The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1877-10-22
The white General and the Red One.

We have before us reports OF two recent
speeches by two of the most famous military
men OF the day. One OF these men Is WILL
LIAM TEcUMsEH SHERMAN, General of the
army Of tho United states; the other IL
SITTING BULL, Chief Of Sioux.
The white officers speech was delivered
at n reception In Oregon. A good deal of
rhetorical incense had been burned under
his nose, and he repaid the nattcry in kind,
tickling the vanity of the Orcgonians with
predictions Of near future In which their
State would be as popuous as any In the
Union. Touching briefly upon favortc
topic OF his, the value Of the army as n
skirmish line Of (whitel settlement and
civilization, he passed to the subject OF the
recent Indian troubles. He was satisfied
that they were all over, and that no rccur-
renee OF them need be feared. He had Just
travcrsed the Cpur d'Alcne, Pen dOreillcs,
and Spokan country, and found everything
quiet. II he were young man he would
move to that country and settle down "a a
farmer. "Chief JOSEPH had gone and taken
away all the bad Indians with him, and IL
was hoped none would ever come back"
There is not hint in Gen. SHERMAN's
speech that this fine country, whose fertility
made him long TO beat his sword into a
ploughsharc was, and ia the property OF
these same Indians Of whom he hopes none
will ever come back; that they held II by
title as clear as that by which he holds his
house in st. Louis; that this title had been
repeatedly recognized by the Federal au-
thorities; that these bad Indians" had
shown themselves peaccable, friendly, and
even magnanimous in their intercourse with
the whites; that. II they finally became
bad, ii was white injustice, covetousncss,
aud aggression which made them SO; and
that Of this injustice covetousncss, and ag-
erosion the army Of the United States
about whose civilizing mission the General
is so fond of talking became the ready II
clumsy, instrument. Gen. SHERMAN was AZ
silent on these topics as on the fact that
JOSEPH for months outmanTuvrcd and out
fought the West Point graduates sent against
him, and yielded at the last only to fatigue.
hunger, and vastly superior numbers
SITTING BULLS speech seems To have boon
purely cxtcmporc, and it has the merit of
evident sincerity. A Canadian officer, sent
to his camp at Wood Mountain for the pur-
pose, was urging him 10 come in 10 Fort
Walsh and hear what the United States
Commissioners had To say. This he finally
consented to do. as favor to the Queen. but
only on condition that the Canadian officers
at the fort would bind themselves 10 protect
him as their guest in the event Of the Yam
KEGS attempting trcachary. The officer
tried to convince him that nothing of that
sort was 10 be feared; whercupon accord
ing to a Fort Walsh letter in the World. the
Sioux General freed his mind as follows:
"Hc hal no confidence VA the President or IN any IF
the subordinate American officials who were wont O.
sort o traps Indians would scoru ,o cmpo, and whose
word ~ honor was often given merely to deceive aud he
tray lie hated the Americans because their ta.>p,~
no rahtt' general principle or spiru was hai because
they made treaties bat To- break them, because their GOV
ernment aided dishonest officials 10 swuilo aud maircat
his people, and because their int nion Kill on the
Indian by inhuiuan wars. starvation and pAge. His
hatred OF them no soft words pretty promises could
remove, nay-and here he dropped SIOUX and spoke
herccly In excellent Northwest frrncI--he would curse
them while he lived and hoped himself 10 be cursed II he
died without striking back"
The sting Of SITTING BULLS invcctivc l.
in its truth. The portrait he draws 81 our
Indian policy is lifcikc to painful degree