The weekly north Iowa times. [volume] (McGregor, Iowa) 1857-1867, 1862-09-24

The following extract from Gov. Ram
sey's message to the Minnesota Legislature,
is of thrilling interest. If one-half of this
indictment Of the Sioux Indians be true,
that nation should be entirely obliterated
from the face of the earth Such would be
a dreadful retribution, but nothing less
than that would be a just punishment for the
terrible crimes they have committed, and
nothing less than that would have a salu-
tary effect upon other Indian tribes upon
our border: .....
But massacre its,lf had been mercy, If
it could have purchased exemption FROM
the revolving circumstances with which it
was accompanied. Nothing which the bru-
tai lust and and wanton cruelty Of these
savages could wreak upon their helpless
and innocent victims, was omitted from the
category Of their crimes. Helplessness and
innocence indeed which moves pity in any
breast but theirs, seemed to inspire them
only with more ficndish rage. Infants
hcwn into bloody chips Of flesh or nailed
alive to door posts to linger out their little
lives in mortal agony, or torn untimely
from the womb Of the murdered mother
and in cruel moekery cast in fragments on
her pulseless and bleeding breast; rape
joined to murder in one awful tragedy
young girles, even children Of tender years.
outraged by their brutal ravishers till death
ended their shame and sufferings; women
held in captivity to undergo the horrors of
living death; whole families burned
alive and, as il their devilish fury could
not glut itself with outrages on the living,
its last efforts were exhausted in mutilat,ng
the bodies Of tho dead. Such are the spec.
tacles, and a thousand nameless horrors
besides, which their first experience of In.
dian war has burned into the brains and
hearts Of our frontier people, and such the
enemy with whom We have to deal.
1t is estimated that 500 persons Of every
age and sex persisted, and worse than per.
ished, by the hands of these remorseless
butchers in the course of two or three
days succeeding the outbreak, before their
progress was checked by our forces, and
hundreds Of them yet lie unburied where
they fell, hidden in the grass and bushes
OF prairies and ravines. Many doubtless
in the attempt to escape, have become lost,
or fainting from exhaustion and terror, have
uIcu VI StafV2tlOn.
The theatre of depredations, as far Is
ascertained, has extended from Otter Tail
Lake and Fort Abercombie, on the Red
River, to the Iowa boundary or 4 front of
1900 miles, and from the western border
Of the State eastwardly to its heart at
Forest City, an area Of 10000 square
miles.
The property destroyed or carried of as
booty, is estimated at millions of dollars,
including large supplies of arms and au-
munition pillaged from the government and
private stores on the reservation, and the
cattle, horses and household effects of set.
tiers
The indirect damage to our citizens is
vastly greater, and il we include its proba-
BILE effects on our future prosperity, is be.
yond calculation.
Tens Of thousands of acres Of crops,
which comprised all the wealth of their
owners, have thus been abandoned to de.
struction, and thousands of prosperous and
happy families reduced at one blow to pow
erty and often to beggary.