Fillmore pardon on History Detectives

PBS's History Detectives (airdate: 7/27/09) featured a report on a presidential pardon for an Indian in 1851. Here's the story:

Fillmore PardonAiring: Season 7, Episode 6
The Detective: Tukufu Zuberi
The Place: Portland, Oregon

The Case:

By the middle of the 19th century, a vast new territory from New Mexico all the way to California beckoned settlers and homesteaders. But as their wagon trains rumbled west from Missouri, along major arteries such as the Santa Fe Trail, they cut through the heart of Indian country and came under frequent attack.

More than a century and a half after these violent events, History Detectives takes a closer look at an old paper that shows President Millard Fillmore engaged in what appears to be an unusual act for the time--sparing the life of a Native American convicted of murder.

In the paper the President commutes the death sentence to life in prison for a solitary Native American named See-See-Sah-Mah, convicted of murdering a St. Louis trader along the Santa Fe Trail. Fillmore’s pardon saved See-See-Sah-Mah’s life, but why?Comment:  You can read the show's transcript, but I'll give you the short version. See-See-Sah-Mah, a Sac and Fox Indian, was accused of killing a traveling white man. The prosecutor coerced him to confess and plied the jury with liquor. See-See-Sah-Mah was convicted and sentenced to be hung.

But an investigator at the crime scene had found tracks made by boots, not moccasins. This cast suspicion on the victim's brother-in-law. To avoid a miscarriage of justice, two well-connected lawyers took See-See-Sah-Mah's case. When he lost, they asked the US Attorney General to intervene, and he asked President Fillmore to consider a pardon. Fillmore agreed.

A telegram arrived with 20 minutes to spare as See-See-Sah-Mah was headed to the gallows. But all this did was commute his sentence to life in prison. The show surmises that he died soon after being incarcerated. The real killer went free.

Fillmore and Indians

As the show notes, Fillmore had a remarkable change of heart between his 1850 and 1851 State of the Union speeches:

State of the Union Address:  Millard Fillmore (December 2, 1850)The annexation of Texas and the acquisition of California and New Mexico have given increased importance to our Indian relations. The various tribes brought under our jurisdiction by these enlargements of our boundaries are estimated to embrace a population of 124,000. Texas and New Mexico are surrounded by powerful tribes of Indians, who are a source of constant terror and annoyance to the inhabitants. Separating into small predatory bands, and always mounted, they overrun the country, devastating farms, destroying crops, driving off whole herds of cattle, and occasionally murdering the inhabitants or carrying them into captivity. The great roads leading into the country are infested with them, whereby traveling is rendered extremely dangerous and immigration is almost entirely arrested. The Mexican frontier, which by the eleventh article of the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo we are bound to protect against the Indians within our border, is exposed to these incursions equally with our own. The military force stationed in that country, although forming a large proportion of the Army, is represented as entirely inadequate to our own protection and the fulfillment of our treaty stipulations with Mexico. The principal deficiency is in cavalry, and I recommend that Congress should, at as early a period as practicable, provide for the raising of one or more regiments of mounted men.Millard Fillmore's Second State of the Union AddressThe large accessions to our Indian population consequent upon the acquisition of New Mexico and California and the extension of our settlements into Utah and Oregon have given increased interest and importance to our relations with the aboriginal race. No material change has taken place within the last year in the condition and prospects of the Indian tribes who reside in the Northwestern Territory and west of the Mississippi River. We are at peace with all of them, and it will be a source of pleasure to you to learn that they are gradually advancing in civilization and the pursuits of social life.

Along the Mexican frontier and in California and Oregon there have been occasional manifestations of unfriendly feeling and some depredations committed. I am satisfied, however, that they resulted more from the destitute and starving condition of the Indians than from any settled hostility toward the whites. As the settlements of our citizens progress toward them, the game, upon which they mainly rely for subsistence, is driven off or destroyed, and the only alternative left to them is starvation or plunder. It becomes us to consider, in view of this condition of things, whether justice and humanity, as well as an enlightened economy, do not require that instead of seeking to punish them for offenses which are the result of our own policy toward them we should not provide for their immediate wants and encourage them to engage in agriculture and to rely on their labor instead of the chase for the means of support.From an infestation to starvelings...quite a switch. It's as if Fillmore first parroted US propaganda out of sheer ignorance, then got hit in the head with facts and altered his views accordingly. He sounds like a typical American, but at least he eventually wised up. If only recalcitrant Newspaper Rock readers would change their views so easily. <g>

For more on the subject, see TV Shows Featuring Indians.

Below:  Our 13th president.