Nation and the Confederate States, and of the protection and rights
guaranteed to the said nation by this treaty, the Creek Nation, hereby
agrees that it will, either by itself or in conjunction with the
Seminole Nation, raise and furnish a regiment of ten companies of
mounted men to serve in the armies of the Confederate States for
twelve months, the company officers whereof shall be elected by the
members of the company, and the field officers by a majority of the
votes of the members of the regiment. The men shall be armed by the
Confederate States, receive the same pay and allowances as other
mounted troops in the service, and not be moved beyond the limits of
the Indian country west of Arkansas without their consent.[423]
ARTICLE XXXVII. The Creek Nation hereby agrees and binds itself at any
future time to raise and furnish, upon the requisition of the
President, such number of troops for the defence of the Indian
country, and of the frontier of the Confederate States as he may fix,
not out of fair proportion to the number of its population, to be
employed for such terms of service as the President may fix; and such
troops shall always receive the same pay and allowances as other
troops of the same class in the service of the Confederate
States.[424]
ARTICLE XXXVIII. It is further agreed by the said Confederate States
that the said Creek Nation shall never be required or called upon to
pay, in land or otherwise, any part of the expenses of the present
war, or of any war waged by or against the Confederate States.[425]
ARTICLE XXXIX. It is further agreed that, after the restoration of
peace, the Government of the Confederate States will defend the
frontiers of the Indian country, of which the Creek country is a part,
and hold the forts and posts therein, with native troops, recruited
among the several Indian Nations included therein, under the command
of officers of the army of the Confederate States, in preference to
other troops.[426]
Although John Ross had positively forbidden the recruiting of any force
within the limits of the Cherokee country, that while nominally for home
defense, should be in reality a reserve force for the Confederacy, he was
unable to prevent individuals from going over, on their own responsibility
entirely, to McCulloch; and many did go and are believed to have
fought[427] with his brigade at the Battle of Oak Hills, or Wilson's
Creek. That battle proved the determining point in this period of Cherokee
history. It was a Confederate victory, and a victory gained under such
circumstances[428] that the watchful Indians had every reason to think
that the southern cause would be triumphant in the end.
The dissensions[429] among the Cherokee and the constant endeavors of the
Ridge Party to develop public sentiment in favor of the Confederacy, to
undermine the popularity of John Ross, and to destroy his influence over
the full-bloods were, and there is no gainsaying it, the real causes of
the ultimate Cherokee defection. The Battle of Wilson's Creek was only the
occasion, only the immediate cause, the excuse, if you please, and of
itself could never have brought about a decision. Yet its effect[430] upon
Cherokee opinion was unquestionably great and immediate, and that effect
was noticeably strengthened and intensified by the memory of other
Federal reverses along the Atlantic seaboard, especially the more recent
and more serious one of Manassas Junction, on the twenty-first of July.
Up to about that time, the neutral policy of John Ross seems to have
received the endorsement of a majority of the Cherokee people. In the last
days of June, the Executive Council had been called together and had,
after a session of several days, publicly and officially approved[431] of
the stand the principal chief had taken to date. But events were already
under way that were to make this executive action in no sense a true index
to popular feeling. The secessionists were secretly organizing themselves,
ready to seize the first opportunity that might appear. The full-bloods,
or non-secessionists, were also organized and, under the name of "Pins,"
were holding meetings of mutual encouragement among the hills. Encounters
between the two factions were not infrequent and the half-breeds resorted
to all sorts of expedients for persuading, or that failing, of frightening
the full-bloods into a compliance with their wishes. They told them that
the Kansas people had designs upon their lands (which was not altogether
untrue), and that the Federal government would free their slaves and
otherwise dispossess, degrade, and humiliate them. Such arguments had
their effect and there was little at hand to counteract it, none in the
memory of the past, none in the neglect and embarrassment of the present,
none in the prospect of the future. There were no Federal troops, no new
Federal assurances of protection. Agent Crawford, who was the only agent
within reach, added his threats and his Confederate promises to those of
the half-breeds. Then came the Battle of Wilson's Creek with its
disastrous Federal showing, and the exhausted resisting power of the Pins
went down before the renewed secessionist ardor.
A meeting of the Cherokee Executive Council had been called for August
first, and John Ross, Joseph Vann, James Brown, John Drew, and William P.
Ross, all prominent non-secessionists, had attended it. On this occasion,
a general, or mass, meeting of the Cherokee people was arranged for, in
response to a public appeal, and the date for it was fixed for the
twentieth of August.[432] In the interval came the news from Springfield
and another communication from Albert Pike.[433]
The convention which met at Tahlequah in August of 1861 ended in the
secession of the Cherokee Nation. While it was in progress, the events of
the last few months were gone over in thorough review and emphasis placed
upon those of recent occurrence. The attendance at the convention was
large.[434] Both political factions were well represented and there seems
to have been only a slight show of force, if any, from the secessionists.
The Reverend Evan Jones is our authority for thinking that some "seventy
or eighty of them appeared there in arms with the intention to break up
the meeting;" but that only two of them succeeded in making any
disturbance.[435] In the course of the meeting, Agent Crawford put in an
appearance and again asserted himself in behalf of the Confederacy. He
"appeared on the platform," says an eyewitness,
And stated that although for some time past he had been among the
Cherokees acting as U. S. Agent, it had been by the advice and consent
of the Confederate authorities, and with the understanding that when
the proper time arrived he should declare himself the Agent of the C.
S. A. That time had now come making this the proudest day of his
life.[436].
Such a confession of baseness seems hardly credible. The secessionist was
entitled to his opinions touching the doctrine of state rights, for which
a difference of view found its justification both in fact and in theory.
He might even conscientiously believe in the righteousness of negro
enslavement, inasmuch as it really did offer an easy solution of a labor
problem; and moreover, would work under a benign paternalism, for the
thorough, because so gradual, development of an inferior race; but by no
standard of personal honor, or of moral rectitude could conduct such as
Crawford's be condoned.
John Ross had opened the meeting with an address in which he had defined
its purposes and his own good intentions, both past and present.
Personally, he seemed still inclined to maintain a neutral attitude but
designing persons had made his position most difficult.[437]
... Our soil has not been invaded, our peace has not been molested,
nor our rights interfered with by either Government. On the contrary,
the people have remained at home, cultivated their farms in security,
and are reaping fruitful returns for their labors. But for false
fabrications, we should have pursued our ordinary vocations without
any excitement at home, or misrepresentations and consequent
misapprehensions abroad, as to the real sentiments and purposes of the
Cherokee people. Alarming reports, however, have been pertinaciously
circulated at home and unjust imputations among the people of the
States. The object seems to have been to create strife and conflict,
instead of harmony and good-will, among the people themselves, and to
engender prejudice and distrust, instead of kindness and confidence,
towards them by the officers and citizens of the Confederate
States....
... The great object with me has been to have the Cherokee people
harmonious and united in the full and free exercise and enjoyment of
all their rights of person and property. Union is strength; dissension
is weakness, misery, ruin. In time of peace, enjoy peace together; in
time of war, if war must come, fight together. As brothers live, as
brothers die. While ready and willing to defend our firesides from the
robber and murderer, let us not make war wantonly against the
authority of the United or Confederate States, but avoid conflict with
either, and remain strictly on our own soil. We have homes endeared to
us by every consideration, laws adapted to our condition of our own
choice, and rights and privileges of the highest character. Here they
must be enjoyed or nowhere else. When your nationality ceases here, it
will live nowhere else. When these homes are lost, you will find no
others like them. Then, my countrymen, as you regard your own rights,
as you regard the welfare of your posterity, be prudent how you act.
The permanent disruption of the United States is now probable. The
State on our border and the Indian nations about us have severed their
connection from the United States and joined the Confederate States.
Our general interests are inseparable from theirs, and it is not
desirable that we should stand alone. The preservation of our rights
and of our existence are above every other consideration. And in view
of all the circumstances of our situation I do say to you frankly that
in my opinion the time has now come when you should signify your
consent for the authorities of the nation to adopt preliminary steps
for an alliance with the Confederate States upon terms honorable and
advantageous to the Cherokee Nation.[438]
[Illustration: COLONEL ADAIR, CHEROKEE [_From Smithsonian Institution,
Bureau of American Ethnology_]]
After having received this most solemn of warnings, "and a few pertinent
and forcible remarks from Colonel Crawford," the meeting organized with
Joseph Vann as president and William P. Ross as secretary. To effect a
reconciliation between the contending factions and to decide upon some
national policy that should be acceptable to the majority of the people,
were, undoubtedly, the objects sought and so, after much discussion, a
series of resolutions was adopted in which these ideas were given
prominence as well as some of kindred importance. The resolutions asserted
the legal and constitutional right of property in slaves and, in no
doubtful terms, a friendship for the Confederacy. Yet the convention
itself took no definite action towards consummating an alliance but left
everything to the discretion of the constituted authorities of the nation,
in whom it announced an unwavering confidence.
Whereas we, the Cherokee people, have been invited by the executive of
the Cherokee Nation, in compliance with the request of many citizens,
to meet in general meeting, for the purpose of drawing more closely
the bonds of friendship and sympathy which should characterize our
conduct and mark our feelings towards each other in view of the
difficulties and dangers which have arisen from the fearful condition
of affairs among the people of the several States, and for the purpose
of giving a free and frank expression of the real sentiments we
cherish towards each other, and of our true position in regard to
questions which affect the general welfare, and particularly on that
of the subject of slavery: Therefore be it hereby
_Resolved_, That we fully approve the neutrality recommended by the
principal chief in the war pending between the United and the
Confederate States, and tender to General McCulloch our thanks for the
respect he has shown to our position.
_Resolved_, That we renew the pledges given by the executive of this
nation of the friendship of the Cherokees towards the people of all
the States, and particularly towards those on our immediate border,
with whom our relations have been harmonious and cordial, and from
whom they should not be separated.
_Resolved_, That we also take occasion to renew to the Creeks,
Choctaws, Seminoles, Chickasaws, and Osages, and others, assurances of
continued friendship and brotherly feeling.
_Resolved_, That we hereby disavow any wish or purpose to create or
perpetuate any distinctions between the citizens of our country as to
the full and mixed blood, but regard each and all as our brothers, and
entitled to equal rights and privileges according to the constitution
and laws of the nation.
_Resolved_, That we proclaim unwavering attachment to the constitution
and laws of the Cherokee Nation, and solemnly pledge ourselves to
defend and support the same, and as far as in us lies to secure to
the citizens of the nation all the rights and privileges which they
guarantee to them.
_Resolved_, That among the rights guaranteed by the constitution and
laws we distinctly recognize that of property in negro slaves, and
hereby publicly denounce as calumniators those who represent us to be
abolitionists, and as a consequence hostile to the South, which is
both the land of our birth and the land of our homes.
_Resolved_, That the great consideration with the Cherokee people
should be a united and harmonious support and defense of their common
rights, and we hereby pledge ourselves to mutually sustain our
nationality, and to defend our lives and the integrity of our homes
and soil whenever the same shall be wantonly assailed by lawless
marauders.
_Resolved_, That, reposing full confidence in the constituted
authorities of the Cherokee Nation, we submit to their wisdom the
management of all questions which affect our interests growing out of
the exigencies of the relations between the United and Confederate
States of America, and which may render an alliance on our part with
the latter States expedient and desirable.
And which resolutions, upon the question of their passage being put,
were carried by acclamation. JOSEPH VANN, President.
Wm. P. Ross, Secretary.
Tahlequah, C. N., August 21, 1861.[439]
In making his plans, prior to the Battle of Wilson's Creek, for effecting
a junction with Price and cooperating with him and others in southwest
Missouri, McCulloch acted, not under direct orders from Richmond, but from
his own desire to take such a position opposite the Cherokee Neutral
Lands, once so outrageously intruded upon by Kansas settlers and now being
made the highway of marauders entering Missouri, as would make it appear
to the Cherokees that he was there as their friend and as the protector of
their interests. After the battle, he refused, and rightly in view of his
own special commission, to accompany Price in his forward march towards
the Missouri River. Instead he drew back into the neighborhood of the
Cherokee boundary and there developed his plans for attacking Kansas,
should such a course be deemed necessary in order to protect Indian
Territory.
It was at this juncture that the Cherokees as a nation expressed their
preference for the South and for the southern cause, moved thereto,
however, by the peculiarities and the difficulties of their situation. The
Executive Council lost no time in communicating[440] to McCulloch the
decision of the Tahlequah mass-meeting and their own determination to
carry out its wishes by effecting an alliance with the Confederacy "as
early as practicable." They realized very clearly that this might "give
rise to movements against the Cherokee people upon their northern border"
and were resolved to be prepared for such an emergency. They, therefore,
authorized the raising of a regiment of mounted men, home guards they were
to be and to be so designated, officered by appointment of the principal
chief, Colonel John Drew being made the colonel. It would appear that the
nucleus of this regiment, and with a strong southern bias, had made[441]
its appearance prior to the Tahlequah meeting and the circumstance gave
rise to the suspicion that the Cherokees had not been acting in good
faith. After the war, the suspicion concentrated, very unjustly, upon John
Ross and was made the most of by Commissioner Cooley at the Fort Smith
conference; in order to accomplish, for reasons dishonorable to the United
States government, the aged chief's deposition.
Drew's regiment of home guards was tendered to McCulloch and he agreed to
accept it[442] but not until after a treaty of alliance should have been
actually consummated between the Cherokees and the Confederate States.
Pending the accomplishment of that highly desirable object, McCulloch
promised to protect the Cherokee borders with his own troops and
confessed[443] that he had already authorized the enlistment of another
force of Cherokees under the command of Stand Watie, which had been
designed to protect that same northern border but "not to interfere with
the neutrality of the Nation by occupying a position within its limits."
It is not easy to decide just when or by whom the use of Indians by the
Federals in the border warfare[444] was first suggested. As late as May
twenty-second, Governor Charles Robinson of Kansas, in a letter[445] to
Superintendent Branch, protested against even so much as arming them,
which would certainly indicate that a general use of their services had
not yet been thought of or resorted to; but, in August, when Senator James
H. Lane was busy organizing his brigade of volunteers for the defense of
Kansas, he resolved,[446] rather officiously, one might think, upon using
some of the Kansas River tribes in establishing "a strong Indian camp near
the neutral lands to prevent forage into Kansas" and arranged for a
conference with the Indians at Fort Lincoln, his headquarters. Soon,
however, a stay of execution was ordered[447] until the matter could be
discussed, in its larger aspects, with Commissioner Dole, to whom
courtesy,[448] at least, would have demanded that the whole affair should
have been first submitted.
Dole was then in Kansas[449] and before long became aware[450] that
General Fremont was also favoring the enlistment of Indians, or, at all
events, their employment by the army in some capacity. He had approached
Agent Johnson on the subject, his immediate purpose being to request Fall
Leaf, a Delaware, "to organize a party of 50 men for the service of" his
department. Agent Johnson called the tribe together and discovered that
the chiefs were much averse to having their young men enlist. Dole
inquired into the matter and assured[451] the chiefs that a few braves
only were needed and those simply for special service and that there was
no intention of asking the tribe, as a tribe, to give its services. The
chiefs refused consent, notwithstanding; but Fall Leaf and a few others
like him did enlist.[452] They were probably among the fifty-three
Delawares, subsequently reported[453] as having been employed by Fremont
to act as scouts and guides. Fall Leaf attained the rank of captain.[454]
Superintendent Branch,[455] be it said, and also Commissioner Dole,[456]
at this stage of the war, were strongly opposed to a general use of the
Indians for purposes of active warfare. They knew only too well what it
was likely to lead to. Indeed, the most that Dole had, up to date,
agreed[457] to, was the supplying the Indians with the means of their own
defense when United States troops had shown themselves quite unavailable.
Dole's opinion being such, it is scarcely to be supposed that he could
have considered favorably Senator Lane's idea of an Indian camp in the
Cherokee Neutral Lands or the one, developed later, of an Indian patrol
along the southern boundary of Kansas. Lane's troubles, quite apart from
his Indian projects, were daily increasing; and, considering the method of
warfare indulged in by him and encouraged in his white troops, the same
one that pro-slavery and free-state men had equally experimented with in
squatter-sovereignty days, it would have been simply deplorable to have
permitted him the free use of Indian warriors. Complaints[458] of Lane and
of his brigade, of their jayhawking and of their marauding were being made
on every hand. Governor Robinson[459] reported these complaints and
endorsed them. Secretary Cameron, while making his western tour of
investigation, heard[460] them and reported them also. Lane
attributed[461] them to personal dislike of him, to envy, to everything,
in fact, except their true cause; but we know now that they were all
well-grounded. Yet, remarkable to relate, Lane's influence with Lincoln
and with the War Department suffered no appreciable decline. His
suggestions[462] were acted upon; and, as we shall presently see, he was
even permitted to organize a huge jayhawking expedition at the beginning
of the next year.
The mention of Lane's jayhawking expedition calls to mind the conditions
that made it seem, at the time, an acceptable thing and takes us back in
retrospect to Indian Territory and to the events occurring there after the
Tahlequah mass-meeting of the twenty-first of August. As soon as the
meeting had broken up, John Ross despatched[463] a messenger to Albert
Pike to inform him of all that had happened and of the Cherokee
willingness, at last, to negotiate with the Confederacy. It was arranged
that Pike should come to the Cherokee country, taking up his quarters
temporarily at Park Hill, the home of Ross near Tahlequah, and that a
general Indian council should be called. A special effort was made to have
the fragmentary bands of the northeast represented and Pike sent out
various agents[464] to urge an attendance. John Ross was also active in
the same interest. He, personally, communicated with the Osages[465] and
with the Creeks[466] by letter; but the Creeks,[467] like Evan
Jones,[468] seem to have been incredulous as to Cherokee defection. They
seem to have doubted the genuineness of the letter sent to them and made
inquiries about it, only to be assured[469] again and again by Ross that
all was well and that he wished the Indians en masse to join the Southern
States.
The council at Tahlequah, viewed in the light of its immediate object, was
unusually successful. Four treaties were negotiated, one[470] at Tahlequah
itself, October seventh, with the Cherokees and three at Park Hill. Of
these three, one[471] was with four bands of the Great Osages, Clermont's,
White Hair's, Black Dog's, and the Big Hill, October second; another[472]
with the Quapaws, October fourth; and the third,[473] on the same day,
with the Senecas[474] (once of Sandusky) and the Shawnees (once of
Lewistown and now of the mixed band of Senecas and Shawnees).
Hereditary[475] chiefs alone signed for the Great Osages, the merit chief,
Big Chief, being, apparently, not present. The notorious ex-United States
agent, J. W. Washbourne,[476] was very much in evidence as would most
likely also have been the equally notorious and disreputable Indian
trader, John Mathews,[477] had he not recently received his deserts at
the hands of Senator Lane's brigade.