USA > Georgia > Floyd County > Rome > A history of Rome and Floyd County, State of Georgia, United States of America; including numerous incidents of more than local interest, 1540-1922, Volume I > Part 11
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"Take our price for your land," says Gen. Jackson, "and I will not insist on governing you; buy another coun- try with it." "We can not buy an- other country and be indemnified for our own by what you offer," says the Cherokee; "give us our price and you may have our land, if we must go; but we do not wish to go; no money can pay us for our homes." "You ask too much," answers Gen. Jackson; "you can not have your price." "Then let us remain," replies the Cherokee; "keep your money, and give us your protection; take all the rest of the land we have, and leave us such portions as are connected, and incorporate us in counties with the states on which these poor frag- ments, which we ask to retain for our- selves, border; and let us belong to your nation, and send our representa- tives, like other countries, to Congress; and satisfy Georgia as you may for her disappointment, from the impos- sibility you find of purchasing all our land from us, on such terms as we can sell it for. Georgia has no fathers, mothers, children buried in the land. She has never seen it. She has no na- tion to establish. She would rather have money than the land. You can not give her the land. Give her the money." To this Gen. Jackson answers with a peremptory "No!"
What is the next step taken? The agents of Government tamper sepa- rately with the Indians. They get to- gether a few unauthorized Cherokees; make up a scheme of a treaty upon their own terms, and endeavor to in- veigle the men who possess the entire confidence of the nation: First, they withhold the annuity to the nation on frivolous pretexts, thus taking away their only resource for defiance in the courts of law, and for remonstrance in the House of Congress. A party is attempted to be conjured up in the
nation by the acts of the Government agents; and twice attempts have been made to parade that little and reluc- tantly gathering party, and on both occasions the people, the great body of the people, have looked them down; on the last, especially, not three months since, when they poured their thou- sands upon a plain, upon which the agents of Government, with all the magic of their promises and their pat- ronage, could bring against them scarcely more than a miserable hun- dred .*
The immediate position of the na- tion is this: The Government treaty has been exhibited to the Cherokees, and rejected. It has been attempted to shake their confidence in their prin- cipal chief, but in vain. The council established a newspaper, and the Gov- ernment agents have seized their press, avowedly for the purpose of changing it to a Government vehicle, for sway- ing the people to such a treaty as Gen. Jackson longs for. Here at once is an acknowledgment how base is the pre- tense that the Cherokees ought to be dealt with as a separate tribe! Were they truly looked upon as savages, would any importance be attached to their press? Were they not known to be much advanced in civilization, would the agents of the Administration have entered upon the perilous extravagance of seizing an instrument over which they had no legal power, for selfish and corruptive purposes? But the Jackson myrmidons have the press; and pos- session in law is like power in poli- tics-it takes the place of reason and of right.
Then let us leave our Government the Cherokee national paper, however disreputably obtained, and proceed to the next point. Having juggled the written power into their hands, the agents are now seeking the oral power; they are wandering about with inter- preters to talk up their cause. "You may speak, if you like," say the In- dians, "but must we listen?" "Let us speak," is the reply; and the commis- sioner rises, and the people walk away and leave him to listen to himself .**
The next measure is force; arrests are made upon the most absurb pre- texts; influential Indians are seized by the Georgia Guard and detained, and then set free, no reason being as- signed either for the capture or for the release. Some laugh and defy their fate; some are driven to de- spair, for the arrest is so often made a punishment that an innocent Indian
* At Running Waters, near Rome.
** Reference to Mr. Schermerhorn's harrangue at Running Waters.
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A HISTORY OF ROME AND FLOYD COUNTY
a few days ago actually hung himself in the guard house* to escape the torture apprehended from the guard.
But all the Indian hater's hate is
concentrated against the inflexible chief of the Cherokees, John Ross. In- timidation has been attempted against him to no purpose; so has seduction. He has resisted bribery in every in- stance, even in one amounting to $50,- 000; rather than enrich himself by his country's ruin, he will remain poor, but honest. The agents insult him; still he goes on. The Georgia guard watches for a pretext to make him prisoner, but the pretext is not to be found, and in some cases, where they would not be deterred by the fear of wrong, they are understood to have been held back through the fear of the people. It is rumored, however, that some attempt of the sort is, even at this moment, in contemplation.
Even the President himself has now and then lost his temper because he cannot shake Mr. Ross, and has called the impoverished and discreet patriot of the wilderness "wicked and selfish," and has swo 'n if he does not forego
JOHN ROSS at age of 65, a few years before he died in Washington, D. C. (Picture loaned by S. W. Ross, Tahlequah, Okla.).
his policy and do as Andrew Jackson bids him, that Andrew Jackson will never listen to the Cherokees, but give them up to ruin. With internal dis- sensions attempted to be fomented by the agents of Government, and with incessant external attacks from Geor- gia, and not only undefended by their legitimate protector, the United States, but threatened by the Chief Magis- trate of those states, the Cherokee na- tion now stand alone, moneyless, help- less, and almost hopeless, yet without a dream of yielding.
With these clouds around them, in their little corner of Tennessee, ** to which they have been driven from Georgia for shelter, their national council holds its regular annual con- vention tomorrow. I can not imagine a spectacle of more moral grandeur than the assembly of such a people under such circumstances. This morn- ing offered the first foretaste of what the next week is to present. The woods echoed with the trampling of many feet; a long and orderly pro- cession emerged from among the trees, the gorgeous autumnal tints of whose departing foliage seemed in sad har- mony with the noble spirit now beam- ing in this departing race. Most of the train was on foot; there were a few aged men, and some few women, on horseback. The train halted at the humble gate of the principal chief ; he stood ready to receive them. Every- thing was noiseless. The party, en- tering, loosened the blankets which were loosely rolled and flung over their baeks, and hung them with their tin cups and other paraphernalia at- tached, upon the fence.
The chief approached them. They formed diagonally in two lines, and each, in silence, drew near to give his hand. Their dress was neat and pie- turesque; all wore turbans, except four or five with hats; many of them tunies and sashes; many long robes, and nearly all some drapery; so that they had the oriental air of the old scripture pictures of patriarchal pro- cessions.
The salutation over, the old men remained near the chief, and the rest withdrew to various parts of the en- closure; some sitting Turk fashion against the trees, others upon logs
* At Spring Place, where Payne was im- prisoned a month later.
** Red Clay was so near the line, and the line so poorly defined, that the impression was often given that it was in Tennessee. Ross had a hut there as well as at Blue Spring, eight miles to the north.
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AFTERMATH OF THE PAYNE-ROSS AFFAIR
and others upon the fences, but with the eyes of all fixed upon their chief. They had walked sixty miles since yesterday, and had encamped last night in the woods. They sought their way to the council ground. It was explained to them. At one moment I observed a sensation among them, and all arose and circled around their chief. Presently an old man spoke above the rest; each one went for his paek, and all resumed their way. There was a something in the scene which would have subdued a sterner spirit than mine. All who gazed stood rooted to the spot with involuntary awe.
"Oh!" cried an old negro woman, wringing her hands and her eyes streaming with tears, "Oh! the poor Cherokees, the poor Cherokees; my heart breaks and will not let me look on them!"
Parties varying from 30 to 50 have been passing the main road, which is somewhat distant from the residence of Mr. Ross, all day. All seem to con- template the approaching meeting as one of vital import. I myself, though a stranger, partake in the general excitement. The first movements, which will probably be the most im- portant, I will communicate to you; perhaps I may find leisure to do more, for I wish our countrymen to under- stand this subject .* It becomes us as Americans, devoted to our coun- try's glory, not to slumber over the wrongs of a nation within our power. This people does not approach us de- nouneing vengeance; they do not, like the ferocious spirits we would repre- sent them, avoid lingering extermina- tion as exiles in the desert, by spring- ing up in a mass, and inscribing them- selves with a terrible lesson of blood among the illustrious martyrs to in- sulted liberty; but in the patient and meek spirit of Christians they come again, and again, and again, and again, imploring humanity, imploring justice, imploring that we will be hon- est to ourselves.
Americans, turn not away from such
*Here is a hint that Payne made arrange- ments with certain editors to print his articles. ** Payne claimed this original article was signed "Washington."
*** This is still standing in a good state of preservation. It was literally a "House of Trag- edies." On Sunday, Nov. 8, 1835, John How- ard Payne and John Ross arrived as prisoners of the Guard, and occupied an outhouse used to quarter troublesome Indians. On Dec. 16, 1836, Major Benj. F. Currey, who had been active against Payne and Ross, died in the house of Vann or at a nearby house.
a spectacle; be not deaf to such a prayer !
A true copy :
(No Signature) .** Dyer Castor.
The wilds of Cherokee Georgia were getting more and more dan- gerous as the whites squatted upon the Indian lands. Murders and robberies were things of almost every-day occurrence. Spencer Riley, a sort of constable, formerly of Bibb County, then of Cass, had an exciting experience in 1835 with Col. Wm. N. Bishop and the Geor- gia Guard. It seems that Riley had lottery claim on the Vann a
house *** near Spring Place, and Bishop sought to dispossess him. The Georgia Journal (Milledge- ville) of Tuesday, Apr. 7, 1835, . printed Riley's side of the affair :
March 11, 1835.
To the Public: There being many erroneous reports concerning the trans- action detailed in the following state- ment, I have deemed it necessary to present to the publie a succinct ac- count of the facts. I can not for a moment believe that this flagitious outrage upon the rights of the citi- zen under color of the law and under pretense of executive sanction can be viewed with indifference by my fel- low citizens, or approbated by the Gov- ernor. The facts are these:
I became a boarder of Joseph Vann, a Cherokee residing near Spring Place, in Murray County, in October last, and continued to board with him up to the 2d March inst., when the out- rage hereinafter stated took place.
On the 23d of February last, Mrs. Vann, in the absence of her husband, received a written notice to quit the possession of the lot, from Wm. N. Bishop, one of the agents of the State of Georgia, appointed by the Governor under the law of 1834. This was done without the request of the drawer or any person holding or claiming under him. It was known that one Kinehin W. Hargrove, brother to Z. B. Har- grove, had obtained a certificate from Wm. N. Bishop with the view of ob- taining the grant from Milledgeville, in consequence of which the grant is- sued some time in February upon his application. This lot on which Joseph Vann lived is an Indian improvement
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A HISTORY OF ROME AND FLOYD COUNTY
and his right of occupancy is not for- feited by any provision of the laws of Georgia. It is known as Lot No. 224, 9th district and 3d section, and was drawn by a Mr. Turley of Warren; it contains a spacious two-story brick house and many outhouses and is very valuable, particularly as a public stand. It had been returned as a fraudulent draw by Major Bulloch, whose scire facias had obtained pref- erence by being first filed. It was also returned by Z. B. Hargrove as informer in a second scire facias.
Such was the situation of the lot on the 2d of March, when W. N. Bishop, as agent and acting under the state's authority, summoned some 20 men and placed in their hands the muskets confided to him by the Gov- ernor for another purpose, and fur- nished them with ammunition, came over to Mr. Vann's at the head of his guard, resolved to clear the house and put his brother, Absalom Bishop, in possession, who afterwards opened a public house. Some articles of Mr. Vann were allowed to remain in the house and he was permitted to occupy at sufferance a small room. I occu- pied a room on the second floor at the head of the stairs. This armed force was accompanied by one Kinchin W. Hargrove, a sort of deputy to Bishop. When they approached the house, I inquired of W. N. Bishop what all of this meant, and stated to him that he had given Mrs. Vann until Saturday, the 7th, in which to move. He replied that Joshua Holden was the agent. This man Holden is notorious in the upper part of the state for his vices and subservience to Bishop. Upon receiving this re- ply from W. N. Bishop, I inquired of Holden if he was the agent for the drawer. He replied, "No, I am agent for Mr. Hargrove, and have a power of attorney from him." Mr. Hargrove did not claim to have any right or title to the lot as derived from or through the drawer. Con- vinced as I was that this was all a trick to get Vann out of the house, and to put him out unlawfully and fraudulently, in order to get posses- sion for Absalom Bishop, I demanded of W. N. Bishop to see the plat and grant and his authority for thus act- ing. He stated that Holden was seek- ing possession, but exhibited no au- thority, and there was no agent of the drawer or person claiming under him seeking possession.
W. N. Bishop rushed into the house
with his guard and commanded them to present arms. Having some things in the room I occupied, I went up to take care of them. I heard Bishop demand possession of Vann, who an- swered that he considered himself out of possession from the Monday previous. "Where is that damned rascal Riley?" inquired Bishop. The reply was, "He is in his room." By this time I had got to the head of the stairs* and called out to Bishop that there was no use for any violent meas- ures or for bloodshed, for if he would acknowledge he had taken forcible possession from me, he could throw my things out of doors. His reply was, "Hear that damned rascal; pre- sent arms and march upstairs, and the first man that gets a glimpse of him, shoot him down." Upon hearing these orders given to his guard, I thought it high time to defend myself as best I could, and exclaimed, "The first man that advances to obey Bishop's orders I will kill!"
One man named Winters, an itiner- ant carpenter, advanced upstairs with a loaded musket, and his valiant com- mander behind him. As soon as they saw me they fired upon me and fell back; I then fired, too. Their shot slightly wounded me in my hand and arms, and immediately after, ten or twelve muskets were fired at me, but being protected by the stairs, the shots did not take effect. I being out of sight, they aimed at the spot where they supposed I was and shot the ban- isters to pieces. I then presented a gun in sight to deter their further ap- proach, and prevent if possible the ac- complishment of their murderous de- sign. Then a rifle was fired by Ab- salom Bishop; the ball struck my gun and split, one part of it striking me glancingly on my forehead just above my right eye, and fragments of it wounding me on several other places on my face. I desired them to bear witness to who shot that rifle, for I had been severely wounded. Wm. N. Bishop called out tauntingly, "The State of Georgia shot the guns!" After I was thus wounded and bleed- ing freely, I opened the door of the room and called out to them that I was severely wounded, and they could come and take my arms. As soon as I showed myself, several more mus- kets were fired on me. One shot struck me on the left cheek, another wound- ed me severely on the head and one
*A curious, winding architectural contraption with no visible support.
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AFTERMATH OF THE PAYNE-ROSS AFFAIR
went through the door over my head.
During this extraordinary outrage, W. N. Bishop was heard frequently exclaiming, "Kill the damned rascal; we've got no use for nullifiers in this country!" and K. W. Hargrove also often exclaimed I should come down dead or alive. W. N. Bishop procured a flaming firebrand and threw it upon the platform of the stairs, exclaiming that he would burn him out or burn him up. After the fire had made some progress, and probably recollecting that if the house was destroyed, Absalom Bishop would have no house to occupy, Vann was requested to go up and extinguish the fire.
Being much debilitated by the loss of blood, I laid down on the bed. They soon after entered my room and seized my desk and papers as if I had been a malefactor. I desired them to per- mit me to put up my papers in my secretary and to lock it. Hargrove replied, "Let him put what he pleases in the desk, but don't let him take anything out." I had $10 in money in the desk. After I had locked it, they took the keys from me and the desk also, under the pretext that they would secure the costs. The money I never saw afterwards.
Just before the elose of the con- fliet, Hargrove called out to me and asked if I did not know that there was an officer who had a warrant against me. I answered, no, but if such were the case I would submit to the laws of my country and surrender to the sheriff. Bishop then abused the sheriff and cursed him. In a short time the sheriff, Col. Humphreys, came, and I was asked to show my- self, which I no sooner did than sev- eral muskets were levelled and fired at me, but happily without much injury.
It afterward appeared that in order to give their conduct the semblance of law, they had procured this tool of Bishop, Holden, to make an affidavit to procure a warrant for foreible en- try and detainer. Both affidavit and warrant, upon being produced, proved to be in the handwriting of Z. B. Har- grove, and dated first in February, but that month was stricken and 2nd March inserted. It is believed that this notable proceeding was planned in Cassville, 45 miles off, and given to Kinchin W. Hargrove when he went up to Spring Place.
After my surrender to the sheriff,
*Spring Bank, the country estate of Rev. Chas. Wallace Howard.
I was taken out of his custody, con- veyed before a magistrate, also under the control of Bishop, charged with an assault with intent to murder, and immediately ordered off in my wound- ed condition, 45 miles, in a severe snow storm under a strong guard, my wounds undressed, and filched of the little change I had in my pockets, and lodged in the Cassville jail in the dungeon. The guard received their or- ders from Bishop and Hargrove not to allow me to have any intercourse with my friends, and so rigidly were these orders observed that when I ar- rived at Major Howard's* in the neigh- borhood of my family and desired him to inform them of my situation, and not to be alarmed, the guard threat- ened to use their bayonets if I did not proceed. Bishop even designated the houses at which we were to stop on our way. I was placed in a dungeon until my friends at Cassville, hearing of my situation, relieved me on bail.
The foregoing statement can be at- tested by many respectable witnesses, and is substantially correct. The transaction has created a great sen- sation in Murray County, and must have received the unqualified condem- nation of every law-abiding citizen.
SPENCER RILEY.
In the same issue The Journal commented editorially :
We had flattered ourselves that the State had drained the cup of humili- ation to the dregs and had suffered all it could suffer from violence, fraud, proscription and misgovernment. But unhappily we were mistaken; low as we had sunken, we find that there is a point still lower. The letter of Spencer Riley, Esq., in this paper dis- plays a state of things in a part of the country where the dominant fae- tion has had full sway that is abso- lutely appalling.
We have personally known Mr. Riley twelve years as a freeholder and citizen, as deputy sheriff and high sheriff of Bibb County, where they have had no officer we know of whose public services were more generally approved. Since then, we understand, he has held a commission of the peace in Cass County, and his word, we think, will hardly be doubted by any to whom he is known. His statement presents a picture at which the most careless and the most thoughtless man must pause. It is one of the eonse- quences of subverting the judicial au- thority throughout one whole circuit in a new country.
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A HISTORY OF ROME AND FLOYD COUNTY
Finally the toe hold of the Indian began to give way. For a decade the Indians had been going west in small detachments, under the dip- lomatic urge of the Government. At the slow rate of moving, it was cal- culated that half a century would be required to be rid of them all. In 1829, the old records show, quite a number of Indians enrolled with the Government agents to go west, received their bounty and then failed to go, thinking, perhaps, that they might successfully pass around the hat again. Many of these Indians appeared in 1835 at the council at Running Waters and voted for the annuity measure proposed by John Ross.
But the patience of Federal and State authorities was threadbare. If the Indians would emigrate peaceably, all well and good; if they balked, bayonets would move them. The white man's necessity under the program of civic and
DANIEL ROSS, Scotch father of John Ross. He died in DeSoto (Rome) and was there buried.
commercial progress was the red man's misfortune. Gen. Winfield Scott, of the United States army, was selected to gather the Indians in stockades.
Under the pressure from Gov. Lumpkin, Major Currey, Mr. Schermerhorn and others, 2,000 of the Indians prepared to depart by Jan. 1, 1837 ; but the death of Ma- jor Currey, Dec. 16, 1836, at Spring Place, set the movement back se- riously. Hence the general round- up did not get under way until May 24, 1838.
Numerous Indians submitted without protest ; many others se- creted themselves in the mountains and in caves, and were vigorously hunted out. A few resisted and shot or were shot ; some commit- ted suicide rather than leave the lands they had learned to love and the sacred bones of their departed ancestors.
The Rev. George White tells as follows of the removal in his His- torical Collections of Georgia (ps. 152-3) and incidentally, defends the troopers who had this unpleasant duty to perform :
Gen. Scott called upon the Governor of Georgia for two regiments, to which call there was an immediate response. On Friday, the 18th of May, 1838, a sufficiency of troops had arrived at New Echota, the place of rendezvous, to organize a regiment and warrant the election of officers. On the morn- ing of the 24th of May, the regiment took up the line of march for the purpose of collecting the Indians. Five companies, viz .- Capt. Stell's, Dan- iel's, Bowman's, Hamilton's, Ellis' were destined to Sixes Town, in Cher- okee County; two companies, Capt. Story's and Capt. Campbell's to Rome; Capt. Vincent's to Cedartown; two companies, Capt. Horton's and Capt. Brewster's, to Fort Gilmer.
The collecting of the Indians con- tinued until the 3rd of June, 1838, when they started for Ross' Landing, on the Tennessee River, numbering about 1,560, under the immediate command of Capt. Stell. They arrived at Ross' Landing at 10 o'clock, the 10th of June. The Georgia troops re-
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AFTERMATH OF THE PAYNE-ROSS AFFAIR
turned, and were afterwards regu- larly dismissed from the service of the United States. Both regiments were commanded by Gen. Chas. Floyd .*
In small detachments, the army be- gan its operations, making prisoners of one family after another, and gath- ering them into camps. No one has ever complained of the manner in which the work was performed .** Through the good disposition of the army and the provident arrangements of its commander, less injury was done by accidents or mistakes than could reasonably have been expected. By the end of June, nearly the whole nation was gathered into camps, and some thousands commenced their march for the West, the heat of the season preventing any further emigra- tion until September, when 14,000 were on their march. The journey of 600 or 700 miles was performed in four or five months. The best ar- rangements were made for their com- fort, but from the time-May 24- when their removal commeneed, to the time when the last company completed its journey, more than 4,000 persons sank under their sufferings and died.
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