The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1873-04-04
The Greatest of Hangings.

The Greatest Of Hangings.
The greatest hanging that ever occur
red in the United States took place in
1868, in the town of Mankato, Blue Earth
county, Minnesota, which is situated
near the southern border of the State
In the previous J ear a great Indian war
had ragged on the frontier, during which
over 700 whites, mostly women and chill
dren, were massacred and on the defeat
of the Indians and the end of the war,
303 of the savages were tried by court
martial for murder and condemned to
death. President Lincoln interfered,
however, TO prevent such Wholesale in
J fiction of the death penalty, and respited
all but thirty-eight, who were hanged to-
gether in the presence of a vast crowd
which had assembled from all directions
to witness the execution.
A correspondent Of the Cincinnati
Commercial has recently conversed with
witnesses of the terrible scene, who gave
him full account of the affair. When
the death warrant was read to the thirty
eight condemned Indians, they received
their sentence very coolly. Not fully
comprehending the import of the instru-
ment at the close of the first paragraph,
they gave hearty grunt of approval
but as the reading proceeded, and they
discovered the drift Of the document,
they refrained from further manifesto
tions of appreciation, though they smoked
their pipes composedly to the end.
Nearly all of them maintained n stoical
demeanor up TO the time of their execu-
ton, except when the caps were placed
on their heads. These caps were made
long, and looked like meal sacks, but be-
ing rolled up, only covered the forehead,
allowing their painted faces to be seen.
When they had been adjusted on a few
of the Indians, so that each could see
the undignified and grotesque effect on
the others, they appeared to be exceed
ingly Inundated and disheartened But
they are described as having gone cheer
fully to the gallows, some even jostling
and crowding the Others in their eager
ness to be first. AS they assembled the
scaffold, the death song was started, and
when they had all got up the noise of
their deep, swelling voices was fearfully
impressive.
When the scaffold fell and left the
thirty-eight bodies dangling in the air,
several of the condemned were seen en-
deavoring to clasp each others hands.
One young fellow managed to get cigar
under his white cap, and smoked it to
the last. The Indians respited by Presi-
dent Lincoln were taken to an island i'll
the Mississippi near Davenport, where
they were closely confined for year,
after which they were transferred to a
barren reservation in an extremely cold
region, where they were turned loose to
freeze or starve.
The horrible execution at Mankato,
the war preceding it, and the. consequent
butchery of the whites, all resulted from
long continued and iniquitous system
of swindling the Indians carried on by
the traders and the agents of the Gov
eminent. The leading chiefs in the dis
turbance of 1862 did not wish to go to
war, but they had been robbed beyond
endurance. At one time over 800, 200
due the Sioux was paid not to them, but
TO gang of traders, on the plea of old
Indictment They were also induced to
sign papers which they could not read,
and these papers were used to get money
and goods belonging to them. On one
occasion famous chief named Red Iron
was locked up in guard-house by the
Indian agents for refusing to sign one OF
these papers, and this act nearly precip-
itated an outbreak. At last, having been
swindled out of their lands and the
money which should have been paid
them, and after losing l,500 of their old
men, women and children by starvation
and exposure, they resolved to go to war
after the Indian fashion, sparing neither
women nor children.
The story is a shocking one, but it is
still more shocking to know tina this
and many others very much like it could
never have been told but for the infamous
dishonesty which has characterized and
still pervades the administration of In
dian affairs.-NeW York Sun.