Early in January, he moved south, with about five hundred mounted men, well provided. On the twenty-fourth, at about twelve o’clock, he encountered the “allies,” near the “Locka-Hatchee,” and a short skirmish followed, in which the General was himself wounded somewhat severely in the arm. He lost seven men killed and thirty wounded. The enemy yielded the field to our troops, but left neither dead nor wounded upon the scene of conflict, nor is it known whether they sustained any loss whatever. General Jessup expresses the belief that there were not more than a hundred warriors engaged on the part of the enemy. On the twenty-fifth, he erected a stockade called “Fort Jupiter.” Here he lay until the fifth of February, when he moved forward some twelve miles, where, it is said, some of his officers—General Eaton and others—proposed that General Jessup should make terms with the Indians and their allies, and permit them to remain in the country, confining them to the southern portion of the Territory. He, however, moved forward another day’s march, when, being called on by Colonel Twiggs, and learning that it was the general desire of the officers, he says he determined to send a messenger to the Indians, offering them peace.
The first messenger dispatched on this service was one of the Exiles, or, as General Jessup called him, a “Seminole negro.” This man soon returned with several Indians, among whom was a sub-chief named “Hallec Hajo,” who was willing to hold a conference, and expressed a desire to remain in the country; but said, if compelled, they must go West.
General Jessup insisted that “Toshkogee,” the principal chief in that neighborhood, should attend, and hold a Council the next day; and that the Indians should give up their arms. Hallec Hajo at once refused to comply with such condition. He would meet in Council, but would never surrender his arms.
On the morning of the eighth of February, Toshkogee and Hallec Hajo met General Jessup agreeably to appointment. An interchange of opinions and views took place, and the General agreed to recommend the conclusion of a peace upon the basis of allowing the allies to remain in the country, and occupy a suitable portion of the southern part of the Territory. It was also agreed that a certain territory, near the place of negotiation, should be occupied by the Indians and their families, where they should be safe, and might remain until the views of the Executive should be ascertained.[111]
In pursuance of this arrangement of treating upon the basis of permitting the allies to remain in the country, many of the Seminoles and Exiles collected with the expectation that the agreement was to be carried out in good faith.
On the next day, General Jessup addressed a long communication to the Secretary of War, in which he gives his views upon the policy of immediate emigration somewhat at length, and advises its abandonment in the following language:
“In regard to the Seminoles, we have committed the error of attempting to remove them when their lands were not required for agricultural purposes; when they were not in the way of the white inhabitants, and when the greater portion of their country was an unexplored wilderness, of the interior of which we were as ignorant as of the interior of China. We exhibit in our present contest the first instance, perhaps, since the commencement of authentic history, of a nation employing an army to explore a country, (for we can do little more than explore it,) or attempting to remove a band of savages from one unexplored wilderness to another.”
“As a soldier, it is my duty, I am aware, not to comment upon the policy of the Government, but to carry it out in accordance with my instructions. I have endeavored faithfully to do so; but the prospect of terminating the war in any reasonable time is any thing but flattering. My decided opinion is, that, unless immediate emigration be abandoned, the war will continue for years to come, and at constantly accumulating expense. Is it not, then, well worthy the serious consideration of an enlightened Government whether, even if the wilderness we are traversing could be inhabited by the white man, (which is not the fact,) the object we are contending for would be worth the cost? I do not certainly think it would; indeed, I do not consider the country south of Chickasa-Hatchee worth the medicines we shall expend in driving the Indians from it.”
To this communication the Secretary of War replied: “In the present stage of our relations with the Indians residing within the States and Territories east of the Mississippi, including the Seminoles, it is useless to recur to the principles and motives which induced the Government to determine their removal to the West. The acts of the Executive, and the laws of Congress, evince a determination to carry out the measure, and it is to be regarded as the settled policy of the country. In pursuance of this policy, the treaty of Payne’s Landing was made with the Seminoles; and the character of the officer employed on the part of the Government is a guarantee of the perfectly fair manner in which that negotiation was conducted and concluded. Whether the Government ought not to have waited until the Seminoles were pressed upon by the white population, and their lands become necessary to the agricultural wants of the community, is not a question for the Executive now to consider. The treaty has been ratified, and is the law of the land; and the constitutional duty of the President requires that he should cause it to be executed. I cannot, therefore, authorize any arrangement with the Seminoles by which they will be permitted to remain, or assign them any portion of the Territory of Florida as their future residence.”
“The Department indulged the hope, that, with the extensive means placed at your disposal, the war by a vigorous effort might be brought to a close this campaign. If, however, you are of opinion that, from the nature of the country and the character of the enemy, such a result is impracticable, and that it is advisable to make a temporary arrangement with the Seminoles, by which the safety of the settlements and posts will be secured throughout the summer, you are at liberty to do so.”
General Jessup had previously represented the subjection of the Seminoles as an object easily to be accomplished. He had so represented in his letter to Mr. Blair, in 1836, which occasioned the withdrawal of General Scott, and his own appointment to the command of the army in Florida. He had himself been in command more than a year, and the War Department was doubtless somewhat astonished at his recommendation now to adopt the policy which the Indians and Exiles had from the first been ready to accept. He was probably somewhat mortified at seeing his proposition so coldly received, and the whole responsibility of carrying it out placed upon himself, upon condition that he was satisfied nothing better could be accomplished. He had done all in his power to effect the objects so much cherished by the Administration. But the Secretary of War still urged the carrying out of the treaty of Payne’s Landing, not according to its letter and spirit, but according to the unnatural and unexpected construction which General Jackson placed upon it, after complaints were made against the Seminoles by the people of Florida. It is also evident that no intention of executing it according to the supplemental treaty entered into by the Seminole Delegates while at the West, was entertained by the Administration. No measures had been taken for establishing the boundaries between the Seminoles and the Creeks; nor do we hear of any intention to fulfill that stipulation. On the contrary, it had been constantly asserted by the Secretary of War, that the Seminoles and Creeks were to be united as one people.
The Commanding General, in the opinion of many statesmen, had compromited the honor of the service, and violated the plighted faith of the nation by treacherously seizing Indians and Exiles who had approached the army under the white flag, which had so long been regarded as a sacred emblem of peace by all civilized nations; yet, notwithstanding these circumstances, his propositions were in spirit rejected, although in language he had been authorized to negotiate a temporary peace upon the basis he had proposed.
It is believed that the substance of this answer had become to some extent known, or suspected by the Indians, for General Jessup admits he received the decision of the Secretary of War on the seventeenth; and on the nineteenth, he directed the chiefs to meet him in Council on the twentieth, at twelve o’clock. For some cause, the Indians and their allies appear to have been indisposed to do this, and he directed Colonel Twiggs to seize them, and hold them prisoners; and he reported to the War Department that, by this movement, “five hundred and thirteen Indians, and one hundred and sixty-five negroes, were secured.”[112]
Of this transaction we can only speak from the account given of it by General Jessup. From his report, certain important facts are clearly understood. For instance, he announces to the Indians and Exiles a proposition to treat with them, upon the basis of permitting them to remain in the country. That, for the purpose of entering into such a negotiation, they collected near Fort Jupiter; and that, without any attempt to negotiate, and while they were in his camp, they were unexpectedly seized against their will; and that Passac Micco, and fourteen others, escaped capture. Nor does General Jessup pretend that one of those six hundred and seventy-eight persons voluntarily surrendered. It is certain, that however honorable the intentions of General Jessup were, the Indians and the Exiles were deceived, and, as they believed, treacherously dealt with.
The official register of colored persons seized at Fort Jupiter, represents one hundred and fifty-one as properly belonging to the Seminoles, or as “Seminole negroes,” the term usually applied to the Exiles by General Jessup and his officers; and fourteen are represented as the slaves of citizens of Florida. These people were soon hurried off to Tampa Bay, where they were confined within the pickets, under a strong guard. Fort Brooke now presented to the eye of a stranger all the external appearances of a first class “slave factory” upon the African coast. The Exiles who had been betrayed at Fort Peyton and other places, and not delivered over to slave-hunters, were also here; and the number had so greatly increased, that many had to be sent to New Orleans for safe keeping.
When the Exiles seized at Fort Jupiter arrived at Tampa Bay, they found, among those already there, many old acquaintances, friends and relatives, who had been taken at other places. Families, in some instances long separated, were once more united; husbands, whose wives and children had been seized and long imprisoned at Tampa Bay, now rejoined their families, and were in some degree compensated for the mortification of having been made prisoners by treachery.
But fathers and husbands, whose children and wives were captured by the Creeks near Withlacoochee and other places during the previous year, now looked around for their families in vain. On making inquiry, they were informed their friends had been taken to Fort Pike, which had now become a general depot for the imprisonment of Exiles.
The Indians who had been captured by this “coup d’etat,” were sent to Charleston, South Carolina, for safe keeping; and the negroes reported upon the registry as “slaves of citizens of Florida,” were without ceremony delivered over to those who claimed to be their masters.
We have now reached a period of the war at which we are constrained to admit our inability to give a full or accurate history of the various captures of Exiles, or of the reënslavement of those captured.
Captain Sprague, who had the advantages of personal observation and experience during the war, says that General Hernandez of the Florida Militia, serving principally in the eastern part of the Territory, “captured some important chiefs, and restored to citizens more than three hundred negroes who had been captured by the Indians.” But the means which he used for their capture is not stated.
General Jessup informs us, also, that Abraham, the negro chief, and two Indians, were sent to the Seminoles west of the Okechobee, and prevailed upon Alligator, and three hundred and sixty Indians and negroes, to surrender to Colonel Smith and General Taylor. But what proportion of this number were Exiles, we are not informed; nor are we told of the means used, or the assurances given, to induce them to surrender. It is certain, that many of the chiefs alleged that the Cherokee Delegation assured their friends, that they would be permitted to remain in their own country, and that the President was desirous of making peace upon those terms; and General Jessup says, that the negro chief Abraham, and another negro interpreter named Auguste, gave the same information. Abraham had in fact dictated the supplemental treaty, entered into by the delegation while in the Western Country, and was made to believe, at all times, that the Government would fulfill, and abide by, the terms of this supplemental treaty. It was on this conviction that he acted, and he appears never to have doubted the good faith of the Executive until he actually arrived in the Western Country.
John Ross, the Cherokee Chief, demands the release of Wild Cat and other Chiefs—Answer of Secretary of War—Mr. Everett’s resolution in Congress—Secretary’s Report—General Jessup’s answer—Agitation in Congress—Hon. John Quincy Adams—Hon. William Slade—Difficulty with Creek Warriors—The Exiles who had been captured by the Creeks—Arrangements for emigrating both Indians and Exiles—Indians at Charleston, and Negroes at Tampa Bay, transported to Fort Pike—Families again united—Sympathy excited—General Gaines becomes engaged in their behalf—His noble conduct—Embarrassment of Commissioner of Indian Affairs, and of the Secretary of War—Singular arrangement—Discrepancies unexplained—A Slave-dealer professes to purchase ninety of the Exiles, in order to relieve the Government—Appoints his brother-in-law an Agent to receive them—Department furnishes the necessary vouchers—Sudden change of policy—Sixty Exiles claimed by a Slave-dealer named Love—General Gaines appears on behalf of Exiles—His able defense—Court renders judgment discharging Rule—Thirty-six Exiles released by Love—Lieutenant Reynolds with the Indians, and all but these thirty-six Exiles, take passage for Fort Gibson.
While General Jessup was engaged in carrying out the designs of the Administration by artifice, and by force, events of a serious character were transpiring at Washington which demanded the attention of both the Executive and himself. John Ross, principal chief of the Cherokee Nation, learning the manner in which Osceola, Wild Cat, and other Seminole chiefs and warriors, had been betrayed and seized, while visiting General Jessup under a flag of truce, by advice and at the suggestion of the Cherokee Delegation, wrote an able and very spirited letter to the Secretary of War, demanding the release of the prisoners thus captured in violation of the principles of civilized warfare.
The Secretary attempted a vindication of General Jessup, and an interesting correspondence followed, marked with great ability, in which Ross, with much force, exhibits what he seemed to regard as the perfidious treatment to which the Seminoles had been subjected, while acting under the advice of himself and his country-men, and protected by the flag of truce, which had ever been recognized and held sacred as the inviolable emblem of peace. This was the first exposure of the manner in which this disastrous war had been conducted. Up to that time no member of Congress, or Executive officer, appears to have uttered an objection or protest against the war, or against the manner in which it was carried on. Ross was at the city of Washington, and mingled freely with members of Congress, and in private conversations called their attention to the facts stated.[113]
Mr. Everett, of Vermont,[114] a man of great experience and ability, moved a resolution (March 21) in the House of Representatives, calling on the Secretary of War for such information as he possessed touching the capture of Indians, while visiting the American army under flags of truce. The resolution was adopted, and, in reply, the Secretary of War (April 11) transmitted the answer of General Jessup, in which he rests his justification, upon the bad faith which, he alleges, the Indians had previously exhibited towards the United States. This answer occupies some fifteen documentary pages, most of which are filled with the facts already known to the reader.
After the report of the Secretary of War had been printed, Mr. Everett gave his views upon the facts, in a speech which attracted much attention in the country. The people were already turning their attention to the subject of slavery. Petitions were sent to Congress calling on that body to abolish the institution within the District of Columbia. The Hon. John Quincy Adams had thrown the weight of his influence in behalf of the right of petition, and was known to be opposed to the institution. Hon. William Slade, a member of the House of Representatives from Vermont, had openly avowed his deep and heart-felt sympathy with the Abolitionists, who were striving to direct the popular mind to the crimes of the “peculiar institution,” as slavery was then called.
It was evident, that a full exposure of the causes which led to the Florida war, and of the manner in which it had been prosecuted, would tend to defeat the Democratic candidate in the next Presidential campaign. It was therefore clearly the policy of that party, and of the Administration, to maintain as great a degree of silence as possible upon all these subjects.
Among the early difficulties presented to the consideration of the War Department, was the settlement with the Creek warriors who had served under the contract made by order of General Jessup, in 1836, to give them a certain gross amount in cash, and all the plunder they could capture—which General Jessup and the Creeks understood to embrace negroes, as well as horses and cattle.
The General, by his order, had directed eight thousand dollars to be paid to them, and twenty dollars for each negro belonging to citizens, who had been captured by them and delivered over to the claimants.
This disposal of the public treasure by an individual, was most clearly unauthorized, either by law or by the constitution; yet the order had been approved by the Executive, and had been made the act of the President, who thus assumed the moral and political responsibility attached to this gross violation of law, and of the Constitution.
The question how this charge upon the treasury was to be met, seems to have borne heavily upon the mind of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, and he expressed this difficulty to General Jessup. That officer, being less familiar with matters of finance than with those of a strictly military character, replied, that the amount might with propriety be charged to the annuities due the Seminoles; but as that fund was under the supervision of Congress, it would not do to charge it over to that appropriation, lest it should create agitation.
Another difficulty was, as to the disposal of the negroes themselves. They were now said to be the “property of the United States;” and the question very naturally arose, what shall be done with them? This question was also propounded to General Jessup by the Commissioner of Indian Affairs. The General replied, that he thought it best to send them to Africa, for the benefit of civilization on that coast. But that could not be done except by appropriations made by Congress; and it was feared that, to ask Congress for an appropriation of that character, might lead to the disclosure of unpleasant facts.[115]
In the meantime, arrangements were made to send the prisoners, both Indians and Exiles, to the Western Country, without any particular decision in regard to the ninety negroes captured by the Creek warriors, and sent to Fort Pike as the property of the United States, and fed and clothed at the public expense for more than a year.
Agreeably to orders from the War Department, General Jessup detailed Lieutenant J. G. Reynolds to superintend the emigration, as disbursing agent, and W. G. Freeman as an assistant. These appointments were approved by the Department; and transports were engaged to take such prisoners as were at Charleston, South Carolina, around the peninsula of Florida to Tampa Bay, on the western coast, and thence to New Orleans.
There were at that time many negroes at Tampa Bay, intentionally separated from the Indians, who had been sent, at the same time, to Charleston. Major Zantzinger wrote the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, to know how these negroes at Tampa Bay were to be disposed of. The Commissioner immediately answered by letter, directed to Lieutenant Reynolds, saying, “I have to instruct you, that all of those negroes mentioned by Major Zantzinger, which are the property of the Seminoles,[116] are to be received with, and to constitute a portion of, the emigrating party for all purposes of transportation and subsistence. * * * * You will consider it your duty to call at Tampa Bay, receive this party, and transport it to the West with the detachment now at New Orleans.”
This direction required Lieutenant Reynolds to transport the ninety Exiles, sent to New Orleans on the second of June, 1837, to the Western Country; for they constituted a part of “the detachment at New Orleans,” which he was directed to transport West. They had been captured while fleeing from our army, and of course were nearly all of them women and children, who, by the fortunes of war, had been separated from their husbands, and fathers, and brothers, that were left behind in the Indian Country. Those husbands, brothers and fathers, were among the first to capitulate in order to rejoin their families from whom they had thus been separated. Many Exiles had been betrayed and seized at Fort Peyton. Some had surrendered at Volusi; others had capitulated at Fort Jupiter; others had come in and given themselves up at different posts: and all these were assembled for transportation at “Tampa Bay,” where they awaited arrangements for sending them to the Western Country.
Major General Gaines was at that time commanding the south-western division of the army of the United States; and Fort Pike was situated within his military district. Lieutenant Reynolds had taken the prisoners at Charleston on board the transports; had sailed around the peninsula of Florida; called at Tampa Bay; had taken on board the negroes assembled at that point, and had reached Fort Pike.
Members of families long separated were now united. Fathers embraced their wives and children, whom they had not seen for more than a year; brothers and sons embraced their sisters and mothers; and all exhibited those deep sympathies of the human heart, which constitute the higher and holier emotions of our nature. The officers and soldiers who witnessed this scene could not but feel interested in these people, many of whose ancestors had fled from oppression generations previously, and who, for more than half a century, had been subjected to almost constant persecution. It was undoubtedly owing to these circumstances, that so many of the officers of our army became deeply interested in securing their freedom.
Major Zantzinger was in command at Fort Pike; but he could only act under the direction of his superior officers. Lieutenant Reynolds, therefore, applied to Major General Gaines for orders to Major Zantzinger to deliver the Exiles at Fort Pike to him for emigration. From the peculiar language used in this order, it is most evident that General Gaines expected some effort would be made to prevent the emigration of the Exiles, then resident at Fort Pike. The order is so unusual in its tone and language, that we insert it, as follows:
“To Major Zantzinger, or the officer commanding at Fort Pike, or the officer who has charge of the slaves, or other servants, belonging to, or lately in possession of, Seminole Indians, now in charge of Lieutenant Reynolds, destined to the Arkansas: You will, on receipt hereof, deliver to the said Reynolds all such slaves or servants belonging to, or claimed by, or lately in possession of, the said Seminole Indians to be conducted by him in their movements to the Arkansas River, where the Indians, or their slaves or servants, are to be permanently located and settled: taking triplicate receipts for said slaves or servants, one of which will be forwarded to the undersigned.
EDMUND P. GAINES,
Maj. Gen. U. S. A., Commanding.”
The above order was dated on the twenty-first of March. The next day Lieutenant Reynolds inclosed a copy to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, saying, he should commence his voyage West with the emigrants, and adding, “It is not my intention to remove the negroes from Fort Pike until ready for departure, as I am convinced that many individuals with fraudulent claims are in a state of readiness, and only waiting the arrival of the negroes in this city (New Orleans) to carry their object into effect. The measures I shall adopt will bar their intention.”
This letter explains the reason of the precise and specific terms in which the order of General Gaines was expressed. It is due to the memory of General Gaines, and to the character of Lieutenant Reynolds, that their determined efforts to preserve the liberties of these people, so far as they were able, should find a place in history. The war had been commenced and prosecuted for the purpose of seizing and returning to bondage all those people whose ancestors had once fled from oppression. It was the avowed policy of the Administration to prevent these ninety Exiles, who had been captured by the Creek Indians, from going to the Western Country, preferring to have them consigned to slavery in Georgia or Florida, rather than enjoy freedom in the new homes assigned to the Indians in the West. This feeling had encouraged desperate men to make unfounded claims to their persons: and it should be recorded to the honor of many of our officers, that they were active and vigilant in their efforts to defeat these piratical claims, and the exertions of the President and heads of the various Executive Departments, to consign these people to interminable bondage. In order to do justice on this subject, it is necessary to permit all concerned to speak for themselves, so far as convenience will allow. To carry out this object, the reader will excuse our frequent quotations from official documents.
On the twenty-sixth of March, Lieutenant Reynolds wrote the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, dating his letter at “New Barracks,” below New Orleans, saying, “The Indian negroes will be received at Fort Pike, and brought to this place, via the Mississippi River. This course was adopted with the concurrence of General Gaines. Everything will be in readiness to embark soon as the boat arrives. General Gaines has directed that the guard under the direction of Lieutenant Wheaton shall proceed with me.”
Major Zantzinger, who commanded at Fort Pike, appears to have felt some delicacy at delivering up the negroes on the order of General Gaines, and, with those impressions, wrote General Jessup, inquiring as to that point. He received an answer, dated seventh of April, approving his course, and saying, “the removal of the negroes was proper; they were either free, or the property of the Indians.”
All these proceedings were reported to the proper Department at Washington. About the time, or soon after, they would naturally reach that city, William Armstrong, Acting Superintendent of the Indians in the Western Territory, evidently in the joint service of our Government and of the Creek Indians, addressed a note to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, dated at Washington City, April twenty-third, 1838, saying, “When General Jessup called upon volunteers to go to Florida, he promised them all the property they could capture. Accordingly, the Creeks captured near one hundred negroes, which they left in possession of the officers of the United States. What has become of these negroes? Will they receive them, or their value, as promised?”
The difficulty attending the transformation of men into chattels now increased so much, that the Commissioner of Indian Affairs addressed a letter to the Hon. Secretary of War, which is so characteristic of the manner in which the administration of our Government was then conducted, that we give the letter in full:
“WAR DEPARTMENT,
“Office of Indian Affairs, May 1, 1838.
“SIR: I have the honor to submit for the consideration and decision of the Department a question that has been presented by the Superintendent of the Western Territory, (Captain Armstrong.)
“In September last, General Jessup advised the Department that he had purchased from the Creek warriors all the negroes (about eighty in number), captured by them, for $8,000, and this purchase was approved on the seventh of October. At a subsequent date, he wrote that he had supplied Lieutenant Searle with funds, and directed him to make the payment. It is believed, however, that the warriors refused to take the sum named, Lieutenant Searle having made no such payment, and the delegation here asserting that they never received it. It is now asked, whether they will be permitted to take the negroes, or be paid their value? It was suggested by General Jessup, that the consideration for the captives would be a proper charge on the Seminole annuity. But this would deprive the friendly portion, who have emigrated, of what they are justly, and by law, entitled to, and to a certain extent would be paying the Creeks with their own money; for the fourth Article of the Treaty with the Seminoles, of May ninth, 1832, provides, that ‘the annuities then granted shall be added to the Creek annuities, and the whole amount be so divided that the chiefs and warriors of the Seminole Indians may receive their equitable proportion of the same as members of the Creek confederation.’ Independently of this difficulty, I would respectfully suggest, whether there are not other objections to the purchase of these negroes by the United States? It seems to me, that a proposition to Congress to appropriate money to pay for them, and for their transportation to Africa, could its authority for that course be obtained, or for any other disposition of them, WOULD OCCASION GREAT AND EXTENSIVE EXCITEMENT. Such a relation assumed by the United States, for however laudable an object, would, it appears probable, place the country in no enviable attitude, especially at this juncture, when the public mind here and elsewhere it so sensitive upon the subject of slavery. The alternative would seem to be, to deliver the negroes to the Creeks, as originally agreed on. The subject involves so many delicate considerations, that I respectfully invite your attention to it, and your direction as to the answer to be given to the delegation now in the city. As early a decision of this question as practicable, is very desirable: the Indians intending to leave this place in four or five days, and being anxious that this matter should be disposed of before they go.
“Very respectfully,
Your most obedient servant,
C. A. HARRIS, Commissioner.
Captain S. COOPER, Acting Sec’y of War.”
“P. S.—If it should be determined to deliver them to the Creeks, I would suggest, as the opinion of this office, that it would be impolitic for them to be taken to the country West, and that so far as the Department may of right interfere in regard to the ultimate disposition, it should endeavor to have it effected IN SOME OTHER MODE.
C. A. H.”
It is no part of our duty to comment on these proceedings; yet we are constrained to say, that no historian has, or can explain the reason of delay on the part of the Creek Indians, in regard to their claim to these people, for more than an entire year, upon any principles of consistent action. General Jessup said, in his official communications, they had received their pay, and that “the negroes were the property of the Government;” and the Department had approved his whole course on this subject. The Creeks, so far as we can learn, left the country and went West, perfectly satisfied. This Delegation had been some months in Washington, and, as the Commissioner of Indian Affairs says, were to leave in four or five days; when, for the first time, they mentioned the subject, although the negroes had been detained from them, as they allege, in direct violation of their contract. They appear to have rested satisfied until difficulties from other quarters were presented to the Administration. And these letters may all easily be explained, as the carrying out of a previous understanding between these officers and the Creek Indians. However that may be, the Commissioner of Indian Affairs wrote Captain Armstrong, Superintendent of the Western Territory, as follows:
“WAR DEPARTMENT,
“Office of Indian Affairs, May 5, 1838.
“SIR: The Secretary of War has directed that the negroes belonging to the Seminoles, and captured by the warriors in Florida, shall be placed at the disposal of the Delegation now in this city. But before this can be carried into effect, it will be necessary to be satisfied that the warriors have not received the $8,000 promised in the agreement with General Jessup; to ascertain accurately their number and identity, and the claims of citizens upon any of them. For all to which such claims can be established, $20 each will be allowed. From the information now here, the number is supposed to be between sixty and seventy, the original number having been reduced by sickness. All the facts herein indicated will be required as early as practicable; but some time must necessarily elapse. It is the opinion of the Department, that it will be impolitic to take these negroes West, and that they should be otherwise disposed of. Any arrangement the Delegation may make respecting them, and submit to this office, will be sanctioned, and instructions given for such action as may be proper on the part of the Government.
“Very, &c., C. A. HARRIS.
Capt. WM. ARMSTRONG,
Washington.”
One feature in these communications stands out prominently to the view of the reader: the number of these victims appears to have undergone constant diminution. General Jessup reported the number sent to Fort Pike at ninety. In his previous letter, addressed to the Secretary of War, Commissioner Harris states the number at eighty; and in this communication, written four days subsequently, he states the number to be between sixty and seventy; while the official registry shows there was one hundred and three—of whom some, however, undoubtedly died.
If the honorable Secretary of War intended these people should be delivered over to the Creek Indians as their property, it would be difficult to understand by what law he should himself attempt to control them, in the subsequent disposition of their legalized chattels, or by what authority he should object to their going West.
It will however be seen that one point yet remained undecided. The negroes were not to be delivered until it was ascertained that the Creeks had not received the eight thousand dollars, agreeably to the order of General Jessup in September, 1837.
Fortunately, a Lieutenant Sloan, who had acted as a disbursing agent of the United States, was at that precise time in Washington City. He stated to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, in a letter dated May sixth, being the day after this decision of the Secretary of War, assuring him that he had learned from Lieutenant Searle himself that the Indians refused to accept the eight thousand dollars for their interest in the negroes. These statements constituted a series of supposed facts, which appears to have been regarded as necessary to authorize the subsequent proceedings.
This evidence was, accordingly, deemed satisfactory; and the Creek Indians were now declared to be the owners of these ninety Exiles, under the original contract made between them and General Jessup, in 1836: thus abrogating the order of General Jessup, No. 175, and setting aside the approval of that order by the Department of War itself—which was dated the seventh of October, 1837—leaving the United States to sustain the loss incurred by feeding and clothing the prisoners, and guarding them for thirteen months.
At this time a slave-dealer by the name of James C. Watson, said to reside in Georgia, happened to be also at the seat of Government, as was common for Southern gentlemen during the sessions of Congress. To this man the officers of Government now applied for aid, in extricating themselves from the difficulty into which they had been brought by this slave-dealing transaction. Even the Secretary of War is said to have encouraged Watson to purchase those negroes of the Creek Indians.[117] By request of these public functionaries, and at their instance, Mr. Watson declares he was induced to purchase the negroes, and to give between fourteen and fifteen thousand dollars for them.[118] It was perhaps the heaviest purchase of slaves made in the city of Washington during that year, and certainly the most dignified transaction in human flesh that ever took place at the capital of our nation, or of any other civilized people; inasmuch as the high officers of this enlightened and Christian confederation of States constituted a negotiating party to this important sale of human beings.
The purchase appears to have taken place on the seventh of May; and Watson, being unable to go immediately to New Orleans, authorized his brother-in-law, Nathaniel F. Collins of Alabama, as his agent and attorney, to repair to that city and take possession of the prisoners. Yet the whole business appears to have been carried on in the name of the Creek Indians.
On the eighth of May, five persons, styling themselves “chiefs, head-men and delegates of the Creek Tribe of Indians,” filed with the Commissioner of Indian Affairs a request, stating that they had appointed Nathaniel F. Collins, Esq., of Alabama, their agent and attorney, to demand and receive from General Jessup the negro slaves which the Creek warriors had captured in Florida, under their agreement with that officer, made in September, 1836, and requesting the Department to furnish the proper order for obtaining possession of the slaves from the officer having them in charge. This request was communicated to the Secretary of War the next day, by the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, and constitutes a part of the record; and, coming from that department of government most implicated in this slave-dealing transaction, we place it before the reader:
“WAR DEPARTMENT,
Office of Indian Affairs, May 9, 1838.
SIR: The decision made a few days since, requesting that the negroes captured by the Creek warriors in Florida, should, in compliance with the engagement of General Jessup, be delivered to the Delegation now here, has been communicated to them with the intimation that, when they had determined what disposition would be made of them, and communicated information of the same to this Department, the necessary orders would be issued. In a communication just received from the Delegation, they state they have appointed Nathaniel F. Collins, of Alabama, their attorney in fact to receive the negroes. I have the honor to request that an order be issued to the commanding officer at Fort Pike; to Major Isaac Clark, at New Orleans; to the commanding officer in Florida, and to any other officer who may have charge of them, to deliver to Mr. Collins all the negroes in question. He will, of course, hold them subject to the lawful claims of all white persons. Abraham and his family should be excepted, in consequence of a promise made by General Jessup. The officers should be instructed to use due caution, so as to deliver only those captured by the Creeks. It is proper to remark, that it appears from a letter received from Lieutenant Sloan, that these Indians refused to receive the $8,000, offered them under the direction of General Jessup, for their interest in these negroes.
Very respectfully,
Your most obedient servant,
C. A. HARRIS.
Capt. S. COOPER, Acting Sec. of War.”
On the same day, Mr. Collins was furnished with written instructions, which, being also important, are presented to the reader:
“WAR DEPARTMENT,
“Office of Indian Affairs, May 9, 1838.
“SIR: Having been notified by the Creek Delegation that they have appointed you their agent and attorney in fact, to receive the negroes captured by their warriors in Florida, which, by the decision of the Secretary of War, are to be delivered up to them, in conformity to the agreement made with them by General Jessup, I have the honor to transmit herewith the copy of a communication to the Secretary of War on the subject, which has received his approval. Orders will be given to the officers therein named to carry the measure into effect, in conformity to the recommendation. Captain Morrison, Superintendent of Seminole Emigration at Tampa Bay, and Lieutenant Reynolds, engaged in removing a party of the same, at New Orleans, have been instructed to assist and coöperate in the matter. Herewith you will receive the copy of a list of negroes captured by General Jessup, which, it is believed, embraces the negroes to which the Creeks are entitled; but as this is not certain, much caution should be used in identifying them. It is supposed that all these negroes now alive are at Fort Pike; but some of them may be at Tampa Bay, or other places: it will be for you to find them. No expense of any nature whatever, growing out of this matter, will be paid by the United States.
C. A. HARRIS, Comm’r.
N. F. COLLINS,
Washington, D. C.”
Preparations being now perfected, and the whole matter being fully understood, Mr. Collins left Washington on the following morning, prepared to bring those fathers, and mothers, and children, back to servitude in Georgia, from which their ancestors had fled nearly a hundred years previously; and this nefarious work was thus encouraged and sanctioned by our Government.
Of these movements the Exiles were ignorant. Many hearts were moved in sympathy for them, and many of our military officers were active in their endeavors to defeat the machinations of the President and the War Department.
Lieutenant Reynolds found it necessary to return to Florida before leaving New Orleans with his party of Emigrants. While he was absent, the efforts of slaveholders to reënslave these people appeared to increase, and they became more bold, although Collins had not yet appeared, clothed with the authority of Government, to effect their enslavement.
General Gaines, commanding the Western Military District of the United States, and residing at New Orleans, as if premonished of the arrival of this national slave catcher, issued his peremptory order (April 29), directing Major Clark, Acting Quarter-Master at New Orleans, to make arrangements for the immediate embarkation and emigration of the Seminole Indians and black prisoners of war, at that time in Louisiana, to the place of their destination on the Arkansas River, near Fort Gibson.
Major Clark being thus placed in charge of the prisoners for the purpose of emigrating them, at once informed the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, that claims were “made for about seventy of the Seminole negroes, and the courts here have issued their warrants to take them. The United States District Attorney has been consulted. He gives it as his opinion, that the Sheriff must be allowed to serve the process. It appears they are claims from Georgia, purchased from Creek Indians. No movement of the Indians or negroes can be made at present. The Indians are almost in a state of mutiny.”
This state of feeling arose from these attempts again to separate the Indians and negroes. Many of them were intermarried: they had been separated; their families broken up, but were now reunited, and they determined to die rather than be again separated. The Exiles had also fought boldly beside the Indians; they had encountered dangers together, and had become attached to each other; and soon as the subject of surrendering the Exiles to bondage was named, the Indians became enraged, threatening violence and death to those who should attempt again to separate them from the Exiles.
The claimants mentioned by Major Clark, were from Georgia. The pirates who robbed E-con-chattimico and Walker of their slaves and seized the Exiles resident with those chiefs, as stated in a former chapter, were from Georgia. Watson, the more dignified dealer in human flesh, and acting in accordance with the advice of the Secretary of War, was also from Georgia; and all these claims were said to be derived from Creek Indians, who, as we have seen, professed to own all the Exiles who fled from Georgia after the close of the Revolution, and prior to 1802, together with their descendants.
Information, respecting these difficulties of reënslaving the Exiles, reached the authorities at Washington, and created great embarrassment. The War Department appears never to have anticipated that negroes, who were already prisoners of war, would find friends or means to awaken the sympathy of others. But it was clear that any litigation would make the public acquainted with the facts.
It will be recollected that on the tenth of May, the Commissioner of Indian Affairs wrote an order, directed to General Jessup, to deliver up near one hundred of these Exiles to Collins, the Agent of Watson, and two days later—that is, on the twelfth of May—he wrote Thomas Slidell, District Attorney of the United States at New Orleans, saying, “It is represented to this Department, that the emigration of the Seminoles, now near New Orleans, has been impeded by claims set up to some of their negroes. I am directed by the Secretary of War to request that you will give the Indians your advice and assistance, and by all proper and legal means protect them from injustice and from harrassing and improper interferences with their property and persons. It is of the highest importance that, if possible, no impediments should be suffered to be thrown in the way of their speedy conveyance to their country, west of Arkansas.”
It is a historical curiosity, that the Secretary of War should so often change his policy. He had, as the reader is aware, exerted his influence to prevent those Exiles, who had been captured by the Creeks, from going West.
On the fifth of May, Commissioner Harris declared—“it is the opinion of the Department that it will be impolitic to take these negroes West;” and on the ninth, acting under the direction of the Secretary of War, he furnished Mr. Collins with authority to demand and receive these people, and instructions were also issued “to the officer commanding at Fort Pike; to Major Isaac Clark at New Orleans; to the commanding officer at Florida, and to any other officer who may have the negroes in charge,” to deliver them to Mr. Collins; while three days afterwards he assures Mr. Slidell, as before stated, “It is of the highest importance that, if possible, no impediments should be suffered to be thrown in the way of their speedy conveyance to their country, west of Arkansas.” This letter to Mr. Slidell was inclosed in another of the same date, addressed to Major Clark, as follows: