Eureka daily sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1871-1887, 1874-02-19
THE MODOCrNDENNIGY BILL.

In telegraph gave us II IL" 'aN
since the action Of the House of Rep
resentatives on the Modoc indemnity
bill. The debate on the subject. Which
we find in full in ONE OF Il en-
changes. was spirited and interesting.
The original bill. as presented by Mes
NTH. of oregon. provided for three
commissioners 10 ASSESS the damages.
etc.. resulting from the campaign
against the ModOcs. Holman, of In
diana. offered an amendments. >ut>ti-
tutinr one citizen and two officers Of
the army. serving on the Pacific Coast,
for the three commissioners proposed
in the bill.
ShankS. of Indiana. opposed the
amendment. alleging that he did not
want to intrust the work to men who
had been driven back by the Modocs
for seven long months. and who had Il
back record to make up. He assorted
that there lad been strong provoca-
ton for the hostility of the Modocs,
whom he extolled. charging t~reachery
and deceit upon the whites i'll the Vi
cinitv.
Nesmith defended the people of Ore
gon and the officers of the army. alleg-
ing that the delay in c%onquering the
Modocs was not the fault Of the army
but of orders from Washington. known
as the {" pow-wow policy
ShankS interiected a remark. charg-
ing the people of oregon with the mnr
der of prisoners of var. and NeSmi.h
retorted by reciting the murder Of Gen.
Candy and others under a flag of truce.
and claiming that the provocation of
the whites was Very great. owing TO re-
peated acts of treachery on the part of
the Modocs.
Shauks again obtaining the floor
said thaa in 1869 this Captain Jack. who
had attained a national notoriety if not
a national reputation. had a father as
dear to him as the father of the gentle
mar from Oregon was to him. Ben.
Wright, a man of some nOtOrlety. had
cha rye of some troops. and invited the
fathe r of Jack to a conference under a
flag OIL truce. He came with forty OF
his chi eff clen. when Wright. in his
own camp, contrived a plan to poison
them all. He invited them TO a feast,
and proposed to put strychnine in the
beef. but the Indians, warned by other
" .of,-o1 To cot fl1n haaf ThaX-
then shot down Jacks father and forty
of his men. Captain Jack was there.
and from that hour he had not been
a friend of the white man. He had
been told that from the spot where
Captain Jack murdered Candy he
could view the spot where his father
was butehercd with forty OF his men
under a bar Cf truce There was
much to ~eXtenuate the crimes of Cap
tain Jack.
Nesmlth said the gentleman had been
yeciting history which he doubtless be-
lieved to be accurate, but among In
dams the question of paternity Wa
very doubtful.
He knew Ben. Wright well. He had
marched with him, hunted Indians
with him, slept under the same blan-
kets, and eaten mule and horse meat
with him. He WAS q brave and honor
able man. but he had suffered eyere-
ly, and retaliation was his ruling
thought. He thought he could throw
some light upon the flag of truce
story. For long years the Nodocs had
been numbering emigrapts marching
towards the Pacific. who, after endur-
ing all the trials and tolls of the jour
new of thousands of miles. We're
fallen upon and butehered With
atrocities horrible to relate. There
was no flag of truce in this case.
Ben Wright had but IL men while the
Indians had a large force. \ few days
before these Indians had murdered an
entire party of emigrants and Ben went
out to pursue them. Then they had a
conference, and Wright having posi-
tive evidence that the Indians contem-
plated the murder of his whole party
at the council took time by the fore
lock and began the fight.
Shanks said he did not propose TO
antagonize the bill but desired the in
yestigation to he committed to men
who We're entirely unbiased and not to
those who had a motive for eXaggerat-
ing the damage done by the Indians.
The gentleman from Oregon had, he
said, confessed judgment. Wright, he
had said, had reason to believe he
would be attacked. What reason had
he to believe he would be attacked in
his own camp and while he was paving
the way to poison the Indians with
beef at his table? Why did he
kill the beef and prepare the feast if he
supposed they were going to murder
his party? Do men spread feasts for
their murderers?
Iuttrell of California said there was