Smyrna times., 1857-08-26

terest. Ood is emphatlcaliy IN the History c
America But time will not allow a further il
f lusfaton of what appears to be truth tn
, most seIf-evldent, viz: God IS IN the History o
Nations.
f Smyrna, Aug. 1857.
Anci -,S Civilization sM lae U. States
A paragraph is going the rounds OF the news
papers. affirming that Grass kettle has beei
fOnnd, in Illinois, imbs.Gr' "a IA seau of btu
minous coal. WItiOnt b-.a. wiling to vouci
tor the correctness Of ths 4sI-. ~p thtnG Il ma,
now be considered demnnstratv'i, that the reC
man was not the aboriginal inhl 5l'ant Of Nortl
America, SGt that race prrecd, hun far su
perior in point of civilization. The pari"~t, Tor
tlfications of the Mississippi valley, the mound.
OF the Atlantic States, aud the utensils of meta
found buried everywhere, ire conclusive proof:
OF this fact In Europe, at lea, s...liar klndl
of evidence are regarded as indlSputaDle The
bronze swords which have been dag NJ from the
bogs of Ireland, and which are discovered all
over ancient Scandinavia, are accepted as GER
tam testimony that race of peuple once in
hablted those regions, different lrur, these llv-
ing there even ~ the earliest period of history.
a similar bronze period, anteceGeDt to the
knowledge of iron, appears to have existed ia
the United States. All the Oldest weapons ex.
humed on this continent are OF tins composite
metal. In the copper mines of the northwest
are indications of those mines having been
worked, long before Father Marquette visited
the Mississippi, perhaps before the red man
himself was denizen there.
The ordinary objection to this, that IL would
be impossible for such civilization to ma We
persisted, is founded on radical error. For
nothing is more conclusively established in his
tory, than that savage nations, wherever their
antecedents could be traced. have been found to
have been nations in retrograde condition, or
the cOnquerors and successors of such nations.
The whole of northern Africa, now principa lly
the prey of semi-barbarous tribes, was once as
civilized province as any in the world. After
the Romans aba ndoned Britain, the inha bltants,
even of the towns, sunk into state of compa-
rative savagery, from which they emerged only
after the lapse of centuries and in consequence
of new imDostation Of civilized ideas. The
great plain OF Mesopotamia once the seat of the
mighty Assyrian empire, is now almost desolate
the nomade Arab, and the wild ass of the de-
sert, sbaEing between them the vast and lonely
wastes. The old Egyptian civilization has per-
ished so utterly, that the miserable COpt, the
lineal descendant of that ancient dweller af the
Nile, is ignorant Of its first rudiments All the
facts of history cGrroborate the affirmatons Of
lIely Writ. that the earliest inhabitants. Of the
globe enjoyed comparatively high clvilizat ion,
and that savage nations are the wrecks of once
civilized peoples, and the fallen and degraded
remnants Of better and nobler types
| Of the character OF the pfimnrdlaI inhab
of these United States, the autOcbtones, as sci.
entIc writers call such sbor gines. it Is impos.
slble to speak certainly. The var"us theories
which have been projected, ONE assigning EN-
place among the Mongol trib = some describ-
ing them as the lost children of Israel, nrP all
alike unsupported by sufficient proof. We
know too little respecting the ancient popua.
tons Of these regions, either to firm or deny
what they were. From the faucny of thei
remains on the Atlantic coast, as compared will
those found in the valley OF the Mississippi. il
would seem probable, however, TINT their chic
seat of empire was in the west, and that they
entered America, If they immIgraled at all
from the direction of Asia. Tine, which vii
bring to light more of their utensils, will enu
BILE Investigators to approximate finally, per
haps, to the truth; but at present al Isia wasI,
to speculate as TO their race. rel glon, poIruca
institution or language. One tucl alone is IN
dIsputable, which is, that race, greatly super o
in the arts of life as well az in knowledge q
war to the Indians, an agricultural, or at leas
a pastoral, aud not hunter race, once nhabn
these United States But bow long ago thl
was no man can tell. Nor whether this pri
: mordisl race was extirpated by the red man, O
/, declined into him through long centuries Of de
J gradatiou. " Is" f.''
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