The morning star and Catholic messenger., 1877-11-04
THE WHITE GENERAL AND THE RED
S& ONE.

ehave before us reports of two recent
speeches. by two of the most famous mill |
tary men of the day. One of these men is
WilliHm Tecumseh Sherman, General of
the army of the United States the other is
Sitting Bull, Chief of Sioux.
The white officers speech was delivered
at areception in Oregon. A good deal of
rhetorical incense bad been burned under
his nose, and he repaid the fattery in kind,
tickling the vanity of the Oregonians with
State would be as pOpulous as any in the
Union. Touching brieey upon favorite
topic of his, the value of the army as q
skirmish line of (white) settlement and
civilization, he passed to the subject of the
recent Indian troubles. He was satisfied
renee of them need be feared.S He had just
traversed the Cesur d'Alene, Pen d'Oreilles,
and Spokan country, and found every thing
quiet. If he were young man he would
move to that country and settle down as
farmer. "Chief Joseph had gone and taken
away all the bad Indians with him, and it
was hoped none would ever come back.H
There is rot a hint in Gen. Shermans
speech that this fine country, whose fertil
| ity made him long to beat his sword into
ploug ghshsre, was, and is, the property OF
these same Indians of whom he hopes none
| will ever come back that they held it by a
| title as clear as that by which he hclds his
house in St. Louis that this title had been
| repeatedly recognized by the Federal au-
| thorities; that these "bad Indians" had
shown Themselves peaceable, friendly, and
| even msgnauimous in their intercourse with
| the whites; that, if they finally became
"bad," it was white injustice, covetousness,
and aggression which made them SO, and
! that of this injustice, covetousness and
! aggression the army of the United States
| about whose civilizing mission the General
! is so fond of talking-became the ready, If
! Shnr M
| silent on these topics as on the fact that
| Joseph for months outman0uvred and out
fought the West Point graduates sent
against him, and yielded at the last only to
fatigue, hunger and vastly superior num-
| bers.
Sitting Bulls speech seems to have been
purely extempore, and it has the merit OF
| evident sincerity. A Canadian officer,
sent to his camp at Wood mountain for the
purpose, was urging him to come in to Fort
Walsh and hear what the United States
Commissioners had to say. This he finally
consented to do, as 8 favor to the Queen
but only on condition that the Canadian
officers at the fort would bind themselves
to protect him as their guest in the event
of the Yankees attempting treachery. The
officer tried to convince him that nothing
of that sort WAS to be feared whereupon
according to Fort Walsh letter In the
World, the Sioux General freed his mint
IS foliows:
"He had NO confidence in the President or Ii
any of the subordinate American officials, VIII
were won't to resort to traps Indians woul'
scorn to employ, and whose word of honor wa
often given merely to deceive and betrsy. d
hated the Americana because their ka ,oee naet
| no tDdhiatG general principle or spirit) wa
| bad because they made treaties but to brea
them because their Government aided dil
, honest officials to swindls and maltreat hi
| people, and because their intention was to XII
off the Indian by inhumsn waRs, starvation
and pillage. His hatred of them no soft word
' or pretty promises could remove; nsy-an
, here he dropped Sioux and spoke fercely i
excellent Northwestern Frenoh-he woul
. curse them while he lived, and hoped himsel
, to be cursed if he died without striking back.
} The sting of Sitting Bulls invective
in its truth. The portrait he draws of ou
Indian policy is life-like to a painful degret