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Show 24 REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. ously murdered under all the guarantees of peace. Of these butchered bodies twenty-one were those of women, one of a boy, and one of an aged man. Further search re-vealed yet more dreadful facts. It was found that many more had been slaughtered. A hundred or more had been missed, but were supposed to be carried off as prisoners, for the slavery which, in those wild and distant regions, yet lingers to ollvnd Heaven; but of those some sixty- three were found to have been murdered, like the preceding, and still the great preponderance was of women. From these facts, officially certified to their authorities by officers in command upon the spot, it is evident that another great crime has been committed. The former unpunished massacres, against which the commission has heretofore made earnest pro-test, have borne their natural fruit, and the blood of the helpless, slain in mere wanton vengeance and hate, once more cries to Heaven against all who do not, by an energetic remonstrance, wash their hands of it. Fellow- citizens, does such a deed demand many words to express its true character, or call for any eloquent amplification to make it felt ? Shame on us if it is so. Shame on us if our hearts do not respond to the feeblest voice, and thrill at the tamest appeal that condemns such outrages. I add two or three remarks in conclusion. 1. We repeat our conviction that Indian wars and disturbances arise not out of the brutal savagery of the Indian, but out of the frauds and crimes of the depraved frontier population. We believe, with increasing confidence, that the way to prevent or to suppress them is to show forbearance, to exercise patience, and, above all, to maintain good faith, and to do justice to the Indian. 2. Next, we call upon all good men to join with us in the expression of their convic-tion. We beseech you to give heed to this cry which again and again conscience hears from the dumb lips of the slain. Ought not all men of humane hearts to unite in demanding of our Representatives and Senators a policy of kindness and generosity in appropriations which shall inaugurate an era of promise and hope for the Indian, and guard him from the ruthless hands which seek thus remorselessly to cut him down f Let us send plows and seed, let us send cattle and implements above all, let us send honest and faithful agents and teachers, who will carry cultivation and education to these poor sons of the forest and the prairie. Let good men arouse themselves from apathy, and, instead of sneers and neglect, let the interests of these unfortunates have outspoken sympathy and earnest thought for their relief. 3. We call on the Government to punish this atrocious outrage on its good name and on its helpless prisoners. The good faith of our Government is foully wronged by this deed of blood. It has pledged itself for the protection of these people, and, whatever their interests may be worth, its good name and good faith are precious. Let it, then, hunt out and punish these fiends in human shape. They are not the peaceable and orderly citizens of the Territory, but the outlaws and criminals who have devised and perpetrated: this atrocity. The gamblers and murderers who have been driven out by vigilance com-mittees from the more accessible portions of that western country, have fled to Arizona, and congregated there, and are the terrors of that infant community. I hold in my hand a report from the Indian agency in New Mexico, which declares that many of the crimes which are attributed to Indians" in that neighborhood are instigated by these men, Mexi-can or American. Sometimes they are not only the instigators but the perpetrators as well. They disguise themselves as Indians and run off the stock of the industrious settler ; and no one will welcome the effort to suppress and punish these pests of the new set-tlements more warmly than the honest and laborious settlers themselves. We call on the Government to stretch forth its arm and see if it cannot reach these wretches and bring them to the punishment they deserve. Why, if a tribe of Indians had perpe-trated such a wrong on our citizens, there would be no hesitation about the result. There would be law enough and force enough in the hands of the Government to pur-sue such a marauding horde to the farthest wilds of the continent and do a retribution that would ring through the land. The Government has done as much for far lighter sins. Where is the arm of its power now ? Shall these men walk abroad in that laud which they have defiled with blood, and boast of their guilt ? ME. W. E. DODGE said that he had met these Indians in their own country, and before speaking they always went round and shook hands with him. ( Mr. Dodge then shook hands with each Indian.) He then said that, as one of the commissioners sent to visit the Indians, he had seen these sons of the forest in their home. The Indians had told the audience a simple story, but it was the story of two hundred years ago. Ever since the landing of our ancestors on the Plymouth Rock the Indians have had the same tale to tell. It was not too late for the nation to do something for the little tribo of Indians that were left. Where were the Mohawks and the Six Nations, of this State, whom Mr. Cooper remembered in his youth ? They were all swept away. 13y far the. larger portion of the land which the great American people boasted was now theirs was once the ground of the noble sons of the forest. The poor Indian was driven hither and thither by tho |
