Arizona citizen. [volume] (Tucson, Pima County, A.T. [i.e. Ariz.]) 1870-1880, 1876-04-29
THE CITIZEN.
The Indian Transfer

(
The Army, its worshippers and
hungry sppendages, have been NOV
ing heaven and earth for year past
to effect a transfer of the Indian and
all that pertains 10 him to the War de-
psrtment. We who live on the from
tier and who know the army and its
component parts better than any other
portion of the people of the United
States can know them, have never be-
iieved that a majority of our repre-
sentstives in Congress would ever con-
sent. as they have in the House,
10 such a transfer. The citizens of the
frontier are brought into direct con-
tact with the army individually and
while they know that there are good
men and true" in the army, the opin-
ion is general and wide spread that
the average of goodness, truth and
honesty is lower in the army than in
civil life. They regret this opinion,
but years of contact and business ex-
perience in dealings with government,
have fixed this opinion indelibly on
the frontier mind. "There are bad
men enough in civil life and there are
fraudulent civil Indian agents" says
the frontiersmsn, "but if you advo-
cate the transfer of the Indian bureau
to the army under pretense of better
ing affairs in respect to honest dealing
you are either pecunisrily interested or
you are a natural born fool" When
the bill to effect the transfer was be-
fore the House, in committee of the
whole, ON April ), Representive Cox
of New York, rose to the occasion and
in q very full and comprehensive
speech placed the whole matter in it's
proper light before the country. We
have only room for a few extracts.
Mr.. Cox said:
Mr.. Chairman, "Give them hell 4"
was the expression written upon q
slate by chivalric officer in the Mex
lean war as he breathed his last. Con-
sciously or unconsciously. he expressed
in one terrific monosyllable the hor-
rors of war.
Well may the gentleman from
North Carolina rush TO Paradise Lost,
and, as he surveys the Indian seeking
to escape from his sad and unhappy
environment, exclaim for the Indian,
with the fallen Greh-angel:
Which way l iy is hell; myself am hell !;
And, in the lowest deep, lower deep,
Still threarning TO devour me, opens
wide
If the present system is hell and the
Indian himself is he'll and the lowest
deep is in the Interior Department,
where is the lower deep, lower even
than the lowest, threatening to devour
him, unless it be found in the War
Department!
1t is not necessary TO refer to post
traderships and other recent illustra-
lions of rsscality. 1t is not necessary
to hint that curing many years this
very War Department has been
honey-combed with fraud, and that
but few of those officers on the from
tier posts had the courage to an
nounce these frauds to the public or to
the Government. l know men now
say that they knew of this abomina-
ton all the time; but why stand by
fearfully subordinated without the
nerve to call halt upon this progress
in vice and fraud? And yet, sir, in
the face of these revelations, and while
Impeachment stands in terrorem over
the late head of this very Department,
we are asked in the open sunlight of
these scandalous truths that have
the nation and the world to
place the Indian Bureau under a sys-
tenn which connects so much fraud
with its force.
If, Mr.. Chairman, the military
should take charge of this civil serv-
ice, why not have it III every branch
Of the service, as we have had it
around the ballots and the Legisla-
lures and the courts of the South! Is
1t not said to be constituted of most
honorable men! Has it not stern sys-
TENS Of account and penalty? Are not
Its teachings rigorous and its officers
Supposed We grant all
this, and what is the consequence:
But how Is 1t! Many of the officers
III the Army are honest gentlemen,
doubtless; but 1t is an insult to suppose
that the only honest gentlemen
IN this country are educated at West
Point. 1t Is a mistake to imagine that
every military officer is q modest,
humane man. will not go
so far as an old writer, who said the
Gods never made polite soldier.
The members of this House, who are
ex-soldiers, forbid the ungallant re-
mark. But this remark NAV be
hazarded; that there are profanity and
drunkenness and vice among Army
officers as well as elsewhere. They are
to exercise power; and Army
officers IN all ages and countries have
not hesItated to exercise it hsrshly
when 1t suits their within OF convenien-
ce. Is 1t claimed tina. they are
more honest than other men? 1t is
to be hoped that men who have
been educated at great expense to