The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-07-21
INDIAN AND NEGRO SOLDIERS.
The Indian Proves Failure While
the NEGRO Has Improved.

The Indian Proves Failure While
the Negro Has Improved.
Maitland, Fla, July 20-I am not sur
prised that the government at Washing
ton has finally concluded to drop the In
dian from theC army as a soldier. For
more than fifty years l have known him,
in peace and in war, in his own wild state
of living and as civilized member Of
white communities, and my opinion of
him has been slowly and surely formed
during that half century of close obser-
walton and intimate experience.
The Great Creator of the Universe never
intended that the Indian should become a
white man, in the sense of forming a part
and parcel of strictly white community
adopting its ways of living, etc. There
are traits in the Indian character put
there by Gods own decree. that no earth
ly power ever has eradicated, or ever will
be able, in my humble judgment to
eradicate The red man may abandon his
wgwam for a cottage, his leather trap
pings and beads for modern wardrobe
his bow and arrow for the hoe and the
harrow and live, move and breathe, ap-
parently, like the white man, and yet the
instincts of the Indian character will re-
main, however much they may be hidden
from observation. f.
/ [ know that the venerable and beloved
Bishop H. b. Whipple of Minnesota. and
other missionary workers, hold opposite
views on this subject. But l have test
ed the matter in various
tribes and under widely diff
! ferent circumstances, and the result
has always been the same. The Indian
traits were bound TO come to the front and
assert themselves. This is true of the
males with hardly an exception, but the
females are susceptible OF a more complete
civilization. Some of our best and most
devoted white women missionaries have
married highly educated and converted In
dams only TO find that enough of the In
dian nature sim remained in their hus-
bands TO make their union unbearable No
amount of so-called civilizat ton and Chris
uanizihs can make an Indian treat his
white wife in a proper manner
In otner respects the Indian character is
! beyond the power Of civilizing and disci-
| plining influences aid to this fact Is due
! his failure to become useful as soldier
in our regular army. While the negro has
/ proven himself capable of a high state OF
civilization, and has made a fine soldier in
war or in peace. the Red man has proved
a woeful failure.
| Only one Indian has ever graduated al
West Point Military Academy, while sew
! eral negroes have passed successfully
| through that institution and become Off
| GERS in the regular army. David Moniac.
| whose mother was a Creek Indian. mar
ried to Scotchman in Alabama, gradIa-
| ted the last but one in a class of fortv
members in 1922 Henry @. Ripper of
/ ThomasYille, Ga, the first negro to grad
uate stood fifty in class of seyenty-six,
I graduated i'm 1877, having a higher class
! standing than the two while cadets from
| Georgia Although Moniac was appointed
! a brevet second lieutenant in the Sixth
| United States Infantry, he never entered
! the army, but resigned at the end of his
! leave of absence. However, in the F1orl-
| da Indian war ne took service as captain
! of mounted Creek volunteers, in August
| 1896, and three months later was promoted
| major He was killed at the head of his
| command in the battle of Wahoo Swamp
| Nov. 81 1886, aged "a years; thus making
| a good record for himself as a soldier.
| AS early in the civil war as January 1853
! just after the issuing of the proclama ton
| of emancipation, in a private and conf
! dentiaI' letter to Gen. John A Dix, seek
! ing advice, President Abraham Lincoln
! suggested the use of negro soldiers, and
! proposed to garrison Fortress Monroe with
| them and put the white troops into the
| field. Gen. Dix opposed the proposition,
| but suggested that the garrison at York
town might be half negro and half white
! soldiers. '"The eXpediency of employing
! colored troops, says Gen Dix, was very
| seriously questioned on political grounds
After June. of that year. when colored
! troops had been tested I'm the heat of bat
! tie, Gen. Dix says the doubt as to their
! efficiency" was very quickly dispelled.
! Since then the army of the United States
! has never had less than four regiments OF
! well drilled colored troops.
! In March 1865, the officers of the Forty
ninth Georgia Infantry, in the Confederate
| service, proposed a plan TO Gen. r. r. Lee
! for filing up their depleted companies
| with negro recruits. Col. j. T. Jordan, as
commander of the regiment, approved the
| plan, as did Gen. e. l.. Thomas, brigade
] commander; Gen. c. NJ. Wilcox, division
commander and Gen. Harry Heth, corps
! commander; Mai. Mark Newman of San
| dersville. Ga, was the adjutant and he
| saved this proposition and Gen. Lees re-
| sponse which suggested a consolidation
! Of the ten white companies into six, and
| then recruit four negro companies. But
! the surrender of Lee came so soon after
| that this and other plans to recruit negro
| troops into the Confederate Army were
not put into operation. Yet, both armies
| finally acknowledged the worth of the ne
! gro as soldiers. And so we see in the
| present war how ready white officers are
| TO command colored troops.
IT, II