Such Sunday legislation is a fair evidence of the absence of true religion, and the predominance of hypocrisy. It is not enforced, and is not expected to be. All the Sunday legislation in New York did not prevent the immense Syracuse Salt Works from carrying on their work day and night. Gov. Hill and the N. Y. Legislature have shown their character by increasing the penalties of the Sunday laws, but they have not approached the Massachusetts standard.
A Bill to Destroy the Indians.
From the Boston Pilot.
The Puritans of New England and the Cavaliers of Virginia alike treated the Indians as though they had no rights of manhood. The Catholics, Baptists, and Quakers treated them kindly and justly. The Puritans took Indian lands without permission or compensation. The Catholics, Baptists and Quakers bought lands from the Indians in an honorable way.
The two policies have been in conflict for nearly three centuries.
The Government has held to the policy of buying lands from the Indians, thus recognizing their ownership; but it has not always paid the price agreed upon. Now, under the lead of Senator Dawes Congress has passed a bill which annuls the treaties, and overrides all proprietary rights of every tribe, except nine of the most civilized.
His bill is the “Indian Land in Severalty Bill.” It pretends to be in the interest of the Indians, but that pretense is a fraud. It is wholly in the interest of railroad companies, land syndicates, and private white settlers.
The treaties of 1868 and 1876 guarantee the Sioux tribes undisturbed possession of their reservation in Dakota. Not an acre of that land can be taken from them without the consent of three-fourths of them. So read the treaties signed by the United States Commissioners and confirmed by the United States Senate.
The Dawes Severalty Bill takes the Sioux reservation from the control of the Sioux without asking the consent of a single Indian, surveys it as though it was a body of public land, and then says to the Sioux: The Government will return a small homestead for each of you, as individuals, and after twenty-five years you shall have titles to these small tracts, but the remainder of the reservation, (about four-fifth) must be opened to white settlers.