Fort Apache (1948)

Grant Withers: Silas Meacham

Photos 

Quotes 

• [in the storeroom at Meacham's trading post, the soldiers find boxes marked "Bibles" - Col. Thursday tells the men to open them - when they do, they find kegs of whiskey instead] 

  Sgt. Quincannon : Bibles, sir!

  Lt. Col. Owen Thursday : [Col. Thursday hands a cup to Sgt. Mulcahy]  Sergeant, pour me some scripture.

  [Sgt. Mulcahy dips the cup into a keg and hands it to Col. Thursday. He takes a sip and spits it out] 

  Lt. Col. Owen Thursday : What's in this? Brimstone and sulfur?

  Silas Meacham : You know what it is and I'm entitled to keep it.

  Lt. Col. Owen Thursday : Your license may permit you to keep a medicinal store of whiskey, but this is no whiskey.

  Silas Meacham : Perhaps you're not used to frontier whiskey.

  Lt. Col. Owen Thursday : I don't know... I've tasted most everything.

  [to Sgt. Mulcahy] 

  Lt. Col. Owen Thursday : Sergeant, you a judge of whiskey?

  First Sgt. Festus Mulcahy : [looks around at the others]  Uh, well, sir, some people say I am and some say I'm not, sir.

  Lt. Col. Owen Thursday : [hands him the cup]  Tell me what you make of this.

  First Sgt. Festus Mulcahy : [takes a drink - makes a face at Meacham - takes another drink]  Well, uh, it's better than no whiskey at all, sir.

• [at Meacham's trading post] 

  Captain Yorke : No troop or squadron or regiment's gonna keep the Apaches on this reservation unless they want to stay here. Five years ago we made a treaty with Cochise. He and his Chiricahuas and some of the other Apache bands came on the reservation. They wanted to live here in peace... and DID for two years. And then Meacham, here, was sent by the "Indian Ring"...

  Silas Meacham : That's a lie! I've been endorsed...

  Captain Yorke : The dirtiest, most corrupt political group in our history. And then it began: whiskey but no beef; trinkets instead of blankets; the women degraded; the children sickly; and the men turning into drunken animals. So Cochise did the only thing a decent man could do... he left. Took most of his people and crossed the Rio Bravo into Mexico.

  Silas Meacham : He broke his treaty.

  Captain Yorke : Yes, rather than stay here and see his nation wiped out.

  Silas Meacham : The law is the law and I DEMAND that you soldier boys enforce it!

  Lt. Col. Thursday : Any demands you wish to make, you will make through official channels, Mr. Meacham. Do not again employ that word in my presence.

  Silas Meacham : No offense, sir, no offense.

• [after telling the soldiers to destroy the whiskey in Meacham's storeroom, Col. Thursday starts to leave] 

  Silas Meacham : I'll protest. I'll write Washington, I'll have you busted!

  Lt. Col. Thursday : Mr. Meacham, you're a blackguard, a liar, a hypocrite and a stench in the nostrils of honest men. If it were in my power I'd hang you from the nearest tree, leave your carcass for the buzzards. But, as you are a representative of the United States government, I pledge you the protection and cooperation of my command. Good day, sir.