The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1874-09-19
THE PEACE POLICY.

FEARFUL INDICTMENT ON THE INDIAN
From the New York World.
FORT FRED STEELE, W. t.,
August 22d, 1874.
To one whose lot is cast in an Indian
country, and who fully understands the
nature and disposition of the noble red,
the paltering, hesitating policy pursued by
the powers that he forces him to the con-
cluson that there must be something radi-
cally wrong in system that will allow
murders and robberiss to be committed
year after year without any punishment to
the perpetrators or any serious efforts made
to find remedy for existing evils. The
peace policy, or reservation system, as now
conducted, is being lately somewhat better
understood throughout the East, and the
conviction is dawning on the minds of
many there that a more hostile and often.
sive policy, in order to compel the Sioux,
Cheyennes and Arapahoes to cease their
depradations, would add materially towards
the best interests of the great West, and
give that fostering aid, to which they are
justly entitled, to all who are seeking
home and fortune here. Until this is done,
the growth of the Territories will be slow
indeed, as pioneers are unwilling to attempt
| the settlement of the land or the discovery
of its resources while there is so little
security for life or property. The sickly,
sentimental halo of glory with which so.
called philanthropists surround the Indian
character has never had any foundation in
fact. Every succeeding Summer only adds
more and more to the testimony that they
are cowardly race, ever cruel and treach-
erous, without gratitude or one redeeming
trait. Even as allies they cannot be de.
pended on in the hour Of need, for in the
late Wind river fight, having secured few
ponies, they ran from the field at the first
opportunity, and all efforts to bring them
back were unavailing. Every effort that
has heretofore been made towards the bet
tering of their condition has failed most
signally. After years Of trial the peace
policy proves to be only one of mistakes
and too lenient to be satisfactory to the
people here. Preaching the blessings of
civilization, picturing the comforts of
pastoral life, or trying to wean them from
scalp lifting is labor lost, and they who
seek to subdue them by the olive branch,
unless backed by the bayonet, are very apt
to lose their hair in the operation. The
Indian of to- day is no nearer civilization
than were his ancestors when first discov-
cred, and he is as ready how as they were
then to sign a Quaker treaty when, for
sufficient consideration, he will promise to
be cheap good" but which is spon forgot
ten, and the acts committed so long ago in
the valley Of Wyoming are now repeated
in the Territory of the same name. Not
outstanding the fact that every one knows
the right policy is not being pursued in
treating with the Indians still it is an
unsettled question as to what course should
be followed in order to deal justly with the
two most interested, the red nomad and
the white settler. 1t is more than likely
when Congress meets the usual yearly pala-
YER about this question will be held, the
same whitewashing committees appointed,
the regular annuites voted, and then will
come adjournment without anything being
done for the protection of the settler, but
everything for the benefit of his enemy
AS it does not meet until the middle of
Winter, all tribes now on the war path will
have returned to their reservations, content
there to remain, eating their rations and
keeping warm under Government blankets
until Spring has opened. Their agents are
thus enabled to lay their reports before our
rulers and say, without lying, either, that
their wards are, just at that time, Gas