The intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1887-1891, 1891-01-10
THE EXrIRPATION OF A RACE.

this Indian war-war, so called, but,
In TACT, the inexorable humiliation OF a
race. To call it a war is to dignity
murder. To call it a campaign is to
give responsibility to a man hunt. The
thing is Invested of the glory of war
and partakes of the brutality of a
buffalo chase. The human herd is
surrounded, badgered, desperate, while
the great army of the great United
States %leisurely empties its repeating
rifles into the deienseless throng, and a
valiant troop, holiday capsrlsoned,
rides in aud out among the struggling
w~retches, ingloriously practicing saber
thrust and parry.
And then what is accomplished? Ex-
termination. A great business for a
great government
This is the last Indian war. When
it is finished and the dainty West
Pointer having fieshed his sword in
unconGuered blood. returns 1t to its
doughty scabbard, binds about his
brow a doubtful chaplet, and retires to
his barracks to recount his deeds OF
prowess and pose as a ~"veteran CAM
paigner," a mighty race will have
persisted from the face of the earth.
History may not embalm in undimmed
glory the names and heroism of the
exterminators; but it will make all
epoch, the most pitiful of its kind, of
The ruthless extinction of the most
interesting and poetic people of earth.
Let us be just. What is the record?
The Indians have been cruel, savage.
They have practiced the most bar
barous of ~cruelties upon enemies and
captives. They have lett arson, mur-
der, rapine in their trail. They have
impeded "eivilization." They were in
the way of progress"
But who taught them these?
Who gave them provocation7
Who called up the soul OF the whirl-
wind?
For answer we should be d%iscreetly
silent. From the lanuing of the pill
grim fathers, pious tyrants, and the
settlement of jamestown we have been
little better than q horde OF robbers, no
less than Huns. There never has been
q time when we have not been unjust,
aggressors. We found a gentle, peace
iul race; innocent, religious after its
simple fashion, un%suspecting, wonder
Ing, credulous and hospitable. 1t has
been four hundred years since the
white man touched elbows with this
picturesque people-four hundred years
since we introduced among them the
carts of civilization" And the result?
Marvellous transformation The gen.
tlest of races has become savage; the
most peaceful has become barbarous.
Within the brief history of the con-
tInent the white man has come In con-
tact with two races. OF one he made
a slave, and because 1t could be made
slave he invested 1t with citizenship
and equality. The other, because he
could not enslave it and debase it's
manhood, he doomed to determination.
What we cannot utilize or make sub
servient we destroy. The sarcasm of
our civilization exalts servility and
annihilates manhood. The negro is
act above the Indian. The result is
homogeneous and monstrous; but it is
fact, nevertheless. L. our civilization
a delusion? Is the breath of the white
noxious with moral pe~stllence?
There is something wrong somewhere.
The individual will acknowledge as
The nation has no conscience, |
hence no concessions.
But we have abused hospitality,
practiced rapacity, gratified cupidity,
crowded, encroached upon,
invaded, robbed, plundered and mnr-
dered the Indians from time out of
MUD. Our touch brutalized him, and
our injustice made of him a savage.
Nothing of his original nature has been
left to him except his virile manhood.
This remaining, he has fought and died
every ambuscade from the ALE.
= hanies to the Sierras, and on the
.esolate plateaus OF the Bad Lands be
is making his last stand.
Yet in all these years of outrage and
brutality there has not been emit rely
ex%tinguished within him a crude spirit
Of religion. Ills faith In the Great
Spirit has remained. The influence OF
q mysterious power is still upon him
aud about him. He clings to deliver
ance. Starved by the agents of the
government, hunted by the soldiery,
this little, forlorn remnant of q mighty
from the sunset hills where 1t has
taken its last stand and built its funeral
pyre, looks with appealing eyes to the
heavens for the coming of the Messiah.
Blind faithl He has come In the form
Of shot and bayonet and fame of bat.
tie. This appeal to heaven is q menace
to progress" and the government
DEGREES the penalty of death. The
becomes immortal. But what
Of the butcher2
We have at last robbed the Indian of
everything and driven him to the
precipice. There is nothing left upon
which to crafty cupidity or to fatten
revenge. The wretch is in our way.
We cannot "civilize' him. Let us kill
him. There are no game laws TO pro-
.ect this human quarry.
This is the philosopy OF our states.
nanship and the product of our civil.
Somewhere in the divine
economy there is planted an avsnging
Nemesis. Does 1t come to nations as
veil as to individuals?
Hon. b. f. Hughes, the representa-
tive from DeKalb county in the Mis-.
ouri legislature, Is a nephew of Col.