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b ecame, by their independence, the sovereigns of the territory^ " h ave adopted and organized into a political system. U nder that " s ystem, the Indians residing w ithin the U nited S tates are so far " independent, t hat they live under their own customs and not under " the laws of the United States; t hat their rights upon the lands " w here they inhabit or hunt, are secured to them by boundaries " defined in amicable treaties b etween the U nited S tates and them" selves; and that whenever those boundaries are varied, it is also " b y amicable and voluntary treaties, b y which they receive from " t he U nited S tates ample compensation for every right they have " to the l and ceded by them. T h e y are so far dependent as not to " h ave the right to dispose of their lands to any private person, nor " to any power other than the U nited S tates, and to be under their "protection alone, a nd not under that of any other p ower. Wheth" er called subjects, or by whatever name designated, such i s the " r elation between them and the U nited S tates. T h a t relation is " n eiter asserted now for the f irst t ime, nor did it originate With the " t reaty of G reenville. T hese principles have been uniformly re" cognized b y the Indians themselves, not only by that treaty, but " i n all the other previous as well as subsequent treaties b etween " t hem and the U nited S tates." Such was the solemn annunciation to the whole world, of the principles and of the system, regulating o ur relations w ith the Indians, as admitted by us and recognized b y them. There ca:: be no violation of e ither, to the disadvantage of the weaker party, which w i l l not subject us, as a nation, to the just reproaches of a ll good m en, and which may not bring d own upon us the maledictions of a more exalted and powerful t r i bunal.
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W hether the Indian portion of the inhabitants of the U nited S tates w i l l s urvive, or become e xtinct, in the progress of population w hich t he European race is rapidly making from the shores of the A tlantic to those of the Pacific ocean, provided they arc treated with justice and humanity, i s a problem of less importance. T h e t wo races are not promiscuously mingled together, but are generall y s eparate and distinct communities. There is no danger to the w hites o r to their p urity, f rom the power or from the vices of the I ndians. T h e c ase i s widely d ifferent w ith those who form the i m mediate o bject o f this address. T h e A f r i c a n p art of our population, or their ancestors, were b rought hither forcibly and by violence, i n the prosecution of the m ost abominable traffic that ever disgraced the annals of the human r ace. T h e y were chiefly procured, in their native country, as captives i n war, taken, and subsequently sold by the conqueror as s laves to the slave trader. Sometimes the most atrocious practices o f k idnapping w ere employed to obtain possession of the victim?. W ars w ere frequent between numerous and. barbarous neighbouring t ribes scattered along the coasts or stretched upon the margin o f large rivers of A f r i c a . T hese wars were often enkindled and p rosecuted for no other o bject t han to obtain a supply of subjects
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