Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-04-17

recitals of the deeds which have caused
Indian wars to be chronic in this country,
and which have hitherto rendered impossible
any comprehensive settlement of the Indians
in the manner indicated There is monot-
onous infamy in the history of our Indian
relations. The burden of the story is always
the same. We have lusted after Indian
lands, have invaded and taken possession of
them, have ignored the protests of the In
dians, have frequently added deliberate out
rage to invasion and spoliation, and thus
have brought on the wars in which we
have been so constantly embroiled. This
would be bad enough if it were all, but
unhappily we have in almost every
instance added the crime of perfdy to
all the rest Mr.. Manypenny cites treaty
after treaty made between the United States
Government and Indians, in which the pos
session of certain territory is guaranteed to
the Indians "forever." In every such case
the Government has broken its faith. In
some instances with aggravating circum-
stances of the most shameful kind, as when
in 1876 General Sheridan deliberately invaded
the Black Hills with an army, in open de-
fiance and wanton violation of the existing
treaty with the Sioux, and in so doing set
an example of Indifference to sacred obliga-
tions which the prospectors and land thieves
were only too swift to follow. How utterly
unfit the army is to undertake the manage
ment of the Indians, is here shown
very clearly, moreover. The list of
illustrations exhibiting its tendencies to bru-
tality and inhumanity is both long
and melancholy The proneness of the mill
tary character to lean toward policy of ex-
termination is very clearly manifest, and it is
proved beyond doubt that the army officers
are capable for the most part only of irritating
Indian sensibility until an outburst is pro-
duced, and then suppressing it in blood.
Mr. Manypenny brings strong indictments
against Generals Sherman and Sheridan in
this connection. He accuses both these
officers of approving the most brutal and in
discriminate massacres of Indian men, women
and children, and it must be admitted that
he proves his case, and convicts the defend
ants out of their own official reports. He
shows also that army officers have in many
instances taken sides with civil land grabbers,
and have justified and even assisted the
grossest robberies of Indian lands As re-
CARDS the costliness of the Indian wars which
have resulted from the attempt to manage
the nations wards through the War Depart
ment, taxpayers have no need to be refreshed.
The Seminole war alone cost the country
10000, COO, yet it was estimated that the
Seminoles could not muster more than seven
hundred warriors when the Florida war be-
gan. Indeed the treasure expended in Ill
treating the Indians since the foundation of
the Government would have suficed to pur
chase every acre of land taken from them
at the highest market price, and in
addition would have provided them
with an asylum and given them the
means of advancement and civilization. The
infamous and detestable policy followed by
the Government, in fact, has been the most
extravaganza and burdensome that could have
been devised Like all perverse and sinister
courses, it entailed its own punishment be-
cause it involved the violation of natural
laws. The United States has lost by it at
every step and in every way. There is no
question that the Indian will Keep faith with
those who keep faith with them. They made
treaty with William Penn, and because he
and his successors observed it, they held to it
Loyalty for seventy-five years. In Canada the
same disposition to good faith on their part is
observed. They are more prone to honesty
than we are, for they have fewer temptations.
There is no intrinsic difficulty in the Indian
question, therefore The real difficulty lies
in the weakness of our Government as against
any popular lust of territorial aggrandize-
ment. In this respect the United States Gov
eminent has shown itself as incapable of bind
ing its citizens as are the sub-chiefs of an
Apache tribe and this fact constitutes blot
upon our civilization, and an impeachment of
our capacity for self-government. Nor viii
these be removed until the Indian question is
settled, and settled right
CIVIL SERVICE IN GREAT BRITAIN. History of
Abuses and Reforms, and their Bearing upon
Americ7 Politics. BY Dorman B. Eaton New
York Harper & Brothers San Francisco A. L.
Bancroft Co.
Mr.. Dorman 3. Eaton, the author of this
book, is the Chairman of the Commission
created by the Act of Congress of March 4th,
1871, to devise rules and regulations for the
reform of the civil service. When President
Hayes entered upon his Administration he
requested Mr.. Eaton to investigate the Eng
fish civil service system personally, and the
work before us is the result of patient and
exhaustive examination of the whole subject,
undertaken on the spot. Naturally, and
probably inevitably, Mr.. Eaton was led to
trace back the growth and elimination of
the corrupt and inefficient civil service sys-
TEN which existed anterior to 1855, in Eng
gland, and his researches have thus resulted
in the compilation of history of civil service
corruption and reform which is full of sug-
gestion and instruction for the American
reader, and which at the same time constitutes
a guide book to better things. The work !
done by Mr.. Eaton has never been done be-
fore. The student may by laborious research |
gather from a multitude of historians and |
memoir writers the materials for an adequate |
conclusion as to the antiquity and universally |
of the spoils system in Government, but no |
connected narrative of this class of political I
phenomena has before been attempted. Mr.. !
Eaton has, therefore, made distinct and I
highly important addition to the literature |
of the subject. and at the same time has
L.
and treatment that it cannot fail to exercise |
a considerable influence upon public opinion.
The history of the spoils system here given
sweeps away the theory of our machine poll |
ticians, to the effect that such system is
necessary outcome of democratic institutions
and party government. Traced to its source |
it is seen that the system originated in the |
simplest possible way. The king or the con-
queror possessed power, and employed it to