Daily national Democrat., 1858-10-13
Policy Of the Government toward the
Indians.

Indians
The earlier administrations were much
purer in every respect, than they haveseen
Of late years and it was a characteristic of
those purcr administrations, that uniform
Justice was extended to the indian tribes.
In the days of Washington, Adams and JEFF
ferson, and down, in fact, to n very recent
period, the Indians title to the soil which he
occupied, and the Independent nationality OF
the separate tribes, were distinctly recog-
nized by the General Government, so much
so that the treaties which were made with
them were as formal in their provisions and
as solemn in their pledges as it they had
been negotiated with the foremost potentatcs
of the earth. These treaties were almost in
variably executed to the letter, on the part
Of the United States Government, for such
men as Washington and jefferson would
sooner have broken their faith with the
proudcst king Of Europe than with the
weakest of the red chiefs of the forest They
took pride in treating with scrupuous justice
a people who, brave as they unqucstonably
were, were yet too feeble in point of Mum
bers, and too poorly provided with the ap-
pliances of civilized warfare, to demand that
Justice at the point of the sword Yet, un-
der those same administrations the Indian
title was eNtinguished to vast tracts of land
and the white population spread over the
like limits. 1t belonged to later administra-
tions to break faith with the Indian tribes.
and then attempt their determination be-
cause, with the rude Indignation of the saw
age, they paid the wrongs perpctrated upon
them with the conhagration of border set
Elements and the deeds of the murderous
tomahawk. Earlier administrations succeed
ediu civilizing and ,chrstanizing the more in
tclectual of the Indian Nations, and, in or
der to encourage them in the arts of peace.
guaranteed to them, by solemn treaties, the
right to the soil which, abandoning their
hunter state they cultivated as civilized men
Later administrations invaded the limits of
these Nations, presenting, as they did, the
beautiful and extra ordinary and almost un-
paralelled spectacle of people springing, at
1nce, from the darkness of complete barba- |
ism into the blaze of enlightenment; invaded |
heir limits, broke, deliberately and with
shamelessness, those solemn
reaties tore up root and branch, from the
homes which they had planted the people
who had so nobly abandoned their old habits
md customs, and, regardless of the ruinous
consequences which would follow, transport
ed them to a comparatively unknown and
wilderness country, there to relapse into bar
barism or to again surround themselves with
the blessings of civilization, as the case
might be- These nations were thus thrown
back in the progress which they had made,
1t least half century, and that they finally
their suspended energies, awolle
rom the lethargy of despair and bounded
orwardin the path of civilization, was owing
o the innate strength and grandeur of the
boriginal mind, and not to the astonishingly
ender and parental care of a most magnan-
nous and supnrletively Christian Govern,
nent
Yet in the face of all these facts, there are
certain modern statesmen y who think they
re wiser than Washington and jefferson,
md loudly proclaim that kindness toward
he Indians is no part Of II wise policy, that
avages they are and like savages they must
'e treated shat they can't be cieiii.ed, tan
assertion which is lie in the very teeth of |
history and that they are insensible to all |
the humane movements which are set on foot
in their behalf 1t was not long ago, that
the Washington Union, the organ of the
present administration, (Which, We will ven
ture to say, can hardly be compared to either
Washington's or Jefferson's) declared that
the policy which this Government had pur-
sued toward the Indians, in recognizing their
title to land and their nationality, was a "fa-
tai policy" AS badly as modern administra-
tions had treated the Indian Nations, even
they had treated them with far too much
consideration! The policy should be, here
after, TO ignore all recognition of any sort of
title in them to their lands or any sort Of
right that they might claim to be considered
nations, instead of mere handfuls of strag-
glers upon the continent We suppose, ac-
cording to this, that the title of the Chcro-
kee Nation to their present territory, and
their nationality which has been recognized
since the foundation of the Government, are
all to 60 for nothing, and, civilized as they
are, and intelligent as they are, and equal
in every respect to their white neighbors as
they are, they are to be treated as mere ten
ants-at.will of the Federal Government and
the treaties heretofore made with them to be
tom up and scattered to the winds as so
much worthless paper.
The Washington Union, too, in advising
the unrelenting slaughter of the Indians of
Oregon and Washington Territories for the
alledged reason that they do not keep faith
with white men, seems to overlook very i'm
portant consideration, which is the simple
fact that the lchites hare not kept faiM with
them. At any rate it appears, from recent
statement of the Secretary of the Interior
that the very reason that those Indians have
not remained peaceable as they promised to
do, is owing to the fact that the treaties, in
consideration of which they agreed to be at
peace, hare not been carried ont 10y the L. 5
Government. Sixty two millions of acres of
land were acquired from them, three years
ago, for which the Governments agreed to
them teachers pbvsicions ond farmers in or-