[CHAPTER VII.]
THE SURPRISE.
The United States have inherited from England that system of continual invasion and usurpation which is one of the most salient points in the British character.
Scarcely was the independence of North America proclaimed, and peace concluded with the mother country, ere those very men who cried out so loudly against tyranny and oppression, who protested against the violation of the rights of nations, of which they said they were the victims, organized, with that implacable coolness which they owe to their origin, a hunt of the Red Indians. Not only did they do so over the whole extent of their territories, but dissatisfied with the possession of the vast regions which their restless population, spite of its activity, did not suffice to clear and render valuable, they wished to make themselves masters of the two oceans, by encircling on all sides the aboriginal tribes, whom they drove back incessantly, and whom, according to the prophetic words, filled with bitter displeasure, of an aged Indian chief, they will eventually drown in the Pacific, by means of treachery and perfidy.
In the United States, about which people are beginning to be disabused, but which prejudiced or ill-informed persons still persist in representing as the classic land of liberty, is found that odious anomaly of two races degraded and despoiled for the advantage of a third race, which arrogates to itself a right of life and death over them, and considers them as nothing more than beasts of burden.
These two races, so worthy of the interest of all enlightened minds, and of the true friends of the human species, are the black and red races.
It is true, that on the other hand, to prove what thorough philanthropists they are, the United States did, in the year 1795, sign a treaty of peace and friendship with the Barbary States, which gave them advantages incomparably greater than those offered by the Order of Malta, which was likewise desirous of treating with them—a treaty guaranteed by the regencies of Algiers and Tripoli.
In this treaty it is positively stated that the government of the United States is not founded, in any way, upon the Christian religion.
To those to whom this may appear strong, we will reply that it is logical, and that the Americans in the article of God acknowledge but one alone—the God Dollar! who, in all times, has been the only one adored by the pirates of every country.