CARL SCHURZ'S POLITICAL CAREER
found in Mrs. Jackson a suitable medium through which to express his own views on the subject, and his two letters to her were models of calm, courteous, effective demonstration, thus making a happy contrast with the performances of his critics. Still the legal point involved seemed unintelligible to a great many of the Indians' zealous friends, and the attacks on the Secretary continued. Politicians took up the matter from motives that would hardly stand investigation. Such high-minded men as Governor Long of Massachusetts and Representative Dawes each found occasion during 1880 to attack Mr. Schurz, and each of them received a sharp retort. The Rev. Mr. Tibbles, though he raised considerable money for the purpose of testing the rights of the Poncas, never brought the issue into court; indeed the decision of Judge Dundy, being in favor of Standing Bear and being accepted without appeal by the government, left no way open for further litigation. A thorough investigation of the condition and desires of the Poncas revealed that they were prosperous and happy, and not at all desirous of returning to their old home. So this mistaken agitation died out.
The joyous sequel to the whole affair was appropriately commented on by the Assistant Secretary of the Interior, in an amusing letter to the ex-Secretary, in August, 1881:—“I was greatly rejoiced on my return from a sea trip to find that the Ponca war was at last ended, that Bright Eyes had capitulated to Tibbles, and that Tibbles had surrendered to Bright Eyes.” The maiden and the missionary, in short, had united in marriage. The Assistant Secretary feared that poor Bright Eyes had made a mistake when she “buried all the wrongs of her race in a greater upon herself,” but he was willing to forgive her if it should appear that the act had effectually disposed of Tibbles.
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