Volu m e II - Purdue University Calumet

Irving approached the Indians in the same manner in which he approached the small towns of upstate New
York. He wrote about them as a conservative lamenting the loss of a way of life. His writing depicted the
Indians as patriotic republicans and implied that the Indians contributed to American tradition and identity
just as did the quirky characters of small-town New York.
Because Irving saw the Indians as fellow Americans he condemned the Jacksonian removal policies.
In a letter to his sister on the Indians, Irving wrote, “I find it extremely difficult even when so near the seat
of action to get at the right story of these feuds between the white and the red men, and my sympathies go
strongly with the latter.” (Pierre Irving, Vol. 3, 38). The Traits of Indian Character expresses his view in
greater detail:
It has been the lot of the unfortunate aborigines of America, in early periods of colonization
to be doubly wronged by the white men. They have been dispossessed of their hereditary
possessions by mercenary and frequently wanton warfare; and their characters have been
traduced by bigoted and interested writers . . . the rights of the savage have seldom been
appreciated or respected by the white man. (Washington Irving, History, Tales, and Sketches,
1002).
For a man who was known as “the embodiment of goodwill towards men” words such as, “bigoted” and
accusations such as “interested” should strike the reader as strong and almost out of character. This
response, however, reflects Irving’s expressed desire to, “penetrate the gathering film of misanthropy.”
(Curtis, 69-70). The American treatment of the Indians offended his kindly view of them as fellow humans.
His anger at fellow writers demonstrates his disgust that the writer’s profession had been turned to so
uncharitable a use. For a man deeply devoted to the traditions of the past, “dispossessing” someone of their
“hereditary possessions” meant destroying what Irving would have seen as one of the dearest possessions of a
human being. For Irving the American treatment of the Indians ran in the face of the three things that
animated his life — love of his fellow humans, writing, and tradition.
In the face of such a condemnation of the Indian policy Irving’s agreement to accompany Captain
Ellsworth on a government tour for the express purpose of removing the Indians poses a problem. Andrew
7