The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1870-03-24
NUMBER 43.

onel Bakers report of this bloody proceed
ing, applauds the activity and energy"
Of that officer. Activity there was, with
out doubt; the slaughter of so many
helpless women and children in few
hours attests the expeditions means used
to put them out of the way but it seems
to US that it required but little energy ON
the part of our troops to slaughter the
defenceless inmates of the Piegan CABINS.
Every crack of rife took child's life.
or the life of woman or decrepit old
man. There was no resistance; our
men were perfectly safe, and had as good
an opportunity of taking sure aim as If
they were firing at so many squirrels or
partridges. rs4
General Sheridan complains of being
" embarrassed by the apparent sympathy
of members of Congress and humanita-
rians generally that is to say sympa-
thy with the sufferers in this slaughter.
1t does not become General Sheridan.
who has so many titles to respect, TO
sneer at those who are tender Of human
life, nor to apologize for the wholesale
butchery of the helpless. He must feel
that the attack on the Piegans, accom-
panied with such circumstances of bar.
barity and cruelty, was altogether q most
unsoldierly and unmsnly proceeding and
as inconsistent with the nobleness which
should mark the military character, as it
was pitiless and cruel.
The civil war through which we have
lately passed has had one most unfortu-
nate result in diminishing the general
respect for the sacredness OF human life.
1t so familiarized men with bloodsheG
and with death from acts of violence that
there is frightful increase OF murders
and assassinatlons. p respectable gentle
man is indiscreet enough 70 60 into q
drinking paloon; bully who is present
does not like his looks, and shoots him
through the heart. A drunken ruttian
enters grocer's shop and insists upon
staying all night; the grocer objects;
the fellow draws revolver and lays him
dead. Two men quarrel in a tavern III
a moment their revolvers are out and one
of them is killed. These things form con-
siderable proportion of the ordinary sta
pie of our newspapers. The practice OF
carrying deadly weapons has grown
alarmingiy frequent of late. The other
day young man in public place was
fumbl1ng in his pocket, when the report
of pistol startled all present He had a
loaded pistol in his pocket, which went
off on his touching the trigger, and the
charge went through his hand, serving
him right.
If our government countenances the
cruel massacre of the Piegans, it will
make this state of things still worse. 3 1t
will give an example of disregard for HUI
man life and indifference to human suf-
r. L. "a, in
humber sphere. We shall have more
murders, more infanticlde, more robber-
les by armed men, more quarrels ending
In the violent death of one of the parties,
Nothing is so contagious, nothing SO sure
ly affects the morals of a community, as
the example of those who occupy high
stations.
The British government has an infinite
deal of trouble with the people of Ire
land. The Fenian rebellion keeps it in
constant alarm, and murders and other
crimes of violence are committed by the
discontinued part of the population,
which elude punishment and defy re
pressinn. Suppose that by way OF put
ting an end to these disorders the British
government should determine to make a
signal example off Irish village, coming
upon it when nearly all the able-bodied
men were absent, and Strengthening the
old men, women and young children.
Would the civilized world ever cease to
ring with denunciations of the barbarity
of a government which could allow it.
self, on any pretext ofpublic policy, to
resort to so savage an expedient p? Sup
pose that the Russian government, in its
long ard desperate strife with the un-
tameable Circassians, having taken one
of their towns, had commanded the india
criminate slaughter Of the inhabitants,
without respect to age or sex, by way of
overawing the rest of the population Of
that region. Would the entire press of
the civilized world have failed to speak
Of the act in terms expressive of the deep
est detestarion and horror?
The world will make no distinction,
and ought to make none, between these
cases and the case of the Indian tribe
whom we have slaughtered. A powerful
government which among all the expe
dents for reducing to peace a savage
tribe within its limits-a comparative
handful of people-can imagine no effec-
tual one short of shooting its women aud
children, does not deserve to be called
civilized.