I WILL SAY THAT I like an Indian better dead than living. I have never in my life seen a good Indian (and I have seen thousands) except when I have seen a dead Indian. I believe in the Indian policy pursued by New England in years long gone. I believe in the Indian policy which was taught by the great chieftain of Massachusetts, Miles Standish. I believe in the policy that exterminates the Indians, drives them outside the boundaries of civilization, because you cannot civilize them. Gentlemen may call this very harsh language; but perhaps they would not think so if they had had my experience in Minnesota and Colorado. In Minnesota the almost living babe has been torn from its mother’s womb; and I have seen the child, with its young heart palpitating, nailed to the window-sill. I have seen women who were scalped, disfigured, outraged. In Denver, Colorado Territory, I have seen women and children brought in scalped. Scalped why? Simply because the Indian was “upon the war-path,” to satisfy his devilish and barbarous propensities. You have made your treaties with the Indians, but they have not been observed. General [William Tecumseh] Sherman went out a year ago to Colorado Territory. He made a treaty; and in less than twenty-four hours after the treaty was made the Indians were again “upon the war-path.” The Indian will make a treaty in the fall, and in the spring he is again “upon the war-path.” The torch, the scalping-knife, plunder, and desolation follow wherever the Indian goes.

But, Mr. Chairman, I will answer the gentleman’s question more directly. My friend from Massachusetts [Mr. Butler] has never passed the barrier of the frontier. All he knows about Indians (the gentleman will pardon me for saying it) may have been gathered, I presume, from the brilliant pages of the author of “The Last of the Mohicans,” or from the lines of the poet Longfellow in “Hiawatha.” The gentleman has never yet seen the Indian upon the war-path. He has never been chased, as I have been, by these red devils—who seem to be the pets of the eastern philanthropists.

Mr. Chairman, I regret that I have not prepared myself with statistics as to Indian atrocities. I desire to answer the gentleman from Massachusetts fairly. I repeat that the Indian policy of the Government from beginning to end is wrong. If the management of the Indians is to continue as a part of the civil service, then there ought to be a bureau of Indian affairs, under the charge of a Cabinet officer, who should be responsible for all matters connected with the management of the Indians.

Source: United States Congress, The Congressional Globe: Containing the Debates and Proceedings of the Second Session of the Fortieth Congress, May 28, 1868, 2638.