University of Virginia Library

Two years ago we received from Hon. E. D. Morgan, than U. S. Senator from New York, a copy of the Report on the Condition of our Indian Tribes, made by the joint committee of Congress at its session in 1867.

This Report could not but excite deep feeling in regard to the way the Indians had been neglected, and shame and indignation at the outrageous wrongs which had been perpetrated upon them by our people.

Comparing opinions with others, we met with so prompt and sympathetic a response, that a public meeting was called, held, and a committee of gentlemen of well-known philanthropic and Christian character appointed to organize a systematic effort to remedy the evil after the manner of the United States Christian Commission of late war-memory.

It was called the U. S. Indian Commission, and one of its first acts was to memorialize Congress to devote more attention to Indian affairs, and appoint a more watchful guardianship over the monies appropriated for the tribes.

In this memorial the name of Lieutenant-General Sherman was favorably commended in connection with Indian affairs, and it was, we think, responded to by the U. S. Senate's inserting a clause in the Indian Appropriation Bill of 1868, placing half a million of dollars to be expended under General Sherman's supervision.

The selection of General Sherman of Generals Hazen and Harney, and giving them control of the two great Indian reservations in the southern Indian territory, and Northern Dakota, with funds ample for the commencement of the great work of restraining and civilizing the wild tribes of the plains, followed soon after.

Meanwhile, circular letters containing condensed selections of the more startling facts contained in the Report as first referred to, and an address to the people, prepared by our President, were published in nearly all the great newspapers of the day, and widely circulated.

Early in January, 1868, the Commission received a letter from Major-General Hazen, dated in November past, asking that one of their number be sent to examine personally, and report upon the condition of the tribes under his care at Camp Wichita, I. T.

The Commission promptly responded to this, and I was selected for the duty.

Obtaining from the gentlemen of the Commission the necessary funds to defray expenses, with the understanding that I was to receive no pay for my services, and securing from General Grant an order providing me an escort and transportation whenever necessary, in the middle of February I started on my journey.

A heavy snow-storm which met me at Fort Leavenworth, a prolonged interview

with Major (now General) Forsyth, then in the surgeon's care at that post, suffering acutely from wounds which he had received in his encounter with Indians, and some very loud curses which greeted me as an "Indian Peace Commissioner" by a Kansas official, warned me that I was not on a "pleasure excursion."

At Fort Leavenworth, Colonel Michael Sheridan, the General's brother, informed me of the condition of the Osage Indians. Attention to this tribe had been called by the statements widely published in the papers at the time of the purchase of the immense tract of land, eight million acres, belonging to them in southern Kansas, by a company of speculators.

Information from a most trustworthy, though private source, had informed us, on leaving New York, of the unfair means brought to bear upon the Indians to effect this purchase.

Our telegram, that the Osages had eaten their beef raw— digestive organs included—and that they would henceforth forever be paupers on the Government, being widely published by the Associated Press, attracted general attention.

The Home Committee promptly followed up this stirring notice by a "remonstrance to Congress" against this iniquitous treaty.

I do not know whether we have effectually killed or only scotched the snake, but a wail went up from the land-jobbers in Kansas immediately after, that their "Osage land bill was in a discouraging condition;" so loud, that I trust it is killed. On my return home through Lawrence, Kansas, handbills were posted by the U. S. Land Agent, offering Osage lands to actual settlers in "quarter sections," one hundred and sixty acres, at government prices.

If we have thus aided in securing to our industrious poor a chance to get a home at a fair price, and have the money go into the U. S. Treasury instead of the pockets of private speculators, we have not labored in vain.