USA > Oklahoma > A history of the state of Oklahoma, Volume I > Part 27
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an enviable future for this territory, and that its progress would be much enhanced by its being admitted to statehood.' In the fifty-fifth Congress a statehood bill was favorably reported, and the report con- cluded as follows: 'In the opinion of the committee no territory has ever been better situated to enter the Union as a state.' While these bills died upon the calendar of the house, we pursued the matter in each succeeding Congress and in the fifty-eighth Congress, what was known as the Flynn bill passed the house without a division. This measure met with determined opposi- tion on the part of the senate committee, and after a full hearing a majority of the committee reported a substitute providing for joint statehood for Indian Territory and Oklahoma. Senator Quay of Pennsylva- nia, and the Democratic members of the committee, dissented from the report of the majority and endorsed, in elaborate reports, the Flynn bill as it passed the house. Sen- ator Quay took charge of the bill in the senate and had a majority of sixteen in its favor. But a filibuster was organized in the senate and by protracted speeches and other tactics, a vote on the measure was defeated. This was a great disap- pointment to the people of Oklahoma, but it in no way abated their desire for state- hood. The contest in Congress for recog- nition went right on as before. In the meantime the population of both Oklahoma and Indian Territory rapidly increased. Altogether it was many times larger than that of any other territory which had been admitted as a state, the opposition to the passage of an enabling act gradually dimin- ished until the passage of the. act under which we entered the Union.
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homa to settlement, and with the statehood movement, I was brought into contact with many of the prominent men of the coun- try, and was placed under many personal and public obligations for the courtesy and kindness with which I was treated. If I were called upon to name one man to whom the people of Oklahoma owe the greatest debt of gratitude because of unselfish de- votion to their interests in all the early stages of the controversy, I should name Gen. James B. Weaver of Iowa. He entered Congress at the time when the services of an able and courageous leader were most needed. He had been a candidate for pres- ident of the United States, was a gallant general in the Union army, an able lawyer, a skilful debater, in full sympathy with the common people, and in every way abund- antly qualified to meet our opponents in Congress or elsewhere. Had it not been for the remarkable filibuster, to which I have alluded, the Springer bill would never have been considered by the house, and no one can tell how long it would have been before Oklahoma would have been opened for settlement.
"Another statesman to whom Oklahoma owes a debt of gratitude was William M. Springer of Illinois. For twenty years he was an able member of the house of repre- sentatives. As a leader of his party, as an able parliamentarian, and accomplished legislator, he championed our cause with an enthusiasm which commanded our admi- ration. And still another man equally able and efficient in our behalf was Senator Charles H. Van Wyck of Nebraska. Sen- ator Van Wyck was at one time a member of Congress from a district in New York. He was my personal friend, a friend of the people, courageous, honest, and an ideal public servant. The first member of the house from the southern states enlisted in
behalf of Oklahoma was Thomas R. Stock- dale of Mississippi. I remember well when I pressed our case upon his attention and how he promptly espoused our cause. The congressional records will show the great ability with which he advocated the estab- lishment of a territorial government. Mr. Stockdale was a Pennsylvanian by birth, settled in Mississippi in 1857, held many responsible offices, was four times elected to Congress, and was afterwards judge of the supreme court of that state. Still an- other man whose services were of great value to Oklahoma was Samuel W. Peel of Arkansas, who was for many years chair- man on the committee of Indian affairs of the house. His residence in Arkansas, adjacent to the Indian Territory, and his position as a member of the committee, made him familiar with the conditions in Oklahoma and in the fragmentary legisla- tion connected with the original opening his services were invaluable.
"In looking back over the long contro- versy in connection with the Indian ques- tion and in the securing of the territorial organization and the statehood bill, I recall many and varied incidents. While I was chairman of the house committee on Indian affairs I was invited to deliver an address in New York City, at Cooper Union, on the proper solution of the Indian problem. I accepted the invitation, and spoke at length advocating the abolition of tribal relations, the division of the land in sever- alty, and liberal appropriations to pay for their surplus land and for their industrial education. I insisted that the Indian tribes should be no longer treated as independent nations, and that as our Christian civiliza- tion was better than barbarism, the protec- tion of our laws should be extended over every reservation in the United States. I contended that our Indian policy ought to
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be equitable and just to all concerned, but at the same time it must be recognized that the jurisdiction of the federal government was supreme. I made no exception of the five civilized tribes, calling attention to the fact that it was inevitable that territorial government and statehood would be estah- lished there in the not distant future. To my surprise these views met with enthusi- astic responses from the great audience and the venerable Peter Cooper, who presided, and the Rev. Howard Crosby and other speakers strongly endorsed my position as the practical solution of the Indian question. "My public life in Kansas commenced in 1861 as a member of the second legisla- ture, at the very time we were planning for a railroad outlet through the Indian Territory to the Gulf of Mexico. From February 9, 1862, to February 20, 1865, I served in the Union army as assistant adjutant general of volunteers; first on the staff of Major General James G. Blunt, and afterward as assistant provost marshal general for Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado and Dakota, with headquarters in the city of Leavenworth. I was super- intendent of the volunteer recruiting serv- ice for the same district. This necessarily made me familiar with the condition of affairs that existed in the Indian Territory and fastened upon me the conviction that a great state ought to be created here at the earliest possible moment. When I was first elected to Congress in the fall of 1864, and during the succeeding six years that I was a member of the house, my interest in the opening of this country and forma- tion of a state was constantly increasing. I remember well the talk I had with Mr. Lincoln in regard to the future of this interior country. Mr. Lincoln had visited Kansas and made speeches in several of the Missouri river towns and his election
to the presidency had grown out of the Kansas controversy. His whole life had been practically identified with the pioneers of the west. Hence it was he felt a pro- found interest in the settlement of the west and the founding of states out of the Louisiana Purchase. With the exception of President Arthur I have had a personal acquaintance with all the presidents since 1861. In 1866 I urged upon President Johnson the propriety of a movement look- ing to the creation and establishment of civil government in the Indian Territory.
"During the administration of President Grant I frequently urged upon him the necessity of such legislation, and as I have already said I pleaded with Mr. Cleveland to give his official sanction to our cause. When General Grant became president he adopted what is known as the 'Quaker policy' for the purpose of eliminating from the Indian service the grafts that had be- come common scandal in connection with many of the Indian agencies and contracts for supplies. The Indian agents were selected from the ranks of the Quaker denomination, and these officers were re- moved as far as possible from partisan con- trol. But President Grant was by no means satisfied with the reservation system or with the independent tribal governments. My position as chairman of the house com- mittee of Indian affairs in the forty-first Congress, which included the first two years of his administration, gave me the oppor- tunity to urge upon him my views, and the views of the members of my commit- tee relating to the assignment of the land of the Indians in severalty and the abolition of the tribal governments. He admitted that such a result would be finally reached and that citizenship and the individual home would be best, especially for the five civil- ized tribes in the Indian Territory, and for
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all other Indians who had attained a high degree of civilization. But he doubted whether it would be wise at that time to apply the policy to the tribes less advanced in the habits of civilized life.
"President Hayes had some advanced ideas on the Indian question. As a mem- ber of Congress, with whom I was asso- ciated, and as president, he took more than a passing interest in the management of the Indian service and at times was greatly troubled on account of the unsatisfactory conditions that existed. I urged upon him, as I had urged in Congress and upon other presidents, that the time had arrived when the federal government should, by proper legislation, settle the Indians upon home- steads and open the surplus land to white settlement, compensating the tribes upon an equitable basis. Already the movement to open Oklahoma to settlement was in motion. Payne and Couch and others were planning an invasion. During the winter of 1878-9 the movement assumed such formidable proportions that President Hayes issued a proclamation warning the intending settlers that if they entered upon the lands they would be removed by mili- tary forces of the United States. In his third annual message to the ensuing session of Congress President Hayes said: 'It is my purpose to protect the rights of Indian in- habitants of that territory to the full extent of the executive power; but it would be unwise to ignore the fact that a territory so large and so fertile, with a population so sparse and with so great a wealth of unused resources, will be found more ex- posed to the repetition of such attempts as happened this year when the surrounding states are more densely settled and the westward movement of our population looks still more eagerly for fresh lands to occupy. Under such circumstances the
difficulty of maintaining the Indian Terri- tory in its present state will greatly increase, and the Indian tribes inhabiting it would do well to prepare for such a contingency. I therefore fully approve of the advice given to them by the secretary of the inter- ior on a recent occasion, to divide among themselves in severalty as large a quantity of their lands as they can cultivate; to acquire individual title in fee instead of their present tribal ownership in common, and to consider in what manner the bal- ance of their lands may be disposed of by the government for their benefit. By adopting such a policy they would more certainly secure for themselves the value of their possessions, and at the time pro- mote their progress in civilization and pros- perity, than by endeavoring to perpetuate the present state of things in the Territory.'
"Mr. Garfield was another president whose vision extended beyond the Missis -. sippi. He was a student and a statesman. He was the friend of the new states and wanted more. Had he lived out his term I am confident that he would have aided the Oklahoma movement in his official capacity. I was his seat companion during one Congress, and often discussed with him the status of the Indian tribes, and the necessity of establishing civil government in all the unorganized portion of the Louisi- ana Purchase. He agreed that holding the land in common must give way to individual ownership, and that the welfare of the Indians would be promoted by adopting the laws and customs of the white popula- tion by which they were surrounded.
"Now that Oklahoma has been admitted to the Union and destined in the near future to be one of the most populous of American commonwealths, I cannot but feel that the long and expensive controversy with which I was connected has brought to me abund-
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ant compensation. I had no expectation of an official position in the new state, or of any personal benefits for services rendered, but having been connected with the strug- gle to make a free state of Kansas as in Oklahoma, and experiencing the magnifi- cent results which followed, I feel now that the highest honor that can come to any man
is to be numbered among the founders of great and prosperous states, in which is enacted a just system of laws, and developed to the highest perfection the educational, charitable, and religious institutions, which are the pride and glory of our American civilization."
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CHAPTER XVIII
CAPTAIN PAYNE AND HIS SUCCESSORS
From the close of the forty-first Con- gress to the forty-ninth Congress no sub- stantial progress was made in the move- ment to open Oklahoma to settlement, and the creation of a territorial government. In the meantime the battle was transferred from Washington to the west, where the legions of Payne and Couch were formed to invade the Territory for homestead set- tlement, under the name of Payne Okla- homa Colony.
In the history of Oklahoma, David L. Payne will always be a conspicuous char- acter. He was aggressive and determined, possessed in unlimited degree a personal fearlessness that enabled him to defy the soldiers of the government, and was an ideal leader for the invasion of the forbid- den lands of Oklahoma. More than this, however, history finds it difficult to char- acterize the man and his cause. Payne, by his friends, has been eulogized and cred- ited with the ideal qualities of the leader of a forlorn hope in a holy cause. By others he has been declared an outlaw, the fore- most of a body of rough adventurers, en- gaged in a desperate enterprise in defiance of the will of the government, and without the redeeming features of a crusade because the objects sought were not the liberation of a people from bondage but the gratifi- cation of a lust for land. American history contains several examples of daring men of the Payne type, whom the love of adven-
' Concerning the hunger of American settlers for Indian lands, ex-Commissioner of Indian Affairs Walker said (in 1873) : "The eagerness of the
ture and the peculiar excitement of con- quest have driven to undertakings that, stripped of the romantic glamour and en- thusiasm of the immediate circumstances, cannot be justified on the grounds of im- partial benefit to human liberty or the advancement of civilization and general enlightenment. Not as parallels but as analogous figures in history, we may instance the dramatic episode of Aaron Burr, whom history now judges less of a traitor, than a far-seeing but injudicious expansionist; or the ill-fated filibuster of Captain Walker to Nicaragua. Historical judgment may find that Payne was uncon- sciously an instrument in achieving a result that, in the wonderful growth and accom- plishments of the state of Oklahoma, will redound more and more to his credit and make his name and deeds revered as long as the history of Oklahoma, is known. However, considering his actions with re- gard to their time and conditions, it must be said that they were contrary to the laws of the nation, that they were not performed in behalf of the greatest good to the great- est number, and that the lands which he sought were not of vital necessity to a suf- fering people. The public domain during the seventies and eighties was far from exhausted, though it must be admitted that the "Oklahoma country" offered peculiar attractions to intending settlers.1 In passing judgment on this unique figure of Okla-
average American citizen of the Territories for getting upon Indian lands amounts to a passion. The ruggedest flint hill of the Cherokees or Sioux
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homa history, it must be understood that he based his invasion on grounds of equity and right, even though contrary to the desires of Congress. The lands comprised in the Oklahoma country had been, as already stated, ceded to the government. The gov- ernment having failed to use the cession for the original purpose, Payne and his supporters contended that this country thus reverted to the public domain, and was sub-
is sweeter to him than the greenest pasture which lies open to him under the homestead laws of the United States. Now, while it cannot be denied that there is something in all this sug- gestive of the reckless daring and restless enter- prise to which the country owes so much of its present greatness, it is yet certain that such in- trusion upon Indian lands is in violation of the . faith of the United States and endangers the peace .. and renders the civilization of tribes and bands thus encroached upon almost hopeless. The gov- ernment is bound, therefore, in honor and in in- terest, to provide ample security for the 'integrity to Indian reservations."
? On Thursday evening, November 27, -- 1884, a man of vigorous frame, of vigorous intellect, and of determined purpose, addressed an assemblage of his fellow citizens at Wellington, Kansas. In earnest words and with sublime faith in the justice of his cause, he plead for the opening of Oklahoma to settlement. It was said at the time that he spoke more fluently than usual and that it was the finest effort he had ever made in the city. For months and years this brave and determined man, this pioneer of civilization, this gallant soldier of the republic, had been hunted down by the civil and military officers of the federal government, though his only crime was his inflexible purpose to seek a home for himself and associates upon the public domain. As often as he had been ar- rested, so often had he demanded a trial by a jury of his countrymen, and so often was a trial refused. He believed with thousands of others, that there was no law rightly interpreted, which excluded American citizens from this fair land, and every impulse of his noble nature protested against the injustice which dictated the policy of exclusion. In the preceding summer he had been arbitrarily arrested by United States troops, dragged to Fort Smith through storm and heat, his health seriously impaired, and then discharged without even the formality of a warrant of arrest. Many of his followers had been treated with brutal indignities, reflecting everlasting dishonor upon those whose
ject to settlement under the general land laws. This version was the pretext and logic of the entire Oklahoma movement, and there can be no doubt that many were actuated by sincere belief in the justice of their cause on this ground. Of the life . and character of Captain Payne, a sympa- thetic account has been written by his friend, Sidney Clarke, and is reliable as to essential facts ; it is given below :2
duty it was to administer the law upon the basis of equality and justice to all. Smarting under these monstrous wrongs, and knowing that the gov- ernment was protecting with the army the cattle syndicates then in full possession of Oklahoma, his address at Wellington was eloquent in protest, com- prehensive in argument, unflinching in purpose. No man who heard it doubted his fidelity to duty, or that he would willingly sacrifice his life, if nec- essary, that others might enter the land of the Fair God. When he had concluded his address, he retired to the Barnard Hotel and slept soundly during the night. He arose early in the morning, ate a hearty breakfast, and was unusually cheer- ful. Before leaving the table, and while answer- ing a question relating to the status of the Okla- homa lands, he swooned and fell, and in a few brief moments his spirit had passed to the world beyond.
As his body lay in state thousands of his ad- mirers looked upon his face, and at the funeral on the following Sabbath, the procession was the larg- est ever seen in Wellington, numbering over a thousand people and extending over one mile in length. At the grave, after religious exercises, the Wellington Guards fired a volley in respect to the soldier comrade whose dust they were consigning to the earth. Not only in Kansas, but through- out the country, the death of this man was re- ceived with profound regret, and many were the eulogies passed upon his life and character. Pub- lic meetings were held in many places to give ex- pression to the grief that was felt by all classes of people at his untimely death.
And who was this man thus conspicuous in the great work of opening Oklahoma to settlement, and who was thus honored and mourned as his life went out in the cause he loved so well! He was none other than Capt. David Lewis Payne, the president of Payne's Oklahoma Colony.
With a courage greater than that which marches unblanched to the field of battle, and with a pa- tience and fortitude that knew no such word as failure, the Payne Oklahoma Colony, numbering
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The invasion of Oklahoma by Payne and his colony began in 1879. For five years he remained the active head of the organ-
15,000, scattered over many states, pursued the great work they had in hand. They knew what . it had cost to advance the lines of civilization from Plymouth Rock to the Pacific shore. They fully comprehended the geographical and commer- cial situation of Oklahoma, the last of the unoc- cupied portion of the available public domain of the United States. In the vista of the future they discerned a sovereign state peopled by many mil- lions and rich in all the elements of wealth and power. They foresaw that the star of empire was marching with rapid tread to the great central regions of the continent, and that the state they were struggling to found would be one of a galaxy that would ere long control the policy of the na- tion. They looked down to the southwest some six hundred miles away, to the Mediterranean sea of this western hemisphere, and perceived that in the dawn of the twentieth century it would be dotted with the commerce of the world. They an- ticipated the construction of a canal connecting the Atlantic with the Pacific, through which the ships of all nations will pass, blotting out the courses heretofore followed through distant seas, and centering in the deep water harbors of the gulf, the products and the exchanges of all the continents and distant peoples.
Such were the conceptions of those who com- posed the vanguard of civilization here, and Payne and Couch and other heroic spirits were fit leaders of a crusade to accomplish the glorious work.
David Lewis Payne was born near Fairmont, Grant county, Indiana, December 30, 1836. He was the son of a farmer and was reared upon a farm. Like most farmers' sons at that time he did not enjoy the advantages of a liberal educa- tion. While yet a boy he had a thirst for knowl- edge. His intellect was keen, and the ambition which characterized his career in later years, was not unobserved by those who knew him in his boy- hood days. He was fond of books, and the family Bible and the pastor's library were diligently read by young Payne long before he reached his ma- jority. While his love of home and friends was strong, his enterprise and love of adventure were greater, and the tide of emigration which swept westward in 1858 brought him to the territory of Kansas, and he became a citizen of Doniphan county. He was at once known for his activity and enterprise and for the interest manifested in the affairs of the territory. He was a free state Democrat, though as subsequent events in his career demonstrated, he was more of a patriot than & partisan. Hence it was, when President Lin-
ized movements to take possession of the lands. As remarkable as any other feature of the invasion were the means employed to
coln issued his first call for volunteers in 1861 Payne was among the first to respond. He en- listed as a private in Company F, Fourth Kansas regiment, afterwards consolidated with the Third, and served for the full term of three years. His company was attached to the army of the frontier. In the brilliant engagements of the southwestern campaign, he was conspicuous for his bravery, and was never wanting in his devotion to duty.
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