CHAPTER XXIV.

The Cherokee Neutral Land Purchase― Emigrant Aid Company – Vindication of Secretary James Harlan-James F. Joy-First Bridge across the Missouri - A Texas overland Trip-Journey to Mexico.

IN 1868, after leaving Congress, I had connection with a great land sale. It drew on the chief actor a deluge of epithets by the envious, and loaded the press with crude and false surmises. This will be my apology for the narration of an agency resulting in honor to all parties interested.

The Cherokee Indians were, as far back as the time of President Jackson, a disturbing factor in society and politics, especially in the state of Georgia, where in "Old Hickory" for a time they found a friend. It was in the interest of slavery that the tribe was forcibly removed in 1838 by General Scott to the Indian Territory. Beside an exchange of land, they made a purchase of 800,000 acres in south-east Kansas, now embraced in the counties of Crawford and Cherokee. The majority of the tribe in the Indian Territory were making progress in agriculture, but gaining only a trivial income from their reservation, the neutral lands being fast occupied illegally by defiant squatters. The Indians feared that the government would fail to protect their rights, when they became powerless by the occupation of their reservation. It was a fair tract of land with an abundance of coal. Then the railroad extension from Kansas City, south, devised a right of way of fifty miles, and a law to facilitate settlement.

Judge D. N. Cooley was commissioner of Indian affairs, and Ex-Senator James Harlan, of Iowa, was secretary of the interior. It was Mr. Harlan's judgment that the value of the land at interest would be worth more to the Indians in the present and prospectively than the title to the land, in jeopardy and without

revenue.

A treaty was made with the nine chiefs called "head men",

persons of business sagacity, whereby the secretary was authorized to make treaty stipulations and to sell the land. A sale was effected to the American Emigrant Aid and Land Company for the sum of $800,000, on which the company was to pay five per cent. for the use of the money. Scandals were at once set afloat by professional black-mailers, as to bribes. Squatters on the land held meetings to resist any law which would compel the payment of money, even on the land illegally occupied.

Hon. James F. Joy, of Detroit, representing Boston capital, was building a bridge at Kansas City in contemplation of a trunk line of railway southward through Kansas and the Indian Territory, possibly through Texas to the Gulf. This tract of land was on the line, but had passed beyond their control; and the late purchasers set a high price on the contract under Mr. Harlan. Andrew Johnson, no longer the "Moses of the colored man" to lead them out, would not tolerate radicals, and Mr. Harlan, secretary of the interior, resigned. O. H. Browning, of Illinois, was his successor, and, taking legal advice, abrogated the sale made to the emigrant company on the ground that time payments did not conform to treaty stipulations. Mr. Joy appeared as a purchaser for cash, in the interest of Kansas City, Fort Scott and Gulf Railroad, but the title of course was clouded by the previous sale, and only the courts after long delays could determine the status of the parties. Every hour of delay in adjustment attracted new and defiant settlers to the land, in dispute as to ownership.

A PURCHASE.

At this stage, and in prospect of litigation, I became interested in the purchase; it not being true that I had part in the negotiation or was even privy to the sale under the treaty. The owners held the purchase by tenths. They could not part with a tenth without the assent of a majority. Mr. Dewitt C. Wheeler, of New York, about to leave for Europe, had one tenth, paying down $25,000, and proposed a sale of his interest, and a majority of the company had urged me to take his place, which I did. This was after a full knowledge of the field notes of the land by a late survey and a private personal inspection of the tract. Becoming the agent of the company in this transaction, I called on Mr. Joy at Detroit to enjoin him from assuming any acts of ownership, but

first indicated that, after years of litigation, there would be only loss for both the contestants. Well-formed as his head is for stern, legal controversy, and being then the great railway magnate of the time, he was ready coyly to listen to a compromise which was made on condition that his purchase should be officially ratified. That could be done only in the most quiet manner, and by a supplemental treaty noticed hereafter.

The following attack, enlarging into many scandals, was made in a western paper and a reply by Mr. Joy followed:

HARLAN AND GRINNELL.

"Mr. Grinnell was a member of Congress. He was also Mr. Harlan's middle man in the dealings with the Connecticut Emigrant Company, and their assigns, Mr. Joy and his friends, in the Cherokee treaty. After Browning had set the illegal treaty of Harlan aside and sold the lands to Joy, Grinnell was then the man who managed the payment by way of compromising with the Connecticut Company, and in getting the subsequent supplemented treaty through the Senate, after Mr. Harlan got back there, for which over $50,000 was paid into Grinnell's hands at one time, a very considerable portion of which, said to be three tenths, was placed at the control of Senator Harlan or his family. Grinnell is still the active middle man and lobby agent of the enormous fraud on the part of government officials. Mr. Joy played only the part of getting as good a bargain as possible from them."

In reply to this, Mr. Joy's letter is here given in justice to Senator Harlan and myself:

"My Dear Sir:

MICHIGAN CENTRAL RAILROAD CO., PRESIDENT'S OFFICE, DETROIT, Dec. 30, 1869.

"With reference to the statements made by the correspondent of the Cincinnati Gazette relative to Messrs. Harlan and Grinnell touching the negotiations for the sale of the neutral lands, and in which allusions have been made to myself, I can only say that there never was $50,000 paid into Mr. Grinnell's hands in any form. That amount was paid to the American Emigrant Company, of which $25,000 was to reimburse it for the same amount which had been paid to the secretary of the Interior by it, on its contract, and which the Railroad Company acquiring the lands had the benefit of as a payment on its own contract. The other $25,000 was paid as being the difference in value between a contract on time at five per cent. interest and a cash contract. We therefore deemed that we were receiving full value for that amount of money which was paid that company. There was no other $50,000 paid, nor the half of any such sum, for all expenses connected with this matter at Washington, accounting everything. The money paid did not go into the hands of Mr. Grinnell, but was paid to the treasurer of the Emigrant Company. Of course Mr. Harlan did not, and could not receive any part of it from him, nor could any of his family. This correspondent is therefore in these particulars wholly mistaken. There was no money used in Washing

ton with any authority of mine to promote the passage of the treaty. At that time we cared not enough about it to lavish money to acquire these lands.

"As to Mr. Grinnell's being the active middle man and lobby agent of this 'enormous fraud', I have to say he is not now, and never has been, the agent in any sense of myself or the Railroad Company, whether in the lobby or otherwise. "These statements being due both to Mr. Harlan and Mr. Grinnell, you may make such use of this as you please.

"Yours truly,

"HENRY STRONG, ESQ., Burlington, Iowa."

J. F. JOY.

There could

The above states the conditions of the transfer. have been no successful negotiation with the chiefs or with the Indian department, if the affair had been made public.

Mr. Harlan was in his old seat in the Senate and held in honor for his personal and official integrity. He desired a settlement of the question in the interest of owners and purchasers outside the courts. Secretary Browning personally was favorable to an early settlement, aside from his well-founded doubts as to the legality of the second sale.

It was here that I entered upon the most delicate and difficult service of my life. I began at the lower stratum, after the manner of starting a coal fire. My first week's study was with the chiefs, to learn of whom to make a confidant for quiet work; not a council with speeches was necessary; the open course would have awakened an army of half-breeds, outside lawyers and agents, ending in complication and defeat. By strategy I kept "Big Indian" from the saloons, and isolated and sworn not to divulge the signing of a request. All assenting, there was but one party entrusted with the secret, viz: the commissioner of Indian affairs. Ex-Governor Morrill, of Maine, was chairman of the Senate Indian committee, and, with all his caution, came near giving away the device for settlement.

Fair as the prospect was, and for mutual interests, the long speeches in executive session to kill the treaty are known. I did not shorten them, and if a Kansas City capitalist did, it was not by my money or sanction.

In the White House there was a long hitch and actual peril. The president, I dare say when not sober, had declared the treaty should never be signed by him, and there was a rumor that his son, his private secretary, demanded so much, saying a certain sum would get the "old man's name". I was powerless with the president, I am happy to say, having no standing at the White House;

and weeks passed with no word as to the treaty. What local capitalists may have done to avert bankruptcy I do not even guess; nor will I start a rumor related to official depravity in the demand of one person, limited in means in a career of dissipation. The president was still unyielding, soured by the impeachment trial and suspicious of all.

Senator Grimes was apprised of the steps to sustain Mr. Harlan, his colleague, and of the interest his personal business friends took in the ratification of the treaty, and was slow in crediting rumors of venality and the obstinacy of President Johnson. It was difficult to impress the senator with the peril, and more difficult to assure him that he was the only man who could bring us success. A good and just status he has maintained, refusing to vote on the treaty because as a railway stockholder his road might have an interest in the neutral lands. At last, on advising with his personal friend, Senator Fessenden, he made a formal call on the president, the first since he had voted against impeachment. The gratitude of the unimpeached is assumed, also the diplomacy of his caller, who had an incidental errand—it was to inform as to the scandal in opposing that treaty, against which there were only four senatorial votes. The president said, "I hear there is a pile of money back of it, and I am waiting to see Browning, for Culbert says there are millions at stake". Grimes' answer was, "Culbert was an outside Indian, no doubt, and if your secretary is a party to a job the sooner you know it the better. I did not vote for it on account of a possible contingent interest, though not holding stock in this railroad scheme." The bell calls. Bob, the son and secretary, is summoned, and an order given to bring the treaty. it was not at hand, and there was a suspicion of theft or concealment. Senator Grimes left, receiving a pledge that soon he would hear from the treaty. What followed as to the cost of finding and securing a signature, is related to a scandalous rumor. The fact is, no one could have saved the supplemental treaty but Senator Grimes; and to him outsiders said there would have been a deaf ear, but for the favor of an anti-impeachment vote. This is history, and complimentary to the sagacity and integrity of one who was above casting his vote to secure an official favor. Angry settlers were on the neutral lands. They had, by delays, become a formidable party, resorting to law; and belligerent threats came forth in resolves. "A railroad engineer would require a coat of