this country, through all periods of their colonial history, treated and dealt with the Indians, is a subject of deep interest, and well worthy of the thorough and accurate examination of every person conversant with our laws and history, and whose bosom glows with a generous warmth for the honour and welfare of his country.

(5.) The settlement of that part of America now composing the United States, has been attended with as little violence and aggression, on the part of the whites, in a national point of view, as were compatible with the fact of the entry of a race of civilized men into the territory of savages, and with the power and *391 the determination to reclaim and occupy it. The colony of Massachusetts, in 1633, prohibited the purchase of lands from the natives, without license from the government; and the colony of Plymouth, in 1643, passed a similar law. Very strong and authentic evidence of the distinguished moderation and equity of the

Statutes of Connecticut, of 1672 and 1702, was to protect, civilize and Christianize the Indians, and this protection continues down to this day. Baylie's Historical Memoir, vol. ii. part 3. 23. Trumbull's History of Connecticut, vol. i. 342. Revised Statutes of Connecticut, 1821, 279, note. Ibid. 303. Chalmers' Political Annals, 398. As further evidence of the truth of the historical deductions mentioned in the text, we may refer to the king's proclamation of the 7th of October, 1763, after the treaty of Paris, founded on the immense acquisition of territory by England, under that treaty. It declared, "that the several nations or tribes of Indians with whom we were connected, and who live under our protection, should not be molested or disturbed in the possession of such parts of our dominions and territories, as, not having been ceded or purchased by us, are reserved to them, or any of them, as their hunting grounds." And all the lands and territories lying to the westward of the sources of the rivers which fall into the Atlantic Ocean from the west or northwest, were declared to be reserved under the king's sovereignty, protection and dominion, for the use of the said Indians; and all purchases, or settlements, or taking possession of any of the lands so reserved, without the king's special leave and license first obtained, were strictly forbidden." Dodsley's Ann. Reg. for 1763, 208.

46

New-England governments towards the Indians, is to be found in the letter of Governor Winslow, of the Plymouth colony, of the 1st May, 1676, in which he states, that before King Philip's war, the English did not possess one foot of land in that colony but what was fairly obtained, by honest purchase from the Indian proprietors, and with the knowledge and allowance of the general court." The New-England annals abound with proofs of a just dealing with the Indians in respect to their lands. The people of all the New-England colonies settled their towns upon the basis of a title procured by fair purchase from the Indians with the consent of government, except in the few instances of lands acquired by conquest, after a war deemed to have been just and necessary.b Instances are to be met with in the early annals of New-England, of regular and exemplary punishment of white persons, for acts of injustice and violence towards the Indians. The Massachu

■ Hazard's Collections of State Papers, vol. ii. 531-534. American Annals, vol. i. 383. Hubbard's Narrative.

Holmes'

b Holmes' Annals, vol. i. 166–169. 220. 231. note 4, 233. 245. 248. 259. 312. 317. Winthrop's History, vol. i. 259. Hazard's State Papers, vol. ii. passim. Massachusetts Historical Collections, passim. Trumbull's Hist. of Connecticut, vol. i. 113-117. Sullivan's Hist. District of Maine, 143— 149. Dwight's Travels, vol. i. 167. Baylie's Hist. Memoir, vol. i. 287. Statutes of Connecticut, passed in 1702, 1717 and 1722. We find in the Statutes of Connecticut, of 1838, special provisions enacted as late as 1834, 1835 and 1836, for the protection of the land of the Mohegan, Pequot and Niantic tribes of Indians within that state. So the Revised Statutes of Massachusetts, of 1835, contain exemption of the Indians within that commonwealth from taxation, and allow them some special privileges, and provision for the support of common schools among the Marshbee Indians; but all marriages between them and the whites are declared void. In Mississippi, by statute, 1829, all the privileges, immunities and franchises of white persons were extended to Indians, and they are competent witnesses in any case where white persons would be. Doe v. Newman, 3 Smedes & Marshall, 565.

C

Winthrop's Hist. of New-England, vol. i. 34. 267. 269. Baylie's Hist. Memoir, vol. i. 245-248. Morton's New-England Memorial, 207.

setts Legislature, in 1633, threw the protection of its
government over the Indians in the enjoyment of their
improved lands, hunting grounds and fishing
places, by declaring that they should have relief *392
in any of the courts as the English have.a

The government of the colony of New-York has a claim equally fair with that of any part of America, to a policy uniformly just, temperate and pacific towards the Indians within the limits of its jurisdiction. While the Dutch held and governed the colony, the Indian titles were always respected, and extinguished by fair means, and with the consent of the natives. This policy was continued by their conquerors; and on the first settlement of the English at New-York, in 1665, it was ordained, that no purchase of lands from the Indians should be valid without the governor's license, and the execution of the purchase in his presence; and this salutary check to fraud and injustice was essentially continued. Regulations of that kind have been the invariable American policy. The king, by proclamation, soon after the peace of 1763, prohibited purchases of Indian lands, unless at a public assembly of the Indians, and in the name of the crown, and under the superintendence of his colonial authorities. A prohibition of individual purchases of Indian lands, without the consent

Holmes' Annals, vol. i. 217, 218.

b Smith's Hist. of New-York, vol. i. 39. Duke of York's Laws, in the Collections of the New-York Historical Society, vol. i. Wood's Sketch of the First Settlement of Long Island, 12. 22, 23. Collections of the NewYork Historical Society, vol. i. 171. 211. 224. 227. 239. As evidence of the just and friendly disposition of the Dutch towards the Indians, we have the interesting fact, that the Minesink Valley, on the Delaware, was settled by Dutch emigrants as early as 1644; and being an industrious, quiet and pious people, and having purchased the lands from the Indians, they lived in uninterrupted peace and friendship with them for upwards of one hundred years. Preston's Notices of Minesink, published 1829.

of government, has since been made a constitutional provision in New-York, Virginia and North Carolina. The colonists of New-York settled in the neighbourhood

of the most formidable Indian confederacy known *393 to the country, *and came in contact with their possessions. But the Six Nations of Indians, of which the Mohawks were the head, placed themselves and their lands under the protection of the government of New-York, from the earliest periods of the colony administration. They were considered and treated as separate but dependent nations, and the friendship which subsisted between them and the Dutch, and their successors, the English, was cemented by treaties, alliances and kind offices. It continued unshaken from the first settlement of the Dutch on the shores of the Hudson and the Mohawk, down to the period of the American war; and the fidelity of that friendship is shown by the most honourable and the most undoubted attestations.b And when we consider the long and distressing wars in 1 which the Six Nations were involved, on our account, with the Canadian French, and the artful means which were used from time to time to detach them from our alliance, it must be granted, that the faith of treaties has no where, and at no time, been better observed, or maintained with a more intrepid spirit, than by those generous barbarians.c

■ Colden's History of the Five Nations, passim. Governor Pownall's Administration of the Colonies, 268-274. Journals of the Confederation Congress, vol. i. May 1, 1782.

The speech of the Indian Good Peter to the commissioners at Fort Schuyler, in 1788, is strong proof of the fact. He said, that "when the white men first came into the country they were few and feeble, and the Five Nations numerous and powerful. The Indians were friendly to the white men, and permitted them to settle in the country, and protected them from their enemies." Collections of the New-York Historical Society, vol. iii. 326.

• Colden's History of the Five Nations of Canada, dependent on the Pro

In New-Jersey, the proprietaries very early secured all their titles by Indian purchases; and all purchases to be made, *without the consent of the *395 government, were, by a law, in 1682, declared

men.

vince of New-York, vol. i. 84. et passim. Chalmers' Political Annals, 576. The confederacy of the Iroquois, or Five Nations, (and which was known as the confederacy of the Six Nations, after the Tuscaroras were admitted into the union,) might afford the subject of an historical sketch, in the hands of a master, replete with the deepest interest and curiosity. It was distinguished, from the time of the first discovery of the Hudson down to the war of 1756, for its power, policy and martial spirit. At the close of the seventeenth century that confederacy was computed to contain 10,000 fighting Burke's Account of the European Settlements in America, vol. ii. 193. But this was a very exaggerated computation, for, in 1677, an intelligent traveller, (Wentworth Greehalph,) who visited the Five Nations, computed the whole number of fighting men at 2150. In 1747, they were supposed not to exceed 1500. The great influence of Sir William Johnson is said to have collected only 1000 Indians for so exciting an expedition as that against Montreal, in 1760. Douglass' Summary of the British Settlements in North America, vol. i. 185, 186. Annual Register for 1760. Chalmers' Political Annals, 609. In 1763, according to a census then taken, the number of warriors of the Six Nations amounted to 1950. Stone's Life of Brant, vol. i. 86. note. The Five Nations, during the time of their ascendancy and glory, extended their dominion on every side, and levied tribute on distant tribes. They blockaded Quebec for several months, about the year 1660, with 700 warriors. Proud's History of Pennsylvania, vol. ii. 294. Hawkins' Quebec, 305. The Mohawks were the terror and scourge of all the New-England Indians, and those dwelling west of Connecticut river paid them tribute. Trumbull's History of Connecticut, vol. i. They extended their conquests down the Hudson to Manhattan Island, and subdued the Canarse Indians on the west end of Long Island. Wood's Sketch of the First Settlement of Long Island, 1824, p. 24. The Iroquois pushed their conquests to Lake Huron, and fought desperate actions with the Hurons and the Chippewas on the borders of Lake Superior; and Mr. Schoolcraft very reasonably attributes their superiority in war over the western tribes to their early use of fire-arms, instead of the bow and war-club. Charlevoix (Travels in Canada, vol. i. 152. 167. 171) speaks in strong terms of the power and fierceness of the Iroquois, who, as early as 1720, had almost extirpated the Algonquins, the Hurons, and other tribes of Canadian savages. Mr. Thompson, in his History of Long Island, New-York, 1839, p. 56, or at p. 78, vol. i. of his second edit. 1843, says, that the Iroquois, or Six Nations, were Algonquins, and that the Algonquin, or Chippewa race of Indians, embraced