President Jackson issued a warning proclamation on the 10th of December, but South Carolina continued her war preparations, and the President sent General Scott, with the sloop-of-war Natchez, to Charleston, with orders to strengthen the garrison in the harbor. Scott displayed great discretion, and won the good-will of the citizens by his forbearance and courtesy. The other Southern States condemned the rash course of South Carolina, within which gradually appeared quite a number of supporters of the Union. Then Clay introduced a bill in Congress, which became law, providing for a gradual reduction of duties until the 30th of June, 1842, when they were to reach a general level of twenty per cent. Calhoun, now a member of the Senate, supported the compromise, and the threatened civil war passed away for the time.
SECOND SEMINOLE WAR.
Trouble once more broke out with the Seminoles of Florida. The aggravation, already referred to, continued. Runaway slaves found safe refuge in the swamps of the State and intermarried with the Indians. A treaty, known as that of Payne's Landing, was signed in May, 1832, by which a number of chiefs visited the country assigned to the Creeks, it being agreed that, if they found it satisfactory, the Seminoles should remove thither. They reported in its favor, but the other leaders, incensed at their action, killed several of them, and declared, probably with truth, that they did not represent the sentiment of their people, and doubtless had been influenced by the whites to make their report. The famous Osceola expressed his opinion of the treaty by driving his hunting-knife through it and the top of the table on which it lay.
It being clear that the Seminoles had no intention of going west, President Jackson sent General Wiley Thompson to Florida with a military force to drive them out. The Indians secured a delay until the spring of 1835, under the promise to leave at that time; but when the date arrived, they refused to a man. Osceola was so defiant in an interview with General Thompson that the latter put him in irons and held him prisoner for a couple of days. Then the chief promised to comply with the terms of the treaty and was released. He had not the slightest intention, however, of keeping his promise, but was resolved to be revenged upon Thompson for the indignity he had put upon him.
In the month of December, 1835, while Thompson and a party of friends were dining near Fort King, with the windows raised, because of the mildness of the day, Osceola and a party of his warriors stole up and fired a volley through the windows, which killed Thompson and four of his companions. Before the garrison of the fort could do anything, the Seminoles had fled.
DADE'S MASSACRE.
On the same day of this tragical occurrence, Major Francis L. Dade set out with 140 mounted men to the relief of General Clinch, stationed at Fort Drane, in the interior of Florida, where he was threatened with massacre. Dade advanced from Fort Brooke at the head of Tampa Bay, and was not far on the road when he was fired upon by the Indians from ambush. Half the men were killed, including Major Dade. The remainder hastily fortified themselves, but were attacked in such overwhelming numbers that every man was shot down. Two wounded soldiers crawled into the woods, but afterward died. "Dade's Massacre" caused as profound a sensation throughout the country as did that of Custer and his command forty years later.
The Seminole War dragged on for years. General Scott commanded for a time in 1836, and vigorously pressed a campaign in the autumn of that year; but when he turned over the command, in the spring of 1837, to General Zachary Taylor, the conquest of the Seminoles seemingly was as far off as ever. Taylor attempted to use a number of Cuban bloodhounds for tracking the mongrels into the swamps, but the dogs refused to take the trail of the red men, and the experiment (widely denounced in the North) was a failure.
In October, while Osceola and a number of warriors were holding a conference with General Jessup under the protection of a flag of truce, all were made prisoners, and Osceola was sent to Charleston, and died in Fort Moultrie in 1838. The war dragged on until 1842, when General Worth, after it had cost $40,000,000 and many lives, brought it to an end by destroying the crops of the Seminoles and leaving to them the choice between starvation and submission.