it must certainly have been upon the basis of the experience gained in
filling this one that his nomination for commissioner of Indian affairs
was made. Hubbard had been a state senator, a representative in the
twenty-sixth and in the thirty-first United States congresses, and
presidential elector on the Democratic ticket in 1844 and on the
Breckinridge and Lane ticket in 1860 [_Biographical Congressional
Directory_, _1774-1903_, 608].
[209]
The Bureau of Indian Affairs ... has been organized.... So far this
Bureau has found but little to do. The necessity for the extension of
the military arm of the Government toward the frontier, and the
attitude of Arkansas, without the Confederacy, have contributed to
circumscribe its action. But this branch of the public service
doubtless will now grow in importance in consequence of the early
probable accession of Arkansas to the Confederacy; of the friendly
sentiments of the Creeks, Cherokees, Choctaws, and Chickasaws, and
other tribes west of Arkansas toward this Government; of our
difficulties with the tribes on the Texas frontier; of our hostilities
with the United States, and of our probable future relations with the
Territories of Arizona and New Mexico.--Extract from the Report of
Secretary Walker to President Davis, April 27, 1861 [_Official
Records_, fourth ser., vol. i, 248].
[210] Davis would have preferred to have had Toombs for secretary of the
treasury [Rhodes, _History of the United States_, vol. iii, 295, _note_
7].
[211] _Journal_, vol. i, 105.
[212] Both Pike and Toombs reached in time the thirty-second degree, or
Scottish Rite. Note Pike's glowing tribute to Toombs, quoted in
Richardson, _Messages and Papers of the Confederacy_, vol. ii, 142.
[213] _Journal_, vol. i, 205.
[214] --_Ibid._, 225.
[215] Just what particular sets of resolutions those were I have no means
of knowing. The most important set of Chickasaw resolutions, those issued
under date of May 25, 1861 [_Official Records_, first ser., vol. iii,
585-587] had not yet been passed. The Choctaw resolutions presented may
have been and very probably were those of February 7, 1861 [_ibid._].
[216] On the twenty-first of May, President Davis approved "An Act for the
protection of the Indian Tribes" [_Journal_, 263], it having gone through
its various stages of amendment and having passed Congress, May
seventeenth [_ibid._, 244]. Adjutant-general G. W. Andrews reports,
November 4, 1912, that nothing additional concerning the text of this law
is to be found in the Confederate archives.
[217] _Journal_, vol. i, 244.
[218] Governor Clark of Texas, also, at this time displayed great interest
in the matter. On the fifteenth of May, he wrote to President Davis that
he was constituting James E. Harrison, a man thoroughly conversant with
the whole subject, "the duly accredited agent of Texas to convey" the
Report of April 23, 1861 to Richmond [_Official Records_, fourth ser.,
vol. i, 322].
[219] See letter from Pearce to President Davis, May 13, 1861 [_ibid._,
first ser., vol. iii, 576].
[220] _Official Records_, fourth ser., vol. i, 572-574.
[221] Pike was appointed under authority of a resolution passed by
Congress, March 5, 1861. See Message of President Davis, December 12, 1861
[_ibid._, fourth ser., vol. i, 785].
[222] To-day he is, perhaps, best known by his parody on "Dixie" and by
his singularly beautiful and pathetic "Every Year" [_Poems_, Roome's
edition, 31-34].
[223] See _Journal of Proceedings_, no. 273 of Johns Hopkins University
Civil War Pamphlets.
[224] Bishop, _Loyalty on the Frontier_, 148-151.
[225] The poem is printed entire in Bishop's _Loyalty on the Frontier_,
149-150. The first two stanzas are here given:
DISUNION
Ay, shout! 'Tis the day of your pride,
Ye despots and tyrants of earth;
Tell your serfs the American name to deride,
And to rattle their fetters in mirth.
Ay, shout! for the league of the free
Is about to be shivered to dust,
And the rent limbs to fall from the vigorous tree,
Shout! shout! for more firmly established, will be
Your thrones and dominions beyond the blue sea.
Laugh on! for such folly supreme,
The world has yet never beheld;
And ages to come will the history deem,
A tale by antiquity swelled;
For nothing that time has upbuilt
And set in the annals of crime,
So stupid and senseless, so wretched in guilt,
Darkens sober tradition or rhyme.
_It will be like the fable of Eblis' fall,
A by-word of mockery and horror to all._
[226] _Official Records_, first ser., vol. iii, 580-581.
[227] In a letter to Commissioner D. N. Cooley, under date of February 17,
1866, Pike said that Toombs requested him in May of 1861 to visit the
Indian country as commissioner. I have not been able to find out whether
Toombs made his request in writing or verbally. The correspondence of
Toombs recently edited by U. B. Phillips does not furnish any additional
information on this point.
[228] On one very important occasion, Albert Pike was not strictly fair to
the Indians. That occasion was after the war when the United States Indian
Office was endeavoring to make a settlement with the Cherokees on the
basis of their adherence to the Confederate cause. Pike was appealed to
and threw the weight of his influence against John Ross, but most unjustly
as it would seem. The letter embodying his views is a narrative of the
events of 1861 as they happened in the Indian country under his scrutiny,
and may as well be inserted here in full. It is to be found in the Indian
Office in a bundle labeled, "Loyalty of John Ross, Principal Chief of the
Cherokees: Letter of Albert Pike (original), Feb. 17, 1866--and _Copies_
of several of Ross' letter--relative to his _loyalty_ in 1861 & 1862,
etc."
5. _Albert Pike to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs_
MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE, 17th February 1866.
SIR: I have received, to-day, a copy of the "Memorial" of the
"Southern Cherokees," to the President, Senate and House of
Representatives, in reply to the Memorial of other Cherokees claiming
to be "loyal."
It is not for me to take any part in the controversy between the two
portions of the Cherokee People, nor have I any interest that could
lead me to side with one in preference to the other. Nor am I much
inclined, having none of the rights of a Citizen, to offer to testify
in any matter, when my testimony may not be deemed worthy of credit,
as that of one not yet restored to respectability and creditability by
a pardon.
But, as I know it to be contemptible as well as false, for Mr. John
Ross and the "loyal" Memorialists to pretend that they did not
voluntarily engage themselves by Treaty Stipulations to the
Confederate States, and as you have desired my testimony, I have this
to say, and I think no man will be bold enough to deny any part of it.
In May, 1861, I was requested by Mr. Toombs, Secretary of State of the
Confederate States, to visit the Indian Country as Commissioner, and
assure the Indians of the friendship of those States. The Convention
of the State of Arkansas, anxious to avoid hostilities with the
Cherokees, also applied to me to act as such Commissioner. I
accordingly proceeded to Fort Smith, where some five or six Cherokees
called upon General McCulloch and myself, representing those of the
Cherokees who sympathized with the South, in order to ascertain
whether the Confederate States would protect them against Mr. Ross and
the Pin Indians, if they should organize and take up arms for the
South. We learned that some attempts to raise a Secession flag in the
Cherokee Country on the Arkansas had been frustrated by the menace of
violence; and those who came to meet us represented the Pin
Organization to be a Secret Society, established by Evan Jones, a
Missionary, and at the service of Mr. John Ross, for the purpose of
abolitionizing the Cherokees and putting out of the way all who
sympathized with the Southern States.
The truth was, as I afterwards learned with certainty, the Secret
Organization in question, whose members for a time used as a mark of
their membership a _pin_ in the front of the hunting shirt, was really
established for the purpose of depriving the half-breeds of all
political power, though Mr. Ross, himself a Scotchman and a McDonald
by the father and the mother, was shrewd enough to use it for his own
ends. At any rate, it was organized and in _full_ operation, long
before Secession was thought of.
General McCulloch and myself assured those who met us at Fort Smith,
that they should be protected; and agreed to meet, at an early day
then fixed, at Park Hill, where Mr. Ross resided. Upon that I sent a
messenger with letters to five or six prominent members of the
Anti-Ross party, inviting them to meet me at the Creek Agency, two
days after the day on which General McCulloch and I were to meet at
Park Hill.
I did not expect to effect any arrangement with Mr. Ross, and my
intention was to treat with the heads of the Southern party, Stand
Watie and others.
When we met Mr. Ross at Park Hill, he refused to enter into any
arrangement with the Confederate States. He said that his intention
was to maintain the neutrality of his people; that they were a small
and weak people, and would be ruined and destroyed if they engaged in
the war; and that it would be a cruel thing if we were to engage them
in our quarrel. But, he said, all his interests and all his feelings
were with us, and he knew that his people must share the fate and
fortunes of Arkansas. We told him that the Cherokees _could_ not be
neutral. We used every argument in our power to change his
determination, but in vain; and finally General McCulloch informed him
that he would respect the neutrality of the Cherokees, and would not
enter their Country with troops, or place troops in it, unless it
should become necessary in order to expel a Federal force, or to
protect the Southern Cherokees.
So we separated. General McCulloch kept his word, and no Confederate
troops ever were stationed in or marched into the Cherokee Country,
until after the Federal troops invaded it.
Before leaving the Nation I addressed Mr. Ross a letter, which I
afterwards printed, and circulated among the Cherokee people. In it I
informed him that the Confederate States would remain content with his
pledge of neutrality, although he would find it impossible to maintain
that neutrality; that I should not again offer to treat with the
Cherokees, and that the Confederate States would not consider
themselves bound by my proposition to pay the Cherokees for the
neutral land, if they should lose it in consequence of the war. I had
no further communication with Mr. Ross until September.
Meanwhile, he had persuaded Opoth le Yahola, the Creek leader, not to
join the Southern States, and had sent delegates to meet the Northern
and other Indians in Council near the Antelope Hills, where they all
agreed to be neutral. The purpose was, to take advantage of the war
between the States, and form a great independent Indian
Confederation--I defeated all that, by treating with the Creeks at the
very time that their delegates were at the Antelope Hills in Council.
When I had treated with them and with the Choctaws and Chickasaws, at
the North Fork of the Canadian, I went to the Seminole Agency and
treated with the Seminoles. Then I went to the Wichita Agency, having
previously invited the Reserve Indians to return there, and invited
the prairie Comanches to meet me. After treating with these, I
returned by Fort Arbuckle, and before reaching there, met a nephew of
Mr. Ross, and a Captain [Keld? _sic_] in the prairie, bearing a letter
to me from Mr. Ross and his Council, with a copy of the resolutions of
Council, and an invitation in pressing terms to repair to the Cherokee
Country and enter into a Treaty.
I consented, fixed a day for meeting the Cherokees, and wrote Mr. Ross
to that effect, requesting him also to send messengers to the Osages,
Quapaws, Shawnees, Senecas, &c. and invite them to meet me at the same
time. He did so, and at the time fixed I went to Park Hill, and there
effected Treaties.
When I first entered the Indian Country, in May, I had as an escort
one company of mounted men. I went in advance of them to Park Hill;
General McCulloch went there without an escort. At the Creek Agency I
sent the Company back: I then remained without escort or guard, until
I had made the Seminole Treaty, camping with my little party and
displaying the Confederate flag. When I went to the Wichita Country, I
took an escort of Creeks and Seminoles. These I discharged at Fort
Arbuckle on my return, and went, accompanied only by four young men,
through the Creek Country to Fort Gibson, refusing an escort of Creeks
offered me on the way.
From Fort Gibson eight or nine companies of Colonel Drew's Regiment of
Cherokees, chiefly full-bloods and Pins, escorted me to Park Hill.
This regiment was raised by order of the National Council, and its
officers appointed by Mr Ross, his nephew William P. Ross, Secretary
of the Nation, being Lieut. Colonel, and Thomas Pegg, President of the
National Committee, being its Major.
I encamped, with my little party near the residence of the Chief,
unprotected even by a guard, and with the Confederate flag flying. The
terms of the Treaty were fully discussed and the Cherokee authorities
dealt with me on equal terms. Mr. John Ross had met me as I was on my
way to Park Hill, escorted by the National Regiment, and had welcomed
me to the Cherokee Nation, in an earnest and enthusiastic speech; and
seemed to me throughout to be acting in perfect good faith. I acted in
the same way with him.
After the treaties were signed, I presented Colonel Drew's Regiment a
flag, and the chief in a speech exhorted them to be true to it: and
afterwards, _at his request, I wrote the Cherokee Declaration of
Independence_ which is printed with the Memorial of the Southern
Cherokees. I no more doubted, then, that Mr. Ross' whole heart was
with the South, than that mine was. _Even in May he said to General
McCulloch and myself, that if Northern troops invaded the Cherokee
Country, he would head the Cherokees and drive them back._ "_I have
borne arms_" he said, "_and though I am old I can do it again_."
At the time of the treaty there were about nine hundred Cherokees of
Colonel Drew's Regiment encamped near, and fed by me, and Colonel
Watie, who had almost abandoned the idea of raising a regiment, had a
small body of men, not more, I think, than eighty or ninety, at
Tahlequah. When the flag was presented, Col. Watie was present, and
after the ceremony the chief shook hands with him and expressed his
warm desire for union and harmony in the Nation.
The gentlemen whom I had invited to meet me in June at the Creek
Agency did not do so. They were afraid of being murdered, they said,
if they openly sided with the South. In October they censured me for
treating with Mr. Ross, and were in an ill humour, saying that the
regiment was raised in order to be used to oppress _them_.
The same day that the Cherokee Treaty was signed, the Osages, Quapaws,
Shawnees and Senecas signed treaties, and the next day they had a talk
with Mr. Ross at his residence, smoked the great pipe and renewed
their alliance, being urged by him to be true to the Confederate
States.
I protest that I believed Mr. John Ross, at this time and for long
after, to be as sincerely devoted to the Confederacy as I myself was.
He was frank, cheerful, earnest, and evidently believed that the
independence of the Confederate States was an accomplished fact. I
should dishonour him if I believed that he then dreamed of abandoning
the Confederacy or turning the arms of the Cherokees against us in
case of a reverse.
Before I left the Cherokee Country, part of the Creeks, under
Opoth-le-Yaholo left their homes, under arms and threatened
hostilities. Mr. Ross, at my request, invited the old Chief to meet
him, and urged him to unite with the Confederate States. Colonel
Drew's regiment was ordered into the Creek Country, and afterwards, on
the eve of the action at Bird Creek, abandoned Colonel Cooper, rather
than fight against their neighbours. But after the action, the
regiment was again reorganized. The men were eager to fight, they
said, against the Yankees; but did not wish to fight their own
brethren, the Creeks.
When General Curtis entered North Western Arkansas, in February 1862,
I sent orders from Fort Smith to Colonel Drew to move towards
Evansville and receive orders from General McCulloch. Colonel Watie's
Regiment was already under General McCulloch's command. Colonel Drew's
men moved in advance of Colonel Watie, with great alacrity, and showed
no want of zeal at Pea Ridge.
I do not _know_ that any one was scalped at that place or in that
action, except from information. None of my officers knew it at the
time. I heard of it afterwards. I cannot say to which regiment those
belonged who did it. But it has been publicly charged on some of the
same men who afterwards abandoned the Confederate cause and enlisting
in the Federal Service were sent into Arkansas to ravage it.
After the actions at Pea Ridge and Elk Horn, the Regiment of Colonel
Drew was moved to the mouth of the Illinois, where I was able, after a
time, to pay them $25 cash, the commutation for six months' clothing,
in Confederate money. Nothing more, owing to the wretched management
of the Confederate government, was ever paid them; and the clothing
procured for them was plundered by the commands of Generals Price and
Van Dorn. The consequence was that when Colonel Weer entered the
Cherokee Country, the Pin Indians joined him _en masse_.
I had procured at Richmond, and paid Mr. Lewis Ross, Treasurer of the
Cherokee Nation, about the first of March 1862, in the Chief's house
and in the Chief's presence, the moneys agreed to be paid them by
Treaty, being about $70,000 (I think) in coin, and among other sums
$150,000 in Confederate Treasury notes, loaned the Nation by way of
advance on the price expected to be paid for the Neutral land. This
sum had been promised in the Treaty at the earnest solicitation of Mr.
John Ross; and it was generally understood that it was desired for the
special purpose of redeeming scrip of the Nation issued long before,
and much of which was held by Mr. Ross and his relatives. That such
_was_ the case, I do not know. I only know that the moneys were paid,
and that I have the receipts for them, which, with others, I shall
file in the Indian Office.
In May, 1862, Lieut. Colonel William P. Ross visited my camp at Fort
McCulloch, near Red River, and said to me that "the Chief" would be
gratified if he were to receive the appointment of Brigadier General
in the Confederate Service. I did not ask him if he was authorized by
the Chief to say so; but I did ask him if he were _sure_ that the
appointment would gratify him; and being so assured, I promised to
urge the appointment. I did so, more than once, but never received a
reply. It was not customary with the Confederate War Department to
exhibit any great wisdom; and in respect to the Indian Country its
conduct was disgraceful. Unpaid, unclothed, uncared for, unthanked
even, and their services unrecognized, it was natural the Cherokees
should abandon the Confederate flag.
When Colonel Weer invaded the Cherokee Country, Mr. Ross refused to
have an interview with him, declaring that the Cherokees would remain
faithful to their engagements with the Confederate States. There was
not then a Confederate soldier in the Cherokee Nation, to overawe Mr.
Ross or Major Pegg or any other "loyal" Cherokee. Mr. Ross sent me a
copy of his letter to Colonel Weer, and I had it printed and sent over
Texas, to show the people there that the Cherokee Chief was "loyal" to
the Confederate States.
Afterwards, when Stand Watie's Regiment and the Choctaws were sent
over the Arkansas into the Cherokee Country, and Mr. Ross considered
his life in danger from his own people, in consequence of their
ancient feud, he allowed himself to be taken prisoner by the Federal
troops. At the time, I believed that if white troops had been sent to
Park Hill, who would have protected him against Watie's men, he would
have remained at home and adhered to the Confederacy: for either he
was true to his obligations to the Confederate States, voluntarily
entered into,--true at heart and in his inmost soul,--or else he is
falser and more treacherous than I can believe him to be.
The simple truth is, Mr. Commissioner, that the "loyal" Cherokees
hated Stand Watie and the half-breeds and were hated by them. They
were perfectly willing to kill and scalp Yankees, and when they were
hired to change sides, and twenty two hundred of them were organized
into regiments in the _Federal_ Service, they were just as ready to
kill and scalp when employed against us in Arkansas. _We_ did _not_
pay and clothe them, and the United States _did_. They scalped for
those who paid for and clothed them. As to "loyalty" they had none at
all.
I entered the Indian Country in May, and left it in October. For five
months I travelled and encamped in it, unprotected by white troops,
alone with the four young men, treating with the different tribes. If
there had been any "loyalty" among the Indians, I could not have gone
a mile in safety. Opoth-le-Yaholo was not "loyal." He feared the
McIntoshes, who had raised troops, and who, he thought, meant to kill
him for killing their father long years before. He told me that he did
not wish to fight against the Southern States, but only that the
Indians should all act together. If Mr. Ross had treated with us at
first, _all_ the Creeks would have done the same. If Stand Watie and
his party took _one_ side, John Ross and his party were sure, in the
end, to take the other, _especially when that other proved itself the
stronger_.
So far from the Watie party overawing the party which upheld Mr. Ross,
I _know_ it to be true that they were _afraid_ to actively cooperate
with the Confederate States, to organize, to raise Secession flags, or
even to meet me and consult with me. They feared that Colonel Drew's
Regiment would be used to harrass them, and they never dreamed of
_forcing_ the authorities into a Treaty.
After the action at Elkhorn, murders were continually complained of by
Colonels Watie and Drew, and the Chief solicited me to place part of
Colonel Drew's Regiment at or near Park Hill, to protect the
government and its records. I did so. There never a time when the
"loyal" Cherokees had not the power to destroy the Southern ones.
As to myself, I dealt fairly and openly with all the Indians. I used
no threats of force or compulsion, with any of them. The "loyal"
Cherokees joined us because they believed we should succeed, and left
us when they thought we should not. At their request I wrote their
declaration of Independence and acceptance of the issues of war; and
if any men voluntarily, and with their eyes open, and of their own
motion acceded to the Secession movement, it was John Ross and the
people whom he controlled. I am, Sir, Very res{py}, Your obt Svt
ALBERT PIKE
D. N. Cooley Esq, Commissioner of Ind. Aff.
[229] In writing this letter, Pike most certainly addressed himself to
Toombs officially and with the idea in mind that he was holding his
commission under the Confederate State Department. That he was serving
under that department and that he did not get his appointment until May
seem scarcely to admit of a doubt, notwithstanding the fact that Judah P.
Benjamin, Secretary of War later in the year, December [14?], 1861, in
reporting to President Davis, could make the following statement: