The Helena independent., 1892-07-05

Subject Of an Grafton at Woodstock, Conn
by Com missioner Morgan

| Subject OF an Grafton at Woodstock, Conn.,,
by Com missioner Morgan.
WOODSTOCK, Conn.,. July 4.-Henry @.
Bowen. proprietor Of the New York Inde-
pendent, held tho usual Independence day
exercises here. A large number of people
gathered to hear the distinguished speakers
who were invited for the occasion. Score
tary of the Navy B. +. Tracy, was the chief
speaker. taking as his subject. "The Presi-
Dental Office" Other speakers were At
torney- General Miller, Hon. w. z. Frye,
who spoke on American Shipping" and
Morgan. whose subject was "Our Indian
Fellow-Citizens." Mr.. Morgan said, in
part:
"Our treatment Of the American Indians
has been anomalous; We have proceeded,
apparently, upon the assumption that thsv
could not be assimilated; have accordingly
barred the way to their citizenship. and in
stead Of welcoming them into our family
| have persisted in treating them as aliens.
| As natural consequence, while all the va
ried streams of foreign immigration have
mingled in one great current of national
deeper and broader in its course, the Indi-
! ans. for the most part, have maintained q
separate existence. The currents of their
tribal lives have flowed along independent
| ly. side by aide with the national current,
| touching it here and there but seldom
minRlinR and never becoming lost in it.
in many respects the Indians Of to-day
are rs distinct in their life. their manners.
customs. traditions, hopes and aspirations
rs they were when the white man. first set
foot on American soil. They a: Q peculiar
people, standing aloof and cherishinR
toward us, in many cases, a bitter hostility.
They have. as a people, contributed little
or nothing to our national development;
have participated but meagrsly in our pros
perity; have little desire to profit by our ex-
ample or experience.
"There has been reasons for our treat
mont of tho Indians. treatment which differs
SO radically Fl ON that accorded to people of
other nationalities. When our fathers
landed upon these shores they found here
people wholly strange and apparently
sepat ated from themselves by an impossible
gulf. Their characters we're 80 antaQonistic
and their habits so irreoonoilable with their
own, and their numbers 80 far exceeded
that of the new comers, that ii naturally
seemed to them almost impossible that the
Indians should become incorporated with
them and share in the developement of the
new CIVILIZATION that was to be unfolded on
this continent.
The increasing domand for the Indian
lands necessitated by the extension of the
colonies, and the methods taken 10 secure
these lands, and especially the enforced
miRration. frequently under peculiar hard
ships, BY which the Indians were removed
from place to place; the hasty and often
unwise treaties made with them only to be
broken, and tue unavoidable conflicts that
arose between the advancing host and the |
retiring RED men, kindlsd anew from timo
to time the smoulderinR fires of hatred. and |
postponed farther and farther the day of |
reconciliation and friendship.
'The result Of this unequal struggle has |
been OF recessity the triumph Of the su-
rerior raoe. ths appropriation Of the coun- |
try to the needs Of the expanding nation, |
tho restriction Of the Indians TO narrower |
and narrower limits. the destruction of |
their once proud independence. their sub |
ju0ation to agency rule. tho breaking Of |
their spirit aud the depletion of their num- |
bsEs. Thers have bssa wars, hloodahsd, I