Bonnie
Blue Flag
The
idea of exterminating Americans in the path of progress was not new in
1869 -- Parson Brownlow, later Reconstruction Governor of Tennessee,
declared in New York in 1862: “If I had the power, I would arm every
wolf, panther, catamount and bear in the mountains of America, every
crocodile in the swamps of Florida, every Negro in the South, every
fiend in hell, clothe them all in the uniforms of the Federal army and
turn them loose on the rebels of the South and exterminate every man,
woman and child south of the Mason Dixon line. I would like to see
especially the Negro troops, marching under Ben Butler, crowd the last
rebel into the Gulf of Mexico and drown them as the Devil did the hogs
in the Sea of Galilee.”
Bernhard Thuersam, Chairman
North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial Commission
"Unsurpassed Valor, Courage and Devotion to Liberty"
"The Official Website of the North Carolina WBTS Sesquicentennial"
Extermination Considered for Those in the Path of Progress
“After
the close of the Civil War the Commissioner of Indian Affairs reported
the number of Indians in these figures: civilized, 97,000;
semi-civilized, 125,000; wholly barbarous, 78,000. The advancing fronts
of [western white migration] suddenly became even more threatening as
the Union Pacific Railroad cut across the middle of the Indian Territory
in 1869 and as other lines pushed ahead of settlement into the northern
plains and the southwest.
This
critical change was noted in a telling passage of his 1869 report by
[former Northern general and] Secretary of the Interior Jacob D. Cox:
“The
completion of one of the great lines of railway to the Pacific coast
has totally changed the conditions under which the civilized population
of the country come[s] in contact with the wild tribes . . . the very
center of the desert has been pierced. Daily trains are carrying
thousands of our citizens and untold values of merchandise across the
continent, and must be protected from the danger of having hostile
tribes on either side of the route. The range of the buffalo is being
rapidly restricted, and the chase is becoming an uncertain reliance to
the Indian for the sustenance of his family . . . “
The
situation of the Indian thus became more desperate and the years from
1865 to 1870 were filled with war and threats of war. At the opening of
Grant’s administration it was obvious that Indian policy had to be
reconsidered. Three possibilities were discussed: (1.) Extermination;
(2.) compulsory location of the tribes on reservations; (3.) eventual
civilization, with full absorption into white culture.
The
prevailing sentiment on the frontier was in favor of extermination.
The savage tribes were entitled, in this view, to no more consideration
than dangerous wild beasts, and like them should be killed off to make
way for civilization – and land. Such sentiments were abhorred in the
East and among the religious denominations.
Compulsory
settlement . . . on reservations with government rations, clothing, and
certain services was by far the dominant opinion . . . [Secretary of
the Interior Columbus Delano reported in 1873 that under government
supervision that the Indian’s] intellectual, moral and religious culture
can be prosecuted, and thus it is hoped than humanity and kindness may
take the place of barbarity and cruelty.
[Should
any tribes refuse] then the policy contemplates the treatment of such
tribe or band with all needed severity, to punish them for outrages
according to their merits, thereby teaching them that it is better to
follow the advice of the Government, live upon reservations and become
civilized, than to continue their native habits and practices.”
(The Republican Era, 1869-1901, A Study in Administrative History, Leonard D. White, MacMillan Company, 1957, pp. 181-182)
