New-York tribune., 1880-01-01


mass answered all arguments then Of Justice te
the negro simply by "damning tho darkeys'"
and they answer like arguments for the In
dams by jeer at 1.-THE red devils" We were
told with pious unction then that God had
cursed Ham and sentenced him to be servant
in the tents of his brethren; and we are told Dy
the same class Of reasoners now that God has
doomed the red man to extirpation to make
room for the victorious course westward OF the
Black Hill miner
The Nation has conscience, however; II
saw its error in the matter Of slavery and il
is slowly rousing to comprehension OF the
truth about the Indian. The common sense
and humanity of the people 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
massacres as that of the Modocs, or the
slaughter under Captain Vessels, or the slow
killing of the Poncas. In the present case,
the people will not be satisfied to have the
matter handed over to the Army" If that
means wholesale indiscriminate warfare
against the Utes. We believe the mass of the
people think. with THE TRIBUNE, that Ouray
has acted with q good faith, moral courage
and energy commendable in any man, what
ever the color of his skin. He simply under
took to do more than he was able to do.
The ten or dozen criminals concerned in the
Meeker murder decamped declining to 60 to
Washington to be hanged precisely as white
murderers would do, and precisely rs
every sensible man suspected they would do.
Why, for this reason, shall the whole Ute
nation be given over to slaughter When
half a dozen Molly Maguires turn assasslns,
do we order out troops to murder oil the
Irish in the Pennsylvania hills. sparing
neither women nor children We protest in
the name of just God against further injus-
tice to these people. The American Govern
ment should no longer be guided in its treat
mcnt of this race 10y the prcjudces and exag-
geratcd statements of settlers who have stolen
their land, or agents who regard the rights of
a Cheyenne as much as those of a cayote.
We do not regulate our relations with great
nations upon such statements and such
prejudiccs 'and still less arc we en-
titled to do it when the offenders are
weak and helpless subjects of our own. II
dozen or hundred Utcs are murdcrers, let
the dozen or hundred be captured. tried aud
hanged but let us have no more brutal warfare
such as that which last Winter brought the
United States in the eyes of the world on q
lower level of civilization than were her saw
age antagonists
If we succeed during the year just begun
in giving TO these native Americans the cit-
zenship which we grant to the Outcast of
every other Nation, we shall have taken the
most effective step toward righting ono fatal
error. The man with vote, rs we have
seen in the case of the negro, is man who
quickly learns to understand and respect his
own rights, and who will find friends to de-
fcpd them. The Indians have no friends now.
In England and France, the reports of an APP
preaching Indian war are received with )ndig-
nation and pity for the savaGes But nobody
will interfere They are us helpless before
us as any other weak, untaught race whom a
powerful nation chooses to tiample under
foot. They lave neither money, arms nor
food nothing to give them claim for our
consideration but their weakness and the
HELPLESS condition to which we have con-
demncd them. But let us remember, in this
coming year, that behind their weakness and
helpcssncss is the God who made them and
us of one blood, and that His justice is sure.