Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1873-09-06
AN APOLOGY FOR CAPTAIN JACK

A correspondent of the FreenlGn'S Jour-
nal of New York, signing himself Gam
igo," and disclaiming any interest in "the
Presidents Board of Peace Commissioners
or other susceptible humbugs," writes:
PERSONALLY, Gap ain jack was a model
of propriety, and would have been an Or
nament to the Young Mems Christian As
ISOLATION. He was never known to take
glass of liquor, bnt, on the contrary, oUdS
known to whip his men for so doing. He
was man of pleasant appearance, and re-
markable for his high-toned and dignifed
manner. He was always agreeable to his
white neighbors, and fearlessly stood be-
tween them and his savage followers, who
feared and respected their chief. Such was
Captain Jack prior to the massacre"
"Amigo" proceeds to narrste series of
outrages on the Modocs which he claims
led to the murderof Candy. Ho revives the
Ben Wright story of 1852, abiding to him
as ga notorious character, living in the
Modoc country by sufarance of the Indians
who concocted the hellish design of poison
ing the ensire tribe" Only forty-seven
came to his banquet of death and forty of
these were killed in cold blood. After the
war which followed Catholic mission
aries went among them and
so far psci6ed them, that in
1856 they consented to remove to Shasta,
with other friendly Indians, but while under
the escort of Federal troops to this new To-
cation, their chief, Bill, was shot down by
a white desperate concealed in the bush.
The missionaries succeeded in preventing
them from taking the warpath in conse-
quence of this outrage. Again in 1858, a
number of Modocs were waylaid and
murdered while returning from Yreks,
where they had sold some furs. But the
pith of "Amigo's" defence lies in the fol-
lowing statement:
Notwithstanding all these sggravations
-eEou h to drive very Quaker into hos
tility-the Modocs remained peaceable, and
in 1864 we find Get of swindlers, in the
garb of Government officials, negotiating a
treaty with them, the object CT which was
to wrest from the Indians their very best
lands and cheat them generally, as is the
custom of the highly intelligent and civ
ilized when dealing with savages. The
frierds of the Indians defeated
the confirmation of this treaty by the Sen
ate, and so it was considered dead letter
by the trihe, and of no binding force, since
not ratified. Hence they continued in the
possession of their usual hunting grounds,
to which their right had always been recog-
nized. The land-grabbers and railroad spec
ulators, assisted by their friends in Con
gress, were not idle, however, and in 1870
six years after the alleged execution of the
instrument by an X mark on the part of
the Indians-the treaty was ratified by the
Senate of the United States and proclaimed
BY the President in the language of the Su-
preme Court, as the supreme law of the
land!! The Indians were allowed two years
to recover from the shock and sccept the
situation, so in 1872 we find positive or
der for their removal, by military force, If
necessary. They protested against the out
rage and repudisted the treaty, Jack and his
sub-chiefs asserting that they never had
signed it, and did not know its purport.
SAYS as old settler, who has lived in their
country for quarter of century past:
"The Modocs are known as fearless people,
very punctilious, and always keep their word.
They pledged one another to die rather re-
move to the stony and barren tract desig-
mated for them. Bullet don't hurt much;
starve to death hurt heap;' were the words
of Jack" 1t was, therefore, well known
that bloodshed was to follow any attempt
to remove them. Notwithstanding all this,
the troops marched to the camD of the
Modocs in the dead Ihour Of night, with
what object need not state here. The re-
suit, however, was that the Indians, fesr-
ing massacre, fed to the mountains, and
from thence inaugurated laid upon the
settlers, whom they considered tFesspas-
sers." So ~