The New York herald., 1876-07-10

tion the government is confronted by that
only dangerous fact in Indian history,
leader possessed of sufficient fame and infiu-
ence to awaken in the mind of every savage
the slumbering hope for q successful con-
flict, and possessed. also, apparently, OF
enough genius for that kind of war to real
ize this hope when any proper precaution is
neglected by those sent to operate against
him. Every Indian war, every important
episode in the relations of the white man
with the Indian on this continent, has been
associated with the appearance of such a
chieftain. 1t is true that war, in the history
of every people, produces leaders of excep-
tional fame Every chronicle of carnage
''shines with the sudden making of splendid
names" But with civilized races wars are
made for reasons aside from chieftainship,
and the war, unless it is abnormally short,
produces the commander who conducts it to
successful or satisfactory issue. Thus. war
with us makes leaders, but with the Indians
it has always been otherwise. Leaders
trained in the strife that on a small scale is
perennial obtain influence and fame, and
the elements of power gather around them
by kind of unconscious human gravita-
ton; or they, with provision of the posi-
bilities, with a partial comprehension of the
case, organize extended movements of their
whole race. and the appearance of a leader
capable Of conceiving the combination and
conducting the operations produces the war.
He is the essential condition of unity of
purpose.
Take the ordinary record Of the Indian
melts away silently for the most part under
the influence of the steady pressure of con-
tact with q superior race; but there are
points in the chronicle that stand out above
the rest like blazing promontories. In that
part of the chronicle you will find the names
of Black Hawk or Osceola, Pontiac or
Tecumseh Billy Bowlegs Red Jacket Corn
planter, Powhatan or King Philip-some
of these distinguished by the happier COM
prehension and capacity that made leagues
for the preservation of the peace from true
philanthropic views of the welfare of their
race, but the larger number giving unusual
faculties to the more natural pursuit of
savage impulses, and thus producing in the
history of their race epochs of furious hos
tility and an almost national sentiment.
In this there is no point that is especially
peculiar to the savages of this continent.
It is an essential distinction between
nomadic peoples, whether altogether savage
or only partly so, and the peoples that have
settled existence, national character and
political organization. As in the scale that
has civilization at one extreme and merely
savage or animal life at the other men
are nearer to one or the other of
these extremities they act in COM
ferent motives. Only the stimulus of
war-the thirst for slaughter-induces the
men of mere savage tribes to act with others
in a common unity and subordination, while
the unity of civilized peoples is secured for
thousand other objects, and in peaceful and
in warlike purposes is constant. In any case
of savage combination where the great leader
is killed that is the end of the war.
Sitting Bull, and Crazy Horse as his capa-
BILE lieutenant, are, therefore, the important
features in this war; and governments that
act on the policy of putting price on the
heads of savages might we'll consider their
crania cheap at twenty thousand dollars
each. There is, however, no such cheap
escape for us-because that policy would
doubtless, offend throughout the country a
sentiment much more respectable than that
which inspired the moral tract policy of
snivelling over the Indians There is, in
short good reason for the opinion that the
Indians, bad AS they are, are not alone to
blame for this war. The rifles that killed
Custer and his men were held by Indians,
and Indians pulled the triggers, but to put
q plain truth in an obvious metaphor,
the pieces were loaded at Washington.
Sitting Bull is, no doubt, a bad In
for number of years, and yet there
has been no great war; He has
roamed up and down the country and lived
by isolated murders and necessary thefts,
and has been joined from time to time by
bands of marauders like himself; but
though always ready to gather force about
him, and perhaps solicitous to that end he
was for years unsuccessful for the agency
Indians, by their relation with the govern
ment, had got just enough taste of the ad-
vantages of civilization to comprehend
them, and in that taste had sufficient
moral and intellectual support against their
savage impulses. The mere appearance Ct a
leader was in this case not enough, there
fore but it was on essential condition, and
when the government supplied motive the
war came. Those men in the government,
therefore, whose duty it is to see the Indians
honestly dealt with are to blame for the dis
driven vast numbers of agency Indians to
swell the force of Sitting Bulls marauders.