Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1867-05-02
our Great National E4eprOach :
II y E5Eslal The Indian War. 90 -f.1 2

The statement recently published by Mr.
Bovy. late Commissioner of Indian Affairs.
substantiates the view which we have all
along taken of our difficulties with the In
dian tribes, and of the management of ouI
Indian affairs generally. According to his
showingithe impending war is due, not to
the. unreasonable demands of the chiefs
nor ct to the rapacity of the Goyernnen;
agents or traders, upon, whose shoulders
the blame has been so freely laid, but te
acknowledgement IN Washington. With the
exception of a band of Sioux, headed by
chief named Red Cloud, there are in reali
ty none of the tribes ,hostilely disposed to
wards u.s. Even this chief, irritated as h.
is, by bad treatment, could easily have bee.t
kept quiet if disposition had been showL
to conciliate them He is Tepresented to bf
manly and honest, and he has taken t.
arms simply because after repeated remon
strances with the agents of the Govern;
ment he has been suffered to acquire the
Conviction that nothing remains for him
and his followers but the alternative of
lighting or starving. He now serves as the
1eader around whom all the malcontent
spirits of the other tribes rally. Mr.. Bogy
thinks it would be easy to satisfy the re-
l,duirements of this chief and his tribe, and
that it would be much more humane and
economical policy for the Government to
spend few hundred Thousand dollars in
providing them with reservations and cat
| tie for stock raising than to allow itself TO
beinvolve ed in a general Indian war, which,
/ if once started, will extend from the Mis-
souri, river to the foot of the Rocky Noun
tains, and from the mouth of the Yellow
4 stone to and including Arizona and New
/ Mexico, costing, as he believes, many mil
/ lions of dollars, thousands of lives, and the
4 entire suspending and perhaps destruction
of the railroads now being built upon the
/ plains. saaosessis - s.,,. ,ff-s-.s.r II
j The expedition sent out under Gen. Han
1 cock is, Mr.. Bogy thinks, great mistake
/ ALI that was wanted was the sending of a
small number of men to the Yellowstone
i to chastise the chief Red Cloud and his
4 adherents. The effect of the appearance OF
4 an army of the magnitude of that under
i Gen. Haneock's orders will be to alarm all
4 the well disposed tribes and render a gem
4 eral war inevitable. These views, he says
H he tried months agoto impress upon the
i IGovernmnuf; butno attention was paid tC
Il them. This, he attributes to the inf1u-
i ence of the Indian Bureau at Wash
1 ington, where, he contends have origi-
mated the numerous frauds that have
+ permeated our Indian affairs and
II that have created all the present difficult
Il tes. The head office there, he asserts, i
j surrounded by a set of heartlesS eormOrantS
! who care hut little for the consequences
! provided their rapacity is satisfied. q
n In all this there is but too much truth
and it is a melancholy reflection that re-
peatedly as it has been urged it has faileo
: in producing any impression. If we wage
4 a general war of determination a against thl
: tribes-and we do not see what else is tx
: result from Hancock's expedition = tn,
world will, in view of these statements
hold us responsible for blood unnecessarily
Il shed, while the addition to our public deb
? of the millions of dollars which the wa
:: will cost will render such of us as are in
llti
2 vinced of its impolicy. It is not as yet toj
late to retrace the steps that have conduct
: ed us into such criminal and dangerou
error. In the name of humanity and jus
j tice let there be no delay in backing out o
II it.-Neao 7 ork Herald. -- aiA