The Potter journal and news item. [volume] (Coudersport, Pa.) 1872-1874, 1873-06-20
avage ingenuity of interior Africa. .

6Ixa SHERMAN nhS Dttll IulilIIcu' AAO
recent Modoc treachery has filled the
nation with sorrow. One of our noblest
Generals was cruelty murdered and
many brave soldiers sleep in nameless
graves. The press and people clamor
| for determination. We ask for the
cause of the treacherY. The Indian
has no press reporters TO tell his side of
the story, and Indian warriors do not
make their wrongs the subject of tele-
graphic dispatches. The Modocs were
a wild, warlike people. They belonged
| to the class of Indians who will at any
odds avenge their wrongs. The depart
ment admits admits that the MOdocs
were robbed by its agents and removed
to a reservation against their will.
The administration of Indian affairs
in Oregon has been mCst Shameless
Senator Nesmith, in report of 1867,
says: Il have examined invoices of
purchases made by the department in
eastern cities, where the prices charged
were from fifty to one hundred per cent.
above the market value of good articles.
Upon an examination of the goods l
found them worthless and deficient in
quantity. Among them were steel
spades made of sheet-iron chopping
axes made of cast-iron; best brogans
with paper soles; blankets made of
shoddy and glue, which came to shreds
the first time they were wet, ETC." He
also speaks of useless articles, as forty
dozen pair of elastics for tribe where
there was not a single pair of stockings. "
This kind of administration usually
brings Indian wars. The Modocs had a
more bitter memory. They were invi-
ted to come in under flag of truce.
They accepted the white mans white
flag. They came. The day was rainy.
The Sinews to their bows We're wet and
useless. A signal was given and forty
out of forty-seven warriors were killed.
The chief Schonchin was of the number
Is it strange that his son was one Of the
assassins Of General Candy ana DR..
Thomas? 1t is an eternal law for ma
tiOns as well as men, that whatsoever
a man soweth that shall he also reap
Nations who SOW treachery reap trcach-
cry, and the innocent suffer with the
guilty.
ask no mercy for murderers, wheth-
er red or white. The Modocs must be
punished. But we must remember we
have not merely to deal with handful
of savages. We are dealing with God.
We cannot make special pleadings in
the court of Heaven. This is no time
to shut our eyes to the facts. We may
cry exterminate, - and turn men aside
from the lesson of the stern logic of
events by our jee' S at poor LO, who
is wreaking his mad vengeance on the
innocent. But we ought to remember
that no ore can exterminate but God.
The grass has grown over million of
graves of our own race; we are to-day
grOaning under the burden Of debt of
thousands of millions of dollars expend-
ed in civil wharf.-the fruit of our own
sin. We can hardly afford to forget
the lesson.
The people, who seldom examine facts,
cry out against President Grants peace
policy, and the press lay the murder of
General Candy at his door. We have no
peace policy. We have never changed
our old Indian system. We are still
using a policy which has cost us five
hundred millions of dollars and made a
track of massacre and murder from the
Atlantic to the Pacific. The President
has-all honor to him for it-tried to
amend the working of Our bad system.
He has taken the nomination of agents
from politicians, who used it as reward
for political service, and he has given
it to the different religious bodies Of the
country. This plan has worked well.
1t has taken away some of the most
glaring evils Of the old system. 1t has
given the Indians agents who believe
i'll God and are ashamed to steal. The
President has also appointed a commits
sion of philanthropic christian gentle
men to watch over the Indians, investi-
gate their wrongs, examine Indian con-
tracts and try to eradicate the worst
features of the old system. Any reli-
gious body which has an executive COM
mittee to care for its financial and mis-
slonary operations may have the nomi-
nation of the agent and employees of
such agencies as the government COM
mits to their care, and for their conduct
this religious body is held responsible.
The plan has been more beneficial
than it's mos sanguine friends could
have hoped 1t was inaugmated when
we were at war with nearly every tribe
west of the Mississippi. Hundreds of
: Indians have become civilized and chris
tianized. Where six years ago you only
heard the ho'rid sounds of the scalp
dance YOU nov hear songs of praise and
, the voice of prayer. The Episcopal
= Church has fOlr Indian clergymen and
hundreds of ommunicants. ard ether
religious bodies have been equally bless
ed, The worS evils of the old system
of Indian contracts have been done
| away. 1t is 10 longer the custom to
| cheat the Indians in the price and the
: delivery.
There are evils which lie at the foun-