USA > Florida > The purchase of Florida; its history and diplomacy > Part 18
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The series of proclamations which followed the advent of this Scotchman was truly formidable. Official docu- ments gay and impressive with chromatic seals and jaunty ribbons were daily promulgated. In one of them his followers were directed to wear, each on his left arm a shield of red cloth with the words "Venredores de Aurala" and a wreath of oak and laurel leaves embroidered in yel- low silk. In another he promised soon to plant the "green cross of Florida on the proud walls of St. Augustine." A third declared all Florida in a state of blockade beginning at the south side of the island of Amelia and extending to the Perdido. 1 But nature in endowing MacGregor with the talent of producing proclamations exhausted her gifts and denied him the ability to carry them out. Wearied in the effort of composition, he achieved nothing more.
There may have been some honest intention in their announced plans for freeing Florida but it seems more reasonable to conclude that it was his purpose to supplant Spanish misrule in those regions by his own. Those who fight for freedom, to avenge their wrongs or even to retali- ate for the grievances of their country, enlist us in their cause at once. But we find little in the affair at Amelia to awaken our sympathy or merit our support. The people of Florida did not appear to have any love for the self- styled patriots, nor did the insurgents display any marked zeal in joining the Scotchman's standard.
Abundantly supplied with money, MacGregor enter- tained at lavish dinners and entertainments the worthy fam-
1. Niles Register, Vol. XIII, p. 28, Sept. 6, 1817.
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ilies of Fernandina. But affairs went badly. Disease and desertions played havoc with his already depleted forces. Supplies were scarce. His paper money did not inspire confidence and rapidly depreciated. The proposed expedi- tion to St. Augustine was abandoned. In September Mac- Gregor sailed for New Providence to secure recruits and supplies, leaving in command one Hubbard, lately sheriff of New York.
One day, about the first of October, a small fleet ap- peared in the harbor under the command of Louis Aury, a man of the MacGregor stripe. A short account of Aury's career will help the reader to a clearer understanding and appreciation of these filibusters, then in the zenith of their power and glory. According to his own narration, being filled with a burning desire to immolate himself on the altar of freedom, Aury had gone to Cartagena to devote his life to the cause of liberty. The Spanish fleet and troops arriv- ing at that point most inopportunely for his ambitions, he had managed, with a few ships, to run the blockade and reach San Domingo. After laying in stores and recruiting his forces he and his followers eagerly scanned the horizon for an available spot where they might "spill their blood in the cause of American independence and freedom."
Texas seemed the most profitable field for these seekers of gory fame and they were not long in reaching Galveston Bay where Aury was hailed with delight by Don Manuel de Herrera whom we recognize as the "Minister Plenipoten- tiary from the Republic of Mexico to the United States." Galveston was declared the Puerto Habillitado, of the Re- public of Mexico, Aury was made military governor, let- ters of marque were issued, courts of admiralty established. A horde of vagabonds promptly assembled like vultures gathering for the feast. Negroes, smugglers, Baratarian refugees, freebooters, escaped criminals and others of the same type - on they came - a motley horde. they were.
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This patch of sand however was not to Aury's taste and in April, 1817, the place was abandoned by that fickle leader, with no one left to assume the authority so lavishly bestowed upon him. But within a few days these noble buccaneers had formed a new government - a travesty to be sure; the governor, admiralty judges, prize courts, collector, notary public, secretary and all the other functionaries necessary for carrying on a good intentioned state. They too sought to execute another weird bit of drollery, trag- ically saluting liberty and prospective spoils. What mat- tered Mexico to them, should they be blamed because they had never heard of such a nation? Were they not assembled in the sacred cause of plunder and loot ?
Their only object was to capture Spanish ships and Spanish property, and could they be censured if in their zeal they occasionally made mistakes in distinguishing na- tional flags and thus fell into a way of plundering every sort of property, and capturing all manner of ships so pre- sumptuous as to appear on the high sea?
But what good all their plunder if they possessed no market or no clearing house? To obviate this difficulty they raised the Mexican flag and declared that they were acting under authority of that republic - for this sophistry might indeed save many a well curved neck from the venge- ful and profane gallows. In their courts of admiralty the captured ships were adjudged good prizes and the plunder was hurried to New Orleans through this mock obedience to the troublesome forms of international law. There the market was kept stocked with "jewelry, laces, silks and linens, muslins, britannias, seersuckers, china, crockery, glass and slaves," and every other conceivable commodity.
But to return to Aury. Entering Fernandina he was appealed to for assistance, which, with proper magnanimity, he refused, unless the green cross should give way to the Mexican flag and he be made governor and commander-
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in-chief. Compliance was rendered easy by necessity, and October 4th Amelia Island, formally declared a part of the Republic of Mexico, passed into the hands of "General" Aury. But his rule was brief in this volatile community.
Acting under the joint congressional resolution of Jan- uary, 1811, the president of the United States ordered troops and ships to suppress the "liberation" movement. Resistance being futile, Aury, protesting against such inter- ference, quietly surrendered Fernandina and the American navy took possession while he sailed away out of the his- tory of Florida. A second time was Fernandina thus under the stars and stripes, garrisoned by United States troops, in trust for the king of Spain. But the place was soon abandoned by the American marines who evacuated in the face of a superior enemy - the yellow fever, that rapidly depopulated the town.
In the meantime the Seminole Indian question had become critical. The failure to recover the lands ceded by the treaty of Fort Jackson had made them ugly and venge- ful, and when they saw white settlements and forts on their ancestral domains and hunting grounds they sullenly de- termined to take an early opportunity of regaining by force what they felt to be rightfully their own. During 1817 col- lisions between the Indians and white settlers were fre- quent. The Indian agents, Hawkins and Mitchell -- the latter a former governor of Georgia - undoubtedly the fairest and best informed witnesses who appeared before the congressional committee in 1818-19, testified that the blame for these collisions was equal, that the white settlers were as much the aggressors as the Indians, and that the lawless persons in Georgia and Florida were particularly to be censured for acts which provoked retaliation. The Indians with the Bible theory of "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth" na vely claimed that four Indians had been killed to one white and that they must insist upon a
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proper balancing of accounts. With the usual inaccuracy and perversion in the reports which were sent. north, the blame was laid upon the redskins. Harrowing stories were rife of men, women, and children murdered, cabins burned, cattle run off, and of unwonted warlike preparations on the part of the savages.1 That most of these reports were true there can be little doubt, but that the whites had brought much of it upon themselves by their treatment of the unfortunate redskins there is as little question.
A settlement of about twoscore Indians, known as Fowltown, some fifteen miles from Fort Scott, near the national boundary became particularly inflamed. War paint was used in crude and inartistic abundance, the war dance was celebrated, the red war pole erected and notice sent to Major Twiggs in command of Fort Scott "not to cross or cut a stick of timber on the east side of the Flint." The warning was met with silent contempt but when Gen- eral Gaines arrived with reinforcements it was determined to summon the Fowltown chief to a conference. The invi- tation having met with a defiant refusal, Major Twiggs was dispatched with two hundred and fifty men to bring the chief and leading warriors, or, in case he met with resist- ance, to treat them as enemies. As the Americans ap- proached the town they were fired on; most of the Indians having found refuge in the swamps, the town was taken and burned. "This fact," said Mitchell, "was, I conceive, the cause of the Seminole war." The whole country arose and war was on.
In accordance with a decision reached at a meeting of some twenty-seven hundred warriors, shortly before, the Indians considered war as an accepted fact now that the American troops had crossed the Flint River. While the soldiers were burning Fowltown a large open boat under Lieutenant Scott, containing seven women, four children
1. American State Papers, Military Affairs, Vol. I, pp. 681-685.
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and forty soldiers, was slowly wending its way up the Ap- palachicola toward Fort Scott. Fearing trouble, Scott had sent to the fort for help. There were, however, no signs of hostility until, in picking its course, the boat came close to the shore of a densely wooded swamp when suddenly a volley of musketry was poured upon the party at point- blank range. Lieutenant Scott and almost every soldier fell. Boarding the helpless craft the Indians retaliated for the Fowltown ruins by an indiscriminate slaughter. The historian would gladly draw the curtain on the scene. A grewsome play of savage deviltry was enacted there. Women cut down and scalped, children taken by the heels and their brains dashed out, the dead mutilated by savages drunk with the sight of blood. Of the whole boatload only five survived the horrible orgy. One woman was car- ried into captivity and four men, leaping overboard, suc- ceeded in reaching the other shore able to convey the awful news to an indignant audience.
In response to Lieutenant Scott's appeal for help, two covered boats with forty men were hastily dispatched. Too late to be of any assistance, the reinforcements pushed on and rescued Major Muhlenburg who was coming up from Mobile with three boats laden with military stores. For four days these boats were obliged to remain at anchor in mid-stream for no man could raise his head above the bulwarks without offering himself as a target for the fire of the Indians. 1
By the time that reports of these outrages reached Washington General Gaines, in obedience to orders from Calhoun, had gone to Amelia Island. Instructions were immediately dispatched to Andrew Jackson, directing him to proceed to Fort Scott, assume command of the forces stationed there, call on the governors of adjacent states for the necessary militia, and push the war to an end. This
1. American State Papers, Military Affairs, Vol. I, pp. 690, 691.
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order, dated December 26, 1817, was passed on its way south . by a letter from Jackson to Monroe.
Hatred of the Spanish was Jackson's cloud and his pillar of fire which guided his days and nights. In Nash- ville it was generally understood and expected that Jackson was moving against Florida when he set out for the Sem- inole war, and it was for this expedition that most of the volunteers enlisted. "To storm the walls of St. Augustine" was the battle cry in Tennessee.
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CHAPTER VIII.
JACKSON'S WAR WITH THE SEMINOLES.
J ACKSON, after reading the orders to Gaines to prose- cute the war against the Indians, wrote a confidential letter to President Monroe on the subject. "The executive government has ordered," said he, "and, as I conceive, very properly, Amelia Island to be taken possession of. This or- der ought to be carried into execution at all hazards and sim- ultaneously the whole of East Florida seized, and held as indemnity for the outrages of Spain upon the property of our citizens. This done, it puts all opposition down, se- cures our citizens a complete indemnity and saves us from a war with Great Britain or some of the continental powers combined with Spain. This can be done without implicat- ing the government. Let it be signified to me through any channel (say Mr. J. Rhea) that the possession of the Flor- idas would be desirable to the United States and in sixty days it will be accomplished." 1
Of the history of this famous letter there are two utterly irreconcilable stories. According to that of Mon- roe he was sick in bed when it arrived. Glancing at it he observed from a perusal of the first one or two lines that it related to the Seminole War. Handing it to Calhoun who came in shortly, that gentleman replaced it with the remark that it would require Monroe's personal attention, but without explaining the contents. Crawford, who hap-
1. Andrew Jackson to Monroe, Jan. 6, 1818. Benton's Thirty Years' View, Vol. I, p. 170.
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pened in soon afterwards, likewise read it but made no comments. The letter was then laid away and forgotten, according to Monroe, and he did not read it until after the conclusion of the war. Why the letter should have been thus submitted to Crawford, with whose duties it had no rela- tion, unless it had been to secure his views on its expres- sions and sentiments is not quite clear. Nor is it to be credited that Calhoun should have read such startling state- ments from the officer in command, likely to involve the nation in serious difficulties without even a comment or ex- pression of opinion.
In his exposition, prepared during his lifetime but published after his death, Jackson said: "Availing himself of the suggestion contained in the letter, Mr. Monroe sent for Mr. John Rhea (then a member of congress), showed him the confidential letter and requested him to answer it. In conformity with this request Mr. Rhea did answer the let- ter and informed General Jackson that the president had shown him the confidential letter and requested him to state that he approved of its suggestions. This answer was re- ceived by the general on the second night he remained at Big Creek, which is four miles in advance of Hartford, · Georgia, and before his arrival at Fort Scott to take com- mand of the troops." 1
The production of the Rhea letter would have solved the whole question. Its absence was thus explained by General Jackson: "About the time (February 24, 1819) Mr. Lacock made his report (to the senate), General Jack- son and Mr. Rhea were both in the city of Washington. Mr. Rhea called on General Jackson, as he said, at the re- quest of Mr. Monroe and begged him on his return home to burn his reply. He said the president feared that by the death of General Jackson or some other accident, it might fall into the hands of those who would make an
1. Exposition, Benton's Thirty Years' View, Vol. I, p. 179. 16
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improper use of it. He therefore conjured him by the friendship which had always existed between them (and by his obligations as a brother Mason) to destroy it on his return to Nashville. Believing Mr. Monroe and Mr. Cal- houn to be his devoted friends, and not deeming it possible that any incident could occur which would require or jus- tify its use, he gave Mr. Rhea the promise he solicited, and accordingly, after his return to Nashville, he burnt Mr. Rhea's letter and on his letter book, opposite the copy of his confidential letter to Mr. Monroe made this entry : 'Mr. Rhea's letter in answer is burnt this 12th April, 1819.'" 1
Mr. Rhea was an aged member of congress from Ten- nessee, an intimate friend of Jackson, and counsellor of Monroe. But three persons ever saw the Rhea letter, name- ly, General Jackson, Rhea himself, and Judge Overton. The two latter both wrote statements supporting the conten- tion of General Jackson though neither of the gentlemen at- tempted to give the substance of the destroyed letter.
Mr. Monroe claimed, on the other hand, never to have read the letter until after the war and denied having author- ized Mr. Rhea to answer it. There are no allusions to the matter in any of Mr. Monroe's correspondence. This silence may of course be credited to forgetfulness or discre- tion. At any rate, granted that the letter was not answered, the course of the administration upon that hypothesis was highly reprehensible. General Jackson had meanwhile re- ceived orders vesting him with discretionary powers. Mr. Calhoun wrote to Governor Bibb, that General Jackson was "authorized to conduct the war as he thought best." Jack- son's letter of January 6th clearly indicated the course that he "thought best."
Any sane man must have seen that, in the absence of express orders to the contrary, General Jackson would seize East Florida. Silence then meant tacit consent. If
1. Benton's Thirty Years' View, Vol. I, p. 179.
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Mr. Rhea really did write, under Monroe's direction, Jack- son had the express approval of the administration. If Jackson's letter received no reply but he was to "conduct the war as he thought best" then Jackson had the implied approval of the administration. Jackson's character and disposition were even at that time matters of common knowledge. Were his sentiments and intimations to be so lightly considered? On the twenty-fifth of March Jackson informed Calhoun that he intended to occupy St. Marks and on April 8th informed him that it was done, yet he received no word of disapprobation. On the fifth of May he wrote to Mr. Calhoun saying that he was about to move on Pensacola to occupy that town. Still no word of criti- cism. On the second of June he wrote to the secretary of war that on May 24th he had entered Pensacola and on the 28th received the surrender of the Barrancas, yet no breath of censure.
Not until the receipt of Monroe's private letter of July 19th did Jackson receive any intimation that his Florida operations were other than what Monroe and Cal- houn expected. 1 The confidential understanding and ex- press agreement, or if it be preferred the tacit consent, made Jackson's instructions as effectually orders "to take and occupy the province of Florida as if that object had been declared on their face." Under any hypothesis it is im- possible to do otherwise than hold the administration re- sponsible for Jackson's wild career in Florida. That for reasons of policy Monroe and Calhoun sought to absolve themselves from all blame can scarcely concern the histor- ian. That certain of Jackson's acts in connection with the invasion would have been thoroughly disapproved by Mon- roe and Calhoun no one will deny, but for them, however, the impartial critic must reserve the censure for the gen- eral event.
1. Benton's Thirty Years' View, Vol. I, p. 172.
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Calhoun's order to proceed to Fort Scott was received at Nashville, January Iith. It gave Jackson power to call on the governors of the adjacent states for militia. The Georgia militia had been called out by Gaines before start- ing for Amelia Island. Jackson therefore concluded to se- cure a thousand mounted volunteers from West Tennessee and Kentucky, the men with whom he had fought in 1813 and 1814. But the governor of Tennessee was absent from the state - none knew where he was or when he would return. Taking the responsibility upon himself Jackson pri- vately summoned to Nashville a number of his old volun- teer officers and laid the scheme before them. The officers separated to carry out the measures. The general issued one of his characteristic addresses and within twelve days of the meeting, such was the popularity of the cause and the leader, two regiments of mounted men numbering more than a thousand were assembled at the old rendezvous at Fayetteville, Tennessee. The governor of Tennessee ap- proved General Jackson's measures, irregular though they were. So did Mr. Calhoun in his letter of January 24th. We may pass lightly over the ensuing incidents.
On the tenth of March General Jackson assumed com- mand at Fort Scott. He ordered part of his provisions sent to the fort (Scott) by the Appalachicola on which the Span- ish had no fortifications. On the site of Negro Fort he erected Fort Gadsden and sent word to the Spanish com- mander at Pensacola that if the fort at Barrancas hindered his supply boats from ascending the Escambia he would consider it an act of hostility to the United States. An arbi- trary and aggressive course this, to the representative of an independent nation with whom we were at peace. But Jackson knew nothing of red tape and cared less for diplo- matic niceties. All through the military correspondence there was talk of marching into East Florida and attacking the Indians through that province as though no possible
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question could be raised as to orders or the restrictions of international law.
He immediately advanced towards St. Marks. Captain Mckeever in command of the squadron agreed to coöper- ate with him in the movement on St. Marks. The follow- ing is a portion of a remarkable and characteristic order delivered by the general to Mckeever: "It is reported to me that Francis, or Hillis Hago, and Peter McQueen, prophets, 'who excited the Red Sticks in their late war against the United States and are now exciting the Sem- inoles to similar acts of hostility, are at or in the neighbor- hood of St. Marks. United with them it is stated that Woodbine, Arbuthnot, and other foreigners have assembled a motley crew of brigands - slaves enticed away from their masters, citizens of the United States, or stolen during the late conflict with Great Britain. It is all important that these men should be captured and made examples of, and it is my belief that on the approach of my army they will attempt to escape to some of the sea islands. . . . You will therefore, cruise along the coast, eastwardly, and as I ad- vance, capture and make prisoners all, or every person, or description of persons, white, red, or black, with all their goods, chattels, and effects, together with all crafts, vessels or means of transportation by water. . .. Any of the sub- jects of his Catholic Majesty, sailing to St. Marks, may be permitted freely to enter the said river. But none to pass out, unless after an examination it may be made to appear that they have not been attached to or in any wise aided and abetted our common enemy. I shall march this day and in eight days will reach St. Marks, where I shall ex- pect to communicate with you in the bay." There is no precedent in all modern history for such a high handed course. Let the mind for one moment contemplate the fleet of a nation with whom we were at peace maintaining a blockade of one of our ports and compelling our citizens to
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submit to search. For what principle was fought the war of 1812? In defense of what right did Jackson himself beat back the English at New Orleans? International law and American consistency were violated at the same stroke.
In his forward march Jackson came upon a number of Indians engaged in the innocuous pursuit of "herding cattle." Upon these redskins an attack was ordered. Many were killed but some succeeded in escaping and fled to St. Marks. As Jackson understood his orders he was to pur- sue the Indians until he caught them wherever they might go. That Spanish rights were to be respected so far as was consistent with that purpose. That the Spanish ina- bility to police her own territory and maintain order therein was to be the justification of his course. His proceedings were based on two positive and arbitrary assumptions. First that the Indians received aid and encouragement from St. Marks and Pensacola. That the Spanish denied this was of no matter to Jackson for his presumption had always been that every Spanish official was a consummate prevaricator. His second assumption was that Great Brit- ain kept paid emissaries in Florida hostile to the United States. This latter presumption, prevalent in the United States at that time, seems upon a careful consideration of the facts to have been wholly groundless. England had without doubt made some connection with the Indians during the late war and had encouraged them to believe that with the treaty of peace they would be reimbursed for their losses, but there is no evidence that after the termination of the war she did not act in good faith. She promptly disavowed the acts of Colonel Nicholls and firmly refused to either aid or encourage the deputation of Indian chiefs that were shipped to London. But the inaccuracy of Jackson's as- sumption did not save the lives of two English subjects so unfortunate as to fall in the hands of that fire eating officer.
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