Morally superior to the Irish, at least

The excerpt from James Fenimore Cooper’s “Notions of the Americans: The Indians” gives us the general view of the Native Americans during the early 19^th Century. Cooper writes about the natives (often referring to them derogatorily as “Savages”) as being almost the lowest of the low, (before the Irish peasants) in terms of, “…civilization, comforts, and character…”. Cooper makes it quite clear that he firmly believes the Americans to be in the right of the situation, stressing that the U.S. has never done any harm to the Natives and that the U.S., for the most part has endeavored to protect and provide for the Natives. Their relationship is somewhat akin to that between a recalcitrant teenager and an overbearing mother; the Natives resent the interference of the whites, but they cannot throw them over. Cooper finds the Natives to be completely lacking in morals and justifies the white invasion by stating that the Natives did not really want the land and also did not know how to use it effectively. He even outlines a plan that will “…secure the rights of the Indians more effectually…” by exterminating the Native American culture and replacing it with the values and “morality” of the whites.