USA > Georgia > The bench and bar of Georgia: memoirs and sketches. With an appendix, containing a court roll from 1790-1857, etc., volume I > Part 15
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57
33. Letter from Gov. Troup to Gen. Gaines, in which he says :-
On the part of the Government of Georgia, the will of its highest con- stituted authority has been declared, upon the most solemn deliberation, that the line shall be run and the survey executed. It is for you, there- fore, to bring it to the issue; it is for me only to repeat that, cost what it will, the line will be run and the survey effected. The Government of Georgia will not retire from the position it occupies to gratify the Agent or the hostile Indians; nor will it do so, I trust, because it knows that, in consequence of disobedience to an unlawful mandate, it may be very soon recorded that "Georgia was." June 15, 1825.
34. Letter from Gen. Gaines to Gov. Troup, in which he regrets the difference of opinion, and the expression of any feeling or con- troversy. To prevent disturbances in the nation, he calls on the Governor for two complete regiments, one of cavalry and one of infantry. June 16, 1825.
35. Letter from Gov. Troup, informing Gen. Gaines that orders had been issued to hold in readiness two regiments for his service, and to furnish as large a proportion of volunteers, infantry, and cavalry as can be conveniently assembled. Captain Harrison's troop of cavalry was placed under his orders. June 16, 1825.
36. Letter from Gov. Troup, apprizing Gen. Gaines of the Commission appointed under an act of the Legislature to investi- gate the conduct of the Agent, but not to interfere with any nego- tiations between the United States and the Indians, unless invited
124
BENCH AND BAR OF GEORGIA.
by the officers of the former, or that the questions before the council shall be of such a nature as to require their presence to do justice to all parties. June 18, 1825.
37. Letter from Gen. Gaines to Gov. Troup, declining the presence of the Georgia Commissioners at any council with the Indians. June 22, 1825.
38. Letter from Gen. Gaines to Gov. Troup, stating that a con- ference had been held with the Indian council, who promised to be peaceable, though they protest against the treaty and refuse any part of the consideration-money. They would not raise an arm against the United States, nor make any resistance to an army sent to take their whole country, but would sit down quietly and be put to death where the bones of their ancestors were deposited,-" that the world should know the Muscogee nation so loved their country that they were willing to die in it rather than sell it or leave it." July 1, 1825.
39. Letter from Gov. Troup to Gen. Gaines, showing that the obstinate refusal of the Indians to remove was the work of new prejudices :-
I much fear that this ardent love of country is of recent origin. We can scarcely believe that the amor patria is all upon one side, and that side the hostile one. Will you not be able to discover, in the course of your investigations, that any thing had been said and done by white men to prejudice them against their new home ? It is indeed a pity that these unfortunate men should be the dupes of the most depraved of our own color, and so far the dupes as to be made to act in direct repugnance to their own best interests. It is more to be lamented that the impostors and knaves cannot be dragged from their hiding-places and punished. July 4, 1825.
40. Gen. Gaines to Gov. Troup, stating that the Indians had agreed to be peaccable with each other, and to restore all property wrongfully taken, and pay all destroyed contrary to law. They still declare the treaty was the offspring of fraud, entered into contrary to the known law and determined will of the nation, and by persons not authorized to act. They still refuse to share any part of the money under the treaty, or to give any other evidence of acquiescence. In view of the pacification, there will be no necessity for calling into service any part of the militia or volun- teers of the State. IIc enclosed a certificate signed by William Edwards and Joseph Marshall, that they were present when the express from Gov. Troup delivered the request to Gen. McIntosh for leave to survey the lands, when the latter replied that he could not grant the request, but that he would call the chiefs together and lay it before them,-which was never done. July 10, 1825.
125
DUNCAN G. CAMPBELL.
41. Gov. Troup to Gen. Gaines, denouncing the certificate of Marshall, who had repeatedly declared that there was not a dis- sentient voice from the survey among the friendly chiefs. Gov. Troup says :-
I very well know from late events which have transpired under the eyes of the Commissioners, that the oath even of a Governor of Georgia may be permitted to pass for nothing, and that any vagabond of the Indian country may be put in requisition to discredit him. But I assure you, sir, if that oath should not weigh one feather with your Government, it will weigh with the people of this State, who have never refused credence to the word of their chief-magistrate, and, I believe, will not to the present one, unworthy as he may be. Permit me to say in frankness that I do not like the complexion of things at all as disclosed by the Com- missioners on the part of the State, and sincerely hope that you may never have cause to regret the part you have taken in them. July 16, 1825.
42. Letter from Gen. Gaines to Gov. Troup, defending the character of Edwards and Marshall, as men worthy of the highest credit ; severe and caustic in its figures, such as, "The enlight- cned citizens of the republic, having long since found it to be fruit- less to look for angels in the form of men to govern them, know full well how to discriminate between the high office and the man who fills it;" "the adamantine pillars of the Union, against which the angry, vaporing, paper squibs of the little and the great dema- gogues of all countries may be continued to be hurled for hundreds of centuries without endangering the noble edifice." Further he says :-
It is not to be denied that there is in Georgia, as well as every other State, a small class of men who, like the " Holy Alliance," profess to employ themselves in the laudable work of enlightening and governing all other classes of the community, but whose labors consist of the vain and " daring efforts" to prove the light of truth is to be found only with the party to which they themselves respectively belong, and that all others go wrong. If you will take the trouble to read the newspaper essays with which the presses have been teeming for some years past, you will find that many of the essayists have had the hardihood to "refuse credence to the word of their chief-magistrate;" and yet we have no reason to despair of the Republic. July 28, 1825.
43. Letter from Gov. Troup to Gen. Gaines on ascertaining that the letter of 28th ult., published in the Georgia Journal, was in his handwriting, saying, " I have lost no time to direct you to forbear further intercourse with this Government. Having thought proper to make representations of your conduct to the President, I have ordered you to be furnished with a copy of every letter written on your subject, and which will reach you in due time. Any communication proceeding from the officer next in command
126
BENCH AND BAR OF GEORGIA.
in this military department will be received and attended to." August 6, 1825.
44. Gov. Troup to T. P. Andrews, Special Agent, appealing to his sound sense to know what good or what changes will be effected by further convocations with the Indians while the Agent retains his place, to exercise influence over them as he has always done :-
The documents of incontestable authority prove to you that they will not. No, sir; the way to the accomplishment of the ends of your mission is open. Suspend the Agent, make atonement to the friends of McIntosh for the blood shed by the guilty instruments of white men, restore the friendly chiefs to their political rank and power, and, my word for it, you will find truth,-and enough of it for every purpose,-peace, reconciliation, and union. June 14, 1825.
45. Gov. Troup to T. P. Andrews, placing in his possession the report of a committee and resolutions of the Legislature, supported by evidence in the case of the Agent for Indian Affairs, whose conduct in connection with the late disturbances in the Creek nation had been a subject of investigation before the Legislature. June 13, 1825.
46. T. P. Andrews to Gov. Troup. Has seen nothing in the evidence to authorize the suspension of the Agent ; yet, in courtesy to the Governor, the suspension is ordered. In the mean time, he trusts the evidence which has been collected altogether ex parte will not be laid before the public until the Agent has an opportunity of defending himself, or the General Government an opportunity of examining the evidence adduced by either party. June 18, 1825.
47. Gov. Troup to T. P. Andrews. Corrects the mistake that the Agent was denied the opportunity of defending himself. The Commissioners were directed to afford him that privilege ; but the Agent declined availing himself of the cross-examination of wit- nesses, or being present at any examination, professing to deny the right of Georgia altogether to interfere in this matter. June 20, 1825.
48. T. P. Andrews to Gov. Troup. Evinces some knowledge of special pleading, charges, specifications, testimony, confrontation of witnesses, and all that process, applied to the Agent, and denies the existence of all prejudice by the General Government in favor of the Agent, &c. June 23, 1825.
49. Gov. Troup to T. P. Andrews. Is at a loss how to frame specifications to cover the case of the Agent, date, place, crime, and the precise part acted by him in instigating the Indians to murder McIntosh, oppose the treaty, &c. The charge has been
127
DUNCAN G. CAMPBELL.
sufficiently explicit for all rational purposes, and, if more is required, it is not his duty to furnish it. June 27, 1825.
50. Gov. Troup to T. P. Andrews :-
SIR :- I call your attention to a letter purporting to be yours, and addressed to the Agent in extenuation of your conduct for the act of suspension, and published in a paper here, of this morning, called the Patriot. If this letter be authentic, you will consider all intercourse between yourself and this Government suspended from the moment of the receipt of this. June 28, 1825.
51. T. P. Andrews to Gov. Troup, [treated as unofficial after sus- pension, ] admitting the letter in the Patriot, and still declaring the innocence of the Agent :-
Being an officer of the General Government, I can go on to discharge my duties fearlessly, according to the dictates of my conscience and to the best of my judgment; and, if I am to be added to the list of the proscribed for interposing the shield of my Government to prevent the destruction of a man doomed to be condemned without a hearing or trial, I wish that suspension not only continued, but made absolute and perma- nent. July 4, 1825.
.52. Gov. Troup to the Secretary of War, informing him of the cause and the fact of suspension of further intercourse with T. P. Andrews, Special Agent. June 28, 1825.
53. Gov. Troup to the President of the United States, forward- ing a report and sundry resolutions adopted by the Legislature, with the evidence relating to the conduct of the Agent for Indian Affairs. June 13, 1825.
54. C. Vandeventer, Chief Clerk of the War Department, (the Secretary being absent,) informs Gov. Troup that the President has decided that, if the land is surveyed before the time fixed by the treaty, the responsibility will be upon the Government of Georgia. June 15, 1825.
55. The Secretary of War, to Gov. Troup, says :-
The Indians, to the number of 1890, including a large majority of their chiefs and head-men of the tribe, have denounced the treaty as tainted alike with intrigue and treachery, and as the act of a very small portion of the tribe against the express determination of a very large majority,-a determination known to the Commissioners.
He repeats that the survey of the lands before 1st September, 1826, would be an infraction of the Sth article of the treaty, which the President was bound to execute, and that, for the present, a previous survey will not be permitted. A copy of the instructions to Gen. Gaines is enclosed. July 21, 1825.
56. The Secretary of War, to Gen. Gaines, among other things, said :-
128
BENCII AND BAR OF GEORGIA.
Yet should he [Gov. Troup] persevere in sending persons to survey the lands embraced within the treaty, you are hereby authorized to employ the military to prevent their entrance on the Indian territory, or, if they should succeed in entering the country, to cause them to be arrested, and turn them over to the judicial authority, to be dealt with as the law directs. July 21, 1825.
57. Gov. Troup to the Secretary of War :-
You make known at the same time the resolution of the President to refer the treaty to Congress, on the allegation that intrigue and treachery have been employed to procure it. This at once puts a stop to the sur- vey ; and you will inform the President that, until the will of the Legis- lature of Georgia is expressed, no measures will be taken to execute the survey.
The Executive of Georgia has no authority, in the civil war with which the State is menaced, to strike the first blow, nor has it the inclination to provoke it. This is left for those who have both the inclination and authority, and who profess to love the Union best. The Legislature will on their first meeting decide what, in this respect, the rights and interests of the State demand. In the mean time, the right to make the survey is asserted, and the reference of the treaty to Congress for revision pro- tested against, without any qualification. It is true, sir, that, according to my own opinion, if there be fraud and corruption in the procurement of the treaty, it ought to be set aside by the indignant expression of the nation's will : the taint of such corruption, according to that opinion, would suffice to render void an instrument of any kind purporting to pass a right of any kind.
But of what avail is this opinion against your own established maxims and precedents? You would decry it as the visionary speculation of a wild enthusiastic, because you would refer mne to all your Indian treaties. You would present to me, in full relief, the decision of your Supreme Court in the case of Fletcher and Peck, where, a feigned issue being made to settle the principle, the principle was settled that the Legislature of Georgia having, by bribery and corruption, sold the inheritance of the people for a mess of pottage, the grant passed a vested right which could by no possibility be divested ; and, therefore, that the Congress had no alternative but to surrender the territory of Alabama and Mississippi, or compromise the claims. They chose the latter, and gave five millions of dollars to the claimants, -of which we paid our full proportion.
Whilst, therefore, I present my own opinion on the one hand, you have, on the other, my public and official protestation, in strict accordance and unison with your and all your constituted authorities' decisions, and which place the treaty upon such high ground that, no matter by what execrable baseness it may have been elevated there, the Congress of the United States cannot reach it.
It may be otherwise, but I do sincerely believe that no Indian treaty has ever been negotiated and concluded in better faith than the one which is the subject of this letter. If it be otherwise, having been concluded by your own officers against your instructions, without any participation of the authorities of Georgia, [ sincerely hope that those officers may, so far as you have power, be brought to trial and punish- ment. But yet, according to your own doctrines, this does not impair the validity of the treaty. The Legislature of Georgia will, therefore, at
129
DUNCAN G. CAMPBELL.
its first meeting, be advised to resist any effort which may be made to wrest from the State the territory acquired by that treaty, and no matter by what authority that effort be made. August 15, 1825.
58. Gov. Troup to the President of the United States, commu- nicating the report of the Georgia Commissioners in the case of the Agent, and pointing out the sufficiency of the evidence for his removal and the injustice on the part of the agents of the Federal Government toward Georgia, their bias and obstinacy, their readi- ness to believe any person and any circumstance in favor of the Agent for Indian Affairs, and their incredulity to proof of the highest grade when against him :-
A gentleman of elear intelleet, pure morals, honorable character, and great prudence [Col. Henry G. Lamar] is selected by the Governor to hold a talk with the Indians. He performs that duty, makes his report, and the report is at once diseredited on the naked word of the Indians. General McIntosh writes three several letters to the Governor, subscribed by his own proper hand, giving his assent to the survey of the country ; the friendly chiefs, Marshall included, repeatedly assure the Governor that they, one and all, consent to the survey; a certificate is obtained from this same Marshall and a white man, to prove that General MeIntosh refused his assent ; General Gaines immediately comes to the conclusion that this assent was never given.
The admission of free communication with the Indians to every other description of persons, and the denial of it to the Georgia Commissioners, was a further wrong done to Georgia.
Indeed, sir, it would appear from the reports of the Commissioners that all or any deseription of testimony would be willingly received on the one side, and particularly that description which would exeulpate the Agent, excuse the hostile Indians, prevent the survey of the lands, or effect the abrogation of the treaty; and, on the other side, every thing was to be discredited, or received, at best, with many grains of allowance, and every act or proceeding of the Commissioners of the United States or of the constituted authorities of the State resolved into corruption and de- pravity. July 26, 1825.
59. Gov. Troup to the President on the course of Gen. Gaines, his partisan interference, his dictatorial bearing, his admission of unworthy persons to outweigh the statements of the Government. August 7, 1825.
60. The Secretary of War to Gov. Troup, regretting the pos- ture of affairs, and expressing the desire of the President to avoid all differences, so far as his duty will permit; that he has heard with satisfaction the determination of the Governor not to proceed with the survey until the whole matter can be submitted to Con- gress and to the Legislature of Georgia. August 30, 1825.
61. Gov. Troup to the President of the United States :-
In the enclosed gazette you will find another insolent letter, dated the VOL. 1 .- 9
130
BENCH AND BAR OF GEORGIA.
16th instant, addressed by your agent, Brevet Major-General Gaines, to the Chief-Magistrate of this State. Having been betrayed by his passions into the most violent excesses, he is presented before you at this moment as your commissioned officer and authorized agent, with a corps of regu- lars at his heels, attempting to dragoon and overawe the constituted authorities of an independent State, and on the eve of a great election, amid the distractions of party, taking side with the one political party against the other, and addressing electioneering papers almost weekly to the Chief-Magistrate through the public prints, couched in language of contumely and insult and defiance, and for which were I to send him to you in chains I would transgress nothing of the public law. The same moderation and forbearance with which I have endeavored heretofore to deport myself in my intercourse with you, and from which I trust there has in no instance been a departure, but on the highest necessity, have restrained me from resorting to harsh and offensive measures against him. You will see, however, if this officer has been thus acting by your author- ity or countenance, you have an awful atonement to make to your con- temporaries and to posterity.
But if, contrary to cither, he has assumed the responsibility, it is cx- pected that your indignant reprobation of his conduct will be marked by the most exemplary punishment which the laws will enable you to inflict. I demand, therefore, as Chief-Magistrate of Georgia, his immediate recall, and his arrest, trial, and punishment under the rules and articles of war. August 31, 1825.
62. The Secretary of War to Gov. Troup, adhering to the course of submitting the conduct of the officers of the United States to Congress, and enclosing a copy of his letter to Gen. Gaines, though "The President has decided that he cannot, consistently with his view of the subject, accede to your demand to have Gen. Gaines arrested." September 19, 1825.
63. The Secretary of War to Gen. Gaines, referring to the decorum which ought to mark his official intercourse with the State authorities ; and the letters from Gov. Troup, showing that a contrary course had been pursued :-
He [the President] has therefore seen with regret that, in the letters published, (which, though not transmitted to the Department, he presumes, are authentic, ) purporting to be from you to Gov. Troup, you have per- mitted yourself to indulge a tone whose effect will be to destroy that har- mony which the President is so much disposed to cherish, and the publi- cation of which is calculated to inflame those differences which moderation and forbearance could not fail to allay. In communicating to you the disapprobation of the President, as well for writing as publishing those letters, and his injunction that, in your official intercourse with Gov. Troup in future, you abstain from every thing that may be deemed offensive, I am directed to add, as an act of justice to you, that the President sees, in the serious charges made against you by Gov. Troup, and the publicity given to them, and which the letters complained of were intended to repel, circumstances which go far in his opinion to palliate your conduct, and
131
DUNCAN G. CAMPBELL.
without which palliation the President would have found it his duty to have yielded to the demand of Gov. Troup. September 19, 1825.
64. Gov. Troup to the Secretary of War, rectifying the pretext on which the President declined to arrest Gen. Gaincs :--
Nothing offensive or exceptionable was ever written to that officer before he had sanctioned by his approbation an offensive letter written by your Special Agent on the 21st of June, and addressed to the Agent for Indian Affairs, in which the authorities of Georgia are wantonly abused for injustice, oppression, and tyranny practised against the Agent, or before he had obtained a false certificate from two base and unworthy men to traduce and vilify the character of the Chief-Magistrate of Georgia, which he ordered to be published of his mere volition, on pretence that false rumors were in circulation,-of what, or about whom, he did not say,-and this, too, donc, as was afterwards mnade manifest, for the pur- pose of influencing the general election in this State in behalf of his favorite candidate. That you may entertain no doubt of the correctness of this statement, and the incorrectness of the statement of the Presi- dent, you have only to compare the dates of the various letters and of their publication. It will be scen that before Gen. Gaines could have received my letter of the 16th July, of which he complained, he had already ordered the publication of his of the 10th of July, to which it was an answer.
You will be furnished with additional testimony to show the very repre- hensible conduct of the same officer in his deportment toward the authori- ties of Georgia,-not with any the least expectation that justice will be rendered by the President to those authorities, but in discharge of duties which they owe themselves. October 15, 1825.
65. Gov. Troup to Messrs. Warren Jourdan, Scaborn Jones, William H. Torrance, and William W. Williamson, Commissioners under a resolution of the Georgia Legislature to investigate the conduct of the Agent for Indian Affairs and the disturbances in the Creek nation :-
You are requested to procced to the Indian Springs, to attend a council of the friendly Indians to be holden there on the 20th inst. As it is presumed that every concert tendered on the part of this Government to assure a full development of the facts connected with the late disturb- ances in the Creek nation, and also such as may more particularly affect the guilt or innocence of the Agent under the charges exhibited against him by the Governor of this State, will be gratifying to Major-General Gaines, you are hereby authorized and empowered, under the authority vested in you by the Legislature, to employ all lawful means for the furthering of the objects aforesaid, avoiding, at the same time, any interference whatever with that council in matters disconnected with the objects of your mission, and which appertain exclusively to interests and relations purely political, subsisting between the General Government and Indians.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.