Page:U.S. Department of the Interior Annual Report 1879.djvu/20

18 department, Mr. Adams was instructed, October 27, to propose the following terms: that a commission, consisting of Brevet Major-General Hatch, Mr. Charles Adams, and Chief Ouray, be instituted to meet at the Los Pinos Agency to take testimony in order to ascertain the guilty parties among the White River Utes, those guilty parties so ascertained to be surrendered and dealt with as white men would be under like circumstances. These instructions had been, after consultation, approved by the President and General Sherman. On the day following a dispatch was received from Mr. Adams suggesting, upon conference with Ouray, the appointment of a commission in the same manner and to the same end. The commission was appointed, and entered upon its labors on November 14. It is hoped that it will accomplish its purpose.

While Mr. Adams was on his Way to effect the liberation of the captive women and children, military operations were suspended, but a considerable body of troops was concentrated in Southern Colorado, while General Merritt was held in the north near White River, so as to be ready for action in case of the failure of the negotiations.

The outbreak on the White River Reservation created in the State of Colorado intense excitement. The wildest rumors were set afloat, that the border settlements and mining camps were being attacked by the Indians, that the Uncompahgre Utes had in a body taken part in the attack on Major Thornburgh’s command, that the Uintah Utes, the Arapahoes, and Shoshones had re-enforced them, that a general Indian war was impending, and so on. All these rumors have proved entirely unfounded. It was also urgently demanded that military operations should go on while the captive women and children were still in the hands of the hostiles and Mr. Adams Was among the Indians to save them, and while it was absolutely certain that a continuation of military operations under such circumstances would have resulted in the sacrifice of those captives and Mr. Adams in addition. Such unreasoning appeals could of course not be heeded by those who had the responsibility of the conduct of affairs, and the result has amply justified their action. If the commission succeeds in its work, it will have saved the country an Indian war which would indeed have been destructive to the Indians engaged in it, but also calculated to drive into hostilities Indians originally desiring to remain peaceable, to expose our troops to a harassing and most difficult campaign on ground most favorable to the hostile Indians, and the western part of Colorado with its border settlements and mining camps to incalculable devastation by a savage foe. It was considered the duty of the government to leave no proper means untried to avert such a calamity. War ought always to be, not the first, but the last resort. Even if the commission should fail in its work, the temporary suspension of hostilities will at least have resulted in saving the lives of the captive women and children, and probably in limiting hostilities to that band of Indians which began the disturbance.

As to the cause of the trouble, it remains only to be said that it