Cherokee Phoenix

Five column format

Published March, 26, 1831

Page 2 Column 4b

Five column format

From the New-York Journal of Commerce

THE INDIANS.

How the question is viewed for Foreigners. The London Times, a paper as friendly to this country as any other in the metropolis, thus comments upon that part of the President's message which related to the Indians:

The Message proceeds to congratulate Congress on the success which attended the 'benevolent' policy of the United States, which has for nearly 30 years aimed at the 'removal' of the Indians beyond the white settlements! The removal of the Indians means simply their expulsion from every foot of land which they and their ancestors for numberless generations had possessed and enjoyed by indefeasible right, long previous to the existence of the North American Republic. We do not mean to deny the incalculable advantage to the whole world, derived from the substitution of a civilized for a savage community, through the vast region which at this moment form the dominion of the United States, but things ought to be called by their proper denominations. The unhappy Indians are 'treated with' as the wild beasts are treated with, they are hunted off the earth, wherever a white man chooses to raise his loghouse. There is no 'benevolence' in this, but the pure selfishness of unbridled power. The 'removal' means a violent expulsion; the expulsion is followed in almost every instance, and even with a single generation of mankind, of extinction. Within the short term of 30 years, many once numerous and powerful tribes of the Indian race; thus ousted from their homes, have perished. General JACKSON philosophizes upon these sufferings of the ancient occupants of America, which, says he, upon 'a comprehensive' view of the general interests of the human race, is not to be regretted.