CHAPTER IX.
THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT AND THE INDIANS.
On the establishment of the National Government, the
Indians became at once the objects of anxious concern and
of provisional legislation. Then began the long series of
schemes and measures, of tentative devices and processes,
of immediate and prospective arrangements, and of efforts
and enterprises, alternating between humane and peaceful
and severe and military operations, which the ever-changing
elements and aspects of the problem have presented to our
statesmen and citizens. The Constitution recognized and
confirmed all the treaties made with the Indians under the
Confederation as the supreme law of the land; and gave to
Congress the regulation of trade with them, and to the
Executive and Senate the power to make future treaties. The
several States were to have the management and control
over the Indians within their respective bounds, unless
Congress, in the exercise of its superior prerogative, might see
cause to overrule their measures. Of course, as might have
been expected, trouble, controversy, and direct antagonism,
from the very first, arose from the constant obtrusion of
questions and issues of a distracting character starting
from a conflict between the claims of the States and of
Congress when their purposes clashed.
In opening the discussion of this theme, which presents so much matter for variances of opinion even among intelligent and right-hearted men, and also for critical and censorious judgment, we must remind ourselves of the
