Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1878-12-13
SECRETARY SCHURZ AGAIN TO THE
FRONT.
He Furnishes Il new Array Of Facts and
Figures on the Indian Management.

He dlsc!aimed any personal desire to
retain any control of the Indian service
under the interior department. No
part Of the department business Is SO
troublesome and thankless. He thought
the Indians were entitled to humane
treatment, and that could only be ten
dered through the process of civilization,
education and kind treatment. and this
the military department was not
fitted to promote. The secretary
quoted from the report of the Sioux
commission, signed by Generals Sher-
man, Anger, Terry and others, setting
forth, IN effect, that if peace with the
Indians was desired, the management
Of their affairs should be placed under
the civil department ofthe government.
Nov | agree with these gentlemen on
this point. There are y great many Of
iicers Of the army who have excellent
ideas about Indian affairs, but it is an
other thing to bring it into practical eff
feet. "rhe military arm Of the gov
eminent he did not consider gifted with
the patient labor required to place hoe
in the Indian hand and teach him how
to use it. He denied very emphatical-
ly that red-tape system of reporting
Indian outbreaks, which had been as
serted, was required under the present
administration OF Indian affairs. When
ever case arises where prompt action
is necessary, he, IN person, commune
Gated with the secretary of war, or the
general of the army, as the case may
be, thereby causing but very few hours
delay in perfecting the necessary ar
rangements to meet the emergency,
rather than months, rs intimated by
Gen. Sherman; he claimed that the
transfer of the Bureau from a civil to
the military department was based up
on assumptions, rather than up
on facts History will prove that the
Indian bureau is credited with
Indian wars which, in reality,
occurred previous TO its
organization under II civil management.
The cause Of the majority Of wars, in
his opinion, is the breaking of treaties,
together with the encroachment of
greedy whites upon the settlement al
] ptted to the would-be peaceful Indian.
of affairs as Gems. Sherman and Sheri-
dian and others desired for war, but
subordinates who had the reputation
to make, were not so keen for peace,
with the Indian race. The
army officers" the secretary said, in
reply to question by Gen. Hooker,
"who have been in charge at the In
dian agencies, have been very faith
full and efficient in their duties. THEY
were 50 however, in connection with the
state Of affairs, and not with
u view to ciyilze the Indian, SO adj
vsed the placing Of the troublesome
Indians, on the reservation, under mar
tial law and Of increasing the number
Of the Indian police force from $50 to
! 900 or 1,20O. This force was very
reliable, and has rendered good service"
He said he had read in the papers
statement by Gen. nj. i. Marcy, that
when in the war department, the bu-
reau was worked smoothly enough, that
there was no mismanagement and in
fact no suspicion of any. 1t was in fact
as he had said, as if angels had de-
seconded upon earth, doing gen.
tie ministrations among savages
to lead them to higher state of
well being. 1t was easy to prove this
was far from beng the case. A report
of n committee of the house Of repre-
sentatives, made in 1912, when the
war department had charge CT the In
dian affairs, charged the clerks with
negligence; that ac-
counts showed IN almost total want of
that the accounts Of expendi-
lures We're so carelessly kept MS to fur
nish scarcely any traces of expendi-
tnres; very large sums for sew
eral years entries were made in
SO slovenly manner that the very
clerks themselves could not explain
them. There was not single entry
referring to Indian land, and all records
left by the Indian officers Of the wnr de-
partnent, were scraps Of memoranda
pencil notes, etc. To bear out his state
ment with respect to malfesance, he
quoted from the report Of Lieut.. Gen.
Hitchcock and lnstanced action of the
department in reference to the removal
Of Cherekecs. The contract was made
ut SO per head, and 10000 Cherokees
will be removed. But 10000 in excess
of the actual number were
and paid for, making
actual payment, S204,276 in excess, or
LOB per capita. He also read a report,
dated 1884, which showed the exorbi-
tant prices which Indians charged for
various articles, and concluded that
from all this it would seem that the rec
ord Of the war departments manage
ment of Indian affairs was no means so
clear as Gen. Marcy tried to make out.
He was not going to pretend that the
civil administration was pure. No such
thing; but he would say they had no
scandal quite 50 bad as the Cherokee
affair. He alluded to the fact that the