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270 midst of freemen who regard him with contempt, and in every word and look make him feel his inferi-ority; and hopeless of ever enjoying any great ame-lioration of his condition, must condemn him, while these circumstances remain, to perpetual sterility of genius. It is unfair to compare the feeble efforts of the mind which we sometimes behold under slavish depression, with the noble ardor which is often kindled even in the wild freedom of the American forest. The aboriginal natives of America often exhibit, as Mr. Jefferson justly remaks, some of the finest flights of imagination, and some of the boldest strokes of oratory. But we perceive these vigorous efforts of the soul only while they enjoy their rude independence, and are employed in their favorite exercises of hunting, or of war, which give ardor to their sentiments, and energy to their character. Whereas, if you cut them off from employments which, along with conscious freedom and independence, often awaken the untutored savage to the boldest enterprizes; if, in this condition, you place them in the midst of a civilized people with whom they cannot amalgamate, and who only humble them by the continual view of their own inferiority, 271 you, at once, annihilate among them all the noble qualities which you had admired in their savage state; and the negro becomes a respectable man compared with the indian. Of the truth of this remark we have striking examples in the remnants of a small tribe in the state of New-Jersey, now called the Brotherton indians, from the name of their village; in the remnants of the Pamunkey tribe in Virginia, situated on the river Pamunky, on a small reservation of lands secured to them by the government; in the indians situated along the Mis-sissippi in the vicinity of New-Orleans; and many companies of the same people who wander along the banks of the St. Lawrence within the province of Lower Canada. For wretchedness, laziness, and the destitution of almost every manly quality, they can hardly be exceeded by the most contemptible tribes of men in any quarter of the globe. They afford a proof of the deterioration of the mental faculties which may be produced by certain states of society, which ought to make a philosopher cautious of proscribing any race of men from the class of hu-man beings, merely because their unfortunate con-dition has presented to them no incentives to awa-ken genius, or afforded no opportunities to display its