The Van Buren press., 1869-07-13
Wendell Phillips on the Pacific Railroad.

From the Anti-Slarery Standard.
All hail AMI farewell to the Pacific
Railroad The telegraph tell US tkat the
Indians have begun TO tear up the rails,
to shoot passengers and conductors on
this road. We see great good in this.
At last the poor victim has found the vul-
nerable spot in his tyrant THANK God
America has resisted" cried Lord Chat
ham. Our feeling is the same. For sew
enty years and more the Indian has beg
ged this great nation to attend to his
wrongs. His cries have been unheard.
Ruthless and unheeding we have tramp
led him down. To-day the worm turns
and stings us.
Last year Indians destroyed iocomo-
tives and shst conductors. Timld Durant
forbade the telegraph wires to report the
fact. lie trembled for his road. To-day
$4,000 warriors ON the war path, "a
thousand miles OF exposed road; thii
railway the pet plaything Of the American
people! Would our words could reach
every Indian chief. We would tell him,
lay down your gun, but allow no rail to
lie between Omaha and the mountains.
''The accurscd code" is O'Connslrs best
weapon, said She'll. The Pacific Railway
is the Indians Alabama. Every blow
struck on those rails is heard round the
globe. Haunt that road with such dan.
gers that none will dare use it.
Some men may think us needlcssly ag-
gressive. No citizenship, they may say,
would be a better remedy Yes, by. and
by. At present citizenship means little.
Heaven forbid that We should besray the
Indian to such protection as "citizen-
ship" gives to the Georgia negro and
loyalist. No, we are thankful the Indian
has one defence that the negro never had.
He is no citizen and has the right to
make war. Well may he use that last
right, and never yield it till " citizenship"
means more than it does now.
An Abolitionist may well glory in
these red men. When. in 1865, General
Sanborn carried to tire Scminoles the
news of emancipation, they instantly set
their slaves free But, more just than
we, they proceeded at once to divide their
possessions with them fairly--shared
with them their pension money, and last
Winter, in Washington, were specially
earnest to secure such teacher as these
emancipated men would prefer. When
two or three years ago Sherlnan's Gem
mission met the Indians, the Navajocs
refused to- Come into conference unless
their women could be admitted ON equal
terms with themselves to share the de
bate. Could these men be persuaded
to undertake, for few years to come, the
task of reconstruction What a saving
Of time! What saving Of honor!
Earnestly do we wish that this nation
could rise to the level Of once doing On
act Of justice from pure and simple mo
tives of honesty and duty. But it does
not seem as II this level would ever be
reached in our day. In default Of that
we rejoice to see the nation scourgcd to
its duty. Long and weary were the years
of blood and misfortune that finally broke
us into willingness to cmancipate the
black. May our stubbornness yield
sooner and easier in this matter Of the
Indians. 1t seems probable. by the time
Congress assemblies again. we think its
members viii be rcady--as they never
have been---to listen on this topic. The
sad and ponderous documents stored in
the Capitol will, at last, be read, and we
shall learn that a nation by its own con
fession always in the wrong. must seek
some other path out Of its troubles than
by sending butchers to waste treasure
and blood in the vain effort to "exter
inmate" braver race than ours. We
spent hundred millions really-fifty
coniessedly-to "exterminate and re.
move" the Seminoles from Florida. But
there arc everglades in Florida to day
where no white man enters. aud which
the Seminole still holds. II this be the
case in Florida with \ thousand Semi
noies. how likely are VIC to "exter-
inmate" twenty thousand such, spread
over the boundless Wcst2 Sherman ia
bartcring the glories OF Atlanta for de
feat, utter and shameful and well desery.
eli, on the prairics.
WENDELL PnILLiPs.