Wounded Knee
Party Politics and the Road to an American Massacre
by Heather Cox Richardson
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Wounded Knee
A New Nation, A New Economy
In the wet chill of late December 1890 in Washington, Senator John Sherman was spending his days bickering with opposition senators while they waited for their colleagues to return from the holidays. As was his wont, the sixty-seven-year-old Sherman, Congress’s leader on financial affairs and the chief architect of Republican economic policies, was irascible during the congressional days, but had much to enjoy in the evenings during the Washington holiday social whirl. His older brother, General William Tecumseh Sherman, was in town, and the two aging men cherished their hours together. Each had, in his own way, been a chief actor in the American drama that had created the modern nation, and they had compared notes and helped each other’s careers for half a century.
Closeted in the library of Senator Sherman’s elegant K Street residence, the two men - each tall and lean almost to gauntness, John with a closely cropped white beard and William Tecumseh clean shaven so that his prominent cheekbones dominated all but his piercing eyes - undoubtedly reminisced about their childhood years and the Civil War. They also surely discussed their worries about the direction of the country and chatted about their families, particularly because their niece, Mary Miles, was also in town on the winter social circuit. For more than two decades, her husband, General Nelson Miles, had availed himself freely of the Sherman brothers’ influence to advance a career that, although enviable by any standard, was never as good as he thought it should be.
Mary’s husband was the Commander of the Division of the Missouri. He was not in Washington with his wife, for he was overseeing the Sioux “outbreak” in South Dakota.
The fortunes of the Sherman family had been inextricably entwined with those of the nation since the 1850s. Born in the heady days of the nation’s westward expansion, the Sherman siblings represented a new kind of American, one who believed in the aggressive economic development of the country. The Shermans had helped to create a worldview based on that development, they had fought for it against Southern slaveholders, and they had pushed it into western lands. There it clashed, inevitably - for the two were incompatible - with the traditional culture of the Plains Indians. As John and William Tecumseh chatted in John’s comfortable mansion, a final collision between the world they had constructed and the world of the Sioux turned tragic.
From Wounded Knee: Party Politics and the Road to an American Massacre by Heather Cox Richardson. Excerpted by arrangement with Basic Books. Copyright © 2010.
Wounded Knee
Review by Clyde A. Milner II
For those who worry about the dangers of intense partisan politics in the United States today, Heather Cox Richardson provides an illuminating study of an earlier era when the political climate may well have been worse. I have read many books that consider the massacre at Wounded Knee, but I have given little thought to the president at the time, Benjamin Harrison, or his group of supporters within the Republican Party. Many readers of American history have learned a great deal about a small set of important American presidents. Lincoln, Washington, Jefferson, Jackson, Reagan and both Roosevelts easily come to mind. We can even argue about disastrous presidents. Buchanan, Grant, Harding, and possibly Nixon are on some lists. But Benjamin Harrison? He is one of our obscure presidents who managed to occupy one four-year term in office between the two terms that Grover Cleveland served. Richardson makes the case for the “far-reaching” effect of the Harrison administration, especially in terms of what happened to voting rights, the Western landscape, the electoral map, and most tragically, the Lakotas or Sioux Indians.
The Seventh Cavalry killed Lakota men, women and children at Wounded Knee on December 29, 1890. Newspapers reported this slaughter as a military battle and 20 soldiers received the Medal of Honor in its aftermath. With her clear writing and firm argument, Heather Cox Richardson provides a fresh perspective on what led to this calamity by looking at the larger political context in the United States. As some historians have done for James K. Polk and the Mexican War, Richardson does for Benjamin Harrison. She vividly portrays this president and his minions, revealing a political figure desperate to maintain his party’s primacy. During this time of extreme partisanship, Richardson never refers to recent, or even present-day, politics in America. Yet, the situation has enough parallels to keep readers turning the pages to see what crass act or government folly may follow. For example, I had forgotten that Benjamin Harrison won the election of 1890 without a majority of the popular vote. I also needed to be reminded of the passions at the time over the protective tariff, especially the so-called McKinley Tariff, and why a change in party affiliation for one Senator from the new state of South Dakota might shift the balance of power in Congress.
Richardson has a gift for presenting historical characters be they drawn from military leaders, government officials, biased newspapermen, political operatives or desperate Indians. Some individuals such as General Nelson Miles loom large in this story and some are reassuringly honorable especially the “local” reporter Charley Allen and the diligent investigator Eli S. Ricker, a Nebraska judge. This book reminds us how political ambitions can create unintended disasters. It provides a cautionary tale that is both timely and informative. It also reminded me of why I can enjoy reading history when I think I already know the story and then I am surprised by a new presentation.
Hardcover: 392 pages
Publisher: Basic Books Inc. ( June 01, 2010 )
Item #: 71-0132
ISBN: 9780465009213
Product Dimensions: 6.125 x 9.25 x 0.9 inches
Product Weight: 20.0 ounces
Mr. Milner, please
August 03, 2010
I've not read the book yet, only the review by Mr. Milner. Mr. Milner's memory really IS bad. Benjamin Harrison won the election of 1888. There WAS no presidential election in 1890.
Reviewer: Michael S
Absolutely Worth Reading
August 02, 2010
Simply outstanding. Very readable. A good book for anyone looking to understand an often overlooked period in American History. I highly recommend.
Reviewer: Brent T
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