Among the Indian leaders who made Georgia the scene of their operations,
the most celebrated were General Alexander McGillivray and General
William Mcintosh. If these men had been born and brought up among the
whites, both of them would have won lasting renown. They possessed the
energy and the genius: all they lacked was the opportunity to direct
their gifts into channels that would have benefited humanity.
Alexander McGillivray was one of the most remarkable men of his time,
whether we regard him as a leader of the Indians or simply as an
individual. His father, Lachlan McGillivray, being a lad of adventurous
turn, ran away from a home in Scotland where he enjoyed all the
advantages and comforts that wealth could give him, took passage on
a ship bound for South Carolina, and shortly afterwards landed at
Charleston. Wandering about in that city, and enjoying the sights that
were new to his experience, he soon found himself in the suburbs of the
city. There he found the headquarters of the Indian traders, who came to
Charleston with their pack horses to carry merchandise of all kinds to
the red men. One of these traders persuaded young McGillivray to go with
him. His Scotch eye and mind were quick to appreciate the possibilities
of this new business, and in a few years he became one of the most
enterprising and prosperous of the Indian traders. He pushed his trade
farther than any of his predecessors had ever dared to go. He went,
indeed, to the neighborhood of Fort Toulouse. A few miles above that
fort, where Wetumpka, Ala., now stands, he met Sehoy Marchand, a
beautiful girl of about sixteen years. This girl was the daughter of
Captain Marchand, who had commanded at Fort Toulouse, but who had been
killed by his own soldiers in August, 1722. The soldiers rose against
the officers of the garrison on account of the failure of France to
forward money and supplies to the troops in her American settlement.
The girl's mother was a Creek woman of the tribe of The Wind, the most
powerful and influential family in the Creek nation. The young Scotchman
fell in love with the dark-haired maiden, and she fell in love with the
blue-eyed Scotchman, with his fair skin and red hair. Lachlan
McGillivray built him a trading house on the Coosa, not far away, and
soon married Sehoy, and carried her home. He became very wealthy. He
owned two plantations on the Savannah River, which were well stocked
with negroes, and stores filled with merchandise in both Savannah and
Augusta. When Lachlan McGillivray's son Alexander reached the age of
fourteen, he was carried to Savannah and placed at school, and in a few
years was made a clerk in a counting-house at Savannah.
But the humdrum business of buying, selling, and adding up long rows of
tiresome figures, did not please him, and so he neglected his duties to
read books, mainly histories. His father, taking the advice of friends,
placed young Alexander under the tutorship of a clergyman in Charleston,
where the lad learned Latin and Greek, and in that way became well
grounded in what our dear old grandfathers called polite literature. But
one day word came to the young man that the chiefs of the Creek nation,
who were getting into trouble with the people of Georgia, were waiting
for the moment when he, as a descendant of the tribe of The Wind, should
return and take charge of the affairs of the nation. So he departed
suddenly from Charleston, and turned his horse's head toward the
wilderness.
[Illustration: McGillavray joins the Indians 208]
On his way to the Creek nation, he fell in with Leclerc Mil-fort, an
adventurous Frenchman, who afterwards wrote a book of travels, and
was made a general of brigade by Napoleon. Milfort married one of
McGillivray's sisters, was made Tustenug-gee (or grand war chief), and
was the right-hand man of his powerful brother-in-law. The first that
was heard of McGillivray after he left Charleston, he was presiding at
a grand national council of the Creeks at the town of Coweta on the
Chattahoochee. When Alexander arrived among the Creeks, Colonel Tait of
the British army was stationed on the Coosa, and he used all his tact
and influence to prevail upon the young man to take the side of the
English in the war that was then going on between the Colonies and
the mother country. To this end Colonel Tait pursued McGillivray with
attentions, loaded him with favors, and finally caused him to be given
the rank and pay of a colonel in the army. The result was that the great
chief was throughout the war devoted to the cause of the British.
This would have been natural in any event, for his father was a stanch
Royalist. During the war, McGillivray frequently acted in concert with
the notorious Daniel McGirth, sometimes leading his Indians in person;
but his main dependence was on his brother-in-law Milfort, who was
possessed of the most daring spirit. McGillivray preferred to plan and
engage in intrigue, which gave the remarkable powers of his mind full
play.
There is no doubt that the authorities of Georgia made a great mistake,
after the war, in neglecting to win the friendship of McGillivray. Such
a course would have prevented much suffering and bloodshed. The father
of the great chief, Lachlan McGillivray, was living in Savannah at the
close of the Revolution; and when the British were compelled to evacuate
the city, he scraped together an immense amount of money and other
valuables, and sailed for Scotland. He abandoned his plantations and
negroes, in the hope that his wife and three children might be permitted
to inherit them; but the Georgians confiscated the whole of the valuable
estate, and thus the Creek leader had another reason for entertaining a
bitter prejudice against the Whigs.
The result was, that until the day of his death, which occurred in
1792, he succeeded in baffling all the efforts of the Federal and State
authorities to come to an understanding with the Creek nation. He was
perhaps the most accomplished diplomat in the country,--a veritable
Talleyrand, able to cope with the most distinguished statesmen among the
Americans. Such of his letters as have been preserved do not suffer by
comparison with the writings of even the greatest of the Americans. The
most of these depended on a stately and scholarly diction to attract
attention. McGillivray paid little regard to diction; but his letters
possess the distinction of style, and in this particular but one
American writer can be compared to him,--Benjamin Franklin. There is,
in fact, a modern touch and flavor about McGillivray's letters that
even the writings of Franklin do not possess. He wrote thus to
Andrew Pickens, who had addressed him on behalf of the United States
Government:--
"When we found that the American independence was confirmed by the
peace, we expected that the new government would soon have taken some
steps to make up the differences that subsisted between them and the
Indians during the war, to have taken them under their protection
and confirmed to them their hunting grounds. Such a course would have
reconciled the minds of the Indians, and secured the States their
friendship, as they considered your people their natural allies. The
Georgians, whose particular interest it was to conciliate the friendship
of this nation, have acted in all respects to the contrary. I am sorry
to observe that violence and prejudice have taken the place of good
policy and reason in all their proceedings with us. They attempted to
avail themselves of our supposed distressed situation. Their talks to us
breathed nothing but vengeance, and, being entirely possessed with the
idea that we were wholly at their mercy, they never once reflected that
colonies of a powerful monarch were nearly surrounding us, to whom, in
any extremity, we might apply for succor and protection, and who, to
answer some ends of their policy, might grant it to us. However, we yet
deferred any such proceeding, still expecting that we could bring them
to a true sense of their interest; but still finding no alteration
in their conduct towards us, we sought the protection of Spain, and
treaties of friendship and alliance were mutually entered into; they
guaranteeing our hunting grounds and territory, and granting us a free
trade in the ports of the Floridas.
"How the boundary and limits between the Spaniards and the States will
be determined, a little time will show, as I believe that matter is
now on foot. However, we know our limits and the extent of our hunting
grounds. As a free nation, we have applied, as we had a right to do,
for protection, and obtained it. We shall pay no attention to any
limits that may prejudice our claims, that were drawn by an American
and confirmed by a British negotiator. Yet, notwithstanding we have
been obliged to adopt these measures for our preservation, and from real
necessity, we sincerely wish to have it in our power to be on the same
footing with the States as before the late unhappy war, to effect which
is entirely in your power. We want nothing from you but justice. We want
our hunting grounds preserved from encroachments. They have been ours
from the beginning of time, and I trust that, with the assistance of our
friends, we shall be able to maintain them against every attempt to take
them from us."
Undoubtedly McGillivray was unscrupulous, and the probability is that
he was mercenary; but such charges may be brought against some of the
ablest men who have figured in history. When all is said, the fact
remains that Alexander McGillivray was one of the most accomplished and
ingenious of the politicians of his time. If he had been on the side of
the whites, and had managed their interests with the skill and ability
which he displayed in behalf of the Creeks, history would have written
him down as a great statesman. It was only by an accidental suit at law
that some of his most characteristic letters were brought to light; but
those that have been rescued from oblivion show that in wielding the
pen he was more than a match for the many able men who corresponded with
him.
In September, 1789, Washington sent General Andrew Pickens, with three
other commissioners, to treat with McGillivray. They found the great
chief at Rock Landing, on the Oconee, with two thousand Creek warriors,
where he had been encamped more than a week. The Indian camp was on the
western bank of the river. The commissioners pitched their tents on the
eastern bank. They were received by McGillivray with great courtesy.
Everything progressed favorably, so much so that the commissioners read
to the assembled chiefs a copy of the treaty which they had drawn up.
This treaty was all in favor of the whites. The Indians were offered
no equivalent for the terms proposed. It is worthy of note that Andrew
Pickens wholly dissented from the terms of the proposed treaty. He knew
that the Indians would have to be paid for the valuable land which the
Georgians were then cultivating in the neighborhood of the Oconee, and
the commissioners had been advised by the Federal authorities to pay
for these lands. McGillivray broke up his encampment and retired to
the Ocmulgee, nor could he be induced at that time to renew the
negotiations.
President Washington was urged by the Georgia delegation in Congress to
declare war against the Creeks, and this indeed was his first impulse;
but when he found, from a careful estimate, that the expenses of such
a war would amount to fifteen millions of dollars, he prudently gave
up the idea. He took the matter in hand in a more conservative way. He
appointed Colonel Marinus Willett a secret agent to visit Mc-Gillivray,
and urge him to visit President Washington in New York. In this Colonel
Willett was entirely successful. Accompanied by McGillivray and a number
of the leading men of the Creeks, Willett set out on his return journey.
At Guilford Court House, McGillivray attracted great attention on
account of a very pathetic incident that occurred there some years
before. A man named Brown had been killed by the Creeks, and his wife
and children captured and made slaves. Their unfortunate condition came
to the notice of Alexander McGillivray, and, as he had done in the case
of many other captive white women and children, he paid their ransom and
redeemed them from slavery. He maintained them at his house for over a
year, and finally assisted them to return to their friends. Mrs. Brown,
hearing that McGillivray had arrived, went to see him. At that moment
he was in the courthouse, the center of a large assembly of ladies
and gentlemen who had gathered to pay their respects. But this was no
obstacle to Mrs. Brown. She rushed through the assembly, and, in a flood
of tears, expressed her gratitude to him for saving her life and the
lives of her children. She also expressed her strong admiration for his
character.
In due course, McGillivray arrived in New York, where he was treated
with great consideration. He had long private conferences with
Washington and other officials of the government, and was finally
induced to make a treaty which was satisfactory to the United States,
and would have been satisfactory to Georgia if it had been carried out,
but in fact the terms of it were never fulfilled. While in New York,
McGillivray made a secret treaty with Washington, a fact that was not
discovered for many years. It provided, that after two years from date
(August, 1790) the commerce of the Creek nation should be carried on
through the ports of the United States, and in the mean time through
the present channels; that a number of chiefs of the Creeks and of the
Seminole nation should be paid one hundred dollars a year each, and
be furnished with handsome medals; that the United States should feed,
clothe, and educate Creek youth at the North, not exceeding five at one
time; and that Alexander McGillivray should be constituted agent of the
United States, with the rank of brigadier general, and the pay of twelve
hundred dollars a year. In 1792, McGillivray was a British colonel, an
American brigadier general, an agent of the United States, and an
agent of Spain. This extraordinary man died in Pensacola on the 17th of
February, having been seized with a fatal illness while returning from
one of his plantations on Little River in Putnam or Baldwin.
Another famous Creek was General William Mcintosh, a half-breed. His
father was Captain William Mcintosh, and his mother was an Indian
of unmixed blood. He was not so brilliant a man intellectually as
McGillivray; but he had a native force of character, and an inborn sense
of justice, that McGillivray seems to have been a stranger to. History
tells us little enough of Mcintosh, but that little is all to his
credit. Almost from the days of Oglethorpe, there were two parties in
the Creek nation, and the issue on which they divided was the
treatment that should be accorded to the whites. The party division was
geographical as well as political. The Upper Creeks, living upon the
Alabama, Coosa, and Tallapoosa rivers, were not present at the Coweta
town when James Oglethorpe treated with the Lower Creeks in August,
1730. At that time they were under the influence of the French, and
afterwards they sought the protection of the Spaniards. They refused to
recognize any of the treaties made by the Lower Creeks with the English,
and the great body of them remained to the end the bitter enemies of
the Georgians. On the other hand, the majority of the Lower Creeks
were friendly with the English from the days of Oglethorpe; and that
friendship continued, with but few interruptions, down to the days of
Governor Troup.
Now, McGillivray, in his day and time, represented the Upper Creeks
of the Tallapoosa country and their policy, while William Mcintosh
represented the Lower Creeks of the Coweta country and their policy. The
division in the Creek nation was so serious, that, when the Upper Creeks
took sides with the British in the War of 1812, they found themselves
opposed in the field by a large party of Lower Creeks under the command
of Mcintosh. Thus, at the battle of Autossee, William Mcintosh led a
large band of Lower Creeks against those who were making war on the
whites. He made himself so conspicuous in that affair, that General
Floyd mentions him in the official report of the battle.
The treaty at Indian Spring, and the results that followed, cannot be
clearly understood unless we bear in mind the political differences that
existed between the Upper and the Lower Creeks. The Creek chiefs and the
commissioners met at Indian Spring on the 15th of February, 1825. The
chiefs and warriors of the Upper Creeks declared that no treaty could
be made for a cession of lands, and on the night of the 11th they went
home. On the 12th a treaty was signed with the Mcintosh party. Colonel
John A. Crowell, agent for the Creek Indians, sent a letter to the
secretary of war, in which he declared that the treaty was in direct
opposition to the letter and spirit of the instructions to the
commissioners; but the treaty was sent to Washington, and was ratified
on the 3d of March, 1825. When the Indians of the Upper Creeks and their
party learned that the treaty had been ratified, they became very much
excited. Mcintosh and his party went to Milledgeville, and told the
governor that they expected violent treatment at the hands of the
Upper Creeks. They begged the protection of the State and of the United
States, and this was promised them.
Out of this treaty grew a very serious conflict between the Federal and
State governments. After a good deal of discussion, the President asked
Congress to reconsider the treaty of Indian Spring, and presented a
new one as a substitute, which was ratified and proclaimed; but popular
indignation ran so high in Georgia, that Governor Troup felt justified
in paying no attention to this new treaty. He proceeded to carry out the
terms of the Indian Spring treaty. Charges were brought against Crowell,
the Indian agent. The governor informed T. P. Andrews, the special
agent, that he would hold no further correspondence with him. The
conduct of General Gaines had been such that Governor Troup requested
the Federal Government to recall, arrest, and punish him. In 1826 the
State Legislature declared that the attempt to repeal the treaty of
Indian Spring by the substitution of another treaty was illegal and
unconstitutional. In September, 1826, Governor Troup ordered the
districts ceded by the treaty of Indian Spring to be surveyed. When the
Indians complained of this, the secretary of war wrote to Governor Troup
that the President felt himself compelled to employ all the means under
his control to maintain the faith of the nation by carrying the treaty
into effect, meaning the treaty made at Washington, and intended to be
a substitute for the Indian Spring treaty. In his reply, Governor Troup
declared that he would feel it to be his duty to resist to the utmost
any military attack which the President of the United States should
think proper to make upon the Territory, the people, or the sovereignty
of Georgia. "From the first decisive act of hostility," he wrote to the
secretary of war, "you will be considered and treated as a public
enemy. You have referred me, as the rule of my conduct, to the treaty
of Washington. In turn I refer you to the treaty of prior date and prior
ratification, concluded at the Indian Spring."
The President issued orders that the surveyors appointed by the State
be prosecuted. Governor Troup thereupon ordered the proper officers, in
every instance of complaint made of the arrest of any surveyor, to take
all necessary and legal measures to effect their liberation, and to
bring to justice all the parties concerned in such arrests, as violators
of the peace and personal security of the State. He also ordered
the major generals of the militia to hold the various regiments and
battalions in readiness to repel any hostile invasion of the State. But
no acts of violence were committed. The surveyors were not arrested, the
surveys were made, and the lands ceded by the treaty of Indian Spring
were divided by lottery in 1827.
The Upper Creeks, who had always been unfriendly to the Georgians,
were so angry at the signing of the treaty of Indian Spring, that they
determined to assassinate General William Mcintosh. They had never
forgiven him for leading his party of Lower Creeks against them in the
campaign that was made necessary by the terrible massacre of Fort Mims,
and they now determined to rid themselves of him at once and forever.
We have seen that General Mcintosh, and his party of Lower Creeks,
suspecting that an attack would be made on them by the powerful tribes
on the Tallapoosa, went to Milledgeville to beg the governor to protect
them. Protection was promised, but never given. Meanwhile the Upper
Creeks held a secret council, and selected a hundred and seventy of the
boldest warriors in the nation to murder Mcintosh. They marched in the
most cautious way. They reached the neighborhood of Mcintosh's home,
and concealed themselves, to wait for night to fall. About sundown, or
a little before, the Indians saw from their hiding place two persons
riding along a trail. One was Mcintosh, and the other a man named
Hawkins, who had married one of Mcintosh's daughters. It would have been
an easy matter for the savages to have killed Mcintosh at this time; but
they had made up their minds to kill him upon his own premises, so that
his blood might stain the land that had been granted him by the State.
While still in sight of the men who had been sent to slay him, Mcintosh
bade Hawkins good evening, wheeled his horse, and rode back on the trail
toward his home. Although he was now alone, the Indians would not kill
him. They had fixed up a different plan, and they carried it out.
Before dark the Indians gathered together a supply of "fat lightwood,"
as the resinous pine was called. This they split into convenient length,
and made up into three bundles to be carried on the backs of their
warriors. They remained hidden within half a mile of Mcintosh's house
till three o'clock in the morning, and then silently and swiftly marched
to the place. They had taken along with them a man named James Hutton to
act as interpreter, the reason for this being that Mcintosh was in the
habit of entertaining travelers.
It was to be Hutton's duty to assure such as might be found there that
they would not be disturbed in any manner. Guests of Mcintosh were
commonly lodged in an outhouse in the yard; and Hutton, accompanied by
two Indians, went to this building to see who might be sleeping there.
They found a peddler in one bed, and Chilly, a son of General Mcintosh,
in another.
Young Mcintosh, as if instinctively understanding the nature of the
visit, sprang from the bed and leaped out at a window. He was fired upon
by the Indians, but was not touched, and succeeded in making his escape.
The peddler was nearly scared out of his wits; but his pack of goods
was removed to a place of safety, and the house in which he had been
sleeping was soon in flames.
[Illustration: Indian Attack 220]
Meanwhile most of the Indians had surrounded Mcintosh's house, and
torches of the fat pine were used to set it on fire. The red men danced
around the burning building, yelling, and crying out, "Mcintosh, we have
come, we have come! We told you if you sold the land to the Georgians
we would come. Now we have come!" At the first alarm Mcintosh had
barricaded his front door. He stood near it; and when it was broken
down, he fired upon his assailants. At that moment, one of his firmest
friends, Toma Tustenuggee, who had thrown himself upon the party at the
door, fell on the threshold, riddled with bullets. General Mcintosh then
retreated to the second story with four guns, which he continued to fire
from the windows.
The flames drove him from the second story to the first floor again. He
fought bravely to the end, but was soon compelled to expose himself to
the fire of his enemies. He fell to the floor, pierced by many bullets,
and was dragged into the yard by his heels. He breathed defiance to
the last, and was finally stabbed to death. After this savage deed, the
Indians plundered the houses, killed such cattle as they could find,
and committed other outrages. A small party of the Indians had followed
Hawkins the evening before. His house was surrounded about daybreak the
next morning, and he was ordered to come out. He refused, and defended
himself the best he could; but he was finally taken prisoner and tied,
until the fate of Mcintosh was known. Then he was murdered, and his body
thrown into the river near where he lived. The Indians marched back
to the Tallapoosa country with the scalps of these unfortunate men.
Mcintosh's scalp was suspended from a pole in the public square of
Ocfuskee, and young and old danced around it with shouts of joy.
General Mcintosh was a cousin of Governor Troup, being the son of
Governor Troup's uncle, Captain William Mcintosh, who was frequently on
the Chattahoochee before the breaking-out of the Revolution.