nobody knows where. It says further that this agreement was obtained from the Utes while they were held as prisoners and not allowed to consult any one but himself while in Washington.”
This constitutes the charge, and is a misrepresentation of facts from beginning to end. For months before the agreement was made the Ute chiefs here were at perfect liberty to consult any one they pleased, and they were called upon by a great many persons and had conversations about their affairs with Congressmen and Senators and others; in short, with all whom they desired to see.
Secondly, the fact is that ever since the attack upon Thornburgh and the Meeker massacre, I have single-handed and alone been standing between the Utes and destruction, for which I have been ridiculed and reviled beyond measure. If I had removed my hand from them a day a war would have been inaugurated and we should have seen the last of this tribe. I can say without any exaggeration that I alone saved them, and that in point of fact they can be saved in the future only by removing that source of irritation that exists between them and the white population that is now in very large numbers crowding around them.
Now, as to the agreement itself, it is untrue that for twelve millions of acres they get only forty thousand acres as the Telegraph says. I send you herewith a copy of the bill containing the agreement, which was drafted by my direction and from which you will see that in the aggregate they will have between seven and eight hundred thousand acres; and not only that, but they will be settled at the expense of the Government, receiving everything needful to them, and will have an annuity of fifty thousand dollars, representing a capital of a million and a quarter in addition to their former annuities.
What the Telegraph says about their remaining insecure
