ted the only alternative, the removal of the Indians. To Gov. Cass belonged the accomplishment of this object. The wishes and intentions of the Government were explained to them-they were treated as beings, capable of understanding their true interests; no unfair dealing, no coercive means were adopted; their agreement to remove was voluntary, and obtained by negotiation and explanation; they were convinced that their existence depended upon acquiescence in the views of the Government, and they wisely assented to the ar rangements recommended by the Secretary of War.

The principles urged by Gov. Cass as those which should govern the connection between our government and the Indian tribes, were adhered to in its subsequent action. An extensive and fertile country was assigned to them. Commissioners were sent to visit the tribes who had already emigrated, to arrange conflicting claims; to settle disputed questions of boundary; to reconcile hostile tribes, and to carry out the humane and just intentions of the Government.

In the summer of 1832, the aggressions of the Sac and Fox tribes of Indians had become so daring and extensive, as to call for the interposition of the government. The Secretary of War, (Gov. Cass,) versed in Indian character, and knowing their mode of warfare, adopted prompt and active measures for their subjugation and punishment. The United States soldiers, stationed in the vicinity of the scene of outrage, were concentrated under the command of Gen. Atkinson, and marched to the locality of the enemy. The militia of the State of Illinois and of the western part of the territory of Michigan, were called out in defence of the frontier. Troops were also sent from posts on the Atlantic, to the frontier establishments, to co-operate with the command of Gen. Atkinson. Gen. Scott accompanied and commanded the soldiers from the eastern posts. The forces under Gen. Atkinson marched to the ground where it was supposed the Indians, under Black Hawk, were encamped. When they reached the spot, it was found that the Indians had withdrawn upon their approach. Gen. Dodge was dispatched in pursuit. He overtook them on the evening of the 21st of July, and had a battle with a band of about three hundred Sacs, at a place called Petit Roche, near the Wisconsin river, and

about thirty miles from Fort Winnebago. The Indians retreated towards the river, after fifty of their number were killed. On the twenty-seventh and twenty-eighth of July, Gen. Atkinson, with thirteen hundred men, crossed the Wisconsin, and followed the trail of the enemy until the second day of August, when they came up with the main body of the Indians, on the left bank of the Mississippi, opposite the mouth of the Iowa river. A battle ensued, in which the Indians were routed and driven from their position. One hundred and fifty of them were killed, as near as could be ascertained. The remnant of the band crossed the river and fled into the interior. Black Hawk, with his family, and the Prophet, his brother, were not found among any of the bands of Indians conquered by the troops. They had fled up the Mississippi, for refuge, among the Winnebagoes, who not long after the last decisive battle brought both Black Hawk and the Prophet, and delivered them up to our army.

The energy and promptitude exhibited by the War Department, in adopting at the outset ample and effective means for conquering the refractory Indians, undoubtedly saved the country from the expense and horrors of a protracted Indian warfare, consisting of a series of skirmishes and fights between small parties of both forces. The campaign was soon terminated by the submission of the hostile tribes, who were well satisfied, after witnessing the determination of the government to bring them under subjection, to enter into a treaty of peace, on the terms of the conquering party. Black Hawk and the Prophet, who were the principal instigators of this war, were delivered to the President of the United States, and retained for some time as hostages, for the faithful maintenance on the part of the Indians, of their treaty stipulations.

Gov. Cass introduced many reforms into the details of the management of the several public interests under charge of the War Department. Intimately associated in early life for a long period, with the soldier, while on actual service, he could not fail to observe, that very much might be effected by the Head of the War Department, which would contribute to the comfort of the soldier, while it entailed no increase of expenditure upon the government. A slight attention to apparently trivial evils would be all that would be required to accomplish important results. He had become sat

isfied that many of the evils incident to military establishments were attributable to habits of intemperance acquired by the soldiers, and not prevented, or sought to be, by military regulations. As a highly necessary step towards the eradication of a custom so pregnant with dangerous consequences, he introduced a salutary change in the subsistence regulations of the army. In lieu of spirituous liquor which had been dealt out to each soldier as a part of his daily rations, he established a commutation therefor, by a specific sum in money paid to each soldier, equal in amount to the value of the liquor to which he was entitled. Beneficial effects resulted from this change, although its full influence was partially obstructed by the opportunity of purchasing from the suttlers of the posts the deleterious article sought to be excluded. Subsequently, by act of Congress, coffee and sugar were substituted for the money paid for the commutation, and the suttlers prohibited from selling spirituous liquors to the soldiers, or introducing it into the military posts, except as part of the hospital stores, to be used in cases of sickness. Public opinion, as well as the acquiescence of the parties mostly interested in this step of reform, sustained the Secretary of War in his adoption of a measure so plainly and forcibly conducive to the well being of the soldier as a man, and to the more efficient and orderly conduct of the army in general.

The advantages to be derived from well disciplined mounted men, especially during Indian hostilities; of an increased and more efficient organization of the topographical corps, were urged in the report of the Secretary for the year 1832, with great force and ability. In this report, also, was an extended view of the condition of the Indians, and of the policy and duty of the government towards them. Gov. Cass also abolished the custom of parading and inspecting the soldiers on the Sabbath; thus enabling them to devote their time, on that day, to the proper observance of its sacred demands upon their attention.

It was at this period that the controversy between the Government and the state of Georgia, reached its crisis. The Cherokees had conceived the idea that by treaties between their nation and the United States, the right to a separate and independent government, within the limits of the state of Georgia, was guaran teed to them. It was contended by Georgia, that she had a right

of civil and criminal jurisdiction over the whole of her lands within her chartered limits, and that her jurisdiction of right, extended to the persons and things within those limits. That by the constitution of the state, final and conclusive jurisdiction in criminal cases, was rested in the courts of the state; and when those courts pronounced the sentence of the law, no other court had the right to rehear, overule or reverse that decision-that no power was granted by the Constitution of the United States to the federal courts to interfere with, or control the criminal jurisdiction of the states. By the laws of Georgia, it was made a penal offence for any person to reside upon the lands of Georgia then in the occupancy of the Cherokees, without licence from the Governor of the state. The mandate of those laws was disobeyed, and the sov ereignty of the state, questioned by both Indians and white men, who were induced by a spirit of speculation and thirst for the rich treasures of the gold mines to set at defiance the laws under which they lived. A collision soon occurred between the judicial authority of the federal government, and the executive and ministerial officers of Georgia. The question was carried to the Supreme Court of the United States, and there a decision was given against the claim of sovereignty within her territorial limits, set up by Georgia. This decision had the inevitable tendency to increase the difficulties already sufficiently formidable, in the way of the Secretary of war, in carrying out his wise and humane policy towards the Indian tribes. The decision of the Supreme Court, was to him a subject of great moment. Conscientiously opposed to its doctrines, he examined the reasons and argument by which the court had shorn a sovereign state of its jurisdiction. His masterly dissection of the weakness and fallacy of that doctrine was the subject of unqualified approbation among the most learned jurists of the country. That he was right, the event plainly demonstrated. The policy of which, he was the founder, and firm and consistent supporter, was sustained by the public opinion of the people. Gen. Jackson was upheld by the general voicein his adoption of it. Gov. Cass had the satisfaction of beholding an exciting and delicate question settled upon a basis, formed by himself, upon enlarged views and extensive experience. By his tact, skill, and scrupu lous regard for the rights of all interested, he succeeded in estab

lishing upon an immoveable foundation, the humane and benevolent policy of the government towards an unfortunate and fast disappearing race of men, and averting a rupture between the federal government and a state sovereignty, which threatened consequences full of danger, to the Union.

A question of the like character, arose within the State of Alabama, which brought the state and federal authorities to the very point of collision. The Secretary of war, fortunately interposed, and while he amply sustained the claims and rights of the state, he surrounded the Indians with all the protections which the laws of the United States and treaty stipulations guaranteed them. In 1836, Gov. Cass made his celebrated and minute report, upon the military and naval defences of the country. In transmitting this document to Congress, Gen. Jackson, took occasion to say, that he concurred in the views expressed by the Secretary of There existed at that time, not only much diversity of opinion among prominent statesmen and military men of high rank, in regard to this question, but a great degree of misconception, which subsequent investigation, and more accurate knowledge of the wants of the country in a state of warfare, tended to remove.

war.

The subject, in all its extensive ramifications, was thoroughly examined by the Secretary of war, and while he appreciated to the entire extent, the benefit derived from ample and well appropriated fortifications, he could not overlook the consideration, that a discriminating and judicious application of public money to the erection and full equipment of fortifications, at certain definite localities, would be more advantageous, and more effective for general protection and defence, than an undefined and unregulated system, which would build expensive forts, wherever there was a possibility of an enemy gaining a foothold.

Gen. Cass, after an elaborate examination of the nature and condition of our inland seas, expressed the opinion that our lake frontier required no permanent defences, and that entire reliance could be placed upon the resources, both in the personnel and materiel in the extent and natural advantages which our country possessed in that quarter. The establishment of a depot, for the reception of munitions of war, in some part of Michigan, was suggested as a matter of expediency and precaution. The lake country from its