BRATTLEBORO — Before the Brattleboro Reformer, there was The Phoenix, and before that, the local newspaper was called the Brattleboro' Messenger.
Bridie Carmichael of Dummerston recently shared the Saturday, Jan. 7, 1832 issue of this newspaper with me. It was found in her father's home in Saxtons River and is remarkably well preserved and supple, aside from the a few places where the mice used it for bedding.
Published by George W. Nichols, the paper was delivered by carriers at $2 per year, or mailed for $1.50 per year. Using the consumer price index, an 1832 dollar would now be worth $28.50, so the cost to have the newspaper delivered would cost the equivalent of $57 today.
The paper is four pages, folded.
On the first page is a story, “Extracts from Mr. Read's Journal, A Storm at Sea.” The second story is called “The Last Journey,” a tale from the Bible. Another piece in the newspaper is an address, “Of the National Republican Convention to the People of the United States, from President, James Barbour suggesting that Henry Clay should be a candidate for President.”
One typical announcement: “Windham C. Singing Society will hold its next meeting at the Hall of Asa Knight, Esq. In Dummerston on Monday, the 23rd, at 1:00 P.M. A punctual attendance of members is requested, per order of the committee. Signed Isaac Knapp, Secretary.”
That election would take place in November of that year, and Andrew Jackson would easily win the contest and remain president.
To get a feeling for the times, in 1832, the Civil War was still 29 years away. There were 22 states reaching as far west as Missouri and Louisiana, but white people had been exploring for years. Lewis and Clark returned from their expedition in 1805. They had been gone so long, President Thomas Jefferson assumed they would not be returning.
Still, the West was still unexplored. John Fremont wouldn't be exploring the Oregon Trail for another 10 years. There were no towns, no railroads, and no roads for wagons. It could only be reached by foot, or by horseback.
People in the East had heard or read stories about the vast lands to the west, mostly from the folks that were called “Mountain Men,” who were solitary fur trappers.
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It is through these lenses that the editorial in this edition of the Messenger, called “Indian Character,” must be read. Toward the end of the article, the unknown writer speaks of his own experience with Native Americans, and one can only assume that he is referring to those people living in and around the Brattleboro area.
The subjoined paragraphs we find in [Michigan territory Governor Lewis] Cass's War Report; sentiments in relation to the removal of the Indians are in conformity with those of President Jackson, but of their moral condition and their capacity to become renovated and taught the arts and principles of civilized life - no man has had better opportunities for forming correct estimates than Governor Cass.
A change of residence, from their present positions to the regions west of the Mississippi, presents the only hope of permanently establish[ing] improvement. That wit will be attended with inconvenience and sacrifices, no one can doubt.
The associations, which bind the Indians to the land of their forefathers, are strong and enduring; and these must be broken by their migration.
But they are also broken by our citizens, who every day encounter all difficulties of similar changes in pursuit of the means of support. And the experiments which have been made satisfactorily show, that, by proper precautions, and liberal appropriations, the removal and establishment of the Indian can be effected with little comparative trouble to them or us. Why, then, should the policy of this measure be disputed, or its adoption opposed?
The whole subject has materially changed, even within a few year[s]; and the imposing considerations it now presents, and which are every day gaining a new force, call upon the Government and the country to determine what is required on our part, and what course shall be recommended to the Indians.
If they remain they must decline, and eventually disappear. Such is the result of all experience. If they remove, they may be comfortably established, their moral and physical condition meliorated. It is certainly better for them to meet the difficulties of removal, with the probability of an adequate and final reward, than yielding to their constitutional apathy, to sit still and perish.
The great moral debt we owe to this unhappy race is universally felt and acknowledged. Diversities of opinion exist respecting the proper mode of discharging this obligation, but its validity is not denied.
And there certainly are difficulties which may well call for discussion and consideration. For more than two centuries we have been place in contact with the Indians. And if this long period has been fruitless in useful results, it has not been so in experiments, having in view their improvement. Able men have been investigating their condition, and good men attempting to improve it. But all these labors have been unsuccessful in the issue, as many of them were laborious and expensive in their progress.
The work has been aided by Governments and communities, by public opinion, by the obligations of the law and by the sanction of religion.
But is history furnishes abundant evidence of entire failure and everything around us upon the frontiers confirms its truth.
The Indians have either receded as our settlements advanced, and united their fragments with some kindred tribe, or they have attempted to establish themselves upon reservations, in the vain hope of resisting the pressure upon them and of persevering their peculiar institutions.
Those who are nearest to us have generally suffered most severely by the debasing effects of ardent spirits and by the loss of their own principles of restraint, few as these are; without the acquisition of ours; and almost all of them have disappeared, crushed by the onward course of events, or driven before them.
Not one instance can be produced in the whole history of the intercourse between the Indians and the white men, where the former have been able, in districts surrounded by the latter, to withstand successfully the progress of those causes, which have elevated one of these races and depressed the other. Such a monument of former successful execution does not exist.
Without entering into a question which opens a wide field for enquiry, it is sufficient to observe that our primitive people are well within their habits and opinions as in their customs and pursuits.
Other obstacles most insurmountable to any considerable or immediate change of character. The Indian is unwilling to labor, improvident in his model; he has little foresight in providing or care in preserving.
Taught from infancy to reverence his own traditions and institutions, he is satisfied of their value and dreads the anger of the Great Spirit, if he should depart from the customs of his fathers. Devoted to the use of ardent spirits, he abandons himself to its indulgence without restraint.
War and hunting are his only occupations. He can endure, without complaining, the extremity of human suffering; and if he cannot overcome the evils of his situation, he submits to them without repining. He attributes all the misfortunes of his race to the white man, and looks with suspicion upon the offers of assistance that are made to him.
These traits of character, though not universal are yet general; and the practical difficulty they present, in changing the condition of such a people, is to satisfy them of our sincerity and the value of the aid we offer; to hold out to them motive for exertion; to call into action some powerful feeling, which shall counteract the tendency of previous impressions.
It is under such circumstances and with these difficulties in view, that the Government has been called upon to determine what arrangements shall be made for the permanent establishment of the Indians.
Shall they be advised to remain or remove? If the former, their fate is written in the annals of their race; if the latter, we may yet hope to see them renovated in character and condition by our example and instruction, and by their exertions.
But, to accomplish this, they must be first placed beyond the reach of our settlements and with such checks upon their disposition to hostilities as may be found necessary, and with such aid, moral intellectual, and pecuniary, as may teach them the value of our improvements, and the reality of our friendship.
With these salutary precautions, much should then be left to themselves, to follow such occupations in the forest or field as they may choose, without too much interference.
Nor have we any reason to do but that such a condition would be attended with its full share of happiness; nor that their exertions would be stimulated by the security of their position and by the new prospects before them.
By encouraging the severalty of soil, sufficient tracts might be assigned to all disposed to cultivate them; and, by timely assistance, the younger class might be brought to seek in their farms a less precarious subsistence than is furnished by the chance. Their physical comforts being increased, and the desire of acquisition brought into action, a moral stimulus would be felt by the youthful portion of the community.
New wants would appear, and new means of gratifying them and the great work of improvement would thus commence, and commencing, would go on.
To its aid, the truths of religion, together with knowledge of the simple mechanic arts and the rudiments of science, should then be brought; but if our dependence be first placed upon these, we must fail, as all others have failed who have gone before us in this field of labor.
And we have already fallen into this error of adapting our efforts to a state of society, which is probably yet remote among the Indians, in withdrawing so many of the young men from their friend, and educating them at our schools.
They are there taught various branches of learning, and at some of these institutions, a partial knowledge of the mechanic arts and of the principles of agriculture. But after this course of instruction is completed, what are these young men to do?
If they remain among the whites, they find themselves the members of a peculiar state, and look round them in vain for employment and encouragement; if they return to their countrymen, their acquirements are useless, these are neither understood nor valued; and with the exception of a few articles or iron, which they procure from the traders, the common work of our mechanics are useless to them.
I repeat, what has a young man, who has thus been educated, to do? He has no means of support, no instruments of agriculture, no domestic animals, and no improved farm. Taken in early life from his own people, he is no hunter, he cannot find in the chase the means of support or exchange; and that, under such circumstances, he should abandon himself to a life of intemperance, can scarcely excite our surprise, however it must our regret be.
I have been earnestly asked by these young men, how were they to live; and I have felt that a satisfactory answer was beyond my reach. To the Government only can they look for relief, and if this should be furnished, tho' in a moderate degree, they might still become useful and respectable; their example would be encouraging to others, and they would form the best instructors for their brethren.
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My grandmother, Jenny Brown Russell, was born in Bethel, Vt., in 1905. She used to tell me stories of her encounters as a child with an elderly Native American man who lived in a teepee just outside of town. He was considered peculiar and was sometimes teased by the local children. He occasionally walked into town, perhaps to purchase some supplies, but he preferred to live alone in the woods.
I can only imagine this man, likely the last person in his family or tribe, alone in his traditional home. It's possible that he had been born around the time this newspaper was printed.
When I read the anonymous piece in the Brattleboro' Messenger “Indian Character,” it easily becomes clear to me why a Native American of that era would have preferred the sanctuary of the woods over the townspeople of Bethel.