THE TERRITORY ORGANIZED
On May 29, 1848, Wisconsin was admitted to the Union as a state, with
her western boundary fixed where it has since remained, on the St.
Croix River line, Congress having refused to extend Wisconsin’s area to
the Rum River line. The delta between the St. Croix and the Mississippi
was politically left in the air. In the earlier correspondence and
personal conferences of Minnesotians the only thought was of obtaining
from Congress the establishment of a new territory. On August 4 a call
signed by eighteen prominent residents of the wished-for territory was
issued, for a convention to be held at Stillwater on the 26th.
Sixty-one delegates appeared and took part in what has since been known
as “the Stillwater Convention” of 1848. The proceedings resulted in two
memorials, one to the President, the other to Congress, both praying
for the organization of a new territory; in corresponding resolutions;
in the raising of a committee to prosecute the purposes of the
convention; and in the election of Henry H. Sibley as a “delegate” to
proceed to Washington and urge immediate action.
The late governor of Wisconsin Territory, Hon. Henry Dodge, had been
elected United States senator. The secretary of the territory had been
Mr. John Catlin. A letter written by him August 22 was read before the
Stillwater convention. It embodied the suggestion that the Territory of
Wisconsin might be considered as surviving in the excluded area. He
transmitted a letter from James Buchanan, Secretary of State,
expressing the opinion that the laws of Wisconsin Territory were still
in force therein, and that judges of probate, sheriffs, justices of the
peace, and constables might lawfully exercise their offices. Such being
the case, what was there to hinder him, Mr. Catlin, from assuming the
position of acting-governor of Wisconsin Territory, and performing the
proper duties? In particular, why might he not appoint an election for
the choice of a delegate to Congress in a regular manner, if a vacancy
should occur? His judgment was that a delegate elected “under color of
law” would not be denied a seat. This scheme, which seems to have made
no impression on the Stillwater convention, was rapidly incubated after
its dispersion. Mr. Catlin took up a constructive residence at
Stillwater. John H. Tweedy, delegate from Wisconsin Territory to the
Thirtieth Congress, obligingly put in his resignation. Thereupon
Acting-Governor Catlin issued a call for an election of a delegate to
be held on the 30th of October. The result was the choice of Mr. Sibley
against a slight and ineffective opposition.
The delegate-elect presented himself at the door of the national House
of Representatives at the opening of the second session of the
Thirtieth Congress. His credentials had the usual reference to the
committee on elections. Mr. Sibley’s argument was ingenious and
exhaustive, and it proved effective, for the committee absorbed its
substance into their favorable report. On January 15, 1849, the House
by a vote of 124 to 62 accorded Mr. Sibley his seat as delegate from
Wisconsin. The same House refused, however, to make any appropriation
for the expenses of a territory existing by virtue of mere geographical
exclusion. A bill for the establishment of the Territory of Minnesota
had been introduced into the Senate in the previous session. It was
identical with that which had been strangled on the last day of the
Twenty-ninth Congress. Mr. Sibley properly devoted himself to advancing
the progress of the bill. It was promptly passed by the Senate, but it
lagged in the House. The Whig majority had no consuming desire to favor
a beginning likely to result in a Democratic delegation from a new
state. They therefore clapped on an amendment, to which the Senate
could not possibly agree, that the act should take effect March 10, six
days after the expiry of President Polk’s term of office. The end of
the session was but four days away. A House bill for the establishment
of a Department of the Interior was still pending in the Senate. It
provided for a goodly number of officials to be named by the incoming
Whig President. Senator Douglas, acting for colleagues, authorized Mr.
Sibley to give out to his Whig opponents that the Senate would be
better disposed to passing their interior department measure if they
should find it agreeable to recede from their offensive amendment to
the Minnesota bill. On the last day of the session Mr. Sibley had the
pleasure of seeing his bill pass, under suspension of the rules,
without opposition. No one was so much surprised at the outcome as Mr.
Sibley himself. It took thirty-seven days for the good news to reach
St. Paul by the first steamer of the season from below. The boundaries
of the new territory were those of the state later admitted, except
that the west line was pushed out to the Missouri River, thus including
an area of some 166,000 square miles. The governorship fell to
Alexander Ramsey of Pennsylvania, then thirty-four years of age, who
deserved well of his party in its late campaign and had done some
excellent service as a member of the Twenty-eighth and Twenty-ninth
Congresses. He had been well educated in the best school, that of a
life of industry and aspiration. Clear-headed, cautious, patient, he
knew how to anticipate the courses of things and to plan for the
probabilities of the future. He identified himself from the first with
his new territory, and remained to the end of his long life, in 1903, a
steadfast, loyal Minnesotian.
On May 27, in a small bedroom in Bass’s log tavern on the site of the
Merchant’s Hotel in St. Paul, Mr. Ramsey wrote out on a little
unpainted washstand his proclamation declaring the territory duly
established. On June 11 he announced the division of his immense
jurisdiction into three provisional counties, assigning to each one of
the three judges, Goodrich, Sherburne, and Meeker, who had been
appointed by the President. At the same time he directed the sheriff of
St. Croix County to make a census of the population. The reported total
did not measure up to the conjectures of hopeful citizens. After
counting the 317 soldiers at “the Fort,” all the attachés of the
trading posts, 637 dwellers at Pembina and 66 on the Missouri River,
the footing stood at 4680 souls.
Pursuant to the organic act Governor Ramsey by proclamation of July 7
divided the territory into seven council districts, and ordered an
election for August 1. The first territorial legislature that day
elected, consisting of nine councilors and eighteen representatives,
met at St. Paul, September 4. The organic act having provided that the
laws in force in the late Territory of Wisconsin should remain in
operation until altered or repealed by the Minnesota territorial
legislature, this inexperienced body was not heavily burdened. The most
notable enactment was that for the establishment of a system of free
schools for all children and youth of the territory, introduced by
Martin McLeod, but probably drawn up by the Rev. Edward Duffield Neill,
the well-known historian of Minnesota. A bill passed October 20,
incorporating the Minnesota Historical Society, was doubtless from the
same hand. Governor Ramsey’s message of 1849 was much extended by an
account of the Indian tribes of the territory, prepared for him by Dr.
Thomas Foster.
There was no legislative session in 1850. The statutes of 1851 embrace
but few of notable importance. After a long and bitter struggle the
capital, temporarily placed by the organic act at St. Paul, was
permanently located in that town. To secure the majority vote it was
necessary to concede to Stillwater the state prison and to St. Anthony
the university. The evidence of a formal “tripartite agreement” to this
arrangement is lacking, but it is probable that an understanding or
expectation influenced the voting. The diligence with which a body
composed largely of fur-traders and lumbermen overhauled a revision of
the territorial laws, prepared by a committee of lawyers, bears
testimony to a zeal for duty. The result was the well-known “Code of
1851.” It embodied substantially the New York code of procedure. The
general incorporation law did not include railroad corporations. An act
of 1852 prohibiting the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors
was submitted to a vote of the electors and ratified by a vote of 853
to 662. Before the year was out the supreme court of the territory, on
an appeal from below, ruled the act to be unconstitutional on the
ground that the organic law having vested all legislative power in the
legislative bodies, the referendum was inoperative. In 1853 equity
procedure was conformed to that of civil actions.
* * * * *
The dominating feature of Governor Ramsey’s territorial governorship
was the extinguishment of the Indian title of occupancy to all the
lands of the Sioux in Minnesota, except the small reservations. No time
was lost by interested parties in impressing on Mr. Ramsey the
importance of increasing the area of settlement in his territory. Land
speculators and lumbermen desired an enlargement of their spheres of
operation. The Indian traders, who in previous years would have opposed
a treaty of cession, were at this time, under changed circumstances,
eager. The hunting of wild animals for their pelts had greatly reduced
their numbers, so that the trade had dwindled. The prospect of profits
in land speculation appeared likely to exceed those of Indian trading.
The traders also were of opinion that it was about time for a
substantial liquidation of Indian debts due them. The half-breeds and
squaw men had, as we shall see, a strong desire for a treaty. Moved by
what seemed a general demand, Governor Ramsey recommended to the first
territorial legislature that they memorialize Congress to provide for a
treaty of cession with the Sioux. That body promptly complied. The
commissioner of Indian affairs had meantime been interested to such a
degree that he arranged for a treaty, and to pay the expenses out of
funds already at his disposal. He appointed as commissioners to conduct
the negotiation Governor Ramsey, being already superintendent
_ex-officio_ of Indian affairs in his territory, and the Hon. John
Chambers of Iowa, and furnished them a body of instructions, which
served more than the immediate purpose. He restricted their expenditure
for presents to $6000. The Sioux were summoned by runners to come in to
council in October. The commissioner of Indian affairs was precipitate.
The traders were not quite ready, and there were prominent citizens in
St. Paul who feared that a big cession of Indian lands west of the
river might give Mendota a dangerous precedence. But few of the Sioux
came in, and they were unwilling to treat. The effort aborted. Its
success might have secured for Governor Ramsey political rewards for
which he had to wait. The Indian appropriation bill of 1850, carrying
$15,000 for the expenses of treating, was not approved till September
30. The season was too late for the assemblage of the Indians, widely
scattered on their fall hunts. Then ensued a contention, lasting many
months, over the appointment of a colleague to Governor Ramsey for the
negotiation of the treaty. At one time it appeared that a trading
interest adverse to the American Fur Company had virtually succeeded in
securing the appointment of a gentleman from Indiana, on whom it could
depend. To dispose of this and other aspirants, an amendment was tacked
on to the proper paragraph of the Indian appropriation bill of the
session, providing that commissioners making Indian treaties should
thereafter be selected from officials of the Indian Bureau, to serve
without extra compensation. The contemplated treaty with the Sioux
involving a cession of many millions of acres and large disbursements
for a long time, the commissioner of Indian affairs, the Hon. Luke Lea
of Mississippi, resolved to act in person.
The Minnesota Sioux comprised four of the seven tribes of the nation,
and were themselves geographically divided into “upper” and “lower”
Sioux. The two upper tribes were the Sissetons and Wahpétons. The
former had their villages on lakes Big Stone and Traverse, the latter
on the upper reaches of the Minnesota River, with some sandwiching of
bands. The lower Sioux were the Medawakantons and the Wah-pé-ku-tes:
the villages of the former were strung along the west bank of the
Mississippi from Winona to Fort Snelling and on up the Minnesota to
Belle Plaine. The Wah-pé-ku-tes dwelt on the headwaters of the Cannon
River, in what Nicollet called his “Undine region.” As they were
averse, like all barbarians, to having their numbers counted, the
Indian Bureau up to the time when all became “annuity Indians” could
only guess at the population. Eight thousand was the general estimate
at the middle of the century. Each tribe was subdivided into bands of
unequal numbers, each under its own chief. The bands of each tribe
recognized one of the older and most capable chiefs as their head
chief. Wabashaw was head chief of the Medawakantons. The instructions
of 1849, already mentioned, charged the commissioners to make but one
treaty, advised them to promise no money payments, and forbade them to
provide for debts due by Indians to the traders. The reader can surmise
why no Indians came to treat.
The new commissioner of Indian affairs did not of course have to
instruct himself, and he appears to have relaxed the conditions imposed
by his predecessor. At any rate, he soon found out that if he wished to
make a treaty it would be necessary for him to pay some money, and to
arrange for the payment of traders’ claims. Because of a diversity of
these claims against the upper and the lower Sioux it was desired that
separate treaties be made. This was conceded. Because the upper tribes
were thought to be less opposed to a treaty and a cession, it was
decided to begin with them; and those Indians were summoned to council
on July 1 at Traverse des Sioux. The commissioners and their party
found on their arrival none but those there resident. It was not till
the 18th that enough of the upper bands had come in to warrant
negotiation. Meantime the disinclination of the Indians had been
mitigated by the rations of pork, beef, and flour dispensed by the
commissary, and presents to reluctant chiefs. On July 23 the treaty was
signed in duplicate. As the chiefs left the table they were “pulled by
the blanket” and steered to another, where they touched the pen to a
third document, which later became notorious under the name of “the
traders’ paper.” The upper Sioux by this treaty sold to the United
States all their lands in Minnesota for $1,665,000, except a
reservation twenty miles wide straddling the Minnesota River, from Lake
Traverse down to the Yellow Medicine River. The principal consideration
was an annual payment of $68,000 for fifty years, of which $40,000 was
to be cash. The United States also engaged to expend $30,000 for
schools, mills, blacksmith shops, and like beneficial purposes, to
remove the Indians to their new homes, and to provide them with
subsistence for one year. A residue of $210,000 was to be paid to the
chiefs in such manner as they should thereafter in open council
request, to enable them “to settle their affairs and comply with their
present engagements”; in plain English, to pay the claims of the
traders. The traders’ paper amounted to an assignment in blank of this
whole sum. The schedule of claims was not attached to the paper till
the next day. On the question whether the chiefs who signed knew what
they were doing, the evidence is conflicting. On August 5 a second
treaty, ceding the same lands, was signed at Mendota. The reservation
for the lower bands was also on the Minnesota River, extending from the
upper reserve down to the neighborhood of New Ulm. Each of the two
tribes agreed to pay traders’ claims to the amount of $90,000. The
lower Sioux were encouraged to conclude the bargain by a promise that
$30,000 out of a $50,000 “education” fund provided for in the treaty of
1837 and never paid, but allowed to accumulate, should be distributed,
so soon as the treaty should be signed. The money was paid, and within
a week it was in the hands of St. Paul merchants and whiskey sellers;
$10,000 or thereabout went for horses. The commissioners congratulated
themselves and the country on this magnificent purchase of a region
larger than New York, at a cost of the “sum paid in hand.” The annual
payments promised would, they figured, be equaled by the interest from
the lands.
The treaties awaited the action of the Senate. Before that body
convened in the December following, representations were made to the
authorities at Washington that a “stupendous fraud” had been practiced
on the Sioux. The upper Sioux, inspired by a trader attached to an
interest adverse to the American Fur Company, which had not obtained
recognition for its claims, were much excited. In December twenty-one
chiefs resorted to St. Paul, where they represented to Agent McLean and
Governor Ramsey that their signatures to the traders’ paper were
obtained by fraud and deceit. They declared that their bands owed no
such sums of money, but were willing to pay what sums a fair
examination of the claims might prove to be just. The agent promised to
report their protest and demands to his superiors, which he did.
Governor Ramsey had only to assure the chiefs that as treaty
commissioner he had nothing to do with traders’ claims. The money would
be paid to their chiefs and braves, and it was for them to dispose of
it as they thought proper. When the treaties were laid before the
Senate in February, 1852, opposition to ratification at once sprang up,
and long delay ensued. It was not any allegations of fraud and deceit
which formed the ground of this opposition. It came from Southern
senators not willing to extend the area of settlement to the north, on
which to build another free state. It was not till June 28 that
ratification was voted by a slender majority, and that not till after
amendments were made, which opponents believed the Sioux would never
agree to. In particular the senators cut out the paragraphs providing
for the two reservations, and substituted a provision that the
President should select new homes for the Minnesota Sioux outside the
ceded territory.
In August Governor Ramsey was authorized to obtain the consent of the
Indians to the amendments. This was effected through persons
influential among them and without calling general councils of the
tribes. The consent of the upper Sioux, however, was not secured till
after the execution of a power of attorney to Governor Ramsey, which
they were allowed to believe “broke” all former papers, that of the
traders in particular. The money appropriated for the immediate
payments became available so soon as the Sioux chiefs had signed their
ratifications, and Governor Ramsey was designated as disbursing agent
and given a credit on the treasury for $593,000. The payments did not
begin till November, and then with the lower Sioux. The Wah-pé-ku-te
chiefs gave no trouble, but signed their joint receipt for $90,000 of
“hand money,” and a power of attorney to Mr. Sibley to receive the
money and distribute it to their licensed traders. The seven
Medawakanton chiefs would not sign receipts till after they had been
encouraged by the distribution of $20,000 in equal sums, deducted from
the amount of traders’ claims. Some minor enticements contributed. At
“The Traverse,” a fortnight later, “a very evil and turbulent spirit”
was manifest. The chiefs demanded the money “for settling their
affairs” to be paid to them. They would then decide “in open council”
how it should be distributed. Mr. Ramsey was firm, and held them to the
terms of the traders’ paper, which he considered an irrevocable
contract. The local Sissetons were so riotous that a company of troops
had to be summoned from Fort Snelling to keep them in order. After much
delay and no little effort he was able to obtain twelve signatures to a
receipt for the money to go to traders, but only two of the names were
those of old and well-recognized chiefs, and only one that of a signer
of the treaty of 1851. The moneys thus secured to the traders, and some
moderate gratifications to the half-breeds, were, with the exception of
the $90,000 paid the Wah-pé-ku-tes, delivered by Governor Ramsey to one
Hugh Tyler, a citizen of Pennsylvania holding powers of attorney. This
gentleman distributed according to the schedules of the traders’
papers, retaining by their consent the sum of $55,250, about thirteen
and one half per cent., as compensation for his services in securing
the ratification of the treaties and for other purposes.
Political enemies of Governor Ramsey, and parties dissatisfied with the
distribution of moneys under the treaties, laid formal charges and
specifications against him before the Senate at the next session, in
1853. Upon the request of that body the President undertook an
investigation and appointed two Democratic commissioners. Their report,
covering, with testimony and exhibits, 431 octavo pages, was submitted
to the Senate in 1854. It was on the whole moderate and even charitable
in tone, but conveyed a censure for allowing the Indians to deceive
themselves, for not paying strictly in accordance with the terms of the
treaties, for use of oppressive measures in securing the receipts of
the chiefs, and for allowing Hugh Tyler a percentage not “necessary for
any reasonable or legitimate purpose.” The testimony disclosed that
some amount of this money had been used as a “secret service fund” to
expedite the business. As to the use of money to influence officials,
the principal witness for the defense declared that none had gone or
would go into the hands of Governor Ramsey, but that as to other
officers, he declined to answer. The labored argument of his lawyers
served only to darken counsel, when compared with Governor Ramsey’s
clear and frank explanation, filed before the investigation was begun.
The report went to the Senate committee on Indian affairs, a Democratic
committee of a Democratic Senate. On February 24, 1854, they reported
that after a careful examination of all the testimony the conduct of
Governor Ramsey was not only free from blame, but highly commendable
and meritorious. Thereupon the committee was discharged from further
consideration.
The gist of the matter is, that a treaty of cession was much desired by
the people of the territory, and intensely by politicians and
speculators. It could not have been long delayed. No treaty could be
made with these Indians without the active aid and intervention of the
traders and half-breeds. Such aid could be had only by paying for it.
The device of allowing Indians to stipulate in treaties for the payment
to traders of debts due them from individual Indians, as if they were
tribal obligations, had long been practiced. But for the machinations
of disgruntled parties desirous of being taken into the happy circle of
beneficiaries, the scheme might have been worked as quietly and
comfortably as usual. An old interpreter says of these treaties that
“they were fair as any Indian treaties.” Having undertaken to see that
the traders and half-breeds should not go unrewarded for their
indispensable services, Governor Ramsey stood by them to the end. The
sums paid them were no robbery of the Indians. But for the fact that
the treaties of 1851 were the beginning of troubles to be later treated
of, they need not have taken so much of the reader’s time.
* * * * *
A few days after Governor Ramsey took up his residence in St. Paul,
another citizen established himself in that city of promise. His
ambition was not confined to sharing in the unearned increment of a
rapidly growing capital city; he wished also to take a part in public
affairs. Henry M. Rice, born in 1816 in Vermont, emigrated to Michigan
at the age of nineteen, equipped with an academy education and two
years of law studies. He came on to Minnesota in 1839, and was employed
presently by the Chouteaus of St. Louis, who took over the business of
the American Fur Company, to manage their Winnebago and Chippeway trade
from Prairie du Chien. In 1847 he became a partner in the business and
removed to Mendota, a place much too strait for two such men as himself
and Mr. Sibley. Established in St. Paul, Mr. Rice threw himself into
every movement and enterprise projected for the development of the
town. He generously shared his gains with the public. His personal
qualities were such that he could not help desiring public employment
and obtaining great success in it. His manners were so gracious and yet
not patronizing, that he made friends with all sorts and conditions of
men. He divined with an unerring instinct the motives of men and
parties, and knew when and how by appropriate suggestion to let them
apparently move themselves towards his desired ends. An early example
of Mr. Rice’s influence and success may be found in a contract which he
obtained in 1850 for collecting vagrant Winnebagoes and returning them
to their reservations. The Winnebagoes were a powerful Wisconsin tribe
when the white man came, and long after. The government persuaded them
to vacate first their mineral lands and later all their lands in
Wisconsin, and move to the so-called “neutral ground” in Iowa. This was
a strip of territory some twenty miles wide, starting from the
northeast corner of Iowa and running south of west to the Des Moines
River. The generous presents and annuities required to effect the sale
and removal were the ruin of the Winnebagoes. They became idle,
dissolute, mischievous. The white settlers could not endure them, and
the Indians themselves tired of their confinement to a narrow area.
Accordingly in 1846 a treaty was effected for the exchange of the
neutral ground for a reservation of eight hundred thousand acres in
Northern Minnesota. A tract lying between the Watab and Long Prairie
rivers, west of the Mississippi, was obtained from the Chippeways for
this purpose.
In the summer of 1848, with the help of traders and the military, the
Winnebagoes, by this time sick of their bargain, were put on the road
for their new home. Some did not start, others fell out by the way, but
a majority of the twenty-five hundred souls were landed at Long
Prairie. They liked the new home even less than they expected, and soon
began to desert and scatter; some to encamp along the upper
Mississippi, some to the neutral ground, others to their ancient
country in Wisconsin; and a few are said to have wandered off to the
Missouri. Wherever they went they were unwelcome, and the Indian office
was flooded with complaints of their depredations and trespasses. Mr.
Rice had traded with the Winnebagoes and had so attached them to
himself that they had made him their sole commissioner to choose their
new Minnesota home. His aid had been called in to persuade them to
move. To him now the Whig commissioner of Indian affairs resorted to
round up the vagrant Indians and corral them on their proper
reservation. He agreed to pay Mr. Rice seventy dollars per head for the
service. Meantime Governor Ramsey and Agent Fletcher were occupied with
collecting the Indians below, and preparing to transport or march them
northward without material expense to the government. Delegate Sibley
was supposed to be the proper territorial organ at the seat of
government. The feelings of these gentlemen may be imagined when they
learned that the “infamous Rice contract,” of which they had not had
the least knowledge or suspicion, had been concluded, and Mr. Rice’s
agents were on the road. In vain did Governor Ramsey inform the
commissioner that he had several hundred ready to march; in vain was
Delegate Sibley’s “official protest” against a secret, unconscionable,
insulting proceeding. A House committee of investigation exonerated the
commissioner, but he took early occasion to resign his office. The
point of interest to the Minnesota citizen was not the alleged
excessive cost to the government, or the comfort of the Winnebagoes. He
was concerned to know who had the greatest pull at Washington, and it
appeared to him at the close that a certain private citizen of St.
Paul, a Democrat, and not the Whig governor nor the Democratic
delegate, was the man to “swing things” there.
In the fall of the same year (1850) came the regular election for
delegate to succeed Mr. Sibley upon the expiration of his term. Mr.
Rice, who had contested Mr. Sibley’s election in 1848 as delegate from
Wisconsin,—with little vigor, however,—was too prudent to come out
against one who had brought home the organic act, and made no
opposition to Mr. Sibley’s unanimous election as delegate to the
Thirty-first Congress, although he organized the democracy of the
territory as if for a candidacy. Nor did he personally aspire to the
office when Mr. Sibley’s first term was to expire. To defeat that
gentleman he virtually dictated the Whig nominee, who had been useful
in securing the Winnebago contract, and persuaded the regular
Democratic nominee to retire on the eve of election in favor of the
Whig candidate.
Mr. Sibley, although a Jeffersonian Democrat dyed in the wool, ran as a
people’s candidate. The total vote was 1208; a transfer of 46 votes
would have elected the Whig candidate. The accounts of historians,
surviving citizens, and the newspapers of the day concur in pronouncing
this political campaign the bitterest and most intensely personal ever
known in Minnesota. Mr. Sibley’s opponents attacked him as the
representative and tool of the American Fur Company, an ancient,
shameless, intolerable monopoly. Party lines broke down, and the issue
became “Fur _versus_ Anti-Fur.”
Mr. Sibley served through the Thirty-first and Thirty-second Congresses
with admirable efficiency. At one time objection was made against his
active participation in general legislation, and the suggestion made
that a delegate should confine himself to matters concerning his
territory. Mr. Sibley replied that Minnesota was part of the United
States, and that whatever concerned them concerned her, and claimed for
her delegate the right to be heard, and all the more because he had no
vote. The matter was dropped. He had little difficulty in obtaining for
Minnesota the needful appropriations for her government expenses,
roads, and public buildings, and the reservation in 1851 of two
sections in each township for common schools, and of two townships of
land for the endowment of a university. His most conspicuous act, in
the highest degree creditable to him, although barren of results, was
his effort to secure the passage of his bill to extend the laws of the
land over the Indians. His speech of August 2, 1850, in which he
denounced the rascality of the white man’s dealings with the natives,
the absurdity of treating with them as separate nations, and their need
of the protection of the law, is a splendid testimony to the
intelligence and wisdom of the man who doubtless knew more about Indian
affairs than any other man on the floor. He spoke to deaf ears. The
government went on sowing to the wind, to reap the whirlwind.
Mr. Sibley was permitted to return to private life at the close of his
second term and devote himself to closing up his relations with the
American Fur Company, of which he had remained the head. Mr. Rice was
selected to succeed him by a three fourths majority vote over Alexander
Wilkin, his Whig opponent.