Harper's Weekly

“ The Indians have been so uninteresting and so remote that a popular military estimate of them as “vermin” has been often accepted as conclusive, and they have been left to the tender mercies of swindlers and desperadoes, until, turning upon their enemies, they have been reduced to submission by the army. Next to slavery, the Indian chapter of our history is probably the one most unworthy of our national character and principles. ”

“ To attempt to right the Ponca wrong now by returning them to Dakota would not only open the possibility of a Sioux war, but their withdrawal from the Indian Territory would involve a more determined invasion of it than that now pending, and injure the Indians incalculably more than anything which has yet befallen them. ”

“ Secretary Schurz certainly gives good reasons for his opinion, and he seems to us to defend himself conclusively against all charges of remissness or injustice. Indeed, the country and the Indians will be exceedingly fortunate if his successor in the Interior Department unites so much ability, integrity, intelligence, and devotion to the public interests and to the welfare of the Indians as Secretary Schurz has shown. ”