The testimony of the late Secretary of war, [Gen. PORTER] on this subject, is well worth considering. In his report to President Adams, accompanying the message of December, 1828, he has the following remarks: "The annual appropriation of ten thousand dollars to the purpose of educating Indian children, and teaching them the mechanic arts, has had the effect to draw to almost every Indian reservation, in addition to the agents and interpreters, a considerable number of missionaries and teachers, with their families, who, having acquired, principally by the aid of this fund, very comfortable esta blishments, are unwilling to be deprived of them by the removal of the Indians: and thus we have found, that, while the agents specially employed by the Government for this purpose are engaged in persuading, by profuse distributions of money and presents, the Indians to emigrate, another set of Government agents are operating In the country east of the Mississippi, and south of more secretly, to be sure, but not with less zeal and effect, to prevent such emigration."

"These remarks are not intended as a personal reflection on the missionaries and teachers; much less on the pious and respectable patrons of these benevolent institutions, who, no doubt, are disposed to lend a ready support to every humane measure which the Government may think proper to adopt in favor of these depressed people; but are rather intended to show the natural and unavoidable tendency of the system itself to counteract the leading policy of the Government."

With respect to schools, an extract from Dr. Morse's report would assist us to conjecture how that matter was managed. This is copied from the account of a missionary who visited the school at Elliot, and conversed with the scholars.

"He told them he was going to Jerusalem, to establish schools there. The boys took the hint, and brought him a donation of thirteen dollars for the Palestine mission.

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They obtained the money in this way: When they were out in the field every morning in the week by such a minute, or had committed certain lessons in school, they were entitled to a certain premium, and when they fail they forfeit something. There is, of course, debit and credit. Some had fifty cents to their credit, some more, and some less."

Such were the inducements held out among the Indians to the study of polite literature; yet the savage little urchins, in spite of all their bribes, as he supposed the gentleman from New York [Mr. STORRS] would call them, seemed to have no violent affection for letters, since the Cherokee council had found it necessary to pass laws to prevent their leaving school, and to compel their parents, when they did so, to bring them back.

Within the Territories, excluding from Michigan the country west of Lakes Huron and Michigan,

Within the country east of the Mississippi, and north of the Ohio, excluding those in the origi nal States,

Within the country east of the Mississippi, north of the State of Illinois, and west of the three upper lakes,

Within the country west of the Mississippi, east of the Rocky Mountains, and not included in Louisiana, Mississippi, or Arkansas,

the Ohio, excluding those in the original States, except North and South Carolina and Georgia,

Within the Rocky Mountains,

Within the country west of the Mississippi and
east of the Rocky Mountains,

West of the Rocky Mountains, between lat. 44
and lat. 49,
Within the United States,

20,540

41,367

20,201

94,200

56,000

20,000

108,070

80,000 313,130

Their condition would best appear from some extracts which he would lay before the House.

"The situation of the Indians, and the operation of the settlement and improvement of the country upon them, are without a parallel in the progress of buinan society, They have adopted none of the manners and customs of the people who have succeeded them. In the long in terval which has elapsed since their first knowledge of the whites, it would be difficult to find a single improvement which has taken place, in their principles, habits, or condition. They have generally retired before the advancing settlements; and, where they have become stationary on tracts secured to them, they have declined as rapidly in morals as in numbers."

"They are essentially hunters, fed and clothed from the products of the chase. The spirit of their institutions, as well as their personal feelings, is opposed to labor: it is a disgraceful employment."

"Judging of the future by the past, we cannot err in anticipating a progressive diminution of their numbers, and their eventual extinction, unless our border should be come stationary, and they be removed beyond it; or unlest some radical change takes place in the principles of our intercourse with them, which it is easier to hope than expect." "It is disgraceful for a war party to return without Mr. W. said, he had extracted from official documents a success. But one scalp will redeem them from this re statement of the whole number of Indians within the Unit-proach. If any enemy cannot be found, it is often taken ed States, which made the number as follows: Fakpoke from a friend; and thus our citizens are always exposed, Within the States of Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode when travelling in the vicinity of their war paths." Island, Connecticut, and Virginia, fundarueluxe 2,573 New York, 244,820 wydd kan maileler 300 3,100

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The increase of their wants, arising from contset with civilization, and the gradual destruction of the game, strongly expressed in the speech of a Pawnee chief to the President.

"There was a time when we did not know the whites ade, mật misaada no 5: 5,000 Our wants were then fewer than they are now. We had oppeliers Ediran d then seen nothing which we could not get. We could le **kres 16,093 | down to sleep, and, when we awoke, we found the buffal

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feeding around our camp; but now we are killing them for their skins, and feeding the wolves with their flesh, to make our children cry over their bones."

Yet, in the same speech, the chief entreats that his tribe may be allowed to continue hunters, and resists the introduction of schools, missionaries, labor and civilization.

“I am like you, my great father: I love my country, I love my people, I love the manner in which we live, and think myself and warriors brave. Spare me, then, my father, and let me pursue the buffalo and the beaver in our wilderness, and I will trade the skins with your people. I have grown up and lived without work. I hope you will let me die without it.

*

*

*

"It is too soon, my great father, to send those good nen among us. We are not starving yet. Let us enjoy he chase until our game is exhausted. Let us destroy the wild animals, before you make us toil, and interrupt our happiness."

Mr. W. said, he came now to consider the condition of he Indians in the old States. The names only of Indian ribes, now extinct, would furnish a long catalogue. They ad perished from the operation of natural causes known o every gentleman, and in part well explained by the reviewer, whose production he had already quoted. Their mprovidence, their degraded condition, was notorious. They had in many States mingled with the free blacks, and sunk, in all respects, to their level. He referred to Mr. McCoy's remarks, in his pamphlet already mentioned. Speaking of the Indians in the old States, that respectable writer observes; “Those who are pent up by the whites on small reservations, in New England, New York, and Ohio, decline more rapidly in proportion to their numbers, han the tribes farther west, on the frontiers of Michigan, Indiana, and Illinois; and the decline of these latter is more rapid in proportion than those still more remote. Let it ɔe borne in mind, that, wherever we discover a decrease of umbers, we see an increase of calamities."-Page 12. Again, in page 14, he says: "I took the liberty, not long since, of suggesting that the condition of those small bands who are on little reservations in New England, New York, and Ohio, surrounded by white population, is worse than that of those who have more latitude on our frontier. To his remark, I suppose we ought to except something in respect to eating and wearing.

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ans in this jurisdiction have possessed and improved by subduing the same, they have just right unto, according to that in Gen. i. 28, and chap. ix, 1, and Psal. cxv, 16." They are not allowed to sell peltry except to persons appointed by the commonwealth.

None are to buy lands from them; no arms or ammunition, or liquor, to be sold to them.

Foreigners not allowed to trade with them.

In 1698, an act for their better government was passed; commissioners were appointed "to have the inspection, and more particular care and government of the Indians, and to exercise the power of a justice of the peace over them, in all matters civil and criminal, as well for hearing and determining pleas betwixt party and party, and to award execution therein, as for the examining, hearing, and punishing criminal offences, according to the acts and laws of this province, and to nominate constables."

A penalty is denounced for selling liquors to them. The accusation of an Indian, with other concurring cir cumstances, amounting to a high presumption, in the discretion of the justices, to be accounted sufficient; unless the party accused will expurgate himself on oath.

Pennsylvania punishes the sale of liquors to them, but provides that the Governor and council, or persons by them authorized to hold treaties with any nation of Indians, may, at such treaties, give any reasonable quantity of rum as by them shall be thought necessary 1721.

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In 1744, the criminal law was extended to them. Is there any difference between the character of the northern and southern Indians? Look at the Catawbas, sir; between seventy and a hundred individuals, wretched and depraved beyond description, are all that remain of the most generous and formidable of the enemies of the Six Natious! About ten years ago they were computed at four hundred, and they have had secured to them by the State of South Carolina one hundred and forty-four thousand acres of good land, which they were not allowed to alienate.

Mr. W. said he would advert, he could not do more, to the excellent article in the January number of the North American Review, attributed to the pen of a gentleman who had had abundant opportunities for observation, and whose opinions were entitled to the greatest consideration. (Governor Cass.) The whole article was so judicious, that he would be at a loss what to select; and he was conscious he had already trespassed heavily on the patience of the House, but he referred gentlemen to it who really desired information; it would well repay them for the trouble of a

"I presume those small bands live more plentifully for Food and raiment, than do the others. But I have no he sitat.on in repeating that they are more debased in princi-perusal. ple, and positively more worthless, than those with whom I am comparing them.

"This sentiment is the result of my own personal observation, as well as of the concurrent testimony of the most authentic information."

If we look to the legislation of those States where they live, we find they are considered spendthrifts and paupers, and treated as such. Guardians are appointed for them, and they are governed as natural and perpetual minors.

Mr. W. would give a sketch of the laws of a few of the old States, taken from the collection made by the Committee on ludian affairs. These might serve as a specimen. If gentlemen had a curiosity to look into the matter further, they had only to consult the files.

Connecticut appoints an overseer for each tribe; he has the care and management of their lands; they are rendered incapable of contracting. In 1672, pow-wows were prohibited, and murders and sabbath breaking punished. In 1702, an act passed to punish Indians for drunkenness. Rhode Island renders them incapable of contracting. Suits for trespasses on their lands must be brought by the treasurer of the tribe. If residing in any town, and liable to become chargeable, they may be removed as paupers. They are allowed to take the poor debtor's oath.

Mr. W. proceeded to remark upon the actual condition of the Cherokees. These Indians joined the British in the revolutionary war. They were conquered, and peace dictated to them in 1777, when the treaty of Dewitt's corner was made, by which they admitted that they were a conquered people, and ceded all their country east of the Unakoi mountain. They again committed hostilities, and were again conquered in 1783, and terms of peace again dictated to them. It has been already shown that they continued to commit hostilities during the administration of General Washington, and after the treaty of Holston. They are now assumed to be a civilized people, and their constitution and their press are appealed to as evidence of the fact. Their constitution has barbarism distinctly stamped upon it. It is not destined to live. It has the Hippocratic countenance. The ancestral likeness evidently appears.

The fundamental principle is, that the land is to remain common and inalienable. This, of itself, is barbarism. Separate property in land is the basis of civilized society. Have not all the efforts of all our Presidents to civilize the Indians assumed this principle!

This constitution was the work of white men and half breeds. Its object was to throw the power of the tribe, the lands, the offices, the annuities of the tribe, into their Massachusetts enacts that," what lands any of the Indi-hands. Many of the old and full blooded Indians are dis

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