Lincoln's Bishop: A President, A Priest, and the Fate of 300 Dakota Sioux Warriors

by Gustav Niebuhr

Overview

In the tradition of Doris Kearns Goodwin's Team of Rivals comes Gustav Niebuhr's compelling history of Abraham Lincoln's decision in 1862 to spare the lives of 265 condemned Sioux men, and the Episcopal bishop who was his moral compass, helping guide the president's conscience.

More than a century ago, during the formative years of the American nation, Protestant churches carried powerful moral authority, giving voice to values such as mercy and compassion, while boldly standing against injustice and immorality. Gustav Niebuhr travels back to this defining period, to explore Abraham Lincoln's decision to spare the lives of 265 Sioux men sentenced to die by a military tribunal in Minnesota for warfare against white settlers—while allowing the hanging of 38 others, the largest single execution on American soil. Popular opinion favored death or expulsion. Only one state leader championed the cause of the Native Americans, Episcopal bishop, Henry Benjamin Whipple.

Though he'd never met an Indian until he was 37 years old, Whipple befriended them before the massacre and understood their plight at the hands of corrupt government officials and businessmen. After their trial, he pleaded with Lincoln to extend mercy and implement true justice. Bringing to life this little known event and this extraordinary man, Niebuhr pays tribute to the once amazing moral force of mainline Protestant churches and the practitioners who guarded America's conscience.

Lincoln's Bishop is illustrated with 16 pages of black-and-white photos.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062097682
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	05/27/2014
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Gustav Niebuhr is associate professor of newspaper and online journalism at Syracuse University and founding director of the Carnegie Religion and Media Program. He worked as a reporter at the New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal and was the 2010 winner of the William A. Reed Lifetime Achievement Award for religion reporting. He is the author of Beyond Tolerance: Searching for Interfaith Understanding in America.

Table of Contents

Introduction xi

Prologue Waiting for Lincoln 1

1 The Sunday Afternoon Murders 15

2 The First Attack 35

3 Lincoln and the Indians 51

4 The Dispossessed 73

5 A "War of Extermination" 87

6 Whipple's Dakota Allies and the War's End 107

7 To the Gates of Merch 117

8 Maintaining the Pressure 136

9 Judgment and Reason 154

10 Exile and Community 171

Conclusion 183

Acknowledgments 186

Notes 188

Bibliography 202

Further Reading 205

Index 207

Editorial Reviews

★ 06/01/2014
The Civil War is often the focus of America's history during the middle of the 19th century, but here Niebuhr (religion and the media, Syracuse Univ.; Beyond Tolerance) explains why this is a mistake. He takes a look at the life of Henry Benjamin Whipple (1822–1901), the first Episcopal Bishop of Minnesota, a man who personally petitioned the president on behalf of the marginalized Dakota Nation. Niebuhr's research was clearly exhaustive, and he approaches history in the context of the region's past as a whole, objectively illuminating Whipple's involvement. An ethical as well as historical journey, this title explores a man's personal faith, ambition, and humanitarianism. This is not merely biography—it is the history of a people and the merging of two civilizations. American history enthusiasts will be dazzled by the author's wealth of information and casual readers will be drawn in by the accessible rhetoric. Niebuhr has created a truly universal work of nonfiction, using an engaging tone and prizing historical accuracy as well as emotional evocation. VERDICT A historical narrative that is as pleasurable to read as it is historically accurate, which is to say, very.—Kathleen Dupré, Edmond, OK

Library Journal

2014-06-09
Enlightening tale of Abraham Lincoln’s other war.In 1862, overshadowed by the Civil War, a dire conflict known as the Dakota War roiled the southern half of Minnesota. Journalist Niebuhr (Newspaper and Online Journalism/Syracuse Univ.;Beyond Tolerance: Searching for Interfaith Understanding in America, 2008) provides an intriguing examination of this chapter in American frontier history, focusing especially on the figure of Henry Benjamin Whipple (1822-1901). A transplant from New York and Illinois, Whipple was the first Episcopal bishop in Minnesota and immediately began crusading on behalf of Native Americans there. “He stated his goal simply: the Indians must be protected from corrupt government agents and rapacious traders, especially those who dealt in liquor and abused women,” writes the author. Throughout even the direst moments of the Dakota War and its aftermath, Whipple maintained that maltreatment at the hands of the American government had driven the Dakotas to acts of violence—and in many instances, quite grotesque violence. Niebuhr lays out the precipitant causes of the war—delayed annuities for tribes that had traded in land, leading to hunger and resentment—and chronicles its opening volleys. He also provides a detailed account of the war’s major engagements and its effects on white settlement. But the author always comes back to Whipple, seen by many as an Indian sympathizer, who nonetheless had profound influence on policymakers. His triumph was in convincing Lincoln to spare the lives of 275 Dakota captives (others were hanged for wanton brutality during the war).Niebuhr’s work sometimes feels choppy, bouncing back and forth chronologically and going over some of the same ground more than once. However, that does not lessen the fact that it provides a service by reintroducing readers to Whipple, an early proponent of minority rights, as well as to the Dakota War.A pleasant surprise for the average history buff.

Kirkus Reviews

[Niebuhr is] one of the country’s most experienced religious commentators.

Washington Post