The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1885-11-05


Indian question.
1t will hardly be denied that the
policy adopted by the Grant admir- Isl
tration, to appoint pious civil agents TO
control Indian affairs, was great
mistake and cruel failure.
The Puritan preachers, class Leaders
and exhorters who were commissioned
to civilize the western tribes, have
either proved REGULATORS, absorbing in
their own proper persons all the liber-
al appropriations to the Indians; OF
fanatics, who have attempted by
force to compel them to adopt
a New England civilization of
religion and agriculture.
In the latter instance Lo has resist"
ed with his tomahawk and rifle, and
declared he will neither pray or
work, although he has always mani
tested his disposition to do the former
if one letter was changed in the word,
for he has always turned upon and
preyed upon these fanatics.
If the western people who have
lived neighbors to the red man were
consulted upon the subjected, they
would undoubtedly, with one voice,
become Jealous advocates of local gov.
eminent, to-wit: that the Indians
should be turned over to their tender
mercies, promising that they would
settle the vexed question in short
order. Humanity, however, steps
in and begs an injunction against that
kind of local government, and human
ity must be consulted in this matter,
for the public domain was theirs, by
rig hit of occupation tor, centuries be-
fore the pale faces claimed it by right
of civilization.
theoretically, therefore, there ought
to be sympathy for these people, and
while civilization sets up title to the
soil, civilization must not commit the
anacronism of destroying them. al
though they do deserve it.
The question then arises as to what
can be done with people who will
neither pray nor work, on compulsion,
and who have vested rights that hu-
manity must respect. That is hard
question to answer but there Is one
thing that might be done, and that is,
ciyiliZe them.
If half the active sympathy, half the
money and half the personal effort
was made by the philar thropist of
the north, that they made in behalf of
the negro, the Indian could be civil
lied, but they wont do that. They
can neither crafty malice by humil-
iating the southern people by that nor
can they make political capital and
gain political power by that. The phi
lanthropist Of the north will not do
that.
Then what can be donep
The Indian must give place to the
superior race. God did not make the
soil so rich merely to maintain hunt
ing grounds for nomadic tribes, thai
stand in the way of the development
of that soil for the production of food
and clothing for christian race. He,
in his all-wise providence, intended
that every acre of it should be Guilt
waited to its highest capacity. ani
civilization is merely obeying His
laws in "elbca,ing'' the Indian farther
and fart'sssa .1ethe wilderness.
1t is lat after while thai
ilS t -A-''7''%'-aa tn O.
Sy that time, every tribe of Indians
that do not adopt the habits and occu
pations of the white man will be sc
decimated by just punishment that
not remnant will be left.
In the meantime, they are only fiji
to be governed by the iron hand of thu
military, and the next congress, il
coDsign1ng them to the administration
of the army officers, will be doing then
and the frontiersman the best thing
that can be done for both.