Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1867-06-25
LFrom the Cincinnati Gazette.l,
~ The Indian War.


hook. So we have the guerrilla and bum |
mer system called for all along the frontier.
Volunteers will receive free license to
plunder and kill, as Gov. Meagher offers, |
with the right to everything they can cap
1 tnre. And. of course, it is not the warriors,
but the villages and the tribes who are in
;llned to peace, that will furnish paying
olunder; and it may be expected that it
l will be against these that the enterprise of
.hese irregular bands will be first directed.
Ii 1t will be impossible for any of the tribes 4
L o. remain at peace, however much they
nay desire it. We could have war or
Ieace, whichever we choose. We have left
III the causes of war in full operation, aud
/ We have had no capacity to do anything
/ Tor peace. The mind of the Commander of
the Indian Department is shown by his de-
Eclaration in an official letter to Gen. Grant
last December; We must act with vim
dictive earnestness against the Sioux, even
to their determination, men, women aud
children. Nothing else will reach the root
of the case" Previously he had proposed
j to the same official a plan to restrict the
Sioux Indians to the country north of the
Platte, and east of the new road to Mon
tana; and the, Cheyennes, Arappahoes,
kiowas, Apaches, and other tribes, to the
country south of the Alabama and east of
Fort Union, and that "any Indians found
outside of these limits, without written
pass from a military officer, should be dealt
with summarily." '3 s
Thus he proposed to sweep the Indians
by the mere force of military oruer from
a vast region where they had lived and
I hunted for centuries, before taking any
measure to quit their title, or to procure a
lcession by even the cheap consideration for
which Indian lands are acquired. Was this
! anything less than a de laration OF war to
all these tribes? Commissioner Bogy op-
! posed this plan, and called attention to its
monstrous features, but his opposition was
Intellectual, and this appears to be the plan
ON which our Indian affairs have been
worked into their present situation. 1t is
tdificult to resist the conviction that the
rich placers of the Pacific Railroad interest
I have had much to do with this plan and
with the war in which we are involved.
L. 1t is easy to talk of vigorous prosecu-
tion of the war, and If making it short,
tsharp and decisive. We know something
Fot the shortness and decisiveness of Indian
wars on territory that was but little
spot compared with this vast region, and
where the number of Indians was insignif-
icant. We have also heard before of Wig
orOus prosecution of the war, and of short,
sharp and decisive campaigns, but we have
found that the successes of our most hon
i ored military geniuses were achieved by
che exhaustion of time and,by an enlighten
ed expenditure of resources; and it is well
known that military providence, or any
concern for the expenses or the bottom to
the national purse, is not one of Gen. Sher
mans vices. .r4s.r
With only the force that we had in
the Indian Department in 1861 we
contrived TO spend $25000,000. We
suppose the force is more than tripled,
and now we have war, whereas then
we were only taking course to get
into it. We have to carry on a war over
IFcope of thousands of miles of wilderness,
| where every article of supplies must be
transported in the most costly manner. 1t
must be carried on chiefly by mounted
men, aud we have had some experience in
! the rapid destruction of horses and SOL
diers, even in countries where food of the
best kind was to be had, and we can form
some idea of the cost of mounted men hum
dreds of miles from the base of supplies.
l.. Dare any public man who is in a place of
responsibility for allowing this war to be
made, fairly estimate TrIe responsibilities,
and face the expense that he knows Co. be
Inevitable? We see here bottomless guilt
| for the national revenue, with no return !;
tor there is neither glory, success, nor peace
to be gained by this war. We may contin-
ne it for twenty Yeas, and still the workof
determination will be undone. Probably
? we could have the benefit of all this region
which we are now clearing of for rail-
road speculation for less than single years
expense of the war. And when we at last
come to peace, after fooling away hundreds
of millions of money, and keeping up a
reign of savage barbarity for years, this
will be the way we will have to do it.
/ Another objection to this war is that it is
begun and carried on by our side in spirit
of barbarity and with atrocities that dis
grace the nation. All the rules of civilized
warfare and all the feelings ofhumanity are
at once thrown off in war with the Indians,
and our troops strive to Outdo them in
cruelties. General Sherman, who makes
the war by ordering the Indians off from
their own territory, and by authorizing
everybody to ''deal summarily with any
Indian found upon it without military
pass" declares that operations must be car
ried on by exterminating men,, women and
1ehildern; and our troops aud the frontier
inhabitants discard all the restraints OF
civilized custom in war with the Indians,
and resort to barbarities. such as the Eng
lish practice upon the natives of India and
the blacks of Jamaica. .-.- ...- -
! We have seen in General Hancock's open
ing of negotiation with an Indian village a
specimen of the humanities of our Indian
policy. He proposed to meet the chiefs at
RI their village, and he went there in force
But the Indians had experienced Chiving-
toms mode OF visiting, and they fled, men,
women and children, leaving their huts and
everything they had in the world standing
, desolate. But one -decrepid old man re-
mained., This was not an act OF war, but
of fear. They had made no preparation for
fight or flight, but they distrusted the
whites, and with good Ieason,s and at the
approach OF. the troops they, were stricken
IA with panic and fled. Upon this the Cen
eral fired the village, destroying the shelter
and all the poor property of a thousand or
fifteen hundred people. Such are ouI
"a ways of making peace. General Sherman
gives the keynote to our ways of making
war. The country was shocked when il
heard of its practice in single village by
p. Chivington, but neither the Administra.
tion, nor Congress, nor the country RAISED
any remonstrance when General Sherman's
declaration of the policy of the same bar.
barous massacre for white tribes was laid
before them. '2a - 2 --1' go,r..-...
i We have no measures or influences for
/. peace, to expect from the military. 1t il
believed that the civil agencies of the Gov
ernment with the Indians, all tend to ere
ate war. And it Is known that the free
bootng custom of the white pioneers o
- civilization, as well as the interests o.
: many persons in the frontier settlements
tend to war: The expenditure of forty,
eighty, or a hundred millions, in Indian
wars, and the free calling ont of border
volunteers with all their vast charges
against the Government, open a great field
for plumber. We suspect that for every
Indian killed, at least one white specula-
tor or plunderer will have to be fattened
at the'public expense.
If the Indian retaliations could come
upon the inhabitants who make or cout-
tenance the aggressions upon them, they
might, so far as any wrong to the whites /:
concerned, havei it out with them, withou
. making any occasion for the public con.
cern; for it is well known that the genera
idea of the settlers is that the Indians have
no rights that white men are bound to re-
speet, and that their treatment of the In.
: dians is governed by this idea. 1t is i'm
possible for the Indians to make any settle
q 1ment upon lands, for the whites will squat
upon them without ceremony, as soon Al
theu- attract their lesira: and they will