It will thus be seen that I had, with the approval of the Indian Bureau, turned the adjustment of difficulties with the hostile Indians entirely over to the military authorities; that I had instructed Agent Colley, at Fort Lyon, that this would relieve the Bureau of further care of the Arapahoes and Cheyennes, until peace was made, and having had no notice of such peace, or instructions to change the arrangement, the status of these Indians was in no respect within my jurisdiction, or under my official inspection. It may be proper for me to say further, that it will appear in evidence that I had no intimation of the direction in which the campaign against the hostile Indians was to move, or against what bands it was to be made, when I left the Territory last fall, and that I was absent from Colorado when the Sand Creek battle occurred. The report continues: "It is true that there seems to have been excited among the people inhabiting that region of country a hostile feeling towards the Indians. Some had committed acts of hostility towards the whites, but no effort seems to have been made by the authorities there to prevent these hostilities, other than by the commission of even worse acts." "_Some_ had committed acts of hostility towards the whites!" Hear the facts: In the fall of 1863 a general alliance of the Indians of the plains was effected with the Sioux, and in the language of Bull Bear, in the report of the council, "Their plan is to clean out all this country." The war opened early in the spring of 1864. The people of the East, absorbed in the greater interest of the rebellion, know but little of its history. Stock was stolen, ranches destroyed, houses burned, freight trains plundered, and their contents carried away or scattered upon the plains; settlers in the frontier counties murdered, or forced to seek safety for themselves and families in blockhouses and interior towns; emigrants to our Territory were surprised in their camps, children were slain, and wives taken prisoners; our trade and travel with the States were cut off; the necessities of life were at starvation prices; the interests of the Territory were being damaged to the extent of millions; every species of atrocity and barbarity which characterizes savage warfare was committed. This is no fancy sketch, but a plain statement of facts of which the committee seem to have had no proper realization. All this history of war and blood—all this history of rapine and ruin—all this story of outrage and suffering on the part of our people—is summed up by the committee, and given to the public in one mild sentence, "_Some_ had committed acts of hostility against the whites."