National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1875-09-21
GOING WHERE THEY BELoEG

The gathering together at Muskogee, In
dian Territory, of thirty different tribes of
red men, for the purpose of participating in
an inter tribal fair, is probably the most sig
niicant occurrence in the annals of govern
mental relation with the aboriginal tribes
of America. Enough was developed during
the week these nomadic people mingled
tremendously together TO silence the utter
ances of every man who attempts to cry
down the broad and magnanimous system
of treatment which has been adopted to
civilize and elevate this race. A decade of
years ago the possibility of bringing the
represen tstives of thirty distinct tribes to q
certain assigned spot, where they might
socially intermingle and enjoy the fruits of
friendship, would have been quite as re-
mote as the possibility of removing the
eternal hills and forming in their stead
broad and level plains. But time and a re-
markable policy have wrought this trans
formation scene-a scene which, in the
light of surrounding facts, speaks volumes
in commentator of the system of Indian
treatment which was inaugurated and exc
culed by the present Administration. in
spired with hope to ameliorate the condi-
ton of primitive people who had been
continuously wronged.
For the past two years the country, from
water to water, has been flooded with sea
of slanderous insinuations rejecting upon
the integrity and honor Of the Department
which, by the laws of the Government,
controls the interests of this race. a De-
tective Press, wrapt In the one idea Of gen.
Grating untruthful rumors and magnifying
them into palpable and bulky falsehoods,
has plucked from the workings of this mag
nificent system only the petty irregularities
which must of necessity occur in all de-
partments of National and State govern
ments, and, sending them broadcast over the
land, forget the poignant fact, because it is
consonant with the interests of their mali
cious and unprincipled purposes to ignore
it, that no policy, or scheme or establish
ment has ever before wrought out the mu-
niicent blessings which have followed in
the broad wake of this ship of peace. A
man clothed in the raiment of science, hav-
ing been crossed and thwarted in his pro-
fessional aspirations by the edici of the In
dian Bureau, retaliates by grasping the pen
of SANDER and beaping calumny after cal
umny upon the official head of that De-
partment, and then, seeking the subterfuge
of an investigating commission, attempts to
substantiate his reckless and incoherent
charges by an incomprehensible and irrele-
want mass of statements which form a Gu
rious batch of truth and falsehood mingled
together in one chaotic mess.
A man who assumes the garb of a Chris
tisn gentleman to conceal his slave dealing
and matchmaking propensities, and who
once professed, for selfish purpose, high
and supreme attachment for the Indian
policy, has for the past six months bur-
dened the press of the country with q series
of open letters which glared with misstate-
ments and cleaned with personal spite.
He, too, had been crossed and thwarted by
the Department of the Interior. He was
Hon. Columbus Delano's rival, and was
squarcly beaten in the race, and his politi-
cal aspirations blighted. He begged to be
the head of the Department which to-day
he willingly stoops to defame, but happily
for the country, by the wise dispensation of
Providence, he was disappointed. And now,
to sppease this feeling Of abasement, he uses
the venom Of the slanderer's fang to poison
and prejudice the public mind, not only
against the administrators Of the peace
policy, but against the policy itself
Then, following in the footsteps Of these
men, came others, with calibres small and
heads sore, and, initiating the example set
by these fossiliferous and slavs-dealing gen.
tlemen, they snapped and snarled at the
heels Of official department with mouths
dripping with the Shiny froth of a personal
spite hydrophobia. This is the secret Of the
animosity that has been shown to the Indian
Department for the past year, il being
simply q combination Of men determined to
avenge themselves against men who. in
their official capacity, happened, forsooth,
to destroy their ambitious schemes for per-
sonal aggrandizement. For short period
of time they fiourished, and seemed flushed
with temporary triumph. Their malicious
and erroneous statements aoated hurriedly
over the land on the wings Of q gossipy and
mor-breeding press, and in many places
found hearts credulous enough to harbor
confidence in their veracity. But in this,
as in all other cases of willful Islander, the
right viii prevail. Truth, which is broad
and deep and eternal that has been thus
crushed for the moment by tidal wave of
imbecila and incon siafent aasailants once