The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1880-01-16
A NEW LEAF.

! 1t Is probable that the majority of in
| dividual men and women in the United
States will begin this first day of 1880
with the determination to alter their con-
duct in some way for the better. Well
meaning and right-minded people are
| apt to make such resolutions at the
lnilestones of life, and Americans, as "a
rule, belong to that class. They are not
| the few murdererS, thieves and tricky
! politicians whose noisy doings fill too
many of cur columns, but the mass of
decent men and modest women who try
to do their duty in an honest, common
| place fashion TO wife, husband and child
rem. Their Individual resolutions, as we
said, Will no doubt be good this morn
| ing; but what are they going to do as a
whole: Men, as nation, will cody
commit sins, from which their fear of
God or Of the devil keeps them Inno-
cent as individuals There are
one or two crimes or mistakes which
tins people, us people, have committed,
and would do well to leave behind them
in the year just gone. The chief of these
concerns the Indians. The mistake is
precisely similar to that made by the ma
ton toward the blacks during the DAYS
of slavery. 1t is an ignoring of the
rights OF ii human being because of the
color of his skin. The vulgar, unthink-
ing mass answered all arguments then of
justice TO thenegrO, simply by ''damning
the darkeys," and they answer like argu,
ments for the Indians by jeer at The
red devils" We were told with pious
JUNCTION then, that God had cursed Ham
and sentenced him to be a servant in the
tents of his brethren and we are told by
the same class of reaSoners now that
God has doomed the red man to extirpa
ton to make room for the victorious
course westward of the Black Hill miner.
Tho nation has conscience, however;
1t saw its error in the matter of slavery
and II is slowly rousing to a comprehen
sion of the truth about the Indian. The
common sense and humanity of the peo
pie demand that these men and women
shall now be treated as human beings.
They will not tolerate another cruel. |
costly Indian war, or any such massa-
ores as that of the Modocs, or the slaurh- |
ter under captain Vessels, or the slow |
killing of the POncas. In the present |
case, the people will not be satisfied to |
have 1.-THE matter handed over to the ar |
N.Y." If that means a wholesale -indis |
crimlnate warfare against the Utes. We !
believe the mass of the people think, |
with The Tribune, that Ouray has acted |
with Il good faith, moral courage and en- |
ergY commendable in any man, whatev
er the color of his skin. He simply |
undertook TO do more than he was able |
to do. The ten or dozen criminals |
concerned in the Meeker murder de.
camped, declining to go to Washington
to be hanged precisely as white muir
derers would do, and precisely as every
sensible man suspected they would do.
Why, for this reason, shall the whole Ute
nation he given over to slaughter2
When half a dozen Molly Maguires turn
assassins, do we order out troops to
murder all the Irish in the Pennsylvania
hills, spariiig neither women nor child
rem? We protest in the name of a lust
GOD against further injustice to these
people. The American government
should no longer be guided in its treat
ment of this race by the prejudices and
exaggerated statements of settlers who
have stolen their land, or agents who re-
gard the rights of Cheyenne as much
as those OF cayote. We do not regu-
late our relations with great nations
upon such statements and such preiu-
dices; and still less are we entitled to do
it when the offenders are weak and help
less subjects of our own. If q dozen or
a hundred UteS are murderes, let the
dozen or hundred be captured, tried and
hanged, but let us have no more brutal
waretare, such as that which last winter
brought the United States in the eyes of
me WofiG on n lower level OF civilization |
Than were her savage antagonists
If we succeed during the year lust be-
gun i'll giving to these native Americans
he citizenship which we grant to the
1utcast Of every other nation, we shall
have taken the most effective step toward
Fighting one fatal error. The man with
l vote, as we have seen in the case of the
negro, is man who quickly learns to
understand and respect his own rights.
lnd who will find friends to defend them
The Indians have no friends no. In :
England and France, the reports of
m approaching Indian war are re
,eived with indignation and pity
or the savages. But nobody
will interfere. They are helpless before +.
IS as any other weak, untaught race
Vhom a powerful nation chooses to
rample under foot. They have neither
money. arms nor food; nothing to give [
hem claim for our consideration but {
heir weakness and the helpless condition
o which we have condemned them. But
ct us remember, in this coming year. 2
HIT behind their weakness and help =
is the God who made them and I
IS of one blood, and that His Justice is I
York Tribune