, 1862-07-19

" high contracting parties
Treaties are written out conveying away mil
lions of acres, not one word of which the Indians
understand and complicated articles involving
the most abstruse legal provisions, furnishing sub
jects for interminable litigation, are fully ex-
planned and elucidated by some ignorant half
breed interpreter, who does not know one letter
from another but who acts under the direction Of
some politician, who desires to win his way to
public favor by perpetratmg huge swindle upon
those who have neither the power or intelligence
adequate to their own protection. While the In
dians are lost in admiration in listening to the
horid eloquence ofsome slara commissioner, who
dilates in the most extrs'rAf-a hyperbols upon
tie justice and magranirscy Of their great faith
er at Washington" they are quietly robbed of
their patrimony. The few short months within
which they are promised that their homes shall
become paradise by reason of the exuberance of
the Presidents liberality, are succeeded by years
of starvation, disappointment, and suffering
In the meantime the treaty sumbers in the
Department or the Senate and when after years
of hope deferred" the long-promised annuities
arrive, deficient in quality and quantity, if not en-
tirely absorbed Or stolen by the dishonest agents
of the Government intrusted with their manage
ment or delivery, the Indian, robbed of his hunt
ing ground and his home, has contracted all of
the vices of the white man, but none of his vir-
tues, and knows nothing of the Government, ex-
/ Al IL Ill l. Il
at her hands, becomes vagrant, and either from
vice or necessity, commits depredations which in
volve his tribe in wars and he only survives the
conflict of arms to fall by the more insiduous foe
concealed in the miserable whisky of the unscru-
pulous trader.
This, sir, is, with but slight variation, the his
tory of every tribe from Maine to Oregon who
have been brought in contact with u.s. The fos-
tering hand of our humane Government has des-
poiled and robbed them of their hunting grounds
and their homes, while the Chrstianizing influence
of our civilization has reduced them to squalid
thieves, vagabonds, and prostitutes.
The sangunary and expensive wars which are
engendered between the Indians and our frontiers
men are generally attributed to some fault or ag
gresson on the part of the whites, while the real
and original cause is the fault of the Government
itself, by first adopting the policy of treating them
as independent nations, and bringing tn EN- within
the influence of our diplomacy for the sake of
cheating them by the terms of written treaty
which they are unable to comprehend, and then,
by delays and downright bad faith, neglect or re-
fuse to discharge Cur part of the obligations
There has been but few Indian wars the cause of
which cannot be traced back to some act of omis-
sion OF commission on the part of the Govern
ment ITSELF
In the case now under consideration, it was
three years from the time that you sent your COM
missioners among the Nez Perces to negotiate a
treaty, before it was confirmed. Every day and
every hour of the three years delay carried to the
hearts of those simple people evidence of bad
faith on the part of the Government. They were
promised that the whites should not settle in their
country until the first annuities were paid but
two years before they received dollar the whole
country was thrown open to settlement. Then,
again, the annuities which were promised to be
paid in stock and substantial improvement, were,
in great part paid in utterly worthless articles ;
whistles and shoe strings, pod augers and gimlets
and old, worthless, shelfworn goods, purchased
by some swindlmg agent in New York at three
times their value, and then sent out at enormous
expense of freights. The annuities bore no re-
semblance to what had been promised either in
value, quantity, or quality. Then, again, the
Government solemnly stipulates that no white
man should reside upon the reservation. Your
troops are withdrawn, and there are to-day from
five to ten thousand miners located there, and no
power in this Government to remove them. When
they come in collision with the Indians, as they
inevitably must do, and a bloody war ensues, and
when you are called upon to foot the bills, this
Government can console itself with the reflection
that the fault rests with ITSELF Suppose that we
manifested the bad faith which have detailed in
our dealings with any powerful civilized Govern
ment how long would we be without war upon
our hands.
AS before stated, our Indian policy had its ori
gin in error and in my opinion it would have been
better if the Government had asserted its urisdc-
ton over them without the farce of recognizing
their national character by treaty. 1t should have
made ample provision for their comfort, which
would in some degree have corresponded in value
with the domain that we have acquired from them.
In short, we should have done in reality what we
have profeSSed to do, and made them the wards
of the Government, extending over them its fos-
terihg care and protection. 1t is, perhaps, too
late to inaugurate new policy, but it is not too
late to begin to do justice and the proposition
now before the Senate presents case where JUS
tice is imperatively demanded at our hands in be-
half both of the whites and of the Indians. Ifthe
Government were to derive no immediate pecun-
iary benefit from the purchase, still it would be
good policy to invest few thousand dollars for
the protection of both the Indians and the whites
in that remote region, particularly when such an
investment is likely to save the incurring of mil
lions of expense in the prosecution of war, to
say nothing of the loss CT life and the destruction
of property But, looking at the matter in a mere
financial view, still contend that it is good policy
to omake the purchase.
Suppose, sir, that contrary to all precedents
and to all history in relation to our intercourse
with the Indians, that the people of Oregon and
Washington should, actuated by high sense of
moral or legal obligations, refrain from respass-
ing upon the Indian reservation, by crossing its