The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-01-24
SUNDAY, JANUARY e4, 1904.
NOTIONS ABOUT INDIANS.

1t is sometimes interesting to read opin- Ions held by eminent statesmen less than a century ago relative to the American Indians. The question of origin and re- lationship was discussed then just as now. ana in 1872 John Adams used this lan- guage in letter to Thomas Jefferson:
 Whether serpents' teeth were sown here and sprung up men; whether men and women dropped from the clouds upon this Atlantic Island; whether ether the he Aimighty cd from Europe. are questions of no mo- ment to the present or future happiness of man. Neither agriculture, commerce, 1nanufactures fisheries. science, literature, taste, religion. morals nor any other good will be promoted, or any evil averted by any discoveries that can be made in an- ewer to these questions.
 in some respects We haven't advanced much. True. we now take no stock in the suspicion that some CadmuE sowed drag on's teeth (not serpents) and thus pro duced Indians. the original teeth sprang up into Spartoi. or Spartans, nor do we admit the theory that they dropped from the clouds, but as to the real origin of the American Indians students are al- most asmuch in doubt as Adams seems to have been. But there are still to be found ethnologists who argue that our predeces- sors on the continent were created here, while others are able to find many points of resemblance to the peoples of the old world. However that may be there are few who will now subscribe to the mar row view held by Adams, that there is nothing to be gained by a study of these questions.
 And, speaking of Indians, we have lately seen a portion of a letter written by an Indian agent (whose name Is not given) stationed at Fort Wayne, Indiana. The letter was written in 1Sl5 addressed to William H. Crawford, Secretary of War, and the agent writes:
 It Is much cheaper reducing them (the IndIans) by meat and bread than by force of arms; and from the observations I have had the opportunity of making three or four months full feeding on meat and bread, even without ardent spirits, will bring on disease, and in six or eight months. great mortality. And would 1t be considered a proper mode of warfare? ? l believe more Indians might be killed with the expense of one hundred thousand dollars in this way than one million dol lars expended in the support of armies to go against them.
 How is that for refinement of cruelty? Evidently this agent thought the para mount duty of our government in dealing with the Indians was to get them off the face of the earth as rapidly as possible, and he seemed to be of the opinion that Killing them with kindness was a solemn Christian duty. Much better, according to his theory, and likewise much cheaper to stun them till they died of disease than to waste good powder and lead killing them. wen wager that this agent was of Puritan stock.
 And yet. in one form or another, oul government has continued to treat the In. dians almost as badly as this agent pro. posed to do. They have been driven out in one place, crowded back in another penned up in another, and in many re. spects treated as though they were only an incumbrance to be gotten rid of in the most effective manner. In truth our gov. ernment hasn't improved much on the Ideas of the Fort Wayne fellow, in some respects