Wednesday November 19, 1828
Volume 1 No. 38
Page 3 Col. 4b-5a
The Indian- In all probability, (says the Boston Bulletin) collisions will be perpetually arising between the white and the copper-tinged inhabitants of this continent-at least until the latter race shall become extinct. It cannot be disguised, that encroachments are daily making upon their haunts: and that as the white population increases, the Indian tribes are elbowed aside, or crowded forward towards the shores of the Pacific. The descendants of the aboriginal lords of the soil, feel themselves on some occasions, to be grossly wronged, according to their interpretation of that law which secures them the right of possession of country-a right to sell the soil, founded on the principle of prior occupancy, and which the law of nature recognizes only while maintained by force-compulsion is the grand principle of that law, and by the operation of that very principle by which they originally came into their possessions, they may finally be dispossessed.
They possess rights derived from another source than those said to be established by the law of nature.
"They have long possessed assurances and guaranties from the governing authorities of the whites, that they should not be removed from their habitations without their consent, or without an equivalent." The transgression of such stipulations, affords reasonable ground of complaint.
The following sentiments expressed by the citizens of Montgomery county, Alabama, towards the Creek Indians, evince a spirit of hostility towards them, which has hitherto too often characterized the proceedings of the people in that section of the country. Proceedings like the following tend to counteract all charitable exertions of individuals, and efforts on the part of our government, to meliorate the condition of the Indians:
"As citizens of Alabama, they behold with astonishment a tract of country lying within their geographic boundaries, inhabited by a people who claim the right to exercise an independent government for themselves who bid defiance to the laws of our state; and who are supported in their independence by the general government."
"They view the present power exercised by the general government, in supporting the tribe of Creek Indians within the limits of this State as founded in usurpation, and as an injury too serious to be passively submitted to, as an injury which can only be removed by the determined energy of the State. As such, as freemen, as Americans as citizens of the State of Alabama, they feel themselves obliged to arraign the conduct of those high in station: and in arraigning them they do it neither with malice, with fear, or favor. They are well aware it is for guilt to tremble, but for honesty to be bold. They know that false fear can only give false courage; and that while they avow the cause of truth and right, they will find their shield an impenetrable protection, and that no attack can be either hazardous or inefficient, if it be but just and resolute."