USA > Minnesota > Rice County > History of Rice and Steele counties, Minnesota, Vol. I > Part 30
USA > Minnesota > Steele County > History of Rice and Steele counties, Minnesota, Vol. I > Part 30
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adjoining land, which held a coal mine. Knowing that the mine could only be worked by sinking a shaft, the Bishop asked, "By owning my land is it not true that you could tunnel from the side and draw out your coal by mules?" "Yes," was the answer. "Does not Mr. own a coal mine situated in quite the same way on the other side of my land?" "Yes," came the reply. "Then," said the Bishop, with a smile, "Haven't I the same right to take advantage of the situation of my land that I would have if it were a corner lot?" "Of course you have," was the frank rejoinder. The result of the whole sale was that the Bishop paid over to St. James' College eight thousand dollars, and used the remaining thirty thousand for the erection of build- ings for his school for boys. Shattuck Hall was named by the Bishop for his beloved friend.
One of the Bishop's Chicago friends paid her tribute to him by her gifts of Shumway Hall, the beautiful chapel of Shattuck school, and Jolinson Hall of Seabury Divinity school, with par- tial endowments. Another dear friend, Mr. Junius Morgan, of London, gave him the money for Morgan Hall. Still another, the daughter of Governor Coles, who prevented Illinois from becoming a slave state, gave the beautiful oratory at Scabury Divinity school. With the exception of the recently erected buildings (since 1906) at Shattuck school, the buildings of the three schools and the many valuable gifts which they contain were personal tributes of love to Bishop Whipple, made by those who held up his hands in the days of laying foundations ; among them Mr. Pierpont Morgan, who endowed a professorship at Seabury, Mr. Anthony Drexel, Mr. Robert M. Mason and his generous daughters, of Boston, and many others. When con- gress authorized the detail of army officers to schools of a cer- tain grade, Bishop Whipple, believing that military discipline created an esprit de corps, and was a dignified way of teaching obedience, immediately applied for a detail to Shattuck school. The Bishop's friendship with General Sherman, General Grant and the authorities at Washington won his requests immediate answers, and, owing to this influence, Shattuck school has been particularly blessed in its military instructors,-Army officers of highest character and ability.
The magnanimous spirit of Bishop Whipple has been ex- hibited more than once in cases like the following: His beloved friend, Bishop Whittingham, shortly before his death, told the Bishop that he had decided to give him his library (the most valuable theological library in the Episcopal Church of America) for his Divinity school, saying, "For years I have offered to give my library to the Diocese of Maryland if the Diocese would pro- vide a fireproof library building. It has not been done and I
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shall give it to you for your school, for I am told that you have a library building ready for it."
The Bishop, feeling that such a treasure should belong to Maryland as a memorial to her great Bishop, immediately went to the Rev. Dr. Leeds and several laymen of the diocese and urged them to make every effort to secure the library building. He was finally successful, to the lasting gratitude of Maryland, which then became the possessor of the finest diocesan library in the United States.
The Bishop Seabury mission was incorporated in May, 1860, with a board of trustees, of which the Bishop of the diocese was ex officio president. Bishop Whipple laid the cornerstone of the cathedral at Faribault on the 16th of July, 1862. This was the first Protestant cathedral erected in the United States, the Bishop making the cathedral the center of an educational com- munity-the schools a part of the organic religious life which it represented-his idea of the schools and the parish having a common service in the cathedral every Sunday morning, per- fectly realizing the true cathedral idea.
On July 17, 1862, the bishop laid the corner stone of Sea- bury Divinity Hall. The difficulties of those early struggles were accentuated by the crippling effects of the Civil War, the Missions, which wiped out two years of hard labor. In the face missions, which wiped out two years of hard labor. In the face of these discouragements it required almost superhuman strength to go on, and yet, in 1863, Seabury Hall was finished. In 1865 Shattuck school was organized. In 1866 St. Mary's Hall was opened, with the scholarly and cultivated Sarah P. Darlington, daughter of Dr. Darlington, the celebrated botanist and author, of Philadelphia, as principal, and the Rev. Dr. Leonard J. Mills, who had been the assistant of Bishop Kerfoot in St. James' College, as chaplain. When Bishop Whipple founded this school, beginning it in his own home, there was no institution of the kind in the Northwest. He took upon himself all the heavy and perplexing burdens which such an undertaking involves. Again his personal influence brought generous friends to his aid, who by their gifts helped to make this dream of his heart possible. This Christian home and institution of learning, which now has no peer in the country, was the direct outgrowth of the constant thought and guidance of its founder, growing more and more into the ideal of his vision until the present honored and beloved principal, Caroline Wright Eells, fias placed the cap-stone on this object of the Bishop's love.
The rapidity with which the great wilderness of Minnesota was changed into one of the most prosperous commonwealths of the Mississippi valley was a marvel in the history of state-
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building. Through the dense forests and over the pathless prairies Bishop Whipple went, and wherever a village sprang up a mission chapel quickly appeared. Everywhere the Bishop was known and welcomed, until he became a part of the life of those early settlers, all of whom held him in reverence and love. His temporal as well as his spiritual advice was constantly sought. It was of Bishop Whipple that the term "Sky-pilot" was first used, which has since been appropriated by novelists and local poets. Louis Robert, an old French trader, when asked if he knew Bishop Whipple, replied, "Yes, he's a sky- pilot and always straight." His splendid vigor and zeal in his journeys through the wilderness outran the strongest of his native guides, who accompanied him through wearisome trails, in birch-bark canoes, during the scorching heat of summer and the frigid cold and snows of winter, the Bishop carrying his own canoe and other impedimenta in making the frequent portages from lake to lake. The Indians and pioneers love to tell, today, the stories of that consecrated life with its thrilling experiences, and more than one pioneer has a tale to relate of when, in the wild fury of a Minnesota blizzard, with the thermometer run- ning to thirty degrees and more below zero, they have seen from their windows a veiled shadow moving across the white expanse of lonely prairie, which has finally developed into a pair of horses drawing up at the door, and Bishop Whipple, with just consciousness enough left to guide his horses, has been helped into the house, and before a great log fire has been rubbed back into life.
Intermingled, from the first, with all his other diocesan activities, was his great work for the Indians. From the begin- ning he saw that if they were to be won by the Gospel and their descendants preserved to Christian civilization, the deal- ings of Christian people with them must be marked by justice- they must be made to feel the obligations as well as the privi- leges of citizenship, and that law alone could secure them their rights. As early as 1859 and 1860, in his letters to the President and to the public, he advocated the true national policy of deal- ing with them as "individuals rather than tribes, insisting upon justice toward them in matters of treaty interpretation, legal enactment and administration," and declaring that unless the legislature and the administration of Indian affairs were gov- erned by principles of truth and equity, there was no hope of civilizing them and absorbing them into the great body of American citizens. In April, 1860, he wrote to President Buchanan, opposing treaties with the tribes as nations, and showing the evil effects of paying money annuities to tribes, suggesting a native police and urging the crying need of law
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upon the reservations, strongly recommending separate home- steads, where the families could live by farming. Twenty years before Carlisle or Hampton had thought of industrial training, Bishop Whipple urged the need of practical industrial teachers along the line of agriculture and progression in other directions, and indeed every step that has since been taken in civilizing the Indians was clearly outlined in his first statesmanlike appeal, and from that time on through every administration ran the influence which came from the closing lines of his first letter to President Buchanan, "I have written frankly, as a Christian bishop may write to the chief magistrate of a Christian nation."
As no Indian policy then existed, save that of encouraging fraud and war, it devolved upon Bishop Whipple to formulate one and then to plead for it, and to no other man does our country owe so great a debt on that score as to him. He stood pre-eminently as the most rational, just and enlightened man who had any dealing with Indian affairs, and his statesmanlike breadth of view was the greatest factor in bringing about Indian reform. It was Bishop Whipple who secured justice for the Leech Lake Indians in that historical and fraudulent transac- tion which would have deprived them of all their pine lands, which were sold by the Indian Department through an Indian agent. The outraged Indians were on the point of an uprising when a message came from the President of the United States to the Bishop, asking him if he would go at once and settle the difficulty. In the dead of winter he traveled three days through snow several feet deep to meet Chief Flatmouth and his war- riors, who came in paint and feathers, angry and turbulent. After the first outburst of indignation they listened to the Bishop, because, as they said, he "had not a forked tongue." His influence over them prevented another bloody stain on our country's record. The arguments which he used with the Gov- ernment, based on the ordinance of 1787, "having the binding force of the Constitution, and recognizing the possessory right of the Indian to the soil, which could only be extinguished by treaty." were convincing and conclusive.
In 1862 the Indian massacre of which the Bishop had given clear warning occurred. To no one did it bring keener anguish than to the Bishop, but, while his heart was bleeding for mur- dered friends, his passionate sense of justice would not permit him to keep silent while the unreasoning hatred of the white sufferers fell upon all alike. brooking no defense of the faithful Christian Indians who, at risk of their own lives, saved hun- dreds of white women and children. Ile was one of the first to go to the relief of the white sufferers after the massacre. sewing up wounds and caring for the wounded and dying, day
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and night. Then, regardless of his great personal danger,-for it was like standing at the canon's mouth,-he raised his voice against their indiscriminate punishment and extermination. His visits to Washington in their defense brought forth storms of abuse which grew in bitterness as he fearlessly kept before the people and the nation the violations of good faith on the part of the Government. His appeals to Congresses and Presidents, as he went to Washington several times a year to expose abuses in the Indian service and to plead for justice, were always care- fully guarded by facts behind which his statements were well reincd in, bearing his full signature. Long and fearlessly was the voice of this advocate of justice heard, until both the whites and the Indians were convinced that his statements could not be questioned, his never failing sincerity and directness so impress- ing the Indians that they gave him the name of "Straight Tongue."
In 1868, quite unknown to himself, Congress appropriated $45,000 for the Sisseton and Wahpeton Indians at Fort Wads- worth and Devil's Lake, to be expended by Bishop Whipple, and, on his refusal to accept the position, he was informed by the Secretary of the Interior that unless he would accept the trust the money would remain in the treasury and the Indians be left to starve. He therefore made the expedition, asking his friend, Dr. Jared W. Daniels, to accompany him. Through two reliable merchants of Philadelphia he purchased a supply of well-made goods at cost, and, with a large supply of axes and other implements, he started out in the dead of winter, over pathless prairies covered with several feet of snow, the resting places at night having been holes dug in the snow banks. Although a Government position, it carried no salary, and cost the Bishop $400 from his own pocket. He found the Indians in a starving condition, their emaciated bodies unhidden by their rags, and over one hundred of them blind.
Bishop Whipple was appointed by the different Presidents of the United States on many Commissions to make treaties with the Indians, and it was the universal verdict that the treaties with which Bishop Whipple had to do were sound and accept- able to the Indians. In 1876 Bishop Whipple was a member of the Commission composed of Colonel Manypenny (who was Commissioner of Indian Affairs, under President Pierce), Colonel Boone (grandson of Daniel Boone), General Sibley, Attorney-General Gaylord, Dr. Asa Daniels, Newton Edmunds and Henry C. Bulis, to visit the hostile Sioux on the Missouri river. It was another case of broken treaty. Gold had been dis- covered in the Black Hills and white men had rushed into the country which the Government treaty had promised should be
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the possession of the Sioux forever, had killed the buffalo in wan- ton fashion, and had fired the blood of the outraged Indians. Their wrongs had smoldered until many of them had become turbulent and dangerous, and while two of the principal chiefs were ready to listen favorably to a treaty ceding the Black Hills, most of them were determined to prevent such a treaty at any cost. General Mckenzie had urged the Commissioners to take with them a guard of soldiers, but Bishop Whipple and Colonel Boone objected on the ground of creating distrust and having a bad effect upon the Indians. Unarmed, they met three hun- dred chiefs and head-men, each carrying a Winchester rifle and a belt of cartridges. It was afterward found that they had also concealed under their blankets knives, clubs and revolvers. More than a thousand mounted Indians were scattered over the bluffs and river-bed, near the agency warehouse where the council met, many of them having taken part, the previous sum- mer, in the Custer massacre. It was a warlike and menacing scene. Two companies of the Eleventh United States Infantry, under command of Colonel Buell, were stationed there as a pro- tection to the agency. During the Council a platoon of United States troops stood under arms back of the Commissioners, and the agency doors were guarded by soldiers. There was no doubt that the Indians had planned to murder the Commissioners, if unfavorable to their wishes, and that at a signal the outside Indians were to make an attack.
The Council opened in the usual way, the Indians stating their wrongs and making their demands of the Government, Bishop Whipple answering for the Government. The two friendly chiefs were interrupted by yells of anger and dis- approval, and, after two onslaughts upon them with threats to kill, Colonel Buell told them that they would be fired upon by the troops if the disturbance were repeated. Defiant and at white heat, they made a third rush, with wild yells of rage. Instantly Colonel Buell gave the order, "Ready-AAim"-and was about to command "Fire!" when Bishop Whipple, who had been quietly sitting through all the uproar, arose from his seat and, stretching out his arms toward the Colonel, exclaimed, in a voice which distinctly rang above the tumult. "Don't fire, Colonel. For God's sake. don't fire!"
Perfectly calm and without a sign of fear the bishop stood. The effect was extraordinary. One of the army officers who was present in describing the scene said: "It was an anxious and awful moment. No one knew what Colonel Buell was thinking, but it was evident that he distrusted his own judg- ment against that of Bishop Whipple, who was held in the highest esteem and veneration by the officers of the Army, but
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the command was given, 'Recover Arms' instead of 'Fire' and the situation was changed." It was the verdict of all that Bishop Whipple's conduct at this time averted an awful calamity, for had the troops fired it would have been the signal for a general slaughter, as the armed Indians far outnumbered the troops.
After the outbreak of 1862, owing to the bitter feeling on the part of the whites, it was thought wise to remove the Sioux to Dakota, many of the Christian Indians whom the Bishop had baptized and confirmed among them. The Government had confiscated all their lands, amounting to over one million acres, and annuities which were $20 per capita, besides the interest from funds for civilization. Some of the faithful scouts and families of the loyal Indians were taken to Faribault by Bishop Whipple at his own risk. The Sioux removed to Dakota were for a long time under the care of Bishop Whipple's missionary, the Rev. Mr. Hinman. Ten years later the Rev. Dr. Hare, whose interest in Indian missions had been aroused by Bishop Whipple when on visits to the latter's home in Faribault, was nominated to the House of Bishops as Bishop of Niobrara by Bishop Whip- ple, who preached the consecration sermon and joined in the consecration.
Believing that the day would come when the Ojibways would be removed from their reservation, Bishop Whipple set himself to finding out the tract of land best adapted to cultivation and the needs of the Indians, and learning that it was the universal opinion among the Indians that the country around White Earth Lake was most desirable, he was instrumental in securing it for them when the time came for a new treaty. He bought and paid for the first herds of cattle on the White Earth Reservation.
Bishop Whipple's thrilling and courageous report on "The Moral and Temporal Condition of the Indians," delivered in Cooper Institute, New York city, 1868, by request of Mr. Peter Cooper, aroused a deep wave of feeling and produced so profound an impression that it led to the organization by President Grant of the Indian Peace Commmission the following year. When the Bishop was warned to omit the darkest charges, on the score of personal danger, he answered, "They are true and the nation needs to know them, and so help me God, I will tell them, if I am shot the next minute!"
The Indian Peace Commmission was made up of men dis- tinguished for their philanthropic character, who served without compensation. From the time of its creation Bishop Whipple's help and suggestions were sought upon all occasions, as he was considered absolute authority on all matters pertaining to Indian
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affairs. For long years it was necessary for him to agitate the subject, rehearsing the facts of the Indians' wrongs and necessi- ties until they were burned into the public mind so deeply that steps toward their reformation were demanded.
The Bishop's correspondence in behalf of the Indian cause to the press, to public men, and to the successive Presidents of the United States, masterful and convincing in the truth and breadth of its arguments, would fill volumes. The clear and incontestable character of his letters on subjects such as "What shall we do with the Indian?" "A True Policy Towards the Indians," "The Chivington Massacre," and others, published in the appendix of his valuable book, "Lights and Shadows of a Long Episcopate," should become familiar to every justice- loving citizen of the United States. Bishop Whipple never once made an accusation against an Indian Agent without first giving him fair warning, and while he fought many battles against Indian agents, he fought, quite as insistently, some in their behalf. He was often furnished with proofs of frand by men who had no interest whatever in the Indians, but who admired his unconquerable courage. A Roman Catholic friend once paid $100 for a proof of fraud, for the sake of passing it on to Bishop Whipple, whom he believed in as a man.
President Lincoln, who was one of Bishop Whipple's warmest friends and admirers, once characteristically relieved the tension of his feelings in speaking of him thus: "Bishop Whipple talked with me about the rascality of this Indian business until I felt it down to my boots. If we get through this war, and I live, this Indian system shall be reformed."
It fell to Bishop Whipple, as first Bishop of Minnesota, to devise the Episcopal seal for the Diocese. As the Indian tribes were then at war with one another, his unfaltering belief in their redemption through Christian training led him to choose the design of the Cross with a broken tomahawk and a pipe of peace at its foot, surmounted by a mitre and the motto, "Pax per sanguinem crucis."
In 1864 overwork made rest a necessity. As the guest of Mr. Robert B. Minturn, Bishop Whipple visited England, where his noble personality immediately won him life-long friends among the most interesting men and women of the country. While in Paris he became deeply interested in the McCall Mis- sion and his impassioned addresses to the great congregations made up of infidels and every type of humanity representing the sinning and sinned against led, in several cases, to results of great significance.
In Spain, where he was received by the Duke of Montpen- sier and other distinguished Spaniards, and where he held serv-
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ices in the chapel of the Embassy, at the request of the British Minister, he found conditions which enabled him later to take an independent stand in dealing with what proved to be, through him, the beginning of freedom of worship in the Spanish pro- tectorate of Cuba. In the Holy Land, in Constantinople, in Egypt and wherever he went he was honored in unusual ways. He was received most cordially by the Archbishop of the Greek Church and the Patriarch of the Armenian Church, participating in some of the interesting functions of these Eastern Churches.
In 1871 Bishop Whipple held the first Protestant service in Cuba. The Foreign Committee of the Board of Missions had asked him to visit the Mission at Haiti, but, upon arriving in New York to find that the steamer had sailed before her adver- tised date, he took the one chance of getting to Haiti by going at once to Havana, but there he found that there was no steamer bound for his desired point. Feeling that the interruption to his plan might be an interposition of Providence, he began an investigation of the moral and religious conditions of the thou- sands of foreigners scattered over the island of Cuba, and the appalling revelation showed that without Church or moral stimu- lus they had degenerated into every form of immorality-bull- fights, cock-fights and lotteries forming their chief interest. Many had died without religious rites, having been buried in trenches like cattle. The wife of the Consul-General of the United States, a granddaughter of Bishop White, of Pennsyl- vania, had recently died without the ministrations of religion. The Bishop's soul was aroused. He asked the United States Consul if he might hold a service at the Consulate, but so strained were the relations between Spain and the United States that the Consul thought it unwise, and suggested that permission should be asked of the Captain-General of Cuba. The Bishop's diplo- macy revealed itself in his quick response: "Certainly not. The Spanish Constitution gives permission to foreigners domiciled in Spain or her colonies to worship God according to their accus- tomed forms of faith. I shall act under this authority, and if anyone dares to meddle with me I think that my country will protect me." The Bishop, accordingly, held service on board the United States man-of-war "Swatara," then anchored in the har- bor, on the IIth of March, 1871, the congregation flocking out to the ship in boats. During the week he held a service in the rooms of the British Consul-General, the Hon. John Dunlop, and the same week, at the request of the Consul-General of Ger- many, the Hon. Louis Will, he solemnized the marriage of two German subjects, at the German Consulate, with the stipulation that he should be allowed to officiate as an act of international courtesy without the customary fee. This led to a return of
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