The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1876-07-27
THE INDIAN QUESTION.
wendell Phillips Writes Letter to Con
crai shcrmnu--IIcw tho whites bnve
Treated the Indians. ..


Treated the Indians. .... .....
Wendell Phillips writes TO Gen. Sher-
man as follows: SIR-An American
citizen, entitled and bound to inquire
whether the officers of the republic are
men or something below humanity,
respectfully claim the right to ask you,
are the journals correct when they re-
present you as advising the extermina.
ton of the Indiansl This charge has
been made several times during the last
three years. II il be false, 1 beg you,
for the honor Of the nation and of the
service, to deny it. While You neglect
to do so the press uses your supposed
example to commend that infamous
course and to create public opinion
which shall approve and demand it.
If the charge be true cannot but re-
member that you are better acquainted
than most Americans with the real rela-
tions of our government to the Indians.
You were, in 1867, the head of an Indian
commission, and its report, signed by
yourself and printed by the government,
is one of the most terrific pictures ever
drawn Of the wrongs the Indian has suf-
fered from this nation. This investiga-
you how cruel and unjust has been our
treatment of the Indian for the last
hundred years. You know that we have
surrounded him with every demoraliz-
ing influence, stepped him in intem
perance, melted him to Righteousness
by the example of those set over him,
and tempted him to ovely vice. You
have yourself spread on the public re-
cords the evidence that the government
has robbed him of his land, cheated
him of his dues and uniformly broken
faith with him. Ifany of the tribes are
to-day liars, thieves and butchers, they
may rightfully claim to have only
copied at humble distance, the example
we have set them.
You are not ignorant that the Indian
has been outraged and plundered by the
frontiersmen without stint or redress,
and butchered by our soldiers, under
the American flag, with brutal and de.
testable cruelty-the description of
which in plain terms the press would
not admit to it's columns. You know
no one better-that the worst brutality
which prurient malice ever falsely
charged the Indians with is but weak
imitation of what the white man has
often inflicted on Indian men, women
and children. You know that on the
plains we have violated every rule OF
civilized war, massacring women and
children with worse than savage blu
tality. Your career has not shown you
an instance where the Indian has lifted
his hand against us until provoked to il
by misconduct ON our part, compared
with which any misconduct of his is but
dust in tho balance.
Your experience will fully indorst
what President Harrison, when governor
! of Indiana, said to his Legislature il
1907, "that the utmost efforts to induce
the Indians to take up arms would bt
unavailing if one only of the many
persons who have committed murdeI
upon their people could be brought tc
punishment"
You will not in the slightest degre,
doubt or deny the grave charge whicl
Major General Harney, after fifty years
r service on the plains, made to Con
gressional committee, "tbat he hat
a never known an Indian tribe break it
. word to our government, and he hat
never known the government to keep it
faith with an Indian tribe" You ar
, too much of soldier not to confes
that had you been placed in the In
q dams circumstances you would hav,
! been ashamed not to have acted as b,
: has done.
You would accept, as every honest ma
8 does, the statement of Major Genera
Pope, in 1875, that the army office
S "cannot prevent wrongs which drive tn
: Indian to war. On the contrary, at th
: demand of every agent whose unfai
= dealing with the Indians has brought o
r a difficulty, he is obliged to pursue an
! force back to the same deplorable stat
!, and place Indians whom he knows I
4 have been wronged, and who have onl
q done substantially what he would hay
a done himself under like provocation.
q You must be keenly sensible what r,
q proach it is to religion and culture th'
III our multiplying millions. with all the +,
q sources of civilization and Christianit
a in their hands. have lived for two hui
"a dred years close to this small and cap
RI bic race and been able to give it on
q their vices-that all of good the India
v has is his own; most of his vices he ca
j rightfully charge to the white man.
n Except the African no race will lift I
Z at the Judgment seat such accusir
!. hands against this nation as the India
!. will. We have subjected him to agen
If who have systematically cheated hir
"a We have made causeless war on hir
Il merely as pretext to steal his land
q Trampling under foot the rules
"a modern warfare we have made war {
ia his women and children. We ha'
4 cheated him out of one hunting groul
a. by compelling him to accept anothe
m and robbed him of this last by drivil
IL him to frenzy, and then Furnishing +
ia sistance by confiscation. Meanwhi
o. neither pulpit nor press nor polite
party would listen to his complain
Neither in Congress nor in any city
the Union could his advocate obtain
hearing. Craftsmanship, good SEN
a and justice, even from the Chief Mag
N trate, were unavailing when they piles
y ed for such long time victims of popul
sk hate and pillage as our Indian tribes.
re Gan it be possible, then, that wi
y such knowledge and such experieI
d. you, sir, the head of the army, q
or bound to show at least outward resp'
IS: to civilization, have no counsel to gi
az except eItermination-the exterminati
lg of these plundered victims of greco
hs INSCRIPTIONS and cruel people2 G
1g you advise professedly Christian p'
OF pie, stepped in guilt, not to reform,
Iis to consummate its wickedness by su
'i- hideous barbarism as only the most
IS: human tyrants have ever attempte
", The worst possible of infdsls, do y