National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1879-02-10

Il
TANNED, or at least sufficiently civilized to
withstand the inveigling approaches of these
paid takers of monopoly. II Is the duty of
Congress to protect the Indians in this crisis of
exposure. PhtsbiTg Methodist Recorder.
VIII this Government ever assume the
duties, responsibilities aud humanities of q
just guardianship over the remnant of the
Indian tribes who have been pushed from
their hunting grounds and despoiled of
their rights and possessions until they have
become objects of especial care and charity ?
OF course the empire of civilization took its
march westward, and has, step by step,
| pressed the Indian before it in his savage
condition, instead of throwing its influence
around him, thus subordinating his savage
nature by a kindness that would win conf
dence and a need of justice that would
disarm prejudice and hostility and thus cap
turing him in the interests of humanity and
leading him to put on the habits, customs,
and enterprises of civilized life. The In-
dian policyofthis Government has never been
strictly in line with the philosophy of civili-
cation and human advancement There has
been only feeble attempt to bring the In-
dians from their wild nomadic, and savage
mode of life to the more civilized and adj
vancing enterprises and industries of use
fulness and development, and those efforts
have in each instance borne good fruits.
Whenever and wherever the Indians have
been led to adopt the pursuits of agricul-
ture and mechanics, instead of the chase
for livelihood, they have built churches
and established schools, and taken an en-
couraging step forward in the march of
civilization. These instances demonstrate
beyond doubt that the Indian can be
brought within the pale of civilization, and
his wild nature can be made TO subordinate
itself to its elevnting influences, if the eff
fort is earnestly made on the part of the
Government to secure that end. If half
the money lavished upon contractors and
traders who supply the Indians with all
the evils of civilization and none of its BEN
efits had been expended in implements of
| husbandry and the erection of school
houses and the support of teachers among
them, there would now be little or no occa-
sion for Indian outbreaks and bloody wars
to force them to submit to policy of plum
der, encroachment, and wrong.
Our Indian policy cannot be justified in
the light Of civilization, wisdom, and JUS
tice. 1t is full of evil without much COM
pensating good. If determination is the
main object of the Government in manag-
ing these wards, then its policy can be
justified; but on no higher premises. If
they are to be wiped off from the face of the
earth, then the agent, the trader, and the
greedy speculator are very proper agents
for carrying out that purpose, through the
agency of alcohol, cheating and wrong
The first fires the brain of the Indian, while
the Others incite his sense of wrong, and
bring him in hostile array where the rifle
does its work, and his existence is ended.
This policy works efficiently, but it is not
that of justice right, and humanity, and it
cannot be defended in the light of civiliza-
ton and its rightful demands. The Govern
ment should call halt in its present mode
of treating the Indian question. They
should be placed upon territory which
promises well under the appliances and in
dustries of agriculture. Tie moneys now
expended to feed and clothe them should
be devoted to providing them with houses,
implements Of industry, and school-houses,
and then they should be compelled to sus-
tain themselves by their own industry or
share the fate of their own determined idle
ness If the moneys now expended in an
nuities and war to keep them in subsection
can be devoted to converting them into
agriculturalists, mechanics, and citizens,
the problem will be solved without war or
bloodshed, while the existing policy leads
inevitably to decentralization and extermina-
tion; and for this the Government is respon-
| sible.