New-York tribune., 1879-05-09

Democrats voted against the resolution, while
twenty-four Republicans and sixty-three Demo
Gratis and Greenbackers voted for 1t. The House
then took up the Silver bill.
THE RED MAN BOUND TO BE HEARD.
HE CARRIES THE FIGHT FOR IIIE PRESERVATION OF
HIS LANDS FROM THE RAILROADS INTO con-
GREss.
IBY TELEGRAPH TO THE TRIBUNE.I
WASHINGTON May S.--The representatives of the
Cherokee and Creek Nations of Indians who are In
this city have prepared memorial to Congress
protesting against the various measures that have
been brought forward to abrogate the treaties with
the civilized tribes and throw the Indian Territory
open to white settlement. This memorial was pre-
sented in the House to-day by Mr.. Neal. OF OHIO
and was ordered printed. 1t will be presented In
the Senate tomorrow.
Grave accusations are made in the memorial
against the methods pursued by Senator Patterson
in his investigation of affairs in the Indian Terri
tory. An inquiry into the manner in which the re-
port OF that investigation procured is asked for
The memorialsts say: eve have good reason to
believe that the pretended facts and testimony re-
carding Indian affairs in our country, as printed at
the instance of Senator Patterson, and upon which
his so-caed report assumes to have been based are
and wero at the time an imposition on tho other
members of the committee as well as upon the SEN
ate of the United States" The memonalists call
attention to the present attempt TO seize upon their
lands by force They assert that it is the result OF
conspiracy in which certain railroads concerned
The memOrialists agree to substantlate all the
charges of mutlatiOn of records and manipulatlons
and alterations of testimony which they have made,
and to prove that the Patterson report is entirely
unworthy of credit.
A careful and Independent examination of this
report has been made. The report was signed by
n @l,o Of tba ttap
Senators Patterson (chairman). Chaflec. Saunders,
Kellogg Garland, Grover and Hereford, and IT Is
understood to have been written by Senator Gar
land. 1t is in all respects remarkable document.
The committee was required to ascertain whether
the railroads had issued any bonds which are lien
upon their conditional land grants in the Territory,
and if So in whose possession the bonds are, and for
what purpose. The latter duty the members OF tho
committee appeared to consider of so little import
ance that they contented themselves with the in
definite statements of two railroad officials, that the
bonds are held for investment in this country and
in Europe. Anybody could have guessed that. The
committee was also required to Investigate charge
that the civilized tribes have squandered their
school funds in opposing the establishment of ter
ritorial government over them. This charge was
not sustained.
The committee was further required to ascertain
IL
ganized over the Indian Territory for the bet
ter protection of life and property, and whether the
Indian lands cannot be divided into severaty with
out confirming the railroad grants. These appear
to be questions affecting laws and treaties alone,
and their investigation did not require the examlna-
ton of any witnesses. The committee thought diff
ferently however, and proceeded to take the test-
mony of about two hundred witnesses as to what
they thought about these and various other ques-
tions. The testimony was almost unanimous
against any change, and that given in favor of
change mainly given by white men whose in
teTests were to be served by it, it consisted of
newspaper and other unsworn statements affirming
the existence of condition of affairs in the Indian
Territory which the sworn testimony of a great ma
iority of the witnesses, both native and white,
fatty contradicted. Yet the committee reports in
sweeping terms that the testimony shows that there
is an utter absence Of that restraint which comes
from a rigid enforcement of the laws i'll the Indian
Territory.
The report proves one of two things the members
of the committee never read the testimony or else
they deliberately misrepresented 1t. The testimony
does not Justify the conclusions which they ascrbe
TO it. The committee of course did not know that
most of the testimony, little is, which appears
to justify its conclusions was given by white
traders railroad employees and others in the interest
~
subcommittee consisting of Senator Patterson
alone showed before it was altered and mutilated,
that those witnesses examined by Judge
Sears the railroads attorney, and that 1t did not
show that Senator Patterson was even present at
the examination There is evidence that he was
not present. One of these witnesses q white man,
had been in the Territory only six months, and yet
his evidence was allowed 10 outweigh that OF Two
white missionaries who had been there thirty years
The committee did not, perhaps, know that ono
Chickasaw Indian was permitted to testify when
tba CtIh-p m nj ttpa
the testimony of fourteen white and four cOlored
men was taken, that of the whites being given to
suit the railroads. and that Of the fourfreednen un-
expectedly being in favor of the Indians. No more
cOlOred men were examined there. But the COM
mittee might, by even cursory examination OF the
testimony pnrpOrting TO have been taken at Fort
Scott have discovered its utter wOrthlessness On
such manufactured testimony and on unsWoTn
statements the verdict Of the committee was made
up while the evidence of fOurfths OF the witnesses
examined, including q majority of all the white
men and freedmen, and almost all the Indians who
testified, and the voice OF thousands OF Indian cltl-
zens who were not permitted 10 testify, but whose
names were signed 10 statements accepted and
printed by the committee were as completely lg-
nOred as If they did not exist.
In making mp tins report, too the committee ap-
pears to have avoided and ignored every
treaty, law and judicial decision by which the
political and property rights of the civilized tribes
reached conclusions which are diametricaly
opposed TO all of them From all that is known OF
Mr.. Patterson's Indian Territory investigation 1t
was an expensive farce from beginning TO end. The
report of il is travesty of truth and justice, any
one who studies 1t in the light OF the testimony
will certainly discover.