The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1886-11-27


of reside in township equal to Rhode
! Island and Delaware put together, with
out Justice of the Peace nearer than
thirty miles, in general. And what do
they or can they know Of appeals and
county courts? Or, if they did know,
who would plead their cause ?' The
lands thus occupied by these Indians
had not been patented to them in sew
eralty;" but were included in large
grants made by the king of Spain OF by
Mexico, to retired soldiers, or to others
as rewards for services rendered. They
were grants within grants, and both by
Spain and Mexico, had been considered
far more important than the large tracts
which enclosed them; and by the laws
they were to be protected by such en-
closing tracts, as pictures are protected
by frames. Other laws, which, at this
period, disgraced the statute-book of
California, rendered this State law
wholly imperative. If the Indians were
dispossessed of their land, they were not
allowed to be witnesses as to breaches
of the law, except for or against each
other; they were not privileged to tes-
| tify against white man their little
property was taxed beyond their power
of payment all Indians found intoxi-
Gated, and liquor was supplied them
in abundance,-were sold to the high
est bidders to work out an imposed fine,
and they were paid half only of white
mans wages; and all Indians found
without passes, either from the alcalde
of the Puebos, or from their masters,
were to be treated as horse-thieves and
enemies. Fourteen years after the pas
sage of the Secularization act, when
California was coded to the United
States, many of the Indians still re-
manned upon small tracts of land, not
exceeding fifty or hundred acres each.
Following upon this date (1S48), some
sold to the INSCRIPTIONS white settlers
for trivial considerations many left
because their rights of property and
personal rights were constantly disre-
| garded others were driven away by
threats of violence and speculation,
lawsuits, fraud, and force completed
the destruction of their homes. They
had been good citizens, except the right
to vote, and be witnesses where whites
were concerned and they were anx-
iOus to retain their hold upon civiliza-
ton. But what simple-hearted people
could stand against the Americans
greed of power and gold?
The Indians had left, at the call of
the Fathers, the only condition of life
they had ever known, a life of almost
unlimited freedom; and it is an ak
iomatic supposition that the nature of
their intercourse with the Fathers was
of such character, that they had little
or no inclination to return to the wild
life of the tribal relation. Their Opin-
ions Of, and feelings toward the whites
had been reached through the avenues
of an enlightened consideration. While
their treatment by the Fathers, was, of
necessity, strictly disciplinarian, it was
yet characterized by patriarchal care
and unfagging interest. 1t did not
take long to fad the Indians strong
sense of justice, and matters were reg
ulated accordingly. The Indians ad-
hered to the truth under all circum-
stances, the Fathers must necessarily
have lived the truth. In no other ways
could they have established so firm a
hold upon their affection and loyalty.
The white mems laws were, to them,
synonymous with truth and justice.
They had yet to learn that they could
be made so as to agree equally with
barbarity and cruelty. Living thus
peaceably, when they were driven from
the missions, they were as sheep with
out shepherd. Aud how were they
to know into what barren pastures the
white mems secular laws would fence
them in? With what establishment,
and with what smart of injustice they
must have looked on, while one of their
number reeled side by side with white
man on their way to court; the Indian
to be fined and sold to the highest bid
der to work out his fine; while the
white man was not only not punished,
but was, perhaps, the bidder for the
services which the Indian must render
to satisfy the law. A white man could
give liquor to an Indian and then, al
though drunk himself, bid him in to
work out his fine. 1t reads like fable
from the age of myths; but instead 1t
is a fact, lived in the nineteenth CEN
tury; envioroned with no circumstance
of necessity to make it less degrading
and cruel.
THIRTEEN GREAT MISTAKES.
To yield to immaterial trites.