The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1871-07-21
THE INDIAN BUTCHERY AT CANT
GRANT. -HI e. rrl.-a

A few weeks since, we were compelled
to record the cowardly butchery of set
Element of Indians by white marauders.
At that time we asked that an example be
made, and the human fends be caught and
hanged at whatever cost. We predicted
succession Of these outrages if adequate
punishment did not swiftly follow the crime.
Since that time there has been a great fer-
ment in the Indian country, and now we
have the diabolical murder of one hundred
and twenty-five friendly Indians, nearly all
of them women and children. They had
sought the shelter of our forts to be secure
from wild Indians and white desperadoes.
There, where the nation had pledged them
safety, they were mercilessly slaughtered
by a band of those Infamous whites, who
hover on the borders of civilization to rob
and ltiebauch them. lisfii fs..ksAAtA 4944
They are maddened by the efforts of Chris
tan men and women to protect and elevate,
the Indians, and thus place them beyond
their evil influence. Their love of blood, their
base and cowardly instincts, were supreme
ly gratified by the murder of helpless wo-
men, old men, and children. This, too,
might provoke retaliation, and excite an!
Indian war, with its rich harvest, for these
hyenas of the border. We have lived
many years in the West, and been for
months among the widest 81 these tribes,
and we know precisely the class of men
who started out from Tucson to murder
these defenceless Apaches. We know, too,
how invariably all the so-called outrages
perpetrated by Indians upon white settlers
have been the direct fruit of such crimes
against them. Every theft, robbery and
massacre of whites for the last fifty years
has been thus caused. g.f.5 r,l f5
Now, in the name of all that is sacred, if
there is any sense of honor or shame left
in the country, let this damning crime be
punished. Don't tell us that the guilty
authors cannot be found put the whole
detective force of the nation at work after
them. No old negro can have pound of
illicit tobacco in his hut but these sharp
fellows will smell it out. Nopoor old man,
in the most distant mountain gorge, can
make gallon of apple whiskey, but de-
tective catches him before it is cool. And
are we to be told, that this great nation can
not discover any one of hundred of these
wretches who boldly and in open day, march
out Of border town to destroy the feeble
remnants of noble people :?
The blood of murdered innocence cries
against US from the ground, and will be
upon our heads if we do not do our ut
most to redress the wrongs of these. The
honor and faith of the nation is stained.
Every man and woman of us is person.
ally involved in the deep damnation, of this
horrible crime, and we can only purge our
selves by joining in the pledge of the hui
name and gallant officer, whose report
we print to-day, to bring those miscreants
to justice at whatever cost.
There is no lack of means to accomplish
the ends of justice. This course is due
largely to the apathy and connvance of
portion of the United States army. I'VE
are forced to mention by name the CON-
mander of the Department, General Stone
mn, whose Indian record is scarcely more
respectable than that which he made in the
late war, and who has been criminally neg
ligent in his duty. Let the government
Slow as much energy and zeal to protect the
Ives of men and women as it does to col
let the whiskey tax, and enforce treaties
with Indians as with whites, and we shall
have an end of these outrages, and an end
of Indian wars altogether. .shG alB