The Tribes and the States

by William James Sidis

Apparently the removal of the continent of Atlantis, the central source of the empire's power, weakened it somewhat; but still the Mound-Builder empire held its own against the Algonquin peoples who were pressing on their borders from the coast-lands to the north and northeast. This pressure was resisted as long as the Mound-Builders were able to maintain themselves united; but, after a time, for some reason, this empire deteriorated. Algonquin tradition explains it by the priestcraft among the Mound-Builders' gaining such despotic control that they were able to institute extensive sacrifices similar to those which were introduced widely into Mexico about the same time. This made most of the Mound-Builder people feel, with ample justification, that their lives would be quite as safe with the enemy as at home; so that city after city surrendered to the invading Algonquins, who finally occupied the whole northern prairie district. But, in that region, the infusion of a strain accustomed to the tyrannical institutions of the Mound-Builders' empire prevented the prairie tribes from feeling or carrying out the full spirit of freedom that was so strong among their Penacook cousins who stayed behind on the Atlantic coast.

The red people from Manhattan Island crossed to the mainland, where a treaty was made with the Dutch, and the place was therefore called the Pipe of Peace―in their language, Hoboken. But soon after that, the Dutch governor, Kieft, sent his men out there one night and massacred the entire population. Few of them escaped, but they spread the story of what had been done, and this did much to antagonize all the remaining tribes against all the white settlers. Shortly after, Nieuw Amsterdam erected a double palisade for defense against its now enraged red neighbors, and this remained for some time the northern limit of the Dutch city. The space between the former walls is now called Wall Street, and its spirit is still that of a bulwark against the people.

Like the Puritans, the Quakers showed a strong tendency to Biblical names, and Penn had long planned to name his new city for a city mentioned in the New Testament, with a name commonly supposed to mean "brotherly love." And so this location received the name of Philadelphia. And, though the ancient city in Asia Minor mentioned in the Bible was really named for an Egyptian king called "brother-lover" because he assassinated his brother, it is fair to say that the American city is really named for brotherly love, such being obviously the founder's intention.

It was finally announced by Congress that George Washington had been unanimously elected by the vote of five states! John Adams, being the second choice of the electors from those five States, was declared to be Vice-President. How the remaining six States of the Second Republic voted in that election will probably never be known, because their votes were never counted and never went on officialrecord―presumably because they did not vote for George Washington as President.