Fort Washita that were then at that place and at Forts Cobb and
Arbuckle;[140] but the orders were discretionary in their nature and
permitted his leaving a small force at the more northern posts should
circumstances warrant or demand it. On the nineteenth, General Scott had
had a conference with Senator Charles B. Mitchell of Arkansas and, in
deference to Mitchell's opinion, still further modified his orders to
Emory so that, while leaving him the bulk of his discretionary power, he
recommended that, if advisable, Emory retain one company at Fort
Cobb.[141] In any event, one company of infantry was to move in advance
from Fort Arbuckle to Fort Washita.[142]
Up to the twenty-fourth of March, at which time he left Memphis, Colonel
Emory made pretty good time in his attempt to reach his destination; but
from Memphis on his movements were unavoidably and considerably hampered.
Low water in the Arkansas detained him for several days so that he deemed
it prudent to send his orders on ahead to the commanding officer at Fort
Arbuckle "to commence the movement upon Fort Washita, and, in the event of
the latter place being threatened, to march to its support with his whole
force."[143] On reaching Fort Smith, Emory found that matters had come to
a crisis in Arkansas and, touching the disposition of his force and the
objects of his mission, allowed himself to be unduly influenced in his
judgment by men of local predilections.[144] It was upon their advice and
upon the urgent pleadings of Matthew Leeper,[145] Indian agent on the
Leased District, that he exercised his discretionary power as to the
disposal of troops, without listening to his military subordinates[146] or
having viewed the locality for himself. In the interests of these local
petitioners,[147] he even enlarged upon Mitchell's recommendation and
concluded to leave two companies at Fort Cobb as one was deemed altogether
inadequate to the protection of so isolated a post. It never seems to
have occurred to him that the attack would have to come from the south,
from the direction of Fort Washita, and that a force large enough to be
efficient at either Fort Washita or Fort Arbuckle would necessarily
protect Fort Cobb and the Indians of the Leased District.
The position of the Indians in the Leased District was serious in the
extreme. They lived in mortal terror of the Texans and their agent, the
man placed over them by the United States government, was now an avowed
secessionist. He was a Texan and declared, as so many another southerner
did from General Lee down, that honor and loyalty compelled him to go with
his state. In February, he had been in Washington City, settling his
accounts with the government and estimating for the next two quarters in
accordance with the rulings and established usage of the Indian Office. On
his way west and back to his agency, he was waylaid by a man of the name
of "Burrow," very probably Colonel N. B. Burrow, acting under authority
from the state of Arkansas, who despoiled him of part of his travelling
equipment and then suffered him to go on his way.[148] Leeper reached his
agency to find the Indians greatly excited. He endeavored to allay their
fears, assuring them that the Texans would do them no harm. Soon, however,
came his own defection and he thenceforward made use of every means,
either to make the way easy for the Texans or to induce the Indians to
side with them against the United States.
While Emory was dilly-dallying at Fort Smith, the Texans made their
preparations[149] for invading the Indian country and a regiment of
volunteers under William C. Young, once a planter of Braganza County and
now state regimental colonel, moved towards the Red River. There is
something to show that they came at the veiled invitation[150] of the
Indians. At any rate they seem to have felt pretty sure of a welcome[151]
and were close at hand when Colonel Emory reached Fort Washita. He reached
Fort Washita to find that the concentration of troops, even of such as his
ill-advised orders would permit, had not yet fully taken place, that his
supplies had been seized by the Texans, and that a general attack by them
upon the poorly fortified posts was to be hourly expected. Emory,
thereupon, resolved to withdraw from Fort Washita towards Arbuckle and
Cobb. The day after he did so, April 16, Young's troops entered in force.
Emory hurried forward to strengthen Fort Cobb and, indeed, to relieve it,
taking, in his progress, the open prairie road that his cavalry might be
more available. On the way,[152] he was joined by United States troops
from Fort Arbuckle, the Texans in close pursuit. Fort Arbuckle was
occupied by them in turn and then Fort Cobb, Emory never so much as
attempting to enter the place; for he found its garrison in flight to the
northeast. Fugitives all together, the Federal troops, piloted by a
Delaware Indian, Black Beaver,[153] hurried onwards towards Fort
Leavenworth. They seem to have made no lengthy stop until they were safe
across the Arkansas River[154] and their flight may well be said to have
been a precipitous one. Behind them, at Fort Arbuckle, Colonel Young took
possession of abandoned property and placed it in the care of the
Chickasaw Indians,[155] who had materially aided him in his attack. His
next move was to negotiate,[156] unauthoritatively, a treaty with the
Reserve Indians, gaining the promise of their alliance upon the
understanding that the Confederacy, in return, would feed and protect
them. Fort Cobb was rifled and the Indians made rich, in their own
estimation, with booty.[157] Colonel Young seems then to have drawn back
towards the Red River; but for several months he continued to occupy with
his forces,[158] under the authority of Texas and with the consent of the
Chickasaw Indians, the three frontier posts that Emory had been instructed
to guard; viz., Forts Washita, Arbuckle, and Cobb.
If Texas took time by the forelock in her anxiety to secure the Indian
country and its inhabitants, Arkansas most certainly did the same; and, in
the undertaking, various things told to her advantage, among which, not
the least important was the close family relationship existing between her
secessionist governor, Henry M. Rector, and the southern superintendent.
They were cousins and, to all appearances, the best of friends. It is
doubtful if in any state the executive authority thereof worked more
energetically for secession or with greater consistency and promptitude
than in Arkansas. Governor Rector had been elected, in the autumn of 1860,
by the Democrats and old-line Whigs. He belonged to a numerous and most
influential family, land-surveyors most of them, seemingly by inheritance,
and, although from northern or border states originally, strongly
committed to the doctrine of state sovereignty. The family connections
were also powerful socially and politically. The gubernatorial
inauguration came in November, 1860, and from that moment Henry M. Rector
and his host of relations and friends worked for secession.
At the outset, Governor Rector identified the Indian interests with those
of Arkansas. Even in his message[159] of December 11, 1860 he gave it as
his opinion that the two communities must together take measures to
prevent anti-slavery migration. It was rather late in the day, however, to
intimate that men of abolitionist sentiments must not be allowed to cross
the line, and a man of the political acumen of Henry M. Rector must have
known it. Immediately after the general election there were evidences of
great excitement in Arkansas and, when news[160] came that the disused
arsenal at Little Rock was to be occupied by artillery under Captain James
Totten from Fort Leavenworth, it broke out into expressions of public
dissent. Little Rock was scarcely less radical and secessionist in its
views than was Fort Smith and Fort Smith was regarded as a regular hot-bed
of sectionalism. The legislature, too, was filled with state-rights
advocates and some of the actions taken there were almost revolutionary in
their trend. With the new year came new alarms and false reports of what
was to be. Harrell records[161] that the first message over the newly
completed telegraph line between Memphis and Little Rock was a repetition
of the rumor, quite without foundation, that Major Emory had been ordered
from Fort Gibson to reinforce Totten at Little Rock, and that the effect
upon Helena was electrical. It is no wonder that the newspapers and
personal communications[162] of the time showed great intensity of
feeling and a tendency to ring the changes on a single theme.
The public indignation following the receipt of the unsubstantiated rumor
that Totten was to be reenforced seems to have compelled the action of
Governor Rector in taking possession,[163] on February eighth, in the name
of the state of Arkansas, of the United States arsenal at Little Rock;
but, as a matter of fact, Rector needed only an excuse, and a very slight
one at that, for doing more than he had already done to prove his
sectional bias. Nor had he forgotten or neglected the Indians. Indeed,
never at any time did he leave a single stone unturned in his search for
inside and outside support; and, notwithstanding the fact that the
Arkansas Ordinance of Secession was not passed until the sixth of May,
Governor Rector conducted himself, for months before that, as though the
state were a bona fide member of the Confederacy. In all his audacious
venturings, proposals, and acts, he had the full and unquestioning
support, not only of his cousin, Elias Rector,[164] in whose honor Albert
Pike had written the well-known parody[165] on "The Old Scottish
Gentlemen;"[166] but of the leading citizens of Fort Smith and Little
Rock, particularly of those whose previous occupations, residence,
inclinations, or interests had made them conversant with Indian affairs
and, therefore, unusually appreciative of the strategic value of the
Indian country. Under such circumstances, it is not at all surprising that
Governor Rector seized, as he did, the earliest[167] opportunity to
approach the Cherokees. Fort Smith at the junction of the Arkansas and
Poteau Rivers was only eighty miles from Fort Gibson.
Before taking up for special comment Governor Rector's negotiations with
the Cherokees through their principal chief, John Ross, it might be well
to retrace our steps a little in order to show how, in yet other ways,
Arkansas interested herself more than was natural in the concerns of the
Indians and made some of her citizens, in the long run, more than
ordinarily responsible for the development of secessionist sentiment among
the southern tribes.
When David Hubbard, journeying westward as special secessionist
commissioner[168] from Alabama to Arkansas, reached Little Rock--and that
was in the early winter of 1861--he soon discovered that many Arkansans
were not willing for their state to go out of the Union unless she could
take Indian Territory with her. Hubbard's letter,[169] descriptive of the
situation, is very elucidating. It is addressed to Andrew B. Moore,[170]
governor of Alabama, and bears date Kinloch, Alabama, January third.
MY DEAR SIR: On receipt of your letter and appointment as commissioner
from Alabama to Arkansas, I repaired to Little Rock and presented my
credentials to the two houses, and also your letter to Governor
Rector, by all of whom I was politely received. The Governor of
Arkansas was every way disposed to further our views, and so were many
leading and influential members of each house of the Legislature, but
neither are yet ready for action, because they fear the people have
not yet made up their minds to go out. The counties bordering on the
Indian nations--Creeks, Cherokees, Choctaws, and Chickasaws--would
hesitate greatly to vote for secession, and leave those tribes still
under the influence of the Government at Washington, from which they
receive such large stipends and annuities. These Indians are at a spot
very important, in my opinion, in this great sectional controversy,
and must be assured that the South will do as well as the North before
they could be induced to change their alliances and dependence. I have
much on this subject to say when I get to Montgomery, which cannot
well be written. The two houses passed resolutions inviting me to meet
them in representative hall and consult together as to what had best
be done in this matter. When I appeared men were anxious to know what
the seceding States intended to do in certain contingencies. My
appointment gave me no authority to speak as to what any State would
do, but I spoke freely of what, in my opinion, we ought to do. I took
the ground that no State which had seceded would ever go back without
full power being given to protect themselves by vote against
anti-slavery projects and schemes of every kind. I took the position
that the Northern people were honest and did fear the divine
displeasure, both in this world and the world to come, by reason of
what they considered the national sin of slavery, and that all who
agreed with me in a belief of their sincerity must see that we could
not remain quietly in the same Government with them. Secondly, if they
were dishonest hypocrites, and only lied to impose on others and make
them hate us, and used anti-slavery arguments as mere pretexts for the
purpose of uniting Northern sentiment against us, with a view to
obtain political power and sectional dominion, in that event we ought
not to live with them. I desired any Unionist present to controvert
either of these positions, which seemed to cover the whole ground. No
one attempted either, and I said but little more. I am satisfied, from
free conversations with members of all parties and with Governor
Rector, that Arkansas, when compelled to choose, will side with the
Southern States, but at present a majority would vote the Union
ticket. Public sentiment is but being formed, but must take that
direction....
What, in addition to that just cited, Hubbard had to say about the Indians
or about the profit accruing from close contact with them, we have no way
of knowing; but we have a right to be suspicious of the things that have
to be communicated by word of mouth only, especially in this instance,
when we remember that white men have always made the Indians subjects of
exploitation and that Hubbard was the man whom the southern Confederacy
chose for its first commissioner of Indian affairs, also that Hubbard's
first outline of work, as commissioner, in truth, his only outline,
comprehended an extended visit to the Indians before whom he proposed to
expatiate on the financial advantages of an adherence to the Confederacy
and the inevitable financial ruin that must come from continued loyalty to
the Union. All things considered, it would surely seem that in Hubbard's
mind the money question was always uppermost.
But there were others to whom the Indian income was a thing of interest.
At the earlier meeting of the Arkansas convention, a resolution[171] had
been passed, March 9, 1861, authorizing an inquiry to be made into the
annual cost to the United States government of the Indian service west of
Arkansas. The state administration had already seized[172] the Indian
funds on hand, an opportunity to do so having offered itself upon the
occasion of the death[173] of the United States disbursing officer, Major
P. T. Crutchfield. But, later, for fear that this might work prejudice
with the Indians a resolution[174] was passed providing that the money
should not be diverted from its proper uses. Because of such actions and
others of like direction, it is certainly safe to assume that pecuniary
considerations made the frontiersmen of 1861 vitally interested in Indian
affairs. The same influences that moved Hubbard to write his letter to
Governor Moore with special mention of the Indians unquestionably moved
the citizens of Boonsboro to try,[175] without much further ado, the
temper of the Cherokees.
Returning now to Governor Rector and to a recital of his endeavors with
the same Indian people, it is seen that his approach to the Cherokees was
made, as has been already intimated, through their principal chief, John
Ross, and by means of the following most excellently worded letter:
THE STATE OF ARKANSAS, EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT,
Little Rock, January 29, 1861.
TO HIS EXCELLENCY JOHN ROSS,
Principal Chief Cherokee Nation:
SIR: It may now be regarded as almost certain that the States having
slave property within their borders will, in consequence of repeated
Northern aggressions, separate themselves and withdraw from the
Federal Government.
South Carolina, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Georgia, and Louisiana
have already, by action of the people, assumed this attitude.
Arkansas, Missouri, Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina, and
Maryland will probably pursue the same course by the 4th of March
next. Your people, in their institutions, productions, latitude, and
natural sympathies, are allied to the common brotherhood of the
slaveholding States. Our people and yours are natural allies in war
and friends in peace. Your country is salubrious and fertile, and
possesses the highest capacity for future progress and development by
the application of slave labor. Besides this, the contiguity of our
territory with yours induces relations of so intimate a character as
to preclude the idea of discordant or separate action.
[Illustration: JOHN ROSS, PRINCIPAL CHIEF OF THE CHEROKEES [_From
Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology_]]
It is well established that the Indian country west of Arkansas is
looked to by the incoming administration of Mr. Lincoln as fruitful
fields, ripe for the harvest of abolitionism, free-soilers, and
Northern mountebanks.
We hope to find in your people friends willing to co-operate with the
South in defense of her institutions, her honor, and her firesides,
and with whom the slaveholding States are willing to share a common
future, and to afford protection commensurate with your exposed
condition and your subsisting monetary interests with the General
Government.
As a direct means of expressing to you these sentiments, I have
dispatched my aide-de-camp, Lieut. Col. J. J. Gaines, to confer with
you confidentially upon these subjects, and to report to me any
expressions of kindness and confidence that you may see proper to
communicate to the governor of Arkansas, who is your friend and the
friend of your people. Respectfully, your obedient servant,
HENRY M. RECTOR, Governor of Arkansas.[176]
Lieutenant Gaines duly started out upon his mission and upon reaching Fort
Smith interviewed Superintendent Rector and received from him a letter of
introduction[177] to John Ross, which was, in effect, a hearty endorsement
of the governor's project. An inkling of what Gaines was about soon came
to the ears of A. B. Greenwood, an Arkansan, a state-rights man, and
United States commissioner of Indian affairs. At the moment he was the
official, intent upon doing his duty, nothing more. It was then in his
official capacity that he straightway demanded of Agent Cowart an
explanation of Gaines's movements; but Cowart was privy to Governor
Rector's plans undoubtedly, a Georgian, a secessionist, and one of those
illiterate, disreputable, untrustworthy characters that frontier or
garrison towns seem always to produce or to attract, the kind,
unfortunately for its own reputation and for the Indian welfare, that the
United States government has so often seen fit to select for its Indian
agents. More than that, Cowart was a man of such base principles that he
could commercialize with impunity a great cause and calmly continue to
hold office under and to draw pay from one government while secretly
plotting against it in the interests of another. On this occasion he
attempted a denial[178] of the presence of Rector's commissioner at Fort
Smith; but the Indian Office had soon good proof[179] that a commissioner
had been there and that he had proceeded thence to the Cherokee country.
It was no other than Gaines, of course, who, when once he had delivered
the Rector letters to Ross, saw fit, in the further interests of his
mission, to attend the inter-tribal council at the Creek Agency.
John Ross did not reply to Governor Rector's communication until the
anniversary of George Washington's birthday and he then expressed the same
ideas of concern, of sympathy, but also those of positive neutrality that
had characterized his advice to the Indian conferees. He scouted, though,
the very idea of the incoming administration's planning to abolitionize
the Indian country while at the same time he manifested his utter
disapproval of it. This is what he said:
TAHLEQUAH, CHEROKEE NATION, February 22, 1861.
HIS EXCELLENCY HENRY M. RECTOR, Governor of Arkansas:
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of Your Excellency's
communication of the 29th ultimo, per your aide-de-camp, Lieut. Col.
J. J. Gaines.
The Cherokees cannot but feel a deep regret and solicitude for the
unhappy differences which at present disturb the peace and quietude of
the several States, especially when it is understood that some of the
slave States have already separated themselves and withdrawn from the
Federal Government and that it is probable others will also pursue the
same course.
But may we not yet hope and trust in the dispensation of Divine power
to overrule the discordant elements for good, and that, by the counsel
of the wisdom, virtue, and patriotism of the land, measures may
happily be adopted for the restoration of peace and harmony among the
brotherhood of States within the Federal Union.
The relations which the Cherokee people sustain toward their white
brethren have been established by subsisting treaties with the United
States Government, and by them they have placed themselves under the
"protection of the United States and of no other sovereign whatever."
They are bound to hold no treaty with any foreign power, or with any
individual State, nor with the citizens of any State. On the other
hand, the faith of the United States is solemnly pledged to the
Cherokee Nation for the protection of the right and title in the
lands, conveyed to them by patent, within their territorial
boundaries, as also for the protection of all other of their national
and individual rights and interests of persons and property. Thus the
Cherokee people are inviolably allied with their white brethren of
the United States in war and friends in peace. Their institutions,
locality, and natural sympathies are unequivocally with the
slave-holding States. And the contiguity of our territory to your
State, in connection with the daily, social, and commercial
intercourse between our respective citizens, forbids the idea that
they should ever be otherwise than steadfast friends.
I am surprised to be informed by Your Excellency that "it is well
established that the Indian country west of Arkansas is looked to by
the incoming administration of Mr. Lincoln as fruitful fields ripe for
the harvest of abolitionism, free-soilers, and Northern mountebanks."
As I am sure that the laborers will be greatly disappointed if they
shall expect in the Cherokee country "fruitful fields ripe for the
harvest of abolitionism," &c., you may rest assured that the Cherokee
people will never tolerate the propagation of any obnoxious fruit upon
their soil.
And in conclusion I have the honor to reciprocate the salutation of
friendship.
I am, sir, very respectfully, Your Excellency's obedient servant,
JNO. ROSS, Principal Chief Cherokee Nation.[180]