, 1890-12-04


the public the Indians had beer made
hostile and preferred to die g ghiinR than
die of starvation. These red men could
enter the field with 5000 fighting men,
well armed, and with the advantage of =
knowledge of the country could fight
5000 of the best American troops on
terms OF equality. He asked the senator
from Massachusetts to state whether
these Indians had enough to eat. whether
Miles was right or wrong, and whether
the In1ians We're being starved into bel.
ligerencf. L-l1 il
Dawes said the great difficulty in deal
ing with those G 1000 Indians who are re-
bellious is that they have nothing to eat;
they are away from their tepees; they
belong to that class OF Indians who never
did a day work in their lives.
Pierce OF North Dakota SAID he had
sometimes wondered that the white
people in that region did not themselves
go on the warpath because they were
hungry. The Indians seemed to get
noble as well as hungry the further people
got away from them. He (Pierce) lived
within a few miles of the great Sioux
reservation. He had been there for the
last two months and this was the first
time he had heard il asserted that The
Indian was on the warpaIh because he
was hungry. He saw Indians every. day
in the town where he lived and they were
slecker and bctter ted. apparently. than
the senator from Indiana. Laughter.
He had no doubt but that in some agen-
cies there are Indians who complain of
insufficient food But he questioned very
much whether Gen. Miles made the
statement attributed to him in the news
papers. The trouble with the Indians is
that they are fed and clothed and al.ored
to live on the bounty OF the government.
and 'the devil finds some mischief still
for idle hands to do
VOORHEES, said he would take the state
ment OF Gen. Miles far sooner than that
OF a senator VINO lived near the reser-
walton ano who, with his people, wanted
10 get possession of the Indian lands as
soon as possible. One was a reliable
officer, the other was the fox, lying around
the pen where the geese were, waiting to
get some OF them.
The discussion had not closed when. at
3 O'Clock, the vice president laid before
the senate as unfinished business the
election bill.
Turpie took the floor in opposition.
The substitute measure, he said, rested
for its support on what was called the
suppressed eolored Republican vote in
the South. In the course OF his remarks
he said that in the Northern states,
where all the cutlery was made, the
colored mar had no more chance of pre-
ternent than a Roman Catholic had IN
New Hampshire a hundred years ago.
The suppression of the colored vote in
the South was the thing manifestly in
questl0n-afhrmed on one side and
denied on the otner; but the suppression
OF the colored vote of the North was a
thing without question, actual, absolute, |
unconditional The supremacy of the
white race was not peculiar to any portion
OF the United States. South Carolina
was not more completely under its sway
than Pennsylvania. The man Especially |
the man OF the white housed who sought
to embroil the white and black races for a
purpose he could not conceal and dare not
0 was guilty of an outrage ten fold
greater than any of these he invented or
described. Wherever the people of diff
ferent races were living peacefully
together under the same laws. members
OF the same body polite, without any
thought han hat some must com
and others obey, the race problem
was being solved. The purpose of the
natiouhi election Dill was so lar as 1t |
to the South, to wreck and
destroy this pending condition of inter
racial adjustment. 1t proposed not
to maintain the will Of the msjor-
lty, but TO overthrow it on
the single issue of race-to make a
majority of black men because they are
black, to establish a government of com
plexion, not OF opinion. The purpose of
the bill was that the law of the land must
be suborned to set enmitY between the
white man and the black man. Pass this
bull, and the right OF the people to choose
their representatives, that right prec;o Is
and priceless to every lover Of liberty, was
lost beyond recovery. At the conclusion
of his speech Turpie received the congrat-
ulations of his Democratic colleagues, and
the senate adjourned.