This is the National House in Marshall, Michigan. The photo was taken in 2002, a year when I did not do much bicycling. I’ve ridden to this place many times, though. It’s about 20 miles from home. There are several stories in Marshall connected to the Black Hawk war scare, and the town is a stop on the way to parts of the old Sauk Trail in Hillsdale and Lenawee counties. The place came to mind today because of the puzzlement some people have expressed over the news that John McCain’s former captors have endorsed his candidacy:

Yet now, even the jailers who once tortured Sen. McCain are lining up to offer effusive — if somewhat embarrassing — endorsements for his presidential candidacy. “If I had a vote in the U.S., I would choose McCain,” beams retired Col. Tran Trong Duyet, the camp’s former commander. “I want him in the White House.”

Some people have expressed puzzlement, but it didn’t surprise me. Nor do I think there is much partisan gain to make of it one way or another.

It reminded me of what I learned about a meeting that took place in the National House in 1852, when the building was a hotel, not a bed and breakfast. It was the 20th anniversary of the Black Hawk war. There was a get-together of old settlers. The local newspaper reported that Andrew Hays regaled the crowd with stories and jokes about the Black Hawk war.

This account is told in the local county histories, but several years ago I went to the library to look it up on microfilms of the 1852 issues of the Marshall Statesman, to see if there were any additional details that weren’t repeated in the histories. The above is an image from the March 31 issue, which reported about the Old Settlers meeting. That’s not the part that reminded me of the McCain endorsement, though.  (By the way, in case you are inclined to take this information at face value, don’t believe the parts about “General” and “Commander-in-Chief.”)

I also looked through several other issues of the paper to see if it ever had anything else to say about the meeting. I learned that The Marshall Statesman was a strong Whig newspaper. 1852 was an election year, and the editor took every chance to talk up the Whig candidates and bash the Democrats. There was no pretense of anything other than wholehearted media bias.

Here it is in the September 8 issue, criticizing the Democrat candidate, Franklin Pierce, for voting against pensions for the veterans of the Indian wars.

And here is the Statesman, a week later, in the September 15 issue, pointing out that the Indian leader, Black Hawk had endorsed General Winfield Scott for president.

I have a good opinion of the American war chiefs generally with whom I am acquainted, and my people, who had an opportunity of seeing and becoming well acquainted with the great war chief (Gen. Winfield Scott), who made the last treaty with them, in conjunction with the great chief of Illinois (Governor Reynolds), all tell me that he is the greatest brave they ever saw, and a good man—one who fulfills his promises. Our braves spoke more highly of him than of any chief that had ever been among us, or made treaties with us. Whatever he says may be depended upon. If he had been our Great Father we never would have been compelled to join the British in the last war with America, and I have thought that as our Great Father is changed every few years, that his children would do well to put this great war chief in his place, for they cannot find a better chief for a Great Father anywhere.

Black Hawk’s words are taken directly from his autobiography which was published a couple of years after the 1832 war. In the book, the following paragraph follows immediately after the one quoted above:

I would be glad if the village criers (editors), in all the villages I passed through, would let their people know my wishes and opinions about
this great war chief.

Black Hawk apparently wanted his words to be used the way the Marshall Statesman was using them. And a week after complaining that Franklin Pierce opposed pensions for veterans of the Indian wars, the Marshall Statesman was praising one of the defeated Indian adversaries:

These are the sentiments of a warrior, and a patriot, a chief of distinguished rank of keen sagacity, if not a prophetic vision.

Black Hawk wasn’t literate and didn’t speak English, so his interpreter was an important player in the production of his book. We can wonder if he encouraged Black Hawk’s remarks. But if so, that raises an interesting question. John S.D. Eisenhower, in his biography of Scott, says nobody thought of running Scott for President already in the 1830s. Well, I suppose it’s possible that Eisenhower was mistaken. Or maybe people naturally looked at Scott and thought of future presidential material.

But whether prompted to endorse Scott or not, it’s not surprising to me that one warrior would have words like this for another — after the war was over.

Incidentally, Scott was not involved in the fighting of the Black Hawk war. He was sent out to take charge of the war, which seemed at the time to be mismanaged. But he brought a cholera epidemic with him from the east.  He and his men spent most of his time holed up in Chicago so as not to spread the disease to those who were doing the fighting. He took charge only after Black Hawk had been captured.

This story is not an exact parallel to the situation with McCain and his Vietnamese captors. But it’s an example of how it’s not unheard of for someone to speak well of a former enemy and recommend him for high office.

(slightly edited for clarity, 16 Sep)