Indian chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1882-1902, 1895-03-07
M0RGAN'S GREAT SPEECH
Continued from Page One.

territory. There was scarcely a
single store in the Cherokee nation
which was not robbed. A great
many of the very best citizens in
the country were met upon the
highway and robbed. On the day
of the distribution of the money
at a place within two miles of the
telegraph and the capital of the
Cherokee nation, an Indian came
riding down the road. He found p
couple of commercial drummers in
wagon of some kind. He shot
one and arrested them both, and
robbed them. Going on down the
road he found very respectable
young man with his mother in a
wagon. His mother was q woman
very much beloved in the country
In his effort to shoot the young
man the Indian killed the old lady
in the wagon. The young man
took up his gun and killed the In
dian and his horse.
Such things go on there in the
presence of courts and judges, who
have not the viii or the power.
either, TO administer justice. Such
mockery of justice exposes
human life to greater danger than
IL there were no courts i'm the ter
ritory. Then men would not rely
upon the courts. They would rely
upon the power of self. defense, and
these murderers and marauders
who go about there aud attack
every body, day and night, railroad
trains and everything else, might
become afraid to do such things in
the event that they knew men
would go armed for them and
would not rely upon the courts for
their protection.
In an effort to relieve this siiun.
tion we established two courts, one
at Fort Smith and the otner at
Paris, and also a court of limited
jurisdiction in the territory. Who
ever speaks of those courts, and
the testimony abounds in every in.
vestigation ever made in that coun.
try, says it is an enormou cruelty
upon the people. The marshals
60 out with their deputies, having
a hundred deputies at their com
mand to send TO different parts of
the country. They pick up this
man or that man or the other maH
to take down to court. There may
be a large number OF witnesses to
go. The marshal makes slow
circultous movement through the
country with his caravan, picking
up prisoners and witnesses, camp
ing at that place and the other,
and after while he wheels into
Fort Smith with brigade Of peo-
pie following him. When he
comes to make up his accounts he
has so much tor catching a man,
SO much for the nights entertain
ment in camp, so much travel per
mile. He makes his money by
thus going around among the peO.
pie and collecting prisoners and
witnesses and carrying them TO
court from various distances, anv.
where from ten to two hundred
miles | am informed that one of
them sent a bill for his personal
fees in single year which amount.
ed to s25, 200.
The expenses fthe courts down
there have simply been enormous.
There is no occasion for carrying
those people outside of the Indian
Territory to get juries no better
than they can find inside and
judges who are no better. There
is no reason for removing justice
from the door OF the culprit be.
cause you want to take him into
strange land and punish him. If
justice is worth anything it is be-
cause it seats itself where it is
within easy reach of the appeal Of
the innocent and where the guilty
will teel that there is present IN
the community power and an in
strumentality that is not to be set
aside.
Justice does not protect people
by running Of from them hun.
dred or two hundred miles to hold
its court in some other country or
some other place The United
States government can not protect
the people in that kind OF a way,
no matter what the expense may
be or even what the economy
might be, if there were any ecOno-
my aboutit. 1t would be failure
OF justice, because the influence
and effect of justice is not felt
among the people. Under such
circumstances the whole advantage
of four judicial system is lost.
obtained from the department
of justice a statement Of the ex-
penses Of those two courts. The
expense of the district court il
western Arkansas for the fiscal
year 1894 was sl89, $40 IA, in the
Indian Territory slS6 ,00S. .66, in
eastern Texas sl95, 55S 40, making
s57l ,437 20. That amount is be-
slowed upon the trial of a compar.
atiYely small number OF cases. The
convictions in one court were 80, in
another perhaps a little over a hun.
dred, but all together the convic.
tions, most of them | think for re-
failing whisky and offenses Of that
kind would not amount perhaps to
more than three Oi four hundred
out OF population which Mr..
Dawes states is 250, 900 The cen
sus returns show differently. /
will put b, fore the senate the cor
rect statement from the census OF
1890. II shows that the total
population of all races i'm the five