The senders and recipients of the telegraphic dispatches were, with one or two exceptions, all relatives of each other, and all in public life. Robert Ward Johnson and William K. Sebastian were, at the time, United States senators from Arkansas; Thomas C. Hindman and Albert Rust were Arkansas representatives in Congress; Albert Pike was in Washington, prosecuting the Choctaw Indian claim; Edmund Burgevin was the attorney-general of Arkansas and a brother-in-law of Governor Rector; Richard H. Johnson and James Johnson were brothers of Robert W. Johnson, the former being proprietor and editor of the Little Rock _Democrat_ and the latter, in future years, a colonel in the Confederate army. In 1868, R. W. Johnson moved to Washington City and became the law partner of Albert Pike. [Arkansas Historical Association, _Publications_, vol. ii, 268.] Hindman was the man who sneered at the precautions taken to insure President-elect Lincoln's safety [Stanwood, _History of Presidential Elections_, 235]. Sebastian was expelled from the Senate because of his southern sympathies; but, as he really took no active part in the Confederate movements, the resolution of expulsion was rescinded in 1878. [164] It would be interesting to know whether Elias Rector had as yet formulated any such plan for personal aggrandizement such as must have been in his mind when he wrote the letter to Douglas H. Cooper that called forth from Cooper the following response: _Private & Confidential_ _Copy_ FORT SMITH May 1st 1861. MAJOR ELIAS RECTOR Dr. Sir: I have concluded to act upon the suggestion yours of the 28th Ultimo contains. If we work this thing shrewdly we can make a fortune each, satisfy the Indians, stand fair before the North, and revel in the unwavering confidence of our Southern Confederacy. My share of the eighty thousand in gold you can leave on deposite with Meyer Bro, subject to my order. Write me soon. COOPER. Indian Office, General Files, _Southern Superintendency, 1863-1864_, I435. The foregoing letter of Cooper's was one of those referred to in the following telegraphic communication from Special Agent G. B. Stockton to Secretary Usher, dated Fort Smith, Arkansas, February 20, 1864: I have just found & have now in this office a large desk containing indian papers treaties correspondence of Cooper Rector & others, correspondence of W. P. Dole as late as May fifteenth 1861 vouchers abstracts & correspondence convicting Rector & Cooper of enticing the various tribes to become enemies of the U. S. The papers extend back as far as 1834 will you please direct me what disposition to make of them. Secretary Usher referred the matter to the Office of Indian Affairs and Mix instructed Stockton to send the papers on to Washington [Letter of February 20, 1864]. This Stockton did and notified the Commissioner of Indian Affairs in this wise, by telegraph: