The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1873-05-03
persons, and in improving their minds
PLAYING poker: and also that If tbev e, ;,os


playing poker; and also that, if they failed
f to get their freight to its destination al
something very near the time specified, the
poor Indian would be very hungry and very
angry; that his righteous indignation over
his wrongs would probably lead him to
arise in his wrath and butcher several
hundred women and children, and that, il
he should be driven thus to express his
disapproval of Uncle Samuers hardness.
the Eastern public would see in the trans
action only another instance of the total
depravity of frontier settlers, who will con-
tinue to provoke the I" Red Stockings of
the West to such vigorous assertions of
their natural rights and superiorities. By
dint of hard pulling, deep wading, and pre-.
carious trips over bending ice, our expedi-
tion reached the august presence of the
party of the first part" in this feeding
transaction, and had the honor to represent
their Government as ga strong ass, bowling
down between two burdens" Indian saw
agery and Eastern philanthropy. The
expedition cost an accident policy COM
pany something considerable in paying for
frozen feet and other injuries; and every
pound of beef or flour and every pint of
beans eaten by those Indians that Winter
cost the Government not less than one
dollar. Yet they were occupying lands on
which cattle could live, all the year round,
in condition to be capital beef with only
the care of cutting and stacking hay for
Winter, and on which deer do live in prime
condition all the year round without care.
That such system ever should have been
inaugurated is matter for profound aston
ishment, but that it should be continued
after fifty years of terrible experience of
| its bloody results is unaccountable on any
other hypothesis than the reckless deter
mination of unprincipled politicians to pre-
serve this open road to the public purse.
That the Indian Bureau is corrupt beyond
conception of moderately honest men is
patient to any careful observer who looks
with honest scrutiny into its affairs. That
an Administration should claim credit for
reform in the conduct of Indian affairs,
while spending millions yearly in the old
business of maintaining Indians" is one
of the strongest proofs of the fatal indif-
ference to their own affairs, or ignorance
Of them, on the part of the American peo-
pie, which is now threatening the very ex-
istence of their institutions.
THE PRESENT POLICY A PREMIUM ON IDLE
NESS.
What difference is it to us whether the
Quakers, .Presbyterians, or unregenerate
sinners are the Government agents in fos-
tering the vices of these savage hordes?
That man or set of men who promise them
bread without work is public enemy. and
| care not if his coat be drab, black, or
butternut brown. The philanthropy which
seeks to feed them while they live on lands
ready to TEEN with agricultural wealth, in
response to the labor of child, is misno-
mer and a disgrace to any man of ordinary
intelligence. The man who taxes industry
to foster idleness and crime is no statesman,
and the Administration which supplies the
Indian with beef while he raises ponies to
facilitate the massacre of those enterpris-
ing men and women who lead the van in
the Westward march of Empire, deserves
the contempt and execration of all lovers
of the race. The genteel affectation of
ignorance of aristocrats has, for fifty
years, been made the plea with the Or
ganized band of Treasury robbers, and
weak, well meaning philanthropists sngag-
ed in taking care of the Indian, for supply
ing his wants until he learns the art of agri-
culture! He seems to learn fast. He knows
already how to watch the Government
agent, his teacher, plant potatoes and
corn all day: can follow the process so
closely with his keen, cunning eye, that
he can trace every row in the night, and
pick out the seed to feed his pony. He
has konwn this much for quarter of a
century, but never gets beyond this stage
Or advancement until stealing becomes
unsafe, and starving imminent.
He has had no trouble in learning euchre
and poker, and the same natural ability
will teach him the art of hoeing, when
there is no hope of living without this use
full branch of knowledge. Shareholders
never knew how to work until thrown
upon their own resources; but they begin
to show that they are not below the aver
age standard Of humanity. They and the
Indians were for many year and day the
labor despising aristocrats of this country;
but the former have learned, through a
little wholesome discipline, that man may
work and live, and be I" a man for a'that.''
May we not hope that our other nabob
might condescend to hold the pillow and
handle the hoe, if it came to be ques-
ton of life Or death with him, as it is with
the rest of mankind. If he ate no beef
until he raised it, it would taste better, and
he would have less appetite for baking
babies and scalping men. As to how this
is to be brought about, the British Govern
ment has answered this question long ago,
by giving the Indian the same chance to
live that it gives to other men, making him
amenable to its laws and securing him their
protection; legislating for him as if he
WtIc q HAL duu UOG an exception animal
or a creation of novelist's brain; pursu-
ing toward him one steady line of action,
SO that he knows what to count upon, and
knows that if he raises corn his right to
keep and use it will not be left to the oper-
alton of Indian law, and that if he commits
crime, it will not be his tribe that must
suffer the penalty. There can be no great
er outrage on the name of justice than the
policy by which our well-disposed Indians
are made to suffer for, and by the crimes Of
the vicious-no greater mockery than the
attempt to civilize them while herding
them on reservations, and SO making it i'm
possible for one to abandon any custom of
his tribe, until majority are ready for the
change. Our Government has not vet
learned that it is diffusion, not concentra-
ton, that is required for the civilization
Of the Indian, and our boasted Peace policy
is simply new effort to perpetuate old
JANE G. SwIssHELM.