Page:A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Confederacy, Including the Diplomatic Correspondence, 1861-1865, Volume I.djvu/510

478 the Confederate Government has failed fully to redeem its pledges made to the Six Nations for supplies and protection. It is consolatory, however, to be assured by you that the attributed failure does not arise from any want of good faith on our part, but from other causes which you have mentioned. And you may rest assured that those officers and agents to whom you allude as having not only neglected their duty, but perverted their authority to the commission of wrong, this Government will hold to rigid responsibility, whenever the proper proof in each case is brought before it.

Your requests as well as your complaints have received my earnest consideration, and I take pleasure in saying that, while it will always gratify me to be able to grant the one, I will ever most respectfully give heed to the other. All treaty stipulations between us shall be sacredly observed and carried into effect to the full extent of my power as President of the Confederate States. The policy of constituting the territory of the Six Nations a separate military department, outside of the control of the commanding general of the department west of the Mississippi, has been thoroughly considered and discussed by the Executive Government here, with your delegates elect.

In pursuance of the result of that discussion I have caused the Indian Territory to be designated as a separate military district, and the Indian troops to be placed under the immediate command of General Cooper, the officer of your choice. It was thought manifestly better for the interest of all concerned that your Territory should be constituted a separate military district, rather than a department, so that the commanding general of the Trans-Mississippi Department may be responsible for the defense and protection of your district, as well as for all others under his charge, and will feel it his duty to aid and protect you with all the promptitude and efficiency that unity in the whole force will confer. This view has been presented to your delegates, and I hope, when fully explained, will meet with your approval.

You will learn from your delegates as well as through this channel that additional brigades in the Territory will be formed as rapidly as the number of regiments will warrant, and brigadiers appointed over them, in the selection of whom your recommendations will be specially regarded. As there are not yet a sufficient