Daily Inspiration Quote by Nelson A. Miles

There’s a calculated softness to Miles’s phrasing: “dismiss from our minds the prejudice” sounds like moral housekeeping, a gentle invitation to clarity. Coming from a U.S. Army general in the late 19th century, that gentleness is the point. It frames Native people not as political nations with claims and sovereignty, but as a “race” driven by “impulses” to be studied, anticipated, managed. The sentence performs empathy while keeping power intact.

The key move is symmetry: “both races.” On its face, Miles offers evenhanded understanding. In practice, it launders the asymmetry of conquest into a shared psychological puzzle, as if the conflict is mainly a matter of mutual misunderstanding rather than forced removal, broken treaties, and military campaigns. “Impulses” is doing quiet work too. It implies something instinctive, even primitive, inviting the reader to interpret Native resistance as temperament, not strategy; as reaction, not politics.

Context sharpens the subtext. Miles served during the Indian Wars and later became known for criticism of some federal policies, but he remained an architect and instrument of U.S. expansion. That double position helps explain the quote’s intent: to persuade a skeptical white audience that a more “clear” view of Native behavior will make governance and pacification more effective. It’s less an argument for equality than for better administration - a progressive veneer over a colonial premise. The line reads like a bridge, but it’s built to carry only one side’s authority across.