edient and every artifice; but the conquest of the territory
north-west of the Ohio appears to have been entered upon more from a
statesmanlike comprehension of the wants of the united and expanding
republic, than from the pressure of immediate danger. It was but natural
that the concentration of the fighting power of the States, the
consciousness of a common destiny, and the cession of the western
territory to the general government, should create an impatience of
Indian occupation which neither the separate Colonies nor the States,
struggling for independence, had felt. Yet even so we do not find that,
from 1783 to 1817, the United States did much more than meet the
exigency most nearly and clearly at hand.

In the latter year, however, the negotiations for a removal of the
Cherokees west of the Mississippi, although commenced under strong
pressure from the much-afflicted State of Georgia, and at the time
without contemplation of an extension of the system to tribes less
immediately in the path of settlement, mark the beginnings of a distinct
Indian policy. In 1825 the scheme for the general deportation of the
Indians east of the Mississippi was fairly inaugurated in the presidency
of Mr. Monroe; Mr. Calhoun, his secretary of war, proposing the details
of the measure. In 1834 the policy thus inaugurated was completed by
the passage of the Indian Intercourse Act, though large numbers still
remained to be transported West.

The features of this policy were first, the removal of the tribes beyond
the limits of settlement; second, the assignment to them in perpetuity,
under solemn treaty sanctions, of land sufficient to enable them to
subsist by fishing and hunting, by stock-raising, or by agriculture,
according to their habits and proclivities; third, their seclusion from
the whites by stringent laws forbidding intercourse; fourth, the
government of the Indians through their own tribal organizations, and
according to their own customs and laws.

This policy, the character and relations of the two races being taken
into account, we must pronounce one of sound and far-reaching
statesmanship, notwithstanding that an advance of population altogether
unprecedented in history has already made much of it obsolete, and
rendered necessary a general re-adjustment of its details.

The first event which impaired the integrity of the scheme of President
Monroe was the flight of the Mormons, under the pressure of social
persecutio