The Portland daily press., 1868-10-16
VINO Are ,he barbarian.

Il who Are the Barbatfans
The army officers and the frontier settlers of |
the West are again talking of "a war of extir.
against the Indians. The conduct
Of the British in blowing the rebellious Sepoys
from the m ouths Of their cannon excited the
horror OF the civilized world, yet it may well
be doubted if the enormity of that terrible
was greater than that of the treat
ment received by the American Indians from
the United States government. We do not
now remember single dsinterested person
who has any acquaintance with Indian affairs
who does not declare that the sayages have
been treated with such bad faith, cruelty ana
with such sovereign contempt for their rights
as would drive any civilized nation to war
like resistance They are regarded as indie
pendent nations Treaties are negotiated with
them as if they powerful Euro can mon
arches instead OF nomandic savages. Certain
lands are assigned to them, and annuities are
promised. Presently corporation wants to
put railroad through their territory. or the
frontier settlers want their land. or it becomes
from some reason announcement, for the GOV
eminent to make over the promised whiskey
aud red flannel. Very WELL the treaty is
broken without hesitation The railroad goes
straight through their hunting grounds; the
white settlers squat on their lands. The
savages, being unable to appreciate these ideo-
syncrasies of civilization and not having the
intellectual training that enables them to
make very nice determinations, get up a raid
on the white mans stock, take his scalp as a
trophy and carry off his wife and children.
Then arises the Cry for determination" all
along the frontier and poor "Lo,' being the
weaker party, finally goes TO the wall after
long and bloody war in which ten pale faces
bite the dust to one of his own tribe EFl
The fact that the treaties with all the Indian
tribes that are now on the war path have been
shamelessly broken is as well known and gen.
orally acknowledged as the assassination of
Lincoln by Booth. The tyrant's plea of nee
essity and certain philosophical" speculations
as to the destiny" of the savage to disappear
before the advance of the Anglo-Saxon race
are all that are urged in extenuation of this
conduct. ft.... .-.-.. t..
o.. Col. Tappan, one of the Indian Peace Com
missiOpers who has lived many years among
the aborignes, has lately testified to his asso-
promises in good faith Bishop Whipple of
Minnesota has recently addressed a letter to
the Commissioners in which he most strongly
deprecates the continuance of the unholy pol
icy of the government toward the poorest, the
weakest and most defenceless of all its chill
dren, predicting that the judgments of Heaven
will fall upon a nation that persists in discard
ing the first principles of right. .-
THE Burlingame stock is looking up in Eu-
rope. cable dispatch announces that the
press attacks upon the Chinese Embassy have
ceased and that a warm reception in all parts
VI Europe is assured to Mr.. Burlingamc and
ms aSociates. In short, the "narrow-minded
piockht'ds" of the Old World have discovered
'na' our <>uerican mandarins-our great Ame-
ii'"n carpe'bagger among the Orientals--is
HUI W oe snee'ed at" 1t would indeed be
wonderful II the English papers could have
manufactured puuic sentiment hostile to Mr.
Burlingame's project If securing TO China in
return for ample concessions on tbe mart ~
that country, recognition ts a nat ion entitled
TO regu late her own affairs AID as having rights
whlch christian nations are tpund to respect
If the Tory journals had succeeded in lanoh.
ing him down it would have proved the Eng-
fish people as illiberal and besotted as thu Da-
mocracy OF California and Nevada who alone
of the whole American people have raj sed an
jections to the Burlingame treaty with China
A LETTER from Gen. Sheridan, read at a
recent Republican meeting in New York, in
dicates as clear comprehension OF political as
OF military situations. He says: if lr.
believe the same contest is now before the
nation that existed during the Rebellion, and
that political victory now is as necessary as
was military victory then; and although ]
feel the deepest reluctance to say aught that
will connect me with any political canvass,
still, the memory of hard fought fields an in
terest for The sacred cause for which so many
lives were lost. compels me now, when that
cause is In danger, to uneguivocally give it my
support. / have not thought the Rebellion
ended, and, now when see it again outcrop-
ping under its old leaders, see the verification
OF the frequent boast made while was in New
Orleans, that the cause of Secession was not
llost,;but would yet be accomplished by MAX
ing the Northern people fight each other; that
the Ohio River would be the boundary line of
the Southern Coniederacy, and that the Rebel
flag wonld on that line bid defiance to the
Stars and Stripes. i