Kenton Harper, Presidential Appointment Signed by Millard Fillmore & Daniel Webster 

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Jun 13, 2014 - Jun 14, 2014

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• Lot Description
  1p, 11.5 x 15.5 in., partially printed appointment signed by Millard Fillmore and Daniel Webster (Sec. of State, 1850-1852). The document reads in part: "Know Ye, That reposing special trust and confidence in the Patriotism, Integrity and Abilities of Kenton Harper I have nominated, and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, do appoint him to be Agent for the Indian tribes East of the Rocky Mountains and North of New Mexico and Texas, and do authorize and empower him to execute and fulfil the duties of that Office according to Law, and to have and to hold the said Office, with all the power, privileges, and emoluments, thereunto legally appertaining, unto him, the said Kenton Harper, for the term of four years, from and after the thirtieth day of June next." Dated 12 March 1851. Also included is a franked envelope from the Treasury Department addressed to "Kenton Harper Esq. / Ind. Agent / Staunton, Virginia."
  
  Kenton Harper was the sort of remarkable man that the 19th century produced in seeming abundance. Born the son of newspaperman in Chambersburg, PA, in 1801, Harper was working as a printer in town when he made the decision to purchase his own newspaper in Staunton, VA, and to relocate there in 1823. By any reckoning, it was a good career move. An ambitious young man, he parlayed his success in publishing into social power, winning election to the state legislature and as mayor of Staunton, and reaping the rewards with patronage appointments from friends in the capitol. He fulfilled his military duty as well, first in the Mexican American War and then in the Confederacy Army, rather than Union, during the Civil War. Having carried a Major Generals' commission in the pre-war militia, Harper was appointed Brigadier General in the Virginia Provisional Army and was given command of the 5th Virginia Infantry, with the rank of Colonel in the Confederate States Army, which became one of the stalwart regiments in the famed Stonewall Brigade. Kenton barely outlived the war. A book entitled Kenton Harper of Virginia: Editor, Citizen, Soldier, by Thomas Tabb Jeffries, III, (Augusta Co. Historical Society) was just published in 2013 and provides an invaluable look at Harper's numerous accomplishments as a political leader, editor, soldier, and Indian agent.
  
  Smart, ambitious, and well conscious of his political connections, Harper was also a conscientious man when it came to fulfilling his patronage roles, and in that regard, one appointment stands out above the others. In 1851-1852, Harper played a brief, but fascinating, part in the development of the Chickasaw Nation, accepting an appointment as agent to the tribe. One of the Five Civilized Tribes of the southeast, the Chickasaws were a vibrant tribe occupying lands centered in current-day northern Mississippi, but with the expansion of white settlers in the first decades of the 19th century, they were subject to a brutal ethnic cleansing sparked by the Indian Removal Act of 1830. Following the Choctaw (1831), Seminoles (1832), and Creeks (1834), the Chickasaws were forced to relocate westward in 1837, following the Trail of Tears.
  
  Unlike the other civilized tribes, the Chickasaw received some financial compensation for the lands they were forced to surrender east of the Mississippi, and at the Treaty of Doaksville in 1837, they agreed to lease the western portion of the Choctaw land in Oklahoma and settle there. Placed administratively under the Choctaw for purposes of the US government and granted representation on the Choctaw Council, the Chickasaws soon felt the need to regain their cultural independence and political sovereignty. Their leadership began developing their own constitution at a council held at Boiling Springs in 1846, expanding the document in 1846 and amending it further in 1849 and 1851, all while engaged in a complex bit of diplomacy with federal authorities and Choctaw alike to secure their independence. The new Chickasaw nation formally ratified their new constitution in August 1856.
  
  Lots 535-540 relate to the legacy of Kenton Harper and the negotiations that led to the formation of the modern Chickasaw nation. 

  Condition

  Folds, with two small holes at the intersection of two of them. Toning of a few "panels." Seal intact. Signatures strong.
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