New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1878-01-14
THE IYUI.iN REPORT

The Indian Bureau has so long been REGARDED
as a nest of frauds and scandals that there is
a disposition among the people to hail every
official report inculpating any of its officers as
a step toward reform, and to look upon every
displaced commissioner, agent, or clerk
as presumably thief. Thus the re-
port Of the recent Board of Invcstiga-
ton appointed by Secretary SchuIz to
inquire into the conduct of Commissioner
smith and Chief Clerk Galpm has been ac-
ceptod as very honest and creditable per-
fo1mancc and the letter OF the eX-commis-
sioner which we print this morning will per-
haps have little effect upon the public mind.
Even boards Of investigation, however, are
sometimes wrong and III this case it looks as
if an outrage had been committed upon
respectable officers, and a dangerous blow
struck mt the purity Of the service.
Commissioner Smith has long been esteemed
as a thoroughly upright and wcll-mcaning man,
and it is beyond doubt that the Indian Bureau
under his management, if not made an ideal
organization, was at least purified of many in
veterate abuses The Chief Clerk was an able
and jealous functonary, of whom, too, the com
munity had a high opinion. Last Summer
charges were preferred against Mr.. Galpin
by certain persons, whom. as we learn upon good
authority, inc had detected and checked III course
of frauds upon the Cherokee Indians OF North
Carolina. board of inquiry was selected
from attaches Of the Departments of the lntc-
ror, War, and Justice, which spent seven months
investigating not only these specific charges,
but the whole management OF the Bureau, eX-
tending far back even beyond the term Of Com
missioner Smith. Messrs. Smith and Galpin
demanded the right to speak III their own de-
fence. 1t was refused them. They were not
permitted to see the testimony, or to
know what was sad against them, while their
accusers and a number of "the most disrcp
"utable men i'll Washington" as private let
ters from an unimpeachable and disinterested
authority inform us, were in close intercourse
with the board and in constant attendance at
the meetings. An eXparte examination Of
this kind is well enough when it is used like
the proceedings of a grand jury, as
the preliminary of a trial; but when
its conclusions are at once incorporated
in public report, and made the basis of sum-
mary action, il becomes Il mODstrOus and scan
dalous injustice to which 10 American ought
10 submit That we have not misunderstood
the character of this fraudulent inquiry will
be apparent from the following passage i'll
private letter written by President Seeye. of
Amherst, whose familiarity with Indian affairs
and the methods of the Indian Ring is not like
" to be disputed: after the Board had
"bcen organized, and was holding its sessions
"nomnaly III secret, this man - wrote me
"lctter in high gloe declaring that he had got
1.-The commission when he wanted, and that he
"was attending the meetings, having things his
Gown way, and that he would rip up things
"generally before lie got through have little
doubt that the whole finding OF this Board OF
Enquiry was inspired by the worst villains
lin the Indian Ring, so-cailed, and l
cannot but look upon it as a very gross
"trayesty upon Justice" And in an earlier
letter, to another person, President Seeyc
wrote: " know so much of the adroitness as
"woll as unscrupulousness of these men that
81 think it altogether possible that they may
"carry their point, and may even delude the
commission and Secretary Schurz with the
{" idea that the most honest men III the Indian
/" Bureau are scamps, and that these rotten
"wretches themselves are paragOns of good"
The synopsis of the report, given to the press