Columbus Delano

Who was Columbus Delano?

Columbus Delano, was a lawyer and a statesman and a member of the prominent Delano family. Delano was elected U.S. Congressman from Ohio, serving two terms; the first from 1845 to 1847 and the second from 1865 to 1867. Prior to the American Civil War, Delano supported the Free Soil movement that was against the spread of slavery in the Western territories. During Reconstruction Delano advocated state protection of African Americans civil rights, and argued that the former Confederate states were actual states, but not part of the United States. Delano served as President Grant's Secretary of Interior during a time of rapid Westward expansionism. Delano had to contend with conflicts between Native American tribes and settlers. Secretary Delano was instrumental in the establishment of America's first national park, supervising the first U.S. federally funded 1871 exploratory scientific expedition into Yellowstone. Delano believed the best Indian policy was to allot Native American tribes on Indian Territory reservations; believing that tribal communalism living led to Indian wars and impoverishment. Delano believed that the reservation system humanely protected Native Americans from the encroachment of western settlers. He advocated Indian assimilation and independence from federal funding. Delano supported the slaughter of buffalo, essential to the Plains Indians' lifestyle, in order to stop their nomadic hunting. Delano's tenure was marred by profiteering and corruption in his Interior Department by Indian Bureau agents posing as attorneys and Patent clerks who became wealthy through fraudulent land grants. As a result, Delano was forced to resign by President Grant in 1875. Historians believe that although Delano was personally honest, he was not a reformer, and he was careless in his management of the Interior Department.