On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
492 Mr . Brookes on the Civilization of the American Indians .
Untitled Article
with the conveniencies of life , which improves their condition while it secures-their attachment . ( P . 800 . )
But upon lookirrg into the laws of the United States , I find one relative to trade with Indians , &c . passed 1 . 9 May , 1796 , which stares that in order to promote civilization among the friendly tribes , and to secure the continuance of their friendship , it shall
be lawful for the President of the United States , to cause them to be furnished with useful domestic animals , and implements of industry , and with goods or money as he shall think proper , and to appoint such persons from time to time as temporary agents to
reside among the Indians as he shall think fit : provided that the . whole amount of such presents and allowance to such agents shall not exceed 15 , 000 dollars a year , equal to 33751 . sterling ; which law has been continued in force to the present time , if it has not been enlarged and improved .
Having now stated the law , it comes next to be considered what has taken place under it . This I am unable to state so fully as I could wish , because the govern - ment has not to my knowledge , published any reports of their proceedings as the . Quakers have
done : various reports have been made to Congress at the different meetings of that body , of the progress and of the application of the money ; short accounts of some of these have been stated in some of
the American newspapers , but I have not seen an } 7 of them in the English ones . To assist in this part of the inquiry 1 would refer to a letter , inserted in the Mon . Mag . for June , 1800 " , of R . J .
Untitled Article
Meiers , who was an agent , or siu perintendant of Indian affairs , relative to the improvements of the Cherokee nation through the as * sisfancc of the government , i \ which he states that all their improvement had taken place since
1794 , when there was not a pair of cards , a spinning-wheel , a loom , or a mechanic in their nation : that they had then ( Jan . 1806 ) above 1000 spinning-wheels , and upwards of 100 looms , that they raise the cotton and indigo , spin and dye the
yarn , and weave it into handsome cloth , with which they clothe their families like the white people : that among them are silversmiths , blacksmiths , coopers , sadlers , tanners , shoemakers , and wheelwrights : that these
mechanics are principally self-taught , part of their tools are furnished by the United States and part by themselves : that the plough and hoe are in common use among them : that by tho assistance of the whites they make saltpetre and
gunpowder ; that there are several gristmills and < ne sawmill : that they have large stocks of black cattle , horses , and other domestic animals , and make some butter and cheese of a good quality : that since agriculture and the
domestic arts have become the principal objects of pursuit , their population has evidently increased : that there were then seven schools in their country where more than 100 children are taught reading * writinc ; , end some arithmetic .
In the course of one of my jcuniics . in the United States in 180 v ! , I met with a committee of three Quakers going from the Quakers in Philadelphia on this errand , to vjbit the JMiamis ami
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1808, page 492, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2396/page/36/
-