Governor Grover's Open Letter - The Peace Commission Meets at Linkville - History - http://maxpages.com/modocwar/Groverletter

General Gillem and staff and the HERALD Commissioner left Lost River Camp at noon to-day and rode over here, where they found General Canby, Commander of the District of the Pacific, and staff, who had just arrived from California, via Jacksonville.

By appointment of the Secretary of the Interior, the Commission to arrange peace with the Modoc Indians, comprising Messrs. A. B. Meacham, Jesse Applegate and Samuel Case, were to meet at Linkville on February 15.

ORGANIZATION OF THE PEACE COMMISSION.

The Commission met at four o'clock P.M. Present--Jesse Applegate and Samuel Case, Mr. Jesse Applegate in the chair. On motion of Mr. Samuel Case, Mr. O. P. Applegate was appointed clerk of the commission.

The following communication was then received from the secretary of the Governor of Oregon and read by Mr. Jesse Applegate:--

THE GOVERNOR OF OREGON PROTESTS.

STATE OF OREGON, EXECUTIVE OFFICE
SALEM, Feb. 10, 1873.
TO THE COMMISSIONERS APPOINTED TO CONCLUDE PEACE WITH THE MODOC INDIANS:--

GENTLEMEN--As the State of Oregon is deeply interested in the results of the pending Indian Special Commission I desire to express to you a few suggestions bearing upon the subject about to engage your attention. From official reports made to me, and from other reliable information, it appeared conclusively established that
THE MASSACRE OF EIGHTEEN CITIZENS OF OREGON,
on the 29th of November last, was committed without provocation and without notice--cutting and shooting men down in cold blood at their houses and in their fields one by one as they were found--by Indians who had not been attacked by the soldiery nor otherwise molested, and who could not [sic] speak our language, and were personally acquainted with their victims. The homes and farms of the slaughtered settlers were upon lands to which Indian title had long since been extinguished by treaty. These acts I hold to be deliberate and wilful murder. Over such offences I conceive the civil authorities of this State constitute
THE ONLY COMPETENT AND FINAL TRIBUNAL.
"I desire, therefore, to protest, on behalf of the State of Oregon, against any action of the Commission which shall purport to condone the crimes of the Modocs or compound their offences. The people of Oregon desire that the murderers shall be given up and be delivered to the civil authorities for trial and punishment. As to the lands on Lost River, which some have suggested should be
SURRENDERED TO THE MODOCS
as a peace offering, allow me to say that these lands lie wholly within the State of Oregon, and within the jurisdiction of the Superintendent of Indian Affairs for Oregon; that the Indian title to these lands was extinguished by treaty, fairly made through the Oregon Superintendency, between the Modocs and the general government, on the 14th day of October, 1864. They have been surveyed under the direction of the Surveyor General of Oregon, and the surveys were long since approved by the General Land Office. These lands have been extensively taken, and are now occupied by bona fide settlers under the homestead and pre-emption laws of the United States. The Commission will, therefore, have no more power to declare
A RESERVATION ON LOST RIVER
under these settlements to make the same basis of peace with those Indians than they have to provide for their establishment on any other settled portion of this State. For the interests of Southern Oregon and for the future peace of our Southern frontier I will express the hope and confidence that the project of a reservation on Lost River will not be entertained by the Commission, and that the Modocs will either consent to return to their own reservations or to be assigned to bounds beyond the settlements. With great respect, I am your obedient servant, L. F. GROVER, Governor of Oregon."

On motion the letter was

LAID ON THE TABLE.

Owing to the absence of Mr. A. B. Meacham, the Commission adjourned to meet at Van Bremer's Ranche, on Monday, February 17.

There is a very strong feeling in Oregon against peace, and especially against locating these Indians on the Lost River strip of land, as the settlers declare the country will not be safe with the Modocs in the neighborhood.

General Canby, General Gillem, the officers attached to their staffs, Messrs. Jesse Applegate and Samuel Case, of the Peace Commission, and the HERALD correspondent leave to-morrow morning for Van Bremer's Ranche, forty miles distant.

CAPTAIN JACK LIVELY.

A party of four or five Modocs, out on a scout, burnt Dennis Crawley's log hut on Friday evening. General Gillem saw the smoke from the Lost River Camp, and sent out a detachment of cavalry to investigate the matter. They found the house in ruins and the tracks of Indians, but it was too dark to follow them up. In the morning another party of cavalry were sent out, but the Indians had taken refuge in their stronghold in the lava beds.

Jesse Applegate (16 February 1873)

An Open Letter to Governor Grover

LINKVILLE, February 16, 1873

TO HIS EXCELLENCY, ETC.: Your communication of the 10th inst., addressed "To the Commissioners to Conclude Peace with the Modoc Indians," was handed to Mr. Case and myself yesterday, and as we are not a Board of Commissioners at this time we can only receive and hold your paper until such a Board as you address is convened and then lay it before it, which we propose to do.

It is therefore as an individual, not as a member of a board that I address you, and for what I here say I am myself solely responsible. Without reference to the contents of your letter, to which I shall hereafter refer, I think you have shown undue haste in sending it, if indeed you should have addressed at all officially a Board so constituted as the one of which you suppose us to be members.

The Modoc war is and has been exclusively under the direction of the United States. Though beginning in Oregon it is now removed to the State of California, and the citizens of both States must suffer equally by its continuance and derive equal benefits from its speedy and successful close. It is rumored that the Conmmission would be--and as yet we have nothing more definite--constituted of citizens of both States; but whether this be true or not, it is to be hoped that whoever it may be that constitutes it, in carrying out the duties imposed upon it the interest of the people most concerned will be cared for, no matter upon which side of the State line they may reside. The power which created this Commission is the one to which the citizens of both California and Oregon look for protection and redress. It is now at a heavy expense in extending to them protection, and if ever the losses and sufferings of any one injured by this unfortunate war are redressed, that redress must come from the Federal Government. Such being the case, and the powers of the Commission being derived from the Federal Government, from it alone must the Commission receive instruction, either State mentioned having no right whatever to interfere in the matter.

As the instructions to the Commmission are as yet unknown, even to the supposed members, it is unfair and unjust to the Federal Government to suppose, as you seem to do, that those instructions will not secure the best interests of the people concerned, and your letter does equal injustice to the personnel of the Commission--those now reported as forming it being all citizens of Oregon, two of them experienced in Indian affairs, men who have gained honor to themselves for faithful public services--and they certainly have given you no reason to infer that they contemplated under any circumstances to do wrong or injury to their native State.

While your letter contains somme suggestions valuable for their wisdom, which will no doubt receive due attention and respect from the Commission, I can not think they will derive additional weight from your offical position. For though the theatre of war is in the States of Oregon and California, the Commission will be the creature of the Federal Government and derive all its legitimate powers therefrom. It cannot therefore obey instructions from the Executive of either State, that in any way may militate against or be inconsistent with those of the Federal Government.

Though many of the facts stated in your letter will be doubtless known to the Commission from other sources, and receive due consideration, they lose none of their importance from repetition, and should His Excellency Newton Booth, Governor of California, see proper to enlighten us with his views on the Modoc difficulty, I hope that what he says will be courteously received and have just such weight as its wisdom may merit.

Jesse Applegate (19 February 1873)

[A Private Letter to Commissioner Meacham]

DEAR SIR: Owing to your non-arrival at Linkville on the 15th instant, Mr. Case and myself, having neither commissions nor instructions, were left to our own resources.

Among other things to be met was the celebrated "protest" of Governor Grover, which, as it had already been in print, I though it best to reply to in "an open letter," a copy of which I here-with inclose.

Having years ago become intimately acquainted with Governor Grover, when I saw his private secretary at Linkville I felt at once that some cunning advantage was being sought by the inveterate enemies of the Federal Government. Like a President's message of the olden time, this "protest" of Governor Grover appeared in the newspapers of Oregon before the date of its proposed delivery to the peace commission. As the Modoc imbroglio is now in the hands of the military, which must enforce an unconditional surrender of the rebellious Indians, Governor Grover naturally conluded there would be no occasion for a peace commission, unless the Government was disposed to grant the Modocs more liberal terms. By embodying public opinion in the form of the protest the governor hopes to gain a political advantage to himself and party, should the commission exact terms less rigorous than strict justice and public sentiment require; and he was in such hot haste to present his protest in order to forestall the action of the commission, in order to appear to have influenced it, or at least to claim for himself to have suggested or influenced the popular measures, and leave those unpopular to be borne by the administration.

You will perceive I have been mild and courteous toward the governor. You know, as well as I, Mr. Grover is not entitled to such treatment at your hands or mine.

Columbus Delano (18 February 1873)

[Orders from the Secretary of the Interior]

To A. B. MEACHAM, Yreka, Cal.:

Have shown your telegram of the 16th to the President. You are directed to proceed with the commission under your instructions, without regard to Governor Grover's protest.

If the authority of the United States is defied and resisted by State authorities, the United States will not be responsible for results, even if the State should be left to take care of Indians without assistance from the United States.

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