We deceive ourselves if we suppose that, it will ever be found asserting and supporting the rights of the community at large in opposition to the claims of the few.

In a government whose distinguishing characteristic should be a diffusion and equalization of its benefits and burdens the advantage of individuals will be augmented at the expense of the community at large.

Nor is it the nature of combinations for the acquisition of legislative influence to confine their interference to the single object for which they were originally formed.

The temptation to extend it to other matters is, on the contrary, not unfrequently too strong to be resisted.

If laws acting upon private interests can not always be avoided, they should be confined within the narrowest limits, and left wherever possible to the legislatures of the States.

When not thus restricted they lead to combinations of powerful associations, foster an influence necessarily selfish, and turn the fair course of legislation to sinister ends rather than to objects that advance public liberty and promote…

There are among them traders of no inconsiderable capital, and planters exporting cotton to some extent, but the greater number are small agriculturists, living in comfort upon the produce of their farms.

The policy of the Government has given them a permanent home and guaranteed to them its peaceful and undisturbed possession.

It only remains to give them a government and laws which will encourage industry and secure to them the rewards of their exertions.

The earliest effects will be to diminish the causes and occasions for hostilities among the tribes, to inspire an interest in the observance of laws to which they will have themselves assented, and to multiply the securities of property…