Let all our dealings with the redman be characterized by justice and good faith, and let there be the most liberal provision for h...is physical wants, for education in its widest sense, and for religious instruction and training. To do this will cost money, but like all money well expended, it is a wise economy.... If by reason of the intrigues of the whites or from any cause Indian wars come, then let us correct the errors of the past. Always the numbers and the prowess of the Indians have been underrated.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
In 1694 a law was passed "that every settler who deserted a town for fear of the Indians should forfeit all his rights therein." B...ut now, at any rate, as I have frequently observed, a man may desert the fertile frontier territories of truth and justice, which are the State's best lands, for fear of far more insignificant foes, without forfeiting any of his civil rights therein. Nay, townships are granted to deserters, and the General Court, as I am sometimes inclined to regard it, is but a deserters' camp itself.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
What journeyings on foot and on horseback through the wilderness, to preach the gospel to these minks and muskrats! who first, no ...doubt, listened with their red ears out of a natural hospitality and courtesy, and afterward from curiosity or even interest, till at length there "were praying Indians," and, as the General Court wrote to Cromwell, the "work is brought to this perfection that some of the Indians themselves can pray and prophesy in a comfortable manner."LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
[In the old religion of the Indians in New Mexico] the whole life-effort of man was to get his life into direct contact with the e...lemental life of the cosmos.... To come into immediate felt contact, and so derive energy, power, and a dark sort of joy. This effort into sheer naked contact, without an intermediary or mediator, is the root meaning of religion.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The impression made on me was that the French Canadians were even sharing the fate of the Indians, or at least gradually disappear...ing in what is called the Saxon current.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
It has been observed by another that the French Canadians do not extend nor perpetuate their influence. The British, Irish, and ot...her immigrants, who have settled the townships, are found to have imitated the American settlers and not the French. They reminded me in this of the Indians, whom they were slow to displace, and to whose habits of life they themselves more readily conformed than the Indians to theirs.... Thus, while the descendants of the Pilgrims are teaching the English to make pegged boots, the descendants of the French in Canada are wearing the Indian moccasin still.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
When the committee from Plymouth had purchased the territory of Eastham of the Indians, "it was demanded, who laid claim to Billin...gsgate?" which was understood to be all that part of the Cape north of what they had purchased. "The answer was, there was not any who owned it. 'Then,' said the committee, 'that land is ours.' The Indians answered, that it was." This was a remarkable assertion and admission. The Pilgrims appear to have regarded themselves as Not Any's representatives. Perhaps this was the first instance of that quiet way of "speaking for" a place not yet occupied, or at least not improved as much as it may be, which their descendants have practiced, and are still practicing so extensively. Not Any seems to have been the sole proprietor of all America before the Yankees. But history says, that when the Pilgrims had held the lands of Billingsgate many years, at length, "appeared an Indian, who styled himself Lieutenant Anthony," who laid claim to them, and of him they bought them. Who knows but a Lieutenant Anthony may be knocking at the door of the White House some day? At any rate, I know that if you hold a thing unjustly, there will surely be the devil to pay at last.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Firm, faithful, and devoted, full of energy and zeal, and truth, he labours for his race; he clears their painful way to improveme...nt; he hews down like a giant the prejudices of creed and caste that encumber it. He may be stern; he may be exacting; he may be ambitious yet; but his is the sternness of the warrior Greatheart, who guards his pilgrim convoy from the onslaught of Apollyon. His is the exaction of the apostle, who speaks but for Christ, when he says, "Whosoever will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me." His is the ambition of the high master-spirit, which aims to fill a place in the first rank of those who are redeemed from the earth--who stand without fault before the throne of God, who share the last mighty victories of the Lamb, who are called, and chosen, and faithful.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The Puritans, to keep the remembrance of their unity one with another, and of their peaceful compact with the Indians, named their... forest settlement CONCORD.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Notwithstanding the unaccountable apathy with which of late years the Indians have been sometimes abandoned to their enemies, it i...s not to be doubted that it is the good pleasure and the understanding of all humane persons in the Republic, of the men and the matrons sitting in the thriving independent families all over the land, that they shall be duly cared for; that they shall taste justice and love from all to whom we have delegated the office of dealing with them.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »