The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-05-18
THE NEW INDIAN POLICY.

dent Grant mas not as yeJ BOb iuIO luh WOIhlhS
order, and hence we are unable to predict either
failure or success. If the efforts of the Govern
ment to characterize all its dealings with the
aboriginal tribes by honesty and show of JUS
tice should succeed, the best results will GER
tainly follow, and the co Instant grievances under
which the Indians have labored since the trans
fer of the Bureau from the War Department to
that of the Interior will cease the natural and
necessary result being a cessation of the vexa-
tious frontier war But, even If President
Grants attempt to secure a decent treatment of
the Indians on the part of the representatives of
the Government, by the appointment of MEM
bers of the Society of Friends agents and the
detailing of unemployed army officers for similar
duty should prove a downright failure, our
future relations with the tribes cannot possibly
be made any worse than they have been for
years past. The persons selected by the Gov
ernment to represent it have been notoriously
corrupt and dishonest, and through their nefa-
rious practices the Indian Bureau has come TO
deserve the name of "a foul nest of thieves
If such state of affairs is to be continued,
and it is absolutely impossible to effect change
for the better, it will be well to distribute the
spoils by giving new set of plunderers an OPP
portunity to earn a dishonest livelihood at the
joint expense of both the Indians and the Gov
ernment.
The country justly regards the Senate of the
United States as mainly responsible for the
abuses which have crept into our management
of Indian affairs. The false theory of regarding
each of the petty bands of savages asa sovereign
nation, capable of entering into treaty relations
with the Government, has been fOstered and
upheld by many Senators simply for the reason
that it enables them, through the agency of per-
sOnal ffiends to participate in the distribution
of spoilS to which they would not have access
under a different system. The transfer of the
Indian Bureau from the War to the Interior De-
partment has enabled the Indian ring to
carry on its plundering schemes almost
without the risk of detection and certainly
without the fear of punishment. For this reason,
although the House of Representatives has re-
peatedly voted in favor of transferring the Bureau
to the War Department the urgent necessity of
which has been asserted by President Grant,
Generals Sherman and Sheridan, and all the
other prominent army officers who have been
brought into contact with the aborigines or
have been entrusted with the conduct of the
hostilities against them, the Senate has stead
fastly refused to give its assent to the measure,
fully realizing the fact that such transfer will
tend in great measure to put an end to the
pecuations and specuations of Senatorial fayO-
rites.
In this connection, letter written by Senator
Harlan, who was at one time at the head of the
Interior Department, and addressed to the editor
of an Iowa newspaper in which his Senatorial
shortcomings in relation to the Indian business
were touched upon in terms far from tiattering,
becomes of interest. Senator Harlan rakes up
the subject of the Delaware agency, and explains
the motive of the Senate in refusing to confirm
the Quaker whose name was sent in to that body
by President Grant for the position. Says the
virtuous and indignant Iowa Senator, in his
epistle:-
.Tbe President nominated an excellent person. a
member OF the Society OF Friends, as agent for the
Delaware tribe OF Indians. Under the provisions OF
treaty ratified, believe in the year 1855, the Della
wares have broken up their tribal organization, have
settled among, comminged with, and become mem
bers OF the Cherokee nation This fact Oas, Of course
alnknOwn by the President and icas knOcn by the
Senate He acted in good faith in making the nomi-
nation; the Senate in equally good faith in refusing
to advise the appointment OF an unnecessary
officer"
Now we have heretofore been laboring under
a very different impression upon this point.
Senator Harlan is perfectly correct in asserting
that the Delawares have ceased to exist as a dis
tinct tribe of Indians; and by the supposition
alone that the President was ignorant of this
fact can we account for his action in sending in
the name of an honest Quaker for the position
of agent to that extinct tribe. As the Senate
ratified the treaty by which the Delawares were
merged into other tribes, Mr.. Harlan's assertion
that 'the fact was known by the Senate" ought
to be correct, if such were not the case. But
Senator Harlan neglects to mention the triline
circumstance that although the Senate 'in good
faith" refused ''to advise the appointment of an
unnecessary officer" by Indignantly rejecting
the Quaker agent in question, it was fully cogni-
zant of the fact that there was on the list of
the Indian Bureau officials the name
of warm personal friend of Senator
POmeroy, who was still drawing his pay from
the national treasury, and had been doing so
ever since the 10th of April, 1867, when the
tribal existence of the Delawares came to an
end, in accordance with the terms of the treaty
upon which the Senator lays so much Stress!
The mere mention of these incontestable facts
is sufficient to take the force entirely out of
Senator Harlans protest, and to show that the
antagOnism of the Senate to President Grants
Qunker-Indian policy has no foundation other
than factOus opposition to an absolutely
necessary reform. The President however, has
declared his intention of perseverng in hi,
efforts to clean out the Indian Bureau, and we
trust that, with the support of the lower house
OF Congress, he will succeed, in spite of the
Senate and the ring of plunderers whom it has
striven SO earnestly to uphold.
. ArC MIN un1F , ~,