Page:The Red Man and the White Man in North America.djvu/57

Rh course of action which will be practicable, effectual, and satisfactory. As, in dealing with realities and with human nature as it is, we have to recognize the facts which make up the whole of the conditions of any given problem to be disposed of, we have again to note, as directly and sharply bearing upon the present urgency of the Indian question, the fact already referred to, and to be in the sequel more deliberately considered, that there is another element besides statesmanship and philanthropy, which manifests itself not always in the discussion of, but in pronounced opinion and in strong feeling concerning, this question. Of course it would be impossible to estimate the number or proportion of the people of our country who hold the opinion and who cherish the feeling now in view; but we know that there are very many among us, and that they are very sturdy and unflinching in their conviction, who hold that the iron sway of mastery, the complete domination over the Indians, even if their absolute extermination follows, is the only solution of the problem. While such a stern and relentless conviction as this underlies, it may be, the opinions of some members of Congress, of many of our leading military officers, and of agents and superintendents of Indian affairs, as well as of reckless and unprincipled frontiersmen and miners, it is easy to infer to what extent statesmanship and philanthropy will find their schemes baffled. There can be no doubt that this desperate forecasting of the destiny of our aboriginal tribes has, latently or in avowal, swayed the minds of a vast number in each generation here, and has by no means been confined to those violent, merciless fighters and desperadoes who have done their utmost to carry out the presumed decree of fate. The Spanish invaders, as we shall see, assumed to be the agents of that destiny; but none the less did Puritan ministers of New England find prophecy and divine aid in alliance with their own firelocks and swords in helping it on to fulfilment. So far as under the pressure of