CHAPTER III.

THE PROJECT OF THE AMERICAN GOVERNMENT TO REMOVE THE INDIANS FROM THE EAST TO THE WEST OF THE MISSISSIPPI.

"OUR efforts to stand between the living and the dead, to stay this tide which is spreading around and over them, have long been fruitless, and are now hopeless." And who is so cruel, to reveal such a doom? Is it not enough for them to die, but must they die insulted? And insulted by those, who have forced them into the grave.

It was understood before the opening of the sessions of the Congress of the United States for 1829-30, that a large appropriation of money would be recommended by the President, and moved in Congress, for the removal of the Indians

*North American Review for January 1830. Removal of the Indians.

into unoccupied territories west of the river Mississippi; and that the decision of that question was destined to constitute a very important and momentous crisis in the history of that long abused race. If the appropriations should be carried, the measures consequent upon it were likely to exercise a controlling influence for the ultimate removal of all the Indian tribes on the east of the Mississippi to regions beyond. It was also understood, that the measure to be recommended would be vigorously contested, even to a doubtful issue. A great political question of the State of Georgia in relation to the Cherokees within her bounds, whom she was wishing to get rid of a question which unfortunately had compromised the policy of the national administration-was suspended on the result of these anticipated deliberations of Congress. So also the interests of two or three other States at the south were deeply merged in this question, within the limits of which large tracts of territory were still in possession of Indian tribes. Other wide and rich districts, in various parts of the Union, east of the Mississippi, still in the hands of the Indians, were also involved in the measure.

The expense of this removal of numerous and large tribes, and securing their comfortable

establishment in their new abodes, as may be imagined, would not be inconsiderable. And as this project had got to be the fixed and determined policy of the existing administration, a large appropriation of money by Congress was necessary to sustain the enterprise. Would the Congress of 1829-30 respect the recommendation of the President for this purpose?

Unfortunately for the Indians this question, by an unavoidable combination of circumstances, had become a party question, and arraigned in its ranks the supporters and opposers of the Government. It is remarkable, however, that that portion of the American public, who had been engaged in the benevolent plans for the melioration and improvement of the Indians, civilly and morally, were universally opposed to the policy of removal. The interested motives, the rashness, and the Utopian character of the enterprise stamped it at once, in the eyes of this class, with features of a dubious and portentous aspect, so far as the real welfare of the Indians was concerned. The hopes of the recent, more vigorous, and more efficient labours of the benevolent among the Indians east of the Mississippi, had just began to be realized. It was argued with apparent good reasons: that to break up and translate whole tribes, of diverse

languages and customs, and throw them together for the purpose of making one community, was not unlike the wild project of breaking up so many civilized nations, and jumbling them together in a distant and unexplored region, with the expectation, that they would readily amalgamate, and that their condition might be improved. Besides, the contemplated theatre of the experiment was already in possession, and encumbered with the rights of barbarous tribes from time immemorial. How were they to be satisfied? The country itself was unexplored — certainly too much so to risk a sudden occupation for such a responsible and momentous object. No one knew its resources, or susceptibilities, with any tolerable accuracy. Indeed reports of a very unfavourable character of its capabilities to support a population, depending on the culture of the earth, had been received from the remoter districts, contemplated to be occupied for this purpose. And certainly, it was argued, no man in his senses, and feeling a suitable responsibility, would think for a moment, of throwing together scores of Indian tribes, to quarrel and make an end of each other by their own dissensions; when the whole history of the race, if it proved any thing, proved, that, in their untamed condition, they could never endure a contiguity.

The project, in all points of view, by these opponents of the scheme, was deemed hasty.

As those interested in the removal of the Indians had contrived to make the question a party one-at any rate it became so-the great body of the people—of the nation—were taken by surprise; and the question was brought forward and urged to a decision before it was possible for the public to be adequately enlightened, and under such influences of party feeling, as utterly to disqualify them for a judgment on the abstract merits of the case. The mass of the people as yet knew little or nothing, as to what might be best for the Indians in relation to this question, and were generally innocent in adhering to the great political party, to which they severally belonged. In such circumstances, and under so sudden a proposal of this new measure, it was impossible, that the people, as a body, should be guided by the naked justice, or expediency of the proposal, because they were not sufficiently informed to decide upon it. And such substantially was the state of mind in Congress :-it was entirely a new question, and each one naturally fell into the ranks of his party, as it began to be agitated. It was not, that the nation, or Congress-it was not, that the mass of the dominant party-were