good one, yet it was mischievous and difficult to enforce, and would also work hardship to a large portion of our frontier people. He had several objections. He also thought a cow buffalo could not be distinguished at a distance.
Mr. Hancock, of Texas, thought the bill an impolicy, and that the sooner the buffalo was exterminated the better.
Mr. Fort replied by asking him why all the game-deer, antelope, etc. — was not slaughtered also. Then he went on to state that to exterminate the buffalo would be to starve innocent children of the red man, and to make the latter more wild and savage than he was already.
Mr. Baker, of Indiana, offered the following amendment as a substitute for the one already offered:
Mr. Fort stated that a certain clause in his bill covered the object of the amendment.
Mr. Jenks offered the following amendment:
Strike out in the fourth line of the second section the word "can" and insert “shall;” and in the second line of the same section insert the word "wantonly” before “kill;" so that the clause will read:
"That it shall be in like manner unlawful for any such person to wantonly kill, wound, or destroy in the said 'Territories any greater number of male buffaloes than are needed for food by such person, or than shall be used, cured, or preserved for the food of other persons, or for the market."
Mr. Conger said: “I think the whole bill is unwise. I think it is a useless measure."
Mr. Hancock said: "I move that the bill and amendment be laid on the table."
The motion to lay the bill upon the table was defeated, and the amendment was rejected.
Mr. Conger called for a division on the passage of the bill. The House divided, and there were — ayes 93, noes 48. He then demanded tellers, and they reported — ayes 104, noes 36. So the bill was passed.
On February 25, 1876, the bill was reported to the Senate, and referred to the Committee on Territories, from whence it never returned.
On March 20, 1876, Mr. Fort introduced a bill (H. R. 2767) to tax buffalo hides; which was referred to the Committee on Ways and Means, and never heard of afterward.
This was the last move made in Congress in behalf of the buffalo. The philanthropic friends of the frontiersman, the Indian, and of the buffalo himself, despaired of accomplishing the worthy object for which they had so earnestly and persistently labored, and finally gave up the fight. At the very time the effort in behalf of buffalo protection was abandoned the northern herd still flourished, and might have been preserved from extirpation.
At various times the legislatures of a few of the Western States and
