The Albany register. [volume] (Albany, Or.) 1868-18??, 1873-07-18
10.

1910, vi oiiO w ~ o'"N'eN y
We are always safe when on the
side of right. We lift our voice for
"Lo." We declare him, as a
nation, not guilty Of high crimes
and misdeneanors. Let the past
and present bear testimony: Three
hundred and eighty-one years ago,
the bent prowS Of three sailing YES
sells touched the shores of the new
world. The pale-tace and red man
met for the first time What was
tie result? liz behalf Of the savage
of the wildwood, a hearty recep-
ton; an exteution of every manner
of kindness: no intrigue, no klIav-
cry, no deception. Years 60 by
and the scene is changed. But
why? Has I.o proven treacherous?
Has he proven uufaithtul, as guide,
as friend, as benefactor? No, in no
instance, without Just cause or prov
ocation. What then? Let the
maSsacred by SpaniardS in Georgia
arise and answer why. Let the
captured and stolen by English and
Spanish trading vessels bear testi-
mony, why the Indians of the At
lautic border are no longer SO
friendly, so true, SO kind. A hun
dred years and the nation has
grown from three thousand to three
million. \ darker history Of deeds
Of blood and rapine has never been
recorded. Oh, we can almost see
the long lines OF American soldiers
with charged mu>kets and flashing
bayonets; can almost hear the wild
war-whoop Of the Indian as it rev.
erberates from mountain side to
mountain side; can almost see the
brandiShed tomahawk and scalping
knife; can almost hear the groans
OF the wounded and dying.
But why such record? History
answers, encroachment on rights
heralitary, frauds prodigious and
scandelous beyond a para lei, by an
army of Government officials,
known as Indian Superintendent
and Indian Agents. The introduc-
ton of spiritnous liquors into the
camp of the red men and a thou
sand other things, whose issues are
to corrupt and demoralize. | as
Sert that the white man taught,
aye-compeled the Indian to be-
come his enemy-his future impla-
cable enemy; that he taught his
hands to fight, and his heart to
burn with almost righteous indig-
nation, because of hunting grounds
destroyed, because Of VOWS broken,
because OF cruelties, unmitigated
cruelties performed. Were false
hoods told? The white man was
first to tell those falseho,ds. Were
vows broken? The pale-face was
first to break those vows. Was
blood she'd? The white man was
first to prove treacherous and shed
that blood.
But to the prent we turn. The
Indian has been driven before sword
and bayonet from the Atlantic to
the Pacific shores. Not satisfied,
he is surrounded on all sides and
compelled to vacate the broad plains
and beautiful hillsides of California
and Oregon He who from ages,
buried in the great history of the
past, has breathed the unoppressed
air of freedom, is now reduced to
the most abject slavery. Freedom,
did say? Yes, that character Of
freedom that flashes in the eye,
glows upon the countenance, rings
in the voice, is found in his religion,
is the hope of the present, his grand
expectation for the future. He
whose boundaries by right and title
are from the golden shores of the
Pacific to the sand-washed beach
of the Atlantic, from the lakes on
the north to the Gulf on the south,
is now limited to a few reserva-
tions, subject to the whim and
call of an overseer. Do you ask
me why Indians fight? | answer,
for past grievances and present op.
pressions. lie feels himself indeed
an Tshmaelite, surrounded on all
sides by a nation, whose history for
two hundred and fifty years prove
Il N ha his deadly enemy. An.