The American Indian as Participant in the Civil War Part 8

_Signed_: CHOO-LOO-FOE-LOP-HAH-CHOE, his X mark.

We the Chiefs of the three nations Creeks, Chickasaws and Seminoles who are of this delegation and all for the Union and the majority of our people are for the Union and agree in all that has been said by the Chiefs who have made this talk, and believe all they have said to be true--

OKE-TAH-HAH-SHAH-HAW-CHOE his X mark Creek WHITE CHIEF his X mark Creek

BOB DEER his X mark Creek PHIL DAVID his X mark Creek

(cont.)]

with each other[142]--but because he had had great hopes of receiving the post himself.[143] The time was now drawing near for him to repair to Washington to resume his senatorial duties since Congress was to convene the second of December.

To further his scheme for Indian enlistment, Lane had projected an inter-tribal council to be held at his own headquarters. E.H. Carruth worked especially to that end. The man in charge of the Southern Superintendency, W.G. Coffin, had a similar plan in mind for less specific reasons. His idea was to confer with the representatives of the southern tribes with reference to Indian Territory conditions generally. It was part of the duty appertaining to his office.

Humboldt[144] was the place selected by him for the meeting; but Leroy, being better protected and more accessible, was soon subst.i.tuted. The sessions commenced the

[Footnote 141: (cont.)

TOE-LAD-KE his X mark Chickasaw CHAP-PIA-KE his X mark Chickasaw

CHOO-LOO-FOE-LOP-HAH-CHOE his X mark Seminole OH-CHEN-YAH-HOE-LAH his X mark Seminole

_Witness_: C.F. Currier W. Whistler

LEROY, COFFEY CO. KAN., Nov. 4 1861.

I do certify that the within statement of the different chiefs were taken before me at a council held at my house at the time stated and that the talk of the Indian was correctly taken down by a competent clerk at the time.

GEO.A. CUTLER, _Agent_ for the Creek Indians.

[Indian Office Special Files, no. 201, _Southern Superintendency_, C 1400 of 1861.]]

[Footnote 142: Their acquaintance dated, if not from the antebellum days when Hunter was stationed at Fort Leavenworth and was not particularly magnanimous in his treatment of Southerners, then from those when he had charge, by order of General Scott, of the guard at the White House. _Report of the Military Services of General David Hunter_, pp. 7, 8.]

[Footnote 143: _Daily Conservative_, November 13, 1861.]

[Footnote 144: Coffin to Dole, October 2, 1861, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, _Report_, 1861, p. 39.]

sixteenth[145] of November and were still continuing on the twenty-third.[146] It had not been possible to hold them earlier because of the disturbed state of the country and the consequent difficulty of getting into touch with the Indians.

Upon a.s.suming command of the Department of Kansas, General Hunter took full cognizance of the many things making for disquietude and turmoil in the country now under his jurisdiction. Indian relations became, of necessity, matters of prime concern. Three things bear witness to this fact, Hunter's plans for an inter-tribal council at Fort Leavenworth, his own headquarters; his advocacy of Indian enlistment, especially from among the southern Indians; and his intention, early avowed, of bringing Brigadier-general James W. Denver into military prominence and of entrusting to him the supervisory command in Kansas. In some respects, no man could have been found equal to Denver in conspicuous fitness for such a position. He had served as commissioner of Indian affairs[147] under Buchanan and, although a Virginian by birth, had had a large experience with frontier life--in Missouri, in the Southwest during the Mexican War, and in California. He had also measured swords with Lane. It was in squatter-sovereignty days when, first as secretary and then as governor of Kansas Territory, he had been in a position to become intimately acquainted with the intricacies of Lane's true character and had had both occasion and opportunity to oppose some of that worthy's autocratic and thoroughly lawless

[Footnote 145: _Daily Conservative_, November 17, 1861.]

[Footnote 146:--Ibid., November 23,1861.]

[Footnote 147: Denver was twice appointed Commissioner of Indian Affairs by Buchanan. For details as to his official career, see _Biographical Congressional Directory_, 499, and Robinson, _Kansas Conflict_, 424.]

maneuvers.[148] As events turned out, this very acquaintance with Lane const.i.tuted his political unfitness for the control that Hunter,[149]

in December, and Halleck,[150] in the following March, designed to give him. With the second summons to command, came opportunity for Lane's vindictive animosity to be called into play. Historically, it furnished conclusive proof, if any were needed, that Lane had supreme power over the distribution of Federal patronage in his own state and exercised that power even at the cost of the well-being and credit of his const.i.tuency.

When Congress began its second session in December, the fight against Lane for possession of his seat in the Senate proceeded apace; but that did not, in the least, deter him from working for his brigade.

His scheme now was to have it organized on a different footing from that which it had sustained heretofore. His influence with the administration in Washington was still very peculiar and very considerable, so much so, in fact, that President Lincoln, without taking expert advice and without consulting either the military men, whose authority would necessarily be affected, or the civil officials in Kansas, nominated him to the Senate as brigadier-general to have charge of troops in that state.[151] Secretary Cameron was absent from the city

[Footnote 148: Robinson, _op. cit_., 378 ff., 424 ff.]

[Footnote 149: _Official Records_, vol. viii, 456.]

[Footnote 150:--Ibid., 832.]

[Footnote 151: The Leavenworth _Daily Conservative_ seemed fairly jubilant over the prospect of Lane's early return to military activity. The following extracts from its news items and editorials convey some such idea:

"General Lane of Kansas has been nominated to the Senate and unanimously confirmed, as Brigadier General, to command Kansas troops; the express understanding being that General Lane's seat in the Senate shall not be vacated until he accepts his new commission, which he will not do until the Legislature of Kansas a.s.sembles, next month. He has no idea of doing anything that shall oblige Governor Robinson and his appointee (Stanton) (cont.)]

at the time this was done and apparently, when apprised of it, made some objections on the score, not so much of an invasion of his own prerogative, as of its probable effect upon Hunter. Cameron had his first consultation with Lane regarding the matter, January second, and was given by him to understand that everything had been done in strict accordance with Hunter's own wishes.[152] The practical question of the relation of Lane's brigade to Hunter's command soon, however, presented itself in a somewhat different light and its answer required a more explicit statement from the president than had yet been made.

Lincoln, when appealed to, unhesitatingly repudiated every suggestion of the idea that it had ever been his intention to give Lane an independent command or to have Hunter, in any sense, superseded.[153]

The need for sending relief to the southern Indians, which, correctly interpreted meant, of course, rea.s.serting authority over them and thus removing a menacing and impending danger from the Kansas border, had been one of Lane's strongest arguments in gaining his way with the administration. The larger aspect of his purpose was, however, the one that appealed to Commissioner Dole, who, as head of the Indian Bureau, seems fully to have appreciated the responsibility that

[Footnote 151: (cont.) who has been in waiting for several months to take the place."--_Daily Conservative_, January 1, 1862.

"Rejoicing in Neos...o...b..ttalion over report that Lane appointed to command Kansas troops."--Ibid., January 4, 1862.

"General Lane will soon be here and General Denver called to another command."--Ibid., January 7, 1862.]

[Footnote 152: Cameron to Hunter, January 3, 1862, _Official Records_, vol. liii, supplement, 512-513.]

[Footnote 153: Martin F. Conway, the Kansas representative in Congress, was under no misapprehension as to Lane's true position; for Lincoln had told him personally that Lane was to be under Hunter [_Daily Conservative_, February 6, 1862].]

a.s.suredly rested in all honor upon the government, whether conscious of it or not, to protect its wards in their lives and property. From the first intimation given him of Lane's desire for a more energetic procedure, Dole showed a willingness to cooperate; and, as many things were demanding his personal attention in the West, he so timed a journey of his own that it might be possible for him to a.s.sist in getting together the Indian contingent that was to form a part of the "Southern Expedition."[154]

The urgency of the Indian call for help[155] and the

[Footnote 154: Lane's expedition was variously referred to as "the Southern Expedition," "the Cherokee Expedition," "the great jayhawking expedition," and by many another name, more or less opprobrious.]

[Footnote 155: Representations of the great need of the Indians for a.s.sistance were made to the government by all sorts of people. Agent after agent wrote to the Indian Office. The Reverend Evan Jones wrote repeatedly and on the second of January had sent information, brought to him at Lawrence by two fugitive Cherokees, of the recent battle in which the loyalists under Opoethle-yo-ho-la had been worsted, at the Big Bend of the Arkansas [Indian Office Special Files, no. 201, _Southern Superintendency_, J 540 of 1862]. In the early winter, a mixed delegation of Creeks and others had made their way to Washington, hoping by personal entreaty to obtain succor for their distressed people, and justice. Hunter had issued a draft for their individual relief [Ibid., J523 of 1861], and pa.s.ses from Fort Leavenworth to Washington [Ibid., C1433 of 1861]. It was not so easy for them to get pa.s.ses coming back. Application was made to the War Department and referred back to the Interior [Ibid., A 434 of 1861]. The estimate, somewhat inaccurately footed up, of the total expense of the return journey as submitted by agents Cutler and Carruth was,

"11 R.R. Tickets to Fort Leavenworth by way of New York City $48 $ 528.00

11 men $2 ea (incidental expenses) 22.00

2 1/2 wks board at Washington $5 137.50

Expenses from Leavenworth to Ind. Nat 50.00

Pay of Tec.u.mseh for taking care of horses 25.00 -------

[Ibid., C 1433 of 1861]. $ 960.50"

Dole had not encouraged the delegation to come on to Washington.