The Mission Indians
clamorous for breaking up the reservation and driving the Indians away.
"It is useless to attempt to disguise the fact that, so long as these settlers have a voice in the selection of our Representatives to Congress, and Indians have none, they must and will be heard at Washington. I would say, listen to them, and if they propose a fair compromise of a vexed question, accede to it; but if they are fully determined to drive the red man from the face of the earth, without a hearing, and without bread or money, stop them in their mad career, and say, 'Thus far shalt thou go, and no farther.' There can be no doubt that it is the duty of Congress to act in this matter with promptness and fidelity; and to delay action would be criminal."
"Thus far shalt thou go, and no farther." Impossible language in the land of the Free. It suggests a curtailment of personal freedom. A Government slavishly dependent upon the expressed will of the people has no incentive to enforce a sustained, consistent Indian policy opposed to local interests, although in accord with the perfectly well understood, but unexpressed, sentiment of the great body of the American people. It cannot afford to sacrifice political capital by administering a richly deserved rebuke in one quarter, unless it thereby makes an equal or greater gain in another quarter. To be sure, the public generously applauds a righteous
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