The Romance of Gilbert Holmes: An Historical NovelKirkman, Marshall M. (Marshall Monroe)
General
The Romance of Gilbert Holmes: An Historical Novel
Kirkman, Marshall M. (Marshall Monroe)
Black Hawk War, 1832 -- Fiction
express his views on the subject, and with considerable abruptness.
"Setti’s affectionate nature and sweetness of temper," he was in the
habit of saying to his friends when the subject was brought up, "are
natural to her—God’s gifts; and had a wiser and more tolerant course
been followed by our government, all the Indian tribes of America would
have been led to accept civilization, as she has been—not grudgingly,
but with their whole heart and soul. Either that, or they should have
been left apart to follow the processes every race has passed through in
its progress from savagery. Instead, we have the sad sight of great
Indian nations debauched and hunted down and destroyed, as if they were
a plague upon the earth. Surely they were worthy of something better,
and should have been preserved to mark for all time the magnificent men
and women who made up our native Indian population. To do this we would
have had to recognize their right to live and multiply unmolested, as we
do others more fortunate in color and birth; or failing in that, have
subjected them to gentle treatment and wise laws. Surely they were
worthy such care and consideration. Homer’s Greeks, to make a point of
it, were no better, nor scarcely more civilized, than the Sacs and Foxes
we have but just driven like wolves beyond the confines of civilization
after robbing them of their lands and villages."
Mr. Seymour’s views, and others like them, however noble and humane,
were not regarded by the community as meriting attention except in a
sentimental way, one and all being animated by a desire to dispossess
the Indians of their lands as quickly as possible, and without reference
to their rights or any feeling of humanity whatever. However, he was
not the less strenuous in giving them utterance, even to the extent of
offending his friends and patrons.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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