Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1852-04-03

stinct nay more, it is p5nt Of honor and duty His
pride sets vi language a. defiance He oathes the thought
OF coercion and few Ut his have stopped 70 s
charge meIia Office wild love Of liberty, an utter
intolerance OF control lie at the basis Of his character
and re his whole existence Yet in spite Of this naughty
independence he sa devout hero worshipper and high
achievement in policy touches q chord 70 which
his nature never fails to respond He looks up with ad
mirng to the sages and heroes Of his ana
it is this principles joined to the respect for age which
springs from the patrsrchal element In his social systen
which, beyond Al Others contributes union and harmony
lin u 81 w ! Sss sS lsss ss passion "a
e s.sy " III lI} W 'eld 80 s.'''.s' -
pissas..s .4:s~.asry "a ~ Es Is he Is, and few
Of mankind brsser, Ne ~1ve his passion by Q
secret stab rather than open blsw His warfare full
of ambuscade and sratagem and he never rushes into
battle with that joyous seabandonment with which the
warriors Of the Gothic flung themselves into the
ranks Of their enemies In his feasts and his drinking
bouts find Of that robust and fulltoned mirth
which regned at the rude carousals Of our barbaric
cestry He is oval in his cups, and maudlin
maniaca rage is the sole result of his potaons
"Over all emotion he throws the veil Of iron self
control, originating in peculiar form of prde and fos-
tered by rigorous discipline from childhood upward He
is trained to conceal passion and not subdue it. The
nscrutable warrior is aptly maged by the hackneyed
figure of volcano covered with snow; and no
say when where the wildfre will burst forth This
shallow selmasery to give dignity to public deli
beraton and harmony to social life. Wranging and quar-
rel strangers to Indian dwelling and while an
sembly OF the ancient Gauls garrulous convoca
ton of magpies Roman Senate might have taken les
from the grave soemnity Of Indian council In the
midst of his family and friends he hides affections, by
nature Of the tender under mask icy cold
and in the torturng fires Of his enemy the naughty
sufferer maintains to the last his look of grim defiance
His intellect is peculiar his moral organization
Among all savages the powers Of perception preponderate
those Of and analysis but this is espe
cally the with the Indian An acute judge Of cha
racter at least Of such parts of it his experience
abes him to comprehend keen to proverb in all exer
cises OF and the chase he seldom traces effects to
their causes or follows out actions to their remote results
Though close observer of external nature he
attempts to account for her phenomena than he involves
himself in the most ridiculous absurdies and quite
content with these puertes he has not the least desire
to push his inquiries further His curiosity, abundanty
active within its circle is dead to all things
else and to attempt rousng it from its torpor is but
bootess task He seldom takes cognzance of general
abstract ideas and his language has scarcely the power
to express them except through the medium of figures
drawn from the external world, and often highly pic
uresque and forcble The absence of reflection makes
him grossly improvdent and units him for pursuing
complicated scheme of war or policy.
Some races of men seem moulded in wax, soft and
melting at plastic and feeble Some like some
metals combine the greatest fexbty with the greatest
strength But the Indian is hewn out of rock. You
cannot change the form without destruction of the sub
stance Such at least has too often proved the case
s q energy have power q @ :,
this fixed and rigid quality which has proved his He
win not learn the arts of civilization and he and his forest
must perish together The STERN unchangng features of
his mind excite admiration from their very immuta-
biity and look with deep interest the fate of this
rreclamable of the wilderness, the child who will
not be weaned from the breast of his rugged mother And
interest increases when discern in the unhappy
wanderer, mingled among his vices the germs of heroic
vruesa hand bountu to bestow, as it is rapacious to
seize, and, in EXTREMIST famine, impartng its last
morsel to fellow-suferer; heart which, strong in
friendship in hate thinks il not too much to lay down
life for its chosen comrades soul true ots idea OF
honor and burning with unquenchabe thirst for great
ness and renown.
The imprisoned lion in the showman's cage differs
not more widely from the lord Of the desert than the beg
carly equenter Of frontier garsons and dramshops diff
fers from the proud denizen of the woods 1t is in his
native wilds alone that the Indian must be and
studied Thus to depict him is the aim Of the ensuing
history and if from the shades of rock and forest the
savage features should look grmy FORTH is because
the clouds Of tempestuous have cast upon the pic
ture their murky shadows and lurid fires"