t the wandering savage has a stronger attachment
to his home than the settled, civilized Christian? Is it more afflicting
to him to leave the graves of his fathers than it is to our brothers and
children? Rightly considered, the policy of the General Government
toward the red man is not only liberal, but generous. He is unwilling to
submit to the laws of the States and mingle with their population. To
save him from this alternative, or perhaps utter annihilation, the
General Government kindly offers him a new home, and proposes to pay the
whole expense of his removal and settlement.

In the consummation of a policy originating at an early period, and
steadily pursued by every Administration within the present century--so
just to the States and so generous to the Indians--the Executive feels
it has a right to expect the cooperation of Congress and of all good and
disinterested men. The States, moreover, have a right to demand it. It
was substantially a part of the compact which made them members of our
Confederacy. With Georgia there is an express contract; with the new
States an implied one of equal obligation. Why, in authorizing Ohio,
Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Mississippi, and Alabama to form
constitutions and become separate States, did Congress include within
their limits extensive tracts of Indian lands, and, in some instances,
powerful Indian tribes? Was it not understood by both parties that the
power of the States was to be coextensive with their limits, and that
with all convenient dispatch the General Government should extinguish
the Indian title and remove every obstruction to the complete
jurisdiction of the State governments over the soil? Probably not one of
those States would have accepted a separate existence--certainly it
would never have been granted by Congress--had it been understood that
they were to be confined forever to those small portions of their
nominal territory the Indian title to which had at the time been
extinguished.

It is, therefore, a duty which this Government owes to the new States to
extinguish as soon as possible the Indian title to all lands which
Congress themselves have included within their limits. When this is done
the duties of the General Government in relation to the States and the
Indians within their limits are at an end. The Indians may leave the
State or not, as they choose. The purchase of their lands does not alter
in the least their personal relations with the