Jeffersonian Republican. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1840-1853, 1841-06-30

that he even can love and pity, and feel graf
ltude-that he is prone to alteration of the Grea
| Splrlt--that he possesses an imagination by
which he pictures fields of the blessed in pu
rer and more glorious world than this; that he
possesses the faculty of memory and judgment
and such combination of faculties as enabled
him to invent and initiate; that he is suscepti
bic of ambition, emulation, pride, vanity; tina
he IS sensitive TO honour and disgrace; and ne
cessarily has the clements of moral sense O
conscience. All these are granted as enterin!
into his aat5ye spiritual constitution.
For instances of those natural endoumentS
which, by culttUGti0n, gave TO the children o
civilization their great names and far-reachin&
fame, call to mind Philip of Mount Hope, whose
cOnsummate talents and skill made him the
white mans terror, by his display of those tai
ents and skill for the white mans destruction.
Call TO mind Tecumsoh, by an ndeservet
association with whose name one of the grea
men of your nation has obtained more of great
ness than he ever merited, either for his deed!
or his character. Call to mind Red Jacket, for
merly your neighbOur, with some of you friend
and familiar, of the same tribe with whom
have the honour TO be a humble member: TO have
been friend and familiar with whom none o
you feel it disgrace. Call to mind Osceola
the victim of the white mans treachery and
cruelty, whom neither his enemy's cunning Oh
arm could conquer on the battle field, and who
at last was consumed Gin durance vile," bv the
corroding of his own spirit. ain durance vile, ,
say, (bIot the fact from the records of that
damning baSenesS, of that violation of all law, of
all humanity, which that page of your nations
history, which contains an account of it, must
ever be-bl0t out the fact, | say, before you rise
up to call an Indian treacherous or cruel) Call
TO mind these and a thousand others, whom |
have not time to mention, and my point is gained
Here then the fundamental elements of the
best estate of human nature are admitted as eX-
listing in the natural constitution of the Indian.
The question now comes, are these elements
susceptible Of cultivation and improvement, so
as to entitle their possessors to the rank which
civilization and Christianity bestow?
For an instance of active pity-of deep ra-
tiona9, active pity, and the attendant intellectual
qualities, ask you to call to mind the story,
SurpGSsiag romance, of Pocahontas; she who
threw herself between a supposed inimical
stranger, and the deadly club which had been
raised, by the stern edict of her stern father
she begged fer the victims life-she obtained
his deliverance from the jaws of death, by ap-
pealing to the affections which existed in the
bosom fher father, savage as he was, and which
affections overcame the fell intent which had
caused him to pronounce the white mans doom.
From this time she received the instruction
imbibed the principles and sentiments; adopted
the manners and customs Of the whites; in her
bosom burned purely'a and nationally the flame
of love, in ACCORDANCE with the promptings of
which, she offered herself at the hymeneal al
tar, TO take the nuptlal ties with son of Chris
tian England. The offspring of this marriage
have been, ,glH pride, claimed as sons and citi-
zens Of the noble and venerable state of Vir-
ginia.
Ye who love prayer, hover in your magma
ton around the cot Of Brown, and listen to the
strong supplcaions as they arise from the fer
vent heart of CaIharine, and then tell me wheth-
er "the poor Indian whose untutored mind
sees God in clouds, and hears him in the wind"
IS not capable, by cultivation, of nationally COM
pretending the hue God, whose pavilion, though
1t be the clouds, still give,h grace even to the
humJlc
But perhaps am indulging TOO much in
Let me then refer to one more in
stance which covers the whole ground, and sets
the point under consideration beyond dispute.
The ill-slarred Cherokecs stand forth in colours
Of living light, redeeming the Indian character
rom the foul aspersions that it is not suscepti
Die of civilization and Christianizaton. In
most Of the arts which characterize civilized
lle, this nation, in the aggregate, have made
,apld and long advances, The arts of peace in
Ill their varieties, on which depend the COM
orts and enjoyments Of the enlightened, have
been practised and the results enjoyed by them.
The light ofrcvelation has beamed in upon their
souls, and caused them 10 exchange the blind
Worship of the Great Spirit, for the rational
Worship and service of the God of the Bible |
Schools have been established An alphabet |
'f the language invented by one of their own
nen: instruction sought and inparted and let
ers cultivated in their own as well as the Eng
sh language.
Hence many individuals have advanced even
the refinements Of civilized life, both in re-
pect TO their physical and intellectual condition.