offending and guilty watermen, the nature and extent of whose crimes decency forbids to mention. I do not, however, mean reasons of the same class; but reasons equally calculated to rouse the Indian's passions for revenge. It will not be understood, that I am glad for this war; that I would have recommended it. I speak only of the simple fact of provocation to such a nature and to such a mind, as that of the Indian(and he must be taken as he is)-I speak of provocation, of which I certainly know, that it could not have been wanting, and that of a very aggravating character.

From all I have been able to learn-and I have had opportunities to know not a little-of the injuries done to Indians, public and private, I have admired their patient and long and submissive endurance of the evils, inflicted on them. They dread war-and above all with the whites. If they venture upon it, as aggressors, it is morally certain, that they have been exasperated with provocation.

Such have been the uninterrupted series of injuries done to the Indians, and practised upon them, in the whole history of their connexions with the European race; and such is their deep and sullen sense of them; that, but for the consciousness of their own weakness, they might be

expected to rise at once and all together for the extermination of every white man from the continent. And should they undertake the hazardous and hopeless enterprise, the common notions of right and distributive justice among men, would fully sustain them.

But as it happens, every struggle they make, is a dying struggle. The vengeance, which falls back upon their heads, is sweeping and terrible. And at the opening of the next Congress, the President comes, bearing the flag of victory, and flourishing in his triumph, to announce the grateful intelligence, and to conclude the story of the tragedy, by saying: "Severe as is the lesson to the Indians, it was rendered necessary by their unprovoked aggressions!"

This late Indian war has furnished an apology, and presented an admirable opportunity, for clearing the whole North-West Territory of Indians, at a single dash. The surest and shortest way to get rid of the Indians, is to provoke them to fight. But when once their grave is made, let not their ashes be insulted by announcing to the world: that their aggressions were "unprovoked!"

It was the apprehension of losing their country, and of being forced away from the graves of their fathers an apprehension working and festering

in their minds for years, and not without reasonthat finally goaded these Indians to the desperate and fatal encounter; and the terms of peace were, that they should go beyond the Mississippi, to prevent which they hazarded the unequal war.

I have not made this extract from the Presi- . dent's message a text, for the sake of finding fault with him personally. It was natural to say some such thing in such a place; and no Government is expected to impeach itself in such a matter. Indeed, I have no doubt, that the President was perfectly honest in this statement, and that the community generally have been under the same impression.

It is not unknown, that the prescribed reports of the official agents of all Governments, are ordinarily smooth things; especially where a difficulty is to be encountered. I have happened to know so much of the terrible havoc made on the social and political rights of the American Indians, even by the agents of Government, that I repose very little confidence in the official reports of those agents. The world — the people of the country do not know-cannot know the truth. The poor Indians have nobody to show their

cause.

CHAPTER XVI.

THE REVENUE ACCRUING TO THE UNITED STATES FROM THE SALE OF INDIAN LANDS, and the DUTY OF APPROPRIATING THEM FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE INDIANS.

If the Indians are not to be benefited by a removal, who are? And how much? Provided there shall prove to have been no mistake in the grand speculation - a mistake, the results of which shall be found vested in the hands of that high and mighty Providence, who "ruleth in the hosts of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth," and who "putteth down one and setteth up another" of the nations and kingdoms of this world, it is not difficult to see, who are to be the gainers by this tragical game. In any case, the immediate acquisitions of territory and the means of wealth, to the citizens and the several commonwealths of the American Republic, and to the

nation itself, in consequence of the ejectment of the Indians from all their grounds east of the Mississippi, are immense are incalculable. I regret, that I have not the means of an exact measurement of the territories, which have been, and which are about to be, resigned by the Indians, in their unavoidable submission to this measure. I have, however, in my possession, a few data, by which we can come to estimates, sufficiently accurate for our present purpose. It is enough, that we can arrive at nearly the amount of territorial acquisitions, whether our assumed specifications shall be a little more, or a little less, than the facts of the case may ultimately prove.

I find from a statement in the North American Review, for October, 1830, that all the lands acquired and to be acquired by Georgia within her own limits, in consequence of her negotiations with the General Government, in 1802, are estimated at 25,000,000 of acres; that the major fraction, 20,000,000, had been actually acquired before the recent quarrel with the Cherokees; and that all this ado has been made to eject the Cherokees from the small residue of 5,000,000 of acres ! I do not know what amount is to be acquired, in the purchases principally made already by the General Government, of the tribes having held possessions in the States of Alabama,