Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1868-06-04
The Indians.

The Indian question is again disturb
ing the equanimity and the digestions
of Congress. It is one of the most trou-
blesome questions that Congressman
have to deal with, and we do not be-
lieve that they would be more staggered
by the appearance of areal Indian COM
ing up through the floor of the Capitol,
in full war dress, brandishing his toma-
hawk and shrieking his whoop, than
they now are at the occasional popping
up of the old interrogatory, What
shall be done with the Indians 2" The
only members of Congress who seem
able to grapple with this question with
earnestness are the delegates from the
Indian territories. Their remedy for
the Indian troubles is very simple. 1t
is determination. They would have the
Government wage warupon the Indians
until they are all killed off. Said Mr..
Cavanaugh, of Montana, on Thursday,
putting the point facetiously, "He had
seen some good Indians, but only when
they were dead. He believed in the
Indian policy that was taught by the
great chieftain of Massachusetts long
ago-the policy which exterminates the
Indians, which drives them outside of
civilization, because you can not civilize
them. Mr.. Clever, of New Mexico, re-
marked that d" if the Government of the
United States did not take care of the
Indians, the citizens of New Mexico
would be compelled to protect them
selves, and that self-protectionm might 1c-
suit rather disastrously to the Indians"
Further discussion took place, in the
course of which =" daughter several
times occurred. the House evidently be-
ing bent upon extracting all the fun they
could from SO tiresome and dry sub
ject-and then the Indian appropriation
bill, which had supplied the occasion for
the debate, was gladly dropped for an
other day. aEs 81. f-a... 5000
The sentiments of these Territorial
delegates are very shocking. To per
sons who are only familiar by hearsay
with the fendish atrocities of Indian
warfare it would seem that men who
could deliberately advocate the exter-
mination of human beings on principle,
as if they were wolves, grizzly bears or
Christianity-must themselves be more
heathenish, in all that pertains to moral
ity, than the wretched creatures whom
they would destroy without mercy. But,
as we wish to do justice to the Indians,
so we mean to do justice to the men who
stand up in Congress and petition for the
wholesale slaughter O.. the quarrelsome
Ill. Mo,,re Houonouob N1ouor oDd
the others represent the prevailing opin-
ion of their constituents, arrived at de-
liberately after long actual familiarity
with the subject. Between the hardy
pioneers of the far West and the Indians
there is natural, apparently an incura
BILE, antipathy. The squatter and the
savage shoot each other at sight. The
squatter, when he first enters the Terri
tory is compunctious about shedding
human blood. But, after his cattle and
horses have been run off once or twice,
his barns burnt, his nearest neighbor, or
his neighbours wife, or some member of
his own family has been slowly tortured
to death, scalped and flung to the carrion
crows, any milk of human kindness that
he felt for Indians is curdled. Ever
thereafter he shoots them as he would
wildcat or a prowling coyote or any 9th
er noxious creature. This is horrible
state of things. 1t is foul blot upon
our civilization. 1t is totally unjustiti'
able upon any ethical ground. But as
much as we may deplore and condemn it,
nothing is more certain than that the
barbarism will continue until our Gov
ernment radically changes its Indian
policy. So,
However great is the blame attaching
to the white settlers, for their retalia-
tory treatment of the Indians, we hold
this government to be the chief cause of
! the difficulties. The Indian question,
like every other question but one, has
been overlooked of late years; appar-
emily because there has been no political
capital to be extracted from it. 1t has
been upon the South, not upon the West,
that the gaze of parties has been fixed.
Nobody has known and nobody has
cared how affairs were getting on among
the Indians; and, as natural conse-
quence, everything has been badly man.
| aged. While the nation was founder
ing through blood-red sea of troubles
for the negro, the Indian (not being
available for political purposes) was left
to be neglected and feeced by jobbers