ALS as president, one page, 4.75 x 7.75, April 23, 1870. Response penned on the reverse of an initial letter sent to him by Senator Matthew H. Carpenter. In part: “I wish Mr. Young would see the Sec. of the Int. or Comm. of Indian Affairs on the subject of the letter before seeing me. I should have to see them before taking definite action.” Carpenter’s initial letter to Grant, in full: “The bearer, Mr. E. Young, of Wisconsin, desires an interview with you in relation to the removal of stray bands of Indians in that state, Pottawattomies and Winnebagos, to the reservations in Kansas and Nebraska. Mr. Young speaks the languages of both those tribes, and inasmuch as they regard him as their friend, he could remove them with less expense & trouble than any other man; and the people of Wisconsin in that neighborhood desire that Mr. Young should be appointed or employed for that purpose.” Grant’s secretary of war endorsed Carpenter’s letter at the conclusion, “I concur. Alex. Ramsey.” In very good condition, with scattered foxing, and mounting remnants to final page of Carpenter’s letter.
At the start of his presidency, Grant embarked on a new era of relations with the western Indian tribes, shifting the federal policy from removal to assimilation. Appointing Seneca Indian and Brigadier General Ely Parker as Commissioner of Indian Affairs (the first nonwhite appointment to a major federal position), and creating a new Board of Indian Commissioners, he provided government subsidies, as well as English, Christianity, and agricultural lessons to reservations. Unfortunately, as white settlers continued to expand westward with governmental support, tribes were forced to relocate time and again, and were considered hostile at the smallest signs of resistance. When the remaining “stray bands” of Potawatomies and Winnebagos in the mineral rich and fertile agricultural lands of Wisconsin—relatively small in number, as most of the native population had been forced onto reservations in Kansas and Nebraska in the 1830s—refused to be ‘Americanized,’ new efforts to remove them began. An interesting letter regarding Grant’s new approach to US Indian policy, remembered more for its good intentions than for lasting changes. Pre-certified John Reznikoff/PSA/DNA and RR Auction COA.
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