Mississippi : comprising sketches of towns, events, institutions, and persons, arranged in cyclopedic form Vol. II, Part 97

Author: Rowland, Dunbar, 1864-1937, ed
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Atlanta, Southern Historical Publishing Association
Number of Pages: 1032

USA > Mississippi > Mississippi : comprising sketches of towns, events, institutions, and persons, arranged in cyclopedic form Vol. II > Part 97

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).

The same commissioners began negotiations at the Chickasaw council house October 22. Levi Colbert, Martin Colbert, J. Mc- Clish, Emmubbia, and Ashtamatutka acted as commissioners on behalf of the nation. The king was present, but Tishomingo, it seems, kept in the background. They heard all the arguments for removal and confuted them, and ended with, "It is true we are poor for money, but we love our lands better." They even refused to send agents to examine the land in the west.

Treaty of Fort Adams. This convention was concluded at Loftus Heights (Fort Adams), December 12, 1801, between Gen- eral Wilkinson, Benjamin Hawkins and Andrew Pickens, with the Choctaw nation, which was represented mainly by "Tuskonahopia, of the Lower towns, Mingo, Poos Coos, of the Chickasaw Half town, Oakchuma, Puckshumubbee and Elatalahoomuh of the Upper towns, Buckshumabbe, factor of a Mobile merchant, and Mingo Homassa-tubbe." The gifts were $2,000 in value. The treaty provided that a road should be opened on the Natchez trace through the Choctaw country, as had been recently agreed by the Chickasaws, and that the old British line of Natchez district should be resurveyed and marked as a boundary line of the lands open to white settlement. The commissioners also proposed a road to the settlements on the Tombigbee and Mobile, but did not press it, as it would run through the lands of the Six towns, a people friendly to Spain, whose head men were then in conference with the Spanish governor at New Orleans. The commissioners reported that "The Choctaw nation, in point of physical powers, is at least on a level with its neighbors, and its dispositions, in re- lation to the whites, are more tractable and less sanguinary than those of its kind, yet it has long been buried in sloth and ignor- ance." On account of the destruction of game, the Choctaws seemed to be turning to agriculture and a very few families had begun the culture of cotton. Edmond Fulsom and Robert Mc-

809

MISSISSIPPI

Clure, white Choctaws, asked for cards and gin, and a blacksmith shop.

Treaty of Fort Confederation. This treaty was concluded at Fort Confederation, the old French Fort Tombecbe, on the Tom- bigbee river, October 17, 1802, by General Wilkinson, with eighteen hundred representatives of the whole Choctaw nation. It was a provisional convention for a resurvey of the north line of the old British line of the district of Mobile, or Charlotte county, so far as it lay above the Ellicott line, between the Chickasawhay and Tombigbee rivers. The rectification of the Natchez district frontier was also discussed. All of the land south of his north line, between the Chickasawhay and Tombigbee-Mobile, was then open to settlement, so far as the Indian title was concerned, through the withdrawal of the Spaniards, and this was the only land east of the Natchez district, and south of Tennessee, as far as the Oconee in Georgia, not in the possession of the Indians.

The line was surveyed by Wilkinson and Mingo Poos Coos and Alatala Hooma, and ratified by them as commissioners plenipo- tentiary, at Hobuckintupa, August 31, 1803. The boundary was described as beginning on the Spanish line, in the Hatchee Comeesa or Wax river, up said river to the confluence of the Chickasawhay and Buckhatannee; up the latter to Bogue Hooma or Red Creek, up the latter to a pine tree near the trading path from Mobile to the Hewhannee towns, thence in various courses to Sintee Bogue or Snake creek, and down the same and the Tom- bigbee and Mobile to the Spanish line.

Treaty of Ghent. In the negotiation of the treaty of Ghent, 1814, making peace after the war that involved the Indians of the South, the British commissioners asked as a sine qua non of peace, that "the Indian nations who have been, during the war, in alli- ance with Great Britain, should, at the termination of the war, be included in the pacification. It is equally necessary that a defin- ite boundary should be assigned to the Indians, and that the con- tracting parties should guarantee the integrity of their territories by a mutual stipulation not to acquire, by purchase or otherwise, any territory within the specified limits." When the American commissioners absolutely refused this, the British replied that "The American government has now for the first time, in effect, declared that all Indian nations within its limits of demarcation are its subjects, living there upon sufferance on lands which it also claims the exclusive right of acquiring, thereby menacing the final extinction of those nations. Against such a system the under- signed must formally protest." The Americans showed that the right complained of was asserted in the treaty of Greenville. But the United States was compelled to accept the ultimatum of Eng- land, which was embodied in the treaty, viz .: a promise to "put an end immediately after the ratification of the present treaty, to hostilities with all the tribes or nations of Indians with whom they may be at war at the time of such ratification, and forthwith to restore to such tribes or nations respectively, all the possessions,

810

MISSISSIPPI

rights and privileges which they may have enjoyed or been entitled to, in 1811, previous to such hostilities."

Treaties of Hopewell and Seneca. Great Britain and the United States made peace in 1783 without providing for the Indian nations who had been allies of the king. At first each State made some attempts at an understanding with the Indians on its frontiers. Thus Georgia treated with the Creeks at Augusta, in 1783, pro- viding for peace and a cession of land. But it did not seem effec- tive. In 1785 Benjamin Hawkins, Andrew Pickens, Joseph Martin and Lachlan McIntosh were appointed commissioners plenipoten- tiary of the United States to make peace with all the Indians of the south, to settle the international status of the red men and arrange satisfactory limits. Georgia and the Carolinas were very jealous of this, and it was made difficult for the commissioners to do business. McGillivray, of the Creeks, after much delay, re- ceived the invitation to treat, and replied, September 5, in a diplo- matic note that apparently meant that he had already made a treaty with Spain, and the United States were too late. Only two towns of the Creeks were represented at Galphinton, where they were invited. After the American commissioners refused to do business with so few, the Georgia agents, present to protest against the United States commissioners treating on limits, made with them a treaty purporting to open the Tallassee country to settle- ment. The commissioners went to the Keowee river to treat with the other nations, who were invited by Col. John Wood. "The agents of Georgia and North Carolina attended the treaty, as will appear by their protests herewith enclosed."-(Report to Presi- dent R. H. Lee.) A treaty with about a thousand Cherokees was concluded November 28, at Seneca, defining limits and recogniz- ing the supremacy of the United States. December 26 the Choctaw chiefs arrived, at Hopewell, "a seat of General Pickens," after a journey of seventy-seven days, "the whole of them almost naked." The Creeks had stolen their horses and done all they could to hinder the journey, but the Choctaws "have apparently a rooted aversion to the Spanish and Creeks, and are determined to put themselves under the protection of the United States." "They are the greatest beggars, and the most indolent creatures we ever saw," said the commissioners after a more protracted acquaint- ance. "Their passion for gambling and drinking is very great ;" when given blankets they would trade them for a pint of rum, or lose them at play, when they knew they had five hundred miles to travel home, with only a shirt on their backs. But they were in earnest about seeking alliance with the United States. The chiefs brought their British medals and commissions, to exchange for American, of which, unfortunately there were none, and asked for three stand of colors. John Pitchlyn, "a very honest, sober young man," who had lived twelve years in the nation, was ap- pointed interpreter to the board. The treaty made with the Choctaws, January 3, 1786, was of friendship and alliance and confirmation of the bounds they had in 1782. The Chickasaws

MISSISSIPPI

811

arrived a little later, and made a treaty at Hopewell, January 10, 1785. Piomingo and Mingotusha exhibited the medal left by the great man of their nation, then dead, and Piomingo announced that he was the head warrior. They promised land for a trading post on the Tennessee river, and agreed to a frontier line for set- tlements. The commissioners reported "that if the adjoining States were disposed to carry the treaties into effect, the Indians would be happy in the new change of sovereignty and in constant amity with us."

But Georgia and North Carolina repudiated them as invasions of the sovereignty of the States, and Governor Miro, in behalf of the Spanish, declared the treaties were "chimeras." They were confirmed as part of the supreme law of the land by the treaty of Coleraine, 1796, and submitted to all parties concerned, after a . struggle that occupied the whole administration of President Washington.

Treaty, Jay. This treaty, signed by Baron Grenville and Chief Justice John Jay, November 19, 1794, is memorable for the intense excitement attending its reception in the United States, and for its relation to various international principles. It was ratified by the senate June 24, 1795, and signed by Washington, August 15, 1795, but not fully ratified by the United States until the dramatic close of the debates in the House regarding an appropriation for taking possession of the Northwestern military posts, in which Fisher Ames made one of the most effective speeches in the annals of American oratory. As regards Mississippi history, the treaty is of interest in a general way, because the opposition to it in the western country encouraged the Spanish and French in their ef- forts to bring about the secession of that region from the United States. Specially, however, the third article directly bears on this field, as it contains the clause: "The River Mississippi shall, however, according to the treaty of peace [1782], be entirely open to both parties ; and it is further agreed that all the ports and places on its eastern side, to whichsoever of the parties belonging, may freely be resorted to and used by both parties," the same as an Atlantic port or a British port.

This could not have been unknown to Spain when she made the treaty of October 27, 1795; probably, it was a principal reason for that treaty. Pinckney was compelled to accept words that implied the Spanish assertion of dominion over the river except as she shared it with the United States "only," or might share it there- after with other powers as she saw fit. England was alarmed by the terms of this treaty with Spain and asked an explanation, whereupon Pickering, secretary of state, and Mr. Bond, the Eng- lish chargé des affaires, agreed to an explanatory article May 4, 1796, in which it was declared that "no other stipulation or treaty concluded since by either of the contracting parties, with any other power or nation, is understood in any manner to derogate from the right to the free communication and commerce guaran- teed by the third article." This, in turn, Spain construed as a

812

MISSISSIPPI

direct repudiation of the Mississippi clause of the treaty of San Lorenzo. Therefore, Yrujo said to Pickering, May 6, 1797, when Ellicott was waiting at Natchez, Spain was justified in suspending the further execution of the treaty regarding boundary and navi- gation. He contended that the United States had no right to give Great Britain what she did not possess, except as Spain might yield it. To this Pickering replied that Great Britain had the right of navigating the river since the treaty of 1763, and had never given it up. Western sentiment on this treaty, whose compromises were unpalatable, is indicated in the comment of Ellicott (Journal, p. 104), "The conduct of the United States, in admitting the Brit- ish in the navigation of the Mississippi, I never attempted to justify."

Treaty of Mobile, 1765. This treaty was concluded by the Brit- ish government of the province of West Florida, with a great council of the Choctaws, March 26, 1765, and resulted in the ces- sion by that nation of a region on the Mobile river and its tribu- taries, and the Gulf coast south of about the line of 31º north latitude, between Mobile bay and the most western point to which the Choctaws had control, practically to the Mississippi river. The treaty provided, "the boundary to be settled by a line extended from Grosse point, in the island of Mount Louis, by the course of the western coast of Mobile bay, to the mouth of the eastern branch of the Tombecbee river, and north by the course of said river to the confluence of Alibamont and Tombecbee rivers, and afterwards along the western bank of Alibamont river to the mouth of Chickianoce river, and from the confluence of Chickianoce and Alibamont rivers a straight line to the confluence of Bance and Tombecbee rivers; from thence, by a line along the western bank of Bance river till its confluence with the Tallatukpe river ; from thence by a straight line to Tombecbee river opposite to Atchalikpe (Hatchatigbee bluff) ; and from Atchalikpe by a straight line to the most northerly part of Buckatanne river, and down the course of Buckatanne river to its confluence with the river Pascagoula, and down by the course of the river Pascagoula, within twelve leagues of the sea coast; and thence, by a due west line, as far as the Choctaw nation have a right to grant." "And none of his Majesty's white subjects should be permitted to settle on the Tombecbee river to the northward of the rivulet called Centebonck" (Sentabogue or Snake creek).

Treaty of Mobile, 1784. On June 22, 1784, a "vast congress of Indians was held at Mobile," in response to the Spanish invita- tion. Choctaws, Chickasaws, Alibamons and smaller tribes were represented, and treaties of alliance were made with all of them. In terms this treaty was identical with the treaty made on June 1 at Pensacola, with the "Talapuches" (Creeks) mainly, but also with "Usatastaneque or War Dog, chief of the town of Natchez; Chickasaw Mingo, and Chickasaw Retired Arrow, the Tala- puchy." The Spanish were represented by Don Stephen Miro, acting governor of Louisiana, by order of Count de Galvez,

813

MISSISSIPPI

lieutenant-general, and governor of the provinces of Louisiana and West Florida, also Don Martin Navarro, intendant general of the provinces.

The Indians in these treaties promise to "maintain an inviolable peace and fidelity" with Spain and among themselves. "We un- dertake to expose for the royal service of his Catholic majesty, our lives and fortunes ; and we promise to obey the sovereign orders which, in a case of necessity, shall be communicated to us by the captain-general of the provinces of Louisiana and Florida, and in his name by the respective governor or particular commander of said provinces." In return for this allegiance by the contracting Indians, and the others "who are in the lands conquered by the arms of his majesty," the Spanish officers promised to establish a permanent commerce at the most equitable prices, the tariffs and regulations to be then and there fixed. It was promised that any stranger entering the nation to induce them to take up arms against Spain should be turned over to the Spanish authorities. No white person, of "what nation soever he be," should be ad- mitted among these Indians without a Spanish passport. "We renounce forever the practice of taking scalps or making slaves of the whites." In case of war against "enemies of his Catholic ma- jesty," they promised to treat prisoners humanely and exchange them with the enemy. All white prisoners, subjects of the United States, should be delivered to the governor-general. Other pro- visions were made to prevent the common crimes of the frontier.

The Spanish reminded the Indians that they asked no land, and promised security and guarantee for the lands they actually held, "according to the right of property, with which they possess them, on condition that they are comprehended within the lines and limits of his Catholic majesty." If enemies of Spain should dis- possess the Indians, Spain would provide them new homes, in any vacant land available.

These treaties were made through the influence of Alexander McGillivray, chief of the Tallapoosas, and that of the British trad- ing house of Panton, Leslie & Co. McGillivray's explanation of them is given in his letter to Gen. Pickens, September 5, in the same year, when invited to a council with American commissioners to make a similar treaty. He expressed his surprise that the Americans had so long delayed to take the Indians under their protection, since the peace with England. That would have made the United States the natural guardian and ally of the Indian nations. They had hoped for such action by Georgia, but "violence and prejudice had taken the place of good policy and reason in all their proceedings with us. They attempted to avail themselves of our supposed distressed situation. Their talks to us breathed nothing but vengeance; and, being entirely possessed with the idea that we were wholly at their mercy, they never once reflected that the colonies of a powerful monarch were nearly surrounding us, and to whom in any extremity, we might apply for succor and protection. . However, we yet deferred any such proceed-

814

MISSISSIPPI

ing, still expecting we could bring them to a sense of their true interest; but still finding no alteration in their conduct towards us, we sought the protection of Spain and treaties of friendship and alliance were mutually entered into; they to guarantee our hunting grounds and territory and to grant us a free trade in the ports of the Floridas." How the limits of the United States and the Spanish would be settled, a little time would show. "However, we know our own limits, and the extent of our hunting grounds, and, as a free nation, we have applied, as we have a right, and have obtained protection, so that we shall pay no attention to any limits that may prejudice our claims, that were drawn by an American, and confirmed by a British, negotiator."

The commissioners reported that McGillivray appeared to be "forming a dangerous conspiracy between the several Indian na- tions, the Spaniards and British agents, with whom he is con- nected. His resentment is chiefly against the citizens of Georgia, who banished his father and confiscated a capital property which he had in that State. There is a capital British company of mer- chants, engaged, by license from the court of Spain, to supply all the Indian nations to the southward with goods, through East Florida, in which company it is said, McGillivray is a partner, and they have their agents in all the towns from Tennessee, south- wardly." It appears that McGillivray gave sufficient notice of this treaty to the United States, but it was treated as a mystery in the later negotiations with Spain.

Treaty of Mount Dexter, 1805. After the relinquishment of dominion over the Choctaw country by the Spanish in 1798, the great Indian trading house of Panton, Leslie & Co., which had practically controlled the Indian relations for the Spanish, so- licited the United States to permit the various nations to cede them lands in payment of debts. Their claim against the Choctaws was $46,000. The government would not listen to a proposition of cession to the trading house, but welcomed the opportunity to receive from the Indians a cession of land in consideration of cash paid, by the government nominally to the Indians, but in fact, to the traders. It relieved the government of incurring the resent- ment of the red men by pressing them for lands for the white settlers. President Jefferson, in a message to congress, described the preliminaries of this first cession by the Choctaws to the United States as follows: "The Choctaws proposed at length to the United States, to cede lands to the amount of their debts, and designated them in two different parts of their country. These designations not at all suiting us, their proposals were declined for that reason, and with an intimation that if their own conven- ience should ever dispose them to cede their lands on the Missis- sippi, we should be willing to purchase. Still urged by their creditors, as well as by their own desire to be liberated from debt, they at length proposed to make a cession, which should be to our convenience. James Robertson, of Tennessee, and Silas Dinsmore, were thereupon appointed commissioners with instruc-

815

MISSISSIPPI

tions to purchase only on the Mississippi. On meeting their chiefs, however, it was found that such was the attachment of the nation to their lands on the Mississippi, that their chiefs could not undertake to cede them; but they offered all their lands south of a line to be run from their and our boundary, at the Omochitto, eastwardly, to their boundary with the Creeks, on the ridge be- tween the Tombigby and Alabama, which would unite our pos- sessions there, from Natchez to Tombigby. A treaty to this effect was accordingly signed at Pooshapukanuk, November 16, 1805. But this being against express instructions, and not according with the object then in view, I was disinclined to its ratification, and therefore did not at the last session of congress lay it before the Senate for their advice, but have suffered it to lie unacted on." This message was dated January 15, 1808. The European situa- tion and the failure of negotiations to persuade Spain that the - cession of Louisiana included Biloxi and Mobile, caused the presi- dent to change his mind. The opening of this border land to settlement would aid in the acquisition of the coast, still in the hands of Spain, and separate the Indians from Spanish influence. Hence he submitted the treaty, which proposed to add about five million acres to the available domain.

In June, 1805, Robertson and Dinsmore negotiated with a great number of Choctaws at Fort St. Stephens, on the Tombigbee, and arranged for the treaty in November. This treaty, "Done on Mount Dexter in Pushapukanuk in the Choctaw country," (near Macon, Miss.) ceded to the United States the region south of the following described line: "Beginning at a branch of the Hooma- cheeto, where the same is intersected by the present Choctaw boundary [of Natchez district], and also by the path leading from Natchez, to the county of Washington, usually called McClary's path [probably from Lieut. McClary, commander of Ellicott's escort] ; thence easterly along McClary's path to the east or left bank of Pearl river; thence, on such a direct line as would touch the lower end of a bluff on the left bank of Chickasawhay river, the first above the Hiyoowannee towns, called Broken bluff, to a point within four miles of the Broken bluff ; thence in a direct line, nearly parallel with the river, to a point where an east line of four miles in length will intersect the river, below the lowest settlement at present occupied and improved in the Hiyoowannee town; thence, still east, four miles; thence in a direct line nearly parallel with the river, to a point on a line to be run from the lower end of Broken bluff to Faluktabunnee, on the Tombigby river, four miles from the Broken bluff; thence, along the said line, to Faluk- tabunnee; thence east to the boundary between the Creeks and Choctaws, on the ridge dividing the waters running into the Ala- bama from those running into Tombigby; thence southwardly along the said ridge and boundary, to the southern point of the Choctaw claim." The reservations were: a tract of two miles square, including the town of Fuketcheepoonta; a tract of 5,120 acres opposite Hatchatigbee bluff for the daughters of Samuel

816

MISSISSIPPI

Mitchell, United States Indian agent, "by Molly, a Choctaw woman," and about 1,500 acres on the Tombigbee sold by Opia Mingo and others to John McGrew, "many years ago." The con- sideration was $50,000; $48,000 to pay the Panton company and claims of settlers for depredations, and $2,500 to John Pitchlyn, as compensation for losses, "and as a grateful testimonial of the nation's esteem." In addition, the nation was guaranteed an an- nuity of $3,000. "The three great medal mingoes, Pukshunnub- bee, Mingo Hoomastubbee, and Pooshmataha," were given each $500, and guaranty of an annuity of $150.

After the ratification of the treaty the line of boundary was run by Col. Dinsmore. It is perpetuated in the north boundary lines of Wayne, Jones, Covington, and Lawrence counties, and the northeast line of Franklin. The area of the cession was 4,374,244 acres in Mississippi and 1,612,800 in Alabama.

Treaty of Natchez. This treaty was made May 14, 1790, at the "parochial church called The Savior of the World, of the said fort of the Natchez," between Don Manuel Gayoso de Lemos, colonel of the royal armies, governor of the fort and district of Natchez, and Tascaduca, king of the Chickasaw nation, and Franchimas- tabia, principal chief of the Choctaw nation, accompanied by Yteleghana, Stonahuma, Tapenahuma and Neesahumaacho, all chiefs, and in presence of many captains and warriors of both na- tions. The treaty was witnessed by Don Joseph Vidal, secretary, and "Carlos de Grand Pré, Blasdu Bouchet, Estevan Minor, Turner Brashears, Ryan (Bryan) Bruin, Gregorio White, Ygnacio Lopez, Augustin Macarty, Jorge Cochran, Francisco Candel, Luis Faure, Juan Girault, Carlos Todd, Ebenezer Fulson, Antonio Soler, Jorge Tompson, Guillermo Wushtoff, Jaime McFarland, Elias Smith, Kinneth Thompson."

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.

Mississippi : comprising sketches of towns, events, institutions, and persons, arranged in cyclopedic form Vol. II, Part 97

Author: Rowland, Dunbar, 1864-1937, ed Publication date: 1907 Publisher: Atlanta, Southern Historical Publishing Association Number of Pages: 1032

Author: Rowland, Dunbar, 1864-1937, ed
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Atlanta, Southern Historical Publishing Association
Number of Pages: 1032