It has been well said that in good faith and good feeling we must take up this work of Indian civilization, and at whatever cost do our whole duty in the premises. We owe them protection of the property they own, endowments of money, forbearance, patience, care, education, citizenship.
Let not another Indian be removed from his home, except as he removes himself by his own volition.
Let every acre of land now occupied under treaty, or by any other document by which the United States have “ceded and relinquished” the same, be held sacredly theirs forever, unless the citizen Indian chooses to sell it.
Let there be no more the policy of seclusion, but rather that of absorption.
Let all covenants between the Government and the Indian be executed as promptly and faithfully as with any other person.
Let the Indian citizen have his own home with all the protection of National and State Governments.
Let the Indian citizen have the same protection of law, and require from him the same obedience to law as governs in the case of the white man and the black man, and then the Indian will work out his own destiny.
Let us say with that quaint philosopher, Hosea Bigelow, that
“This is the one great American idee,
To make a man a man, and then to let him be.”