Reform and Politics, Part 2, From Vol. VII,
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John Greenleaf Whittier >> Reform and Politics, Part 2, From Vol. VII,
The unsupported efforts of Elliot in New England were counteracted by the
imprisonment, and in some instances the massacre of his "praying
Indians," by white men under the exasperation of war with hostile tribes.
The salutary influence of the Moravians and Friends in Pennsylvania was
greatly weakened by the dreadful massacre of the unarmed and blameless
converts of Gnadenhutten. But since the first visit of Commissioner
Lang, thirty-three years ago, the progress of education, civilization,
and conversion to Christianity, has been of a most encouraging nature,
and if Indian civilization was ever a doubtful problem, it has been
practically solved.
The nomadic habits and warlike propensities of the native tribes are
indeed formidable but not insuperable difficulties in the way of their
elevation. The wildest of them may compare not unfavorably with those
Northern barbarian hordes that swooped down upon Christian Europe, and
who were so soon the docile pupils and proselytes of the peoples they had
conquered. The Arapahoes and Camanches of our day are no further removed
from the sweetness and light of Christian culture than were the
Scandinavian Sea Kings of the middle centuries, whose gods were patrons
of rapine and cruelty, their heaven a vast, cloud-built ale-house, where
ghostly warriors drank from the skulls of their victims, and whose hell
was a frozen horror of desolation and darkness, to be avoided only by
diligence in robbery and courage in murder. The descendants of these
human butchers are now among the best exponents of the humanizing
influence of the gospel of Christ. The report of the Superintendent of
the remnants of the once fierce and warlike Six Nations, now peaceable
and prosperous in Canada, shows that the Indian is not inferior to the
Norse ancestors of the Danes and Norwegians of our day in capability of
improvement.
It is scarcely necessary to say, what is universally conceded, that the
wars waged by the Indians against the whites have, in nearly every
instance, been provoked by violations of solemn treaties and systematic
disregard of their rights of person, property, and life. The letter of
Bishop Whipple, of Minnesota, to the New York Tribune of second month,
1877, calls attention to the emphatic language of Generals Sherman,
Harney, Terry, and Augur, written after a full and searching
investigation of the subject: "That the Indian goes to war is not
astonishing: he is often compelled to do so: wrongs are borne by him in
silence, which never fail to drive civilized men to deeds of violence.
The best possible way to avoid war is to do no injustice."
It is not difficult to understand the feelings of the unfortunate pioneer
settlers on the extreme borders of civilization, upon whom the blind
vengeance of the wronged and hunted Indians falls oftener than upon the
real wrong-doers. They point to terrible and revolting cruelties as
proof that nothing short of the absolute extermination of the race can
prevent their repetition. But a moment's consideration compels us to
admit that atrocious cruelty is not peculiar to the red man. "All wars
are cruel," said General Sherman, and for eighteen centuries Christendom
has been a great battle-field. What Indian raid has been more dreadful
than the sack of Magdeburg, the massacre of Glencoe, the nameless
atrocities of the Duke of Alva in the Netherlands, the murders of St.
Bartholomew's day, the unspeakable agonies of the South of France under
the demoniac rule of revolution! All history, black with crime and red
with blood, is but an awful commentary upon "man's inhumanity to man,"
and it teaches us that there is nothing exceptional in the Indian's
ferocity and vindictiveness, and that the alleged reasons for his
extermination would, at one time or another, have applied with equal
force to the whole family of man.
A late lecture of my friend, Stanley Pumphrey, comprises more of valuable
information and pertinent suggestions on the Indian question than I have
found in any equal space; and I am glad of the opportunity to add to it
my hearty endorsement, and to express the conviction that its general
circulation could not fail to awaken a deeper and more kindly interest in
the condition of the red man, and greatly aid in leading the public mind
to a fuller appreciation of the responsibility which rests upon us as a
people to rectify, as far as possible, past abuses, and in our future
relations to the native owners of the soil to "deal justly and love
mercy."
READING FOR THE BLIND.
[1880.]
To Mary C. Moore, teacher in the Perkins Asylum.
DEAR FRIEND,--It gives me great pleasure to know that the pupils in thy
class at the Institution for the Blind have the opportunity afforded them
to read through the sense of touch some of my writings, and thus hold
what I hope will prove a pleasant communion with me. Very glad I shall
be if the pen-pictures of nature, and homely country firesides, which I
have tried to make, are understood and appreciated by those who cannot
discern them by natural vision. I shall count it a great privilege to
see for them, or rather to let them see through my eyes. It is the mind
after all that really sees, shapes, and colors all things. What visions
of beauty and sublimity passed before the inward and spiritual sight of
blind Milton and Beethoven!
I have an esteemed friend, Morrison Hendy, of Kentucky, who is deaf and
blind; yet under these circumstances he has cultivated his mind to a high
degree, and has written poems of great beauty, and vivid descriptions of
scenes which have been witnessed only by the "light within."
I thank thee for thy letter, and beg of thee to assure the students that
I am deeply interested in their welfare and progress, and that my prayer
is that their inward and spiritual eyes may become so clear that they can
well dispense with the outward and material ones.
THE INDIAN QUESTION.
Read at the meeting in Boston, May, 1883, for the consideration of the
condition of the Indians in the United States.
AMESBURY, 4th mo., 1883.
I REGRET that I cannot be present at the meeting called in reference to
the pressing question of the day, the present condition and future
prospects of the Indian race in the United States. The old policy,
however well intended, of the government is no longer available. The
westward setting tide of immigration is everywhere sweeping over the
lines of the reservations. There would seem to be no power in the
government to prevent the practical abrogation of its solemn treaties and
the crowding out of the Indians from their guaranteed hunting grounds.
Outbreaks of Indian ferocity and revenge, incited by wrong and robbery on
the part of the whites, will increasingly be made the pretext of
indiscriminate massacres. The entire question will soon resolve itself
into the single alternative of education and civilization or
extermination.
The school experiments at Hampton, Carlisle, and Forest Grove in Oregon
have proved, if such proof were ever needed, that the roving Indian can
be enlightened and civilized, taught to work and take interest and
delight in the product of his industry, and settle down on his farm or in
his workshop, as an American citizen, protected by and subject to the
laws of the republic. What is needed is that not only these schools
should be more liberally supported, but that new ones should be opened
without delay. The matter does not admit of procrastination. The work
of education and civilization must be done. The money needed must be
contributed with no sparing hand. The laudable example set by the
Friends and the American Missionary Association should be followed by
other sects and philanthropic societies. Christianity, patriotism, and
enlightened self interest have a common stake in the matter. Great and
difficult as the work may be the country is strong enough, rich enough,
wise enough, and, I believe, humane and Christian enough to do it.
THE REPUBLICAN PARTY.
Read at a meeting of the Essex Club, in Boston,
November, 1885.
AMESBURY, 11th Mo., 10, 1885.
I AM sorry that I cannot accept thy invitation to attend the meeting of
the Essex Club on the 14th inst. I should be glad to meet my old
Republican friends and congratulate them on the results of the election
in Massachusetts, and especially in our good old county of Essex.
Some of our friends and neighbors, who have been with us heretofore, last
year saw fit to vote with the opposite party. I would be the last to
deny their perfect right to do so, or to impeach their motives, but I
think they were mistaken in expecting that party to reform the abuses and
evils which they complained of. President Cleveland has proved himself
better than his party, and has done and said some good things which I
give him full credit for, but the instincts of his party are against him,
and must eventually prove too strong for him, and, instead of his
carrying the party, it will be likely to carry him. It has already
compelled him to put his hands in his pockets for electioneering
purposes, and travel all the way from Washington to Buffalo to give his
vote for a spoilsman and anti-civil service machine politician. I would
not like to call it a case of "offensive partisanship," but it looks a
good deal like it.
As a Republican from the outset, I am proud of the noble record of the
party, but I should rejoice to see its beneficent work taken up by the
Democratic party and so faithfully carried on as to make our organization
no longer necessary. But, as far as we can see, the Republican party has
still its mission and its future. When labor shall everywhere have its
just reward, and the gains of it are made secure to the earners; when
education shall be universal, and, North and South, all men shall have
the free and full enjoyment of civil rights and privileges, irrespective
of color or former condition; when every vice which debases the community
shall be discouraged and prohibited, and every virtue which elevates it
fostered and strengthened; when merit and fitness shall be the conditions
of office; and when sectional distrust and prejudice shall give place to
well-merited confidence in the loyalty and patriotism of all, then will
the work of the Republican party, as a party, be ended, and all political
rivalries be merged in the one great party of the people, with no other
aim than the common welfare, and no other watchwords than peace, liberty,
and union. Then may the language which Milton addressed to his
countrymen two centuries ago be applied to the United States, "Go on,
hand in hand, O peoples, never to be disunited; be the praise and heroic
song of all posterity. Join your invincible might to do worthy and
godlike deeds; and then he who seeks to break your Union, a cleaving
curse be his inheritance."
OUR DUMB RELATIONS.
[1886.]
IT was said of St. Francis of Assisi, that he had attained, through the
fervor of his love, the secret of that deep amity with God and His
creation which, in the language of inspiration, makes man to be in league
with the stones of the field, and the beasts of the field to be at peace
with him. The world has never been without tender souls, with whom the
golden rule has a broader application than its letter might seem to
warrant. The ancient Eastern seers recognized the rights of the brute
creation, and regarded the unnecessary taking of the life of the humblest
and meanest as a sin; and in almost all the old religions of the world
there are legends of saints, in the depth of whose peace with God and
nature all life was sacredly regarded as the priceless gift of heaven,
and who were thus enabled to dwell safely amidst lions and serpents.
It is creditable to human nature and its unperverted instincts that
stories and anecdotes of reciprocal kindness and affection between men
and animals are always listened to with interest and approval. How
pleasant to think of the Arab and his horse, whose friendship has been
celebrated in song and romance. Of Vogelwied, the Minnesinger, and his
bequest to the birds. Of the English Quaker, visited, wherever he went,
by flocks of birds, who with cries of joy alighted on his broad-brimmed
hat and his drab coat-sleeves. Of old Samuel Johnson, when half-blind
and infirm, groping abroad of an evening for oysters for his cat. Of
Walter Scott and John Brown, of Edinburgh, and their dogs. Of our own
Thoreau, instinctively recognized by bird and beast as a friend. Emerson
says of him: "His intimacy with animals suggested what Thomas Fuller
records of Butler, the apologist, that either he had told the bees
things, or the bees had told him. Snakes coiled round his legs; the
fishes swam into his hand; he pulled the woodchuck out of his hole by his
tail, and took foxes under his protection from the hunters."
In the greatest of the ancient Hindu poems--the sacred book of the
Mahabharata--there is a passage of exceptional beauty and tenderness,
which records the reception of King Yudishthira at the gate of Paradise.
A pilgrim to the heavenly city, the king had travelled over vast spaces,
and, one by one, the loved ones, the companions of his journey, had all
fallen and left him alone, save his faithful dog, which still followed.
He was met by Indra, and invited to enter the holy city. But the king
thinks of his friends who have fallen on the way, and declines to go in
without them. The god tells him they are all within waiting for him.
Joyful, he is about to seek them, when he looks upon the poor dog, who,
weary and wasted, crouches at his feet, and asks that he, too, may enter
the gate. Indra refuses, and thereupon the king declares that to abandon
his faithful dumb friend would be as great a sin as to kill a Brahmin.
"Away with that felicity whose price is to abandon the faithful!
Never, come weal or woe, will I leave my faithful dog.
The poor creature, in fear and distress, has trusted in my power to
save him;
Not, therefore, for life itself, will I break my plighted word."
In full sight of heaven he chooses to go to hell with his dog, and
straightway descends, as he supposes, thither. But his virtue and
faithfulness change his destination to heaven, and he finds himself
surrounded by his old friends, and in the presence of the gods, who thus
honor and reward his humanity and unselfish love.
INTERNATIONAL ARBITRATION.
Read at the reception in Boston of the English delegation representing
more than two hundred members of the British Parliament who favor
international arbitration.
AMESBURY, 11th Mo., 9, 1887.
IT is a very serious disappointment to me not to be able to be present at
the welcome of the American Peace Society to the delegation of more than
two hundred members of the British Parliament who favor international
arbitration. Few events have more profoundly impressed me than the
presentation of this peaceful overture to the President of the United
States. It seems to me that every true patriot who seeks the best
interests of his country and every believer in the gospel of Christ must
respond to the admirable address of Sir Lyon Playfair and that of his
colleagues who represented the workingmen of England. We do not need to
be told that war is always cruel, barbarous, and brutal; whether used by
professed Christians with ball and bayonet, or by heathen with club and
boomerang. We cannot be blind to its waste of life and treasure and the
demoralization which follows in its train; nor cease to wonder at the
spectacle of Christian nations exhausting all their resources in
preparing to slaughter each other, with only here and there a voice, like
Count Tolstoi's in the Russian wilderness, crying in heedless ears that
the gospel of Christ is peace, not war, and love, not hatred.
The overture which comes to us from English advocates of arbitration is a
cheering assurance that the tide of sentiment is turning in favor of
peace among English speaking peoples. I cannot doubt that whatever stump
orators and newspapers may say for party purposes, the heart of America
will respond to the generous proposal of our kinsfolk across the water.
No two nations could be more favorably conditioned than England and the
United States for making the "holy experiment of arbitration."
In our associations and kinship, our aims and interests, our common
claims in the great names and achievements of a common ancestry, we are
essentially one people. Whatever other nations may do, we at least
should be friends. God grant that the noble and generous attempt shall
not be in vain! May it hasten the time when the only rivalry between us
shall be the peaceful rivalry of progress and the gracious interchange of
good.
"When closer strand shall lean to strand,
Till meet beneath saluting flags,
The eagle of our mountain crags,
The lion of our mother land!"
SUFFRAGE FOR WOMEN.
Read at the Woman's Convention at Washington.
OAK KNOLL, DANVERS, MASS., Third Mo., 8, 1888.
I THANK thee for thy kind letter. It would be a great satisfaction to be
able to be present at the fortieth anniversary of the Woman's Suffrage
Association. But, as that is not possible, I can only reiterate my
hearty sympathy with the object of the association, and bid it take heart
and assurance in view of all that has been accomplished. There is no
easy royal road to a reform of this kind, but if the progress has been
slow there has been no step backward. The barriers which at first seemed
impregnable in the shape of custom and prejudice have been undermined and
their fall is certain. A prophecy of your triumph at no distant day is
in the air; your opponents feel it and believe it. They know that yours
is a gaining and theirs a losing cause. The work still before you
demands on your part great patience, steady perseverance, a firm,
dignified, and self-respecting protest against the injustice of which you
have so much reason to complain, and of serene confidence which is not
discouraged by temporary checks, nor embittered by hostile criticism, nor
provoked to use any weapons of retort, which, like the boomerang, fall
back on the heads of those who use them. You can afford
in your consciousness of right to be as calm and courteous as the
archangel Michael, who, we are told in Scripture in his controversy with
Satan himself, did not bring a railing accusation against him. A wise
adaptation of means to ends is no yielding of principle, but care should
be taken to avoid all such methods as have disgraced political and
religious parties of the masculine sex. Continue to make it manifest
that all which is pure and lovely and of good repute in womanhood is
entirely compatible with the exercise of the rights of citizenship, and
the performance of the duties which we all owe to our homes and our
country. Confident that you will do this, and with no doubt or misgiving
as to your success, I bid you Godspeed. I find I have written to the
association rather than to thyself, but as one of the principal
originators and most faithful supporters, it was very natural that I
should identify thee with it.