148 DISCOURSES OF FATHER HYACINTHE. 



Let US heap no more reproiicli on the great soul of the 

 Spanish people, nor forget that tliis was not the only 

 guilty race — that almost everywhere the white men, 

 unworthy of their great trust, were oppressors, not 

 liberators. The other great colonizing race of the 

 American continent — the Anglo-Saxon — was this more 

 humane and equitable at the North than the Spanish 

 race at the South ? Has it not crowded off the Indians 

 into the wilderness? Has it not, with slow, inexoral)le 

 perseverance, prosecuted the work of their entire ex- 

 tinction ? 



Just at this moment a message reaches us by the 

 transatlantic cable. It is the language of that man 

 who was the sword in the work in which Abraham 

 Lincoln was the will, and who seems impatient to dis- 

 charge his country's debt toward all men — red as well as 

 black. His language is brief and unimpassioned as the 

 coolest common sense — inflexible as conscience and 

 honor : 



" The proper treatment of the original occupants of 

 this land, the Indians, is one deserving of careful study. 

 I will favor any course toward them which tends to 

 their civilization, Christianization, and ultimate citi- 

 zenship." 



And he adds these words, which are a most just state- 

 ment of the policy of the Gospel, and, I venture to hope, 

 of the policy of the future : 



" In regard to foreign policy, I would deal with na- 

 tions as equitable law rc({uires individuals to deal with 

 each other."* 



Such language as this, Ecuador has no need to use. 

 Long since, it carried it into its practice. Nobly un- 

 faitliful to tlie Iradilions of IMzurro and the early con- 



♦ Frcbidcut Graiil't^ Iiiaiigurnl, ■March 1, 18(i0. 



