REMOVAL OF THE CREEK INDIANS FROM GEORGIA.
By an agreement with the State of Georgia in the year 1802, the
United States became bound, in consideration of the cession of
the western territory, now constituting the States of Alabama
and Mississippi, to extinguish the remainder of the Indian title
within her limits, and to remove the Indians from the State; of
which large and valuable portions were then occupied by the Creeks
and Cherokees. No time was limited for the fulfilment of this
obligation, and near a quarter of a century had passed away without
seeing its full execution. At length Georgia, seeing no end to
this delay, became impatient, and justly so, the long delay being
equivalent to a breach of the agreement; for, although no time was
limited for its execution, yet a reasonable time was naturally
understood, and that incessant and faithful endeavors should be
made by the United States to comply with her undertaking. In the
years 1824-'25 this had become a serious question between the United
States and Georgia--the compact being but partly complied with--and
Mr. Monroe, in the last year of his Administration, and among its
last acts, had the satisfaction to conclude a treaty with the
Creek Indians for a cession of all their claims in the State, and
their removal from it. This was the treaty of the Indian Springs,
negotiated the 12th of February, 1825, the famous chief, Gen. Wm.
McIntosh, and some fifty other chiefs signing it in the presence
of Mr. Crowell, the United States Indian agent. It ceded all the
Creek country in Georgia, and also several millions of acres in the
State of Alabama. Complaints followed it to Washington as having
been concluded by McIntosh without the authority of the nation. The
ratification of the treaty was opposed, but finally carried, and by
the strong vote of 34 to 4. Disappointed in their opposition to the
treaty at Washington, the discontented party became violent at home,
killed McIntosh and another chief, declared forcible resistance to
the execution of the treaty, and prepared to resist. Georgia, on her
part, determined to execute it by taking possession of the ceded
territory. The Government of the United States felt itself bound
to interfere. The new President, Mr. Adams, became impressed with
the conviction that the treaty had been made without due authority,
and that its execution ought not to be enforced; and sent Gen.
Gaines with federal troops to the confines of Georgia. All Georgia
was in a flame at this view of force, and the neighboring States
sympathized with her. In the mean time the President, anxious to
avoid violence, and to obtain justice for Georgia, treated further;
and assembling the head men and chiefs of the Creeks at Washington
City, concluded a new treaty with them (January, 1826); by which
the treaty of Indian Springs was annulled, and a substitute for
it negotiated, ceding all the Creek lands in Georgia, but none in
Alabama. This treaty, with a message detailing all the difficulties
of the question, was immediately communicated by the President to
the Senate, and by it referred to the Committee on Indian Affairs,
of which I was chairman. The committee reported against the
ratification of the treaty, earnestly deprecated a collision of arms
between the federal government and a State, and recommended further
negotiations--a thing the more easy as the Creek chiefs were still
at Washington. The objections to the new treaty were:
1. That it annulled the McIntosh treaty; thereby implying its
illegality, and apparently justifying the fate of its authors.
2. Because it did not cede the whole of the Creek lands in Georgia.
3. Because it ceded none in Alabama.
Further negotiations according to the recommendation of the Senate,
were had by the President; and on the 31st of March of the same
year, a supplemental article was concluded, by which all the Creek
lands in Georgia were ceded to her; and the Creeks within her
borders bound to emigrate to a new home beyond the Mississippi.
The vote in the Senate on ratifying this new treaty, and its
supplemental article, was full and emphatic--thirty to seven: and
the seven negatives all Southern senators favorable to the object,
but dissatisfied with the clause which annulled the McIntosh treaty
and implied a censure upon its authors. Northern senators voted in
a body to do this great act of justice to Georgia, restrained by
no unworthy feeling against the growth and prosperity of a slave
State. And thus was carried into effect, after a delay of a quarter
of a century, and after great and just complaint on the part of
Georgia, the compact between that State and the United States of
1802. Georgia was paid at last for her great cession of territory,
and obtained the removal of an Indian community out of her limits,
and the use and dominion of all her soil for settlement and
jurisdiction. It was an incalculable advantage to her, and sought
in vain under three successive Southern Presidents--Jefferson,
Madison, Monroe--(who could only obtain part concessions from the
Indians)--and now accomplished under a Northern President, with
the full concurrence and support of the Northern delegations in
Congress: for the Northern representatives in the House voted the
appropriations to carry the treaty into effect as readily as the
senators had voted the ratification of the treaty itself. Candid
men, friends to the harmony and stability of this Union, should
remember these things when they hear the Northern States, on account
of the conduct of some societies and individuals, charged with
unjust and criminal designs towards the South.
An incident which attended the negotiation of the supplemental
article to the treaty of January deserves to be commemorated, as
an instance of the frauds which may attend Indian negotiations,
and for which there is so little chance of detection by either of
the injured parties,--by the Indians themselves, or by the federal
government. When the President sent in the treaty of January, and
after its rejection by the Senate became certain, thereby leaving
the federal government and Georgia upon the point of collision,
I urged upon Mr. James Barbour, the Secretary at War (of whose
department the Indian Office was then a branch) the necessity of
a supplemental article ceding all the Creek lands in Georgia; and
assured him that, with that additional article, the treaty would be
ratified, and the question settled. The Secretary was very willing
to do all this, but said it was impossible,--that the chiefs would
not agree to it. I recommended to him to make them some presents, so
as to overcome their opposition; which he most innocently declined,
because it would savor of bribery. In the mean time it had been
communicated, to me, that the treaty already made was itself the
work of great bribery; the sum of $160,000 out of $247,000, which
it stipulated to the Creek nation, as a first payment, being a
fund for private distribution among the chiefs who negotiated it.
Having received this information, I felt quite sure that the fear
of the rejection of the treaty, and the consequent loss of these
$160,000, to the negotiating chiefs, would insure their assent to
the supplemental article without the inducement of further presents.
I had an interview with the leading chiefs, and made known to them
the inevitable fact that the Senate would reject the treaty as it
stood, but would ratify it with a supplemental article ceding all
their lands in Georgia. With this information they agreed to the
additional article: and then the whole was ratified, as I have
already stated. But a further work remained behind. It was to balk
the fraud of the corrupt distribution of $160,000 among a few
chiefs; and that was to be done in the appropriation bill, and by
a clause directing the whole treaty money to be paid to the nation
instead of the chiefs. The case was communicated to the Senate in
secret session, and a committee of conference appointed (Messrs.
Benton, Van Buren, and Berrien) to agree with the House committee
upon the proper clause to be put into the appropriation bill. It was
also communicated to the Secretary at War. He sent in a report from
Mr. McKinney, the Indian bureau clerk, and actual negotiator of the
treaty, admitting the fact of the intended private distribution;
which, in fact, could not be denied, as I held an original paper
showing the names of all the intended recipients, with the sum
allowed to each, beginning at $20,000 and ranging down to $5000: and
that it was done with his cognizance.
Some extracts from speeches delivered on that occasion will well
finish this view of a transaction which at one time threatened
violence between a State and the federal government, and in which a
great fraud in an Indian treaty Was detected and frustrated.
EXTRACTS FROM THE SPEECHES IN THE SENATE AND IN THE HOUSE OF
REPRESENTATIVES.
"Mr. Van Buren said he should state the circumstances of this
case, and the views of the committee of conference. A treaty
was made in this city, in which it was stipulated on the part
of the United States, that $247,000, together with an annuity
of $20,000 a year, and other considerations, should be paid to
the Creeks, as a consideration for the extinguishment of their
title to lands in the State of Georgia, which the United States,
under the cession of 1802, were under obligations to extinguish.
The bill from the other House to carry this treaty into effect,
directed that the money should be paid and distributed among
the chiefs and warriors. That bill came to the Senate, and a
confidential communication was made to the Senate, from which
it appeared that strong suspicions were entertained that a
design existed on the part of the chiefs who made the treaty,
to practise a fraud on the Creek nation, by dividing the money
amongst themselves and associates. An amendment was proposed by
the Senate, which provided for the payment of those moneys in
the usual way, and the distribution of them in the usual manner,
and in the usual proportion to which the Indians were entitled.
That amendment was sent to the other House, who, unadvised as to
the facts which were known to the Senate, refused to concur in
it, and asked a conference. The conferees, on the part of the
Senate, communicated their suspicions to the conferees on the
part of the House, and asked them to unite in an application
to the Department of War, for information on the subject. This
was accordingly done, and the documents sent, in answer, were a
letter from the Secretary of War, and a report by Mr. McKenney.
From that report it appeared clear and satisfactory, that a
design thus existed on the part of the Indians, by whom the
treaty was negotiated, to distribute of the $247,000 to be paid
for the cession by the United States, $159,750 among themselves,
and a few favorite chiefs at home, and three Cherokee chiefs
who had no interest in the property. Ridge and Vann were to
receive by the original treaty $5000 each. By this agreement
of the distribution of the money each was to receive $15,000
more, making $20,000 for each. Ridge, the father of Ridge who
is here, was to receive $10,000. The other $100,000 was to be
distributed, $5000, and, in some instances, $10,000 to the
chiefs who negotiated the treaty here, varying from one to ten
thousand dollars each.
"Mr. V. B. said, in his judgment, the character of the
government was involved in this subject, and it would require,
under the circumstances of this case, that they should take
every step they could rightfully take to exculpate themselves
from having, in any degree or form, concurred in this fraud. The
sentiment of the American people where he resided was, and had
been, highly excited on this subject; they had applauded, in the
most ardent manner, the zeal manifested by the government to
preserve themselves pure in their negotiations with the Indians;
and though he was satisfied--though he deemed it impossible to
suppose for a moment that government could have countenanced
the practice of this fraud, yet there were circumstances in the
case which required exculpation. Between the negotiation of the
treaty and the negotiation of the supplementary article on which
the treaty was finally adopted, all these circumstances were
communicated to the Department of War by the two Cherokees. Mr.
V. B. said it was not his purpose, because the necessity of the
case did not require it, to say what the Secretary of War ought
to have done, or to censure what he did do, when the information
was given to him. He had known him many years, and there was not
an honester man, or a man more devoted to his country, than that
gentleman was. Mr. V. B. said it was not for him to have said
what should have been the course of the President of the United
States, if the information had been given to him on the subject.
It could not fail to make a mortifying and most injurious
impression on the minds of the people of this country, to find
that no means whatever were taken for the suppression of this
fraud. There was, and there ought to be, an excitement on the
subject in the public mind."
"Mr. Benton said, that after the explanation of the views of the
committee of conference which had been given by the senator from
New-York (Mr. Van Buren), he would limit himself to a statement
of facts on two or three points, on which references had been
made to his personal knowledge.
"The Secretary of War had referred to him, in his letter to the
committee, as knowing the fact that the Secretary had refused
to give private gratuities to the Creek chiefs to promote the
success of the negotiation. The reference was correct. Mr. B.
had himself recommended the Secretary to do so; it was, however,
about forty days after the treaty had been signed. He referred
to a paper which fixed the date to the 9th or 10th of March, and
the treaty had been signed in the month of January preceding.
It was done at the time that Mr. B. had offered his services to
procure the supplemental article to be adopted. The Secretary
entirely condemned the practice of giving these gratuities.
Mr. B. said he had recommended it as the only way of treating
with barbarians; that, if not gratified in this way, the chiefs
would prolong the negotiation, at a great daily expense to the
government, until they got their gratuity in one way or other,
or defeated the treaty altogether. He considered the practice
to be sanctioned by the usage of the United States: he believed
it to be common in all barbarous nations, and in many that
were civilized; and referred to the article in the federal
constitution against receiving "_presents_" from foreign powers,
as a proof that the convention thought such a restriction to be
necessary, even among ourselves.
"The _time_ at which Mr. B. had offered his services to aid
this negotiation, had appeared to him to be eminently critical,
and big with consequences which he was anxious to avert. It
was after this committee had resolved to report against the
new treaty, and before they had made the report to the Senate.
The decision, whatsoever it might be, and the consequent
discussions, criminations, and recriminations, were calculated
to bring on a violent struggle in the Senate itself; between the
Senate and the Executive; perhaps between the two Houses (for a
reference of the subject to both would have taken place); and
between one or more States and the federal government. Mr. B.
had concurred in the report against the new treaty, because it
divested Georgia of vested rights; and, though objectionable
in many other respects, he was willing, for the sake of peace,
to ratify it, provided the vested rights of Georgia were not
invaded. The supplemental article had relieved him upon this
point. He thought that _Georgia_ had no further cause of
dissatisfaction with the treaty; it was _Alabama_ that was
injured by the loss of some millions of acres, which she had
acquired under the treaty of 1825, and lost under that of 1826.
Her case commanded his regrets and sympathy. She had lost the
right of jurisdiction over a considerable extent of territory;
and the advantages of settling, cultivating, and taxing the
same, were postponed; but, he hoped, not indefinitely. But these
were _consequential_ advantages, resulting from an act which
the government was not _bound_ to do; and, though the loss of
them was an injury, yet this injury could not be considered as
a violation of vested rights; but the circumstance certainly
increased the strength of her claim to the total extinction of
the Indian titles within her limits and, he trusted, would have
its due effect upon the Government of the United States.
"The third and last point on which Mr. B. thought references to
his name had made it proper for him to give a statement, related
to the circumstance which had induced the Senate to make the
amendment which had become the subject of the conference between
the two Houses. He had himself come to the knowledge of that
circumstance in the last days of April, some weeks after the
supplemental article had been ratified. He had deemed it to be
his duty to communicate it to the Senate, and do it in a way
that would avoid a groundless agitation of the public feeling,
or unjust reflections upon any individual, white or red, if,
peradventure, his information should turn out to have been
untrue. He therefore communicated it to the Senate in secret
session; and the effect of the information was immediately
manifested in the unanimous determination of the Senate to adopt
the amendment which was now under consideration. He deemed the
amendment, or one that would effect the same object, to be
called for by the circumstances of the case, and the relative
state of the parties. It was apparent that a few chiefs were
to have an undue proportion of the money--they had realized
what he had foretold to the Secretary; and it was certain
that the knowledge of this, whenever it should be found out
by the nation, would occasion disturbances, and, perhaps,
bloodshed. He thought that the United States should prevent
these consequences, by preventing the cause of them, and, for
this purpose, he would concur in any amendment that would effect
a fair distribution of the money, or any distribution that was
agreeable to the nation in open counsel."
Mr. Berrien: "You have arrived at the last scene in the present
act of the great political drama of the Creek controversy.
In its progress, you have seen two of the sovereign States
of the American Confederation--especially, you have seen one
of those States, which has always been faithful and forward
in the discharge of her duties to this Union, driven to the
wall, by the combined force of the administration and its
allies consisting of a portion of the Creek nation, and certain
Cherokee diplomatists. Hitherto, in the discussions before the
Senate on this subject, I have imposed a restraint upon my own
feelings under the influence of motives which have now ceased
to operate. It was my first duty to obtain an acknowledgment,
on this floor, of the rights of Georgia, repressing, for that
purpose, even the story of her wrongs. It was my first duty,
sir, and I have sacrificed to it every other consideration. As a
motive to forbearance it no longer exists. The rights of Georgia
have been prostrated.
"Sir, in the progress of that controversy, which has grown out
of the treaty of the Indian Springs, the people of Georgia
have been grossly and wantonly calumniated, and the acts of
the administration have assisted to give currency to these
calumnies. Her chief magistrate has been traduced. The solemn
act of her legislature has been set at naught by a rescript of
the federal Executive. A military force has been quartered on
her borders to coerce her to submission; and without a trial,
without the privilege of being heard, without the semblance of
evidence, she has been deprived of rights secured to her by the
solemn stipulations of treaty.
"When, in obedience to the will of the legislature of Georgia,
her chief magistrate had communicated to the President his
determination to survey the ceded territory, his right to do
so was admitted. It was declared by the President that the act
would be 'wholly' on the responsibility of the government of
Georgia, and that 'the Government of the United States would not
be in any manner responsible for any consequences which might
result from the measure.' When his willingness to encounter this
responsibility was announced, it was met by the declaration that
the President would 'not permit the survey to be made,' and
he was referred to a major-general of the army of the United
States, and one thousand regulars.
"The murder of McIntosh--the defamation of the chief magistrate
of Georgia--the menace of military force to coerce her to
submission--were followed by the traduction of two of her
cherished citizens, employed as the agents of the General
Government in negotiating the treaty--gentlemen whose integrity
will not shrink from a comparison with that of the proudest
and loftiest of their accusers. Then the sympathies of the
people of the Union were excited in behalf of 'the children of
the forest,' who were represented as indignantly spurning the
gold, which was offered to entice them from the graves of their
fathers, and resolutely determined never to abandon them. The
incidents of the plot being thus prepared, the affair hastens
to its consummation. A new treaty is negotiated here--_a pure
and spotless treaty_. The rights of Georgia and of Alabama are
sacrificed; the United States obtain a part of the lands, and
pay double the amount stipulated by the old treaty; and those
poor and noble, and unsophisticated sons of the forest, having
succeeded in imposing on the simplicity of this government, next
concert, under its eye, and with its knowledge, the means of
defrauding their own constituents, the chiefs and warriors of
the Creek nation.
"For their agency in exciting the Creeks to resist the former
treaty, and in deluding this government to annul it, _three
Cherokees--Ridge, Vann, and the father of the former_--are to
receive FORTY THOUSAND DOLLARS of the money stipulated to be
paid by the United States to the chiefs of the _Creek_ nation;
and the government, when informed of the projected fraud,
deems itself powerless to avert it. Nay, when apprised by your
amendment, that you had also detected it, that government does
not hesitate to interpose, by one of its high functionaries, to
resist your proceeding, by a singular fatuity, thus giving its
countenance and support to the commission of the fraud. Sir, I
speak of what has passed before your eyes even in this hall.
"One fifth of the whole purchase money is to be given to _three
Cherokees_. TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS reward one of the heroes of
Fort Mims--a boon which it so well becomes us to bestow. A few
chosen favorites divide among themselves upwards of ONE HUNDRED
AND FIFTY THOUSAND DOLLARS, leaving a pittance for distribution
among the great body of the chiefs and warriors of the nation.
"But the administration, though it condemns the fraud, thinks
that we have no power to prevent its consummation. What, sir,
have we no power to see that our own treaty is carried into
effect? Have we no interest in doing so? Have we no power? We
have stipulated for the payment of two hundred and forty-seven
thousand dollars to the chiefs of the Creek nation, _to be
distributed among the chiefs and warriors of that nation_. Is
not the _distribution_ part of the contract as well as the
_payment_? We know that a few of those chiefs, in fraudulent
violation of the rights secured by that treaty, are about to
appropriate this money to themselves. Are we powerless to
prevent it? Nay, must we, too, suffer ourselves to be made
the conscious instruments of its consummation? We have made
a bargain with a savage tribe which you choose to dignify
with the name of a treaty concerning whom we legislate with
their consent, or without it, as it seems good in our eyes. We
know that some ten or twenty of them are about to cheat the
remainder. We have the means in our hands, without which their
corrupt purpose cannot be effected. Have we not the right to
see that our own bargain is honestly fulfilled? Consistently
with common honesty, can we put the consideration money of
the contract into the hands of those who we know are about to
defraud the people who trusted them? Sir, the proposition is
absurd.
"Mr. Forsyth (of the House of Representatives) said: A
stupendous fraud, it seems, was intended by the delegation who
had formed, with the Secretary of War, the new contract. The
chiefs composing the Creek diplomatic train, assisted by their
Cherokee secretaries of legation, had combined to put into their
own pockets, and those of a few select friends, somewhere about
three fourths of the first payment to be made for the second
cession of the lands lying in Georgia. The facts connected
with this transaction, although concealed from the Senate when
the second contract was before them for ratification, and from
the House when the appropriation bill to carry it into effect
was under consideration, were perfectly understood at the War
Department by the Secretary, and by his clerk, who is called the
head of the Indian Bureau (Mr. Thomas L. McKinney). The Senate
having, by some strange fortune, discovered the intended fraud,
after the ratification of the contract, and before they acted
on the appropriation bill, wished, by an amendment to the bill,
to prevent the success of the profitable scheme of villany.
The House, entirely ignorant of the facts, and not suspecting
the motive of the amendment, had rejected it, insisted upon
their disagreement to it, and a committee of the two Houses, as
usual, had conferred on the subject. Now, that the facts are
ascertained by the separate reports of the Committees, there
can be no difference of opinion on the great point of defeating
the intended treachery of the delegation and secretaries to the
Creek tribe. The only matter which can bear discussion, is, how
shall the treachery be punished?--how shall the Creek tribe
be protected from the abominable designs of their worthless
and unprincipled agents? Will the amendment proposed by the
committee reach their object? The plan is, to pay the money to
the chiefs, to be divided among the chiefs and warriors, under
the direction of the Secretary of War, in a full council of the
nation, convened for the purpose. Suppose the council in solemn
session, the money before them, and the division about to be
made, under the direction of the Secretary of War--may not the
chiefs and their secretaries claim the money, as promised to
them under the treaty, and how will the Secretary or his agent
resist the claim? They assented--the House will perceive that
the only difficulty was the amount of the bribe. The Secretary
was willing to go as high as five thousand dollars, but could
not stretch to ten thousand dollars. Notwithstanding the
assent of the Cherokees, and the declaration of the Secretary,
that five thousand dollars each was the extent that they could
be allowed, Ridge and Vann, after the treaty was signed, and
before it was acted on by the Senate, or submitted to that
body, brought a paper, the precious list of the price of each
traitor, for the inspection and information of the head of the
bureau and the head of the department; and what answer did they
receive from both? The head of the bureau said it was their own
affair. The Secretary said he presumed it was their own affair.
But I ask this House, if the engagement for the five thousand
dollars, and the list of the sums to be distributed, may not
be claimed as part of this new contract? If these persons have
not a right to claim, in the face of the tribe, these sums,
as promised to them by their Great Father? Ay, sir; and, if
they are powerful enough in the tribe, they will enforce their
claim. Under what pretext will your Secretary of War direct a
different disposition or division of the money, after his often
repeated declaration, 'it is their own affair'--the affair of
the delegation? Yes, sir, so happily has this business been
managed at the seat of government, under the Executive eye,
that this division which the negotiators proposed to make of
the spoil, may be termed a part of the consideration of the
contract. It must be confessed that these exquisite ambassadors
were quite liberal to themselves, their secretaries, and
particular friends: one hundred and fifty-nine thousand seven
hundred dollars, to be divided among some twenty persons, is
pretty well! What name shall we give to this division of money
among them? To call it a bribe, would shock the delicacy of
the War Department, and possibly offend those gentle spirited
politicians, who resemble Cowper's preachers, 'who could not
mention hell to ears polite.' The transcendent criminality of
this design cannot be well understood, without recalling to
recollection the dark and bloody scenes of the year past. The
chief McIntosh, distinguished at all times by his courage and
devotion to the whites, deriving his name of the White Warrior,
from his mixed parentage, had formed, with his party, the treaty
of the Indian Springs. He was denounced for it. His midnight
sleep was broken by the crackling flames of his dwelling burning
over his head. Escaping from the flames, he was shot down by a
party acting under the orders of the persons who accused him
of betraying, for his own selfish purposes, the interest of
the tribe. Those who condemned that chief, the incendiaries
and the murderers, are the negotiators of this new contract;
the one hundred and fifty-nine thousand dollars, is to be
the fruit of their victory over the assassinated chief. What
evidence of fraud, and selfishness, and treachery, has red or
white malice been able to exhibit against the dead warrior? A
reservation of land for him, in the contract of 1821, was sold
by him to the United States, for twenty-five thousand dollars;
a price he could have obtained from individuals, if his title
had been deemed secure. This sale of property given to him by
the tribe, was the foundation of the calumnies that have been
heaped upon his memory, and the cause which, in the eyes of our
administration newspaper editors, scribblers, and reviewers,
justified his execution. Now, sir, the executioners are to be
rewarded by pillaging the public Treasury. I look with some
curiosity for the indignant denunciations of this accidentally
discovered treachery. Perhaps it will be discovered that all
this new business of the Creeks is 'their own affair,' with
which the white editors and reviewers have nothing to do.
Fortunately, Mr. F. said, Congress had something to do with
this affair. We owe a justice to the tribe. This amendment, he
feared, would not do justice. The power of Congress should be
exerted, not only to keep the money out of the hands of these
wretches, but to secure a faithful and equal distribution of it
among the whole Creek nation. The whole tribe hold the land;
their title by occupancy resides in all; all are rightfully
claimants to equal portions of the price of their removal from
it. The country is not aware how the Indian annuities are
distributed, or the moneys paid to the tribes disposed of.
They are divided according to the discretion of the Indian
government, completely aristocratical--all the powers vested in
a few chiefs. Mr. F. had it from authority he could not doubt,
that the Creek annuities had, for years past, been divided in
very unequal proportions, not among the twenty thousand souls of
which the tribe was believed to be composed, but among about one
thousand five hundred chiefs and warriors.
"Mr. Forsyth expressed his hope that the House would reject
the report of the committee. Before taking his seat, he asked
the indulgence of the House, while he made a few comments on
this list of worthies, and the prices to be paid to each.
At the head of the list stands Mr. Ridge, with the sum of
$15,000 opposite to his elevated name. This man is no Creek,
but a Cherokee, educated among the whites, allied to them by
marriage--has received lessons in Christianity, morality,
and sentiment--perfectly civilized, according to the rules
and customs of Cornwall. This negotiation, of which he has
been, either as actor or instrument, the principal manager is
an admirable proof of the benefits he has derived from his
residence among a moral and religious people. Vann, another
Cherokee, half savage and half civilized, succeeds him with
$15,000 bounty. A few inches below comes another Ridge, the
major, father to the secretary--a gallant old fellow, who did
some service against the hostile Creeks, during the late war,
for which he deserved and received acknowledgments--but what
claims he had to this Creek money, Mr. F. could not comprehend.
Probably his name was used merely to cover another gratuity
for the son, whose modesty would not permit him to take more
than $15,000 in his own name. These Cherokees were together to
receive $40,000 of Creek money, and the Secretary of War is of
opinion it is quite consistent with the contract, which provides
for the distribution of it among the chiefs and warriors of
the Creeks. Look, sir, at the distinction made for these
exquisites. Yopothle Yoholo, whose word General Gaines would
take against the congregated world, is set down for but $10,000.
The Little Prince but $10,000. Even Menawee, distinguished as
he is as the leader of the party who murdered McIntosh and
Etome Tustunnuggee--as one of the accursed band who butchered
three hundred men, women, and children, at Fort Mims--has but
$10,000. A distinguished Red Stick, in these days, when kindness
to Indians is shown in proportion to their opposition to the
policy of the General Government, might have expected better
treatment--only ten thousand dollars to our enemy in war and in
peace! But, sir, I will not detain the House longer. I should
hold myself criminal if I had exposed these things unnecessarily
or uselessly. That patriotism only is lovely which, imitating
the filial piety of the sons of the Patriarch, seeks, with
averted face, to cover the nakedness of the country from the eye
of a vulgar and invidious curiosity. But the commands of public
duty must be obeyed; let those who have imposed this duty upon
us answer for it to the people."
"Mr. Tatnall, of Geo. (H. R.) He was as confident as his
colleagues could be, that the foulest fraud had been projected
by some of the individuals calling themselves a part of the
Creek delegation, and that it was known to the department of war
before the ratification of the treaty, and was not communicated
by that department to the Senate, either before or during the
pendency of the consideration of the treaty by that body. Mr.
T. said he would not, however, for the reasons just mentioned,
dwell on this ground, but would proceed to state, that he was in
favor of the amendment offered by the committee of conference,
(and therein he differed from his colleague), which, whilst it
would effectually prevent the commission of the fraud intended,
would, also, avoid a violation of the terms of 'the new treaty,'
as it was styled. He stated, that the list which he held in his
hand was, itself, conclusive evidence of a corrupt intention
to divide the greater part of the money among the few persons
named in it. In this list, different sums were written opposite
the names of different individuals, such, for instance, as the
following: 'John Ridge, $15,000--Joseph Vann, 15,000' (both
Cherokees, and not Creeks, and, therefore, not entitled to one
cent). The next, a long and barbarous Indian name, which I
shall not attempt to pronounce. '$10,000'--next, John Stedham,
'$10,000,' &c. This list, as it appears in the documents
received from the Secretary of War, was presented to the war
department by Ridge and Vann."