The Sun.
London, England, 1867-04-18 00:00:00

A RED INDIAN WAR.

It will be seen from Lieut.-General SHERMAN'S re-
port to General GRANT, that the Government is about
to adopt vigorous measures for the suppression of the
depredations of the Red Men. Ever since the fight at
Sand Creek the country, from the Missouri River
to Great Salt Lake, has been in a most unsettled
state. The action of the Indians has compelled the
Military Department to take up the subject, and to
bring it to the simple issue of peace or war. Two
flying columns have been organised. One for the de-
partment of the Platte, under Major-General AUGUR;
and the other, under Major-General HANcocK, to
back a conference with the Cheyennes and the Kio-
was, and to proceed at once against them, in case they
decide on war. General SHERMAN'S opinion is dis-
tinctly given ; and though it may not commend
itself to New England philanthropy, we believe it
to be a policy of absolute necessity. The General
holds, that defensive measures, will not answer
against:lndians. lie knows that it is impossible to
defend the routes from the Missouri, to Denver.
The establishment of small posts, enables a body of
Indians on the war-path to select the weakest and
destroy them in detail. The warriors move with
their ponies, lodges, wives, and children. After
attacking one station, and committing all thed =age
in their power, they disappear from the locality, to
reappear a few weeks after, at another, hun-
dreds of miles away. While such positions are most
difficult of defence they are costly to keep up,
situated as they are in the wastes, distant from the
nearest point of civilisation, entailing the greatest
labour in transporting the necessaries of life to the
men there placed. General SHERMAN'S plan is a
very simple one :—" Our troops," he says, " must
get among the Indians, and kill enough of them to
inspire fear ; and then, conduct the remainder to
places: where Indian agents, can, and will reside
among them, and be held responsible fur their con-
duct. No mercy should be shown ;—for they grant
no quarter, nor ask for it." Undoubtedly such
rules of warfare are calculated to shock the
humanity of the Eastern States, and if they
be carried into practice, will give rise to an
indignant appeal against such barbarism. It
is, however, true, that where a nation orders
a general to obtain a certain result, he is compelled
to adapt his means to the circumstances. The rules
of civilised warfare cannot be acted on by white men
operating in the wild prairies, against tribes of Red
Indians. Warfare has a degrading tendency ; and
the more humane, noble, and chivalrous foe, is even-
tually compelled to adopt the lower standard of his
enemy. Every white man that falls, is scalped and
despatched by his Indian antagonist. Every cap-
tive taken, is roasted or cruelly worried to death by
every device that the ingenuity of fiends in the
shape of squaws, can devise. There is not
a soldier in the column either of HAN-
COCK or AUGUR who does not know what
his fat' would be if taken prisoner by
an Indian tribe ; and all the thunders of the
pulpit and press would not for a moment stay his
hand when his enemy was on the ground before
him. The roads between the Missouri and Denver
city, must not only be kept open, but freed from the
perpetually recurring obstacles and antagonismili-
terposed by the Red Men. To effect this, the war must
be carried into their own villages, if war there must be;
but any terms which could secure their friendship 'and
permanently remove the obstructions, would doubt-
less be adopted in preference to annihilation.
Strange as it may appear, there is a,fatality that
rules in the affairs of these savages which
baulks every effort at civilisation, and every
attempt of a humane Government to avoid
the last extremities. Ridiculous as is the idea,
these Cheyennes, Black Feet, and other wretched
tribes of roving Indians, are penetrated with the
conviction that they are all-powerful in the prairie.
Isolated among their herds of wild buffaloes, they
know nothing of the power of the nation they pro-
voke. The few who have strayed into the regions
of civilisation are discredited on their return when
they tell of the countless number of the pale faces, of
the rivers ploughed by great steamers, of the earth
shaking beneath the rush of iron horses. "Kaw !"
they say, " what lies you tell us !" Their
idea of the white man's power is derived
from the wretched shanty standing all alone
on the wide prairie, with its few half-starved in-
mates, trembling in the presence of the Red warrior
band, while the last morsel of food is cooked for
these hungry savages to devour, with the un-
pleasant conviction, that the feast may con-
clude with the exciting pastime to the guests, of
roasting their hosts, over the dying embers of
the fire. England has had a vast experience of the
difficulty of dealing with ignorant savages. They
cannot be made to comprehend the power of the
force which a first-class civilised nation can direct
against them. Even with such a country as Spain,
we see this extraordinary ignorance carried
to a point likely to end in a catastrophe.
Reports from Fort Laramie state that the Com-
missioners had refused to comply with the condi-
tions which the chiefs, in council, liad laid down as
the preliminaries of a treaty. One of these, em-
braced the withdrawal of the stages and all travel
from the Smoky Hill route, running west from
Kansas. The council had broken up, and the
Indians wore removing their families to places of
safety. \Ve must not therefore be surprised on
finding General SHERMAN'S preparations close, in
an Indian war. Mr. DIXON gives an admirable
illustration of the argument used by the red
chiefs on being told that the roads must be free and
open. " Are your own roads open ?" they ask.
" Would Black Hawk be allowed to hunt through
the fields of Ohio ?—would Spotted Dog be
suffered to pitch his lodge in the streets of Indiana-
polis ? Could Roman Nose, on the road from St.
Louis to New York, kill and eat sheep and cows ?"
Now, it cannot be dehied that there 43 a rude.