The
misfortune with the race is, that, seated on the skirts of the domain of
a popular government, they have no vote to give. They are politically a
nonentity. The moral and benevolent powers of our system are with the
people. Government has nothing to do with them. The whole Indian race is
not, in the political scales, worth one white man's vote. Here is the
difficulty in any benevolent scheme. If the Indian were raised to the
right of giving his suffrage, a plenty of politicians, on the
frontiers, would enter into plans to better him. Now the subject drags
along as an incubus on Congress. Legislation for them is only taken up
on a pinch. It is a mere expedient to get along with the subject; it is
taken up unwillingly, and dropped in a hurry. This is the Indian system.
Nobody knows really what to do, and those who have more information are
deemed to be a little moon-struck.
_18th_. ESTIMATION OF MR. JOHNSTON.--Gov. Cass writes from Washington:
"Mr. Johnston's death is an event I sincerely deplore, and one upon
which I tender my condolements to the family.
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