Presidents -- United States -- Messages; United States -- Politics and government -- Sources
The condition of the tribes which occupy the country set apart for them in
the West is highly prosperous, and encourages the hope of their early
civilization. They have for the most part abandoned the hunter state and
turned their attention to agricultural pursuits. All those who have been
established for any length of time in that fertile region maintain
themselves by their own industry. There are among them traders of no
inconsiderable capital, and planters exporting cotton to some extent, but
the greater number are small agriculturists, living in comfort upon the
produce of their farms. The recent emigrants, although they have in some
instances removed reluctantly, have readily acquiesced in their unavoidable
destiny. They have found at once a recompense for past sufferings and an
incentive to industrious habits in the abundance and comforts around them.
There is reason to believe that all these tribes are friendly in their
feelings toward the United States; and it is to be hoped that the
acquisition of individual wealth, the pursuits of agriculture, and habits
of industry will gradually subdue their warlike propensities and incline
them to maintain peace among themselves. To effect this desirable object
the attention of Congress is solicited to the measures recommended by the
Secretary of War for their future government and protection, as well from
each other as from the hostility of the warlike tribes around them and the
intrusions of the whites. The policy of the Government has given them a
permanent home and guaranteed to them its peaceful and undisturbed
possession. It only remains to give them a government and laws which will
encourage industry and secure to them the rewards of their exertions. The
importance of some form of government can not be too much insisted upon.
The earliest effects will be to diminish the causes and occasions for
hostilities among the tribes, to inspire an interest in the observance of
laws to which they will have themselves assented, and to multiply the
securities of property and the motives for self-improvement. Intimately
connected with this subject is the establishment of the military defenses
recommended by the Secretary of War, which have been already referred to.
Without them the Government will be powerless to redeem its pledge of
protection to the emigrating Indians against the numerous warlike tribes
that surround them and to provide for the safety of the frontier settlers
of the bordering States.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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