Page:The Red Man and the White Man in North America.djvu/55

Rh civilization against barbarism. The Indian tribes in what we call our national domain are now in the centre of a circle which is contracting its circumference all around them. Having passed through their successive relations of hosts, enemies, pensioners, and subjects of the white men, they are now the wards of the nation. The feeding, clothing, and the attempted process of civilizing them by fixed residence and labor, costly as the outlay is, is admitted on all sides to be less than the expense of fighting them.

In this general survey of the chief subjects which will come before us for fuller observation as we open them for relation or discussion in dealing with our large theme, we have glanced at topics several of which might well, for their interest and importance, form the matter of many separate volumes, — as indeed they have done. Just at this time, under the title of the “Indian Question,” our statesmen and philanthropists, our military men and our practical economists, have presented to them a subject of engrossing interest; and there is a strong pressure for a resolute and decisive dealing with it. The history of the past is reverted to only for its rebukes and warnings. What is in general terms impersonated as the conscience of the nation, — as if asserting itself for the first time in its full and emphatic authority, or lifting itself free of all the embarrassments of expediency and policy, — insists that time and opportunity favor the application of absolute justice, with reparation so far as is possible for the past, and wise and kindly protective benevolence at whatever cost for the future, in the relations between our Government and the remnant of the aborigines on our domain. But it is always difficult, if not impossible, to disengage an ancient grievance from its entail of follies, errors, and wrongs in the past, and to deal with it as if free of prejudiced and embarrassed conditions. In dealing with the present Indian question, it comes to us perplexed and obstructed not only by previous mistakes, but also by existing and impracticable covenants. New