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treaties at Muskingum and at Miami, advised them not to go: witness- -I shall suppress my authorities. It may perhaps injure these men in their future trade with the Indians or connections at Detroit. Good God! that an island where I drew my first breath, where a Milton and a Hume have lived, where a Howard has sacrificed to humanity-there can be those who can aid, at least not disarm, what may be in their power, the savage of his axe, battered on the skulls of their species, in the cottage or the fields of the settlements adjoining their province-they could do this by the surrender of the posts, for at that moment I proclaim peace to to the westward, and ensure safety.

"It may be thought that I am inhumane in my sentiments towards the savages; It is a mistake; I am inhumane to no man or men; but in order to be humane, let me have it in my power. Let myself first be safe, and then I can shew what humanity dictates. The question is, Whether we shall submit ourselves to the savages or they to us? I say, let us conquer because we cannot depend upon them, for the weaker ever distrusts the mightier, and the unenlightened man, the sensible; but when we shall have it in our power, let us dispense treaties on principles of reciprocity (to use the term of the diplomatists) and let them know that we are not about to purchase a treaty, but to make one and preserve it. These principles, founded in nature and truth, will strike the mind of the savage, that we ask no more than he ought to give, or that we give more than he has a right to ask. By the immortal gods! (a Roman oath, but sworn with christian devotion,) if this principle could be made the basis of our negotiations, we should govern not only these people, but all the world with whom we have to do. When I say govern, I mean command of them all, that is our right on principles of the laws of nations or of nature. But in our affairs with the western Indians, we have for a series of years pursued a sickly tampering system of half peace, half war, from which nothing could result but half success. A bold and decisive act of effective hostility at the conclusion of the war with Britain would have composed these Indians, and preserved in existence the countless numbers that have fallen victims to torture or death on the bourne of the wilderness. It was

therefore inhumane not to have adopted this system, which would have been effectual. But I saw, and lamented the circumstance of the Congress beseiged with candidates for agencies and com. missionships, and messengers, and runners, to negotiate with these tribes.

"There was not a thing that had ever seen a squaw or a half king, or a chief, or had heard the guttural sound of a Kickapoo, or a Delaware, but would have it that he understood fifty Indian languages, and could interpret, and could draw all the tribes after him just as a boy would whistle pigeons. Hence, treaty, and

not war."

HARTFORD, MARCH, 1792.

"And every time they fir'd it off,

"It took a horn of powder,
"It made a noise like Father's gun,
"Only a nation louder."

[The foregoing sounds made by H. H. BRACKENRIDGE, have reached the ECHO, which in faithfulness she is obliged to respond. It is presumed there were others equally important, but, being indistinct, they are lost to immortality.

I GRANT my pardon to that dreaming clan,
Who think that Indians have the rights of man;

Who deem the dark skinn'd chiefs, those miscreants

base,

Have souls like ours, and are of human race;
And say the schemet so wise, so nobly plann'd.
For rooting out these serpents from the land,

The talents of the Secretary at war, however generally esteem'd, havę been too long concealed under the shade of a peaceful administration. We

To kill their squaws, their children yet unborn,
To burn their wigwams, and pull up their corn;
By sword and fire to purge the unhallow'd train,-
And kindly send them to a world of pain,
Is vile, unjust, absurd :-as if our God
One single thought on Indians e'er bestow'd,
To them his care extends, or even knew,
Before Columbus told him where they grew.
O could I, pois'd on Observation's wings,
Point whence the Indian's ruthless temper springs,
That ruthless temper which, like bear unchain'd,
Is proof to kindness, nor by fear restrain'd,
Could that vast knowledge which my skull contains,
Once find its passage from my wilder'd brains,
And spring to view with recollection fraught,
Of all I've ever dreamt, or ever thought;
Then would I tell of homicides so dire,
Of tom'hawk, scalping-knife, and torturing fire,
Of wicked pole at the Miami town,

Which Harmar went on purpose to pull down,
While roused to pity by the potent strain,
Humanity herself would grow humane ;

The soul would shudder, and the cheek turn pale,
And uncork'd feelings foam like bottled ale;
sincerely congratulate the public on their late glorious emersion from that
obscurity. The well concerted plan, and skilful arrangements, of the two
jate expeditions, have discovered a genius for war, and a foresight scarce to
be paralleled in the annals of time. The sacrifice of two armies, in order
to lull the savages into such perfect security as to render them an easy con
quest to General Scott, and the brave Kentucky Militia, is a stroke of mas.
terly and unprecedented policy; and more especially when we consider the
armies thus wisely sacrificed, as consisting mostly of men whose services
were worth but two dollars a month-a cheap purchase of the lives and
properties of the noble sons of Kentucky.

F

Not for those soulless heathen of the wood,"
But christian folks of kindred flesh and blood,
Pity, meek habitant of yonder sky,

Wipes the full tear-drop from her dewy eye,
As, from her throne of never fading light,
O'er western worlds she bends her anxious sight,
Thy LAMBS,† Kentucky! claim her darling care,
Expos'd to all the miseries of war;

† In order fully to shew the singularly peaceable, and gentle disposition of these good people (not to mention the massacre of the Moravian Indians, when, under pretence of celebrating divine worship, their white brethren convened them in the church and piously dashed their infants against the wall) I shall select two instances out of the many which are related of their extraordinary humanity. Not many years since the legislature of Kentucky, from the purest motives, no doubt, proclaimed a bounty of a hundred dollars for any Indian scalp. A gentleman in that country, who, in his intercourse with the natives, had married one of their women, by whom he had several children, inspired with true patriotic zeal, and parental affection, made a visit to the unsuspecting family, and, while they were asleep, kindly dismissed them to the Indian paradise, took off their scalps as a memorial of love, received the premium of his noble services, and was advanced to a post of honour and profit under that government.

The other is as follows. In the summer of 1788, Col. Logan, with a party of Militia from Kentucky, sat out on an expedition against the Pickewa town. They were discovered by some young warriors, out on a hunting party, who immediately returned, and gave information to their old Chief Melaanthee. But relying on the faith of a Treaty, executed but the preceding spring, he refused to believe that any injury was intended by the Whites to him, or his people; and in full assurance of a friendly reception, advanced to meet them, displaying in one hand the treaty signed by the American commissioners, and in the other the flag of the United States, which he had received at the same time. Being informed of their intention to put him to death, he told them—" That he and his people were the friends of the thirteen fires, and had faithfully observed the Treaty made with their Chiefs.”— and holding up the flag..." this," said he, "I have received from your Chiefs, as the mark of friendship, and on this I place mine and my people's protection.".. .”---Yet all these marks of unsuspecting confidence, attended with the most artless protestations of friendship, could not impose upon these ex

Unkindly left, without defence or stay,
To savage Wolves a weak unshielded prey;
Those savage Wolves, in cruelty grown old,
Who torture prisoners when their blood is cold.
All this ;-while on our part, so mild and good,
No one e'er thought of spilling Indian blood,
Save once, when Susquehannah's trout-fill'd† wave,
And twice Ohio form'd their watery grave:
Though those whom valiant Brady sent to pot,
Perhaps were friendly, and perhaps were not.
But best it is, as ancient proverbs say,

Never to let occasion run away;

And pat another proverb meets my eye,

While the sun shines, spread out your hay to dry;
As haply that good Man would ne'er again
Have caught a chance to tap an Indian's brain;
Yet mild humanity inspir'd the deed,
And gave those wandering savages to bleed,
For as, with toil severe, fatigu'd, they plied
Their bark, fur-laden, down the rapid tide,
Kind Brady took compassion on their woes,
And bade in endless sleep their weary labours close.
But circumstances strong arise to shew

That these were foes, of foes the vilest too;
For tis a fact well known our parts throughout,
A friendly Indian can't be worth a groat.

perienced men, who thought it much less safe to trust an Indian in this world than the other, and, in conformity to this humane sentiment, put a speedy period to his existence with the tomahawk, and the standard thus gloriously obtained, was for several weeks triumphantly displayed on the Court-House at Lexington, as a trophy sacred to humanity.

† For the aptitude and beauty of this epithet, see the speech of the Hon. John Vining, on the question for altering the Seat of Government.

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