ST. LOUIS, April 26,
1868.
Dear Brother: I notice the Indians are getting restless.
* * * * * * * * * *
This is natural, for
the department has been unable to fulfil any of the promises we held out to
them of ploughs, seed, cattle, etc., to begin their new life of peace.
I feel reluctant to
go further in these naked promises, as I fear our Government is becoming so
complicated, that it is very venturesome to make promises in advance. I have
the written guarantee of the Secretary of the Interior and of the committees on
Indian affairs, and will try and impress on the Indians that our work is
preliminary and not final or conclusive. . . .
SOURCE: Rachel
Sherman Thorndike, Editor, The Sherman Letters: Correspondence Between
General and Senator Sherman from 1837 to 1891, p. 317-8
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