ned in the likeness of men. Here, as
elsewhere, Nature sticks to her old plan, and will not budge an inch. In
the chart of the Indian's nature are mapped out the same feelings,
instincts, passions, the same organs and dimensions as belong to the
highest race, or the highest race of the mixed races. She will have no
nonsense about her red children, nor about her black. There they are, as
she (for purposes of her own, not particularly clear) intended them to
be--men, alive, oh!--not descendants of Monboddo's ape, nor of Du
Chaillu's gorilla, but men proper and absolute! with their duties,
responsibilities, and destinies.

Seeing, therefore, that the Indian (our American Indian, with whom we
have now to do) has all the faculties--however defaced and blurred by
long centuries of bloody crimes, which they regard _not_ as crimes, but
as virtues--seeing that these red, thriftless, bloody-minded Indians
have all the human faculties intact--although, it may be, not so bright
as those of some of our own people who call themselves Americans--is it
not possible that by fair and manly dealing with them, by a just trade,
and conscientious regard for the sanctity of treaty rights and
obligations--that you, whom it may more particularly concern, might so
win their good will as to make them friends instead of enemies? The
devil that lies at the bottom of all savage natures is easily roused,
not at all so easily laid again, and as easily kept in his own place.
Indians are not incapable of friendship, nor of good faith, although the
best require a great deal of looking after--and close looking, too! But
what I want to urge is this: that if you always appeal to the worst
passions of the redskin, rob him of his rights and property, cheat him
by false promises, deceive him at all hands, and then mock him when he
knocks at your door for credit or charity, that he and his may live, you
cannot much wonder if, obeying his traditions, his religion, and the
dictates of his savage nature--now maddened into fury and reckless of
consequences--he indulges in the frightful havoc, the relentless murders
and burnings, which have so lately marked his trail in Minnesota.

Let no one suppose for a moment, from what I have now said, that I
design to offer any apology, any excuse for the nameless and
unpunishable crimes which these miscreants have perpetrated. I have no
pity and no compassion for them, and surely no word either which I
desire should be const