327 sons against participating or engaging in any unlawful means against the Indians occupying said Reserves. It is to be regretted that such warning has not had the effect so much to have been desired and expected; for although it seems a truce was agreed upon between the parties, which it was hoped would lead to a better understanding, reports have just reached me, through Capt. S. P. Ross, of the Reserve Agency, furnishing information of further and still greater combinations now being formed in a number of the adjacent counties, whose object is directly to dis- turb the public peace and tranquility, by waging an unlawful war upon the Indians on the Reserves, and with the avowed object of breaking up and driving them beyond the limits of the State. It is in this state of affairs I have felt it my duty to appeal to you as men who, in your calmer moments, could not be induced deliberately to violate the laws of your country. The good sense and sound judgment which characterizes the frontier mind, can- not fail to show you, on reflection, the long train of evils that must inevitably follow such a cours~vils far more numerous and more deeply to be regretted in their effects, as well upon yourselves and your families as upon the country generally, than any you have heretofore undergone. To what extent you have been wronged, or whether you have been wronged at all, by the presence of the friendly Indians in your midst, it is not for me to say, but I feel sure that these injuries, from the most exager- ated accounts, cannot reach the magnitude of those which would follow a course of lawlessness and bloodshed upon your part. If you have suffered from unlawful acts of the Indians, a peaceable and lawful mode of proceeding (though slow, perhaps,) will surely obtain the proper redress, while acts of violence will as surely embarrass all efforts for relief, and in all probability thwart and prevent them entirely. An effort is already being made for the peaceable removal of these Indians beyond the lim- its of the State. Your Representatives at Washington have been requested to bring the subject to the notice of the authorities, and urge upon them the necessity of prompt action. But my duty compels me to add that there are still weightier and graver reasons why you should desist from all further forci- ble steps against these Indians. The mandates of the law must be enforced against all offenders. Your good sense ought again to show you, that you cannot evade its penalties. It would be idle and indeed foolish to expect that the officers of the law will wink at such offences, or fail to use its strong arm for the protection
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