| OCR Text |
Show I 4 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. Apaches. This wmt of completeness and consistency in the treatment of the indiau tribes by the Government'has been made the occasion of much ridicule and partisan abuse; and it is indeed calculated to pro-voke criticism and to afford scope for satire; but it is none the less compatible with the highest expediency of the situation. It is, of course, hopelessly illogical that the expenditures of the Government should be proportioned not to the good but to the ill desert of the several tribes ; that large bodies of lndians should be supported in entire indolence by the bounty of the Government simply because they are audacious and insolent, while wel1:disposed Indiaus are only assisted to self-mainte-nance, sinccitis known they will not fight. It is hardly less thau ahsurd, on the first view of it, that delegations from tribes that have frequently defied our authority and fought our troops, and have never yielded more than a partial and grudging obedience to the most reasonable reqnire-ulents of the Government, should be entertained at the national capital, feasted, and loaded with presents. There could be no better subject for the lively pa~agraphist in his best estate, or for the heavy editorial writer on a (lull news d a ~t,h an such a course o n t he part of the Gov-ernment. These things ca,n be made to a,ppear vastly amusiug, and the unreflecting are undoubtedly influenced iu a great degree to the pre-judice of the Indian policy by theiuoessaut small-armsfire of squibsand epigrams, even more perhaps than by the ponderous artillery of argu-ment and invective directed against it. And yet, for all this, the Qov- i eromeut is right and its critics wrong; and the "Indian policy" is sonnd, sensible, and beneficent, because it reduces to the miniulum the lotis of life and property upon our fronlier, and allows the freest devel-opment of our settlements and railways possibleunder thecircumstances. The mistake of those who oppose the present Indian policy is not in erroneously applying to the course of the Government the standard they have ta,ker~b, ut in taking an altogether false standard for thepur-pose. It is not a whit more ul~reasoyablet hat the Government should do much for hostile Indiaus and little for friendly Indiaus thau it is that a private citizen should, to save his life, surrender all the contents of his purse to a highwayman; while on another occasion, to a distressed and deserving applicant for charity, he would measure his contribution by his means and disposition at the time. There is precisely the same justification for the course of the Government in feeding saucy and mis-chievous Indians to repletion, while permitting more tractable and peaceful tribes to gather a bare subsistence by hard work, or what to an Indian is hard work. It is not, of course, to be understood that the Government of the United States is at the mercy of Indians; bat thousands of its c~tizeusa re, even thousands of families. Their exposed sit.uatiou on the extreme veree of settlementaftords a sufllcient iustifi- ~ ~ ~ - " c.irio~to~ the Go\.ernnl~ntf or bu~iugce tf thr llu~tilityo i the S I I Y ~ I ~ V exvited and exaspelxtr~l as they arr, a~ltl most untur;lllg so, 111 tLv ill-vasiun of their I I I I ~ ~ ~ I I P - a~n~d IthI e~ t~hJr r ; ~ r r ~e~xttdiu ctio~o~f rrtmr. It wollld req~~iornee l;;l;dred thol~sa!ld tr~,>l)ast I~.ast1 0 form :I ty,rdon I)ehir1(1w hicl~o ur set t le~~~eenout slt l advance with the exteot of range, tile r~~~restraicuhrodi ceoflorar~on.thet iec~lrirrofli'eli~~~'t.b:~cufrde ~~dorn of movelueut which 11;rrc rh;~mcr~rizeth(le &osvrb o f ? h paat t111.reu r fimr years. In~leedt, he prrsence of no rnilltary force 1:otlld give that coufidt~~~toc ur~ ioucrre ntel,oriso which the etnrrwl censarion oi lndinu hostilities hasenge~dered.M~e n of an adfenturous cast will live and work behind a line of troops with, it is possible, some exhilaration of feeling on that account; but, as ;rule, men willnot place women and children in situations of even possible peril, nor will they put money |
