The Exiles of Florida. Giddings Joshua Reed
that the Seminoles did not capture and return the fugitive slaves who fled to the Indian country, according to their stipulations in the treaty of Camp Moultrie, but rather afforded protection to them. They further stated that while the Seminoles remained in the country no slaveholder could enjoy his property in peace. This protest was signed by ninety of the principal citizens of said county, and forwarded to the President.
This statement aroused the ire of the President, who at once indorsed on the back of the petition an order to the Secretary of War to “inquire into the alleged facts, and if found to be true, to direct the Seminoles to prepare to remove West and join the Creeks.” The order was characteristic of the author. He waited not for the approval or ratification of any treaty; with him the whole depended upon the alleged fact of the Seminoles failing to bring in fugitive slaves – not upon treaty, nor upon the ratification of treaties.68
The Senate of the United States was subsequently called on by the President to approve the treaty after the lapse of nearly two years from its date. This was done, and the President by his proclamation immediately declared it in force. It was said by public officers, then in Florida, that had the Seminole delegation been permitted to give an unbiased opinion to their people, there would not have been a man in the Nation willing to migrate.69
The whole Nation became indignant at this treatment, and such was the feeling against the agent that he deemed it prudent to retire from the agency. General Wiley Thompson was appointed to succeed him. General Clinch was appointed to the command of the troops, and every preparation was made to insure the speedy removal of the Indians and Exiles west of the Mississippi.
In the meantime, the Creeks learning that a tract of country was, by the additional treaty, agreed to be set off to the separate use of the Seminoles, saw clearly the influence which Abraham had exercised in the matter, and, fearing their own designs for obtaining slaves would be defeated through their principal chiefs, addressed a protest to the Hon. Lewis Cass, then Secretary of War, remonstrating against the policy of giving the Seminoles a separate country.
These chiefs were sagacious men, who had attained distinction with the Creeks by their manifestation of superior intelligence. Two of them, Rolley McIntosh and Chilley McIntosh, sons of a Scotch trader who lived with the Indians, had been educated, and were regarded as among the able politicians of the day. They, together with “Toshatchee Mieco” and “Lewis,” urged the propriety of uniting the two tribes as one people, without any separate organization. The next day they addressed another letter to Secretary Cass, giving additional reasons and arguments why the Seminoles should not have separate lands.70
The President had already adopted the policy of compelling the Seminoles to unite under one government with the Creeks: and this stipulation for separate lands was introduced into the “additional treaty,” by commissioners who were not fully informed of the President’s views. This compact, entered into at Fort Gibson, erroneously called an “additional treaty,” was known to be void: neither the Seminole chiefs nor the United States commissioners had authority to negotiate any treaty whatever; and this stipulation, for holding separate lands by the Seminoles, appears to have been totally disregarded by the Executive, as will more fully appear hereafter.
Another circumstance had induced the Creeks to remain silent in regard to the Exiles. By the treaty of Indian Spring, they had placed at the President’s disposal $250,000, out of which the slaveholders of Georgia were to be paid for slaves and property lost prior to 1802. The commissioners appointed to make the examination found but $109,000 due the claimants under this stipulation, leaving in the hands of the President $141,000 belonging to the Creeks. This, however, was claimed by the slaveholders, in addition to the amount allowed by the treaty. To obtain this money the slaveholders sent their petition to Congress. The subject was referred to a committee, of which Mr. Gilmer, of Georgia, was Chairman. The committee made a very elaborate report, setting forth that the claimants had an equitable right to this money as an indemnity “for the loss of the offspring which the Exiles would have borne to their masters had they remained in bondage,” and it is among the inexplicable transactions of that day, that the bill passed, giving the money to those claimants without the uttering of a protest, or the statement of an objection, by any Northern representative or senator.
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