the whites in border raids or battles. On the whole, men who have had large converse with the Indians, and who allow themselves to speak freely as they feel, denounce in plain terms this peace policy, as simply a mewling, canting philanthropy, by which kind-hearted civilians are beguiled, which the Indians mock and laugh at, and which must be wholly discredited and at once abandoned for stern and resolute measures of force. Of course these largesses, doles, and supplies given to the Indians as annuitants or paupers would be distributed as pledged to them if the War Department had them fully in charge. But it is urged that the peace policy carries this, in itself objectionable waste of supplies, beyond all reasonable bounds, and is inaugurating a system which will too heavily burden the industry and thrift of the country. The economy of the peace policy should be devoted to making the Indians wholly self-dependent.
There are many intensely earnest and complicated controversies in active agitation among men, especially on political and social issues, in which the humblest and some of the wisest of us are helped to form our own opinion simply by trying to learn on which side are to be found, prevailingly, those whom we call the wise and the good, the fair-minded, the single-hearted, the unselfish, the calm, discreet, and dispassionate. The test fails us in trying so to dispose of the war policy and the peace policy issue in dealing with the Indians. Those who claim our attention as experts on this great issue are not to be morally classified according as they stand for the one or the other side in the controversy. We find the extreme views on this intricate question advanced and maintained by those as to whose characters, intelligence, and humanity we can draw no line of division or preference. It may therefore be allowed to some of us, at least, to choose a medium or reconciling method, and to approve a combination of some elements of both policies. Our aim shall be benevolent, practically
