SECTION OF CHICAGO STOCK-YARDS,
THE LARGEST IN THE WORLD.
The election was a perfect jumble. Eight candidates were voted for as President and eleven for Vice-President. Grant received 286 electoral votes and carried thirty-one States. Greeley was so crushed by his defeat that he lost his reason and died within a month after election. His electors scattered their votes, so that Thomas A. Hendricks, the regular Democratic candidate, received 42; B. Gratz Brown, 16; Charles J. Jenkins, 2; and David Davis, 1.
THE INDIAN QUESTION.
The second term of Grant was more troublous than the first. The difficulties with the Indians, dating from the first settlement in the country, were still with us. At the suggestion of the President, a grand council of delegates of the civilized tribes met in December, 1870, in the Choctaw division of the Indian Territory. The subject brought before them was the organization of a republican form of government, to be under the general rule of the United States. A second convention was held in the following July and a provisional government organized. A proposal was adopted that the United States should set aside large tracts of land for the exclusive occupancy and use of the Indians. These areas were to be known as "reservations," and so long as the Indians remained upon them they were to be protected from molestation.
This scheme seemed to promise a settlement of the vexed question, but it failed to accomplish what was expected. In the first place, most of the Indians were unfriendly to it. No matter how large a part of country you may give to a red man as his own, he will not be satisfied without permission to roam and hunt over all of it.
A more potent cause of trouble was the origin of all the Indian troubles, from the colonial times to the present: the dishonesty and rascality of the white men brought officially in contact with the red men. Not only did these miscreants pursue their evil ways among the Indians themselves, but there was an "Indian ring" in Washington, whose members spent vast sums of money to secure the legislation that enabled them to cheat the savages out of millions of dollars. This wholesale plundering of the different tribes caused Indian wars and massacres, while the evil men at the seat of the government grew wealthy and lived in luxury.
THE MODOC TROUBLES.
Trouble at once resulted from removing the Indians to reservations that were inferior in every respect to their former homes. The Modocs, who had only a few hundred warriors, were compelled by our government to abandon their fertile lands south of Oregon and go to a section which was little better than a desert. They rebelled, and, under the leadership of Captain Jack and Scar-faced Charley, a number took refuge among some lava beds on the upper edge of California. On the 11th of April, 1873, a conference was held between the Indian leaders and six members of the peace commission. While it was in progress, the savages suddenly attacked the white men. General Edward S. Canby and Dr. Thomas were instantly killed, and General Meachem, another member, was badly wounded, but escaped with his life.