sibilities and duties on the consul there. A large number of refugees from those States are there who require watching. I send to the desk, and ask to have read, a letter from the Secretary of State which explains the matter. The following letter was read: DEPARTMENT OF STATE, WASHINGTON, January 10, 1865. SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your communication of the 9th instant relative to a resolution which had passed the Senate instructing the Committee on Commerce to inquire into the expediency of inercasing the compensation of the United States consul at Halifax, and in reply to your request for any information upon the subject which the Department can furnish, I have to state that the compensation attached to the office is $2,000 per annum, and the consul is not permitted to transact business. The consular fees, which for the fiscal year ending 30th June last amounted to $1,580 36, are, under existing provisions of law, paid into the United States Treasury. A large number of American vessels are constantly arriving in Halifax, and that port is much resorted to by vessels engaged in blockade running and in affording aid and comfort to the insurgent States. Besides the attention which the consul is required to give to the former, his duties have been largely increased by the necessity of constaut labor and watchfulness on his part to defeat the nefarious designs of the latter as well as of many persons from those States and their sympathizers who frequent that port. The cost of living in Halifax has within a few years much increased, and I am satisfied that the consul cannot, with rigid economy, live upon his present salary. I do not hesitate, therefore, respectfully to suggest, for the consideration of the committee, the expediency of providing by law for the increase of the consular compensation at Halifax. I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant, WILLIAM H. SEWARD. Hon. Z. CHANDLER, Chairman of Committee on Commerce, United States Senate. Mr. HALE. I will state very briefly some of the reasons why this amendment should be adopted, though it is impossible for me to state to the Senate everything that produces the conviction upon my mind that this salary should be increased. The business at Halifax, I have no doubt, has increased tenfold from what it was when our present consul went there, by the operation of the war. Halifax is the great depot for the blockade runners; a great many of them were there during the last summer, and I think in no single instance has a blockade runner or any confederate vessel sailed from the port of Halifax that the consul has not availed himself of an opportunity to learn the name of the vessel, her register, where she was built, what she carried, what her cargo was, and all these facts were communicated to the Government here by telegraph, and in pursuance of information thus furnished, I think six out of eleven vessels that left that port have been seized and condemned. The consul has to have his eye constantly all over the city, and to me it was utterly astonishing how he got the information which he was daily communicating to the Government. Besides this, the calls upon him, I should say, on an average while I was there and I was there over a fortnightwere at least fifteen a day. The salary of the consul is $2,000 a year. Out of that he has to pay for a small house a rent of $250, and he has to pay his own messenger and his own clerk. His office is constantly thronged during the day, and he has to stay there after dark at night to do his writing, which ought to be done by a clerk. These are some of the facts which convince me that the salary ought to be raised. There are others of a private and personal nature; but the Senate will remember that when I first presented the subject I stated that if I could not convince the Committee on Commerce at once that this ought to be done, I would not urge it any more. The Committee on Commerce are persuaded that it ought to be done; so is the Secretary of State. My friend from New Jersey will pardon me, for I certainly did not mean to misrepresent him when I stated that I believed that the committee were unanimous. It seems that the chairman made the same mistake that I did. The Senator from New Jersey is a very modest man, and he does not always urge his opinions, and he certainly does not with a loud voice. It might have been that he entertained the convictions which he has stated; but he was not so persevering in presenting them as to attract the attention of the chairman. I believe I have been, as that Senator says, rather cautious in the matter of increasing salaries; I have not been one of the friends of the doctrine that it was only necessary to give a man "the pay, rank, and emoluments of a brigadier general" in order to crush the rebellion; I have been of a different opinion; but I believe that this is a case which imperiously demands, where the public honor and necessity demand, the increase which the committee have recommended. Mr. TEN EYCK. It would appear from the letter of the Secretary of State that there are some reasons given why the salary of this consul should be increased. It may not, perhaps, be amiss for me to say that in a very large number of cases presented to the Committee on Commerce during the last session of Congress the same reasons were assigned in the same form. We cannot close our eyes to the fact that there is one general complaint coming to the Committee on Commerce, and through the channel of the State Department, on account of the smallness of the salaries of these foreign agents, in consequence of which they are not able to live in a way in which they desire to live, and in which, perhaps, we might desire that they should live. I myself have not been able to learn or to distinguish any difference between this case and a large number of cases precisely similarly situated, and some of them I think having rather stronger claims to the consideration of Congress. It was for this reason, and this reason alone, that I wished to call the attention of the Senate to the fact that if they mean to do justice, or if they mean to enable our consuls abroad to live in the manner in which they desire to live, they will not simply restrict their action to the consulate at Halifax, but will extend this sympathy, or justice, whichever it may be called, to consulates generally. The chairman of the committee is well aware of the fact that there has been a large number of claims of the same character, and founded upon the same reasons, addressing themselves very strongly to the humanity, at least, of the committee. I did not make my resistance very strong in the committee, it is true; but my objection was urged; and perhaps my modesty was a little increased by finding that the committee were generally in favor of the proposition under the plausible and pleasant mode of address of the Senator from New Hampshire, and the urgency of his appeal. It would take a pretty bold man indeed to rise up and resist his application before a committee or anywhere else in a matter where his heart seemed to be engaged. Mr. HARLAN. I desire to inquire of the chairman of the Committee on Commerce whether this consul is paid in gold or in currency. Mr. SHERMAN. He is paid in gold; all the consuls are paid in gold. Mr. HARLAN. Then the salary now received would be equivalent to $4,000 if paid on this side of the line. With that view of the case I think I shall vote against the amendment. Mr. POMEROY. It occurs to me that this is one of a class of cases which are constantly presented to us and are very numerous. I have no doubt that there is a class of men, not only those representing this Government abroad, but officers at home, whose duties have been largely increased in consequence of the war. I know of some officers who had almost nothing to do before the rebellion, and who now have to work day and night. When the war is over, I suppose they will have much less to do, and perhaps almost nothing. I do not see how we can enter upon the business of increasing the salaries of this class unless we increase them all. I am disposed to deal out as even-handed justice as it is possible for us to do, to every employé of the Government. If this consul has more than he can do, there is a way of giving him a clerk temporarily; there might be some appropriation made in that direction which would relieve him; but we ought to bear in mind that these men who are abroad have not upon themselves the responsibilities of this war that men of their ages have who live here. They are not subject to draft; they are not called upon constantly to aid in efforts to promote recruiting, and I believe they are not even taxed on their salaries. I think the income tax does not come out of their salaries. I am not certain of that fact, but such is my opinion. Besides, I do not know of many of them who have resigned. If any Senator knows of many such cases, he is better informed than I am. As their salary is paid in gold, and as they are not taxed upon it, and as they are relieved from the burdens of men who stay in the country, I do not feel called upon to vote any increase of salary to them, as a general rule, or even in this particular casc. Mr. CONNESS. I think that if a majority of this body could possibly oe present at the sittings of the Finance Committee they would scarcely be prepared to vote this increase if they could hear and know of the propositions and demands that are there made from great masses of persons employed by the Government in every possible relation for an increase of pay. This proposition would never have come to us undoubtedly but for the incident, the fortunate incident, perhaps, of the recent visit to Halifax of the distinguished Senator who proposes it in this body. It was doubtless a great advantage to the Government that the Senator visited that spot; but it would be a great damage to the Treasury if we had the misfortune, or, I should say, the fortune, of his having visited all the consulates, for I am afraid he would have discovered a great many of them that were serving the country without sufficient compensation. I do not pretend to doubt the Senator's statements in reference to this case; but in making those statements it would be well to remember that the needs and necessities, the labor and surroundings of that particular consulate have simply been brought to his notice by his having made himself acquainted with them. Equal demands, equal necessities, equal or superior amounts of labor would have been discovered to be the part or lot of other consuls at other consulates if they could have been visited in like manner. There is scarcely a doubt about that. I can hardly think that there is justice to the other agents abroad, and certainly there is no proper fitness to the Treasury at the present time, in passing this measure. The members composing the Finance Committee are at a loss how to reply to the demands that are made for an increase of salary, as I said before, from all quarters; and we can only safely resist the general demand now being made, at a point of time of great enhancement of prices and depreciation of the currency, by refusing all, or nearly all. It is the only way in which the Treasury can be at all maintained at present. We are all hoping for a recession of the present condition of things, and a change-and I think the aspect of the times promises very soon to make this change-which will become a permanent one if made; and it does not seem to me to be wise or proper to increase salaries now, and I hope we shall not enter upon that system of legislation. If it be desirable and necessary that the pay which our consuls and other agents abroad receive shall be reëxamined and rearranged, let it be entered upon regularly, and let us ascertain how many consuls there are like the one at Halifax where the labors performed are inadequately paid, and apply the remedy in each case. It may turn out that there are but a dozen of them under the Government; it may turn out that there is but the one at Halifax; but I have doubts about that. I think the needs of that one come to us by the special reason that the Senator has recently visited there. I have not attempted to bring in question any statement he has made in regard to it; I take it he has stated the facts; but they are not facts as pressing as those which come to the knowledge of the Finance Committee at every meeting they hold. I hope this amendment will not be adopted. Mr. SUMNER. Mr. President, I certainly hesitate at this time, and in the present condition of the public Treasury, to increase any salary anywhere, and most certainly should I hesitate to enter upon any general system for the increase of salaries in any department of Government; and yet, sir, I am willing to look at individual cases as they may arise. It is in that spirit that I approach the question before the Senate. I know something of the consular service of the country. I know that we have consuls in some parts of the world that are paid perhaps adequately, certainly as much as they deserve, and so that they are able to live well on their income; but I know also that there are other consuls in other parts of the world that are not paid adequately. I receive letters, I may almost say by every foreign arrival, from persons in the foreign service of the country making such complaints. There is our consul at Bordeaux, a very considerable seaport, where we have a large trade and large interests, and a port also which I may say exercises to a certain extent a political influence. The consul there is underpaid. I think his salary should be advanced. I might give other instances, but I will not. I content myself with saying that I place our consul at Halifax in the same category with our consul at Bordeaux, only perhaps his case is a stronger one even than the one at Bordeaux. I think that the public service requires that our consul at Halifax should be better paid than he is now. We pay our consul at Nassau $4,000 a year to watch blockade runners, to take care of the interests of this Republic dealing with the rebellion. Our consul at Halifax has precisely the same interests to watch, and I think that he is subjected to expenses full as large as those of our consul at Nassau. I shall therefore vote for the proposition of the Committee on Commerce. Mr. GRIMES called for the yeas and nays, and they were ordered. Mr. SHERMAN. The only reason given for the increase of this salary is that the business of this consulate has increased. That can be said in regard to every officer of the Government, civil and military, with scarcely an exception. The only reason the Senator from Massachusetts gives for the increase of the salary is that the duties of the consul at Halifax are equal to the duties of the consul at Nassau. We yielded to the argument of the Committee on Commerce last year by increasing the compensation of the consul at Nassau; and if we yield to the argument now, without any specific reasons given for it, we cannot resist the argument in the future in other cases. I hope that if we set a bad example last year we shall not renew it now. I am satisfied that this increase, if made, will only lead to additional demands from other consuls who were quieted by the action of the Senate at the last session, and that it is safer and better for us to leave these consuls to their present salary. I will here say that if the consul at Halifax is dissatisfied with his present compensation, I will agree to find about fifty applicants from my own State who will be very willing to take the office and discharge the duties. Mr. SUMNER. Would the Senator's candidates discharge the duties? Mr. SHERMAN. I believe they would. Mr. CHANDLER. The Senator from Ohio thinks we made a mistake last year in increasing the salary of the consul at Nassau. The fact was that that consulate had gone begging for more than two years; we could not get a proper man to take the office, and we were compelled to raise the salary in order to induce a competent man to go there; and it was the opinion of the Committee on Commerce that it was for the interest of the Government to pay whatever amount was necessary to secure the services of a first-class man. It was remarked, I think, by one or two gentlemen on the committee that a first-class man for the place could not be got for less than $10,000, and that if the fact were so it would be for the interest of the Government to pay that salary. The consulate at Halifax is of almost equal importance to the Government. I do not know the gentleman that fills the place. I never heard of him until the Senator from New Hampshire named him to me; but it is my opinion that you cannot keep there a suitable man, a competent man, a proper man to look out for the interests of our Government and our commerce without paying an increase of salary. That is my judgment; I may be mistaken; but it is for the Senate to decide. I think the case at Halifax nearly as strong as that at Nassau. These are the two ports from which nearly all the blockade running is carried on, and at each place the closest watching is required, and we want the greatest ability we can obtain for the consul. I hope the salary recommended by the committee will be allowed. The question being taken by yeas and nays, resulted-yeas 12, nays 27; as follows: YEAS-Messrs. Anthony, Chandler, Doolittle, Farwell, Hale, Hicks, Howe, Morgan, Ramsey, Riddle, Sumner, and Van Winkle-12. NAYS-Messrs. Brown, Buckalew,Clark, Collamer, Conness, Davis, Dixon, Foot, Foster, Grimes, Harlan, Harris, Henderson, Johnson, Lane of Indiana, Nesmith, Pomeroy, Powell, Richardson, Saulsbury, Sherman, Sprague, Ten Eyck, Trumbull, Wade, Wiley, and Wilson-27. ABSENT-Messrs. Carlile, Cowan, Harding, Hendricks, Howard, Lane of Kansas, McDougall, Morrill, Wilkinson, and Wright-10. So the amendment was rejected. Mr. FOOT. I propose an amendment to this bill of rather an unusual character, for it does not propose to increase anybody's salary, but pro poses to dispense with one altogether. The amendment I propose is in the eightieth line, to strike out the words "Saint Lambert and Longueiul." These are two small French hamlets on the opposite side of the river from Montreal, and connected with Montreal by the Victoria bridge, and for all practical purposes are part of Montreal. There is no occasion, no necessity, for a consulate at that point; there is no practical convenience to be subserved by it. I move to strike the names of those places out of the bill. The amendment was agreed to. Mr. WADE. I move to amend the bill by inserting before "Mexico," in the tenth line, the words "the republic of," so as to read “the republic of Mexico." I move this amendment because as this bill now stands the appropriation is equivocal. The clause where the word "Mexico" occurs is that clause appropriating for the salaries of our various ministers abroad and enumerating the countries to which they are sent. As is well known to every member of the Senate, there are two Governments in Mexico; one of them is recognized by us and we have diplomatic relations with it; I do not know that we have any relations whatever with the other. When we appropriate for the salary of a minister to Mexico, it seems to me we ought to make it certain to which Government he is to go. I do not suppose that any gentleman here intends to recognize the empire of Mexico, as it is called, by making an appropriation to send any diplomatic agent to that empire. We have not recognized it; we have no diplomatic relations with it; and therefore, unless we mean to act blindly, and not to designate precisely what we intend to do, we should say whether we intend this appropriation to go to the payment of a minister to the old republic of Mexico, or whether we intend it to go to support a diplomatic agent or minister to the empire that is pretended to have been established there. I do not exactly know what is the rank of our representative in Mexico, but I think he is called a minister of the second class. I suppose this appropriation is intended for his payment; but the language is equivocal; it does not certainly express what it is intended to be applied to. think, therefore, it is highly proper that this amendment should be made. We certainly ought to say to which Government in Mexico we mean to send a minister; and I should regret exceedingly if the Senate should conclude now to make an appropriation for a diplomatic agent or minister to the empire of Mexico. I wish to say in the bill"the republic of Mexico," and then we shall know precisely what we are about. The amendment was agreed to. The amendments were ordered to be engrossed and the bill to be read a third time. The bill was read the third time, and passed. MASSACRE OF CHEYENNE INDIANS. On motion of Mr. HARLAN, the joint resolution (S. R. No. 93) in relation to the massacre of the Cheyenne Indians was read the second time, and considered as in Committee of the Whole. Mr. POMEROY. I do not know but that the Committee on Indian Affairs have fully examined this case, though I have not heard any report from the committee in regard to it. I have had some letters from people in my own State and some from Colorado relating to it, but I have not heard the other side; and it is always embarrassing to me to be called upon to give a judgment without knowing what one side has to say. In the next place, I do not like to declare that the private soldiers, who were bound to obey orders, shall be deprived of all pay and emoluments in consideration of having engaged in an attack on Indians that they themselves could not have prevented. I do not know that there is any responsibility upon these privates at all. In fact, although I have heard one side of the case, I do not know enough to bring in a verdict even against Colonel Chivington. The chairman of the Committee on Indian Affairs read us a letter from some Indian agent which, taken by itself and standing alone, would seem to convict him; but I have seen so much since this war began that I am not inclined to make up my judgment on that alone. During this war I have seen men one day condemned and the next day approved. On one occasion we passed a vote of thanks here complimenting some of our officers, and in a little while afterwards I heard of their being in Fort La Fayette. We have been fickle; sometimes we have condemned men without their having had their side presented; and then we have approved and applauded without waiting to hear all the facts. I think this is a hasty and unwise way of doing things. If Colonel Chivington has killed Indians when he ought not to have done so, let the question be investigated by somebody; let somebody bring in a verdict and make a report. But to call upon the Senate to strike him down in this way (for this resolution directed to the Secretary of War is virtually striking him down) seems to me very extraordinary. I believe he has already been arrested; at any rate I have seen a report of that kind in the papers. If the War Department have already arrested him I do not propose, so far as my vote is concerned, to add anything to it by sending them this resolution. I do not know enough about the case to defend him, but I do know enough about it to know that we ought not to strike at him until he has had an opportunity of being heard, or somebody in his defense. The letter from an Indian agent, or from Indian traders out there, I do not think should be conclusive on the subject. The committee may have something which I have not heard of. They may have investigated and heard both sides, but I certainly have not. I cannot vote for this resolution. Mr. HARLAN. This resolution does not propose a judgment in the case against the colonel who commanded this expedition or any of the members of the expedition. It merely proposes to suspend their pay until the facts can be fully ascertained, and to take possession of the plunder which it is said they have carried off from these Indians. The official report from the agent of this tribe has not been received, and may not be received for months to come, on account of the interruption of communication by hostile Indians between the States and this Territory. The soldiers who were engaged in this enterprise were chiefly, as we were informed, one hundred day men, and were probably-I fear the fact may be authenticated-organized with a distinct understanding that each member of the organization should share in the plunder they might secure from the discomfited; and it is said, and probably with truth, that they returned laden with plunder, each soldier with a pony or two laden with buffalo robes, furs, trinkets, and it is said two or three mules were loaded down with Mexican dollars captured from their victims. This property is in the possession, it is believed, of the members of that regiment, and they will probably be paid off and mustered out of service in a few days; long before the facts in the case can be ascertained officially. If anything is done to rebuke this wrong it must be done at once, and an order must be communicated by telegraph across the plains. I ought to state, I think, in this connection that the policy of this Government in relation to the Indian tribes for a long period has been that of kindness; we have been appropriating millions of money each year for the purpose of educating and instructing the Indian tribes on our borders and in the plains; but that policy is being reversed without any authority from the Federal Government by the agents of the Government remote, away from the capital; and I believe and think every Senator from a frontier State knows that they have entered upon an entirely different policy. They are now engaged in the extermination of the Indians; and in conversation with these men they say it is the only way to secure permanent peace; they insist that these poor people, whether at war or at peace with the United States, must be destroyed. I have information that leads me to suppose that this is the initiatory step to a general war for this purpose. I have no doubt myself that Colonel Carleton is at this moment organizing an expedition against the Camanche Indians, the larger part of whom have been and now are at peace with the white inhabitants of New Mexico, for the purpose, as far as possible, of exterminating them. I do not feel disposed to-day to go into an investigation of the outrages that I think have been perpetrated, seemingly by the authority of the Government of the United States, against the tribes on the plains and in the mountains. It does not receive the sanction of the military authorities at the capital. I know that they are as averse to this policy as any member of the Senate can possibly be; but it has been entered upon by the employés of the Government who are far removed from the capital, and unless this policy shall be rebuked a signal manner from this Government, it will be carried into effect, and we shall have to suffer the disgrace of the extermination of thousands of these comparatively inoffensive and unarmed people. In this case it is said that most of those who were massacred were women and children; that there were no armed Indians in the village; that the chiefs of the tribe, when they were fired upon, went out and made an effort to deliver themselves and their tribe as prisoners of war, and that the parties who thus went out were shot down in cold blood, and then the massacre became general, and that the massacre extended perhaps to every woman and nearly all the small children belonging to the tribe. This joint resolution, if it should pass, will merely suspend judgment in the case, and render it impossible for these parties to profit by the robbery, if it shall prove to have been unprovoked, until an investigation can be had. Mr. POMEROY. I wish to inquire of the Senator from lowa what was the evidence before the committee? What investigation was entered into? Upon what testimony did the committee act? Mr. HARLAN. The evidence is not official. There was a letter before the committee from the agent of this tribe, who says that he is preparing a full report. He pronounces it an unprovoked massacre, and he is preparing a full official report, which will be here soon if it has not been intercepted on its way here. There are letters here also from one of the judges of the Territory corroborating the facts; there are letters from private gentlemen to members of the committee, all corroborating the same general facts, implying that the massacre was unprovoked, premeditated, and cold-blooded; that it was probably perpetrated for plunder. Mr. NESMITH. I am sure there is not a member of this body who would justify an unprowoked attack on women and children, whether Indians or whites; but I do not know that there is any reliable information either before this body or before the Committee on Indian Affairs that any such outrage has occurred in Colorado. If there is any such information it has not been brought to my observation. It seems to me that this is rather a hasty and unprecedented manner of disposing of a question of this kind. There may have been outrages committed there, and doubtless there have been on both sides, or what would be considered outrages in a civilized community; but in the consideration of a question like this, you must take cognizance of the circumstances which exist there. You must remember that the people of Colorado have been engaged in a war of extermination not provoked by themselves but brought on by the Indians. It seems to me that before action like that now proposed under these circumstances is taken in a case of such importance as this, and the pay and allowances of men are suspended, there should be some official investigation. If upon investigation the fault is found to rest with the officers or the men, and they are culpable, I shall have nothing to say against their punishment, but I am opposed to punishing men in advance of investigation, (men who are serving for the poor pittance of thirteen or fourteen dollars a month,) by stopping their pay and stopping their subsistence, depriving them of the pay upon which their families at home, their wives and their children, are depending for support, while they are defending their homes against the ruthless barbarity of the savages. I say it is improper to take hasty action on the subject, and to punish the men in this way when there could have been no responsibility on them. They were simply obeying the orders of their officers. the orders of the officers were illegal, or wrong, or improper to be executed, you cannot fasten the responsibility upon the private soldier. You must hold the officers responsible; and the fact that they will be mustered out of service in a short time will in no wise relieve them of the responsibility which they owe to the law for an outrage such as the Senator from Iowa says has been committed in the Territory of Colorado. If Sir, there is a great deal of misguided sympa thy for the Indians. It is a fruitful theme, and individuals all over the country are continually elaborating it. They are talking constantly about the wrongs which the aboriginal race has suffered at the hands of the white man. I admit that there have been wrongs on both sides. We have deprived them of their country; we have occupied it; and circumstances have necessarily driven us to war with them. If I could appeal to Senators here who represent the older States, and who bring upon this floor some of the feelings to which I have just alluded, I would recall to their minds the hostilities between the Indians and the early settlers of the country in their own States, and they would perhaps entertain a very different opinion. This complaint of killing the women and children of the Indians is as old as the settlement of our country, and has been reiterated year after year when we have had an Indian difficulty. It commenced with old Miles Standish in his forays against the Pequods, and it has been perpetuated to the present time. He was charged with not particularly discriminating in favor of women and children when he attacked and burnt the Indian villages, and wiped out the tribes which infested that portion of the country. Sir, go back and read the history of New England; read the terrible scenes that were perpetrated upon our soil; where the Indian women and children were slaughtered, where the brains were knocked from the babe at the mother's breast, and the father was scalped in the presence of the rest of the family. I have had some experience with Indians; more than half of my life has been spent in direct contact with them. I have seen none of that noble, generous, and lofty character which is described by Mr. Cooper and other utopian writers on the subject. I have found them a degraded, thieving, murdering, plundering race. That is their instinct; and when they slaughter our people, when they murder them, when they rob them, they but carry out what is the instinct of their nature. The people of Colorado have been engaged in a war of this character. These volunteers are men who have been raised for the protection of their own homes; many of them have looked on the smoldering ruins of their houses, and the mutilated forms of their own wives and children lying around them; and it is not probable that under such circumstances men are very easily restrained from retaliation. Retaliation is the natural feeling of every man who witnesses calamities of that kind heaped upon his own head. During my own experience I have often witnessed such cases; and while I believe my nature is as mild as that of ordinary men, I have often thought it would be well if the whole race could be exterminated. I do not say that our Government would be justified or warranted in pursuing a course of that kind, which would be entirely inhuman; but I say there is nothing more natural to a frontiersman than to adopt such a view. Sir, you cannot civilize the Indian. Your humanitarian objects do not reach him. I have tried myself to translate Christ's sermon on the mount to the Indians, and I have never succeeded in converting them to the excellent theories which were set forth in that very wonderful production; but I have succeeded sometimes in civilizing them with powder and ball, and that is the only remedy. It is the remedy that was adopted by the Puritans in New England, and it has been carried wherever our emigrants have traveled from the shores of Massachusetts bay to the coast of the Pacific, and to the Gulf, and to the Northwest, so far as our intercourse has extended among them. My own State has not been the least among the sufferers from these terrible outrages. In 1840 a very excellent, pious, and worthy gentleman by the name of Whitman took his family across the Rocky mountains almost alone, and established himself in the Walla-Walla valley, about two thousand miles from the white settlements on this side, and the nearest settlements on the other side were in China and Japan, so that he was perfectly isolated from civilization. His object was to do something to elevate the Indian character. He established farms, he instituted a school, he and his wife both taught school. He gave the Indians every education in his power; he preached to them; he undertook to disseminate among them the principles and plan of salva tion. He was a man actuated by the most noble and generous impulses. If God ever made a good man, I think he was one. That man remained there until the emigration commenced passing through the country. The first emigrants went there in 1842. In the winter of 1847 fifteen or twenty families of emigrants were delayed, obstructed by the snows in the mountains, and it became necessary that they should winter at Whitman's settlement, five hundred miles from the Pacific ocean. They did winter there. That year the measles broke out among the Indians. Dr. Whitman and his family were assiduous in their attentions; did everything they could to relieve them; but the Indians, to whom they had done no wrong, to whom the emigrants had done no wrong-there had never been a drop of blood shed in the valley up to that time-held a council among themselves and determined to exterminate this party, Dr. Whitman and his wife, their benefactors, and the innocent women and children who were detained there by the inclemency of the weather. One morning they came to his house in a body, and one of them pretending to be ill asked him for some medicine. While the doctor, in the exercise of the generous humanity that always animated him, was dealing out to the Indian his medicine, another approached him from behind and crushed his skull with a tomahawk. Then a general attack took place. Mrs. Whitman was shot two or three times; the women and children were murdered indiscriminately. Mrs. Whitman begged for her life, appealed to those Indians who were members of her own church, of the church that had been organized among them, and endeavored in every way to induce them to save her life after she was shot; but they were relentless, they killed every man, they killed many of the women and children, and some they kept and took into a captivity worse than death. Sir, this is but a solitary instance within the boundaries of my own State. In 1855 the southern Indians broke out and desolated an entire district of country; they murdered men, women, and children iiscriminately, and the condition of those whom they took captive was worse than that of those whom they had murdered. I will not attempt to recount upon this floor the savage deeds of barbarity which have been perpetrated by this race within my own State. I might refer to two massacres on Boisa river of peaceable emigrants, when the poor, helpless women, attempting, almost naked, to escape, were overtaken, and the most horrible outrages perpetrated, which if I were to enumerate them here would drive every lady from these galleries. They were outrages that are not fit to be mentioned or referred to anywhere. Under these circumstances, can you blame people who have suffered such wrongs and outrages for some feeling of retaliation? Read the history of the Oatman family. When they were crossing the plains the father and mother were murdered, and two of the children, little girls, being captured, were dragged on foot through weary miles of desert, and reduced to the most abject slavery. One of them died as the direct consequence of the severe labors imposed on her by her ruthless captors, and the other only survived to suffer worse outrages than her sister who died. I pity the man who reads that account and does not shed a tear. In This dodge of "friendly" Indians is an old one; it is one with which I am familiar. I never knew an Indian yet who when he was conquered, or was brought within the power of the white man, did not become a "friendly Indian." dians are then always disposed to be friendly. A gentleman who crossed the plains last year told me that the men of this very tribe of Indians, for attacking whom you propose to punish Chivington, were traveling through the country exhibiting strips of white cloth with the name of the Indian upon them as a token that they were friendly; but when they found unarmed and defenseless parties on the plains they stuck this white cloth under their shirts and massacred the parties, and then when they came across forces too strong for them to overcome, they again exhibited this badge of their friendship or neutrality. These cases were of continual occurrence last year on the plains. Captain Crawford, who went over with an escort and has just returned, told me that when he arrived at Laramie he came to the conclusion, and still believes, that there was complicity between some of the Government officers and Indians in the mountains. Many Government trains last year were attacked. He told me that when he arrived at the agency he found a party who had been waiting several days for him to come up. They would not proceed as several parties had been cut off; but the interpreter told a man who was in advance of Captain Crawford with a small train that he might go on and the Indians would not disturb him. The families, the women and children of the Indians, were assembled around the agency and receiving protection and favor from the Government while the young men were out fighting and butchering our parties on the plains; and he says that every night there was a constant howl going up from that village for their young men who had been slain in the different attacks on emigrants crossing the plains. He told me that he saw one man there who was the survivor of a party of whom at the first fire six men and a boy were shot down and he was left by the Indians for dead. There were two ladies in that train and several children. The Indians captured the two ladies -the wife of this wounded man, and his daughter -and took them off. The man subsequently found his way to the fort in an exhausted and wounded condition, and he induced people to go out to hunt for his wife and daughter who had been captured by the Indians. A short distance from the creek they found his daughter killed, scalped, and a stake driven through her body. His wife is yet a prisoner among the Indians, and when Captain Crawford was there he was endeavoring to raise some people to go out to attempt to rescue his wife from the hands of her barbarous captors. Do you suppose that man, if he had the opportunity of engaging in an attack upon an Indian village, would have been restrained any more than Miles Standish was? Do you not suppose that he was perfectly imbued with the idea that it was necessary to exterminate a race who would perpetrate such outrageous and heinous crimes? I have no doubt that many of the men who participated in this alleged attack near Fort Lyon were men who were smarting under wrongs of a similar character. Captain Crawford told me of another incident. Beyond Fort Laramie a party of Indians attacked a train and were unsuccessful. One of the chiefs was desperately wounded, but he succeeded in getting away. A white man who had at some previous time been in the employment of the Government as agent or sub-agent took him to his house, nursed him, and cared for him. The commanding officer of the military forces hearing that the Indian was there wounded, that he had been wounded in an attack on an emigrant train comprising women and children, thought that he should take means of securing him. He sent a guard there to be placed over the house, but this white man who had him in charge, and who was an accomplice doubtless in his crimes, succeeded in spiriting him away. The next thing the captain heard of this vagabond chieftain was that he was lying in the United States hospital being cared for by the Government, his wounds dressed and receiving medical aid and attention from the officers of the Army. These are a few of the circumstances that are constantly occurring upon that route. I could enlarge upon them, but I have no desire to do so. As I said before, these outrages have been committed upon both sides. I do not prétend to say that the whites upon the frontiers are always right and the Indians always wrong. There are, doubtless, occasionally, circumstances of palliation upon either side; but I do know so far as my own experience goes, these wars of extermination have always been inaugurated by the Indians themselves, and have never been inaugurated by the white man, though he may at times have been driven to them by way of retaliation. When we find ourselves surrounded by a people who will be governed and controlled by no sort of civil policy, But who upon all occasions resort to this species of warfare; who prefer to make war upon women and children because they are defenseless, and there is less danger to be apprehended in a war of that kind, and when the only manner of restraining them is their extermination, it is a queston which it is well for gentlemen to consider how far it may properly be pursued. It is well, I say, to take into consideration how far a remedy of that kind may be pursued. I would not recommend extermination under ordinary circumstances; but when men whose families have suffered barbarities and cruelties at the hands of the Indians have a chance to retaliate, I am not prepared to blame them altogether when they attack the Indian villages and put them to the fire and the sword. This is an old complaint. Miles Standish attacked the Pequods, and it was said that he did so, and that was about the earliest complaint of the butchery of women and children in this country. We heard of it again in Jackson's wars in the Southwest. I believe that at Horseshoe Bend and in some other places in Alabama, he was accused of butchering women and children in indiscriminate warfare. Some time subsequent to that, and it is within the memory of every person here, General Harney attacked the Sioux village at Ash Hollow, and he was accused of there putting men, women, and children to death indiscriminately. The next complaint we heard of this kind, I believe, was in Connor's campaign on Bear river, where in the dead of winter he attacked the Indians who had assembled in their village, and in the fight, doubtless, some women and children were killed. It is impossible to discriminate in such cases. When the Indians can be found in a village with their women and children, it is about the only place where they will stand so that you can get a "sight" on them. All other fights with them are in the nature of foot-races; but when they have their women and children in their villages, and have collected and deposited there the plunder they have stolen, they make generally a pretty respectable sort of stand. In a case of that kind you have an opportunity of killing the men, and doubtless, while firing into Indian lodges indiscriminately, you will sometimes kill women and children. This was the case, doubtless, in those instances which I have enumerated, and I have no doubt that when Colonel Chivington's conduct comes to be investigated you will find that these were the circumstances under which he attacked the village. The young men of that village had, doubtless, been at war, and he attacked them in the village and inflicted on them indiscriminate slaughter. As I said before, I do not attempt to justify indiscriminate slaughter, but I say there are circumstances when men cannot be restrained from it. Women and children have been killed in this war. There is scarcely a town or city which has been shelled during the war where more or less of them have not been sacrificed by the missiles which have been hurled at their residences. It is not properly a cause of complaint, because it is a thing that happens unintentionally and unavoidably under the circumstances. I trust, Mr. President, that this resolution which proposes to inflict upon Colonel Chivington and his men punishment in advance of ascertaining what has been the character of their crime or what they have done in this matter of extermination, will not pass. I hope that time will be given for a full, free, and fair investigation. If Colonel Chivington has attacked a village of mere women and children, unprovoked, and robbed and plundered them, I should be the last man to raise my hand or voice in his defense; but if he has pursued fugitive robbers and thieves who had been depredating on that community to their village and attacked them and exterminated them, I have little sympathy for the Indians. Most of my sympathy is on the side of the white man. All the experience of my life has taught me that whatever sympathy these people may derive at the hands of transcendental philosophers and persons who are at very remote distances from them and know nothing about the circumstances existing on the frontier, my sympathy should be given to the white man, because I believe he has generally been in the right and has only resorted to this sort of retaliation as a matter of self-defense. Mr. CONNESS. Mr. President, I do not understand that the resolution before us proposes, as is claimed and asserted by the Senator from Oregon, any considerable punishment to the parties engaged in this so-called war. It proposes simply that the pay and compensation to which they would be entitled shall at present be reserved, and that an immediate investigation shall be had. I am in favor of that proposition. If you pay for this expedition now, or let it be paid for, you will investigate it, I undertake to say, very slowly, but if you stop the compensation and take proper steps at the beginning, you will have an additional incentive to all persons connected with the expedition to have the investigation made. I do not pretend to hold any opinion upon the merits of the proposition as to whether men, women, and children of the Indian race have been massacred in this case without provocation or cause. I think the statements made by the Senator from Iowa are sufficiently direct to require the investigation that he proposes by the resolution, and I think the step he proposes, in suspending the pay and compensation until that be done, is a very safe and practical one. The Senator from Oregon might have entertained us further, for I confess that I was very much entertained by his speech recounting the histories of the Indian wars, particularly on the side of the question which he said claims his sympathies, especially the white man's side of the question. I have no doubt that what the honorable Senator from Oregon says in one respect is true, that there is very much false sympathy expressed for the Indians upon occasions and by persons in civilized bodies and communities; but while he gives us an account of Indian wars and barbarous and cruel massacres in his own State and in the far West, he should not forget in justice and in truth to relate what he must know of the barbarities, the cruel injustice of the white man to these poor creatures whom God has made and given as much right to live and be as He has to either the Senator or myself. Why, sir, the State that I in part represent here has been the theater of these so-called Indian wars; I will not say akin to the Chivington war, because we know nothing about the facts of that yet; but I do know of the facts connected with the so-called Indian wars of my State, and it will not be enough for me to say that I am ashamed of them to-day: my heart has bled again and again through long years over the miserable and cruel and cowardly murders perpetrated in that State against these poor defenseless creatures. Upon the simple allegation coming from a county in the State of California that a house had been burned by an Indian boy that lived there, and that after he set fire to the house, which of course consumed some of the inmates, he ran into the Indian country, there was an Indian war got up and carried on at the expense of the State; and eventually it came to Congress to be paid for from the national Treasury-one of the most unnecessary, cruel, and barbarous butcheries that ever was perpetrated on earth. I undertook the investigation of that war in the Legislature of the State against a powerful lobby; a lobby reeking and filled with men stamped by God with an impression that could not be mistaken by the quick instincts and intuition of any clear-minded man. When I got so far in the investigation as to prove what was the mode of warfare carried on by the leaders of companies organized of white menshall I call them white, men or recognize their claim to belong to that race?-when I got to the point of developing their system of warfare, which was to sneak along through the mountains, where there was peace and no war, in the darkness of the night until the revealing light of the morning sun gave them an opportunity of surrounding a defenseless camp occupied in peace, then alarm the camp, and as the creatures ran shoot them down, concentrating upon them a fire from which they could not possibly escape; when I got to that point with my investigation, the investigation was silenced, the lobby became too strong, as it very often does. There were instances there, sir, where fifty to eighty bodies were mangled and cut to pieces, ay, of men, women, and children, with tomahawks in white men's hands; and when the creatures escaped into a pond of water, as they occasionally put their heads above its surface that they might breathe and live, they were dispatched upon being discovered. If those Indians had devastated the country; if they had burned homes, as was claimed; if they had pillaged, as was claimed; if they had murdered and outraged and carried white persons into captivity, and this was retaliation, there would have been at least an excuse, if not a complete justification. But that was not the case. These wars-I am not speaking of the Oregon wars now, be it remembered, but I dare to speak of what has transpired in my own State-and I say these wars have been fomented by the miserable kind of human fungi that now hang upon the vitals of the nation making money and crying for money when no man could tell whether the nation should live or die; and they were instituted for plunder, carried on with the hand of murder, maintained by the basest cowardice that the human mind can conceive, because the blows were directed at those that could not and had not the power to strike back. Now, sir, this is a step, I undertake to say, in the right direction; and in human nature's name I thank the honorable Senator from Iowa for proposing that for once the pay shall stop until the investigation shall be made, and that it be immediately made, and we ascertain whether this was a barbarous raid contemplating rapine and murder, and nothing else, or whether it was a justifiable act. One of its consequences is the interruption of our overland communication. I was going to say (but I will not discuss that) that I do not know that these things are necessary to the interruption of our overland mail. It is constantly interrupted; we have really no overland mail; and when it fails for want of carrying on the service, although the parties having the contract are paid for carrying it on, they make these Indian wars and disturbances on the plains an excuse. If they fail to feed their horses, if they fail to provide the means of carrying the mail, a report that the Indians have taken a station and destroyed a portion of their stock is sufficient to account for the failure of the public service in that regard. Mr. President, we have an Indian department in this Government; we have been conducting it, I will not undertake to say how long. As the Senator from Oregon said, we have taken the country of the red man. I agree with him that it belongs to the white man, rather because it is God's and we are His children, and we can put it to the higher and better use; but we have adopted a system of taking it from the Indian, and of taking care of him; and I undertake to say that our system, adopted and carried on at an immense expense, is thus far a complete failure; that it gives us a record of men appointed to look after the Indian who take advantage of the Indian to rob him and to plunder him, to incite him to acts of outrage by robbery and starvation and then holding the Indian responsible for what shall occur. I hope, sir, that this resolution will be adopted. It does not propose to punish anybody; it proposes to stop the pay of these parties until their conduct has been investigated, and to have that investigation made immediately. Are these men to suffer any more than our brave soldiers who are in the field, and frequently not paid for months together? Why, sir, that such a charge should be made by a Senator, that the information should come to him verified in a sufficient manner to warrant this proceeding, it seems to me, should not make a question as to the propriety of the act by the Senate. Let us resolve to take the initiative, and to take the steps necessary to see hereafter that justice be done by compelling the white man to do right as nearly as we can. direction to pursue the course which they did pursue. I cannot vote for a resolution that proposes thus to condemn the private who acts under orders, while it leaves the commander, the director of the enterprise, to receive his pay and pass no censure upon him. I will add further, Mr. President, in reference to this matter, that, in my opinion, this is not the place to investigate and to act upon that which properly belongs to one of the Departments of the Government, over which it has full control, and which I doubt not it will investigate and then apply the proper remedy. This whole thing, as far as the military is concerned, is under the direction of the War Department, and I doubt not it will discharge its duty. I condemn, as strongly as the Senator from California or the Senator from Iowa, this assault, if it was such as they have described, upon women and children, I care not to what race they belong. While I condemn that, if the state of fact be as they say, I must give it as my opinion that in a war with Indian tribes it is impossible to make that war effective unless you drive the warriors to the villages where their women and children are. I have no great admiration for the Indian character. You may trace the whole history of the race, and there are, I apprehend, very few instances where the Indian has respected even his benefactor when it became his interest to destroy him. My experience of them is that they are the most treacherous, the most perfidious, the falsest of all people that live on the face of the earth. Still, because that is true it does not become us to apply to them a mode of warfare that we, as a Christian and civilized people, ought never to indulge in. But, sir, in reference to this resolution, I cannot vote for it, and I do not think it ought to be passed in the shape in which it now is. I repeat that, in my opinion, the persons who are responsible for this transaction are the Governor of the Territory and the commanding officer who directed the assault, whoever he may be. The censure and the punishment ought to fall upon them, and upon them alone. I ask the Senator from Iowa, if the soldier, after he has enlisted, is ordered by his officer or led by his officer, directed by him to make an assault upon women, upon children, upon anybody else, whether he is not guilty of insubordination if he does not obey the command of the officer? Then, sir, I do not see why it is or how it is that you can withhold the pay of the private soldier. You may withhold the pay of the officers and ought to do it; but the resolution, in my judgment, goes too far; it includes too many. I think if these charges are found to be true, there is no punishment known to our law that ought not to be inflicted on the officers who commanded and directed the expedition. Mr. DOOLITTLE. The honorable Senator from Illinois seems to assume in his argument that the private soldier is bound to execute the orders of his superior officer in war, whatever they may be; that if the officer directs him to seize little children, and dash their brains out, or shoot down defenseless women, he must obey; if he does not, he is guilty of insubordination. Sir, I do not believe in that doctrine. No court-martial in the world organized to try a private soldier for disobedience of orders or insubordination in not obeying the order of an officer to shoot down defenseless women, and seize the little infants from their breasts, and dash their brains out, would find him guilty of insubordination for refusing to obey such an order. Mr. NESMITH. Will the Senator allow me to ask him a question? Mr. DOOLITTLE. Certainly. Mr. RICHARDSON. Mr. President, it seems to me that this resolution does not attack the proper place. The resolution proposes to stop the pay of the privates who, under the lead and direction of officers, did the acts which they were commanded to do, while the chief officer is not assailed at all. The Governor of the Territory called into existence by his proclamation this force for the purpose and with the direction and understanding that the pay the soldiers were to get should be the plunder taken from the Indians. This resolution proposes to stop the pay of the soldiers. It proposes to let the pay of that Governor who called them into being still go on. No proposition is made to investigate the conduct of that Governor who is under the control of the Administration, while you propose by the reso- Mr. DOOLITTLE. That is not the question. lution, upon information that you have, to with- The question is whether, when he is called upon hold the pay of the private soldiers acting under to attack an Indian village or make a charge, he the direction of the officer of the Governor. It should, with his sword or his bayonet, strike seems to me that the first persons to be attacked down women at the command of his officer? I should be the Governor, who called these troops say no. The rules of warfare do not require it; into being, and the officer who gave them the military law does not require it. Mr. NESMITH. Suppose a body of troops are ordered to charge an Indian village in which there are warriors, women, and children, and a soldier refuses to make the charge because he supposes that the women and children there may be killed, will that exonerate him from the punishment of the military offense? If the Senator from Mr. RICHARDSON. Wisconsin will permit me, I think he states my proposition too broadly. Mr. DOOLITTLE. Perhaps I do. Mr. RICHARDSON. I will not undertake to say how far a soldier, where he is ordered to strike down an individual, is justified in having any opinion about it; but I do say this: that where he is ordered to move in assault, he is guilty of insubordination if he refuses to obey and places that refusal upon the ground that it is dealing with women and children. Mr. DOOLITTLE. I do not stand here to insist that the private soldier can disobey an order to make an assault; but, sir, when he makes the assault and captures the place or the camp which he is ordered to assault, he is not bound to strike down women and children who in despair are begging their lives, at the beck or bidding of any officer, high or low. Mr. RICHARDSON. I do not think the point which the Senator makes is involved in the controversy here. Mr. DOOLITTLE. If my honorable friend will allow me, I was going on to refer to what I understand to be the facts of this case unon information which, while I do not avow that I know it to be true, comes from such a source that it leads me to believe that it is true; at all events, in my judgment, it raises the question sufficiently to demand an investigation to see whether it is true or not. I understand from a letter addressed and written to the city of Washington by the agent of these Indians, that he had these Indians in their lodges and encampments, under the protection of Fort Lyon, I think, and that this force, which consists, as I understand, of one hundred days' men raised in Colorado, under the command of Colonel Chivington, marched a good many miles, attacked this encampment, in which there were no Indian warriors, and put to the sword indiscriminately the women and children. That is the statement of the agent of this tribe. I know that agent. I believe him to be a gentleman who would not state anything that he did not believe. The charge is such a severe one against Colonel Chivington and those under his command that I will not vouch for its perfect truth and say that I know it to be true, but I will vouch this much for the agent, Major Calley, who went from my State some two or three years ago, and whom I know personally very well, that he is a man of truth and veracity, who, in my opinion, would not state anything which he did not believe. Possibly he may have been misinformed, or made some mistake about it, though I do not see how he could make any such mistake; but he makes this statement under circumstances that, in my judgment, call for an investigation, and I for one am not willing to pass it over without an examination. But to return to the exact point raised by the honorable Senator from Illinois against a portion of this resolution, that it suspends the pay of the privates as well as the officers under the command of Colonel Chivington, it seems to me no rule of military law, severe as it is, compels the private soldier when he makes an attack, and women and children plead for their lives, to put them to the sword. I know that when such attacks are made soldiers very often, in the excitement of the moment, will not stay their hands; they will sometimes put to the sword both women and children; but, sir, that they are justified in doing it I do not believe. You may say that he is guilty of insubordination if he does not slay them when ordered to do so by his commanding officer; but in my judgment he is guilty of murder before God and man if he does. For my part, under circumstances like those, I think the soldier, and even the private soldier, should choose to be insubordinate and run the risk of punishment rather than be guilty, and have the blood of murder on his hands in the destruction of the lives of women and children. Now, Mr. President, I understand the whole effect of this resolution to be, not to establish a charge of guilt against Colonel Chivington and the officers and men under his command, but simply to say that such information has come before the Senate and the country that we think there ought to be an investigation, and that until such an investigation has been had by the proper Depart ment, the resolution would seem to imply that the |