soon as possible in fight and foray. The instruction of his
father is only such as is calculated to fit him best to act a
prominent part in the chase, in theft, and in murder....
Virtue, morality, generosity, honor, are words not only
absolutely without significance to him, but are not accurately
translatable, into any Indian language on the Plains."

These are sterner, less kindly, less philosophic words than
Marcy's, but they keenly outline the duty of the Army on the
frontier. We made treaties with the Indians and broke them. In
turn men such as these ignorant savages might well be expected to
break their treaties also; and they did. Unhappily our Indian
policy at that time was one of mingled ferocity and wheedling.
The Indians did not understand us any more than we did them. When
we withdrew some of the old frontier posts from the old
hunting-range, the action was construed by the tribesmen as an
admission that we feared them, and they acted upon that idea. In
one point of view they had right with them, for now we were
moving out into the last of the great buffalo country. Their war
was one of desperation, whereas ours was one of conquest, no
better and no worse than all the wars of conquest by which the
strong have taken the possessions of the weak.

Our Army at the close of the Civil War and at the beginning of
the wars with the Plains tribes was in better condition than it
has ever been since that day. It was made up of the soundest and
best-seasoned soldiers that ever fought under our flag; and at
that time it represented a greater proportion of our fighting
strength than it ever has before or since. In 1860 the Regular
Army, not counting the volunteer forces, was 16,000. In 1870 it