This is not a mere affected injury it is a grievance which we equitably complain of and it demands a permanent redress. We do not quarrel with you for killing an occasional buffalo, bear or deer on our lands when you need one to eat but you go much farther your people hunt to gain a livelihood by it they kill all our game our young men resent the injury, and it is followed by bloodshed and war. We wish, however, to be at peace with you, and to do as we would be done by. You say: Why do not the Indians till the ground and live as we do? May we not, with equal propriety, ask, Why the white people do not hunt and live as we do? You profess to think it no injustice to warn us not to kill our deer and other game for the mere love of waste but it is very criminal in our young men if they chance to kill a cow or a hog for their sustenance when they happen to be in your lands. But, we confess that we do not yet see the propriety, or practicability of such a reformation, and should be better pleased with beholding the good effect of these doctrines in your own practices than with hearing you talk about them, or reading your papers to us upon such subjects. Indeed, much has been advanced on the want of what you term civilization among the Indians and many proposals have been made to us to adopt your laws, your religion, your manners, and your customs. You talk of the law of nature and the law of nations, and they are both against you.
But, as all are fair advantages during the existence of a state of war, it is now too late for us to suffer for your mishap of generalship!Īgain, were we to inquire by what law or authority you set up a claim, I answer, none! Your laws extend not into our country, nor ever did. If you meant this, indeed, as a conquest you omitted the most essential point you should have fortified the junction of the Holstein and Tennessee rivers, and have thereby conquered all the waters above you.
Thus, you marched into our towns they were left to your mercy you killed a few scattered and defenseless individuals, spread fire and desolation wherever you pleased, and returned again to your own habitations.
What did you do? You marched into our territories with a superior force our vigilance gave us no timely notice of your manouvres your numbers far exceeded us, and we fled to the stronghold of our extensive woods, there to secure our women and children. Let us examine the facts of your present eruption into our country, and we shall discover your pretentions on that ground. 'If, therefore, a bare march, or reconnoitering a country is sufficient reason to ground a claim to it, we shall insist upon transposing the demand, and your relinquishing your settlements on the western waters and removing one hundred miles back towards the east, whither some of our warriors advanced against you in the course of last year's campaign.
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