Harris, Thaddeus Mason. A Discourse delivered before the Society for Propagating the Gospel among the Indians and others of North America, 6th November, 1823. Cambridge: From the University Press - By Hilliard and Metcalf, 1823. First Edition. [12121]
Removed, no wrapper, 8 1/2 x 5 1/4 inches, 50 pages, faint stain in the top margin throughout. Good. Pamphlet.
The text is Isaiah 16: 3-5, "Take counsel. Execute judgment. Make thy shadow as the night in the midst of the noon day...&c."
Reviews the history of the government policies regarding Native Americans. Discusses the failure of converting many of them, one of the reasons being that they were "rude, and savage, and ignorant, they were not in a capacity to receive much benefit from the instructions of the Missionaries who were sent among them."
He also blames the missionaries themselves, for not adapting their methods of teaching to the ignorance of the Indians.
The last reason is the treatment by "some of the white people who have had dealings with them, and impose on their simplicity, together with much moral discrepance between professions and conduct."
He then lauds the success of the Society and reviews the history of their missionary efforts, beginning with Eliot, Mills, Schermerhorn, and others, and names the many tribes the Society had influenced for the better.
Pp. 23-50 is the Report of the Select Committee of the Society for propagating the Gospel among the Indians, and others in North America. The date is November 6, 1823, and includes reports from the missionaries Asa Piper, the Rev. Messrs. Douglas, Calef, Sawyer, Peet, Kellogg, Bigelow, Adams, Parker, Nurse, and Warren. Then reports from Indian Mission Stations among the Stockbridge Indians, including the speeches of two Indian chiefs. The missions among several other New England tribes are also described.
Thaddus Mason Harris, D. D. (1768-1842), Harvard graduate (1787), appointed librarian there in 1781. In 1789 he accepted a call from the First Unitarian Church at Dorchester, and was pastor there until 1839. He was one of the founding members of the American Antiquarian Society.
