“And the party of the second part releases, transfers and assigns to the party of the first part, all their right, title, claim, interest and demand in and to the annuity granted by the party of the first part to the party of the second part, for the year 1837. In witness whereof, I, John A. Campbell, on the part of the United States, do hereby set my hand and affix my seal, the 28th of August, 1836.”
“JOHN A. CAMPBELL, [L.S.]”
“In witness whereof, we, the Chiefs and Head-men of said tribe, on the behalf of said Nation, do hereby set our hands and affix our seals, the 28th of August, 1836.”
“HYPOTHLE YOHOLA, his X mark, [L.S.]
LITTLE DOCTOR, his X mark, [L.S.]
TUCKABATCHEE MICO, his X mark, [L.S.]
YELCO HAYO, his X mark,[L.S.]”
“Attest: EDWARD HAWICK,
BARENT DUBOIS.”
The real character of this contract will at once be seen when the reader shall be reminded, that the laws of the United States had, in the most specific manner, prescribed the amount to be paid each man who should enter the military service of the Government, and the manner and time of payment; nor had there been any act passed enabling General Jessup, or the Secretary of War, or the President, to employ any other persons in the army except those enlisted in the ordinary mode; yet this contract was duly approved by the War Department, at that time under the direction of General Cass. That provision which gives to the Creek warriors such plunder as they might capture, has been denounced as “piratical;” and we are constrained to admit there is some degree of propriety in this denunciation, when we find that General Jessup, by whose orders it was framed, and General Cass, Secretary of War, who approved it, and the Creek Warriors who signed it, all understood that the Creeks were to hold as slaves all the negroes they might capture, while engaged in the service of the United States. It was this construction which subsequently involved the War Department in difficulties, from which it has never been able to extricate itself.
The barbarous practice of enslaving prisoners captured in war, had been repudiated by all Christian nations for more than two hundred years. The civilization of the sixteenth century had brought that atrocious practice into disrepute, which was now resorted to and renewed in the nineteenth, by this American Republic, so boastful of its refinement and Christianity. While the laws of the United States provided for an ignominious punishment of those who seize the stupid heathen of Africa and enslave them, our nation was taxing its resources, employing our army and paying out its funds, to employ heathen allies to capture and enslave a people who for generations had been free.
On the nineteenth of September, General Armstrong, with a brigade of twelve hundred Tennessee militia, was ordered to Suwanee “Old Town.” Here he was met by a detachment of two hundred Creek warriors, under Major Brown, and a battalion of Florida militia, under Colonel Warren; and with this formidable army, Governor Call moved upon Withlacoochee. On coming near the stream he encamped.
During the darkness of night the allies fired upon his troops, and kept them in a state of alarm. In the morning it was found that the river had suddenly risen, which rendered it difficult for the troops to cross; and this gallant army returned to Fort Drane for supplies without firing a gun or seeing an enemy, leaving the allies in peaceful possession of the country.
But the Indians and Exiles now found themselves almost daily threatened in their own fastnesses. Along the Withlacoochee were many small villages and plantations occupied almost exclusively by Exiles. Large crops of corn and other vegetables had been raised there during the season, and it was known that stores of provisions were located upon various islands surrounded by the swamps lying along that river, and in the great morass called the “Wahoo Swamp;” while it was equally known that many families of the Exiles were residing in that vicinity. It was therefore deemed important to destroy those villages and obtain the supplies which they contained.