USA > Tennessee > The civil and political history of the state of Tennessee from its earliest settlement up to the year 1796 : including the boundaries of the state > Part 46
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
It was understood in the Cherokee Nation and by the people of Cumberland that peace was firmly established. And an In- dian by the name of Shoeboots, of Hightower, with his com- wany, came and encamped near the Cumberland road, and hunted without molestation, determined to suffer no mischief on their part to be done to the white people; and, with a re- quest, communicated through Mr. Dinsmore, to be treated as friends, and that the white people would meet and talk with them in peace. They had, previous to this request, they said, been well treated by the white people, and had invited them to their camps and used them like brothers; and it was hoped that the white people in traveling would not mistake and fire upon them as enemies. Some of them intended to go to the ferry on the Cumberland to see if goods were there for which they could exchange their skins, meat, or oil; and to trade for them if such goods were there. If there were no goods that suited, they wanted permission to return with their property without inter- ruption. In this company of hunters were nine head men and two hundred others. If Gen. Robertson had an interpreter, they wished to hold a talk with him, and to assure him of their friendship, and to learn the price of goods before the removal
472
HAYWOOD'S HISTORY OF TENNESSEE.
of their skins from camp. The general readily accorded to them all that they requested, but the unruly passions of foolish in- dividuals continually struggled again to embroil the Indians and white people.
On the last of February, 1796, the Cherokees complained that four of their nation had been killed; and demanded satisfaction agreeably to treaty, and declared that if satisfaction was not given they would take it. They had hardly made this complaint before they had cause to make another. On the 1st of March . they stated that one of their nation was probably killed, for they had heard the report of a gun, and one of their comrades, who was then separated from them, not returning, they took his track and went on it as far as they could, found blood, and could trace him no farther. Gov. Blount promised to make inquiry, and to punish the offender. Peace, so necessary for the well- being of the community, and so long and so anxiously desired, had scarcely been established before the frenzied imagination of ignorant individuals assumed to know better what to do than the constituted authorities; and, without foreseeing a single ef- fect to be produced by their rashness, blindly committed the most provoking injuries, and exposed the whole country to a renewal of their former sufferings. Such behavior deserved detestation, and that the law should be so framed as to brand it with the mark of infamy. If it- be despotism for one man in a country to act as he pleases, free from the restraints of law, how much greater despotism is it for five thousand to act in the same way, either against the State or the individuals who compose it, in divergent or opposing directions, without redress to be had for the wrongs they do, and without the means of preventing them ? Freedom, like religion, must be governed by reason, or as the one degenerates into fanaticism so will the other into anarchy, which calls for a master to quell it.
The Creeks yet kept up hostilities, and some of the refractory Cherokees were suspected of co-operating with them in an un- derhand way.
On the 5th of January, 1795, John Tye, Jr., was killed; and John Tye, Sr., John Burlinson, Sherrard Mays, and Thomas Mays were wounded by Indians on the frontier of Hawkins County, about fifty miles above Knoxville, on the waters of the Clinch.
473
HAYWOOD'S HISTORY OF TENNESSEE.
On the 27th of January a party of Indians killed George Mason on Flat Creek, about twelve miles from Knoxville. In the night he heard a noise at his stable, and stepping out, his return to the door was instantly cut off by Indians. He sought safety by flight, and was fired upon and wounded. Nevertheless he reached a cave, a quarter of a mile from his house, out of which they dragged and killed him, and then returned to the house in which were his wife and children. As they returned, Mrs. Mason heard them talking to each other, and at first sup- posed they were neighbors coming to see what was the cause of the firing they had heard, but understanding both the English and German languages, and observing that they spoke in nei- ther of these, she instantly perceived that they were the Indians returning to the house. She had that very morning inquired and learned how the double trigger of a rifle was set. The chil- dren were luckily all of them asleep, and she had taken care not to awaken them. She shut the door, and barred it with benches and tables, and took down the rifle of her husband, which was well charged. She placed herself directly opposite to the open- ing which would be made by pushing the door from its connec- tion with the wall and the receiver of the bolt of the lock which was fastened to it. Upon her own fortitude now solely rested the defense of her own life and the lives of her five little chil- dren. She stood in profound silence. The Indians came to the door and shoved against it, and gradually forced it wide enough open to attempt an entrance. The body of one of them was thrusting itself into the opening, and prizing the door still farther from the wall; another stood behind him pushing him forward, and another again behind him pushing the middle one forward. She set the trigger of the rifle, put the muzzle near to the body of the foremost, and in a direction for the ball, after passing through the body of the foremost, to penetrate those behind. The rifle fired, the foremost fell, the next one to him screamed. They were both dangerously wounded. She uttered not a word. It occurred to the Indians that armed men were in the house, and, not knowing what their number might be, they withdrew without any further attempt on it. They took three horses out of the stable and set it on fire. Their trail was searched for and found. Their number was at least twenty-five.
Shortly before the 11th of June two parties of whites were
474
HAYWOOD'S HISTORY OF TENNESSEE.
attacked by Indians on the road leading to Kentucky, and eight of them were killed, wounded, and missing.
About the 27th of December George, of Chilhowee, a Chero- kee, killed Mr. Black, of Sevier County, and was himself imme- diately followed and killed by the white people.
The Creeks did not yet abate the proofs which they had so long given of their rooted enmity against the United States. The threatening aspect which they presented induced the Gov- ernor, on the 13th of February, to give orders to Gen. Robert- son to keep up the infantry which had been formerly stationed for the protection of Sumner County, and particularly the post on the ford of the Cumberland, during the present year, if not otherwise ordered; the other to the 22d of July. And about the same time he wrote to the Secretary of War on the subject of Indian affairs, and recommended that an expedition be car- ried into the heart of the Creek territory, proposing likewise the plan and time of invasion. He asserted that the upper Creeks had killed and robbed the citizens of the United States from the day of the declaration of independence to that day, without cause or provocation, and regardless of the treaty of New York ever since its formation, with impunity; except that some few of them had been killed by the citizens in defense of them- selves, their wives, and children, their houses, and their prop- erty, or in their flight, with scalps and horses in their posses- sion, which had brought them to believe and to boast that they were superior to the citizens of the United States in war. And until the upper Creeks were made in turn to feel the horrors of war, and thereby learn the true value of peace and a sense of their inferiority, "I see," said he, "no reason to hope that they will observe a more peaceful conduct than they have hitherto done, except so far as they shall in a greater degree be restrained by defensive measures. One certain effect of the upper Creeks having so long killed and robbed with impunity the citizens of the United States has been that more or less of the Cherokees- generally of the lower towns-and of the lower Creeks too, have attached themselves to the upper Creek warriors, and aided them in the perpetration of murders and thefts. And a probable ef- fect will be, if they are suffered to pass on with impunity, not- withstanding the present friendship which exists between the United States and the Choctaws and Chickasaws, that they, find-
475
HAYWOOD'S HISTORY OF TENNESSEE.
ing the upper Creeks enriching themselves with the spoils of the citizens of the United States, acquiring the reputation of warriors, while the United States confine themselves merely to defending their citizens when they can, will more or fewer of them be induced to follow their example, which could terminate only in a hostile confederacy or union of the southern tribes. On the contrary, should an expedition be carried on against the upper Creeks, and should the whole of them be exterminated, it would be but justice as respects them-a nest of murderers and thieves-and would serve as an example to such of the lower Creeks and Cherokees as have been hitherto hostile to the Unit- ed States. It would confirm the Chickasaws and Choctaws in that friendship which they profess." The upper Creek towns he stated to be the source of all the acts of hostility suffered by the citizens of the United States resident on the south- western frontier, the root of the evil. Destroy them, and peace would be the consequence to those citizens. He had attentively and successfully studied the Creek character, and his opinion was that the Creeks, after the invading troops had left the coun- try, would not immediately fall on the frontier citizens for re- venge; for all experience proved that the evils of war had taught the Indians, as well as other people, the value of peace, and they had conducted themselves toward their neighbors accord- ingly.
The government of the United States by no means concurred in these sentiments. The new Secretary of War, Mr. Pickering, inquired when the line could be run, and made it known to the Governor that all ideas of offensive operations were now to be laid aside; and to make this purpose the more striking and im- pressive, money was sent to Col. King in the spring of this year to pay the militia, excepting that part of Gen. Sevier's brigade in service in the year 1793, who did pursue the Creeks and Cher- okees, meaning those who killed Cavet's family; and except those who were at Nickajack and the Running Water in 1794. The government believed that the whites on the frontiers were the aggressors, and that the Indians stood more in need of protec- tion against them than they against the Indians. These steps were taken to check the inordinate propensities of the people for embodying and devastating the Indian towns and settle- ments. In ordinary cases the corrective might have been a sal-
476
HAYWOOD'S HISTORY OF TENNESSEE.
utary one, but in that conjuncture its propriety might with great plausibility have been doubted. For one of the consequences then to be apprehended was that the people might listen to the dictates of nature rather than the prudential lessons of author- ity, advising the giving up their heads to the scalping-knife and to die with resignation in hopes of better times, The truth is that the worried patience of the people began to spurn the inan- imate recommendations of the government, and to question its title to the character of wisdom. Symptoms of this opinion displayed themselves in a presentment of the grand jury for the District of Hamilton, at Knoxville, the place of the Gov- ernor's residence, in the April term of this year. They pre- sented as a grievance that the executive officers of the govern- ment had withheld the pay of the militia which in 1793 followed the trail of the Indians who had killed Cavet and his family, under the pretense that such pursuit, although authorized by the person exercising the office of Governor, was an offensive operation. And also they presented as a grievance, among other things, that this Territory had not received the same pro- tection as those States which were represented in Congress. The Governor, it was suspected, was in nowise displeased to per- ceive the unfolding of these sentiments; for his perpetual thesis was, when speaking of the Creeks, "Delenda est Carthago," and for more than a year it had been inserted in every Gazette which issued weekly from the printing-office in Knoxville, which was understood to be under his patronage and direction. He con- stantly urged the same topics to the Secretary of War. He wished the people of the south-western territory to be erected into a State, that, having a representation in Congress, they might acquire the same degree of consideration and the same protection that the neighboring States had. He stimulated the people to do themselves justice on this subject, for otherwise he thought they would never receive their due share of protection. The new Secretary of War began his communications with less suavity than the Governor had been accustomed to, and advert- ed to some passages in a letter implying, as he said, a disappro- bation of the steps pursued by the government; to which the Governor answered that he could give him a better exposition. The exception seemed to be more querulous than useful, and to develop a captious predisposition which promised but little ac-
477
HAYWOOD'S HISTORY OF TENNESSEE.
cordance with the Governor's views or those of the south-western people. Besides informing them that all thoughts of offensive operations must be laid aside, he declared to them, also, that no assistance should be given to the Chickasaws. After enumer- ating many improprieties in the conduct of the Governor and of Gen. Robertson, he used the following expression of his opin- ion: "Upon the whole, sir, I cannot refrain from saying that the complexion of some of the transactions in the south-western territory appears unfavorable to the public interests. It is plain that the United States are determined, if possible, to avoid a direct or indirect war with the Creeks. Congress alone is com- petent to decide upon an offensive war, and Congress had not thought proper to authorize it. The acts of individuals, and es- pecially of public officers, apparently tending to such an event, ought not to be silently overlooked." But permission was given, in order to protect the Cumberland settlers, to establish a post on the Tennessee at or near the Creek crossing of the same Chicka- saw limits, and with the assent of the Cherokees, if they had any claim. He allowed a guard of Cherokees and Chickasaws while the works were erecting, and while the troops would be other- wise insecure, and no longer. Should the Cherokees behave well until the next conferences, and should then desire it, the posts advanced into their country were to be removed. The Chickasaws were to be asked for their consent to the establish- ment of a post on the Tennessee, which, at the same time that it would be convenient for trading with them and the neighbor- ing Indians, was well adapted to the security of the people of Cumberland. A station and ferry were to be kept up at West Point, if the Cherokees could be induced to consent to the meas- ure; and a written article was to be proposed to them, declaring the object of the station to be for the accommodation of travel- ers, and should never furnish a pretense for claiming or settling on the lands. To satisfy them that such was the real object, a withdrawal of the garrisons from Tellico block-house and Fort Grainger was suggested. Settlers upon the lands of the Indians were to be immediately removed by military force, if necessary, and all such intrusions for the future were to be abated and pre- vented. In order to prevent the Indians from stealing horses the south-western people were not to steal their lands. The Creeks, when passing through the Cherokee country to rob and murder,
<
:
478
HAYWOOD'S HISTORY OF TENNESSEE.
were to be prevented, if possible, by the Cherokees; but not by force, for that might bring on war; in which case the United States would be in honor bound to support the Cherokees, and thus have to encounter au open war with the Creeks. That part of the Cherokee treaty which stipulates that their lands are not to be hunted on nor their game killed by the white people was to be most strictly observed. The opinion of Gov. Blount, delivered in December last to Gen. Robertson, and by him com- municated to the Chickasaws, was censoriously reproved, as it would eagerly be caught hold of by them, who might be in- cited by it to more rash acts than otherwise they would have committed.
These animadversions were shown to the people of Cumber- land. The acerbities, so profusely scattered through the whole of this document, were supposed to be but illy adapted to the feelings of a bleeding people; and were the more poignant as they came from the quarter whence was expected at least the balm of consolation, when it did not furnish the redress to which the much-injured people of the south-western territory were entitled. They asked for bread, and a serpent was given; they prayed for a blessing, and received a curse. Such, they exclaimed, was their comfortless condition, now made more hopeless than ever. Although copies of this instrument were not permitted to be taken, yet one copy taken by the Governor was put into the hands of Gen. Robertson, and was circulated through all the Cumberland settlements, so as to meet the eye of everybody. It was remarked that there were several articles in it providing against an actual existing state of hostility on the part of the Creeks, and yet they were in no case to be con- sidered as enemies; and because they were secret and unde- clared enemies, therefore, they were to be exempted from all punishment; and, furthermore, when so much caution was used not to embroil the Creeks and Cherokees, lest the United States should be bound in honor to take part with the latter, it was sarcastically asked: "Why, then, does not your honor bind you to support the Chickasaws?" The people throughout the Ter- ritory were greatly disgusted, and wished to be elevated above the domination of departments, to which, by their territorial character, they were subjected. The Creeks, though still riot- ing in the spoils they had taken from the slaughtered inhab-
479
HAYWOOD'S HISTORY OF TENNESSEE.
itants of the Territory, began to experience vicissitudes which were soon to detach from their aid all those who had been their former abettors, and to leave them to contend single-handed with the people whom they had so long and so grievously har- assed. The number of the territorial inhabitants had become formidable. The Chickasaws, whom they greatly dreaded, were at war with them. They had heard that the Spaniards were likely to desert them; they knew of the defection of the Cher- okees. The people of the south-western territory had become so much inured to war that they searched all places through which the Indians could pass, or in which they could lurk, and never failed on sight to inflict on them a dreadful chastisement. There was now danger in passing through the Cherokee coun- try, lest, in obedience to the Governor's orders, they might be arrested and brought before him. And to all this may be added that the northern Indians were beaten and ruined, and had signed preliminary articles of peace; in consequence whereof, Gen. Wayne, on the 22d of February, had proclaimed a cessa- tion of hostilities. The pillars of war were everywhere crum- bling into ruins, and the rage of discord was dying away. As well calculated, however, as these circumstances were to make the desired impressions, they did not immediately do so; but, on the contrary, the Creeks could not bear to give up that val- uable branch of trade-the taking of hair and horses-whereby they had so long enriched themselves, and which, like the Arabs and the Algerines, they began to have the authority of pre- scription for believing to be a lawful occupation. Their depre- dations, therefore, were continued; and intelligence was re- ceived in the month of March from the council of the whole Cherokee nation, convened at Allejoy, that a party of Creeks, sixteen in number, headed by a half-breed fellow by the name of Bill McIntosh, returned in the month of February, 1795, through the lower Cherokee towns, from the frontier of the Territory, with thirty-seven stolen horses. One of the party was wounded by a ball in the thigh. But the fortitude of the Creeks was not long able to withstand the shocks which so many untoward events gave to it. They began to waver in their purposes and to be disunited as to the courses the most proper to be pursued for the good of their nation. On the 3d of April the chiefs of the upper and lower Creeks caused an address,
480
HAYWOOD'S HISTORY OF TENNESSEE.
which they called a talk, to be written to Gov. Blount in their meeting at Oakfusky, in which they made known to him and to all the citizens of the territory that they had set about the business of collecting the horses, white persons, and negroes, and all other property in their land belonging to the citizens of the United States, whether from Cumberland, Kentucky, or any other part of the western territory, with which they should set off in a few days for Georgia at the place appointed by Mr. Sea- grove; and deliver to him all the said property, and white pris- oners to be forwarded by Mr. Seagrove, such part of it as be- longed to the western territory to that place; and that they should request him to write fully their intentions to all the sev- eral Governors of the Western Territories. They assured the Governor that he might put full confidence in what they said. "And we are," they said, "determined from this time to bury the hatchet, gun, and all other sharp weapons, and to take all the white people by the hand like brothers, and never to spill each other's blood any more;" and that Gor. Blount and all his people may in future, on the receipt of this communication, work on their farms without the least dread, and hunt their stock and pass from place to place without the least apprehen- sion of danger or molestation. They at this time delivered Brown, a son of Mrs. Brown, formerly a prisoner in the Creek Nation. On the last of this month they affected to desire peace, because, said the Governor, they had their hands full of the Chickasaws. But he was willing to accede, let the cause be what it might. As a proof of their sincerity, he required that they should give up their prisoners; and in May was mortified with the information that they had invited the young warriors of the lower Cherokee towns to join in their war against the Chickasaws and people of Cumberland. But again in June they returned to a desire for peace. Their varying purposes indicated a want of perseverance which they had never before shown, and was received as a good presage that they would shortly settle down in peaceful resolutions. Before the middle of June they sent peace talks to the Governor, the first of the same sort that he had ever received from them, upon which he observed that the Chickasaws had taught them good manners.
On the 15th of June great numbers of the Creek chiefs had conferences with Mr. Seagrove, and resolved on the observance
481
HAYWOOD'S HISTORY OF TENNESSEE.
of peace for the future, and to deliver up the white persons and slaves whom they had taken from the people of the United States. But it was said that the Creeks would make an excep- tion of the people of Cumberland, because of the partialities they had shown for the Chickasaws.
On the 12th of August he agreed to a proposal of the Creek chiefs to meet them at Tellico to strengthen the relations of amity between the United States and the Creek nation, and they appointed the 10th of October for that purpose. At their request, he had directed Gen. Robertson to go in person with an escort to the Chickasaw nation, and to prevail upon them, if possible, to give up the Creeks who were prisoners in their pos- session; and to inform them that the Creeks would be at peace with them upon their desisting from further hostilities and de- livering up the prisoners, and that he understood himself to be authorized to say so by a letter to him from the Creeks. He assured the Creeks they might rest satisfied that the United States would not take possession of any lands that belonged to the red people. He explained and palliated the expedition under Mansco and Smith to the Chickasaw Nation. The Span- iards, he said, had told this story to render less offensive the occupation of the Chickasaw Bluffs by Gov. Gayoso. He took notice that peace was then perfectly established between the Creek nation and the United States, and he hoped that Col. White and Capt. Singleton would meet with no obstacles in ac- complishing the objects of their mission. Gen. Colbert, Le in- formed them, had gone to the President, and would be told positively that he must be at peace with the Creeks. The Gov- ernor was so perfectly satisfied that there was no delusion in the appearances before him that on the 24th of August, in a letter addressed to Gen. Robertson, he congratulated the citizens of Mero District upon the arrival of peace which they have con- quered, and declared that he had a well-grounded hope of its continuance. In this month Col. Titsworth went with a pass- port into the Creek Nation, and was informed where his daugh- ter and negro were. They were delivered without price, and had been taken by the Creeks who belonged to the hickory ground, and who had fired upon the whites and Chickasaws as they passed the Cumberland Mountain. The Creeks who had formerly had them lived at Tuskega, the old Alabama fort. Mr.
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.