"Nay, General," replied the American, his lip partially
curling with a smile, indicating consciousness of triumphant
argument; "I shall defeat you on your own ground, and
that by going back to a period anterior to the revolution
--to the very period you describe as being characterized
by less intense hostility to your own Government."

"What, for instance, have we seen in modern times to
equal the famous Indian league which, under the direction
of the celebrated Pontiac, a Chieftain only surpassed by
Tecumseh, consigned so many of the European posts to
destruction, along this very line of district, about the
middle of the last century. It has been held up as a
reproach to us, that we have principally subjected
ourselves to the rancorous enmity of the Indians, in
consequence of having wrested from them their favorite
and beautiful hunting grounds, (Kentucky in particular,)
to which their early associations had linked them. But
to this I answer, that in Pontiac's time, this country
was still their own, as well as Ohio, Louisiana, Indiana,
&c. and yet the war of fierce extermination was not the
less waged against the English; not because these latter
had appropriated their principal haunts, but because they
had driven them from their original possessions, near
the sea. The hatred of the Indians has ever been the same
towards those who first secured a footing on their
continent, and, although we are a distinct people in the
eyes of the civilized world, still we are the same in
those of the natives, who see in us, not the emancipated