civilized nations on the globe, have received
the same amount of considerate and benevolent and humane treatment, as
denoted by its laws, its treaties, and general administration of Indian
affairs, from the establishment of the Constitution, and this too, in
the face of the most hostile, wrongheaded, and capricious conduct on
their part, that ever signalized the history of a barbarous people.

In January, 1847, he married Miss Mary Howard, of Beaufort District,
South Carolina, a lady of majestic stature, high toned moral sentiment,
dignified polished manners, gifted conversational powers and literary
tastes. This marriage has proved a peculiarly fortunate and happy one,
as they both highly appreciate and respect each other, and she warmly
sympathizes in his literary plans. She also relieves him of all domestic
care by her judicious management of his household affairs. Most of her
time, however, is spent with him in his study, where she revises and
copies his writings for the press. She is the descendant of a family who
emigrated to South Carolina from England, in the reign of George the
Second, from whom they received a large grant of land, situated near the
Broad River. Upon this original grant the family have from generation to
generation continued to reside. It is now a flourishing cotton and rice
growing plantation, and is at present owned by her brother, Gen. John
Howard. Her sister married a grandnephew of Gen. William Moultrie, who
was so distinguished in the revolutionary war, and her brother a
granddaughter of Judge Thomas Heyward, who was a ripe scholar and one of
the signers of the Declaration of Independence. Although one of her
brothers was in the battle of San Jacinto, she is herself the first
permanent emigrant of her family from South Carolina to the North,
having accompanied her husband to Washington, D.C., where he has ever
since been engaged in conducting the national work on the history of the
Indians. To this work, of which the second part is now in the press,
every power of his extensive observation and ripe experience is devoted,
and with results which justify the highest anticipations which have been
formed of it. Meantime it is understood that the present memoirs is the
first volume of a revised series of his complete works, including his
travels, reviews, papers on natural history, Indian tales, and
miscellanies.

To this rapid sketch of a man rising to distinction without the
adventitious aid