Excerpt from A Living Issue

The Government of the United States has never had a settled, well-defined policy towards the Indian. Each Administration and each Congress seems to have acted in variable and irresponsible mood, without reference to precedent, or even to right and justice, intent only on getting rid of the special vexing question of the hour in the quickest way, and with the least possible trouble. However, a careful and searching study of the subject develops in the acts of the Government, some faint tracings of a general idea, and since the adoption of the Federal Constitution in 1787, the general features of such policy as there is, may be outlined thus:

First. Government assumption of entire control of Indians, as distinguished from Suite control.

Second. The treaty system, recognition of the sovereign rights of Indian tribes to the lands occupied by them.

Third. Regulation of trade and intercourse with Indians.

Fourth. Removal of Indians from State limits.

The ostensible objects of this policy are perfect justice, and fair dealing to, and ultimate civilization of the Indian, and security to the white settlers. The real result of the policy is to continue the Indian in his original barbarism, to pauperize, and gradually to starve and exterminate him. This end is attained at the yearly cost of many millions of money, and many lives of both settlers and soldiers.

On the recognition of the Independence of the colonies by the mother country, each claimed to be natural heir to the full sovereignty previously exercised over both soil and Indians by the Government of Great Britain. They refused to acknowledge or recognize any Indian title, either as tribes or as individuals, to land within their limits, passing laws and ordinances ignoring the Indian claims to right of possession, or authority to sell or dispose of land in any way. Under the Confederation the same ideas prevailed, each State managing and controlling the Indians within its borders. It was only when, by the adoption of the Federal Constitution, the colonies became a nation, that the General Government assumed any control whatever over the Indians, and this assumption came about as it were by accident.

Several of the colonies, subsequently Confederated States, claimed to own and have legitimate jurisdiction over, vast tracts of land in Ohio, and in the regions westward.

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