Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1879-11-01

are not worth the price of the pape
on which they are written; becauS
at any time the civilized Indian
who in good faith has cultivatet
the land, may lose his possessinI
whenever the chiefs are bribed ant
the reservation is sold.
One other thought. Ny brothe
| spoke about determination. / know
Indian war is not a plaything, bu
you will tell me of an outrage COM
mitted by Indians, and / will a
once, without thought, match any
such outrage with an outrage com
mitted by white men upon Indians
/ know that when the tomahawk
| tears the flesh of the mother anG
babe it is an awful thing but
know that the shell that kills the
Indian wife and wipes out whole
village is worse than the tomahawk.
You heard, the other day, a great
outcry, and I have heard it hun
dred, if not a thousand times.
When some one sympathized with
Gen. Crook about the hardships OF
Indian war-"The hardest thing"
said the general, sis for us to go and
fight men that we know are In the
right" And what is the difficulty?
/ answer. It is not in the Interior
Department. 1t is not in the Indian
Department even, with all its bad
management, but it is that Congress
itself has never walked up to the re-
sponsibilities of the question; and
knowing, year after year, the stipu-
lations of Indian treaties, presented
in committees, written in black and
white, Congress deliberately fails to
make the preparation whereby the
treaties can be fulfilled. And thus
they SOW robbery and there is an
old law of God-that men reap eX-
actly what they SOW.
One other thought. There is a
feeling that the Indian is a being
quite unlike any other being on the
earth. Now, you will solve the prob
lem when you admit that the In
dian is a man, and that he has the
right and interest in the blessed
story of the Son of God that you
and [ have. The Indian, by the
testimony of men that have lived
with them from the very first set
tlement of this country, is the
highest type ola wild man to be
found on the face of the earth. He
has a passionate love for his child
ren, and he will lay down his life
any day for his tribe. | would not
believe, could not believe, in the
Gospel of Jesus Christ if there was
nothing better for such men than
the cry of determination. Let me
illustrate just one moment the side
of the Indians character wherein is
his reverence for law. And / men
tion a fact from the lips ofone of the
trpest men | ever met, General
Henry III. Sibley. AT the outbreak
Of the Sioux war, when the general
was denounced for not permitting 4
single act of violence to be done
against the Indian, where there was
comparatively little bloodshed.
When the Sioux were driven be-
yond the border, he selected $50 |
Sioux, one half of whom had been |
in war against ourselves, and put |
them once in twenty miles across
he entire length of the border. He |
said to those Indians, if any Sioux |
Denetrates this line to do violence, |
)r kill the white man, you are to |
kill him without hesitation. But |
)ne of the Indians penetrated that
inc, three of them were caught by |
white men, two killed by scouts,
md but one was brought in prison
er to scouts camp. His own uncle
vas the chief of scouts. The young
nan said, "My uncle, 1 am glad to
zee you, you will save my life"
His uncle laid his hand upon his
inform, saying, 81 am not your
lncle; / am a soldier, and my orders
ire to kill a man that came here to
commit murder; and, my nephew,
here is blood upon your hands, and
rou must die." He took his gun
md killed him on the spot.