The military gentlemen, honored officers of our army, from whose works I have drawn these extracts, are well entitled to be regarded as representatives in good judgment, and as speaking from abundant knowledge and experience, of their own profession in that strong conflict of opinion which we must recognize in later pages between it and the advocates of an exclusive peace-policy with the Indians. General Custer and Colonel Dodge, humane and well-balanced men, present to us in harrowing descriptions and with all too vivid illustrations the atrocities of Indian warfare. The former tells the story of such tragedies as the "Philip Kearney Massacre" and the "Kidder Massacre." Remembering that he fell in the flower of his years, — after his patriotic career and eminent services to his country,—in a deadly and equally overwhelming disaster, we give just weight to his testimony. Clearly, and for reasons which he states with full force, he did not believe that the Indian could be lifted into the state of civilization, refinement, and full humanity. But we must not by anticipation prejudice this great issue.
In the abounding literature which we have gathered and are to leave to posterity, concerning the red man and his experiences with the white man, there is a large variety of stern and sober history, of poetry and romance, of engaging and instructive, of repulsive and revolting matter,
- ↑ The Plains of the Great West and their Inhabitants. By Richard Irving Dodge, Lieut.-Colonel U. S. A. New York. 1877. Pages 342-43.
