Indian chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1882-1902, 1900-06-21
INDIAN TITLES UNSOUND
Townsend's Estimate of the
Tribal Patent.

non-citizens the permit tax on
stock, and one per cent ad valor.
um on merchants, says;
"In announcing his conclusions,
Judge Townsend sdverted to the
enormous expense which has been
entailed upon the United States
government in its efforts to settle
Indian Territory affairs, and ere.
ated som, amusement by saying
that, ha congress absolutely di-
vested the Indians of title to their
lands, Gas he believed il had a right
to do) opened the same to white
settlement, and boarded the In.
dians at the Fifth Avenue hotel,
New York, it would have been a
stroke Of economy for the people
Of the United States"
This old sally Of humor at the
expense Of Poor Lo has become go
stale upon the lips Of civilization
that one would have thought it
altogether incompetent Of exciting
a ripple Of merriment anywhere.
We can read ofthe man Jefireys
and his behavior on the bench,
only with feelings Of disgust and
execration. The odium which has
followed his name for more than
two hundred years, and which de-
serve no mitigation from the heal
ing power Of time, all grew out of
the fact that he failed to conine
his official action within the limits
Of the judicial function; he prosti-
tuted the powers of his court TO
xtra-judicial matters--to selfish
and political purposes. No magis-
trate can venture to initiate his
example in any degree without in
curing, in some measure, the PEN
atty which mankind has adjudged,
in the Englihman's case, to be due
to such folly.
What would have been the most
economical course for the govern
ment to pursue in settling up the
affairs Of the territory, is not a
legal, but a legislative Cif not a
political, question. What logical
connection it had with the issue
before the court-whether Indian
taxes should be collected or not
is not easy TO see.
There is only too great a tend
ency in the federal courts, where
Indian rights chance to come in
conflict with popular conside'a.
tions, to resolve themselves into
quasi. legislative bodies, or into
something like political conven'
tion, and shape their judgments
according to what they conceive
the law ought to have been; or, il
according to what the law really
is, yet not without loading the
opinion, in the latter case, with
such popular arguments as are
thought sufficient to coax the .eyis
lature, at an early date, to inter
fere and reform the statute Il
agree with the judicial predilec
tions.
1t was heartless in Judge Town
send to remind us Indians, in thii
magisterial way, of our compare
tive littleness. o, it is all tru'
enough We know right we'll tha
the great American eagle cal
swoop down upon us any day AM
seize our lamb and our pig and fl.
away with them in spite Of all tha
VIC can do to prevent him; bu
what has all that to do with tn
strength of the title to these land
which we now own and occupy2
Nothing could please us so wei
as to see Judge Townsend step ou
bravely from under the wings Q
that great bird, and, meeting thes
Indians upon the fair level
rational law and common sense
attempt to show them, by logica
demonstration, how it is tha
congress has the right to dives
them absolutely of their title I
: these lands" His method {
t ratiocination, we ween, would b
. like all the rest Of the civilize
arguments on that side of th
, question-an intellectual curiosity
3 No; that is thing that Judg
/ Townsend cannot do. His esgl
/ may fly away with our lambs an
I our pigs; but even this live stoc
, is still ours, although it may hay
been digested in the capacious gil
zard, assimilated and become
, component part Of his own feathe
ed constitution. He may, il
true, beat us out OF the use OF ou
property; but the "litle" in th
! Language of the great Jackson,
ours, "as long as grass grows an
water runs" Too Qua STEE.
With democratic Yotin