Daily National Intelligencer

INDIAN AFFAIRS

Copy of a letter from the Superintendent of Indian Affairs, to Mr. Samuel Trott.

OFFICE OF INDIAN TRADE,
Georgetown, Aug. 29, 1817.

Dear Sir--I have the pleasure to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 13th inst.: in which you have conveyed to me the sentiments which the Board of Directors of the Kentucky Baptist Society for propagating the gospel among the Heathen, have been pleased to express, in relation to my correspondence with Col. R. M. Johnson, on the subject of "Indian Reform;" accompanied by a "request that I will accept the appointment of honorary member of the Board."

Testimonials of respect, among which may be classed that of electing individuals, remote from the body to which an appointment like this unites them, are always gratifying to the party to whom they are proposed, according to the opinion entertained of those who offer them, and of the nobleness of the cause in which they are engaged.

It were impossible for me to mistake, even though I had not been made acquainted with them the characters of those gentlemen who compose the Board of Directors of the Kentucky Baptist Society. The work in which they are engaged would be the guarantee, and no scruples could exist on that point. But the cause itself: What can be more noble? What subject can be presented to the human mind, more interesting than that which embraces peace and good will to men? What efforts more generous than those which dispense mercy and kindness, and tend to relieve from barbarism, and from all its concomitant distresses, a portion of the human race?

We admire the efforts of generous individuals who relieve cases of individual distress; and acts of benevolence rise upon our admiration in proportion to their number and importance--from the cottager, who kindly gives a cup of water from his spring, to the traveller, and shelter and repose for the night, to Howard, that prodigy of benevolence, who, not content with ordinary cases, as they might occur, sought in prisons, in hospitals, and in dungeons, the objects of want and misery, to console and relieve them.

Howard's bounty was dispensed to men who, although poor, and in prison, and on beds of languishment, were blessed with intellectual resources, and with hearts susceptible of the lessons of patience and resignation, which tend so effectually to make a prison and a sick bed tolerable, and to chase even from a dungeon its most dismal gloom.

But the plan of Aboriginal reform embraces in its design not only a relief of the bodily wants and sufferings of our Indian brethren, but also the correspondent moral turpitude which hardens the heart, and renders it unsusceptible of those lessons which, when made to operate upon it, sofe. its texture, and make it the abode of peace and good will.

Surely this is a design which must challenge the admiration of our citizens, and lay an immediate claim upon all who set a value on civilization and christianity, for their countenance and co-operation. It is, indeed a noble work! And, although difficulties lie in the way of its effectual accomplishment, yet it is manifestly practicable. Upon this point an appeal need only be made to history.

Nor does it matter by whom this work is undertaken-nor in what section of our country, or of the world, it originates, its claims are the same; or, if there be any call for special admiration, it is when we behold those who have wept over the mangled remains of their beloved kindred and friends, and in whose ears the war song of the Indian has rung its most terrifying and dismal larum, reaching out their arms to confer benefits on the perpetrators of those bloody deeds!

If the generous Howard has reared a monument to his memory, which will bear his fame down to the remotest periods of time, shall the efforts that are now making by associated bodies of Americans, for the relief of the hundreds of thousands of destitute human beings that roam in our forests, be regarded differently? No. The same history that shall perpetuate the benevolence of Howard, will contain also the generous exertions that are now making in our country to renovate the condition of the most helpless and destitute of our brethren.

Be pleased to present my acknowledgments to the Board, for the honor they have done me in appointing me a member: and say to them that, although I shall have but little to offer in aid of their generous design, yet that little they are authorized freely and unreservedly to command. For yourself, sir, receive the assurance of my respectful regards.

THO. L. M'KENNEY.

To Mr. SAMl. TROTT,
Corresponding Secretary, &c.