not only for their abode, but for the administration of justice, and for religious worship. And when they have so done, you send your Agent, to tell them they must surrender their country to the white man, and re-commit themselves to some new desert, and substitute as the means of their subsistence the precarious chase for the certainty of cultivation. The love of our native land is implanted in every human bosom, whether he roams the wilderness, or is found in the highest state of civilization. This attachment increases with the comforts of our country, and is strongest when these comforts are the fruits of our own exertions. We have imparted this feeling to many of the tribes by our own measures. Can it be matter of surprise, that they hear, with unmixed indignation, of what seems to them our ruthless purpose of expelling them from their country thus endeared? They see that our professions are insincere--that our promises have been broken; that the happiness of the Indian is a cheap sacrifice to the acquisition of new lands; and when attempted to be soothed by an assurance that the country to which we propose to send them is desirable, they emphatically ask us, what new pledges can you give us that we shall not again be exiled when it is your wish to possess those lands? It is easier to state than to answer this question."

The following is a testimony to the same purpose from Mr. Calhoun. "Almost all of the tribes proposed to be effected by the arrangement, are more or less advanced in the arts of civilized life, and there is scarcely one of them, which have not the establishment of schools in the nation, affording at once the means of moral, religious, and intellectual improvement. These schools have been established for the most part by religious societies, with the countenance and aid of the government, and on every principle of humanity the continuance of similar advantages of education ought to be extended to them in their new residence. There is another point which appears to be indispensable to be guarded, in order to render the condition of this race less afflicting. One of the greatest evils to which they are subject, is that incessant pressure of our population, which forces them from seat to seat, without allowing time for that moral and intellectual improvement, for which they appear to be naturally eminently susceptible. To guard against this evil, so fatal to the race, there ought to be the strongest and the most solemn assurance, that the country given them should be theirs, as a permanent home for themselves and their posterity, without being disturbed by the encroachments of our citizens."*.

The following is another testimony from Col. McKenney in regard to the increasing civilization and Christianity of the Southern tribes. "The present system, whilst it maintains the dignity and purity of moral and religious instruction,keeps also in constant operation the means which are now leading so many Indians to an acquaintance with the domestic arts, with mechanics, and with agriculture. It has been by the union of these, aided, it is true, by the absence of game, that the present system for civilizing the Indians has, in the course of a very few years, produced such a striking change in the habits and practices of several of the tribes, among whom it has been put in operation. Upwards of eleven hundred children, as has been shewn in my report of the 30th ultimo, are now having imparted to them, and successfully too, the blessings of civilized and Christian life, whilst the older Indians, struck with its transforming effects, are themselves practising, to a very great extent, the lessons which they receive from their more fortunate offspring; and, in proof of their admiration of it, have

*We need scarcely remind our readers that "the strongest and the most solemn assurance" of this nature has already been repeatedly given to the Cherokees and other Southern tribes in regard to their present home; and how could it be made stronger or more solemn in regard to another residence.

in many instances, contributed from their own scanty resources to its support. Several tribes have placed, at the disposal of the superintendents of the schools, under the direction of the General Government, large annuities. The Choctaws have allotted twelve thousand dollars of their means, per annum, for nearly twenty years, towards the support of this system; and the Chickasaws have given one year's annuity, amounting to upwards of thirty thousand dollars, as a fund for the same object.

The Cherokees on this side the Mississippi are in advance of all other tribes. They may be considered as a civilized people. Their march has been rapid."

At the commencement of the same document from which we have extracted the above, Col. McKenney remarks; "the effects of the present system for civilizing the Indians are, every where, within the limits of its operation, salutary. The reports from the schools all testify to its excellence."

From several pages which Mr. McCoy devotes to an exhibition of the improvements among the Southern tribes we select the following passage.

"It is certain that the attachment of the Indians to a hunter's life is not so obstinate but that they will voluntarily exchange it for a better, whenever they become situated where the love of life, and the hope of enjoyment, can be cherished in their bosoms. This has been the case with the Cherokees, and some others of the south who have adopted habits of civilized life.

"It was not merely the diminution of the wild game which induced those southern Indians to abandon the chase, for hundreds of them are now decently farming on the west side of the Mississippi, contiguous to good hunting grounds. They have adopted civilized habits because of their superior advantages to the hunter state. These people have readily enough relinquished attachments to Indian habits, not because their prejudices were originally less obstinate than those of other tribes, but because they happened to be situated where their hopes of enjoying the fruits of their labors were more encouraging than those of their more unfortunate northern brethren.

"To the concurrent testimony of all who are engaged in the labor of Indian reform, I add my own unqualified assertion, resulting from an experience of more than nine years actual residence in the Indian country, that there exists among our Indians no attachment to any pernicious manners or customs, that will not yield to sound argument, righteous example, and the offer of a better condition."

In regard to this subject the Editors of the Missionary Herald remark very justly,

"Much of the influence of the schools, it should also be remembered, is prospective. It is not yet seen; and will not be, until those, who during the last ten years have been children in the schools, become old enough to be the active men and women in the nation. Probably ten times as many of the generation, who will be engaged in the active business of life ten years hence, will be able to read, and be influenced by a knowledge of the Gospel, as were possessed of this ability and this knowledge in the generation engaged in active business ten years ago. All this influence is progressive. Every enlightened, industrious, and enterprising Indian, becomes, as a matter of course, an example, to all his brethren around him, of the practicability of improving their condition; and, to a greater or less degree, an active promoter of their improvement. Much influence of this kind has been exerted by Indians on one another."

We wish our readers to reflect candidly on the consequences of the probability, which we have marked in Italics. Let them remember

the influence, which the comparatively few, who have hitherto been educated, have exerted already on the character of the nation, especially that of the Cherokees. Let them remember that this influence will still continue to spread, while there will be added to it the influence of a much larger number of educated Indians, (a number increasing each year) who will leave the schools annually for ten years to come. Let it be remembered that in the mean time a large proportion of those, whose attachment to old habits of life is most inveterate, will have passed away, while their places are filled by those whose habits have been formed in a greater degree under the influence of civilization and Christianity; that the number of schools and missionary stations will also be increased, while the obstacles which have impeded their success are daily diminishing;-let all these circumstances be considered without prejudice, and none can help acknowledging that there is the fairest prospect of the full and perfect civilization of the nation of the Cherokees, and that too at no distant period of time. Provided that they be left to the undisturbed power of the causes now in operationthat they be not broken up and driven off to the wilds beyond the Mississippi, nor left to suffer from the oppression of the State of Georgia -we think there exists the most rational ground for such a conclusion, not merely in regard to this tribe, but, at a somewhat more distant interval, in regard to their neighbors, the Choctaws, Chickasaws and Creeks.

The statements we have exhibited will probably be met with incredulity in the minds of not a few, and with absolute contradiction on the part of others. There seems to be a deep rooted superstition (we know not what else to call it) in many minds, that the Indians are really destined, as if there were some fatality in the case, never to be christianized, but gradually to decay till they become totally extinct. This superstitious idea is equally irrational and unchristian; and it is every man's duty to examine facts with an unprejudiced mind, and to give accredited statements their true weight.

As to the proceedings of Congress on this subject, it is most evidently the duty of that body to learn the truth, from eye witnesses who are competent to decide, who have had intimate and personal acquaintance with the character of those tribes, whose welfare would be so deeply affected by the measures which have been proposed in regard to them. Those who hold the destiny of these tribes in their power cannot be too humane, too deliberate, nor too cautious in their decisions. They should never rest satisfied with second-hand information, nor with the declarations of interested men.