SECESSION CONVENTION IN ARKANSAS. 473 seventy-five members, forty of whom were regarded as Unionists. These were so decided and firm, that no ordinance of secession could be passed. The conspirators were disheartened, and, for a while, despaired of success. At length they accomplished by a trick, what they could not gain by fair means. A self-constituted Committee, composed of "Secessionists" and "Co-operationists," reported an ordinance providing for an election, to be held on the 17th of August following, at which the legal voters of the State should decide by ballot for "Secession" or "Co-operation." If a majority of the votes then cast should be for "Secession," that fact was to be considered in the light of instruction to the Convention to pass an ordinance to that effect; if for "Co-operation," then measures were to be used, in conjunction with the Border Slave-labor States "yet in the Union," for the settlement of existing difficulties. To this fair proposition the Unionists in the Convention agreed, and the vote on the question was unanimous. Taking advantage of the excitement caused by the attack on Fort Sumter, the President's call for troops, and the events at Baltimore, Governor Rector (whose election had been gained by the influence of the "Knights of the Golden Circle") and his disloyal associates adopted measures immediately for arraying Arkansas on the side of the conspirators without consulting the people. We have already observed the insulting response of the Governor to the President's call. This was followed by a high-handed measure on the part. of the President of the Convention, who professed to be a loyal man. violation of the pledge of that body, that the whole matter should be submitted to the people in August, he issued a call for the Convention to reassemble on the 6th of May. It met on that day. The number of delegates present was seventy. An Ordinance of Secession, previously pre 1 See page 187. 2 See page 337. 474 FRAUD AND VIOLENCE IN ARKANSAS. pared, was presented to it at three o'clock in the afternoon, when the hall in which the delegates met was densely crowded by an excited populace. It was moved that the "yeas" and "nays" on the question should be taken without debate. The motion was rejected by a considerable majority, but the President declared it to be carried. Then a vote on the Ordinance was taken, and a majority appeared against it. The conspirators were determined not to be foiled. The President, who seems to have been a plastic instrument in their hands, immediately arose, and in the midst of the cheers of the people, vehemently urged the Unionists to change their votes to "ay" immediately. It was evident that a large number of that crowd were prepared to compel them to do so, and the terrified Unionists complied, with only one exception, and that was Isaac Murphy, who was compelled to fly for his life. He was rewarded for his fidelity by the Unionists, who elected him Governor of the State in 1864. An Thus, by fraud and violence, Arkansas was placed in the position of a rebellious State. The Convention then authorized the Governor to call out sixty thousand men, if necessary, for military duty. The State was divided into two military divisions, eastern and western. General Bradley was appointed to the command of the Eastern Division, and General Pearce, late of the National Army, was made commander of the Western Division. ordinance was also passed confiscating all debts due from citizens of Arkansas to persons residing in the Free-labor States, and all the personal property belonging to such persons in Arkansas at the time of the passage of the Ordinance. A system of terrorism was at once commenced. Unionists were every where shamefully persecuted. They were exiled, imprisoned, and murdered. Confederate troops from Texas and Louisiana were brought into the State to occupy it and overawe the loyalists; and Arkansas troops, raised chiefly by fraud and violence, were sent out of the State, for the conspirators would not trust them. Not content with this usurpation at home, Governor Rector and his associates, acting under the directions of the arch-conspirators at Montgomery, took measures to attach to their cause, by persuasion or coercion, the powerful civilized Indians residing in the Territory adjoining the western bounda ries of Arkansas and northern Texas. These were the Cherokees, Choctaws, and Chickasaws, numbering at that time about forty thousand souls.' There were also in that region a remnant of the Creek Nation who formerly inhabited Alabama, and some Senecas and Shawnoese from the North, who had lately gone there on a visit. It was believed that a band of efficient warriors might be drawn from these nations, whose very name would be terrible; and through the resident agents, who were secessionists, and by other means, the work of corruption and coercion was vigorously commenced among them. @ 1861. A brother of Governor Rector was then Government agent among the Cherokees, and used all his influence to seduce them from their allegiance. When, in May, Jefferson Davis ordered three regi 1 The Cherokees numbered twenty two thousand, the Choctaws about eighteen thousand, and the Chickasaws about five thousand. A large proportion of these were engaged in the pursuits of civilized life, especially the Cherokees, who had many flourishing schools. REBEL EMISSARIES AMONG THE INDIANS: 475 ments of these Indians to be formed, he commissioned Albert Pike,' a poet of some pretensions, who was a native of New England, but had long resided in Arkansas, to make a treaty with them to that effect. Pike went into the Indian country, where he met them in council. He succeeded with the less civilized Choctaws and Chickasaws, and by virtue of a treaty made with them, they were entitled to the privilege of having two of their number occupy seats as delegates in the "Congress" of the conspirators at Montgomery. Two regiments of these Indians were raised, and, under Pike, who was commissioned a brigadier-general, they joined the army of the conspirators. A third regiment was organized before the close of 1861. We shall meet Pike and his dusky followers hereafter, among the Ozark Mountains. ALBERT PIKE. The Cherokees and Creeks were not so easily moved. The venerable John Ross, who for almost forty years had been the principal Chief of the Cherokees, took a decided stand against the secessionists, and resisted them so long as he had the power. On the 17th of May" he issued a proclamation, in which he reminded his people of their treaty obligations to the United States, and urged them to be faithful in the observance of them. He exhorted them to take no part in the exciting @ 1861. events of the day, but to attend to their ordinary avocations; and not to be alarmed by false reports circulated among them by designing men, but to cultivate peace and friendship with the inhabitants of all the States. He 1 Pike was a remarkable man. He was a native of Boston, and was then fifty-one years of age, with long gray flowing locks. He dressed himself in gaudy costume and wore an immense plume to please the Indians. He seems to have gone into the rebellion heartily, forgetful of the warnings of his own remarkable prophecy, which he put in the following words, toward the close of a poem entitled Dissolution of the Union, written before the war. After describing civil war and its effects, he says to the deceived people: "Where are your leaders? Where are they who led Your souls into the perilous abyss? The bravest and the best are lying dead, Shrouded in treason and dark perjuries: The most of them have basely from you fled, Fled into lands that Liberty disowns, Encrouched within the shadow of tall thrones." 476 INDIAN LOYALISTS OVERPOWERED. earnestly urged them to observe a strict neutrality, and to maintain a trust that God would not only keep from their borders the desolation of war, but stay its "ravages among the brotherhood of States." But Ross and his loyal adherents among the Cherokees and Creeks were overborne by the tide of rebellion, and were swept on, powerless, by its JOHN RO88. tremendous current. The forts on the frontier of Texas (Gibson, Arbuckle, and Washita), used for their defense, had, as we have observed, been abandoned by United States troops, in consequence of the treason of Twiggs, and the Indians were threatened by an invasion from that State. Fort Smith, on the boundary-line between Arkansas and the Indian Territory,' had also been evacuated, and was now in possession of the insurgents. Their immediate neighbors, the Choctaws and Chickasaws, with wild tribes westward of them, were rallying to the standard of the conspirators; and the National troops in Missouri were unable to check the rising rebellion there. Isolated and weak, and perceiving no hope for relief by their Government, the chief men of the Cherokees held a mass meeting at Tahlequah in August," and with great unanimity declared their allegiance to the "Confederate States." Ross still held out, but, finally yielding to the force of circumstances and the teachings of expediency, he called on the Council of the Cherokee Nation to assemble at Tahlequah on the 20th of the same month, when he sent in a message, recommending the severance of their connection with the National Government, and an alliance with the "Confederates." Four days afterward,' he sent a note to an ⚫ August 24. officer of the insurgent forces, covering dispatches to Ben McCulloch, under whom the Indians and some Texan troops were to act, informing him that the Cherokee Nation had espoused the cause of the conspirators. The wife of Ross, a young and well-educated woman, still held out; and when an attempt was made to raise a "Confederate" flag over the Council ⚫ August 2, 1861. 1 The boundary-line runs through the fort. It is at the confluence of the Arkansas and Poteau Rivers, and near it is the city of Fort Smith, at which an immense trade with the Indians and New Mexicans was carried on before the war. It was next to Little Rock, the capital of the State, in population. 2 The following is a copy of Ross's note: "To Major G. W. CLARK, A. Q. M., C. S. A.: "EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, "SIR:-I herewith forward to your care dispatches for General McCulloch, C. S. A., which I have the honor to request you will cause to be forwarded to him by earliest express. At a mass meeting of about four thousand Cherokees, at Tahlequah, on the 21st inst., the Cherokees, with marked unanimity, declared their allegiance to the Confederate States, and have given their authorities power to negotiate an alliance with them. In view of this action, a regiment of mounted men will be immediately raised, and placed under command of Colonel John Drew, to meet any emergency that may come. The dispatches to General McCulloch relate to the subject, and contain a tender from Colonel Drew of his regiment, for service on our northern border. Having espoused the cause of the Confederate States, we hope to render efficient service in the protracted war which now threatens the country, and to win the liberal confidence of the Confederate States. "I have the honor to be, Sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, JOHN Ross, "Principal Chief Cherokee Nation." PRINCIPAL CHIEF OF THE CHEROKEES. 477 House, she opposed the act with so much spirit, that the insurgents desisted. Equally spirited was the head Chief of the Creeks. After fighting the insurgents in the field, he was driven into Kansas, where he died in 1864. During the civil war, the Cherokees suffered terribly, at times, from the depredations of guerrilla bands of rebels, who infested the western borders of Missouri and Arkansas and Upper Texas, roaming through the Indian country, and committing violence and robberies everywhere. Three of the most noted of the leaders of these robber bands were named, respectively, Taylor, Anderson, and Tod, who gave to the bravest of their followers a silver badge, star-shaped, and bearing their names. The secessionists would not trust Chief Ross. Indeed, his loyalty to his country was so obvious that they were about to arrest him, when he fled to the North with some National troops who penetrated the Cherokee country in 1862. About fifty of his relations escaped with him. During the remainder of the war he and his family resided in Philadelphia, where the writer had a long and interesting interview with him early in 1865. Mr. Ross had in his possession one of the guerrilla badges just mentioned, of which an engraving, the size of the original, is given below. He was then seventy-four years of age. He was of medium hight, compactly built, with abundant white hair, and having only one-eighth of Indian blood in his veins, he had every appearance of a purely white man. His life, as principal Chief of the Cherokees during their emergence from Paganism, their persecutions and sufferings while eastward of the Mississippi, and their settlement and advancement in their new homes westward of the Father of Waters, had been an exceedingly interesting one. Taylor |