THOMAS) RIGHT TO SOIL DEPENDENT ON DISCOVERY 537 



tho bowlings of the tiger and the wolf silence forever the voice of human gladness? 

 Shall the fields and the valleys which a beneficent God has framed to teem with the 

 life of innumerable mnltitiides bo condemned to eveilasting barrenness? Shall the 

 mighty rivers, poured out by the hands of nature as channels of connuunication 

 between numerous nations, roll their waters in sullen silence and eternal solitude to 

 the deep ? Have hundreds of commodious harbors, a thousand leagues of coast, and 

 a bouudless ocean been spread in the front of this land, and shall every purpose of 

 utility to which they could apply be prohibited by the tenant of the woods? No, 

 generous philanthropists! Heaven has not been thus inconsistent iu the works of 

 its hands. Heaven has not thus placed at irreconcilable strife its moral laws with 

 its physical creation.' 



Iu order to .show the correctness of the views expressed by Adams 

 iu the above quotation, aud the ab.surdity of admitting the Indiaus' 

 claim to the absolute right of the soil of the whole country, some com- 

 parisons are here introduced. These are simple comparisons Ijetweeu 

 the Indian population aud the extent of territory claimed by them. 



Perhaps the best estimate of the Indian populatiou of the United 

 States (exclusive of Alaska), at different periods up to 1870, are tho.se 

 giveu by Honorable John Eatou.^ His summary is as follows: 



1820. Report of Morse on Indian Affairs 471, 036 



1825. Report of Secretary of War 129, 366 



1829. Report of Secretary of War 312, 930 



1834. Report of Secretary of War 312, 610 



1836. Report of Superintendent of Indian Affairs 253, 464 



1837. Report of Superintendent of Indian Affairs 302, 498 



1850. Report of H. R. Schoolcraft 388, 229 



1853. Report of United States Census, 1850 400,764 



1855. Report of Indian Office 314 622 



1857. Report of H. R. Schoolcraft 379 264 



1860. Report of Indian Office 254,300 



1865. Report of Indian Office 294,574 



1870. Report of United States Census 313, 712 



1870. Report of Indian Office 313^ 37I 



1875. Report of Indian Office 305 068 



1876. Report of Indian Office 291 882 



Examining these estimates at the different dates, we see that the 

 average, in round numbers, is 315,0()0. Now, assuming this to be a 

 correct estimate, aud allowing five persons to a family, this would give 

 63,000 as the whole nuniber of Indian families in the United States. 

 Assuming the area of the United States, exclusive of Alaska, to be 

 3,025,000 square miles, this would give to each Indian family a mauor 

 of 48 square miles, or 30,720 acres. Now, supposing, for fnrther illustra- 

 tion, that the families were distributed uniformly over the whole terri- 

 tory, the state of Rhode Island, which now supports a populatiou of 

 345,,50G persons, or 09,101 families (allowing five persons to a fiimily), 

 would be apportioned among 20 Indian families; the stateof Delaware 

 would be allotted to but 43, and the whole state of New York, which 



' Report of the Commissioner of ludmn Affairs for 1867, p. 143. 

 "Ibid., for 1877. 



