FLORIDA ARMED OCCUPATION BILL: MR. BENTON'S SPEECH: EXTRACTS.
Armed occupation, with land to the occupant, is the true way of
settling and holding a conquered country. It is the way which has
been followed in all ages, and in all countries, from the time
that the children of Israel entered the promised land, with the
implements of husbandry in one hand, and the weapons of war in the
other. From that day to this, all conquered countries had been
settled in that way. Armed settlement, and a homestead in the soil,
was the principle of the Roman military colonies, by which they
consolidated their conquests. The northern nations bore down upon
the south of Europe in that way: the settlers of the New World--our
pilgrim fathers and all--settled these States in that way: the
settlement of Kentucky and Tennessee was effected in the same way.
The armed settlers went forth to fight, and to cultivate. They
lived in stations first--an assemblage of blockhouses (the Roman
presidium), and emerged to separate settlements afterwards; and
in every instance, an interest in the soil--an inheritance in the
land--was the reward of their enterprise, toil, and danger. The
peninsula of Florida is now prepared for this armed settlement: the
enemy has been driven out of the field. He lurks, an unseen foe, in
the swamps and hammocks. He no longer shows himself in force, or
ventures a combat; but, dispersed and solitary, commits individual
murders and massacres. The country is prepared for armed settlement.
It is the fashion--I am sorry to say it--to depreciate the services
of our troops in Florida--to speak of them as having done nothing;
as having accomplished no object for the country, and acquired no
credit for themselves. This was a great error. The military had done
an immensity there; they had done all that arms could do, and a
great deal that the axe and the spade could do. They had completely
conquered the country; that is to say, they had driven the enemy
from the field; they had dispersed the foe; they had reduced them
to a roving banditti, whose only warfare was to murder stragglers
and families. Let any one compare the present condition of Florida
with what it was at the commencement of the war, and see what a
change has taken place. Then combats were frequent. The Indians
embodied continually, fought our troops, both regulars, militia,
and volunteers. Those hard contests cannot be forgotten. It cannot
be forgotten how often these Indians met our troops in force, or
hung upon the flanks of marching columns, harassing and attacking
them at every favorable point. Now all this is done. For two years
past, we have heard of no such thing. The Indians, defeated in
these encounters, and many of them removed to the West, have now
retired from the field, and dispersed in small parties over the
whole peninsula of Florida. They are dispersed over a superficies of
45,000 square miles, and that area sprinkled all over with haunts
adapted to their shelter, to which they retire for safety like
wild beasts, and emerge again for new mischief. Our military have
then done much; they have done all that military can do; they have
broken, dispersed, and scattered the enemy. They have driven them
out of the field; they have prepared the country for settlement,
that is to say, for armed settlement. There has been no battle, no
action, no skirmish, in Florida, for upwards of two years. The last
combats were at Okeechobee and Caloosahatchee, above two years ago.
There has been no _war_ since that time; nothing but individual
massacres. The country has been waiting for settlers for two years;
and this bill provides for them, and offers them inducements to
settle.
Besides their military labors, our troops have done an immensity of
labor of a different kind. They have penetrated and perforated the
whole peninsula of Florida; they have gone through the _Serbonian
bogs_ of that peninsula; they have gone where the white man's foot
never before was seen to tread; and where no Indian believed it
could ever come. They have gone from the Okeefekonee swamp to the
Everglades; they have crossed the peninsula backwards and forwards,
from the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic Ocean. They have sounded
every morass, threaded every hammock, traced every creek, examined
every lake, and made the topography of the country as well known as
that of the counties of our States. The maps which the topographical
officers have constructed, and the last of which is in the Report of
the Secretary at War, attest the extent of these explorations, and
the accuracy and minuteness of the surveys and examinations. Besides
all this, the troops have established some hundreds of posts;
they have opened many hundred miles of wagon road; and they have
constructed some thousands of feet of causeways and bridges. These
are great and meritorious labors. They are labors which prepare the
country for settlement; prepare it for the 10,000 armed cultivators
which this bill proposes to send there.
Mr. B. said he paid this tribute cheerfully to the merits of our
military, and our volunteers and militia employed in Florida; the
more cheerfully, because it was the inconsiderate custom of too
many to depreciate the labors of these brave men. He took pleasure,
here in his place, in the American Senate, to do them justice; and
that without drawing invidious comparisons--without attempting to
exalt some at the expense of others. He viewed with a favorable
eye--with friendly feelings--with prepossessions in their favor--all
who were doing their best for their country; and all such--all
who did their best for their country--should have his support and
applause, whether fortune was more or less kind to them, in crowning
their meritorious exertions with success. He took pleasure in doing
all this justice; but his tribute would be incomplete, if he did not
add what was said by the Secretary at War, in his late report, and
also by the immediate commander, General Taylor.
Mr. B. repeated, that the military had done their duty, and deserved
well of their country. They had brought the war to that point, when
there was no longer an enemy to be fought; when there was nothing
left but a banditti to be extirpated. Congress, also, had tried
its policy--the policy of peace and conciliation--and the effort
only served to show the unparalleled treachery and savageism of
the ferocious beasts with which we had to deal. He alluded to the
attempts at negotiation and pacification, tried this summer under
an intimation from Congress. The House of Representatives, at the
last session, voted $5,000 for opening negotiations with these
Indians. When the appropriation came to the Senate, it was objected
to by himself and some others, from the knowledge they had of the
character of these Indians, and their belief that it would end in
treachery and misfortune. The House adhered; the appropriation was
made; the administration acted upon it, as they felt bound to do;
and behold the result of the attempt! The most cruel and perfidious
massacres plotted and contrived while making the treaty itself!
a particular officer selected, and stipulated to be sent to a
particular point, under the pretext of establishing a trading-post,
and as a protector, there to be massacred! a horrible massacre in
reality perpetrated there; near seventy persons since massacred,
including families; the Indians themselves emboldened by our offer
of peace, and their success in treachery; and the whole aspect of
the war made worse by our injudicious attempt at pacification.
Lt. Col. Harney, with a few soldiers and some citizens, was reposing
on the banks of the Caloosahatchee, under the faith of treaty
negotiations, and on treaty ground. He was asleep. At the approach
of daybreak he was roused by the firing and yells of the Indians,
who had got possession of the camp, and killed the sergeant and
more than one-half of his men. Eleven soldiers and five citizens
were killed; eight soldiers and two citizens escaped. Seven of the
soldiers, taking refuge in a small sail-boat, then lying off in the
stream, in which the two citizens fortunately had slept that night,
as soon as possible weighed anchor, and favored by a light breeze,
slipped off unperceived by the Indians. The Colonel himself escaped
with great difficulty, and after walking fifteen miles down the
river, followed by one soldier, came to a canoe, which he had left
there the evening previous, and succeeded, by this means, in getting
on board the sail-boat, where he found those who had escaped in her.
Before he laid down to sleep, the treacherous Chitto Tustenuggee,
partaking his hospitality, lavished proofs of friendship upon him.
Here was an instance of treachery of which there was no parallel
in Indian warfare. With all their treachery, the treaty-ground is
a sacred spot with the Indians; but here, in the very articles of
a treaty itself, they plan a murderous destruction of an officer
whom they solicited to be sent with them as their protector; and,
to gratify all their passions of murder and robbery at once, they
stipulate to have their victims sent to a remote point, with
settlers and traders, as well as soldiers, and with a supply of
goods. All this they arranged; and too successfully did they execute
the plan. And this was the beginning of their _execution_ of the
treaty. Massacres, assassinations, robberies, and house-burnings,
have followed it up, until the suburbs of St. Augustine and
Tallahasse are stained with blood, and blackened with fire. About
seventy murders have since taken place, including the destruction of
the shipwrecked crews and passengers on the southern extremity of
the peninsula.
The plan of Congress has, then, been tried; the experiment of
negotiation has been tried and has ended disastrously and cruelly
for us, and with greatly augmenting the confidence and ferocity of
the enemy. It puts an end to all idea of finishing the war there
by peaceable negotiation. Chastisement is what is due to these
Indians, and what they expect. They mean to keep no faith with the
government, and henceforth they will expect no faith to be reposed
in them. The issue is now made; we have to expel them by force, or
give up forty-five thousand square miles of territory--much of it an
old settled country--to be ravaged by this banditti.
The plan of Congress has been tried, and has ended in disaster; the
military have done all that military can do; the administration
have now in the country all the troops which can be spared for the
purpose. They have there the one-half of our regular infantry, to
wit: four regiments out of eight; they have there the one-half of
our dragoons, to wit: one regiment; they even have there a part of
our artillery, to wit: one regiment; and they have besides, there,
a part of the naval force to scour the coasts and inlets; and, in
addition to all this, ten companies of Florida volunteers. Even the
marines under their accomplished commander (Col. Henderson), and at
his request, have been sent there to perform gallant service, on an
element not their own. No more of our troops can be spared for that
purpose; the West and the North require the remainder, and more than
the remainder. The administration can do no more than it has done
with the means at its command. It is laid under the necessity of
asking other means; and the armed settlers provided for in this bill
are the principal means required. One thousand troops for the war,
is all that is asked in addition to the settlers, in this bill.
This then is the point we are at: To choose between granting
these means, or doing nothing! Yes, sir, to choose between the
recommendations of the administration, and nothing! I say, these, or
nothing; for I presume Congress will not prescribe another attempt
at negotiation; no one will recommend an increase of ten thousand
regular troops; no one will recommend a draft of ten thousand
militia. It is, then, the plan of the administration, or nothing;
and this brings us to the question, whether the government can now
fold its arms, leave the regulars to man their posts, and abandon
the country to the Indians? This is now the question; and to this
point I will direct the observations which make it impossible for
us to abdicate our duty, and abandon the country to the Indians.
I assume it then as a point granted, that Florida cannot be given
up--that she cannot be abandoned--that she cannot be left in her
present state. What then is to be done? Raise an army of ten
thousand men to go there to fight? Why, the men who are there now
can find nobody to fight! It is two years since a fight has been
had; it is two years since we have heard of a fight. Ten men, who
will avoid surprises and ambuscades, can now go from one end of
Florida to the other. As warriors, these Indians no longer appear,
it is only as assassins, as robbers, as incendiaries, that they
lurk about. The country wants settlers, not an army. It has wanted
these settlers for two years; and this bill provides for them, and
offers them the proper inducements to go. And here I take the three
great positions, that this bill is the _appropriate_ remedy; that
it is the _efficient_ remedy; that it is the _cheap_ remedy, for
the cure of the Florida difficulties. It is the appropriate remedy;
for what is now wanted, is not an army to fight, but settlers and
cultivators to retain possession of the country, and to defend their
possessions. We want people to take possession, and keep possession,
and the armed cultivator is the man for that. The blockhouse is the
first house to be built in an Indian country; the stockade is the
first fence to be put up. Within that blockhouse, and a few of them
together--a hollow square of blockhouses, two miles long on each
side, two hundred yards apart, and enclosing a good field--safe
habitations are found for families. The faithful mastiff, to give
notice of the approach of danger, and a few trusty rifles in brave
hands, make all safe. Cultivation and defence then goes hand in
hand. The heart of the Indian sickens when he hears the crowing of
the cock, the barking of the dog, the sound of the axe, and the
crack of the rifle. These are the true evidences of the dominion
of the white man; these are the proof that the owner has come, and
means to stay; and then they feel it to be time for them to go.
While soldiers alone are in the country, they feel their presence to
be temporary; that they are mere sojourners in the land, and sooner
or later must go away. It is the settler alone, the armed settler,
whose presence announces the dominion--the permanent dominion--of
the white man.
It is the most efficient remedy. On this point we can speak with
confidence, for the other remedies have been tried, and have
failed. The other remedies are to catch the Indians, and remove
them; or, to negotiate with them, and induce them to go off. Both
have been tried; both are exhausted. No human being now thinks that
our soldiers can catch these Indians; no one now believes in the
possibility of removing them by treaty. No other course remains to
be tried, but the armed settlement; and that is so obvious, that it
is difficult to see how any one that has read history, or has heard
how this new world was settled, or how Kentucky and Tennessee were
settled, can doubt it.
The peninsula is a desolation. Five counties have been depopulated.
The inhabitants of five counties--the survivors of many
massacres--have been driven from their homes: this bill is intended
to induce them to return, and to induce others to go along with
them. Such inducements to settle and defend new countries have been
successful in all ages and in all nations; and cannot fail to be
effectual with us. _Deliberat Roma, perit Saguntum_, became the
watchword of reproach, and of stimulus to action in the Roman Senate
when the Senate deliberated while a colony was perishing. _Saguntum
perishes while Rome deliberates_: and this is truly the case with
ourselves and Florida. That beautiful and unfortunate territory is
a prey to plunder, fire, and murder. The savages kill, burn and
rob--where they find a man, a house, or an animal in the desolation
which they have made. Large part of the territory is the empty and
bloody skin of an immolated victim.