St. Charles City Republican intelligencer. [volume] (St. Charles City [Charles City], Iowa) 1857-1861, 1857-11-26
ddtst1aro t9e Gourst Of empire takes its dolap."
UIATI SCITLFTO

( va 'dNc .oupcIloI arc HiclCdtlpnS OF
those mines having been worked long
before Father Marquette visited the
Mississippi perhaps before the rcd
man himself was denizen there.
The ordinary objection to this, that
1t would be impossible for such a civil
llzation to have perished, is founded
on radical error. For nothing is
more conclusivcly established in his
tory, than that savage nations, where
ever their antecedents could be traced.
have been found to have been nations
IN rctrogradc condition, or the con-
querors and Successors of such nations.
The whole of Northern Africa, now
principally the prey of semi-barbarian
tribes, was once as civilized a PROV
ince as any in the world. After the
Romans abandoned Britain, the in
habltants, even of the towns, sunk into |
state Of comparative savagcry, from
which they emerged only after the |
lapse of centuries, and in consequence
OF new importation Of civilized ideas. |
The great plain of Mesopotamia, once
the seat of the mighty Assyrian en-
pire, is now almost dcsolatc the no.
made Arab, and the wild ass of the
desert, sharing between them the vast
and lonely wastes. The old Egyptian
civilization has pcrishcd so utterly |
that the miserable Copt, the lineal de-
sccndant Of that ancient dweller of
the Nile, is ignorant of its first rudi-
mcnts. All the facts of history cor
roboratc the atfirmations of Holy Writ.
that the earliest inhabitants Of the
globe enjoyed a comparatively high
civilization, and that savage nations
are the wrecks of once civilized peo-
pies, and the fallen and degraded rem
nants Of better and nobler types.
Of the character of the primordal
inhabitants Of these United States. the
antochtoncs, as scientific writer's call
such aborigincs, it is impossible to
speak certainly. The various theories
which have been projected, some as
signing them a place among the Mon
gol tribes, some describing them as
the lost children of Israel, arc all alike |
unsupported by sufficient proof We
know too little respecting the ancient
populations Of these regions, either to
affirm or deny what they were. From
the paucity of their remains on the
Atlantic coast, as compared with those
found in the valley of the Mississippi,
it would seem probable, however, that
their chief seat of empire was in the
West, and that they entered America,
if they migrated at all, from the drec-
ton of Asia. Time, which will bring
to light more of their utensils, will
enable investigators to approximate
finally, perhaps, to the truth 4; but at
present it is waste of words to spec
ulate as to their race, religion, politi-
cal institutions, or language.
One fact alone is indisputablc,
which is, that race, greatly superior
in the arts of life AS we'll as in knOWl- |
edge of war to the Indians, an agri- !
cultural, or at least a pastoral, and
not a hunter race, once inhabited these
United States. But how long ago
this was, no man can tell. Nor whctl-
er this primordial race was cxtirpatcd
by the red man or declined into him
through long centuries of degradation.