Thus was the manhood of these colored people asserted by this military officer of the United States at that day, when few members of Congress would have hazarded their reputation by the avowal of similar doctrines. Twenty-three years previously, as the reader has already been informed, General Gaines gave to the War Department notice that “fugitives and outlaws had taken possession of a fort on the Appalachicola River.” Twenty-two years previously, he had detailed General Clinch, with his regiment and five hundred Creek warriors, to destroy “Blount’s Fort,” and take the fugitive slaves and return them to their owners. He had only two years previously gone to Florida, marched into the Indian Territory, and fought them bravely for several days. He now saw these Exiles and Indians in a different situation. He witnessed their attachment to each other as parents and children, as husbands and wives, as members of the human family, and his sympathy was aroused—his humanity was awakened. His finer feelings being called forth, he possessed the firmness, the independence, to act according to the dictates of his conscience and judgment.[119]
He assumed the responsibility of paying costs and damages, caused himself to be made defendant in the case, and, having obtained a rule on the sheriff to show cause why the negroes should not be delivered as prisoners of war to him, as commander of that Military District, he appeared in person at the bar of the court, and ably vindicated the rights of Government, of himself, and of the prisoners.
“The laws (said he) of the United States authorize the late and existing war against the Seminole nation of Indians, and against all persons in their service. The negroes claimed by the plaintiff were found in the service of the Indians, speaking the same language, and, like the inhabitants of all savage nations, aiding and assisting in the war. They were captured and taken by the United States forces as prisoners of war, and they are now in charge of a United States officer, Lieutenant Reynolds, acting pursuant to the orders of the President of the United States, directing him to superintend their transportation from the theatre of war in Florida, to a place set apart for their location, west of the State of Arkansas, as prisoners of war, as well as servants of the Seminole Indians, who are also prisoners of war.
“The laws of war, as embraced in the works of Brynkershoeck, Vattel and Wheaton, clearly sanction the principle, that all persons taken in battle, or who may be forced to surrender, whether officers, soldiers, or followers of the enemy’s army, are prisoners of war. * * *
“Among savage nations, it is universally known and admitted, that in war they have no non-combatants, excepting only such as are physically incapable of wielding arms. Every man, without regard to age or color; every boy able to fire a gun, or wield a hatchet, or an arrow, is a warrior. And every woman is a laborer, in the collection and preparation of subsistence and clothing for the warriors: all are therefore liable, when captured in a state of hostility, to be treated as prisoners of war.”
He declared himself “lawlessly taxed with this investigation, and lawlessly threatened with heavy damages and costs, and forced to be defendant, without any legal or rational grounds of action against him. I am (said he) authorized, in virtue of my official station as Major General, commanding the Western Division of the Army of the United States of America, to serve them honestly and faithfully against their enemies and opposers, whomsoever, and to obey the orders of the President of the United States, etc. Under this official pledge, I deem it my duty to afford every officer of the army whatever facilities may be necessary and proper, to enable them to perform whatever duty is confided to them by the President of the United States. In pursuance of this authority, I ordered Major Clark to furnish transportation, for enabling Lieutenant Reynolds, and the officers on duty with him, to convey the prisoners of war to the place of their destination in the Western Country.”
“But it seems that the counsel for the claimant has flattered himself that I should make the most convenient and accommodating defendant imaginable. I was expected to take the responsibility of doing whatever the voracious claimant might desire, without coming into this honorable court. I take leave to apprise the court, for the benefit of all concerned, that I have never hesitated to assume the responsibility of doing my duty, or of doing justice; but I have not yet learned, while acting in my official capacity on oath, to take the responsibility of doing that which is repugnant to law, unjust and iniquitous, as I verily believe any favor shown to this claim would be.”
“The court appears to labor under the impression, that the negroes in question were captured by the Seminole Indians, in the course of their hostile incursions upon our frontier inhabitants. Is this the fact? I will assume, for the learned counsel of the claimant, that he will never have the temerity to assert that they are among the number taken from our frontier inhabitants in the present, or in any former war.”
The gallant General, as well as some other well informed officers, appears to have been conscious of the real character of these Exiles, as will have been noticed in his last remark, assuring the court, that they were never captured from the white people “in the present, or in any former war.”
The ground which he assumed, that the captives were prisoners of war, subject to the orders of the Executive, was so self-evidently true that it could not be met or overthrown, by reason or by argument.