The Sun.
London, England, 1831-01-04 00:00:00

re-eligibility of that officer, Intl upon the tenure of officers
eenerally. The reason still exists, and I renew the recom-
mendation, with an increased confidence that its adoption
will strengthen those checks by which the Constitution
designed to secure the independence of each department of
the Government, and promote the healthful and equitahle
administration of all the trusts which it has created. The
agent most liked, to contravene this design of the Consti-
tution is the Chief Magistrate. In order, particularly.
that his appointment may, as far as possible, be placed be-
yond the reach of any improper influences,—in order that
he may approach the solemn responsibilities of the highest
nffict in the gift of a free people uncommitted to any
other course than the strict line of constitutional duty,—
and that the securities for this independence may he ren-
dared as strong as the nature of power and the weakness
of its possessor will admit,—l cannot too earnestly invite
your attention to the propriety of promoting such an
amendment of the Constitution as will render him ineli-
gible after one term of service:
It gives me pleasure to announce to Congress, that the
benevolent pole), of the Government, steadily pursued for
neorly 30 years, in relation to the removal of the Indians
beyond the white settlements, is approaching to a happy
conclusion. Two important tribes have accepted the pro-
vision made for their removal at the last session of Con-
gress; and it is believed that their example will induce
the remaining tribes, also, to seek the same obvious ad-
vantages.
The consequences of a speedy removal will be important
to the United States, to individual states, and to the In•
/Hans themselves. The pecuniary advantages which it
promises to the Government are the least of its recom-
mendations. It puts an end to all possible danger of colli-
sion between the authorities of the General and State Go-
vernments, on account of the Indians. It will place a
dense and civilized population in large tracts of country
now occupied by a few savage hunters. By opening the
whole territory between Tennessee on the north, and
Louisiana on the south, to the settlement of the whites, it
will incalculably strengthen the south-western frontier,
and render the adjacent states strong enough to repel
future invasion without remote aid. It will relieve the
whole state of Mississippi, and the western part of Ala-.
b tma, of Indian occupancy, and enable those states to ad-
vance rapidly in population, wealth, and power. It will
separate the Indians from immediate contact with settle-
ments of whites—free them from the power of the states,
enable them to pursue happiness in their own way, and
under their own rude institutions—will retard the pro-
gress of decay, which is lessening their numbers, and
perhaps cause them gradually, under the protection of the
Government, and through the influence of good counsels,
to cast off their savage habits, and become an interesting,
civilized, and christian community. These consequences,
some of them so certain, and the rest so probable, make
the complete execution of the plan sanctioned by Congress
at their last session, an object of much solicitude.
Toward the aborigines of the country, no one can in-
du'ge a mare friendly feeling than myself, or would go
further in attempting to reclaim them from their wander-
ing habit:, and make them a happy and prosperous people.
I have endeavoured to impress upon them my own solemn
convictions of the duties and powers of the General Go-
vernment in relation to the State authorities. For the
justice of the laws passed by the States within the scope
of their reserved powers, they are not responsible to this
Government. As individuals, we may entertain-and ex-
press our opinions of their acts, but as a Government we
have as little right to controul them as we have to prescribe
laws to foreign nations.

With a full understanding of the subject, the Choctaw
and Chickasaw tribes have, with great unanimity, deter-
mined to avail themselves of the liberal offers presented
by the Act of Congress, and have agreed to remove be-
yond the Mississippi river. Treaties have been made
with them, which, in due eeason, will be submitted
for consideration. In negotiating these treaties, they
were made to understand their true condition ; and they
have preferred maintaining their independence in the
western forests, to submitting to the laws of the States
in which they now reside. These treaties being probably
the last which will ever be made with them, are cha-
racterised by great liberality on the part of the Govern-
ment. They give the Indians a liberal sum in considera-
tion of their removal, and comfortable subsistence on their
arrival at their new homes. If it be their real interest to
maintain a separate existence, they will there be at liberty
to do so without the inconveniences and vexations to which
they would unavoidably have been subject in Alabama and
Mississippi.
Humanity has often wept over the fate of the aborigines
of this country, and philanthropy has been long busily
employed in devising means to avert it. But its progress
has [never for a moment been arrested ; and one by one
have many powerful tribes disappeared from the earth. To
follow to the tomb the last of his race, and to tread on
the graves of extinct nations, excites melancholy reflections.
But true philanthropy reconciles the mind to these vicissi-
tudes, as it does to the extinction of one generation
to make room for another. In the monuments ,and for-
tresses of an unknown people, spread over the extensive
regions of the west, we behold the memorials of a once
powerful race, which was terminated or has disappeared to
make room for the existing savage tribes. Nor is there
any thing in this which, upon a comprehensi e view of
the general interests of the human race, is to be regretted.
Philanthropy could not wish to see this continent restored
to the condition in which it was found by our forefathers.
What good man would prefer a country covered with fo-
rests, and ranged by a few thousand savages, to our exten-
sive republic, studded with cities, towns, and prosperous
farms,—embellished with all the improvements which art
can devise, or industry execute,—occupied by more than
12.000,000 of happy people,—and filled with all the bless-
ings of liberty, civilization, and religion ?
The present policy of the Government is but a conti-
nuation of the same progressive change, by a milder pro-
cess. The tribes which occupied the countries now con-
stituting the Eastern States, were annihilated or have
melted away, to make room for the whites. The waves
of population and civilization are rolling to the westward;
and we now propose to acquire the countries occupied by
the red men of the South and Wept by a fair exchange,
and, at the expence of the United States, to send them to a
land where their existence may be prolonged, and perhaps
made perpetual. Doubtless it will be painful to leave the
graves of their fathers; but what do they more than our
ancestors did, or than our children are now doing? Tu
better their conditions in an unknown land, our fore-
fathers left all that was dear in earthly objects. Our
children by thousands yearly leave the land of their birth,
to seek new homes in distant regions. Does humanity
weep at these painful separations from every thing, animate
land inanimate, with which the young heart has become
entwined ? Far from it. It is rather a source of
joy that our country affords scope where our young
population may range unconstrained in body or in
mind. developing the powers and faculties of man in their
highest perfection. These remove hundreds, and almost
thousands of miles, at their own expence, purchase the
lands they occupy, and support themselves at their new
home from the moment of their arrival. Can it be cruel
in this Government, when, by events which it cannot
controul, the Indian is made discontented in his ancient
home, to purchase his lands, to give him a new and ex-
tensive territory, to pay the expellees of his removal, and
support him a year in his new abode? How many thou-
sands of our own people would gladly embrace the oppor-
tunity of removing to the West on such conditions ! If
the offers made to the Indians were extended to them, they
would be hailed with gratitude and joy.
And is it supposed that the wandering savage has a
stronger attachment to his home than the settled civilised
Christian ? Is it more afflicting to him to leave the graves
of his fathers, than it is to our brothers and•children ?
Rightly considered, the policy of the general Government
towards the red man is not only liberal but generous.
He is unwilling to submit to the laws of the States, and
mingle with the population. To save him from this al-
ternative, or, perhaps, utter annihilation, the general Go-
vernment kindly offers him a new home, and proposes to
pay the whole expense of his removal aryl settlement.
In the consummation of a policy originating at an eally
period, and steadily pursued by every Administration
within the present century, so just to the States, and so
generous to the Indians, the Executive feels it has a right
to expect the co-operation of Congress, and of all good and
disinterested men. The States, moreover, have a right to de-
mand it. It was substantially a part of the compact which
made them members of our confederacy. With Georgia there
is an express contract ; with the new States an implied one
of equal obligation. Why, in authorising Ohio, Indiana,
Illinois, Missouri, Mississippi, and Alabama, to form Con-
stitutions, and become separate States, did Congress in-
clude within their limits extensive tracts of Indian lands,
and, in some instances, powerful Indian tribes ? Was it
not understood by both parties that the power of the
States was to be co-extensive with their limits, and that,
with all convenient despatch, the general Government
should extinguish the Indian title, and remove every ob-
struction to the complete jurisdiction of the State Govern-
ments over the sail ? Probably not one of those States
would have accepted a separate existence—certainly it
would never have been granted by Congress--.had it been
understood that they were to be confined for ever to those
small portions of their nominal territory, the Indian title
to which hail at the time been extinguished.
It is therefore a duty which this Government owes to
the new States, to extinguish, as soon as possible, the In.