THE REUNION AND FINAL EXODUS.
Difficulties in effecting a reunion of Tribes--Its objects--Exiles
and Seminoles move on to Creek Lands--They settle in separate
Villages--Creeks demand Exiles as Slaves--Exiles arm
themselves--They flee to Fort Gibson--Demand protection of the
United States--General Arbuckle protects them--Reports facts to
Department--Administration embarrassed--Call on General Jessup for
facts--He writes General Arbuckle--Reports facts to the
President--President hesitates--Refers question to Attorney
General--Extraordinary opinion of that Officer--Manner in which Mr.
Mason was placed in office--Exiles return to their
Village--Slaveholders dissatisfied--Slave-dealer among the
Creeks--His offer--They capture near one hundred Exiles--They are
delivered to the Slave-dealer--Habeas Corpus in Arkansas--Decision
of Judge--Exiles hurried to New Orleans and sold as Slaves--Events
of 1850--Exiles depart for Mexico--Are pursued by
Creeks--Battle--The Exiles continue their journey--They settle near
Santa Rosa--The fate which different portions of the Exiles
met--Incidents which occurred after their settlement in
Mexico--Conclusion.
[Sidenote: 1846.]
The Creeks and Seminoles had been separated for nearly a century. They
had most of that time lived under separate governments. Each Tribe had
been controlled by their own laws; and each had been independent of the
other. They had often been at war with each other; and the most deadly
feuds had been engendered and still subsisted among them. To unite them
with the Creeks, and blot the name of "Seminole" from the page of their
future history, in order to involve the Exiles in slavery, had long been
a cherished object with the administration of our Government. It was now
fondly hoped, that that object would be accomplished without further
difficulty.
But at no period had the Seminole Indians regarded the Exiles with
greater favor than they did when removing on to the territory assigned
to the Creeks. Although many of them had intermarried with the
Seminoles, and half-breeds were now common among the Indians; yet most
of the descendants of the pioneers who fled from South Carolina and
Georgia maintained their identity of character, living by themselves,
and maintaining the purity of the African race. They yet cherished this
love of their own kindred and color; and when they removed on to the
Creek lands, they settled in separate villages: and the Seminole Indians
appeared generally to coincide with the Exiles in the propriety of each
maintaining their distinctive character.
During the summer and autumn both Indians and Exiles became residents
within Creek jurisdiction; and the Executive seemed to regard the trust
held under the assignment made at Indian Spring, twenty-four years
previously, as now fulfilled. Regarding the Creeks as holding the
equitable or beneficial interest in the bodies of the Exiles, under the
assignment from their owners to the United States, and they being now
brought under Creek jurisdiction, subject to Creek laws, the Executive
felt that his obligations were discharged, and the whole matter left
with the Creeks.
This opinion appears also to have been entertained by the Creek Indians;
for no sooner had the Exiles and Seminoles located themselves within
Creek jurisdiction, than the Exiles were claimed as the legitimate
slaves of the Creeks. To these demands the Exiles and Seminoles replied,
that the President, under the treaty of 1845, was bound to hear and
determine all questions arising between them. The demands were,
therefore, certified to the proper department for decision. But this
setting in judgment upon the heaven-endowed right of man to his liberty,
seemed to involve more personal and moral responsibility than was
desirable for the Executive to assume, and the claims remained
undecided.
The Creeks became impatient at delay; they were a slaveholding people,
as well as their more civilized but more infidel brethren, of the slave
States. The Exiles, living in their own villages in the enjoyment of
perfect freedom, had already excited discontent among the slaves of the
Creek and Choctaw Tribes, and those of Arkansas. The Creeks appeared to
feel that it had been far better for them to have kept the Exiles in
Florida, than to bring them to the Western Country to live in freedom.
Yet their claims under the treaty of 1845, thus far, appeared to have
been disregarded by the President; they had been unable to obtain a
decision on them; and they now threatened violence for the purpose of
enslaving the Exiles, unless their demands were peacefully conceded.
The Exiles, yet confident that the Government would fulfill its
stipulations to protect them and their property, repaired in a body to
Fort Gibson, and demanded protection of General Arbuckle, the officer in
command. He had no doubt of the obligation of the United States to lend
them protection, according to the express language of the articles of
capitulation entered into with General Jessup, in March, 1837. He,
therefore, directed the whole body of Exiles to encamp and remain upon
the lands reserved by the United States, near the fort, and under their
exclusive jurisdiction, assuring them that no Creek would dare set foot
upon that reservation with intentions of violence towards any person.
Accordingly the Exiles, who yet remained free, now encamped around Fort
Gibson, and were supported by rations dealt out from the public stores.
Soon as he could ascertain all the facts, General Arbuckle made report
to the War Department relative to their situation, and the claims which
they made to protection under the articles of capitulation, together
with the rights which the Creeks set up to reënslave them.
This state of circumstances appears to have been unexpected by the
Executive. Indeed, he appears from the commencement to have under-rated
the difficulties which beset the enslavement of a people who were
determined upon the enjoyment of freedom; he seems to have expected the
negroes, when once placed within Creek jurisdiction, would have yielded
without further effort. But he was now placed in a position which
constrained him either to repudiate the pledged faith of the nation, or
to protect the Exiles in their _persons and property_, according to the
solemn covenants which General Jessup had entered into with them.
Yet the President was disposed to make farther efforts to avoid the
responsibility of deciding the question before him. General Jessup had
entered into the articles of capitulation, and the President appeared to
think he was competent to give construction to them; he therefore
referred the subject to that officer, stating the circumstances, and
demanding of him the substance of _his undertaking_ in regard to the
articles of capitulation with the Exiles.
General Jessup appears to have now felt a desire to do justice to that
friendless and persecuted people. Without waiting to answer the
President, he at once wrote General Arbuckle, saying, "The case of the
Seminole negroes is now before the President. By my proclamation and the
convention made with them, when they separated from the Indians and
surrendered, _they are free_. The question is, whether they shall be
separated from the Seminoles and removed to another country; or be
allowed to occupy, as they did in Florida, separate villages in the
Seminole Country, west of Arkansas? The latter is what _I promised
them_. I hope, General, you will prevent any interference with them at
Fort Gibson, until the President determines whether they shall remain in
the Seminole Country, or be allowed to remove to some other."
General Arbuckle, faithful to the honor of his Government, continued to
protect the Exiles. He fed them from the public stores, not doubting
that the Executive would redeem the pledge of the nation given by
General Jessup, its authorized agent. But the President (Mr. Polk)
himself a slaveholder, with his prejudices and sympathies in favor of
the institution, did not understand the articles of capitulation
according to the construction put upon them by General Jessup; he
appears, therefore, to have called on the General for a more explicit
report of facts. In reply to this call, he reported, saying, "At a
meeting with the three Indian chiefs, and the negro chiefs, Auguste and
Carollo, I stipulated to recommend to the President to grant the Indians
a small tract of country in the south-eastern part of the Peninsula; but
it was distinctly understood that the negroes were to be separated from
them at once, and sent West, whether the Indians were permitted to
remain in Florida or not. With the negroes, it was stipulated that they
should be sent West, as a part of the Seminole nation, and be _settled
in a separate village, under the_ PROTECTION OF THE UNITED STATES." In
another letter, addressed to the Secretary of War, he says: "A very
_small portion_ of the Seminole negroes who went to the West, were
brought in and surrendered by their owners, under the capitulation of
Fort Dade. Over these negroes the Indians have all the rights of
masters; but all the other negroes, making more than _nine-tenths of the
whole number_, either separated from the Indians and surrendered to me,
or were captured by the troops under my command. I, as commander of the
army, and in the capacity of representative of my country, _solemnly
pledged the national faith that they should not be separated, nor any of
them sold to white men or others_, but be allowed to settle and remain
in separate villages, UNDER THE PROTECTION OF THE UNITED STATES."
But even with these explicit statements before him, the President
appears to have been unable to form an opinion; and he referred the
matter to the Attorney General, Hon. John Y. Mason, of Virginia, who had
been bred a slaveholder, and fully sympathized with the slave power. He,
having examined the whole subject, delivered a very elaborate opinion,
embracing seven documentary pages;[132] but concluding with the opinion,
that although the Exiles were entitled to their freedom, the Executive
_could not interfere in any manner to protect them_, as stipulated by
General Jessup, but must leave them to retire to their Towns in the
Indian Territory, where _they had a right to remain_.
[Sidenote: 1848.]
We should be unfaithful to our pledged purpose, were we to omit certain
important facts connected with this opinion of the Attorney General.
Nathan Clifford, of Maine, was appointed Attorney General of the United
States in 1846, soon after the report of General Arbuckle concerning the
situation of the Exiles reached Washington. The subject was before the
President more than two years. This delay we cannot account for, unless
it were to save Mr. Clifford (being a Northern man) from the
responsibility of deciding this question, involving important interests
of the slaveholding portion of our Union. In 1848 Mr. Clifford was
appointed Minister to Mexico, and Hon. Isaac Toucey, of Connecticut, was
appointed Attorney General. But he, too, was from a free State, and it
would throw upon him great responsibility were he constrained to act
upon this subject. Were he to decide in favor of the Exiles, it might
ruin his popularity at the South; and if against them, it would have an
equally fatal effect at the North.
Under these circumstances, recourse was had to an expedient. Before Mr.
Toucey entered upon the discharge of his official duties, Mr. Mason,
himself a slaveholder, was appointed to discharge the duties _ad
interim_. He entered the office, wrote out the opinion referred to, and
then resigned the office and emoluments to Mr. Toucey; having decided no
other question, nor discharged any other duty, than this exercise of
official influence for the enslavement of the Exiles.
The President affirmed the principles decided by the Attorney General,
and the Exiles were informed that they _had the right to remain in their
villages, free from all interference, or interruption from the Creeks_.
They had no other lands, no other country, no other homes. Many of their
families were connected by marriage with the Seminoles. They and the
Seminole Indians had, through several generations, been acquainted with
each other; they had stood beside each other on many a battle field.
Seminoles and Exiles had fallen beside each other, and were buried in
the same grave; they had often sat in council together, and the Exiles
were unwilling to separate from their friends. Wild Cat and Abraham and
Louis, and many leading men and warriors of the Exiles and Seminoles,
having deliberated upon the subject, united in the opinion, that the
Exiles should return to their villages and reside upon the lands to
which they were entitled.
In accordance with this decision, they returned to their new homes,
resumed their habits of agriculture, and for a time all was quiet and
peaceful; but their example was soon felt among the slaves of Arkansas,
and of the surrounding Indian tribes. Nor is it to be supposed that the
holders of slaves in any State of the Union, would be willing to admit
that so large a body of servants could, by any effort, separate from
their masters, for a century and a half maintain their liberty, and
after so much effort to reënslave them, be permitted to enjoy liberty in
peace.
Hundreds of them had been seized in Florida and enslaved. The laws of
slave States presumed every black person to be a slave; and it was
evident, that if they could once be subjected to the will of some white
man, the laws of Arkansas would enable him to hold them in bondage.[133]
An individual, a slave-dealer, appeared among the Creeks and offered to
pay them one hundred dollars for each Exile they would seize and deliver
to him; he stipulating to take all risk of title.[134]
[Sidenote: 1849.]
This temptation was too great for the integrity of the Creeks, who were
smarting under their disappointment, and the defeat of their long
cherished schemes, of reënslaving the Exiles. Some two hundred Creek
warriors collected together, armed themselves, and, making a sudden
descent upon the Exiles, seized such as they could lay their hands upon.
The men and most of the women and children fled; but those who had arms
collected, and presenting themselves between their brethren and the
Creeks who were pursuing them, prepared to defend themselves and
friends.[135] The Creeks, unwilling to encounter the danger which
threatened them, ceased from further pursuit, but, turning back, dragged
their frightened victims, who had been already captured, to the Creek
villages, and delivered them over to the slave-dealer, who paid them the
stipulated price.
[Sidenote: 1850.]
The Seminole Agent, learning the outrage, at once repaired to the
nearest Judge in Arkansas, and obtained a writ of habeas corpus. The
Exiles were brought before him in obedience to the command of the writ,
and a hearing was had. The Agent showed the action of General Jessup;
the sanction of the capitulation of March, 1837, by the Executive; the
opinion of the Attorney General, and action of the President, deciding
the Exiles to be free, and in all respects entitled to their liberty.
But the Judge decided that the Creeks had obtained title by virtue of
their contract with General Jessup; that neither General Jessup, nor the
President, had power to emancipate the Exiles, even in time of war; that
the Attorney General had misunderstood the law; that the title of the
Creek Indians was legal and perfect; and they, having sold them to the
claimant, his title must be good and perfect.[136]
No sooner was the decision announced, than the manacled victims were
hurried from their friends and the scenes of such transcendent crimes
and guilt. They were placed on board a steamboat, and carried to New
Orleans. There they were sold to different purchasers, taken to
different estates, and mingling with the tide of human victims who are
septennially murdered upon the cotton and sugar plantations of that
State, they now rest in their quiet graves, or perhaps have shared the
more unhappy fate of living and suffering tortures incomparably worse
than death.
The year 1850 was distinguished by a succession of triumphs on the part
of the slave power. While the President and his Cabinet, and members of
the Senate and of the House of Representatives, were seeking the passage
of the Fugitive Slave Law; while slaveholders and their northern allies
appeared to be aroused in favor of oppression within the States of our
Union, their savage coadjutors of the Indian territory were equally
active.
There yet remained some hundreds of Exiles in that far-distant territory
unsubdued, and enjoying liberty. They had witnessed the duplicity, the
treachery of our Government often repeated, toward themselves and their
friends--they had, most of them, been born in freedom--they had grown to
manhood, had become aged amidst persecutions, dangers and death--they
had experienced the constant and repeated violations of our national
faith: its perfidy was no longer disguised; if they remained, death or
slavery would constitute their only alternative. One, and only one, mode
of avoiding such a fate remained--that was, to leave the territory, the
jurisdiction of the United States, and flee beyond its power and
influence.
Mexico was _free_! No slave clanked his chains under its government.
Could they reach the Rio Grande? Could they place themselves safely on
Mexican soil, they might hope yet to be free. A Council was held. Some
were connected with Seminoles of influence. Those who were intimately
connected with Indian families of influence, and most of the
half-breeds, feeling they could safely remain in the Indian territory,
preferred to stay with their friends and companions. Of the precise
number who thus continued in the Indian Country, we have no certain
information;[137] but some three hundred are supposed to have determined
on going to Mexico, and perhaps from one to two hundred concluded to
remain with their connexions in the Indian Country.
Abraham had reached a mature age; had great experience, and retained
influence with his people. Louis Pacheco, of whom we spoke in a former
chapter, with his learning, his shrewdness and tact, was still with
them, and so were many able and experienced warriors. Wild Cat, the most
active and energetic chief of the Seminole Tribe, declared his
unalterable purpose to accompany the Exiles; to assist them in their
journey, and defend them, if assailed. Other Seminoles volunteered to go
with them. Their arrangements were speedily made. Such property as they
had was collected together, and packed for transportation. They owned a
few Western ponies. Their blankets, which constituted their beds, and
some few cooking utensils and agricultural implements, were placed upon
their ponies, or carried by the females and children; while the
warriors, carrying only their weapons and ammunition, marched,
unencumbered even by any unnecessary article of clothing, prepared for
battle at every step of their journey.
After the sun had gone down (Sept. 10), their spies and patrols, who had
been sent out for that purpose, returned, and reported that all was
quiet; that no slave-hunters were to be seen. As the darkness of night
was closing around them, they commenced their journey westwardly. Amid
the gloom of the evening, silent and sad they took leave of their
western homes, and fled from the jurisdiction of a people who had
centuries previously kidnapped their ancestors in their native homes,
brought them to this country, enslaved them, and during many generations
had persecuted them. Many of their friends and relatives had been
murdered for their love of liberty by our Government; others had been
doomed to suffer and languish in slavery--a fate far more dreaded than
death. At the period of this exodus, their number was probably less than
at the close of the Revolution.
When the slaveholding Creeks learned that the Exiles had left, they
collected together and sent a war party in pursuit, for the purpose of
capturing as many as they could, in order to sell them to the
slave-dealers from Louisiana and Arkansas, who were then present among
the Creeks, encouraging them to make another piratical descent upon the
Exiles for the capture of slaves.
This war party came up with the emigrants on the third day after leaving
their homes. But Wild Cat and Abraham, and their experienced warriors,
were not to be surprised. They were prepared and ready for the conflict.
With them it was death or victory. They boldly faced their foes. Their
wives and children were looking on with emotions not to be described.
With the coolness of desperation, they firmly resolved on dying, or on
driving back the slave-catching Creeks from the field of conflict. Their
nerves were steady, and their aim fatal. Their enemies soon learned the
danger and folly of attempting to capture armed men who were fighting
for freedom. They fled, leaving their dead upon the field; which is
always regarded by savages as dishonorable defeat.[138]
The Exiles resumed their journey, still maintaining their warlike
arrangement. Directing their course south-westerly, they crossed the Rio
Grande, and continuing nearly in the same direction, they proceeded into
Mexico, until they reached the vicinity of the ancient but now deserted
town of Santa Rosa.[139] In that beautiful climate, they found a rich,
productive soil. Here they halted, examined the country, and finally
determined to locate their new homes in this most romantic portion of
Mexico. Here they erected their cabins, planted their gardens, commenced
plantations, and resumed their former habits of agricultural life. There
they yet remain. Forcibly torn from their native land, oppressed,
wronged, and degraded, they became voluntary Exiles from South Carolina
and Georgia. More recently exiled from Florida and from the territory of
the United States--they are yet _free_! After the struggles and
persecutions of a hundred and fifty years, they repose in comparative
quiet under a government which repudiates slavery. To the pen of some
future historian we consign their subsequent history.
Before taking leave of the reader, we would call his attention to a
review of the fate which attended different portions of the Exiles, and
to a few further incidents, for some of which we have only newspaper
authority; but from all the circumstances we have no doubt they actually
transpired.
Of the Exiles and their descendants, twelve were delivered up at the
treaty of Colerain in 1796, and consigned to slavery; two hundred and
seventy were massacred at Blount's Fort in 1816; thirty were taken
prisoners--these all died of wounds or were enslaved. At the different
battles in the first Seminole War in 1818, it is believed that at least
four hundred were slain, including those who fell at Blount's Fort.
In the Second Seminole War, probably seventy-five were slain in battle,
and five hundred were enslaved; and at least seventy-five were seized by
the Creek Indians, in 1850, and enslaved. Probably a hundred and fifty
connected with the Seminoles now reside in the Western Country, and will
soon become amalgamated with the Indians; while three hundred have found
their way to Mexico, and are free.[140] Making, in all, thirteen
hundred and fifty souls; being some hundreds less than was reported by
the Officers of Government, in 1836. This discrepancy is accounted for
by the fact, that the Exiles captured by individual enterprise, and by
the Georgia and Florida militia, were never officially reported to the
War Department, and we have no reliable data on which we can fix an
estimate of the number thus piratically enslaved. There are also a few
yet in Florida, not included in the above estimate.
[Sidenote: 1852.]
As to their present situation, we can give the reader but little further
information. In the summer of 1852, Wild Cat suddenly appeared among his
friends, the Seminoles, who yet remained in the Indian Country. His
appearance excited surprise among the Creeks. They at that time
maintained a guard, composed of mounted men: these were at once put in
motion for the purpose of arresting this extraordinary chieftain. But
while they were engaged in looking for him, he and a company of
Seminoles, attended by a number of Exiles and black persons, previously
held in bondage by the Creeks, were rapidly wending their way towards
their new settlement.[141]
This visit of Wild Cat to the Western Country occasioned much excitement
in that region, as well as astonishment at Washington, and constituted
the occasion of a protracted correspondence between the War Department
and our Military Officers and Indian Agents of that country. Wild Cat
was denounced as a "pirate"--"_robber_"--"OUTLAW;" and nearly all the
opprobrious epithets known to our language were heaped upon him, for
thus aiding his fellow men to regain those rights to life and liberty
with which the God of Nature had originally endowed them.
During the year 1852, while our commissioners, appointed to establish
the boundary between the United States and Mexico, were engaged in the
discharge of their official duties, a small party of armed men was in
attendance for their protection. Some eight of these were said to have
been engaged in patroling the country, when they fell in with Wild Cat
and a portion of this band of Exiles, who were at all times prepared for
friends or foes. The whites were made prisoners without bloodshed, and
taken to their village. A council was called. Abraham was yet living,
and the white men declared that he was regarded as a ruling prince by
his people. They were evidently suspicious of the intentions of our men;
but upon inquiry and consideration, they became satisfied that no
hostile intentions had brought our friends to that country; they were
accordingly treated with becoming hospitality, and dismissed. These
brief statements appeared in some of the newspapers of that day, which
constitutes our only authority for stating them.
[Sidenote: 1853.]
Complaints were subsequently made through the Texan newspapers, that
slaves escaped from that region of country and found an asylum in
Mexico, on the other side of the Rio Grande; and intimations were thrown
out that a party of volunteers, without authority from the United
States, were about to visit the settlement, which thus encouraged slaves
to seek their freedom. The suggestion was so much in character with the
slaveholders of Texas, that it excited attention among those who were
aware of the settlement of Exiles in the region indicated. It was
believed that those men who were about to visit Wild Cat and Abraham and
Louis and their companions, for the purpose of seizing and enslaving
men, would find an entertainment for which they were not prepared.
Some few months subsequently, a brief reference was made in the
newspapers of Texas to this expedition, giving their readers to
understand that it had failed of accomplishing the object intended, and
had returned with its numbers _somewhat diminished_ by their conflict
with the blacks.
As was naturally expected, after the lapse of some six months, great
complaint was heard through the public press of Indian depredations
upon the frontier of Texas. Plantations were said to be destroyed;
buildings burned; people murdered, and slaves carried away. This foray
was said to have been made by Camanche Indians, led on by Wild Cat. He
appears yet ready to make war upon all who fight for slavery; and many
of the scenes which were enacted in Florida, will most likely be again
presented on our south-western frontier, where the same causes exist
which formerly existed in Florida, and the same effects will be likely
to follow.
Typographical errors corrected by the etext transcriber:
General Call at Talahasse=> General Call at Tallahasse {pg 125}
visited Fort Mellen=> visited Fort Mellon {pg 141}
Any inteference with the negroes=> Any interference with the negroes {pg
147}
Members of familes=> Members of families {pg 174}
prefering to have them=> preferring to have them {pg 195}
arrrangements were privately making=> arrangements were privately making
{pg 237}
Acting Commmissioner=> Acting Commissioner {pg 241}
to those gentleman to enable them=> to those gentlemen to enable them
{pg 241}
he was in Forida at the time=> he was in Florida at the time {pg 245}
all prisoner captured in war=> all prisoners captured in war {pg 246}
This feelng was=> This feeling was {pg 252}
betrayed, treachererously=> betrayed, treacherously {pg 255}
This Message was=> This message was {pg 263}
that Territoy=> that Territory {pg 282}
outnumbered the asssailants=> outnumbered the assailants {pg 289}
disppointment and chagrin=> disappointment and chagrin {pg 289}
died of sicknes=> died of sickness {pg 303}
sense of gatitude=> sense of gratitude {pg 306}
were sacrified=> were sacrificed {pg 315}
Blount's Fourt=> Blount's Fort {pg 318}
* * * * *
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Vide Bancroft's and Hildreth's Histories of the United States.
[2] Vide both Histories above cited.
[3] Vide Schoolcraft's History of Indian Tribes.
[4] Vide American Archives, Vol. I. Fifth Series: 1852.
[5] This was the residence of George Galphin, an Indian trader, who, in
1773, aided in obtaining a treaty by which the Creek Indians ceded a
large tract of land to the British Government. Georgia succeeded the
British Government in its title to these lands, by the treaty of peace
in 1783. Some fifty years afterwards, the descendants of Galphin
petitioned the State of Georgia for compensation, on account of the
services rendered by Galphin in obtaining the treaty of 1773. But the
Legislature repudiated the claim. The heirs, or rather descendants of
Galphin, then applied to Congress, who never had either legal or
beneficial interest, in the lands obtained by the treaty. The
Representatives from Georgia and from the South generally supported the
claim. Northern men yielded their objections to this absurd demand, and
in 1848 a bill passed both Houses of Congress by which the descendants
of Galphin, and their attorneys and agents, obtained from our National
Treasury $243,871 86, and the term "Galphin" has since become synonymous
with "peculation" upon the public Treasury.
[6] Vide Report of Hugh Knox, Secretary of War, to the President, dated
July 6, 1789. American State Papers. Vol. V. page 15, where the Treaty
is recited in full.
[7] Vide papers accompanying the Report of the Secretary of War, above
referred to, marked A, and numbered 1, 2 and 3.
[8] Vide letter of James White to Major General Knox, of the 24th May,
1787. American State Papers, Vol II, Indian Affairs.
[9] American State Papers, Vol. V, page 25.
[10] Vide Documents accompanying the Treaty of New York; Am. State
Papers, Vol. I, Indian Affairs.
[11] The reader need not be informed, that these demands of indemnity
for slaves were promptly rejected by the English government; and Jay's
Treaty of 1794, surrendered them forever.
[12] Hildreth, in his History of the United States, speaks of in that
light.
[13] Vide Annals of Congress, Vol. I, pages 1068-70-74.
[14] Vide Correspondence on this subject between Seagrove and the War
Department. American State Papers, Vol. V, pages 304-5, 320, 336, 387,
and 392.
[15] American State Papers, "Indian Affairs." Vol. II, p. 306.
[16] Vide talk of principal Chief at Treaty of Colerain.
[17] Vide Annals of Congress of that date.
[18] Vide papers accompanying the Treaty of Colerain. American State
Papers, Vol. I, "Indian Affairs."
[19] Vide the papers accompanying this Treaty when submitted to the
Senate. They are collected in the second volume of American State
Papers, entitled "Indian Affairs." They will afford much interesting
matter as to the doctrines of "State Rights" and Nullification, which it
is unnecessary to embrace in this work.
[20] Vide Annals of IVth Congress, 2d Session
[21] The claims of these ancient Spanish inhabitants for indemnity
against these robberies, have been pressed upon the consideration of
Congress for the last twenty-five years, and were recently pending
before the Court of Claims. When the bill for their relief was under
discussion before the House of Representatives, In 1843, Hon. John
Quincy Adams presented a list of some ninety slaves, for the loss of
whom the owners claimed compensation from the United States. But the
discussions which arose on private bills were not at that time reported;
and neither this exhibit, nor the speech of Mr. Adams, are to be found
in the Congressional Debates of that day.
[22] Many slaves actually fled from their masters and found an asylum on
board British vessels. Some sixty, belonging to a planter named Forbes,
who resided in Georgia, left his plantation and took shelter on board
the ship commanded by Lord Cochrane. They were transported to Jamaica,
where they settled and lived as other free people. After the restoration
of peace, Forbes sued his Lordship, before the British courts, for
damages sustained by the loss of these slaves. The case elicited much
learning in regard to the law of Slavery and, next to that of Sommerset,
may be regarded as the most important on that subject ever litigated
before an English court.
[23] "Monette," In his "History of the Valley of the Mississippi," says
Woodbine erected this fort in the summer of 1816; and such were the
representations made before the Committee appointed in 1819, to
investigate the conduct of General Jackson, in taking possession of
Florida. But the reader will notice the Letter of General Gaines,
hereafter quoted, which bears date on the 14th May, 1815, and
_officially_ informed the Secretary of War that "_negroes and outlaws
have taken possession of a_ FORT ON THE APPALACHICOLA RIVER." This was
more than a year before the time of erecting the fort, according to
"Monette."
The parapet of the fort was said to be fifteen feet high and eighteen
thick, situated upon a gentle cliff, with a fine stream emptying into
the river near its base, and a swamp in the rear, which protected it
from the approach of artillery by land. On its walls were mounted one
thirty-two pounder, three twenty-four pounders, two nine pounders, two
six pounders, and one brass five and a half-inch howitzer. Vide Official
Report of Sailing-Master Loomis.
[24] This is the official account of Sailing-Master Loomis, who
commanded the naval expedition subsequently sent to reduce this
fortress.
"Monette," in his History of the Valley of the Mississippi, says, "_Near
the Fort the fields were fine_, and extended along the river nearly
_fifty miles_."
[25] The reader will at once see, that these people were as much under
the protection of Spain, as the fugitive slaves now in Canada are under
the protection of British laws. They were as clearly Spanish subjects as
the latter are British subjects. By the law of nations, Spain had the
same right to permit her black subjects to occupy "Blount's Fort," that
the Queen of England has to permit Fort Malden to be occupied by her
black subjects. The only distinction between the two cases is, Spain was
weak and unable to maintain her national honor, and national rights;
while England has the power to do both.
[26] Vide the voluminous Correspondence on this subject contained in Ex.
Doc. 119, 2d Session, XVth Congress.
[27] Perhaps no portion of our national history exhibits such disregard
of International law, as this unprovoked invasion of Florida. For thirty
years, the slaves of our Southern States have been in the habit of
fleeing to the British Provinces. Here they are admitted to all the
rights of citizenship, in the same manner as they were in Florida. They
vote and hold office under British laws; and when our Government
demanded that the English Ministry should disregard the rights of these
people and return them to slavery, the British Minister contemptuously
refused even to hold correspondence with our Secretary of State on a
subject so abhorrent to every principle of national law and
self-respect. Our Government coolly submitted to the scornful arrogance
of England; but did not hesitate to invade Florida with an armed force,
and to seize the faithful subjects of Spain, and enslave them.
[28] Hon. Duncan L. Clinch. He left the service in 1841, and was
subsequently a Member of Congress for several years, and died in 1852.
[29] War was thus waged against Spain, by Executive authority, without
consulting Congress; and no member of that body uttered a protest, or
denunciation of the act.
[30] In Ex. Doc. No. 119, 2d Session, XVth Congress, may be found the
official correspondence between the War Department and General Jackson;
also that between General Jackson and General Gaines, together with the
orders of each, as well as the correspondence between the Secretary of
the Navy and Commodore Patterson; and the order of the latter officer to
Sailing-Master Loomis; and the final report of Sailing-Master Loomis and
General Clinch. In none of these papers is there any act of hostility
mentioned or referred to as having been committed by the Exiles, or the
Seminole Indians, prior to their reaching the vicinity of the Fort.
[31] Hildreth states that _three_ gun-boats were detailed on that
occasion; but the report of Sailing-Master Loomis speaks only of _two_.
[32] Hildreth states the number to have been about three hundred, partly
Indians and partly negroes.
[33] Monette says this expedition was undertaken by Col. Clinch upon his
own responsibility, to enable some boats laden with provisions to pass
up the river. A strange misapprehension of facts, as shown by official
documents.
[34] At this conference, Sailing-Master Loomis informed Colonel Clinch
that, on the day previous, while a party of his men were on shore, they
were fired on by Indians and one man killed. This was the first and only
act of hostility against our troops. It was committed by _Indians_, not
by _Exiles_; but it was subsequently seized upon and published as a
justification for carrying out General Jackson's order, bearing date
more than two months prior to the occurrence, directing General Gaines
to destroy the fort and return the negroes to slavery.
[35] Monette says, "The scene in the fort was horrible beyond
description. _Nearly the whole of the inmates were involved in
indiscriminate destruction; not one-sixth of the whole escaped. The
cries of the wounded, the groans of the dying, with the shouts and yells
of the Indians, rendered the scene horrible beyond description._"
[36] Vide Official Report at Sailing-Master Loomis, Ex. Doc. 119: 2d
Sess. XVth Cong.
[37] Some years since, the author wrote a short sketch of the general
Massacre, but omitted this point as too revolting to the feelings of
humanity, and too disgraceful to the American arms, to be laid before
the popular mind in such an article; and he would most gladly have
omitted it in this work, could he have done so consistently with his
duty to the public.
[38] Monette says that three thousand stands of arms and six hundred
barrels of powder were destroyed by the explosion. This is probably
somewhat of an exaggeration. We have no fact to warrant the assertion,
that there was any addition made to the stores left by Col. Nichols,
when he delivered the fort to the Exiles. The same author states, that
one magazine, containing one hundred and sixty barrels of powder, was
left unharmed by the explosion; but no mention of such fact is found in
the Official Report, by Sailing-Master Loomis.
[39] Vide Documents before the Committee of Congress appointed to
investigate the cause of General Jackson's invasion of Florida: XVth
Congress, 2d Session.
[40] This bill was reported by Mr. Ingham of Connecticut, Chairman of
the Committee on Naval Affairs.
[41] Vide Statutes enacted at 2d Session, XXVIth Congress. The author
was then a member of the House of Representatives, but had not learned
to watch the movements of slaveholders and "their allies," so closely as
subsequent experience taught him would be useful.
[42] Vide Speeches of Hon. George Poindexter and others on the Seminole
War, in 1819.
[43] Hon. William Jay, of New York, published his Views of the action of
the Federal Government in 1887.
[44] Monette says Arbuthnot sent word to the Negroes and Indians,
notifying them of the approach of General Jackson; but the official
report of that Officer shows that his advance guard was daily engaged in
skirmishing with the Indians.
[45] Vide General Jackson's Official Report of this battle, Ex. Doc.
175, 2d Session XVth Congress.
[46] Williams, in his History of Florida, states that three hundred and
forty Negroes again rallied after the first retreat, and fought their
pursuers, until _eighty_ of their number, were killed on the field.
"Monetta" also states the same fact; but General Jackson, in all his
Reports, evidently avoided, as far as possible, any notice of the
Exiles, as a people. Indeed such was the policy of the Administration,
and of its officers, and of all slaveholders. They then supposed, as
they now do, that slavery must depend upon the supposed ignorance and
stupidity of the colored people; and scarcely an instance can be found,
where a slaveholder admits the slave to possess human intelligence or
human feeling; indeed, to teach a slave to read the Scriptures, is
regarded as an offense, in nearly every slave State, and punishable by
fine and imprisonment.
[47] Various names have been given this Fort. The author, having
heretofore adopted that of "Blount's Fort," prefers to continue that
name. It was equally known, however, as the "Negro Fort," and as "Fort
Nichols."
[48] The people of the free States should understand, that almost every
question touching slavery which has arisen between our Government and
that of England, the latter has yielded, since the formation of Jay's
Treaty in 1795.
The payment for slaves who were shipwrecked on board the Comet, the
Encomium, and the Enterprise, and found freedom by being landed on
British soil, constitute rare instances in which slaveholdlng arrogance
has proved successful in the arts of diplomacy. The case of the Creole
constitutes another admirable illustration of successful effrontery. In
this case, the slaves took possession of the ship, guided it to Nassau,
a British Island, went on shore and became free. The officers of the
slave ship demanded that the British authorities should seize the
negroes, and return them to the ship. They refused. Daniel Webster,
Secretary of State, became the voluntary Agent, Attorney and Solicitor,
for the slave dealers, who should have been hanged, instead of receiving
the encouragement of our Government. But the subject was submitted to
the umpirage of a man, said to have once lived in Boston, who,
principally upon the authority of Mr. Webster, decided that the people
of the British government should pay the slave dealers for these parents
and children; and after fifteen years of continued effort, the money was
obtained.
[49] Vide Letter from the Secretary of War to Messrs. Plckens and
Flournoy, August 8, 1820. Am. State Papers, Vol. VI, p. 249.
[50] Vide Letter of the Secretary of War to Gen. Flournoy, of the 19th
of October, 1820. Ibid, 250.
[51] Vide Papers transmitted to Congress, in connection with the Treaty
of "Indian Spring." Am. State Papers, "Indian Affairs," Vol. I, No. 174.
[52] Ibid.
[53] Ibid. Letter of Instructions contained in the papers referred to on
preceding page.
[54] Vide Report of Commissioner on this subject; also, the Report of
Wm. Wirt, Attorney General of the United States, to whom the President
referred the subject. "Opinions of the Attorney General," 1822. Mr. Wirt
states the price paid for those slaves was from two to three times their
real value.
[55] Vide Reports of Committee XVIIth Congress, 2d Session, No. 125.
[56] Vide Am. State Papers, Vol. VI, pages 411, 412. It will be observed
that General Jackson discarded the term "_maroon_," used by Penieres, as
that in Jamaica, signifies "_free negroes_ of the mountains," who once
fled from service, but have maintained their liberty so long that they
cannot be identified, and are therefore admitted to be free.
[57] It is an interesting fact, that the doctrine recently avowed by the
Supreme Court of the United States, that "_black men have no rights
which white men are bound to respect_," was recognized and practiced
upon in Florida, more than thirty years since, by the officers of
Government.
[58] Vide Executive Documents, No. 271, 2d Session XXVth Congress.
[59] Captain Sprague, of the United States Army, so states, in his
History of the War.
[60] Vide Letter of the Agent, dated sixth of March, 1827.
[61] Vide Minutes of Talk held at Seminole Agency, with Treskal, Mathla,
and other Chiefs. Ex. Doc. 271, 1st Sess. XXIVth Congress.
[62] Vide Letter of Col. Brooke to Col. Humphreys, 6 May, 1828,
contained in the above cited Document.
[63] Vide Letter of Judge Smith, May 10, 1828, contained in same
Document.
[64] Vide Statement of John Hick, 15 August, 1828. Ex. Doc. 271, before
quoted.
[65] Vide Letter of Gad Humphreys, Oct. 20, 1828. It probably was the
first time the proposition was submitted to the Seminoles.
[66] Even Mr. Adams, when President, continued in office those men who
had been placed there by his predecessors.
[67] Vide Sprague's History of the Florida War.
[68] Vide Documents relating to the Florida War, 1st Session, XXIVth
Congress.
[69] Vide Sprague's History of the Florida War.
[70] Vide Ex. Doc. 271, XXIVth Congress, 1st Session, pages 43 and 44.
[71] The Author, while serving in Congress in 1847-8 was, by the
Speaker, placed upon the committee of Indian Affairs. While serving on
that committee, the Creek Indians applied for the return of this money
which had belonged to them, but had been wrongfully paid over by
Congress to the slaveholders of Georgia, some fourteen years previously.
The case was referred to the Author, as sub-committee, who reported that
the money, in justice, in equity, and in law, belonged to the Indians;
that its payment to the slaveholders was unjust and wrong, and that it
ought to be paid to the Indians. The report was confirmed, and the money
paid to the Indians. The justice of the cause was so obvious that it met
with no opposition, and by the vote of both Houses it now stands
acknowledged and declared that this sum of $141,000 was taken from the
pockets of the laboring men of our Nation, and paid to those
slaveholders for _imaginary slave children who were never born_; nor
have we been able to learn that an objection was raised, or protest
uttered, by any Northern member of Congress.
[72] Vide Opinion of Judge Cameron, pages 35 and 36 of Doc. 271, last
quoted.
[73] NOTE.--When the author, in 1841, denounced this transaction, in the
House of Representatives, and spoke of these slave-catchers as
_Pirates_, Hon. Mark A. Cooper, of Georgia, became indignant at the
denunciation;--said he was well acquainted with the men who seized and
enslaved these people; that they were _honorable men_, and that he took
them by the hand almost daily while at home.
[74] The statement of these facts may be found in Ex. Document, 1st
Sess. XXIVth Congress.
[75] Vide Ex. Doc., 1st Sess. XXIVth Congress, page 14.
[76] Vide his letter at length in the Document last quoted.
[77] Vide Sprague's Florida War.
[78] Lieutenant Reynolds, while conducting the first party of emigrants
West, in 1841, found among the Exiles persons who possessed so much
Spanish blood, that he offered to leave them at New Orleans, and some of
them accepted the offer. He left them in that city, and they probably
now pass for Spaniards.
[79] Vide account of this transaction by H. M. Cohen, given in the
Quarterly Anti-Slavery Magazine, vol. II, page 419. Mr. Thompson, the
Agent, in his letter to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, bearing date
soon after, says: "Powell used such language, that I was constrained to
order him into irons." Mr. Sprague, in his history of the Florida War,
reiterates the statement of Mr. Thompson. But neither Sprague, nor
Thompson, nor any other person who was present, it is believed, has ever
denied the relation which Mr. Cohen has given.
[80] Sprague's History of the Florida War.
[81] Vide Testimony accompanying Pacheco's Petition to Congress for
indemnity.
[82] Vide Statement of Tustenuggee, a Seminole Chief, who was present,
and whose account of this massacre is given in Sprague's History of the
Florida War.
[83] These Speeches may be found in the Congressional Globe, 2d Sess.
XXXth Congress.
[84] Sprague's History of the War.
[85] Osceola, though a fierce and gallant warrior, entertained high
notions of honor; and, although a savage, he was punctilious on those
points, and finally fell a victim to the treachery of those calling
themselves _civilized_ men.
[86] Francis P. Blair, who is yet living, (1868.)
[87] Vide Ex. Doc., 2d Sess. XXVth Congress, No. 78, pages 558-9.
[88] His vindication before the court was triumphant, and he was
honorably acquitted from all censure.
[89] Sprague, in his History of the Florida War, says there were _two
hundred negro warriors_ in this battle; that their women and children
were a short distance in their rear, mounted on their ponies, and ready
to flee, if their husbands, brothers and fathers had been compelled to
retreat.
[90] General Jessup was undoubtedly somewhat ignorant as to the history
of the Exiles. Speaking of Abraham, that officer says: "He is married to
the wife of the former chief of the Nation; is a good soldier, and an
_intrepid leader_. He _is the negro chief_, and the most cunning and
intelligent negro we have here; _he claims to be free_."
[91] General Jessup _subsequently_ reported his determination to
_separate the negroes, or Exiles, from the Indians_. He therefore
stipulated for _their safety_, and, at the same time, agreed that the
_slaves_ of the Indians should accompany their owners, and not be
separated from them. These facts will appear as we proceed in our
history.
[92] Vide these articles at length, Ex. Doc. 225, 3d Sess. XXVth
Congress.
[93] General Jessup at all times practiced upon this principle. When
"Louis," the guide who planned the defeat and massacre of Major Dade,
became a prisoner and Wild Cat claimed to have captured him, General
Jessup disregarded the claim of Pacheco, the owner, and sent the negro
West; and, in other instances, he kept those known to have been slaves
as guides, and, at a proper time, sent them to the Western Country, as
freemen. He even bribed negroes to act as guides to his army by
promising them liberty, and carried out such arrangement.
[94] Vide this Memorial at length, Ex. Doc. 225, 3d Sess. XXVth
Congress.
[95] All these communications may be found at length in the Fifth Vol.
Ex. Doc., 3d Session XXVth Congress. But these arrangements made with
the chiefs are supposed to have rested entirely in parole. No copy of
any such agreement has been found by the Author, who is fully of opinion
that it does not exist in any authentic form.
[96] Vide Ex. Doc. 225, 3d Sess. XXVth Congress.
[97] These Letters may be found in Ex. Doc. 225, 3d Sess. XXVth
Congress.
[98] This Correspondence may be found in the 8th vol. Ex. Doc., 2d Sess.
XXVth Cong., No. 285.
[99] Of this declaration he had subsequent cause to repent, and most
eloquently he expressed his mortification, in a letter to the Secretary
of War. Vide his Letter or Jan. 2, 1839, in the Document last quoted.
[100] These facts may all be found officially recorded in Ex. Doc. 78,
2d Sess. XXVth Congress, and Ex. Doc. 225, 3d Sess. XXVth Congress.
[101] The Interrogatories were embraced in a paper, of which the
following is a copy:
"MEMORANDA OF SPECIFIC QUESTIONS TO BE ADDRESSED TO OSCEOLA.
"Ascertain the object of the Indians in coming in at this time.
Also their expectations. _Are they prepared to deliver up the
negroes taken from the citizens, at once?_ Why have they not
surrendered them already, as promised by Co-Hadjo at Fort King?
Have the chiefs of the nation held a Council in relation to the
talk at Fort King? What chiefs attended that Council, and what was
their determination? Have the chiefs sent a messenger with the
decision of the Council? Have the principal chiefs Micanopy,
Jumper, Cloud and Alligator sent a messenger? and if so, what is
their message? Why have not those chiefs come themselves?
"(Signed) THOS. S. JESSUP, _Major General Commanding_.
"SAN AUGUSTINE, _August 21st, 1837_."
[102] From the first and second interrogatories, the reader will see
that General Jessup was fully conscious, that the attempt to deliver
over those negroes to slavery who were claimed by the citizens of
Florida, had been the sole cause for renewing the war. He dictated the
first and most important interrogatory propounded to Osceola--"_Are you
prepared at once to deliver up the negroes taken from the citizens?_"
But the second shows an important fact which had, so for as we have
information, been kept from the public: The words, "Why have they not
already surrendered them, as promised by _Co-Hadjo at Fort King_?" This
shows that the arrangement reported by him to have been made with the
chiefs, was made with Co-Hadjo only. It will be recollected, that after
the articles of capitulation, in March, when the people of Florida began
to demand their negroes, General Jessup said he would endeavor to make
an arrangement with the chiefs for delivering up those negroes who had
been _captured during the war_. After the protest of the people of
Florida had been addressed to the Secretary of War, against the peace,
unless they were to get their negroes, and the public meeting held at
San Augustine, which expressed the same views, he reported that _he had
made such arrangement with the chiefs_; but with how many, or with which
particular _chiefs_, was unknown until this interrogatory disclosed the
fact, that it was made with one obscure chief only. And whether he were
intoxicated, or sober, at the time he attempted to act without any
authority, to consign hundreds of his fellow-beings to slavery, without
their knowledge or consent, does not appear. But every reader at once
propounds the question, _What were the terms of that arrangement?_ If it
existed, it should have been reported verbatim to the War Department,
and made known to the public.
[103] Capt. Sprague, of the Regular service.
[104] This statement is taken entirely from the Letters of John Ross,
chief of the Cherokees, to the Secretary of War. In these letters, he
relates the whole transaction with great force and apparent candor, and,
in the name of the Cherokee Nation, boldly arraigns the War Department
for this treachery, practiced by a Christian nation towards a people
called heathens. These letters may be found at length in Ex. Doc. 327,
2d Sess. XXVth Cong., vol. 8.
[105] Vide letter of General Taylor to Commissioner of Indian Affairs,
Ex. Doc. 225, 3d Sess. XXVth Congress.
[106] Mr. Sprague says there were three hundred Indian and negro
warriors engaged in this battle, and that their loss was ten Indians and
one negro killed, and eleven wounded; showing a great disparity between
their loss and General Taylor's.
[107] In 1848, General Taylor was the Whig candidate for President of
the United States; and so little was the history of this war known to
our statesmen or politicians, that it is believed no newspaper, or stump
orator, or advocate of his election, ever related or referred to this
most gallant act of his life. He had himself, during the war, exhibited
no particular sympathy in the work of catching and enslaving negroes; on
the contrary, he had expressed his detestation of that policy. Of course
the slave power, not willing to make open war upon him, had permitted
his name to rest without connecting it with the performance of any
brilliant or humane acts. The casuist may say, that he ought not to have
served in such a war, and that no gallantry displayed in such a cause
ought to reflect credit upon any man. But General Taylor, like other
men, should be judged by the times, the customs, the morality of the age
in which he lived.
[108] Vide Ex. Doc., 2d Sess. XXVth Congress, No. 225.
[109] Vide General Jessup's letter to General Arbuckle, 8 Vol. Ex. Doc.,
2d Sess. XXVth Congress.
[110] Vide General Jessup's letter to Commissioner of Indian Affairs,
Ex. Doc. 225, above referred to.
[111] This is the view which General Jessup gives of the transaction,
Ex. Doc., 8th Vol., 3d Sess. XXVth Congress
[112] Vide Report of General Jessup to the Secretary of War, Ex. Doc.,
3d Sess. XXVth Congress.
[113] These facts may all be found in the 4th, 5th, 7th, 8th, 11th &
12th vols. of Ex. Doc., 2d Sess. XXVth Congress; the letters of Ross and
correspondence of General Jessup, and official reports, occupying
several hundred pages.
[114] Horace Everett, who was many years a Representative in Congress,
an ardent Whig, and constant opponent of Jackson and Van Buren. After
the report of the Secretary of War in answer to his resolution had been
received, Mr. Everett made a speech on the subject, exposing the manner
in which the war had been conducted, and intimated that it was more
immediately connected with the support of slavery than it ought to be.
But while he was careful to say nothing exceptionable to the slave
interest, he certainly entitled himself to the honor of being the first
member who assailed the war, and the first to hold the Administration
responsible for the manner in which it was prosecuted. The speech may be
found at length in the Appendix to the Congressional Globe of that
session.
[115] Vide Letter of Commissioner of Indian Affairs to Secretary of War,
9th May, 1838. Ex. Doc. 225, 2d Sess. XXVth Congress.
[116] Major Zantzinger, like many other officers, appears to have
thought that every negro must have a master, and he called these Exiles
the property of the Seminoles, although the Agent for that Tribe had
reported a few years previously, that the number of slaves owned by them
did not exceed _forty_.
[117] Vide Watson's Petition and proofs, in support of his claim,
presented to Congress--1st Sess. XXVIth Cong.--now on file in the office
of the Clerk of the House of Representatives.
[118] Vide Watson's Statement of facts in this case, on file with the
above papers.
[119] Several years after this transaction, the Author happened to meet
this war-worn veteran, and as the old hero recounted this incident of
his life with warm and glowing eloquence, his eye kindled, his
countenance lighted up with pleasure, and he spoke of it with more
apparent satisfaction than he ever referred to his most brilliant
military achievement.
[120] Vide Letter of Major Isaac Clark to Commissioner of Indian
Affairs, Sept. 18, 1838. Ex. Doc. 225, 3d Sess. XXVth Congress.
[121] Hon. Elisha Whittlesey, the predecessor of Mr. Giddings, long and
ably presided over the committee on Claims. He was a man of untiring
industry; and when he found it necessary to report on a slave case, in
1835, he wrote the Register of the Treasury, inquiring if slaves had
ever been paid for by the United States as property. The reply stated
they had not; and the committee reported adversely to the case, although
it was one of the strongest character possible. Francis Larche, living
near New Orleans, owned a horse, cart and slave. The day before the
battle below that city, in 1814, they were impressed into the service;
and while thus held by the United States authorities, on the day of the
battle, the horse and slave were killed by cannon shot, and Larche
petitioned Congress for compensation for the loss of his slave. Mr.
Whittlesey drew up an able report refusing such compensation.
At the commencement of the Twenty-seventh Congress, Mr. Giddings was
placed at the head of that committee; but, being obnoxious to the
advocates of slavery, he was removed from that position at the
commencement of the Twenty-eighth Congress; yet there seemed to be an
Impression that his successor should be taken from Ohio, and Hon. Joseph
Vance was made Chairman. He was a man at that time somewhat advanced in
life, and not accustomed to legal investigations. Cases which required
research, were usually consigned to some subordinate member of the
committee. It was while he was acting as Chairman, that this case of
Watson was first reported upon favorably by the committee on Claims,
although it had never before been regarded by that committee as entitled
to any encouragement.
[122] There is little doubt that the real number of Exiles was unknown
to General Jackson, or to General Cass, at the commencement of the war.
They appear to have regarded their number far less than it was
estimated, during the first Seminole War of 1818.
[123] Captain Sprague's History of the Florida War so represents the
subject.
[124] Not having the Statutes of Florida before us, we make this
statement on the authority of Captain Sprague.
[125] We have no copy of Mr. Wise's letter, and have never seen the
letter itself; but we state the fact that he wrote the Secretary of War
by authority of that officer, who says in the letter quoted, "I have the
honor to acknowledge the receipt of _your letter of the 27th inst._,
inquiring," _etc._
[126] The Author was at that time a member of the House of
Representatives. He had then no conception of the real objects of this
war: indeed, it had long been the practice for members to say nothing on
the subject of slavery; and it was equally the practice for newspapers
to print nothing on that delicate subject, as it was called. Of course
the people knew very little concerning it.
[127] Captain Sprague, in his history of the Florida War, says, "The
truth, when made known to the Indians who remained in Florida,
constituted the strongest argument why they should not emigrate. Had
they (says that author) been kept in ignorance, better results might
have been anticipated; but what they gathered from the honest
confessions and silence of their brothers tended to make them venerate
with more fidelity and increased love the soil which they had defended
with heroic fortitude for five consecutive years."
[128] Captain Sprague, in his history, declares, that it was proven in
two instances that white men, disguised as Indians, actually committed
depredations and murdered white people.
[129] This first speech had been carefully prepared by the Author of
this work, and contained little more than a collation of facts from
public documents. It was made with the design of testing the application
of the gag rules more than for the purpose of exposing the character of
the war. Hon. John Q. Adams, Wm. Slade, and the Author, often consulted
with each other as to the best means for inducing the House to repeal
those obnoxious rules. The Author suggested the plan of alluding to
slavery while publicly discoursing matters with which it was
incidentally connected. Mr. Adams and Mr. Slade insisted that the Author
should try his plan. Aware that appropriations for this war would be
called for, he prepared this speech, showing the causes of the war; and
when the bill above referred to came before the House, he proceeded to
test his plan. He was frequently called to order, and great excitement
was produced; but he succeeded in delivering the speech. When he was
through, a southern member replied, declaring that the gag-rules may as
well be repealed as kept in force, if they permitted such discussions.
The position was evidently correct, and those disgraceful rules were
repealed by the next Congress.
[130] This statement is founded upon the authority of Captain Sprague.
It is however certain, that many of the claimants actually received
compensation from the public treasury for the loss of their slaves. The
power to pay for them was assumed by Executive officers, under the
appropriation act of March, 1841, without reference to Congress.
[131] Captain Sprague, in his history, enters into a somewhat lengthened
apology for this practice of General Worth, by saying, the negroes were
the most active and vindictive of the hostile forces; that, from the
peculiar situation of the country, ten negroes could keep it in a state
of constant alarm; that many of them had intermarried with the Seminoles
and become identified with them, had acquired their habits, and would
have been useless to their owners had they been delivered to them; that
the negro would have remained in service but a few days, when he would
have again taken to the swamps and hommocks, when he could elude
pursuit, and would have been more vindictive than before.
[132] Vide opinions of the Attorney Generals, from 1838 to 1851, page
1944, Senate Doc. 55. It is a singular fact that, in the whole of this
elaborate opinion, no allusion is made to the real condition of the
Exiles; nor would any person suspect, from reading it, that the Attorney
General had any knowledge of the claim which the Creeks preferred.
Although he quotes the clause in the articles of capitulation, which
expressly and emphatically declares that "Major General Jessup, in
behalf of the United States, agrees that the Seminoles _and their
allies, who come in and emigrate, shall be protected in their lives and
property_;" yet he appears never to have conceived the idea that such a
stipulation could impose any duties upon our Government in favor of
negroes; nor does he attempt to define the meaning of this most explicit
covenant.
[133] Under this law, which is general in all slave States, free colored
citizens of nearly every free State of the Union have been seized and
enslaved, and are now toiling in chains.
[134] Hon. R. W. Johnson, a Representative from Arkansas, spoke of this
wretch as having come from Louisiana; but from manuscript letters on
file in the War Department, the Author is led to think he came from
Florida, and had previously participated in kidnapping Exiles in that
Territory.
[135] The Author, being unable to obtain a publication of the documents
showing these facts, states them upon the best authority he possesses.
During the discussions upon what is called the Indian Appropriation Bill
for 1852, in the House of Representatives of the United States, the
following colloquial debate occurred, and is now cited as a part of the
evidence on which these facts are stated. It will be found in the
Congressional Globe of 1852, vol. 24, part 3d, pages 1804, 1805:
"Mr. GIDDINGS. I rise for a different purpose than that of
expressing my approbation of the amendment which has just been
read. I ask the especial attention of gentlemen to some
interrogatories which I desire to propound for the purpose of
obtaining information; and that the information may go to the
country, I will observe, that I desire to have the experience of
the able Chairman of the committee on Indian Affairs (Mr. Johnson
of Arkansas), to obtain this intelligence. According to reliable
information which I received in the summer of 1850, these Creek
Indians, to whom attention has been turned, with force and
violence, seized from seventy to one hundred free persons of color
in the Indian Territory, or at least those claiming to be free, and
enslaved, sold and transported them to the State of Louisiana,
where they are now in servitude as slaves. I will state that this
was done in violation of the treaty entered into in 1845, and in
subversion of our solemn faith, entered into with these negroes
during the Seminole War, in 1837. The official information upon
this subject is in the Indian Department, where it has been
received; and from which that we have not been able to obtain any
intelligence by resolution, although a resolution for that purpose
has been in my desk since the first day of the session. The
questions I desire to propound to those gentlemen are--First, Is it
a fact that those persons of color were seized and sold into
slavery; and, second, by what claim of right or pretended title did
these Creek Indians enslave and sell those people?
"Mr. JOHNSON. I have no official knowledge in the matter at all.
Then as to the knowledge I have obtained incidentally, I do know
that there has been a great contest in relation to a portion of
these Creek Indian negroes; I do know that the matter has been
looked into here in the Executive Departments; I do know that the
matter has never been before the House at all, unless it has
strangely escaped my notice; I know it has not been before my
committee; I know the Attorney General of the United States has
declared his opinion as to the title of these negroes: I think
there were seventy of them, though it might have been more or less.
So, then, I have no official information on the subject to which
the gentleman alludes.
"Some two or three years ago, I know of a contest going on about
the title to these negroes, and that it was decided that they
belonged to those Indians. They had established themselves in a
free town, which they maintained with force and arms. There were
heavy disturbances existing there in the Indian nation, amounting
at times almost to civil war: I believe before it was done with, it
was quite civil war. I know they were taken; but what was done with
them, I do not know. They were taken, and carried out of the
nation, with the design of holding them as property, when they
could not hold them in the nation on account of the disturbance
which they created. I know the decision of the Attorney General of
the United States, as to the title to these negroes; and that is
the whole statement in regard to the matter as far as I can give
it."
[136] The Author has written many letters, and made frequent efforts, to
obtain a copy of the record of this writ, if any had been kept, and the
proceedings, together with the opinion of the Judge thereon, but has not
succeeded. The statement, therefore, rests on the verbal reports,
current at the time in the Indian Country, and communicated to the
Author by individuals who happened to be there at the time.
[137] The Author has been unable to obtain official data of the number
of Exiles who remained in the Indian Country.
[138] The Author has been compelled to rely on verbal reports received
from individuals for these facts. He also understood Mr. Johnston, the
Representative from Arkansas, in the debate referred to in a former
note, to say distinctly, that the Creeks pursued the Exiles, and that a
_battle was fought_, but he was unable to state particulars.
[139] Vide Official Report of Major Emory, in regard to the boundary
line between the United States and Mexico. He states the location of
Wild Cat and the Seminole Indians, but omits all reference to the
Exiles.
[140] This number has been increased by fresh arrivals from the Indian
Country, since 1850.
[141] Vide Manuscript Letters now on file in the Indian Bureau at
Washington.
End of Project Gutenberg's The Exiles of Florida, by Joshua R. Giddings