Diary in America Volume II Part 32

One of the great errors committed by the American Government was in binding itself to perform what was not in its power. It could no more protect these Indians against the white marauders than it could prevent the insurgents from attacking Upper Canada. The arm of the Federal Government is too weak to reach its own confines, as will hereafter be shewn by its own acknowledgment. The consequence was that, very soon after the treaty of Camp Moultrie had been signed, the Indians were robbed and plundered by the miscreants who hovered near them for that purpose.

An American author states that two men, Robinson and Wilburn, belonging to Georgia, contrived to steal from one chief twenty slaves, to the value of 15,000 dollars, and carried them to New Orleans. I will however quote a portion of the work.

"Another influential chief, Emachitochustern, commonly called John Walker, was robbed of a number of slaves in a somewhat similar manner.

After making an appeal to the government agent, without the least chance of redress, he says: 'I don't like to make any trouble or to have any quarrel with white people, but, if they will trespa.s.s on my lands and rights, I must defend myself the best way I can, and if they do come again they must bear the consequences. But is there no civil law to protect me? Are the negroes belonging to me to be stolen away publicly in the face of all law and justice? carried off and sold to fill the pockets of these land pirates? Dougla.s.s and his company have hired a man, who has two large trained dogs for the purpose, to come here and take off others. He is from Mobile, and follows catching negroes.'

"Colonel John Blount, another estimable chief, was inhumanly beaten by a party of white men, who robbed him of several hundred dollars; he made application to the authorities, but the villains were allowed to escape.

"These facts show how mild and forbearing the Seminoles have acted under the most trying circ.u.mstances; and even when their property has been a.s.sailed in this way, they have, in numerous instances, refrained from making resistance; their hands were bound, as the severest punishment awaited any attack they might make upon the intruders, even though circ.u.mstances justified it. But as the Indian's evidence could not be received in a court of justice, the white man's oath would condemn him to the most torturing punishment."

But in every way were the poor Indians the prey of the white men. The same author says, among many other cases brought forward, "A man, by the name of Floyd, was employed by an Indian woman to recover some negroes for her, and instead of presenting a mere power of attorney for her signature, she found, alas! it was a bill of sale for all her negroes!

Another individual was requested by Miconopy, governor of the Seminoles, to draw a piece of writing for him, to which, without suspicion of its character, he attached his name; it was soon after discovered to be a conveyance of a large tract of land!"

Another source of profit to these scoundrels was the obtaining by fraudulent means from the Indians, orders upon the American Government for the payment of portions of their annuity granted in return for the cession of the territory. "One of the government agents was a delinquent to them for a considerable amount. He robbed the princ.i.p.al interpreter of the nation, a very influential black chief by the name of Abraham, of several hundred dollars, by getting a receipt from him without paying the money, under the plea that it was necessary to send the receipt to Was.h.i.+ngton, where it was filed to the credit of the agent. Several other Indians of influence were robbed in a similar manner; and when they demanded the money from the succeeding agent, they were told that the government would not pay them. Is not this an unsound principle to adopt in our intercourse with the Indians? Is it just or honourable for us to send our own agents among them, without their approval, and not hold ourselves responsible for their conduct?

If we were indebted to a nation, and the funds are sent through an agent to pay over, and he neglects to do so, are we not still liable, and would not a civilised power still hold us responsible?"

I have mentioned these facts to show that the Indians were justified in their want of faith in the white men: they were robbed and pillaged and had no redress; nay, they were imprisoned as thieves for taking away their own cattle which had been stolen from them, although they showed their own marks and brands upon them. Whether the American Government suffered all this spoliation with a view to disgust the Indians and incline them to remove to the westward, the reader will be better able to judge for himself when he has read a few pages more.

The Florida people were now subjected to retaliation, on the part of the Indians, who, finding that they could obtain no redress, naturally took the law into their own hands, and loss of life on both sides was the consequence. This produced pet.i.tion after pet.i.tion from the Florida white population to the government, requesting that the Indians might be moved west prior to 1843, the period agreed upon by the treaty of Camp Moultrie. Colonel Gadsden, a citizen of Florida, was appointed commissioner to treat with the Indians, and on the 8th of April 1832, had an interview with Mic-e-no-pah, and a few other chiefs. The Indians requested thirty days to collect the opinions of the absent chiefs, and on the 8th of May 1832, they met the commissioner, according to appointment, at Payne's Landing. The commissioner had a great deal of difficulty in obtaining their consent to the removal, which was ultimately given upon certain conditions.

By this treaty, the Indians agreed to remove west upon being paid a certain sum for the reserved land; an annuity for a certain number of years; and other advantages, which would occupy too much s.p.a.ce to particularise here. The treaty was signed by Mic-e-no-pah, the head chief, Jumper, and thirteen more.

But the treaty was a.s.sented to upon one condition, which was, that the Seminoles were _satisfied_ with the lands apportioned to them west of the Mississippi. This is acknowledged by Colonel Gadsden, in his letter to the Secretary of War, who says--"There is a condition prefixed to the agreement, without a.s.senting to which the Florida Indians most positively refused to negotiate for their removal west of the Mississippi. Even with the condition annexed, there was a reluctance (which with some difficulty was overcome) on the part of the Indians, to bind themselves by any stipulations before a knowledge of facts and circ.u.mstances would enable them to judge of the advantages or disadvantages of the disposition the government of the United States wished to make of them. They were finally induced, however, to a.s.sent to the agreement." "The final ratification of the treaty will depend upon the opinion of the seven chiefs selected to explore the country west of the Mississippi river. If that corresponds to the description given, or is equal to the expectations formed of it, there will be no difficulty on the part of the Seminoles."

There was a very unwise delay on the part of the American government after the signing of this second treaty. More than two years were permitted to elapse before any appropriation of land was made for the Indians, who became dissatisfied, and the treaty was by them p.r.o.nounced to be "a white man's treaty," which they did not any longer consider to be binding.

But there were other reasons why the Seminoles did not consider the treaty as binding; they did _not_ like the lands allotted to them. A deputation of seven was sent west of the Mississippi: the land they acknowledged was good land, but they found that they were close to the p.a.w.nee territory, and that that tribe was proverbially famous for stealing cattle and horses. It was also the determination of the American Government, as they were considered as a portion of the Creek nation, to settle them near to and incorporate them with that nation.

This did not suit them; the Creeks had claimed many of their slaves, and they knew that they had no chance with so superior a force as that of the Creek nation, who would have taken all their slaves from them. As, therefore, the p.a.w.nees would have stolen all their cattle, and the Creeks have taken all their slaves, they considered that utter dest.i.tution would be the consequence of the removal as proposed by the American Government. To get over the latter difficulty, the government proposed that the Seminoles should sell their slaves previous to their removing, but this they objected to. The American author I have quoted says:--

"It was then suggested to them that, by a sale of these negroes before they left Florida, they would augment their resources, and could go into their new country without the dread of exciting the cupidity of the Creeks. But these Indians have always evinced great reluctance to parting with slaves: indeed the Indian loves his negro as much as one of his own children, and the sternest necessity alone would drive him to the parting: this recommendation was, therefore, viewed with evident alarm, and as the right of retaining possession of them was guaranteed by the commissioner, strong doubts were raised as to the sincerity of the pledge.

"The Seminole Indians are poor agriculturists and husbandmen, and withal too indolent to till the ground, and, without their negroes, would literally starve: besides, should they dispose of them they could not be replenished in a new country. Again: the opposition of the slaves themselves to being sold to the whites would excite all their energies to prevent emigration, for they dread the idea of being transferred to sugar and cotton plantations, where they must be subject to the surveillance of the overseer. The life of a slave among the Indians, compared with that of negroes under overseers, is one of luxury and ease; the demands upon him are very trifling, scarcely ever exceeding eight or ten bushels from the crop, the remainder being applied to his own profit: they live separate, and often remote, from their owners, and enjoy an equal share of liberty. The negro is also much more provident and ambitious than his master, and the peculiar localities of the country eminently facilitate him in furnis.h.i.+ng the Indian with rum and tobacco, which gives him a controlling influence over the latter, and at the same time affords him an immense profit; so that it can be easily imagined that the negroes would in no manner be benefited by the change."

On the 23rd of October, 1834, being two years and a half after the signing of the second treaty at Payne's Landing, a council of Indians was again summoned by the agent, who informed them that all they had now to answer were the following questions:--

Will you incorporate yourselves with the Creek nation in the Far-West?

Will you have money for your cattle which you leave here on your arrival there, or will you have cattle in return?

Will you go by water, or by land?

Will you have your next annuity paid in money or in goods?

Upon this, the chiefs retired and held a private council. It is said that a.s.seola, the princ.i.p.al chief of the tribe of Micosukees, persuaded them strongly to resist going, and declared that he would consider as his enemy any one who agreed to go. a.s.seola had not signed the treaty.

The next day the council was resumed, and the chiefs made the following replies to the agent.

The first who spoke was Holata Mico, princ.i.p.al war chief. He expressed his wish that there should be no quarrelling, at the same time that he gave his evidence as to the truth of the first book of Moses.

"_Holata Mico_ then rose, and said:--'G.o.d made all of us, and we all came from one woman, sucked one bubby; we hope we shall not quarrel; that we will talk until we get through.'

"_Miconopy_ then said--'When we were at Camp Moultrie we made a treaty, and we were to be paid our annuity for twenty years. That is all I have got to say.'

"_Jumper_ said--'At Camp Moultrie they told us all difficulties should be buried for twenty years, from the date of the treaty made there; that after this we held a treaty at Payne's Landing, before the twenty years were out; and they told us we might go and see the country, but that we were not obliged to remove. The land is very good, I saw it, and was glad to see it; the neighbours there are bad people; I do not like them bad Indians, the p.a.w.nees. I went and saw the place; I told the agent that I was a rogue; that he had brought me to the place here alongside, and among the rogues, the bad p.a.w.nees, because I am a rogue. I went to see the land, and the commissioners said that the Seminoles must have that land. When we went west to see the land, we had not sold our land here, and we were told only to go and see it. The Indians there steal horses, and take packs on their horses; they all steal horses from the different tribes; I do not want to go among such people; your talk seems always good, but we don't feel disposed to go west.'

"_Charley Amathia_ then rose, and said--'The speakers of the nation are all dead; but I recollect some of their words when they had the meeting at Camp Moultrie. I was not there, but heard that we would be at peace, and that we would have our annuity paid to us for twenty years. _White people have told me that the treaty at Camp Moultrie, which was made by great men, and not to be broken, had secured them for twenty years; that seven years of that treaty are still unexpired_. I am no half breed, and do not lean on one side. If they tell me to go after the seven years, I say nothing. As to the proposition made us by the agent about removing, I do not say I will not go; but I think that, until the seven years are out, I give no answer. My family I love dearly and sacredly.

I do not think it right to take them right off. Our father has often said to me that he loves his children--and they love him. When a man is at home, and got his stock about him, he looks upon it as the subsistence of himself and family. Then when they go off, they reflect and think more seriously than when quiet at home. I do not complain of the agent's talk. My young men and family are all around me. Should I go west, I should lose many on the path. As to the country west, I looked at it; a weak man cannot get there, the fatigue would be so great; it requires a strong man.'"

This talk made the agent very angry; he told them that they should stand by the treaty at Payne's Landing; he desired them to retire, and when they came again to act like chiefs and honourable men.

"October 25, 1834. The council convened at 11 o'clock. Interpreters as yesterday.

"The _agent_ said to the council, 'I am ready to receive your answers to the questions which I submitted to you.'

"_Holato Mico_.--'I have only to repeat what I said yesterday, and to say that the twenty years from the treaty at Moultrie has not yet expired. I never gave my consent to go west; the whites may say so, but I never gave my consent.'

"_Jumper_.--'We are not satisfied to go until the end of twenty years, according to the treaty at Camp Moultrie. We were called upon to go to the west, beyond the Mississippi. It is a good country; this is a poor country, we know. We had a good deal of trouble to get there; what would it be for all our tribe.'

"_Miconopy_.--'I say, what I said yesterday, I did not sign the treaty.'

"_Agent_.--'Abraham, tell Miconopy that I say _he lies_; he did sign the treaty, for here is his name.'"

Miconopy here a.s.serts that he did not sign the treaty, which certainly appears to be a falsehood: but it should be remembered that, by the agent's own admission, it was only a conditional signature by a portion of the chiefs, provided that they liked the location offered to them; and as they objected to this, the treaty was certainly, in my opinion, null and void. Indeed, the agent had no right to demand the signatures when such an important reservation was attached to the treaty. I do not give the whole of the agent's reply, as there is so much repet.i.tion; the following are extracts:--

"I have told you that you must stand to your bargain. My talk is still the same. You must go west. Your father, the President, who is your friend, will compel you to go. Therefore, be not deluded by any hope or expectation that you will be permitted to remain here. You have expressed a wish to hear my views and opinion upon the whole matter. As a man, and your friend, I will this day deign to reason with you; for I want to show you that your talk of today is the foolish talk of a child.

"Jumper says, they agreed at Payne's Landing to go and examine the country west, but they were not bound to remove to it until the nation should agree to do so, after the return of the delegation; and he adds, what others of you have said, that the treaty at Camp Moultrie was to stand for twenty years. Such a talk from Jumper surprises me, for he is a man of sense. He understands the treaty at Payne's Landing, which he signed; he was the first named in that treaty, of the delegation appointed to go west; he knows that that treaty gave him and the members of the delegation authority to decide whether the nation should remove or not.

"The Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws and Cherokees, who live in the States, are moving west of the Mississippi river, because they cannot live under the white people's laws; they are gone and going, and the Seminole nation are a small handful to their number. Two governments cannot exist under the same boundary of territory. Where Indians remain within the limits of a state or territory until the jurisdiction of a state or territory shall be extended over them, the Indian government, laws and chiefs.h.i.+ps, are for ever done away--the Indians are subject to the white man's law. The Indian must be tried, whether for debt or crime, in the white man's court; the Indian's law is not to be known there; the Indian's evidence is not to be admitted there; the Indian will, in every thing, be subject to the control of the white man. It is this view of the subject which induces your father, the President, to settle his red children beyond the limits of the states and territories where the white man's law is never to reach you, and where you and your children are to possess the land, while the gra.s.s grows and the water runs. He feels for his red children as a father should feel. It is, therefore, that he made the treaty with you at Payne's Landing, and for the same reason he will compel you to comply with your bargain. But let us look a little more closely into your own situation. Suppose (what is however impossible) that you could be permitted so remain here a few years longer, what would be your condition? _This land will soon be surveyed, sold to, and settled by, the whites. There is now a surveyor in the country; the jurisdiction of the territory will soon be extended over this country. Your laws will be set aside, your chiefs will cease to be chiefs; claims for debt and for your negroes would be set up against you by bad white men, or you would perhaps be charged with crimes affecting life; you would be hauled before the white man's court; the claims against you for debt, for your negroes or other property, and the charges of crime preferred against you, would be decided by the white man's law. White men would be witnesses against you; Indians would not be permitted to give evidence; your condition, in a very few years, would be hopeless wretchedness_."

What an admission from their father, the President, after having, in the third article of the treaty of Camp Moultrie, declared that the United States will afford the Florida Indians _protection against all persons whatsoever_!!

"Thus, you may see, that were it possible for you to remain here a few years longer, you would be reduced to hopeless poverty, and when urged by hunger to ask, perhaps, of the man who thus would have ruined you (and is, perhaps, now tampering with you for the purpose of getting your property) for a crust of bread, you might be called an Indian dog, and be ordered to clear out. [Here _a.s.seola_, who was seated by Miconopy, urged him to be firm in his resolution.] Your father, the President, sees all these evils, and will save you from them by removing you west; and I will stand up for the last time to tell you, that you must go; and if not willingly, you will be compelled to go. I should have told you that no more annuity will be paid to you here. [_a.s.seola_ replied, that he did not care whether any more was ever paid.] I hope you will, on more mature reflection, act like honest men, and not compel me to report you to your father, the President, as faithless to your engagements."

"_a.s.seola_ said, the decision of the chiefs was given; that they did not intend to give any other answer.

"_Miconopy_ said--'I do not intend to remove.'

"_The Agent_.--'I am now fully satisfied that you are wilfully disposed to be entirely dishonest in regard to your engagements with the President, and regret that I must so report you. The talk which I have made to you must and will stand.'"

Thus, indeed, the council and the parties separated. The American government was supine, thinking, probably, that the Indians would not resist much longer; but the Indians, on the other hand, laid up large stores of powder and lead. Six months elapsed, and then the Indians were informed that they were to hear the _last_ talk of the father, the President on _this side_ of the Mississippi. On the 22nd of April, 1835, the Indians a.s.sembled, and had the following communication from General Jackson:--

"_To the Chiefs and Warriors of the Seminole Indians in Florida_.

"My Children: I am sorry to have heard that you have been listening to bad counsels. You know me, and you know that I would not deceive, nor advise you to do any thing that was unjust or injurious. Open your ears and attend to what I shall now say to you. They are the words of a friend, and the words of truth.

"The white people are settling around you. The game has disappeared from your country. Your people are poor and hungry. All this you have perceived for some time. And nearly three years ago, you made an agreement with your friend, Colonel Gadsden, acting on the part of the United States, by which you agreed to cede your lands in Florida, and to remove and join your brothers, the Creeks, in the country west of the Mississippi. You annexed a condition to this agreement, that certain chiefs, named therein, in whom you placed confidence, should proceed to the western country, and examine whether it was suitable to your wants and habits; and whether the Creeks residing there were willing to permit you to unite with them as one people, and if the persons thus sent, were satisfied on these heads, then the agreement made with Colonel Gadsden was to be in full force.

"In conformity with these provisions, the chiefs named by you proceeded to that country, and having examined it, and having become satisfied respecting its character and the favourable disposition of the Creeks, they entered into an agreement with commissioners on the part of the United States, by which they signified their satisfaction on these subjects, and finally ratified the agreement made with Colonel Gadsden.