The New York herald., 1867-02-11


portant feature in our national legislative
policy, and very properly so. Those untamed
nomads of the Western plains are part of the
national population, occupy territory which
belongs to the United States and live beneath
the shelter of the same flag that waves over
Faneuil Hail. We should be false to our
creed of progressive civilization, in contradic-
| ton with our declared determination to extend
justice and equal rights to all, and act .
strangely inconsistent part were we to make
no proper and humane effort to lift the red man
from out his barbarism and show him how hui
manity can be subdued, softened and made
happy. He has never had q chance to absorb
fruits Of human happiness. Constantly driven
westward, heartsick and sorrowful, from the
hunting grounds and graves of his fathers !;
constantly isolated from everything that could
redeem him, ever in the silent forest or path
less prairie, with no other promptings than
those Of his wounded feelings, is it any wonder
that he remains savage and nurses his wrath,
as Burns has it, !" to keep it warmr We are
a great, civilized and Christian people, and
that Providence which gave us dominion over
this teeming country and placed the Indian in
our keeping, will hold us accountable for the
manner in which we discharge our stewardship.
Our management hitherto has been abomina-
BILE. We were contented with providing few
square miles for each transplanted tribe, fur
nishing them annually with allowances of cloth,
arms, implements and money, and there we
left them to the mercies, which were ruthless,
Of Indian agents. II is time such system
were changed.
There has been submitted to the Senate
a plan proposed by Colonel Parker, of General
Grants staff, and probably improved upon by
the General, upon which bill has been framed
by Mr.. Wilson, containing these four PROPOSE
tons Transfer of Indian affairs to the War
Department.; establishment Of Territorial gov
ernments for. the Indians; appointment Of
board to inspect accounts OF Indian agents,
&C.; and, lastly, commission Of whites and
educated Indians to visit all the tribes, hold
talks with them, show them the benefits Of
peace, &c. The American government, say
the projectors Of the plan, "can never adopt
the policy Of total determination of the In
dian race within her limits, numbering, per-
haps, not less than four hundred thousand
without cost Of untold treasure and the lives
Of her people, besides exposing herself to the
adherence and censure of the entire civilized
world"
Every right-minded person will endorse this
humane sentiment but it reveals the startling
and horrible truth that the total determination
of the Indian race has been seriously contem-
plated by some. Now, to speak in detail of
the proposed plan, matured, as we suppose, by
General Grant, man of good, practical COM
mon sense, we would say Of the first PROPOSE
ton that it is an excellent reform; that the
second contains the germ Of something emf
nently beneficial; that the third is useful in
its way, but that the fourth is altogether use
less. Without details OF the second PROPOSE
cannot say more of it than that it appears to
be the most important Of all four. We must
begin the civilization of the Indian by prac-
tical lessons in government and industry, not
by sending persons to talk to him. The
Canadian Indian is never troublesome. He is in
the midst OF civilizing Influences The red man
of our prairies is as far removed as possible
from all such. The Canadian Indian has some
ideas Of his relations to the society around
him. He is a very creditable citizen. He has
gradually absorbed Industrial ideas, and he is
not the nomad his fathers were. Above all,
he has been Christianized, through the efforts
of French Catholic missionaries, aided more
than is generally supposed by the irresistible
facts that he was permitted to live in the midst
of the white race, and tlat he had the example
of the civilized, Industrious and Christian
white man constantly before him. We in the
United States adopted the opposite system and
drove the red man away from civilization and
away from all chance Of becoming better by
intimate contact with us; and then, wondering
that he remains in the state Of nature in which
he has ever been, we conclude he is an in
corrigibe, unreliable and treacherous savage,
and nine.tenths Of us exclaim with Kit Carson,
"The Indian must be exterminatedr ~
In conclusion, we would say, give the Grant
Parker scheme q trial but ii that be not
adopted, wipe out the present system
altogether and give the Indians settlements
here and there within the borders Of civiliza-
ton east Of the Mississippi. Scatter the four
hundred thousand aborigines in villages on
government lands among millions Of whites,
and we shall have no more Indian wars, no
more wasteful expenditures Of lives and trea-
sure, no more dangers to deter settlers from
our virgin Territories and no more risk of the
fearful responsibility and indelible stain upon
our name as Christian people by the exter-
mination Of SO many weak and helpless fellow
creatures.
Probable ISOLATION Of the Mexican Middle.
The news which we publish to-day from our
c0rrespondent at Durango thu preaent seat of