Aspirants for the office of superintendent had already made their wants known.  Foremost among them was Douglas H. Cooper.  It was not in his mind, however, to separate the military command from the civil and he therefore asked that he be made brigadier-general and ex officio superintendent of Indian affairs in the place of Pike removed.[485] His own representations of Pike’s grievous offence had fully prepared him for the circumstance of Pike’s removal and he anticipated it in making his own application for office.  Subsequent knowledge of Pike’s activities and of his standing at Richmond must have come to Cooper as a rude awakening.

Nevertheless, Cooper did get his appointment.  It

[Footnote 484:  In his message of August 18, 1862 [Richardson, vol. i, 238], President Davis remarked upon the vacancies in these offices and said that, in consequence of them, delays had occurred in the payment of annuities and allowances to which the Indians were entitled.]

[Footnote 485:  Official Records, vol. liii, supplement, 821.]

came the twenty-ninth of September in the form of special orders from the adjutant-general’s office.[486] Pike was still on the ground, as will be presently shown, and Cooper’s moral unfitness for a position of so much responsibility was yet to be revealed.  The moment was one when the Confederacy was taking active steps to keep its most significant promise to the Indian nations, give them a representation in Congress.  The Cherokees had lost no time in availing themselves of the privilege of electing a delegate, neither had the Choctaws and Chickasaws.  Elias C. Boudinot had proved to be the successful candidate of the former and Robert M. Jones[487] of the latter.  Over the credentials of Boudinot, the House of Representatives made some demur; but, as there was no denying his constitutional right, under treaty guarantee, to be present, they were accepted and he was given his seat.[488] Provisions had, however, yet to be determined for regulating Indian elections and fixing the pay and mileage, likewise also, the duties and privileges of Indian delegates.[489] Perhaps it is unfair to intimate that the provisions would have been determined earlier, had congress not preferred to go upon the assumption that they would never be needed, since it was scarcely likely that the Indians would realize the importance of their rights and act upon them.[490]

[Footnote 486:  War Department, Confederate Records, Special Orders of the Adjutant and Inspector General’s Office, C.S.A., 1862, p. 438; Official Records, vol. xiii, 885.]

[Footnote 487:  See document of date, October 7, 1861, signed by Douglas H. Cooper, certifying that Robert M. Jones had received the “greatest number of votes cast” as delegate in Congress for the Choctaws and Chickasaws [Pickett Papers, Package 118].]

[Footnote 488:  Journal, vol. v, 513, 514.]