Lincoln and the Indians: Civil War Policy and Politics

XIV. Lincoln and the Indians: "A Great Revolution in the Conduct of Our Indian Affairs"

XIV. Lincoln and the Indians "A Great Revolution in the Conduct of Our Indian Affairs" ABRAHAM LINCOLN CAME to the presidency knowing the: In· dian System only as a rich source of political patronage. Harsh experience educated him to the fact that it was also a system of institutionalized corruption that served as a vehicle for white economic and political gain, not service to Indians. Lincoln learned the truth of Bishop Henry Whipple's assertion that the Indian System "commences in discontent and ends in blood."l Lincoln's perception of the System did not change until blood was shed. He ignored the warnings of reformers and investigators early in his first term. The Indians first demanded his attention be. cause: of the War for the Union. Confederate alliances with the southern tribes and "Bloody Jim" Lane's persistence pushed the president into accepting the Kansas senator's scheme for a great southern expedition. As a result Indian troops were eventually en· listed into the Union army, the expedition was aborted, and the Indian refugees suffered greatly. A corrupt Indian System exploded into war in Minnesota in 1862. That bloody affair demanded men and supplies needed in the war with the South. It nourished the Northern administration's fears that the conflict had been inspired by a Confederate con· spiracy. The Indian war confronted Lincoln with an agonizing decision concerning the fate of more than three hundred Sioux men that had been condemned ,to death by the military because of atroci. I. Henry Benjamin Whipple 10 Willi~m P. Dole, n.d., Box 40, Lcuerbook 4, Henry Iknjamin Whipple Papers. 202 "A GREAT REVOLUTION" ties they had allegedly committed. Lincoln risked political re:taliation when he re:duced the numbe:r of executions. Howe:ver, his de:cision to trade lives for land and money left the Minnesota Indians in worse condition than before the war. In all these matters, Lincoln tended to respond to the political conseque:nces of Indian affairs rathe:r than to the substance of the difficulties that demanded his attention. He addressed the fundamental problem only when confronte:d dramatically and personally , as in the executions. Even then, he put it out of mind as quickly as he could. Lincoln was personally confronted by the events in the Indian Territory and Minne:sota, the proposed executions, and the: incessant arguments of reformers like Bishop Whipple:. The: convergence of me:se: in late 1862 apparently convince:d Lincoln of the need for reform in the Indian System. He proposed its modification to the Congress that December, although he: ne:ver made the crucial commitme :nt to depoliticize that System nor did he use: his e:xe:cutive powers to modify its operation. In any eve:m, Congress rdused to undercut a major source of inAuence for its members. The rdorm movement Aoundered and Lincoln concentrated his attention on the: War for the Union. When the rdorm movement failed, the Lincoln administration adopted the eXpWic:nt policy of concentration. Given war priorities, this plan to consolidate Indian tribes merged with militarism. Military concentration in New Mexico was a fiasco and, in Colorado, military brutality produced the: tragedy at Sand Creek and conse· que:mly discredited schemes for military control of the Indians. The failure to reform the Indian System was tragic for the Indians . That failure came:, in part, because: rdormers could find no way to transform the political and economic machinery of the Syste :m. They failed because they could not break the chain of ideas that bound Native Americans. This was not so much a personal failure as the consequence of thousands of ye:ars of pre:judice that had become fundamental to Europt:an-American culture. This culture : produce:d men like Lincoln who believe:d in a white, Christian, materialistic, and rapidly advancing civilization that was personified 203 LINCOLN AND THE INDIANS in homesteads, gold mines, and the transcontinental railroad. They believed that the pursuit of political and financial gain at the ex~ pense of the Indians was both proper and inevitable. The "savage" was the antithesis of their civilization as far as they were concerned. Therefore, lhe demise of the liavage was probably inevitable. Indians had to become like white men or perish. Most leaders believed that they were a dying race. A Revolution ? This larger cultural perspective must be kept in mind when ask· ing what the impact of...