In like
manner, the red man dwells in the West, and the white man in the East,
by the great waters; but they are all one branch, one family; it has
many branches and one head.
Brothers! as you entered our council house, you beheld the image of our
great Father Washington. It is a cold stone--it cannot speak. But he was
the friend of the red man, and bad his children live in peace with their
red brethren. He is gone to the world of spirits. But his words have
made a very deep print in our hearts, like the step of a strong buffalo
on the soft clay of the prairie.
Brother! I perceive your little son between your knees. God preserve his
life, my brother. He grows up before you like the tender sapling by the
side of the mighty oak. May the oak and the sapling flourish a long time
together. And when the mighty oak is fallen to the ground, may the young
tree fill its place in the forest, and spread out its branches over the
tribe like the parent trunk.
Brothers! I make you a short talk, and again bid you welcome to our
council hall.
Not often have they been addressed with such intelligence and tact. The
few who have not approached them with sordid rapacity, but from love to
them, as men, and souls to be redeemed, have most frequently been
persons intellectually too narrow, too straightly bound in sects or
opinions, to throw themselves into the character or position of the
Indians, or impart to them anything they can make available. The Christ
shown them by these missionaries, is to them but a new and more powerful
Manito; the signs of the new religion, but the fetiches that have aided
the conquerors.
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