of goods was a seal of that sacred bond which knit them so
closely together, so the conduct they observed toward the
natives of the country displays their steadfast adherence to the
rules of justice and their faithful attachment to those of
benevolence and charity.

No European settlement ever formed upon this continent has
been more distinguished for undeviating kindness and equity
toward the savages. There are, indeed, moralists who have
questioned the right of the Europeans to intrude upon the
possessions of the aboriginals in any case, and under any
limitations whatsoever. But have they maturely considered the
whole subject? The Indian right of possession itself stands,
with regard to the greater part of the country, upon a
questionable foundation. Their cultivated fields; their
constructed habitations; a space of ample sufficiency for their
subsistence, and whatever they had annexed to themselves by
personal labor, was undoubtedly, by the laws of nature, theirs.
But what is the right of a huntsman to the forest of a thousand
miles over which he has accidentally ranged in quest of prey?
Shall the liberal bounties of Providence to the race of man be
monopolized by one of ten thousand for whom they were
created? Shall the exuberant bosom of the common mother,
amply adequate to the nourishment of millions, be claimed
exclusively by a few hundreds of her offspring? Shall the lordly
savage not only disdain the virtues and enjoyments of
civilization himself, but shall he control the civilization of a
world? Shall he forbid the wilderness to blossom like a rose?
Shall he forbid the oaks of the forest to fall before the axe of
industry, and to rise again, transformed into the habitations of