The relieving of Denver from the command of the District of Kansas inaugurated[242] what contemporaries described as “Sturgis’ military despotism,"[243] in amplification of which it is enough to say that it attempted the utter confounding, if not the annihilation, of the Indian Expedition, a truly noble undertaking to be sure, considering how much was hoped for from that expedition, how much of benefit and measure of justice to a helpless, homeless, impoverished people and considering, also, how much of time and thought and

[Footnote 240:  (cont.) the District of Kansas; but Denver was not called east until the fourteenth of May.  On the twenty-first of April, it was still expected that he would lead an expedition “down the borders of Arkansas into the Indian country.” [KELTON to Curtis, April 21, 1862, Ibid., vol. xiii, 364].]

[Footnote 241:  The Daily Conservative, for instance, rejoiced over this telegram from Sidney Clark of May 2, which gave advanced information of Denver’s approaching departure:  “Conservative:  The Department of Kansas is reinstated.  Gen. Blunt takes command.  Denver reports to Halleck; Sturgis here.”  The newspaper comment was, “We firmly believe that a prolongation of the Denver-Sturgis political generalship, aided as it was by the corrupt Governor of this State, would have led to a revolution in Kansas ...”—­Daily Conservative, May 6, 1862.]

[Footnote 242:  General Sturgis assumed command, April 10, 1862 [Official Records, vol. viii, 683], and Denver took temporary charge at Fort Scott [Ibid., 668].]

[Footnote 243:  Quoted from the Daily Conservative of May 20; but not with the idea of subscribing thereby to any verdict that would bear the implication that all of Sturgis’s measures were arbitrary and wrong.  Something strenuous was needed in Kansas.  The arrest of Jennison and of Hoyt [Ibid., April 19, 23, 1862] because of their too radical anti-slavery actions was justifiable.  Jennison had disorganized his regiment in a shameful manner [Ibid., June 3, 1862].]

energy, not to mention money, had already been expended upon it.

Sturgis’s policy with reference to the Indian Expedition was initiated by an order[244], of April 25, which gained circulation as purporting to be in conformity with instructions from the headquarters of the Department of the Mississippi, although in itself emanating from those of the District of Kansas.  It put a summary stop to the enlistment of Indians and threatened with arrest anyone who should disobey its mandate.  Superintendent Coffin, in his inimitable illiteracy, at once entered protest[245] against it and coolly informed Sturgis that, in enrolling Indians for service, he was acting under the authority, not of the War, but of the Interior Department.  At the same sitting, he applied to Commissioner Dole for new instructions[246].

[Footnote 244:  Official Records, vol. xiii, 365.]