FURTHER DIFFICULTIES IN THE WORK OF ENSLAVING THE EXILES.
General Gaines in person defends those left at New Orleans--He
appeals from the judgment--Effect of appeal--Authorities at
Washington informed of difficulties--General Jessup retires from
the command--General Taylor succeeds him--He refuses to follow
policy of General Jessup--Recognizes no prisoners as slaves--Letter
from Adjutant General--He promptly refuses to have any thing to do
in Watson's slave-dealing transaction--This indignant answer is
received without reply by Department--Other persons claim the
Exiles detained at New Orleans--Commissioner driven to the
necessity of declaring correct law on the subject--Same as that
avowed by General Gaines, by General Taylor, and by Hon. J. Q.
Adams--Claim of Colonel Humphreys for slaves--Jessup's
answer--Reynolds returns from Fort Gibson to New Orleans--Collins
reaches the city same day--Inquires as to the situation of the
thirty-one Exiles left there--Is referred to Major Clark--Clark's
answer--Collins leaves city in disgust--His Letter to Secretary of
War charging Reynolds with misconduct--Exiles remaining at New
Orleans are delivered to Reynolds--Are sent to Fort Gibson--Join
their friends--All are left however without permanent homes or
lands--Intention of the Administration to compel them to unite with
the Creeks--They refuse--Cherokees tender them lands--They settle
upon Cherokee territory.
[Sidenote: 1838.]
After the emigrating company of Indians and Exiles had left New Orleans,
under charge of Lieutenant Reynolds, Gen'l Gaines assumed upon himself
the whole responsibility of defending the thirty-one who remained in
that city; for as yet there had been no trial upon the merits of the
case, although it was pretty evident that the judge was strongly
impressed in favor of reënslaving them. The cause was duly brought to a
hearing, and, after argument and consideration, the court gave judgment
in favor of the claimants.
This was no more than had been expected. General Gaines, faithful to his
own convictions of justice, took an appeal to a higher tribunal; and
this appeal rendered it necessary for the court to fix a time within
which the claimants should enter bail for costs and damages, or the
negroes would be delivered up to General Gaines by the sheriff.
In the meantime, the Executive officers at Washington had become
informed of the difficulties which had lain across the path of Mr.
Collins, and felt it to be desirable that the whole matter should be
arranged with as little discussion as possible.
General Jessup retired from the command of the army in Florida on the
fifteenth of May, and returned to Washington, leaving General Zachary
Taylor as commander-in-chief of our military forces in that Territory.
He had shown himself prompt in the execution of all orders; cool,
deliberate, and firm in battle; faithful to his men, to himself and his
country; but, up to this time, he had manifested no particular zeal in
the capture of negroes. Indeed, although he had penetrated farther into
the Indian Country than any other officer--had fought the bloodiest
battles of any commander in Florida, yet he refused to draw any
distinctions among his prisoners. With him Indians and negroes were
equally _prisoners of war_, and entitled to the same treatment. Nor
would he listen to men who professed to own the persons whom he
captured, or who had surrendered themselves as prisoners.
The Administration having been a party in the sale to Watson, determined
to carry out the slave-dealing arrangement with him; at least so far as
regarded the thirty-one negroes who yet remained in New Orleans. In
order to effect this object, it was deemed necessary to have the
coöperation and aid of General Taylor. The Adjutant General, therefore,
addressed him on the subject, enclosing to him the letter of the
Commissioner of Indian Affairs, dated the ninth of May, addressed to the
Secretary of War, and heretofore referred to. General Taylor evidently
thought the honor of the service would be compromited by this
slave-dealing transaction. He subsequently became President of the
United States; and as the reader will feel anxious to understand
precisely the views which he entertained, we give that portion of his
letter to the Adjutant General which relates to this subject. It is in
the following words:
"I have the honor to acknowledge your communication of the tenth of
May, 1838, accompanied by one of the ninth from the Commissioner of
Indian Affairs, addressed to Captain Cooper, Acting Secretary of
War, on the subject of turning over certain negroes, captured by
the Creek warriors in Florida, to a Mr. Collins, their agent, in
compliance with an engagement of General Jessup.
"I know nothing of the negroes in question, nor of the subject,
further than what is contained in the communication above referred
to; _but I must state distinctly for the information of all
concerned, that, while I shall hold myself ever ready to do the
utmost in my power to get the Indians and their negroes out of
Florida, as well as to remove them to their new homes west of the
Mississippi_, I CANNOT FOR A MOMENT CONSENT TO MEDDLE WITH THIS
TRANSACTION, _or to be concerned for the benefit of Collins, the
Creek Indians, or any one else_."
This language was received at the War Department without reproof,
although the Secretary was from South Carolina, bred up in the
chivalrous doctrines of the Palmetto State. He quietly suffered a
Brigadier General thus plainly to express his contempt for this
slave-dealing transaction, in which not only the War Department, but the
President of the United States, was involved. He appears to have been
willing to encounter almost any kind of disrespect, rather than call
public attention to the subject.
In the meantime other claims were presented to the Department for those
Exiles, or portions of those, who had been captured by the Creeks.[120]
Gad Humphreys filed with the Secretary of War a list of forty-seven
slaves who had fled from him in 1830, stating that they had gone to the
Seminoles, and that a part of them had been sent to Fort Pike.
Colonel Humphreys appeared to regard himself as entitled to the
possession of those people; although by the treaty of Payne's Landing
the Seminoles had paid for all slaves residing with them prior to 1832;
and had been released from all further demands on account of such
slaves.
Colonel Humphreys stated that his claim had been examined by the late
agent, General Wiley Thompson, and decided _against_ him; but insisted
that the decision was wrong, and avowed his ability to show it erroneous
by proper proof whenever he should have an opportunity, and again
demanded that the slaves should be brought back to Florida, where he
could present his proof without trouble. This letter was inclosed in one
directed to Mr. Downing, Delegate in Congress from Florida, and by him
transmitted to the Secretary of War, and by that officer referred to the
Commissioner of Indian Affairs. Thus driven to the wall, the
Commissioner of Indian Affairs came out in plain and unmistakable
language, asserting the doctrine, that the Government held the power and
constitutional right to dispose of prisoners taken in war, whatever
their character may be. This doctrine had been eloquently sustained by
General Gaines, on the trial in New Orleans. It was the doctrine avowed
by Hon. John Quincy Adams in the House of Representatives, during the
next session of Congress; but it called down upon him much abuse in that
body, and in the Democratic papers of the country. The Commissioner's
report to the Secretary of War set forth in distinct language, that the
claims of individuals to slaves were precluded by the action of the
Government in sending these people West; that they had been captured by
the army and disposed of by the Executive, and the action of the
Department could not be changed in consequence of individuals claiming
them as slaves. In short, he repeated the doctrine advanced by General
Gaines at New Orleans. The report also confirmed the policy of General
Taylor in disregarding the claims of individuals to persons captured by
the army, and was a tacit condemnation of that pursued by General
Jessup, and previously sanctioned by the Secretary of War. This report
was passed over to the Secretary.
That officer (Mr. Poinsett) having received this report, transmitted it
to Colonel Humphreys. This drew from that gentleman a still more
elaborate argument in favor of his claim, which occupies nearly four
heavy pages in documentary form. This was also transmitted to Mr.
Downing, and by him passed over to the Secretary of War; but we are not
informed whether the Secretary of War replied to this second argument or
not.
It is, however, important to the truth of history to notice this
recognition of the doctrine by a slave-holding Secretary of War, that
the Executive in time of war may separate slaves from their masters, and
send them out of the country, without regard to the relation previously
subsisting between them and their owners. The principle was thus
recognized by Mr. Poinsett, although a citizen of South Carolina, acting
under the advice and direction of Mr. Van Buren, a Democratic President
of the United States.
General Jessup also, in a report to the War Department, declared, that,
in his opinion, the treaty of Payne's Landing exonerated the Indians
from all claims for slaves which accrued prior to that date, and that
Colonel Humphreys and other claimants could only demand a proportion of
the seven thousand dollars allowed by the Indians for slaves then
residing among them. This suggestion was obviously just, and was
approved by the Secretary of War; and we are naturally led to inquire,
why the same obviously just rule was not applied to some hundreds of
other cases precisely like that of Colonel Humphreys?
In the meantime, Lieutenant Reynolds having accomplished his mission, so
far as the emigration of the captives shipped on board the two boats
which left New Orleans on the nineteenth and twenty-first of May were
concerned, returned to that city in order to complete the duties
assigned him in regard to the thirty-one prisoners who had been detained
there by legal sequestration. Collins, faithful to the trust reposed in
him, also returned to New Orleans with the full purpose of securing
those people as slaves to Watson. They reached the city on the
twenty-third, and found the slaves still in the possession of the
Sheriff; as the time assigned by the court within which the plaintiff
was to enter bail had not expired.
On the twenty-fifth of June, Mr. Collins addressed a note to Mr.
Reynolds, inquiring whether there had been any decision of the court
upon the claim of Love to the Seminole negroes left at that place; and
what number he (Reynolds) was satisfied belonged to the Creek Indians;
and demanding that such as belonged to them should be delivered to him,
under the order of the Commissioner of "Indian Affairs."
Mr. Reynolds replied that he understood the case had been dismissed; but
as he (Reynolds) was then acting under a superior officer (Major Clark),
he would refer Mr. Collins to him.
On the following day, Collins addressed Major Clark on the subject; but
receiving no answer, and becoming vexed and disgusted with the business,
he left the city on the twenty-seventh for his home in Alabama. In
justice to Mr. Collins, we let him speak for himself, and quote the
remainder of his report to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, being
that portion which relates to his efforts to get possession of these
thirty-one Exiles. It reads as follows:
"On arriving at New Orleans on my return, I found the
representatives of Love had withdrawn their claim against those
thirty-two negroes that were left there, thirty-one of which
Lieutenant R. expressed himself satisfied belonged to the claim. I
addressed a note to Lieutenant R. requesting that such of the
negroes as he was satisfied of the identity might be turned over to
me; he in turn referred me to Major Clark who was his senior
officer, and who had received similar instructions to his own. I
had, in company with Lieutenant R. the day before, called upon
Major Clark, and learned his determination in relation to the
negroes. He did not recognize the validity of his order, inasmuch
as 'By order of the Secretary of War' did not precede your
signature, and had even the hardihood to state, that, by an
examination of the lists, none of those negroes in New Orleans were
embraced in the claim I presented, and subsequently ordered
Lieutenant Reynolds to send the negroes forthwith to Arkansas.
After I saw a settled and determined purpose to thwart me there as
well as elsewhere, I left New Orleans on the next day for this
place, and since my arrival here, I have learned by a letter from
Lieutenant Reynolds, that the negroes were sent off the next day
after I left."
"Captain Morrison I did not see. Not perhaps being as fruitful in
expedients as some others of them, he stopped at Fort Jackson, and
sent to New Orleans for transportation outfit, etc., and passed the
city on his way up, without but few knowing who he was, or anything
else in relation to him. I learned indirectly from Major Clark,
(who probably did not intend this admission for me,) that he had
between twenty and thirty of the negroes on board belonging to this
claim."
"I am, sir, with the highest respect,
Yours, etc.,
N. F. COLLINS.
C. A. HARRIS, Esq.,
Comm'r Indian Affairs, Washington, D. C."
It is most obvious that Collins believed that the military officers of
Government, who were serving at a distance from Washington, viewed his
mission with no particular favor, and he evidently retired from New
Orleans with some degree of indignation.
In the meantime, the claimant Love, despairing of obtaining the negroes,
refused to enter bail for costs and damages, in case the suit should be
determined against him in the higher court, and the sheriff delivered
them over to Mr. Reynolds on the same day that Collins left the city. On
the next day, Mr. Reynolds wrote the Commissioner of Indian Affairs,
saying, "The thirty-one negroes who were arrested, seized from me and
lodged in the jail of this city, were last evening surrendered to me.
The Creek attorney (N. F. Collins, Esq.) nor any authorized agent being
present, and not wishing to detain them at the expense of the
Government, they were immediately embarked and dispatched West, with
twenty-five days' provisions, under the charge of Assistant Conductor
Benjamin, who, to satisfy the Indians, had been left with the negroes at
the period of the service of the process; of which fact I informed the
Department at the time."
These thirty-one prisoners who had been thus detained, were now once
more under way for their western home. Their hearts appeared to beat
more freely as the noble steamer, which bore them on their way to their
friends and future homes, cut loose from her moorings and sped her way
toward her destined port. On board that happy craft, also, were many
smiles and hearty congratulations exchanged among those children of the
forest, who had been borne along on the tide of ever-varying
circumstances. Although helpless and penniless, and apparently
friendless, they had almost miraculously escaped the meshes which our
Government and the slave-dealers had spread for their destruction. In
due time they reached Fort Gibson, and were delivered over to the care
of the proper agent, who conducted them to their friends. And now some
nine hundred Seminoles, and some three to four hundred Exiles, had
reached the Indian Country; they constituted the first party of that
nation who, driven from their homes--their native wilds--had consented
to be taken to a strange land.
They had been assured by General Jessup and all officers who spoke for
the Government, that the treaty of Payne's Landing was to be complied
with. To enforce that treaty had been the order of General Jackson.
General Cass had declared that the _Indians must comply with that
treaty_; while, to our Indian agents, he asserted it to be the policy of
the Government to _unite the Creeks and Seminoles as one people_.
But the Indians and Exiles were constantly assured, that they were to
have a tract of country set off to their separate use; and when they
entered into the articles of capitulation with General Jessup, on the
eighteenth of March, 1837, that officer, on behalf of the United
States, had stipulated to protect the Indians and "their allies" in the
enjoyment of their lives and property.
But now the turpitude and guilt of the Executive were revealed. The
orders of the agent directed him to take them on to the territory
assigned to the Creeks. This would subject them to Creek jurisdiction
and Creek laws; and they were perfectly conscious that every Exile would
be immediately enslaved. Yet there was no country which they could call
their own. The perfidious pretense of enforcing the treaty of Payne's
Landing, without giving them a separate territory according to the
supplemental treaty, now stood exposed in its proper light. Abraham was
a man of influence with his brethren. He had used his utmost efforts to
induce them to emigrate. He had been honest. He believed in the
integrity of our nation, of its people, its government; but his error
had been fatal. The Exiles were in the Western Country, without a home,
and with no means of support, except the stipulation of Government to
furnish them provisions for one year.
It was at this time, when a Christian government had violated its faith,
most solemnly pledged, in order to enslave a people who for ages had
been free, that a Pagan government performed towards the Exiles and
Seminoles the Christian duty, the hospitality, of furnishing them
temporary homes. The Cherokees had volunteered to exert their influence
with the Indians and Exiles in favor of peace. They had induced many of
them to come into the American camp under flags of truce which had been
violated, and their persons seized, held prisoners, and sent West. They
had themselves, apparently, been involved in this treachery practiced by
our Government, and, under these circumstances, they consented to share
their own possessions with the Seminoles and Exiles until further
arrangements were made; they consented to have the Seminoles and Exiles
settle on their land for the present, until the Government could be
induced to fulfill its most sacred compacts with these victims of
slaveholding persecutions.