Читать книгу Lost Worlds of 1863. Relocation and Removal of American Indians in the Central Rockies and the Greater Southwest онлайн

88 страница из 156

Earlier in 1858, while debating the status of slavery with Stephen Douglas in the famous Lincoln–Douglas debates for the senate in Illinois, Lincoln argued not for the equality but for the freedom of the “Negro.” The words of Douglas more clearly reflected the public sentiment. He contended that he was opposed to “negro” citizenship in any form, saying that “I believe this Government was made on the white basis. I believe it was made by white men for the benefit of white men and their posterity for ever, and I am in favor of confining citizenship to white men, men of European birth and descent, instead of conferring it upon negroes, Indians [italics mine], and other inferior races [audience response—‘Good for you; Douglas forever’].”⁷⁶

A more vengeful attitude was expressed by the citizens of Minnesota in a May 6, 1863 article of the Saint Paul Pioneer. The steamboat Northerner was sent to St. Paul to pick up refugee Dakotas, mostly women and children, who were being sent to Crow Creek in Dakota Territory. Before it could take them aboard it needed to unload a hundred or so emancipated slaves who were brought north to act as mule drivers for the army’s spring expedition against Little Crow and the Dakotas still in rebellion. As the newspaper said: “The Northerner brought up a cargo of 125 niggers and 150 mules on Government account. We doubt very much whether we benefit by the exchange. If we had our choice we would send both niggers and Indians to Massachusetts, and keep the mules here.”⁷⁷