Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1916-09-27

got ten thousand dollars. and a sev.
enth wife,
CHAPTER L.
A M1ssive and a Mission.
Soon after the people had returned
TO such homes as were left them. !
received letter from General Low.
RE, who was then In an insane asy.
lum In Cincinnati. I caught his hum.
or and answered as carefully az IL he
had been sick brother, gave an ex.
tract In the Democrat, accompanied
by notice, and sent him copy; af.
ter which he wrote frequently, and !
tried earnestly to soothe him. In one
OF his letters was this passage:
Your quarrel and mine was all
wrong. There was no one In that up.
per country capable OF understanding
you but me. no one capable OF under
standing me, but you. We should
have been friends, and would have
been, If we had not each had a self
which we were all to anxious to de-
fend."
After the Sioux had finished their
work Of horror, Minnesota men, aided
| by volunteers from Iowa and Wiscon-
sin, pursued and captured the MUIR
derers OF one thousand men, women
and Children; tried them, found them
guilty, and proposed to hang them
just as it they had been white MUIR
derers. But when the general gov
eminent interfered and took the pris-
oners out of the hands of the State
authorities, and when it became evil
dent that Eastern people endorsed the
massacre an dcondemned the victims
as sinners who deserved their fate,
one of the State officers proposed that
should go East, try to counteract the
vicious public sentiment, and aid our
Congressional delegation in their eff
fort to induce the Administration eth
er to hang the Sioux murderers. or
hold them as hostages during the war.
TO me this was providential call,
for l had been planning to make a
home in the East, that our daughter,
then old enough to live without me,
might spend a portion of her time
with her father
With letters from all our State Of
f1cers, I left my Minnesota home at
four o'clock a. M, January 2, '63, leav-
ing the Democrat in charge of my
first apprentice, William B. Mitchell.
In Washington, the Minnesota dele
CATION secured the use of DR.. Suther-
lands church, and packed audience
for my lecture on Indians It was en-
Enthusiastically applauded, and for a
time did hope for some security for
women and children on the frontier
but the Secretary Of the Interior as.
sured me it was not worth while to
see the President, for "Mr. Lincoln
will hang nobody!" and our Minnesota
delegation agreed with him. Indeed
there was such a Juror of p1ous pity
for the poor injured Sioux, such ad.
miratioA for their long suffering pa
thence under wrong, and final heroic
resistance, that might about as well
have tried to row myself from the
head of Goat Island up the rapids OF
Niagara, as stem that current. The
ring which makes money by caudling
Indians, had the ear of both President
and people, and the Bureau had a pay
ing contract in proving Little Crows
sagacity. The Sioux never were sc
we'll supplied with blankets and butch
er-knives, as when they received their
~eWard> for that massacre; never had
so many prayers said and hymns sung
over them, and their steamboat ride
down the Minnesota and Mississippi
and up the Missouri, to point with
in two days walk Of the scene Oh
their exploits, furnished them an ex
cursion of about two thousand miles
and left them we'll prepared for fut
ure operations. They appreciated
their good fortune, have been a ter
ror to United States troops and Yves
tern settlers ever since, and have en-
joyed their triumph to the full.
One morning Senator Wilkinson
and went to see the President, and
in the vestibule of the White House
met two gentlemen whom he intro
duced as Sec. Stanton and Gen. Ere
mont. The first said he needed no In
PRODUCTION. and I said had asked
Senator Wilkinson to see him on my
account. He replied
do not ask any one to SEQ me! II
you want anything from me. come
yourself. No one can have more In
fluence."
Gen. Fremont inquired where I wal
staying, and said he would call on
me. This frightened me, and l felt
like running away. But they were sc
kind and cordial that our short chat
is pl' asant memory; but Mr.. Wilk
inson and I failed to see Mr.. Lincoln
Next day Sec. Stanton gave me an
appointment in the Quarter Masters
Office, but there was no place for me
to go to work.
Gen. Fremont called at the houses
Of two friends where l was visiting
but both times I was absent. In 1856
had also missed the calls of his wife
and sister, and so l seemed destined
never 20 meet the people I admired
above all others.
My friends wished me to attend a
Presidential reception; but it was use
less to see Mr.. Lincoln on the bust
ness which brought me to Washing
ton, and I did not care to see him on
any other He had proved an obstruc
zionist instead Of an abolitionist, and
l felt no respect for him; while his
wife was every where spoken of az
a Southern woman with Southern
sympathies-a conspirator against the
Union. l wanted nothing to do with
the occupants of the White House
but was told could go and see the
spectacle without being presented. Sc
went in my broadcloth travelling
dress, and lest there should be trou
Bile about my early leave-taking
would not trust my cloak to the serv
ants, but walked through the hal
with it over my arm. watched the
President and Mrs. Lincoln receive
His sad, earnest, honest face was ir
rcsistible in its plea for confidence
ond MIRO incn1n'S mannnr WAS ~