On Lincoln's Mind

<strong>A Plea for Help from the Frontier</strong>

With Nov. 19 marking the 150th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address, the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield is highlighting one letter to, or by, Lincoln, written between the end of Battle of Gettysburg on July 3, 1863, and his famous speech. Each letter represents one of the many issues Lincoln had to face as chief executive of the nation during its greatest crisis.

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Another potential powder keg for Lincoln was growing tension between the federal government and Native Americans on the frontier.

The federal government paid relatively close attention to its relations with Native Americans before the war but the rebellion in the South drew Lincoln's attention away from the West.

As a result, the often-corrupt federal Indian Agents were free to abuse their power even more than during peacetime, while the Native Americans they were supposedly assisting grew increasingly frustrated.

Placed in federally supervised reservations, many of these tribes depended on the government for food and supplies. Any dip in this support could cause serious repercussions.

This tension showed itself most notably in the Dakota rebellion of 1862, which resulted in the largest mass execution in American history.

However, resentments simmered in tribes all over the frontier. Several leaders of the Kaw Tribe in Kansas sought compensation from Lincoln for items stolen from or promised to them by the federal government.

Typically, such calls went unanswered during the war, as Lincoln simply did not have time to address them thoroughly. Excerpts from the petition follow:

My Father! I am very poor and I want you to help me. I want to have two payments each year, and about $20. for each person. I have a big debt to pay and want some money left after paying it.

Agent Montgomery stole $2000. of our money. I want it. You owe us 300, cattle, 400 hogs, 400. chickens 300. hoes, and 300 axes. We got carts once, and you owe us six more. My Great Father! White men tell us that you are going to drive us off to another place. We dont want to go. We want our children to have this place when we are dead.

You promised to listen to my requests just as if I came to Washington and talked to you; and now my Great Father, I want you to attend to this and answer me very soon. I am very poor and hope you will do all you can for me and my people.

About 70 of my boys are fighting in the army of my Great Father, and I rejoice to hear of his success.

(The document was signed by 19 petitioners.)

As the Kaw petitioners indicate, 70 of their tribesmen had enlisted in the Union army. Nevertheless, this call for assistance appears to have gone unanswered. Shortly after the Civil War, the federal government had to allocate emergency funds to stave off starvation among the Kaws. In 1872, the government removed the tribe to Oklahoma to make room for white settlement on their lands in Kansas.

To see one of only five copies of the Gettysburg Address in Lincoln's hand and receive a free booklet titled, "On Lincoln's Mind: Leading the Nation to the Gettysburg Address," containing this and other document stories, visit the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum between Nov. 18 and 24.