burned our timber, and dug our lands; and now you must give us a big heap cf presents. Our squaws' faces leak tears. They sleep cold. We take the words you say to us in our hands; but some things you promise slip through. White men do not always keep their word. They cheat, and their presents are not good. Our fathers, many moons in the long past, gave white men meat, buffalo-skins to keep them warm, and guided them through the mountain-passes toward the far-off sunset. Our hands to-day are warm, and our souls true to all true and peaceable pale-faced men; but we are poor. You must give us blankets, arms to shoot the game, hatchets to hew poles for tents, and many presents; for our squaws and pappooses are hungry, and rain comes from their eyes. "My braves are not children. They do not fear to die. They do not ask for pity or sympathy; only for justice and good feeling. Remove your soldiers from our hunting-grounds, and peace would come to us all. I will go with you to Laramie to induce Red Cloud, chief of all the war-parties, and Ogallala, to make peace, as Satanti, Black Kettle, and other chiefs have done. The old chief, Man-afraid-of-his-horses, is for peace; and he gave Red Cloud his daughter in marriage, early last fall, to keep the peace. I do not want to see the white man's blood flow, but want to live in peace with him, and in peace with all my brother tribes, and, dying, enter the peaceful hunting-grounds of my fathers. Tell your great father we were glad to see you. It made our hearts feel good. The Great Spirit looks down into our peace-council, and is pleased.'' God has written upon every conscious heart the divine command, "Thou shalt not kill." The noble, eloquent words of the editor-in-chief of The Banner should be republished in every paper of the Union,-in allusion to this great question, --namely, that, "We (Americans) should have learned ere this that justice to all red, white, and black is the highest statesmanship, the greatest political economy, the safest foundation of a government, the surest guaranty of peace, liberty, progress, civilization, and order; the grandest conception, and most sublime action (as it should be the greatest pride) of a free people.' "Sitting by the side of a staff-officer who was fixing the strap to his pistol-casing, he inquired of us where we joined the Commission? "At Omaha, Neb.' "What for an outfit have you?' "A little verdant in the army style of conversation, we replied, 'A shawl and trunk containing clothing, books, etc.' "Oh! I meant implements of defense, such as they use out here to pick off the red-skins.' any "I never carry firearms, and could not be induced under consideration to take the life of a human being.' "If those hostile Indians knew that, they'd soon have your scalp.' "Well, they could not take my spiritual scalp.' "What in the devil is that.' 66 6 'Why, you know the apostle Paul speaks of there being a "natural body and a spiritual body," clearly implying a physical and spiritual organization throughout; and, accordingly, though the earthly head were scalped, I should still live immortal, and could perhaps better serve the Indian and others of the down-trodden in spirit-life than this.' "Then you are really a non-resistant.' "In the sense of killing human beings, I certainly am,believing that any true man unarmed is the most thoroughly armed; his motto being, it is better to endure wrong than to do wrong; better to be murdered than to murder; and better to suffer unhappiness than to make others unhappy.' This is my religion." This expedition accomplished but little in the direction intended, for the reason that the whites in all their dealings with the Indians have been in the spirit of injustice, and disposed to exploit and defraud them of their rights. Renewals of war soon followed, being instigated by depredations on the part of the whites. XX LOVES AND FRIENDHIPS The loves of this man have been but partially understood, even by his familiar acquaintances. People who have been somewhat intromitted into his sphere through his writings, and who sit under the magnetic spell of his public utterances, conclude that he is intense and ardent in his loves. He is nothing of the kind, at least in the expression of feeling toward individuals. For the most part his loves and friendships are impersonal, rising above the local limitations of home and the ties of blood,- beyond the limitations of country and race, and becoming general and universal in their manifestation. "Whereso'er he met The soul of a true woman, beautiful Upon her breast humility's pure pearl, He worshiped at that shrine, as true men must By way of his pen and public utterances, many women have fallen desperately in love with him, and have often sued for favors greater than he could grant favors which neither comported with his natural impulses, nor with his views of social life. Indeed, these aspirants after his personal favors have geen almost invariably disappointed on a closer acquaintance, for they have found him quite indifferent to demonstrative affection. He has often expressed his disgust for "fiddle-faddle" loves and friendships. In all his speeches and writings, Mr. Peebles is careful to draw the distinction between animal desire and spiritual love. 243 His moral indignation is, intense when he reads or hears an argument defensive of a loose and unrestrained socialism. His idea is, that the functional uses of the passions are administrative subordination under the guidance of an enlightened morality, to develop and spiritualize the whole being, and the propagation of the race obedient to the dictates of the highest wisdom, that all children may be welcomed and cherished as earth's angels, born right, and therefore living right. This extract from an article written for The Progressive Age, 1863, is a true transcript of his opinion on this subject: "In cerebellum soil are the germinal types, buds even, of lilies and oceanic flowers, struggling to rise from their sedimental graves into the free, fresh sunlight of heaven; so are there mortals that live away down in the back-brain apartments of their soul-house. Let us aid such to ascend to the summits of the moral and spiritual faculties into which angels delight to gaze! . . . "Physical gratifications can never supply true heart-wants. Spiritual loves, pure and holy, can fully feed the strong soul." "Sexual starvation is a sexual curse." "If spirits teach promiscuity,' it speaks sadly for the medium, and a thousand times worse for the controlling influences. Such spirits must be recently from the central sinks of New York, or the Seven Dials' of London. "All the brain organs and germinal forces of the soul are beautiful and divine. Even amativeness, disrobed of earthliness, resurrected and actualized in angelic life, is the synonym of love, love pure and divine as God's; working with and inspiring the morality and spirituality of those higher faculties for all us mortals who can comprehend the purity and divinity of love. The fountain is infinite. It flows out spontaneous from regenerated souls toward all humanity,— man, woman child; field, flower, mountain, and star; free, full, and unconfined." He is charmed with the child-like affection of the Shakers; maintaining that they live the nearest to an angelic life of any sect in the world, everywhere advocating their cardinal prin ciples as respects the freedom and function of love. He has frequently visited them in their lovely homes to sun his soul amid their spiritual purities, and returns to the "outer court," as he calls our social life, like Jesus from the sweet cottage of Mary and Martha at Bethany, invigorated in body and mind for a loftier work. At their great meeting in Boston, in 1869, when their doctrines and objects were defined before the thinkers of that city, Mr. Peebles, by their special invitation, and agreeable to his deepest convictions of privileged duty, was present on the stand to indicate his heart-interest. His speech on the occasion, in defense of their system, was admirable. We can almost feel his heart beat in ours as we read his words, first published in the Religio-Philosophical Journal: "The apostle John said he knew that he had passed from death unto life, because he loved the brethren.' This love can never degenerate into license, nor such liberty into anarchy; for it is a principle disrobed of passion,- a resurrection even of the low-brain organs, up on to the plane of divine purity and use. All men are my brothers; all women my sisters; all children my children; and I am every mortal's child. I have an interest in every child born into earth-life. Its destiny is linked with mine. “One family, we dwell in Him, One church above, beneath; Though now divided by the stream,— The swelling stream of death.' "My country is the universe; my home, the world; my religion, to do good; my rest, wherever a human heart beats in harmony with mine: and my desire is to extend a brother's helping hand to earth's millions, speaking in tones as sweet as angels use; thus kindling in their breasts the fires of inspiration, and aiding them up the steeps of Mount Discipline, whose summit is bathed in the mellowed light of heaven. All the love that can be attracted from my inmost being belongs to the poor and the crushed, to you, reader, to the world, the whole universe. Some may not specially call this love out; neither |