THE REunion AND FINAL EXODUS.

Difficulties in effecting a reunion of Tribes—Its objects—Exiles and Seminoles move on to Creek Lands—They settle in separate Villages—Creeks demand Exiles as Slaves—Exiles arm themselves—They flee to Fort Gibson—Demand protection of the United States—General Arbuckle protects them—Reports facts to Department—Administration embarrassed—Call on General Jessup for facts—He writes General Arbuckle—Reports facts to the President—President hesitates—Refers question to Attorney General—Extraordinary opinion of that Officer—Manner in which Mr. Mason was placed in office—Exiles return to their Village—Slaveholders dissatisfied—Slave-dealer among the Creeks—His offer—They capture near one hundred Exiles—They are delivered to the Slave-dealer—Habeas Corpus in Arkansas—Decision of Judge—Exiles hurried to New Orleans and sold as Slaves—Events of 1850—Exiles depart for Mexico—Are pursued by Creeks—Battle—The Exiles continue their journey—They settle near Santa Rosa—The fate which different portions of the Exiles met—Incidents which occurred after their settlement in Mexico—Conclusion.
1846.

The Creeks and Seminoles had been separated for nearly a century. They had most of that time lived under separate governments. Each Tribe had been controlled by their own laws; and each had been independent of the other. They had often been at war with each other; and the most deadly feuds had been engendered and still subsisted among them. To unite them with the Creeks, and blot the name of “Seminole” from the page of their future history, in order to involve the Exiles in slavery, had long been a cherished object with the administration of our Government. It was now fondly hoped, that that object would be accomplished without further difficulty.

But at no period had the Seminole Indians regarded the Exiles with greater favor than they did when removing on to the territory assigned to the Creeks. Although many of them had intermarried with the Seminoles, and half-breeds were now common among the Indians; yet most of the descendants of the pioneers who fled from South Carolina and Georgia maintained their identity of character, living by themselves, and maintaining the purity of the African race. They yet cherished this love of their own kindred and color; and when they removed on to the Creek lands, they settled in separate villages: and the Seminole Indians appeared generally to coincide with the Exiles in the propriety of each maintaining their distinctive character.

During the summer and autumn both Indians and Exiles became residents within Creek jurisdiction; and the Executive seemed to regard the trust held under the assignment made at Indian Spring, twenty-four years previously, as now fulfilled. Regarding the Creeks as holding the equitable or beneficial interest in the bodies of the Exiles, under the assignment from their owners to the United States, and they being now brought under Creek jurisdiction, subject to Creek laws, the Executive felt that his obligations were discharged, and the whole matter left with the Creeks.

This opinion appears also to have been entertained by the Creek Indians; for no sooner had the Exiles and Seminoles located themselves within Creek jurisdiction, than the Exiles were claimed as the legitimate slaves of the Creeks. To these demands the Exiles and Seminoles replied, that the President, under the treaty of 1845, was bound to hear and determine all questions arising between them. The demands were, therefore, certified to the proper department for decision. But this setting in judgment upon the heaven-endowed right of man to his liberty, seemed to involve more personal and moral responsibility than was desirable for the Executive to assume, and the claims remained undecided.

The Creeks became impatient at delay; they were a slaveholding people, as well as their more civilized but more infidel brethren, of the slave States. The Exiles, living in their own villages in the enjoyment of perfect freedom, had already excited discontent among the slaves of the Creek and Choctaw Tribes, and those of Arkansas. The Creeks appeared to feel that it had been far better for them to have kept the Exiles in Florida, than to bring them to the Western Country to live in freedom. Yet their claims under the treaty of 1845, thus far, appeared to have been disregarded by the President; they had been unable to obtain a decision on them; and they now threatened violence for the purpose of enslaving the Exiles, unless their demands were peacefully conceded.

The Exiles, yet confident that the Government would fulfill its stipulations to protect them and their property, repaired in a body to Fort Gibson, and demanded protection of General Arbuckle, the officer in command. He had no doubt of the obligation of the United States to lend them protection, according to the express language of the articles of capitulation entered into with General Jessup, in March, 1837. He, therefore, directed the whole body of Exiles to encamp and remain upon the lands reserved by the United States, near the fort, and under their exclusive jurisdiction, assuring them that no Creek would dare set foot upon that reservation with intentions of violence towards any person. Accordingly the Exiles, who yet remained free, now encamped around Fort Gibson, and were supported by rations dealt out from the public stores.

Soon as he could ascertain all the facts, General Arbuckle made report to the War Department relative to their situation, and the claims which they made to protection under the articles of capitulation, together with the rights which the Creeks set up to re?nslave them.

This state of circumstances appears to have been unexpected by the Executive. Indeed, he appears from the commencement to have under-rated the difficulties which beset the enslavement of a people who were determined upon the enjoyment of freedom; he seems to have expected the negroes, when once placed within Creek jurisdiction, would have yielded without further effort. But he was now placed in a position which constrained him either to repudiate the pledged faith of the nation, or to protect the Exiles in their persons and property, according to the solemn covenants which General Jessup had entered into with them.

Yet the President was disposed to make farther efforts to avoid the responsibility of deciding the question before him. General Jessup had entered into the articles of capitulation, and the President appeared to think he was competent to give construction to them; he therefore referred the subject to that officer, stating the circumstances, and demanding of him the substance of his undertaking in regard to the articles of capitulation with the Exiles.

General Jessup appears to have now felt a desire to do justice to that friendless and persecuted people. Without waiting to answer the President, he at once wrote General Arbuckle, saying, “The case of the Seminole negroes is now before the President. By my proclamation and the convention made with them, when they separated from the Indians and surrendered, they are free. The question is, whether they shall be separated from the Seminoles and removed to another country; or be allowed to occupy, as they did in Florida, separate villages in the Seminole Country, west of Arkansas? The latter is what I promised them. I hope, General, you will prevent any interference with them at Fort Gibson, until the President determines whether they shall remain in the Seminole Country, or be allowed to remove to some other.”

General Arbuckle, faithful to the honor of his Government, continued to protect the Exiles. He fed them from the public stores, not doubting that the Executive would redeem the pledge of the nation given by General Jessup, its authorized agent. But the President (Mr. Polk) himself a slaveholder, with his prejudices and sympathies in favor of the institution, did not understand the articles of capitulation according to the construction put upon them by General Jessup; he appears, therefore, to have called on the General for a more explicit report of facts. In reply to this call, he reported, saying, “At a meeting with the three Indian chiefs, and the negro chiefs, Auguste and Carollo, I stipulated to recommend to the President to grant the Indians a small tract of country in the south-eastern part of the Peninsula; but it was distinctly understood that the negroes were to be separated from them at once, and sent West, whether the Indians were permitted to remain in Florida or not. With the negroes, it was stipulated that they should be sent West, as a part of the Seminole nation, and be settled in a separate village, under the PROTECTION OF THE UNITED STATES.” In another letter, addressed to the Secretary of War, he says: “A very small portion of the Seminole negroes who went to the West, were brought in and surrendered by their owners, under the capitulation of Fort Dade. Over these negroes the Indians have all the rights of masters; but all the other negroes, making more than nine-tenths of the whole number, either separated from the Indians and surrendered to me, or were captured by the troops under my command. I, as commander of the army, and in the capacity of representative of my country, solemnly pledged the national faith that they should not be separated, nor any of them sold to white men or others, but be allowed to settle and remain in separate villages, UNDER THE PROTECTION OF THE UNITED STATES.”

But even with these explicit statements before him, the President appears to have been unable to form an opinion; and he referred the matter to the Attorney General, Hon. John Y. Mason, of Virginia, who had been bred a slaveholder, and fully sympathized with the slave power. He, having examined the whole subject, delivered a very elaborate opinion, embracing seven documentary pages;[132] but concluding with the opinion, that although the Exiles were entitled to their freedom, the Executive could not interfere in any manner to protect them, as stipulated by General Jessup, but must leave them to retire to their Towns in the Indian Territory, where they had a right to remain.
1848.

We should be unfaithful to our pledged purpose, were we to omit certain important facts connected with this opinion of the Attorney General. Nathan Clifford, of Maine, was appointed Attorney General of the United States in 1846, soon after the report of General Arbuckle concerning the situation of the Exiles reached Washington. The subject was before the President more than two years. This delay we cannot account for, unless it were to save Mr. Clifford (being a Northern man) from the responsibility of deciding this question, involving important interests of the slaveholding portion of our union. In 1848 Mr. Clifford was appointed Minister to Mexico, and Hon. Isaac Toucey, of Connecticut, was appointed Attorney General. But he, too, was from a free State, and it would throw upon him great responsibility were he constrained to act upon this subject. Were he to decide in favor of the Exiles, it might ruin his popularity at the South; and if against them, it would have an equally fatal effect at the North.

Under these circumstances, recourse was had to an expedient. Before Mr. Toucey entered upon the discharge of his official duties, Mr. Mason, himself a slaveholder, was appointed to discharge the duties ad interim. He entered the office, wrote out the opinion referred to, and then resigned the office and emoluments to Mr. Toucey; having decided no other question, nor discharged any other duty, than this exercise of official influence for the enslavement of the Exiles.

The President affirmed the principles decided by the Attorney General, and the Exiles were informed that they had the right to remain in their villages, free from all interference, or interruption from the Creeks. They had no other lands, no other country, no other homes. Many of their families were connected by marriage with the Seminoles. They and the Seminole Indians had, through several generations, been acquainted with each other; they had stood beside each other on many a battle field. Seminoles and Exiles had fallen beside each other, and were buried in the same grave; they had often sat in council together, and the Exiles were unwilling to separate from their friends. Wild Cat and Abraham and Louis, and many leading men and warriors of the Exiles and Seminoles, having deliberated upon the subject, united in the opinion, that the Exiles should return to their villages and reside upon the lands to which they were entitled.

In accordance with this decision, they returned to their new homes, resumed their habits of agriculture, and for a time all was quiet and peaceful; but their example was soon felt among the slaves of Arkansas, and of the surrounding Indian tribes. Nor is it to be supposed that the holders of slaves in any State of the union, would be willing to admit that so large a body of servants could, by any effort, separate from their masters, for a century and a half maintain their liberty, and after so much effort to re?nslave them, be permitted to enjoy liberty in peace.

Hundreds of them had been seized in Florida and enslaved. The laws of slave States presumed every black person to be a slave; and it was evident, that if they could once be subjected to the will of some white man, the laws of Arkansas would enable him to hold them in bondage.[133]

An individual, a slave-dealer, appeared among the Creeks and offered to pay them one hundred dollars for each Exile they would seize and deliver to him; he stipulating to take all risk of title.[134]
1849.

This temptation was too great fo............