11. President Grant seeks a peaceful solution to the Indian Question.
The army’s actions were met with loud public outcry. In January 1869, president-elect Grant informed a delegation of Quakers that his administration was prepared to pursue a peaceful solution to the Indian Question. Grant told them that if they “could make Quakers out of the Indians it would take the fight out of them.” Although Grant favored a peaceful solution to the Indian Question his determination to see the Concentration policy succeed ensured that the use of force would be used wherever peaceful means failed – “those [Indians] who do not accept this policy will find the new administration ready for a sharp and severe war policy.”
Soon after taking office Grant met with Christian reformers in Philadelphia on the 20th March 1869 and again in the White House four days later. The reformers, led by William Welsh, urged the president to allow Protestant denominations and humanitarian groups to supervise the Indian service and advise the government of federal Indian policy.
On the 3rd June 1869, Grant established the Board of Indian Commissioners to advise the Secretary of the Interior and the commissioner of Indian Affairs regarding Indian policy, as well as overseeing the appointment of Indian agents. Grant’s attempt to place the Indian Bureau under the War Department was later blocked by Congress. Grant appointed his aide-de-camp during the Civil War, Ely S. Parker as Commissioner of Indian Affairs. Parker was of Iroquois descent and to the president was the personification of what the Concentration policy could bring about.