The Exiles of Florida Part 12

But these demands for slaves increased. The slaveholders were indignant at the loss of slaves, and it soon became apparent that the stipulation of safety to the "allies" of the Seminoles was _unpopular_ in Florida.

On the twenty-ninth of March, General Jessup wrote Colonel Warner, of the Florida Militia, saying, "There is no disposition on the part of the great body of the Indians to renew hostilities; and they will, I am sure, faithfully fulfill their engagements, if the inhabitants of Florida be prudent: but any attempt to seize their negroes, or other property, would be followed by an instant resort to arms. _I have some hopes of inducing both Indians and Indian negroes_ to unite in bringing in the _negroes taken from the citizens during the war_."

In this letter, General Jessup begins to modify his former position. He still entertains no fear of the Indians, if _their_ negroes or other property be not interfered with, and suggests the hope that he may effect an arrangement with the Indians and Indian negroes to bring in (that is, to surrender up,) the negroes _taken during the war_. This letter gives the first evidence, which we find on record, of General Jessup's intention to modify or disregard the solemn compact he had made, or to make another with the Indians and Indian negroes by which they should betray those who had fled to them during the war.

But that he did make some arrangement of that character with the chiefs, we are led to infer from a letter bearing date May fifth, 1837, addressed to General Jessup by the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, informing him that his articles of capitulation with the Seminoles had been submitted to the Secretary of War, "_together with his letters of the first and fifteenth of April, and had been approved_;" and the writer then adds: "In relation to the negroes captured by the Seminoles and to be _surrendered_, I am directed to say, that your arrangement for having them delivered to officers of posts on the St. John's River, _is approved_."[95]

This letter also directs General Jessup to keep a registry of all negroes delivered to citizens, showing their names, age, s.e.x, etc.

A general order, dated Tampa Bay, April fifth, and numbered seventy-nine, announces first, "The commanding General has reason to believe that the interference of unprincipled white men with the _negro property of the Seminole Indians_ will prevent their emigration, and lead to a renewal of the war. Responsible as he is for the peace and security of the country, he will not permit such interference under any pretense whatsoever. And he therefore orders that no white man, not in the service of the United States, be allowed to enter any part of the territory, between the St. John's and the Gulf of Mexico, south of Fort Drane."

On the eighth of April, General Jessup wrote Colonel Harney, saying, "I have made an arrangement with the chiefs _to-day_ to surrender the negroes of white men, particularly those taken during the war."

With what particular chiefs this arrangement was made, or what were the terms of the arrangement, the Author has not learned; yet, as we shall see hereafter, he represented it to have been made at "Fort King" with _Co-Hadjo_, an unimportant chief, and then attempted to hold the Seminole Nation responsible for Co-Hadjo's promise. But under these circ.u.mstances, the reader will ask what consideration was paid Co-Hadjo to bribe him to enter into such a contract? That chief and General Jessup and General Ca.s.s, Secretary of War, must have known he possessed no power to bind the Seminole Nation, nor to surrender those persons to slavery. It will long remain a subject of inquiry. Why did the War Department sanction this violation of the solemn articles of capitulation, which these officers termed a _treaty_, and which certainly possessed all the solemnity and binding force of a treaty?

There is also an inexplicable obscurity attending this subject. General Jessup wrote Colonel Harney, on the eighth of April, that he had _that day_ made the arrangement, etc.; while the Secretary of War states that he had learned of this arrangement by General Jessup's _two_ letters, dated the first and fifteenth of April. One of these letters appears to bear date seven days before, and the other seven days after, the day on which he declares the arrangement was made. The withholding of such fact seven days from the War Department would be as incompatible with military duty as the giving it seven days before its existence, is irreconcilable with the common perceptions of mankind.

In several instances, General Jessup had foretold that a renewal of the war would follow any attempt to deliver up negroes to the claimants in Florida, and it would appear that he must have expected that result; but he communicated to the commandants of nearly all the different posts, that he had made arrangements _with the chiefs_ for returning slaves _captured during the war_. But, up to the twenty-sixth of April, he steadily insisted that no obligation rested upon the Indians to bring in runaway negroes who had fled to them before the war.

On the twenty-sixth, he wrote Colonel Brown, of St. Augustine, saying:--"I have made arrangements with the Indians for the delivery of the negroes _captured during the war_. They are to be delivered, if they can be taken without delaying the Indians in their movements, at the posts on the St. John's. The Indians are not bound to surrender runaway negroes. _They must, and shall, give up those taken during the war_: at all events, they shall not take them out of the country. Further than that, I shall not interfere."

But while relating facts on this subject, we should be unfaithful to the truth of history were we to omit the letter which this officer wrote, on the following day, to Hon. J. L. Smith, a citizen of Florida. This letter, bearing date at Tampa Bay on the twenty-seventh of April, 1837, says:

"I received, yesterday, your letter of the eighteenth, with a list of the slaves which you claim. Ansel is the only one of the three who has been taken. I have him employed, at one of the interior posts, as an interpreter. _The negroes generally have taken the alarm_, and but few of them come in; and those who remain out, prevent the Indians from coming. But for the premature attempts of some citizens of Florida to obtain possession of their slaves, a majority of those taken by the Indians during the war, as well as those who absconded previous to it, would have been secured before this time. More than thirty negro men were in and near my camp, when some of the citizens, who had lost negroes, came to demand them. The Indian-negroes immediately disappeared, and have not been heard of since."

It is believed that, in the conducting of this second Seminole war, no act of any public officer will hereafter appear more inexplicable than the conduct of General Jessup, in regard to this stipulation in favor of the Exiles. No person can suppose there was any doubt in regard to the original design of this stipulation. He at first appears determined to carry it out in good faith; this was before he learned the complaint of the slaveholders of Florida, made to the Secretary of War. He next expressed his intention to make an arrangement with the chiefs to surrender negroes captured during the war--as though the chiefs were authorized to consign "their allies" to slavery. He next says he had made such an arrangement, but fails to say with whom. At length it comes out, in the future history, that he alleges it to have been made with Co-Hadjo, an obscure chief, in no way a party to the capitulation, or connected with it. And finally, in this letter to Judge Smith, he intimates that he would have _betrayed_ many of those allies to slavery, if the people of the Territory had been quiet.

Our present duty, however, is to record facts, without asking attention to the intended treachery or fraud of individuals; but this avowed intention of entrapping the negroes by inducing them to come in under the expectation of emigrating West with their Seminole friends, and then consign them to bondage, must attract the attention and excite the wonder of Christian men. This wonder is increased by the fact, that language is constantly used by slaveholders apparently intended to mislead the Northern reader. For instance, General Jessup speaks of slaves "_captured during the war_," as though the Indians made prisoners of slaves. This is believed to be entirely without foundation. Slaves being regarded by Southern men as _property_, incapable of thought, whenever they fled from their masters and sought an asylum with the Indians, the masters spoke of them as _captured_.

Soon us it was known that slaves were to be seized and returned, claims were preferred from all quarters. The correspondence on this subject, now in the Department of War, would of itself form a volume, if quoted at length. Spaniards sent in claims for slaves lost while the Territory was in possession of Spain, in 1802 and 1803. Claims from South Carolina, from Georgia, Alabama and Florida, and from Creek Indians, were presented to the commandants of different posts. Slaveholders evidently felt that they were to be permitted to seize such colored prisoners as they could lay their hands upon, and enslave them. They no longer waited for black prisoners to be brought to the St. John's, or other posts, but like wolves greedy for their prey, they hurried into the Indian Country, and risked their lives in order to secure victims for the slave-markets.

The Legislative Council of Florida became affected with this general mania, and in the most formal manner declared the right of masters to regain possession of their slaves, without regard to the Federal Government or its officers.

Finding General Jessup incapable of resisting the popular clamor, the claimants for slaves openly demanded a revocation of the General Order, by which they were prohibited from entering the Indian territory for the purpose of seizing slaves. A public meeting of the citizens of various parts of Florida, was held at San Augustine, and a committee appointed to remonstrate with General Jessup, and procure a rescission of his order, No. 79, prohibiting them from entering the Territory, between the St. John's River and the Gulf of Mexico, south of Fort Drane. The committee addressed him in a long, written protest, in which they declare, "the regaining of their slaves const.i.tutes an object of scarcely less moment than that of peace to the country."[96]

General Jessup now began to modify his order, No. 79, so as to admit citizens to enter the Territory as far south as the road leading from Withlacoochee to Volusi; and, on the first of May, so informed Major McClintock, commanding at Fort Drane. On the day following, he addressed a letter to Brig. General Armistead, directing that officer to "consider Order No. 79 so far modified, that citizens will be permitted to visit any of the posts on the St. John's, and to traverse or remain in any part of the country south of Withlacoochee. There are large herds of cattle in that part of the country which no doubt _belong to the citizens_, and by allowing them to go into the country, they may perhaps secure a large portion of them."

It will be recollected, that General Scott would not permit the people of Florida to interfere in the discharge of his official duties, and that they, through their representative in Congress, had demanded his removal from command of the army. They now applied directly to the Secretary of War, remonstrating against the action of General Jessup; and it is possible that officer deemed it prudent to yield to their dictation. Be that as it may, it is certain that he now lent the power of the army to carry out the wishes of the citizens. Officers and men were detailed to take black prisoners--who had come in and surrendered with the expectation of emigrating West--from their places of rendezvous to certain points where it would be most convenient for claimants to receive them.

On the seventeenth of April, Major Churchill, aid to General Jessup, wrote Colonel Harney, saying, "I am instructed by the commanding General to acknowledge the receipt to-day of your letter of the seventh instant, and to inform you that the negro prisoners captured from the Indians, and supposed to belong to the white people, were sent from this place, on the eleventh instant, to Lieutenant D. H. Vinton, at St. Marks, for the purpose of being returned to their owners. The Indians have agreed to send all slaves, _taken from white people during the war_, to Fort Mellon and Volusi; and runners are now employed in the interior on that service." On the same day, information was given to William De Payster, that seven of the number sent to Volusi probably belonged to him. On the same day also, "A. Forrester" was informed of the fact, that those slaves "had been sent to St. Marks, and that six of the number probably belonged to him."

Other plans were devised for securing slaves, as we are informed by a letter from General Jessup to E. K. Call, Governor of Florida, dated eighteenth of April, 1837, in which he says: "If the citizens of the territory be prudent, the war may be considered at an end; but any attempt to interfere with the _Indian negroes_, or to _arrest_ any of the chiefs or warriors as _debtors_ or _criminals_, would cause an immediate resort to arms. The negroes control their masters; and have heard of the act of your legislative council. Thirty or more of the Indian negro men were near my camp on the Withlacoochee in March last; but the arrival of two or three citizens of Florida, said to be in search of negroes, caused them to disperse, and I doubt whether they will come in again; at all events the emigration will be delayed a month I apprehend in consequence of this alarm among the negroes."

The emigration of those Indians who had come in to Fort Brooke, and registered themselves as ready for emigration, was delayed in consequence of the difficulty of collecting those who were expected; and General Jessup began to see the effects which his violation of the articles of capitulation had wrought on the minds of both Indians and negroes. Indeed, he had in plain and distinct language repeatedly affirmed that the negroes _controlled the Indians_; that any interference with the negroes would cause a resort to arms; yet he himself subsequently ordered negroes to be sought out, separated from their friends, and delivered over to slavery.

The ships were yet lying in the harbor. About seven hundred Indians were encamped ready for emigration, and had been waiting for others to join them. Impatient at delay and disappointment, on the twenty fifth of May, he wrote Colonel Harney, as follows:

"If you see Powell (Osceola) again, I wish you to tell him that I intend to send exploring and surveying parties into every part of the country during the summer, and that I shall send out and _take all the negroes who belong to the white people_, and he must not allow the Indians or Indian negroes to mix with them. Tell him I am sending to Cuba for bloodhounds to trail them, and _I intend to hang every one of them who does not come in_."

This intention to reenslave the Exiles who had recently taken up their residence with the Seminoles became known, and created general alarm.

Many of the blacks, who had come in for the purpose of emigrating, became alarmed and fled; and General Jessup, doubtful whether more could be obtained by peaceful means, seized about ninety Exiles who were confined within the pickets at Tampa Bay, on the second of June, and at once ordered them to New Orleans, under the charge of Lieutenant G. H.

Trevitt, of the United States Marines.

This struck the Indians and Exiles with astonishment. The chiefs, warriors and families, numbering some seven hundred, who had collected at Tampa Bay for the purpose of emigrating to the western country, thinking themselves betrayed, now fled to their former fastnesses, far in the interior, and once more determined to defend their liberties or die in the attempt. A few, however, were secured at other posts, and sent to New Orleans, where they were delivered over to Quarter-Master Clark, and confined at "Fort Pike."

On the fourteenth of June, General Jessup, writing General Gadsden of South Carolina, says: "_All is lost_, and princ.i.p.ally, I fear, _by the influence of the negroes_--the people who were the subject of our correspondence. * * * I _seized_, and sent off to New Orleans, about ninety Indian negroes, and I have about seventeen here. I have captured ninety, the property of citizens; all of whom have been sent to St.

Marks and St. Augustine, except four at this place, twelve at Fort Mellon, and six who died."

General Jessup now saw that both Seminole Indians and negroes had clear conceptions of justice and honor. That his efforts to deliver over negroes to slavery had defeated the entire object of the articles of capitulation of the eighteenth of March. The Indians had fled. The negroes, except those who were imprisoned, had fled. The twenty-six vessels, collected at Tampa Bay to transport them to New Orleans, were yet idle; and, to use his own words, "_all was lost!_"

Abraham, acting for his brethren while West, in 1833, had caused the article to be inserted in the supplemental treaty, giving the Seminoles a separate country for their settlement.

In forming the articles of capitulation with general Jessup, he again exhibited his capacity for negotiation; obtaining the insertion of an article which, if carried out, would have proved a triumphant vindication of their cause. But from this second manifestation of his powers for negotiation, the Government of the United States found it necessary to recede, in order to maintain its designs of enslaving the Exiles.

CHAPTER XII.

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, const.i.tuted 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 cla.s.s of Exiles was numerous; they const.i.tuted 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 circ.u.mstances, 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 ent.i.tled 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 Mitch.e.l.l, 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 pa.s.sed. In order to carry out these forays, the Indians residing west of the Mississippi were applied to for a.s.sistance. 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.