this would have been the choice of the whole Indian race if the policy of the Governmcnt had permitted it!

It is not just to consider the natives of tlis country as a dis tinct and inforior race becase they do not generally imitate us, when we not only remove every consideration that could induce them to do so, bnt in fact render it impossiblo. What motivo of ambition was there to stimulate them to cffort, when they were made to feel that they leld their country as tenants at will, liable to be driven off at the pleasure of their oppressors?

"As soon ns they were brought to a situation in which neces sity prompted them to industry, and induced them to bogin to adopt our manncrs and habits of life, the covetous eye of the white man was fixcd on their incipicnt improvements, and they reccived the chilling notice that they must look clsewhere for permanent homes

"At the time our scitiements were comnencing norlh-west of the Ohio, the Indiaus were its acknowledged owers and sover cigns; the Government claimcd no right either of occupancy or soil, except as they obtained it by purchase."

(On the 31st of July, 1708, the United States Commissioners said to the assembled cliefs of the North-western tribes, in a council held at the home of one Captain Eliott, on the Detroit River "By the oxpress autlhority of the President of the Unitcd States, we acknowledge the property, or right of soil to the great coun try ahove described, to bo in the Indian nations as long as they desire to occupy it; we claim only the tracts before particularly mentioned, and the right of pre-emption granted by the King, as before explained.")

The entire country from Pennsylvania to the Mississippi was adumilted to be theirs, and a more delightful, fertile valley cannot be found on the earth. *

"Unconscious of the ruinous consequences that were to follow their intimacy with white men, they ceded to the American Gov crnment large and valuablo portions, of the country at nominal prices. Those lands were rapidly settled by Americans, in whose purity and friendship the unsuspceting natives lhad great coui dence; nor did they awake from that delusion till their habits of sobriety and morality had been undermined, and the vices en gendered by intemperance and idleness had contaminated every tribe,***

Their subsistence became precarious; their health declined their self-respect, their dignity of character, and the heroism in-