Abraham Lincoln statues

[David Lockmiller]

Yesterday, I wrote the following email to every member of the San Francisco Board of Education with a copy to Professor Burlingame and Heather Knight, of the San Francisco Chronicle.

The Subject Line of my email reads: Related subjects of the “Dakota 38” and the recommended renaming of Abraham Lincoln High School.

Professor Michael Burlingame was the winner of the 2010 Lincoln Prize for his two-volume work on Lincoln, titled “Abraham Lincoln: A Life.” Professor Burlingame devoted five pages of his scholarly work to the 1862 Dakota Sioux Indian uprising and the subsequent actions taken by President Lincoln, titled “Magnanimity: Dealing the Minnesota Sioux Uprising.” (“Abraham Lincoln: A Life,” Vol. Two, pages 480-84.)

At my urgent request, Professor Burlingame provided to me on Sunday, January24, 2021 an abbreviated version of this same work to present for review by the elected members of the San Francisco School Board and others. Professor Burlingame graciously wrote at the top of his email to me: “I hope this fills the bill. Please forward it to the relevant parties.”

Abraham Lincoln Overrules Death Sentence for
264 Dakota Indians Convicted of Murder or Rape
by Michael Burlingame

In the summer of 1862, Dakota Indians in Minnesota, understandably angry at white encroachment on their territory, at the government’s failure to deliver promised supplies and money, and at the notorious corruption of Indian agents and traders, attacked white men, women, and children along the frontier, killing hundreds and driving over 30,000 from their homes. It was the bloodiest massacre of civilians on U.S. soil prior to September 11, 2001.

After U.S. Army forces under General John Pope put down the rebellion, a military court condemned 303 Dakotas to death. Faced with a potential mass execution, Abraham Lincoln “resolved that such an outrage, as the indiscriminate hanging of these Indians most certainly would be, shall not take place,” according to a Washington newspaper widely regarded as an administration organ. When the president ordered the suspension of the sentences and demanded to see “the full and complete record of these convictions,” General Pope reported that white Minnesotans “are exasperated to the last degree.” The “most horrible massacres have been committed; children nailed alive to trees, women violated and then disemboweled – everything that horrible ingenuity could devise.” Therefore, the general warned, “if the guilty are not all executed I think it nearly impossible to prevent the indiscriminate massacre of all the Indians – old men, women, and children.”

Echoing that advice, Minnesota congressman Cyrus Aldrich told Lincoln that if all the men found guilty of murder or rape were not executed, his constituents would “dispose of them in their own way.” A Minnesota newspaper similarly counseled against leniency: “If the Government wants wholesale hanging by the acre; if it wants the Western plains turned into a wide Golgotha of dead Indians; if it wants them hunted down like wild beasts from the face of the continent, it had better refuse to perform the act of justice which the people of this State demand.”

Minnesota’s congressional delegation and Governor Alexander Ramsey joined the chorus demanding that all 303 convicted Dakotas be hanged. One missionary to the Dakota advised Lincoln “to execute the great majority of those who have been condemned” lest “the innocent as well as the guilty” be killed by vengeful settlers.

As the president and two government lawyers pored over the military court records, they discovered that some trials had lasted only fifteen minutes, that hearsay evidence had been admitted, that due process had been ignored, and that counsel had not been provided the defendants. The attorneys recommended that many of the condemned men be pardoned. While considering what to do, the president received letters from Minnesotans insisting that no mercy be shown to the “lurking savages.”

The situation resembled the one Lincoln had faced thirty years earlier during the Black Hawk War in Illinois, when his fellow militiamen wished to kill an Indian who entered their camp bearing a safe-conduct pass; then Lincoln had courageously blocked them and saved the Indian’s life.

After carefully reviewing the army trial records, the president authorized the execution of the thirty-seven Dakotas found guilty of murder and the two convicted of rape, thus sparing the lives of 264 condemned men.

Lincoln explained his reasoning to the U.S. Senate: “Anxious to not act with so much clemency as to encourage another outbreak on one hand, nor with so much severity as to be real cruelty on the other, I ordered a careful examination of the records of the trials to be made, in view of first ordering the execution of such as had been proved guilty of violating females.” In dealing with the murder charges, he had sought to discriminate between those involved in massacres and those participating only in battles.

As execution day for the condemned men drew near, Lincoln instructed the authorities to be careful not to hang Chas-kay-don, whose name was similar to one of the condemned men. At the last minute, the president pardoned Round Wind, who had helped some whites escape. On December 26, the men convicted of rape or murder died together on the gallows. In 1864, Governor Ramsey told Lincoln that if he had approved the execution all 303 Dakotas, he would have won more support for his reelection bid. “I could not afford to hang men for votes,” the president replied.

Professor Burlingame holds the Chancellor Naomi B. Lynn Distinguished Chair in Lincoln Studies at the University of Illinois, Springfield.

It is uncontested and indisputable that President Lincoln signed the execution death warrants for 39 Native Americans, as required by law of the President. However, it is also uncontested and indisputable that President Lincoln commuted the death sentences of 265 of the 303 Dakota men condemned as a result of the careful review of the facts of each Native American’s case. He also later pardoned one of the 39 mentioned in the letter to the Senate after evidence came to his attention questioning the man’s guilt.

Heather Knight wrote in opinion piece titled Effort to rename S.F. schools could have been history lesson, but it placed politics over learning –January 12, 2021:

“The panel didn’t seek the guidance of historians, instead doing its own research in a cursory fashion using mostly Wikipedia entries and Google search results . . . .”

“Families for San Francisco, an advocacy group, watched recordings of the panel’s Zoom meetings from the past year and published a report outlining major concerns. The original resolution called for engaging San Francisco in a “sustained discussion” about renaming schools, but that hasn’t happened. Instead, the panel took the decision-making entirely upon itself.”

“A group of families from Feinstein last week wrote a lengthy letter to the panel, the superintendent, school board members and others explaining why they want to keep their name. They pointed out she was a trailblazer for women’s rights, authored 500 pieces of legislation and wrote the only assault weapons ban ever passed in the United States.”


At this point, it would seem to be both wise and efficacious to hire one, two, or three professional American History historians to review the work and conclusions of the San Francisco School Board’s own-appointed “blue ribbon” schools renaming panel (working for free, apparently). It’s always better “to be penny wise than pound foolish,” as the British would say. Quentin Kopp informed the public in the November, 2020 edition of the Richmond Review: “The estimated [schools] renaming cost is $10 million.”

---

I had sent the following "High Importance" email to Professor Burlingame on Saturday, January 23, 2021:

Professor Burlingame,

I just learned this morning that the elected members of the San Francisco Board of Education plan to meet this coming Tuesday, January 26, 2021, to approve the selection of schools to be renamed for just and equitable causes by the School Board’s hand-selected “blue ribbon” panel of dilettante historians.

Board of Education Regular Meeting - Tuesday, January 26, 2021 at 3 pm

The Board of Education will consider Resolution No. 211-12A1 to approve the committee's recommended list of schools for renaming. Information to access this meeting is available at the Board of Education website.

Action must be taken now or it will be too late to influence the outcome of a fait accompli. I would suggest an abbreviated summation of your work on the subject of the 1862 Dakota Sioux Indian uprising and the subsequent actions taken by President Lincoln, titled “Magnanimity: Dealing With the Minnesota Sioux Uprising.” (“Abraham Lincoln: A Life,” Vol. Two, pages 480-484.) Of course, if you have something different in mind, that would be fine.

Professor Burlingame had explained to me in an email dated Tuesday, January 19, just how busy he was at the time when I had made my initial request to him on the subject, but he agreed to help:

"I'm a bit preoccupied with reading proofs and lining up images for my book on the Lincolns' marriage, due out in July from Pegasus Books; with beginning to teach my courses online for the first time ever; with nailing down arrangements for the High Holy Day in Springfield (virtual); and with readying the manuscript of "Emphatically the Black Man's President" Abraham Lincoln, Racial Egalitarian" due out from Pegasus in October.