The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-06-24

The tales told of some English missionaries in |
the South Pacific who set up stores for them |
selves, and sold the goods sent them for chart |
table distribution among ignorant negroes,
have been hard to believe. But the bold,
open, shameful swindles which have been per
petrated upon the Western Indians by Gov
ernment commissioners have been exposed and
proved. These men have for years been selling
to traders and settlers, who in turn sold them
to the Indians, whole train-loads of goods des-
patched for gratuitous distribution among the
tribes, in fulfilment of our treaty stipulations
with them. officers of the highest rank and
citizens of undoubted veracity testify to these
things, and also to the fact that in many in
stances the Indians who presented themselves
to receive the allowances due to their tribes
were made drunk with whisky, and induced
while in that condition, to receipt for articles
which they never saw. One chief told one of
our Generals who took pains to see that
more recent consignment of goods was
properly made over to the tribe for
which it was forwarded, that it was the
first time in eighteen years that he or his
tribe had been so fortunate. Satanta's ale
cations in presence of General Hancock and
the very agent he accused, were not sought
to be questioned; but the forbearance mani
tested by Satanta has ceased to be the virtue
of those more barbario and daring warriors
who are now striving to drive the "white
man" who won their hatred through the
dishonesty of his official agent, from the
soil that the latter polluted with practices
even more despicable than their own. The
Congress and the Department that winked
at these atrooious wrongs for the sake
of keeping in pay, and preserving the Gin
fluence" of the wretched pot-house polici-
tians and their friends who wrought them
and who shared the spoil, have brought
on a conflict that is destined to cost the
country an increase of debt and taxation
very mildly foreshadowed by Secretary McCul-
loch in his letter to the Boston merchants.
The Secretary of the Interior, in his last
report, estimated the price of maintain
ing each regiment of troops in the Indian
country at 81, 900, 600 per annum, and this in
time of comparative peace. Every savage
killed in battle during the last five years has
probably cost the Government 5000, 600. II is
also well to remember that there may be a
great many homeless and foodless whites in
| the Western Territories to be cared for, before
| this war is finished. In the months of Sep
| tember and October, the massacres in Min
nesOta reduced twenty thousand of those who
escaped to want. These military expendi-
lures and the cost of providing for these
? prospective starving citizens, added to the ex-
penses of reconstruction under the Military
bill, and the sums now habitually raised in
! the country for the relief of the sufferers in
| the South, are submitted to the reflection OF
those humble millions who are out of the
! charmed ring that encloses politicians, con-
! tractors, internal revenue men, and general
| jobbers, and who, until the autumn of 1868,
| will have to bide their time.