accordance with Hunter's own wishes.[152] The practical question of
the relation of Lane's brigade to Hunter's command soon, however,
presented itself in a somewhat different light and its answer required
a more explicit statement from the president than had yet been made.
Lincoln, when appealed to, unhesitatingly repudiated every suggestion
of the idea that it had ever been his intention to give Lane an
independent command or to have Hunter, in any sense, superseded.[153]

The need for sending relief to the southern Indians, which, correctly
interpreted meant, of course, reasserting authority over them and thus
removing a menacing and impending danger from the Kansas border, had
been one of Lane's strongest arguments in gaining his way with the
administration. The larger aspect of his purpose was, however, the one
that appealed to Commissioner Dole, who, as head of the Indian Bureau,
seems fully to have appreciated the responsibility that

[Footnote 151: (cont.) who has been in waiting for several months to
take the place."--_Daily Conservative_, January 1, 1862.

"Rejoicing in Neosho Battalion over report that Lane appointed to
command Kansas troops."--Ibid., January 4, 1862.

"General Lane will soon be here and General Denver called to another
command."--Ibid., January 7, 1862.]

[Footnote 152: Cameron to Hunter, January 3, 1862, _Official
Records_, vol. liii, supplement, 512-513.]

[Footnote 153: Martin F. Conway, the Kansas representative in
Congress, was under no misapprehension as to Lane's true position;
for Lincoln had told him personally that Lane was to be under Hunter
[_Daily Conservative_, February 6, 1862].]

assuredly rested in all honor upon the government, whether conscious
of it or not, to protect its wards in their lives and property. From
the first intimation given him of Lane's desire for a more energetic
procedure, Dole showed a willingness to cooeperate; and, as many things
were demanding his personal attention in the West, he so timed a
journey of his own that it might be possible for him to assist in
getting together the Indian contingent that was to form a part of the
"Southern Expedition."[154]

The urgency of the Indian call for help[155] and the

[Footnote 154: Lane's expedition was variously referred to as "the
Southern Expedition," "the Cherokee Expedition," "the great jayhawking
expedition," and by many another name, more or less opprobrious.]

[Footnote 155: Representations