The Black Hawk War Including a Review of Black Hawk's Life
of May, when they fancied they would have to send a personal embassy to
Reynolds, which they did, in as much haste as possible, as they were
expecting momentary trouble from those Indians. They accordingly drew up
the following petition and sent it by one of the most respectable of
their citizens, who in person laid it before the Governor:
“Farnhamburg, May 19th, 1831.
“To his Excellency, the Governor of the State of Illinois:
“We, the undersigned, citizens of Rock River and its vicinity, having
previously sent a petition to your honor, praying your protection
against these Sac Indians, who were at that time doing every kind of
mischief, as was set forth and represented to your honor; but feeling
ourselves more aggrieved, and our situation more precarious, we have
been compelled to make our distress known to you by sending one of our
neighbors, who is well acquainted with our situation. If we do not get
relief speedily, we must leave our habitations to these savages, and
seek safety for our families by taking them down into the lower
counties and suffer our houses and fences to be destroyed, as one of
the principal war chiefs has threatened, if we do not abandon our
settlement, his warriors should burn our houses over our heads. They
were, at the time we sent our other petition, destroying our crops of
wheat, and are still pasturing their horses in our fields, burning our
fences, and have thrown the roof off one house. They shot arrows at
our cattle, killed our hogs, and every mischief.
“We have tried every argument to the agent for relief, but he tells us
they are a lawless band, and he has nothing to do with them until
further orders, leaving us still in suspense, as the Indians say, if
we plant we shall not reap, a proof of which we had last fall; they
almost entirely destroyed all our crops of corn, potatoes, etc.
Believing we shall receive protection from your excellency, we shall
go on with our farms until the return of the bearer; and ever remain
your humble supplicants, etc.,”
Which petition was signed by nearly the same citizens as the first.
Benjamin F. Pike, the bearer of the above petition, and also Hiram
Sanders and Ammyson Chapman, made oath to the truth of the allegations
contained in it, as follows:
“State of Illinois, St. Clair County.
“Present, Benjamin F. Pike, before me, a Justice of the Peace in and
for the said county, and made oath and deposed, that he has resided in
the vicinity of Rock River, in the State of Illinois, for almost three
years last past; that he is well acquainted with the band of the Sac
Indians whose chief is the Black Hawk, and who have resided and do now
reside near the mouth of Rock River, in this State; that he
understands so much of the said Indian language, as to converse with
the said Indians intelligibly; that he is well satisfied that said
Indians, to the amount of about three hundred warriors, are extremely
unfriendly to the white people; that said Indians are determined, if
not prevented by force, to drive off the white people, who have some
of them purchased land of the United States, near said Indians, and
said Indians to remain the sole occupiers of the said country.
“That said Indians do not only make threats to this effect, but have,
in various instances, done much damage to said white inhabitants, by
throwing down their fences, destroying the fall grain, pulling off the
roofs of houses, and positively asserting that if the whites do not go
away, they would kill them; that there are about forty inhabitants and
heads of families in the vicinity of said Indians, who are immediately
affected by said band of Indians; that said Pike is certain that said
forty heads of families, if not protected, will be compelled to leave
their habitations and homes from the actual injury that said Indians
will commit on said inhabitants. That said band of Indians consists,
as above stated, of about three hundred warriors, and that the whole
band is actuated by the same hostile feelings towards the white
inhabitants; and that, if not prevented by an armed force of men, will
commit murders on said white inhabitants. That said Indians have said,
that they would fight for their country where they reside, and would
not permit the white people to occupy it at all. That said white
inhabitants are desirous to be protected, and that immediately, so
that they may raise crops this spring and summer.
“BENJAMIN F. PIKE.
“Sworn and subscribed before me, this 26th May, 1831.
“JOHN H. DENNIS, J.P.”
“The deposition of Hiram Sanders and Ammyson Chapman, taken before
Stephen Dewey, Esq., a Justice of the Peace for Fulton County.
“State of Illinois, Fulton County.
“Personally appeared before me, Stephen Dewey, an acting Justice of
the Peace in and for said county of Fulton, and State of Illinois,
Hiram Sanders, and Ammyson Chapman, of the aforesaid county and State,
and made oath that some time in the month of April last, they went to
the old Indian Sac town, about thirty miles up Rock River, for the
purpose of farming and establishing a ferry across said river, and the
Indians ordered us to move away, and not to come there again and we
remained there a few hours.
“They then sent for their chief, and he informed us that we might
depart peaceably, and if we did not that he would make us go.
“He therefore ordered the Indians to throw our furniture out of the
house; they accordingly did so, and threatened to kill us if we did
not depart. We therefore discovered that our lives were in danger, and
consequently moved back again to the above county.
“We supposed them to be principally Winnebagoes.
“H. SANDERS,
“A. CHAPMAN.
“Sworn and subscribed this 11th. day of May, 1831.
“STEPHEN DEWEY,
J.P.”
There were several other petitions sent to the Governor from Henderson
River and elsewhere; likewise a number of depositions were taken, the
substance of which will be found in General Gaines’ report to the
Secretary of War.
For almost twenty-seven years, much over an average Indian’s lifetime,
the Government had faithfully observed its compact of 1804 to allow the
Sacs and Foxes the privilege of remaining on the ceded lands until
surveyed and thrown upon the market. With each new treaty acknowledging
that one, additional annuities had been granted them, until the annual
distribution amounted to $27,000.00: “The Sacs and Foxes are already
drawing an annuity of twenty-seven thousand dollars for thirty years to
come, in cash, and by the present treaty that amount will be enlarged to
thirty-seven thousand dollars per annum.”[69] The last named treaty,
mentioned by Catlin, brought these Indians seventy-five cents per acre
for their lands. Yet Black Hawk, regardless of the obligation of his
lawful superiors and his own, under those repeated treaties and
payments, lingered and quibbled and quarreled, thinking, no doubt, by
this time that he could not or would not be removed at all.
The little band of whites, unable to contend successfully against the
overwhelming numbers of Indians and their exasperating thefts and
annoyances, applied to the agent and got no relief and, as it seemed to
the settlers, almost no thought. The United States authorities,
particularly Governor Clark, Superintendent of Indian Affairs at St.
Louis, were the ones to furnish protection, _vi et armis_ or otherwise.
Governor Reynolds was very unwilling at first to send the militia to the
scene without invitation from those army officers; therefore, when he
received the first petition, instead of replying at once to it, he
applied to the Indian agents at Rock Island and to General Gaines.
Failing of receiving any consideration, the second message from the
citizens, who thought he had ignored them, compelled the “Old Ranger,”
as the Governor was called, to take the initiative by calling out the
militia to the number of 700, which he did on May 26th, with
instructions to rendezvous at Beardstown June 10, 1831.[70] On the day
of issuing that call, he wrote Governor Clark a letter, calculated to
leave no room for doubt as to the course he should pursue and the manner
of his treatment of the Indians if they did not move.
“Belleville, 26th May, 1831.
“Sir:–In order to protect the citizens of this State, who reside near
Rock River, from Indian invasion and depredations, I have considered
it necessary to call out a force of militia of this State of about
seven hundred strong, to remove a band of the Sac Indians who are now
about Rock Island. The object of the government of the State is to
protect those citizens, by removing said Indians, peaceably, if they
can, but forcibly if they must. Those Indians are now, and so I have
considered them, in a state of actual invasion of the State.
“As you act as the public agent of the United States in relation to
those Indians, I considered it my duty to inform you of the above call
on the militia, and that in or about fifteen days a sufficient force
will appear before said Indians to remove them, dead or alive, over to
the west side of the Mississippi; but to save all this disagreeable
business, perhaps a request from you to them, for them to remove to
the west side of the river, would effect the object of procuring peace
to the citizens of the State. There is no disposition on the part of
the people of this State to injure those unfortunate and deluded
savages if they will let us alone; but a government that does not
protect its citizens deserves not the name of a government. Please
correspond with me to this place on this subject.
“Your obedient servant,
“JOHN REYNOLDS.
“GEN. CLARK, Supt., etc.”
Reynolds’ letter hastened the following reply, which clearly indicated
that much had really been done by Governor Clark to remove the Indians:
“Superintendency of Indian Affairs,
“St. Louis, May 28, 1831.
“Sir:–I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of
the 26th inst., informing me of your having considered it necessary to
call out a force of militia of about seven hundred for the protection
of the citizens of Illinois who reside near Rock Island from Indian
invasion and for the purpose of removing a band of Sac Indians who are
now about Rock Island, etc.
“You intimate that to prevent the necessity of employing this force,
perhaps a request from me to those Indians to remove to the west side
of the Mississippi would effect the object of procuring peace to the
citizens of your State. In answer to which, I would beg leave to
observe, that every effort on my part has been made to effect the
removal of all those tribes who had ceded their lands. For the purpose
of affording you a view (in part) of what has been done in this
matter, I enclose you herewith extracts from the reports of the agents
for the Sacs and Foxes, by which it will be seen that every means,
short of actual force, has been employed to effect their removal.
“I have communicated the contents of your letter to Gen. Gaines, who
commands the western division of the army, and who has full power to