The Cheyenne daily leader. [volume] (Cheyenne, Wyo.) 1870-1884, 1878-12-07

4
officers, the secretary said, in replysto a
question by Gen. Hooker, who have
been in charge at Indian agencies, have
been very faithful and efficient in their
duties
The secretary advised placing the
troublesome Indians on reservation
under martial law, and of increasing the
number of the Indian police force from
$50 to 1000 or 1000. This force was
very reliable, and had rendered good
service.
He had read in the papers a state
ment by Gen. Marcy, that when In the
war department the bureau was worked
smoothly enough; that there was no
mismanagement, and, in fact, no sus-
picion of any. 1t was in fact as he had
said, as IL agents have decided by gen.
tie ministrations among the savages to
lead them to higher state. 1t was
easy proved this was far from being the
case.
A report of the committee to the
house of representatives, made in 1872,
when the war department had charge
of the Indian affairs, charged the
clerks with objectionable negligence;
that the accounts showed an almost
total want Of method; that the ac-
counts of the expenditure were so care
lessly kept as to furnish scarcely any
traces Of the expenditure of very large
sums. For several years the entries
were made SO slovenly that the very
clerks themselves could not explain
them. There was not single entry
referring to the Indians, and the records
left by the Indian officers of the war
department were scraps, memoranda,
pencil notes, etc.
To bear out his statement with res
pect to malfeasance, he quoted from
the report Of Lieut.. Hitchcock, and
instanced the action of the department
in reference to the removal of the Cher
okees. The contract was made at ten
dollars per head, and 20, 900 Cherokees
were removable, 900 in excess of the
actual number-were charged and paid
for, making the actual payment $780,
276 in excess, or s103 per capita.
He also read a report, dated 1884,
which showed the exhorbitant
prices which the Indians were charged
for various articles, and concluded
that from all this it would be seen that
the war department in the management
Of Indian affairs was by no means SO
clear as Gen. Marcy tried to make it
out.
He was not going to pretend that
civil administration was pure. No
such thing. Eut he would say they
had no scandal that was like the Chero-
kee affair. iN
He alluded to the supervision of the
receiving agences, but said that the
many abuses that had formerly existed
were being swept away.
With the exception of the treasury
department, in its prosecution of the
whisky ring, he did not think that any
department had been more active in the
prosecution of contractors when they
were once detected. They had some
fifteen or twenty under prosecution now,
and only few weeks ago one of these
contractors was convicted.
Now, he would be very slow to assert
that army officers, as such, had dishon-
est tendencies. He thought the army
deserved, as whole, its reputation for
honesty; that is to say, ''for honest in
tentions." Yet it would be absurd to
say such class of men were inacces-
sible 10 the bad impulses of human ma
ture.
Gen. Marcy had stated that while
the administration of the war depart
ment had cost s1s, 1000, 900, the Indian
department had cost $4,000, 900, diff
ference of S13,OO0,O ,O0O Such a COM
parison was absurd.
The Indian business in 40 was moth
ing to what it had now become. He
had statement of the amount paid per
100 pounds of beef by the two depart
ments-that of the Indian bureau and
the military-which showed saving of
S644, 900 in favor pf the former. Gen.
Mills had stated that the trasportation
of the army cost "a. 200, 900, while the
transportation of food, clothing, etc.,
for the Indians only cost S225,0 900.
The agencies would show that that the
department of the interior got its trans
portation at cheaper rates. He did not
attribute any of these things to the dis
honesty of the army, but rather to their
cavalier way of looking at the Indian
and these things. Soldiers never
thought of the cost of the thing 1t was
thought to be necessary. As an in
stance. he mentioned that at the close
Of the Sioux war there were about 20,-
900 horses, ponies and mules taken
from the Indians, for which COWS were
were to be given to them, and it turned
out that these horses and mules cost
S19, 400, and to sell them cost S5, 1888
additional. This was an instance Of
their cavalierly way, which was not
found in the interior department.
G. G. Watkins, inspector of the In
dian department, followed Schurz, and
opposed the transfer. He explained the