442 GOVERNMENT POLICY 



see them prosperous, contented, and improving. And it can 

 not be doubted but that a course so consistent with the dictates 

 of justice, and so honourable to the national character, would 

 be approved by public sentiment. Should we hereafter dis 

 card all expectation of pecuniary advantage in our purchases 

 from the Indians, and confine ourselves to the great objects of 

 their removal and reestablishment, and take care that the 

 proceeds of the cessions are appropriated and applied to their 

 benefit, and in the most salutary manner, we should go far 

 towards discharging the great moral debt which has come 

 down to us as an inheritance from the earlier periods of our 

 history, and which has been unfortunately increased during 

 successive generations by circumstances beyond our control. 

 The policy would not be less wise than just. The time 

 has f passed away, if it ever existed, when a revenue derived 

 from such a source was necessary to the government. The 

 remnant of our aboriginal race may well look for the value, 

 and that usefully applied, of the remnant of those immense pos 

 sessions which have passed from them to us, and left few sub 

 stantial evidences of permanent advantage. One great objec 

 tion to a removal that has been urged by the more discreet 

 Indians, and by many of our own citizens, who are honestly 

 seeking their improvement, is the prospect, judging by the past;, 

 that their location west of the Mississippi would be tempo 

 rary, as they would be soon pressed for new cessions, and 

 would yield, as they have heretofore yielded, to successive 

 applications for this purpose. Although the nature and objects 

 of their removal, and the spirit of the act of Congress which 

 introduced the system, are opposed to such attempts, still the 

 apprehension is entertained, and has proved injurious. Pro 

 bably no course would better satisfy them upon this subject 

 than the introduction of a principle which would secure to 

 them the full value of the property, under all circumstances, 

 thus lessening in their view any wish on our part to acquire 

 it, and ensuring to them, if not the power and disposition to 

 retain it, at least the means of converting it to the greatest 

 advantage.&quot; 



The policy of the United States with regard to the Indians 

 is to place them to the west of the Mississippi, and it has been 



