Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 8.djvu/365

 RECOLLECTIONS OF AN INDIAN AGENT. 357 are compelled to admit that it has fallen lamentably short in the fulfilment of its promises. As all popular governments must be, ours has been swerved by the vox populi, which is not uninfluenced by merely selfish considerations that find their opportunity in maladjustments and war. There have not been wanting men to make known and resist such abuses, and others of an unofficial character; enough has been done to show that with more deliberation, a better knowledge of the Indian character, a proper regard for his beliefs and customs, and the cultivation of a more fraternal spirit, the advance of civiliza- tion would have proceeded without the horrors that have at- tended it. From the first, the treatment of the Indian by the white man is unexplainable except upon the assumption that he was so far inferior that he must not stand in the way of the latter and yield up to him everything to satisfy his avari- cious and lustful desires. We are so unconsciously in the habit of passing over the Indian as unworthy of notice that we speak of Christopher Columbus as being the discoverer of America, although millions of human beings had occupied the continent for untold ages. From that time onward the natives were considered legitimate objects of conquest and exploita- tion, and with the exception of the missionary work of the Christians, were so treated. History has no blacker pages than those relating the conquest of Mexico and Peru by the Spaniards, in which Dr. Draper says they extinguished a civilization scarcely inferior to their own. Our treatment of the Indian has been mild in comparison, still we have not re- garded him as entitled to equal rights with ourselves, not- withstanding our Jeffersonian principles. In this we erred as every experiment in fraternal treatment has proved. Lewis and Clark, guided by the humanitarian admonitions of Jefferson, passed the breadth of the continent unmolested and even welcomed by the so-called savages, numerous enough to have annihilated them at the commencement of the journey. With the Indian, as with other people, the exhibition of a kindly and just spirit goes far to bring about reciprocal senti- ment and makes for peace. And it may as well be said, that