The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-06-13
THE GREAT FATHER AND HIS OHIL
DREN.

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Fathership. This conventional progenitor Of
the Indian did not realize the extent of his
duties Is the ineal successor of the great
Abraham. When Spotted Tail, Red Cloud,
Little Wound and the other members
Of his aboriginal family were allowed
to approach him, he sorrowfully told them
that however little he might be disposed to
comply with their demands, or to sympathize
with their wrongs, the "next" Great Father
might possibly prove still more stony
hearted and intractable parent. He assured
them that he was their best friend-in fact
that he always loved the Indians, California
squaws not excepted-and therefore advised
them to take his word for it and make the
best Of what they considered bad bargain.
After which touching parental address he
turned them over to the tender mercies Of
the great Indian (Ring) Chiefs Columbus De-
lano and Smith, and took his departure for
that cottage by the sea, where he allows his
gigantic mind to unbend and his exhausted
administrative energies to rest for nearly one
half Of the year in the soothing and improving
society of the Shepherds, the Babcocks, the
Murphys and the other gifted companions
who enjoy the honor and the emoluments of
his personal friendship.
Well, the poor Indians will 60 homo with
the bitter consciousness of having been
spurned and generally ill-treated by their
Great Father and his worthy representatives,
the Columbus and Smith aforesaid. What
they are likely to do when they get back
among their own people, it needs not the
second sight Of a seer to foretelL
In 1868, so-called Peace Commission
framed the treaty under whose provision these
very Sioux Indians now hold the Black Hills,
Of which it is now proposed to rob them in
the interest of certain parties belonging to
the Presidential Ring. The members of that
commission were N. g. Taylor, then Radical
Commissioner of Indian Affairs; J. B. Hen
derson, Radical Senator from Missouri;
Gen. w. T. Sherman, Gen. W. S. Harvey,
John B. Sanborn (of ring contract memory
Gen. Terry. s. F. Tappan, and Gen. Augur,
now commanding the Department of the
Gulf. These we'll known Radical civilians
and military men submitted report on the
7th of January, 1868, from which we Gull the
following extracts as the best commentary on
Grants conduct towards these poor Indians
and its possible consequences in the future,
that can be submitted to the judgment Of our
readers In one paragraph. for instance, they
tersely say:
whatever our people may say.of the insin-
oerity or duplicty Of the Indian, would fail to ex-
press the estimate entertained by many Indians
OF the white mans character in this respect.
Promises have been so often broken by those
with whom they usually come in contact, cupid
ity has long piled it's work deaf to their cries
Of suffering, and heartless cruelty has so fire.
queDtly sought them in the garb Of charity, that
to obtain their confidence our promises must be
scrupulousy fulfilled, and our professions OK
friendship Invested Of all appearance Of selfish
ness and duplicity."
A little further on the same unimpeachable
witness adds:
II the lands Of the white man are taken, civ
ilization justifies him in resisting the invader
g Z coward and . slave if he submits to the
wrong. Here civilization made its contract and
guaranteed the rights Of the weaker party. It
did not stand by the guarantee. The treaty was
ssss WITH the s
in one hand and the sword in the other, de- |
msnds his immediate determination:
We do not contest the ever ready argument |
that civilization must not be arrested in its prog
ress by handful Of savages.
We would be only understood as doubling the |
purity and genuineness Of that civilization which
reaches it's ends by falsehood and violence, and |
dispenses blessings that spring from violated |
rights.
Among civilized men war usually springs from |
sense of Injustice. The best possible way,
then, to avoid war is to do no act OF injustice:
When we learn that the same rule holds good
with Indians, the chief difficulty is removed. But
it il said our wars with them have been almost
constant. Have we been uniformly unjust? We
answer, unhesitatingly, yes!
These four soldiers pay tribute to the Indians
courage:
Naturally the Indian has many noble qualities.
He Is the very embodiment Of courage. Indeed
ct times he seems insensible Of fear. II he is
cruel and revengeful, it il because he is ont
lawed, and his companion is the wild beast
Civilization has driven him back from the home
he loved; it has often tortured and killed him,
but it could never make him slave.
And, finally, abiding to the frequent and
totally unjustiAable removals of the Indian
from ono reservation to another, without con-
yulting in the slightest degree his vested
rights OF reasonable preferences, Messrs.
Sherman, Harvey, Terry, Augur 4 Co. re-
marked of this doomed son of the soil,
that
He always objected and went with . sadder
heart. His hunting grounds are Is dear to him
n il the home Of his childhood to the civilized
man. He too loves the streams and mountains
Df his youth; to be forced to leave them breaks
those tender chords Of the heart which vibrate
10 the softer sensibilities Of human nature, and
dries up the fountains OF benevolence and kindly
feeling, without which there is no civilization.
If William Tecumseh Sherman had always
acted up to the spirit of the above quoted
sentiments, he might never have written his
great" history, or performed his equally
great" march to the sea, but he would be
looked upon by all right-minded and true
hearted people, with far more favor and es-
teem than the record of his Attila and Cen
yhis Khan exploits in the South will ever
secure for him in the present OF the future