" Nowhere were this these contradictions more flagrant than in North America. The very colonists who threw off their allegiance to England and justified their act in the name of freedom, equality, and the right to happiness retained the institution of slavery and exerted constant military pressure upon the Indians, whose lands they systematically seized by fraud and force, shamelessly described as 'purchase,' sanctified by treaties the United States government has repeatedly broken-and still keeps breaking-at its own convenience. "

― Lewis Mumford , The Pentagon of Power (The Myth of the Machine, Vol 2)