"Indians at Washington"

Mackay, Charles. Life and Liberty in America: Sketches of a Tour in the United States and Canada, in 1857-8. Vol. I. London: Smith, Elder and Co., 1859. 133-153.





Mackay was a Scottish poet and journalist with strong ties to London.

Mackay was in the United States during the Civil War--in New York--acting as a correspondent for The Times. He makes at least one trip to Washington during the war and exchanges letters with "his old, friend the Honourable W.H. Seward". But something happens between them (Mackay suggests that Seward was trying to bribe him to write favorably of the North!) and they have a falling-out.

In the chapter, "Indians at Washington," from his Sketches, Mackay includes a fascinating reproduction of a table published by the US Gov. that gives the names and locations of all the Indian tribes left within the limits of the Union.