the State of Mississippi assimilated the Choctaws and Chickasaws
to the white population, and declared that any of them that should take
the title of chief would be punished by a fine of $1,000 and a year's
imprisonment. When these laws were enforced upon the Choctaws, who
inhabited that district, the tribe assembled, their chief communicated
to them the intentions of the whites, and read to them some of the laws
to which it was intended that they should submit; and they unanimously
declared that it was better at once to retreat again into the wilds.]

If we consider the tyrannical measures which have been adopted by the
legislatures of the Southern States, the conduct of their Governors, and
the decrees of their courts of justice, we shall be convinced that the
entire expulsion of the Indians is the final result to which the efforts
of their policy are directed. The Americans of that part of the Union
look with jealousy upon the aborigines, *v they are aware that these
tribes have not yet lost the traditions of savage life, and before
civilization has permanently fixed them to the soil, it is intended
to force them to recede by reducing them to despair. The Creeks and
Cherokees, oppressed by the several States, have appealed to the central
government, which is by no means insensible to their misfortunes, and
is sincerely desirous of saving the remnant of the natives, and of
maintaining them in the free possession of that territory, which
the Union is pledged to respect. *w But the several States oppose
so formidable a resistance to the execution of this design, that the
government is obliged to consent to the extirpation of a few barbarous
tribes in order not to endanger the safety of the American Union.

[Footnote v: The Georgians, who are so much annoyed by the proximity of
the Indians, inhabit a territory which does not at present contain
more than seven inhabitants to the square mile. In France there are one
hundred and sixty-two inhabitants to the same extent of country.]

[Footnote w: In 1818 Congress appointed commissioners to visit the
Arkansas Territory, accompanied by a deputation of Creeks, Choctaws, and
Chickasaws. This expedition was commanded by Messrs. Kennerly,
M'Coy, Wash Hood, and John Bell. See the different reports of the
commissioners, and their journal, in the Documents of Congress, No. 87,
House of Representatives.]

But the federal government, which is not able to protect the Indians,
would f