: 8 Concerning the most momentous fruits of the war, the conquest of the North Mexican States and Alta California, the material is extensive. The official documents are of course the basis,1 and there are various personal experiences among the published books.2 H. H. Bancroft's California (vol. v. being in reality a history of the conquest) is the most abundant source, based on the largest knowledge, with a full statement in notes of all authorities, American and Mexican, essential and even non-essential, including a large amount of manuscript material.1 Bancroft's North Mexican States, vol. ii., has not at present writing been published, and we miss his guidance. On the conquest of New Mexico, conducted in the main by Gen. S. W. Kearny, with his subsequent march to the Pacific, the material is ample.5 campaign of General Scott in the Valley of Mexico (Cincinnati, 1852). The east-coast operations are also touched in Chaplain Fitch W. Taylor's The broad pennant: a cruise in the U. S. flagship of the Gulf Squadron (N. Y., 1848). For the important services of the Mosquito flotilla on the east coast, consult Charles C. Jones's Life and Services of Commodore Josiah Tattnall, Savannah, 1878, ch. 6. 1 [As a whole, they will be found grouped in H. H. Bancroft's No. Mexican States and California, in the lists prefixed to the first volume of each; and particularly see California, v. pp. 233, 241. Poore's Desc. Catal. is another ready key; and many documents are in Niles's Register.- ED.] 2 Gen. (then Lieut.-Colonel) P. St. George Cooke's Conquest of New Mexico and California (N. Y., 1878) covers the infantry march to the Pacific, and the final stages of the conquest there. Walter Colton, a chaplain in the navy, in his Three Years in California (N. Y., 1850, 1852) gives an excellent notion of some aspects of the war. He was made Alcalde of Monterey by Stockton. Lieut. Joseph Warren Revere's Tour of duty in California (N. Y., 1849) is a gossipy and discursive book, but contains much original testimony, of a useful character, as to Stockton's operations, Revere being a lieutenant in his squadron, and taking an active part in the events of the campaign. The same author's The same author's Keel and Saddle (Boston, 1872) is a pleasant, chatty book of naval and other experiences, part of which (pp. 42-50) refers to Stockton's campaign. Cf. W. D. Phelps's Fore and Aft (Boston, 1871). 8 See his abridged statement, "How California was secured,” in the Mag. Amer. Hist., Aug., 1887. * [Among this last are the papers of Consul T. O. Larkin (Bancroft's California, i. p. lviii), who was also in the beginning the secret agent of the United States to effect the transfer of the government of California by peaceful means, whose efforts, it seems apparent, were thwarted by the precipitate conduct of Stockton and Frémont. There has been a good deal of mystery about the exact terms of his instructions from the government, but the Larkin papers revealed the despatch, which is corroborated by the copy at Washington. Both Bancroft and Royce, the latest writers, and possessing the amplest means of judging, make Larkin the main instrument of the conquest. Royce's California (Boston, 1886) is in the "Amer. Commonwealths" series. The author made use of the material in the Bancroft library, and submitted his proofs to Gen. Frémont. There are numerous other general works, but reference need only be made to James Madison Cutts's Conquest of California and New Mexico (Philad., 1847), with its app. of official documents; John S. Hittell's Hist. of San Fran cisco, who takes the better developed views; Tuthill's Hist. of California, of the old beliefs; the Annals of San Francisco, etc. The Mexican side is presented in a condensed way in the translation, The other side, of the leading Mexican account, ch. 26. — ED.] 5 Cf. list in Bancroft's No. Mexican States, vol. i.; his California, i. p. lvii; Poore's Desc. Catal., etc. For Kearny's instructions, see Bancroft's California, v. 334. California, v. 334. On his march he met Kit Carson (Pettis's Life of Kit Carson), who told him of the success of Stockton and Frémont. Emory's Notes of a mil. reconnoissance from Fort Leavenworth, Mo., to San Diego, Cal. (Washington, 1848, 30th Cong., 1st sess., Ho. Ex. Doc. 41), elucidates this march. [Bancroft (v. 337) gives other references, and some (Ibid. v. 352–3) on the San Pasqual campaign, fought on the way, in hostile review of which Thos. H. Benton made a speech, July, 1848 (Cong. Globe, 1847–48, app. 977; Benton's Debates, and Thirty Years' View). There are some episodes of the Northern campaign. Bancroft (v. 477) bases his account of the march of the Mormon battalion from Santa Fé to California on Sergt. Daniel Tyler's Concise Hist. of the Mormon battalion in the Mex. War (Salt Lake City, 1881). Kearny left a garrison at Santa Fé under Col. Sterling Price, who put down an insurrection (Dawson, ii. th. 105; Mag. Amer. Hist., October, 1887). A detachment was sent under Col. Doniphan to join Gen. Wool in an attack on Chihuahua Meanwhile, what is known as the "Bear Flag insurrection" had taken place in California in anticipation of the declaration of war, and Frémont had ranged his small force on the side of the American insurgents, who justified themselves by a belief, with no considerable foundation, that the Spanish authorities were preparing to expel them, and with the further belief that England would seize the country unless they did, which, in the opinion of Bancroft and Royce, was equally unfounded.1 Bancroft gives abundant references.2 The conduct of Frémont in precipitating an armed revolt without warrant, and in embarrassing the efforts at a more peaceful acquisition, is set forth, according to such views, both by Bancroft and Royce. Royce's masterly marshalling of evidence and cogent reasoning point to the conclusion that Frémont's plan was the result of a family intrigue. The plan was doubtless suggested to Frémont by Senator Benton, but whether on the strength of a private understanding with the Secretary of State does not appear. If so, Buchanan covered his tracks completely. The hypothesis that the State Department intended a demonstration of force, and used Benton as its intermediary with Frémont, is rendered improbable, though not absolutely negatived, by the absence of corroborative evidence, and by the incompatibility of the scheme with that embodied in the instructions to Commo. Sloat and Consul Larkin. Frémont has since published the first volume of his Memoirs of my Life (Chicago and New York, 1887), which comes down to the close of hostilities, but does not include the subsequent judicial investigations of his conduct. His narrative embodies his own representations and views, but is not thought by his critics to be determinate upon the mooted points of his exceeding his orders. Commodore Sloat, the naval commander on the coast, first raised the American flag at Monterey; but he did not favor the revolutionary schemes.5 When Sloat left the com (Dawson, ii. ch. 104). There are some personal narratives : Frank S. Edward's Campaign in New Mexico with Col. Doniphan (Philad., 1847; London, 1848), with a map of the route, and some official papers in an appendix. The Fournal of Wm. H. Richardson, a private soldier under the command of Col. Doniphan (N. Y., 1848, 3d ed.). The little Journal of the Santa Fé Expedition under Col. Doniphan, which left St. Louis in June, 1846, kept by Jacob S. Robinson (Portsmouth, 1848). — Ed.] The essential review of the whole matter, however, is Doniphan's Expedition, containing an account of the Conquest of New Mexico; Gen. Kearny's overland Exped. to California; Doniphan's campaign against the Navajos [and] Chihuahua . . . and the operations of Gen. Price at Santa Fé, by John J. Hughes of the 1st Missouri Cavalry (Cincinnati, 1848, 1850), with maps. He had the advice of leading officers and his own experience. 1 Bancroft, v. 209. 2 California, v. ch. 4–8, and references, particularly at p. 187. One of the most important books is A biog. sketch of the life of Wm. B. Ide (privately printed, Claremont, N. H., 1880),—a book which claims for Ide the leading influence which was claimed for Frémont. For an estimate of this book, see Royce, 67 et seq. Ide was a native of Massachusetts, and he had lived in Vermont and at the West before he joined the train of emigrants to California in 1845, and in the next year he came into prominence in the Bear Flag affairs, and issued a proclamation as their leader; under which the movement was to secure independence and political equality. Ide had, says Royce, "all our common national conscience; was at heart both kindly and upright, and an idealist of the ardent and abstract type." 8 [The inference from what these writers say seems to be, that Frémont, by the lapse of years in which he has nourished the notion of his preeminence in the matter, has reached a stage where his judgment is warped and his memory treacherous. Royce succeeded in getting from him certain statements, that in that writer's judgment indicate this; and Bancroft (v. 189) says, that Frémont often promised, but as often failed to furnish to him a statement. - ED.] * John Bigelow's Life of Frémont (N. Y., 1856) is an excellent book, and gives many of the California documents. [Frémont, in furtherance of his plan, seized horses and supplies from the people, and the demands for payment made by the sufferers on the government, constitute what are known as Frémont's California claims, and the testimony adduced in sustaining these claims constitutes a body of proofs as to the events. Cf. 30th Cong., 1st sess., Sen. Rept., no. 75; H. H. Bancroft's California, v. 462, with references. — ED.] 5 Sloat's despatches, 31st Cong., 1st sess., Ho. Ex. Doc. 1. mand to Commo. Stockton, it fell into the hands of an officer more ready to join Frémont in his plans, and Stockton made to the government an extensive Report in vindication of his conduct.1 Upon the revolt and final reconquest, there are much the same resources as for the earlier matters.2 James Russell Soley 1 Dated Feb. 18, 1848 (31st Cong., 1st sess. Ho. Ex. Doc., i.; Despatches relating to mil. and naval operations in California (Washington, 1849). Royce is perhaps unduly severe in his strictures on Stockton, and thinks that the latter magnified his own importance. At a later day, when Stockton was a possible candidate for the presidency, there was then written an anonymous Sketch of the life of Commodore Robert F. Stockton (N. Y., 1856), chap. 9 to 12. It contains in an appendix Stockton's correspondence with the Navy Department, and with officers in California, and extracts from the defence of Colonel Frémont. Valuable as the work is, it was written as a campaign document, and it abounds too much in unqualified panegyric to be taken without large grains of allow ance. An interesting little paper on Commodore Stockton is contained in Josiah Quincy's Figures of the Past, Boston, 1883. Other of the naval operations on the coast appear in the Official Despatches of Adm. Du Pont (Wilmington, Del., 1883) and the cruise of the "Cyane" by Du Pont in the Proc. of the U. S. Naval Inst., 1882, p. 419. 2 [Beside Bancroft, Royce, Tuthill, Cutts, Cooke, Colton, Revere, and the Annals of San Francisco, already referred to, add Edwin Bryant's What I saw in California (N. Y., 1848); Hall's Hist. of San José, with the references in Bancroft, v. 396. The final quarrels of Stockton and Frémont with Kearny, who wished to assume command on his arrival, and was resisted by both Stockton and Frémont, led to charges against Frémont, and to a court-martial, the report of which is one of the chief sources for the study of events (30th Cong., 1st sess., Sen. Ex. Doc. no.33; Bancroft's California, v. 396, 456). Some of the closing events are treated in the Memoirs of Gen. W. T. Sherman (N. Y., 1886, 2d ed.), vol. i. ch. 2. — ED.] and EDITORIAL NOTES. A. THE INDIAN TREATIES AND WARS.-Judge Story (Commentaries on the Constitution, vol. i.) elucidates the method of acquiring the Indian title to lands. As regards the Indian right of occupancy, and the relations of guardian and ward between the United States and the Indians, see Marshall's opinion in Wheaton, viii. 543; and the opinion in Peters, v. p. 1.1 Various collections of the early treaties of the Federal government with the Indians have been printed.2 The Creeks, or Muscogees, were left by Great Britain, after the peace of 1783, to make the best terms they could with the new Republic, and in a treaty at Augusta, in 1783, those Indians agreed to extensive cessions of territory, which were confirmed and enlarged by treaty, made by the State of Georgia with them at Galphinton in 1785, and at Shoulderbone in 1786,3 and this by securing their allegiance to a single State somewhat complicated matters, when later in 1790 they bound themselves to no power but the United States. The cessions of 1783 failed to command the acquiescence of a considerable part of the Creek tribe, and banding under a half-breed chief, Alexander M'Gillivray, they carried on for some years a desultory strife known as the Oconee War. The Spaniards, claiming that the Creek Country was theirs by 1 For the history of legal relations with the Indians, see Kent's Commentaries, 2d ed., iii. 376. Cf. George E. Ellis's Red man and the White man in No. America (Boston, 1882), ch. 9; Laws of the Colonial and State governments, relating to Indians and Indian affairs, 1633–1831 (Washington, 1832); and on the connection of the War Department with Indian affairs, Ingersoll's War Depart ment. 2 Indian treaties: laws and regulations relating to Indian affairs (Washington, 1826); Treaties between the U. S. and Indian Tribes, 1778–1837 (Washington, 1837). The Indian treaties are in the Statutes at Large, vii., and as far as operative at a late day they appear in the Compilation of all the treaties between the U. S. and Indian tribes, now in force (Washington, 1873). A summary of the early treaties in the Northwest is in Albach's Annals of the West, 522, 623; and in Knapp's Maumee Valley, ch. 3. Schoolcraft (Indian Tribes, ii. 596) gives a list of Indian land cessions, beginning with 1795. 8 State Papers, Ind. Aff., i. 616. ♦ Absalom H. Chappell's Miscellanies of Georgia (Columbus, Ga.), 1874; and the treaties with the Indians, in conquest from Great Britain during the Revolutionary War, inveigled M'Gillivray into making a treaty at Pensacola in 1784, by which the Creeks formed an alliance with Spain,1 under which the war was continued, the most considerable conflict occurring at Jack's Creek in 1787, when they were defeated by Gen. Elijah Clark.2 M'Gillivray and other chiefs went to New York in 1790, when General Knox, as Secretary of War, concluded a treaty, Aug. 7, by which, and in violence of their treaty at Pensacola, they came under the protection of the United States. Certain territories were retroceded to them, but not sufficient to satisfy all the tribe, so that the war still fitfully continued.8 After Spain, by the treaty at San Lorenzo, Oct. 27, 1795,4 had come to terms with the United States, yielding to them all claims to the Creek country, the Creeks finally, in June, 1796, ended the war by the treaty of Colraine. Meanwhile General Clark, who had been enlisted by Genet to invade Spanish territory, finding by Genet's downfall that he was left to himself, endeavored, in 1794, with his men to establish a state within the bounds granted to the Creeks; but his rebellion was short-lived.5 Col. Benj. Hawkins was the first Indian agent among them,6 and prepared an account of their country in 1798-99, which was found among his papers (afterwards in the Georgia Hist. Soc.), and this, edited by Wm. Brown Hodgson, was published by that society in 1848.7 In 1786, Jan. 16, there had been a treaty made with the Chickasaws at Hopewell, which had been opposed by a leading Tennessean, Col. Robertson.9 In 1788, the Cherokees had accused the whites, under John Sevier, of intruding upon their lands.10 Rufus King (June 5, 1794) had reported in the Senate on carrying on offensive operations against the Creeks and Cherokees; but in 1796 a treaty was made at Holston with the Cherokees, in which those Indians subjected themselves to the United States, and in 1798 made further cessions of land to the United States.11 In 1798, the agents of Tennessee recapitulated the history of the successive land-treaties with the Indians in a communication which is given in Putnam's Middle Tennessee, p. 550. Georgia was reimbursed in 1827 12 by the United States for her expenses in these Indian wars. The bounds of the Six Nations at the close of the Revolutionary War is shown in the Map of part of the State of N. Y., etc., made in 1783-84, by John Aldam and John Wallis.18 At Fort Schuyler, Oct. 22, 1784, the Six Nations, meeting the American commissioners, Oliver Wolcott, Richard Butler, and Arthur Lee, surrendered by treaty their claims to lands west of Pennsylvania.14 The New York commissioners concluded, meeting usually at Fort Stanwix, sundry treaties in 1788 and 1789, with the Onondagoes, Oneidas, and Cayugas.15 Washington, in his message of Aug. 7, 1789, had recommended the appointment of a commission to treat with the Indians. In Nov., 1790, Col. Pickering at Tioga Point held a council with the Senecas, and in Dec., 1790, Cornplanter and a party of the Senecas had an interview with the President.16 The relations of the government, just after the Revolution, with the Indians of the Northwest is well which Georgia was interested, in Geo. White's Hist. Coll. of Georgia (N. Y., 1855); Pickett's Alabama, ii. 30. 1 State Papers, Ind. Aff., i. 278. Cf., for Spanish intrigue, State Papers, iv. 89; Sparks's Washington, x. 267 ; Corresp. of the Rev., iv. 272–279; and the Senate Report, Aug. 17, 1789, for the relations with the Creeks. 2 Chappell; Stevens's Georgia; White's Hist. Coll. 3 Cf. Putnam's Middle Tennessee. • Statutes at Large, viii. 140. 5 Chappell, p. 43, controverting Stevens's Georgia on the facts. Cf. St. Pap. Ind. Aff., i. 6 Cf. acc. in Chappell. 7 Collections, iii., and separately (Savannah, 1848). 8 Fournals of Congress, iv. 628. 9 A. W. Putnam's Hist. of Middle Tennessee, or life and times of Gen. James Robertson (Nashville, 1859), ch. 14, 15; Stevens's Georgia, ii. 410. 10 Journals of Congress, iv. 859. 18 Amer. St. Papers, Ind. Affairs, i.; Hough, i. 161; Harvey, ch. 16, 17; Upham's Pickering, ii. 460; Timothy Alden's Account of sundry missions (N. Y., 1827); and J. R. Snowden's Cornplanter memorial. An historical sketch of Gy-ant-wa-chia-the Cornplanter, and of the six nations of Indians. Report of Samuel P. Johnson, on the monument at Jennesadaga. Published by order of the legislature of Pennsylvania (Harrisburg, 1867). There are more extensive accounts of Red Jacket, the other Seneca chief of this time. The Life of Red Jacket, by W. L. Stone, has a good account of Indian conferences and (p. 194) an engraving of the medal given to him by Washington, and always worn by him. The series of Indian medals of the successive Presidents is represented in Loubat's Medallic Hist. U. S. (N. Y., 1878). There are portraits of Red Jacket in the Long Island Hist. Soc.; one by Neagle in the Penna: Hist. Soc.; another in M'Kenney and Hall, i. p. 1; and a sitting figure 11 Stevens, ii. 454; Pickett's Alabama, ii. 145; Sumner's by S. Eastman in Schoolcraft's Indian tribes, iii. 198. Cf. Jackson, p. 177. 12 Cf. on the removal of the Cherokees at about this time, Poore's Descriptive Catal.; Drake's Book of the Indians (iv. ch. 33); Curtis's Webster, i. 283; Benton's Debates; Jeremiah Evarts's Essays on the present crisis in the condition of the Indians (Boston, 1829), etc. 13 Given in F. B. Hough's Proceedings of the Commissioners of Indian affairs in the State of N. Y. (Albany, 1861). 14 Journals of Congress, iv. 531; Amer. St. Papers, Ind. Aff., i. 206; F. B. Hough's Proc. of the Commissioners of Ind. Affairs in N. Y. (Albany, 1861), vol. i. 64; Stone's Brant and Red Jacket; Hubbard's Red Jacket, 38. 15 Hough, i. 198, 241; ii. 307, 428. Harper's Mag., xxxii. 323. Some of his speeches were published at the time (Sabin, xvi. 68,472, etc.). J. N. Hubbard's Account of Sa-go-ye-wat-ha, or Red Facket and his people, 1750-1830 (Albany, 1886), written to reflect a more kindly spirit towards him than Red Jacket's friends felt Stone to have shown, is mainly, however, derived from Stone. The remains of Red Jacket were reinterred, with ceremony and addresses, in Wood Lawn Cemetery, Buffalo, Oct. 9, 1884. Buffalo Hist. Soc. Trans. iii.; Mag. West. Hist. Dec., 1884; Hist. Mag. v. 73. Cf. G. S. Conover's Birth-place of Sa-go-ye-wat-ha or the Indian Red Jacket, the great orator of the Senecas. With a few incidents of his life (Waterloo, N. Y., 1884); Drake's Book of the Indians, v. ch. 6. . 1 Lossing, pp. 157, 778. (448) |