From Joseph Lane, 8 May 1850
Oregon City May the 8 1850
Dear Claiborne
I have the pleasure to acknowledge the receipt of your two letters. I promised the Indians that you would for a reasonable compensation defend them upon their trial. I would be glad to have you do so, but at the same time, I feel unwilling to urge the Col. to do any thing that he beleves would be detrimental to the service, now if the Col. can permit you to come up, I would be much gratified.1 The Indians must have a fair trial but nothing must be done in the defence, to delay Justice, they are guilty of a bloody murder and must be hung2
Your friend and obt. srvt.
Joseph Lane
1. Most likely referring to Colonel William W. Loring.↩
2. In 1847 Cayuse Indians murdered Dr. Marcus Whitman, his wife Narcissa, and thirteen others at the Whitman Mission near Walla Walla. Increasing unrest and violence between the Cayuse and revengeful settlers ensued, until a trial was finally held in 1850. Five Cayuse men were tried beginning on May 22. Secretary Pritchett, R. B. Reynolds, and Captain Thomas Claiborne acted as the defense in the case. Two to three hundred people attended the trial and heard the jury’s guilty verdict on May 23. The five men were executed on June 3. See Hubert Howe Bancroft, History of Oregon, 2 vols. (San Francisco: The History Company, 1888), 2: 92-100.↩