USA > Georgia > A history of Georgia : from its first discovery by Europeans to the adoption of the present constitution in MDCCXCVIII. Vol. II > Part 28
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Previous to the signing, the Agent from North Caro- lina and the Commissioners of Georgia delivered their protests against the same.
After the treaty was signed, sealed, and witnessed, the Commissioners told the headmen that Congress, from motives of humanity, had directed some presents to be made to them, for their use and comfort; and
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that on the next day they would direct the presents to be distributed accordingly.
November 29th .- Present as yesterday.
The Commissioners ordered a return of the Indians, and there were nine hundred and eighteen; and goods to the amount of $1311 10 were distributed among the headmen of every town.
The Indians having expressed a desire to say some- thing further to the Commissioners, they attended ac- cordingly.
TASSEL. I will now inform you of some further complaints against your people. I remember the treaty with Colonel Christie, and in all our treaties, that we referred the Long Island of Holston for our- selves, as beloved ground, to hold our treaties on. I remember the Commissioners, yesterday, in an article of the treaty, demanded all their property and prison- ers. I am now going to make my demand. I desire that Colonel Martin may be empowered to find and get our prisoners : he is our friend, and he will get them for us. I am now done my talks, and I hope the Com- missioners will be as good as their promise yesterday in the treaty. The white people have taken so much of our lands, we cannot kill as many deer as formerly. The traders impose on us greatly; and we wish our trade could be regulated and fixed rates on our goods. Our traders are frequently robbed when coming to and going from our nation. John Bouge was, among others, robbed of about one hundred and fifty pounds sterling worth of leather, in the State of Georgia.
TUSHEGATAHEE. I am not a chief, but will speak for my country. I shall always pay great regard to what I have heard respecting the treaty, as well as what
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may be sent us from Congress hereafter; and as I am within the limits of the United States, I shall always expect their protection and assistance. Our young men and warriors have heard what has passed. I ex- pect as our boundaries are ascertained, Congress may be informed of them ; and that, as peace is now firmly established, and we are all friends, we may be allowed to hunt on each other's land without molestation. On my part, being in peace and friendship with you, I shall feel myself safe wherever I go.
Many of your people on Cumberland and Kentucky have their horses on our lands : and should we find them, I wish Colonel Martin to receive them.
NEWOTA. I am fond to hear the talks of the beloved men of Congress and of ours. Your Commissioners remember the talks, and I shall always endeavor to support the peace and friendship now established. I remember the talks by Colonel Martin, and I promised to be attached to America ; but, until the present, I was afraid to be in your country. I am now perfectly happy, as you are to protect us. Your prisoners I will deliver you. Formerly, Captain Cameron saw justice done to us in our land; he is gone, and I now depend upon the Commissioners. If anything depend on me to strengthen our friendship, I will faithfully execute it. You are now our protectors. When I go and tell to those of our people who could not come to hear your talks, what I have seen and heard, they will rejoice. I have heard your declarations of a desire to do us any service in your power. I believe you, and in confi- dence shall rest happy.
COMMISSIONERS. We will give you provisions for the
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road, and wish you may be happy. We will send up to Congress all our talks.
While peace was secured with the Cherokees and the Choctaws, the Creeks continued restless and trouble- some, and, in the spring of 1786, recommenced hos- tilities ; but they were speedily chastised. In October, a Congress was held with the nation, at Shoulder-Bone Creek (a branch of the Oconee, in Hancock County), John Habersham, Abram Racot, J. Clements, James McNeil, John King, James Powell, Ferdinand O'Neil, and Jared Irwin, representing Georgia, and fifty-nine chiefs, headmen, and warriors, representing the Creek nation.
The treaty thus made, was signed on the 3d of No- vember, 1786. The several articles of it required that the six murderers of the whites should be put to death ; that full restitution of prisoners and pillage should be made; that the old boundary lines, established by treaty at Augusta, in 1783, and in Galphinton, in 1785, should be marked out; and lastly, "in proof of their good faith and sincere intentions to perform the before- mentioned articles, and for the security of the inhabi- tants of the said State, the Indians agree to leave in the hands of the Commissioners five of their people." " The said Indians, during their stay among the white people, shall be provided with comfortable diet, lodging, and clothing, and be well treated in every other re- spect."
For a few months the Indians behaved in a friendly manner; but, instigated by McGillivray, and taking advantage of the differences of opinion between the United States and Georgia, they violated their pledged
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faith and renewed their acts of violence. In a talk sent to them in the spring of 1787, the Executive Council state, " Not a single article of the treaty has as yet been complied with on your part;" though in full reliance upon the faith of the Indians, four of the hostages had been sent back to the nation, the fifth having committed suicide in the presence of his com- panions.
Without asserting that Georgia had done nothing to provoke the Creeks, and without attempting to defend all its legislation upon Indian affairs, or all the mea- sures which were pursued in obtaining treaties and cessions of land, yet it must be confessed that the chief cause of the difficulties between the Creek nation and the Georgians was Alexander McGillivray, whose in- fluence over that nation was almost supreme.
This man, who played so prominent a part in Indian negotiations, and ruled so regally over the Creek na- tion, was the son of Lachlan McGillivray, a Scotchman, resident in Georgia, who had amassed a large fortune as an Indian trader. His mother was a half-blood Creek, of high rank on the maternal side, in the tribe of the Wind; though her father, Captain Marchand, was the French commandant of Fort Toulouse. Thus the blood of three nations coursed through his veins. At the age of fourteen he was placed at school, in Charleston, South Carolina, where he was carefully in- structed in English; and some years afterwards was removed by his father, who wished to make a merchant of him, to the counting-house of Samuel Elbert, after- wards General, and Governor of Georgia, in Savannah.
Young McGillivray soon discovered that he had no taste for business, though he pursued his literary
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studies with great eagerness and success. Before the · breaking out of the Revolutionary war, he returned to his native woods, on the banks of the Coosa, and was hailed by his maternal tribe as their chief and leader. When hostilities were decided on, he was offered a colonel's commission in the British interest; and he co-operated with the emissaries of England in attach- ing the Indians to their interest, and engaging their services for the war against the Americans.
The defeat of the British, the confiscation of his father's large estates, and the animosities which the war had excited and cherished, left McGillivray in no very amicable mood towards the United States; and, though he was too shrewd to appear violently opposed to its interests, yet his conduct was often suspicious, always selfish, and seldom such as was productive of good, either to the Creeks, to Georgia, or to the Union at large.
Shortly after the conclusion of the war, having met with William Panton, a Scotchman by birth, a Span- iard by interest, a merchant by profession, and a mem- ber of the great commercial firm of Panton, Leslie & Co., of Florida, McGillivray was induced, under the promise of sharing in the profits of this trading house, and of large rewards and honors from the King of Spain, to enter into a treaty with the representatives of his most Catholic Majesty, pledging himself to ad- vance the interests of Spain in her American provinces. For this treaty he was made a Spanish commissary, with the rank and pay of colonel. This was in June, 1784, before the treaty at Galphinton; and the influence of McGillivray in dissuading the tribes from sending head- men and warriors to the treaty-ground, was the reason
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why so few towns of the lower Creeks were represented at that Council.
It was in the power of McGillivray at any time to have made peace, and kept peace with Georgia ; but it did not suit the purposes of himself and master; and hence, under pretexts specious, but false, he kept the border lands in continual trouble, embroiled Georgia in some serious disputes with the Federal Government, and kept the frontier in a state of perpetual ferment and alarm.
The attempt made by the United States Commis- sioner, Dr. James White, to negotiate a treaty with McGillivray, at Cusseta, in 1788, and the efforts of Governor Thomas Pinckney, of South Carolina, to ef- fect the same end, were alike thwarted by the inge- nuity and address of this man, who, under great pro- fessions of regard for the authorities of the United States, cherished the bitterest animosity and revenge.
An attempt was made by General Pickens and Chief Justice Osborne, as Commissioners of the United States for Indian Affairs in the Southern Department, to meet the Indians, in 1788; but, being frustrated, they issued the following talk to the headmen, chiefs, and warriors of the Creek nation :-
We last year appointed a time and place for holding /a treaty with you to establish a lasting peace between you and us, that we might again become as one people; you all know the reasons why it was not held at that time.
We now send you this talk, inviting you to a treaty on your bank of the Oconee River, at the Rock land- ing. We wished to meet you at that place on the 8th
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of June ; but, as that day is so near at hand, you might not all get notice. We therefore shall expect to meet you on the 20th day of June.
We have changed the place of meeting from that of last year, so that none of you should have reason to complain ; it is your own ground, and on that land we wish to renew our former trade and friendships, and to remove everything that has blinded the path between you and us.
We are now governed by a President who is like the old King over the great water. He commands all the warriors of the thirteen great fires. He will have re- gard to the welfare of all the Indians; and when peace shall be established he will be your father, and you will be his children, so that none shall dare to do you harm.
We know that lands have been the cause of dispute between you and the white people; but we now tell you that we want no, new grants. Our object is to make a peace and to unite us all under our Great Chief Warrior and President, who is the father and protector of all the white people.
Attend to what we say.
Our traders are very rich, and have houses full of such goods as you were used to get in former days; it is our wish that you should trade with them, and they with you, in strict friendship.
Our Brother, George Galphin, will carry you this talk. Listen to him: he will tell you nothing but truth from us. Send us your answer by him.
ANDW. PICKENS,
H. OSBORNE,
Commissioners of the United States for Indian Affairs in the Southern Department. 28
April 20, 1789. VOL. II.
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GEORGIA AN INDEPENDENT STATE.
This effort, however, was abortive, as McGillivray declined to make a treaty; and not only so, but he took measures to thwart General Pickens in his at- tempt to make a treaty with the Cherokees. “Do you not see," he says, writing to Panton in reference to his success in defeating these measures, so important to Georgia and the United States, " my cause of tri- umph in bringing these conquerors of the old masters of the new world, as they call themselves, to bend and supplicate for peace at the feet of a people, whom, shortly before, they despised and marked out for de- struction ?"
Unwilling to relinquish the efforts at Indian pacifi- cation, other and more honorable Commissioners were associated with General Pickens, and appointed to treat with McGillivray. These were General Lincoln, who had served as commander of the Southern army during the Revolutionary war; Cyrus Griffin, a former Presi- dent of the Continental Congress, and David Hum- phreys, one of the military family of Washington, and subsequently minister to Spain. These persons sailed from New York, August 31st, for Savannah, in a vessel well laden with Indian presents; and, having reached there on the 10th of September, in safety, they pre- pared to enter upon their duties, by sending word to McGillivray of their arrival, and requesting him to meet them, on the 20th of September, at Rock Land- ing, on the Oconee. To this place they accordingly repaired, with their escort, a company of United States Artillery, under Captain Burbeck ,and pitched their tents, on the 20th of September, 1789, on the eastern bank of the river.
McGillivray, with two thousand warriors, gathered
/
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around him to display his power and overawe the Commissioners, encamped on the western bank of the Oconee; and, after several days spent in private inter- views with McGillivray, and the formalities usual on such occasions, the business of the Council was entered upon on the 24th of September, by the Commissioners presenting to the chiefs a draught of a treaty which they proposed as the basis of pacification. At the time of its delivery, the Indians seemed pleased; but when it was talked over in the council of the chiefs that night, dissatisfaction appeared, and so increased, that the next morning McGillivray wrote to the Commissioners that the boundaries proposed did not satisfy the nation, and that the chiefs had resolved to break up the Council and depart.
This announcement took the Commissioners by sur- prise, and they immediately addressed a note to McGil- livray, imploring him to prevail on the chiefs to re- main. Instead of this, however, he abruptly broke up the encampment, and, under plea of seeking forage for his horses, moved back several miles from the river ; and two days after, from his camp on the Ocmulgee, he wrote to the Commissioners that he had determined to return to the nation, "deferring the matter in full peace till next spring." "We sincerely desire a peace, but we cannot sacrifice much to obtain it."
It was with great mortification, after so much toil and expense, and so large expectations of fruitful re- sults, that the Commissioners were obliged to report to the Secretary at War, that " The parties have separated without forming a treaty."
General Lincoln and party returned to Augusta, on the 2d of October, and there spent several days in in-
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vestigating the character of the treaties already made with the Creeks,-especially in reference to the treaties of Augusta, Galphinton, and Shoulder-Bone, concern- ing which there had been circulated such false reports, so injurious to the honor and integrity of Georgia. Their report upon this subject is important, as it fully defends the course of Georgia, and shows the flimsiness of the attempts of McGillivray and other interested parties to misrepresent the facts, deny the conclusions, and set at nought the binding authority of these trea- ties. "The Commissioners beg leave further to report, that, after the most accurate investigation in their power to make, after consulting the best documents, and having recourse to credible depositions, they are unable to discover but that the treaty of Augusta, in the year 1783, the treaty of Galphinton, in the year 1785, and the treaty of Shoulder-Bone, in the year 1786, were, all of them, conducted with as full and as authorized representation, with as much substantial form and apparent good faith, and understanding of the business, as Indian treaties have usually been con- ducted, or perhaps can be, where one of the contracting parties is destitute of the benefit of enlightened so- ciety ; that the lands in question did, of right, belong to the lower Creeks as their hunting-ground, have been ceded by them to the State of Georgia for a valuable consideration, and were possessed and cultivated for some years, without any claim or molestation by any part of the Creek nation."
The Commissioners left Augusta on the 6th of Oc- tober, and reached New York on the 10th of Novem- ber; and, on the 17th, made a full report of their fruit- less mission. In this report, they state that they "are
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decidedly of opinion that the failure of a treaty at this time with the Creek nation can be attributed only to their principal chief, Mr. Alexander McGillivray;" and sustain this opinion by six strong reasons, showing the deception, duplicity, selfishness, and falsehood of this chief, who, for private ends, thwarted all the efforts of the United States, and imperilled the peace and pros- perity of Georgia. At the very time, however, that he was engaged in this business with the Commissioners of the United States, he was, also, as we learn from his letters to Panton (written only a few days before the meeting at Rock Landing), seeking to draw still larger honors and emoluments from Spain, by operating on the fears of the Governor of Florida, by threatening to loose the alliance with the Creeks, and on the avari- cious views of Panton, by intimating the necessity of his withdrawing himself from the partnership with that trading house, which had so long supplied his nation with food.
Washington was unwilling to plunge the infant re- public into the horrors and expense of an Indian war ; and he determined to make one more effort to secure peace with the Creeks. He was justly incensed at the audacity and perverseness of McGillivray ; yet, as no treaty could be held with the Indians without his au- thority and consent, he sought, by new and more pri- vate overtures, to secure the friendship of one, whose ill-will could track the whole frontier with blood- whose favor could make that same frontier peaceful and secure.
On the day after the Commissioners had reported to the President the failure of their negotiations, he sent General Knox, Secretary of War, to Colonel Marinus
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Willet, an officer who had served with distinction in the Revolutionary war, with a request that he would undertake a secret mission3 to the haughty chief. He consented, and, embarking at New York, on the 15th of March, 1790, for Charleston, he landed in that city, after a passage of fourteen days, and immediately di- rected his steps towards the residence of General Pickens, in the upper part of South Carolina. He reached that place on the 13th of April, and tarried there about a week, in conference with the General, to whom, and to whom alone, Washington had permitted him to confide the nature of his mission, and from whom, as from one fully conversant with Indian af- fairs, he gained much practical knowledge as to the best mode of carrying out his important mission.
General Pickens was a person in whom McGillivray had confidence, and with whom he corresponded ; and no one, therefore, was so well qualified to advise Colonel Willet, as this sagacious and experienced Ge- neral. On leaving South Carolina, Colonel Willet made a detour through the Cherokee country, guided by an Indian, called Young Corn, and attended by a single body-servant, and at length reached the Kille- bees, one of the Creek settlements, on Friday, 30th April. There he had the satisfaction of meeting Mc- Gillivray ; and, "I went to bed," he writes in his jour- nal, " happy in being under the same roof with the man I have travelled thus far to see."
McGillivray impressed the Colonel quite favorably. " He appears to be," he says, "a man of an open, can- did, generous mind, with a good judgment and very
3 " A Narrative of the Military Actions of Colonel Marinus Willet." New York : 1831.
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tenacious memory." The Creek chief was gratified with the special mark of attention from the President, in sending to him such an ambassador; and after se- veral days' conference with the secret agent, he ap- pointed a council of chiefs to meet him at Ositchy, on the 17th of May.
The ceremony of the black drink having been con- ducted with due form, in the great square of the town, the chiefs assembled, at eleven o'clock on that day, to hear what Colonel Willet had to propose. "I am come to you," he said in his speech, " from our beloved town (New York), by order of our beloved Chief, George Washington, to invite you to a treaty of peace and friendship, at a council-fire in our beloved city." After stating the wishes of Washington for the prosperity of the red people, and his desire to form a lasting treaty of peace and amity with them, he informs them that the United States wanted none of their lands, but would secure them unmolested, would promote their trade, and contribute all in its power towards the wel- fare and happiness of the nation. He concluded by saying : "Brothers, I stand before you a messenger of peace. It is your interest, and it is our interest, that we should live in peace with each other. I promise myself that you will attend to this friendly invitation, and that your beloved chief, with such other. of your chiefs and warriors as you may choose for that pur- pose, will repair with me to the council-fire that is kindled in our beloved town, that we may form a treaty which shall be strong as the hills, and as last- ing as the rivers."
Having delivered his speech, he withdrew, and left the chiefs to confer together. An hour passed, and he
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was called again to the council, and informed that his talk had been acceptable, and his propositions agreed to. "Brother," said the Hallowing King, speaking in behalf of the chiefs to Colonel Willet, "you say you came from our beloved chief, George Washington, to invite our beloved chief to a council-fire, in your be- loved town. The road is very long, and the weather is very hot; but our beloved chief will go with you, and such other chiefs and warriors as shall be ap- pointed for that purpose shall go with him. Brother, all that our beloved chief shall do, we will agree to. We wish you may be preserved from every evil. We will count the time our beloved chief is away; and when he comes back we shall be glad to see him, with a treaty that shall be as strong as the hills, and last as long as the rivers."
On the 21st of May, Colonel Willet met another council of chiefs, at Nickabache; and, after the cere- mony of the black drink, delivered to them a talk similar to the one spoken before, and received in an- swer nearly the same reply, from the venerable and influential chief, called the White Lieutenant. Having done all that was needful to secure the confidence of the Indians, Colonel Willet and McGillivray, with eight warriors and some few attendants, started from Little Tallasse, on the 1st of June, for New York. A long journey was before them, and the brief record of it which Willet gives in his journal, is peculiarly inte- resting.
On the 9th, they reached the Stone Mountain, in what is now De Kalb County ; and Colonel Willet as- cended to the summit. On the 14th, they reached the house of General Pickens, and were warmly welcomed.
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Here they remained a few days, until some other In- dians joined them; and, on the 18th, the party, in- creased to thirty Indians, left the hospitable mansion of the General, on their northern progress. Twenty-six of the Indians rode in three wagons, and four were on horseback; Colonel McGillivray, his nephew, two ser- vants, and interpreter, with Colonel Willet's German man John, were also in the saddle; while Colonel Willet himself travelled in his sulky.
The party attracted great attention as they passed through the towns and villages, and were everywhere kindly received and entertained, particularly at Guil- ford in North Carolina, Richmond, and Philadelphia. At Elizabethtown Point they found a sloop in waiting, to transport them to New York. It was about noon, on Tuesday, the 20th of May, when they landed near the Coffee House, " and were received with great splen- dor by the Tammany Society, in the dress of their Order," conducted up Wall Street past the Federal Hall, where Congress was in session, and with much pomp and parade were escorted to the President. After their introduction to the President, "the In- dians, with additional parade, visited the Minister of War and Governor Clinton, and then repaired to the City Tavern, where an elegant entertainment finished the day."
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