The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-03-16

the whites followed the next winter; and
again, of course, this was succeeded by still
more bloody slaughter of the Indians by the
Government troops. The sequence is inevi-
table, and has gone on since the beginning
1t is an old story, but one which clearly illus
trates our mutual relations with the Indians
since the murders by the Paxton Boys and
Colonel Cresup hundred years ago, to that
more foul and cowardly one the other day
which army officers jocularly denominate as
their hard hit.
II is time we looked this Indian question
full in the face. The Cheyenne or Sioux
is barbarian-a filthy, lazy, uncomfortable
fact among us; he jars, perhaps, against our
finer sense at every turn; but he is our cre-
ditor. We have taken from him our land
the very air we breathe. 1t is a plain busi-
ness matter; we must pay him. But how 2
He is thief, perhaps drunkard, and an
assassin, and we are Christian people. But
we have habitually sent out to deal with him,
as pioneers of our civilization and Christs
gospel, traders, Pixies, and agents, who were
drunkards, thieves, and assassins. They
showed him the way. Now, how shall we
punish him because he followed? How shall
we punish this ignorant savage for being
savage2 Being o Christian people, and bid
den to preach the Gospel to every creature,
can we deal with the Indian in no other
mode than by becoming more beastly and
barbarous than he While we stretch out
one hand to stay the Hindoo mother from
sacrificing her child, are we to pat with the
other those gallant officers and Christian
gentlemen approvingly on the
head, who cut the throats of women,
and strangle babies at their mothers breasts
If this is the only method left us of meeting
the problem of this relic of heathendom in
our midst, then our civilization and Chris
tianity are proven to be impotent shams and
lies. If we are driven to take up the red
man S weapons, it must be because our own
are less strong than his. General Sheridan
meets the matter boldly, and defends the late
massacre by saying that either the whites or
Indians must be murdered; and we for our
part meet it on the other hand, and assert
that if centuries of education and Christianity
cannot raise us whit above the Indians, but
have left us, like them, brutal towards, mere
women and baby strangers, there is no rea-
son to choose between us. Better the red
skins should be left to torment us on the bor-
der, than these successful butchers in our
army to condemn us in the eyes of the world
and of God.
Government has too long willfully remained
blind to these outrages upon the Indians on
the frontier, of which this last, though the
most glaring, is but one of a class. 1t is, we
know, a vexatious, difficult question, but it
never has been fairly met Slavery was as
difficult; expediency and political interest
STAYED off its adjustment, until God set it
right with swift and terrible action. The
Indian indicts us for wrongs and cruelty as
deep as those of the negro; may call it
sentimental and pulling TO urge them; the
| lightest question of price in stocks or
fall in dry-goods seems to us more
weighty and real matter than the
cheated and wretched savages on our border.
There is but one thing, however, GER
tain in history-that in the lives of nations,
as individuals, the great currents of right
and wrong ebb and flow steadily towards en-
Gghtenment or barbarism-currents which,
under all, God rules; and that it is not ques-
tions of dry goods and stocks which bring
upon a nation either punishment or dismem-
berment, but human or religious rights in
fringed. England, in India, laid aside her
Christianity to meet heathenism with heathen.
ish cruelty, and was taught her mistake al
Lucknow and Cawnpore. We have just
atoned, by the most bloody civil war ever
known to the world, for our treatment of the
negro. 1t is too soon for the lesson to bt
lost on u.s.
OUR NAVAL. POWER-PARSIMON OF
CONGRESS.
From the NJ Y. Herald.