Elizabeth-Town gazette. [volume] (Elizabeth-Town, N.J.) 1818-1821, 1819-04-06
INDIANS.


The following feeling and eloquent
picture Of the wretched situation OF the
Indians, is extracted from Mr.. Hopkiu-
sons speech, on The Seminole war, and
IS perhaps the finest passage in the whole
speech, which yields in excellence to none
which that interesting subject has drawn
forth.
may say, howevers that presume the
origin of this war is the same with all our
Indian wars. 1t lies beyond the power of
eradication, in the mighty wrongs We have
heaped upon the miserable nations ofthese
lands. | cannot refuse them my heart-
felt sympathy. Reflect upon what they
we're; and look at them as they are.
Great nations dwindled down into wander
ing tribes; and powerful kings degraded
to beggarly Chiefs Once the sole pos
SCISSORS of Unreasonable wilds; it could
not have entered into their inaginatinns
that there was force on earth TO disturb
their possessions and overthrow their pow
er. 1t entered not into their imagination,
that from beyond that great water, which
to them was an impossible limit. there
would come race of beings to despoii
them Of their inheritance, and sweep them
from The earth. Three hundred years
have rolled into the bosom Of eternity.
since the white man put his foot on these
silent shores; and every day, every hour,
and every moment, has been marked with
some act of cruelty and oppression. Inn
posing on the creduliiy or the ignorance of
the aborigines, and oyerawing their fears
by the use of instruments OF death, of in
conceivable terror, the strangers gradually
Established themselves, increasing the
work of destruction, with the increase Of
their strength. The tide of civilization,
for so We call it, fed from its inexhansti-
BILE sources 10 Europe, as well as by its
own means of augmentation, sweIs rapid
ly and presses on the savage. He retreats
from forest 10 forest from mountain to
mountain, hoping, at every remove, he has
left enough for his invaders, and may enjoy
in peace his new abode.-But, in vain: il
is only in the grave, the last retreat Of
man, that he will find repose. He re-
cedes before the swelling waters; the cry
OF his complaint becomes more distant and
feeble, aud soon will be heard no more.
hear, sir, of beueficent plans for ciyiIiz-
ing he Indians, and securing their posses
sions to them. The great men who make
these efforts will have the appreciation of
God and their conscience; but this will
be all their success. consider the fate
of the Indian as inevitably fixed. He
must perish. The decree of extermina-
ton has long since gone forth; and the ex-
ecution of it is in rapid progress. Ava
rice, sir. has counted their acres /; and
power, their force; and avarice and pow
er march on together to their destruction.
You talk OF the scalping knife; what is
it to the liquid poison you pour down the
Threats of these wretched beings? You
deciaim against the murderous toHlahawk;
what is it. in comparison with your arms,
your discipline, your numbers The con-
test is in vain; and equally vain are the
efforts Of handful of benevolent men
against such combination Of force, slim
uiated by avarice, and the temptations of
wealth. When, in the documents on
YOUR tdOitb L see tudts HI luis triumphant
march of general jackson, he meets,
from time to time, (the only enemy he
saw groups of old men aud women, and
children, gathering on the edge of mo-
rass, their villages destroyed, their corn
and provisions carried of, houseless in
the depth of winter, looking for death, at
ternately, to famine aud the sword; my
heart sickens at scene so charged with
wretchedness. To rouse us from SYM
patby SO deep, so irresistible, We are told of
the scaping knife and the tomahawk Of
our slaughtered women and children.
We speak of these things, as if women
and children were unknown TO the Indi-
ans--as if they had 20 such beings a.
mongst them-no such near and dear re-
lations; as if they belong only to us. IL
is not SO. The poor Indian mother
in her miserable wigwam, or