In Benjamin Franklin’s essay “Remarks Concerning the Savages of North America,” he contrasts the American and the Native American peoples, showing how their ideas regarding “politeness,” (226) or accepted civilized behaviors, vastly differ. He objectivity shows how the American idea of politeness is not necessarily the best standard to follow nor that is it superior to that of the Natives. By pointing out the hypocrisy of the impatient American and the genuinely kind and generous Savage, Franklin forces one to ask themselves “What makes one civil? What makes one savage?” Writing in defense of the Natives, Franklin proves that indeed, Americans have much to learn from the Natives on how to be polite. However, this writer’s perspective is that both the Natives and the Americans have something to learn from each other. While Franklin rightly reveals the good found among Native Americans, he does not equally express the good that American people can give to the Natives. On the one hand, Americans need to learn how to treat different people with respect and common courtesy, while the Natives needed to learn the importance of education and the means of how to live among contemporary society.
Although Native people are labeled Savage, Franklin nevertheless shows them to be more polite than the typical “civil” American. Franklin justly represents how the Natives posses qualities worthy of imitation. For example, he explains how the Natives take great care to show respect towards others. They have something they call the “rule of politeness” which means one is “not to answer a public proposition the same day it is made; [since] they think it would be treating it as a light matter”(227) if they do. They take to heart the relationships they have with others to try and maintain that sense of formality, thus showing their sincerity. Furthermore, when they conduct public councils, the man to speak rises while the “rest observe a profound silence”(227) They believe “[t]o interrupt another, even in common conversation, is reckoned highly indecent”(227). Comparing the Natives’ meetings to those of the British House of Commons, Franklin states “how different from the mode of conversation in many polite companies in Europe, where if you do not deliver your sentence with great rapidity, you are cut off in the middle of it…”(227). Indeed, this aspect of politeness escapes the minds of “polite” society and is something people even in our own day still need to learn.
Another quality they possess is their deep sense of hospitality. Whenever travelers found themselves along the Native villages, the Natives saw they had a “vacant dwelling” (229) to rest in. They would provide them with complimentary “victuals, and skins to repose on” (229), have communal conversation, and extend them free service if they desired it. Contrarily, when the Natives entered American villages for their needs, the people asked “Where is your money? and if [they] have none, they say ‘Get out you Indian dog’”(230).Such an exchange demonstrates the fact that hospitality was not a strong virtue among “polite” society and that verily, the “Savage” often proved themselves the more civil, or polite, of the two peoples.
While the Natives were good in many respects, they did have need for the knowledge the Americans possessed. Their life and culture had to adjust to modern society which was rapidly enveloping their world. If the Natives were to assimilate into this new world, they needed to be educated. Franklin does not offer his opinion on the subject; instead, he provides the narration of an Indian and his opinion of what happened to Indians who studied in the American education system. The Native states “when they came back to us, they were back runners, ignorant of the means of living in the woods, unable to bear cold and hunger, knew neither how to build a cabin, take a deer, or kill an enemy[…]they were totally good for nothing”(227). This passage reflects the Native belief that, if one could no longer perform certain actions in their community, they were of no use. Yet, this is false reasoning; the Natives could be educated and still retain their identity and usefulness. Indeed, it was good for them to learn how to live outside of the wilds of nature; it was good for them to be introduced to a world that provided them with the laws of truth relating to religion and science; it was good for them to open their minds to reality instead of error and myth. Again, while Franklyn does not insinuate his opinion, it might be assumed that he, being a man of such learning, would probably want to see these people instructed so to help them in the ways of modernity. While one cannot know for sure reading his essay, it makes for a worthy reflection. Regardless of his opinion, however, the truth remains that these people needed to grow in truth, in knowledge and in grace which the western world was able to extended to them.
So yes, while Franklin validly acknowledges the Native’s natural politeness which many Americans did not imitate, he fails to acknowledge the fact that Americans also had much to offer. The Natives had a need to be educated in the ways of truth so to be assimilated into the modern world which they could not escape. Ideally, if the Americans had learned manners from the Natives and the Natives the knowledge from the Americans, both would have been much better off, for such would have been acts of true human politeness.
