Arizona citizen., 1873-05-17

sent to Los Angeles to purchase horses
 for the department of Arizona had
 been ordered to San Francisco, in
 dicate that there will be no horses
 purchased at present, and it looks as
 though the government had come to the conclusion that an era of peace had come over Arizona, and that by no
 possibility could she ever again be
 distur bed. We only wish that such
 might prove to be the case. We have
 seen war enough our heart has too
 often been made sad in seeing desolated
 homes and hearing the lamentation Of
 the widows and orphans, to ever again
 desire to see these scenes repeated, but
 it IS we'll in order to avoid trouble to
 look the future square in the face and
 not deceive ourselves. The Apaches
 to-day are comparatively quiet and
 are mostly gathered upon reservations
 and are located as follows: At Camp
 Beale Springs, 600; Verde, HOO;
 White Mountains, 1,500; San Carlos,
 1,400; Chiricahua, 1,200; making @
 total of 6,400. now on reservations,
 and there are probably five hundred
 yet roaming at large. By the travelled
 road, the extreme distance from the
 northwest to the southeast reserva-
 tion Is 500 miles, These Indians on
 all the reservations except the Chiri-
 cahua, tor Cachise, reservation have
 agreed to submit to such police regu-
 lations as may be adopted for their
 government, not because they believe
 1t wrong to murder and rob, nor be-
 cause they have ceased to hate the
 white race, but for no other reason than
 that they have been conquered and
 have accepted peace to save their lives.
 Cachise and his Indians have not
 agreed to submit to any police regula-
 tions but on the contrary declare that
 rather than submit to a count they
 will again go to the mountains. This
 brief statement that we have made
 requires no argument to convince any
 thinking person that 1t IS most
 critical time to so manage the Apaches
 on these widely separated reservations as to prevent another war, and 1t should be the policy of the govern- ment to make extraordinary eXertions to maintain permanent peace. This cannot be accomplished by weakening the military force of the department. The greatest safeguard for @ con- tinuance of peace will be the maintain ing a strong military force ready for instant war for the next year to come or at least until the Apaches have be- come thoroughly reconciled and ac- customed to their new relations of life We are aware that any advice or effort on the part of citizens to retain or obtain military force in the Territory Is looked upon with suspicion, some be- lieving that this interest is taken more for the purpose of obtaining soldiers for speculative purposes than for any danger that may be apprehended. But if any dislnterested person will for moment consider the situation, he can not but see the vital necessity of keep ing up military force and organiza- tion at this time sufficient to convince the Apaches that we are able and prepared to whip them if they should break out. If they had not that i'm pression now, the peace would not last week. We have never clamored for more troops, but on the contrary ever since Gen. Crook assumed com mand of the department we have said that he had enough to finish the job if allowed to carry out his own plans ill his own way; but we believe there never was a time since he came here when he needed more troops than now He is building two large posts, mostly by soldier labor; he has ten posts to guard and care for, and five Apache Indian reservations besides the Indians of the Colorado, the Papagos, Pimas and Maricopas, and is con- pelled to send escorts more or less with all his trains and transportation. In addition to all this our Territory borders for four hundred miles on Mexican soil, and there are constantly [ arising when the pres ( ence of troops is valuable. If we l lid not earnestly desire peace we should not have alluded to this sub ( ect but we are aware that with peace, l 'ur plains will soon be covered with a herds of cattle and sheep, that our V agricultural and mineral resources a