were deemed sufficient to sanction the hostilities of both; and
thus the poor wanderers of the forest were persecuted and
defamed, not because they were guilty, but because they
were ignorant.

The rights of the savage have seldom been properly
appreciated or respected by the white man. In peace he
has too often been the dupe of artful traffic; in war, he has
been regarded as a ferocious animal, whose life or death was
a question of mere precaution and convenience. Man is
cruelly wasteful of life when his own safety is endangered,
and he is sheltered by impunity; and little mercy is to be
expected from him when he feels the sting of the reptile, and
is conscious of the power to destroy.

The same prejudices which were indulged thus early, exist
in common circulation at the present day. Certain learned
societies have, it is true, with laudable diligence, endeavored
to investigate and record the real characters and manners of
the Indian tribes; the American government, too, has wisely
and humanely exerted itself to inculcate a friendly and for-
bearing spirit towards them, and to protect them from fraud
and injustice, ^* The current opinion of the Indian character
however, is too apt to be formed from the miserable hordes
which infest the frontiers, and hang on to the skirts of the settle-
ments. These are too commonly composed of degenerate
beings, corrupted and enfeebled by the vices of society, with-
out being benefited by its civilization. That proud indepen-
dence, which formed the main pillar of savage virtue, has
been shaken down, and the whole moral fabric lies in ruins.
Their spirits are humiliated and debased by a sense of in-

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