New-York tribune., 1873-05-12
4 SDPERFLUOUS DEFENSE.

There has long been a cloud hanging over
the Presidents Peace Policy in Indian affairs
When a newspaper reporter applied to Secre-
tary Deano for an exact description of that
policy, the Secretary gave a long reply which
may be summed up as follows: Indians
must be placed on reservations as fast
as possible; those : who refuse to
give I'D their nomadic habits of life
and continue their depredations on the white
settlers must be treated as hostile; supplies
must be procured by the Government at fair
prices and be honestly and fairly distributed
to the Indians; competent, upright, and moral
Indian agents must be selected to go upon
the reservations to deal with the people there
secluded This is all very good. When Gen.
Crook lately reported that his policy in Ari-
zona had simply been to insist on the reser-
vation system, and treat as public enemies all
Indians who left without permission, the
President gave out that that was exactly his
Peace Policy "in nutshell" So we have a
pretty clear idea, at last, of what this system
OF code of treatment really is, though we
have been long time in getting at it.
The Board of Indian Commissioners, which
has just concluded its sessions in this city, felt
it necessary to make a formal defense of the
Presidents Peace Policy, the moving cause
being the criticism evoked by the Modoc war.
The Commissioners assume that the severe
things which have been said about the man
agement of Indians In general and the Modocs
in particular are leveled at the so-called Peace
Policy, dear to the heart of the President.
This is by no means true. The philanthropic
oo;r al horo
defense were appointed under the Act of 1869.
Has the policy which that law contemplated
and which involved their appointment been
enforced through all the troubles which imme-
diately preceded the Modoc outbreak and the
murder of Candy and Thomas Their report
shows that the difficulty with the Modocs be-
gan in q misunderstanding With the Indian
agent. The Modocs desired to settle on
small reservation by themselves. Says the re-
port before us "Neither the Board nor its
"oflicers, nor, as we believe, the President of
=" the United States, nor the Secretary of the
" Interior, have any reason to suppose that
"any other mode of settlement was contem-
"platedn until the war began. But it appears
that change in the Oregon Indian Superin-
tendency was made about this time. The
new Superintendent had vague notion that
an old order that the Modocs were to be re-
moved TO the Klamath Reservation was still
in force. He pro ceeded to carry out that'or-
der, calling on the military to help him.
Hence came the war.
Having narrated these facts the Commissioners
proceed to ask, with some show of indigna-
ton, Can the Modoc War be charged against
the Presidents Peace Policy2 On the con-
trary, they reply, that policy would have pre-
vented the war and its attendant deplorable
sacrifice of innocent blood. Very good; why
didn't itf Was the Policy asleep. OF on jour
ney, that it should not have had any part in the
negotiations which finally blunderod into q
bloody warf Who removed the Oregon Super
intendent just when delicate question was
pendingR Who appointed his successor Who
is responsible for the agents that conducted
the Modocs out of their disconnected peace
into an open war 1t may not have been Peace