CHAPTER VII.
INDIAN AFFAIRS.
1851.
Politics—Election of a Delegate—Extinguishment of Indian Titles—Indian Superintendents and Agents Appointed—Kindness of the Great Father at Washington—Appropriations of Congress—Frauds Arising from the System—Easy Expenditure of Government Money—Unpopularity of Human Sympathy—Efficiency of Superintendent Dart—Thirteen Treaties Effected—Lane among the Rogue River Indians and in the Mines—Divers Outrages and Retaliations—Military Affairs—Rogue River War—The Stronghold—Battle of Table Rock—Death of Stuart—Kearney's Prisoners.
Lane was not a skilful politician and finished orator like Thurston, though he had much natural ability,[1] and had the latter been alive, notwithstanding his many misdeeds, Lane could not so easily have secured the election as delegate to congress. It was a personal rather than a party matter,[2] though a party spirit developed rapidly after Lane's nomination, chiefly because a majority of the people were democrats,[3] and
- ↑ 'Gen. Lane is a man of a high order of original genius. He is not self-made, but God-made. He was educated nowhere. Nobody but a man of superior natural capacity, without education, could have maintained himself among men from early youth as he did.' Grover's Pub. Life, MS., 81. We may hereby infer the idea intended to be conveyed, however ill-fitting the words.
- ↑ Says W. W. Buck: 'Before 1851 there were no nominations made. In 1851 they organized into political parties as whigs and democrats. Before that men of prominence would think of some one, and go to him and find out if he would serve. The knowledge of the movement would spread, and the foremost candidate get elected, while others ran scattering.' Enterprises, MS., 13.
- ↑ Jesse Applegate, who had been mentioned as suitable for the place, wrote to the Spectator March 14th: 'The people of the southern frontier, of which I am one, owe to Gov. Lane a debt of gratitude too strong for party prejudices to cancel, and too great for time to erase… Rifle in hand he gal-
(205)
