Cherokee Phoenix

EXTRACT

Published February, 18, 1832

Page 3 Column 1a

EXTRACT

Of a letter from Rindge, N.H. to one of the Missionaries in the

Cherokee Nation.

Dear Cousin,

Yours was duly received, and I embrace the first opportunity to reply. Be assured we have not forgotten you, nor your associates in the missionary cause. We may not write, I am sensible I do not, so often as may seem to you desirable, or even incumbent on those, that sustain the relation we do to the causes and particularly to you. But it may be comforting to you to know, that our people generally, even those who make no pretensions to religion, and may be opposed to missions in general, feel a deep interest in what relates to the Indians. In regard to the measures of our government there is in this town scarcely but one voice, and that is the voice of condemnation. Among Christians I have reason to believe there is the voice of prayer. For a long time the case of the Indians has been the subject more or less of conversation and prayer at every Monthly Concert. With many their feelings are no more the result of a sense of justice and common sympathy; others decide as they do on political grounds; and, to all, who are not the slaves of party spirit, the measures of Georgia are odious. But in these days of excitement and corruption and wickedness in high places, the hope of Missionaries and Christian in relation and the cause of Christ and of our common country and the world must rest on the Almighty and not on man. And, while we depend on God, we must employ those spiritual weapons which 'are mighty through God to pulling down of strong holds.' The world is in commotion from one end to the other, and God has come out of his place to accomplish the purpose of infinite wisdom. He is asking the nation as he has never done before, and the results will be great and interesting. And the followers of Christ in every place and station must pass through many trying scenes. Missionaries must have their trials, and ministers and Christians at home must theirs; but let each class and each individual stand in his lot and be faithful unto death, and all will be well. Our concern is to be faithful. No fear for the cause of Christ-that will triumph. But we have reason to tremble for our country. He that judges in the earth and who is the almighty avenger of the oppressed and the friendless will surely 'visit for these things.' I view the conduit of our government towards the Indians to be a violation of what the Bible says in such passages as Proverbs 22,23;28,23:4O, exposes all concerned to the wrath of God. By the fatherless in these passages are intended all that are in a dependent, and defenseless state. Whoever oppresses those must answer it to Him who has declared he will plead their cause. But we still hope God will interpose and change the hearts of wicked men and dispose them to 'do justly and have mercy.'