Kitabı oku: «The Exiles of Florida», sayfa 18

One member from the slave States, Williamson R. W. Cobb, of Alabama, voted against the bill. All the other members from the slave States voted for it; and were aided by the votes of members from the free States, as follows:

From New Hampshire: Harry Hibbard – 1.

Massachusetts: Wm. Appleton, Zeno Scudder – 2.

New York: Abram M. Schemmerhorn, James Brooks, Gilbert Dean, F. S. Martin, Abram P. Stevens, Joseph Southerland – 6.

Connecticut: Collins M. Ingersoll – 1

New Jersey: R. M. Price – 1.

Pennsylvania: Joseph R. Chandler, Thomas Florence, Joseph H. Kuhns, Joseph McNair, Andrew Packer, John Robbins, Thomas Ross – 7.

Ohio: John L. Taylor – 1.

Indiana: Sam’l W. Parker, Richard W. Thompson – 2.

Michigan: E. S. Penniman, Charles E. Stuart – 2.

Iowa: Lincoln Clark, Bernard Henn – 2.

California: Joseph W. McCorkle – 1. In all the free States twenty-five.

The vote against the bill was given by the following members, from the free States:

From Maine: E. K. Smart, Israel Washburn, jr. – 2.

New Hampshire: Jared Perkins, Amos Tuck – 2.

Massachusetts: Orrin Fowler, Z. Goodrich, Horace Mann – 3.

New York: Henry Bennet, George Briggs, John G. Floyd, Timothy Jenkins, Daniel F. Jones, Preston King, William Murray, Joseph Russel, Wm. A. Sacket, W. W. Snow, Hiram S. Wallbridge, John Wells – 12.

New Jersey: Charles Skelton, N. T. Stratton – 2.

Vermont: Thomas W. Bartlett, James Meacham – 2.

Connecticut: Charles Chapman – 1.

Pennsylvania: James Allison, John L. Dawson, James Gamble, Galusha A. Grow, John W. Howe, Thomas M. Howe, Milo M. Dimmick, Thaddeus Stevens – 8.

Ohio: Nelson Barrere, Joseph Cable, Alfred P. Edgerton, J. M. Gaylord, Alex. Harper, Wm. F. Hunter, John Johnson, Eben Newton, Edson B. Olds, Charles Sweetzer – 10.

Indiana: Samuel Brenton, John G. Davis, Graham N. Fitch, Thomas A. Hendricks, Daniel Mace – 5.

Illinois: Wyllis Allen, R. S. Molony – 2.

Wisconsin: James D. Doty, Solomon Durkee, Ben. C. Eastman – 3.

These fifty-two members, with Mr. Cobb, of Alabama, made up the entire opposition to the bill in the House of Representatives. In the Senate there was very little opposition to its passage; and after thirteen years, the people of the United States paid for the slaves whom Watson bought on speculation, but of whom he failed to obtain possession. The Northern advocates of the bill justified their support of it more generally upon the principle, that our officers sent the negroes West, and thereby rendered it difficult, if not impossible, for Watson to obtain possession of them; and they insisted that, in refunding to Watson his money, they did not pay him for human flesh, but for the money he had paid out at the instance of federal officers. This vote closed the controversy in regard to General Jessup’s contract, to give the Creek warriors such plunder as they might capture from the enemy.

CHAPTER XVIII.
FURTHER DIFFICULTIES IN PROSECUTING THE WAR

Emigrants under Captain Morrison – Feeling among the Regular Troops – They detest the practice of catching Negroes – Another party Emigrate – Still further Emigration – Situation of the Exiles – Deep depravity of the Administration – General McComb’s Treaty – His general order – Peace cheers the Nation – Citizens of Florida return to their homes – Administration congratulates its friends – More murders perpetrated – Planters flee to villages for protection – Massacre of Colonel Harney’s party – Indians seized at Fort Mellon – Exiles refuse to participate in those massacres – They would make no Treaty – Administration paralyzed – Report of Secretary of War – Its character – Barbarous sentiments of Governor Reid – Resolution of Legislature of Florida in favor of employing blood-hounds – Original object in obtaining them – The effort proves a failure – General Taylor retires from command of Army – Is succeeded by General Armistead.

We now resume our chronological narration of events connected with the Exiles of Florida, during the year 1838.

On the fourteenth of June, Captain Morrison arrived at New Orleans from Tampa Bay in charge of some three hundred Indians and thirty negroes, on their way to the West; he having been assigned to that particular duty. These Indians and Exiles had most of them come to Fort Jupiter by advice of the Cherokees, and surrendered under the capitulation of March, 1837. At the time they reached New Orleans, Lieutenant Reynolds was absent with his first emigrating party; and the thirty-one negroes left at New Orleans were at that time in the hands of the Sheriff. Captain Morrison felt it his duty to hasten the emigration of those whom he had in charge, and on the sixteenth, he left that city with his prisoners for the Indian Country without waiting the return of Lieutenant Reynolds. On reaching Fort Gibson, he delivered them over to the officer acting as Seminole Agent for the Western Country, and they soon rejoined their friends who were located on the Cherokee lands.

It may not be improper to state, that, in several of our recent chapters, we have quoted from official documents pretty freely, for the reason that many living statesmen, as well as many who have passed to their final rest, were deeply involved in those transactions, and we desired to make them speak for themselves as far as the documents would enable us to do so. But as we have narrated most of the scenes involving individuals in transactions of such deep moral turpitude, we hope to be more brief in our future history.

When General Taylor assumed the command of the army, there was a feeling of deep disgust prevalent among the regular troops at the practice of seizing and enslaving the Exiles.

We have already noticed the fact, that the citizens of Florida supposed the war to have been commenced principally to enable them to get possession of negroes whom they might enslave. Indeed, they appear not to have regarded it as material, that the claimant should have previously owned the negro. If they once obtained control of his person, he was hurried into the interior of Georgia, Alabama, or South Carolina, where he was sold and held as a slave. And the Florida volunteers, while nominally in service, appear to have been far more anxious to catch negroes than to meet the enemy in battle.

This feeling was so general among the people and troops of Florida, that General Call, Governor of the Territory, recommended to the Secretary of War that military expeditions should be fitted out for the purpose of going into the Indian Country, in order to capture negroes, who, when captured, should be sold, and the avails of such sales applied to defray the expenses of the war.

It is easy to see that this feeling would lead the regular troops to entertain great contempt for the volunteers of Florida; and a corresponding feeling of hostility would arise on the part of such volunteers toward the regular troops.

These feelings operated upon President Jackson in ordering the withdrawal of General Scott; and General Jessup sought to appease this hostility by obeying the dictates of the slave power. Indeed, whatever appears like a violation of pledged faith, or bears the evidence of treachery on the part of General Jessup, may probably with great justice be attributed to the popular sentiment of the Territory. He had assiduously captured, and delivered over to bondage, hundreds of persons whom he had most solemnly covenanted to “protect in their persons and property.”

General Taylor discarded this entire policy. His first efforts were to make the Indians and Exiles understand that he sought their emigration to the Western Country, for the advancement of their own interest and happiness. Owing to these circumstances there was scarcely any blood shed in Florida while he had command. The army was no longer employed to hunt and to chase down women and children, who had been reared in freedom among the hommocks and everglades of that Territory.

There were yet remaining several small bands of Indians upon the Appalachicola River, and in its vicinity. Most of the Exiles who had a few years previously resided with these bands, had been captured by pirates from Georgia, and taken to the interior of that State and sold, as the reader has been already informed. Those of E-con-chattimico’s and of Blunt’s and of Walker’s bands were nearly all kidnapped; but of the number of Exiles who remained with the other remnants of Indian Tribes, resident upon the Appalachicola River, we have no reliable information. We are left in doubt on this point, as General Taylor drew no distinctions among his prisoners; he neither constituted himself nor his officers a tribunal for examining the complexion or the pedigree of his captives. He denied the right of any citizen to inspect the people captured by the army under his command, or to interfere in any way with the disposal of his prisoners. He repaired to the Apalachee towns with a small force about the first of October. Neither the Indians nor Exiles made any resistance; nor did they oppose emigration. They readily embarked for New Orleans on their way westward. Their emigration was not delayed in order to give planters an opportunity to examine the negroes. Under the general term of “Apalachees,” two hundred and twenty persons were quietly emigrated to the Western Country; but, as we have already stated, how many of them were negroes, we have no information. These people were also delivered over to the agent, acting for the Western Indians, and settled with their brethren upon the Cherokee lands.

General Taylor now entered upon a new system for prosecuting the war, by establishing posts and manning them, and by assigning to each a particular district of country, over which their scouts and patroles were to extend their daily reconnoisances.

1839

Small parties of Indians and negroes occasionally came in at different posts, and surrendered under the articles of capitulation of March, 1837; and, on the twenty-fifth of February, one hundred and ninety-six Indians and negroes were embarked at Tampa Bay for the Western Country. But the proportion of negroes, compared with the whole number, is not stated in any official report. General Taylor, in his communications, speaks of them as prisoners, and occasionally uses the terms “Indians and negroes”.

Thus, in less than a year, General Taylor shipped more than four hundred prisoners for the Western Country without bloodshed. These prisoners were also delivered over to the Indian Agent of the Western Country, and immediately reunited with their brethren already located on the Cherokee lands. There were, at that time, a colony of more than sixteen hundred of these people living upon the territory assigned to the Cherokees. They were without homes, or a country of their own: whereas the Government had constantly held out to them the assurance that, if they emigrated West, they should have a country assigned to their separate use, on which they could repose in safety.

At this point in our history, Mr. Van Buren’s administration exhibited its deepest depravity. Since the ratification of the supplemental treaty of 1833, the Executive, through all its officers, had assured the Indians and Exiles that they should enjoy its full benefits, by having a territory set off to their separate use, where they could live independent of Creek laws. Under these assurances they had received the pledged faith of the nation, that they should be protected by the United States in their persons and property.

With these pledges, and with these expectations, a weak and friendless people had emigrated to that western region; and when thus separated from their friends and country, with the slave-catching vultures of the Creek Nation watching and intending to make them their future victims, the President deliberately refused to abide by either the treaty or the articles of capitulation. He left them unprotected, without homes, and without a country which they could call their own. True, many of them had been betrayed, treacherously seized and compelled to emigrate; but this was done in violation of the existing treaty and pledged faith of the nation, which they were constantly assured should be faithfully observed; and these circumstances enhanced the guilt of those who wielded the Executive power to oppress them.

Major General McComb arrived in Florida (May 20) for the purpose of effecting a new treaty with the Seminoles upon the basis of permitting them to remain in their native land. The war had been waged with the intent and for the purpose of compelling the Indians to emigrate West and settle with the Creeks, and become subject to the Creek laws. It had continued three years at a vast expenditure of treasure and of national reputation. Many valuable lives had also been sacrificed; and, although some two thousand Indians and Exiles had emigrated West, not one Exile had settled in the Creek Country, or become subject to Creek laws. Some hundreds had been enslaved and sold in Florida, Georgia, Alabama and South Carolina; but a remnant of that people, numbering some hundreds, yet maintained their liberties against all the machinations and efforts of Government to reënslave them.¹²²

The vast expenditure of national treasure had called forth severe animadversion in Congress; while the entire policy of the slave power forbid all explanation of the real cause of this war, and of the objects for which its prosecution was continued.

Thus, while the nation was involved in a most expensive and disastrous contest for the benefit of slavery, the House of Representatives had adopted resolutions for suppressing all discussion and all agitation of questions relating to that institution.

General Scott, a veteran officer of our army, had exhausted his utmost science; had put forth all his efforts to conquer this indomitable people; or rather to subdue the love of liberty, the independence of thought and of feeling, which stimulated them to effort; but he had failed. The power of our army, aided by deception, fraud and perfidy, had been tried in vain. General Jessup, the most successful officer who had commanded in Florida, had advised peace upon the precise terms which the allies demanded at the commencement of the war; and General McComb, Commander-in-Chief of the army of the United States, was now commissioned to negotiate peace on those terms. But the first difficulty was to obtain a hearing with the chiefs who remained in Florida, in order to enter upon negotiations touching a pacification. To effect this object, recourse was had to a negro, one of the Exiles who knew General Taylor, and in whom General Taylor confided. At the request of General McComb, this man was dispatched with a friendly message to several chiefs, requesting them to come into the American Camp for the purpose of negotiation. His mission proved successful. A Council of several chiefs, and some forty head men and warriors, was convened at Fort King, on the sixteenth of May, 1839, and the terms of peace agreed upon; but no treaty appears to have been drawn up in form. On the eighteenth of May, General McComb, at Fort King, his head-quarters, issued the following general orders:

“Head Quarters of the Army of the United States,}

Fort King, Florida, May 18, 1839. }

“The Major General, commanding in chief, has the satisfaction of announcing to the army in Florida, to the authorities of the Territory, and to the citizens generally, that he has this day terminated the war with the Seminole Indians by an agreement entered into with Chitto-Tustenuggee, principal chief of the Seminoles and successor to Arpeika, commonly called Sam. Jones, brought to this post by Lieutenant Colonel Harney, 2d Dragoons, from the southern part of the peninsula. The terms of the agreement are – that hostilities immediately cease between the parties; that the troops of the United States and the Seminole and Mickasukie chiefs and warriors, now at a distance, be made acquainted with the fact, that peace exists, and that all hostilities are forthwith to cease on both sides – the Seminoles and Mickasukies agreeing to retire into a district of country in Florida, below Pease Creek, the boundaries of which are as follows: viz, beginning at the most southern point of land between Charlotte Harbor and the Sanybel or Cooloosahatchee River, opposite to Sanybel Island; thence into Charlotte Harbor by the southern pass between Pine Island and that point along the eastern shore of said harbor to Toalkchopko or Pease Creek; thence up said creek to its source; thence easterly to the northern point of Lake Istokopoga; thence along the eastern outlet of said lake, called Istokopoga Creek, to the Kissimee River; thence southerly down the Kissimee to Lake Okeechobee; thence south through said lake to Ecahlahatohee or Shark River; thence down said river westwardly to its mouth; thence along the seashore northwardly to the place of beginning; that sixty days be allowed the Indians, north and east of that boundary, to remove their families and effects into said district, where they are to remain until further arrangements are made under the protection of the troops of the United States, who are to see that they are not molested by intruders, citizens or foreigners; and that said Indians do not pass the limits assigned them, except to visit the posts, which will be hereafter indicated to them. All persons are, therefore, forbidden to enter the district assigned to the Indians without written permission of some commanding officer of a military post.”

“By command of the General: ALEXANDER McCOMB,

Major General Commanding.

EDMOND SHRIVER,

Captain and A. A. General.”

The country now again rejoiced at what the people regarded as the restoration of peace. By the terms agreed upon, the Indians retained as large a territory in proportion to the number left in Florida as was held by them at the commencement of the war.

The people of Florida had originally petitioned General Jackson for the forcible removal of the Indians, because they would not seize and bring in their fugitive slaves. They had protested against peace upon any terms that should leave the negroes, whom they claimed, in the Indian Country. These citizens of Florida had long since been driven from their homes and firesides by the enemy whom they so much despised; and they now desired peace. The Indians and Exiles were also anxious to cultivate corn and potatoes for the coming winter, and were glad to be able to do so in peace.

Thus, the people of Florida, as they supposed, in perfect safety, returned to their plantations, and resumed their former habits of life. And the political party in possession of the Government, congratulated themselves and the country upon the fortunate conclusion of a war which had involved them in difficulties that were inexplicable.

But this quiet continued for a short time only. Early in July, travelers and express-riders were killed by small parties of Indians; plantations were attacked and the occupants murdered; buildings burned and crops destroyed; families fled from their homes, leaving all their property, in order to assemble in villages in such numbers as to insure safety to their persons; and the Florida War again raged with accumulated horrors. As an illustration of the manner in which it was carried on, we quote the following:

“Assistant Adjutant General’s Office, Army of the South,}

Fort Brooke, East Florida, July 29, 1839. }

“SIR: It becomes my painful duty to inform you of the assassination of the greater part of Lieutenant Colonel Harney’s detachment, by the Indians, on the morning of the 23d instant, on the Coloosahatchee River, where they had gone, in accordance with the treaty at Fort King, to establish a trading-house. The party consisted of about twenty-eight men, armed with Colt’s rifles; they were encamped on the river, but unprotected by defenses of any kind, and, it is said, without sentinels. The Indians, in large force, made the attack before the dawn of day, and before reveillé; and it is supposed that thirteen of the men were killed, among whom were Major Dalham and Mr. Morgan, sutlers. The remainder, with Colonel Harney, escaped, several of them severely wounded. It was a complete surprise. The Commanding General, therefore, directs that you instantly take measures to place the defenses at Fort Mellon in the most complete state of repair, and be ready at all times to repel attack, should one be made. No portion of your command will, in future, be suffered to leave the garrison except under a strong escort. The detachment will be immediately withdrawn. Should Fort Mellon prove unhealthy, and the surgeon recommend its abandonment, you are authorized to transfer the garrison, and reinforce some of the neighboring posts.

“I am, Sir,

GEO. H. GRIFFIN,

Assistant Adjutant General.

Lieutenant W. K. HANSON,

Commanding at Fort Mellon.”

The Indians killed ten men belonging to the military service, and eight citizens, employed by the sutlers; while Colonel Harney and fourteen others escaped. The Indians obtained fourteen rifles, six carbines, some three or four kegs of powder, and about three thousand dollars worth of goods.

Lieutenant Hanson, commanding at Fort Mellon, on receiving the order which we have quoted, seized some thirty Indians at that time visiting Fort Mellon, and sent them immediately to Charleston, South Carolina; whence they were embarked for the Indian Country, west of Arkansas, where they joined their brethren, who still resided upon the Cherokee Territory.

In these transactions, the Exiles who remained in Florida appear to have taken no part, at least so far as we are informed. They labored to obtain the treaty of peace; but such was the treachery with which they had been treated, that they would not subject themselves to the power of the white people, and were not of course present at the treaty; nor were they recognized by General McComb as a party to the treaty, or in any way interested in its provisions. Indeed, we are led to believe that General McComb adopted the policy on which General Taylor usually practiced, of recognizing no distinctions among prisoners or enemies.

The Administration appeared to be paralyzed under this new demonstration of the power and madness of the Seminoles. At the commencement of the war, some officers had estimated the whole number of Seminoles at fifteen hundred, and the negroes as low as four hundred. They had now sent some two thousand Indians and negroes to the Western Country; and yet those left in Florida, renewed the war with all the savage barbarity which had characterized the Seminoles in the days of their greatest power. Indeed, they exhibited no signs of humiliation.

The Secretary of War, Mr. Poinsett, a South Carolinian, probably exerted more influence with the President in regard to this war than any other officer of Government. His predecessor, General Cass, had treated the Exiles as mere chattels, having “no rights.” He had advised the employment of Creek Indians, giving them such negroes as they might capture; he had officially approved the contract made with them by General Jessup. After he left the office, his successor, Mr. Poinsett, approved the order purchasing some ninety of them on account of Government. He had advised Watson to purchase them; had done all in his power to consign them to slavery in Georgia. He was, however, constrained to make an official report upon the state of this war, at the opening of the first session of the Twenty-sixth Congress, which assembled on the first Monday of December, 1839.

That report, when considered in connection with the events which gave character to the Florida War, constitutes a most extraordinary paper. Notwithstanding all the difficulties which he had encountered in his efforts to enslave the Exiles, to prevent at least ninety of them from going West, and the complaints of the Seminoles who had emigrated to the Western Country, at finding themselves destitute of homes and of territory on which to settle, he made no allusion to their troubles; nor did he give any intimation of the difficulties arising on account of the Exiles; nor did he even intimate that such a class of people existed in Florida.

1840

He declared the result of General McComb’s negotiation had been the loss of many valuable lives. “Our people (said he) fell a sacrifice to their confidence in the good faith and promises of the Indians, and were entrapped and murdered with all the circumstances of cruelty and treachery which distinguish Indian warfare. * * * The experience of the last summer brings with it the painful conviction, that the war must be prosecuted until Florida is freed from these ruthless savages. Their late, cruel and treacherous conduct is too well known to require a repetition of the revolting recital; it has been such as is calculated to deprive them of the sympathy of the humane, and convince ‘the most peaceable of the necessity of subduing them by force.”

It appeared necessary to raise the cry of treachery and cruelty against the Indians and Exiles. They had no friend who was acquainted with the facts, that could call attention of the nation to the treachery which had been practiced on them by the order, and with the approval, of the Secretary of War. No man was able to say how many fathers and mothers and children were, by the influence of that officer, consigned to a fate far more cruel than that which awaited the men, under Colonel Harney, at Coloosahatchee.

In his report the Secretary most truly remarked: “If the Indians of Florida had a country to retire to, they would have been driven out of the Territory long ago; but they are hemmed in by the sea, and must defend themselves to the uttermost, or surrender to be transported beyond it.” And he might well have added: When they shall be thus transported, they will have no country – no home. Indeed, the whole report shows that he relied on physical force to effect an extermination of the Indians and their allies; he looked not to justice, nor to the power of truth, for carrying out the designs of the Executive.

Men in power appear to forget that justice sits enthroned above all human greatness; that it is omnipotent, and will execute its appropriate work upon mankind. Thus, while the people of Florida and Georgia had provoked the war, by kidnapping and enslaving colored men and women, to whom they had no more claim than they had to the people of England; while they had sent their petition to General Jackson, asking him to compel the Indians to seize and bring in their negroes, and had protested against the peace negotiated by General Jessup, in 1837; – Mr. Reid, Governor of Florida, in an official Message to the Territorial Legislature, in December, 1839, used language so characteristic of those who supported the Florida War, that we feel it just to him and his coadjutors to give the following extract:

“The efforts of the General and Territorial Governments to quell the Indian disturbances which have prevailed through four long years, have been unavailing, and it would seem that the prophecy of the most sagacious leader of the Indians will be more than fulfilled; the close of the fifth year will still find us struggling in a contest remarkable for magnanimity, forbearance and credulity on the one side, and ferocity and bad faith on the other. We are waging a war with beasts of prey; the tactics that belong to civilized nations are but shackles and fetters in its prosecution; we must fight ‘fire with fire;’ the white man must, in a great measure, adopt the mode of warfare pursued by the red man, and we can only hope for success by continually harrassing and pursuing the enemy. If we drive him from hommock to hommock, from swamp to swamp, and penetrate the recesses where his women and children are; if, in self-defense, we show as little mercy to him as he has shown to us, the anxiety and surprise produced by such operations will not fail, it is believed, to produce prosperous results. It is high time that sickly sentimentality should cease. ‘Lo, the poor Indian!’ is the exclamation of the fanatic, pseudo-philanthropist; ‘Lo, the poor white man!’ is the ejaculation which all will utter who have witnessed the inhuman butchery of women and children, and the massacres that have drenched the Territory in blood.

“In the future prosecution of the war, it is important that a generous confidence should be reposed in the General Government. It may be that mistakes and errors have been committed on all hands; but the peculiar adaptation of the country to the cowardly system of the foe, and its inaptitude to the operations of a regular army; the varying and often contradictory views and opinions of the best informed of our citizens, and the embarrassments which these cases must have produced to the authorities at Washington, furnish to the impartial mind some excuse, at least, for the failures which have hitherto occurred. It is our duty to be less mindful of the past than the future. Convinced that the present incumbent of the Presidential Chair regards with sincere and intense interest the afflictions we endure; relying upon the patriotism, talent and sound judgment of the distinguished Carolinian who presides over the Department of War, and confident in the wisdom of Congress, let us prepare to second, with every nerve, the measures which may be devised for our relief. Feeling as we do the immediate pressure of circumstances, let us exert, to the extremest point, all our powers to rid us of the evil by which we are oppressed. Let us, by a conciliatory course, endeavor to allay any unkindnesses of feeling which may exist between the United States army and the militia of Florida, and by union of sentiment among ourselves, advance the happy period when the Territory shall enjoy what she so much needs – a long season of peace and tranquillity.”

Perhaps no vice is more general among mankind than a desire to represent ourselves, and our country and government, to mankind and to posterity as just and wise, whatever real truth may dictate. Surely, if General Jessup’s official reports be regarded as correct, the people of Florida should have been the last of all who were concerned in that war, to claim the virtue of magnanimity or forbearance, or to charge the Seminoles or Exiles with ferocity or bad faith. The expression that “it is high time that sickly sentimentality should cease,” manifests the ideas which he entertained of strict, equal and impartial justice to all men.