THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 835 



serted. The British Government, which was then our government, and whose rights 

 have passed to the United States, asserted a title to all the lands occupied by In- 

 dians within the chartered limits of the British colonies. It asserted also a limited 

 sovereignty over them, and the exclusive right of extinguishing the title which occu- 

 pancy gave to them. These claims have been maintained and established as far west 

 as the Mississippi River by the sword. The title to a vast portion of the lands we now 

 hold originates in them. It is not for the courts of this country to question the validity 

 of this title or to sustain one which is incompatible with it. 



Although we do not mean to engage in the defense of those principles which Euro- 

 peans have applied to Indian title, they may, we think, find some excuse, if not justi- 

 fication, in the character and habits of the people whose rights have been wrested 

 from them. 



The title by conquest is acquired and maintained by force. The conqueror prescribes 

 its limits. Humanity, however, acting on public opinion, has established, as a general 

 rule, that the conquered shall not be wantonly oppressed, and that their condition 

 shall remain as eligible as is compatible with the objects of the conquest. Most usually 

 they are incorporated with the victorious nation, and become subjects or citizens of 

 the government with which they are connected. The new and old members of society 

 mingle with each other ; the distinction between them is gradually lost, and they make 

 one people. Where this incorporation is practicable, humanity demands, and a wise 

 policy requires, that the right of the conquered to property should remain unimpaired ; 

 that the new subjects should be governed as equitably as the old, and that confidence 

 in their security should gradually banish the painful sense of being separated from 

 their ancient connections and united by force to strangers. 



When the conquest is complete, and the conquered inhabitants can be blended with 

 the conquerors, or safely governed as a distinct people, public opinion, which not 

 even the conqueror can disregard, imposes these restraints upon him ; and he cannot 

 neglect them without injury to his fame and hazard to his power. 



But the tribes of Indians inhabiting this country were fierce savages, whose occu- 

 pation was war, and whose subsistence was drawn chiefly from the forest. To leave 

 them in possession of their country was to leave the country a wilderness ; to govern 

 them as a distinct people was impossible, because they were as brave and high-spir- 

 ited as they were fierce, and were ready to repel by arms every attempt on their in- 

 dependence. What was the inevitable consequence of this state of things ? The 

 Europeans were under the necessity either of abandoning the country and relinquish- 

 ing their pompous claims to it, or of enforcing those claims by the sword, and by the 

 adoption of principles adapted to the condition of a people with whom it was impos- 

 sible to mix, and who could not be governed as a distinct society, or of remaining in 

 their neighborhood, and exposing themselves and their families to the perpetual haz- 

 ard of being massacred. 



Frequent and bloody wars, in which the whites were not always the aggressors, un- 

 avoidably ensued. European policy, numbers, and skill prevailed. As the white 

 population advanced, that of the Indians necessarily receded. The country in the 

 immediate neighborhood of agriculturists became unfit for them. The game fled into 

 thicker and more unbroken forests, and the Indians followed. The soil, to which the 

 Crown originally claimed title, being no longer occupied by its ancient inhabitants, 

 was parceled out according to the will of the sovereign power, and taken possession 

 of by persons who claimed immediately from the Crown, or mediately through its 

 grantees or deputies. 



That law T hich regulates and ought to regulate in general the relations between 

 the conqueror and conquered was incapable of application to a people under such 

 circumstances. The resort to some new and different rule, better adapted to the actual 

 state of things, was unavoidable. Every rule which can be suggested will be found 

 to be attended with great difficulty. 



However extravagant the pretension of converting the discovery of an inhabited 



