The democrat. [volume] (Weston, W. Va.) 1868-1874, 1873-04-07
The Greatest of HaprIurs.

The greatest hanging that ever oc-
Cured in the United States took place
in 1868 in the town Of Mankato, Blue
Earth county, Minnesota, which is sit
uated near the southern border Of the
State. In the previous year great In
dian war had rugged on the frontier,
during which over seven hundred whites,
mostly women and children, were mas
sacred, and on the defeat Of the Indi-
ans and end of the war three hundred
and three Of the sayages were tried by
court martial for murder and condemned
to death. President Lincoln interfered,
however, to prevent such wholesale
infection of the death penalty, and re-
spited all but thirty.eight, who were
hanged together in the presence Of n
vast crowd which had assembled from
all directions to witness the execution.
A correspondent of the Cincinnati
Commercial Inns recently conversed
with witnesses Of the terrible scene, who
gave him a 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 compromising the import Of
the instrument at the close Of the first
paragraph they gave hearty grunt Of
approval; but Us the reading proceeded
and they discovered the drift OF the
document they rcfrained from further
manifestations OF appreciation, though
they smoked their pipes composedly to
the end.
Nearly all Of them maintained q 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
being rolled up only covered the fore
head, allowing their painted fa,es TO be
seen, When they had been adjusted
on few OF tho Indians, SO that each
could see the undignifed aud grotesque
effect on the others, they appeared to
be exceedingly Inundated and disheart-
enod. But they are described as hay
ing gone cheerfully to the gallows, some
even iostling and crowding the others
in their eagsrness to be first. As they
assembled the scaffold the death song
WINS started, and when they had all got
up the noise Of their deep, swelling
voices was fearfully impressive.
When the scatfold fell and left the
thirty.eight bodies dangling in the air,
several OF the condemned were seen en-.
deayoring to clasp each others hands.
One young fellow managed to get O
cigar under his white cap, and smoked
it to the last. The Indians respited by
President Lincoln were taken to an
island in the Mississippi near Dayen.
port, where they were closely confined
for year, after which they were trans
ferred to barren reservation in IN ex-
tremely cold region, where they were
turned loose to freeze or starye.
The horrible execution at Mankato,
the war preceding 1t, and the conse.
quent butchery Of the whites, all re.
suited from long continued and in.
iquitous system OF swindlingt the Indians
carried on by the Traders and the agents
OF the Government. The leading chiefs
in the disturbance Of 1862 did not wish
to so TO war, but they had been robbed
beyond endurance. At ono time over
four hundred thousand dollars due the
Sioux was paid not to them but to {
gang Of traders on the plea of old In
debtment. They were also induced tc
sign papers which they could not read
and these papers were used to gel
money and goods belonging to them.
On one occasion q famous chief named
Red Iron was locked up in q guard
house by the Indian agents for refusing
to sign one Of these papers, aud this acj
nearly precipitated IN outbreak. Al
last, having been swindled out Of thei,
lands and the money which should have
been paid them, and after losing fiftee,
hundred of their old men, women and
children by starvation and exposure,
they resolved to go to war after tho In
dian fashion, sparing neither womer
nor children.
The story is a shocking ono; but il
is still more shocking to know that this
and many others very much like itcould
never have been told but for the infa,
nous dishonesty which has character.
lied and still pervades the admins.
tration Of Indian affairs.