The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-12-09
THURSDAY, DECEMBER Q, 1869.
THE NEW INDIAN POLICY

HOWEVER much the degraded savage may be
despised or the marauding and merciess In
dian hated and feared, large portion of
the American people will cordially endorse
the declaration in the Presidents message
that "a system which looks to the extinction
of race is too horrible for nation to adopt
without entailing upon itself the wrath of all
Christendom and engendering in the citizen
a disregard for human life and the rights of
others dangerous to society. The policy
heretofore pursued in regard to the aborigi-
nes has practically resulted in their rapid
destruction, and while it has afforded to
dishonest white adventurers abundant oppor-
tunities to enrich themselves at the public
expense, and while lavish appropriations have
been made nominally for the purpose of
maintaining peace and instructing the rude
barbarians in the arts of civilization, the
Indians have steadily dwinded in numbers
amidst such irritations and incessant wars
that thousands of white men, women, and
children have simultaneously been massacred.
Each frontier settlement has it's own story of
bloody and fatal struggles every new road is
paved with mangled human bodies and every
advance step is achieved only after the COM
mingled sacrifice of members of both the
hostile races
In all this long and murderous history the
Government has in many respects been much
to blame not merely for neglecting and post
poning obvious duties, but for the trea-
cherry and corruption of its agents and
the radical deficiencies of its traditional
policy. Now, however, a new system is
about to be inaugurated, and vigorous efforts
are being made to protect the railway lines
and new settlements which have been estab-
lished in the very heart of the old Indian
domain, and at the same time to save the
savage. The difficulties of this task are
greater than at any former period of our his
tory, but they may be at least partially sur
mounted by a Commissioner of Indian
Affairs who belongs to the doomed race;
President personally familiar with frontier
life; Peace Commission composed of emil
nent, disinterested, and philanthropic citi-
zens; Congress deeply impressed with the
necessity of wise and speedy action; Quaker
agents on the established reservations; and
by army officers instead of plundering
civilians representing the Government among
the more remote tribes. 1t is folly to expect
that an immediate millennium will be esta-
blished on the plains. In spite of all that can
be done at present, we will hear of stolen
cattle, of attacks on the mail coaches, and of
occasional murders. 1t is as natural for the
Apaches and Sioux to steal and kill as it is for
the hungry wolf to follow the trail of a
wounded buffalo. But great ends may never
theless be attained, and if the comprehensive
scheme described in the Report of the Secre-
tary of the Interior is adopted, the bulk of
all the Indian tribes may soon be gathered
into few extensive Indian territories (simi-
lar to that now existing on the western bordern
of Arkansas), where the aborigines will have
superior opportunities for self-elevation and
be alike free from dangerous white inroads
and from the temptation to make raids on
white settlements The small reservations
heretofore allotted to single tribes have
speedily been surrounded by white settle
ments, and after new difficulties and wars,
new removals have been necessitated The re-
medy now suggested is the assemblage OF
larger numbers of various tribal organiza
tions upon larger reservations, and Secretary
Cox asserts that ''the time cannot be far dis
tanJ Nneu IWO VI Chl0o PiihOiPni AuNlioh eoi
ritories may properly embrace all the tribes
east of the Rocky Mountains" and that 18Th,
same policy of concentrating the tribes will
apply to the country west of the Rocky Noun
tains, and will be equally necessary wheneve
and wherever the feuds existing among then
can be so far settled that they can live to
gether in peaceful neighborhood." Thes
internal antagonisms of the Indian races
which are strengthened by the bitter recollec
ton of hereditary hatreds and mutual wrongs
constitute the most serious obstacle to tn
proposed scheme; and it will be as difficult t.
prevent the hostile branches of the red rae
from destroying each other as to preserv
them from fatal contact with white men
Still, this difficulty may in great measur
be surmounted by judicious and efficien
governmental action, and by combinatio
of various good influences. The statesme
of this era would achieve a crowning glory il
after having emaneipated one race, they d.
vised a practical method of preserving al
other from annihilation, without retardin
American progress; and the deep interest no
manifested in this problem may lead to il
solution.
SENATOR TRUsBULL's project for improvin