Page:The Red Man and the White Man in North America.djvu/553

Rh they were destined to extinction, and, although he would never use or countenance inhumanity towards them, he did not think them, as a race, worth preserving. He considered them as essentially inferior to the Anglo-Saxon race, which were now taking their place on this continent. They were not an improvable breed, and their disappearance from the human family will be no great loss to the world. In point of fact they were rapidly disappearing, and he did not believe that in fifty years from this time there would be any of them left.

“Governor Barbour was somewhat shocked at these opinions, for which I fear there is too much foundation.”

More than the fifty years which Mr. Clay allowed for the disappearance of the Indians have now expired. Still there are “some of them left.” But the experience of all the intervening years in our dealings with them; the steady opposition of one or another tribe as reached by the successive advances of civilization; the discomfiture and failure of such efforts as have been made in their behalf through treaties, agencies, pensions, and missions; the opening of new hostilities with them in each decade of time; the events of this passing year, and, it may be added, the well-nigh universal opinion founded upon these facts, — authenticate the concise judgment of President Adams on the frank avowal of Mr. Clay, “I fear there is too much foundation” for these views.

Our national archives, Congressional and Departmental, our religious and philanthropic historical documents, will indeed, as before stated, furnish overwhelming evidence of an unbroken series of efforts, thoughtfully and humanely planned, earnestly endeavored, patiently pursued, and labored for with enormous cost, to protect, to benefit, and elevate the Indians. With no considerable exceptions to the sweep of the sentence, we have to say that they have all been thwarted. There are those who feel that a deep burden of reproach rests upon our nation on this account. The large majority of our people, however, have always