150 Finch on the Celtic Antiquities of America. 



see, or those we read of, belong to our native country, or 

 even to one which we have made our home, the interest be- 

 comes more intense, and every faculty of the mind is exert- 

 ed, to trace their origin and investigate their use. 



With communities of men, as with individuals, great im- 

 portance is attached to a long line of glorious ancestry, and 

 the first desire of all civilized nations has been, to investigate 

 the history of the tribes who first visited the countries they 

 inhabit, and it is an honorable feeling which prompts men to 

 ascertain the history and migrations of the ancient inhabit- 

 ants of the earth. 



While the people of Europe boast their descent from the 

 Goths, the Celts, and a hundred other barbarous tribes 

 which the page of history has immortalized ; the natives of 

 America are considered as ^^novi homines,''^ because their 

 existence can be traced only during two or three centuries 

 of years. It is the duty of Americans to refute this ground- 

 less accusation, and at the same time fill up a chasm in the 

 early history of their country ; this may be effected by call- 

 ing their attention to the rude stone monuments with which 

 their country abounds, although they have hitherto escap-^ 

 ed thoir notice, or been passed over as unworthy of regard. 



Who is there within the limits of the wide world, that has 

 not heard of the name and fame of the Druids, of their re- 

 ligious sacrifices, and of their instruments of gold, with 

 which they severed the sacred mistletoe fiom the venerable 

 father of the forest, the wide-spreading oak. The object of 

 the present essay is to extend their empire a little farther 

 than has hitherto been imagined, and to suggest that the Ab- 

 origines of America were of Celtic origin, that their monu- 

 ments still exist in the land, and are the most ancient na- 

 tional memorials which America can show, and that if anti- 

 quity is to be a boast, this continent can produce monu- 

 ments nearly as old as any in Europe, and derived from the 

 same common ancestry. 



Man lives a ^ew years; but he erects monuments, and 

 thus survives in the recollection of posterity, and the various 

 tribes who have successively inhabited the world may be 

 traced by the peculiar features of their architecture. That 

 of barbarous nations was distinguished by its simplicity, and 

 large massy stones were the first objects of attention and 

 respect. The primitive families of the earth were destitute 



