New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1867-06-04
THE DEGENERATION or THE INDIANS


Guiding this vexatious frontier war without
recourse 70 military assistance. The first Is an
account of q meeting in Boston of The Society
"for Propagating the Gospel among tDe liz
"dans.n This association is opulent, ahcieh''
and intensely respectable; it has supreme
Chief-Justice for President, and in the dlrec-
ton are four Doctors of Divinity, WIN saiV
sprinkling of eminent, thrice reputable, ana oid-
fashioned merchants. We know nothing OF Its OPP
crations, except that last year it spent So,oVo i'll
laudably propagating as aforesaid we DeheVe
that it confines its kindly struggles chiefly to the
remnant tribes of Maine and Massachusetts
supporting here and there clergyman VINO
breaches to the poor Indian, whenever that
wayward aborigine can be persuaded TO come
Ia church. We wish that the Society had zeal
enough, with corresponding abundance OF
money. TO enable it TO extend its amiable inffu-
ences even to our Western borders; for by the
second paragraph above alluded to, we are as
sured that Platte Valley can have no peace, and
the Rocky Mountains generally no prosperity,
until We have absolutely killed oil all the
Cheyennes and Soux-sent them all to h, as
one indignant berderer expressed 1t to our own
correspondent. We must reason with them
resolutely, as the highwayman in the Plckwlck
Papers did with the coach-driver:
ole nut two balls into his mob.
Which prevailed on him to stop
This summary and wholesale consignment to
Uades. according TO white philosophers In those
parts. is the sole secret of safety, and, II prac-
ticable. it is surely a simple task. 1t cannot be
denied that Red Men when dead steal no cat
tie. burn no houses, and scalp no christian
polls. The main difficulty is that these surgl-
cal warriors are still alive, and will not come
in to be comfortably killed for their own good.
We are consequently compelled to hunt them
at a prodigi0us cost of money and OF men, ana
sometimes. the tables being turned, they even
have the audacity to hunt us-the dog being
"leete ahead We have taught them many
thngs-the use of firearms, the love OF rum
and the exceeding beauty of a good bargain
but we have not yet persuaded them that
il il their bounden duty to be
exterminated for the benefit of superior race
They are the victims OF an intellectual error
They devote so much time to the pictorial
adornmcnt of their persons that they have no
leisure for studying the noble doctrines OF
ctbpology. Given the memorable necessity OF
killing somebody, they prefer that the some
but narrow minded shrewd but selfish, agree
able to them but disagreeablc to their neigh
bors. AT this precise and mportunate juncture
il is that the Massachusetts, Society VIII DE Oh
inestimable value If only about five thousand
dollars worth of missionaries could be sent 10
these cruel Cheyennes and to these unreasoh-
able Sioux, to show to them the wicked
impropricty of their conduct, we might
have them emulOus of martyrdom, srlI1endeflng
themselves by scores, and requesting TO be
shot at once as a particular favor we as
sumo of COURSE that the rooting-out theory ~
the true one and that only by reducing it to stern
practice can our dear dusky brethren be saved.
! If we are so benevolent as TO convert these
red rascals before we dispatch them, giving
them chance of heaven Instead OF certainty
| of the olhef place, 80 much the more are we
! entitled to the appreciation OF mankind and the
glorifcaion of history. Moreover, considering
| what world of temptation this Is, and how
fatally prone the human race, OF all colors, Is 70
| backsding, and, moreover how easily Cur
beaded and leathcrcd noophytes might relapse
into the old habit of scalping, it will be an act
of unstrained and dewy mercy, upon the first
sign of their repentance, to shoot them and to
this way fairly buried, each brave with a
| bottle of rum in one hand and Bible in the
other, they will be sure of Paradise as they
understand it, or as we understand 1t; and IN
| either case there will be safety for them and
| for our anfrighted and endangered civilization
into the bargain. We merely adopt the Old
trapper's thorough policy with humane modi-
| fcation of our own.
IL is TO be hoped that no soft and thought
less reader will consider this proposition to be
| cruel or immoral We are told by the wcll-in-
formed, the eye-witnesses of the emergency,
| that a complete massacre of these troublesome
| wild men is necessary; and this beng the
melancholy truth, we are merely for making u
short and sacred work of il. lt Will not, by
any means, be the first dark deed with the
CONDENSATION of religious halo nor, after
sweeping away several millions of these irrl-
tating savages, need we be squeamish about
subiecting mere handful of hornets to SINH
lar extinction. 1t may be wrong to Kill before
conversion, but our plan meets that objection
triumphanty. We simply hurry the children
of the forest to happiness we not
only rescue them from the dominion
of ain and the bondage of iniquty, but we
raise the value of real estate in those regions;
we make railways possible and profitable; we
give a new impetus to the languishing mining
interest and to the desert the delightful boon
of democratic institutions. The gentlemen OF
the Boston Society may not see the matter as
we do but at any rate, we hope they will not
be long in making up their minds. The muir
derous part of the programme, we believe, is
resolved upon and i is high time that the