The New York herald., 1877-08-27
Our Indian wards and Wars.


wars they extract food for laughter; not so
much becausc the case is comic, or that the
useless slaughter by the savages of many
fine soldiers is a merry fact, but because
that is temporary refuge from the
graver aspect of the case-an escape
from the treatment of the subject that will
be forced upon them by their consciences
when they venture to regard it seriously.
Ali the fun of the paragraphers and light
militia of the press generally over Howard's
campaign stands for tho time in lieu of
fercer attention that the people will give
by and by to that kind of Indian admin
istyation. Regarded as the war of
great rich and powerful people of almost
unlimited military resources against pitt
full breed Of dependent savages the Nez
Perce campaign possesses in the fullest
degree that element of the ridiculous which
makes itself felt when things are seen
reversed. 1t would be SO easy for the
United States to annihilate Joseph that
people laugh when he is the victor in
every encounter, inst as they do in the
circus when the pygmy or the clown drives
prehension. And except with the imme-
diate friends of slaughtered or manned off,
GERS and soldiers that is the principal i'm
preston made on the public mind by the
imbecile conduct of all hostilities with our
savage wards or neighbors
But the time is at hand when the Indian
difficulty must be dealt with in another
spirit by the public and when the suppress
sion of Indian resistance to the westward
advance of civilization must be put in the
hands of other men than those that have
now for several years conspicuously ex-
hibited their incapacity to reach satisfac-
tory results. Perhaps the greatest OF our
blunders in our dealings with the savages
have flowed from the assumption that
they have the sensibilities and concep-
tions of civilization, and from the SYM
pathetic Quaker coddling that has been
the consequence of that conception. 1t
is alleged that William Penn never had
any trouble with the Indians that they
never broke the treaties or gave the man OF
peace any trouble. This statement may be
true or false, and is probably false. But
upon the allegation of its truth the pedlers
of historical moonshine base two theories.
The first is that the Indians are not
to be kept in order by the ordinary re-
pressive methods of armed force-not
by rifles, rockets and cavalry-but by
indulgence, sympathy, encouragement and
coddling; by lavishly administering to all
their wants and giving them constant as
surance that, whatever happens, not hair
of their precious heads shall ever be hurt
by anybody. The second theory is that the
right persons to deal with the Indians on
this plan are Quakers-gentlemen who may
be in broadbrims and drab broadcloth
or not, but who insist upon saying
thee where they should say thou and
whose confusion irregard to personal pro-
nouns is only type Of the ignorance and
loose conceptions that pervade their
thoughts on more important subjects;
thrifty gentlemen, however, with all their
shortcomings, who hope for contracts to
make them rich when they are poor, and for
brilliant opportunities to make them famous
if they are already rich. We sometimes
fancy that we are an ingenious people, full
of resources, possessed Of an inexhaustible
intellectual activity, and yet at the end of a
century of experience of Indian treachery
and ferocity we are maundering in this same
delusion, slobbering over these filthy
savages with our futile kiss Of peace.
Erroneous conceptions of the causes of
Indian revolts are at the bottom of q mis-
taken treatment Of the Indians that falls
short, however, of the absolute stupidity of
the peace plan. 1t is believed that the
villany of Indian agents and the consequent
discomfort of the savages have provoked the
recent wars. There is an old quarrel be-
tween the army and the Interior Depart
ment; and rs it is proverbially easy to
believe evil. of those against whom we
have some enmity this theory exists
throughout the army. But there were
revolts also when the army managed
the Indians, and when it is to be presumed
they were dealt by honestly and if revolts
followed cheating there would have been at
least one year since the Indians were
given over to the present department. for it
has always cheated them, just as it cheats
them now. In fact, the causes lie deeper.
They relate to the growth of the country,
which, the Indian feels, is preparing his ex-
tinction. Indian wars in. our history
are distributed in successive series re-
lated to great stages of westward prog
ress. Our earliest series of conflicts
with the Indians ended with the peaceful
possession of the Atlantic slope Our ulti-
mate possession OF the Mississippi Valley
was secured only after conflicts that were re-
markable for their production of great
number of famous Indian leaders. These
stages of Indian extinction generally reached
a crisis after about half century of more or
less smothered collision. In the extreme
! West we are now repoatinr the phases of the