[1450] 5 Peters, 1.
[1451] Marshall to Carr, 1830, Kennedy, ii, 296-97.
As a young man Marshall had thought so highly of Indians that he supported Patrick Henry's plan for white amalgamation with them. (See vol. i, 241, of this work.) Yet he did not think our general policy toward the Indians had been unwise. They were, he wrote Story, "a fierce and dangerous enemy whose love of war made them sometimes the aggressors, whose numbers and habits made them formidable, and whose cruel system of warfare seemed to justify every endeavour to remove them to a distance from civilized settlements. It was not until after the adoption of our present government that respect for our own safety permitted us to give full indulgence to those principles of humanity and justice which ought always to govern our conduct towards the aborigines when this course can be pursued without exposing ourselves to the most afflicting calamities. That time, however, is unquestionably arrived, and every oppression now exercised on a helpless people depending on our magnanimity and justice for the preservation of their existence impresses a deep stain on the American character. I often think with indignation on our disreputable conduct (as I think) in the affair of the Creeks of Georgia." (Marshall to Story, Oct. 29, 1829, Proceedings, Mass. Hist. Soc. 2d Series, xiv, 337-38.)
[1452] Niles, xxxix, 338.
[1453] Ib. 353.
[1454] Memoirs, J. Q. A.: Adams, viii, 262-63.
[1455] The argument for the Cherokee Nation was made March 12 and 14, 1831.
[1456] 5 Peters, 15.
[1457] 5 Peters, 16-17.
[1458] Ib. 17-18.