OCR Text |
Show 1 mingling with the dust of a forgotten idolatry. School-houses abound, I and the feet of many thousand little Indian children--children intelli-gent and thirsting after knowledgeare seen every day entering these vestibules of science; while churches dedicated to the Christian's God, and vocal with His praise from the lips of redeemed thousands, reflect from their domes and spires the earliest rays and latest beams of that sun whose daily light now blesses them as five Christian and enlightened nations RO reuently heathen savages. The Cherokees, Choctaws, Chickasaws, Creeks, and Seminoles are the . tribes to which I refer. They are to-day civilized and Cluistianpeoples. lkue, f11ere are portions of each tribe still carryingwith them thc leaven of them ancestral paganism and superstition, but their average intelli-gence is very nearly up to the standard of like oommunities of whites. If any doubt this statement, I respectfully make profertof thedelegates of these tribes to be found in this city. As a bodv. the men renrescntine all these tribes in Washinhn mill con~p:~l r~~\ lo~' riat1l ,1l~n1 ;jlikoru 6l)t~rorfe presentative lueni~~oSutrn te lt~gial:~tnla.rnsd in ollr nntional (.'onpes.i, :IS resbjcrts hreadth aud rigor of 11;1ri\.ein tellet:t. th~~r-o u~.bol~f ce~sdst ivatialra. nd -~ro-nri c"t va udretine-meut of manners. I could refer to other tribes and parts of tribes, but those mentioned already will serve the purpose in view. Thus the f<wt stands out clear, well-defined, and indisputable, that Indians, not only as individuals hut as tribes, are capable of civilization and of christianization. Now if like causes under similar circumstances always produce like effect+which no sensible person will deny-it is clear that the applica-tion of the same causes, that have resulted in civilizing these tribes, to other tribes under similar circumstances, must produce their civilization. What leading or essential causes then, operated in civilizing the Cherokees and these other tribes? $he Cherokees lived on the borders of the white settlements for a ereat while. with a boundless wilderness I 1~:hindth em, to ahicl~t l ~ e ~ r e t ~ uaf.ttvlr e:ieh surc.essive ac1vauc.e of tho n.Ilit1.3, until at leuyrh they rt%icl~edt l ~ c~ ~ ~ o u n r a irneogi~~~msat ~ Si o rth C:rroliu;~.S o~l tCl~~ ~rolinG;~e.o r~i ;A~l,; <h~~uainl.d wl~ati xnon known as East ~ednessee. Here they remained for mhny years, until the enter-prise of the whites surrounded their possessions on all sldes, and began to press heavily upon their borders. Down to this period the Cherokees had made but small advance in civilization. They were still dependent largely on the chase-still clung to the habits and customs of their sav-age ancestors-and little change will be found to have taken place in t h e ~hr a bits of thought and life until the pressure of immigration on all sides compelled them to so reduce the area of their territory by succes-sive cessions of land, and so destroyed and drove away their game as to eomoel them to resort to apriculture and oastoral nurs~utsto save them- I ~~ ~ ~ selvbs t i t m I:~a~inr~. ~ r i e ; ~ lnrud~ a~tro~e~ l i -brr~t l l . l lb.~~w~i,trh otbue~ml~ t t11tl i~nl>ort:tnidt taa of i~~clivicluar li ~ l ~orrs 01 ' ye~.son;~prl operty, and t l~o norion of lived lord h;~l~ir:ltit~ont'n s,a le aud l)arrer, Protit and loss, &r. ('ontart aith the wl~ites errlernenru :ill ;~n ) n~c.udn t~rrueda nd fiistenud this new claw ot'idrus upon tl~enla,1 111* OOIrIe d t c d iu a comesp~~~~ding change of habits, customs, and manners. - . With this change of ideas and habits, when the ancient was strug-gling more and more feebly with the modern, when darkness was more and more fading away before advancing light, Christianity, under the labors of godly missionaries who had exiled themselvesfrom society and home for the love of God and souls, began to lay its foundations upon |