The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1873-06-11
THE MASSACRE.

Some Oregon volunteers last Saturday,
shot down our boosted distinctions be-
tween men, and brought all races to the
same level. Naturally an Indian is as good
as white man, and white man is as good
as a negro or an Indian, but no better.
Races differ in the color of their skin, the
cast of the eye, the shape of the nose, the
thickness of the lips, the prominence of
the cheek bones, the styles of their bon
nets and of their clothes, but in spirit and
soul the Maker of all has put all upon the
same footing.
Sitting in the cool shade, under the sha-
dows of our churches and school-houses,
reading of the massacre of Modoc Indians,
we comprehend that the lack of discrimna-
ton which Furnishes innocent parties for
the color of the skin, and which we have
regarded as specially marking the savage
mind, is shared by the white man after
years of association with wild men, wild
beasts, wild scenery, in hunting camps or
forest homes.
The Oregon volunteers who committed
that massacre were probably eastern bred,
part of them, at least with ability to read
and understand the surface knowledge of
the civilized world. If their associations
and wild life so reduced them to savagery,
upon what grounds shall we pretend that
the average conduct of the Indian is dicta-
ted by anything else than his wild mode of
life, savage education and savage customs
The Indian is not a cross between man and
beast. He is "a man and brother
How is it that we are not savages? A
long time ago our ancestors were. Some
man, 1t may have been, by that principle
of evolution which operates consciously
now in each individuals breast, by criticism
of himself, by observation of others, by
noting acts and consequences, by strife
and labor, built himself up into more adj
vanced manhood, and taught his neighbors
likewise. These transmitted their founda-
tons to build on. Thus generations worked
on advancing structures, unobserved, like
coral builders under the sea, until the civil
lied world, with its head among the stars,
looks down upon all the balance of the
earth.
Here is development by evolution. 1t
does not seem to apply to physical nature
Oaks now are like oaks of thousand years
ago. The rose is painted no more prettily
now than then Man himself grows to his
average height of s feet 10 inches now as
he did anciently. BIT in the realms of in
tellect and morality men grow, and are ri
gantic to-day compared with their status Of
thousand years ago. If this progress is dis
cernable through past thousands of years
and can be traced to the very place we
stand in the worlds history, upon what
ground shall we doubt that it will continue
eternally? Whether men who have COM
menced retrograding will retrograde for
ever or motifs question beyond our depth,
but the number of those who could descend
into savagery far enough to perpetrate a
cold-blooded, unprovoked massacre like
that of Saturday is less among the anglo
saxon race in proportion to the whole pop
ulation than might have been found hun
dred years ago, and immensely less than
might have been found thousand years
ago This shows that in the advancing
tide of human progress the whole mass has
been carried forward. Religion, science,
art, industry, have made the white race
better. Let us show our gratitude to the
Divine Dispenser of these Providences by
finding some better way of helping the red
men than cheating them out of their lands
and then massacreing them.
Much as we have complained of undis-
eliminating warfare by Indians upon all
ages, sexes and conditions, we find that pc
culiarity of savage war in the massacre of
Saturday, as the volunteers fired upon I'M