Executive Department, Milledgeville, April 4, 1825.
Dear General:
I have received your letter of the 29th ultimo by Colonel Hawkins. There will be no danger of any hostility in consequence of the ratification of the treaty. You will find every thing going on peaceably and quietly. If bad white men intermeddle to stir up strifes and excite bad passions among the Indians, 1 will have them punished. The President will do the same. My agent has reported that the Indians opposed to the treaty are quite friendly; that they think of no mischief; that they love you, and will do whatever their father the President advises. The Senate ratified the treaty without any difficulty, although the agent was opposed to it. I write this morning to the United Slates' commissioners to furnish you with the necessary funds to enable your commissioners to explore the country west of the Mississippi, so that you may make your arrangements to move during the next fall. As soon as I hear from them, you shall know it. I wish you to inform me as early as possible of your resolution about the running and survey of the country, as mentioned in my letter by express.
You will have seen by my proclamation that I have determined the Indians shall suffer no loss or injury from our white people, if I can help it. It is intended to guard them against those people whom they will themselves consider as trespassers and intruders, and not to prevent white people from going into the nation, with honest intentions, to make purchase of stock or property of any kind, which you can lawfully dispose of; all such persons will be suffered to pass and repass without molestation. We will endeavor, too, to appoint good and honest men for our surveyors, so that they will do no harm themselves, and suffer none to be done to the Indians
Your friend,
G. M. Troup.
General William McIntosh, Creek Nation.
Executive Department, Milledgeville, April 5, 1825.
Dear sir:
I enclose copies of two letters addressed to you yesterday at Washington, Wilkes. I did not hear until this morning that you would probably attend Warren court. Be pleased to give me an answer by return of mail. , With great consideration and respect,
G. M. Troup.
Colonel D. G. Campbell, Warrenton.
Acorn Bluff, April 6, 1825.
Dear sir:
I received your letter of the 29th March, by the hands of your messenger, which it gave me pleasure to get. On the 10th of this month the chiefs will be here, when I will lay your letter before them; after which, I will inform you what we shall agree to without delay. When this meeting is held, if we agree to the running of the lines, it is my wish that the surveyors should get their support from the red people.
I am, dear sir, yours with respect,
William McIntosh.
Governor Troup.
Warrenton, April 7, 1825.
Dear sir:
By this day's mail I received copies of your communications of the 4th instant, addressed to Major Merriwether arid myself at Washington. The application for funds on the part of the Creeks, to defray the expense of the exploring party about to be despatched beyond the Mississippi, I consider altogether reasonable, and I am happy that it is in the power of the commissioners to facilitate this movement. I have no hesitation in assuming the responsibility you suggest. Immediately upon discovering that an appropriation had been made to meet the treaty requisites, I addressed a communication to the Secretary of War, inquiring when and in what manner the funds would be placed at our control. I am in daily expectation of an answer, and of being referred to the United States Branch Bank at Savannah. This requisition, however, can be conveniently met by an advance from the balance of the negotiation fund yet remaining in our hands. But, as the time of my return home and the opportunities of remittance are uncertain, I will thank you to make the advance of two thousand dollars, as you have kindly proffered, under the assurance that it will be reimbursed in either of the methods stated, as you may elect.
It may be communicated to Colonel Hawkins, (if he is yet with you,) that the payment of the first installment under the treaty may be expected early in the summer.
I have the honor to be, with great esteem and consideration, your obedient servant,
Duncan G. Campbell.
His Excellency G. M. Troup.
Executive Department, Milledgeville, April 9, 1825.
Dear General:
According to your wish, as communicated by my express, I shall send another to-morrow morning to know the result of the deliberations of the council upon the proposition submitted in my last letter, and also to inform you that the money which was asked to be advanced by me, to enable you without delay to explore the country west of the Mississippi, will be ready for you, whenever you send an agent authorized to receive it.
I wish you to hasten the return of my express; or, if you have occasion to detain him, to mention to me in your letter the cause of that detention.
Your friend,
G. M. Troup.
General Wm. McIntosh.
P. S. - There is little doubt but that all or most of our supplies in surveying the country will be derived from the red people, provided they are willing to furnish them on reasonable terms.
G. M. T.
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Lock-Cha-Talou-Fau, or Acre Town, April 12, 1825.
I have received your letters of the 29th March and of the 4th instant; in both of which you ask of me to state our resolution in giving consent to the survey and running off the country we lately ceded and now occupy.
You state, there will be no danger, in consequence of the ratification of the treaty, of any hostility; and if bad men stir up strifes and excite bad passions amongst the Indians, you will have them punished, and the President will do so too; and that your agent has reported to you that the Indians opposed to the treaty are now friendly; that they think of no mischief.
With regard to the disposition of the Indians who opposed the treaty, and with regard to the danger to the party who on our part made the treaty, we wish that the belief of your excellency may be realized.
As to the disposition of your excellency and the President of the United States to punish bad men who intermeddle to stir up strifes amongst us, we are well satisfied of; we know you can and will cause such men to be punished, and will protect the nation from such influences, and defend those who signed the treaty.
I have been, however, at some loss in making up my mind, and must confess to you the embarrassment I have labored under. Ever since the President of the United States has had agents residing among us, we have universally considered it our duty to consult him on all important matters that relate to the General Government, or the Government of any particular State; considering him the legal and proper organ through whom all official correspondence should pass in relation to our interests, appertaining to the treaties made with our nation and the United States.
Some differences existing between the present agent of the Creek nation and myself, and not having any confidence in his advice, I have determined to act according to the dictates of my best judgment, which results in the determination to agree to the request of your excellency in giving my consent, and, in behalf of the nation who signed the treaty, their consent, that the land lately ceded to the United Slates at the Indian Springs may be run off and surveyed whenever you or the General Government may think proper to do so.
If the General Government of the United States have no objection, and the agent of the Creek nation, with the party he influences, does not make any objection or opposition to running and surveying the land, myself and the chiefs and Indians who were in favor of the late treaty do not object. We give our consent.
I request of your excellency to publish in some of the public newspapers that persons wishing to make purchases of property of any kind, or buy out our improvements for the balance of our time, must first attend at my house and enroll their names, specifying the kind of property purchased, and from whom; stating the residence of each party. All such persons we shall consider coming amongst us as fair traders; and all such as may settle on land, improved or not, in the bounds of the late treaty, will be considered by us and reported as intruders to your excellency, if they do not comply with those terms.
I have this moment received a notification from the Little Prince, inviting me and the chiefs in this quarter to attend a meeting of the nation at Broken Arrow, on the 19th instant. My own health will not permit me, probably, to attend the meeting in person, but all of my chiefs will go. I have determined, if my health permits, to accompany the delegation to the western country, in our exploring tour, so soon as we receive the money which we desired you to obtain for us through the commissioners.
Your friend and brother,
Wm. McIntosh.
His Excellency the Governor of Georgia.
Creek Nation, April 12, 1825.
I have taken the liberty of sending to you a memorial of our chiefs to the Legislature of your State, and request the favor of you to cause it to be laid before them, with such marks of your approbation as you may, in friendship towards us, think proper to bestow.
In giving voluntarily our consent for the survey of the lands in the late treaty, we were actuated by motives of friendship purely towards you and towards your people. No consideration of a mercenary nature could be permitted to enter our breasts when a favor was asked of us, particularly by your excellency, and in behalf of your people. We knew the great importance it was to your people to be ready to occupy the country immediately after our removal from it, and have with true hearts of friendship acceded to your request. We would have thought it disgraceful in us to attempt to make a condition founded on your wants or desires a price for our acquiescence. The opportunity presented itself, and we hope the circumstance will have only the effect to render ourselves worthy of your esteem and friendship.
I remain your brother and friend,
Wm. McIntosh.
To Governor Troup.
To the Members of the Legislature of the State of Georgia:
Friends and brothers: We, the chiefs of the Creek nation, who have sold to the United States a part of the country, and intend shortly to remove to a new country, have thought it our duty to lay before you this our last and farewell address.
Friends and brothers: We believe you and your State have always been our true friends; ever since we took hold of one another's hands in friendship, we have been as neighbors inhabiting the same country; a country which the Great Spirit made to be the home and habitation of his children. The red and white men are all from the same father, and each of them is entitled to a share in this world of the works of his hands, and of the good things he has made for the use of men. The country which you now possess, and that which we now remain on, was by the Great Spirit originally given to his red children. Our brothers, the white men, visited us when we were like the trees of the forest. Our forefathers smoked the pipe of peace and friendship with the forefathers of the white man; and when the white man said we wish to live with the red man, and inhabit the same country, we received their presents, and said, welcome; we will give you land for yourselves and for your children. We took the white man by the hand, and held fast to it. We became neighbors, and the children of the white man grew up, and the children of the red man grew up in the same country, and we were brothers. The white men became numerous as the trees of the forest, and the red men became like the buffalo.
Friends and brothers: You are like the mighty storm; we are like the tender and bending tree: we must bow before you; you have torn us up by the roots, but still you are our brothers and friends. You have promised to replant us in a better soil, and to watch over us and nurse us.
Friends and brothers: The day is come when we surrender the country of our forefathers-the land of our nativity, our homes, the places of our youthful diversions. We surrender it to our brothers and friends, and our hearts are glad that we were not forced to do so by our enemies. We go; our people will seek new lands; our hearts remain with you.
Friends and brothers: In days of old and years long past, the Creek nation was strong as the lion, and our warriors were like the trees in number. We were visited by a people that came over the great water. We held talks with them; they offered to take us by the hand as friends and brothers, and as the children of one father, the children of the Great Spirit. We met them in friendship, and smoked the pipe of peace like brothers of one family. These white brothers were called the English, and their head warrior lived beyond the great water. We were told by him in the talks he sent us, he was our great father and friend, and he made our nation great presents, and we loved his white children whom he had sent to live on this side of the great water, and we gave them lands, and took fast hold of their hands in peace and friendship.
Friends and brothers: In days long past, the head warrior over the great water sent our nation other talks, and told us his white children, whom we had long held by the hand, had become bad men, and wanted to destroy their head warrior over the water; that they had become our enemies, and that we must let go their hands, take up the tomahawk, and dance the war dance, and help our great father and friend who had made us great by presents, and help our great father over the water to chastise his disobedient children. Another head warrior arose among the Virginia people, whose name was Washington. He sent our people his talks, and told us that the white people on this side of the great water and the red men had long been friends and brothers, and that they were born in the same country, that we were children of the same land, and that we must let go our old father over the water, who would ruin us, and that we must hold fast to the Virginians.
Friends and brothers: We listened to our great father Washington, and let go of our friends the English, and smoked the pipe of friendship and of brotherly love with our Virginia brethren. We found the talks of our great father Washington to be true, and that he was our true friend, and his people were our friends. We have always taken the talks of the Presidents who came after our beloved great friend Washington. We have considered the Presidents our protectors and friends, and the American people our brothers and neighbors. We found the English deceitful and our real enemies; and we have long ago fought them, as the enemies of ourselves and our American brethren.
Friends and brothers: Our nation have always met the talks of our great father the President of the United States; when his agents and commissioners told us he wanted land for his people, we have always been willing to divide with them, and share our country to them. We have had a great country, and we needed the assistance of our white friends. We gave you land, and you gave us presents and money, and you taught us the use of the loom, the plough, and the hoe, and you taught us the way to value the different kinds of property.
Friends and brothers: When we were first acquainted with our white friends, we were ignorant, like a child. You were in knowledge, like a man in his full strength. We therefore have always listened to the President as our common father and protector; we look up to him as a son would look up to his father.
Friends and brothers: Our present chiefs remember the lime when we possessed the land to the bank of the Oconee river; some of our old men remember when their hunting ground was the other side of that river. We, however, in our day, have attended the talks of the President, when our nation have sold to our father the President all the land between the limits of the late treaty and the Oconee.
Friends and brothers: We have been for several years viewing with great attention the advice of the President to make a treaty with our nation for the lands that lay within the boundary that the State of Georgia wanted or claimed. We have paid great attention to all of his talks through the commissioners, and we are now satisfied that his advice is for Our best interest, and that he will not forsake his red children in time of danger and trouble.
Friends and brothers: We are satisfied that our claim to the land of our fathers was before all others. The Great Spirit placed us upon it, and gave it to us as our inheritance; hut our neighbors and friends, the people of Georgia, wanted more land; their children are growing up like young trees of the forest, and they must have support.
Friends and brothers: We, who send you this our farewell talk, have done every thing we could to satisfy our white brothers and friends, and to please the President our father. We have listened to our father the President's talks, and have determined to make the trial of leaving forever the land of our forefathers, and surrendering it to the United Stales, for the use of our long beloved neighbors and friends the people of Georgia.
Brothers and friends: We have to part with you; you are shortly to be possessors of our lands and our homes; homes dear to us, because we were raised and nourished at them: our habitations are simple and plain, hut they afford us shelter from the rain and the storm; our fare is plain and wholesome, and affords to us support and health; our people are thinly clad, but our huts shelter them from the cold: we have enjoyed, in a considerable degree, many of the comforts of life, rendered familiar to us by our intercourse with our white friends, and to a much greater extent than a people like us can again shortly expect when we are removed to the wilderness of the west.
Friends and brothers: All the comforts we now enjoy we abandon for your sakes. Our wives and helpless children must experience fatigue, hunger, cold, and every other incident that must unavoidably attend us in our travel from this, our late beloved country, to the vast wilderness, full of dangers that we probably do not foresee; but we put our trust in the Great Spirit, and in our father the President, for protection and aid.
Friends and brothers: In all the treaties with the United States for land for your use, we have never asked of your State to grant our nation presents of any description. We now, for the first time, as we are about to take our final leave of you, have thought to introduce ourselves to your notice; and hope that the first and last request of a people, long your neighbors and friends, will not be passed unnoticed by the people of the great and powerful State of Georgia, always professing towards us the greatest friendship and brotherhood.
Friends and brothers: To you, as the representatives of our old neighbors and friends, as the children of the Great Spirit, and as our common relations, managing the affairs of the great State of Georgia, we appeal, in terms of friendship, for such aid and assistance as the pleasure of your Assembly, in behalf of your people, may think proper to afford us, previous to our final departure from you. The difficulties, wants, and distresses which await us in our removal in a body of ten thousand of our people, consisting of men, women, and children, must be our apology for introducing ourselves to the consideration of your humanity, charity, and benevolence.
Friends and brothers: In behalf of our people, we desire of you, if it may meet with your good pleasure and liberality, to make our nation, or such part as determine to remove, such a donation, in presents of any kind, as the character and dignity of your State may warrant, and the wants, distresses, and long attachment of our people to you may deserve.
" Friends and brothers: If, after you hear our request, and consider of it, you should think that we are not entitled to your consideration, generosity, or liberality, and that as we are about to leave you forever, and that you now have a legal claim and right to our late country, and that you owe us nothing, still we will remain strong in our former friendship to you. We do not ask of you any thing as a matter of right, or of any legal claim we have on you; but merely desire to recommend ourselves to your generosity and charity.
Friends and brothers: We finally assure yon that our attachment towards our old friends and neighbors shall never cease, and that we. will carry with us the feelings of true and devoted friendship towards the State of Georgia, to the United States, and to the Legislature of Georgia. If we should be so happy as to experience any token of their regard, we will teach our children to remember it with gratitude, and cause it to be handed down to the succeeding generations of our nation, that they may forever know that Georgia was their friend in the hour of distress.
William McIntosh. |
James Derosoe, his X mark. |
April 12, 1825.
Milledgeville, April 18, 1825.
Dear General:
In one of your late letters, you say something about the consent of the United States, or if the agent and the hostiles do not make opposition. Pray explain to me your meaning. We have nothing to do with the United Stales, or the agent, or the hostiles, in this matter; all we want is the consent of the friendly Indians who made the treaty. If we wanted the consent of the United States, we could ask it.
Your friend,
G. M. Troup.
General William McIntosh, Creek Nation.
Fayetteville, April 14, 1825.
Dear Sir:
I herewith transmit to you the resolutions of the friendly Creek Indians, or those who were in favor of the treaty. As their determination with respect to permitting the recently acquired territory to be run off, or surveyed, is of general importance to the citizens of the State of Georgia, I have deemed it advisable to send them by express, as the most speedy and sure mode of conveyance. You will also receive by the bearer (Mr. Wilson) "two other letters.
With respect, your most obedient servant,
Alexander Ware.
His Excellency G. M. Troup.
Executive Department, Milledgeville, April 16, 1825.
Dear General:
Your two letters of the 12th instant have just been received, by which it is made known to me that, in council, you have given your consent to the survey of the lands.
Your memorial to the Legislature will be presented according to your request; and the notice you wish published, in relation to purchases of property of any kind, improvements, &c., will, in the same words as you have written, be printed in our next papers.
I hope that you will meet the Little Prince and council in good friendship. I wish to see you all united in brotherly affection before you move, and am convinced the President desires the same.
Your friend,
G. M. Troup.
General William McIntosh, Creek Nation.
Creek Nation, April 25, 1825.
Dear Sir:
I received your excellency's request yesterday, dated the 18th instant, and hereby state to you that my only meaning was not to act contrary to stipulations made between our nation and the United States Government; and we do hereby absolutely, freely, and fully give our consent to the State of Georgia to have the boundary belonging to said State surveyed at anytime the Legislature of Georgia may think proper, which was ceded at the late treaty of the Indian Springs, signed in behalf of the nation, and by the consent of the chiefs of the same. I have the honor, sir, with great esteem, yours respectfully,
William McIntosh.
His Excellency George M. Troup.
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