{"id":"01KG8AKE21422MXM65KWB92NK1","cid":"bafkreiepsghon5yp5b5nvf47z6yi4i6gt35qdupvjyhd67joi3sahv337u","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":6611,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:47:57.722Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 2","source_file":"01KG89J1JMR8XVKPA0G8ADAPC4","start_line":6549,"text":"from man, one step deeper into nature. Is it that he feels that whatever\r\nman may be, man is not the universe? that glory, beauty, kindness, are\r\nnot all engrossed by him? that as the presence of man frights birds\r\naway, so, many bird-like thoughts? Be that how it will, the backwoodsman\r\nis not without some fineness to his nature. Hairy Orson as he looks, it\r\nmay be with him as with the Shetland seal--beneath the bristles lurks\r\nthe fur.\r\n\r\n\"'Though held in a sort a barbarian, the backwoodsman would seem to\r\nAmerica what Alexander was to Asia--captain in the vanguard of\r\nconquering civilization. Whatever the nation's growing opulence or\r\npower, does it not lackey his heels? Pathfinder, provider of security to\r\nthose who come after him, for himself he asks nothing but hardship.\r\nWorthy to be compared with Moses in the Exodus, or the Emperor Julian in\r\nGaul, who on foot, and bare-browed, at the head of covered or mounted\r\nlegions, marched so through the elements, day after day. The tide of\r\nemigration, let it roll as it will, never overwhelms the backwoodsman\r\ninto itself; he rides upon advance, as the Polynesian upon the comb of\r\nthe surf.\r\n\r\n\"'Thus, though he keep moving on through life, he maintains with respect\r\nto nature much the same unaltered relation throughout; with her\r\ncreatures, too, including panthers and Indians. Hence, it is not\r\nunlikely that, accurate as the theory of the Peace Congress may be with\r\nrespect to those two varieties of beings, among others, yet the\r\nbackwoodsman might be qualified to throw out some practical suggestions.\r\n\r\n\"'As the child born to a backwoodsman must in turn lead his father's\r\nlife--a life which, as related to humanity, is related mainly to\r\nIndians--it is thought best not to mince matters, out of delicacy; but\r\nto tell the boy pretty plainly what an Indian is, and what he must\r\nexpect from him. For however charitable it may be to view Indians as\r\nmembers of the Society of Friends, yet to affirm them such to one\r\nignorant of Indians, whose lonely path lies a long way through their\r\nlands, this, in the event, might prove not only injudicious but cruel.\r\nAt least something of this kind would seem the maxim upon which\r\nbackwoods' education is based. Accordingly, if in youth the backwoodsman\r\nincline to knowledge, as is generally the case, he hears little from his\r\nschoolmasters, the old chroniclers of the forest, but histories of\r\nIndian lying, Indian theft, Indian double-dealing, Indian fraud and\r\nperfidy, Indian want of conscience, Indian blood-thirstiness, Indian\r\ndiabolism--histories which, though of wild woods, are almost as full of\r\nthings unangelic as the Newgate Calendar or the Annals of Europe. In\r\nthese Indian narratives and traditions the lad is thoroughly grounded.\r\n\"As the twig is bent the tree's inclined.\" The instinct of antipathy\r\nagainst an Indian grows in the backwoodsman with the sense of good and\r\nbad, right and wrong. In one breath he learns that a brother is to be\r\nloved, and an Indian to be hated.\r\n\r\n\"'Such are the facts,' the judge would say, 'upon which, if one seek to\r\nmoralize, he must do so with an eye to them. It is terrible that one\r\ncreature should so regard another, should make it conscience to abhor an\r\nentire race. It is terrible; but is it surprising? Surprising, that one\r\nshould hate a race which he believes to be red from a cause akin to that\r\nwhich makes some tribes of garden insects green? A race whose name is\r\nupon the frontier a _memento mori_; painted to him in every evil light;\r\nnow a horse-thief like those in Moyamensing; now an assassin like a New\r\nYork rowdy; now a treaty-breaker like an Austrian; now a Palmer with\r\npoisoned arrows; now a judicial murderer and Jeffries, after a fierce\r\nfarce of trial condemning his victim to bloody death; or a Jew with\r\nhospitable speeches cozening some fainting stranger into ambuscade,\r\nthere to burk him, and account it a deed grateful to Manitou, his god.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 2"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJM4RTQF2ZVZVJD07P1FR","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1JMR8XVKPA0G8ADAPC4","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKE1S41RDRB2CQRZPZH2S","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AKE27GT1QHKFH05RJ0XSF","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:04.161Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:11.317Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}