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My Children: Permit me to
call you so, as I am an old man and
have lived a long time, watching the well
being of this Nation.
I love your lives, and wish our people to
increase on the land of
our fathers. The bill before you is to
punish wicked men, who
may arise to cede away our country
contrary to the consent of
the Council. It is a good law-it will not
kill the innocent but
the guilty. I feel the importance of the
subject, and am glad the
law has been suggested. My companions,
men of renoun, in
Council, who now sleep in the dust, spoke
the same language,
and I now stand on the verge of the grave
to bear witness to
their love of country. My sun of
existence is now approaching
to its sitting, and my aged bones will
soon be laid underground,
and I wish them laid in the bosom of this
earth we have
received from our fathers who had it from
the Great Being above.
When I shall sleep in forgetfulness, I
hope my bones will not be
deserted by you. I do not speak this in
fear of any of you, as the
evidence of your attachment to the
country is proved in the bill
now before your consideration. I am told,
that the Government
of the United States will spoil their
treaties with us and sink
our National Council under their feet. It
may be so, but it shall
not be with our consent, or by the
misconduct of our people.
We hold them by the golden chain of
friendship, made when our
friendship was worth a price, and if they
act the tyrant and kill
us for our lands, we shall, in a state of
unoffending innocence,
sleep with thousands of our departed
people. My feeble limbs
will not allow me to stand longer. I can
say no more, but before
I sit, allow me to tell you that I am in
favor of the bill. |