was designated its chaplain, in the brigade of Col. Wm. A. Phillips. Rev. John B. Jones and his father, who were

Page 319 abolitionists, had been influential in provoking this change. The cleavage so created resulted in the formation of dual governments in the Cherokee Nation, each striving to control its political affairs. The Union Cherokee government, which recognized John Ross as chief, held its meetings at Cowskin Prairie where, in July, 1862, allegiance to the Confederacy was renounced and on February 21, 1863, laws of emancipation were enacted and future slavery abolished. Chief John Ross being absent in the East, the political affairs of the Union Cherokees were managed by a coterie of leaders, of whom Lewis Downing was the presiding spirit. This duplication in Cherokee tribal governments obtained from July, 1862, until the conclusion of the war.

Lewis Downing, who was president of the Union tribal council, went to Washington, in 1863 to enlist the attention of the government in the Cherokee situation. After the conclusion of the war, a preliminary intertribal peace conference with the United States commissioners, was held at Ft. Smith. This meeting was opened on September 8, 1865, by prayer offered by Rev. Lewis Downing. It was at this meeting that Lewis Downing protested against the refusal of the commissioners to accord recognition to John Ross as the chief of the Cherokees. Ross returned to Tahlequah for a brief period in the fall of 1865 but returned to Washington the next year to urge his protest against the approval of section nine of the treaty of June 19, 1866, wherein the Cherokees were required to adopt their former negro slaves into tribal membership. The provisions of this disputed section were approved by the Rev. John B. Jones who accompanied the old chief as a delegate and who signed the treaty as such.

Chief John Ross passed away at Washington on August 1, 1866, and Lewis Downing automatically became chief of the Cherokee Nation serving as such until October 19, 1866, when William Potter Ross was chosen by the council to fill the vacancy.

Much bitterness lingered between the contending elements among the Cherokees, following the cessation of hostilities. These sentiments were not entirely indigenous to the Cherokee Indians,

Page 320 but extended throughout the country. The problem of "binding up the Nation's wounds" became one which lay in the years ahead. Among the Ross faction of the Union Cherokees were many who insisted upon the exclusion of the Confederate Cherokees from all participation in tribal affairs. There were sentiments that the penalties for their Southern activities had not been entirely exhausted. Already, many drastic, illogical things had been done. Lewis Downing was opposed to any discriminating policies and at this initial point, his sentiments of tribal unity were crystalized by the formation of what was to become known as the Downing Party, in the political life of the Cherokee Nation. Rev. John B. Jones threw his power and