5. A part of the Indian country should be set apart to be purchased
for the use of such Indians from Kansas or elsewhere as the Government
should desire to colonize therein.
6. That the policy of the Government to unite all the Indian tribes of
this region into one consolidated government should be accepted.
7. That no white persons, except Government employés or officers or
employés of internal improvement companies authorized by Government,
should be permitted to reside in the country unless incorporated with
the several nations.
_Reasons for Cherokee disloyalty._--The subsequent sessions of the
council were largely taken up in the discussion of these propositions
by the representatives of the various tribes. It is only with the
conduct of the Cherokees, however, that the present history is
concerned. The address of the representatives of the "loyal" portion
of this tribe is especially noteworthy in this, that they charged the
cause of their alliance with the rebel authorities upon the United
States, by reason of the latter having violated its treaty obligations
in failing to give them protection, whereby they were _compelled_ to
enter into treaty relations with the Confederacy. This statement the
president of the commission took occasion to traverse, and to assure
them of the existence of abundant evidence that their alliance with the
Confederacy was voluntary and unnecessary.
Before the close of the council it was ascertained that no final and
definite treaties could be made with the tribes represented, for the
reason that until the differences between the loyal and disloyal
portions could be healed no truly representative delegations of both
factions could be assembled in council. Preliminary articles of peace
and amity with the different factions of each tribe were prepared and
signed as a basis for future negotiations.
_Factional hostility among the Cherokees._--The only tribe with whom
the commissioners were unsuccessful in re-establishing friendly
relations between these factions was the Cherokees.[586]
The ancient feuds between the Ross and Ridge parties were still
remembered. Many of the latter who had remained under Stand Watie in
the service of the Confederacy until the close of the war were yet
debarred from returning to their old homes, and were living in great
destitution on the banks of the Red River.[587] When the Ross party
had returned to their allegiance, in 1863, their national council had
passed an act of confiscation[587] against the Watie faction, which
had been enforced with the utmost rigor, so that some five or six
thousand members of the tribe had been rendered houseless, homeless,
and vagabonds upon the face of the earth. All prospect of securing a
reconciliation between these parties was for the time being abandoned
by the commissioners, and the proposition was seriously considered
of securing a home for Watie and his followers among the Choctaws or
Chickasaws.[588]
_John Ross not recognized as principal chief._--On the day[589] on
which the draft of the proposed preliminary treaty was presented to
the council by the commissioners John Ross arrived in the camp of the
Cherokees. It had already been determined by the commissioners among
themselves that his record had been such as to preclude his recognition
by them as principal chief of that nation, and it was believed that his
influence was being used to prevent the loyal Cherokees from coming to
any amicable arrangement with their Southern brethren.
The chairman therefore read to the council[590] a paper signed by the
several commissioners, reciting the machinations and deceptions of John
Ross. It was alleged that he did not represent the will and wishes
of the loyal Cherokees, and was not the choice of any considerable
portion of the nation for the office claimed by him, an office which
by the Cherokee law the commissioners believed he did not in fact hold.
They therefore refused, as commissioners representing the interests of
the United States, to recognize Ross in any manner as the chief of the
Cherokee Nation.
_Loyal Cherokees will sign treaty conditionally._--At the same sitting
of the council, Colonel Reese, of the loyal Cherokee delegation,
declared that they were willing to sign the proposed treaty, but in so
doing would not acknowledge that they had forfeited their rights and
privileges to annuities and lands as set forth in the preamble, but
that their signatures must be made under the following statement, viz:
"We, the loyal delegation, acknowledge the execution of the treaty
of October 7, 1861, but we solemnly declare that the execution was
procured by the coercion of the rebel army."
_Southern Cherokees will sign treaty conditionally._--On the following
day[591] the credentials of the Southern Cherokees were presented
by E. C. Boudinot, accompanied by the statement that they cordially
acceded to the 1st, 2d, 4th, 5th, and 7th propositions of the
commissioners without qualification; that they accepted the abolition
of slavery as an accomplished fact, and were willing to give such fact
legal significance by appropriate acts of council. They insisted,
however, that it would neither be for the benefit of the emancipated
negro nor for that of the Indian to incorporate the former into the
tribe on an equal footing with its original members. They were also
opposed to the policy of consolidating all the tribes in the Indian
Territory under one government, because of the many incongruous and
irreconcilable elements which no power could bring into a semblance of
assimilation.[592]
_Southern Cherokees want a division of territory._--They had already
proffered and were willing again to proffer the olive-branch of peace
and reconciliation to their brethren of the so called loyal portion of
the nation, but respectfully urged that after all the blood that had
been shed and the intense bitterness that seemed to fill the bosoms of
their brethren they ought not to be expected to live in an undivided
country. They wished peace, and they believed they could have it in no
other way than by an equitable division of the Cherokee country in such
manner as should seem most appropriate to the United States.
_Statement by John Ross._--The delegation of loyal Cherokees at the
next session of the council[593] presented their exceptions to the
action of the commissioners in declining to recognize John Ross and
that gentleman was permitted to make a statement in his own behalf. The
constantly accumulating evidence against him was such, however, as to
more fully confirm the commissioners in the propriety of their previous
action.
On the 21st of September the council adjourned, to meet again at the
call of the Secretary of the Interior.