Origin of the American Indians [pp. 565-574]

ORIGIN OF THE AMERICAN INDIANS.
"Let not this weak, unknowing hand
Presume Thy bolts to throw,
And deal damrnation round the land
On each I judge Thy foe."
The mysteries of this part of the subject were better committed t(
the hands of those able and learned divines who have devoted their lives
i() the unravelling of the prophecies and the study of the will of God as
declared in his holy Word. Even with their aid, however, I despair
otf ever seeing them expounded. Like the ten thousand arcana of our
:lmoral and physical world, which perplex us on every hand from the
humblest blade of grass beneath our feet to the spangled heavens above
us, they will remain a sealed book until that perfect day breaks upon
our vision when we are to see God face to face, and all the secrets of
time and eternity are to be laid open to our view, that the empire of
perfect gratitude and reverence may be established, and the boundaries
)t' love and happiness indefinitely extended.
But it needs no prophetic ken, however, or inspired vision to forsee
that soon the Indians will disappear from every portion of our country
-that soon the beautiful lines of our best poet will be but a true and
taithful picture of the whole American continent:
"Erewhile where yon gay spires their brightness rear
Trees waved, and the brown hunter's shouts were loud
Amid the forest; and the bounding deer
Fled at the glancing plume, and the gaunt wolf yelled near.
Look now abroad-another race has filled
These populous borders-wide the wood recedes
And towns shoot up, and fertile realms are tilled;
The land is full of harvests and green meads, etc."
BRYANT.
But who can bid farewell to the Indians without dropping a tear to
,heir memory! In their dark forests deeds have been done such as
have rendered the names of Hannibal and Cesar immortal. But they
had no bard to sing them, they had no hisotrian to record them! The
ashes of thousands of dead heroes sleep on our plains undistinguished
tiom their kindred dust. Their names perished with the grassy couch
upon which they bled! And yet there are some Indian names which the
literature of the white man will perpetuate to the latest posterity. As long
as magnanimity, boldness of design, eloquence in the council and
bravery in the field shall secure the admiration of men, the names of
Powhatan, Pontiac, King Phillip, Logan, Red Jacket, and Tecumseh
will never be forgotten!!
.574