itself that a base advantage was about to be taken of the Cherokee necessities and that the objectors were justified in insinuating that Boudinot and his political friends were to be the chief beneficiaries.  The Cherokee country was already practically lost to the Confederacy.  Might it not be advisable to distribute the tribal lands, secure individual holdings, while vested rights might still accrue; for, should bad come to worse, private parties could with more chance of success prosecute a claim than could a commonalty, which in its national or corporate capacity had committed treason and thereby forfeited its rights.  One part of the Cherokee protest merits quotation here.  Its noble indignation ought to have been proof enough for anybody.

...  We were present when the treaty was made, were a party to it, and rejoiced when it was done.  In that treaty our rights to our country as a Nation were guaranteed to us forever, and the Confederate States promised to protect us in them.  We enlisted under the banner of those States, and have fought in defense of our country under that treaty and for the rights of the South for nearly two years.  We have been driven from our homes, and suffered severe hardships, privations, and losses, and now we are informed, when brighter prospects are before us, that you think it best for us to give part of our lands to our white friends; that, to defend our country and keep troops for our protection, we must raise and enlist them from

our own territory, and that it is actually necessary that they are citizens of our country to enable us to keep them with us.  To do this would be the end of our national existence and the ruin of our people.  Two things above all others we hold most dear, our nationality and the welfare of our people.  Had the war been our own, there would have been justice in the proposition, but it is that of another nation.  We are allies, assisting in establishing the rights and independence of another nation.  We, therefore, in justice to ourselves and our people, cannot agree to give a part of our domain as an inducement to citizens of another Government to fight their own battles and for their own country; besides, it would open a door to admit as citizens of our Nation the worst class of citizens of the Confederate States ...

XII.  INDIAN TERRITORY IN 1863, JULY TO DECEMBER INCLUSIVE

Independence Day, 1863, witnessed climacteric scenes in the war dramas, east and west.  The Federal victories of Gettysburg and Vicksburg, all-decisive in the history of the great American conflict, when considered in its entirety, had each its measure of immediate and local importance.  The loss of all control of the Mississippi navigation meant for the Confederacy its practical splitting in twain and the isolation of its western part.  For the Arkansas frontier and for the Missouri border generally, it