Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1874-02-09
Committee on Printing.
Committee on Library
THE INDIAN POLICY.

The annual report Of the Indian Com
nissioners claims for the peace pol
lev of the administration the most satisfac-
tory results. They disclaim for that poll
cy any agency in the Modoc troubles.
Outside of that difficulty, peace has reigned
with the Indians with but triAing excep-
tons. The temper and disposition of the
wild tribes" according to the Commits
sioners. "has been steadily improving. and
there is no reason to doubt that continu-
ance ofjust and humane treatment will soon
bring them under perfect control, and
submissive to all reasonable requirements
of the government" Many of these
tribes are soliciting schools and other APP
plications of civilization. Those tribes
which have already made some progress
in civilization continue to make advance
ment. More Indians have been been muir
dered the past year by whites than in any
one of several years preceding, while the
murders OF whites by Indians are less; and
only one case has come to the knowledge
Of the Commissioners ia which white
man has been punished for the murder Of
an Indian. The reports which have been
sent abroad by telegraph of Indian raids,
murders, outbreaks and intended out
breaks, have nearly all been without any
foundation in fact. In the matter of fur
nishing supplies there has been some re-
form, but the labor has only been COM
menced; when completed so that fair
dealing may be substituted for the system
of robbery which has previously prevailed,
a great step will have been taken towards
the prevention Of difficulties with the In
dams. The recommendations of the Com
missioners all are for the preservation of
the rights of the Indians justly belonging
to them, the possession and use Of their
lands against the plunderers that beset
them, and the extension of laws over them
to check crime and repress the practices
by which they have suffered.
When this report is considered in con.
nection with the testimony that General
Harvey has recently given at Washington,
and the opinions expressed by him upon
Indian affairs. the effect must be to strength
en- the pacific policy of the administration.
If the Commissioners are men schooled in
the ways of peace, inclined by religion
and culture to be mercifully disposed to-
wards the rude people for whom they
plead, and therefore it may be said dis
qualified to deal practically with savages,
such objections, if they are objections.
cannot lie against General Harvey, who
has been nearly all his active life engaged
in managing. fighting and depressing the
warlike tribes of the West. When the
followers of William Penn, and the ex-
perienced fighter of Indians agree that the
fault in Indian affairs is with the white
men. that the Indians would be peaceable
if they were not wronged, there is no es-
cape from the conclusion that the peace
policy is the correct one. If it were not
for the sordia interests of those who find
their harvest in keeping the Indians in
savagery, who desire to plumber them of
land, and fleece them as government
agents or traders. there would be few acts
of hostility among the Indians. The past
year has been a trying season for the
peace policy on account Of the Modoc diff
iculties, but we hope that the present will
be more favorable. and the policy at length
become too firmly established for unprin-
cipled scoundrels to overturn or retard in
its beneficent operations.