instance, when the colonization of the Eastern and Southern States of the Union took place, that is to say when our common ancestors first settled in this country, how was their object effected?  Why, by driving from their possessions near the sea, in order to make room for themselves, those very nations whom we are accused of a desire to exterminate, as if out of a mere spirit of wantonness.  Did either Dutch or English then hesitate as to what course they should pursue, or suffer any qualms of conscience to interfere with their Colonial plans?  No; as a measure of policy—­as a means of security—­they sought to conciliate the Indians, but not the less determined were they to attain their end.  Who, then, among Englishmen, would have thought of blaming their fellow countrymen, when the object in view was the aggrandizement of the national power, and the furtherance of individual interests?  While the Colonists continued tributary to England they could do no wrong; they inclined no censure.  Each succeding year saw them, with a spirit of enterprize that was then deemed worthy of commendation, pushing their advantages, and extending their possessions to the utter exclusion, and at the expense of the original possessors of the soil.  For this they incurred no blame:  but mark the change.  No sooner had the war of the revolution terminated in our emancipation from the leading strings of childhood; no sooner had we taken rank among the acknowledged nations of the world; no sooner had we, in a word, started into existence as an original people, than the course we had undeviatingly pursued in infancy, and from which we did not dream of swerving in manhood, became a subject for unqualified censure.  What had been considered laudable enterprize in the English Colonist, became unpardonable ambition in the American Republican, and acts affecting the national prosperity, that carried with them the approbation of society and good government during our nonage, were stigmatized as odious and grasping, the moment we had attained our majority.”

“Most ably and eloquently argued, Major,” interrupted the General, “and I fear with rather more truth than we Englishmen are quite willing to acknowledge:  still, it must be admitted, that what in the first instance was a necessity, partook no longer of that character at a later period.  In order to colonize the country originally, it was necessary to select such portions as were, by their proximity to the sea, indispensable to the perfection of the plan.  If the English Colonists drove the Indians into the interior, it was only for a period.  They had still vast tracts to traverse, which have since, figuratively speaking, been reduced to a mere span:  and their very sense of the difference of the motive—­that is to say, of the difference between him who merely seeks whereon to erect his dwelling, and him who is anxious to usurp to himself the possession of almost illimitable territory —­cannot be better expressed than by the different degrees of enmity manifested against the two several people.  When did the fierceness of Indian hatred blaze forth against the English Colonists, who were limited in their views, as it has since against the subjects of the United States, who, since the revolution, have more than tripled their territorial acquisitions.”