President Lincoln and the Sioux Indian uprising in Minnesota in 1862

[David Lockmiller]

I would like to add to this thread, my observation regarding ignored "double standards" as disclosed in Professor Burlingame's discourse on the reaction of citizens of the state of Minnesota at the time following President Lincoln's generous intervention, in behalf of the Indians, for justice.

"Minnesotans denounced the President's decision. In February, the abolutionist-feminist Jane Grey Swisshelm told a Washington audience that if 'justice is not done,' whites in Minnesota 'will go to shooting Indians whenever these government pets get out from under Uncle Sam's wing [i.e., President Abraham Lincoln alone]. Our people will hunt them, shoot them, set traps for them, put out poisened bait for them -- kill them by every means we would use to exterminate panthers.'' ("Abraham Lincoln: A Life" Vol. Two, page 483.)

And, if the Southern slaves had arisen in rebellion and killed many of their masters, as so many in the South legitimately feared, what would have the abolutionist-feminist Jane Grey Swisshelm, and people of her ilk, have said? Would she have said: "Good riddance for abusive white masters" or "exterminate the panthers?" How different is the answer when the "shoe is on the other foot."

Gene C Wrote in this thread on April 16:

"This was an unfortunate situation, as the United States Govt frequently did not uphold their end of the bargain in dealing with the different tribes, and showed almost no respect for the Indians way of life. President Linclon probably knew this and took the fairest method to deal with this problem. I wonder what impact on the problem he could have had if he had lived to deal with it."

Returning to Professor Burlingame's commentary on the subject:

"Episcopal Bishop Henry B. Whipple lobbied the President to reform the corrupt Indian agency system. (Sort of like how people lobby for reform of the banking system now.) In the spring of 1862, the bishop had recommended more humane treatment of the Minnesota Sioux. Lincoln promptly asked the secretary of the Interior to investigate, which he did and suggested numerous reforms. The President told a friend that Whipple 'came here the other day and talked with me about the rascaclity of this Indian business until I felt it down to my boots.' In reply to Whipple's appeal, Lincoln characteristically recounted a story: 'Bishop, a man thought that monkeys could pick cotton better than negroes could because they were quicker and their fingers smaller. He turned a lot of them into his cotton field, but he found that it took two overseers to watch one monkey. It needs more than one honest man to watch one Indian agent.' (or, more than one honest man to watch one bank president, such as Jamie Dimon) [President Lincoln] pledged that '[i]f we get through this war, and if I live, this Indian system shall be reformed.'" (Henry B. Whipple, "Light and Shadows of a Long Episcopate,etc.," pages 136-137.

I submit the following propostion: Perhaps President Lincoln felt, in retrospect, that he should have intervened more forcefully on the problem of Indian mistreatment in the Spring of 1862, at the time of Bishop Whipple's exposition of the mistreatment of the Sioux Indians, despite the overwhelming pressures of the American Civil War upon President Lincoln at the time. The Minnesota Indian uprising took place in the summer and fall of 1862. Was it President Lincoln's own conscience that demanded his extensive intervention in behalf of the Sioux Indians and at high political risk to the Union cause?

"In 1864, Minnesota Governor Ramsey told President Lincoln that if he had executed all 303 Indians, he would have won more backing for his reelection bid. 'I could not afford to hang men for votes,' came the reply." (Burlingame references at page 483: (Ramsey diary, 23 Nov. 1864, in Don E. Fehrenbacher and Virginia Fehrenbacher, eds., "Recollected Works of Abraham Lincoln" (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1996, 372)

Again, Professor Burlingame wrote (page 484): "In his [December]1862 annual message to Congress, Lincoln urged that it change the system. [The Congress of the time did nothing, as far as I know, in response.] . . . . Though Lincoln did not live to see his recommendations implemented, he gave a significant boost to the movement that evnetually overthrew the corrupt system. (Burlingame references here "Lincoln and the Indians," by Nichols, at page 145.) In 1864, Lincoln pardoned two dozen of the 264 Sioux who, after being spared the death penalty, had been incarcerated. That same year he intervened to spare the life of Pocatello, chief of a Shoshoni band in Utah."

I wish that all blacks, whites, green card holders, Indians, etc., knew more about the true history and character of President Abraham Lincoln.