chisement, that it will not exert the same vivifying influence upon him as upon the Anglo-Saxon." "No man can say what would have been the present condition of the Indians, but for these disabilities. It will not do to say that the Indian is incapable of improvement. The experiment has never been fairly tried. Efforts have been made to Christianize and elevate them; and we are gravely told that, because they. always have failed, therefore they always must fail; but it seems to have been forgotten, that the effect of these efforts has always been controlled by the crushing influence of civil and political disability, and, as a necessary result of these, of social proscription. It is, as Frederick Douglass says in relation to the incapacity of the African race for improvement - himself an eloquent refutation of the falsity of the affirmation:- Sixteen millions of Anglo-Saxons grind to the very dust three millions of Africans. Take your heels off our necks, and see if we do not rise.' We have treated the Indians as wards, serfs, vassals, slaves. We have taken the management of their property, and have allowed it to be squandered and lost. We claim the right to dispose of their persons, giving their guardians the power to bind them out, as minors, and to appropriate the proceeds of their labor, at their own almost irresponsible discretion. That this power has not been abused, is owing to the character of the guardians, and to a state of public opinion, which, unfortunately, has not yet infused itself into the laws. Can we hesitate as to the duty of the commonwealth to those whom Chief-Justice Parker terms 'the unfortunate children of the public." " No words of ours can add anything to these lucid and comprehensive statements of the Commissioners. Every humane man is their debtor for the patience with which they have investigated this subject; and none can be offended with a zeal which keeps so singularly within the bounds of moderation, after months spent in the consideration of so touching and painful a picture. "There is a prudent wisdom, and there is also a wisdom which does not remind us of prudence," says a thoughtful writer. If the calculating conservatism of the State House must still scorn the latter, we do not see how it can refuse to place the plan of the Commissioners among the best fruits of the former. While the humanity of the State gathers up the blind, the dumb, the idiot, and the insane; while strong friends compel attention to the slave, let us see for once the mercy of the majority toward those whose only plea is their feebleness, their friendlessness, and their wrongs. The first word from Indian lips that our annals have preserved is "Welcome." Let us so govern that the last farewell of the going out of the race may be "Thanks." Whatever Men may say of our conduct toward them when their fortune was at high noon, let History have it to record that their sun went down in peace. Our Institutions have not proved themselves very wonderful, if they only give new vigor to a race that was already blossoming under the best culture of the old world- the ripe fruit of English polity and life. Let them be shown capable of redeeming the African from the long degradation of centuries, of returning the "welcome" which the red man gave us to his new world by lifting him to the level of our own civilization, and endowing him with the treasures of the past, and the capacity to use and enjoy them. There is one moral to be drawn from this experiment of Indian life in the midst of us, which throws light on the solution of a question esteemed so dark and difficult that every, the least, "How shall Slavray from any quarter should be welcome. ery be dealt with?" The Indian, few in numbers, separated by an insolent barrier of caste from the dominant race, isolated at school and church, put under guardianship that he might, in time, be fitted to spend his own money and vote for his neighbors, is found, after the lapse of a century and the trial of three generations, where? In such plight that humanity weeps, and the best state-craft is dumb and confounded. We commend the picture to the careful consideration of those who propose for the Slave a gradual emancipation, apprenticeship, pupillage, a preparation in the mill of white mercy for the care of himself, a holding in leading strings; till he too is ready for the ballot box. No: but till, three generations wasted in the experiment, our great grandchildren shall weep over his wretchedness, and curse the short-sighted and cruel disbelief of their fathers in the great law that Right is always expediency. For Massachusetts we hope the considerable experiment of her Indian tribes will be enough to induce her to hold on to the principle she has so often avowed, of immediate, unconditional enfranchisement, having learnt from the sacrifice of her thousand sons, at least, this lesson, that to be free is the only discipline which can fit man for freedom, and that patience under the temporary evils of the first years of such emancipa tion are the inevitable atonement the son must make for the sin of his fathers. L ART. VIII. - THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE LATE MR. POLK. THE administration of Mr. Polk took place at an important period in the affairs of the nation; it is connected with some of the most remarkable events which have happened in America since the adoption of the Constitution-events which will deeply and long affect the welfare of the people. The time has not yet come when the public, or any person, can fully appreciate the causes then put or kept in action. But the administration was so remarkable, the events connected with it so new in our history, and so important, that it seems to us worth while to pause a moment and study this chapter in American politics, with such light as we now possess. It becomes the more important to do this just as a new Congress is about to assemble, while the government is connected with a new President not very well tried in political affairs. In judging the contemporary events of our country it would be ridiculous in us to pretend to the same coolness and impartiality which it is easy to have in studying the politics of times a thousand years gone by; still, we think we have no prejudice against Mr. Polk or his administration, or in favor thereof; certainly we do not look through the partizan eyes of a Democrat, or a Whig, or a Free Soiler, but are ready to praise or blame an idea, a measure, or an act, on its own account, without asking what political family it belongs to. The materials for the history of this administration are abundant and accessible. We make no pretentions to a knowledge of the Secrets of either party; they would be of small value if known. The volumes of private and confidential letters of some New York politicians, of which so much talk was made a few years ago, contain much matter for gos sip, some even for scandal, little for history, and for political philosophy nothing at all. We neither seek nor welcome information from such quarters. In politics, as in all science, the common and obvious facts are of the greatest value. With the secret history of the Baltimore Convention, of the Congress, or the Cabinet, we have nothing to do, only with their public acts. Our information will be drawn chiefly from public documents. We have nothing to say of the personal character and private motives of the distinguished actors in the political drama. Politicians are as honest as the majority of men would be, exposed to the same temptations, under the same circumstances. The misdeeds of other men are done on a small scale, or in an obscure way, while the private character of a politician becomes public, his deeds appear before the sun. If the transactions of State street and Wall street were public as the acts of Congress, men would not think more highly, perhaps, of mercantile honor, than now of political integrity. A little acquaintance with political doings shows a looker on, that while each party is, consciously or blindly, led forward by its idea, and so helps or hinders the progress of mankind, under similar circumstances, the one has about as much patriotism and political honesty as the other. In point of deeds the party that has been long in power is certainly more corrupt than the opposite party, who are limited by their position to longings and intentions. So the apples which have long been exposed for sale in a huckster's basket, get bruised with the huckster's attempts to show only their fair sides, and with frequent handling by the public, and begin to rot sooner than other apples from the same branch, but kept out of sight in the barrel, which, otherwise resemble them "as much as one apple is like another." The party that is full and the party that is hungry seldom differ much in their political honesty. In estimating the administration of men like Jefferson and Jackson, men of decided thoughts or decided deeds, the personal character and opinions of the President are important elements to be considered. But Mr. Polk was remarkable neither for thought nor action; he had no virtues or vices to distinguish him from the common run of politicians, who swim with the party tide, up or down, in or out, as it may be. His character seems to have had no weight in the public scale, and does not appear to have given the balance a cast to either side. He might follow a multitude, in front or rear- he could not lead. God never gave him " the precious gift" of leading. For his office, no qualities marked him more than a thousand other men in the land. Like Mr. Harrison and Mr. Tyler, he was indebted for the presidency to "the accident of an accident." So the God Apis was selected from other bullocks for some qualities known only to the priests: though to laical eyes he was nothing but a common stot, distinguished by no mark and likelihood; soon as selected he became a God, and had the homage of his worshippers. The nomination of the Apis might be one "not fit to be made," but when clerically made it always had the laic confirmation, and no Apis was ever found too brute to receive worship. It was said in 1848, that it was not of much consequence who was President if he were only a Whig; it did not require much ability to fill the office; much acquaintance with the Philosophy of Politics; nor even much knowledge of the Facts of Politics; nay, not any eminence of character. Mr. Polk was not the first or the last attempt to demonstrate this by experiment. His private life was marred by no unusual blemish, and set off by no remarkable beauty. He kept the ten commandments very much as other men; was sober, temperate, modest in his deportment; what seems latterly rather unusual for a President, he did not swear profanely. On his death-bed he "professed justifying faith in the Lord Jesus Christ," " relying alone for salvation on the great doctrine of atonement," and "received the ordinance of baptism;" thus he secured a good name in the churches, not yet accorded to Franklin and Washington. Estimating him by the ordinary standard about him, the true way to judge such a man, he has been set down as an exemplary man, using his opportunities with common fidelity. Some official acts of his were purely official. His friends, since his death, claim but little for him. Eulogies are not supposed to limit themselves to telling the truth, or to extend themselves to telling the whole truth. Still they are a good test of public opinion. Burr got none; General Jackson had many; those on Mr. Polk were chiefly official, and their tem perature, for official panegyrics, was uncommonly low, plainly intimating that little could be made of such a subject. Mr. Polk was hardly susceptible of rhetorical treatment after death. While in power he could easily be praised. We shall take it for granted that, excepting some of the eminent leaders, almost any prominent man in the Democratic party, if made President under such circumstances, would have done very much as Mr. Polk did; would have been merely a portion of the party machine. Last year the Whigs said, also, it was not very important what the personal opinions of the Presi dent were. After eliminating these elements which we do not intend to speak of, the matter becomes quite simple: we have only to deal with the Ideas of the Administration,- the Measures proposed as an expression thereof, and the Acts in which these Ideas took a concrete form. These, of course, will be com - |