Chapter II: Indian Territory in Its Relations with Texas and Arkansas (2)

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.

]

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]

The Arkansas state convention, sanctioned by popular vote, met, by authority of the governor's proclamation, March fourth. Its members were inclined to temporize, however; for, as Harrell says, they were cooperationists[181] rather than secessionists and their policy of temporizing they carried out even in the provision made for reassembling after adjournment. David Walker, the president of the convention, was out of sympathy with this; and, at the first news of the attack upon Fort Sumter and while passion and excitement were still at fever heat, called[182] an extra session for the sixth of May. The regular session was not to come until the nineteenth of August. Coincidently Governor Rector again showed where his sympathies lay by refusing[183] President Lincoln's call for troops.

The Arkansas Ordinance of Secession was passed on the sixth of May. S. R. Cockrell had proved himself a good prophet; for, writing jubilantly to L. P. Walker, on the twenty-first of April, on the progress of secession, he had said,[184] "Arkansas will go out 6th of May before breakfast. The Indians come next." His closing remark had some foundation for its utterance. Intelligent and prominent Indians were to be found in the very ranks of the Arkansas secessionists. E. C. Boudinot, a Cherokee, an enemy and rival of John Ross, and later Cherokee delegate in the Confederate Congress, was secretary[185] of the convention. M. Kennard, a leading and a principal Creek chief, seems also to have been influential. The alliance of the Indians was yet being sought.[186]

The secession ordinance once safely launched, the Arkansas convention turned its attention without equivocation to Indian concerns. On the tenth of May, for instance, it followed the example set by Texas and passed a resolution,[187] authorizing the president of the convention to appoint three delegates to visit Indian Territory. The men appointed were, S. L. Griffith of Sebastian County (the same man, interestingly enough to whom the United States government had recently offered[188] the Southern Superintendency), J. Murphy of Madison County, and G. W. Laughinghouse of St. Francis County. Two of these counties were on or near the border. Sebastian was on the border and Madison not far inland, so Griffith and Murphy very probably realized the full significance of their mission. On the eleventh of May, the convention tried to pass another resolution,[189] indicative of a community of interests between Arkansas and the Indian country. This resolution failed, but, had it passed, it would have prayed the president of the Confederate States to erect a military department or division out of Arkansas and Indian Territory. As it was, the convention contented itself, on this occasion, with empowering[190] Brigadier-general Pearce[191] to cooperate with Brigadier-general McCulloch.[192] It took this action on the twenty-first of May and on the twenty-eighth it received a communication[193] from Elias Rector concerning the Choctaws and Chickasaws.

Almost simultaneously with this legislative activity, solicitation of the Indians came from yet other directions. On the eighth of May, Brigadier-general B. Burroughs of the Arkansas militia took it upon himself to make an appeal to the Chickasaws, which he did in this wise:

HEADQUARTERS EIGHTH BRIGADE, FIRST DIVISION, ARKANSAS MILITIA,
Fort Smith, Ark., May 8, 1861.

GOV. C. HARRIS: To-day we have information that Arkansas, in
Convention, has seceded, by a vote 69 to 1. Tennessee has also
seceded, and made large appropriations and ordered an army of 50,000
men.

Arkansas has for several days past been in arms on this frontier for
the protection (of) citizens, and the neighboring Indian nations whose
interests are identical with her own.

I have news through my scouts that the U. S. troops have abandoned the
forts in the Chickasaw country.

Under my orders from the commander-in-chief and governor of Arkansas,
I feel authorized to extend to you such military aid as will be
required in the present juncture of affairs to occupy and hold the
forts.

I have appointed Col. A. H. Word, one of the State senators, and
Captain Sparks, attached to this command, commissioners to treat and
confer with you on this subject. These gentlemen are fully apprised of
the nature of the powers intrusted to myself by the governor of this
State, and are authorized to express to you my views of the subject
under consideration. I ask, therefore, that you express to them your
own wishes in the premises, and believe, my dear sir, that Arkansas
cherishes the kindest regards for your people.

I have the honor to subscribe myself, with sentiments of regard, your
excellency's friend and servant,

B. BURROUGHS, Brigadier-General, Commanding.[194]

The impudence and calm effrontery of this has its humorous side and would seem even ridiculous were it not for the fact that we are bound to remember that the Indians took it all so very seriously. It was true enough, as Burroughs said, that the Federal troops had abandoned the Indian country; but against whom were the forts to be held? Surely not against the Federals. Furthermore, what need was there for Arkansas to interest herself in the Chickasaw forts, since the Texan troops were already in possession? Is it possible to suppose that Burroughs's scouts, who had found out so much about the withdrawal of the Federal forces, had not discovered the work of the Texans in contributing thereto? The Chickasaws were particularly friendly to the secessionists and, in this same month of May, passed, by means of their legislature, those eight resolutions[195] in which they gave such strong expression to their views, at the same time, however, giving the Southern States clearly to understand that they knew the extent of their own rights and were determined to hold fast to them. They also declared that they wished to hold their forts themselves.

On the ninth of May, the Indians were still further addressed and this time by the citizens of Boonsboro, Arkansas, whose appeal has already been referred to and quoted.[196] The appeal was made through the medium of a letter to John Ross and of him the citizens of Boonsboro inquired where he intended to stand; inasmuch as they much preferred "an open enemy to a doubtful friend." They earnestly hoped, they said, to find in him and his people "true allies and active friends." On the fifteenth of May, J. R. Kannady, lieutenant-colonel, commanding at Fort Smith, also communicated[197] with Ross and on the same subject, his immediate provocation being the report that Senator James H. Lane was busy raising troops in Kansas to be used against Missouri and Arkansas. Of the Kannady letter, John B. Luce was the bearer and, to it, Ross replied[198] on the seventeenth, the very day that he published his great proclamation[199] of neutrality; for the otherwise most sensible John Ross labored under the delusion that the Indians would be allowed to figure as silent witnesses of events. In this respect, he was, however, on slightly firmer ground than were the citizens of such a state as Kentucky; but, none the less, he labored under a delusion as he soon found out to his sorrow. His proclamation of neutrality was intended as a final and conclusive answer[200] to all interrogatories like that from Boonsboro.