to elicit its products by labor. We are held accountable for our intelligence to be directed reasonably, to subdue the earth, that is, all that which contravenes its productiveness and well-being. Consequently, every thing, and existence of an animated nature, having serviceable qualities, cannot escape our attention, either in animals or progressive existences of colors, nearing humanity.

The day may not be distant, when the Ape tribes, now so useless to man in his progressive state, will be taught some useful avocation;-such as the picking of cotton and the like occupations, of which they are fully susceptible by imitation. And if this should

ever take place in the progress of labor within the tropics, by their being caught, reclaimed from their wild state, and taught to labor in the fields, like those who are a scale higher, or those a scale lower in animated nature, what humanist, contending that all races are created after the Image of our Creator, will then say, if the apes should learn to speak, that they should, therefore, be set free and should be placed on an equality with the whites, as they indicate somewhat of a human form and intelligence, so far as relates to the performance of labor!

This may be taken as though we were humorists; we are not; we speak of things and animated nature as they appear to our consideration, with the endeavor to render plants and animated nature useful to man, and man grateful to his Creator! This can be done by none so fully, as by those who study nature's laws. In the discovery of the Continent of America, reason of the highest order was fully dis

played, especially when it contemplated another division of the Globe, as requisite to counterbalance what was then known of the rotundity of the earth, and of its gravitation.

Therefore, since the settlement of this Western Continent, we have ever seen it used as the cradle of towering genius, and of innovations upon old and established customs. Here, the mind dares to act, to think, invent, and display itself in the full enlargement begot by its contemplation of surrounding objects, vast plains and forests, with lofty mountains, majestic rivers, and ocean-like lakes. It copies after the creation! In search of laborers to fell the forests of America, the natives nor the white exotics, being. equal to the task, the thralldom of Africa was transferred to this continent; and the profits of black labor, with the ability of the negroes to endure the climate of the tropics, were soon made obvious, and their increase by importation was not, in those days, a question of ethics among the European nations'; nor has it become so, till a superabundance of white labor has surfeited Europe, making governments there look out for homes for those of the same color.

In the early settlement of the English colonies of North America, we discover a hardy and venturesome set of pioneers, who made little advancement till slavery was introduced at Jamestown, Virginia. The forests then began to give way; the soil reimbursed the husbandman; and an American character began to enlarge itself. Their growth was so rapid, their lands so rich and extensive, their spirits so emboldened by prosperity and intelligence, and an enlarged

mode of thinking and acting, that in one hundred and fifty-five years from 1620, England was fearful of her young America; she sought to subdue the colonies; they were unconquerable; they demanded their independence to be acknowledged by her, and it was in the year 1783 in the form of separate colonies, or states. The object of confederation between the Colonies for mutual defence against their common enemy was now oyer, and they turned their considerations to self-government. Their trials and privations had been severe; an ordeal they had passed through, to fit them for nobler acts. The articles of confederation between the Colonies became obligatory in March, 1781, a draft of which was brought to the notice of Congress as early as the 12th of July, 1776; a period of near five years required to elapse, ere this first important step was taken, to feel, at home and abroad, the force and the characteristics of a nation!

Long before the colonies of North America had severed their relations from the British empire, in all their organic acts and characteristics with reference to each other, they were wholly sovereign, acknowledging allegiance only to their mother and father land. Up to within eleven years of the Declaration of Independence, they were political bodies, ever jealous of the favors and exclusive privileges which their parent land should confer on one at the expense of the others. With reference to each other, they were distinct nationalities, unharmonious and exacting in their natures, as were the motives which induced them to leave their native lands. The plea of perse

cution, the love of novelty natural to our being, and the spirit of adventure, shortly after the discovery of America, effectively and naturally contributed to turn the minds of Europeans to new regions where disappointed ambition and broken down fortunes might begin anew the tussle of life. Here the red man of the forest held dominion and sway, and was lord of this new continent, before whom all else bowed and supplied his wants. The rights, natural to existences of colors in a barbarous state, though of a different hue, were then as now considered by white nations as secondary, and to be dealt with as the whims and caprices of those coming in contact should deem fit to administer.

The right of granting the lands of the wild Indian, by the crowned heads of Europe, to companies for the purpose of settlement, was never considered by the Indians till settlers had arrived; possession was then taken by an ostentatious display of the efficacy of gunpowder; and in some cases, an apparent, yet a reluctant right was forced from the native rulers to settle upon their lands, and yet this arbitrary right was acquiesced in, by the most conscientious of those days, in the same manner as the right of trade is now forced, by superior genius, upon most of the Asiatic nations. To the most conscientious and just of all mankind in the fullness of thought and reason, we would ask, what difference there is between taking a nation's means and the free volition of their actions away, with respect solely to themselves, and the enforcement of involuntary service upon them? in neither of which acts do the natives of their respect

ive countries co-operate with their own free will! Is there any difference for the better between these acts of organic, or despotic power, and negro slavery? as in the former or Indian cases, the wants of the natives were not provided for, and famine has ensued, and contagious pestilence has walked among them, fanned by the breeze of civilization and enlightenment; whereas, in the latter or negro cases, their number has increased most rapidly, even when they perform the most onerous labors of the field, and in the same ratio is their intelligence increased, compared with that of fresh importations. In the former case, death to the Indian nation, and to the natives, ensues, laying waste the proud ancestors of the soil, whose bones whiten and enrich the lands, now inhabited by the white man, where they walked monarchs of all they surveyed! In the latter case, more than was expected is being realized. The negro, in a state of slavery, stands the contact of the white man, and is emerging from darkness to light, in the form of civilization.

The motives which led our forefathers to this continent obscured all honest intent with reference to native rights, little questioning the hopeless and helpless condition they were entailing upon the aboriginees. Tribe after tribe have withered away like the leaves of autumn, as the whites are marching westward! And have not their spirits gone to their Creator, to tell the woes of early colonial tales? where unjust and unholy wars have been forced upon them by the designing, to obtain more Indian lands! This forcible purchase of Indian territory, or its conquest under divine right, or that of superior power and intelligence,