Sunday, August 21, 2016

Democracy in America, Tocqueville. The Indians, III

The ejectment of the Indians very often takes place...in a regular, and, as it were, a legal manner...the government of the United States usually dispatches envoys to them, who assemble the Indians in a large plain, and having first eaten and drunk with them, accost them in the following manner: "What have you to do in the land of your fathers? Before long, you must dig up their bones in order to live. In what respect is the country you inhabit better than another? Are there no woods, marshes, or prairies, except where you dwell? And can you live nowhere but under your own sun? Beyond those mountains...there lie vast countries where beasts of chase are found in great abundance; sell your lands to us, and go to live happily in those solitudes." If...they still hesitate, it is insinuated that they have not the means of refusing their required consent, and that the government itself will not long have the power of protecting them in their rights."