THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 191 



The man of America is represented by tribes and nations, feeble of themselves and 

 relying for protection upon the man of Europe. At the outset of the war of the Rev- 

 olution the Mohawks retired to Canada, and the eastern door of the Long House was 

 broken down forever. After the close of that war the main body of the Cayugas also 

 went to Canada. The Onondagas have been reduced to a feeble remnant. The west- 

 ern door is gone. The Long House has been swept away, and there is naught left of 

 it but some poor, dispersed, decaying fragments. The broken bands that are left 

 within the State are bereft of all that the Long House covered, save some petty res- 

 ervations. The population of the State in 1794 was about 340,000, and that of the 

 United States was about 4,000,000. The population of New York four years ago was 

 5,000,000, and that of the United States was 50,000,000. In 1794, when the treaty of 

 Canandaigua was being considered, you spoke of the council of thirteen fires, and 

 that council is now one of thirty-eight fires, and eight more are being built. There 

 is no possibility of retrieving the power of the Six Nations by war. Never, in the 

 hereafter, can they or any of them wage an independent war on their own account. 

 If they go to war at all — which may the good God forbid ! — it must be as auxiliaries 

 of the great powers that shelter them. The contracted reservations yield little or no 

 game. You must till the ground and engage in mechanical employments. Some 

 white men are continually seeking to prey upon you, and others are constant in your 

 defense. You have friends and protectors in great numbers and of great apparent 

 power; but, alas! you are dwindling, and it would seem that some of your nations 

 must ere long vanish in the mass of white men or become utterly extinct. 



I am very glad to bejieve that the State of New York and the United States have 

 always been and are friends of the Iroquois. Brothers of the Seneca Nation! have 

 you forgotten how, in or about 1784, when you had been persuaded to " execute a 

 deed for your whole country * * * and had sold the burial places of your fathers, 

 and the bones and ashes of your ancestors, and had not reserved land sufficient to lay 

 down your head or kindle a fire upon," the State of New York interposed, in vindica- 

 tion of its just dignity, and gave you complete relief? Did not De Witt Clinton, the 

 then governor of the State, write thus to you in 1820 : " Brothers ! this State will 

 protect you in the full enjoyment of your property. We are strong and will shield 

 you from oppression. The Great Spirit looks down on the conduct of mankind and 

 will punish us if we permit the remnant of the Indian nations which is with us to be 

 injured. We feel for you, brothers, and we shall watch over your interests. We 

 know that in the future state we shall be called upon to answer for our conduct to 

 our fellow creatures." The State has always felt her solemn responsibility and that 

 promise so given for her. The report of the joint committee of Four Yearly Meetings 

 of the Friends certified thus in 1847 : " The uniform justice and compassion of New 

 York toward the Six Nations who were located on its territory presents, in retrospect, 

 one of the most pleasant scenes on the pages of our history." It has exerted its 

 power to protect you in the possession of your lands and to, keep out intruders ; to 

 incite you to advances in knowledge and to the practices of industry ; it gave you 

 a charter, under which, as a distinct people, you exercise all the powers of self-govern- 

 ment consistent with your condition. The Society of Friends have been your con- 

 stant advisers and benefactors. All Christian men and all wise and conscientious 

 men who have been or are your neighbors, have been and are anxious for your happi- 

 ness and safety. Surely you have not forgotten Thomas C. Love and Thomas A. Os- 

 borne, your warm and j udicious friends ; nor the Rev. Asher Wright, who resided with 

 you so long and worked so zealously for your salvation. But, notwithstanding all 

 this active friendship and strong protection, the nation has been almost continually 

 harassed, and has not made advances that hold forth reasonable assurance of future 

 progress. Who can effectually protect you and your possessions from sordid and 

 rapacious white men ? The laws and denunciations of the State and nation are as 

 ineffectual as is the brute thunder to deter a pack of wolves from tearing down a 

 deer at bay. Nothing but a just sense of your own worth and dignity as men, and 



