INDEX (continued 2)

We have endeavored to seek Divine guidance in this difficult matter, and we desire to do that which shall be most for the glory of our Divine Master, and the best interests of his cause among this people. We regret the course we feel compelled to take, but we can see no other relief from our present embarassment. Fraternally and truly yours,

(Signed) C. Kingsbury C. C. Copeland C. Byington O. P. Stark E. Hotchkin

[51] That the Buchanan administration did endorse pro-slavery policy and actions requires no proof today. The findings of the Covode committee of investigation, 1860, are in themselves sufficient evidence, were other evidence lacking, of the intensely partisan and corrupt character of the Democratic régime just prior to the Civil War. Of the officials, having Indian concerns in charge, the Secretary of the Interior and the Commissioner of Indian Affairs are, for present purposes, alone important. Buchanan’s Secretary of the Interior was Jacob Thompson, who had formerly been a representative in Congress from Mississippi and had thrown all the weight of his influence in favor of the Lecompton constitution for Kansas [Rhodes, J. F. History of the United States, vol. ii, 277]. After his retirement from Buchanan’s cabinet, Thompson served as commissioner from Mississippi, working in North Carolina for the accomplishment of secession [Moore’s Rebellion Record, vol. i, 5]. A. B. Greenwood of Arkansas was Commissioner of Indian Affairs in Buchanan’s time. He also had been in Congress and, while there, had served on the House Committee of Investigation into Brooks’s attack upon Sumner. He formed with Howell Cobb of Georgia the minority element [Von Holst, vol. v, 324].

[52] Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Report, 1860, p. 129.

[53] Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Report, 1859, p. 172.

[54] Greenwood to Rector, March 14, 1860 [Indian Office, Letter Book, no. 63, p. 128]; Greenwood to Cowart, March 14, 1860 [ibid., 125].

[55] Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Report, 1860. See also additional documents in Appendix B.

[56] The following extract from the Fort Smith Times of February 3, 1859 makes particular mention of the Reverend Evan Jones:

In the True Democrat of the 19th inst., we find an article credited to the Fort Smith Times, in which the Rev. Evan Jones, a Baptist Missionary, residing near the State line, Washington county, is handled rather roughly so far as words are concerned. He is said to be an abolitionist, and a very dangerous man, meddling with the affairs of the Cherokees, and teaching them abolition principles.

“As such reports will be circulated to the prejudice of the Southern Baptists, we hereby request some of our Brethren in the northwest part of the State to write us the grounds for such reports.

“Is the ‘Rev. Evan Jones’ connected with any Missionary Society and if so, what one?

“We hope shortly to hear more concerning this matter.”

The above notice is from the first number of the Arkansas Baptist, a new paper just published in Little Rock, P. S. G. Watson, Editor. It was not our intention to cast any reflections on the Baptist Church by noticing the Rev. gentleman named above, as we have great respect for the Church. We deny, however, that Mr. Jones “is handled roughly so far as words are concerned,” for there are no harsh words or epithets in the article referred to; but he is handled roughly so far as facts are concerned. He is a Missionary Baptist, and the society by which he is supported, has, we believe, its headquarters in Boston, Mass. Mr. Jones’ conduct has been fully reported to the Indian office, at Washington, by a number of the Cherokees, and by their Agent, Mr. George Butler, to whom we refer the editor of the Baptist, for the truth of the charges we have made against him; and, if they are not satisfactory we can give a full history of Evan Jones’ conduct for a number of years, well known among the Cherokees.

In connection with the foregoing newspaper extract, it is well to note that Richard Johnson was the editor of the True Democrat. Richard was a brother of Robert W. Johnson who represented one faction of the Democratic party in Arkansas while Thomas C. Hindman represented another. This was before their devotion to the Confederate cause had made them friends. Robert W. Johnson served in the United States Congress, first as representative, then as senator. He was later a senator in the Confederate States Congress. The Johnson family, although not so numerous as the Rector family, was, like it, strongly secessionistic.

[57] Greenwood to Thompson, June 4, 1860 [Indian Office, Report Book, no. 12, pp. 323-324].

[58] Connelley, Quantrill and the Border Wars, 147-149, 152.

[59] Siebert, Underground Railroad from Slavery to Freedom, 284.

[60] This party came to be known, almost exclusively, as the Treaty Party. After the murder of John Ridge, from whom the party took its name, his nephew, Stand Watie, became its leader. Stand Watie figured conspicuously on the southern side in the Civil War.

[61] A good general account of these Cherokee factional disputes may be found in Thomas Valentine Parker’s Cherokee Indians.

[62] Kappler, op. cit., vol. ii, 561; Polk’s Diary (Quaife’s edition), vol. ii, 80.

[63] George Butler to Dean, January 9, 1857.

[64] “... The Cherokee Council is in session, tho they do not seem to be doing much. It will hold about four weeks yet. I will stay till it breaks. I think the Councilmen seem to be split on some questions. It seems as if there are two parties. One is called the land selling party & those opposed to selling the land (that is Neutral lands). They passed a bill last council to sell it. Congress would not have anything to do with it & in fact they got up a protest against selling it & sent it to Washington City & they did not sell the land.”—Extract from J. C. Dickinson to Captain Mark T. Tatum, dated Tahlequah, October 16, 1860 [Fort Smith Papers].

[65] Kappler, op. cit., vol. ii, 388.

[66] Rector to Greenwood, June 14, 1860.

[67] Tuckabatche Micco and other Creek chiefs wished the southern Comanches to be located somewhere between the Red and Arkansas Rivers. That might or might not have meant a settlement upon the actual Creek reservation. Manypenny promised to look into the matter and find out whether there were any vacant lands in the region designated [Manypenny to Dean, May 25, 1855, Indian Office, Letter Book, no. 51, pp. 444-445].

[68] Dean to Manypenny, November 24, 1856, and related documents [General Files, Chickasaw, 1854-1858, D304, I400].

[69] For Choctaw political disturbances in 1858, see General Files, Choctaw, 1859-1866, I933 and R1004.

[70] Some of the Tonkawas most probably went back to their old Texan hunting-grounds upon the breaking out of the war and were found encamped, in 1866, around San Antonio [Cooley to Sells, February 15, 1866, Indian Office, Letter Book, no. 79, p. 293].

[71] The Leased District was designed to accommodate any Indians that the United States government might see fit to place there, exclusive of New Mexican Indians, who had caused the Wichitas a great deal of trouble, and those tribes “whose usual ranges at present are north of the Arkansas River, and whose permanent locations are north of the Canadian....” [Kappler, op. cit., vol. ii, 708].

[72] The treatment of the Indians by Texas will be made the subject of a later publication. The story is too long a one to be told here.

[73] Mix to Rector, March 30, 1859 [Indian Office, Letter Book, no. 60, pp. 386-388].

[74] Annual Report, 1857.

[75] Samuel Cooper, the New York man, who was now in United States employ but later became adjutant-general of the Confederacy [Crawford, Genesis of the Civil War, 310], made, about this time, a very significant inquiry as to how many Indian warriors there were in the vicinity of the various settlements [Cooper to Mix, January 29, 1856, Indian Office, Miscellaneous Files, 1858-1863].

[76] J. Thompson to J. B. Floyd, March 12, 1858 [Indian Office, Miscellaneous Files].

[77] By this treaty, the Choctaws had surrendered to the United States all their claims to land beyond the one hundredth degree of west longitude.

[78] Cooper to Rector, June 23, 1858.

[79] Cooper to Rector, June 30, 1858.

[80] Some of the Chickasaws came to Cooper under the lead of the United States interpreter, James Gamble, later Chickasaw delegate in the Confederate Congress.

[81] The Cherokees soon deserted Cooper, no cause assigned. Why they were with him at all can not very easily be explained unless they were looking out for the interests of the “Cherokee Outlet”. They may, indeed, have been some refugee Cherokees who, in 1854, were reported as living in the Chickasaw country and consorting with horse thieves and other desperadoes. Under ordinary circumstances, Cooper had no authority to command the actions of Cherokees and his call was to Choctaws and Chickasaws whose agent he was and whose interests were directly involved in the survey then being made.

[82] On the question of the proposed site, see Rector’s Report, 1859, pp. 307, 309. For Emory’s familiarity with the region, note his report of a military reconnaissance undertaken by him in 1846 and 1847 [Pacific Railroad Surveys, vol. ii].

[83] Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Report, 1859, and accompanying documents.

[84] It would seem that Van Dorn had been ordered by General Twiggs, commanding in Texas, to explore the country between the one hundredth and the one hundred and fourth meridians as far north as the Canadian River. He was to do it quite irrespective of department jurisdictional lines. Van Dorn had the Texan’s unrelenting hatred for all Indians and, as was to have been expected, considering the latitude of his orders, soon got himself into trouble. It is interesting to note in connection with this affair and in view of all that followed when Van Dorn and Albert Pike were both serving under the Confederacy, that their dislike of each other dated from Pike’s condemnation of Van Dorn’s cruel treatment of the Comanches.

[85] The contractor was Charles B. Johnson of Fort Smith. Under the firm name of Johnson & Grimes, this man and Marshal Grimes, also of Arkansas, were able again and again to secure subsistence contracts from Rector and always with the suspicion of fraud attaching. Whenever possible, Rector and his friends eliminated entirely the element of competition. Abram G. Mayers of Fort Smith seems to have been the chief informer against Rector. As a matter of fact, and this must be admitted in extenuation of Rector’s conduct, the Indian field service was so grossly mismanaged, officials from the highest to the lowest were so corrupt, that it is not at all surprising that each one [unless by the merest chance he were strong enough morally to resist temptation] took every opportunity he could get to enrich himself at the Indian’s expense; for, of course, all such ill-gotten gains came sooner or later out of the Indian fund. Very few Indian officials seem to have been able to pass muster in matters of probity during these troublous times. Secretary Thompson and even Ex-president Pierce were not above suspicion in the Indian’s estimation [Article, signed by “Screw Fly” in the Chickasaw and Choctaw Herald, February 11, 1859]. Mix was accused of dishonesty, so were Commissioner Dole, Commissioner Cooley, and Secretary Usher, to say nothing of a host of lesser officials.

[86] Supervising agent, Robert S. Neighbors, who had always befriended the Indians when he conveniently could against unfounded charges, was killed soon after the removal by vindictive Texans. S. A. Blain was then given charge of the Texas superintendency in addition to his own Wichita Agency. The consolidation of duties gave the Texans, apparently, a fresh opportunity to lodge complaints against the Wichitas.

[87] These refugees were mostly Delawares and Kickapoos. There were other “strays,” or “absentees,” scattered here and there over the Indian country. There were Shawnees near the Canadian, Delawares among the Cherokees, and Shawnees and Kickapoos on the southwestern border of the Creek lands.

[88] Matthew Leeper was appointed to succeed S. A. Blain as agent, July, 1860. He had previously been special Indian agent in Texas.

[89] Among the Leeper Papers is found the following:

Notice: All free negroes are notified to leave the Wichita Reserve or Leased District forthwith, except an old negro who is in charge of Messrs. Grimes & Rector, who will be permitted to remain a few days.

[M. Leeper], U. S. Ind. Agt.

Wichita Agency, L. D. Sept. 26, 1860.

[90] The suffering among the Indians must have been very great. There was a complete failure of crops everywhere. Subsistence had to be continued to the Wichitas, the Seminoles were reported absolutely destitute, and even the provident Choctaws were obliged to memorialize Congress for relief on the basis of the Senate award under their treaty of 1855 [General Files, Choctaw, 1859-1866]. Out of this application of Choctaw funds to the circumstances of their own pressing needs, came the great scandal of the Choctaw Corn Contract, in which Agent Cooper and many prominent men of the tribe were implicated. In some way Albert Pike was concerned in it also; but it must have been practically the only time a specific charge of anything like peculation could possibly have been brought against any of his transactions. His character for honesty seems to have been impeccable.

[91] In January, 1860, Agent Garrett asked the Creeks in their National Council to consent to the apportionment of the tribal lands. Motty Cunard [Motey Kennard] and Echo Mayo [Echo Harjo] sent the reply of the Council to Garrett, January 19, 1860. It was an unqualified and absolute refusal.

[92] Cooper to Greenwood, March 31, 1860 [General Files, Choctaw, 1859-1866, C445].

[93] George E. Baker, Works of W. H. Seward (edition of 1884), vol. iv, 363; Bancroft’s Seward, vol. ii, 460-470.

[94] Congressional Globe, 33rd congress, first session, Appendix, p. 155.

[95] Dean to Manypenny, October 24, 1855 [Dean’s Letter Book].

[96]

INDIAN TRUST FUND

List of stocks held by the Secretary of the Interior in trust for Indian tribes

State Per cent Amount

Arkansas 5 $ 3,000.00

Florida 7 132,000.00

Georgia 6 3,500.00

Indiana 5 70,000.00

Kentucky 5 183,000.00

Louisiana 6 37,000.00

Maryland* 6 131,611.82

Missouri 5½ 63,000.00

Missouri 6 484,000.00

North Carolina 6 562,000.00

Ohio 6 150,000.00

Pennsylvania* 5 96,000.00

South Carolina 6 125,000.00

Tennessee 5 218,000.00

Tennessee 6 143,000.00

United States 6 251,330.00

Virginia 6 796,800.00

3,449,241.82

*Taxed by the State.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Report, 1859, p. 452.

[97] David Hubbard to Ross and McCulloch, June 12, 1861 [Official Records, first ser., vol. xiii, 497].

[98] The position of the tribes in the northern part of the Indian country, in Kansas, was considerably different from that of the tribes in the southern part, in Oklahoma. Each of the great tribes to the southward had a government of its own that was modelled very largely upon that of the various states. The tribes to the northward had retained, unchanged in essentials, their old tribal community government. Moreover, they had already been obliged to allow themselves to be circumscribed by territorial lines, soon to be state lines; their integrity had been broken in upon; and now they were not of sufficient importance to have, either individually or collectively, anything to say about the sectional affiliation of Kansas. As a matter of fact, they never so much as attempted to take general tribal action in the premises. Neither their situation nor their political organization permitted it.

[99] An interruption to this came in the shape of the indefinitely defined “Cherokee Outlet,” which lay north of Texas and in addition occupied the northern part of Indian Territory.

[100] The subjoined map will illustrate the relative position of the individual Indian reservations. Although published in 1867, it is not correct for that date but is fairly correct for 1861. The “reconstruction treaties” of 1866 made various changes in the Indian boundaries but the map takes no account of them.

[101] Van Buren had a short time previously been the headquarters of the Southern Superintendency.

[102] We find that this intimate intercourse extended even to things scholastic; for, though there were plenty of female seminaries, so-called, within Indian Territory, Indian girls regularly attended similar institutions in Fayetteville [Bishop, A. W., Loyalty on the Frontier, 143].

[103] Bishop [Loyalty on the Frontier, 20] says that to the zeal of the Knights of the Golden Circle, or “Knaves of the Godless Communion,” was mainly attributable “the treasonable complexion” of the Arkansas legislature that organized in November of 1860.

[104] The following documents include the act of the Chickasaw Legislature and related correspondence:

Be it enacted by Legislature of the Chickasaw Nation, That the Governor of the Chickasaw Nation, be and he is hereby authorized to appoint four Commissioners, one from each county, namely:—Panola, Pickens, Tishomingo, and Pontotoc County, on the part of the Chickasaw Nation, to meet a like set of Commissioners appointed respectively by the Choctaw, Creek, Cherokee, and Seminole Nations, to meet in General Convention at such time and place That the Chief of the Creek Nation, may set, for the purpose of entering into some compact, not inconsistent with the Laws and Treaties of the United States, for the future security and protection of the rights and Citizens of said nations, in the event of a change in the United States, and to renew the harmony and good feeling already established between said Nations by a compact concluded & entered into on the 14th of Nov. 1859, at Asbury Mission Creek Nation.

Be it further enacted That said Commissioners shall receive for their services the sum of One hundred dollars each, and shall report the proceedings of said Convention to the next session of the Chickasaw Legislature for its approval or disapproval....

Passed the House Repts as amended Jany 5th 1861.

Passed Senate Jan. 5, 1861. Approved Jan. 5, 1861.

Indian Office General Files—Cherokee 1859-1865, C515.

Enclosed please find an Act of the called Session of the Chickasaw Legislature, the object of which you will readily understand. Your coöperation, and union of action of the Cherokee people in effecting the object therein expressed is hereby respectfully solicited.

It will be left to the Principal Chiefs of the Creek Nation to appoint the time and place of meeting, of which you will have timely notice.— Cyrus Harris, governor of the Chickasaw Nation, to John Ross, principal chief of the Cherokees, dated Tishomingo, C. N. January 5th, 1861 [ibid.].

You will please find enclosed a communication from the Gov^r of the Chickasaw Nation & an Act of the Chickasaw Legislature calling upon their Brethren the Creeks to appoint a time & place for a General Convention of the Chickasaws, Choctaws, Cherokees, and Creeks. We therefore appoint the 17th inst. to meet at the General Council Ground of the Creek Nation—At which time & place we will (be) happy to meet our Brethren the Cherokees.— Jacob Derrysaw, acting chief of the Creek Nation, to John Ross, dated Cowetah, Creek Nation, February 4, 1861 [ibid.].

I was much surprised to receive a proposition for taking action so formal on a matter so important, without having any previous notice or understanding about the business, which might have afforded opportunity to confer with our respective Councils and People.

Although I regret most deeply, the excitement which has arisen among our White brethren: yet by us it can only be regarded as a family misunderstanding among themselves. And it behooves us to be careful, in any movement of ours, to refrain from adopting any measures liable to be misconstrued or misrepresented:—and in which (at present at least) we have no direct and proper concern.

I cannot but confidently believe, however, that there is wisdom and virtue and moderation enough among the people of the United States, to bring about a peaceable and satisfactory adjustment of their differences. And I do not think we have the right to anticipate any contingency adverse to the stability and permanence of the Federal Union.

Our relations to the United States, as defined by our treaties, are clear and definite. And the obligations growing out of them easily ascertained. And it will ever be our wisdom and our interest to adhere strictly to those obligations, and carefully to guard against being drawn into any complications which may prove prejudicial to the interests of our people, or imperil the security we now enjoy under the protection of the Government of the United States as guaranteed by our Treaties. In the very worst contingency that can be thought of, the great National Responsibilities of the United States must and will be provided for. And should a catastrophe as that referred to in (your) communication, unhappily occur, then will be the time for us to take proper steps for securing the rights and interests of our people.

Out of respect to the Chiefs of neighboring Nations, and from the deep interest I feel for the peace and welfare of our red brethren, I have deemed it proper to appoint a Delegation to attend the Council appointed by the Creek Chiefs at your request, on the 17th inst. at the Gen^l Council Ground of the Creek Nation, for the purpose of a friendly interchange of the views & sentiments on the general interests of our respective Nations.

In the language of our Fathers, I am your

“Elder Friend and Brother” John Ross, Principal Chief, Cherokee Nation.

Extract from letter to Cyrus Harris, February 9, 1861 [ibid.].

Previous to the receipt of your Communication enclosing the proceedings of the Chickasaw Authorities, I had received similar papers from the “Governor of the Chickasaw Nation.”

And I herewith enclose for the information of yourself & people a copy of my reply. I will appoint a Delegation to attend your Council for the purpose therein stated.—Ross to Derrysaw, February 9, 1861 [ibid.].

I have received a communication from the Gov. of the Chickasaw Nation, with a copy of an Act of their Legislature. And I presume a similar communication has been received by you. Deeming it important that much prudence and caution should be exercised by us in regard to the object of the Governor’s communication, I have thought it proper to address him a letter, giving a brief expression of my views on the subject, a copy of which I enclose for your information.—Ross to the principal chief of the Choctaw Nation, February 11, 1861 [ibid.].

[105] See preceding note.

[106] The Creek Agency was probably chosen because of its convenient situation. It was at the junction of the North Fork and the Canadian and, consequently, in close proximity to three of the reservations and not far distant from the other two.

[107] See Mrs. W. P. Ross, Life and Times of William P. Ross.

[108] American Historical Review, vol. xv, 282.

[109]

... On your deliberations it will [be] proper for you to advise discretion, and to guard against any premature movement on our part, which might produce excitement or be liable to misrepresentation. Our duty is very plain. We have only to adhere firmly to our respective Treaties. By them we have placed ourselves under the protection of the United States, and of no other sovereign whatever. We are bound to hold no treaty with any foreign Power, or with any individual State or combination of States nor with Citizens of any State. Nor even with one another without the interposition and participation of the United States....

Should any action of the Council be thought desirable, a resolution might be adopted, to the effect, that we will in all contingencies rest our interests on the pledged faith of the United States, for the fulfilment of their obligations. We ought to entertain no apprehension of any change, that will endanger our interests. The parties holding the responsibilities of the Federal Government will always be bound to us. And no measures we have it in our power to adopt can add anything to the security we now possess. Relying on your intelligence & discretion I will add no more.—Chief Ross’s instructions to the Cherokee Delegation, February 12, 1861 [Indian Office General File; Cherokee 1859-1865, C515].

[110] The Indian Office files are full of testimony proving John Ross’s wisdom, foresight, sterling worth generally, and absolute devotion to his people. Indeed, his whole biography is written large in the records. His character was impeccable. Judged by any standard whatsoever, he would easily rank as one of the greatest of Indian half-breeds.

[111] Official Records, first ser., vol. i, 682.

[112] The evidence of this is to be found in an official letter from Commissioner W. P. Dole to Secretary Caleb B. Smith, under date of April 30, 1861, which reads as follows:

I have the honor to enclose herewith a copy of a letter, dated 17th. Inst. from Elias Rector, Esq., Supt. Indian Affairs ... together with copy of its enclosure, being one addressed to Col. W. H. Emory by M. Leeper, Agent for the Indians within the “Leased District,” having reference to the removal of the troops from Fort Cobb.

The Government being bound by treaty obligations to protect the Indians from the incursions of all enemies, I would respectfully ask to be informed, if it is not its intention to keep in the country a sufficient force for the purpose.

The Choctaw and Chickasaw delegation—composed of the principal men of those Nations—while recently in this City expressed great apprehensions of attack upon their people, by Citizens of Texas and Arkansas; and these delegations having assured me of their determination to maintain a neutral position in the anticipated difficulties throughout our Country, I would recommend that a depot for arms be established within the Southern Superintendency in order that the Indians there may be placed in the possession of the means to defend themselves against any attack....—Indian Office Report Book, no. 12, p. 152.

[113] General Files, Southern Superintendency, 1859-1862, L632.

[114] The letter can be found in manuscript form in Indian Office, Letter Book, no. 65, pp. 447-449, and in printed form in Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Report, 1861, p. 34.

[115] John Ross, principal chief of the Cherokee Nation; Cyrus Harris, governor of the Chickasaw Nation; M. Kennard, principal chief of the Lower Creeks; Echo Hadjo [Echo Harjo], principal chief of the Upper Creeks; George Hudson, principal chief of the Choctaw Nation; and the unnamed principal chief of the Seminoles west of Arkansas.

[116] It would seem that the letter was not given to Coffin immediately but was held back on account of the insecurity of the mails [Dole to Creek and Seminole chiefs, November 16, 1861, Indian Office, Letter Book, no. 67, pp. 78-79].

[117] The delay was not entirely due to the military situation. Coffin went from Washington to his home in Indiana. He was there on the twentieth, at Annapolis, Parke County, when Dole wrote urging him to hasten on his way,

I herewith enclose a slip taken from the National Intelligencer of this date, being an extract from the Austin [Texas] State Gazette of the 4th Instant, by which you will perceive that efforts are being made to tamper with the Indians within your Superintendency.

By this you will perceive the urgent necessity, that you should proceed at the earliest moment practicable to the vicinity of the duties in your charge, that from your personal knowledge of the views of the Government in relation to these Indians as well as by the instructions and communications in your possession, you may be able to thwart the endeavors of any and all who have or shall attempt to tamper with these tribes and array them in hostility to the Government.

I deem it of the utmost importance that no time be lost in this matter, as delay may be disastrous to the public service.—Indian Office, Letter Book, no. 65, p. 473.

By the nineteenth of June, Coffin had managed to reach Crawford Seminary, from which place he reported to Dole,

We have at length reached the Indian Territory propper.... I find Mr. Elder the Agent absent. I learned on my way down here that he had gone to Fort Scott with the view of locating the Agency there for the present which I supposed when I wrote you from the Catholic Mission might be propper from its close proximity to Missouri but as Mr. Phelps district is opposit here and he a good Union man and has been Stumping the district and I learn that the Union cause is growing fast in that part of the State I think there is now at least no Sort of excuse for removing, the buildings here are ample for a large family, watter good....—General Files, Southern Superintendency, 1859-1862, C1229.

The sequel showed that Agent Elder was right and Superintendent Coffin wrong about the security of the region. Coffin never reached Fort Smith at all and was soon compelled to vacate the Indian Territory. Indian Office, Letter Book, no. 66, which covers the period from June, 1861 to October, 1861, contains scarcely a letter to prove that the Indian Office was in communication with Indian Territory. Official connection with the country had been completely cut off. Military abandonment and dilatory officials had done their work.

[118] Official instructions were issued to Coffin, then in Washington, on the ninth, and gave him permission to change his headquarters at discretion. The following is an excerpt of the instructions:

You having been appointed by the President to be Superintendent of Indian Affairs for the Southern Superintendency in place of Elias Rector, Esq. ... You will repair to Fort Smith, Arkansas, as early as practicable, for the purpose of relieving Elias Rector, Esq.

In your progress from Indiana to Fort Smith, should you deem it expedient and advisable to pass down the Kansas line and among the Indians in that section, you will make it your business to inquire as to their sentiments and disposition with reference to the present disturbances in the neighboring countries, so far as time and opportunity will enable you to do so. On reaching Fort Smith you will also inform yourself as to the condition of Affairs there and surrounding country, and as to the prospect of the business of the Superintendency being carried on without molestation or other inconvenience, and should you find it necessary from the circumstances that may surround you to remove the office of Superintendent from Fort Smith you are authorized to do so, selecting some eligible point in the proximate Indian Territory, or if required some point northwardly among the Indians in Kansas as your best discretion may dictate. I trust however that this discretionary authority may prove unnecessary and that in the legitimate discharge of your duties, you may suffer no interruption from any cause or source whatever. In a report from this Office of the 30th Ultimo, with reference to anticipated Indian troubles in your Superintendency consequent upon the removal of the troops from Fort Cobb, the attention of the Hon. Secretary of the Interior was called to the subject, and the enquiry as to the policy of the Government to keep in the country a sufficient force for the purpose of proper protection; and further calling his attention to the expression of friendship and loyalty made by the Choctaw and Chickasaw delegates lately in this City, recommended that a depot for arms be established within the Southern Superintendency, in order that the Indians there may be placed in possession of the means to defend themselves against any attack. As yet no response to this report has been received....—Indian Office, Letter Book, no. 65, pp. 442-443.

[119] Douglas H. Cooper, agent for the Choctaws and Chickasaws, was from Mississippi; William H. Garrett, agent for the Creeks, was from Alabama; Robert J. Cowart, agent for the Cherokees, was from Georgia; Matthew Leeper, agent for the Indians of the Leased District, was from Texas; and Andrew J. Dorn, agent at the Neosho River Agency, was from Arkansas.

[120] Telegram, Greenwood to Rector, January 19, 1861 [Indian Office, Letter Book, no. 65, p. 104].

[121] For information showing what Indian agents became adherents of the Confederate cause, see, among other things, an extract from a report of Albert Pike to be found in Indian Office, Letter Book, no. 130, pp. 237-238; and a letter from R. W. Johnson to L. P. Walker, published in Official Records, first ser., vol. iii, 598.

[122] The evidence on this point is not very convincing, either one way or the other. A number of documents might be cited bearing some brief, vague, or indefinite reference to the steps the Indians took from the beginning. The closing paragraph of the following report from E. H. Carruth, under date of July 11, 1861, is a typical case:

Sir: I know not that any person has given information to any of the United States officers in regard to the position of the Indian Tribes connected with the Southern Superintendency.

I am just arrived from the Seminole Country where for a year I have been employed as [illegible] to induce the Seminoles to establish schools. In Sept. last the chiefs applied to the Department to set aside $5000 for this purpose, but never heard from their application, and their Ag’t soon became too deeply interested in the politics of the Country to pay much attention to the affairs of the tribe.

From the time the secession movement began to ripen into treason, the Chief of the Seminoles has constantly sought information on the subject, and whenever I rec’d a mail he would bring an Interpreter & remain with me until all had been read and explained.

After the Forts west were taken possession of by the Texans, the tribes living under the protection of Government around Fort Cobb came into the Seminole Country, seeking the counsel of the Seminoles as to what they should do, hostility to the Texans, being with them strengthened by the recollection of recent wrongs. The Seminoles gave them permission to reside on their lands, and advised them to interfere with neither party, should both be represented in the country.

The Texan officers sent several letters among them & left Commissioners at Cobb to treat with them offering to them the same protection before enjoyed while the Government of the U. S. was represented among them. A letter was also sent to the Seminoles signed by Geo. W. Welch, “Capt-Commanding the Texan troops in the service of the Southern Confederacy” which asserted that the Northern people were determined to take away their lands & negroes, that the old Gov’t would never be able to fulfill her treaty stipulations and wound up by asking them to place their interests under the protection of the Southern Confederacy.

Very soon afterwards Capt. Albert G. Pike “Commissioner for the Confederate States of America” wrote to the Seminole Chief from the Creek Agency, asking that he should meet him at that place with six of his best men fully authorized to treat with him. He also asked for a body of Seminole warriors, & promised as “good perhaps better treaty” than their old one. His letter was backed up by one from Washburn (formerly Seminole Ag’t) who gave a glowing description of treason, representing to the Indians that the U. S. could never pay one dollar of the moneys due them, that European Nations were committed to the cause of the Rebels, and entreated, prayed, almost commanded them to take the step so essential to their political salvation. This Washburn had once been engaged in a money transaction with two of the Chiefs which swindled the nation out of many thousands of dollars, and while they came near losing their heads in the operation, he escaped, & still enjoys great personal popularity with the tribe. No man knows better how to approach Indians. He was born among them of missionary parents, & like all southern men, who regret their northern parentage, he is the most rabid of violent traitors. The day after these letters were rec’d the Chief (John Jumper) spent at my house. He felt true to the treaties, & said that all his people were with the Government, but, the Forts west were in possession of its enemies, their Agent would give them no information on the subject, & he feared that his country would be overrun, if he did not yield.

I told him plainly that Government was shamefully misrepresented, that the treaties bound him to all the states alike, that the U. S. could not fall with all the Army & Navy at her disposal, & that should the South ever succeed in gaining her own independence the free States would fight till not a man, woman or child was left, before yielding one inch of Territory to the rebels. The war being entered into not so much either for or against slavery in the states, as to protect the Constitutional rights of Government in the Territories. The Chief told me that all the full Indians everywhere were with the Gov’t, that he did not wish to fight, nor did his people, they had hoped to be left to themselves untill the whites settled their quarrels, his people had enough of war in Florida, & were now anxious for peace. He would however go to the Creek Agency & tell Capt. Pike & Ben McCulloch their determination. I believe the object of Pike in drawing the Seminoles to the Creek country was that he could thus bring Creek influence to bear upon them. When Pike’s letter came, the Bearer sent word to the Chief to meet him ten miles below, where they were read, but this caution did not keep them out of sight, as the Chief immediately brought them to me, to whom as clerk they should have come at first, but a “white man” was declared to be the adviser of the Seminoles, for whom a black jack limb would soon suffice. I knew it dangerous to await the arrival of my ranger friends, & with my wife I left on horseback, traveling in a Kickapoo trail, coming in above the Creek country, as they had seceded—I was questioned a good deal in the Cherokee Nation, but not interfered with as I was personally acquainted with their leading half breeds, and my wife being fortunate enough to have a Virginia birth and a brother in Missouri.

When within a half hour’s travel of the Neosho River, my shot gun was taken by a company of men, organized that day—the 2d after Seymour was killed—they said “to clean out Kansas Jay hawkers.”

The influence of Capt. Pike the Rebel Commissioner is second to no man’s among the Southern Indians & I fear that he may succeed in his intrigues with the other tribes, the Creeks, Chickasaws, & Choctaws having already gone. The Cherokees refuse to go as a Nation, & no one is a firmer friend to the Union than John Ross, their Chief, but traitors are scheming, and the half breeds in favor of the South, want an army to come in, in which event they promise to be “forced in” to the Arms of Jeff. Davis, & the select crowd of traitors at Montgomery.

There are many true & loyal men even among the half breeds, some of the Judges of their courts I know to be so, while all the full blood element is with the Gov’t.

The half breeds belong to the K. G. C. a society whose sole object is to increase & defend slavery and the full bloods have—not to be outdone—got up a secret organization called the “pins” which meets among mountains, connecting business with Ball-playing, and this is understood to be in favor of Gov’t, at least when a half breed at Webers falls raised a secession flag, the “pins” turned out to haul it down & were only stopped by a superior force, they retired swearing that “it should yet be done & its raiser killed” and now Sir, let me say a word in behalf of the full Indians who make up in devotion to our Gov’t what they lack in knowledge.

I sometimes hear rejoicing on the part of Northern people, that these tribes are seceding, because they say such violation of their treaties will lose them their lands, whose beauty & fertility have long been admired by western farmers. I have been twelve years among these tribes & I know the full bloods to be loyal to the Gov’t. That Gov’t is bound by treaties to protect these nations, to keep up Forts for that purpose. The forts are deserted, the soldiers are gone. The Agents are either resigned or, working under “confederate” commissions. The Indians are told that the old Gov’t is bankrupt, that it must die, that England & France will help the South, That they are southern Indians & own slaves, & have interests only with & in the south, That the war is waged by the North for the sole purpose of killing slavery, & stealing the Indian lands etc. etc. What have the Indians with which to disprove this? The “Confederate” Gov’t is represented there by an army & Commissioners, but the United States have not been heard from for six months. Every battle is believed to be against the old Gov’t & those who control the news know in what shape it should go to have influence. The Seminole Agent, Col. Rutherford, has never lifted his finger to give information or advice to the Indians under his charge—He said before Mr. Lincoln took his seat as President that he would not receive a reappointment from him, but would serve until it should come, which means that his love of money would enable him to make an occasional visit to the Agency buildings, but his fear for & sympathy with Ark. rebels, would keep him from doing anything to endanger their interests. A proper officer could have kept the Seminoles from sending a delegation to Capt. Pike, as well as in the Creek country one could have kept the Creeks loyal. That there has been the most culpable neglect on the part of its officers to the interests of the Genl Gov’t needs no demonstration—The cry has been: “More favorable treaties can now be made with the South than after the war, as it will show that the Indians are at heart with the South”—No doubt is allowed to be felt as to the issue of the war. The agents who hold Commissions from Mr. Lincoln & go to Montgomery to have Jeff. Davis endorse them, show a faith in the issue, that is not lost upon the Indians.

A Capt. Brown of the Chickasaw tribe was commanding at Arbuckle, in the absence of Col. McKing who was at Tishimingo where the legislature was in session. He informed me that the Texans would not come over until the Choctaws & Chickasaws had given them to understand that “it would be all right”—At the time these nations did not wish to invite them, it would have been too palpable a violation of treaties, tho’ they took command of the Fort, whether under their national authorities, or the “Confederate” I do not know which.

Letters now in possession of the Seminole Chief will prove much herein stated. I told the chief to preserve those letters & all others which he might receive of a like nature....—General Files, Southern Superintendency, 1859-1862, C1348.

[123] Official Records, first ser., vol. i, 513.

[124] —Ibid., 515-516.

[125] The order was one of the many, dictated by the policy of “no coercion,” that issued in the last days of Buchanan’s administration and the first of Lincoln’s. A few of them, affecting or designed to affect the frontier, may as well be listed in chronological order. On the thirteenth of February, an abandonment of Fort Smith was ordered [Official Records, first ser., vol. i, 654]. The citizens protested and the order was countermanded [ibid., 655]. On the fifteenth of the same month, General Scott ordered, in the event of secession, all United States troops from Texas, via Fort Belknap and the Indian country, to Fort Leavenworth [ibid., 589]. On the eighteenth of March, a similar abandonment of Arkansas and the Indian country was arranged for [ibid., 667].

[126] Official Records, first ser., vol. liii, supplement, pp. 626, 628, 629.

[127] General Twiggs was then waiting to be relieved of his command, having personally requested to be relieved, his sense of embarrassment being strong and his unwillingness to take responsibility, extreme. Robert E. Lee, brevet colonel, Second United States Cavalry, was relieved from duty in Texas and ordered to repair to Washington, by orders of February 4, 1861 [Official Records, first ser., vol. i, 586].

[128] Commissioners of some sort had been sent to the Indians even before this. They do not seem to have been, in any sense, agents of Texas, indeed, the ones particularly in mind were from Arkansas; but Texas may have taken her cue from their appointment. Their presence in the Indian country is sufficiently attested by the following correspondence:

I have been informed today that persons purporting to act in the capacity of Commissioners are now visiting the Indian nations on our frontier—preparatory to forming an alliance with them to furnish them with arms and munitions of war, in violation of subsisting treaties and the laws of the United States. Occupying the position I do as a Civil officer of the Government in discharge of my duty as well as instructions, It is my duty to make inquiry and report such a state of facts as may exist in relation to the same. And having no authentic information in relation to this matter other than public rumor, I have believed it my duty to address you knowing that if such projects are in embryo or consummation that they cannot escape your vigilance; and that from you I shall be informed of the same, that, they may be communicated from a reliable official source to the authorities at Washington for their action.—John B. Ogden, United States commissioner, to John Ross, dated Van Buren, February 15, 1861 [Indian Office, General Files, Cherokee, 1859-1865, O32].

I have received your communication of the 15th inst.—stating that you have been informed that persons purporting to act in the capacity of commissioners are now visiting the Indian Nations on the frontier preparatory to forming an alliance....

It is currently rumored in the Country that Mr. R. J. Cowart—the U. S. Agent—is officially advocating the secession policy of the Southern States and that he is endeavoring to influence the Cherokees to take sides and act in concert with the seceded States—At the same time uttering words of denunciation against all the distinguished Patriots who are exerting their efforts, to devise measures of reconciliation in Congress as well as those in the Peace Convention at Washington for the Preservation of the Union.

Mr. Cowart brought out with him from the State of Georgia a man named—Solomon—who is a notorious drunken brawling disunionist. He is strolling about Tahlequah under the permission of the socalled “U. S. Agent”—and is creating strife & getting into difficulties with citizens of the Nation—a perfect nuisance to the peace and good order of society.

The conduct and general deportment of this man, also of the Agent being in direct violation of the laws and Treaties of the United States—they should be removed out of the Cherokee Country.

For further information as to such facts relating to the subjects of your enquiry, I have to refer you at present to Mr. W. P. Ross for what he may be in possession of....—John Ross to John B. Ogden, February 28, 1861 [Indian Office, General Files, Cherokee, 1859-1865, O32].

[129] Official Records, fourth ser., vol. i, 322.

[130] Tenney, W. J. Military and Naval History of the Rebellion in the United States, 134.

[131] Letter to the Alabama commissioner, J. M. Calhoun, January 7, 1861 [Official Records, fourth ser., vol. i, 74].

[132] “Report of a Committee of the Convention, being an address to the people of Texas, March 30, 1861.”—Ibid., 199.

[133] Official Records, fourth ser., vol. i, 322-325.

[134] Leeper to Greenwood, February 12, 1861 [General Files, Wichita, 1860-1861, L373].

[135] Official Records, first ser., vol. i, 656.

[136] —Ibid.

[137] —Ibid., 660.

[138] —Ibid., 648.

[139] Official Records, first ser., vol. i, 656.

[140] The Indian Office protested against a reduction of the forts because of treaty guaranties to the Indians [Dole to Smith, April 30, 1861, Indian Office, Report Book, no. 12, p. 152].

[141] Townsend to Emory, March 21, 1861 [Official Records, first ser., vol. i, 659].

[142] Same to same, ibid., 660.

[143] Emory to Townsend, April 2, 1861 [ibid., 660].

[144] At the time, when it was intended to remove all the troops from Fort Cobb for purposes of concentration farther south and nearer to the source of danger, instructions were issued that the Reserve Indians, whose peculiar protection Fort Cobb was, might remove within the limits of Fort Washita; but the Choctaws and the Chickasaws objected and, in deference to their wishes, Emory suspended the permission [Official Records, first ser., vol. i, 663], his excuse being that Fort Cobb was not to be abandoned anyway. The contractors, Johnson and Grimes, whom Superintendent Rector had so much favored, had a good deal to do with the forming of this decision. They told Emory that the Reserve Indians were not free to move; for they had no means and that they were “hutted and planting at Fort Cobb.” Quite naturally the food contractors did not wish the Indians to be taken out of their reach within the limits of a military reservation.

[145] Matthew Leeper was very insistent. He not only wrote letters to Emory arguing his case but travelled from his agency to Fort Smith to interview him.

[146] Emory refused to grant the appeal of Major Sackett and Captain Prince not to abandon Fort Arbuckle [Official Records, first ser., vol. i, 666].

[147] This circumstance ought not, however, to be cited to the prejudice of Colonel Emory; for it was while he was yet at Fort Smith that he manifested some of the spirit that inspired Robert E. Lee, who, by the way, was in command of the 2nd regiment of United States cavalry and had been stationed, like Emory, in Texas, and who, whether he believed in the doctrine of secession or not, put, as many another high-minded Southerner did, the state before the nation in matters of pride, of allegiance, and of personal honor. Such men as Lee belonged to quite another class from what the self-seeking politicians did who, in isolated cases at least, engineered the secession movement from hope of gain. Many of the Indian agents and employees belonged to this latter class. Emory was unlike Lee in the final result; for he did not ultimately conclude to go with his state. It was he who later on commanded, as a Union brigadier-general, the defences of New Orleans.

[148] See Appendix B, Leeper Papers.

[149] Very early, as has already been commented upon, the Texans bethought them of securing the Indian alliance. Additional evidence is to be found in such a request as Henry E. McCulloch made of Secretary Walker, on the occasion of his brother Ben’s having passed over to him the charge originally conferred upon himself of raising a regiment of mounted troops for the defence of the frontier. Henry E. McCulloch requested Secretary Walker to permit him

To use some of the friendly Indians in the Indian Territory, if I can procure their services, in my scouting parties and expeditions against the hostile Indians. These people can be made of great service to us, and can be used without any great expense to the Government.—Official Records, first ser., vol. i, 618.

[150] Letter of Carruth, July 11, 1861.

[151] As proof that the Texans regarded the Choctaws and the Chickasaws as friends, the two following letters may be cited:

A letter from John Hemphill and W. S. Oldham, two of the representatives from Texas in the Provisional Congress, to Secretary Walker, March 30, 1861, outlining a scheme of defence for Texas in which the admission was made that, from the southwest corner of Arkansas to Preston on the Red River, Texas needed no defense as her neighbors on that side were, “the highly-civilized and agricultural tribes of Choctaws and Chickasaws, who are in friendship with Texas and the Confederate States.”—Official Records, first ser., vol. i, 619.

A letter from E. Kirby Smith, major, Artillery, Confederate States of America, to Walker, April 20, 1861, to the effect that,

In considering the defense of the line of the western frontier of Texas our relations with the civilized Indians north of Red River are of the utmost importance. Numbering some eight thousand rifles, they form a strong barrier on the north, forcing the line of operations of an invading army westward into a region impracticable to the passage of large bodies of troops. Regarding them as our allies, which their natural affinities make them, the line of the western frontier reduces itself to the country between the Rio Grande and Red River.—Official Records, first ser., vol. i, 628.

[152] Between Fort Washita and Fort Arbuckle, Colonel Emory was overtaken by William W. Averell, second lieutenant, Regiment Mounted Rifles, with additional despatches from Townsend, ordering him, upon their receipt, immediately to repair to Fort Leavenworth, “with all the troops in the Indian country west of Arkansas” [ibid., 667]. Lieutenant Averell’s own account of his experiences on the journey between Washington City and Fort Washita, the hardships, difficulties, and delays, also the frenzied excitement of the Arkansas people over the prospect of secession, forms an interesting narrative [ibid., vol. liii, supplement, 488, 493-496].

[153] Black Beaver had served creditably as United States interpreter for the Wichitas and recently Leeper had turned to him for help in allaying their fears [Leeper to Rector, dated Wichita Agency, March 28, 1861, Leeper Papers]. For services rendered on this expedition northward to Fort Leavenworth [Letter of W. S. Robertson, September 30, 1861, General Files, Southern Superintendency, 1859-1862, R1615], Black Beaver brought a claim against the United States [E. S. Parker to J. D. Cox, July 1, 1869, Indian Office, Report Book, no. 18, pp. 417-418; and same to same, April 25, 1870, ibid., no. 19, p. 321]. Evidently Black Beaver served also in the Mexican War. He was then head of a company of mounted volunteers, Shawnees and Delawares [George W. Manypenny to Drew, August 8, 1854], which had been called and mustered into the service by Harney [P. Clayton, 2nd auditor, to A. K. Parris, 2nd comptroller, October 26, 1850].

[154] Emory to Townsend, May 19, 1861 [Official Records, first ser., vol. i, 648].

[155] Captain S. T. Benning to Walker, May 14, 1861 [Official Records, first ser., vol. i, 653.]

[156] —Ibid.

[157] Leeper to Rector, January 13, 1862 [Leeper Papers].

[158] A note, communicated by X. B. Debray, aide-de-camp to the Governor of Texas, to Walker and dated, Richmond, August 28, 1861, says,

The governor of Texas being convinced that the integrity of the soil of Texas greatly depends upon the success of the Southern cause in Missouri, and moved by an appeal to the people of Arkansas and Texas (published at the beginning of July by General Ben. McCulloch) ordered on the 25th ultimo the raising and concentration on Red River of 3,000 mounted men, besides the regiment commanded by Col. W. C. Young, which has been occupying for several months Forts Arbuckle, Cobb, and Washita, under authority of Texas, and at the request of the Chickasaw Indians.—Official Records, first ser., vol. iv, 98.

[159] House Journal, Arkansas, 1861, p. 304.

[160] Confederate Military History, vol. x, 4.

[161] Confederate Military Hillary, vol. x, 7.

[162] Two letters found among the Fort Smith Papers may serve, in a measure, to illustrate the point:

Little Rock, Arks, Jan^y 6, 1861.

Dr Thad: I received your letter a few days ago.... I am thankful that there are a few righteous men left and particularly gratified that you and Henry Lewis are true and faithful to the South.

I will endeavor to keep you posted so that you may hold your own with the Union savers—in sober truth the question is not whether the Union ought or can be saved but whether Arkansas shall go with the North or adhere to the South. Neither Fishback or anybody can preserve the Union—it now becomes us as wise men to put our house in order for the impending crisis. I wrote to Porter last night—the Senate have not passed the Convention bill and will not in anything like a right shape....

Ben T. Du Val.

[Addressed to Capt. M. T. Tatum, Greenwood, Arks.].

Little Rock Ark, January 7th 1861.

Dear Thad. I enclose you a copy of the printed bill now before our House to arm and equip the Militia of this State and to appropriate 100,000$ for that purpose.... We have passed a bill through the House appropriating five hundred dollars to Porter to cover his losses to some extent in money which he has paid out in recovering fugitives, it ought to have been a good deal more, but I never worked harder for anything in my life to get what we did. I think it will pass the Senate. The news from South Carolina indicate a Tea party at Charleston before many days. From the general signs of the times I think a Compromise will be effect between the North and the South and the Union saved. The Convention bill has not passed the Senate yet but will in a few days I think. Give my respects to the boys generally Your obt Servt

John T. London

[Addressed to Capt. M. T. Tatum, Greenwood, Sebastian County, Arkansas.]

[163] An interesting series of telegrams has a bearing upon that event.

February 1, 1861

J. J. Green, William Walker, Van Buren, Ark.:

Not possible to leave here. Southern confederacy certain. Arkansas must save her children by joining it. Write by mail to-day.

Johnson and Hindman,

Official Records, first ser., vol. liii, supplement, 617.

Washington, February 7, 1861.

John Pope, Esq., Little Rock, Ark.:

For God’s sake do not complicate matters by an attack. It will be premature and do incalculable injury. We cannot justify it. The reasons that existed elsewhere for seizure do not exist with us.

Albert Pike, R. W. Johnson.

—Ibid., vol. i, 682.

U. S. Senate, Washington, February 7, 1861.

His Excellency H. M. Rector, Little Rock, Ark.:

The motives which impelled capture of forts in other States do not exist in ours. It is all premature. We implore you prevent attack on arsenal if Totten resists.

R. W. Johnson, W. K. Sebastian.

—Ibid., 681.

Washington, February 7, 1861.

R. H. Johnson, James B. Johnson, Little Rock:

Southern States which captured forts were in the act of seceding, were threatened with troops, and their ports and commerce endangered. Not so with us. If Totten resists, for God’s sake deliberate and go stop the assault.

R. W. Johnson.

—Ibid., 681-682.

Washington, February 7, 1861.

Governor Rector, Little Rock, Ark.:

For God’s sake allow no attack to be made on Fort Totten.

A. Rust.

—Ibid., vol. liii, supplement, 617.

February 7, 1861.

E. Burgevin, Little Rock:

For God’s sake do not attack the arsenal. It can do no good and will be productive of great harm.

C. B. Johnson.

—Ibid.

Little Rock, February 8, 1861.

C. B. Johnson, Washington:

Spoke too late, like Irishman who swallowed egg. Arsenal in hands of Governor.

Edmund Burgevin.

Official Records, first ser., vol. liii, supplement, 617.

The senders and recipients of the telegraphic dispatches were, with one or two exceptions, all relatives of each other, and all in public life. Robert Ward Johnson and William K. Sebastian were, at the time, United States senators from Arkansas; Thomas C. Hindman and Albert Rust were Arkansas representatives in Congress; Albert Pike was in Washington, prosecuting the Choctaw Indian claim; Edmund Burgevin was the attorney-general of Arkansas and a brother-in-law of Governor Rector; Richard H. Johnson and James Johnson were brothers of Robert W. Johnson, the former being proprietor and editor of the Little Rock Democrat and the latter, in future years, a colonel in the Confederate army. In 1868, R. W. Johnson moved to Washington City and became the law partner of Albert Pike. [Arkansas Historical Association, Publications, vol. ii, 268.] Hindman was the man who sneered at the precautions taken to insure President-elect Lincoln’s safety [Stanwood, History of Presidential Elections, 235]. Sebastian was expelled from the Senate because of his southern sympathies; but, as he really took no active part in the Confederate movements, the resolution of expulsion was rescinded in 1878.

[164] It would be interesting to know whether Elias Rector had as yet formulated any such plan for personal aggrandizement such as must have been in his mind when he wrote the letter to Douglas H. Cooper that called forth from Cooper the following response:

Private & Confidential

Copy

Fort Smith May 1st 1861.

Major Elias Rector

Dr. Sir: I have concluded to act upon the suggestion yours of the 28th Ultimo contains.

If we work this thing shrewdly we can make a fortune each, satisfy the Indians, stand fair before the North, and revel in the unwavering confidence of our Southern Confederacy.

My share of the eighty thousand in gold you can leave on deposite with Meyer Bro, subject to my order. Write me soon. Cooper. Indian Office, General Files, Southern Superintendency, 1863-1864, I435.

The foregoing letter of Cooper’s was one of those referred to in the following telegraphic communication from Special Agent G. B. Stockton to Secretary Usher, dated Fort Smith, Arkansas, February 20, 1864:

I have just found & have now in this office a large desk containing indian papers treaties correspondence of Cooper Rector & others, correspondence of W. P. Dole as late as May fifteenth 1861 vouchers abstracts & correspondence convicting Rector & Cooper of enticing the various tribes to become enemies of the U. S. The papers extend back as far as 1834 will you please direct me what disposition to make of them.

Secretary Usher referred the matter to the Office of Indian Affairs and Mix instructed Stockton to send the papers on to Washington [Letter of February 20, 1864]. This Stockton did and notified the Commissioner of Indian Affairs in this wise, by telegraph:

I have boxed the Indian Papers which I found at this place, and this day send them by wagons to Leavenworth City, Kansas, to be thence forwarded by the American Express Company.

There seems to have been considerable delay in their transmittal after they had passed into the custodianship of the express company but they eventually reached the Indian Office and to-day form part of the Fort Smith collection.

[165] The melodious refrain of this,

unconsciously brings our one of the very ideas sought to be conveyed by the present chapter; namely, the extremely close connection between Arkansas and Indian Territory.

[166] This old, old song, “written on the model and to the air of ‘The Old Country Gentleman’,” runs thus:

Scottish Songs, printed by W. G. Blackie and Company (Glasgow).

[167] The commissioners to whom Ogden referred in his letter of February 15, 1861, may have been the tangible evidence of Governor Rector’s first attempt to influence the Indians.

[168] Fleming, Civil War and Reconstruction in Alabama, 46, footnote 1.

[169] Smith, Debates of the Alabama Convention, 443-444; Official Records, fourth ser., vol i, 3.

[170] Governor Moore had appointed the commissioners, including Hubbard, on his own initiative before the convention met. See his address, Smith’s Debates, 35.

[171] House Journal, Arkansas, 38.

[172] House Journal, Arkansas, 314, 445.

[173] January 12, 1861.

[174] The resolution is found in House Journal, Arkansas, 167 and in Official Records, fourth ser., vol. i, 307. Its text is as follows:

Resolved, That no money or property of any kind whatever, now in the hands of the Superintendent of Indian Affairs, or of any Indian agent, being placed there, or designed for the Indians on the western frontier of Arkansas, shall be seized, but that the same shall so remain to be applied to and for the use of the several Indian Nations, faithfully, as was designed when so placed in their hands for disbursement.

And the people of the State of Arkansas, here in sovereign convention assembled, do hereby pledge the sovereignty of the State of Arkansas, that everything in their power shall be done to compel a faithful application of all money and property now in the hands of persons or agents designed and intended for the several Indian tribes west of Arkansas.

Adopted in and by the convention May 9, 1861.

David Walker, President of the Arkansas State Convention.

Attest. Elias C. Boudinot, Secretary of the Convention.

[175]

Boonsborough, Ark., May 9, 1861.

Hon. John Ross:

Dear Sir: The momentous issues that now engross the attention of the American people cannot but have elicited your interest and attention as well as ours. The unfortunate resort of an arbitrament of arms seems now to be the only alternative. Our State has of necessity to co-operate with her natural allies, the Southern States. It is now only a question of North and South, and the “hardest must fend off.” We expect manfully to bear our part of the privations and sacrifices which the times require of Southern people.

This being our attitude in this great contest, it is natural for us to desire, and we think we may say we have a right, to know what position will be taken by those who may greatly conduce to our interests as friends or to our injury as enemies. Not knowing your political status in this present contest as the head of the Cherokee Nation, we request you to inform as by letter, at your earliest convenience, whether you will co-operate with the Northern or Southern section, now so unhappily and hopelessly divided. We earnestly hope to find in you and your people true allies and active friends; but if, unfortunately, you prefer to retain your connection with the Northern Government and give them aid and comfort, we want to know that, as we prefer an open enemy to a doubtful friend.

With considerations of high regard, we are, your obedient servants,

Mark Bean, W. B. Welch, E. W. Macclure, John Spencer, J. A. McColloch, J. M. Lacy, J. P. Carnahan, And many others.

Official Records, first ser., vol. xiii, 493-494; Indian Office, General Files, Cherokee, 1859-1865, C515.

[176] Indian Office, General Files, Cherokee, 1859-1865, C515; Official Records, first ser., vol. i, 683-684; vol. xiii, 490-491.

[177] Indian Office, General Files, Cherokee, 1859-1865, C515; Official Records, first ser., vol. i, 683.

[178] In a letter to A. B. Greenwood, dated Fort Smith, February 13, 1861, he says:

On the 11th Inst. I sent a dispatch to you asking for Troops and yesterday rec’d an answer making enquiries as to the Object for which they are wanted, and asking if the Governor’s Commissioner was here & what was his Object.

I have just replyed in a Dispatch, that the Gov. has no Com. here and has had none. I suppose you have been Tehlegraphed that there was a Com. and that for mischief. Now the following are the facts in the case as far as I have been able to learn them. On Saturday or Sunday last there came a young man by the name of Gains called Dr. Gains from Little Rock. He stated his object was to visit the Indian Tribes west of this to cultivate with them friendly Relations and stated moreover that he was authorized to do so by the Gov. of Arkansas. When I returned your Dispatch I went to Dr. Gains and asked him in the presents of witnesses if he was acting as Com. for the Gov. of Arkansas he replyed that he was not, and now Sir I am sorry to learn to day that a rumor is afloat that I am here to aid in taking this post & that by having Troops sent from here to weaken the forces. Nothing can be more false. In the first place, the Citizens have no Disposition to interfere with this post in any way and the truth is I see no persons but the Officers and I will not judge of their motives.

Them and myself are all friendly as far as I know except it may be they object to a Speach I made here on Monday night last. I can say and prove by all the best citizens of the Place that my remarks were mild and conciliatory and could not be objectionable to any true Southern man this the citizens of the City will bare me out, the truth is the only objection they could make to my speech was that it was unanswerable. I told you the same when in Washington. I appeal to the Citizens for the truth of what I say. I desire troops to protect the Cherokees from Abolition forays from Kansas & the Neutral land. I am told that there are three times the No. of Intruders now that there was there last fall and that violent threats have been made by Kansas.

In the next place I can do nothing without Troops there and a No. of lawless murderers in the Nation that cannot without Troops, and I told you those things when with you last and in addition to the above facts the Troops can live and support quite as comfortable and for less money out there than they can here.—Indian Office, General Files, Cherokee, 1859-1865.

[179] The proof appeared in the correspondence of John B. Ogden, commissioner of the district court of the United States for the western district of Arkansas. On March 4, 1861, Ogden wrote from Van Buren to the Secretary of the Interior the following letter:

Having learned on the 15th of Feb^y last from rumor the person appointed as Com^r had been sent by Gov. Rector of the State of Arkansas to the Indian tribes upon our frontier for co-operation in secession movements, and the same being in violation of treaty stipulations and the laws enacted by Congress regulating trade and Intercourse, I addressed a letter of inquiry to John Ross principal chief of the Cherokee Nation in relation to the same, which letter accompanies this with his reply—The letter to me I think was intended to be confidential from its language and from my conversation with the messenger who was the bearer of it to me, of this however I cannot positively judge and have thought best to forward the same. John Ross was unable to give me an imediate answer as he was not personally advised of the subject matter. But upon the return of Mr W. P. Ross who was a delegate from the Cherokees to a General Council being held of the tribes West of Arkansas in relation to their own international policy, he became advised of the matter of inquiry and for the purpose of furnishing the required information sent Mr W. P. Ross the bearer of this letter to Van Buren that he might fully communicate with me in the matter. I learn from him that one Dr J. J. Gains late editor of a secession sheet at Little Rock, did attend the said Council held by the Indian tribes west of Ark^s in the Choctaw Nation, and that said Gains announced to the Council his mission to be that of a Com^r from Arkansas accredited by the Gov^r to consult with them in relation to co-operation with the seceding States—That he submitted a written Statement to them in reference to their interests and future relations in the event of a dissolution of the Union—but that he was guarded in his propositions—You will learn from M^r John Ross’ letter that he informs me officially that the present (agent) of the Cherokees “is officiously advocating the secession policy of the southern States and that his endeavoring to influence the Cherokees to take sides and act in Concert with the Seceding States.”—I can state from my own information that when said Agent is in Ark^s he is invariably to be found upon the stump “open-mouthed and—” for disunion, to the great anoyance of the good people of the Country. These people should be heard and their grievances redressed and the causes removed, and some man of correct constitutional morals appointed in his stead. We have hosts of such men in this State, and as the Incoming Administration are not advised of persons in this country, allow me to suggest that on application to the Hon. A. B. Greenwood now of Washington the selection of a suitable person could be named. I have no doubt, that would be satisfactory—pardon this apparent officiousness—At this time my great anxiety for the preservation of the Union must be my apology for what I have said.

I also enclose you a copy of a permit furnished me by M^r Ross issued by said agent.—Indian Office, General Files, Cherokee, 1859-1865, O32.

Inclosures

1. John Ogden to John Ross, February 15, 1861.

2. John Ross to John B. Ogden, February 28, 1861.

3. Cherokee Agency, near Tahlequah, C. N.

Isaac G. Freeman, a citizen of what was formerly the United States and a farmer by occupation has permission to remain with J. C. Cunningham near Park Hill in said Nation and labor for the said Cunningham for twelve months from this date subject to be removed by the Agent at any time for cause.

R. J. Cowart, U. S. Cherokee Agent.

[Endorsement] A true copy from the original as taken by me March 1st 1861

Will P. Ross

4. Newspaper clippings, one containing the Choctaw resolutions of February 7, 1861, and the other this:

Dr. J. J. Gains, (an old editor) dropped in upon us, last week, on his way to Little Rock, from the Indian country. His mission was one of peace, and not to “incite rebellion” as was telegraphed to Washington City, by some officious person. We were glad to learn from him, that our border friends are all right.

[180] General Files, Cherokee, 1859-1865, C515; Official Records, first ser., vol. xiii, 491-492.

[181] Stephens says they were almost equally divided on the question of secession [Constitutional View of the Late War between the States, vol. ii, 363].

[182] On April 20, 1861.

[183] Stephens, op. cit., vol. ii, 375; Official Records, first ser., vol. i, 674, 687.

[184] Official Records, first ser., vol. i, 686.

[185] Journal, Arkansas Convention, 369.

[186] The importance of such an alliance seems never to have been lost sight of. In his message of May 6, 1861, Governor Rector called attention to the fact that Arkansas was the most exposed state in the Union, because of the Indians on the west [Journal, 153]. In various ways, he emphasized the strategical value of Indian Territory [ibid., 156].

[187] Journal, Arkansas Convention, 183.

[188] See page 183.

[189] Journal, Arkansas Convention, 189.

[190] —Ibid., 295.

[191] N. Bart Pearce had just been created by the convention “brigadier-general of Arkansas, to command the Western frontier.”

[192] On the thirteenth of May, the Confederate War Department had assigned Ben McCulloch to the command of the district embracing Indian Territory.

[193] Journal, Arkansas Convention, 369.

[194] Official Records, first ser., vol. i, 691.

[195] These resolutions are found in the Official Record, first ser., vol. iii, 585-587 and are as follows:

Resolutions of the Senate and House of Representatives of the Chickasaw Legislature assembled, May 25, 1861: Whereas the Government of the United States has been broken up by the secession of a large number of States composing the Federal Union—that the dissolution has been followed by war between the parties; and whereas the destruction of the Union as it existed by the Federal Constitution is irreparable, and consequently the Government of the United States as it was when the Chickasaw and other Indian nations formed alliances and treaties with it no longer exists; and whereas the Lincoln Government, pretending to represent said Union, has shown by its course towards us, in withdrawing from our country the protection of the Federal troops, and withholding, unjustly and unlawfully, our money placed in the hands of the Government of the United States as trustee, to be applied for our benefit, a total disregard of treaty obligations toward us; and whereas our geographical position, our social and domestic institutions, our feelings and sympathies, all attach us to our Southern friends, against whom is about to be waged a war of subjugation or extermination, of conquest and confiscation—a war which, if we can judge from the declarations of the political partisans of the Lincoln Government, will surpass the French Revolution in scenes of blood and that of San Domingo in atrocious horrors; and whereas it is impossible that the Chickasaws, deprived of their money and destitute of all means of separate self-protection, can maintain neutrality or escape the storm which is about to burst upon the South, but, on the contrary, would be suspected, oppressed, and plundered alternately by armed bands from the North, South, East, and West; and whereas we have an abiding confidence that all our rights—tribal and individual—secured to as under treaties with the United States, will be fully recognized, guaranteed, and protected by our friends of the Confederate States; and whereas as a Southern people we consider their cause our own: Therefore,

Be it resolved by the Chickasaw Legislature assembled, 1st. That the dissolution of the Federal Union, under which the Government of the United States existed, has absolved the Chickasaws from allegiance to any foreign government whatever; that the current of the events of the last few months has left the Chickasaw Nation independent, the people thereof free to form such alliances, and take such steps to secure their own safety, happiness, and future welfare as may to them seem best.

2d. Resolved, That our neighboring Indian nations—Choctaws, Cherokees, Creeks, Seminoles, Osages, Senecas, Quapaws, Comanches, Kiowas, together with the fragmentary bands of Delawares, Kickapoos, Caddoes, Wichitas, and others within the Choctaw and Chickasaw country who are similarly situated with ourselves, be invited to co-operate, in order to secure the independence of the Indian nations and the defense of the territory they inhabit from Northern invasion by the Lincoln hordes and Kansas robbers, who have plundered and oppressed our red brethren among them, and who doubtless would extend towards us the protection which the wolf gives to the lamb should they succeed in overrunning our country; that the Chickasaws pledge themselves to resist by all means and to the death any such invasion of the lands occupied by themselves or by any of the Indian nations; and that their country shall not be occupied or passed through by the Lincoln forces for the purpose of invading our neighbors, the States of Arkansas and Texas, but, on the contrary, any attempt to do so will be regarded as an act of war against ourselves, and should be resisted by all the Indian nations as insulting to themselves and tending to endanger their Territorial rights.

3d. Resolved, That it is expedient, at the very earliest day possible, that commissioners from other Indian nations for the purpose of forming a league or confederation among them for mutual safety and protection, and also to the Confederate States in order to enter into such alliance and to conclude such treaties as may be necessary to secure the rights, interest, and welfare of the Indian tribes, and that the co-operation of all the Indian nations west of the State of Arkansas and south of Kansas be invited for the attainment of these objects.

4th. Resolved, That the Chickasaws look with confidence especially to the Choctaws (whose interests are an closely interwoven with their own, and who were the first through their national council to declare their sympathy for, and their determination, in case of a permanent dissolution of the Federal Union, to adhere to the Southern States), and hope they will speedily unite with us in such measures as may be necessary for the defense of our common country and a union with our natural allies, the Confederate States of America.

5th. Resolved, That while the Chickasaw people entertain the most sincere friendship for the people of the neighboring States of Texas and Arkansas, and are deeply grateful for the prompt offer from them of assistance in all measures of defense necessary for the protection of our country against hostile invasion, we are desirous to hold undisputed possession of our lands and all forts and other places lately occupied by the Federal troops and other officers and persons acting under the authority of the United States, and that the governor of the Chickasaw Nation be, and he is hereby, instructed to take immediate steps to obtain possession of all such forts and places within the Choctaw and Chickasaw country, and have the same garrisoned, if possible, by Chickasaw troops, or else by troops acting expressly under and by virtue of the authority of the Chickasaw or Choctaw nations, until such time as said forts, Indian agencies, etc., may be transferred by treaty to the Confederate States.

6th. Resolved, That the governor of the Chickasaw Nation be, and he is hereby, instructed to issue his proclamation to the Chickasaw Nation, declaring their independence, and calling upon the Chickasaw warriors to form themselves into volunteer companies of such strength and with such officers (to be chosen by themselves) as the governor may prescribe, to report themselves by filing their company rolls at the Chickasaw Agency, and to hold themselves, with the best arms and ammunition, together with a reasonable supply of provisions, in readiness at a minute’s warning to turn out, under the orders of the commanding general of the Chickasaws, for the defense of their country or to aid the civil authorities in the enforcement of the laws.

7th. Resolved, That we have full faith and confidence in the justice of the cause in which we are embarked, and that we appeal to the Chickasaw people to be prepared to meet the conflict which will surely, and perhaps speedily, take place, and hereby call upon every man capable of bearing arms to be ready to defend his home and family, his country and his property, and to render prompt obedience to all orders from the officers set over them.

9th [8th]. Resolved, That the governor cause these resolutions to be published in the National Register, at the Boggy Depot, and copies thereof sent to the several Indian nations, to the governors of the adjacent States, to the President of the Confederate States, and to Abraham Lincoln, President of the Black Republican Party.

Passed the House of Representatives May 25, 1865.

A. Alexanan, Speaker House Representatives.

Attest: C. Carter, Clerk House Representatives

Passed the Senate.

John E. Anderson, President of Senate.

Attest: James N. McLish, Clerk of Senate.

Approved, Tishomingo, May 25, 1861.

C. Harris, Governor.

[196] See footnote 175.

[197] General Files, Cherokee, 1859-1865, C515; Official Records, first ser., vol. xiii, 492.

[198] General Files, ibid.; Official Records, first ser., vol. xiii, 492-493.

[199] The text of this is to be found in various places. The most convenient of such places are, Official Records, first ser., vol. xiii, 489-490 and Moore’s Rebellion Record, vol. ii, 145-146. A manuscript copy of the proclamation may be found in General Files, Cherokee, 1859-1865, C515; and a synopsis of its contents in Moore’s Rebellion Record, vol. ii, 1-2.

[200] Ross gave the citizens of Boonsboro their direct answer, May 18, 1861 [General Files, Cherokee, 1859-1865, C515; Official Records, first ser., vol. xiii, 494-495].

[201] The official list of members of the Confederate congresses can be found in Official Records, fourth ser., vol. iii, 1185-1191.

[202] Provisional Congress of the Confederate States, Journal, vol. i, 70.

[203] —Ibid., 81.

[204] Under the second section of the law of February 21, 1861, Indian affairs had been left for general supervision to the War Department [Provisional and Permanent Constitutions of the Confederate States and Acts and Resolutions of the First Session of the Provisional Congress, 48]. The Bureau of Indian Affairs, created by the law of March 15, 1861, was made a bureau of the War Department.

[205] Provisional Congress Journal, vol. i, 142; Richardson, Messages and Papers of the Confederacy.

[206] Provisional and Permanent Constitutions, 133-134.

[207] Provisional Congress Journal, vol. i, 154.

[208] Hubbard had occupied other and earlier positions of importance; but it must certainly have been upon the basis of the experience gained in filling this one that his nomination for commissioner of Indian affairs was made. Hubbard had been a state senator, a representative in the twenty-sixth and in the thirty-first United States congresses, and presidential elector on the Democratic ticket in 1844 and on the Breckinridge and Lane ticket in 1860 [Biographical Congressional Directory, 1774-1903, 608].

[209]

The Bureau of Indian Affairs ... has been organized.... So far this Bureau has found but little to do. The necessity for the extension of the military arm of the Government toward the frontier, and the attitude of Arkansas, without the Confederacy, have contributed to circumscribe its action. But this branch of the public service doubtless will now grow in importance in consequence of the early probable accession of Arkansas to the Confederacy; of the friendly sentiments of the Creeks, Cherokees, Choctaws, and Chickasaws, and other tribes west of Arkansas toward this Government; of our difficulties with the tribes on the Texas frontier; of our hostilities with the United States, and of our probable future relations with the Territories of Arizona and New Mexico.—Extract from the Report of Secretary Walker to President Davis, April 27, 1861 [Official Records, fourth ser., vol. i, 248].

[210] Davis would have preferred to have had Toombs for secretary of the treasury [Rhodes, History of the United States, vol. iii, 295, note 7].

[211] Journal, vol. i, 105.

[212] Both Pike and Toombs reached in time the thirty-second degree, or Scottish Rite. Note Pike’s glowing tribute to Toombs, quoted in Richardson, Messages and Papers of the Confederacy, vol. ii, 142.

[213] Journal, vol. i, 205.

[214] —Ibid., 225.

[215] Just what particular sets of resolutions those were I have no means of knowing. The most important set of Chickasaw resolutions, those issued under date of May 25, 1861 [Official Records, first ser., vol. iii, 585-587] had not yet been passed. The Choctaw resolutions presented may have been and very probably were those of February 7, 1861 [ibid.].

[216] On the twenty-first of May, President Davis approved “An Act for the protection of the Indian Tribes” [Journal, 263], it having gone through its various stages of amendment and having passed Congress, May seventeenth [ibid., 244]. Adjutant-general G. W. Andrews reports, November 4, 1912, that nothing additional concerning the text of this law is to be found in the Confederate archives.

[217] Journal, vol. i, 244.

[218] Governor Clark of Texas, also, at this time displayed great interest in the matter. On the fifteenth of May, he wrote to President Davis that he was constituting James E. Harrison, a man thoroughly conversant with the whole subject, “the duly accredited agent of Texas to convey” the Report of April 23, 1861 to Richmond [Official Records, fourth ser., vol. i, 322].

[219] See letter from Pearce to President Davis, May 13, 1861 [ibid., first ser., vol. iii, 576].

[220] Official Records, fourth ser., vol. i, 572-574.

[221] Pike was appointed under authority of a resolution passed by Congress, March 5, 1861. See Message of President Davis, December 12, 1861 [ibid., fourth ser., vol. i, 785].

[222] To-day he is, perhaps, best known by his parody on “Dixie” and by his singularly beautiful and pathetic “Every Year” [Poems, Roome’s edition, 31-34].

[223] See Journal of Proceedings, no. 273 of Johns Hopkins University Civil War Pamphlets.

[224] Bishop, Loyalty on the Frontier, 148-151.

[225] The poem is printed entire in Bishop’s Loyalty on the Frontier, 149-150. The first two stanzas are here given:

[226] Official Records, first ser., vol. iii, 580-581.

[227] In a letter to Commissioner D. N. Cooley, under date of February 17, 1866, Pike said that Toombs requested him in May of 1861 to visit the Indian country as commissioner. I have not been able to find out whether Toombs made his request in writing or verbally. The correspondence of Toombs recently edited by U. B. Phillips does not furnish any additional information on this point.

[228] On one very important occasion, Albert Pike was not strictly fair to the Indians. That occasion was after the war when the United States Indian Office was endeavoring to make a settlement with the Cherokees on the basis of their adherence to the Confederate cause. Pike was appealed to and threw the weight of his influence against John Ross, but most unjustly as it would seem. The letter embodying his views is a narrative of the events of 1861 as they happened in the Indian country under his scrutiny, and may as well be inserted here in full. It is to be found in the Indian Office in a bundle labeled, “Loyalty of John Ross, Principal Chief of the Cherokees: Letter of Albert Pike (original), Feb. 17, 1866—and Copies of several of Ross’ letter—relative to his loyalty in 1861 & 1862, etc.”

5. Albert Pike to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs

Memphis, Tennessee, 17th February 1866.

Sir: I have received, to-day, a copy of the “Memorial” of the “Southern Cherokees,” to the President, Senate and House of Representatives, in reply to the Memorial of other Cherokees claiming to be “loyal.”

It is not for me to take any part in the controversy between the two portions of the Cherokee People, nor have I any interest that could lead me to side with one in preference to the other. Nor am I much inclined, having none of the rights of a Citizen, to offer to testify in any matter, when my testimony may not be deemed worthy of credit, as that of one not yet restored to respectability and creditability by a pardon.

But, as I know it to be contemptible as well as false, for Mr. John Ross and the “loyal” Memorialists to pretend that they did not voluntarily engage themselves by Treaty Stipulations to the Confederate States, and as you have desired my testimony, I have this to say, and I think no man will be bold enough to deny any part of it.

In May, 1861, I was requested by Mr. Toombs, Secretary of State of the Confederate States, to visit the Indian Country as Commissioner, and assure the Indians of the friendship of those States. The Convention of the State of Arkansas, anxious to avoid hostilities with the Cherokees, also applied to me to act as such Commissioner. I accordingly proceeded to Fort Smith, where some five or six Cherokees called upon General McCulloch and myself, representing those of the Cherokees who sympathized with the South, in order to ascertain whether the Confederate States would protect them against Mr. Ross and the Pin Indians, if they should organize and take up arms for the South. We learned that some attempts to raise a Secession flag in the Cherokee Country on the Arkansas had been frustrated by the menace of violence; and those who came to meet us represented the Pin Organization to be a Secret Society, established by Evan Jones, a Missionary, and at the service of Mr. John Ross, for the purpose of abolitionizing the Cherokees and putting out of the way all who sympathized with the Southern States.

The truth was, as I afterwards learned with certainty, the Secret Organization in question, whose members for a time used as a mark of their membership a pin in the front of the hunting shirt, was really established for the purpose of depriving the half-breeds of all political power, though Mr. Ross, himself a Scotchman and a McDonald by the father and the mother, was shrewd enough to use it for his own ends. At any rate, it was organized and in full operation, long before Secession was thought of.

General McCulloch and myself assured those who met us at Fort Smith, that they should be protected; and agreed to meet, at an early day then fixed, at Park Hill, where Mr. Ross resided. Upon that I sent a messenger with letters to five or six prominent members of the Anti-Ross party, inviting them to meet me at the Creek Agency, two days after the day on which General McCulloch and I were to meet at Park Hill.

I did not expect to effect any arrangement with Mr. Ross, and my intention was to treat with the heads of the Southern party, Stand Watie and others.

When we met Mr. Ross at Park Hill, he refused to enter into any arrangement with the Confederate States. He said that his intention was to maintain the neutrality of his people; that they were a small and weak people, and would be ruined and destroyed if they engaged in the war; and that it would be a cruel thing if we were to engage them in our quarrel. But, he said, all his interests and all his feelings were with us, and he knew that his people must share the fate and fortunes of Arkansas. We told him that the Cherokees could not be neutral. We used every argument in our power to change his determination, but in vain; and finally General McCulloch informed him that he would respect the neutrality of the Cherokees, and would not enter their Country with troops, or place troops in it, unless it should become necessary in order to expel a Federal force, or to protect the Southern Cherokees.

So we separated. General McCulloch kept his word, and no Confederate troops ever were stationed in or marched into the Cherokee Country, until after the Federal troops invaded it.

Before leaving the Nation I addressed Mr. Ross a letter, which I afterwards printed, and circulated among the Cherokee people. In it I informed him that the Confederate States would remain content with his pledge of neutrality, although he would find it impossible to maintain that neutrality; that I should not again offer to treat with the Cherokees, and that the Confederate States would not consider themselves bound by my proposition to pay the Cherokees for the neutral land, if they should lose it in consequence of the war. I had no further communication with Mr. Ross until September.