The parentage of these tribes is still an interesting subject of speculation, though, if they be not created for this region, they have become so assimilated to it as to retain little trace of any other.  To me it seems most probable, that a peculiar race was bestowed on each region,[A] as the lion on one latitude and the white bear on another.  As man has two natures,—­one, like that of the plants and animals, adapted to the uses and enjoyments of this planet, another which presages and demands a higher sphere,—­he is constantly breaking bounds, in proportion as the mental gets the better of the mere instinctive existence.  As yet, he loses in harmony of being what he gains in height and extension; the civilized man is a larger mind, but a more imperfect nature, than the savage.

[Footnote A:  Professor Agassiz has recently published some able scientific papers tending to enforce this theory.—­ED.]

We hope there will be a national institute, containing all the remains of the Indians, all that has been preserved by official intercourse at Washington, Catlin’s collection, and a picture-gallery as complete as can be made, with a collection of skulls from all parts of the country.  To this should be joined the scanty library that exists on the subject.

A little pamphlet, giving an account of the massacre at Chicago, has lately; been published, which I wish much I had seen while there, as it would have imparted an interest to spots otherwise barren.  It is written with animation, and in an excellent style, telling just what we want to hear, and no more.  The traits given of Indian generosity are as characteristic as those of Indian cruelty.  A lady, who was saved by a friendly chief holding her under the waters of the lake, at the moment the balls endangered her, received also, in the heat of the conflict, a reviving draught from a squaw, who saw she was exhausted; and as she lay down, a mat was hung up between her and the scene of butchery, so that she was protected from the sight, though she could not be from sounds full of horror.

I have not wished to write sentimentally about the Indians, however moved by the thought of their wrongs and speedy extinction.  I know that the Europeans who took possession of this country felt themselves justified by their superior civilization and religious ideas.  Had they been truly civilized or Christianized, the conflicts which sprang from the collision of the two races might have been avoided; but this cannot be expected in movements made by masses of men.  The mass has never yet been humanized, though the age may develop a human thought.  Since those conflicts and differences did arise, the hatred which sprang from terror and suffering, on the European side, has naturally warped the whites still further from justice.