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LEWIS CASS
AND
THE INDIAN TREATIES




COPYRIGHT
BY
BENJAMIN F. COMFORT
NOVEMBER. 1923




LEWIS CASS
AND
THE INDIAN TREATIES
A Monograph on the Indian Relations
of the Northwest Territory
from 1813 to 1831
BY
BENJAMIN       F. COMFORT, M. A.
PRINCIPAL OF CASS TECHNICAL HIGH SCHOOL
DETROIT, MICHIGAN


PRINTED BY THE CHAS. F. MAY Co.
BOuND BY CAss TECH. PRINTEIRY
DETROIT, MICHIGAN
1923








DEDICATED
TO
(!eurra1 IJJrnis       Qaw5
WHOSE SERVICE IN OPENING UP LANDS FOR SETTLEMENT IN
THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY HAS BESTOWED A BLESSING
ON EVERY BOY AND GIRL IN THE HEART OF AMERICA,
FOR THESE LANDS ARE THE BASIS OF EDUCATIONAL FUNDS FROM THE LITTLE RED
SCHOOL HOUSE TO THE UNIVERSITY,
NOW AND FOREVER,








CHAPTER I.


LEWIS CASS-INTRODUCTORY
IT is today incredible that a little over one hundred years ago Detroit
was an outpost for Indian trading, and that beyond its precincts to the
northward and to the westward was a wilderness inhabited only by roving
tribes, while to the eastward the Alleghany Mountains stood as the limits
of substantial settlement, and to the southward Cincinnati and St. Louis
were merely military and trading posts. In 1800 the United States government had not settled its policy in treating with its Indian tribes; the public
lands were not surveyed, nor opened up for settlement; and the Indians
were sullen and defiant, waiting for an opportunity to band together to drive
the white men south of the Ohio and east of the Alleghanies. They had
held secure for two hundred years the Great Lakes region, and they proposed
to continue holding it for themselves and theirtchildren.
To this wild and remote country came Lewis Cass in 1800 as a young
schoolmaster, to become successively lawyer, colonel of militia, general in
the United States army, territorial governor, commissioner to the Indians,
and later to be rewarded for his zeal and devotion to his country's affairs
by appointment as Secretary of War, Minister to France, candidate for
President of the United States, United States Senator from his adopted state,
and, lastly, Secretary of State under President Buchanan. Such a career
has fallen to but few Americans, and the results of his work will never
perish, for they were far-reaching in good to his contemporaries and to
succeeding generations.
Lewis Cass was born in Exeter, New Hampshire, October 9, 1782. His
father, Jonathan Cass, was among the first volunteers for the Revolutionary
army in 1775, and participated in the memorable battles of Bunker Hill,
Monmouth, Trenton, Princeton, Germantown, and Saratoga. His reward,
when peace was declared, was a commission in the army as major under
General Wayne. In 1795 the elder Cass went to Ohio to fight the Indians,
and this campaign led to his settlement there on the Muskingum River, a
few miles above Zanesville, on lands granted to him as a soldier in the
Revolution.
Young Cass received at the Exeter Academy a classical education, which
laid the foundation of his distinguished career. Upon leaving Exeter he
became head of an academy in Wilmington, Delaware, and after a short
career as a schoolmaster he lived for a short time with his father's family
at Harper's Ferry and at Pittsburgh, and finally went with his father to
Marietta, Ohio, in 1800. Here he entered the office of Governor Meigs as a
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CASS AND,THE INDIAN TREATIES


law student. After a few months with the Governor he studied under
Mathew Bacchus until 1802, when he was admitted to practice in the courts.
His rise was rapid, and he was soon, 1806, elected to the State legislature.
The following year, President Jefferson appointed Lewis Gass U. S. Marshal
for the State of Ohio.
When war was brewing in 1812, young Cass, having closed his law office'
at Zanesville., volunteered at the call of the President., and was chosen
Colonel of the Third Ohio Regiment. The army raised in Ohio was sent to
Detroit through the wilderness, and it was here that Colonel Cass distinguished himself before and after the surrender of Detroit. Here too he
became a Brigadier General and, in 1813, Governor of the Territory of
Michigan.
The career of Lewis Cass in public life lasted from 1802, when he was
admitted to the bar, to 1861. Our immediate purpose here is to dwell at
some length upon the treaties which Cass negotiated with the Indians during
the eighteen years of his occupancy of the position of Governor of the Territory of Michigan. These treaties were in a very real sense the source of his
political greatness, and they alone would have entitled him to the plaudits
of his countrymen.


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CASS AND THE INDIAN TREATIES


CHAPTER II.
THE BRITISH AND THE FRENCH
LEWIS CASS came to know Indian character and potentialities. He
negotiated twenty-two different treaties from 1814 to 1831. He travelled
by canoe over the principal watercourses of Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio. He met the chiefs of high and low% degree
of the tribes of the region comprising the old Northwest Territory, of which
he was governor. He ruled, not by blood and iron, but by the gentle means
of persuasion and diplomacy. The Indians loved and respected him. His
word was law and his uprightness was never questioned in all the years
that he held power over the vast territory under his sway. In order fully to
appreciate his achievements, it is necessary to review the delicate and
intricate situations that confronted him in dealing with the red men.
The long- drawn out contest between the French and the British for
superiority on the North American continent is a repetition of Indian wars.
Both nati ons employed their savage allies to further their interests and
claims, regardless of the rules of civilized war. The English employed the
Iroquois on their side, and the French had fighting for them the tribes north
of the Ohio and the St. Lawrence. For nearly a century, from the massacre
of Schenectady, in 1665, to 1763, there was little cessation of these' fierce
and relentless hostilities surgring up and down the Ohio, around the great
lakes, and across the St. Lawrence. Taking advantage of the cupidity of
the savages, both parties freely offered rewards to them for slaying the
settlers of their enemies, human scalps being bought as proofs of death.
The fierce Iroquois were relentless in their excursions against the
Ottawas, the Wyandottes, and the Chippewas, allies of the French. They
had driven their foes to the shores of Lake Huron and to the banks, of the
Ottawa river. The English should credit to the savage Iroquois the conquest of Canada, more than to any other source; for when Wolfe captured
Quebec, and the Iroquois held for the English the country between the
Ottawa river and Lakes Huron., Erie, and Ontario, the French were shorn of
their main arteries of travel to the west. It is true, of course, that at this
time the Hudson's Bay Company helped to hold the key to the cutlet to
western Canada, by the position of their posts on Hudson's Bay and
westward.
But there was a vast territory that., from 1763 to 1783, when the American Revolution closed, was debatable territory between Britain and France.
France was ambitious to add it to Louisiana, and Eng-land wished to hold it
as a part of Canada. It was what is now the mid-west of the United States,
11




CASS AND THE INDIAN TREATIES


including the present states of Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio,
and part of Minnesota, and in view of the situation today, it was a stroke
of great good fortune which made this territory a part of the United States.
For even after France had, in 1783, relinquished her claims on this territory
to the United States, and after Britain had ceded her claims also, Britain
still had hopes during the war of 1812, of regaining it from her former colonists. But as the story of this booklet is primarily that of the Indians
inhabiting the territory so long in dispute, let us briefly review Indian
history within these domains.
After the English took possession of Canada in 1763, the Indian tribes
friendly to the French in the late war, the Ottawas, the Wyandottes, the
Miamis, the Chippewas, the Pottawattamies, the Sacs, and the Foxes, were
formed into a confederation under Pontiac who proposed to sweep the
English back of the Alleghany Mountains and to retain the mid-west of this
continent for the Indian's exclusive territory. These tribes were secretly
aided by the French at St. Louis. The Conspiracy of Pontiac and his siege
of Detroit and the capture of Michillimackinac were the culminating episodes
of this effort. But Detroit was saved and the Indians were foiled. However, from 1763 to 1812, the history of the mid-west or northwest territory
of the United States is fraught with the most important Indian wars, conspiracies, and negotiations that ever occurred on American soil.
No sooner had the English subdued the uprisings induced by the leadership of Pontiac among the tribes, than they began a systematic course of
winning these hostile Indians to their cause. They subsidized the tribes
with valuable presents, appointed French commissioners to meet with them
and conclude treaties, and encouraged traders from Montreal to carry on
barter with them. Thus when the American Revolution broke out in 1775,
they were on friendly terms with those who had been their enemy's allies
during the French and Indian war.
In the war of the- American Revolution, the English tried to make use
of the Iroqgois and their newly acquired Indian friends of the mid-west
against the Colonists. But they were not altogether successful. The Indians
had begun to realize that fighting for one set of white men against another
set did not pay. When the Iroquois found that after they had conquered the
French and their Indian allies, the Englishmen did not relinquish the territory thus gained to them, the Iroquois, but that the King across the great
water had granted this upper Canadian territory to his favorite whites and
that, as a result, when the Indian got a bear up a tree he could not take the
bear, because the tree belonged to an Englishman;-when they discovered
these things, they lost interest in the struggles of the whites.
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CASS AND THE INDIAN TREATIES


During the American Revolution, General George Rogers Clark kept
alive the claims of the colonists to the mid-west. The claims of Connecticut
to the VWestern Reserve and the claims of Virginia to Kentucky were important factors in the treaty with Great Britain after the Revolution. However,
west of the Illinois River to the Mississippi was disputed territory, and Clark's
capture of Old Vincennes was important as leading to the cession of the
Illinois country to the United States. The territory now comprising the
states of Michigan, Wisconsin, and parts of Minnesota and Iowa was claimed
by the English, though their only posts in that vast territory were Detroit
and Michillimackinac. The French were still claiming all west of the Illinois
River and Lake Michigan, and south of Lake Superior.     Before the
treaty of Paris in 1783, however, the British were claiming only the
lower peninsula of Michigan, Wisconsin and part of Minnesota, and,
fortunately for us, they were more afraid of their French rivals than they
were of the new American nation. They therefore agreed by the treaty to
cede their claims to us, in order that they might not be added to the Louisiana
possessions of France, who might well have claimed them as a part of her
reward for her part in the Revolution. It is interesting to note that Benjamin
Franklin sat at the table when this treaty was negotiated, and his influence
with the French and his skill in handling the British diplomats had much to
do with determining the cession of this enormously valuable territory to our
infant nation.
But the nominal acquisition of this valuable territory was only the beginning of the work of bringing a wilderness into subjection. The English,
claiming that the United States had violated the Paris pact, held on tenaciously at Detroit, Drummond Island, Chicago, and Michillimackinac, hoping
that the new federation would go on the rocks and separate into independent
commonwealths. In that event they expected to recover the mid-west and
add it to Canada. However, Washington, Jefferson, and Hamilton managed
to keep our resources united, so that the chicanery of the British did not
prevail. But that is another story. Aside from the schemes of Britain, the
Indians were their greatest problem in the Northwest Territory.
Aided by the English the Indians under McKee again formed a confederation with the avowed purpose of clearing out the thin line of settlements
from Pittsburgh to St. Lou's and of driving the Americans south of the Ohio,
thus holding this territory as a purely Indian reservation, allowing no white
settlers to penetrate its confines. If once the Indians had regained their
freedom from the United States, Britain intended to form a protectorate and
eventually take over the whole region.
However, President Washington showed again his capacity for wise and
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CASS AND THE INDIAN TREATIES


appropriate action. He organized an army of Revolutionary veterans under
the leadership of General Wayne, "Mad Anthony," who went into the wilderness north of the Ohio River to clean out these rebellious Indian nests, and
to invite the English at Detroit to pack up and move into Canada. Later
President Adams sent William Henry Harrison to the Territory of Indiana,'
where he organized the white settlers and defeated the Indians aý: the Battle
of Tippecanoe in 1811. This settled the conspiracy of Tecumseh, and his
brother the Prophet. The Indians, after this battle, were sullen and dissatisfied and joined the British in the war of 1812, hoping to drive out the
Americans and regain some of their lost prestige. The English rallied about
2000 Indians at Maiden on the Detroit River, and encouraged them to take
part in the capture of Detroit, to attack and massacre the Kentuckians on
the River Raisin, and to take part in the siege of Fort Meigs. They rewarded
their allies with firearms, powder, and blankets, and made Tecumseh a
Brigadier General in the regular British Army.
At it turned out, however, after the Battle of Lake Erie, won by Commodore Perry, September 13, 1813, the English and their savage allies
evacuated Detroit and Malden, and retreated to the River Thames near
Chatham, Ontario, where they were defeated by General Harrison. The
Indians were finally dispersed, and their chief, Tecumseh, killed by the
Kentucky Mounted Riflemen, under Colonel Richard M. Johnson, and were
forced to straggle forlornly back to their homes as best they could. Thus
the close of the war of 1812 left the deluded savages decimated, destitute,
and abandoned by the defeated British. There was nothing for them to do
but to submit unconditionally to the Americans.
The Indians, however, found it naturally difficult to make up with any
white men. Their faith had been shattered on the one hand, and on the
other, it is ever hard for the Indian to come to terms with his erstwhile
enemy. They remembered how they had been chastised by Anthony Wayne
at Fallen Timbers in 1795, and at Tippecanoe in 1811 and again at River
Thames in 1813 by General Harrison. The English, on the other hand, had
been on friendly terms with these Indians ever since 1763, and had employed
as Indian superintendents French Canadians, who had been friendly with the
red men ever since Pere Marquette and Pere La Salle had come as missionaries into their midst. Cadillac, first at Michillimackinac and later at Detroit,
had done much to cement the friendship of the Indians, so that when the
Americans came into possession the redskins had heard nothing of the Great
Father at Washington; they had for one hundred years known only the Great
Fathers over the water, the French and the English sovereigns. It was not
strange that these simple aborigines of the mid-west could not at once give
14




CASS AND THE INDIAN TREATIES


up their prejudices and quietly embrace these Americans, who had been
pictured to them as scoundrels, first by the French as being allies of the
English, and later by the English as being rebels against rightful authority.
These were the chaotic conditions that in 1813 confronted Lewis Cass
as the newly appointed Governor of Michigan Territory, and Commissioner
of Indian affairs in this vast region. Something had to be done to teach the
red men allegiance to their new masters, or trouble would never cease. At
this juncture Governor Cass showed his complete devotion to his new duties
by resigning his positions as General in the army and Marshal of the U. S.
Court of Ohio. It required no inconsiderable patriotism for General Cass
to give up his commission in the army, his position at the bar of Ohio, his
home at Zanesville, and his position as U. S. Marshal, to accept a governorship on the frontier- of civilization at Detroit, desolate and forlorn as it was
after a devastating war. The unsympathetic attitude of his family and his
love for his profession, in which he had already established a reputation and
where distinction awaited him, were other considerations with which his
new loyalty had to contend. But Lewis Cass never let his personal predilections stand in the path of duty to his country. He promptly and wholeheartedly took up the arduous task assigned to him by President Madison,
even as his father had forsaken civil pursuits and taken up arms at the first
call of duty.
Cass, then, soon realized that the Indians had been weaned away from
the authority of the United States, and that a treaty settlement with at least
40,000 of these denizens of the unbroken forest was necessary before his
country could hope to bring order out of the general chaos in a region now
comprising six of the fairest states of our country. He set about his task
with wisdom and determination. The undertaking required not only knowledge of men and affairs, but statesmanship and diplomacy almost unparalleled in the annals of American history. For two decades he labored to the
entire satisfaction of his compatriots, and the glory of his country. The story
shows what devotion to duty and ideals will accomplish if pursued without
desire for personal gain and without fear as to results. Lewis Cass had that
devotion and the results of his treaties with the Indians of the old Northwest
Territory show the real character of the man.
Never be-iore nor since has so vast a region as the old Northwest Territory been indebted to the public service of one man as this region is indebted to
the policies and institutions founded by Lewis Cass. Julius Caesar subjugated
the Gauls, the Helvetians, and the Belgians with his Roman legions, but
Lewis Cass brought the savage hordes of a greater region under the authority
of the United States by the arts of peace and diplomacy. Every white settler
who later came into the new country for a homestead could thank Lewis
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CASS AND THE INDIAN TREATIES


Cass for his foresight and wisdom. He was justly called "The Grand Old
Man of the Northwest Territory," and for fifty years he was known among
the Indians as their "Great Father of Detroit." Whenever the chiefs came
to his home, the, latch string was out, and they came to his board unannounced, sure of a hearty welcome and sage advice. He inspired their entire
confidence, because the Indians knew both intuitively and by experience
that he was a mani to be trusted. The Indian was always quick to detect the
real qualities of a man's nature.


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GENERAL LEWIS CASS




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CASS TECHNICAL HIGH- SCHOOL
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CASS AND THE INDIAN TREATIES


CHAPTER III.
THE INDIAN TREATIES
T   O extend the lands open for settlement in 1807, General Hull made a
treaty with the Wyandottes at Brownstown, below Detroit, thereby
extinguishing the Indian title to a considerable tract of land around Detroit.
It extended due north from the mouth of the AuGlaze, a branch of the Miami,
until the line should intersect a line run due west of the outlet of Lake Huron,
thence extending northeast to White Rock on Lake Huron, thence along the
shores of Huron and Erie and the rivers connected therewith.
Before the Brownstown or Detroit Treaty, the land available in Michigan
for settlers at the disposal of the U. S. Government embraced a small area
between Lake Ste. Claire and the Detroit River, and Lake Erie on the east,
and the Raisin River on the south, and oh the west to a line running north
only six miles west of the water courses of the Great Lakes, not more than
half of two counties of Michigan, Wayne and Monroe.
Lands had been held in most cases by grants from French and English
officers. Only six tracts were held legally, but the United States in 1795
had confirmed all former grants made to bona fide settlers who had made
improvements.
The following treaties were negotiated by General Cass from 1814
to 1831:
1. Wyandottes, Delawares, Shawnees, Senecas, and Miamis, at Greenville, Ohio,
July 22, 1814.
3. Wyandottes, Delawares, Shawnees, Pottowattamies, Ottawas, and Chippewas,
at Fort Meigs, St. Mary's, Miami Falls, Ohio, Sept. 29, 1817.
3. Wyandottes, Delawares, Shawnees, Pottowatamies, Ottawas, and Chippewas,
supplementary to No. 2 at St. Mary's, Ohio, Sept. 17, 1818.
4. Wyandottes at St. Mary's, Ohio, Oct. 20, 1818.
5. Pottowattamies at St. Mary's, Ohio, Oct. 2, 1818.
6. Weas, at St. Mary's, Ohio, Oct. 2, 1818.
7. Delawares at St. Mary's, Ohio, Oct. 2, 1818.
S8. Miamis at St. Mary's, Ohio, Oct. 6, 1818.
9. Chippewas at Saginaw, Michigan, Sept. 24, 1819.
10. Chippewas at Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, June 16, 1820.
11. Chippewas and Ottawas at L'Abre Croche and Michillimackinac, Michigan,
July 6, 1820. '2/
12. Ottawas, Chippewas and Pottowattamies at Chicago, Illinois, August 29, 1821.
- 13. Sioux, Chippewas, Sacs and Foxes, Menominies, loways, Winnebagoes and a
portion of the Ottawas and Pottowattamies at Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, August
19, 1825.
14. Chippewas at Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, August 5, 1826.
15. Pottowattamies at Wabash and Mississinewa, Indiana, October 16, 1826.
16. Miamis at Wabash and Mississinew, Indiana, October 23, 1826.
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CASS AND THE INDIAN TREATIES


17. Chippewas, Menominies, Winnebagoes at Butte des Norts, Fox River, Wisconsin, August 11, 1827.
18. Pottowattamies at Green Bay, Wisconsin, Sept. 19, 1827.
19. Winnebagoes at Lake Winnebago, August 25, 1828.
20. Pottowattamies at St. Joseph, Lake Michigan, Michigan, Sept. 20, 1828.
21. Chippewas, Ottawas, and Pottowattamies of the Illinois, Milwaukee, and
Manitowac Rivers at Milwaukee, July 29, 1829.
22. Creeks at Washington, D. C., March 24, 1832.
The Treaties that General Cass was most instrumental in concluding
with such distinction to himself and benefit.to the Northwest Territory and
to the whole of the United States can be divided into three classes:
1. Treaties of Amity and Good Will.
2. Treaties for the purchase of Indian title to lands.
3. Treaties for the settlement of disputes on territorial boundaries
between the several tribes or for the cessation of wars that had been waged
for generations. The enmities that existed, for instance, between the Iroquois and the Ottawas and the Wyandottes or Hurons; the wars that existed
between the lowas, Chippewas, and Sioux.
General Cass had to study the habits, customs, and history of the many
tribes within his jurisdiction, in order to cope with the Indian methods of
holding councils and with the Indian metaphoric style of expression. He
always emphasized the power and authority of the United States government
and the tribes had not forgotten the defeats that they had suffered at the
hands of Mad Anthony and General Harrison, and how Tecumseh had been
_ilMed an, his iorces crushed by the Kentucky Riflemen at the River Thames.
Yet many a time Cass had to show his personal bravery and fortitude by
acts of daring by which a less resolute man would have been utterly unable
to influence an Indian gathering. The Indian, more than any other quality,
admires in men an utter disregard for personal safety. Cass possessed this
characteristic and the Indians were quick to find it out and admire him for it.
THE TREATY OF FORT MEIGS, SEPTEMBER 29, 1817
Previous to the negotiation of the Treaty of Saginaw, and as soon as
the Treaty of Ghent was signed in 1815, the attention of the government at
Washington was concentrated upon the development of the states of Ohio
and Indiana and the territories of Michigan and Illinois. These frontier
regions were at this time attracting much attention from settlers because
they were agriculturally productive, and because of the discovery of rich
deposits of minerals, notably lead in the northern part of Illinois. The great
18




CASS AND THE INDIAN TREATIES


obstacle to settlement was the unfriendliness of the Indian tribes, inflamed
by the policy of the British emissaries at Malden and at Drummond Island
as we have intimated above.
Governor Cass was chosen to solve these Indian problems and was made
Superintendent of Indian Affairs for all of the territory east of the Mississippi, north of the Ohio River, and south of the Great Lakes-a vast and
largely unknown region.
As one of the first steps in the direction of getting ready to treat with
the Indians, Governor Cass was instructed by the President to go among
the tribes in Ohio in April, 1817, to ascertain the attitude of these tribes
and to determine whether they would relinquish their title to lands. Accordingly, Cass went by horseback to the Lower Sandusky to interview the
Indians personally and reported that the Indians were willing to cede part
if not all of their lands.
In May, 1818, Governor Cass and General MacArthur were appointed
commissioners to assemble the sachems, chiefs, and warriors of the Wyandottes, Senecas, Delawares, Shawnees, Pottowattamies, Ottawas, and
Chippewas of Northern Ohio and part of Indiana and to meet them at Fort
Meigs on the Maumee and make a treaty with them. In September these
scattered tribes repaired to the appointed meeting place.  They were
expecting much from the Great Father at Washington. Twice before they
had formed hostile confederations, and had fought sanguinary battles to
keep the white man back of the Ohio. They had however been uniformly
defeated, and as white settlers were coming in greater numbers than ever,
and as their hunting grounds were becoming less and less, and the means
of subsistence scarce, these children of the forest were worried over what
the future might hold for them.
In the very midst of the negotiations there came a crisis. Governor
Cass having urged the natives to sell their lands to the Great Father, and
having promised them in exchange a greater territory west of the Mississippi,
where they could live and hunt in peace forever, the chiefs and warriors
arose, as one man, and, in a confusion of voices uttered their protests.
At one point, indeed, it looked as though the council would break up
and open hostilities ensue. But Generals Cass and MacArthur fearlessly
went among them to counsel milder measures, and managed finally to
persuade the elders to think over the problem overnight before proceeding
to desperate extremes. They therefore filed out, one by one, to discuss the
matter among themselves.
By calm counsel in the days following, the commissioners prevailed
upon the chiefs by offering a large payment in silver to be made at once,
and annual payments thereafter; and presents of blankets and other neces19




CASS AND THE INDIAN TREATIES


sities gradually convinced the redskins that they were powerless, and that
submission would be wiser than resistance. Consequently, on the 29th of
September, 1818, all the chiefs of the tribes assembled made their marks
opposite their names and attached their totems to the parchment document,
thus signing away title to their lands in Ohio, part of Indiana, and a portion
of the southern part of the Territory of Michigan.
As a result of this treaty 4,000,000 acres of the most fertile and beautiful
country in the United States passed into the hands of our government, the
possibility of any further Indian troubles in those two great states was
removed, and the ultimate removal of these Indians to territory west of the
Mississippi was tentatively agreed upon.
The accomplishment of the treaty was important, and its importance
was recognized by John C. Calhoun, Secretary of War, under whose portfolio
Indian affairs were in 1817 controlled, in the following communication to
the Commission:
"The extent of the cession far exceeded my most sanguine expectations, and there
can be no real nor well founded objections to the amount of compensation given for it,
except that it is not an adequate one. This treaty may be considered, in its fiscal,
political and moral effects, as the most important that we have hitherto made with the
Indians."
THE TREATY OF SAGINAW
Cass did not commence his policy of treating with the Chippewas immediately upon the assumption of his governorship in 1813, for the Treaty of
Ghent had first to be settled and its effects determined. This was not accomplished until 1815, and the Governor then conceived his most pressing duty
to be the conclusion of treaty relations with the Indians of Ohio as above
recorded. Finally it became necessary to consummate a treaty of the first
magnitude with the powerful and wily Chippewas. This was to be a precedent for all of the other tribes from the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River.
The treaty with the Chippewas, he realized, would be a peculiarly delicate
matter, as well as a most important one, for the proud Chippewas had never
before been treated with in Michigan and had never been asked to part with
their hunting grounds, which they lealized, were peculiarly fitted to their
style of life. But the Chippewas were becoming very troublesome, and it
was necessary to proceed at once.
The Treaty made by General Hull, the predecessor of Cass, at Brownstown in 1807, was made with the Wyandottes or Hurons and Ottawas, who
had been driven out of upper Canada or Ontario by the fierce Iroquois. The
spirit of these savages had already been broken, for they had left their own
hunting grounds and had taken up their abode in southeastern Michigan as
20




CASS AND THE INDIAN TREATIES


a defeated tribe. But the Chippewas still had their original hunting grounds
unmolested in the lower and upper peninsulas of Michigan. Their bands
extended to the Mississippi River in northern Wisconsin, and to the borders
of Canada in northern Minnesota. They numbered in 1813, 3,500 warriors
and 16,000 souls of all ages. They had never been in conflict with the whites,
nor had they been driven from their fortresses around the Great Lakes
region. They possessed the fairest country for their peculiar kind of life
and they knew it.
Consequently, Cass measured his ground very carefully before he proposed any measures to any part of this most powerful of the northwest tribes
and he was well prepared and equipped before he departed for Saginaw.
Governor Cass held the post at Malden until the Treaty of Ghent was
in effect in 1815, and then removed his forces from British territory and
established himself at Detroit.
W. L. Smith in his "Life and Times of Lewis Cass" says.:
"At that time, the population of the Territory of Michigan was five or six thousand,
spread over an immense extent and in a state of great destitution owing to the terrible
calamities which had marked the progress of war upon the whole frontier. The social
and political state of the country had to be built up. There was not a road, a real
road, in the Territory, nor a bridge, nor a church, nor a school-house, nor a courthouse, nor a jail. Not a foot of land had ever been sold by the United States, for, of
course, there was no encouragement for emigrants. The jurisprudence had to be constructed and, in fact, almost everything had to be made anew."
Cass as we have said was at this time Superintendent of Indian Affairs
of all the Northwest Territory, an empire inhabited by a few thousand
scattered whites and 40,000 Indians, sullen and desperate, encouraged in
atrocities by British agents who dealt them out arms and ammunition,
blankets, utensils and always whiskey. The Chiefs wore medals of King
George around their necks and raised the British flag on United States
Territory. Cass himself led volunteer parties to expel marauding Indians
when they came from the Saginaw country and committed depredations in
the immediate vicinity of Detroit.
The task was of such magnitude as to call for statesmanship and diplomacy of the first order to accomplish permanent results, for the Indians
had problems of their own which had to be understood first before the
authority of the United States could be wielded effectively amidst the
jealcusies and feuds of the various tribes in the vast area occupied. The
ancient question of the boundaries of each tribe's hunting grounds had to
be understood and adjusted before negotiations could be undertaken on a
comprehensive scale. Therefore, Cass first sent emissaries to talk with the
chiefs of each of the tribes, the Chippewas, the Wyandottes, the Pottowat-,                                             21




CASS AND THE INDIAN TREATIES


tamies, the Sacs and Foxes, the Winnebagoes, the Sioux, the Ottawas, the
Shawnees, the Iroquois, the Delawares, the lowas, and the Miamis.
To show how important these negotiations were to the future development and prosperity of the Middle-west of the United States, a census of
the number of Indians within the superintendency of General Cass at the
peliod when he assumed his executive duties at Detroit in 1813 is taken from
"The Life of General Cass," by William T. Young, 1852:
Indian Population of Northwest Territory in 1813:   Warriors    Tribe Total
Wyandottes of Ohio and Michigan...........................  600         2500
Shawnees of Ohio and Indiana...............................  120         600
Senecas  of  Sandusky.......................................  100       500
Delawares of Indiana........................................  150        750
Ottawas of Maumee..............................             80           400
Ottawas of Peninsula of Michigan............................ 400        2000
Saginaws................................................  240       1200
Pottowattamies, St. Joseph.................................  100        500
Pottowattamies, Chicago and Illinois...........................  400    2000
Chippewas of Lakes St. Claire, Huron, and Mackinac........... 1000      5000
Chippewas of Lake Superior, Lake Woods, and head of Mississippi............................................... 2000          10000
Menominees of Green Bay and Fox River......................  600       3000
Winnebagoes of Western Michigan, now Wisconsin............. 1000        5500
Miamis, Weas, and Pineshaws of the Wabash................  900          4000
Sioux and other bands roving at large from west of Mississippi  600     3000
Total.......................................  8290      40950
When order began to arise out of the chaos of the War of 1812 and
Congress began to realize that this country had a real Indian problem on its
hands, General Cass started to send in to the War Department his reports
on the needs of the Indians, outlining a policy which was to bring each of the
tribes into subjection and into friendly relations with their Great Father at
Washington. The Indians of the Northwest Territory had known nothing
but hostility to our President since they had been under the sway of our
enemy, and, naturally, they had fought against the encroachments of the
white man, ever since the first settlers came to our shores.
Having extinguished the Indian title to the lands in Ohio and Indiana,
at Fort Meigs, and Greenville, Ohio, General Cass began to seek a treaty
with the Chippewas of Lower Michigan, in order to have the Indians cede
their lands to the United States and stop the depredations that were breaking out periodically from the Saginaw bands.
Accordingly, early in 1819, he sent out messengers to have the Chippewas meet him and his staff of secretaries on the banks of the Saginaw at the
present site of Saginaw City, Michigan, in September.
22




CASS AND THE INDIAN TREATIES


Louis Campau, a trader among the Chippewas of the Saginaw Country,
was employed by Cass to send out word to the different bands and to prepare
the council house and quarters for himself and party. A detachment of
United States Regulars under Captain C. L. Cass, 3rd U. S. Infantry, the
General's brother, was sent by the water route up Lake Huron and Saginaw
Bay in two schooners with provisions and presents for the Indians. General
Cass and his staff travelled overland on horseback from Detroit, passing
through Flint. The road thither was nothing more than an Indian trail
through the woods and at Flint there was only a log house used as a trading
post.
In the party accompanying Cass were John C. Leib, D. C. Whitney,
R. A. Forsyth, G. Godfroy, W. Knaggs, William Tucky, Lewis Beaufort,
John Hurson, James V. S. Riley, B. Campau, John Hill, J. Whipple, Henry
J. Hunt, William Keith, A. E. Lacock, Richard Smyth, Louis Dequindre,
B. Head, John Smyth, and Conrad TenEyck.
Riley was a very important personage among the Indians. His wife
was a full blooded Chippewa and he acted as an intermediary between General Cass and the Chief and aided a great deal in winning the Indians to
accept the proposals of General Cass. His sons were beneficiaries under the
terms of the treaty.
The Indians gathered there in great numbers; some estimates place the
assemblage at 3000 or 4000 souls, but this is probably excessive. However,
the Indians came from all over lower Michigan, from the Michillimackinac
district, and from as far as Sault Ste. Marie.
On a small knoll overlooking the Saginaw River, the council house was
built among the trees and the wigwams of the bands could be seen in all
directions. A low log platform was erected for General Cass and his secretaries and interpreters, and huge logs were rolled up in a semi-circle for the
chiefs to sit upon. Only the principal chiefs were allowed to sit in the
Council. The warriors and women and children were in the distance.
The treaty that opened the eastern portion of the lower peninsula of
Michigan for settlement was concluded on the 24th of September, 1819. The
boundaries of this large area are included in a copy of the treaty printed
herewith.
Louis Campau, one of the principal actors in the proceedings, survived
the signing of the treaty forty years, an 1, in his testimony in the Circuit Court
of Saginaw County in 1860, gave his narrative of the event as it was presented
by William L. Webber in a paper before the Michigan Pioneer and Historical Society in 1895.


23




CASS AND THE INDIAN TREATIES


Mr. Webber was counsel in a trial to settle a dispute as to one of the
reservations of the treaty and gives the testimony of Campau as follows:
"I was requested to come on ahead and make provisions for a store-house and dining
room and council room. The most of the business was at General Cass's office going in
and coming out. There was a long table in the dining room and the private council was
held there; the office and the dining room were separated oily by a store-house.
" I think Cass arrived in the afternoon and sent, his agents for the Indians to
gather next morning at 10:00 o'clock. The next morning they met at the council house.
The first council was to let them know that he was sent by the Great Father to make
a treaty with them; that he wanted to buy their lands, stating the points, and for them
to go back and smoke and think about it. They worked at private business for three
or four days when he called them together again.
"After he got the will of the principal chiefs, there was much trouble to get the
consent of all. At the second council, there was great difficulty, hard words; they
threatened General Cass among the rest. The object of the council after they had
consented to treat was to state the terms on which he was authorized to treat. From
the second to the third council was five or six days. They stayed nine or ten days in
all. The last council was to read the treaty to them and interpret it.
"Tribal reservations were first made. General Cass sat at the northeast corner of
the shanty, the table was next to him, then a row of logs, and beyond that the Indians,
women, children, and all.
"After the treaty was read and approved by the Indians and signed by them, which
was soon as read, General Cass ordered the money to be brought to the table-it was
all in silver half dollars-for the payment. After the treaty was made it was sundown,
and the Indians all got drunk, and nothing could be said by anyone, and General Cass
gave orders to be off.
"Cass and his party left before daylight next morning; the troops at about 10:00
o'clock."
However, Campau did not relate on the stand at the trial how he was
defrauded by the Indians with whom he had traded so long.
The chiefs and warriors were indebted to Campau to the amount of
about $1500.00 and it was understood that upon the payment of the government money, he was to receive his claim. Instead, upon the advice of Smith,
a rival trader, the Indians refused to turn over the money.
General Cass had the silver spread out before him on the table and arose
and said:
"My Children; The money is now yours and I shall pay it to whomever
you say."
Kish-kau-kou, one of the chiefs, said:
"We are your children; we want our money in our own hands."
Thereupon General Cass ordered the money paid to the Indians themselves.
Upon the conclusion of the treaty, General Cass ordered the Quartermaster to open five barrels of whisky to be dealt out for a celebration of the
24




CASS AND THE INDIAN TREATIES


negotiations; and Campau, who had nearly come to blows with Smith for
his interference wit 'h the Indians in the payment of their debts, rolled out
ten more barrels of liquor and directed it to be dealt out with dippers, in his
anger over the loss of his money.
During the night the war whoop was sounded and General Cass arose
and ordered the distribution of liquor stopped. It was done forthwith.
Campau was disgusted with the whole affair and left the Saginaw region
and went to the present site of Grand Rapids, and started a trading post
there. He philosophically expressed himself afterwards: "I lost my money,
I lost my fight, I lost my liquor, but I got good satisfaction."
The next day when General Cass and his party were at Flint on their
way to Detroit, they were overtaken by one of the principal chiefs, Washme-non-de-guet, one of three who had at first been bitterly opposed
to selling any of the lands, who expressed the gratitude of the Indians for
the just and wise manner in which the treaty was carried out and then
assured General Cass of the friendly feelings of the Chippewas of Michigan
for the Great Father at Washington.
An exact copy of the text of the Treaty of Saginaw will be found in
appendix A herewith.


25




CASS AND THE INDIAN TREATIES


CHAPTER IV.
EXPLORATIONS IN THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY
N   O sooner had General Cass concluded the Treaty of Saginaw than he
began on a project which advanced the welfare of the Northvwest Territory more than any other one undertaking that he ever carried out. Cass was
an intrepid and enterprising leader. He did not sit in his office and trust to
the reports of others as to Indian conditions. He met the Indian on his native
heath, saw him in his wigwam, and solved his problems from personal
contact.
The War Department under John C. Calhoun, Secretary of War, was
not as ambitious as Cass for the extinguishment of the Indian title to the
lands. The Department aimed only to secure military reservations at strategical points, garrison them with troops, and let the officers of the army
solve the Indian problem little by little. General Cass desired to extinguish
the Indian title to the lands, to encourage emigration by opening up the lands
to sale and civilization, and to let the Indian problem be settled by contact
with the settlers. He felt that it was inevitable that the Indian must succumb
to civilization and that there was no use to temporize with the problem. He
wanted to make government charges of the Indians; place them on reservations, and protect them from the encroachments of the settlers thereon. He
could picture the Indians passing out when in open competition with the
whites and he desired to protect them by making every possible provision
for them that their equity in the lands could provide.
Inspired with a desire to be of the utmost service to the Indian, consistent with his duty to his country, General Cass, in 1819-1820, carried on an
extensive correspondence with John C. Calhoun, Secretary of War, urging
the necessity of immediate exploration of the country west of Lake Michigan,
and northward to Lake Superior, with the object of getting acquainted with
the Indians in this territory, ascertaining the general condition of the land,
its fertility and mineral resources, and finally of concluding treaties with the
Indians which would make it possible to speed up immigration by opening
for settlers suitable lands with a clear title.
On this last point, however, the Governor and the War Department
were not in complete accord. Calhoun sympathized heartily with Cass's ideas
about exploration and the establishment of friendly relations with the natives,
but was willing to proceed only very slowly, and did not wish Cass to enter
upon important treaties for extensive land titles at this time. The War
26




CASS AND THE INDIAN TREATIES


Department was interested in obtaining merely sufficient land in the vicinity
of Sault Ste. Marie for a military defense post.
However, General Cass saw that his expedition would pave the way to
future treaties, and he was enthusiastic to get equipped and to be on his
journey.
On the receipt of the birch bark canoes which were made especially for
the journey by the Chippewas of Lake Huron and Saginaw Bay, the
party was assembled at Detroit. It consisted of the official family of gentlemen, ten Canadian voyageurs, ten United States soldiers, ten Ottawa, Chippewa and Shawnee Indians, to act as hunters under James Riley, before
mentioned, and Joseph Parks, an erstwhile captive of the Shawnees, as
interpreter.
General Cass had on his staff Robert A. Forsyth, his private secretary;
Henry R. Schoolcraft as mineralogist; Captain D. B. Douglas, professor of
engineering at West Point, as topographer and astronomer; Doctor Alexander Wolcott, as physician; Lieutenant Evans       Mackey, United     States
Artillery, as commandant of the escort; James D. Doty, official secretary;
and C. C. Trowbridge as assistant topographer.
To give an intimate recital, in brief, of the progress of the undertaking,
we give the account as made in 1856 by W. L. G. Smith, in his "Life and
Times of Lewis Cass":
"The expedition left Detroit on the 24th day of May. General Cass, with several
of the members, proceeded by land nine miles, to Grosse Pointe, on Lake St. Claire. The
banks of the river, at Detroit, were lined with a large and enthusiastic concourse of
people as the canoes passed up; and the soldiers, Indians, and Canadians were exhilarated
with the scene, and merrily and rapidly took their departure. The party, in consequence
of a heavy gale, were detained at Grosse Pointe, and did not resume their travel until the
26th, when the men boarded the canoes, and, at midday, the expedition embarked. They
coasted along the lake, passed up the Ste. Claire River, and keeping near the southern
shore of Lake Huron, after suffering much delay from rain and wind, on the 6th day of
June, reached Michilimackinac, and, with a complimentary salute from the fort to the
leader of the expedition, landed, amid the congratulations of the citizens of that northern
post, who p5ressed forward to extend the hand of welcome. Here terminated the first
great pause in their journey, after a tedious voyage of fourteen days, and at a remove
from their starting place of three hundred and sixty, long miles. By following the
indentations of the coast, and entering Saginaw Bay, the route of travel was longer
than if, as on board of a steamboat, they could have traversed the farther from its
storm battered and rocky shores.
"Having spent eight days on the island, the party was recruited, and felt better
prepared for plunging deeper into the northwest forest. Before venturing to enter the
stronghold of the Chippewas, whose domain encircled Lake Superior, it was deemed
prudent, as a precautionary measure, to take along an additional military force of
twenty-two men, under the command of Lieutenant John S. Pierce of the United States
Army, a brother of Franklin Pierce, as far as Sault de Ste. Marie. The expedition with
27




CASS AND THE INDIAN TREATIES


this additional force, now numbered sixty-four persons, and, embarking from the island
on the fourteenth, they reached the Sault on the evening of the sixteenth, and camped
on the wide green extending along the river.
"This place was the seat of the Chippewa government, and, being the outlet of
Lake Superior, and at the head of ship navigation, had been occupied as a military and
trading port from an early period of the settlement of Canada. Under the Treaty of
Greenville, made in 1795, by General Wayne, a reservation was made, covering any gifts
or grants of land in the Northwest Territory which the Indians had formerly made to
the French or English, and this reservation had been renewed and confirmed by treaty
by the same tribes, since the conclusion of the War of 1812, by the Treaty of Springwells, of the 8th of September, 1815, and by the Treaty of Fort Harrison, of the 4th of
June, 1816. Under these treaties, the United States claimed the concession formerly
made at the Sault, to the French, and by virtue of which concession, this place had
been occupied as a military post. General Cass now proposed to hold a council, for
settling the boundaries of the grant, and thereby obtaining an acknowledgment and
renewal of the concession.
"This council was assembled at the marquee of the Governor, with the national
ensign floating above it, the next day after his arrival. The chiefs, arrayed in their most
attractive habiliments, with the usual profusion of feathers, and wearing their medals,
received from time to time from the British, entered the marquee, and, seating themselves with all 'of their native dignity, opened the council with the ceremony of smoking
the pipe of peace. When this was finished, and the interpreter, James Riley, a son of
J. V. S. Riley of Schenectady, N. Y., by a Saginaw woman, and acquainted with the
language and customs of the Chippewas, had taken his position, by direction of General
Cass, he explained to the chiefs the objects of the council. They gave him their undivided attention; but it was evident that the interpreter's speech was not well received,
and many of them spoke in reply, in opposition to the proposition of re-occupancy. At
first, pretending ignorance of former grants to the French and English, but pressed from
that position by a recurrence to facts which they could not parry, they still continued
to evade, and the talk soon became desultory and very unsatisfactory. They differed
among themselves, and the discussion soon became animated. Some expressed a willingness to adjust the boundaries, if it were not intended to occupy the place with a
military garrison, accompanying with the suggestion, that if it were occupied, their
young men might prove unruly, and kill the cattle and hogs that might stray away from
the garrison. This was designed as an insidious threat, and so received by General
Cass, who immediately, in an emphatic but dignified tone and manner, informed them
that, as to the establishment of a military garrison at that place, they need not give
themselves any uneasiness, for that point was irrevocably settled, and so sure as the
sun, which was then rising, would set in the west, so sure would an American garrison
be sent to that place, whether they renewed the grant or not. Such decision always
had great weight with the Indians, and was particularly so in the present instance, as
one of the officers of the American party, just before the assembling of the council,
very indiscreetly and unauthorized, had intimated to one of the chiefs that it was not
intended to send a garrison there. This decisive language had a sensible effect, and
brought matters to a crisis. Their animated conversation and violent gesticulations
plainly showed that high words were passing among the Indians. Shin-go-bo-was-sin
of tall and stately stature, and head chief of the band, was for moderation. Shing-wauk,
a chief who was on the war path in 1814, was for extreme measures. Sas-sa-ba, a tall,
martial looking chief, wearing a scarlet uniform, with epaulets, and reputed to hold
28




CASS AND THE INDIAN TREATIES


the rank of Brigadier in the British service, was the last chief who spoke; and, in the
course of his speech, assuming a look of savage wildness, he drew his war lance, and
stuck it furiously in the ground before him, and, retaking it, left the marquee, kicking
away the presents which had been laid before him. This defiant speech brought the
deliberations to a close, and, mid great agitation and excitement, the council was summarily dissolved, the Indians going to their hill and the Americans to their tents.
"The Indian encampment was situated on a small hill, a few hundred yards west
of the Governor's marquee, with a small ravine between. The Indians raised the British
flag as soon as they reached their encampment. Supposing that their superiority in
numbers made them, on that occasion, invincible, they ventured to indulge in the grossest
insolence. The business of the party at that point had reached a crisis, and a conflict
appeared inevitable. The Governor instantly ordered the expedition under arms, and,
calling the interpreter, proceeded with him, naked handed and alone, to Sa-sa-ba's
lodge. Several of the party, and among others, Mr. Schoolcraft, being armed with
short rifles volunteered to accompany the Governor as a body-guard, but he decidedly
refused this. On reaching the lodge of the hostile and violent chief, he, with his own
hands pulled down the British flag, trod upon it, and, entering the lodge, told Sa-sa-ba
that the hoisting of that insulting flag was an indignity which would not be tolerated
on American soil; that the United States were the natural guardians and friends of the
red man, and desired to act justly and promote their peace and happiness; that the
flag was the emblem of national power, and that two national flags could not fly in
friendship on the same territory; that the red man must not raise any but the American,
and, if they again did it, the United States government would set a strong foot upon
their necks, and crush them to the earth; and he took the flag to his own quarters.
"This intrepid conduct astonished the Indians, and was all that prevented an open
rupture. Expecting so decisive a step to be followed by an instant attack upon their
camp, in ten minutes after the return of the Governor to his marquee the Indians had
cleared their lodges of their women and children, and covered the river with their
canoes. The expedition, now under arms, was every minute expecting to hear the warwhoop, and prepared itself to receive the furious shock. They remained in this position
for some time, but finally it was observed that the Indians ceased to hold themselves in
a hostile position, and the soldiers were dismissed to their tents.
"The bold and daring course pursued by General Cass had its effect and evidenced
a thorough knowledge of the Indian character. They respect bravery. The movement
of the entire force of the expedition would have brought on an immediate fight; but to
see one man, and unarmed, walk boldly into their camp and tear down the symbol of
their power without ceremony, amazed them, and brought them to reflection. General
Cass has since been told, that when this proceeding was stated to Mrs. Johnston, the
daughter of Wau-bo-jeeg, she told the chief that resistance was madness, and that this
man, Cass, had too much the air of a great man to be trifled with and would carry his
flag through the country. She counseled peace. Shin-ga-bo-was-sin responded to this
advice and Shing-wank coincided. Before the day passed, a better state of feeling
prevailed among all of them, and Shin-ga-bo-was-sin renewed negotiations. Towards
evening, another council of chiefs was convened, and a treaty read and signed by all,
except Sa-sa-ba, ceding four miles square, reserving the perpetual right to fish at the
rapids of the river; and the next day, the seventeenth of June, the expedition resumed
its journey, and entered upon the waters of Lake Superior.
"On the twenty-first they reached the Pictured Rocks, so called, consisting of a
series of lofty bluffs, extending along the southern shore of the lake for many miles.
29




CASS AND THE INDIAN TREATIES


and presenting some of the most sublime and commanding views in nature. Among
many striking features, one, in particular, attracted the admiration of General Cass.
It was the Doric Rock, an isolated mass of sandstone, projecting into the lake, consisting of four natural pillars, supporting an entablature of the same material, and
presenting the appearance of a work of art. On the entablature rested a stratum of
alluvial soil, covered with pine and spruce trees, and many of them sixty feet in height.
The most remarkable feature of this wonder consisted of an excavation of the entablature, between the pillars, in the form of a common arch, giving it the appearance of a
vaulted passage in the court yard of some massive pile of antiquated buildings. On the
evening of the day, they came across a village of Chippewas, about six miles beyond
the termination of this picturesque shore, and were welcomed to their lodges. Here
they were entertained with dancing and other festive feats.
"On the 25th of June, the party left Lake Superior, and ascended Portage River.
After a boisterous passage most of the way, and rainy weather, and after passing from
one portage to another, on the 5th day of July they reached the Fond-du-Lac. Ascending the St. Louis River to one of its sources, they descended a tributary stream of Sand
Lake to the Mississippi River; thence ascended to the upper Red Cedar Lake, the
principal tributary of the Mississippi; from thence they descended the Mississippi to
Prairie du Chien. They then navigated the Wisconsin River to the portage, and, entering the Fox River, descended it to Green Bay. At this place, Mr. Schoolcraft and others
of the party separated from General Cass, for topographical exploration along the
eastern shore of Lake Michigan to Mackinac. General Cass, taking Chicago in his
route, returned to his home in Detroit. Here he arrived on the 10th of September,
having travelled over four thousand miles and exploring a region of country hitherto
unknown in its various characteristics, and having procured an additional valuable
knowledge of the various disposition and numbers of the Indians, and a more accurate
and reliable topography of the vast country watered by the great lakes. He had made
several treaties, and had accomplished the objects of the expedition."
Immediately upon reaching Detroit, General Cass reported by a letter
to the Hon. J. C. Calhoun, Secretary of War, September 14, 1820, advising
him of his safe arrival and that the rest of his party were expected in a few
days.
"Sir":                                              Detroit, October 21, 1820.
"I had the honor to inform you sometime since that I had reached this place by
land from Chicago, and that the residue of the party were daily expected. They arrived
soon after, without accident, and this long and arduous journey has been accomplished
without the occurrence of any unfavorable incident.
"I shall submit to you, as soon as it can be prepared, a memoir respecting the
Indians who occupy the country through which we passed; their numbers, disposition,
wants, etc. It will be enough to say that the whole frontier is in a state of profound
peace, and that the remote Indians more particularly exhibit the most friendly feelings
toward the United States. As we approach the points of contact between them and the
British, the strength of attachment evidently decreases, and, about these points, few
traces of it remain. During our whole progress, but two incidents occurred which
evinced, in the slightest degree, an unfriendly spirit. One of these was at St. Mary's,
within forty-five miles of Drummond's Island, and the other, within thirty miles of
Malden. They passed off, however, without producing any serious result.
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CASS AND THE INDIAN TREATIES


"It is due to Colonel Leavenworth to say that his measures upon the subject of
the outrage committed by the Winnebago Indians in the spring, were prompt, wise, and
decisive. As you have long since learned, the murderers were soon surrendered; and
so impressive has been the lesson upon the minds of the Indians that the transaction
has left us nothing to regret but the untimely fall of the soldiers.
"In my passage through the Winnebago country, I saw their principal chiefs, and
stated to them the necessity of restraining their young men from the commission of
acts similar in their character to those respecting which a report was made by Colonel
Smith. I have reason to believe that similar complaints will not again be made, and I
am certain that nothing but the intemperate passions of individuals will lead to the
same conduct. Should it occur, the acts will be disavowed by the chiefs, and the
offenders surrendered with as much promptitude as the relapsed state of the government will permit.
"The general route which we pursued was from this place to Michilimackinac by
the southern shore of Lake Huron. From thence to Drummond's Island and by the
River St. Mary's to the Sault. We then entered Lake Superior, coasted its southern
shore to Point Kawena, ascended the small stream, which forms the water communication across the base of the point, and, after a portage of a mile and a half, struck the
lake on the opposite side. Fifty miles from this place is the mouth of the Ontonagon,
upon which have been found large specimens of copper.
"We ascended that stream 'about thirty miles, to the great mass of that metal,
whose existence has long been known. Common report has greatly magnified the
quantity, although enough remains, even after a rigid examination, to render it a
mineralogical curiosity. Instead of its being a mass of pure copper, it is rather copper
imbedded in a hard rock, and the weight does not probably exceed five tons, of which
the rock is the much larger part. It was impossible to procure any specimens, for such
was its hardness that our chisels broke like glass. I intend to send some Indians in
the spring to procure the necessary specimens. As we understand the nature of the
substance, we can now furnish them with such tools as will effect the object. I shall,
on their return, send you such pieces as you may wish to retain for the government, or
to distribute as cabinet specimens to the various literary institutions of our country.
Mr. Schoolcraft will make to you a detailed report, upon this subject in particular,
and generally upon the various mineralogical and geological objects to which his enquiries
were directed. Should he carry into effect the intention which he now meditates, of
publishing his journal of the tour, enriched with the history of the facts which have
been collected, and with those scientific and practical reflections and observations, which
few men are more competent to make, his work will rank among the most important
accessions which have ever been made to our national literature.
"From the Ontonagon we proceeded to the Fond du Lac, passing the mouths of the
Montreal, Mauvais, and Brule Rivers, and entered the mouth of the St. Louis, or Fond
du Lac River, which forms a most considerable water communication between Lake
Superior and the Mississippi.
"The southern coast of the lake is sterile, cold and unpromising. The timber is
birch, pine, and trees of that description which characterize the nature of the country.
The first part of the shore is moderately elevated, the next hilly and even mountainous,
and the last a low, flat, sandy beach. Two of the most sublime natural objects in the
United States-the Grand Sable and Pictured Rocks-are to be found upon this coast.
The former is an immense hill of sand, extending for some miles along the lake, of
great elevation and of precipitous ascent. The latter is an unbroken wall of rocks, rising
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CASS AND THE INDIAN TREATIES


perpendicularly from the lake to a height of three hundred feet, assuming every grotesque and fanciful appearance, and presenting to the eye of the passenger a spectacle
as tremendous as the imagination can conceive, or reason itself can well sustain.
"The emotions excited by these objects are fresh in the recollection of us all; and
they will undoubtedly be described, so that the public can appreciate their character
and appearance. The indications of copper upon the western part of the coast are
numerous; and there is reason to suppose that silver in small quantities has been found.
"The communication by the Montreal with the Chippewa River, and by the M:iuvais
and Brule Rivers with the St. Croix is difficult and precarious. The routes are interrupted by long, numerous, and tedious portages, across which the boats and all their
contents are transported by the men. It is doubtful whether their communication can
ever be much used, except to the purposes to which they are now applied. In the
present state of the Indian trade, human labor is nothing, because the number of men
employed in transporting the property is necessary to conduct the trade, after the different parties have reached their destination, and the intermediate labor does not affect
the aggregate amount of the expense. Under ordinary circumstances, and for those
purposes to which water communication is applied in the common course of civilized
trade, these routes would be abandoned. From the mouth of the Montreal River alone
to its source, there are not less than forty miles of portage.
"The St. Louis River is a considerable stream, and for twenty-five miles its navigation is uninterrupted. At this distance, near an establishment of the South-west Company, commences the grand portage, about six miles in length, across spurs of the
Porcupine Ridge of mountains. One other portage, one of a mile and a half, and a
continued succession of falls, called the grand rapids, extending nine miles, and certainly unsurmountable, except by the skill and perseverance of Canadian boatmen,
conducts us to a comparatively tranquil part of the river. From here to the head of
the Savannah River, a small branch of the St. Louis, the navigation is uninterrupted,
and, after a portage of four miles, the descent is easy into Lac du Sable, whose outlet
is within two miles of the Mississippi.
"This was, until 1816, the principal establishment of the British Northwest Company upon these waters, and is now applied to the same purpose by the American Fur
Company.
"From Lac du Sable, we ascended the Mississippi to the upper Red Cedar Lake,
which may be considered as the head of the navigation of that river. The whole distance, three hundred and fifty miles, is almost uninhabitable. The first part of the
route, the country is generally somewhat elevated and interspersed with pine woods.
The latter part is level wet prairie.
"The sources of this river flow from a region filled with lakes and swamps, whose
geological character indicates a recent formation, and which, although the highest
table land of this part of the continent, is yet a dead level, presenting to the eye a
succession of dreary, uninteresting objects. Interminable marshes, numerous ponds, and
a few low, naked sterile plains, with a small stream, not exceeding sixty feet in width,
meandering in a very crooked channel through them, are all the objects which are found
to reward the traveler for the privations and difficulties which he must encounter in his
ascent to this forbidding region.
"The view on all sides is dull and monotonous. Scarcely a living being animates
the prospect, and every circumstance recalled forcibly to our recollection that we were
far removed from civilized life.
"'From Lac du Sable to the mouth of the St. Peter's, the distance, by computation,
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CASS AND THE INDIAN TREATIES


is six hundred miles. The first two hundred present no obstacles to navigation. The
land along the river is of better quality than above; the bottoms are more numerous,
and the timber indicates a stronger and more productive soil. But near this point commence the great rapids of the Mississippi, which extend more than two hundred miles.
The river flows over a rocky bed, which forms a continuous succession of rapids, all of
which are difficult and some dangerous.
"The country, too, begins here to open, and the immense plains in which the
buffalo range approach the river. These plains continue to the falls of St. Anthony.
"They are elevated fifty or sixty feet above the Mississippi, and destitute of timber,
and present to the eye a flat, uniform surface, bounded, at the distance of eight or ten
miles, by high ground. The title of this land is in dispute between the Chippewa and
Sioux, and their long hostilities have prevented either party from destroying the game
in a manner as improvident as is customary among the Indians. It is, consequently,
more abundant than in any other region through which we travelled.
"From the post at the mouth of the St. Peter to the Prairie du Chien, and from
that place to Green Bay, the route is too well known to render it necessary that I
should trouble you with any observations respecting it.
"The whole distance travelled by the party, between the 24th of May and the 24th of
September, exceeded 4200 miles, and the journey was performed without the occurrence
of a single untoward accident sufficiently important to deserve recollection.
"These notices are so short and imperfect, that I am unwilling to obtrude them
upon your patience. But the demands upon your attention are so imperious, that to
swell them into a geographical memoir would require more time for their examination
than any interest that I am giving this subject would justify.
"I propose hereafter to submit some other observations to you in a different
shape.
"Very respectfully, sir,
"I have the honor to be,
"Your obedient servant,
"Hon. J. C. Calhoun, Secretary of War."               "Lewis Cass."
At this date we know that these explorations of General Cass were far
reaching in their results. The reports on the expedition in detail were made
by Captain Douglass and by Mr. Henry R. Schoolcraft, and the journal of
Schoolcraft on this expedition as published by him reads like a romance and
has preserved data of great value to the history of this part of our country.
We are indebted today for the impetus that Cass gave to the exploration of
minerals in our great copper and iron regions of Michigan, Wisconsin, and
Minnesota, the greatest in the world, whose extent and value were not even
dreamed of one hundred years ago.
Although General Cass did not, on this expedition, go to the extreme
source of the Mississippi, Lake Itasca, yet his work led to the accomplishment of this task when Henry R. Schoolcraft, who was in the Cass party,
completed the journey in 1832.


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CASS AND THE INDIAN TREATIES


CHAPTER V.
THE TREATY OF PRAIRIE DU CHIEN
F   OLLOWING the information derived from the journey of1 General Cass
and his party in the northwest in 1820, regarding the habits and conditions of the Indians on the south shore of Lake Superior and the head waters
of the Mississippi, a treaty was made in 1825 to settle disputes among the
Indians themselves as to the boundaries of their hunting grounds and the
territory that each tribe could claim. This procedure was necessary before
extinguishment of title could be made to the United States by the Indians.
Accordingly, Governor Cass of Michigan and Governor Clarke of Missouri were appointed to meet the Indians of the extreme northwest at Prairie
du Chien at the junction of the Wisconsin and Mississippi rivers in August,
1825. Many Indians came a thousand miles from the Dacotas to be present.
The Sioux and Chippewas had been enemies for many generations; the
Sacs and Foxes and the Sioux were continually on the war-path and so were
the Iowas and the Sioux. Therefore, to get an assemblage of these stubborn
and warring Indians to meet and settle their time honored feuds was a task
of great delicacy., However, on the 19th of August 1820, they entered into
a pact of perpetual peace, each agreeing not to enter upon the hunting grounds
of the other without consent; to bury the tomahawk and not to raise it without incurring the wrath of their Great Father at Washington, the President
of the United States.
In his "Life of General Lewis Cass" in 1852 William T. Young recites
an incident of this treaty well worth preserving:
"To give solemnity to this treaty, the commissioners omitted none of the ceremonies
usual on such occasions, and to which the Indians attached so great importance. This
token of respect for their reverence for their time honored usages and customs operated
in holding them more faithfully to the fulfilment of their agreements. At the conclusion
of the treaty, the commissioners entertained the whole assemblage of Indians with a
feast, having a peculiarity attending it which was truly novel and unusual to the guests.
The occasion was made use of to explain to them the evils they suffered from their
indulgence in ardent spirits; and the terrible consequences which would inevitably ensue
to them, if they continued the baleful practice. To convince them that the government
was not actuated by a desire to save the cost of the liquor they might consume, and
which it had been customary to distribute to them at treaties, but which, in the present
instance, was omitted, the commissioners caused an ample supply of whiskey to be
brought among them. When their attention was awakened to the subject, Governor
Cass ordered the vessels containing the liquor to be overturned and the contents wasted
upon the ground. The Indians were greatly disappointed and much astonished by this
novel temperance lecture."~
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CASS AND THE INDIAN TREATIES


TREATY OF FOND DU LAC
To open up settlements and explorations in the Lake Superior regions
it was necessary to assemble the Chippewas of that region and secure an
extinguishment of the title to their lands and to set aside suitable reservations for them to live upon.
Fond du Lac was an old trading post on the St. Louis River, where
more than two thousand Chippewas met General Cass in August, 1826. The
voyage from Detroit in bark canoes was arduous and tempestuous. For
eighteen days they skirted the shores of Huron and Superior and pushed
forward, whenever, night or day, the high winds and waves would allow
them to proceed.
When on the ground General Cass assembled the chiefs in solemn conclave and made his address to them, sentence by sentence, through the interpreter. The chiefs appeared with British medals around their necks and the
British flag suspended before them. The deluded children of the forest had
no adequate conception of the significance of these emblems of a foreign
potentate, so General Cass, at the conclusion of the treaty, directed his
attendants to take these medals and the flag from the chiefs. When he
received them, he quietly placed them under his feet and informed the chiefs
that when he returned he would give them the kind of medals and the flag
that they were to use. The prompt and decisive action of the Governor was
a lesson to the Indians which they never forgot.,
Under the provisions of this treaty the Indians granted full rights to the
United States for all mining operations, for this country was becoming
famous for its very rich deposits of copper and iron.
TREATY OF THE WABASH, INDIANA
The encroachment of the settlements in the State of Indiana had so
decreased the supply of game that the Indians were in distress and General
Cass met them on the Wabash to settle their removal to the lands set aside
for the perpetual home of the Indians, then known as Indian Territory but
now, the State of Oklahoma. The Miamis and Pottowattamies who were left
wern, assembled and the following speech by General Cass was delivered to
them and is given as an example of the oratory at Indian treaties:
"My Children:--
"Pottowattamies and Miamis: We thank the Great Spirit that he has opened the
paths to conduct us all here in safety, and that he has given us a clear sky and a cloudless sun, to meet together in this council house. Your Great Father, the President of
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CASS AND THE INDIAN TREATIES


the United States, has sent me, together with the two gentlemen who sit with me, to
meet you here upon business highly important to you and we request that you would
open your ears and listen attentively to what we have to say to you.
"When the Great Spirit first placed you upon this island, he gave you plenty of
game for food and clothing, and bows and arrows with which to kill it. After some time
i;, became difficult to kill the game, and the Great Spirit sent the white men here, who
supplied you with guns, powder, and balls, and with blankets and clothes. We were then
a very small people; but we have since greatly increased, and we are now spread over
the whole face of the country. You have decreased, and your numbers are now much
reduced. You have but little game, and it is difficult for you to support your women
and children by hunting. Your Great Father, whose eyes survey the whole country,
sees that you have a large tract of land here, which is of no service to you. You do not
cultivate it, and there is little gained upon it. The buffalo has long since left it, and the
deer are going. There are no beaver, and there will soon be no other animal worth
hunting upon it.
"There are a great many of the white children of your Father who would be glad
to live upon this land. They would build houses, and raise corn and cattle and hogs.
You know that when a family grows and becomes large, they must leave their father's
house and look out for a place for themselves-so it is with your white brethren. Their
family has increased, and they must find some new place to go to. Your Great Father
is willing to give for this land much more than it is worth to you. He is willing to give
more than all the game upon it would sell for. He will make you a considerable present
now, and will allow an annuity hereafter. You know well that all he promises he will
perform.
"The stipulations made to you heretofore are punctually fulfilled. Large annuities
in specie are paid to you, and they are sufficient to make you comfortable; much more
so than you were before the Treaty of St. Mary's. Your Great Father is not only
anxious to purchase the country of you; but he is desirous that you should remove far
from the white children. You must all see that you can not live in the neighborhood
of the white people. You have bad men; so have we. Your people will steal our horses,
kill our cattle and hogs, and commit other injuries upon our property. Some of our
people who have committed crimes escape into your country, and it becomes difficult to
take them. Besides, when you divide our settlements, we can not have roads, and
taverns, and ferries. The game, too, dies before our improvements, and, when that goes,
you must follow it. But above all, your young men are ruining themselves with whisky.
Since within the recollections of many of you, your numbers have diminished one half,
and unless you take some decisive step to check this evil, there will soon not be a
red man remaining upon the islands. We have tried all we could to prevent you from
having this poison, but we can not. Your bad men will buy; and our bad men will sell.
Old and young among you will drink. You sacrifice your property, you abandon your
women and children, and destroy one another. There is but one safety for you, and that
is to fly from this mad water. Your father owns a large country west of the Mississippi; he is anxious that all of his red children would remove there, and sit down in
peace together. There they can hunt and provide for their women and children and
once more become a happy people. We are authorized to offer you a residence there
equal to your land here in extent, and pay you an annuity which will make you comfortable, and provide means for your removal.
"You will then have a country abounding with game, and you will also have the
value of the country you leave. You will be beyond the reach of whiskey, for it can
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CASS AND THE INDIAN TREATIES


not reach you there. Your Great Father will not suffer any of his white children to
reside there, for it is reserved for his red people. It will be yours as long as the sun
shines and the rain falls.
"You must go before long-you can not remain here-you must remove or perish.
Now is the time for you to make a good bargain f or yourselves, which will make you
rich and comfortable.
"Come forward then, like wise men, and accept the terms we offer. We understand
there is a difference of opinion between Pottowattomies and Milamis, respecting their
claims to this land. This difference we should be glad to have you settle between yourselves. If you can do this it will be well; if not, we shall examine into the circumstances and decide between you."
"The preceding was written and read by sentences to the interpreter, Mr. Barron,
(chief interpreter) who delivered it to the Indians; to this followed a few ex-tempore
remarks by Governor Cass, namely:
"Mr. McCoy, whom you know is a good man, will go with you over the Mississippi;
and continue to live among you. You know him to be a good man, and a sincere friend
to you, and would not advise you to do anything that would be an injury to you. You
stand alone-there is none to support you-the Shawnees and Delawares are all gone.
You have been invited by your Great Father, the President, and are now sitting around
our council fire, in our council house, and under our flag. Your young men are not
always prudent; they will drink and quarrel-we hope the old and wise men will keep
the young men from doing any injury. If blood should be shed at our Council fire, we
never should forgive it-we have the will and power to punish it.
"Your Great Father has a quick ear, and a sharp eye, and a long arm. If a
Pottowattomie strikes a Miami, or a Miami strikes a Pottowattomnie, he strikes us-no
matter where he goes, we promise here before our brethren, red and white, we will
never kindle another council fire, nor smoke another pipe before we punish him. Your
young men must listen to what the chiefs tell them-they should do as in former days,
when chiefs had power and the young men were wise-let them clear out their eyes,
and let the words I have spoken go to their hearts.
"You now have the proposition we were authorized to make you. We wish you
to remember it, and think upon it, and return us an answer as soon as possible. When
You are ready let us know it, and we will hoist the flag-which will be the signal that
we are ready to receive your answer."~
General Cass concluded a treaty with the Pottowattamies of the Wabash,
October 16, 1826, and with the Miamis October 23, 1826, which removed all
of the Indians of Indiana to their new home across the Mississippi.


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THREATS AND WAR
During the incumbency of General Cass as Governor of Michigan from
1813, when he was appointed by President Madison, to 1831, when he became
Secretary of War, he was reappointed by each successive President and held
the responsibilities of the Indian Superintendency for the whole of the Northwest Territory. While that eighteen years was fraught with many serious
problems and troublous times among the 40,000 Indians under his charge
yet he quieted any threatened outbreaks and had no wars between the whites
and red men.
However, there was among the Winnebagoes of Fox River, in 1827, a
conspiracy to join with the Menominees, Pottowattamies, and Chippewas, to
drive the settlers out of the country. General Cass knew nothing of this
secret undertaking until he was on his way to Lake Winnebago to hold a
council with the Indians to settle the boundaries between the country of the
Chippewas, the Menominees, and the Winnebagoes as agreed upon at Prairie
du Chien in 1825.
Arriving at Green Bay in June, 1827, General Cass heard rumors that
the Winnebagoes were trying to enlist the Pottowattamies to help to drive
the miners out of their country on Fever River. Governor Cass hastened,
therefore, to Prairie du Chien. Upon his arrival there he learned that the
rumors were well founded. The crafty Winnebagoes had already murdered
and scalped three settlers. The whole country was in alarm. The people
had flocked for protection to the fort at Prairie du Chien. Three hundred
warriors had driven the miners from their work at Fever River, destroying
their tools and furniture and three Indians had been killed.
With the settlers of the whole region in a state of panic and alarm,
General Cass set about to organize means of defence. Although there were
only sixty men to defend the fort at Prairie du Chien, yet he put things in
the best shape possible and hastened down the Mississippi to St. Louis to
bring up ammunition and supplies and a detachment of U. S. regulars to
chastise the Indians.
Arriving at Fever River he found three thousand miners in a panic and
destitute of anything to defend themselves. He stopped at Rock Island on
his way to St. Louis and procured a quantity of arms and ammunition and
sent it to the miners. Getting to St. Louis in record time, seven days, from
Prairie du Chien, he secured the prompt service of General Atkinson, who
sent six hundred U. S. troops to settle the trouble.
By this prompt and energetic action General Cass averted a serious outbreak, for the Winnebagoes had sent out messengers with the war pipe and
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CASS AND THE INDIAN TREATIES


club to the other tribes to form a general confederation among the Indians
of the Lakes and Mississippi regions to expel the miners and settlers.
When General Cass returned to Green Bay after his sudden departure
to the region of Indian difficulties, the people were greatly astonished, for
they had heard that he had been killed. In fact, two attempts had been made
to take his life.
While descending the Wisconsin River, he stopped to visit a Winnebago
village to confer with the chiefs. As he ascended the hill on which the
Indian village stood, a young Winnebago took deliberate aim at him when
an older Indian struck his gun upward, exclaiming: "What are you doing?
You will ruin us all 1"
-As he was leaving the village another Indian from behind a tree leveled
his gun at Cass but the weapon missed fire and the Governor was spared by
an act of Providence. The Indians took this as an omen that his life was
charmed and he was never endangered thereafter.
There were no real pitched battles between the red men and the whites
in the upper Mississippi region until the Black Hawk War, in 1832, five years
after this episode with the Winnebagoes.
The Sacs and Foxes were the most persistent offenders of the tribes of
the Northwest Territory in ignoring the advice of General Cass against visiting the British at Malden since the War of 1812 and in accepting the gifts,
bestowed upon them by their "Great Father" who lived across the "Big
Water." At length this custom, no doubt, led these Indians to become defiant
of the authority of the United States and led to the many depredations
committed while passing through the white settlements. They robbed and
plundered everything that was portable and had many conflicts with the
settlers. The Sacs and Foxes became so aggressive that in the summer of
1832 they declared open warfare upon the whites. As General Cass was then
Secretary of War under President Jackson, he was anxious to teach these
untamable Sacs and Foxes a lesson. He therefore sent General Atkinson
with a large force of volunteers from Illinois and Michigan to attack them
in their stronghold. The rendezvous of the Indians was reached, but the
Indians had fled and they were pursued and overtaken at Petit Roche, near
the Wisconsin River about thirty miles from Fort Winnebago. Here the
Indians gave battle and after fifty of their number were killed retreated to
the Mississippi opposite the mouth of the Iowa River. At this point General
Atkinson overtook them with thirteen hundred men and, in the battle that
ensued, one hundred and fifty of the Indians were killed and the rest fled in
disorder and scattered into the surrounding country.
Black Hawk and his brother, the Prophet, fled among the XWinnebagoes
39




CASS AND THE INDIAN TREATIES


of the Mississippi for refuge, but these Indians promptly delivered them over
to the U. S. authorities. They werd held in Washington as hostages for
some time and then set at liberty.
The Sacs and Foxes were a troublesome and warlike tribe. They had
to be chastised severely to remember a lesson and no one was better informed
on this subject than General Cass. He had been their "Big Father of
Detroit" for eighteen years and knew them well and when they were bent
on war he gave them a lesson to be remembered.
In dress and manners these Sacs affected a superiority among the other
tribesmen. The ordinary dress of the Indian, one hundred years ago, consisted of a cotton shirt, leggings, moccasins, and a blanket over their shoulders, but the Sacs and Foxes scorned the shirt as of female apparel. They
used leggings and moccasins and in severe weather donned a blanket. But
in their head gear they were purely distinctive. They shaved their heads
close to the scalp, leaving a narrow strip forward of the crown and extending
down the back of the head to the neck. Then, by allowing this hair to grow
about six inches in length, it was made to stand erect, was painted red, and
was ornamented with a bunch of feathers from the top. They wished to look,
and did look, fierce and formidable.


40




CASS AND THE INDIAN TREATIES


TREATY OF BUTTE DES MORTS
Returning from the region of disorder on the Mississippi after the arrival
of the soldiers at Prairie du Chien, General Cass arrived in the Green Bay
country in August and met three thousand Indians on the treaty grounds at
Butte des Morts on the Fox River. The question of the boundaries of the
hunting grounds as defined in the Treaty of Prairie du Chien in 1825 was
settled and the Chippewas, Menominees, and Winnebagoes never had any
more difficulty about their territory. A cession was made of the Green Bay
reservation and its limits determined.
General Cass advised them all to preserve peace but said that if they
wished to indulge in war, the United States Government was able to give
them all that they wanted.
When a large concourse of his Indian charges were assembled if the
opportunity presented itself General Cass was sure to teach the red man a
lesson in law or ethics which was intended to leave an impression on the
minds of these children of the forest. This treaty gave a chance for such an
example and William J. Young' in his "Life of Lewis Cass" tells a story
which is worthy of repetition:
"The treaty being concluded, the Indians were preparing to leave the ground, when
suddenly the attention of the assemblage was arrested by a wild and fearful scream.
A squaw, having attempted to prevent her husband from parting with the supplies that
had been given them, which he was about to do, for whiskey, had been stabbed by him.
He was taken into custody by order of the Governor, and arrangements were made at once
to punish him. Governor Cass resolved to make an example of him by inflicting a punishment which was regarded by the Indians as the most disgraceful and degrading they
suffer. To the inquiry, 'What shall be done with this man?' the Governor replied; 'We
will make a woman of him.'
"The Indians were all assembled together around the Butte de Morts, the women
and children being placed in front. The offender was then brought before them, and
Governor Cass, through an interpreter, explained to them what he was about to do. He
spoke to them of the kind intention of the woman, of her object in attempting to preserve their provisions and clothing from the grasp of the heartless whiskey dealer; that
further, the man had struck her with his knife, and, but for the interference of others,
would have deprived her of life; that the man who could commit such a deed upon a
helpless woman, was unft to rank among the braves, and forfeited his character as a
man. The warriors were highly incensed at the interference of Governor Cass, and
a desire to resist his orders was manifested by them. But he proceeded unmoved in the
performance of the ceremony. The Indian was deprivd of his leggings and ornaments,
his knife taken from him, the blade broken off, and the handle returned to him. A
dirty petticoat, procured from an old squaw, was then put on him, and, thus dressed, he
was led through the crowd, and pronounced henceforth a woman. This sentence was
far more terrible to the Indian than death itself. It separated him, forever, from the
association of the braves of his tribe, and subjected him to all the drudgery and servile
labor to which the Indians subject their females.
41




CASS AND THE INDIAN TREATIES


THE INDIAN POLICY
In 1831, when President Jackson re-organized his cabinet, he selected
Lewis Cass as his Secretary of War, doubtless because of the distinguished
service of Cass in Indian affairs, since the War Portfolio then embraced the
policy for the Indians. Cass was, also, experienced in army routine as he
had been a general in the War of 1812. He was, moreover, an experienced
lawyer and had shown marked ability in dealing with men and the policies
of the government in general and the Territory of Michigan, in particular.
As soon as he assumed his portfolio at Washington he took up his duties
with vigor and in his first report to the Executive and Congress in December,
1831, he said:"The condition and prospects of the aboriginal tribes within the limits of the
United States, are yet the subjects of anxious solicitude by the government. In some
of the states, they have been brought within the operation of the ordinary municipal
laws, and these regulations have been abrogated by legislative enactments. This procedure renders most of the provisions of the various enactments of Congress upon this
subject in-operative; and a crisis in our Indian affairs, has evidently arrived, which calls
for the establishment of a system of policy adapted to the existing state of things, and
calculated to fix upon a permanent basis the future destiny of the Indians. Whatever
change may be contemplated in their situation or condition, no one will advocate the
employment of force or improper influence in effecting it. It is due to the character
of the government and the feelings of the country, not less than to the moral and
physical imbecility of this unhappy race, that a spirit of kindness and forbearance should
mark the whole course of our intercommunication with them.
"The great object, after satisfying ourselves what would best insure their permanent welfare, should be to satisfy them of the integrity of our 'views and of the
wisdom of the course recommended to them.
"The Indians who are placed in immediate contact with our settlements have now
the alternative of remaining in their present position, or of migrating to the country
west of the Mississippi.
A change of residence, therefore, from their present positions to the regions west
of the Mississippi, presents the only hope of permanent establishments and improvements. That it will be attended with inconveniences and sacrifices no one can doubt.
The associations which bind the Indians to the land of their forefathers are strong
and enduring; and these must be broken by their migration. But they are also broken
by our citizens, who every day encounter all the difficulties of similar changes in pursuit
of the means of support. And the experiments that have been made satisfactorily show,
that by proper precautions, and liberal appropriations, the removal and establishment
of the Indians can be effected with comparative little trouble to them and to us. Why
then should thle policy of the measure be disputed or opposed? The whole subject has
materially changed, even within a few years; and the imposing consideration it now
presents, and which is every day gaining new force, calls upon the government and the
country to determine what is required on our part, and what course shall be recommended to the Indians. If they remain they must decline and eventually disappear.
Such is the result of all experience. If they remove, they may be comfortably established, and their moral and physical condition ameliorated. It is certainly better for
42




CASS AND THE INDIAN TREATIES


them to meet the difficulties of removal, with the probability of an adequate and final
reward, than, yielding to their constitutional apathy, to sit still and perish.
"The great moral debt we owe to this unhappy race is universally felt and acknowledged. Diversities of opinion exist respecting the proper mode of discharging this
obligation, but its validity is not denied, and there certainly are difficulties which may
well call for discussion and consideration.
"For more than two centuries, we have been placed in contact with the Indians;
and, if this long period has been fruitless in useful results, it has not been so in experiments, having in view their improvement. Able men have been investigating their condition, and good men in improving it. But all these labors have been as unsuccessful
in the issue, as many of them were expensive and laborious in their progress.
"The work has been aided by governments and communities, by public opinion, by
the obligation of the law, and the sanction of religion. But its history furnishes abundant evidence of entire failure, and everything around us upon the frontiers confirms
its truth. The Indians have either receded as our settlements advanced, and united their
fragments with some kindred tribe, or they have attempted to establish themselves upon
reservations, in the vain hope of resisting the pressure upon them, and of preserving
their peculiar institutions. Those who are nearest to us have generally suffered most
severely, by the debasing effects of ardent spirits, and by loss of their own principles of
restraint, few as these are, without the acquisition of ours: and almost all of them have
disappeared, crushed by the onward course of events, driven before them. Not one
instance can be produced in the whole history of the intercourse between the Indians
and the white men, where the former have been able, in districts surrounded by the
latter, to withstand, successfully, the progress of those causes, which have elevated one
of these races, and depressed the other.* Such a monument of former successful exertion does not exist.
"Indolent in his habits, the Indian is opposed to labor; improvident in his mode of
life, he has little foresight in providing, or care in preserving. Taught from his infancy
to reverence his own traditions and institutions, he is satisfied of their value, and dreads
the anger of the Great Spirit, if he should depart from the customs of his fathers.
Devoted to the use of ardent spirits, he abandons him-self to its' indulgence' without
restraint. War and hunting are his only occupations. He can endure without complaining the extremity of human suffering; and if he can' not overcome the evils of his
situation, he submits to them without repining. He attributes all the misfortunes of
his race to the white man and looks with suspicion upon the offers of assistance that
are made to him. These traits of character, though not universal, are yet general; and
the practical difficulty they present, in changing the condition of such a people is to
satisfy them of our sincerity, and the value of the aid we offer; to hold out to them
motives for exertion; to call into action some powerful feeling, which shall counteract
the tendency of previous impressions. It is under such circumstances and with these
difficulties in view that the government has been called upon to determine what arrangements shall be made for the permanent establishment of the Indians. Shall they be
advised to remain or remove? If the former, their fate is written in the annals of their
race; if the latter, we may yet hope to see them renovated in character and condition,
by our example and instruction and their exertions."


43




CASS AND THE INDIAN TREATIES


CHAPTER VI.
LEWIS CASS, A PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE
A T the close of his term as Governor of Michigan in 1831, Lewis Cass was
L.honored by his fellow citizens at a banquet and the following address
by Major John Biddle is given to show with what regard he was held by
his fellow citizens:
"Your Excellency: Our fellow citizens have assigned to me the office of expressing
the sentiments which your intended departure from among them has universally called
forth. To be the organ of conveying to you these sentiments is a most grateful duty,
sympathizing, as I do, very sincerely, in the general feeling.
"Many of us have witnessed your administration of the affairs of this territory for a
series of years, which embrace a large portion of the active period of life. The situation
is one of the most difficult to which an American citizen can be called. The public officer
who is delegated without the sanction of their suifrages, over the affairs of a people elsewhere accustomed to exercise, in its fullest extent, the right of self government, is
regarded with no indulgent feelings. The relation is truly colonial; and the history of
territories, like other colonial history, has been too often a mere chronicle of the feuds of
the governing and the governed, exhibiting a domineering and arbitrary temper on one
side, met by a blind and intemperate opposition on the other.
"From the evils of such a state of things, we have happily been exempted. You
have preserved harmony by wisely conceding to public opinion that weight to which it is
entitled under every government, whatever may be its form; thus giving to your measure
the support of the only authority to which the habits of American citizens will allow them
cheerfully to submit. The executive powers of the territory have been administered in
the spirit of republican habits and principles too firmly fixed to yield to temporary circumstances, leaving the people nothing to desire but an occasion to manifest their
appreciation, by bestowing themselves an authority so satisfactorily exercised.
"Of the manner in which yourself and most estimable family have performed the
courtesies, as well as the graver duties of public life, I will permit myself to say no more
than that it has been duly appreciated, and has left an impression not easily effaced.
"The people of Mfichigan will long remember your zealous and successful exertions
to promote their welfare; and, sir, if the present separation should prove a final one, be
assured that they will look, with affectionate interest, hoping that in a more extended
field of usefulness, it may be as honorable to yourself and as beneficial to your fellow
citizens as that has been which you are now about to terminate.
"Allow me to propose:
"Lewis Cass;-Health and happiness attend his future course. May the people of
the United States duly appreciate the talents and integrity which Michigan has contributed
to the public service of the Union."
Great applause and cheers greeted these sentiments, and when the
excitement had subsided, Governor Cass arose and responded:
"'Fellow Citizens: I return sincere thanks for this mark of your regard as well as
for the very kind manner in which your sentiments have been conveyed to me, by the
gentleman who has been called to preside at this festive board. This numerous and
44




CASS AND THE INDIAN TREATIES


respectable assemblage furnishes but another manifestation of that kindness which has
never deserted me, during the period of eighteen years, in which I have administered the
executive department of the territorial government, and under many trying circumstances,
both in peace and war. At the commencement of that period, the territory had just been
rescued from the grasp of the enemy. Its population was small, its resources exhausted,
its prospects cheerless. The operation of the war had pressed heavily upon it, and scenes
of suffering and oppression had been exhibited, to which, in the annals of modern warfare, we may vainly seek a parallel. We have only to look around us to be sensible how
great is the change which has since taken place in our condition. The Peninsula has been
explored, in every direction, and its advantages ascertained and developed.
"The current of emigration has reached us, and is spreading over our forests and
prairies. Settlements have been formed, villages founded, and roads opened in every
direction. All the elements of social order and prosperity have been called into action,
and are combining -to form another republic, almost prepared to ask permission into that
confederacy, which, protecting all in its hour of security, may appeal to all in its hour of
danger, should danger ever approach it. This great advantage is due to the intelligence,
industry, and enterprise of our countrymen. These causes will continue to operate, until
the vast plain extending from Lake Erie to Lake Michigan, shall f,urnish through its
whole extent another example of the powerful effects of free institutions upon the progress
and prosperity of a country.
"I have been called, f ellow- citizens, to another sphere of action. To one where your
generous confidence can not alone support me; and where, I am apprehensive, I shall find
the duties as far beyond my abilities, as the appointment itself was beyond my
expectations.
"But wherever I may go, or whatever fortune may await me, I shall cherish with
unfailing recollection the events of this day, and the sentiments you have expressed
toward myself and toward those whom nature and affection have made the nearest and
dearest to me.
"In s-evering the connection which has hitherto united me to the territory, permit
me to thank you for all the kindness I have received from you. I can claim only the
merit of having endeavored faithfully to execute the trust reposed in me; and if, at the
termination of my long period of service, I leave you without a party for or against
the executive, to your partiality, far more than to my services, must this result be
attributed. For that forbearance, as well as for all other marks of your favor, and
especially for this, the latest and the last, I beg leave to express my feelings, in a
sentiment"The Citizens of Michigan: May they be as prosperous as they have been to me
kind and generous."
Under the Ordinance of 1787, the territorial g-overnor had almost
unlimited powers and the gentle but firm nature of Gass fitted very well
into the duties devolvingr upon him, as the testimonial given at this farewell
dinner shows.
As Secretary of 'War from   1831 to 1836, inclusiv-e, General Cass handled
with characteristic vigor such varied problems as the formation of an adequate Indian policy, the prosecution of The Black Hawk War, army reform
and naval defence. He participated, as an adviser and friend of President
45




CASS AND THE INDIAN TREATIES


Jackson, in the great controversy over nullification in South Carolina, and
as Secretary of War, he instituted firm measures to sustain the integrity of
the Union in South Carolina.
The Indians in the Seminole War had said of President Jackson as a
General in the army that he never slept, and Cass, as a member of his cabinet,
gave himself with such devotion that his health broke, and he had to resign
his position. But President Jackson would not allow his friend to retire to
private life, and in 1836 he appointed him Minister to France.
During his incumbency of the office of Minister at Paris, many important
international controversies arose, and General Cass stood out among the
diplomats of the United States as one of our ablest representatives in foreign
courts. The question of the "Right of Search" on the high seas was brought
to a crisis when England had almost convinced Germany, France;; and
Russia that such a doctrine, though lost with America in the War of 1812,
was still the inherent right of the "Sovereign of the Seas."  But Lewis Cass
thwarted the designs of Britain by arousing public opinion in France and
securing the rejection of the treaty by the French government. Russia and
Germany had already signed the treaty granting the rights of search, for
they then had few ships; but, with the great maritime powers of France
and the United States standing against this doctrine, England was foiled.
Returning to America in 1843 after resigning as Minister to France,
General Cass was honored by the citizens of Boston with a huge meeting
in Faneuil Hall and his journey to Detroit was a triumph of popular
approval for the champion of "The Freedom of the Seas."
The following letter from General Jackson, "Old Hickory," reflects the
national feeling toward Lewis Cass at this time:
"Hermitage, July 1843.
"My Dear Sir:
"I have the pleasure to acknowledge your friendly letter of the 25th of May last. It
reached me in due course of mail; but such were my debility and afflictions, that I have
been prevented from replying to it until now; and even now, it is with difficulty that I
write. In return for your expressions with regard to myself, I have to remark, that I shall
ever recollect, my dear General, with great satisfaction, the relations, both private and
official, which subsisted between us during the greater part of my administration. Having
full confidence in your abilities and republican principles, I invited you to my cabinet,
and I can never forget with what discretion and talents you met those great and delicate
questions which were brought before you whilst you presided over the Department of
War, which entitles you to my thanks, and will be ever recollected with the most lively
feeling of friendship by me.
"But what has endeared you to every true American, was the noble stand which
you took, as our Minister at Paris, against the Quintuple Treaty, and which, by your
talents, energy, and fearless responsibility, defeated its ratification by France. a treaty
intended by Great Britain, to change our international laws, make her mistress of the
46




CASS AND THE INDIAN TREATIES


seas, and destroy the national independence, not only of our country, but of all Europe,
and enable her to become the tyrant on every ocean. Had Great Britain obtained the
sanction of this treaty, (with the late disgraceful Treaty of Washington-so disreputable
to our national character-and injurious to our national safety) then, indeed we might
have hung up our harps upon the willow, and resigned our national independence to
Great Britain. But, I repeat, to your talents, energy, and fearless responsibility, we are
indebted for the shield thrown over us, from the impending danger which the ratification of the "Quintuple Treaty" by France would have brought upon us. For this act,
the thanks of every true American, and the applause of every true republican, are yours;
and for this noble act I tender you my thanks.
"Receive the assurance of my friendship and esteem.
"Andrew Jackson.'
Arriving in Detroit from Washington, Cass was received by a delegation of its citizens, the Governor of the State, and members of the Legislature. An address was made to him by the Mayor, Dr. Douglas Houghton,
and a procession led by the Frontier Guards escorted him to his room at
Biddle's Exchange.
He was at once urged by personal friends, political organizations, and
delegations from various states to become a candidate for the Presidency
and he reluctantly allowed his name to be presented to the Democratic
National Convention which met at Baltimore on May 1, 1844. After a long
battle of ballots in which he was the leader, he withdrew in favor of James
K. Polk of Tennessee, who eventually was triumphantly elected over Henry
Clay, the popular Whig candidate.
In the following winter when the Michigan Legislature met, her favorite
son, Lewis Cass, was almost unanimously elected to the United States
Senate for six years to succeed Augustus S. Porter.
In the Senate, at the beginning of President Polk's administration,
Cass held his own in debate with Webster, Calhoun, Clay, and Benton on
the Oregon question. He later participated in Senatorial debates on the
Mexican War and the Wilmot Proviso. General Cass stood firmly for both
measures and his support of the latter was responsible for his defeat at the
election in 1848, when he was the Democratic candidate for President
of the United States, having been nominated at the Baltimore convention
of 1848.
Upon this second nomination, Cass resigned his seat in the Senate as
a member from Michigan, and retired to his home in Detroit for the decision
o:0 his countrymen.
There was a strong feeling arising in the country about the extension
of slavery to new territory and a party was organized, led by Martin Van
Buren, who had been rejected by the Democratic party in 1844 when Polk
was nominated. Van Buren brought together the dissatisfied elements of
47




CASS AND THE INDIAN TREATIES


the country into the Free Soil party and thus helped to def eat General Cass.
General Zachary Taylor, the hero of the Mexican War, a Whig, was elected
President after one of the most bitter and hotly contested political campaigns
in the annals of American politics.
Following his defeat for the Presidency, General Cass was immediately
re~turned to the senate to succeed himself for his unexpired term of six years.
In 1848, during the political campaign for the election of the President,
p-Crty feeling was at fever heat, the Democrats were divided by the defection
of Van Buren and the Whigs were using every means at their command to
elect Taylor. They had no platform and Taylor had no political affiliations
nor record. The slogan among them was to elect the hero of Palo Alto and
the country would take care of itself. The long political career of Cass was
attacked and misrepresented by his opponents with a bitterness unknown
before, and, like his great contemporary, Henry Clay, he had to succumb
to the greatness of a long public career. The American people have rejected
many of their great statesmen at the polls.
One of the choice bits of political campaign literature that has survived
the turmoil of the Cass-Taylor-Van Buren contest is an heroic song used
by the partisans of Cass. It, no doubt, was used to off set the plaudits for
the hero of Palo Alto. It is taken f rom a pamphlet of 1848 devoted to
Cass, found by the writer in the archives of the Congressional Library at
Washington.
THE BRAVE OLD VOLUNTEER
Air-"Hunters of Kentucky"
When war's fierce conflict through the land
Sent forth its dread alarms
The thrilling bugle's sound was heard
-          And freemen rushed to arms
Bold Cass led on our gallant band
To save the vast frontier;,
With daring hand our flag sustained,
The brave old volunteer.
Cho.-The brave old volunteer, the brave old volunteer,
The brave old volunteer, the brave old volunteer.


48




4W
PERCY IVES
A RT IS T




"THE TREATY OF SAGINAW"
BETWEEN U. S. GOVERNMENT AND CHIPPEWAS OF MICHIGAN, SAGINAW RIVER, SEPTEMBER 24, 1819.
BY PERCY IVES, DETROIT, MICHIGAN, 1922.




CASS AND THE INDIAN TREATIES


The clashing steel of British foe
The savage cry for bloodThe burning cabin's wailing woeAt midnight hour was heard.
These nerved the arm of gallant Cass
Nor quailed his heart with fear,
Fear was a word he never knew,
The brave old volunteer.


He woke the gallant sons of France,
And roused that slumbering land
To join with him in breaking down,
Proud England's tyrant hand.
Their liberated millions rise
With songs of lofty cheer
And bless the day when first they saw
The brave old volunteer.


Cho.

Cho.

The first to land on hostile shore
He fought them long and well;
'Mid rifle shot and cannon roar,
St. George's banner fell.
See Freedom's glorious stars and stripes
On Canard's Bridge appear;
And three times three he drove the foe,
The brave old volunteer.
Cho.On Thames's proud battleground he stood
And mingled in the fray;
With gallant charge he swept the field
Upon that bloody day.
He chased for miles the scattered force
Through forest dark and drear;
And Proctor with his teeth escaped
The brave old volunteer.
Cho.When England tried in after years
To sweep us from the main,
Brave Cass her projects crushed once
more
And headed her again.
He bore our glorious banner through
The battle and the breeze;
He would not yield to England now
The freedom of the seas..
Cho.

Old Europe, rocking to,and fro
And struggling to be free
In young America beholds
Her glorious destiny.
Let us fulfill our mission here
Their rising hopes to cheer;
He set the ball in motion there,
The brave old volunteer.
Cho.Come, Freemen, rally now once more,
Around that noble form.
He toiled for you in years gone by
Through battle and through storm.
Ohio's potent voice is heard
Along the vast frontier,
And twenty thousand votes she'll give
The brave old volunteer.
Cho.From Maine to Georgia, hear the sound
'Tis rolling-rushing on.
From Aztec's lofty capital
To distant Oregon.
The ocean-bound republic joins
With voice of mighty cheer,
He'll make a glorious President,
The brave old volunteer.
Cho.

49




CASS AND THE INDIAN TREATIES


Without the least discouragement over his unsuccessful campaign,
General Cass reentered the Senate and took his place, like Clay, in the front
ranks of his party. He participated in the debate over the Compromise of
1850 and was one of the Special Committee to report out this measure. He
was prominent from 1850 to 1857 in all the great debates on the Dred Scott
Decision. He was an advocate of a strict and literal construction of the
Constitution, very jealous of the rights of the states, contending that the
powers not delegated to Congress belonged inalienably to the states. Withal,
he was a staunch Union man, and as we showed above, as Secretary of War,
was bitterly opposed to Calhoun's Nullification doctrine in 1832.
In 1857 when James Buchanan assumed the office of President, Lewis
Cass, as the unopposed leader of his party, was selected to hold the portfolio
of Secretary of State, and, with distinction to himself and to his country, he
remained at his post through those ante bellum days, until it became evident
that the other members of Buchanan's cabinet were in sympathy with the
Secession Movement of the South. When President Buchanan hesitated
to send reinforcements and munitions of war to Fort Sumter in January,
1861, Lewis Cass resigned from the cabinet and retired to private life at his
home in Detroit.
After fifty-five years of continuous public life, and, at the age of seventynine, full of honors, Lewis Cass, devoted to the cause of the Union, spent
the remainder of his days in the enjoyments of a well earned leisure.
His private fortune was ample. His purchase of 500 acres of land,
which was known as the Cass Farm, in the heart of Detroit, enriched him
and his heirs. He gave out of this estate two pieces of land to the City of
Detroit-one, the site of the original building of the Cass School at Grand
River, Second, and High West, in 1860; the other, Cass Park at Ledyard,
Second, and Temple. These two gifts will stand as monuments to the name
of Cass-especially the one on which the Cass Technical High School had
its origin.
General Cass died in Detroit in 1866 and was buried in Elmwood Cemetery, receiving the honors of a grateful people.


50




CASS AND THE INDIAN TREATIES


CHAPTER VII.
THE PAINTING, "THE TREATY OF SAGINAW"
W      HEN the original building of the Cass Technical High School on the
land donated by General Lewis Cass in 1860, was completed in 1911, there
was a desire on the part of the Principal and teachers of the school to
provide some memorial to the donor of the site. At that time, Percy Ives,
one of Michigan's noted artists, was tentatively engaged to produce a life
size portrait of General Cass. But, at once, the Cass Technical High School
-began to assume-proportions undreamed of by reason of the phenomenal
industrial development of Detroit and the portrait was postponed, awaiting
developments in the school. By 1915, new land was purchased and plans
were laid for the present building and its curriculum. As these plans
matured, and as it became evident that the building and the character of
the school would have something more than local reputation, it became
evident that the memorial to General Cass should be more ambitious than
a mere portrait. Therefore, the painting, "The Treaty of Saginaw," was
evolved as a work of art that would more appropriately represent General
Cass and, also, the City of Detroit and the State of Michigan in its educational development. As our city and state have evolved out of savage conditions, in one hundred years, this painting would be emblematic of what our
progress has been.
Therefore, authority was secured from the Board of Education to
proceed, and the following committee of Detroit's citizens was selected by
the Principal of the school to sponsor the painting which is to be a memorial
to the fame of General Cass, and which will hang on the walls of the school.
The following gentlemen were selected:
Messrs. Henry Ledyard, Sidney T. Miller, Frank Cody, Judge Henry S. Hulbert,
Robert Oakman, William J. Gray, John A. Russell, Dr. Robert M. Wenley, Henry M.
Campbell, Oscar Marx, Percy Ives, and Benj. F. Comfort, Secretary.
The subject, "The Treaty of Saginaw," was approved and Percy Ives
was commissioned to paint the picture and have it ready to be presented to
the Cass Technical High School by the students and the alumni at the
dedication of the building, November 27, 1923.
In the preparations for, and in the execution of this important historical
painting, Mr. Ives has spent three years in the study of historical data and
three of the summers of this period among the Chippewa Indians of Manitoulin Island, Ontario, to get the correct atmosphere, local color, and perfect
Chippewa characteristics and expression for each of the Indian faces; and
51




CASS AND THE INDIAN TREATIES


the ideal physique of our Indian aboriginies. The pine trees were taken from
the primeval forests to represent the natural environment of the Chippewas,
children of the northern forests.
The scene is laid on the banks of the Saginaw at the place marked by
the Daughters of the American Revolution as the spot of the Cass treaty,
with an appropriate tablet in bronze. Mr. Ives visited the surroundings of
this memorable transaction for a portrayal of the river and its banks.
The head chiefs of the different bands are represented occupying seats
in a semi circle on logs and the orator of the red men, Kish-kau-kou, has
finished a fiery speech in which he declares:
"We have not asked you to come here. We do not want to sell our
lands. We received them from the Great Spirit for our hunting grounds.
We want them for our children and our children's children."
While the chief stands defiantly waiting for the answer, General Cass
delivers his reply:
"My children: I am sent here by your Great Father, the President, to talk to you.
We do not want to take your lands away from you without your consent. In fact, these
lands do not belong to you, for your fathers had given them to your Great Father across
the sea by treaty, and your Great Father across the sea has given them to your Great
Father at Washington by treaty, so they belong to him. We could take these lands for
our use without any talk to you, but your Great Father is not going to do that. He is
going to give you your share of these lands and pay you for the rest of them and try to
make you happy."
As the name of Ives, father and son, has been intimately connected with
the annals of Michigan and Detroit in the work of portraiture, for two generations, it seemed quite appropriate that one of them should have the distinction of painting the picture which would be a lasting memorial to Michigan's
representative statesman.
Percy Ives, the artist for the work, "The Treaty of Saginaw," is the
son of Lewis T. Ives, one of Michigan's noted portrait painters from 1873 to
1894., and a man of national reputation. The son inherited his father's talents
and trained himself for his life work by a severe and long period of preparation. Working in his father's studio all of his boyhood days, he graduated
from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in 1885, and taught in this
institution as a Demonstrator of Anatomy for two years. He then studied
in Paris for six years, in the Academie Julian and in the National Academie,
the Beaux Arts. His preceptors in this period were the famous artists,
J. L. Gerome, J. Lefebre, G. R. Boulanger, W. Bouguereau, Benjamin
Constant, and Tony Robert Fleury.
Before he returned to his native city his work had received the highest
recognition, as he passed the first of the three Americans to pass the Beaux
52




CASS AND THE INDIAN TREATIES


Arts examinations, and received first prize in composition and first mention
in portraiture, besides being an exhibitor in the Paris Salon.
After his return home he has had his work accepted for exhibition in
the World's Fair, Chicago, the St. Louis Louisiana Exposition, the Buffalo
Pan American Exposition, the New York Academy of Design, and was a
member of the jury at the St. Louis Exposition.
His work has received honorable mention at the Buffalo Exposition,
First Prize in the Scarab Exhibit, Detroit, First Prize-Founders' Society,
Museum of Art, Detroit.
The greatest service that Mr. Ives has rendered his state and city has
been his work in portraiture to save for future generations the portraits of
the men and women who, like Cass, have served this great commonwealth
and our nation in public service, in law, in education, in commerce, and in
manufactures. A list of Ives' portraits reflects the personal history of this
great state. See Appendix C.


53




CASS AND THE INDIAN TREATIES


APPENDIX A
CHIPPEWAS
(Concluded September 24, 1819.)
Articles of a treaty made and concluded at Saginaw, in the territory of Michigan, between the United States of America, by their commissioner, Lewis Cass,
and the Chippewa nation of Indians.
Article 1. The Chippewa nation of Indians, in consideration of the stipulations herein
made on the part of the United States, do hereby, forever, cede to the United States
the land comprehended within the following lines and boundaries: Beginning at a point
in the present Indian boundary line, which runs due north from the mouth of the great
Auglaize river, six miles south of the place where the base line, so called, intersects the
same; thence, west, sixty miles; thence, in a direct line, to the head of Thunder Bay
river; thence, down the same, following the courses thereof, to the mouth; thence, northeast, to the boundary line between the United States and the British province of Upper
Canada; thence, with the same, to the line established by the treaty of Detroit, in the
year one thousand eight hundred and seven; thence, with the said line, to the place of
beginning.
Article 2. From the cession aforesaid the following tracts of land shall be reserved
for the use of the Chippewa nation of Indians.
One tract, of eighteen thousand acres, on the east side of the river Au Sable, near
where the Indians now live.
One tract, of two thousand acres, on the river Mesagwisk.
One tract, of eight thousand acres, on the head of the river Huron which empties
into the Saginaw river, at the village of Otusson.
One Island in the Saginaw Bay.
One tract, of two thousand acres, where Nabobask formerly lived.
One tract, of one thousand acres, near the Island in the Saginaw river.
One tract, of six hundred and forty acres, at the bend of the river Huron, which
empties into the Saginaw river.
One tract, of two thousand acres, at the mouth of Point Augrais river.
One tract, of one thousand acres, on the river Huron, at Menoequet's village.
One tract, of ten thousand acres, on the Shiawassee river, at a place called the Big
Rock.
One tract, of three thousand acres, on the Shiawassee river, at Ketchewaudaugenink.
One tract, of six thousand acres, at the Little Forks on the Tetabawasink river.
One tract, of forty thousand acres, on the west side of the Saginaw river, to be
hereafter located.
Article 3. There shall be reserved, for the use of each of the persons hereinafter
mentioned and their heirs, which persons are all Indians by descent, the following tracts
of land.
For the use of John Riley, the son of Menawcumegoqua, a Chippewa woman, six
hundred and forty acres of land, beginning at the head of the first marsh above the
mouth of the Saginaw river, on the east side thereof.
For the use of Peter Riley, the son of Menawcumegoqua, a Chippewa woman, six
hundred and forty acres of land, beginning above the adjoining apple trees on the
west side of the Saginaw river, and running up the same for quantity.
54




CASS AND THE INDIAN TREATIES


For the use of James Riley, the son of Menawcumegoqua, a Chippewa woman, six
hundred and forty acres of land, beginning on the east side of the Saginaw river, nearly
opposite to Campeau's trading house, and running up the river for quantity.
For the use of Kawkawiskou, or the Crow, a Chippewa chief, six hundred and forty
acres of land, on the east side of the Saginaw river, at a place called Menitegow, and to
include, in the said six hundred and forty acres, the island opposite to the said place.
For the use of Nowokeshik, Metawanene, Mokitchenoqua, Nondashemau, Petabonaqua, Messawwakut, Checbalk, Kitchegeequa, Sagosequa, Annoketoqua, and Tawcumegoqua, each, six hundred and forty acres of land, to be located at and near the grand
traverse of the Flint river, in such manner as the President of the United States may
direct.
For the use of the children of Bobowtonden, six hundred and forty acres, on the
Kawkawling river.
Article 4. In consideration of the cession aforesaid, the United States agree to pay
to the Chippewa nation of Indians, annually, forever, the sum of one thousand dollars
in silver; and do also agree that all annuities due by any former treaty to the said tribe,
shall be hereafter paid in silver.
Article 5. The stipulation contained in the treaty of Greenville, relative to the right
of the Indians to hunt upon the land ceded, while it continues the property of the United
States, shall apply to this treaty; and the Indians shall, for the same term, enjoy the
privilege of making sugar upon the same land, committing no unnecessary waste upon
the trees.
Article 6. The United States agree to pay to the Indians the value of any improvements which they may be obliged to abandon, in consequence of the lines established by
this treaty, and which improvements add real value to the land.
Article 7. The United States reserve to the proper authority the right to make roads
through any part of the land reserved by this treaty.
Article 8. The United States engage to provide and support a blacksmith for the
Indians, at Saginaw, so long as the President of the United States may think proper, and
to furnish the Chippewa Indians with such farming utensils and cattle, and to employ
such persons to aid them in their agriculture, as the President may deem expedient.
Article 9. This treaty shall take effect, and be obligatory on the contracting parties,
so soon as the same shall be ratified by the President of the United States, by and with
the advice and consent of the Senate thereof.
In testimony whereof, the said Lewis Cass, commissioner as aforesaid,
and the chiefs and warriors of the Chippewa nation of Indians, have
hereunto set their hands, at Saginaw, in the territory of Michigan, this
twenty-fourth day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand
eight hundred and nineteen.
Lewis Cass                                Wausaquanai, his x mark,
Pakenosega, his x mark,                   Minequet, his x mark,
Kekenotchega, his x mark,                 Otauson, his x mark,
Ch:mokenow, his x mark,                  Tussequa, his x mark,
Kel:enutchsgun, his x mark,               Mixabee, his x mark,
Pashkobwis, his x mark,                  Kitchewawashen, his x mark,
Muskobenense, his x mark,                Neebeenaquin, his x mark,
Waubonoosa, his x mark,                  Anueemaycounbeeme, his x mark,
55




CASS AND THE INDIAN TREATIES


Onewequa, his x mark,
Nayokeeman, his x mark,
Peshquescum, his x mark,
Mocksonga, his x mark,
Noukonwabe, his x mark,
Shingwalk, his x mark,
Shingwalk, jun. his x mark,
VJawaubequak, his x mark,
Meewayson, his x mark,
Wepecumgegut, his x mark,
M'arkkenwuwbe, his x mark,
Fonegawne, his x mark,
Nemetetowwa, his x mark,
Kishkaukou, his x mark,
Peenaysee, his x mark.
Ogemaunkeketo, his x mark,
Reaume, his x mark,
Nowkeshue, his x mark,
Mixmunitou, his x mark,
Wassau, his x mark,
Keneobe, his x mark,
Moksauba, his x mark,
Mutchwetau, his x mark,
Muckcumcinau, his x mark,
Kitcheenoting, his x mark,
Waubeekeenew, his x mark,
Pashkeekou, his x mark,
Mayto, his x mark,
Sheemaugua, his x mark,
Kauguest, his x mark,
Kitsheematush, his x mark,
Aneuwayba, his x mark,
Walkcaykeejugo, his x mark,
Autowaynabee, his x mark,
Nawgonissee, his x mark,
Owenisham, his x mark,
Wauweeyatam, his x mark,
Shawshauwenaubais, his x mark,
Okooyousinse, his x mark,
Ondottowaugane, his x mark,
Amickoneena, his x mark,
Kitcheonundeeyo, his x mark,
Saugassauway, his x mark,
Okeemanpeenaysee, his x mark,
Minggeeseetay, his x mark,
Waubishcan, his x mark,
Peaypaymanshee, his x mark,
Ocanauck, his x mark,
Ogeebouinse, his x mark,
56


Paymeenoting, his x mark,
Naynooautienishkoan, his x mark,
Kaujagonaygee, his x mark,
Mayneeseno, his x mark,
Kakagouryan, his x mark,
Kitchmokooman, his x mark,
Singgok, his x mark,
Maytwayaushing, his x mark,
Saguhosh, his x mark,
Saybo, his x mark,
Obwole, his x mark,
Nuwagon, his x mark,
Okumanpinase, his x mark,
Mechseonne, his x mark,
Paupemiskobe, his x mark,
Kogkakeshik, his x mark,
Wauwassack, his x mark,
Misheneanonquet, his x mark,
Okemans, his x mark,
Nimeke, his x mark,
Maneleugobwawaa, his x mark,
Puckwash, his x mark,
Waseneso, his x mark,
Montons, his x mark,
Kennewobe, his x mark,
Aguagonabe, his x mark,
Sigonak, his x mark,
Kokoosh, his x mark,
Pemaw, his x mark,
Kawotoktame, his x mark,
Sabo, his x mark,
K!ewageone, his x mark,
Metewa, his x mark,
Kawgeshequm, his x mark,
Kevacum, his x mark,
Atowagesek, his x mark,
Mawmawkens, his x mark,
Mamawsecuta, his x mark,
Penaysewaykesek, his x mark,
Kewaytinam, his x mark,
Shashebak, his x mark,
Shaconk, his x mark,
Mesnakrea, his x mark,
Paymusawtom, his x mark,
Endus, his x mark,
Aushetayawejusa, his x mark,
Wawapenishik, his x mark,
Omikou, his x mark,
Leroy, his x mark.




CASS AND THE INDIAN TREATIES


Witnesses at signing:


John L. Leib, Secretary,
D. G. Whitney, Assistant Sec'y,
C. L. Cass, Capt. 3d Infantry,
R. A. Forsyth, jun. Acting Commissioner,
Chester Root, Capt. U. S. Art'y,
John Peacock, Lieut. 3d U. S. Infantry,
G. Godfroy, Sub. Agent.
W. Knaggs, Sub Agent,
William Tucky, "
Lewis Beufort,    Sworn Interpreters.
John Hurson,    J
James V. S. Riley,


B. Campau,
John Hill. Army Contractor,
J. Whipple,
Henry I. Hunt,
William Keith,
A. E. Lacock, M. S. K.,
Richard Smyth,
Louis Dequindre,
B. Head,
John Smyth,
Conrad Ten Eyck.


APPENDIX B
Letter from General Cass to John C. Calhoun, Secretary of War, dated
at Detroit, Nov. 18, 1819:
Sir:
"The Country upon the Southern Shore of Lake Superior, and upon the water communication of that lake and the Mississippi, has been but little explored, and its natural
features are imperfectly known. We have no correct topographical delineation of it, and
the little information we possess relating to it has been derived from the reports of
Indian Traders.
"It has occurred to me that a tour through that country, with a view to examine
the production of its animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms, to explore its facilities
for water communication, to delineate its natural objects, and to ascertain its present and
future probable value, would not be uninteresting in itself, nor useless to the government.
Such an expedition would not be wholly unimportant in the public opinion, and would
well accord with that zeal for enquiries of this nature which has recently so marked the
administration of the War Department.
"But, however interesting such a tour might be in itself, or however important in its
result, either in a political or geographical point of view, I should not have ventured to
suggest the subject, nor to solicit your permission to carry it into effect, were it not,
in other respects, intimately connected with the discharge of my official duties.
"Mr. Woodbridge, the delegate from this Territory, at my request, takes charge of
this letter; and he is so intimately acquainted with the subject, aid in every way so
competent to enter into any explanations you may require, that I shill not be compelled
to go as much into detail as, under other circumstances, might be necessary.
"The route which I propose to take is from here to Michillimackinac and from
thence, by the Straits of St. Mary's to the river which contains the body of copper ore,
(specimens of which have been transmitted to the government) and to the extremity of
Lake Superior.
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CASS AND THE INDIAN TREATIES


"From that point, up the river which forms the water communication between the
lake and the Mississippi, to the latter river, and by way of Prairie du Chien and Green
Bay, to Lake Michigan.
"The political objects which require attention upon this route are:
"1. A personal examination of the different Indian tribes who occupy the country';
of their moral and social condition:;; of their feelings toward the United States; of their
numerical strength; and of the various objects connected with them of which humanity
and sound policy require that the government should possess an intimate knowledge.
We are very little acquainted with these Indians, and I indulge the expectation that
such a visit would be productive of beneficial effects.
"The extract from the letter of Colonel Leavenworth, herewith enclosed, and the
speech of the Winnebago Indians, transmitted to the War Department by Mr. Graham
from Rock Island, February 24, 1819, will show how much we have yet to learn respecting these tribes, which are comparatively near to us.
"2. Another important object is, to procure the extinction of Indian titles to the
land in the vicinity of the Straits of St. Mary's, Prairie du Chien, Green Bay, and upon
the communication between the two latter places,
"I will not trouble you with any observations respecting the necessity of procuring
these cessions. They are the prominent points of the country-the avenues of communication by which it alone can be approached.
"Two of them, Prairie du Chien and Green Bay, are occupied by a considerable
population, and the Straits of St. Mary's by a few families. The undefined nature of
their rights and duties, and the uncertain tenure by which they hold their lands, render
it important that some steps should be taken by the government to relieve them. I
think, too, that a cession of territory, with a view to immediate sale and settlement,
would be highly important in the event of any difficulties with the Indians.
"My experience at Indian treaties convinces me that reasonable cessions, upon proper
terms, may at any time be procured. At a treaty recently concluded at Saginaw the
Indians were willing to cede the country in the vicinity of Michilimackinac, but I did not
feel authorized to treat with them for it.
"Upon this subject, I transmit extracts from the letters of Mr. Boyd and Colonel
Boyer, by which it will be seen that these gentlemen anticipate no difficulty in procuring
these cessions.
"3. Another important object is, the examination of the body of copper in the
vicinity of Lake Superior. As early as the year 1800, Mr. Tracey, then a senator from
Connecticut, was dispatched to make a similar examination. He, however, proceeded no
further than Michilimackinac. Since then, several attempts have been made, which have
proved abortive. The specimens of virgin copper which have been sent to the seat of
government, have been procured by the Indians, or by the half breeds, from a large mass,
represented to weigh many tons, which has fallen from the brow of a hill.
"I anticipate no difficulty in reaching the spot, and it may be highly important to
the government to divide this mass and to transport it to the seaboard for naval purposes.
"It is also important to examine the neighboring country, which is said to be rich
in its mineral productions.
"I should propose that the land in the vicinity of this river be purchased of the
Indians. It could be done upon reasonable terms, and the United States could then cause
a complete examination of it to be made. Such a cession is not unimportant, in another
point of view. Some persons have already begun to indulge in speculations upon this
58




CASS AND THE INDIAN TREATIES


subject. The place is remote, and the means of communication with it are few. BY
timely presents to the Indians, illegal possession might be gained, and much injury might
be done, much time elapse, and much difficulty be experienced, before such trespassers
could be removed.
"4. To ascertain the views of the Indians, in the vicinity of Chicago, respecting the
removal of the six nations to that district of country, an extract from the letter of
Mr. Kenzie, sub-agent at Chicago, upon this subject, will show the situation in which
this business stands.
"5. To explain to the Indians the views of the government respecting their intercourse with the British authorities at Maiden, and distinctly to announce to them that
their visits must be discontinued.
"It is probable that the enunciation of the new system, which you have directed to
be pursued upon this subject, and the explanations connected with it, can be made with
more effect by me than by ordinary messengers.
"16. To ascertain the state of the British fur trade within that part of our jurisdiction. Our information upon this subject is very limited, while its importance requires
that it should be fully known.
"In addition to these objects, I think it very important to carry the flag of the
United States into those remote regions where it has never been borne by any person
in a public station.
"The means which I propose to accomplish this tour are simple and economical.
All that will be required is an ordinary birch canoe, and permission to employ a competent number of Canadian boatmen. The whole expense will be confined within narrow
limits, and no appropriation will be necessary to defray it. I only request permission to
assign to this object a small part of the sum apportioned for Indian expenditures at this
place, say from one thousand to fifteen hundred dollars.
"If, however, the government should think that a small display of force might be
proper,' an additional canoe, to be manned with active soldiers, and commanded by an
intelligent officer, would not increase the expense, and would give greater effect to any
representations which might be made to the Indians.
"An intelligent officer of engineers, to make a correct chart, for the information of
the government, would add to the value of the expedition.
"I am not competent to speculate upon the natural history of the country through
which we may pass. Should this object be deemed important, I request that some person,
acquainted with zoology, botany, and mineralogy, may be sent to join us.
"It is almost useless to add that I do not expect any compensation for my own
services, except the ordinary allowance for negotiating Indian treaties, should you think
p'roper to direct any to be held, and entrust the charge of them to me.
"I request that you will communicate to me, as early as convenient, your determination upon this subject, as it will be necessary to prepare a canoe during the winter, to
be ready to enter upon the tour as soon as the navigation of the lakes is open, should
you think proper to approve the plan.
"Very respectfully, etc.
"LEWIS CASS."


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CASS AND THE INDIAN TREATIES


LETTER OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR
"Department of War, January 14, 1820.
"Sir:
"I have received your letters of November 18th and 21st of November last. The
exploring tour you propose has the sanction of the government, provided the expenditure
can be made out of the sum alloted your superintendency for Indian affairs, adding thereto
one thousand dollars for that special purpose.
"The objects of this expedition are considered under the five heads stated in your
letter of the 18th of November, and which you will consider, with the exception of that
part which relates to holding Indian treaties upon which you will be fully instructed
hereafter, as forming part of the instructions which may be given you by this department.
"Should your reconnaissance extend to the western extremity of Lake Superior, you
will ascertain the practicability of a communication between the Bad, or Burntwood
River, which empties into the lake, and the Copper, or St. Croix, which empties into
the Mississippi, and the facility they present for a communication with our posts on the
St. Peter's.
"The Montreal River will also claim your attention, with a view of establishing,
through it, a communication between Green Bay and the west end of Lake Superior.
"To aid you in the accomplishment of these important objects, some officers of
topographical engineers will be ordered to join you. Perhaps Major Long, now here,
will be directed to take that route to join the expedition which he commands up the
Missouri. In that event, a person acquainted with zoology and botany will be selected
to accompany him. Feeling, as I do, a great interest in obtaining a correct topographical,
geographical, and military survey of our country, every encouragement, consistent with
the means in my power, will be given by the department. To this end General Macomb
will be ordered to afford you every facility you may require."
"I have, etc."
"JT C. Calhoun."
"His Excellency, Lewis Cass, Detroit, M. T."
In regrard to obtaining cessions of lands from the Indians onl this expedition, the Secretary of War, in a communication of the 5th of April, 1820, said:
"In relation to procuring cessions of land from the Indians, the government has
decided that it would be inexpedient to obtain any further extinguishment of title, except
at the Sault de St. Marie, where it is the wish of the Department that an inconsiderable
cession not exceeding ten miles square (unless strong reasons for a greater cession
should present themselves from an actual inspection of the coun 'try) should be acquired
upon the most reasonable terms, so as to comprehend the proposed military position
there.
"Herewith you will receive a plate of the country about the Sault de St. Marie, on
which is indicated the military site intended to be occupied for defense.
"A commission, authorizing you to hold these treaties will be forwarded in a few days.
"As it is desirable to know by what title the people at Green Bay and Prairie du
Chien hold their lands, and whether or not the Indian title to those lands was extinguished by the French,, (which is the impression of the Department) you will communicate such information a's you possess, or may obtain, during your tour, on this subject."
60




CASS AND THE INDIAN TREATIES


APPENDIX C
PORTRAITS BY PERCY IVES
PUBLIC SERVICE:
Walt Whitman, poet, President Grover Cleveland, General Lewis Cass, Senator
Zachariah Chandler, Ambassador G. V. N. Lothrop, Secretary of War Russell A. Alger,
Postmaster General Don M. Dickinson, Senator James McMillan, Senator Thomas W.
Palmer, Governor Hazen S. Pingree, Senator Julius Caesar Burrows, Governor John J.
Bagley, Governor Woodbridge N. Ferris, Governor Fred Warner, Governor Aaron T.
Bliss, Governor John T. Rich, Mayor William C. Maybury, Mayor Jacob W. Ferle, of
Lansing, Mayor George P. Codd, Senator Casgrain (Ontario), Judge Severens, Judge
Thomas V. Campbell, Judge Douglas, Judge George S. Hosmer, Judge Claudius D. Grant,
Judge Robert Frazer, Judge Durand, Judge Green, Judge Swan, Judge Alexis C. Angell,
Judge John J. McGrath, Judge Francois Caron (Ontario), Admiral Albert Winterhalter,
Colonel C. E. L. B. Davis, General Orlando M. Poe.
EDUCATION:
President Harry Hutchins, Prof. Robert M. Wenley, Superintendent J. M. B. Sill,
Prof. C. C. Stanley, Prof. Henry Adams, Prof. Hinsdale, Prof. Jeremiah Knowlton, Prof.
F. R. Meachem, Prof. Bogle, Prof. B. M. Thompson, Prof. Lane, Librarian Henry M.
Utley, Principal Benj. F. Comfort.
JOURNALISM:
George P. Goodale, Edgar A. Guest, James E. Scripps, W. H. Brearley, Judge A. G.
Boyton, W. C. Boynton.
MEDICINE:
Thomas A. McGraw, E. L. Shurly, Hal C. Wyman, Oscar LeSeure, A. W. Ives,
Dr. Palmer.
LAW:
James F. Joy, C. A. Kent, Ashley Pond, Michael Brennan, Otto Kirchner, William
A. Moore, Henry M. Campbell, E. W. Meddaugh, S. M. Cutcheon, H. L. Baker,
Herbert Bowen, James Whittemore, Levi L. Barbour, Daniel Campau, Bryant Walker,
John H. Bissell, D. J. Davison, H. P. Davock.
MANUFACTURERS:
David Whitney, Christian H. Buhl, Theodore D. Buhl, Martin S. Smith, Charles
Merrill, David Ward, D. Farrand Henry, W. S. Blauvelt, Wm. L. Webber.
COMMERCE AND FINANCE:
Frederick Stearns, F. K. Stearns, George N. Brady, Robert Oakman, John A. Avery,
Francis Palms, Henry Shelden, Henry G. Stevens, A. W. Blain, F. A. Stratemeyer, Col.
Fred E. Farnsworth, R. W. King.
PROMINENT WOMEN:
Mrs. Henry B. Ledyard, Mrs. T. W. Palmer, Mrs. Robert Oakman, Mrs. David
Whitney, Mrs. David Ward, Mrs. Margaret Woodbridge, Mrs. John H. Avery, Mrs.
H. L. Baker, Mrs. General E. I. Bartlett, Mrs. Wm. L. Webber, Mrs. A. L. Mauer,
Mrs. Percy Ives.
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CASS AND THE INDIAN TREATIES


PORTRAITS BY LEWIS T. IVES
The father and son were so intimately connected in this work that the list should
include a list of the works of Lewis T. Ives, which is unfortunately incomplete.
PUBLIC SERVICE:
Judge H. H. Emmons, Governor H. P. Baldwin, Judge Thos. A. Cooley, Jucge James
V. Campbell, Judge Graves, Judge Romeyn, Judge J. Logan Chipman, Ambassador
G. V. N. Lothrop, Governor J. J. Bagley, Governor R. A. Alger, Governor J. W. Begole,
Governor E. B. Winans, Senator Zachariah Chandler, Senator James McMillan, Senator
T. W. Palmer, Congressman John S. Newberry, Mayor William G. Thompson, Judge
C. I. Walker.
LAW:
James F. Joy, George Jerome, A. C. Walker.
COMMERCE AND FINANCE AND MANUFACTURERS:
Allen Shelden, D. M. Ferry, C. H. Buhl, H. Kirke White, Frederick Stearns, A. C.
McGraw, David Ward, Jacob S. Farrand, Solomon Heineman, W. K. Plunkett, Byron
Weston, James Bartlett, A. W. Leggett.
DOCTOR OF MEDICINE:
David O. Farrand, E. C. Skinner, O. M. Wight.
ARMY AND NAVY:
General E. J. Bartlett.
JOURNALISM:
W. E. Quinby, Bronson Howard.
CLERGY:
Bishop S. S. Harris.
PROMINENT WOMEN:
Mrs. H. Kirke White, Mrs. George Jerome, Mrs. R. A. Alger, Mrs. E. A. Brush,
Mrs. David Thompson, Mrs. G. V. N. Lothrop, Mrs. A. W. Leggett, Mrs. E. W. Meddaugh.


62