The Indian Wars, 1784-1787 in 



bors and myself that I can, and do as little harm as 

 I can help, and trust on God's mercy for the rest." 

 The old pioneer always kept the respect of red men 

 and white, of friend and foe, for he acted according 

 to his belief. Yet there was one evil to which he 

 was no more sensitive than the other men of his 

 time. 



Among his accounts there is an entry recording 

 his purchase, for another man, of a negro woman 

 for the sum of ninety pounds. 31 There was already 

 a strong feeling in the Western settlements against 

 negro slavery, 32 because of its moral evil, and of its 

 inconsistency with all true standards of humanity and 

 Christianity, a feeling which continued to exist and 

 which later led to resolute efforts to forbid or abol 

 ish slave-holding. But the consciences of the major 

 ity were too dull, and, from the standpoint of the 

 white race, they were too shortsighted to take ac 

 tion in the right direction. The selfishness and 

 mental obliquity which imperil the future of a race 

 for the sake of. the lazy pleasure of two or three gen 

 erations prevailed; and in consequence the white 

 people of the middle West, and therefore eventually 

 of the Southwest, clutched the one burden under 

 which they ever staggered, the one evil which has 

 ever warped their development, the one danger 

 which has ever seriously threatened their very ex 

 istence. Slavery must of necessity exercise the most 

 baleful influence upon any slave-holding people, and 



81 Do., March 7, 1786. 



12 See Journals of Rev. James Smith. 



