surrounding settlers had been
killed by the Indians. A long and bloody war ensued, with some
results which were deplorable in the extreme. General Canby's
confiding nature had led him into a terrible mistake. He had
executed an unwise regulation which placed military power in unworthy
hands, without waiting to inquire whether that power was not, in
fact, about to be unlawfully abused, and thus had become a party
to the sacrifice of many innocent lives. The brave and noble-
hearted Canby strove in every possible way to make peace with the
Modocs without further shedding of innocent blood. But the savage
red man, who had never been guilty of breaking faith with a civilized
white man, would no longer trust any one of the "treacherous race."
He paid them back "in their own coin," according to his traditional
method. Though warned of the danger, Canby went calmly into the
trap they had laid for him, in the hope that his confidence might
inspire their respect; but he was the very man whose troops had
been ordered to drive them out from their happy homes, and they
treacherously killed him. And I doubt not, if more blood must be
shed, he preferred to be the first to die. This is the true history
of the "Canby massacre."

THE CANBY MASSACRE

After a long contest, costing many lives, the Modocs were subdued
and made prisoners. Those Indians who had been engaged in the
massacre were tried and justly executed according to the laws of
civilized war, while those white men who, in no less flagrant
disregard of the laws of civilization, brought on the war were not
called to any account for their crime. But President Grant, when
I called his attention to the abuse of that old regulation, promptly
abolished it. Since that time, as I understand it, no man but the
head of the nation can order the army to kill unless necessary in
defense, nor determine for what purposes the army may be employed.
The people of the United States are advancing, though slowly, in
civilization. Their fundamental law has very wisely always provided
that Congress alone should have power to "declare war"; but for
many years any Indian agent, or any bloodthirsty white man on the
frontier, who chose to kill an Indian in cold blood, could inaugurate
a war without waiting to declare it, and that without the slightest
danger of punishment. A little military justice, in the absence
of any possible c