On my return to Florida, I found that the cloud of war was gathering
over my native land. It would soon burst, and my first essay in
military life would be made in the defence of hearth and home. I was
not unprepared for the news. War is always _the_ theme of interest
within the walls of a military college; and in no place are its
probabilities and prospects so folly discussed or with so much
earnestness.
For a period of ten years had the United States been at peace with all
the world. The iron hand of "Old Hickory" had awed the savage foe of
the frontiers. For more than ten years had the latter desisted from his
chronic system of retaliation, and remained silent and still. But the
pacific _status quo_ came to an end. Once more the red man rose to
assert his rights, and in a quarter most unexpected. Not on the
frontier of the "far west," but in the heart of the flowery land. Yes,
Florida was to be the theatre of operations--the stage on which this new
drama was to be enacted.
A word historical of Florida, for this writing is, in truth, a history.
In 1821, the Spanish flag disappeared from the ramparts of San Augustine
and Saint Marks, and Spain yielded up possession of this fair province--
one of her last footholds upon the continent of America. Literally, it
was but a foothold the Spaniards held in Florida--a mere nominal
possession. Long before the cession, the Indians had driven them from
the field into the fortress. Their haciendas lay in ruins--their horses
and cattle ran wild upon the savannas; and rank weeds usurped the sites
of their once prosperous plantations. During the century of dominion,
they had made many a fair settlement, and the ruins of buildings--far
more massive than aught yet attempted by their Saxon successors--attest
the former glory and power of the Spanish nation.
It was not destined that the Indians should long hold the country they
had thus conquered. Another race of white men--their equals in courage
and strength--were moving down from the north; and it was easy prophecy
to say that the red conquerors must in turn yield possession.
Once already had they met in conflict with the pale-faced usurpers, led
on by that stern soldier who now sat in the chair of the president.
They were defeated, and forced further south, into the heart of the
land--the centre of the peninsula. There, however, they were secured by
treaty. A covenant solemnly made, and solemnly sworn to, guaranteed
their right to the soil, and the Seminole was satisfied.
Alas! the covenants between the strong and the weak are things of
convenience, to be broken whenever the former wills it--in this case,
shamefully broken.
White adventurers settled along the Indian border; they wandered over
Indian ground--not wandered, but went; they looked upon the land; they
saw that it was good--it would grow rice and cotton, and cane and
indigo, the olive and orange; they desired to possess it, more than
desired--they resolved it should be theirs.
There was a treaty, but what cared they for treaties? Adventurers--
ruined planters from Georgia and the Carolinas, "negro traders" from all
parts of the south; what were covenants in their eyes, especially when
made with redskins? The treaty must be got rid of.
The "Great Father," scarcely more scrupulous than they, approved their
plan.
"Yes," said he, "it is good--the Seminoles must be dispossessed; they
must remove to another land; we shall find them a home in the west, on
the great plains; there they will have wide hunting-grounds, their own
for ever."
"No," responded the Seminoles; "we do not wish to move; we are contented
here: we love our native land; we do not wish to leave it; we shall
stay."
"Then you will not go willingly? Be it so. We are strong, you are
weak; we shall force you."
Though not the letter, this is the very spirit of the reply which
Jackson made to the Seminoles!
The world has an eye, and that eye requires to be satisfied. Even
tyrants dislike the open breach of treaties. In this case, political
party was more thought of than the world, and a show of justice became
necessary.
The Indians remained obstinate--they liked their own land, they were
reluctant to leave it--no wonder.
Some pretext must be found to dispossess them. The old excuse, that
they were mere idle hunters, and made no profitable use of the soil,
would scarcely avail. It was not true. The Seminole was not
exclusively a hunter; he was a husbandman as well, and tilled the land--
rudely, it may be, but was this a reason for dispossessing him?
Without this, others were easily found. That cunning commissioner which
their "Great Father" sent them could soon invent pretexts. He was one
who well knew the art of muddying the stream upwards, and well did he
practise it.
The country was soon filled with rumours of Indians--of horses and
cattle stolen, of plantations plundered, of white travellers robbed and
murdered--all the work of those savage Seminoles.
A vile frontier press, ever ready to give tongue to the popular furor,
did not fail in its duty of exaggeration.
But who was to gazette the provocations, the retaliations, the wrongs
and cruelties inflicted by the other side? All these were carefully
concealed.
A sentiment was soon created throughout the country--a sentiment of
bitter hostility towards the Seminole.
"Kill the savage! Hunt him down! Drive him out! Away with him to the
west!" Thus was the sentiment expressed. These became the popular
cries.
When the people of the United States have a wish, it is likely soon to
seek gratification, particularly when that wish coincides with the views
of its government; in this case, it did so, the government itself having
created it.
It would be easy, all supposed, to accomplish the popular will, to
dispossess the savage, hunt him, drive him out. Still there was a
treaty. The world had an eye, and there was a thinking minority not to
be despised who opposed this clamorous desire. The treaty could not be
broken under the light of day; how then, was this obstructive covenant
to be got rid of?
Call the head men together, cajole them out of it; the chiefs are human,
they are poor, some of them drunkards--bribes will go far, fire-water
still farther; make a new treaty with a double construction--the
ignorant savages will not understand it; obtain their signatures--the
thing is done!
Crafty commissioner! yours is the very plan, and you the man to execute
it.
It _was_ done. On the 9th of May, 1832, on the banks of the Oclawaha,
the chiefs of the Seminole nation in full council assembled bartered
away the land of their fathers!
Such was the report given to the world.
It was _not_ true.
It was not a full council of chiefs; it was an assembly of traitors
bribed and suborned, of weak men flattered and intimidated. No wonder
the nation refused to accede to this surreptitious covenant; no wonder
they heeded not its terms; but had to be summoned to still another
council, for a freer and fuller signification of their consent.
It soon became evident that the great body of the Seminole nation
repudiated the treaty. Many of the chiefs denied having signed it. The
head chief, Onopa, denied it. Some confessed the act, but declared they
had been drawn into it by the influence and advice of others. It was
only the more powerful leaders of clans--as the brothers Omatla, Black
Clay, and Big Warrior--who openly acknowledged the signing.
These last became objects of jealousy throughout the tribes; they were
regarded as traitors, and justly so. Their lives were in danger; even
their own retainers disapproved of what they had done.
To understand the position, it is necessary to say a word of the
political _status_ of the Seminoles. Their government was purely
republican--a thorough democracy. Perhaps in no other community in the
world did there exist so perfect a condition of freedom; I might add
happiness, for the latter is but the natural offspring of the former.
Their state has been compared to that of the clans of Highland Scotland.
The parallel is true only in one respect. Like the Gael, the Seminoles
were without any common organisation. They lived in "tribes" far apart,
each politically independent of the other; and although in friendly
relationship, there was no power of coercion between them. There was a
"head chief"--king he could not be called--for "Mico," his Indian title,
has not that signification. The proud spirit of the Seminole had never
sold itself to so absurd a condition; they had not yet surrendered up
the natural rights of man. It is only after the state of nature has
been perverted and abased, that the "kingly" element becomes strong
among a people.
The head "mico" of the Seminoles was only a head in name. His authority
was purely personal: he had no power over life or property. Though
occasionally the wealthiest, he was often one of the poorest of his
people. He was more open than any of the others to the calls of
philanthropy, and ever ready to disburse with free hand, what was in
reality, not his people's, but his own. Hence he rarely grew rich.
He was surrounded by no retinue, girt in by no barbarian pomp or
splendour, flattered by no flunkey courtiers, like the rajahs of the
east, or, on a still more costly scale, the crowned monarchs of the
west. On the contrary, his dress was scarcely conspicuous, often meaner
than those around him. Many a common warrior was far more _gaillard_
than he.
As with the head chief, so with the chieftains of tribes; they possessed
no power over life or property; they could not decree punishment. A
jury alone can do this; and I make bold to affirm, that the punishments
among these people were in juster proportion to the crimes than those
decreed in the highest courts of civilisation.
It was a system of the purest republican freedom, without one idea of
the levelling principle; for merit produced distinction and authority.
Property was _not_ in common, though labour was partially so; but this
community of toil was a mutual arrangement, agreeable to all. The ties
of family were as sacred and strong as ever existed on earth.
And these were _savages_ forsooth--red savages, to be dispossessed of
their rights--to be driven from hearth and home--to be banished from
their beautiful land to a desert wild--to be shot down and hunted like
beasts of the field! The last in its most literal sense, for dogs were
to be employed in the pursuit!