Joshua Giddings - The Exiles of Florida

There was, among the people of the entire nation, an intense anxiety to render every part of the Union satisfied and pleased with the Federal Government, then just formed, as they felt that their only hope of prosperity depended upon a continuance of the federal union. There was also a general sympathy throughout the nation with the slaveholders of the South, who were supposed to have suffered much, by the loss of their servants, during the war of the Revolution; few people at that time realizing the moral guilt of holding their fellow-men in bondage.

While the revolutionary contest was going on, many slaves in the Southern States escaped from the service of their masters, and, under the proclamations of various British commanders, enlisted into the service of his Britannic Majesty; and having taken the oath of allegiance to the crown of England, were regarded as British subjects. Others escaped with their families, and getting on board British vessels, sailed to the West Indies, where they settled as “ free persons .” Thus, while one class of masters had sustained great losses by the enlistment of their slaves, another class had suffered by the escape of their bondmen, through the aid of British vessels; while a third sustained an equal loss by the escape of their servants to the Seminoles in Florida. These three different interests united in claiming the aid of government to regain possession of their slaves, or to obtain indemnity for their loss.

The timely arrival of Mr. Pinckney, secured the insertion of a clause in the Treaty of Paris, providing that his Britannic Majesty should withdraw his troops from all American forts, arsenals, shipyards, etc., without destroying ordnance or military stores, or “carrying away any negroes or other property of the inhabitants.” This provision was regarded by the slaveholders of the South as securing a compensation to all those whose slaves had enlisted in the British army, as well as to those whose slaves had escaped to the British West India Islands by aid of English vessels; while those whose servants were quietly living with the Seminoles, had not been provided for by the treaty of peace. 11 11 The reader need not be informed, that these demands of indemnity for slaves were promptly rejected by the English government; and Jay’s Treaty of 1794, surrendered them forever. These circumstances rendered the owners of the Exiles more clamorous for the interposition of the State Government, inasmuch as the federal authority had entirely omitted to notice their interests, while it was supposed to have secured a compensation to the other two classes of claimants.

It was under these circumstances, that General Washington proceeded to the negotiation of the first treaty, entered into under our present form of government. The chiefs, headmen and warriors of the Creek nation were present at New York: Georgia was also there by her senators and representatives, who carefully watched over her interests; and General Knox, the Secretary of War, was appointed commissioner to negotiate a treaty, thus to be formed, under the personal supervision of the President.

The object of the President was effected, a treaty was formed, and bears date August 1, 1790. It constitutes the title-page of our diplomatic history. This first exercise of our treaty-making power under the constitution, was put forth for the benefit of the Slave interests of Georgia. It surrendered up to the Creeks certain lands, which the authorities of Georgia claimed to hold under the treaty of Galphinton, but retained substantially the stipulation for the surrender of negroes, which had been inserted in that extraordinary compact.

By the third article of this new treaty, it was stipulated as follows:

“The Creek nation shall deliver, as soon as practicable, to the commanding officer of the troops of the United States stationed at Rock Landing, on the Oconee River, all citizens of the United States, white inhabitants or negroes, who are now prisoners in any part of the said nation. And if any such prisoners or negroes should not be so delivered, on or before the first day of June ensuing, the governor of Georgia may empower three persons to repair to the said nation, in order to claim and receive such prisoners and negroes.”

Historians have referred to this clause as containing merely a stipulation for the surrender of prisoners ; 12 12 Hildreth, in his History of the United States, speaks of in that light. but the manner in which the term “ negroes ” stands connected in the disjunctive form with that of “ prisoners ,” would appear to justify, at least to some extent, the subsequent construction put upon it, so far as regarded negroes then resident with the Creeks; but it certainly makes no allusion to those who were residing with the Seminoles in Florida.

It is a remarkable feature of this treaty, that the Creek chiefs, principal men and warriors should, in its first article, profess to act, not only for the Upper and Lower Creek Towns, but for the Seminoles who were in Florida, protected by Spanish laws. They had not been invited to attend the negotiation, had sent no delegate, were wholly unrepresented in the Council; indeed, so far as we are informed, were wholly ignorant of the objects which had called such a council, and of the fact even that a council was held, or a treaty negotiated.

Our fathers had just passed through seven years of war and bloodshed, rather than submit to “ taxation without representation ;” but this attempt to bind the Seminole Indians to surrender up the Exiles, who were their friends and neighbors, and who now stood connected with them by marriage, and in all the relations of domestic life, without their consent or knowledge, constitutes an inconsistency which can only be accounted for by the desire then prevalent, to gratify and please those who wielded the slaveholding influence of our nation.

Another extraordinary feature of this treaty may be found in the secret article, by which the United States stipulated to pay the Creeks fifteen hundred dollars annually, in all coming time. The reason for making this stipulation secret is not to be learned from any documentary authority before the public, and cannot now be accounted for, except from the delicacy which the authorities of our nation then felt in taxing the people of the free States, to pay southern Indians for the return of those Exiles. And it is interesting at this day to look back and reflect, that for nearly seventy years the people of the nation have contributed their funds to sustain the authority of those slaveholders of Georgia over their bondmen, while Northern statesmen have constantly assured their constituents, they have nothing to do with that institution.

It would be uncharitable to believe, that General Washington was at that time conscious that he was thus precipitating our nation upon a policy destined to involve its government in difficulties, whose termination would be uncertain.

After the treaty had been agreed to by the parties making it, General Washington met the chiefs, headmen and warriors, assembled in the Hall of Representatives, in the presence of members of Congress and a large concourse of spectators. The treaty was publicly read, and to each article the Indians expressed their assent, and signed it in the presence of the people, each receiving from the President a string of wampum. The President then shook hands with each, which concluded the ceremonies of the day.

The treaty was transmitted on the following day to the Senate, accompanied by a Message from the President, saying: “I flatter myself that this treaty will be productive of present peace and prosperity to our Southern frontier. It is to be expected, also, that it will be the means of firmly attaching the Creeks and neighboring tribes to the interests of the United States.” The President also alluded in his message to the treaty of Galphinton, as containing a stipulation to cede to Georgia certain other lands, which it was believed would be detrimental to the interests of the Indians, and, therefore, that covenant had been disregarded in the “treaty of New York.” In another Message to the Senate, on the eleventh of August, the President says: “This treaty may be regarded as the main foundation of the future peace and prosperity of the Southwestern frontier of the United States.”