40

hzve eser.h+ ptriotic ras2rv+ ancl have treateri their opponents with aa individual and as a member of Grants Cabinet, whose mays the people
praiseworthy generosity during the whole course of the negotiations, and approved, and not those of the Great Unknown, who a a s selected as a mere
.
ihis generosity towards opponents in critical times of foreign policy is one standard-bearer under my general command what can the President
-of the most pleasing traits of English political life. Party d8erences
.
it and reply to ?
factiobs disturbanc,esare alvays set aside when the energies of the Ministry
NR. EOLLYS PAPERS IN ITARPBBS H2.GAZIfV..
are taxed by matters of European interest, The -Ministry gets fair play,
and is supported emn through its faultsby the Opposition until the crisis is To TEE EDITUR
OF THE XATIOX
:
past-and
then comes theretrikuliogandthe
conntry r i m up in its
Sm: A corresponclent in your issne of June 26 complains of my
math and dismisses the faltering Ministry without mercy. .
Iadapting too freely from English authors and artists in my article on
The present times are critical, and the Yinistry is allowed full swing to (Modern Dwellings in Harpers N~gcuzine. I t is true that I made excarry out: its policy, if it has one. No one outside the Cabinet has an tensive use oEastlakes works and those of other authors, $ut it was my
idding as to what is goingon. Two facts alone are ascertained-the pre- intention wherever I did so to give full credit. If I failed in any case to
sence of o w fleet in Besika Bay and our refusal to sign the last Berlin do so, it was through inadvertence.
Note. T h a t these facts betoken we do not lcnow, and we do not yet enSome of my designs weKe copied from Messrs.Cox L Sons advertising
quire. The difficulty which the Government has to meet is this : i t llas Lo catalogue. I mentioned their names in this connection, but did not give
thwart any designs of Russia upon Constantinople, and it has to dp so them as ample credit as seemcd to me to be proper. Discovering this after
without alienating the Christian races. It has to apllear to be tlie Iriend of my second article was printed, I wrote to their agent, promising t o make
the Yoslemites and the friend of the Christians i t the same time. Bnt for whatever reparation I could. I found it impossible to do this in the subssour dread of Russian designs upon Constantinople, and our knowledge of p e n t articles, as they were in a part of the Mizgc&m that was already
Russian intrigue to fomeut the revolution in order to carry out these de- stereotyped. I then promised to give them credit in my forthcoming book. .
signs,our sympathies would be entirely anti-Noslemite. A nation that
The Nessrs. Harper Glso gave them credit i n their Teekty. The omission
sympskhizecl with the Poles, and with the Hungarians, and with the Ita- of credit in the first instance was not designed, and no one regret,s it more
lians, and with every other oppressed nationality which hasstruggled
than I do.
Yours respectfully, .
H. HEDSON
EIOLLY.
against despotism duringthe present century, could never hesitate as to
NET PORI%,
July 14, 1676.
which side it would take in the struggle which is just commencing. But
the aggrandizing designs of Russia, and the underhand part dildomatists
LITERARY COMITY.
hare been playing among these Eastern states, have, for the time a t least,
OF TH$
:
.dried up thenatural fountain-head of our sympathies. Our Ninistry, To THB EDITOR
terefore, have to order their policy so as to guide our better nature and our
SIR: Does the notice, All rights reserved, on the tible-page of a pubpolitical interests into one channel. It isno easy task. I t requires the lication convey any intimation which other pnblishers are bound in law or
caution of Lord Derby and the dash of Nr. Disraeli, but they must both be courtesy to respect ?
wisely.regu1ated. It: we are too cautious, weshaLI be le,t out in the cold
I mill particularize. Kot loig ago there appeared i n a periodica,l pnband isolated. If we are mild or hneiful, me shall beat the throat of Rus- lished in England and the United States, and bearing on its title-page the
sia,backing up the effete despotism of Turkey. Thestirring-up of the abovenotice, an article in whichmer& contained, sundry unknown, or
Christian races is the elererest stroke that Russian policy has plqed, but it almost unlmown, pieces by an American poet dead many years ago. The
is a trifle dangerous. If the GhTistians succeed, the confederatiou w&gh writer of the article sentme advance-sheets,transferred all his rights to me,
must come out of their success= will be a-forinidable burier beLween Rus- and ,requested me for certain sufficient reasons to copyright these poems.
sia and the prize she has so long coveted. If they fail:. aud the Turks be This I did, covering them with a pblishers copyright. victorious, foreign intervention must eusne. Germany and Anstria will
So soon as the periodical containing tliem vas published, a daily paper
. be consulted ; and it does not seem probable that Qerrnsny would wish to of some repute, disregarding the notice on the title-pzge, transferred these
see the Dunube transformed into a Russian river, or that Austria woulcl poems to itscolumns if they were public property.:
regard with complacency
presence of Russian cohorts on her flank. I n
About the law there is no question ;but the point on which I wish to be
neither eventuality is it Iikely that Russia will draw the prim
informed is this : Am I right or wrong in considering this &ion a violation
of literary comrly ?-I am, sir, etc.,
Wu. H m BROWNE.
~

Jdy

SOXETIMELY ENQUIRIES.
T O THE EDITOR OF THENATION :
- SIR: As a Republican, I am pleased to know that you find some cause
for-satisfactioninthcletter
of acceptance of Gov. Hayes. As thereare
s3me points on which I am in some doubt, I take the-liberty of asking the
following questions :
1.Can Gov. Hayes possibly be sincere when he endorses the present
Administration by approving the resolutions of the Convention which nominated him, ancl when he declares fFr civil-service- reiorm ? And if not,
which declaration may we rely upon as embodying his real sentiments ?
2. Is not the spectacle of a Cabinet minister acting as chairman of a
party campzign committee, ancl taking charge of the canvass for the party,
in itsdf a great civil-service scandal ?
3. When the canyass fol-a Presidentia.1 candid& is entrn+d to a man
as chief manager whose position a,s a Cabinet officer, underany proper
civi! service, mould preclub his meddling with it, and who notoriously
f x years has scorned and ridicrded civil-sewice reform, is not the fact a
more rdirtble indication of-the kind of civil-service reform we shall have in
case of success than any mere promises of the candidate can possibly he ?
In, ot5er words,%hen. a party resolves for a reform through a certain
ele:ti3?, and then proopxes to effect the eleotion by a method which makes
the resolee a aockery, does not this promise a continuance of scandals
rather thau reformation ?
4. When, after the election, President Hsyes calls upon Mr. Ch9ndler
as a subordinat? to reform his mays, and Nr. Chandler replies, It was 1
who took cliarge of this election and made it a success, and it was 4 . 5 s
,

c
I

THE HUE-AXD-CRY AGAINST T H E INDIANS.

EDITOROF THE NATION
:SIR : The destruction of General Custer and his command must be regarded as a calamity to the Indiansas well to the nation. It precipitates
anew uponthe tribes concerned the awakenedwrath of the American people ;
it aggravates the difficulties of our Indian affairs, a t all times great enough ;
and it reveals the %act that the intelligence of the Government has not bee11
equal to the aanagement of these affairs. This last statement has been
true from and including the Administration of General Jackson.
The press are now opening upon the Indians generally, and with a hneand-cry in particular for the extermination of those tribes who lmve dared
tr, raise their hands against the gallant soldiers of the Republic, ~ v h omere
in the field in obedience to its commands. The views of our official teachers
of the press have at least the merit of going to t h e bottom of the question.
That dead men give no trouble is an adage as true of Indians as of other
men.Moreover, it is an advantage t o start with a form of statement
strongly against the Indians. The destructioq of &nerd Custer m d his
oommand is pronounced a massacre by some of tnese journals. The term
thus used precludes.extenuation ; for a massacre is a slaughter with uudisximinating violence, without autliority or necessity, and contrary to the
usages of nations. No one could raise his voice in behalf of Indians ~vho
have committed such an act. But what are the facts in this casc ? Gengral .
Cnster, a t the head of three hundred cavalry, rode into an Indianencampment of twenty-five hundred Indian warriors, and without preliminariej,
LS we must suppose, commenced an attack.
He intended to rout tliy
?ncampment, men,women, and children, and kill dl mho resisted without
Iesihtion and without remorse. Unfortunately or General Cnster and hi;
To

THE

41

men, they encountered the bravest and most determined Indians now.living
in America. They were surrocndecl and clcfeatecl, SO that not a man escaped.
They experienced the precise fate they intended for the Indians. We admire
the gallantry of Genera.1 Custer and his men ; we mourn their loss ; but
who shall %lame the Sioux for defending themselves, their wives and children, when attacked in their own encampment and threatened with deslrt1ction ? This calamity is simply a chance ofwar-of
a war waged by
our Government upon these Indians, nothing more and nothing less. For
its moral character we must look to the motives which prompted our Government in itscommencement.
There are some eight or ten tribes of the Sioux or Dakotas now-living
between the Nissouri River and the Rocky Mountains, in the area from
Platte River on the south to the country of the Crom Indians on the north.
They were forced upon the Plains from their original homes on the headmaters of the ?Hississippi, and betreen this river and the Nissouri, by the
advancing tide of white settlers who demanded their lands. Minnesota was
formed out of their posseFsions. They were thus compelled to change their
country as well as their plan of Me, and from settlements more or less permanent in villages to live in roving camps on the Plains. Ravinglearned to
raise horses in herds, they are nom mounted and nomadic tribes, living in
tents and following the herds of wildbnffalo, npon which they depend
almost exclusively for subsistence. They raise nothing by cultivation.
Buffalo-meat, fresh a.nd dried, -coffee and tobacco, which they obtain with
their annuities or by barter of their furs and sliins, maltc up thehprincipal
subsistence. Withouta supply of buffalomeat adeqnate to their wants,
they would perish from hunger. Such is their present condition and their
precarious means of living. During the last ten yZrs, thediscovery of gold
i n the Black sills attracting white settlers, the construction of the Northern
Pacific Railroad, and the constant marching of militaryforces and of Government esploringpaltiesthrongh their country, have endangered their subsistence by disturbing the wild herds of buEaloes on.their ranges and turning them inother directions. This disturbance is with the Indians a matter of life and death. These and other questions enter into thegreat problem
of the affaire of the Indians of the Plains, and increa,seits difficulties.
The ~ v a rnow being prosecuted against a portion of the Dakota tribes
mascommenced deliberately by the Government. I n this article Ijjshall
not discuss the right or mrong of the matter. Suffice it to say, that in-I868
a treaty mas made with several of the Dakota tribes, by which they sold to
Government their enlire country west: of -the Nissouri, excepting the
Black Hills country, mith certain stipulations for their benefit and. toward
their maintenance. The tribes assenting to-the treaby a,greedto remove to
this reservation. Sitting Bull, wlio defeated General Custer, and the chiefs
of some of the other tribes, refused their assent to this treaty, and, consequently, are not bound by it. But the Government took a dMerent viem
of the matter, npon grounds not very apparent, and caused notice t o be
given to these chiefs and their tribes that unless they removed to this reservntion by January 1, 187ti,they would be treated as hostile Indians. It was
equivalent. to saying that they must now accept the treaty, nolens vobns;
or its acceptance woukl be compelled by force. They disregarded the notificatiox, whence the powerful force sent against them, of which that of
General Custer mas a fraction. Before the summer is over, we may expect
t o hear of the destruetion of the great body of these unreasoning and unreasonable Indians, who retusetp treat fpr $he snrrender of their lands upon
teFms they could not approve, and mhos5 extermination may be regarded by
some as a merited punishment. The good name of our country cannot
bear many yars of this description.
A graver objection is the absence of intelligence and judgment in the
management of our Inrliau afGirs. It is not so much an objection to the
present system as the absence for the last fifty years of anything that could
be called a system. The snbjcct has never received the attention it ought
to have received, bscause its importance in a moral, as well as economic,
sense has never been appreciated. I t mould not h a w been a mistake bfty
years ago if a department of Indian affairs had been created ; it mould not
be a mistake to create such a department now and place it inthe hands of
one of t+e first men in the nxtion. SJmething of. this kiud is needecl to
extricate our country from the disgrace and the reproach which are falling
ou*failure to perform intdligantly our public duty tothis unupon it
fortunate and declining race. The annual appropriation for Indian
objects is nom in excess of five millions of dollars. It is alarge sum,
which, under an intelligent system and in the hands of honest men, could
hare accomplished atuch good. Ir,dian appropriation bills have never been
criticised or objected to by the American people. The? are willing, even
aniiious, that theGovernment should deal liberally and generously with the
India? race, whose gradual destructim seems to be the inevitable result of

American progress. They would approve and commend m y measure which

tended to mitigat9 their hardships and toimprove their condition: But notwithstanding the large expentlitwes the system of Indian management, if
it can be called a system, has been a toial failure. At times it has been corrupt. I t aims to deal with difficulties as they arise by temporary expedients
instead of forecasting these difficulties and preventing their occnrrence.
What we need at the present time is a factory system for the tribes on
reeerrations, which I may perhaps discuss in a subsequent letter; and as
pastoral system for the mild tribes of the Plains. The. last is peculiarly
adapted to the Dakota tribes. Although these tribes depend mainly npon
animal food, it seems never to have occurred to the Government to induce
them to rear herds of domestic cattle as a substitute or the buffalees,
which in due time would afford them a permanent as well as abundant
meat and milk subsistence. This experiment would not be free from difficnlties, as it would involve an entire change in their plan of life. Their herds
must Ice wintered, either by driving them south towards the Indian Territory or by making hay in the summer in thevicinity of their camps. Bltt it
is plain that where the buffaloes can live in millions in.the mild state, domestic cattlecan be raised in millions mith the superadded care of
herdsmen. Moreover, tribes who can raise and minter herds of horses can
be tanghtto raise and winter herds of cattle. TheIndians hare already
learned to raise horses in herds, which requires more skill and care than to
raise the former. Until they have learned that theincrease of the herd can
be made to yield them all the meat they need, it monld be necessary or the
Government to own the stock and to furnish herdsmen to instruct them-in
their care and maintenance. A fewyears of intelligent and perwr-ering
effort would solve the problem in the Indian mind ; and when the art was
learned his future would be assured. As a pastoral people on the great central Plains, there is ewry reason to belive that Vnese Indian tribes would
become wealthy, independent, and contented, and that in time they would
furnish ns with meat from their superabundance. This is a far higher
destiny than t h i t now immediately before them,
The recent treaty with the Dakota tribes, as we understand, requires
the Government to furnish them with cattle for their daily consumption.
The experiment of teaching them how to fake their own supply mould be
economical, if no other reason existed. Their reservation is west of the
meridian of arable land on the Plains. There is, therefore, not the slightest
probability that they mill ever~becomecultivators of land. If the GoTernment expects to feed them in perpetuity, in order to keep them on the
reservation, it is a senseless- and discreditable scheme. . It has become a
saying in IndianGovernment circles that it is cheaper t o feed the Indians
than t o fight them. This may be true, but it is not the less disgraceful, because such a conclusion should have suggested the remedy.
If the Government thirty years ago had inaugurated a pastoral system
among these tribes, the present disssters mould not have occurred ; and if
they undertake it now they will remove the cause of future difficulties
which are likely, to spring from the same uncertainty of subsistence.
~

LEWISH.

July IO, 1876.

~KORGAX.

~-

-___

XQteS.
URD
HOUGHTON are abmt to issue a new and revised edition of
H
Dr. Morrill Wymans mork on Autumnal Catarrh
a cheap and
popular reprint of Brooms $Philosophyof tile Law and a red-line edition
&

of the Poetical Worlrs of Alice and PhoebeCary2-In

the Ameri-icnt~
for JUIY 8we notice its first employment of the heliolype from
nature. The subject is the porch of a well-knownmarehouse in Boston.
The effectiveness and utility of. this kind of print, RS compared with the
customary black-and-white reproductions in the same journal, are well
shown here, inasmuch as the original pen-and-ink elevation of the entiTe
buildingis also given. and it would be impossible even for an architect to
infer from it the true character and real beauty of the detail in question.
-The
Xagland BLstoricd
Crene~logic-(123egis:er for July is ,a
self-styled centenary number. I t opens with a sketch of Samuel Adarcs,
accompanying an engraving of his portrait by Copley, and for the rest it
abonnds i n hjtherto nnpuh1ished autograph letters of promiuent actors- in
theRwolution.
Gen,Knoxs diaryduring his Ticonderoga expediti.
and theHon. Harrison Gray Otiss recollections of that worthy commander,
are particularly pleasant reading.
The set of War Etchings, by Edwin
Forbes, recently exhibited at the galleries OC the Army and Navy and Union
League Clubs have been prepared for sale, and are to be offered throughout
the country.