Harpers Ferry Free Press

We have given, in our first page, the official account of the defeat of the Ricaras Indians, who recently committed an outrage on a party of Gen. Ashley's traders. It is always gratifying to hear of the success of our arms, in whatever cause engaged, but our gratification in this case would be somewhat alloyed, if it should appear, upon inquiry, that the red men of the forest had been punished too hastily. In the course of trade with these poor refugees, who have been driven, step by step, from the "shores of one ocean almost into the bosom of another," avarice sometimes usurps the place of justice. Their rights are often infamously violated by unprincipled traders, and then, if the spirit of retaliation, which is inherent in the human breast, be roused to avenge their injuries, without further ceremony the most summary vengeance is hurled upon them. We hope, for the honor of our country and of humanity, that punishment has not, in this instance, been prematurely and improperly inflicted. Although rigorous measures are frequently necessary in our intercourse with the aborigines, yet some discrimination ought to be observed between acts of aggression and of retribution; because, if we disregard the principles of justice, (which ought ever to be held sacred, even with savages,) we fix a deep and dreadful antipathy, which can never be eradicated. The feelings which seem to have governed Col. Leavenworth, in his measures of retaliation, (choosing rather to correct than to exterminate,) are honorable to his heart, and such as might have been expected to influence one whose reputation is founded upon acts of heroism and not of cruelty.