, 1856-03-07

q greater sensation in these parts than the
receipt of the San Francisco papers con-
tanning Gen. Wool's account of his visit
and labOrs in Washington Territory. THESE
astounding disclosures, it would seem, must
cut up by the roots the very last vestige Of
confidence in the integrity of man. That
a man in his high position, venerable with
age and service, could make report as
palpably false as that is, is a sickenng re-
Election, too abhorrent to be for moment
entertained His assertions that "the peo-
ps have ample protection" " the war has
ben greatly exaggerated" the volunteers
had fought Indians that had not committed
MURDER" &C., are notoriously false, and
their Galsity could be clearly established by
the reports Of officers, without reference to
the statements Of citizens equally reliable,
TIE people haze ample prOtection." The
assertion was made by Gen. Wool with the
full knowledge that three-fourths Of all the
business of Washington Territory had been
destroyed that one half the inhabitants
had been driven out of the Territory that
the people were, at the very time, herded
together in miserable block-houses all over
the Territory that King county, one Of
the best counties in the Territory, county
whose agriculture had begun to put forth
the buds of promise--whose settlements had
extended thirty miles or more back from
the waters of the Sound-comfortable
farms with fruit trees in full bearing lined
the banks Of the Duwamish river for forty
miles up, have all been laid in ashes by the
savages, the stock driven of and shot
down.
Pierce county is in a situation but little
better-the people driven from their homes,
crowded together in block-houses, enduring
extreme misery. and partial starvation, 1t
is said that every farm in King county is
destroyed, and that the people, driven be-
fore their savage foe into the town of Sc
attic, would have all been destroyed but
for the assistance Of the DeontEr. All this
was fully known to Gen. Wool before he
left the Territory.
The par has been greatly exaggerated.
IL this be true, why has not check been
put to the aggressions Of Indians The
work Of murder and destruction Of property
commenced as long ago as August last, and
has not yet been checked, with the excep-
ton of what the Oregon volunteers have
done. We think these difficulties cannot
be well exaggerated. Gen. Wool, in his
comfortable quarters turning deaf and in
human ear to the cries Of suffering, is per-
haps not judge Of the magnitude Of our
difficulties. II these are trifes, a trihe Of
General could have met them,
The volunteers fought Indians that had
committed murder" This is the last trick
of the jesuit, When an application was
made for hOioitzers to proceed against these
Indians, no doubt then existed of their hos
tility in the mind Of the General or any
other officer, but Gen. Wool "rsgrets hC
cannot furnish tie rOlpnteers tie assistGncc
they ,oant, O,oiAg to his Instructions" &c.
(See correspondence of Gen. Wool and
Maj. Rains to Col Nesmith.) The dance
of Pee-peu-mox-mox around the scalpS Of
the whites, the robbing Of Fort Wall-walla,
and the entire destruction of the settlement
around Walla-walla, all Of which had been
reported by an officer, Mr.. Olney, was not
evidence Of hostility to the mind of General
| Wool.
The truth is, Gen. Wool is afraid of the
truth. The plain truth told exhibits him
in o bad light, he must therefore pervert
the truth to screen himself. The volun-
teers have accomplished something, while
he has done nothing. lie must therefore rob
them of the little well earned credit due
them, as an apology for doing nothing
himself
We might notice many other false and
slanderous assertions that found their way
into the California press about the time
Gen. Wool returned to San Francisco, put
forth either by him or those about him,
declaring that " the movements of the vol
unteers, and conduct of citizens interested
in keeping up the war, has created the
principal difficulties" Now the truth on
this subject might be learned from the Off
cial reports Of Maj. Rains and Maj. Haller
and Others Of the U. s. A, which show,
as we oil know was the case, that the war
continued for n considerable length of time