Joshua Giddings - The Exiles of Florida

Monette says that three thousand stands of arms and six hundred barrels of powder were destroyed by the explosion. This is probably somewhat of an exaggeration. We have no fact to warrant the assertion, that there was any addition made to the stores left by Col. Nichols, when he delivered the fort to the Exiles. The same author states, that one magazine, containing one hundred and sixty barrels of powder, was left unharmed by the explosion; but no mention of such fact is found in the Official Report, by Sailing-Master Loomis.

Vide Documents before the Committee of Congress appointed to investigate the cause of General Jackson’s invasion of Florida: XVth Congress, 2d Session.

This bill was reported by Mr. Ingham of Connecticut, Chairman of the Committee on Naval Affairs.

Vide Statutes enacted at 2d Session, XXVIth Congress. The author was then a member of the House of Representatives, but had not learned to watch the movements of slaveholders and “their allies,” so closely as subsequent experience taught him would be useful.

Vide Speeches of Hon. George Poindexter and others on the Seminole War, in 1819.

Hon. William Jay, of New York, published his Views of the action of the Federal Government in 1887.

Monette says Arbuthnot sent word to the Negroes and Indians, notifying them of the approach of General Jackson; but the official report of that Officer shows that his advance guard was daily engaged in skirmishing with the Indians.

Vide General Jackson’s Official Report of this battle, Ex. Doc. 175, 2d Session XVth Congress.

Williams, in his History of Florida, states that three hundred and forty Negroes again rallied after the first retreat, and fought their pursuers, until eighty of their number, were killed on the field. “Monetta” also states the same fact; but General Jackson, in all his Reports, evidently avoided, as far as possible, any notice of the Exiles, as a people. Indeed such was the policy of the Administration, and of its officers, and of all slaveholders. They then supposed, as they now do, that slavery must depend upon the supposed ignorance and stupidity of the colored people; and scarcely an instance can be found, where a slaveholder admits the slave to possess human intelligence or human feeling; indeed, to teach a slave to read the Scriptures, is regarded as an offense, in nearly every slave State, and punishable by fine and imprisonment.

Various names have been given this Fort. The author, having heretofore adopted that of “Blount’s Fort,” prefers to continue that name. It was equally known, however, as the “Negro Fort,” and as “Fort Nichols.”

The people of the free States should understand, that almost every question touching slavery which has arisen between our Government and that of England, the latter has yielded, since the formation of Jay’s Treaty in 1795.

The payment for slaves who were shipwrecked on board the Comet, the Encomium, and the Enterprise, and found freedom by being landed on British soil, constitute rare instances in which slaveholdlng arrogance has proved successful in the arts of diplomacy. The case of the Creole constitutes another admirable illustration of successful effrontery. In this case, the slaves took possession of the ship, guided it to Nassau, a British Island, went on shore and became free. The officers of the slave ship demanded that the British authorities should seize the negroes, and return them to the ship. They refused. Daniel Webster, Secretary of State, became the voluntary Agent, Attorney and Solicitor, for the slave dealers, who should have been hanged, instead of receiving the encouragement of our Government. But the subject was submitted to the umpirage of a man, said to have once lived in Boston, who, principally upon the authority of Mr. Webster, decided that the people of the British government should pay the slave dealers for these parents and children; and after fifteen years of continued effort, the money was obtained.

Vide Letter from the Secretary of War to Messrs. Plckens and Flournoy, August 8, 1820. Am. State Papers, Vol. VI, p. 249.

Vide Letter of the Secretary of War to Gen. Flournoy, of the 19th of October, 1820. Ibid, 250.

Vide Papers transmitted to Congress, in connection with the Treaty of “Indian Spring.” Am. State Papers, “Indian Affairs,” Vol. I, No. 174.

Ibid.

Ibid. Letter of Instructions contained in the papers referred to on preceding page.

Vide Report of Commissioner on this subject; also, the Report of Wm. Wirt, Attorney General of the United States, to whom the President referred the subject. “Opinions of the Attorney General,” 1822. Mr. Wirt states the price paid for those slaves was from two to three times their real value.

Vide Reports of Committee XVIIth Congress, 2d Session, No. 125.

Vide Am. State Papers, Vol. VI, pages 411, 412. It will be observed that General Jackson discarded the term “ maroon ,” used by Penieres, as that in Jamaica, signifies “ free negroes of the mountains,” who once fled from service, but have maintained their liberty so long that they cannot be identified, and are therefore admitted to be free.

It is an interesting fact, that the doctrine recently avowed by the Supreme Court of the United States, that “ black men have no rights which white men are bound to respect ,” was recognized and practiced upon in Florida, more than thirty years since, by the officers of Government.

Vide Executive Documents, No. 271, 2d Session XXVth Congress.

Captain Sprague, of the United States Army, so states, in his History of the War.

Vide Letter of the Agent, dated sixth of March, 1827.

Vide Minutes of Talk held at Seminole Agency, with Treskal, Mathla, and other Chiefs. Ex. Doc. 271, 1st Sess. XXIVth Congress.

Vide Letter of Col. Brooke to Col. Humphreys, 6 May, 1828, contained in the above cited Document.

Vide Letter of Judge Smith, May 10, 1828, contained in same Document.

Vide Statement of John Hick, 15 August, 1828. Ex. Doc. 271, before quoted.

Vide Letter of Gad Humphreys, Oct. 20, 1828. It probably was the first time the proposition was submitted to the Seminoles.

Even Mr. Adams, when President, continued in office those men who had been placed there by his predecessors.

Vide Sprague’s History of the Florida War.

Vide Documents relating to the Florida War, 1st Session, XXIVth Congress.

Vide Sprague’s History of the Florida War.

Vide Ex. Doc. 271, XXIVth Congress, 1st Session, pages 43 and 44.