so with impunity? is she not furnishing foreign statesmen
with a ready and powerful argument in defence of their violating treaties
with her? can they not with justice say--America has manifested in her
proceedings towards the Cherokee nation, that she is faithless--that she
keeps no treaties longer than it may be her _interest_ to do so--and are
_we_ to make ourselves the dupes of such a power, and wait until she finds
herself in a condition to deceive us? I could produce many arguments to
illustrate the impolicy of this conduct; but as I intend confining myself
to a mere sketch, I shall dwell but as short a time as may be consistent
on the several facts connected with the case.

That the Aborigines have been cruelly treated, cannot be doubted. The very
words of the Message admit this; and the tone of feeling and conciliation
which follows that admission, coupled as it is with the intended injustice
expressed in other paragraphs, can be viewed in no other light than as a
piece of political mockery. The Message says, "their present condition,
contrasted with what they once were, makes a most powerful appeal to our
sympathies. Our ancestors found them the uncontrolled possessors of these
vast regions. By persuasion and force, they have been made to retire from
river to river, and from mountain to mountain, until some of the tribes
have become extinct, and others have left but remnants, to preserve for a
while their once terrible names." Now the plan laid down by the president,
in order to prevent, if possible, the total decay of the Indian people,
is, to send them beyond the Mississippi, and _guarantee_ to them the
possession of ample territory west of that river. How far this is likely
to answer the purpose _expressed_, let us now examine.

The Cherokees, by their intercourse with and proximity to the white
people, have become half civilized; and how is it likely that _their_
condition will be improved by driving them into the forests and barren
prairies? That territory is at present the haunt of the Pawnees, the
Osages, and other warlike nations, who live almost entirely by the chase,
and are constantly waging war even with each other. As soon as the
Cherokees, and other half-civilized Indians, appear, they will be regarded
as common intruders, and be subject to the united attacks of these people.
There are even old feuds existing among themselves, which, it is but too
probable, may be renewed. Trappers and hunters, in