part of his
enemy. Hence it is that certain of the so-called--and sometimes properly
so called--massacres perpetrated by the army, or by frontier militia,
have had very different results from what would have been predicted by
persons familiar only with habits of thought and feeling among our own
people.[D] Injustice and cruelty exasperate men of our race; but the
Indian is never other than cruel and unjust under resentment. Let him
feel that he has been injured by a white man, and he will tomahawk the
first white man he meets, without a thought whether his victim be guilty
or innocent. Let him suffer at the hand of a member of a neighboring
tribe, and he will lie all day in wait for another member of that tribe
with just as much anticipation of gratified hate as if he awaited the
footsteps of the wrong-doer. Nay, let him have a feud with one of his
own blood, and he will devote the speechless babes of his enemy to his
infernal malice. Here, undoubtedly, we find the explanation of the fact
that massacres, damnable in plot and circumstance, have struck such
deadly and lasting terror into tribes of savages; while, occurring
between nations of whites, they would have kindled the flames of war to
inextinguishable fury.

* * * * *

We have thus far treated the question, What shall be done with the
Indian as an obstacle to the progress of railways and of
settlements?--to the exclusion of the inquiry, What shall be done to
promote his advancement in industry and the arts of life?--not merely
because, for all those tribes and bands to which the first question
applies (i. e. those which are potentially hostile, and towards which
the government is, as we have attempted to show, bound in interest and
humanity to exercise great forbearance till they shall cease to be
formidable to the settlements and to the pioneers of settlement), that
question is, in logical order, precedent to any discussion of methods to
be taken to educate and civilize them; but also because it is in effect
likewise precedent to any deliberate, comprehensive, and permanent
adjustment of the difficulties experienced in treating the Indian tribes
which are neither hostile in disposition nor formidable by reason of
their situation or their numbers. So long as the attention of the
executive department is occupied by efforts to preserve the peace; so
long as Congress is asked yearly to appropriate three millions of
dollars to feed an