USA > Georgia > A standard history of Georgia and Georgians > Part 62
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His master-stroke was the treaty of Coleraine, negotiated in 1796. It was the much-needed supplement to the treaty of New York and it laid the basis for happy and harmonious relations. He studied the country and the people and accomplished himself in all knowledge per- taining to both; and here the advantages of early education bore fruit. He surrounded himself with books; and, in his self-decreed, official exile, he labored with his pen, telling posterity of the people among whom he lived. Most of his manuscripts perished in the burning of his home after his death; but enough were rescued to attest the importance of the work, and these have been confided to the Georgia Historical Society, in Savannah. Says Colonel Chappell: "The interest which they once excited has long since become extinct, with the melancholy fortunes
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of the rude people to which they relate; yet it may be that, when ran- sacked and studied hereafter, in distant times, they will furnish to some child of genius yet unborn both material and inspiration for an immortal Indian epic of which the world will not tire."
Under the pro-consular sway of Colonel Hawkins the Creek Indians for years enjoyed an unbroken peace among themselves and with the people of Georgia. Much was done to encourage them in the arts of civilization. They were taught pasturage and agriculture, and these supplanted in a measure dependence upon hunting and fishing as chief sources of food. He sought to win them by example as well as by pre- cept. Ile brought his slaves from North Carolina, and, under the right coneeded to his office, he cultivated a large plantation at the ageney, making immense erops, especially of corn. He also reared great herds of eattle and swine, and having thus an abundance he was enabled to practice habitually toward the Indians a profuse though coarse hos- pitality and to bind them to him by loyal ties of friendship. The sanctity with which the Indians throughout the nation regarded his cattle was pronounced. Whatever bore his mark or brand was absolutely safe. Milk was measured by barrels and churned by machinery, and great were the outcomes; yet not more than enough for his vast hospitality to whites and Indians and his regal munificenee to his negroes. Says Col- onel Chappell: "Ilad the great pastoral bards of antiquity not sung and died before his day they could have seized upon these scenes and celebrated them in strains more wonderful than anything to be found in the charming bucolics which they have left us."
But at length there arose adverse influences so powerful that it was impossible for Colonel Hawkins with all his weight of authority among the Indians to maintain peace in the nation. The War of 1812 began to stir the embers. Great Britain, through her numerous emissaries among the Indians, by liberal supplies of arms, and by other means at her command, had been fomenting hostility among the northwestern tribes, toward the United States; and, succeeding along the border, she . next directed her attention to the southern and western tribes. The eloquence of the famous Indian warrior Teeumseh was enlisted; and since he was himself of Creek lineage he succeeded in arousing the resi- duum of suppressed enmity and in kindling the hostile fires. Still it speaks in attestation of the influence of Colonel Hawkins that a large portion of the Creek territory, viz., the rich domain between the Ocmul- gee and the Chattahoochee, was never the seat of war.
This exemption was due to the fact that the official residence of Colonel Hawkins, having been first on the Oemulgee, opposite Macon, and afterwards on the Flint at the place still called the "Old Ageucy," his personal influenee was here much greater than further to the west; and the Indians within this belt became the fast friends and allies of the whites. For the purpose of protecting them the friendly warriors organized themselves into a regiment of which Colonel Hawkins became the titular head but he never took the field in person, deeming it wiser to place the actual command upon the noble chief, William McIntosh. Like MeGillivray, the latter was only of the half-blood in the civilization of lineage but he was of the whole blood in the loftier and finer traits of character. The result was that the few hostile Indians scattered
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throughout this belt merged themselves into the belligerent elements on the upper tributaries of the Alabama. There they stood at bay and fought and fell in many a battle under the blows of Old Hickory. Eventually in 1814, at Fort Jackson, near the confluence of the Coosa and the Tallapoosa rivers, Jackson received the absolute surrender of the crushed nation. The spirit of the Creek Confederacy was broken. Colonel Hawkins was profoundly saddened by the fate of those whom he had long cherished as his children. Undoubtedly it hastened his death.
Even the three great friendly chiefs, Big Warrior, Little Prince, and General MeIntosh were cut to the heart by the stern demands from Washington City, dictating the terms of peace and marking the narrow bounds of the vanquished savages. How much was taken from them and how little was left to them, constitutes one of the most pathetic events in our Anglo-Ameriean and Indian annals. Big Warrior, regarded as one of Nature's great men, perhaps the ablest of Indian statesmen, up- braided Colonel Hawkins for having persuaded him and so many of his chiefs to be neutral in the war against his people. For years after- ward the story used to be told of how the big tears stood in the eyes of the aged Indian agent as he listened in silenee to a reproach which he did not deserve but which he was powerless to answer .*
Buried on an eminence of land, overlooking the waters of the Flint, at the old Indian Agency, in Crawford County, Colonel Hawkins today sleeps in an unmarked grave; but steps have been taken looking toward the erection of a monument on this hallowed spot. For years the burial place of Colonel Hawkins was unknown. But recently, a gentleman, Mr. N. F. Walker, while strolling over his unele's plantation, in Craw- ford County, chanced by the merest accident to come upon the old pa- triot's grave. It was found in the midst of a elump of bushes. The walls of the tomb above ground had commeneed to erumble and detached briek lay in confused heaps upon the ground. The ravages of time, re-enforced by long negleet, had made it a pathetic spectacle; but the identity of the grave has been well established by evidence. Since the burial-place was discovered the Daughters of the Revolution have made it an object of reverent care; but the United States Government owes it to the memory of this pure patriot who, for the sake of his country, lived and died among the savage Indians, to erect above his ashes a monument which will serve to keep his name in green remembrance; and when the shaft is built let it contain an inscription similar to the one which follows: "Here lies the body of Colonel Benjamin Hawkins, a soldier of the Revolution, a friend of Washington, a Senator of the
* Big Warrior was so named on account of his great size. Says Colonel Chappell : "He was the only corpulent full-blooded Indian I ever saw, yet he was not so corpu- lent as to be unwieldly or ungainly. In fact, his corpulency added to the magnifi- cence of his appearance. In person, he was to a high degree grand and imposing. Tus-te-nug-gee Thlue-co was his Indian name. Colonel Hawkins first met him at Coleraine in 1796, and they were great friends down to the treaty of Fort Jackson. He was probably the most enlighted and civilized man of the full Indian blood which the Creek Nation ever produced. He cultivated a fine plantation, with seventy or eighty negroes, near Tuekabatchee, where he lived in a good house, furnished in a plain but civilized style, and was a man of wealth."
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United States, a seholar and a man of letters. As a mediator of peace, in a time of great national peril, he abandoned the delights of civilized society and, for sixteen years, dwelt among savage tribes. To him be- longs the crown of life, for he was faithful even unto death."
FORT HAWKINS: 1506 .- This frontier stronghold occupied the site of what is now East Maeon. As soon as the lands lying between the Oemulgee and the Oconee rivers were acquired by treaty from the Indians, a portion of the ground adjacent to the former stream and known as the Ocmulgee old fields, was reserved by the general government for purposes of defense, and here in 1806 arose Fort Hawkins. It was named in honor of the' famous Indian agent, Col. Benjamin Hawkins, who himself selected the site on an eminence near the river. One hundred aeres were reserved for the fortifications which consisted of two large bloek houses surrounded by a strong stockade. It was built of posts of hewn timber fourteen feet long and fourteen inches thiek, sunk in the ground four feet, and with port holes for muskets in alternate posts. The area enclosed within the stockade numbered fourteen acres. According to Doctor Smith the area in question was an abode of the ancient Mound Builders, a race concerning which there are only the vaguest traditions .* Either at or about the time of the erection of the fort there was also established in this immediate vicinity a trading post, around which in the course of time developed a village. The fact that it soon possessed two taverns and several stores is proof of the commercial activities which began at an early day to eenter at this point. On Swift Creek, a small tributary of the Ocmulgee, Roger MeCall and Harrison Smith, two sturdy pioneer settlers, built homes, the former erecting a sawmill near his place, from which he derived substantial profit. The settlement boasted a printing press owned by Simri Rose, from which the first newspaper published in Central Georgia was issued on March 16, 1823, called the Georgia Messenger. Here at Fort Hawkins, on the extreme western frontier of the white settlement, was to be found the nueleus of an important town long before the future metropolis, on the opposite side of the Oemulgee commenced to stir under the ereative touch which
" gives to airy nothing A local habitation and a name."
MACON: THE METROPOLIS OF MIDDLE GEORGIA .- But the doom of Fort Hawkins was sealed by the fates. In 1821, an extensive tract of land was obtained by treaty from the Creeks at Indian Springs. It included the fertile area between the Ocmulgee and the Flint rivers; and from this newly eeded domain was carved the County of Monroe. Besides embracing the territory on the west side of the Ocmulgee it was made to include Fort Hawkins, on the east side; and two years later the lower part of Monroe was organized into Bibb. Immediately there began to arise on the bluff opposite Fort Hawkins a town destined to supersede the latter. The situation was ideal. Commanding the head of navigation on the Ocmulgee, an extensive plain, luxuriantly wooded with oaks and poplars extended baek to an amphitheatre of rugged hills. The town chosen as the county seat of the new eounty was ealled Maeon, in honor of Nathaniel Maeon, of North Carolina. Four aeres were reserved for publie buildings, while the area adjacent thereto was divided into forty town lots.
FORT HAWKINS: THE CRADLE OF MACON .- One of the special features of the sixteenth annual conference of the State Daughters of the American Revolution in Maeon was the unveiling by Nathaniel Maeon Chapter of a handsome marble tablet on the site of old Fort Hawkins the birthplace of the present City of Macon, and the most important stronghold on the Georgia frontier in pioneer days. Fol- lowing an elegant repast at the Hotel Dempsey, over which the newly elected state regent, Mrs. T. C. Parker, most graciously presided, the visiting daughters and invited guests, promptly at 3 o'clock, on the afternoon of Tuesday, February 17, 1914, were conveyed in automobiles to the site of the old fort, some three-quarters
* Dr. George G. Smith, in "Story of Georgia and the Georgia People," p. 536, Atlanta, 1900.
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of a mile from the town center. It was underneath a cloudless sky and on an afternoon balmy with the breath of opening spring-time that the following program was rendered :
Invocation.
Song, "The Red Old Hills of Georgia, " by the school children.
Remarks by the state regent, Mrs. S. W. Foster, introducing the orator of the day. Address, by Hon. Lucian Lamar Knight.
Song, "Georgia, " by school children.
Benediction.
On an eminence overlooking the City of Macon and the sinuous bed of the Ocmul- gee River, the site of old Fort Hawkins commands a prospect unsurpassed in the state for magnificence of view. But nothing today remains of the ancient stronghold which once stood upon these heights, except a few broken fragments of rock. The handsome memorial tablet is a work of art. Chiseled into the polished face of the tablet is a sculptured design of the old fort as it looked when first built in 1806, while underneath is inscribed in large letters: "Fort Hawkins."
CHAPTER VI
GOVERNOR MITCHELL APPOINTED TO SUCCEED COLONEL HAWKINS AS INDIAN AGENT-RESIGNS THE EXECUTIVE CHAIR-WILLIAM RABUN, PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE, TAKES THE OATH OF OFFICE AND IS SHORTLY THEREAFTER ELECTED BY THE LEGISLATURE FOR A FULL TERM-HIS ADMINISTRATION IS DISTURBED BY AN UPRISING OF THE SEMINOLES- KINSMEN OF THE GEORGIA CREEKS-THE WHOLE OF UPPER FLORIDA AN ASYLUM FOR LAWLESS CHARACTERS, RUNAWAY SLAVES, FREE-BOOTERS AND MURDERERS-THE SEMINOLES REFUSE TO SURRENDER THESE CRIMINALS TO THE GEORGIA AUTHORITIES-MAJOR- GENERAL GAINES, IN COMMAND OF A BODY OF UNITED STATES TROOPS, ARRIVES ON THE BORDER-BUT FINDS THE SITUATION DIFFICULT- HIS FORCE INADEQUATE-INDIANS ATTACK A PASSING BOAT-FORT SCOTT-FORT GAINES- GENERAL JACKSON EN ROUTE TO FLORIDA- DOES NOT STOP AT THE BORDER-INVADES THE TERRITORY OF A POWER WITH WHICH THIS COUNTRY IS AT PEACE-SACRIFICES DIPLOMACY TO THE STERN DEMANDS OF A CRITICAL SITUATION-EXE- CUTES TWO BRITISH SUBJECTS-AARBUTHNOT AND AMBRISTER-MATTERS STILL FURTHER COMPLICATED-THE SECRETARY OF WAR FAVORS A COURT-MARTIAL-BUT JACKSON'S POPULARITY WITH THE MASSES IS INCREASED-IN THE END SPAIN CEDES FLORIDA TO THE UNITED STATES-GENERAL JACKSON'S MARCH THROUGH GEORGIA, KNOWN AS THE JACKSON TRAIL-PLACES AT WHICH HE STOPPED-CONTROVERSY BETWEEN GENERAL JACKSON AND GOVERNOR RABUN RELATIVE TO AN INDIAN VILLAGE, CHEHAW, DESTROYED BY STATE TROOPS-THIS VIL- LAGE BELONGED TO A TRIBE OF FRIENDLY INDIANS-ITS DESTRUCTION A MOST UNFORTUNATE BLUNDER.
To succeed Colonel Hawkins as Indian agent for all the tribes south of the Ohio River, President Monroe appointed Governor David B. Mitchell, who was then occupying the executive chair. Governor Mitchell, on account of his long experience in dealing with the Indians, seemed to be the logical man for this important work; and, resigning the governorship, on November 4, 1817, he entered at once upon his duties as resident agent. William Rabun, president of the Senate, thereupon took the oath as governor and was duly elected within a few days there- after by the Legislature for a full term of two years.
Governor Rabun's administration was disturbed by a sanguinary uprising of the Seminoles on the state's southern border. These Indians were kinsmen of the Georgia Creeks, and for years they had been making predatory raids upon the property of settlers in the lower part of the state. Since the overthrow of the Creeks at Horse Shoe Bend, in 1814, when most of the scattered remnants took refuge among the Florida
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Indians, these marauding expeditions had increased. In 1817 a band of Indians had stolen several hundred head of cattle from settlers in Camden, living just over the border line; and at Clarke's Mills, on the St. Mary's, some of these Indians, after murdering a woman and two children, had set fire to the dwelling and fled.
But, in addition to this catalogue of complaints, the whole of upper Florida had become an asylum for lawless characters, runaway slaves, free-booters, murderers and criminals of every type, who, by crossing the border line into Florida-still a province of Spain-eluded the arresting officers. Efforts had been made to obtain a surrender of these criminals; but the Seminole Indians among whom they had taken refuge refused to surrender them to the Federal authorities. Says Prof. Brown : * "Negro slaves, escaping from American masters, had fled to the Spanish province in considerable numbers and a body of them had taken possession of a fort on the Appalachicola River, which had been abandoned by the British. To add to the disorder of the province, it was frequented by adventurers, some of them claiming to be there in order to lead a revolution against Spain, some of them probably mere free-booters. The Spanish authorities at Pensacola were too weak to control such a population, and Americans near the border were anxious for intervention. The negro fort was a center of lawlessness, and some American troops marched down the river, bombarded it, and by a lucky shot blew up its magazine and killed nearly 300 negroes. Trouble arose with the Indians also, and Fowltown, an Indian village, was taken and burned."
According to this same authority, a British officer, Colonel Nichols, at the head of a small force, liad remained in Florida for some time, following the close of hostilities with England, and had done a number of things to stir up the Indians there against the Americans across the border. Maj .- Gen. E. P. Gaines, in command of a body of United States troops, marched to the Flint River, under orders from General Jackson ; and, on arriving there sent a friendly message to the Indian chief. But these overtures were treated with silent contempt. Thereupon a detach- ment of troops was dispatched to the opposite side of the river, where a fusillade at once began, the Indians firing upon the soldiers, who, in turn, fired back, until the Indians, retreating, fled into the interior. Four warriors were left behind on the field. Having resolved upon a pursuit of the savages, General Gaines ordered Colonel Arbuckle, with 300 Georgia militia, to overtake the Indians. These, hiding themselves in the swamp, fired upon the Georgians, not one of whom, however, was hurt. But a subsequent ambush was more successful. At this time, 1,000 Indians, under cover of the trees, attacked a passing boat, with the result that every man on board was either killed or taken prisoner. On one occasion the Indians penetrated as far as Fort Scott, where several persons were murdered, and it was even feared that the savages might try to reach Fort Gaines. Neither of these strongholds was any too securely garrisoned. General Gaines was a desperate fighter, but was not equal to the performance of miracles. His force was small and his supplies were limited. Altogether, the situation was ominous of danger.
* "Life of Andrew Jackson, " p. 89.
Vol. I-31
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But General Jackson himself was soon en route to Florida. Impa- tient for an opportunity to drive out the Spanish, Jackson had written to President Monroe in 1817: "Let it be signified to me through any channel that the possession of Florida by the United States would be desirable and in sixty days it will be accomplished."# But when this letter came to hand, President Monroe was ill, and for some reason the general's letter was not answered for a year. Jackson, however, in some way, managed to get the impression that he was secretly, if not openly, supported by the authorities in Washington. ITis orders in 1818 were to take command in Georgia. But there loomed before the mind of General Jackson a more ambitious object. Accordingly, he began to move southward, bent not so much on subduing the Seminoles as on taking Florida from the Spaniards.
Early in March, 1818, we find Jackson on the border. Though Flor- ida was at this time a province of Spain, the Tenneseean did not hesitate to invade the territory of a power with which his own government was at peace. Nor did he stop short of reducing two of its most important towns, St. Mark's and Pensacola. ITis pretext was that the Seminoles had received aid from these towns, both of which were disturbing cen- ters. To suppress lawlessness on the border, it was necessary to adopt vigorous measures ; and there was no other way of getting at the root of the trouble, to General Jackson's mind at least, save in a sacrifice of diplomacy to the stern demands of a critical situation. Spain was unable to police her territory or to keep the Indians in control. Conse- quently, there was only one alternative, if the Seminoles were to be crushed, viz., to invade Florida. While on the peninsula, Jackson or- dered the execution of two British subjects, Alexander Arbuthnot and Robert Ambrister, both of whom were charged with inciting the Indians. There was no positive proof to this effect, but Jackson felt that he could not afford to take chances. Here he gave offense to another country with which we were then at peace-England. John Quincy Adams was the only member of President Monroe's cabinet who undertook to defend Jackson's course in Florida. All the others criticized it severely; and John C. Calhoun, the secretary of war, favored a court-martial. Em- barrassing diplomatie entanglements, of course, followed Jackson's im- petuous conduct; but in the end both England and Spain were quieted. There had been, in fact, but little fighting in Florida; what there was fell almost entirely to the friendly Indians, and not an American soldier was killed.t As a result of the first Seminole war, Jackson was more than ever a popular hero; and there was little criticism of his conduct on the floor of Congress. Moreover, the Spanish government, finding the possession of Florida an embarrassment, under existing conditions, was willing to negotiate for its relinquishment; and, in 1819, as we shall see later, this rich peninsula was annexed to the United States.
General Jackson's march through Georgia, en route to subdue the Florida Seminoles, has been the subject of much controversy and of no little erroneous speculation ; but as traced by official documents on file in the War Department at Washington, the Jackson trail ran through
* "Life of Andrew Jackson," W. G. Brown, p. 90.
t "Life of Andrew Jackson," W. G. Brown, p. 90.
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the Cherokee nation down to Fort Hawkins, on the edge of territory belonging to the Creeks, thence along the Ocmulgee River to Hartford, thence in a southeasterly direction to Fort Early, and thence in an almost direct line south to Fort Gadsden. Jackson left Nashville, Tenn., on January 20, 1818. He arrived at Fort Gadsden, on March 25, 1818. But the details of the journey are given more at length in the following extracts : *
JACKSON'S GEORGIA TRAIL
Extraets from letters written by Gen. Andrew Jackson to the secre- tary of war. State papers-Military affairs.
"Nashville, Jan. 20, 1818 .- I will leave this on the 22d instant for Fort Seott, via Fort Hawkins."
"Fort Hawkins, Feb. 10th, 1818 .- I reached this place last evening, when I learned, by sundry communications received from Brevet Major- General Gaines, that the Georgia militia, under General Glasscock, had all returned home, leaving the frontier in a very exposed situ- ation."
"Hartford, Ga., Feb. 14th, 1818 .- I arrived at this place on the evening of the 12th, and here met with General Gaines."
"Fort Early, Feb. 26, 1818 .- The Georgia detachment marched from their encampment, near Hartford on the 19th instant. . The excessive rains have rendered the roads so bad that I ordered the troops, on their march here, to take their baggage on the wagon horses, and abandon the wagons; this facilitated their march to this place, which they reached today ; and eleven hundred men are now here without a barrel of flour or bushel of corn."
"Fort Gadsden, March 25, 1818 .- At seven o'clock p. m. on the 9th instant, I reached Fort Seott, with the brigade of Georgia militia nine hundred bayonets strong. and some of the friendly Creeks who had joined me on my march a few days before. . I assumed the com- mand on the morning of the 10th, ordered the live stock slaughtered and issued to the troops with one quart of corn to each man, and the line of march to be taken up at 12 meridian. Having to cross the Flint River, which was very high, combined with some neglect in returning the boats during a very dark night, I was unable to move from the opposite bank until nine o'clock on the morning of the 11th, when I took up my line of march down the east bank of the river for this place. . . On the morning of the 14th I ordered the boats down the river to this place, whilst I deseended by land, and reached here without interruption, on the 16th."
"By some strange fatality, unaccountable to me, the Tennessee vol- unteers have not yet joined me; they promptly left their homes, and through the inclement weather reached Fort Mitchell, where I ordered them supplies, and where Col. Hayne, who led them met my instructions to pass by Fort Gaines, where he would get a supply of corn that would enable him to reach Fort Scott; but the idea of starvation had stalked abroad, a panie seems to have spread itself everywhere, and he was told that they were starving at Fort Gaines and Fort Scott, and he was induced to pass into Georgia for supplies."
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