The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1867-07-22
REPUBLICAN NOMINATION.
Who ale the savagese


The forte of the Anglo-Saxon race is civil
zation. That race has reached its highest
development in the United States. There
fore we are accustomed to claim that we are
the most civilized people in the world. IF
this is true, the millennium is not yet. 1t is
now fully established that our government is
carrying on a war the cruelty and injustice of
which find no parallel except in central Afri-
ca. Little would have been known concern
ing it, had not large sums of money been re-
quired in its prosecution. When it was found
that the Indian war, if prolonged through the
summer and fall, would cost hundred mil
lion dollars, an honorable Senator did rise,
with am apologize air and deprecating as
surance to his hearers that he was by no
means "an advocate OF the Indian" and prove
conclusively that the Savage" is a very peace
full and reliable fellow when he is not cheated
and robbed. When he has suffered through
succession of years these appliances of
Christian civilization he naturally feels de.
gree of irritation, and, having commenced
hostilties, he carries on the war according to
his own traditional ideas of that art Senator
Henderson alleged-and none of the frontier
advocates of exterminaton contradicted him
that only two tribes, the Sioux and the
Cheyennes and Arapahoes combined, are en-
gagged in the present war. The former have
for their justification clearer case of broken
treaty obligations than any that has caused a
European war for the last two centuries
In 1851 they made a compact with the
United States by virtue of which what is cali
ed the Powder River Country in Dakota Ter
ritory was secured to them, right of way to
California through South Pass being reserved.
No one supposed at that time, that the tract
allotted to the Sioux would ever be of any
value but when gold was discovered in Mon
tana right of way TO that region through
the Indian reservation was found to very de-.
sirable, and an attempt was made to secure
one by establishing a line of forts on the route
thither without taking the trouble to obtain
the consent of the proprietors of the SOIL
The consequence has been that the Indians
have taken every scalp that has come within
their reach. That is the aboriginal idea of
warlike trophies, and vely savage and un-
pleasant ideAit is beyond question. But what
course would the United States pursue if
France had the unspeakable impudence to as
sert the right to reclaim Louisiana, because at
the time of its sale its full value was not UNI
defstood by the First Consul? How would
Anglo-Saxon civilization bear the test il a
French feet should, before any negotiations
and without any warning, appear before New
Orleans to make good the wicked claim
The case of the Sioux is not different from
this supposed one except that it is stronger
The whites paid them in part for the terrific
ry they gave up with other territory which
also belonged to them. They submitted to
this one-sided transaction, and, until the 9TH
er party thereto committed a breach Of the
unfair contract, emigrants often passed
through their country on then. way to Cali
fornia, solitary and alone, with more safety
than they could pass through the streets of
Ne York. For fifteen years no white mans
: blood was on their hands. II - .5a
The treatment of the Cheyennes shows
still greater disregard of the first principles of
fair dealing They have given up one reserv-
alton after another, including the gold mines
of Colorado, until their wrongs have reached
the eliminating point in their being asked
in effect to forego any further attempt to
maintain an existence anywhere. They are
in the way Of the Kansas branch of the Pa
cifc Railroad and they are expected to re-
move before any provision has been made for
their location elsewhere. No romantic foible
excites the Indians opposition to the great
public work. 1t deprives him of his means of
subsistence. 1t is thrust at his life Should
scheme so important as this be abandoned
then, because Of the protest of few thousand
barbarians? If there were no way of remov-
ing their objections upon equitable principles
the question would be hard to answer. But
as the case now stands we say unhesitatingly,
| yes. Better that the East and West should
be forever strangers, than the pathway be-
tween them should lie across the homesteads
of an outraged people. That would be build
ing up an empire on robbery, as the Southern
statesmen thought to found one with slavery
for its corner stone. t'' 'a'' %