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Indian civilization.
the present condition and future prospects of the remnants of the aboriginal inhabitants of this continent can scarcely be a matter of indifference to any class of the people of the
United States.
Apart from all considerations of justice and duty, a purely selfish regard to our own well-being would compel attention to the subject.
The irreversible laws of God's moral government, and the wellat-tested maxims of political and social economy, leave us in no doubt that the suffering, neglect, and wrong of one part of the community must affect all others.
A common responsibility rests upon each and all to relieve suffering, enlighten ignorance, and redress wrong, and the penalty of neglect in this respect no nation has ever escaped.
It is only within a comparatively recent period that the term Indian Civilization could be appropriately used in this country.
Very little real progress had been made in this direction, lip to the time when
Commissioner Lang in 1844 visited the tribes now most advanced.
So little had been done, that public opinion had acquiesced in the assumption that the Indians were not susceptible of civilization and progress.
The few experiments had not been calculated to assure a superficial observer.
The unsupported efforts of
Elliot in
New England 
