Henry Sibley comments on Military Commission's progress

"Friday, Oct. 17, 1862

The Military Commission is still at work, and the Indian prisoners are being tried as fast as a due regard to justice will permit. I have to review all the proceedings, and decide the fate of each individual. This power of life, and death, is an awful thing to exercise, and when I think of more than three hundred human beings are [sic] subject to that power, lodged in my hands, it makes me shudder. Still, duty must be performed, and judgment visited upon the guilty…."

Source:
Henry Hastings Sibley, "Extracts from letters to my wife in 1862." Henry Hastings Sibley Papers, Minnesota Historical Society. Copied by Rhoda H. Gilman.