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VOL. I.
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POETRY.
From Blackwood's Magazine.
POETICAL PORTR VIT.i.
SHAKSPEARE.
His was the wizard’s spelh The spirit to enchain ;
Ois grasp o’er Nature fell—Creation owned his reign.
MILTON.
His spirit was the home Os aspirations high ;
A temple, whose huge dome Was hidden in the shy.
BYRON.
Black clouds his forehead bound, And at his feet were
flow'ers;
Mirth, madness, magic found In him their keenest
powers.
SCOTT.
He sings, and lo ! romance Starts from its mouldering
urn;
While chivalry’s bright lance And nodding plumes
return.
SPENSER.
Within the enchanting womb Os his vast genius lie
Brightstreams and groves, whose glocm Is lit by Una's
eye.
WORDSWORTH.
He hung his harp upon Philosophy’s pure shrine,
And, placed by Nature’s throne, Composed each placid
line.
WILSON.
His strains like holv hymns Upon the car do float,
Or voice of chcrubiins In mountain vales remote.
GRAY.
Staring on pinions proud, The lightnings of his etc
Scar the black thunder-cloud Ke passes swiftly by.
BURNS.
He seized his country’s lyre With ardent grasp, and
strong,
And made his soul of fire Dissolve itself in song.
COLERIDGE.
Magician, whose dread spell, Working in pale moon
light,
From superstition’s cell Invokes each satelite.
COWPER.
Religious light is shed Upon his soul’s dark shrine,
And Vice veils o’er her head At his denouncing lines
YOUNG.
Involved in pall of gloom, He haunts with footsteps
dread,
The ntutderer’s midnight tomb, And calls upon the
dead.
GRAHAM.
Oh 1 when we hear the bell Os * Sabbath’ chiming free,
It strikes us like a knell, And makes us think of thee.
W. L. BOWLES.
From Nature’s flowery throne His spirit took its flight,
And moved serenely on In soft, sad, tender light.
SHELLEY.
A solitary rock, In a far dis’ant sea,
Rent by the thunder’s shock. An emblem stands of thee.
J. MONTGOMERY.
Upon thy touching strain Religion's spirit fair
Falls down like drops ot rain, And blends divinely there
HOGG.
Clothed in the rainbow’s beam, ’Midstrath and pastoral
g'ert,
He sees the fairest gleam Far from the haunts of men.
MISCELLANEOUS.
- —— JL —-■
From the Southern Literary Messenger.
POLITICAL RELIGIONISM.
BY A SOUTHRON.
1. .4 Letter to the Hon. Henry C!ay, on the Annexation
of Texas; by William E Channing, 1). D. Boston,
1337.
". “ Texas,” Quarterly Review, June, 1839.
[CONTINUED.]
We feel no disposition to retort upon our adversaries,
by instituting inquiries into the time and manner of
abolition in the northern and eastern states —into the
time allowed to sell the few slaves that remained among
them into southern bondage, before their law of emanci
pation took effect, or into the trifling cost of this move
ment. But we undertake to assert, without fear of
contradiction, that whenever the generous south can be
satisfied that it can be done with safety to themselves,
and that the objects of their benevolence would be
benefited, and not accursed by the change, one hun
dred planters in any one of the slaveholding states can
be readily found, who w ill contribute most cheerfully
to effect the abolition of slavery, double the sum it cost
any state north of Mason’s and Dixon's line to carry
out the same design. Some of those states w hose citi
zens are the most active friends of abolition, permitted
slavery until the period arrived, which in their own coo!
judgment, enabled them with perfect safety and trifling
loss to abolish it. 7/e are yet to learn that New Eng
land surpasses the south in generosity. And if our eas
tern brethren will permit us to enjoy the privi'ege whi h
they have exercised, we will most assuredly imitate their
good example, and abolish slavery whenever the pover
ty of our soil and our true interest shall demand it. Al
though the plans of these agitators had not then been
reduced to that system and perfect organization which
Have since characterised them; yet, by the aid of letters
pamphlets, papers, and tracts, they produced the insur
rection in Southampton, in the state of Virginia. In
deed, the character of the tracts secretly distributed
among the negroes, threw suspicion upon many of the
niinfetcrs of religion, and reflecting men have long siuce
been convinced, that the religious instruction imparted
to slaves is so defective in its character, as to corrupt
their fidelity, to increase their discontent, and to abase
their morals Wherever their religious culture, under
this imperfect system, has been most assiduous, ther
Devoted to Literature, Internal Improvement, Commerce, Agriculture, Foreign and Domestic News, Amusement, Ac.
was less merriment, less singing, less dancing, but not
less lying, drinking, stealing and disobedience. The
calm philosopher, the sedate and orderly Christian, has
long and anxiously watched the progress of gloomy
b gotry throughout the land. The gloomy and ascetic
doctrines inculcated among these unrefldetive beings
resulted in their greater depravation For religion can
never be blended with any system of worldly policy,
w ithout becoming utterly corrupt She is the daughter
of the ski is, a id refuses to intermarry with the son 9 of
the children of men. In this regard all religions are
alike. They have all, in their turns, scourged makind,
whenever they became the instruments of worldly men
or we e connected with political schemes or establish
ments. And whether a crusade be led bv Peter the
Hermit, or the northmen, whether its object betoexpe]
the Saracen or to redeem the captive—to extirpate Isla
niism, or abolish slavery—it is equally offensive to God
and destructive to man.
The gospel duties are permanenti uniform, and uni
versal, in their character; the duties of the clergy of all
denominations are pointed out by this invariable law;
vet the clergy of the north and of the south, even of the
same churches, derive opposite lessons and duties upon
the subject of slavery from the same divine law. Titus,
the Revered Dr. Channing is the indignant champion
of the Indian and the negro, while the Reverend Dr.
Schemerhorn reaps golden fruit from the treaty which
robs the aboriginesof their dearest fights. The catholic
missionary teaches the Indian the observance of the ten
commandments, and the slave obedience and subordi
nation ; but he does not interfere with their innocent
amusements; nor does he harrow tip the angry feelings
or stimulate the truculent and revengeful temper of the
red or the dark man, by teaching the white man’s op
pression. Hence the popularity of that mission in the
south-western states, although its ministers profess a
creed exp sed to the prejudices of three centuries of
of obloquy. The Methodist and Bap'ist churches, also,
if we have been correctly informed, have acquired no
little share of public confidence by an official declara
tion of their opposition to this fanatical and destructive
crusade. We have already observed, that the exclu
sion of the clergy from political preferment, and their
civil disabilities, are not only a safeguard to the public,
against the abuse of a wholesome but powerful influ
ence, but is the surest protection of the clergy themselves,
and of the puritv. f morals and religion. Remove these
civil disabilities, and let these reverend gentlemen imi
tate the example of I)r. Channing in the discussion of
agitating political topics- let them unite with foreign
reviewers in decrying our morals and proclaiming the
lawlessness which only exist in their heated imagina
tions, and ifthev do not themselves become the victims
of a just indignation, thev may at least rest well assured
that when the day of tribulation comes, the ruins of the
altar will crumble amid the ruins of the republic.
Aholution of slavery in the southern states, and the
admission of slaves to the rights of freemen, constitute
the wildest scheme that ever entered the brain. fvisionay
enthusiasts. The color, the character, the capacity
the negro, the condition and morals of the free negro in
the free as well as in the slave states, hear melancholy
testimony to the truth, that if the colored population are
to remain among us, the safety of the white man, and
the happiness of the black, ns the weaker party, require
that the blacks should be re.ained in slavery. We wib
not presume to fathom the designs of Providence, we
will nor attempt to indicate the peculiar destiny, or the
similarity of the children ofHam to the descendants of
Abraham; hut tis manifest that the dist'nctive eharac
ter of the Israelite, does not so effectually cut him off
from a full communion with the human family, as does
the prejudice arising from color, separate the Anglo-
Saxon from the African. No matter whether this preju
dice be implanted for wdse and holy purposes, or w hether
it be the curse of the age, it exists, its roots are deeply
planted, it is a part of ourselves, and he is but a shallow
observerof man, a blind and bigoted philosophist, who
will overlook or despise this pervading and resistless
feeling, originate whence it mat’.
The only hope for the African slave is in his removal
from the house of bondage to the land of his forefathers.
The unqualified advocates of slavery and the aboli
tionists occupy the two extremes of this much vexed
question. But the scheme of colonization is the juste
milieu. This is the broad platform upon which the
friends of this unhappy race may meet in soberness and
safety. The morals and misery of the free negroes in
the northern states, the perpetual and bloody conflicts
between them and the white man in New York, New
England, and Philadelphia, show that to them freedom
carries no healing on its wings, and liberty, that blesses
all, has no blessing for them.*
* As an evidence of the beneficial results of the friend
ship of the abolitionists for the slave, we submit to in
telligent readers the subjoined extract from a Boston
paper.
Police Court. — Degraded condition of a colored fe
male, abducted by the Abolitionists. —A case came off
yesterday which may be fairly used to advantage by the
opponents of the Northern Abolitionists. A wen dressed
intelligent and high spirited mulattt woman, named
Lttcilia Tucker, was brought up by officer Glover of the
West Watch, and charged with being a common night
walker, and the evidence was absolute that, for the last
ten days at least, she had openly led a lewd and disso
lute life. She was originally a slave, and two years
ago came on here, in the family of her owner, a gentle
man belonging to Natchez, who put up at the Treniont
House As soon as it was known to the Abolitionists
that she was here, a plan was laid to get her away and
secure her; and, under some friendly pretence, she was
enticed to visit, and was not permitted to return to her
master’s family. The abduction made some stir at the
time of it, and the master had to leave the city without
her In speaking of it, yesterday, she said, “I always
had a good home in Natchez, and I did all I could to
got hack to my master, hut they would not let me go any
where till it was too la e. Then I was left to shift for
myself, and 1 would have done any thing to have got the
mt&.ts to return to Natchez.”
Court. —It is appa: ent that these people have been the
means of bringing you to shame and degradation, al
though they probably supposed that they were doing
God’s service and saving you at the snme time. They
have unfortunately done you a great wrong.
Lucilia. lam fully aware of it; and do not expect to
he better off, unless I can get back to my good old home,
where I had every thing comfortable that is required.
Court. I hope you w ill find means to do so; but your
late conduct has been a public and gross offence against
our laws, and the least that I think of is to sentence
you to two months labor, in the House of Correction.
Lucilia. Me in the House of Correction 1 Wlmt have
I done, that I should go to such a degraded place as
that ? 1 should never be able to hold mv head up again
after being there ; and I will never go there. 1 would
rather cut my throat front ear to • ar, first. Yes, I'll die
—l’ll murder myself, sooner. Keep me here in Boston,
away from my own home, and send me to the House of
Cmrection! I’ll never, never submit to such a disgrace
I defy all the officers in court to attempt it; and if they
want to sec a dead woman, they will start with me for
that place.
The officers now removed her in a most violent parox
ism of indignation, and uttering imprecations loud and
deepen the heads of those who had ensnared heruwav
from her pwn home.—Jo stem Post
MACON, (Ga.) SATURDAY MORNING, SEPTEMBER 15, 1838.
Denied the protecting care which the interest, if not
the feeling of the owner, extends to the slave ; subjected
to all the prejudice of color; with some of the rights of
a freeman, and all the sentiments of a slave ; they con
stitute an intermediate class, having no bonds of common
interest, no ties of sympathy to sustain them; too indo
lent to labor, and too insolent to serve, they are the
most depraved and unhappy race under this govern
ment. It has been the constant practice of northern
writers to dwell upon the oppression and cruelty of the
task-master of the south, and the ill usage and sufferings
of the slave; but those who are familiar with their do
mestic institutions well know, that where the agitator
is unk j’.yn, there is not upon the face of the globe a
people doomed literally to earn their bread in the sweat
of thetr brow, who art! more cheerful, contented and
happy. Examples of fidelity and devotion to their mas
ters not unfrequently break forth upon an admiring
world, and but that the agitator is wilfully bn .id to all
such cheering views upon the broad waste of slavery,
his restless eye might dwell fora season upon them. In
that dark hour of danger, when the pride and the
chivalry and the beauty of the south were smitten on
the waters by the angel of death, a slave was found
cooly and dilligently laboring to construct a raft of the
fragments of the ill-fated Pulaski, to “ try and save his
master.” Such owners are no tyrants, and such a
slave has no task-master. Cast him loose from his
bondage, and this estimable but humble being be
comes that most wretched of the human family—a free
negro.
Redeemed from slavery by the mild influence of the
Jaws, by the generosity of their owners, or by the persua
sive force of a wholesome public opinion, and transla
ted to the shores of Africa, these men will be as superior
to the native races, as the whites are to them. And the
prejudice of color being thus removed, the natives may
be civilized and enlighted through their agency. They
can there blend by intermarriage, without the aid of
M r. Tappan. Tiiey may plant the cross amid the sterile
sands of the desert, and-he the heralds of salvation to a
benighted people. We feel little inclination to offend
the moral reader by a any attempt to expose the redicu
lous and revolting scheme of amalgamation; let its
projectors be classed with those fanatical advocates of
temperance, who would substitute buttermilk for wine, 1
in the Lord’s supper. It i3 by colonization alone that
the descendants of Ham can he redeemed. There are j
at present but few spots on the African continent settled i
for this purpose, and their growth is feeble and sickly,
Ss were the colonies of Jamestown and Plymouth on our
own shores. But the little fountains that now swell up
in the desert may multiply and blend, and roll on until j
they sweep onward, not unlike their own Nile, in one
resistless and fertilizing stream. How long was it be
fore the early colonists of America toiled up the summit
of the Allegany, and from another Pisgah looked down
upon the land of promise ? Yet as they descended, in
little more than one generation of the children of men,
empires have arisen and cities have peopled the wilder
ness.
The first fruits of abolition we have already gathered,
and the branch which bore them is of the tree of death. '
In its destructive progress abolition would more speedily
effect a revolution, but when its wild fury shall have
been exhausted, its stormy depths will settle down into
a sullen and stagnant pool, not unlike the sluggish
waters which sleep upon ruins in the valley of Siddim,
containing no living thing within their bosom. Coloni- !
zation, with its mild and wholesome influence, operating
slowly but effectually, will lead the children of captivity
forth from the house of bondage tQ the homes of their j
fathers, in a clime peculiarly fitted for their habitation, j
The strong arm of the Deity, is no longer stretched forth !
visibly to chastise and subdue with famine, and pesti- j
lence, and fiery plague; but the inconveniences and |
evils of slavery press with a constantly accelerative j
force, and may ultimately compel the white man to !
strike away the fetters of the captive. Although the j
bars of the prison door may not be again thrown back,
and the bonds of servitude forcibly torn asunder, yet !
under the blessing of heaven, and with prudent coun- I
sels, the good jailor may himself relent, and invite the j
captive to come forth. But should the abolitionists I
succeed in their turbulent efforts, in the hour of depar- !
ture which they prepare, every ‘‘lintel and door-cheek i
will be sprinkled with blood, but not as a token to the
red right arm of the archangel that the inmates are to
be consumed.”
It is not the discussion of this exciting and alarming !
topic to which the south objects; but they do object to j
making their slaves a party to the controversy. They i
object to the artificial formation of a spurious public !
opinion through the agency of associations acting di
rectly upon ttie slave and stimulating him to rebellion. }
For they think with Milton: “ Who knows not that I
Truth is strong, next to t! e Almighty; she needs no |
policies, no stratagems, no licensings, to make her I
victorious.” She disdains all combinations, clerical or
political. Like the mighty eagle, Truth soars with !
steady flight and unblenching gaze into the higher hea- |
vens, while those timerous companions of her early
flight, dismayed and paralysed by apprehension, can ;
never penetrate those abysses of light which she floats '
in solitude, undazzled and unalarmed.
Have these misguided enthusiasts been taught no
salutary lessons by the calamities which their interfer
ence has heaped upon the red man? Whithersoever
they turn, their embrace is death. They have taught
these denizens of the forest to resist the settled policy
and pledged faith of the federal government in their re
moval, without which they die. Even in the sanctuary
we have heard exhausted all the powers of rabid elo
quence—we have seen priests, with all the fanatic rav
ing, but without the inspiration of the Pythoness de
picting in glowing colors to the savage the loss of his
home, of his hunting grounds, of the graves of his fore
fathers, the fields of his bloody trophies, and the bones
of his warriors; but they overlook the sufferings of this
weak and uncultivated people in contact with the re
sistless white man on his frontier march, their poverty,
their starvation, their necessities, their pillage and mur
ders, and the retributive vengeance, which the strong
never fail to visit mercilessly on the weak. How much
ol there eloquent complaints of politicians and religion
ists only exist in the fervid imaginations of the de
claimers, and how little is there which tho under
standing approves? Wc can readily comprehend the
reluctance with w hich the civilized man abandons the
comforts of home; but to the roving tribes it is but a
change of hunting grounds. With little exception,
they have never known a fixed abode. The awful
truth constantly presses upon us, that the Indian on
the borders of civilization must either be subdued to in
feriority among a people w'ith whom he can never
blend, or he must be removed or exterminated. To sym
pathize with the sufferings of this unhappy race, to feel
a chill of horror upon observing the closing scene in the
destinies of this doomed people, this decayed branch of
the tree of civilization lopped offin the depths ofiiidden
ages, and perishing in the wilderness—these are feel
ings which a Christian may safely indulge, while with
a heart filled with gratitude for the blessings heaped
upon himself, he may beseech the great Arbiter of
human that he will so guide this free and
favored people, that they may avert the degrada
tion and debasement which have overtaken the red
man. To teach resistance to the Indian by dwell
ing upon the oppression of the white man, is to ex
terminate the lingering remnants of these vagabond
tribes, until there will be none left to lift up his voice
on the margin of the king of waters, to bew ail the un'
timely late of his people. The genius that lias so beau
fully told the melancholy tale of the “ Last of the Mo
hicans, may yet be employed to sketch the instruc
tive history of the last of the red men. It is impossible
that these tribes can live in contact with civilization and
retain their independence; neither can they be incorpor
ated among us any more than the negro. Indeed they
are O'rie degree further removed than the black man
from the pale of civilization. They have to encounter
the same invincib’c prejudice of color, which is unhap
pily stronger on the point of coik’uct than elsewhere.
In the sweat ofhis brow has man been <?°onied to eat
his bread. The necessity of labor, that first is. w of hu
manity, that ever asting canto, the destiny of man
since his fall, these people stubbornly resist. No per
suasion, no force can subdue them to this stern law,
which is the porch of civilization. They will perish in
the vestibule rather than enter the temple of civilization
through the narrow gateway of labor. From the early
settlement of these colonies they have been hovering
on the borders of civilization; and notwiths'anding nil
the efforts of missionaries, and the attractive order and
beauty of civil institutions, they still remain the same
uncultivated barbarians.
But there are considerations connected with the de
cress of a superintending Providence, in the govern
ment of man, from which the reflecting mind may bor
row many salutary lessons in relation to thefa len races
ofthe human family. Sacre I and profane history unite
in teaching us the awful truth, that national debase
ment invariably follows national crime. It is a fixed
canon in the institution of the w orld, that no creature
can depart from its appropriate function, from the law
of its foundation with impunity. In moral agents en
dowed with understanding and free will, Justice the
Avenger, punishes every departure from the prescribed
rule of action. Individuals, it is true, sometin.es ap
pear to escape the punishment due to crime; but let tie
not forget, that divine justice ntav he disarmed by
prayer and repentance, and that for the wicked there
is retribution beyond the grave. But national degra
dation is the inevitable consequence of national crime.
During the latter part of the eighteenth century, when
the powers of darkness seemed for a season to have pre
vailed upon the earth, there ar ,se indeed unbelieving
men, who found it necessary in their attacks upon the
social institutions of man to proclaim the savage state
as r. state of nature. But the Christian philosopher w ell
knows, that the sublimes, ofthe works of the supreme
architect did not come thus rude and unfinished from
his hands, and the traditions of all ages, as well as
revelation itself, assure us that civilization and science
are the primitive and natural condition of man. Thus
all the traditions of the east, from which we derive every
ray of light, characterize the first ages of man as a state
of perfection and light; and even fabulous Greece
confirms this truth, by commencing the golden age
with the origin of things It is no less remarkable,
tha* this people has not connected the savage state of
man with any one of their ages, not even with the
age of iron; so that all that is related in her annals
of primitive men, who frequented forests and fed
upon acorns, and thence advanced gradually to a
state of civilization, contravenes the current of her own
tradition, or else refers to particular tribes or colonies
of degenerated men, returning tardily to that civiliza
tion which is the true state of nature. Has not Vol
taire himself declared, (and his authority on this sub
ject is everything,) that the “ motto of all nations has
constantly been that the age of gold first appeared on
earth?” Now, ns all nations have unanimously pre
tested against a state of primitive or original barbarism,
that protestation is entitled to much w eight.
It js impossible for us to took hack into the e.hyss of
time,'and discover at what period the aborigines of this
country were debased beneath their primitive condi
tion. And indeed it matters not at what time any
branch was lopped off from the parent trunk. Con
cede to us a fail of the human family from an original
and more elevated condition, and there will be no doubt
ofthe cause of that degradation;-which can benothmg
but crime. The moral principle of a people thus de
graded has been corrupted, and the consequent ana
thema has been entailed upon their generations. Titis
depressing force is cumulative in its action, and by
perpetually pressing upon the descendants, reduces
them at last to what we term the savage state. And
this is the degraded condition of fallen man, that Rous
seau and his companions call the state of nature.
It has been the common error of the '•lergy in all
ages, to transcend the limits of moderation and truthin
tile fervor of their zeal. Upon the first discovery of
this continent the same exaggerated statements of the
character and virtues of the Indian were published by
these pious men that we now hear; and iri the excess
of their philanthrophy, similar appeals were made to
the interposition of foreign power. In South America,
from the bosom of deserts bedewed wttli their blood,
and fruitful of their labors, the clergy flew to the courts
of Rome and Madrid, invoking the interposition of
both the secular and spiritual authorities to check the
merciless avarice which labored to reduce the Indian to
hopeless slavery. Animated with a charity transcend
ing the precepts of the gospel, the Whusiastic priest
exalted in order to preserve him ; he extenuated every
vicious propensity, he exaggerated every virtuous
quality in the Indian character to such an extent, that
Robertson, in hts History of America,cauthns his read
ers not to confide too fully in the narrations ol the
clergy, on account of their partiality to the aborigines.
Anoher source of inaccuracy na to the character and
condition of this people mav be found in the philosophy
of the last age, which misrepresents the savage state,
to underprop its frivolous and malignant assaults upon
the social state. Thus the clerical enthusiast and the
infidel ph losophist unite to deceive us. But it will
require little investigation to expose the errors as wel
of the religionists as of the irreligious. We have only
to contemplate the savage to perceive that hs has none
of those high qualities in behalf of which our sympa
thies have been so enthusiastically exerted, and that
in his present debased condition he can never blend
with the white man, or prosper in his vicinage. Look
upon him but for an instant, and behold the anathema
graven not only upon bis heart, but upon his frame of
body. He is an ill favored mor'al, luaty and ferocious.
C. R. HANLEITER, PRINTER.
over whose countenance the light of intelligence casts
but a feeble and glimmering ray. Smitten by a terri
ble power, the two great characteristics of human
grandeur, forethought and perfectibility, have been ob
literated in the savage. Together the fruit he fells
the tree ;he slaughters the oxen bestowed upon him
by the Missionary to till his lands, and with the frag
ments of his plough he builds the fire to roast bis food.
For three centuries he has dwelt within sight of civi
,ized man, and has obtained from him nothing but
powder to destroy his brethren, and intoxicating spirits
to destroy himself. And still relying upon the undying
avarice of the white man to supply him with these de
struct ve agents, he has never dreamed of manufactur
ing them for himself. As substances object and repul
sive in themselves are susceptible of still further de
basement, so the inherent vices of humanity acquire a
darker character in the savage. He is a cobber, he is
cruel and lascivious, but he is so in a different manner
from us. To commit crime we violate our nature, tha
savage follow s his : w ith the appotite for crime he feels
no remorse. While the son murders the father to’
re ieve him from tlie ennui of old age, hs wife will de
stroy in her womb the fruit of his brutal passion to
escape the duties of a nurse. lie snatches the bleeding
scalp from l.i t living foe, be tears the flesh from hie
b„dy, he roasts it and devours it arfrid songs of tri
umph ; ifbe carl procure ardent spirits, he drinks to
intoxica ion, to madness, to death, insensible alike to
the reason which restrains man by his fears, and to the
instinct which repels the animal by distaste. He is
manifestly a doomed being; smitten for his crimes by
an avenging hand in the innermost recesses of his
moral confo mation, so that he who regards him with
an observant eye, trembles as he views.
But if we wish to tremble for ourselves with a salu
tary fear, if we desire to find objects for our overween
ing charity in the beings who surround us and who are
connected to us by the most endearing ties, let us re
flect, above all let the compassionate clergy reflect,that
with all our morals, our sciences, and our arts, we are
degraded as far below the primitive condition of man
as the savage is debased beneath ourselves. Let us
not rend the mantle of our charity by fruitless and
destructive efforts to stretch it over the obdurate and
d.s.ant savage, while there are so many among us
requiring the aid of the Samaritan. Let us be moder
ate even in our virtues—the over-zealous priest de
generates into the intolerant bigot and brawliag poli
tico-religionist. Let him imitate his Master in the
meekness and retiring simplicity of his character. Let
us have no fiery tracts thrown abroad iike brands; let
us have no associations, no combinations, no letters, no
pamphlets reviling our southern brethren, no interfer
ence with their domestic relations. It is time that tha
clerical order should be excluded from the political
arena—let them visit the sick, and the prisoner—let
them console tho afflicted, bind up the broken-hearted,
bury the dead, and teach the living by example rather
titan by precept to observe ihe law, to respect estab
lished institutions, and above all to abstain from bear
ing false testimony against their neighbor, Let the
church stand apart trom the state,
Such being the melancholy debasement of the Indian
people, with whose rise and progress we are wholly
unacquainted, but whose awful degradation alone indi
cates the extent of the crimes they have committed in
their generations ; it is the first duty of philanthropists
who wish to restore them to their former dignity to a
dopt such measures as the condition and character of
these tribes seem to require. If it be true, as we have
supposed, that the cause of all the evils which afflict
both the Indian and the white man on the borders, is
their juxta-position; if it be impracticable for these op
posite races to blend harmoniously either from some
unknown invincible difficulty, or from some uncon
querable repugnance or prejudice ; if in the march of
civilization the inferior people must give way or perish
before the advance of the more powerful; then there
is no other mitigation of the sufferings of the Indian
than his removal from the vicinage of the white man,
and the interpositionofsuch space or such barriers as
will abstract from the Indian the opportunity of plun
der and rapine, which lie never fails to seize, and for
which the white man as surely retaliates. From these
reflections, it is manifest that the government has a
dopted and steadily pursues that policy towards the
aborigines, which is wisely adapted to the character
and condition of that people, end which is well calcu
lated to restore and maintain peace on the frontier.
And there is as little doubt, that much of the sufferings
of that unhappy people during the last five years has
been occasioned by the interference of their northern
frtends, whose incessant clamor about the right* of the
Indian, and the wrongs inflicted by the white man, has
incited the former to rebellion, and has stained the
hammocks of Florida with the mingled blood of these
hostile races. The march of civilization is onward in
self-defence. Like the ocean she can never repose,
action is essentially necessary for her preservation; to
pause i3 to fall a prey to those savages who prowl
around her borders. When Rome was in advance of
the nations of the earth, they fell back before her ea
gles to the fastnesses of impenetrable forests; but
when reposing upon her laurels she became corrupted
and debased beneath the martial virtue of the barbari
an, the tide of civilization rolled back before the over
whelming torrent of Gothic barbarism, until Alaric pres
sed forward amid the ruins es the western empire to
inscribe his name on the trophies of the Caesars. Such
is the melancholy history of social ntan, such is the fata
of nati ms. Civilization gradually refines and enligh
tens, and no sooner is man thus improved, than a cor
rupt will leads him to abuse his transcendant gift*, and
Ju-tice the Avenger of crime, degrades him to a level
w.th the savage. The day perhaps is not far distant,
when we shall be enabled to trace the primitive purity
and perfection of man in a state of nature—and tha
gradual debasement of the corrupt nations of the chil
dren of men, as well as the merciful dispensations of
Providence in raising them from time to time from this
et ite of deg. adation, and in preparing them slowly far
admission once again into the pale of civilization. We
ourselves are debased very far below the primitive cow
dit.cn of man, and it is impossible for us to fathom tha
designs of Providence in relation to us. But aa national
crime invariably induces national debasement, our ra
pid advances in the paths of licentiousness proclaim
that we can arrogate to ourselves no exemption from
the decrees of avenging and retributive justice. The
day may be, probably is, distant, although it seems to
be a law of nature that whatever is destined to be dura
ble is slow of growth. But our growth has ftaidedths
nations of the earth. Yet the destiiues of mighty em
pires are not speedily wrought out; the designs of provi
dence are surely but slowly and steadily matured.
There ism the increasing depravity of our people
much cause to apprehend, thatfrovidence will cease to
bestow upcit us those signal benefactions which bav*
NO 47.