On the 29th of May, 1866, the nation was again thrown into mourning by the intelligence that the veteran General Scott had died at West Point, New York, at the advanced age of eighty years.

On the 22d of February, 1866, President Johnson made a speech to a crowd that had assembled in front of his house, in which he placed himself in opposition to the party who had elected him, and, from that time until the close of his administration, attempted to enforce a policy odious to the great mass of the loyal people of the north, and in direct opposition to the legislation of congress. From the date of his speech until the adjournment of the thirty-ninth congress, March, 1867, out of fifteen bills which had passed both houses of congress, ten were vetoed by the president, six of which were passed over his head; one was a pocket veto, and four became laws without his signature.

On the 6th of May, 1867, Jefferson Davis was admitted to bail in the sum of one hundred thousand dollars. His bail bond was signed by Horace Greeley, Augustus Schell, J. Minor Botts, and several leading Richmond secessionists.

After two unsuccessful attempts, by members of the fortieth congress, to impeach the president for "high crimes and misdemeanors," one in June and the other in December, 1867, articles of impeachment were finally drawn up in March, 1868. The trial closed on the 6th of May. The members of the senate constituted the jury. A vote of two-thirds of the members was required to convict the president, and he was acquitted by a vote of nineteen to thirty-five; so he continued the occupant of the presidential chair until the close of his term.

On the 3d of November, General Ulysses S. Grant was elected president of the United States, and Schuyler Colfax, of Indiana, the speaker of the house of representatives, vice president. On the 4th of March, 1869, Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase administered the oath of office to President Grant.

Now, with this battle-scarred chieftain at the helm of the ship of state, let us hope that the great work of reconstruction,

which has been so successfully commenced, may be speedily. completed; that the whole nation, from the lakes to the gulf, and from ocean to ocean, may be united in advancing the best interests of the government; and that our common country, by the blessing of Almighty God, may henceforth, as heretofore, be an asylum for the oppressed and persecuted of all lands, and continue, in all future time, to hold her proud position at the head of the nations of the earth.

CHAPTER X.

THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS.

The term Indian, as applied to the various nations and tribes that inhabited the western continent at the time of its discovery by the Spaniards, originated in the mistaken idea that the newly-found continent formed a part of Asia. By some ethnologists the American Indians are classed as a distinct variety of the human race, and are as peculiar to the American continent as its fauna and flora. Their history, previous to the settlements made among them by the Europeans, is involved in obscurity. But the supposition that they are not the descendants of Adam and Eve is erroneous, as it is contrary to the Bible.

Other ethnologists refer their origin to the great Mongolian family, who have found their way from Asia across Behring's Strait. This Strait is only thirty-six miles wide, and during severe winter seasons it is frozen over, forming an easy mode of communication between the two continents; or the passage across may have been made in boats which have been driven over by storms.

According to some historians, the Indians owe their origin to the "lost tribes of Israel," who, we are told, "took counsel to go forth into a farther country, where never mankind dwelt." These tribes, it is thought by some, crossed over into America, and are the progenitors of the Indian race. This theory is, however, unsupported by acknowledged facts.

The era of their existence as a distinct nation probably dates back to a short time subsequent to the dispersion at Babel, which gave to each branch of the human family its language and individuality. At this time mankind penetrated beyond the Plains of Shinar, and gradually spread over Northern Asia, where, by adventure or accident, they reached the new continent.

After the confusion of tongues, a large body of shepherds, driving their flocks before them, moved to Egypt, made a conquest of the country, founded an empire under the name of the Shepherd Kings, built large cities, and constructed the massive pyramids on which their history is recorded in hieroglyphics. Their tyranny became unendurable, and the Egyptians drove them from their land. These defeated shepherds, it is thought by some, crossed into America in the manner before described, and it is probable they are the progenitors of the Indians who inhabited Mexico. The mounds and ancient works, the ruins of which still remain; also the manner of interring their dead, corresponding with the Egyptians, confirm this opinion.

The character and language of the various tribes that peopled our country, differed so materially from Mexican Indians, that it is highly probable that they were descendants from a later body of Asiatic adventurers than the latter.

The first settlers were somewhat advanced in civilization and the mechanical arts. Remains of some of their structures are still to be seen in various parts of our country. They were probably driven from their settlements further to the south by less civilized tribes, until the whole continent was peopled.

The traditions of the Indians do but little to lift the veil of mystery that shrouds their origin. They entertain the idea that they are an insulated race, distinct from other people, and had their origin in the ground. Hence their name, Aborigines. According to one tradition, they climbed from the interior to the surface of the globe, by means of the roots of a large vine. By another account, their ancestors, after living under ground for ages, discovered the light of day through an aperture of a cavern, and by almost superhuman efforts, emerged from their subterranean prison. By another tradition, their fathers crossed a tract of water to reach their present habitation.

The Indian tribes are classified in reference to their dialects, into eight distinct families, of which the Algonquins is the largest. This name was given them by the French. They

occupied a great portion of the United States east of the Mississippi and north of North Carolina and Tennessee. It was composed of several powerful tribes, and the number of its warriors exceeded those of all the other tribes together.

The Huron Iroquois tribes occupied the territory of Canada south of the Ottawa river, and portions of the states of New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. To this family belonged the Five Nations. They were joined by the Tuscaroras, making a confederacy known as the Six Nations. The English obtained their friendship and assistance during the French war. Chiefs from each of these nations met the colonial representatives at a congress assembled at Albany, where a plan of an American union was presented by Benjamin Franklin. Hendric, the Mohawk warrior, urged its acceptance. "We thank you," he said, "for brightening the covenant chain. We will take this belt to Onondaga, where our council fire always burns, and keep it so securely that neither the thunderbolt nor the lightning shall break it. Strengthen yourselves, and bring as many as you can into this covenant chain.”

The Dakotahs, or Sioux, were a large family west of the Mississippi; hence but little was known about them by the early settlers.

The Catawbas were a powerful family, inhabiting the interior of South Carolina, but were vanquished and nearly exterminated by the Iroquois. They assisted the people of South Carolina in their wars with the Cherokees and other hostile tribes; also aided them during the revolution. When the civil war broke out in 1861, the survivors of this nation, numbering less than one hundred souls, occupied a small village on the Catawba river.

The Catawbas were joined on the west by the Cherokees, who occupied the territory of the Blue Ridge and Alleghanies, one of the most delightful places in the United States. They had long and bloody wars with the Five Nations. They aided the British during the revolution, and for a number of years thereafter the frontier of the Carolinas suffered from their ravages. A treaty was made with them in 1791, and no more trouble