le to its success than, perhaps, ever
occurred upon earth. Let us no less admire the candor with which
they relinquished it, upon discovering its irremediable inefficacy.
To found principles of government upon too advantageous an estimate
of the human character is an error of inexperience, the source of
which is so amiable that it is impossible to censure it with
severity. We have seen the same mistake, committed in our own age,
and upon a larger theatre. Happily for our ancestors, their
situation allowed them to repair it before its effects had proved
destructive. They had no pride of vain philosophy to support, no
perfidious rage of faction to glut, by persevering in their mistakes
until they should be extinguished in torrents of blood.

As the attempt to establish among themselves the community of goods
was a seal of that sacred bond which knit them so closely together,
so the conduct they observed towards the natives of the country
displays their steadfast adherence to the rules of justice and their
faithful attachment to those of benevolence and charity.

No European settlement ever formed upon this continent has been more
distinguished for undeviating kindness and equity towards the
savages. There are, indeed, moralists who have questioned the right
of the Europeans to intrude upon the possessions of the aboriginals
in any case, and under any limitations whatsoever. But have they
maturely considered the whole subject? The Indian right of
possession itself stands, with regard to the greatest part of the
country, upon a questionable foundation. Their cultivated fields;
their constructed habitations; a space of ample sufficiency for
their subsistence, and whatever they had annexed to themselves by
personal labor, was undoubtedly, by the laws of nature, theirs. But
what is the right of a huntsman to the forest of a thousand miles
over which he has accidentally ranged in quest of prey? Shall the
liberal bounties of Providence to the race of man be monopolized by
one of ten thousand for whom they were created? Shall the exuberant
bosom of the common mother, amply adequate to the nourishment of
millions, be claimed exclusively by a few hundreds of her offspring?
Shall the lordly savage not only disdain the virtues and enjoyments
of civilization himself, but shall he control the civilization of a
world? Shall he forbid the wilderness to blossom like a rose?
Shall he forbid the oaks of the forest to fall befo