PROTESTS--PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S ORDER FOR THE EXECUTION.
The Indians did not seem to feel cast down; some in fact appeared
rather to enjoy the situation; others, again, were more serious, and
were probably speculating as to the probable outcome of the unfortunate
condition of affairs. The soldiers did not relish the idea of guarding
them, and one night a conspiracy, which I overheard, was formed to create
a false alarm in the camp and in the excitement fall on the Indians
and murder them. The plot leaked out and the plan miscarried, as it
should, for it would have been rank murder to have executed it. Among
the prisoners there were many who really were not guilty, but had been
caught in bad company. The prisoners were arraigned upon written charges
specifying the criminating acts, and these charges were signed by General
Sibley, and with but few exceptions were based on information furnished
by Rev. S. R. Riggs, who had long been a missionary among them. The
majority of the prisoners were condemned to death, and the news reaching
the East, far away from the scene of the outrages, petitions went in from
many New England cities, imploring the President to exercise clemency
toward this unfortunate people. He yielded to the clamor in so far as
only to include the very worst characters among them.
Bishop Whipple said: "There are times when the Christian laborer has
a right to ask for the sympathy, the prayers and the co-operation
of our fellow-citizens, and to make a strong appeal in behalf of
this most wretched race of heathen men on the face of the earth. The
responsibility," he says, "is great, the fearful issues are upon us, and
as we are to settle them justly or unjustly we shall receive the blessing
or curse of Almighty God. Many of these victims of savage ferocity were
my friends. They had mingled their voices with mine in prayer; they had
given to me such hospitality as can only be found in the log cabin of
the frontier; and it fills my heart with grief, and blinds my eyes with
tears, when I think of their nameless graves. It is because I love them
and would save others from their fate that I ask that the people shall
lay the blame of this great crime where it belongs, and rise up with one
voice to demand the reform of the atrocious Indian system, which has
always garnered for us the same fruit of anguish and blood."
Thousands of miles away from the scene of the outrages perpetrated
against the inoffensive white settlers, protests were sent in to the
President from all sorts of humanitarians, imploring him to stay the
sentence that condemned to death so many human beings. The provocation
to indiscriminately condemn and hang was very great, for thousands of
innocents had been ruthlessly murdered; no moments of warning were given
them; no former kindnesses seemed to be remembered by the Indians, and
their hands were steeped in their friends' blood, and there seemed no
palliating circumstances. The enormity of the outbreak and the fiendish
cruelty of the redskins were appalling; the people were paralyzed
with astonishment and fear, and the witnesses, no doubt mistaken and
prejudiced, gave such positive testimony that the commission felt
satisfied in pronouncing them guilty of murder in the first degree; but
would this have been the case if these prisoners had been white instead
of red?
[Illustration: INTERIOR OF INDIAN JAIL.]
No doubt General Sibley himself was surprised when he learned of the
indiscriminate condemnation of these prisoners, and was glad not to be
held responsible for their hanging.
It is a fact that there were Indians found with arms in their hands in
nearly all the battles, but their object was to protect the women and
children prisoners, and they said they must make a show of fighting
whether they did or not in order to accomplish this. It would have
been a great stain on the fair name of our country if this wholesale
hanging had occurred, and President Lincoln acted wisely in overruling
the recommendation of the commission, which he did to such an extent
as to sanction the execution of thirty-nine of the condemned men, and
the balance to be further held as prisoners until he should designate
a reservation to which they should be sent. During the time the
preparations were being made to carry out the President's order the
people were clamorous. They were not satisfied with the modification of
the President's order, and grave rumors were abroad that there would be
a vigorous effort made to take the Indians from the soldiers and have a
wholesale execution, but the military authorities prevented it.
The President acted wisely in this matter. In fact, the state of the
public mind was such and the pressure within our lines was exercised
to such a degree that the President could do nothing less. If all the
condemned Indians had been executed the impression would have gone
abroad that the great government of the United States was putting to
death its prisoners of war, and this would have done much toward bringing
about a recognition of the Southern Confederacy.
The President's order was as follows:
"Executive Mansion,
Washington, December 6, 1862.
Brigadier-General H. H. Sibley, St. Paul, Minn.:
Ordered, that the Indians and half-breeds sentenced to be
hanged by the military commission, composed of Colonel Crooks,
Lieutenant-Colonel Marshall, Captain Grant, Captain Bailey and
Lieutenant Olin, and lately sitting in Minnesota, you cause to be
executed on Friday, the 19th day of December, instant.
The other condemned prisoners you will hold subject to further
orders, taking care that they neither escape nor are subjected to any
unlawful violence.
Abraham Lincoln,
President of United States."
The execution was carried out on the 26th of December, 1862. Thirty-eight
were hanged.