TREATY OF 1804.
That the Indian had many wrongs must not be denied, but that such wrongs
should be transferred from those who suffered them to the personal
account of Black Hawk, either entire or to any great extent, is a
proposition too monstrous for sober consideration. The simpering casuist
has strenuously endeavored to effect that transfer, even to the extent
of adopting his statements about the liquor and the murder. As needless,
yea repugnant, to all sense of propriety and truth as the task may be to
shore up the reputation of Governor Harrison against Black Hawk’s
aspersions, it has been thought best to quote the only historical record
at hand on the subject of the murder, and dissipate for all time the
maudlin sympathy which his contention has raised:
“Some time about the middle of the year 1804, three American citizens,
who had settled above the Missouri, were murdered by a party of Sack
Indians; and the Governor having learnt this circumstance, as well as
the hostile dispositions of the Sacks and Foxes toward the United
States, sent them a message by Captain Stoddart, in the month of
October, requiring their chiefs to meet him in St. Louis; and on his
arrival at that place he learnt the circumstance of the murder, as
well as the exertions which were making by some of the old chiefs
among them to give up the perpetrators of it, but who were opposed by
a majority of the nation, who declared their satisfaction at what had
been done, and their determination to protect the murderers at all
risk. The Governor dispatched another messenger to the Sack chiefs, to
inform them of his arrival at St. Louis, and urge them to make every
possible exertion to apprehend, and bring with them, the murderers;
but if that could not be effected, he requested that they would come
to him at any rate, assuring them of their being permitted to return
in safety.
“The Governor, conceiving that if they could be prevailed upon to come
to a conference it would be easy to convince them of the necessity of
preserving the friendship of the United States, had no doubt that he
would prevail upon some of them to remain with him as hostages for the
delivery of the murderers. But before his messenger had arrived, the
petty chief who headed the war party had surrendered himself to the
sachems or head men of the nation, and declared his willingness to
suffer for the injury he had done. On the arrival of the chiefs at St.
Louis, he was delivered up to the Governor, and a positive assurance
given that the whole nation were sorry for the injury which had been
done, and that they would never in future lift the tomahawk against
the United States.”[16]
At this same meeting, the treaty was made which has already been set out
at length, and while the same authority mentions the fact without
comment, it will be quoted, and following it some reasons may be noted
why the bargain was not one of particular rigor. At least Black Hawk’s
argument may be shown to be specious:
“At this meeting with the chiefs of the Sac and Fox Indians, the
Government negotiated a treaty by which the Indian title was
extinguished to the largest tract of land ever ceded in one treaty by
the Indians since the settlement of North America, as it includes all
the country from the mouth of the Illinois River to the mouth of the
Ouisconsing, on the one side, and from the mouth of the Illinois to
near the head of the Fox River on the other side; and from the head of
the latter a line is drawn to a point 36 miles above the mouth of the
Ouisconsing, which forms the northern boundary, and contains upwards
of 51 millions of acres.”
Black Hawk offers to leave the question of bargain to the people of the
United States. From present day standpoints it might be considered a
hard bargain, but from the facts in the case, the reply might be made
with an inquiry if the Wisconsin farmer got much of a bargain when he
bought from a sharper the Masonic Temple of Chicago for $2,000.
Two-thirds or more of the land ceded was claimed and occupied by the
Winnebagoes and Pottowattomies at the time, and Black Hawk knew the fact
and admitted it times without number on subsequent occasions. Even down
so close to him as the Prophet’s village, in the present county of
Whiteside, the country was Winnebago territory; the same at Dixon’s
Ferry, while over on the Illinois River the Pottowattomies had for a
great length of time held dominion, and this had never been controverted
by the Sacs and Foxes. The fact is that the United States acquired but
very little territory by that treaty, when the magnificent proportions
are mentioned without regard to the facts.
With his usual carelessness of fact, Black Hawk omitted to mention the
payments down in money and trade which were made and which in those days
were not regarded as trifling. He made no mention of subsequent and
additional payments and annuities, neither did he credit the Government
for the use and occupation of those same lands for over a quarter of a
century after they had been ceded. He omitted entirely that he had never
kept a treaty in his life until he was finally crushed and driven from
power at the point of the bayonet, and he forgot to omit the further
fact that all the Sac and Fox Indians, save Black Hawk and his immediate
followers, recognized that treaty as just in 1808, when a delegation
visited Fort Madison to ascertain if its erection was in violation of
it. Schoolcraft, Vol. VI, page 393, made a very sensible observation
regarding the sales by Indians of their lands: “But while any section of
their territories abounded in game, the Indians elected to retire
thither, and bestowed but little attention on either grazing or
agriculture. There was, therefore, a singular concurrence in the desire
of the emigrants to buy and in the willingness of the Indians to sell
their lands.”
At no time had the Illinois lands been valuable to the Sacs for hunting,
the streams and forests of Iowa having always been sought for their
annual hunts. There can be no doubt that this feature had its influence
exactly as Schoolcraft, the friend always to the Indian, has stated.
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[Illustration: FORT MADISON.]
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[Illustration: GROUND PLAN OF FORT MADISON.]
[Illustration: MAJ. JOHN BEACH.]
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