Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1872-07-28
THE PRESIDENTS INDIAN POLICY.

If any act of any President of the United
States, from Washington down, deserves
the commentator of all Christians aud
philanthropists, above another, it is the pol
icyof President Grant towards the In
dians. We beg of you, gentle reader, to lay
aside all partisan prejudice, and for the
moment consider this question from the
standpoint ola Christian. For many years,
the condition of the fast declining race of
red men has been of the most deplorable
character. He has been driven from his
hunting grounds, year after year, farther
and still farther West, as civilization adj
vanced and population increased. This
was inevitable. "Westward the course of
Empire takes its way" and to supply the
wants of teeming Millions" the wilderness
has been made to blossom as the rose"
But in dealing with the aboriginal inhab-
itants of the country, have we always been
prompted by such motives as should char
acterize our conduct and actions towards
race weaker than ourselves? 1t is a de-
plorable fact, that much of the trouble be-
tween the Indian and the Western settler
has been the result of wrong and oppres-
sion. Insulted, cheated, wronged and de-
frauded by unprincipled white men, the
red man has more than once whetted his
scalping knife, arrayed himself in war cos
tune and gone forth to deeds of destruc-
ton, the contemplation of which almost
causes the blood to curdle in ones veins !;
when if he had been dealt with in the
spirit exhibited by William Penn, all this
trouble might have been avoided.
No branch of the civil service was so
fearfully corrupt as that which had control
of our Indian affairs. President Grant
saw all this, and in the kindness of his
heart determined to reform it. Soon after
ton of placing the different Indian Agen-
cies under the control of the various Chris
tan denominations. His plan met with
universal appreciation. 1t was acknowl-
edged to be an honest effort to maintain
peaceful relations between the whites and
the Indians, and to ameliOrate the unfOr-
tunate condition of the latter so far
as possible under the circumstances.
The angels of mercy went forward on
their benign mission, and the result has
been all that could have been desired.
The expectations of the most sanguine
friends of the Administration have been
more than met. In evidence of this, we
copy an extract from report of Mr..
VIM. Welsh, of Philadelphia, distin-
guished layman of the Protestant Episco-
pal Church, who has been on protracted
tit - tl>e aeson oie.s uTIuer Uue CUHUrUl OF
the Board of Missions of that church,
made to the Secretary of the Interior,
which report we find i'll The Episcopal
Register. Mr. Welsh says:
And now, Mr.. Secretary, before closing this
report, l feel constrained by sense of justice
to thank the President of the United States,
through you, for his firmness in resisting the
powerful political pressure for party patronage,
in connection with the Indian Department,
urged, as you well know, both plau8ibly and
violently.
AS in a former report to you, l freely CEN
sured the wrong, and then earnestly cOntended
for Indians rights, it would be dishonorable in
me to pass over without comment the noble
conduct of our President, at time when pOlit-
lcal patronage is considered the very life-blood
Vi the party. nave seen y nlteQ SCaCeS Oena-
tors not only claiming as a right the nomination
of Indian Agents, but also pleading for the
privilege of appointing a single employee on an
Indian Reservation They were told that the
President had withdrawn all that appertans to
the civilization and ChristianiZation of Indians
from party patronage and placed it under the
control of the various religious bodies of the
country. If the rulers of China and Japan
should authorize the same religious bodies to
nominate the Governors of each Province, and
to appoint all minor officers, with the view of
promoting the Contamination of the inhabit-
ants, gratitude would be universal; and l think
that the religious people of the land have an
equal cause for gratitude, and that the greatest
national reproach is now being rolled off from
this nation.
We hear the same report from Agencies
under the control of other denominations.
The plan has worked like charm, and
Mr.. Welsh says truly that ''the religious
people of the land have cause for graft
tude," that a great national reproach is
"being rolled off from this nation"
But who of the Presidents maligners
has given him credit for this, the greatest
reform in the civil service that has been
known in modern times? Again, reader,
we ask you to lay aside any partisan pre-
judice that you may entertain against the |
President and consider this question from |
the standpoint of Christian and phi |
lanthropist.