The Legislatures of the seaboard States, and Congress itself,
passed laws to punish men who committed outrages on the Indians, but
they could not be executed. Often the border people themselves
interfered to prevent such outrages, or expressed disapproval of them,
and rescued the victims; but they never visited the criminals with the
stern and ruthless punishment which alone would have availed to check
the crimes. For this failure they must receive hearty condemnation, and
be adjudged to have forfeited much of the respect to which they were
otherwise entitled by their strong traits, and their deeds of daring. In
the same way, but to an even greater degree, the peaceful Indians always
failed to punish or restrain their brethren who were bent on murder and
plunder; and the braves who went on the warpath made no discrimination
between good and bad, strong and weak, man and woman, young and old.
One of the sufferers was General Joseph Martin, who had always been a
firm friend of the red race, and had earnestly striven to secure justice
for them. [Footnote: American State Papers, Indian Affairs, vol. i.
Martin to Knox, Jan. 15, 1789.] He had gone for a few days to his
plantation on the borders of Georgia, and during his visit the place was
attacked by a Creek war party.
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