Posted on 01/07/2004 7:12:30 AM PST by Aurelius
Many have no doubt heard of the valor of the Cherokee warriors under the command of Brigadier General Stand Watie in the West and of Thomas’ famous North Carolina Legion in the East during the War for Southern Independence from 1861 to 1865. But why did the Cherokees and their brethren, the Creeks, Seminoles, Choctaws, and Chickasaws determine to make common cause with the Confederate South against the Northern Union? To know their reasons is very instructive as to the issues underlying that tragic war. Most Americans have been propagandized rather than educated in the causes of the war, all this to justify the perpetrators and victors. Considering the Cherokee view uncovers much truth buried by decades of politically correct propaganda and allows a broader and truer perspective.
On August 21, 1861, the Cherokee Nation by a General Convention at Tahlequah (in Oklahoma) declared its common cause with the Confederate States against the Northern Union. A treaty was concluded on October 7th between the Confederate States and the Cherokee Nation, and on October 9th, John Ross, the Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation called into session the Cherokee National Committee and National Council to approve and implement that treaty and a future course of action.
The Cherokees had at first considerable consternation over the growing conflict and desired to remain neutral. They had much common economy and contact with their Confederate neighbors, but their treaties were with the government of the United States.
The Northern conduct of the war against their neighbors, strong repression of Northern political dissent, and the roughshod trampling of the U. S Constitution under the new regime and political powers in Washington soon changed their thinking.
The Cherokee were perhaps the best educated and literate of the American Indian Tribes. They were also among the most Christian. Learning and wisdom were highly esteemed. They revered the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution as particularly important guarantors of their rights and freedoms. It is not surprising then that on October 28, 1861, the National Council issued a Declaration by the People of the Cherokee Nation of the Causes Which Have Impelled them to Unite Their Fortunes With Those of the Confederate States of America.
The introductory words of this declaration strongly resembled the 1776 Declaration of Independence:
"When circumstances beyond their control compel one people to sever the ties which have long existed between them and another state or confederacy, and to contract new alliances and establish new relations for the security of their rights and liberties, it is fit that they should publicly declare the reasons by which their action is justified."
In the next paragraphs of their declaration the Cherokee Council noted their faithful adherence to their treaties with the United States in the past and how they had faithfully attempted neutrality until the present. But the seventh paragraph begins to delineate their alarm with Northern aggression and sympathy with the South:
"But Providence rules the destinies of nations, and events, by inexorable necessity, overrule human resolutions."
Comparing the relatively limited objectives and defensive nature of the Southern cause in contrast to the aggressive actions of the North they remarked of the Confederate States:
"Disclaiming any intention to invade the Northern States, they sought only to repel the invaders from their own soil and to secure the right of governing themselves. They claimed only the privilege asserted in the Declaration of American Independence, and on which the right of Northern States themselves to self-government is formed, and altering their form of government when it became no longer tolerable and establishing new forms for the security of their liberties."
The next paragraph noted the orderly and democratic process by which each of the Confederate States seceded. This was without violence or coercion and nowhere were liberties abridged or civilian courts and authorities made subordinate to the military. Also noted was the growing unity and success of the South against Northern aggression. The following or ninth paragraph contrasts this with ruthless and totalitarian trends in the North:
"But in the Northern States the Cherokee people saw with alarm a violated constitution, all civil liberty put in peril, and all rules of civilized warfare and the dictates of common humanity and decency unhesitatingly disregarded. In the states which still adhered to the Union a military despotism had displaced civilian power and the laws became silent with arms. Free speech and almost free thought became a crime. The right of habeas corpus, guaranteed by the constitution, disappeared at the nod of a Secretary of State or a general of the lowest grade. The mandate of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court was at naught by the military power and this outrage on common right approved by a President sworn to support the constitution. War on the largest scale was waged, and the immense bodies of troops called into the field in the absence of any warranting it under the pretense of suppressing unlawful combination of men."
The tenth paragraph continues the indictment of the Northern political party in power and the conduct of the Union Armies:
"The humanities of war, which even barbarians respect, were no longer thought worthy to be observed. Foreign mercenaries and the scum of the cities and the inmates of prisons were enlisted and organized into brigades and sent into Southern States to aid in subjugating a people struggling for freedom, to burn, to plunder, and to commit the basest of outrages on the women; while the heels of armed tyranny trod upon the necks of Maryland and Missouri, and men of the highest character and position were incarcerated upon suspicion without process of law, in jails, forts, and prison ships, and even women were imprisoned by the arbitrary order of a President and Cabinet Ministers; while the press ceased to be free, and the publication of newspapers was suspended and their issues seized and destroyed; the officers and men taken prisoners in the battles were allowed to remain in captivity by the refusal of the Government to consent to an exchange of prisoners; as they had left their dead on more than one field of battle that had witnessed their defeat, to be buried and their wounded to be cared for by southern hands."
The eleventh paragraph of the Cherokee declaration is a fairly concise summary of their grievances against the political powers now presiding over a new U. S. Government:
"Whatever causes the Cherokee people may have had in the past to complain of some of the southern states, they cannot but feel that their interests and destiny are inseparably connected to those of the south. The war now waging is a war of Northern cupidity and fanaticism against the institution of African servitude; against the commercial freedom of the south, and against the political freedom of the states, and its objects are to annihilate the sovereignty of those states and utterly change the nature of the general government."
The Cherokees felt they had been faithful and loyal to their treaties with the United States, but now perceived that the relationship was not reciprocal and that their very existence as a people was threatened. They had also witnessed the recent exploitation of the properties and rights of Indian tribes in Kansas, Nebraska, and Oregon, and feared that they, too, might soon become victims of Northern rapacity. Therefore, they were compelled to abrogate those treaties in defense of their people, lands, and rights. They felt the Union had already made war on them by their actions.
Finally, appealing to their inalienable right to self-defense and self-determination as a free people, they concluded their declaration with the following words:
"Obeying the dictates of prudence and providing for the general safety and welfare, confident of the rectitude of their intentions and true to their obligations to duty and honor, they accept the issue thus forced upon them, unite their fortunes now and forever with the Confederate States, and take up arms for the common cause, and with entire confidence of the justice of that cause and with a firm reliance upon Divine Providence, will resolutely abide the consequences.
The Cherokees were true to their words. The last shot fired in the war east of the Mississippi was May 6, 1865. This was in an engagement at White Sulphur Springs, near Waynesville, North Carolina, of part of Thomas’ Legion against Kirk’s infamous Union raiders that had wreaked a murderous terrorism and destruction on the civilian population of Western North Carolina. Col. William H. Thomas’ Legion was originally predominantly Cherokee, but had also accrued a large number of North Carolina mountain men. On June 23, 1865, in what was the last land battle of the war, Confederate Brigadier General and Cherokee Chief, Stand Watie, finally surrendered his predominantly Cherokee, Oklahoma Indian force to the Union.
The issues as the Cherokees saw them were 1) self-defense against Northern aggression, both for themselves and their fellow Confederates, 2) the right of self-determination by a free people, 3) protection of their heritage, 4) preservation of their political rights under a constitutional government of law 5) a strong desire to retain the principles of limited government and decentralized power guaranteed by the Constitution, 6) protection of their economic rights and welfare, 7) dismay at the despotism of the party and leaders now in command of the U. S. Government, 8) dismay at the ruthless disregard of commonly accepted rules of warfare by the Union, especially their treatment of civilians and non-combatants, 9) a fear of economic exploitation by corrupt politicians and their supporters based on observed past experience, and 10) alarm at the self-righteous and extreme, punitive, and vengeful pronouncements on the slavery issue voiced by the radical abolitionists and supported by many Northern politicians, journalists, social, and religious (mostly Unitarian) leaders. It should be noted here that some of the Cherokees owned slaves, but the practice was not extensive.
The Cherokee Declaration of October 1861 uncovers a far more complex set of "Civil War" issues than most Americans have been taught. Rediscovered truth is not always welcome. Indeed some of the issues here are so distressing that the general academic, media, and public reaction is to rebury them or shout them down as politically incorrect.
The notion that slavery was the only real or even principal cause of the war is very politically correct and widely held, but historically ignorant. It has served, however, as a convenient ex post facto justification for the war and its conduct. Slavery was an issue, and it was related to many other issues, but it was by no means the only issue, or even the most important underlying issue. It was not even an issue in the way most people think of it. Only about 25% of Southern households owned slaves. For most people, North and South, the slavery issue was not so much whether to keep it or not, but how to phase it out without causing economic and social disruption and disaster. Unfortunately the Southern and Cherokee fear of the radical abolitionists turned out to be well founded.
After the Reconstruction Act was passed in 1867 the radical abolitionists and radical Republicans were able to issue in a shameful era of politically punitive and economically exploitive oppression in the South, the results of which lasted many years, and even today are not yet completely erased.
The Cherokee were and are a remarkable people who have impacted the American heritage far beyond their numbers. We can be especially grateful that they made a well thought out and articulate declaration for supporting and joining the Confederate cause in 1861.
PRINCIPAL REFERENCES:
Emmett Starr, History of the Cherokee Indians, published by the Warden Company, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, 1921. Reprinted by Kraus Reprint Company, Millwood, New York, 1977.
Hattie Caldwell Davis, Civil War Letters and Memories from the Great Smoky Mountains, Second Edition published by the author, Maggie Valley, NC, 1999.
i am NOT an expert on Jackson-my expertise, such as it is, is in American Indian history/lore & partisan warfare in the LA/AR/MO/KS/IT/NM/TX areas, prior to & during TWBTS.
also, FYI, i am NOT a historian. my degrees are in Public Administration & Political Science. (essentally i'm a policy wonk, rather than a traditional academic, though i do teach at a local college.)
free dixie,sw
Proof will be coming this afternoon.
I stand humbly corrected and thank you very much for pointing this out.
Could it have been Jim's brother I met?
also, >95 percent of dixie's grayclads had personal assets of LESS than $ 25.00!
TWBTS was a PEASANT REVOLT, led by a handfull of intellectuals & former professional officers like GENs Lee & Jackson (i suspect that's on great reason that we lost our war for freedom-peasant revolts SELDOM succeed. the only one i can think of offhand that did was the Indochinese War against the French.)
as for my family, we had no money then & darn little now. as my late father said: "we didn't know that there was a depression on in Delaware County, OK, as we had nothing before & nothing in the 1930s except a 40 acre dirt farm."
free dixie,sw
Not only did Jackson own the properties you mentioned, he was an investor in some of the businesses in Lexington and sat on the board of directors of others. Plus, as you stated, his wives (especially Anna) did bring some money and property into the marriages.
At the end of the war...the Jackson's money would have been worthless since he (probably) turned it into confederate money.
But your argument is based on what you think Jackson could or could not have done. That's hardly a strong foundation.
You are arguing that 95% of Confederate soldiers had less than $25.00. Well... that's all good and well, but what does that have to do with Jackson's finances.
The South lost the war because it is hard for an agrarian society to win against an industrialized one. The South lost the war because it could not sustain its war since it could not replace the men lost in battle, did not have the industry to make the necessary supplies, did not have strong supply lines, and could not feed the men in the field.
Again...this is not a smear on the Southern men who fought valiantly against great odds for 4 years. They "were a noble set of men" and great Americans.
TWBTS was a PEASANT REVOLT, against a damnyankee controlled federal government, which had ceased to serve the average southerner.
had we southrons won, the "plantation elites" might well been next on the "list of enemies" after the damnyankee elites, the railroads, the robber barons, etc.
peasants have never been particuliarly fond of their "betters" in any country or time period!
free dixie,sw
i never said he was a pauper, just not of the "well to do" plantation aristocracy.
GEN Lee was also NOT well to do. in point of fact, her family did NOT want him as a son-in-law because they feared they would have to support the couple! and they DID!
the records of frequent "CARE packages from home" still exist at Fortress Monroe. her family sent the cornmeal,flour,salt,dried meats/fish,sugar,spices & 100# sacks of dried beans, so that they wouldn't go hungry when REL was a 2LT.
free dixie,sw
This newly unearthed Marxist Dialectical interpretation of TWBTS, is all your damn fault, Aurelius. First darn time I have ever heard the rank-and-file confederates described as proletarian heroes.
However, I must say that thanks to the Aurelian provocation, I now know:
(a) how you, Stand Watie, derived your freeper handle,
(b)that the Cherokee were interested in TWBTS, of which, locked away in New England institutions during my formative years, I had no clue, and,
(c) had it been left to Renee Zellweger, TWBTS would have had an outcome entirely other than that due to Colonel Chamberlain and the 20th Maine. (and several other obscure Federal Units reported to have been allegedly involved in TWBTS, in some way or other.)
I would have liked to have met either one of these men, but Thorpe was gone before I was born.
nonetheless i think there was SOME hated/resentment of the "plantation aristocracy" among the southland's common folk, especially since FEW of them actually fought for the TRUE CAUSE & MANY (sadly) collaborated with the damnyankees.
may i gently remind you that we folks of the "new world" regardless of ethnic group/race/ancestry were all immigrants? (yep, us AIs too!) AND that we as a group were NOT wealthy or of the "upper classes"???
free dixie,sw
i support RUNNING BRAVE, Billy's charity.
free dixie,sw
I suppose then you must assume that state legislatures completely lorded it over their constituencies, to the extent that they could start a civil war over an issue that didn't concern those constituencies in the least. Unless you can explain to me what particular grievance those "peasants" had against the federal government, to the extent that they were willing to fight such a war based on the aforesaid issue.
It comes from Anna Jackson’s book “Memoirs of Stonewall Jackson.” Published in 1895 by The Prentice Press in 1895. Prentice Press in located in Louisville, KY.
I quote from the book:
"… “…under his methodical management his household soon became a regular and well-ordered as it was possible for it to be with Negro servants…”
Still quoting… “His early training upon his uncle’s farm had instilled into him a love for rural pursuits, and it was not long until he gratified his desire to possess a little farm of his own, which embraced twenty acres near town. Here, with the aid of his Negroes he raised wheat, corn, and other products…
Still quoting… “He was a very strict, but kind master, giving to his servants ‘that which was just and equal,’ but exacting of them prompt obedience…
Here is Anna writing about his views on slavery. Quoting Anna… “I am very confident that he would never have fought for the sole object of perpetuating slavery. It was for her constitutional rights that the South resisted the North, and slavery was only comprehended among those rights.
”He (Jackson) found the institution of slavery a responsible and troublesome one, and I have heard him say that he would prefer to see the Negroes free, but he believed that the Bible taught that slavery was sanctioned by the Creator Himself, who maketh men to differ and instituted law for the bond and the free. He therefore accepted slavery, as it existed in the Southern States, not as a thing desirable in itself but as allowed by Providence for ends which it was not his business to determine.”
The Cherokee Declaration presents their case very clearly, or have you already suffered debilitating brain injury?
Other readers of this post will notice that Jackson didn't lend himself to trendy, specious theories then being spun out -- and argued to us in this forum as "prevalent" among the slaveholding classes -- about the inevitability of Negro slavery, by double-domed apologists for the peculiar institution who were reacting to the Abolitionist argument.
Jackson himself cites Scripture alone as his "theory" for holding other men at labor.
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