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tions, consequently, guided by a cool policy, are
never actuated by those furious, and deadly passions
which inflame barbarian soldiers, and savage war-
riors. Bearing but a small proportion to popula-
tion of the country, the nation is but little affected
by the individual fate of those who fall in battle.
And armies are so constituted, that the loss of thou-
sands of the common soldiery possesses but small in-
terest in the sympathies of that class of society which
chiefly influences the public measures, and gives the
tone to the public feeling. If a few of better rank
are slain in the field, their friends are consoled by
the glory of their fall. But, among the savages of
America, the same men who fight, decide the fate of
the prisoners, and they do it with the same passions of with which they fought. They have no reasons of
state, which induce nations to make war without 
passion. Their wars are the consequences of re-
cent injuries keenly felt. Their armies, although
small, bear a large proportion to their entire popula-
tion. Every warrior stands in some relation of 
kindred to his whole tribe. And all who are slain 
in battle are lamented as brothers. No artificial sen-
timents of glory serve to console the survivors; and
they study only to quench their griefs, and their re-

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venge in the blood of their enemies. In the tortures
they are preparing for their miserable victims, they
see only the gratification of their own vengeance,
and the torments which would have been destined
for themselves if the chance of battle had thrown
them into the hands of their prisoners. This re-
flection serves to inflame their rage; and they mu-
tual instigations when assembled round this horrid
sacrifice, to avenge their slaughtered brothers, and the
injuries meditated against themselves excite their pas-
sions to the wildest fury. They make a festival of 
cruelty. In the midst of shouts and yells, and those
wild and frantic gestures by which they express, at 
once, their exultation, and their rage, every emotion of
humanity and sympathy, if it should happen to rise 
in their breasts, is effectually extinguished. There
is, indeed, a kind of wantonness in cruelty which
forms a part of the character of the American 
savage, that resembles the pleasure which chil-
dren are often seen to take in the writhings and
convulsions of the inferior animals subjected to 
their persecutions and torments. A savage is, in
many respects, little more than a grown child. But
in the moment of victory and triumph, in their bar-
barous carousals, and the wild frolic of all their
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---------- Reopened for Editing 2023-06-05 11:48:56