the deer and buffalo having been
created for their food; they must not make bread of wheat, but of Indian
corn; they must not wear linen nor woollen, but dress like their fathers
in the skins and furs of animals; they must not drink ardent spirits:
and I do not remember whether he extended his inhibitions to the gun and
gunpowder, in favor of the bow and arrow. I concluded from all this that
he was a visionary, enveloped in the clouds of their antiquities, and
vainly endeavoring to lead back his brethren to the fancied beatitudes
of their golden age. I thought there was little danger of his making
many proselytes from the habits and comforts they had learned from the
whites, to the hardships and privations of savagism, and no great harm
if he did. We let him go on, therefore, unmolested. But his followers
increased till the English thought him worth corruption, and found him
corruptible. I suppose his views were then changed; but his proceedings
in consequence of them were after I left the administration, and are,
therefore, unknown to me; nor have I ever been informed what were the
particular acts on his part, which produced, an actual commencement
of hostilities on ours. I have no doubt, however, that his subsequent
proceedings are but a chapter apart, like that of Henry and Lord
Liverpool, in the book of the Kings of England.
Of this mission of Henry, your son had got wind in the time of the
embargo, and communicated it to me.
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