Arizona citizen., 1874-11-14
|" The Indian Question:"

This is the title of a book just received by us from Delegate Mccormick, for which he has our special thanks, far it is far more interesting work than we conceived it to. be from the many press notices we have seen of it.. It is a volume of 268 pages and General Francis A. Walker, formerly Commissioner of Indian Affairs, and now occupying professors chair in Yale or Harvard, is the author. It is nicely bound and beautifully printed, and we presume retails at about SIPS or S1.59. Opening it at random, as editors generally do in ex- amining books, we find the following paragraps of interest enough to lay before our readers:
 In the first place, it should be remarked that there can be no question of national dignity involved in the treatment of saw ages by civilized power. The proudest Anglo.Saxon will climb a tree with bear Dehlnu h1In, and deem not his honor, but the safety, compromised by the situation. With wild men as with wild beasts, the question whether to fight, coax, or run, is a question merely of what is easiest or safest in the situation given. Points of dignity only arise between those who are, or assume to be, equals. Indeed, nothing IS al tlmes so cOntemptuousa as compliance. It indicates not merely consciousness of
 
 decline comparison or contest. s.. .t-t,
 Grant that some petty Sioux chief be- lleVeS that the government of the United States feeds him and his lazy followers out of fear, or outof respect for his great ness: what then? It will not be long be- fore the agent Of the government will be pointing out the particular row of pota- toes which his maj ajesty must hoe before his majesty can dine.- The people Of the United States surely are great enough and sufficiently conscious of their greatness, to indulge little longer the selt-com placent fancies of those savage tribes, if by that means-a desolating war may be avoided.
 And in this we shall only do what other nations have done, and esteemed them- selves wise in doing. The Greeks and Romans, except in periods of ambitious frenzy. recognized the fruitlessness and folly of fighting absolute savages, and did not scruple, in the height Of their conquer ing pride, to keep the peace with Scythians and Parthians as best they could. The English, the Dutch, the Spanish, the Por-- tuguese, in their American colonies, only fought the natives when for their purposes they must, preserving the peace when they could by presents, and even by tribute. Statesmen who would have em- brolled Europe on question of dinner etiquette have fully recognized the prin- ciple that there could be no issue of dig nity between a civilized power and band of irresponsible savages, and have submit ted. without any feeling of degradatian to demands the most unreasonable, urged in terms the most inSolent. --
 Nor is there any savOr of treachery in the government thus biding it's time. In this the government simply, from wise consideration of the settlements, refrains from the full exercise of the authority while 1t only indulges their illusion till. the time come when the illusion must be, broken. It watches the troubled sleep of the maniac, ready to restrain his violence If he wakes, yet mercifully willing that he should remain unconscious. And this. fOrbearance of the government Is not less kind to the abOrigipes than to those of our citizens who are building their homes within reach of the red mans hand. If the savages-Sioux, Kiowas, ChPyennes, Comanches, whom the United States are thus playing with-realiZed in any ade- quate measure what the next few years have in store for them, how completely they will be surrounded and disarmed, how certainly they will be forced to labor. like squaws for their bread, how strin- gently the government will enforce its re- quiremepts when their power Of resistance shall have departed It is inconceivable but that, in their present temper, ignorant as they are of the real resources of the whites, and conscious that they can still bring eight thousand warriors into the field, they would precipitate a contest which, though it would involve untold misery to our border population, must inevitably enG tq. their own destruction.