* * * * *
=_Lewis Cass,[23] 1782-1866._=
From his "Report of the Secretary of War." December 1831.
=_91._= POLICY OF REMOVING THE INDIANS.
The associations which bind the Indians to the land of their forefathers
are strong and enduring; and these must be broken by their emigration.
But they are also broken by our citizens, who every day encounter all
the difficulties of similar changes in pursuit of the means of support.
And the experiments that have been made satisfactorily show that,
by proper precautions and liberal appropriations, the removal and
establishment of the Indians can be effected with little comparative
trouble to them, or us.... If they remain, they must decline, and
eventually disappear. Such is the result of all experience. If they
remove, they may be comfortably established, and their moral and
physical condition ameliorated....
The great moral debt we owe to this unhappy race is universally felt and
acknowledged. Diversities of opinion exist respecting the proper mode of
discharging this obligation, but its validity is not denied.
Indolent in his habits, the Indian is opposed to labor; improvident
in his mode of life, he has little foresight in providing, or care in
preserving.
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