d even cheated out of the ten cents per acre agreed to be paid for
millions of acres of the choicest land. They had shown their teeth at
last, after more than a century of patience and self-control.

The great President personally reviewed the records of the court, and
wrote with his own hand the names of the forty Indians who were
executed, instead of three hundred originally condemned to die. He was
abused and insulted for his humanity. Governor Ramsey of Minnesota
appealed to him in vain in the name of the frontier people: that gentle,
brave, just President had his way, and many of those whom he pardoned
afterward became leaders of the Sioux in walking the white man's road.

INDIAN REFORMS UNDER GRANT

During General Grant's administration the famous "Peace Policy" made a
remarkable start in the face of the determined resistance of the Plains
Indians. The Indian, when making his last stand against injustice, is a
desperate and a dangerous enemy. It was estimated at this time that
every warrior killed in battle had cost the Government twenty-three
lives and a round million of dollars. At this rate, the race would not
be "wiped out" for generations. Kindness would be infinitely cheaper, as
well as more pleasing, doubtless, to the white man's God!

In a word, Christian men and women came tardily to the conclusion that
something more consistent with the claims of their religion must be
shown these brave people who had lost everything in the face of the
herculean advance of the dominant race. Reflection upon the sordid
history of their country's dealings with the red man had taught them to
think clearly, above the clamor of the self-seeking mob. Some of them
had lived side by side with their dusky neighbors, and studied them at
close range, in the light of broad human feeling. Such men were General
Grant, Bishops Whipple and Hare, William Welsh and his nephew, Herbert
Welsh of Philadelphia, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Smith, General
Armstrong, and General Pratt. No class or sect has more fully endorsed
this policy than have the Quakers, of whom the late Albert K. Smiley of
Mohonk Conference fame was a distinguished representative.

In 1870 President Grant placed all Indian agencies under the control of
the various churches and missionary organizations, which had hitherto
been practically the sole channels of educational or uplift work among
the tribes. Undoubtedly Grant sincerely wished to put an end to official