;
and deception and cheating in the supplying of them through their
contractors and civil agents brought untold complaints. If the Government
had treated the Indians as a ward that they were bound to protect, as the
English did, they would have had very little trouble in handling them. The
military force would have held all conferences with them; fed them when
they needed it; located them in an early day on unoccupied good
hunting-grounds; and finally, as civilization moved into their territories
and as their tribes wasted away, would have given them reservations where
the Government from the money they received from the lands the Indians
claimed, could have kept and fed them without any great burden or cost. In
all the days of Indian warfare and treaties, there never was such a farce,
or failure to comprehend the frontier situation, as in the years 1865 and
1866, and the failure of the Government to take advantage of the
comprehensive plans instituted by the military authorities, as well as of
the great expenditures made, and to punish the Indians as they deserved,
brought, in after years, greater expenditures and more disturbances than
ever.

Early in the campaign, after General Pope had made known his views to the
Government, he requested me to write fully mine to the Secretary of the
Interior, who had charge of Indian affairs, and who was from my state, and
I sent him this letter:

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE MISSOURI.

ST. LOUIS, MO., June 22, 1865.

_Hon. James Harlan, Secretary of the Interior, Washington, D. C._:

MY DEAR SIR: Copies of Senator Doolittle's and Commissioner Dole's
letters to you of dates May 31 and June 12 have been furnished me. My
acquaintance with you leads me to believe that you are endeavoring to
get at the real facts of our Indian difficulties and the best methods
for putting an end to them. So far as Senator Doolittle's letter
refers to "some general getting up of an Indian war on his own hook"
and for his own purposes, I shall indulge no reply. You know me, and
if it was intended in any way to apply to me I leave you to judge of
how much credence should be attached to it. My sincere desire is to
terminate these Indian troubles, and I have no hesitation in saying
that if I am allowed to carry out the policy now being pursued toward
them I will have peace with them before another emigration crosses the
plains. When I as