THE RENEWAL AND PROSECUTION OF THE WAR.
Objects of the first and second Seminole War—Action of General Jessup and the Executive in regard to the Capitulation—His alleged arrangement—Resumes hostilities with intent to carry out original design of General Jackson—Establishes a series of forays for the capture of Negroes—Choctaws and Delawares employed—Cherokees refuse—Send a Delegation to make peace—Ross, the Cherokee Chief, addresses a Letter to Wild Cat, Osceola, and others—Difficulty with Creek Warriors—General Order—General Jessup’s policy—Creek Warriors discharged—Capture of King Phillip—His message to Wild Cat—Influence of Cherokees—Wild Cat bears plume, etc., from Osceola to General Jessup, proposing to negotiate—Jessup sends back answer—Wild Cat, Osceola and Exiles come in to Fort Peyton—Are betrayed—Seized as prisoners—Imprisoned at San Augustine—Wild Cat escapes—Thrilling Narrative—Cherokee Delegation induce Micanopy, Cloud and others to visit General Jessup—They too are seized, and one hundred Exiles captured—Extraordinary conduct of General Jessup—Cherokees leave in disgust.
By the articles of capitulation, entered into on the sixth of March (1837), the second Seminole War had been terminated. General Jessup so regarded it, and so declared it. The Exiles and Indians so regarded it, and some eight hundred came in under it and registered their names for emigration, in good faith. The people of Florida regarded it in that light, and remonstrated against it. They declared it a treaty of peace; but complained of its terms, for the reason that it gave up the slaves whom they claimed to own.
Learning this dissatisfaction to exist among the slaveholders of Florida, General Jessup expressed, in his correspondence, an intention of making an arrangement with the chiefs, by which the slaves belonging to the citizens of Florida, captured during the war, should be given up. Why those claimed by the citizens of Florida should be given up, and those escaped from Georgia and Alabama remain free, he has failed to show! Why those who escaped, or, as he expresses it, were captured during the war, should be returned, and those who escaped or had been captured the day previous to the commencement of hostilities, should not be returned, he has not explained; but he soon announced, that he had made an arrangement with the chiefs to deliver up these persons; and at once set the army at work to restore them. This restoration of slaves, of itself, constituted a renewal of the war. It had caused the first Seminole war, in 1816: it had caused this second Seminole war, and General Jessup was himself conscious that such interference with the Exiles would induce a renewal of hostilities. That class of Exiles was numerous; they constituted a portion of the “allies” for whose safety he had solemnly pledged the faith of Government.
It were useless for the friends of the then existing Administration to say, that General Jessup made an arrangement with the Indian chiefs for delivering up these people. The Exiles were the persons interested in their own safety, for which they had fought. No chiefs had authority to sell them, or to deliver them over to interminable bondage. But the reader will inquire, with what particular chiefs was this arrangement made? When, and where was it made? What were its terms? The only answers, so far as we are informed, are to be found in the interrogatories propounded to Osceola and other chiefs, when they were captured, at Fort Peyton, on the twenty-first of October following. General Jessup’s first written interrogatory was, “Are they (the chiefs) prepared to deliver up the negroes taken from the citizens? Why have they not surrendered them already, as promised by Co-Hadjo, at Fort King?” Here he merely claimed a promise from Co-Hadjo, an obscure chief, who was not a party to the capitulation—did not sign it, and so far as we are informed, was not present when it was entered into.
But, to show that no obligation whatever rested on the chiefs in this matter, his next interrogatories were, “Have the chiefs of the Nation held a Council in relation to the subjects of the talk at Fort King? What chiefs attended that Council, and what was their decision?” These questions seem to admit, that Co-Hadjo had merely promised to lay the subject before the chiefs in Council; and here we find the reasons, on the part of General Jessup, for not laying the arrangement before the people: yet, under these circumstances, that officer charges bad faith upon the Indians and Exiles, in renewing the war. The Exiles possessed no means of informing the American people, and other nations, as to these facts, or of maintaining their honor against this charge of having violated their plighted faith.
In renewing hostilities, General Jessup appears to have fully determined on carrying out the designs of General Jackson, in 1816, when he directed General Gaines to “destroy the fort, and return the slaves to their owners.” From this time forward, he lent his energies, and the power of the army, to the object of capturing and returning slaves. He also deemed it necessary to change the mode of prosecuting the war, and to make it a series of forays for the capture and enslavement of the Exiles.
He had, the previous year, entered into a contract with the Creek Indians, by which he stipulated to pay them a large pecuniary compensation, and to allow them to hold all the plunder (negroes) whom they might capture, as property. He now evidently believed that such inducements, held out to the Florida militia, would have an effect to stimulate them to greater effort.
On the eleventh of June, he wrote Colonel Warren, saying, “There is no obligation to spare the property of the Indians; they have not spared that of the citizens. Their negroes, cattle and horses, as well as other property which they possess, will belong to the corps by which they are captured.”
The same orders were communicated to the Commandants of other posts, and to the militia from other States; and the system by which the negroes and other property were to be distributed among the captors, was prescribed in a letter to Colonel Heilman, declaring the field officers entitled to three shares, the company officers to receive two shares, and the non-commissioned officers and soldiers one share each.
These arrangements were, of course, all duly certified to the War Department, and approved, and thereby became acts of the Administration. The letters of General Jessup, written during the summer and autumn of 1837, to Colonel Crowell, at Fort Mitchell, Alabama; to Colonel Mills, of Newmansville, Florida; to Thomas Craghill, Esq., of Alabama; to Captain David S. Walker, Captain Bonneville and Captain Armstrong;[97] all show, conclusively, that the war was to be conducted by the organization of slave-catching forays, in which the troops were expected to penetrate the Indian Country for the purpose of capturing negroes.
During the sickly season no active operations against the allies could be carried on, and the time was occupied in preparing for the more vigorous prosecution of hostilities, so soon as the unhealthy months should be passed. In order to carry out these forays, the Indians residing west of the Mississippi were applied to for assistance. The Choctaws and Delawares furnished many individuals whose low moral development did not prevent their engaging in the proposed piratical expeditions, for seizing and enslaving their fellow-men; but of the precise number of individuals thus furnished, we have no authentic information. The Cherokees however appear to have rejected a proposition which, to them, appeared incompatible with the civilization of that tribe; they evidently felt deep sympathy for their brethren, the Seminoles, as well as for the Exiles. They agreed to furnish a delegation who should, in a friendly manner, visit the Seminoles, state to them the condition of the Western Country, and advise them in good faith to emigrate.
At that period John Ross was acting as principal chief of the Cherokee Nation. He was the son of a wealthy white man, who had long been engaged as an Indian trader. His mother was a Cherokee. Ross had been educated: had seen the advantages of civilization, and of Christianity, and was at the time, and had long been engaged, in promoting civilization among his own people. It will readily be supposed, that the feelings of such a man would revolt at a proposition for his people to engage in the capture and enslavement of any portion of the human family. The correspondence between Ross and the Secretary of War is interesting, and its perusal would well compensate the curious reader.[98]
This delegation from the Cherokees consisted of some twelve of their most influential men. They bore with them an address from Ross, written with great ability and sincerity. Among other things, he assured the Seminoles that they might confide in the justice and honor of the United States.[99] This address was directed to Micanopy, Osceola and Wild Cat, the three most powerful and warlike chiefs among the Seminoles.
The Creek warriors had engaged to serve until the Seminoles were conquered; but after the death of Captain Moniac, and their other friends who fell in the Great Wahoo Swamp, they had shown a disposition rather to avoid danger than to catch negroes; and it was deemed proper to discharge them. But difficulties intervened in regard to the division of the negroes claimed to have been captured by them, while acting in concert with our troops. Some ninety negroes had been captured, in whose bones and muscles, blood and sinews, seven hundred Creek warriors claimed an interest; while the Tennesseeans, and other troops, had been in the field acting with the Creeks at the time of capture; and the Creeks could, in equity, claim only a pro rata interest. General Jessup however met the difficulty with promptness, and, to put an end to all future strife and discontent, he issued the following:
“ORDER No. 175. TAMPA BAY, Sept. 6, 1837.
“1. The Seminole negroes captured by the army, will be taken on account of Government and held subject to the orders of the Secretary of War.
2. The sum of eight thousand dollars will be paid to the Creek chiefs and warriors by whom they were captured, or who were present at their capture, in full for their claims; the amount to be apportioned among the battalions in proportion to the numbers respectively taken by each, viz: To the first battalion, five thousand seven hundred dollars; to the second battalion, two thousand dollars; and to the spy battalion, three hundred dollars.
3. To induce the Creeks to take alive, and not destroy, the negroes of citizens who had been captured by the Seminoles, a reward was promised them for all they should secure. They have captured and secured thirty-five, who have been returned to their owners. The owners have paid nothing, but the promise to the Indians must be fulfilled. The sum of twenty dollars will be allowed them for each, from the public funds.
4. Lieutenant Frederick Searle is charged with the execution of this order. He will cause accounts to be made, in the name of the United States, and receipts taken from the Indians in full, for all claims to the negroes, both of the Seminoles and citizens. Lieutenant Searle will call on the Commanding General for funds to enable him to comply with this order.
5. Until further orders, the Seminole negroes will remain at Fort Pike, Louisiana, in charge of the Assistant Quarter-Master at New Orleans, and in custody of the Commanding Officer of the post. They will be fed and clothed at the public expense.”
This order was reported to the Secretary of War, and on the seventh of October was approved and became the act of the Executive; and the people of the nation became the actual owners of these ninety slaves, so far as the Executive could bind them to the ownership of human flesh.
Such was, undoubtedly, the view of General Jessup, who, on the fourteenth of September, wrote the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, saying, “The Seminole negro prisoners are now the property of the public. I have promised Abraham the freedom of his family, if he prove faithful to us; and I shall surely hang him if he be not faithful.”[100]
This refinement in cruelty by which the life and liberty of a man and his family is held out as a bribe to induce him to prove traitor to his own kindred and nation, or to be hanged, and his family enslaved in case of refusal, appears worthy a place in the history of our Government, in order that our successors may have a correct idea of its administration. The intention to enslave Abraham’s wife, who was an Indian woman and had been the wife of the former chief of the nation, and now the wife of the principal chief of the Exiles, exhibits a total disregard of the feelings and sympathies of the human heart, as well as of the prejudices and condition of both Exiles and Seminoles. These Exiles were at Fort Pike, near New Orleans, where we will leave them for the present, to pursue our narrative of events which were transpiring in Florida.
On the ninth of September, General Jessup wrote Lieutenant Searle, as follows: “You will muster the Creek regiment out of service, and honorably discharge them. Then you will proceed to New Orleans, and obtain funds to pay the Creeks for the captured negroes. The chiefs and warriors who were actually in the field at the time of the capture of negroes are alone to receive any part of the sum allowed. Those who remained in camp and did not march are to receive nothing.
“You will examine the prisoners at ‘Fort Pike,’ (the ninety Exiles,) and cause an accurate description to be taken of them, specifying their names, ages, height, sex, and such other particulars as you may deem important. They must all be comfortably clothed, at the public expense, immediately, by the Assistant Quarter-Master at New Orleans, who will keep them properly clad.”
It would appear that some difficulty arose with the Choctaw and Delaware warriors, who had expected to receive higher wages than the law allowed for serving in the army. Such had been done with the Creeks, and undoubtedly had been promised the Choctaws and Delawares. To quiet these discontents, General Jessup wrote Colonel Davenport, on the seventh of November, saying, “I regret the circumstance to which you refer. The importance of fulfilling all our engagements with the Indians with the most scrupulous good faith, is unquestionable. To dismiss them now, might not only cost us another campaign, but may cause us difficulties on our western border. We must retain them at all hazards. I wish you to assure them, that our laws do not authorize the payment of the sum stipulated; but that the enemy has a large property, consisting of ponies, cattle and negroes, and that I will pay them for all the cattle they take, and they will be paid fifty dollars for every negro. * * * Represent to them also, that our country is just, and if they will serve well, I will take their chiefs to Washington, and represe............