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Page 141

In the following paper there is reproduced the text of a document which was published in pamphlet form by the commissioner of Indian Affairs pending the negotiation of a new treaty between the United States and the Cherokee Nation, after the close of the Civil War. In the decision to republish the text of the document (together with certain subjoined extracts from the annual reports of the commissioner of Indian Affairs for the years 1861, 1862 and 1865 and from the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies), it has not been with a sole view to rendering this material more readily available for the use of the student of a most interesting era in the history of the old Indian Territory. Rather, there has been a two-fold purpose in mind, for, aside from its direct bearing upon the history of one of the most important Indian tribes in the United States, it also serves to throw new light upon the part which was played by the politician, both white and red, in the attempted adjustment of matters of policy having to do with Indian affairs. In a state paper that was biased to the point of downright unfairness, as this one unquestionably was, it is also important that the actuating motives of its projector should be developed and made plain.

The pamphlet known as "the Cherokee Question" was published by the office of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, in June, 1866. Its evident purpose was to discredit John Ross and the Northern or "Loyal" faction of the Cherokee people, of which he was the acknowledged leader. With the questions at issue between the rival factions in the Cherokee Nation, the unbiased investigator and commentator can have no part. Be that as it may, however, a document which was issued under the sanction and approval of those in high official authority should

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always be subject to careful scrutiny as to the source of its inspiration and as to the fairness and truthfulness of its arguments and conclusions.

Within a few weeks after the appearance of the pamphlet in question, John Ross died in Washington, where he was present as one of the representatives of the Northern, or "Loyal" Cherokee party, for the purpose of helping to negotiate a new treaty with the Federal Government. The death of Ross was followed by a realignment of the political factions or parties of the Cherokee Nation which in turn resulted in laying the active hostilities of the feud which had so long distracted the people of that tribe—a result the impossibility of which it had been the labored effort of this pamphlet to prove. With the passing of John Ross and the organization of the Downing party in the Cherokee Nation, the alleged necessity for resorting to a permanent division of the Cherokee tribe and its dominions disappeared. The reason for the preparation and publication of the pamphlet having thus vanished, there would seem to be reasonable ground for presumption that a part if not most of the edition was destroyed or suppressed, as but few copies are known to be in existence now.

Shortly before President Lincoln's death he had appointed Senator James Harlan, of Iowa, to the office of secretary of the interior. Secretary Harlan was retained in the same position by President Andrew Johnson. Under his direction, the Indian Office and the Indian service generally were reorganized. Dennis W. Cooley, of Iowa, was installed as commissioner of Indian Affairs, and Elijah Sells, also of Iowa, was appointed as superintendent of Indian Affairs for the Southern Superintendency, with headquarters at Fort Smith, Arkansas. During the last session of the preceding Congress, before he had accepted the portfolio of the Interior Department, Senator Harlan had introduced a bill for the organization of the Indian Territory under a territorial form of government.

In the peace council which was held at Fort Smith, Arkansas, in September, 1865, for the purpose of attempting to negotiate new treaties between the Federal Government and the Indian tribes which had been in alliance with the Confederate States, both factions of the Cherokee people were represented. John Ross, who had served as principal chief of the Cherokee Na-

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tion since 1828, was the leader of the Northern or "Loyal" Cherokees, while the titular head of the other faction was General Stand Watie, who, though a younger man than Ross, was possibly more inclined to share the honors of leadership with men who were still in the early prime of life. Among the latter were Elias C. Boudinot, Clement N. Vann, and William Penn Adair, three of the most brillant and accomplished personalities ever produced in the Cherokee Nation.

When the peace council convened at Fort Smith, the delegates from the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations, well aware that their people had been almost unanimous in their alignment with the seceding states, practically threw themselves upon the mercy of the Federal Government, with but little to say as to terms. In the Cherokee, Creek and Seminole nations, however, there had been divisions, some of the people of each of these tribes having adhered to the Union. There were two delegations, therefore, respectively representing the rival factions in each of several of the tribes. This lack of unity and harmony in the counsels of some of these tribes, notably those of the Cherokee Nation, tended to prolong the sessions of the peace council unduly. As the Government peace commissioners had other appointments to meet elsewhere, the council was finally adjourned to meet in Washington the following spring.

In addition to the Government peace commissioners and their entourage and the Indian tribal delegates, there were many politicians present from some of the western states. Some, if not most of these had served in the Indian Territory with the Federal Army. They attended the peace council for the purpose of insisting that places be found in the Indian Territory for the removal of Indian tribes from other western states and territories. In writing of this feature of the gathering, nearly twenty-five years later, Milton W. Reynolds (who personally witnessed the proceedings of the peace council as a press correspondent) made the following comment:

It was largely a Kansas idea and Kansas men were there to enforce it. General Blair and Hon. Ben. McDonald (brother of Senator McDonald, of Arkansas), General Blunt, Eugene Ware and C. F. Drake, the Fort Scott banker, and others were present as persistent inside counsellors and lobbyists. Kansas was then plastered all over with Indian reservations. She wanted to get rid of Indians, who owned all her western plains and her choicest lands in Southern Kansas.

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The Southern Cherokee delegation was apparently willing to accede most of the propositions submitted by the Government peace commissioners. A willingness to permit the settlement of other Indian tribes, from Kansas or elsewhere, on the surplus or unused lands of the Cherokee Nation, especially those of the Outlet, was evinced. The Northern Cherokees, on the other hand, were exceedingly loath to consider such a suggestion, stoutly asserting that they were being punished for recreancy of a minor faction of the tribe. The Southern Cherokees had suffered the forfeiture of their property as the result of an act of the Cherokee National Council which was wholly under the control of the Northern Cherokee party. Under such circumstances, it would not have been strange if the exiled and impoverished Southern Cherokee delegates should have sought and found favor with the Government peace commissioners by readily agreeing to the proposed settlement of other tribes in the Indian Territory, to the establishment of an inter-tribal territorial government and to the building of railway lines through the Indian Territory. Thenceforth, as is apparent from the text of the pamphlet, the Government peace commissioners virtually became the champions of the faction which had lately been alliance with the Confederate States against the Government as against the other faction which had given tardy adherence to the Union. In other words, by their skill in political finesse and manipulation, these shrewd Cherokee politicians appeared not in the role of supplicant and repentant insurrectionists but rather as counsellors and advisors of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs and the Secretary of the Interior, aiding and advising them in the formulation of their policies and influencing them in the course to be chosen and pursued. The resolution of the Government peace commissioners at Fort Smith not to recognize John Ross as the principal chief of the Cherokee Nation undoubtedly had its inspiration from this source. The selection of Albert Pike, Douglas H. Cooper, J. B. Luce, T. J. Mackey and others to write letters advising the division of the Cherokee Nation into two separate political entities and the manifestly common source of inspiration of several of these letters, notably those of Generals Blunt and Cooper and Mr. Tebbetts, could scarcely have been the result of chance, neither was the obvious omission of requests for expressions of opinion in regard to the questions at issue from John B. Jones,

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William L. G. Miller or William A. Phillips, than whom there were none better informed concerning conditions among the Cherokee people.

After this pamphlet had been compiled and printed, a new treaty was negotiated and signed without any provision for a division of the Cherokee Nation. The death of Ross gave a new aspect to the situation. John B. Jones and Lieutenant Colonel Lewis Downing, ranking Cherokee officer in the Federal service, leaders of the full-blood element in the old Ross party, met Boudinot and Adair, of the Southern Cherokee faction (the old Ridge party), half-way and the result was the organization of the Downing party. While the spirit of the old feud did not die (and, indeed, still persists in the hearts of some of the Cherokee people to this day), the carnival of violence and bloodshed, which had been so freely predicted in the solicited correspondence which was reproduced in Commissioner Cooley's pamphlet, did not follow. Peace and prosperity came back to the Cherokee Nation.

All of the actors in the peace councils of 1865 and 1866 have passed away. The Cherokee Nation itself has ceased to exist, even as a dependent political organization. Why the loyal Cherokees should have been subjected to such vigorous hectoring and grilling and pamphleteering at the hands of the Government peace commission while the other faction as well as other tribes which had not only gone into alliance with the enemy but, moreover had never made any effort to repudiate such alliances, were treated with seeming leniency in comparison, was not made plain at the time. The presence and activity of such adroit political manipulators as Clement N. Vann, Elias C. Boudinot and William Penn Adair on the delegation representing the Southern Cherokees probably accounts for the course pursued by the Commissioner Cooley toward the majority faction of the Cherokees. While he may have been accounted an experienced and skilled politician in his home state, he proved to be but little more than an amateur when it came to matching wits with those of Vann, Adair and Boudinot.

Joseph B. Thoburn.

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Department of the Interior,
Office of Indian Affairs,
Washington, D. C., June 15, 1866.

To ANDREW JOHNSON, President of the United States:

The undersigned, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, as president of the southern treaty commission, charged with the duty of negotiating treaties with the several tribes of Indians located in the Indian country or in the State of Kansas, and also with the Indians of the plains west of Kansas and the Indian country, has the honor to submit the following additional report:

All that was done by the commission at Fort Smith, Arkansas, in September last, and how it was done, in discharge of the duty imposed by your order, is already fully reported and published in my annual report for the year 1865, commencing on printed page 296 of that report, to which I beg leave to refer.¹ It will be perceived that the commission was only in part successful, owing, as was asserted by the Indians, and believed by us, to the fact that several of the Indian tribes, including the Cherokees, had not been notified that new treaties with them were desired by the government, and that they had not been properly authorized to make treaties by which any of their lands were to be set apart to the United States, for the use of the friendly tribes in Kansas and elsewhere, as contained in paragraph No. 5, on page No. 299, of the report above referred to, and that the Cherokee national council must first authorize such a treaty to be made, and appoint the commissioners to make it.

No objection was made by the delegation to the several propositions, except the want of power and authority in the delegates then present. They promised to return home, and lay these propositions, and all other matters, before their national council, and receive their instructions. No doubt was then expressed that the council would confer all the necessary power upon a commission to make a treaty. They were then informed that the delegation to make a treaty would be called to Washington City,

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probably, early in December then next, for that purpose. After your commission ascertained that a full treaty, according to our instructions, could not be made, for the above cause, the commission submitted the articles of a partial treaty, as set forth on pages 301 and 302 of the report above referred to, a copy of which was furnished to each tribe. The Cherokees had from the beginning persistently contended that, although it was true that the treaty of Oct. 7, 1861, was made with the Confederate States, that they had done so under coercion of the rebel army, and that said treaty was not binding, but as to them was null and void.

On the day the copy of the partial treaty was furnished the Cherokees, September 13, we were informed that John Ross, the principal (4) chief of the Cherokee nation, had arrived in the camp of the Cherokees. That same evening the several Indian agents were called before the commission and asked what was the prospect of their several tribes signing the treaty. The Cherokees were first called. Agent Harlan, for the Cherokees, answered that the Cherokees claimed that they had signed the rebel treaty to avoid annihilation by the rebels, and that the same was null and void: that the majority of the nation had all the time been loyal to the United States and only yielded to power they could not resist; but that as soon as they found a force sufficient to protect them, they joined the Union army and fought to the end of the war, and fought well. And all this he believed, claiming, as they did, that if true, there was no forfeiture on their part. He gave it as his opinion that while the recitals in the preamble remained, asserting a forfeiture of money and lands, they never would sign it, and that he, believing it, would not advise them to do so, unless under a protest that they had signed it to prevent total destruction of their lives and property; but that, under such protest, he would advise them to sign it, and thus save the question of forfeiture for fuller inquiry. He thought they ought to and would sign it under protest.

To this protest the commission consented, and Agent Harlan wrote the protest, which was at once submitted and allowed. You will find this paper on page 304 of the Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, above referred to, as having been made by Colonel Reece at the time of signing of the treaty.²

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Without entering into details in regard to the facts apparent to the commission tending to show that it was the influence of John Ross which, even now, hindered the Cherokee delegates from signing the preliminary treaty, it may be sufficient to say that very shortly after the commission had decided no longer to recognize Ross as the chief, under what they deemed ample evidence of his bad influence upon his people, and his steady and sincere disloyalty to the government of the United States, the delegates representing the Cherokee Nation did sign the treaty.³

To the commission, when at Fort Smith, it seemed very clear that John Ross, within one month after the late war commenced, clearly took sides with the rebels and against the government of the United States and that, within four months, the whole nation, in general mass meeting called by, and after a speech from him, unanimously resolved to throw off their allegiance to the United States, and join the Confederate States.⁴ If we were right in our conclusion (and I still think we were), John Ross was all the time, and the whole nation after the first four months, disloyal. In August, 1861, General Stand Watie received authority from General McCulloch to raise a battalion in the nation for the rebel service. This force was raised and organized in the December following.⁵ In July and August, Colonel John Drew, by express authority of Mr. Ross, raised a regiment for the same purpose. General Stand Watie's regiment continued in the rebel service to the end of the war. Colonel Drew's regiment continued in the rebel service until after the battle of Pea Ridge, where most of the (5) regiment fought in the rebel army and shared in its defeat. Shorty after that memorable defeat, three important events took place: the rebel army was driven out of western Arkansas; the Union army, under Colonel Weer, invaded the Cherokee Nation ith a force apparently invincible; an the confederate government was found unable to pay its troops in anything but confederate money—nearly worthless. How much either one or all of these events had to do with Cherokee returning loyalty, others can judge as well as we. The facts exist; the returning loyalty followed closely on the heels of these events. Drew's regiment abandoned the rebel service and enlisted in the Union army. One other regiment, under Colonel Ritchie, was raised in the Cherokee Nation. Both regiments served the Union to the end of the war.

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From August, 1862, until last September, Mr. Ross, all the time chief, had not once been in the Cherokee Nation, and so far as we then knew, or so far as I now know, Mr. Ross had taken no active interest in Cherokee affairs. If his zeal were as great as he now pretends it always has been in the Union cause and for the Cherokee people, whom he had served so long and so successfully, and whose welfare he had so industriously and influentially promoted, it seems somewhat strange to me that he should have abandoned the Union cause in its great peril in 1862, and strange beyond belief that he should for more than three years have abandoned the Cherokee people, when ruin, swift and certain, was overwhelming them; when his influence, acknowledged ability and foresight were so much needed among his people; and quietly settled himself down in Philadelphia, 1,600 miles from his people, at an expense of some thirty thousand dollars to the nation, while the people whom he loved so well (!) were half starving for want of these thousands so prodigally spent by him.⁶

Inasmuch as the claims of John Ross, and his party in the Cherokee Nation, to loyalty from the beginning of the war, in April, 1861, are a very important element in the consideration of the subject of the just course to be pursued by the government towards the Cherokees as a people, I beg your indulgence while I devote some space to that particular issue.⁷

In the months of May and June, 1861, Mr. Ross wrote several letters declaring a firm determination to maintain perfect neutrality. These letters manifest considerable ability and much firmness on the part of Mr. Ross; and yet as early as the 17th day of May he received a letter from Colonel Kenney, commanding the rebel forces at Fort Smith, inquiring what course he as chief of the Cherokee Nation, intended to pursue in the war then begun. This letter was sent to Mr. Ross by Mr. J. B. Luce, of Fort Smith. I have seen it but it is now mislaid. This letter was answered by Mr. Ross, and is one of the letters in which Mr. Ross maintains his right to remain neutral.⁸ But to the bearer of that letter he said verbally, "I claim the right to remain neutral but, if I am ever compelled to take sides, I am a southern man, born in the south, a slaveholder, and shall take sides with the south.

On the 12th day of June, 1861, General McCulloch wrote to Mr. (6) Ross (see his letter, Appendix, No. 1), assuring him

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of his friendship and determination, if possible, to respect his neutrality on certain conditions, one of which is, that all Cherokees, so disposed, must be allowed to join the army as home guards, for the purpose of defending themselves in case of invasion from the north; and McCulloch adds: "This, of course, will be in accordance with the views you expressed to me, that, in case of an invasion from the north, you would lead your men, yourself, to repel it."

To this (June 17, 1861), Mr. Ross answered (see letter, Appendix No. 2), reiterating his firm purpose to remain neutral and declining to permit the Cherokees to organize as home guards, asserting his friendship for General McCulloch and for the people of Missouri, Arkansas and Texas, saying that General McCulloch had mistaken what he had said eight or ten days before, and repeating what he did say, thus: "I informed you that I had taken a neutral position, and would maintain it honestly; but that in case of a foreign invasion, old as I am, I would assist in repelling it. I have not signified any purpose as to an invasion of our soil, and an interference with our rights from the United States or Confederate States, because I have apprehended none and cannot give my consent to any."⁹

From this correspondence between General McCulloch and Mr. Ross, it is perfectly apparent that there had been a conversation early in June, between them, entirely different from the written correspondence, in which Mr. Ross had, by his own version, agreed to assist in repelling foreign invasion," and, in the General's version, said that he would lead his own men to repel an invasion by the north.

There was some reason for this difference. I can see no reason unless it was that a written pledge to repel the north might fall, by some accident, into the hands of the northern government and endanger the Cherokee lands and annuities, and that an unwritten pledge would not. Mr. Ross seemed anxious that his public correspondence should show the United States that he refused all overtures from the Confederate States, and that his verbal pledges should fully convince the Confederate government that he would be faithful to them and faithless to the United Statess. In this he succeeded.¹⁰

Some time previous to the 21st of August, 1861, Mr. Ross gave notice, and called a general mass meeting of the Cherokee

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Nation, to meet at Tahlequah, to consider Cherokee difficulties. At that meeting several speeches were made, all in favor of repudiating all treaties with the United States, and in favor of a treaty with the Confederate States. Among them was a speech from Chief Ross, afterwards published, but not in my possession. In that speech Mr. Ross stated that the object of the meeting was to consider the propriety of joining the southern confederacy. He gave it as his opinion that it was best for the Cherokees and all other Indians to do so at once; that he was, and always had been a southern man—a states' rights man—born in the south, a slaveholder; that the south was fighting for its rights against the oppression of the north; that the true position of the Indians was with the southern people.¹¹

(7) After his speech, the vote (as he says, of 4,000 Cherokee males then present) was unanimous in favor of abandoning the United States and in favor of joining the confederates. That such was the action of the mass meeting at Tahlequah, such its objects and such its results, is clearly established by his letter to that true patriot, Opothleyoholo, the Creek chief, September 19, 1861. (See this letter, Appendix, No. 3). In this letter Mr. Ross congratulates himself that the "Great Being who overrules all things for good has sustained him in his efforts to unite the hearts and sentiments of the Cherokee people as one man," and that "at a mass meeting of about 4,000 males at Tahlequah we have, with one voice, proclaimed in favor of forming an alliance with the Confederate States, and shall thereby preserve and maintain the brotherhood of Indian nations in a common destiny." In this letter Mr. Ross acknowledges—rather boasts of—his efforts and success in his work as an emissary among the Cherokees for the benefit of the southern confederacy.

Again, on the 8th day of October, 1861, he wrote to the same Opothleyoholo, acknowledging that he made an address to the mass meeting at Tahlequah, and sent him a copy of it. (See copy of his letter, Appendix, No. 4). In this letter Mr. Ross says he is grieved to hear so many bad reports (reports of the defection of Opothleyoholo and his band from the Creek council), and reiterates his advice to all brethren to be united and friendly among themselves.

In June General Pike and General McCulloch, in company, visited Mr. Ross at Park Hill, his place of residence. For what

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took place at that meeting, nothing being done at that time in writing, we have the letter of General Pike, giving a full and detailed statement, apparently intelligent and candid, of the whole matter in relation to the treaty with the Cherokees and other tribes from first to last, a copy of which letter is annexed. (See Appendix No. 5).

The letter of General Pike disclosed the fact that Mr. Ross, even at that time, so far as writing was concerned, clung to his neutrality and refused to enter into any treaty with the southern confederacy; but he said that all his interests and feelings were with the south; that General McCulloch informed Mr. Ross that he would respect his neutrality, "and would not invade the Cherokee Nation unless compelled to do so; that General McCulloch kept his word, and that no confederate troops were ever stationed in or marched into the Cherokee country until after the federal troops invaded it," which was eight months after the Cherokee treaty had been made with the Confederate States.

This letter effectually disposes of all pretense of coercion from the rebel army, either of Mr. Ross or the Cherokee people. It also shows that what was done they did voluntarily, and that their pretenses to the contrary, whether by Mr. Ross or the Cherokee people, were without the smallest particle of truth. This assurance of General McCulloch was given in June, 1861. The treaty was made October 7, 1861, and in June or July 1862, Colonel Weer, of the Union army, "Invaded the Cherokee Nation," after which the rebel army did invade the Cherokee country.¹² (8) The idea of the plea of coercion was invented when such a plea was wanted to cover up their treachery; but no such plea was ever hinted at until Colonel Weer had invaded the nation. Up to that time Mr. Ross remained unmolested by the confederates, well pleased with their situation, and with the "best treaty we have ever had."

On the 7th page of General Pike's letter he says: "At the request of Mr. Ross, I wrote the Cherokee declaration of Independence." This declaration of independence and war, the vilest and most vituperative document in print, was adopted by the council and approved by Chief Ross, at the time the council advised and ratified the treaty with the Confederate States. (For that declaration see Appendix, No. 6).

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At the time the treaty was signed and ratified, and this declaration was adopted, General Pike says his party consisted of only five persons, all the white confederates in the nation, and eight or nine companies of Drew's regiment, the friends of Ross and the council, were all who were present at the treaty ground or at its ratification—a rather poor show for coercion. Throughout the whole preceedings all seemed to be done freely and cheerfully, like persons doing what they wished to do.

On the same page 7 of General Pike's letter, he says: "Even in May, he (Ross) 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.'" This extract fully proves the truth of the statement of J. B. Luce and General McCulloch, and disposes of the version given by Mr. Ross. Other parts of this letter I will mention hereafter.

On the 19th day of December, 1861, Mr. Ross made a speech to Drew's regiment at Fort Gibson, in which he said that the treaty was made with the confederacy to the entire satisfaction of all concerned in it. He used the following language: "It is the very best treaty we have ever made in many particulars, as it secures to us many advantages we have long sought." On the very day the treaty was signed, it was submitted to the national council, then in session, and was there read and deliberated on, article by article, and unanimously adopted and confirmed by both houses and it thus became a law." (See copy of the speech referred to, Appendix, No. 7).

I refer to this speech to show that Mr. Ross was still urging the Cherokees to adhere to their treaty with the confederacy. The "strange occurrence" which he refers to was the defection of a part of Drew's regiment from the confederate army and their fighting on the Union side with Opothleyoholo, at Bird's creek, which act he so much deplores; but he tells them they "must return" to duty in the confederate service and that it is to their interest to do so.

January 1, 1862, Mr. Ross wrote to General Pike, acknowledging receipt of amendments made by the rebel senate to the Cherokee treaty, and informing General Pike that the special session of the Cherokee council was called on the Monday following, for their consideration. (See letters, Appendix, No. 8).

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(9) February 25, 1862, Mr. Ross wrote to General Pike that the amendments to the Cherokee treaty had been ratified, and informing the General that Drew's regiment, according to orders received, had promptly marched toward Fayetteville; says he accompanied them twelve miles; assures the General that the regiment will do its duty whenever the conflict with the common enemy shall take place; says he intended to accompany the troops to headquarters to render every aid in his power to repel the enemy; says the mass of the Cherokees are all right in sentiment for the support of their alliance with the southern confederacy. (See copy of letter, Appendix, No. 9.)

He, Mr. Ross, did not at that time think that either he or the Cherokee people were loyal to the United States. Drew's and Watie's regiments had gone to the battle then soon to transpire at Pea Ridge, and there was no other rebel force in the nation; if, as he now says, he was only watching for an opportunity to make his escape, and did escape from the nation at the first opportunity which offered, we are not shown, and I cannot see, anything to prevent him from leaving at the time he wrote the letter.

March 22, Mr. Ross wrote to General Pike (see copy of letter, No. 10), requesting that Drew's regiment might be stationed near the place of his (Ross') residence. In this letter Mr. Ross asserts the exposure of the northern and eastern borders of the Cherokee nation after the battle of Pea Ridge, and asserts, that the treasures and records of the nation are wholly unprotected and that, if even a few lawless men should combine for plunder or mischief, he would be in danger.

If, as he asserts, he was forced by the rebel army to sign the treaty, if he was all the time loyal, if he was only waiting for an opportunity to escape from the rebels to the Union lines, I think this would have been the right time to try it. When, as he asserts in this letter, there was so little rebel force in the nation that it could not keep out a few individuals seeking plunder or mischief, I hardly suppose it could keep in a man with many relations and friends and an armed regiment of his own raising, who wished to go out of the nation.

March 24, 1862, Ross to _-------- (See Appendix, letter No. 11). This letter of Mr. Ross is no otherwise important than as it shows the persevering zeal of the writer in the rebel cause.

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April 10, 1862, Mr. Ross writes to General Pike. (See copy of letter, Appendix, No. 12). In this letter he thanks General Pike for stationing Colonel Drew's regiment near Park Hill. He says great anxiety exists in view of the unprotected condition of the Cherokee country since the battle of Pea Ridge and the withdrawal of General Price's army, and also lest marauding parties of United States soldiers will overrun the country. This letter again shows how easily Mr. Ross might have escaped to the Union lines if he desired it, when no rebel force but his own friends of Drew's regiment was in the nation, the officers of which, it is claimed, were true Union men appointed by himself.

I will now recur to the letter of General Pike, so often referred to above. On page 4 of this letter General Pike says:

(10) "Meanwhile he (Mr. Ross) had persuaded Opothleyoholo, 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, when they all agreed to be neutral. The object was to take advantage of the war between the States and form a great independent Indian confederation"—and that he saw the letter of Mr. Ross and published it in Texas. This letter, I never saw and cannot produce, but I fully believe the statement of General Pike. If the statement is true, and I believe it is, what a commentary it is on the pretended loyalty of Mr. Ross! To pretend and publish that he was loyal to the United States at that time, to draw it mildly, is pitiable effrontery.

Again, General Pike says, same letter, page 10 of original:

"In May, 1862, Lieutenant 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!" This, it will be recollected, was in May, 1862, when there was not, by Mr. Ross' own showing, a confederate soldier, except Drew's regiment, in the Cherokee Nation.¹³

Again, in the same letter, page 11 of the original, General Pike says:

"When Colonel Weer invaded the Cherokee country, Mr. Ross refused to have an interview with him, declaring that the

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Cherokees would remain faithful to their engagements with the Confederate States.¹⁴ 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." (See letter of T. J. Mackey, Appendix, No. 13).

It must be borne in mind that Colonel Weer invaded the Cherokee country the latter part of June, 1862. This refusal was after that date. Mr. Ross, at that time had not ascertained that he and the Cherokee Nation had been coerced in the preceding August. But a few days afterwards he saw it clearly. He first found it out when Drew's regiment abandoned the confederate service and enlisted in the Union army, as graphically described by General Pike in his letter on page 10:

"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, services unrecognized; it was natural the Cherokees should abandon the confederate flag."

This last extract is the key to the loyalty of Mr. Ross and the Cherokee Nation. Prom the beginning of the war to the invasion by Colonel Weer of the nation, as far as I have been able to learn, not one loyal word had ever been written or spoken by any Cherokee, or by Mr. Ross; nor had one word of complaint ever been made by (11) either of coercion, although there was nothing to prevent such a complaint being made to the United States government at any time if such had been the fact. After the soldiers had been in the rebel service ten months, and remaining "unpaid, unclothed, uncared for, unthanked even, services unrecognized," they were easily convinced that they were loyal, and by a slight strain on a lively imagination they could see that they had been loyal to the United States from the first, and that they had been coerced into the rebel service, although nobody else even knew that any rebel soldier ever invaded their country or threatened it; but on the contrary, General McCulloch had promised them (and kept his promise) that they should not be invaded by the rebels unless to repel the United States army from their country.

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As soon as Drew's regiment found that they would not be paid, clothed, or thanked, and that they had been loyal from the beginning, and that they had somehow been forced into the rebel army, the regiment en masse enlisted in the United States army and abandoned the rebel army. When Mr. Ross found himself abandoned by Drew's regiment, he also found that he had always been loyal and some excuse was necessary from him. None presented itself more potent than coercion. Colonel Weir sent a regiment after him and brought Mr. Ross to his headquarters. Since then he has professed loyalty to the United States government from the beginning, and claims that he only made the treaty with the Confederate States because he was forced—that he was forced to remain in the nation by the rebel army. And that as soon as he was emancipated by Colonel Weir, he flew to the Union lines, where his heart always was! With how much truth, or semblance of truth, he makes the claim, in these pages I have attempted to show, from his writings, speeches, conversations, documents, acts, conduct, and the letters of other persons who had means to know, and did know, the matters about which they wrote and spoke.

I do not know how these things may affect others, but to my mind they are conclusive that Mr. Ross, during the short time in which he kept up the pretense of neutrality in his letters, was, in his private conversation, giving assurance to the rebel leaders that he was a secessionist, and was in fact a secessionist. After the Union defeat at Wilson's Creek, when General Lyon lost his life, Mr. Ross thought the Union forever dissolved and secession an accomplished fact. He then made haste to join the rebellion and continued faithful until Drew's regiment abandoned him and Colonel Weir took him prisoner, or, as he says, escorted him out of the nation. This appears from his message to the national council, October 9, 1861, when the treaty was ratified. (See that paper, Appendix, A). Mr. Ross, in that special message to the general council of the Cherokee Nation, uses this language: Neutrality was proper and wise so long as there remained a reasonable probability that the difficulty between the two sections of the Union would be settled," &c., "but when there was no longer reason to believe that the union of States would be continued, there was no cause to hesitate as to the course the Cherokee Nation should pursue." "Our geographical position and domestic institutions (12) allied us to the

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south." This message gives no proof of having been written by a man under coercion, but the spirit with which it is written shows that the heart and soul of the writer entered into the subject.

That he was ever loyal to the United States, I do not believe. His neutral position, which in his letters he maintained for about two months, was only just not disloyal, if taken and maintained in good faith. But even of that excuse his often-repeated verbal declarations only one month after the war commenced, and while in his letters he was pretending neutrality, entirely deprive him. They show that he was assuring the leading rebels that he was not neutral but actually acting as an active emissary of the confederacy. Now it is perfectly apparent that he was acting with duplicity and intended to deceive one or the other party, or both. In this he succeeded. This was before the battle of Pea Ridge. After that battle, both Mr. Ross and the Cherokee people thought and said and acted as interest, not loyalty to the United States, dictated.¹⁵ For ten months they had kept two regiments in the field in the confederate service; so far they kept faith with the Confederate States. When Drew's regiment found they were not paid, clothed or cared for, they abandoned the confederate and joined the Union army, because it was their interest to do so, not because of their loyalty. They had fought for the rebels at Pea Ridge. If they had been paid, clothed and cared for, it is almost certain we never should have heard their clamor of loyalty and coercion.

Mr. Ross says himself that he raised Drew's regiment for the rebel army before the treaty, and while a Cherokee treaty was in full force with the United States. From that time to the invasion of the Cherokee Nation by the forces under Colonel Weir, every letter, every word every act of his, so far as we know or have heard or that he has been able to produce, shows that he was actively and zealously at work, promoting the success of the rebellion. His activity and zeal seem to have met with the approval of the confederate authorities. He seems to have deserved it from them. The Cherokees, two regiments strong, had fought in the battle of Pea Ridge. He says he would have been at headquarters, rendering all the assistance in his power against the common enemy, but for some bad

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conduct of Watie's men. When he made that lucky escape from the thraldom of the rebel army, and got to the Union lines, all his zeal and activity seemed to have forsaken him. He left the nation, and did not return to it for three years, and, so far as I know, manifested no zeal or activity either in the Union cause he loved so well, or for the Cherokees, who so much needed his council, advice and assistance.¹⁶ There has not been one fact brought to my notice, or of which I have heard, which, to my mind, has the slightest tendency to prove coercion by the rebel army, any threat, or anything to cause even the most timid to think there was any fear of it. If there was, why did he not infrom the government of the United States of it?¹⁷ When he thought there was danger of invasion by the Union army, he promptly informed the rebel government of it.

The commission at Fort Smith, in September last, seeing what they (13) did of his bad influence upon the Cherokees, and hearing and believing what we heard, that he was opposed to the treaty being signed; and hearing that he was tampering with the Creeks, and believing it, and being satisfied that he had been from the first a secessionist, and believing he still was; being satisfied that he had acted with duplicity, and in bad faith, and treacherously towards the government of the United States, and believing that he would continue so to act, being satisfied that he was opposed to entering into any treaty with the United States, and believing that he would continue opposed, although so desirable both to the Cherokee people and the government of the United States for their mutual peace and quiet, and so necessary for the best interests of the Cherokee people—the commission, I repeat, unanimously decided not to recognize John Ross as principal chief of the Cherokee Nation. In that decision I concurred. I was then and I am still, satisfied that the decision was necessary, right and proper and should be adhered to by the government.

For more than thirty years there have been two parties in the Cherokee Nation, known to the country as the Ross and Ridge parties. As the parties still, to some extent, remain the same, I may, in this report, continue so to distinguish them, though Ridge was assassinated by the Ross party in 1839. The formation of these parties was caused, as is believed, by discussions which led to and finally culminated in the treaty of 1835

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between the United States and the Cherokee Nation. The Ridge party prevailed and made that treaty. The Ross party opposed it. After the removal of the Cherokees, under that treaty, to their present homes on the Arkansas, the dissatisfaction increased in bitterness and became a deadly feud. This feud with greater or less bitterness, still continued, sometimes irritated and sometimes partially modified by other questions, real or imaginary causes, but never forgiven.¹⁸ Early in the late war, after the treaty made with the rebels, the Ridge party raised a regiment, commanded by General Watie, and joined the rebel army, went south, where they and their families generally remain, and continued in that service to the end of the war.¹⁹ A little earlier in 1861 Colonel Drew, under the direction of Mr. Ross, raised a regiment in the Ross party, who also joined the rebel army, and continued in that service about ten months, when they deserted the rebel army and immediately joined the Union army, and continued to the end of the war. About the same time, from the Ross party was raised another regiment (making two regiments of the Ross party in the Union army), which also remained in the United States service to the end of the war. In June or July, when these two regiments were raised for the Union army, Watie's regiment, with the rebel army, was on the southwest bank of the Arkansas river, where they generally remained for about two years. In July and August, 1862, the Union Army, under Colonel Doubleday, and afterwards Colonel Weer, drove the Ridge party under Stand Watie, from the Cherokee Nation in confusion, capturing all their train and provisions. They abandoned their homes and property to the Ross party, who remained in possession of the nation. For two years marauding parties (14) of the rebel army, composed largely of Cherokees of the Ridge party, crossed the Arkansas river into the Cherokee country and plundered the Ross party until the latter were in as destitute a condition as the former. The depredations were reciprocal, and the black flag seemed to be the banner under which both parties fought. Under these circumstances; the old feud (which never died, but only slept or pretended to sleep short naps) was, of course, revived, and was, I suppose, from the evidence before me, intensified.

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Separate delegations from each party are now in this city, called here for the purpose of making a treaty with the United States. They seem wholly unable to agree on any one material proposition.

The Ridge party requires the Cherokee Nation for the present to be divided into two bands, each to make its own laws and execute them, but to remain component parts of the Cherokee Nation, and when (if ever) a reconciliation takes place, to reunite by their own agreement, or be united by the government. That for the present the territory should be divided, so that the two parties shall each enjoy its own without molestation from the other. They consent to sell or set apart to the United States, for the purpose of settling on it the friendly Indians of Kansas, all of the Cherokee lands lying west of 95° 30' west longitude, and to sell to the United States the neutral land lying in Kansas for a sum of not less than $500,000, with a liberal grant to the several proposed railroads running through the Cherokee country. This is the substance of their propositions.

The Ross party wholly refuse any division for any purpose, and require all who wish to form a part of the Cherokee Nation to come back in a limited time. They agree, like the Ridge party, to sell the neutral land in Kansas, but refuse to sell or set apart any of their lands lying east of the line of 97° west longitude, but they do agree that any of the friendly Indians who will become a part of the Cherokee Nation may settle on and occupy a part of their territory. They will make no grant to railroads, except the right of way over two hundred feet in width to each road, and require the north and south road to pass through Fort Gibson. They offer many other objectionable propositions, not ultimata; but the above are such.

Under the instructions given to the commissioners at Fort Smith for our guidance there, which are still in force for our guidance here, I was compelled to refuse these propositions of the Ross party as wholly inadmissible. They would confirm to the Cherokee people about 6,500,000 acres of land, making about 382 acres to every man, woman and child in the Cherokee Nation—an amount ten times larger than is convenient under their present circumstances and twenty times greater than will be advantageous or convenient when (if ever) they become per-

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fectly civilized. To suffer this amount to lie useless in the hands of the Indians, who cannot use it, and really do not require it, and withhold it from civilization, which does require it, and can and will use it, is to my mind neither wise statesmanship nor good policy.

After several propositions had been made on both sides, and many meetings and conversations had with the Ross Party, under my (15) instructions I presented them with the substance, of what the treaty must contain, set forth in the following paper, (See paper, Appendix, B.)

The reservation therein referred to, east of 95° 30' west longitude, will amount to one hundred and seventy-seven (177) acres to each Cherokee and freed person, men, women and children included. This proposition they peremptorily refused. The account of what took place at this meeting was taken down at the time by a stenographer present for that purpose, and is believed to be correct. (See paper in Appendix, marked C.)

I think the offer of 320 acres to the Ross party much larger than their necessities demand. It is proposed to give them that portion of the country where they are now residing so that they will not be disturbed in their homes or property by the contemplated division.

It will be seen from the foregoing that the feeling existing between the Ross and Ridge parties is extremely bitter, and all attempts at reconciliation have heretofore proved unavailing. It was to meet this state of things that in the original instructions by the President to the commission about to start for Fort Smith last fall the following paragraph was inserted:

"Strife and dissension may, in some instances, have prevailed to such extent in a particular nation or tribe as to result in the formation of contending parties. If it is impracticable to reconcile them to each other and to re-establish their former harmonious relations as members of the same organization, you may recognize them as distinct communities. In that event you will authorize a division, on equitable terms, of its funds and annuities, and the settlement of each party on separate portions of their reservation, to be clearly marked by metes and bounds. Such parties will thereafter be treated as independent

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tribes. You will, however, assure them of the anxious desire of the President that all past differences should be buried in oblivion, and that they should live together as brothers. Your consent to the arrangement above suggested will not be given until all efforts to restore harmony and union shall have proved utterly unavailing."

During the conferences at Fort Smith, at my suggestion a committee of five from each party met for the purpose of compromising and settling their differences, but was unable to accomplish any good result, the Ross party neither at Fort Smith or here having shown any disposition to adjust their differences with the Ridge party upon a basis of justice and equity.

After having made earnest and repeated efforts to harmonize these difficulties, and finding all such efforts fruitless, it has been apparent that the only course left for the commissioners under the above cited instructions was to provide for a just and equitable division of the lands and funds of the Cherokee people and to treat the two parties as "distinct communities." Those instructions must govern the action of this office, unless modified or withdrawn. They have not been modified or withdrawn.

Since the Cherokees have been in this city the Ross party have (16) issued three pamphlets, copies of which accompany this report, marked D, E and F.

The first one issued (D) is but a general history of the Cherokee difficulties, dangers and trials, and an attempt to prove that the Cherokees were loyal to the United States and coerced into the rebellion. Upon this question I have given my views in these pages.

The second pamphlet (E) is mostly a defense of John Ross, strongly insisting on his loyalty, zeal and ability in the Union cause. On his loyalty I have said all I wish to say, except this: that at Fort Smith, when the paper refusing any longer to recognize him as principal chief of the Cherokee Nation was under consideration, he asked the privilege of replying instanter, which was readily granted. He spoke nearly an hour, and showed his loyalty by proving his neutrality to the last of June; said he had always been loyal and then was, and then stopped. Leave was granted his nephew, William P. Ross, to

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take time to prepare himself and reply for him. W. P. Ross, at the time appointed, appeared, and made a very creditable speech in favor of his uncle, John Ross; read a great number of letters asserting his neutrality, and proving it up to the last of June, 1861, about two months after the rebellion commenced; and then he stopped. Pamphlet E, under consideration, prepared under Mr. Ross's eye in this city, asserts his loyalty, as his own speech and the speech of W. P. Ross had done before, and refers to the same letters and papers referred to before by himself and W. P. Ross. I therefore am forced to the conclusion that all that can be said for his loyalty has been said; and all the evidence of loyalty is, that for two months he asserted his neutrality, and that in the first half of that time he had given General Pike and McCulloch full assurance that he would, in a short time, betray the United States and join the rebellion, and did do it.

The pamphlet marked F is but a document arguing the reasonableness of their offer and the unreasonableness of my demand in the paper marked B in the Appendix. I have already said what I had to say about the negotiation, unconscious that I have departed in any way from my instructions.

The Ridge party has published two pamphlets in answer to those published by the Ross party. Whatever else may be said of all these pamphlets, I do not think that there is any want of cayenne to season them. They all show a keen hostility, the one party against the other, and that neither has yet forgotten its ancient grudge, or forgiven it. (See pamphlets marked G and H.)

In the paper heretofore referred to, marked B, I have insisted on a separation, into two bands, of the Cherokees. I have for another purpose, in this report, mentioned the ancient feud of the Cherokees. That feud still exists, as shown by the pamphlets above set forth; and that it has always existed since it first arose there can be no doubt. At different periods of Cherokee history it has shown itself. Nearly every distinguished man of the Ridge party has been killed, and Ridge himself, twenty-eight years ago, fell by the assassin's knife, while many of lesser note on both sides, growing out of this (17) Ross and Ridge feud, have died with violence. The Ridge party joined the rebellion, and with their families went south, where they

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mostly now are. The Ross party say they will forgive them, reinstate them in their homes and afford them protection to life, liberty and property, but they must come back and submit to their jurisdiction. The Ridge party say that their offense is against the United States, and not against the Cherokee Nation, which has no right to talk of forgiveness; they have no confidence in the promises of the Ross party, or any other they may make; they say they have trusted them before, and been deceived. That they are afraid of assassination and depredations on their liberty and property, but more afraid of judicial murders, robberies and deprivations of liberty, than from open assault; and say they never can and never will try to live with the Ross party until there is a decided change, of which they say they can as yet see no signs.

Which party is right, or the nearest right, or which is wrong or most wrong, I have no means of determining. That there is great ill-feeling is agreed by both parties; but they do not agree as to the extent of the hatred. Being myself in doubt, I applied to those who had been longest in the neighborhood, or had lived among them, and such as would be most likely to have a correct opinion as to the probability of the two parties harmonizing and living together in peace and security. I have directed letters to the following named gentlemen, and received their several answers, which will be found in the Appendix hereto.

Answer from Judge Harlan, Cherokee agent, marked I; answer from Judge Tebbetts, marked J; an answer from Charles H. Johnson, marked K; answer from R. T. Van Horn, member of Congress from Missouri, marked L; answer from General Blunt, marked M; answer from General D. H. Cooper, marked N; answer from J. B. Luce, marked O.

These are all the answers that I have received to my letter of inquiry; but these are enough. Every one of these gentlemen is well acquainted with the feuds in the Cherokee Nation; some of them from the time they removed from Georgia to the Arkansas River. All speak of those feuds as of the most deadly kind, and each and all express the opinion that the two parties never can live together in peace, and that they had better be separated for the quiet of the country. I have not yet found one person who dissented from this opinion, except the members of the Ross delegation; and against that opinion that they

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can live together, I would offset the opinion of the Ridge delegation, equally or even more positive, that they cannot. I entertain no doubt but that it is the duty of the United States to insist upon their separation for the peace of the country, and for the welfare of the Indians themselves.

From the various considerations adduced, and documents referred to in this report, the following conclusions are obtained, viz:

That after protracted and diligent efforts, continuing about five months, to make some satisfactory arrangements with the delegates (18) representing the Cherokee national authorities, by which the government of the United States could expect to fulfil its guarantee to protect the nation from domestic strife, such efforts failed.

That there is no reasonable probability of the two parties being able to harmonize their difficulties and live together in peace.

That under the original instructions furnished by the Executive to the commissioners, there remained but one course to pursue, to wit, to make the best possible arrangements for the division of the people and partition of national property and funds.

That, by manifold proof, the Ross party, which refuses to take part in these necessary arrangements, has been so far identified with the late rebellion that they cannot, in common justice and fairness, appeal to the loyal hearts in the government of the United States to take their part to the exclusion of the rights of other parties of the same nation, who, like the Ross party, entered into close relations with the leaders of that rebellion.

Acting under special instructions of the Secretary of the Interior, who has been familiar with the whole course of the negotiations, "to settle and pay the necessary expenses incurred by the delegates representing the northern Cherokees in coming to this city and during their sojourn, and to advance enough to defray their expenses home, and to carry into effect the oral and written instructions of the President in relation to the southern Cherokees," I have, with Commissioners Sells and Parker, concluded and signed, on the 13th instant, articles of

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agreement with the delegates of the southern Cherokees, providing for their separate existence and the division of the national property. This document is laid before you for your constitutional action. If it shall meet with your approval, and be ratified, and go into full effect, we may reasonably hope for a cessation of the long continued troubles of the Cherokee people.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
D. N. COOLEY, Commissioner.

Headquarters McCulloch's Brigade,
Fort Smith, Ark., June 12, 1861.

Sir: Having been sent by my government (the Confederate States of America) to take command of the district embracing the Indian territory, and to guard it from invasion by the people of the north, I take the first opportunity of assuring you of the friendship of my government, and the desire that the Cherokees and other tribes in the territory unite their fortunes with the confederacy. I hope that you, as chief of the Cherokees, will meet me with the same feelings of friendship that actuate me in coming among you, and that I may have your hearty co-operation in our common cause against a people who are endeavoring to deprive us of our rights. It is not my desire to give offense or interfere with any of your rights or wishes, and shall not do so unless circumstances compel me. The neutral position you wish to maintain will not be violated without good cause. In the mean time those of your people who are in favor of joining the confederacy must be allowed to organize into military companies as home guards for the purpose of defending themselves in case of invasion from the north. This, of course, will be in accordance with the views you expressed to me, that, in case of an invasion from the north, you would lead your men yourself to repel it.

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Should a body of men march into your territory from the north, or if I have an intimation that a body is in line of march for the territory from that quarter, I must assure you that I will at once advance into your country if I deem it advisable.

I have the honor to be, Sir, your obedient servant.

BEN. McCULLOCH,
Brigadier General, Commanding.

His Excellency JOHN ROSS,
     Chief of the Cherokee Nation.

Executive Department,
Park Hill, C. N., June 17, 1861.

Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge by the first return mail the receipt of your communication, dated Fort Smith, Ark., the 12th (20) instant, informing me that you have been sent by the government of the Confederate States of America to take command of the district embracing the Indian territory, and to guard it from invasion by the people of the north. For the expression of your friendship, be pleased to accept my heartfelt thanks, and the assurance that I cherish none other than a similar sentiment for yourself and people; am also gratified to be informed that you will not interfere with any of our rights and wishes, unless circumstances compel you to do so, nor violate or molest our neutrality without good cause. In regard to the pending conflict between the United States and the Confederate States, I have already signified my purpose to take no part in it whatever, and have admonished the Cherokee people to pursue the same course. The determination to adopt that course was the result of considerations of law and policy; and seeing no reasons to doubt its propriety, I shall adhere to it in good faith, and hope that the Cherokee people will not fail to follow my example. I have not been able to see any reason why the Cherokee Nation should take any other course, for it seems to me to be dictated by their treaties, and sanctioned by wisdom and humanity; it ought not to give ground for complaint to either side, and should cause our rights to be respected by

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both. Our country and institutions are our own. However small the one or humble the other, they are as sacred and valuable to us as are those of your own populous and wealthy State to yourself and your people. We have done nothing to bring about the conflict in which you are engaged with your own people, and I am unwilling that my people shall become its victims. I am determined to do no act that shall furnish any pretext to either of the contending parties to overrun our country and destroy our rights. If we are destined to be overwhelmed, it shall not be through any agency of mine. The United States are pledged not to disturb us in our rights, nor can we for a moment suppose that your government will do it, as the avowed principles upon which it is struggling for an acknowledged existence are the rights of the states and the freedom from outside interference. The Cherokee people and government have given every assurance in their power of their sympathy and friendship for the people of Arkansas and other Confederate States, unless it be in voluntarily assuming an attitude of hostility toward the government of the United States, with whom their treaties exist, and from whom they are not experiencing any new burdens or exactions. That I cannot advise them to do, and hope that their good faith in adhering to the requirements of their treaties, and of their friendship for all the whites, will be manifested by strict observances of the neutrality enjoined. Your demand, that those people of the nation who are in favor of joining the confederacy be allowed to organize into military companies as home guards for the purpose of defending themselves in case of an invasion from the north, is most respectfully declined. I cannot give my consent to any such organization for very obvious reasons: lst. it would be a palpable violation of my position as a neutral; 2nd, it would place in our midst organized companies not authorized by our laws, but in violation of treaty, and who would soon become efficient instruments in stirring up domestic strife, and creating internal (21) difficulties among the Cherokee people. As in this connection you have misapprehended a remark made in conversation at our interview some eight or ten days ago, I hope you will allow me to repeat what I did say: I informed you that I had taken a neutral position, and would maintain it honestly; but the case of a foreign invasion, old as I am, I would assist in repelling it. I have not signified any purpose as to an in-

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vasion of our soil and an interference with our rights from the United or Confederate States, because I have apprehended none, and cannot give my consent to any.

I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant,

JOHN ROSS,
Principal Chief Cherokee Nation.

Brig. Gen. BEN McCULLOCH,
     Com'g Troops of Confederate States, Fort Smith, Ark.

Park Hill, Cherokee Nation, September 19, 1861.

Friends and Brothers: I have received a few lines from you, written on the back of a hasty note which I had written to the chiefs and headmen of your nation, and from which the following is an extract:

"Brothers:  I am gratified to inform you that the Great Being who overrules all things for good has sustained me in my efforts to unite the hearts and sentiments of the Cherokee people as one man; and at a mass meeting of about four thousand males, at Tahlequah, with one voice we have proclaimed in favor of forming an alliance with the Confederate States, and shall thereby preserve and maintain the brotherhood of Indian nations in a common destiny."

Brothers, if it is your wish to know whether I had written the above note or, not, I will tell you that I did, and in order that you may be fully informed of the whole proceedings of the Cherokee people at the mass meeting stated, and of the reasons which influenced the people to adopt them, I send you herewith several printed copies of my address to the people in convention and of the resolutions adopted by them on that occasion, I wish you to have them carefully read and correctly intrepreted, in order that you may fully understand them.

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Brothers, my advice and desire, under the present extraordinary crises, is for all the red brethern to be united among themselves in support of our common rights and interests by forming an alliance of peace and friendship with the Confederate States of America.

Your Friend and brother,
JOHN ROSS,
Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation.

To OPOTHLEYOHOLO and others of the
     Chiefs and Headmen of the Creek Nation.

Tahlequah, Cherokee Nation, October 8, 1861

Friends and Brothers: Some short time since I received a few lines from you, written on the back of a note of mine to the chiefs and headmen of the Creek nation, informing them that the Cherokee people had resolved in favor of forming an alliance of peace and friendship with the southern confederacy, and you wished to know if I had written that note. I replied that I had; at the same time I sent you a printed copy of my address to a mass meeting of about 4,000 of the Cherokee people; also of their resolutions on that occasion, authorizing a treaty of alliance with the Confederate States. I furthermore informed you that my advice to all red brothers was to be united and friendly among themselves. I have not heard from you since.

Brothers, I am grieved to hear so many bad reports which have been circulated throughout the land; many of them are no doubt false and without foundation, and which, if not corrected and silenced, might lead to trouble and bloodshed. They should by all means be checked if possible.

Motey Kennard, as chief of your nation, has appealed to me for the mediation of your Cherokee brethren, for the purpose of reconciling difficulties alleged to exist among your people in consequence of the late treaty entered into with General Pike.

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I have promptly consented to do all in my power to restore peace among my brethren; and in order to enable me to act efficiently as a true and faithful brother, I have obtained from General Pike letters of safeguard for the protection of yourself and friends in coming to this place and returning home in safety, under the penalty of death for violating them. I have therefore appointed my friend and associate chief, Hon. Jos. Vann, to head a delegation on a mission of peace and to make you a friendly visit; to hold a free and brotherly talk with you, face to face, that you may fully understand the true position of your Cherokee brethren, and especially to invite you and your personal friends to come and visit your Cherokee brethren now assembled in national council at this place, where we may all smoke the pipe of peace and friendship around our great council fire kindled at Tahlequah eighteen years ago, and that all misunderstanding among the family of our red brethren may forever be buried in oblivion.²⁰

Your friend and brother, Hon. Jos. Vann, who is the bearer of important papers to you, will explain more fully the objects of his mission.²¹

I sincerely hope that you will not fail to come with him, to shake the hands of brotherly friendship with your Cherokee brethren.

Your friend and brother,
JOHN ROSS
Principal Chief Cherokee Nation.

TO OPOTHLEYOHOLO AN OTHERS.

Memphis, Tennessee, February 17, 1866.

Sir: I have received, today, 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."

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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 credibility 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 Confederates 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 State.²²

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 both 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.

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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 west with letters to five or six prominent members (24) 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 it was his intention 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 that it would be a cruel thing if we were to engage them in our quarrel. But he said that 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 seperated. 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 Opothleyoholo, the Creek leader, not to join the southern States, and had sent delegates to meet the northern and

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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. Thence I then 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 Fields, on the prairie, bearing a letter to me from Mr. Ross and his council, with a copy of the resolutions of the 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. (25) 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 the 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 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 John Ross; his nephew, William P. Ross, secretary of the nation, being

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lieutenant 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.²³ 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 in the memorial of the southern Cherokees. I no more doubted then that Mr. Ross's 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 Colonel 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 humor, saying the regiment was raised in order to be used to oppress them.

(26) The same day 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 and smoked the great pipe and renewed their alliance, being urged by him to be true to the Confederate States.

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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 dishonor 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 Hopoi-ilthli-Yahola 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 neighbors. 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 northwestern Arkansas in February, 1862, I sent orders from Fort Smith to Colonel Drew to move toward Evansville and receive orders from General McCulloch. Colonel Watie's regiment was already under General McCulloch's command. Colonel Drew's 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 Elkhorn, the regiment of Colonel Drew was moved to the mouth of the Illinois, where I was able, after a time, to pay them $25 each, the commutation for six months' clothing, in confederate money. Nothing more, owing to the wretched management of the Confederate government, was ever paid them; the clothing procured for them was plundered by the commands of General Price and

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Van Dorn. The consequence was that when Colonel Weir 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 4th 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 (27) 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 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 Weir invade