This discussion was published and widely circulated among the people; and is supposed to have given to the public the first information touching the real causes of the war.[129]
The bill passed by a large majority; and the report of the Secretary of War the next year, showing the expenditures of his department, exhibited the manner in which the money appropriated and entrusted to his care was expended. Another bill, however, making an appropriation of more than a million of dollars for suppressing Indian hostilities in Florida was passed, giving to the War Department all the powers desired for bribery, and tempting Indian chiefs to emigrate to the Western Country.
By reference to the map of Florida, it will be perceived that the great swamps, extensive everglades, hommocks, ponds and lakes, which spread over that Territory, must present great difficulties in the progress of troops embodied in military force; while a small party, following the footsteps of their leader, would pass over, around or through them with facility. The Great Okefenoka Swamp, lying on the south line of Georgia and the northern portion of Florida, afforded a retreat for small parties of Indians and Exiles, from which they sallied forth and committed depredations upon the people of southern Georgia, murdering families, burning buildings and devastating plantations. The swamps bordering on the Withlacoochee, the Great Wahoo Swamp, and other fastnesses on the western portion of the Peninsula, gave shelter to other bands, who, in like manner, wreaked their vengeance upon the inhabitants of that portion of the Territory. So also the Big Cypress Swamp, lying farther south, afforded shelter for others, who laid waste the settlements along the St. John’s River, and in the vicinity of the Atlantic Coast. From these, and numerous other strong-holds, the Indians and their allies came forth in small bands, spreading devastation and death throughout the Territory and the southern portion of Georgia.
The people of Florida who had sought this war, and protested against peace except on such terms as would secure them in the exercise of that oppression which they deemed so necessary to their happiness, now felt the full force of that appropriate penalty which some philosophers believe attaches to every violation of the law of righteousness. Some died by the hands of the very individuals whom they had oppressed, and whom they again sought to enslave; others were again driven from their homes, unable even to obtain food; their wives and children receiving rations from the public stores, and subsisting by the charity of the United States.
But this condition of things superinduced another most extraordinary feature of this war. Our officers, and the Executive, naturally feeling some degree of sympathy for a people thus driven from their homes, on whom the evils of war fell with so much force, extended to them every aid in their power. Some were employed in the Commissary’s Department; some as contractors for transporting provisions; and others as attendants upon the army in all the various departments of service, so numerous in a time of war. Even the slaves who remained in the service of their masters were employed by the officers as guides, interpreters and employees at high wages. In this manner they earned for their owners far more than they could by labor upon plantations. This system was carried so far, that the war actually afforded to many greater profits than they could acquire in any other way; and consequently it became a matter of interest with such men to prolong hostilities, and they were said to exert all their influence to effect that object.
CHAPTER XX.
HOSTILITIES CONTINUED.
General Harrison assumes the duties of Chief Executive—Much expected of him—His sudden death—His successor—Political feeling—General Armistead retires—Is succeeded by General Worth—Instructions to General Worth—He discharges all unnecessary employees—Halec Tustenuggee—General Worth’s attempt to capture him—Wild Cat—His character and adventures—General Worth sends message to him—He and some companions come in—His manner and bearing—Meets his daughter—Interesting scene—Is seized by Colonel Childs—Placed in irons and sent to New Orleans—General Worth orders his return—Meets him at Tampa Bay—Arrangements—Wild Cat sends messengers to his friends—Sympathy for him—Chief Micco—He brings in his people—Wild Cat’s band comes in—He is released from his irons—Meets his friends—His wife and child—General Jessup’s policy as to Exiles—Consults Wild Cat—Hospetarche and Tiger-tail—Otulke comes in—Hospetarche is suspicious—Wild Cat brings him in—Army suffers from sickness—General change of policy from that adopted at the commencement of the War—Army reduced—Wild Cat visits Tiger-tail—Singular adventure—Embarkation of Emigrants—Parting scene between Wild Cat and General Worth—The Emigrants reach Fort Gibson and join their friends—Wild Cat’s position in his new home.
1841.
On the fourth of March, General Harrison was inaugurated President of the United States. Much was expected of him in regard to the war. The Whigs had condemned it throughout the Presidential struggle, and it was anticipated that he would bring it to a successful and honorable termination; but before he even entered upon the consideration of this subject, he was called from this to another sphere of existence, and was succeeded by the then Vice President, John Tyler, of Virginia. Nor is it easy to see what great reform General Harrison could have effected in regard to this war, had he lived to complete his term of service. The policy of so directing the energies of the Federal Government as to support the interests of slavery, had long existed; he was not expected to make any substantial changes in that respect. But whatever may have been his designs, he had no opportunity to carry them into effect; and Mr. Tyler, after coming into office, soon ceased to enjoy the confidence of the Whig party, who generally declared themselves no longer responsible for his acts.
The new Administration soon identified itself with this war by the following order: