3. Editorial, 6 March 1828
The situation of Indians is peculiar in the history of man; and the disadvantages in the way of their becoming an enlightened people, which they are obliged to encounter, are numerous and formidable. Such has been the case from the discovery of America to the present moment, and for aught we can say, will still continue to be so - Enemies to Indian improvement, would do well to consider these disadvantages. When they are properly and candidly considered, we cannot but believe, instead of creating astonishment why the Indians have not been civilized before, they will at least suggest the enquiry why they have not degenerated more . . . Who will expect from the Cherokees, a rapid progress in education, religion, agriculture, and the various arts of civilized life, when resolutions are passed in a civilized and Christian Legislature, to wrest their country from them, and strange to tell, with the point of the bayonet, if nothing else will do? Is it in the nature of things, that the Cherokees will build them good and comfortable houses and make them great farms, when they know not but their possessions will fall into the hands of strangers & invaders? How is it possible that they will establish for themselves good laws, when an attempt is made to crush their first feeble effort towards it? These are sad facts, & we beg our readers to bear with us, when we express ourselves so freely & frequently on a subject which we consider to be of vital importance to the Indian race. But amidst troubles, difficulties and evil wishers, we can look around us with much satisfaction, and see those who are truly our friends, not only in profession, but in deed. As a specimen of the feelings of such friends we take pleasure in publishing an extract of a letter addressed to us by an esteemed correspondent.
"The fact that a newspaper is to be put in circulation among the Cherokees, in their own language, and designed for their benefit, and edited by one of their own Nation, is, in itself a Prospectus - pointing out the condition to which the Cherokees may, ere long, attain as an enlightened people; - a guarantee, under providence, to their rise and prosperity as a Tribe, a State, prepared for the privileges of inter-community, in all that constitutes political life, and health, and vigour, and enjoyment, among the States, composing the Great American Republic."