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stant efforts to secure by statute to the Indians the equal protection of the laws and an impregnable title to their lands and homes; they would notice practical measures, not merely to declare the Indian “a person” in theory, but to make him a person capable of talking care of himself, and of exercising and maintaining his rights; they would see the establishment of educational institutions which, although new, have already produced most promising results; they would see thousands of Indians but a short time ago vagrant and idle, now earning wages running into hundreds of thousands of dollars as freighters; they would see the organization of an Indian police which has not only been most efficacious in the maintenance of law and order, but also in producing a moral discipline formerly unknown to them; they would see multitudes of Indians but a few years since on the war path, now building houses and cultivating their farms in their simple way, and raising cattle, and asking Congress for the white man's title to their lands; they would notice the conspicuous absence of those scandals in the Indian service which at another period called forth so much complaint; they would see a general treatment of the Indians humane and progressive; they would see the introduction of principles in our Indian policy which at a future day promise to work the solution of that difficult problem. I do not pretend that this is complete or perfect, but it is something; and every true friend of a just and sound Indian policy will rather endeavor to promote its development by sympathetic co-operation than discredit and hamper it by unreasoning criticism and random attacks.
Certainly I do not deprecate criticism. When it is just it is useful and welcome; when it is unjust it may injure the cause it is meant to serve. Needless disagreements, preventing the cooperation for a good end of those who ought to work together, I should especially deplore in a community whose enlightened public spirit and active philanthropy have served so many noble causes, and whose good opinion I therefore particularly value.
- Very truly, yours,
