On this date in 1954, Byron G. Allen, Democratic National Committeeman for Minnesota, sent a letter to P. W. Lanier, Sr. Lanier was an ardent Democratic Party activist who had come to Jamestown from Memphis, Tennessee, during the early 1920s.
This week in 1823, the National Intelligencer published a letter rebutting a New-York American editorial that had criticized the Monroe administration's policy of punishing Arikaras for attacking fur traders.
On this date in 1823, the New York American published a scorching editorial critical of a United States military expedition to punish the Arikara for ambushing fur traders. It said in part, \“. our reflections … lead to the conclusion that the wrongs of this quarrel are on our side; that we were the original aggressors; and that in affecting to avenge what has been called an unprovoked outrage upon American citizens, we have only followed up more systematically the first aggression.
The War of 1823, often known as \“The Arikara War,\” forcibly opened the Upper Missouri River to trade. It also established Anglo-American military supremacy over the Upper Missouri River. This victory would be cemented by an Indian Peace Commission, an integral part of a military expedition led by General Atkinson in 1825. This commission was responsible for a series of unequal treaties throughout the region recognizing Anglo-American supremacy.
By this date in 1823, troops of the United States Sixth Infantry were back in their barracks after a punitive expedition against the Arikaras. A generation of tensions had led to the conflict. St. Louis fur traders felt entitled to go anywhere they wanted on the Missouri River, while the Arikara felt entitled to control their own territory.