Arizona citizen., 1871-09-30

| tHlOuSh 1hO iiuAoh OOuhoiy dhy "h0IO with safety. In this way MT. Colyer was provided, and still no Indian could be coaxed nor bribed to accom- pany him to Washington.
 We say MT. Colyer did not collect practical information, and we know he declined to meet with this people who were anxious to have him, and to exchange views. We have abun- dant evidence that this journals ut terances on the Indian question, have the approval of the people; that in a great measure we are relied upon to express their sentiments. Knowing they wanted peace above all things, and that they did not particularly care by what means or by whose agency it was brought about, we ad- dressed MT. Colyer as follows:
 TUcsoN, August 21, 1871.
 Rev. Vincent Colyer, Member of the Indian Peace Commission-Dear Sir: 1 observe by the Santa Fe papers that you arrived in New Mexico about the 10th instant, and hence you may be expected in Arizona within few weeks at latest; therefore I address this to you at Camp Bowie, in the hope that you may there receive it on your way hither.
 My position as editor of newspapers in Idaho in 1S65-6-7, during con- stant Indian hostilities, and in Nevada in 1868, when large area of that State was infested by warning savages, and in Arizona since October, 1870, taken in connection with my two over land trips before the day of an over land railway, with travels through Oregon, Idaho, Utah and Nevada on various routes at times when the In dians were at war against the whites, and years of residence off and on in Indian infested sections, with too fre- quent practical observation of Indian practices, all combine to fix within me the most firm convictions of the Indian character and disposition, and therefore 1 am desirous to meet you when in Tucson. The views expressed in my journal on the various points of policy on the Indian question, have so far as known to me, met with an almost unanimous and enthusiastic concurrence by the inha bitants of this section, and of very many elsewhere in and out of Arizona. You are representative-the foremost one I may say-of the peace policy of sub duing hostile Indians, and I am an advocate of an energetic war policy as the only one to insure a reliable peace and permanent security to the struggling pioneer settler and traveller. You may be right, but, frankly, I have doubted it, and oftentimes the sincerity of your belief because Of your unwill- ingness to trust yourself among the Indians without strong escort such as citizens cannot have; I may be right, but you have-permit me to say with less personal experience, ques- tioned the policy l have honestly urged as the only effective one; doubted at times the truth of the many sad re- ports of friends being robbed and as- sassinated suspicioned the sincerity of our motives when we demand per- feet peace; attribute to us hatred of an Indian simply because he is an h. dian, when we have daily and hourly proofs to the contrary, &c. &c. Each has doubted the sincerity of the others professions, and 1t is therefore evident that an error prevails on one side possibly to some extent on both. I am assured that your mission hither is to get at the truth, that justice may be done to all, and the blessed boon of permanent peace be speedily secured. l feel sure that l am expressing the wish of all our citizens, when I declare to you that they are anxious to have t!e arhole truth and nothing but tAe truth reported to the people of the whole nation by some one in whom the great eastern press have confidence. My dear sir, admit that the Indians have occasionally been wronged by the whites, and then admit the other in controvertible fact that often and often the whites have been most cruelty slaughtered, burned, robbed, and otherwise most inhumanly maltreated. With one joyful accord, our people would hail certain peace with the V,oI