Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 3.djvu/510

484 that to precipitate the large mass of them now into trials and responsibilities, which at best are just faintly dawning upon their minds, would be the greatest cruelty that could be inflicted upon them except, perhaps, extermination by the bullet. The result of such a measure cannot be doubtful. Having lost what pride and good qualities they possessed in their savage state, and not yet having acquired what civilization offers to fill the vacuum, they would at once become the helpless victims of the worst elements of the white population surrounding them. They would without fail in the shortest space of time be stripped of their little possessions. They would be condemned, as a race, to a life of vagabonds, paupers and beggars, of gipsies and pig stealers, and their women of something worse, a festering sore in society, carrying corruption wherever they would go, and a curse to themselves as well as to the white people among whom they would move. For we must not forget that the savage, when coming into contact with civilization unguarded and unguided, is but too apt first to acquire its vices instead of its virtues. Neither must we forget that a large portion of the white people of the West are by no means friendly to the Indians—just as the people of Massachusetts were not friendly to them in early colonial times—and that these Indians would not find them the kindest and most patient guides, if they were to take their chance among them unprepared.

This is no mere speculation. The fate of many Indians who have already been thrust among their white neighbors “to take their chance” with them without being sufficiently prepared, furnishes a warning example.

It must be evident, therefore, that the preparatory measures above pointed out—education, active work, settlement in severalty, fixed homes, property well secured to the individual—must precede their final absorption in the body of citizens, and that citizenship with its