Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1868-12-15
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50 they would no doubt have given him
a different version. of the origin of the
difficulties. 1t is the common error of
the army officers, in the Indian country,
to take, and accept as true, the repre-
sentatiops of the enemies of the eIIndians
in all cases, and to act upon lthemge In. /
stead of restraining lawless whites, who
abound in the Indian country, and thus
avoid most of the difficulties, they set
out to punish thesIndianss oupon7 the
of such men, and thus bring
- No man can read General Sheridan's
reports of September 26 and November
1s, 1SGs. without being satisfied that he
was, through the summer in, search of a
pretext to commence hostilities. In that |
of November, II, he virtually condemns
Congress for appointing the Peace Com
condemns what the Commission |
bad ,done, in the interests of peace;e de-
clares that it ought not to have treated
with any of these tribes in the fall of |
1867; but in lieu of its action the Indi- |
ans. should have been punished. On
this. point his language is grossly of |
fensive,' disrespecttul to Congress and
the Commission it created, and insubor-
dinate, to his superior, to whom it is
addressed, and who was a member of
the Commission. General Sherman
cheerfully receives and chiefly relies
upon General Sheridan's views for ma
terial on which to make up his report.
In General Sheridan's November re-
port he says the same fate awaits the
Indians of the Plains that has befallen
tribes. now extinct; that these must. be
exterminated, save the remnants" If
the people of the United States are pre-
pared to accept this hell conceived idea,
then the favorite project of the army,
the entire possession and control of the
Indians, should be at once accorded to
that arm of the public service, SO that
the carnival of debauch, brutality and
death, to follow, may have full and free
course.
By the transfer of the Indians to the
control of the army, General Sheridan
thinks, 1 suppose, that their pecuniary
interest will be faithfully managed. He
says that as things now are, ..too many
fingers are in the pie," that too much
money is made, and too many ends SUBJ
served and he would leave the impress
sion that the corruption is in the civil
agents of the Bureau alone. And four
regular Washington correspondent also
joins the army host, as he did in Il e
session of 1867, and urges the trans
fer of the Bureau, adding as anoth, r
reason that thereby the "Indian Ring"
may be broken up. In that ring he
classes many members of both houses
of Congress. -'
I agree with Gen. Sheridan that too
many men make money out of the In
dians; but the petty thieving practiced
by some Indian agents is drop in the
bucket, compared to the immense plum
der arising out of our Indian complica-
tions and wars. -i"' 7'' ~ ''-
That some of the agents cheat and
defraud the Indians is no doubt true /;
that there may perchance have been on
some occasion dishonest head to the
Bureau, will not controvert. But the
wholesale abuse of the Bureau and all
Indian agents is very unjust. I have
known many pure, devoted and most
faithful men in the service. Indian
agents are just like other men, and army
officers are no better, and the assump-
ton of Gen. Sheridan that he and his
colleagues belong to a peculiar class, in
whom abounds all honor and integrity.
is not only gratuitous. but grossly I'M
just The army does not absorb all the
virtue and integrity in the country, and
military officers would be no more faith.
full in the management of the funds of the
Indians than civilians. 1t does not fol.
low that because man wears the uni
form of the United States, that his ma
ture is changed. l s..dls $50 T.
am prepared to believe all your cor
respondent may say about members Of
Congress being III what he calls the
Ring but am much surprisedto know
if the fact be so, that Congressiona
members of this ring and army officer.
have dissolved partnership. When
, was connected with the Indian Bureau
the rogues inside of Congress and the
army officers acted together, and CAV.
me more trouble than all other opposing
parties combined. iHg.
General Sherman, in conjunction will
his colleagues on the Peace Commission
in j January, 1868, condemned the schem,
of transferring the Bureau to the army
They also said it should not remain il
4 the Interior Department. and unquali
fedly recommended that the manage
ment of Indian affairs be given t.
an independent department. Now Gen
Sherman repudiates this wise and Judi
cious recommendation and urges that the
Indians be turned over to the army, ant
that all civil agencies be abolished. He
t has, however, no confidence or faith il
} his last recommendation, bnt offers it a.
an expedient and notbig g more. He say
the charge of the Indians will entail a
service requiring much patience ant
hard labor, which he does not wish to
assume himself or impose on other army
J officers, and adds that after he and hi
army colleagues succeed in getting tn,
Indians and making trial to manag,
} them, he "fears they will at last fall bach
on our hands mere mass of helpless
paupers." 1r-az73 - Do e..
Is it not amazing that with this con-
fession and distrust of the scheme. hs
should attempt to urgeit upon Congress
Why ask that the charge of the Indi-
ans, be committed to the army, if hs
have no confidence in its ability to maks
any Improvement q
j To introduce greater fidelity into tbs
management of Indian affairs, and to DE-
something substantial in the way
of domesticating and civilizipg the
i .nl ,nnn IL l. nhsnlntelv nacas.