ey must
chiefly rely for defence, these hapless settlers! and upon no
Government, and no soldiers.

Think of it, our 'Great Father' at Washington! and you, his unruly
children, you Senators and Congressmen! One of your most loyal citizens
in the State of Minnesota, a Christian bishop, well acquainted with all
the facts, the dodges, lies, frauds, and all the ins and outs of your
Indian administration, declares, with the fullest solemnity which his
office and functions can give to words, and with the voice, not of
prophecy, but of logical deduction, that the same causes which brought
about the Sioux massacre, 'ARE TO-DAY, SLOWLY BUT SURELY, PREPARING
THE WAY FOR A CHIPPEWA WAR!' What a Chippewa war means, those who
did not know in 1861, found out through the Sioux in 1862 and 1863, to
their perpetual sorrow. Like the Bourbons, however, our Government
either cannot or will not learn lessons from experience. If they were
compelled to bear the penalties of their neglect and wanton
maladministration of affairs in the Indian districts, the loss would be
small and the retribution just. But they sit at ease, far away from the
scene of carnage, and 'get' nothing but the 'news,' which they read as
they would any other record of human passion and depravity. It is the
innocent settlers who pay the penalty for the guilt and transgressions
of their rulers.

It is time somebody, or some vast numbers, banded as one man, began to
think upon this threatening question, and to act upon it. It concerns
the faith and honor of this great republic before all the world, that
the wrongs alluded to should be speedily righted. We are not, in
reality, what our Indian legislation would almost seem to accuse and
convict us of, a nation of man-catchers, baiting our trap with fine
farms, and free government, and happy homes, and abundant prosperity of
all sorts, that so we may inveigle the simple minded, and then hand them
over to the tender mercies of the Indians! God forbid that such crimes
should be ours! But there is a coloring of truth about the whole
programme. We invite settlers to populate our vast and wellnigh
boundless wilderness, promising them protection from enemies abroad and
a happy peace at home; and in the same breath we cheat the savages, and
stir them up to hatred and violence against every white man, woman, and
child in the country. This is like preaching security and peace while
your lighted match is applied to the powder barrel.