[813-819]

CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN THE GOVERNOR OF GEORGIA, THE GENERAL GOVERNMENT,
AND ITS AGENTS, IN REFERENCE TO THE LATE TREATY.

Index ... Part: 1 ... 2 ... 3 ... 4

Governor Troup to the President of the United States.

Executive Department, Milledgeville, August 7, 1825.

Sir:

The letter of the Secretary of War of the 18th May, introducing to this Government Major General Gaines and Major Andrews, as agents of the United States to inquire into the causes of the late disturbances, to adjust the differences subsisting between the Indians, and to inquire into the conduct of the agent of Indian affairs, recommended them as officers distinguished for ability, prudence, and discretion. They were received and treated accordingly. With the conduct of the one, you have been already made acquainted; with that of the other, it remains for me to place you in possession.

In the several conferences held with General Gaines, on his first arrival, I received repeated assurances from him of friendly dispositions; of upright intentions; of freedom from all kinds of bias or prejudice which could mislead his judgment or influence his decisions on any of the topics which, in the execution of his trust, might present themselves for discussion. Relying implicitly on the sincerity of these declarations, I began with regarding General Gaines as an honorable and disinterested arbiter between the United States, Georgia, and the Indians, and so con­tinued to regard him until a short time before his insulting letter of the 10th ultimo was received at this Department. It was impossible for this Government not to repel that insult with indignation.

The Chief Magistrate, in his official message to the Legislature, had stated explicitly that McIntosh and his chiefs had given their consent to the survey; and, in support of this statement, the letters of McIntosh were exhibited, with his name subscribed in his own hand, of which General Gaines had full information: nevertheless, the certificate of an Indian chief, who had deserted from the McIntosh party, and of a white man, of whom General Gaines himself does not pretend to know any thing, is procured to discredit the statement of the Governor, and to exhibit him before the public as the dupe of the vilest and shallowest imposture; and in his solicitude to accomplish this, he forgets that it is the consent given by McIntosh and his chiefs to the survey, which, on the information of the agent, you have taken for granted to be the sole cause of all the disturbances in the nation, and upon which you have recently issued the most offensive orders to this Government connected with that survey, and, in your last, even denounced military vengeance against those who shall attempt to carry it into execution.

When General Gaines is rebuked, in the mildest language which the unprovoked insult would admit of, he presents himself again before the public in a letter, indulging in the most intemperate abuse of all the constituted authorities of a sovereign State and the great body of its people, and which he causes to be published almost a week before it was received at this Department.

With regard to the first letter of General Gaines, to which I have called your attention, he does not seem to have been content with addressing a letter so exceptionable to the head of this Government; he assumes the authority to order its publication on the allegation of some pretended and undefined malicious falsehoods in circulation, and which he makes the foundation of an appeal to the public — an appeal more censurable than that for which the gallant and meritorious Porter is now answering before a court-martial assembled by your order, inasmuch as the latter only defends himself against the inculpatory charges made by his own Government; whilst the former, who was bound by equal respect to this Government, does not pretend that any charges of any kind had been preferred by it against him. It is in this letter, too, that General Gaines has fallen into the shocking extravagance of asserting (what nobody can believe) that the McIntosh party, which made the treaty, constituted but a fiftieth part of the nation; and it was in the same letter he made known, officially, to this Government, that he had happily concluded a pacification of the Indians, when at that moment he was as remote from the pacification as he ever had been; of which fact I have even within the passing hour received the most incontestable evidence.

With regard to the second letter, of the 28th ult., which, now that I am writing, has for the first time been put into my hands, and almost a week after its publication, I have to remark, that the history of diplomacy will not fur­nish a parallel so marked with indiscretion, intemperance, disrespect, and the outrage of all decency. General Gaines forgets as well what he owes to his own Government as to this. His duty to you required him to show respect to this Government in all his intercourse with it. If in that intercourse he had found himself wronged or aggrieved by the authorities here, it was not allowed him to take the redress into his own hands. Upon representation to you, you were competent to decide the nature and the extent of the injury he had received, and of the redress most suitable to it. He would not confide the exercise of this privilege to you, (no doubt questioning your fitness or discretion for such matters,) but chose to rely on his own dexterity and prowess.

He writes, among other things, of the " malignant villainy" which has been extensively practised on the credulity of the good citizens of Georgia and other States, in reference to the Indians and the treaty." A charge so vague cannot be easily understood, much less distinctly answered. Presupposing it to he directed against the au­thorities of this State, and to be in all respects true, who made General Gaines the judge to pass this condemnatory sentence on the conduct of those authorities? It has been understood that [you] had reserved to yourself this power, and that General Gaines was here only as your agent to collect the evidence upon which that power was to be exercised.

He proceeds to make another reference to the certificate of the Indian chief and the white man, reiterates the expression of unlimited confidence in the veracity of Marshall, eulogizes him as among the most worthy of "the "little treaty-making party," and comes again to the conclusion that the Chief Magistrate of Georgia and others are not to be credited against the certificate of such respectable personages.

Within this hour I have received the testimony of the chiefs of the friendly party, voluntarily given, " that the statement of Joe Marshall to General Gaines is false;" and I enclose you the certificate of my express, a man of fairest character and undoubted veracity, to satisfy you that Marshall has added falsehood to treachery. In this part of his letter he takes occasion to manifest his resentment towards the friends of McIntosh: he calls them " the little treaty-making party;" then, again, " the vassal chiefs of McIntosh;" and questions their right to give permission to make the survey. What a dispassionate and impartial umpire is this General Gaines! One would have supposed that, consulting the magnanimity of a soldier, if he had departed from the line of neutrality at all, he would be found at the head of the weaker, the innocent, and injured party. But the general, consulting the belter part of valor, and counting the odds against him as fifty to one, throws himself into the ranks of the stronger party, and thus commends himself again to you for that discretion which you had given to him in advance.

The general is correct in one of his positions; and, being in the right himself, he puts you in the wrong; and so conspicuously, that you stand on the insulated eminence an almost solitary advocate for making and breaking treaties at pleasure.

General Gaines says, " the treaty, no matter how procured, had become a law of the land," &c. &c. He had said to the hostile Indians, at Broken Arrow, " that the treaty could not be annulled, and must be carried into effect," &c. &c. This is good sense. The day before yesterday I received your letter, in which you say, General Gaines having informed you that the treaty had been obtained by intrigue and treachery, it will be referred to Congress for reconsideration. General Gaines tells the Indians that no treaty has ever yet been annulled. You say this treaty shall be made an exception to all others, and upon the information received from General Gaines.

General Gaines proceeds to manifest his respect and complaisance for the Chief Magistrate of a sovereign Slate, by informing him that " he has been greatly deceived by persons in whom he placed reliance, but who were unworthy of his confidence;" thus taking upon himself the responsibility to decide for the Chief Magistrate one of the most delicate of all questions connected with government and sovereignty, viz: the question who are worthy of trust, and who among the public servants are or are not entitled to his confidence. In a little time, sir, with your countenance and encouragement, General Gaines would have dictated the appointments to office in this State; and, it may be, the least hesitation or repugnance to comply with such dictation would be subdued by a parade of United States troops.

After quoting a maxim, that " the King can do no wrong," and expatiating on the moral excellence of truth, and her indiscriminate habitation at the palace and the cottage, the plough and ilie bureau of state, with the wanderers of the wilderness and the honest but unfortunate debtors" — of all which I cannot, for the life of me, understand the application, much less the farrago which follows, about somebody regarding money a little more and truth a little less — condition of despised poverty and luxuries of plundered wealth, &c. &c., and which is equally unintelligible; General Gaines is scarcely more distinct and intelligible when, in passing a meagre compliment to a portion of the citizens of Georgia, he professes to " rely on the wisdom, justice, and patriotism of at least nine-tenths of those with whom he has the pleasure of an acquaintance, many of whom are cultivators of the land;" and then, again, that the " cultivators are the adamantine pillars of the Union, against which the angry vaporing paper squibs of the little and the great demagogues of all countries may continue to be hurled for hundreds of centuries without endangering the noble edifice," &c. &c.; all of which may be intended to convey some meaning, and admit of ready explanation by General Gaines, but which, I assure you, sir, is altogether above my comprehension.

The general soon becomes a little more explicit, when he says there is in Georgia 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 vain and daring efforts to prove that the light of truth is to be found only with the party to which themselves respectively belong, and that all others go wrong." Party! Sir, an agent representing the Government of the United States before the Government of Georgia, addressing to the Chief Magistrate of the State an official paper, in which, descanting on the state of parties, the writer places himself by the side of the one party, and fulminates a denunciation against the other!

Pray, sir, suffer me to ask if Major General Gaines received special instructions at your hands so to deport himself; to pry into the state of parties, to find out the relative strength of them; to place himself on the side of the strongest, giving it aid, countenance, and co-operation; and from this stronghold to issue insolent anathemas against the other, through the Governor of the State; thus directly intermeddling in our local politics, and availing himself of our unhappy divisions to make the exasperations of party yet more bitter? General Gaines will not permit us to mistake him; he proceeds to call the particular party to which he is opposed the " one-sided enlightening class;" in another place, he calls them " the small class."

The opportunities of General Gaines to inform himself of the state of parties in Georgia have been, no doubt, much better than mine, which have indeed been very limited; but I have more generally heard, from men better informed, that the relative strength of parties was somewhat different from the general's estimate of it. He seems to have adopted the same rule of enumeration, under the same optical delusion, as in measuring the strength of the Indian parties, and to have arrived at the very gratifying conclusion that the numerical strength was in the proportion of fifty to one; undoubtedly a very incorrect conclusion.

This officer took umbrage at my request to permit the commissioners on the part of the State to act in friendly concert with him in making his investigation for the discovery of truth. Why he did so, I cannot conjecture. This, however, was passed by without notice, as was his subsequent refusal to admit them to a participation of the councils in matters involving interests of Georgia. His indiscretion in declaring, before the council at Broken Arrow, that if the congregated world were to contradict the chief Yoholo he would not believe it, has been already noticed in the letter which I last had the honor to address to you. It is upon the authority of this chief, of Hambly, represented to be one of the most infamous of men, and of the agent of Indian affairs, that yon have come to the conclusion to return the treaty to Congress for revision, it having been procured by intrigue and treachery.

General Gaines is reported to me to have said, in the presence of one of the commissioners on the part of the State, that if twenty-three States out of the twenty-four were to pronounce the agent guilty, he would not believe them.

General Gaines has been guilty of the childish indiscretion of threatening to cut off the head or ears of citizens of Georgia who happened to offend him, as if you had given him his sword for this special service.

But indeed, sir, it is high time to dismiss the subject of this officer.

In maintaining correspondence with the Government of the United States, I have not permitted any false considerations of dignity, or any false estimates of forms and ceremonies, which usually govern diplomatic intercourse between States, to interpose the least difficulty; so far from it, I have cheerfully descended to the level of every thing which it pleased you at any time to employ as your representative or organ, from the clerks of your bureaus up to your major generals by brevet, and have acted and treated with them as equals.

In the deportment of some of these I have experienced arrogance, self-sufficiency, a haughty and contemptuous carriage, and a most insulting interference with our local politics; and these characteristics not exhibited to one, but to all of the constituted authorities of the State. Now, sir, suffer me, in conclusion, to ask if these things have been done in virtue of your own instructions, express or implied; or by authority of any warrant from you whatsoever; and, if not so done, whether you will sanction or adopt them as your own, and thus hold yourself responsible to the Government of Georgia?

Be persuaded, sir, that whenever hereafter you shall think proper, not deceiving yourself or us, to send gentlemen to represent you before this Government of the character given to those by the letter of the Secretary of War of the 18th May, they will be received and respected as officers of the General Government would be by the most friendly States of the Union.

With great consideration,
G. M. Troup.

The President of the United States, Washington City.

The Secretary of War to Governor Troup.

War Department, August 30, 1825.

Sir:

I am directed by the President of the United States to acknowledge the receipt of your letters to him of the 7th and 26th of July, and of the 7th instant, with their respective enclosures; also, of an enclosure containing newspapers of the 2d and 9th of August.

Deeply regretting the different views of the treaty concluded last February at the Indian Springs, which you have entertained, from those which he has found himself, upon the most deliberate consideration, and under the most solemn of responsibilities, compelled to take, he is anxiously desirous to avoid any thing which, dictated by no absolute necessity, might have a tendency to render wider differences, in his belief, otherwise easily reconcilable. He has felt it, therefore, his duty to decline entering upon any discussion with you which can be forborne; and he perceives nothing in your letters which the interests of the people of Georgia or of the rest of the Union require to be discussed with you. The Government of the United States is fully aware of its duties to the people of Georgia, among which is that of paying due respect to the station of their Chief Magistrate; a duty, if possible, still more indispensable, is that of a constant and faithful attention to their interests, and an earnest solicitude to fulfill all the obligations of the Union to them.

There are duties, also, not only of justice, but of humanity; not only of natural equity, but of positive stipulation, which the Government of the United States is bound to fulfill towards the unfortunate aboriginal inhabitants of this country.

That they have not been violated in the conclusion of the treaty at the Indian Springs, the President would yet willingly hope. That they would be violated by the attempt to survey the territory secured till September, 1826, to the Indians, he has no doubt. He has heard, therefore, with the most lively satisfaction, the determination of your excellency to proceed no further in the survey till the Congress of the United States and the Legislature of Georgia shall have had an opportunity of acting upon the subject, as, in their respective judgments, the rights, duties, and obligations of all the parties concerned may require.

The alarm naturally occasioned by the catastrophe of McIntosh, and which threatened an immediate bloody and desolating war, has now subsided; the internal peace of the tribe has been restored; all appearance of hostilities against the inhabitants of Georgia has vanished. To confirm this state of tranquility, and to renew peaceable and reasonable efforts to reconcile the Indians to the measure of removing from the territory, appear to the President to be his duty, in which he will not abandon the hope of being seconded by the Governor and authorities of Georgia.

The subject, in all its aspects, will be submitted to the consideration of Congress at their approaching session; and all the instructions to the officers of the United States, as well as their conduct under them, will be subject to the animadversion of that body upon them for approbation or censure, as they may appear to have deserved.

Respectfully, your obedient servant,
James Barbour.

His Excellency G. M. Troup, Governor of Georgia.

Governor Troup to the President of the United States.

Executive Department, Milledgeville, August 31, 1825.

Sir:

In the enclosed gazette you will find another insolent letter, dated the 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 regulars 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 authority or countenance, you have an awful atonement to make both to your contemporaries and to posterity.

But if, contrary to either, he has assumed the responsibility, it is expected 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.

You will find, in the same paper, sundry affidavits proving the falsity of the certificate given by Marshall and Edwards to General Gaines, and further proving that General Gaines must have obtained it to wield as an instrument in the pending contest on the side of one party against the other. As I write this, another gazette has been put into my hands, containing another letter of subsequent date and similar character, which is also enclosed for your information.

Very respectfully,
G. M. Troup.

The President of the United States, Washington City.

The Secretary of War to Governor Troup.

Department of War, September 19, 1825.

Sir:

Your letter of the 31st of August, to the President of the United States, has been received and referred to this Department to be answered. The President has decided that he cannot, consistently with his view of the subject, accede to your demand to have General Gaines arrested.

He perceives no sufficient necessity to depart from the course he had determined to pursue before the receipt of your letter, and which I communicated to you fully in the last paragraph of mine of the 30th of August, in which you are informed that " the subject, in all its aspects, will be submitted to the consideration of Congress at their approaching session; and all the instructions to the officers of the United States, as well as their conduct under them, will be subject to the animadversion of that body upon them for approbation or censure, as they may appear to have deserved."

I enclose you a copy of my letter to General Gaines; and, in so doing, I give you a new proof of the frankness by which the Executive has been guided in his intercourse with you, and furnish you with the means of learning its sentiments on the unpleasant occurrence referred to in your letter.

I have the honor to be your obedient servant,
James Barbour.

His Excellency G. M. Troup, Governor of Georgia, Milledgeville.

The Secretary of War to General Gaines.

War Department, September 19, 1825.

General:

I enclose you a copy of a letter from Governor Troup, in which you will see he has demanded your arrest for having violated the articles of war, by your several letters of the 10th and 28th of July, and 16th and 29th of August last, addressed to him, and which you caused to be published. The President has decided that he will not accede to this demand. I enclose you my reply of this date to Governor Troup.

There is no part of his duty which the President more anxiously pursues than that of maintaining the most scrupulous decorum in his official intercourse with the State authorities — a line of conduct from which no circumstances, however aggravated, have or will tempt him to depart; and he feels it incumbent on him to cause every officer of the Government to pursue a similar course. He 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 Governor Troup, you have permitted yourself to indulge a tone whose effect will be to destroy that harmony which the President is so much disposed to cherish, and the publication of what 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 Governor 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 Governor 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 without which palliation the President would have found it his duty to have yielded to the demand of Governor Troup.

I have the honor to be your obedient servant,
James Barbour.

Major General E. P. Gaines.

Governor Troup to the Secretary of War.

Executive Department, GA., Milledgeville, October 1, 1825.

Sir:

The evidence accompanying this will close the testimony on the part of the State against the Creek agent, with the exception of that which it is supposed Colonel White of Florida may furnish.

Respectfully, &c.
G. M. Troup, The Secretary of War, Washington City.

Governor Troup to the Secretary of War.

Executive Department, GA., Milledgeville, October 15, 1825.

Sir:

Notwithstanding the resolution of the President, repeated in your letter of the 19th ultimo, to refer the complaints of this Government against the officers of yours who have given it offence to the consideration of Congress — a resolution considered here of most extraordinary character, inasmuch as it is the transfer of a subject over which the President, by the constitution, has exclusive jurisdiction, to a power which has no jurisdiction of it at all — I cannot forbear calling his attention to a statement contained in your letter to General Gaines, which, assumed to be true, although not true, is made the justification of the President in resisting the demand of the Governor of Georgia, and in extenuating the conduct of his officer. The paragraph in your letter embracing the statement reads as follows: " I am directed to add, as an act of justice to you, that the President sees in the serious charges made against you by Governor 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." Now, sir, so far from this being true, the opposite is true. 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 that 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 does not say;) and this, too, done, as was afterwards made manifest, for the purpose 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 President, you have only to compare the dates of the various letters and of their publication. It will be seen that, before General 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 in due time with additional testimony to show the very reprehensible conduct of the same officer in his deportment towards the authorities 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.

I have the honor to be your obedient servant,
G. M. Troup.

The Hon. James Barbour, Secretary of War.

Warren Jourdan, Seaborn Jones, W. W. Williamson, and W. H. Torrance, to Governor Troup.

Fort Mitchell, June 26, 1825.

Mr. Ball arrived here to-day about 11 o'clock. We thought proper to detain him until we could furnish you with a copy of our correspondence thus far with General Gaines and Major Andrews.

A perusal of these papers will furnish you with all the information that we yet have upon the subject of our mission.

The Indians have not yet been in council with General Gaines, but will convene to-morrow.

The copies you have herewith enclosed. Should any matter of importance occur by Tuesday's mail, we will inform you. The agent is suspended.

Respectfully, sir, your obedient servants, Warren Jourdan,
Seaborn Jones,
W. W. Williamson,
W. H. Torrance

His Excellency George M. Troup.

N. B. General Gaines requests that his papers and letters may be forwarded to this place. Please order it, to be done.

Governor Troup to Messrs. Jourdan, Jones, Torrance, and Williamson.

Executive Department, Milledgeville, June 18, 1825.

Gentlemen:

You are requested to proceed to the Indian Springs, to attend a council of the friendly Indians to be holden there on the 20th instant. 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 disturbances 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 the Indians.

From the Indian Springs you will proceed to attend the other council of Indians, to he holden at Broken Arrow on the 25th instant. Your presence there will be of more importance, because more immediately connected with the investigation of the conduct of the agent, as arraigned by the Governor, at the instance of the President of the United States, and by the Legislature of the State. You will, no doubt, be admitted to a free participation of that council, and will be suffered to take with you, under sufficient safeguard, any of the friendly chiefs whose presence there you may consider necessary to the accomplishment of the objects which the United States and this Govern­ment have in view. There can be the less doubt of this, because, the charges having been already made both by the executive and legislative authority of Georgia against the agent, and the agent having so far thought proper to have recourse to the missionaries and hostile Indians in the nation for his defence, and that defence being already before the public at the instance of the agent, in which it would seem that, both being under the control and influence of his office, any direction most suitable to his views may be given to their opinions and feelings, it is only an exercise of strict right on the part of the Government of Georgia that it be heard before that council by its commissioners, who are instructed to give and receive explanations for the purpose, in common with the agents of the United States, of arriving at truth, and doing justice to all parties. Should such participation be denied you, you will enter your formal protest against that denial, and proceed to avail yourselves, within the jurisdiction of Georgia, of all the testimony you can obtain.

Yours, respectfully, G. M. Troup.

Messrs. Jourdan, Jones, Torrance, and Williamson, Commissioners, &c.

Georgia Commissioners to Governor Troup.

Fort Mitchell, June 28, 1825.

Sir:

By the return of your express, we advised you of our movements up to that date. Finding ourselves com­pletely forestalled in every operation here, by the directions of General Gaines and the agent, we determined in council that a part of the mission should proceed forthwith to Alabama, believing the testimony to be obtained in that quarter more important than any we could collect here. In furtherance of these views, Colonels Jones and Torrance left here yesterday evening, and will return with all possible despatch to join us. The other two mem­bers of the mission continue to occupy their situation.

The Indians will probably go into council to-morrow. As yet we know nothing of the import of their delibera­tions, and as yet we can say nothing favorable of the object of our mission.

We are, sir, your excellency's most obedient, humble servants, Warren Jourdan,
W. W. Williamson,
W. H. Torrance,
Seaborn Jones,
Commissioners.

His Excellency George M. Troup.

Governor Troup to Seaborn Jones.

Executive Department, Milledgeville, June 23, 1825.

Sir:

Believing the enclosed may be important to you, I send it by express. You will be pleased to make known to the commissioners that no obstruction will be offered to the survey or running of the line, inasmuch as it is re­solved to carry these objects into effect.

Very respectfully,
G. M.Troup.

Colonel Seaborn Jones, Broken Arrow.

Governor Troup to the Georgia Commissioners.

Executive Department, Milledgeville, June 23, 1825.

Gentlemen:

The enclosed memorandum of testimony, which, it is said, will be furnished by Colonel White, the Delegate of East and West Florida, has been forwarded to the Secretary of War, with a request that he will avail himself of the presence of Colonel White to obtain his affidavit to the truth of the fact. The memorandum is taken from a statement made by Mr. John Williams, at whose house Colonel White staid.

Very respectfully,
G. M. Troup.

The Georgia commissioners, at Broken Arrow.

Governor Troup to the Georgia Commissioners.

Executive Department, Milledgeville, July 1, 1825.

Gentlemen:

Perceiving, by your peculiar situation in the nation, that more of efficiency and despatch may be given to your proceedings by enabling you to detach members of your board whenever it shall be deemed necessary, you are hereby further instructed to make such detachment, at discretion, provided that not less than two shall be competent to proceed to business at any particular place, whose report shall, in all cases, be made to the board for its adoption or rejection; and that no such proceeding shall be considered final and conclusive until it has received the sanction and approbation of the board.

Very respectfully,
G. M. Troup.

The Georgia commissioners, at Broken Arrow.

Warren Jourdan and W. W. Williamson to Governor Troup.

Crabtree's, Creek Nation, July 2, 1825.

Sir:

We have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your several enclosures per express.

In conformity with your wishes, a talk was immediately draughted expressive of your views in relation to the survey of the country forthwith accruing to Georgia by the late treaty concluded at the Indian Springs. As General Gaines had, from the beginning to end, disclaimed the authority of Georgia to an interference with the " delicate and important trust confided to him," we deemed it respectful to submit it to his examination and decision before we proposed it to the council. We had the mortification to receive, in this, as well as in every other application which was calculated to facilitate the objects of our mission and to elicit truth, the continued and reiterated declaration, " it will conflict with our instructions; it is therefore inadmissible." We have accomplished but little; our way has been obstructed and hedged in on all sides. We have been engaged indefatigably to promote the well-being of the State we have the honor to represent on this occasion. Our labors have been unsuccessful and mortifying to an extent unknown in the history of diplomacy. You shall hear from us in detail at a proper time.

Your excellency's most obliged and humble servants,
WARREN JOURDAN,
W. W. WilliamSON,

His Excellency George M. Troup, Milledgeville. Commissioners.

Governor Troup to the Georgia Commissioners.

Executive Department, Milledgeville, June 28, 1825.

Gentlemen:

It would be desirable, if you have an opportunity to do so, to impress upon the Indians the innocence of the intention as well as the innocence of the act of survey, on our part, as their rights or interests of any kind can in no manner be affected by it. The measures of the United States will undoubtedly have a tendency to excite them against us; and if the United States should not take part with them in resisting the survey, humanity would dictate the propriety of forewarning them of the consequences, after placing them in possession of the facts and principles which govern our conduct.

Very respectfully,
G. M. Troup.

The Georgia commissioners, at Broken Arrow.

Governor Troup to the Georgia Commissioners.

Executive Department, Milledgeville, June 28, 1825.

Gentlemen:

You will perceive by the enclosed copy of a letter addressed to Major Andrews, of this date, that further intercourse between himself and this Government is forbidden, and for the reasons contained in that letter; it being now obvious that the question which you are engaged in investigating had been prejudged at Washington, even before the departure of Major Andrews from that city. The dignity of the Government of Georgia requires that it no longer continue to recognize him in his official character of special agent.

With great consideration and respect,
G. M. Troup.

The Georgia Commissioners, at Broken Arrow, Creek Nation.

Warren Jourdan and W. W. Williamson to Governor Troup.

Crabtree's, Creek Nation, June 30, 1825.

Sir:

Difficulties and obstructions having been thrown in the way of the early fulfillment of the objects which called us to this place, we have to request of you to detain any witness or witnesses who may attend at Milledge­ville for examination, until our arrival.

The hostile part of the nation have, for some time past, been deluded with the expectation, nay, almost certainty, of the abrogation of the treaty. We have great pleasure in informing your excellency that General Gaines took occasion yesterday, while in council, to state, distinctly, such a hope was illusive; that such an occurrence was unknown in the history of diplomacy; and earnestly urged them to become reconciled to the treaty, and the policy of the General Government.

We take occasion to assure your excellency of our high consideration and respect.
Warren Jourdan,
Wm. W. Williamson,

His Excellency George M. Troup, Milledgeville. Commissioners.

Governor Troup to Messrs. Jourdan, Jones, Torrance, and Williamson.

Executive Department, Milledgeville, June 15, 1825.

Gentlemen:

You will see, from the broad and comprehensive terms of the resolution subjoined to the report of the committee, a copy of which is enclosed, that you are authorized to examine into the conduct of the agent, generally, during his continuance in office, and that you are not confined to the charges exhibited against him by the Governor of this State.

Very respectfully,
G. M. Troup.

Messrs. Jourdan, Jones, Torrance, and Williamson,
Commissioners, &c.

Governor Troup to General Shorter.

Headquarters, Milledgeville, June 10, 1825.

Sir:

Knowing that, in conformity with general orders, you have taken all the measures in your power to make safe the frontiers upon the line of your division, I forward to you supplies of arms and ammunition, which you will order to be placed in safe custody, under a responsible officer, at or near the Indian Springs, the present theatre of alarm. You will soon hear that similar supplies are forwarded for General Ware, to whom you will give instructions accordingly. Every thing must be kept safely, so that the public suffer no detriment, and whether they be used or not.

Very respectfully,
G. M. Troup.

Major General R. C. Shorter, Monticello, Georgia.

Governor Troup to General Ware.

Headquarters, Milledgeville, June 11, 1825.

Sir:

You will receive for the public service one hundred and sixty muskets, five thousand two hundred and eighty cartridges, two hundred and fifty flints, one hundred pounds of buck shot, and one hundred and sixty cartridge boxes; all of which you will be pleased to take the best possible care of.

Very respectfully,
G. M. Troup.

Brigadier General A. Ware, Fayette County, Georgia.

General Ware to Governor Troup.

Fayette county, Fort Troup, July 11, 1825.

Sir:

I have received information (which I conceive it my duty to communicate to you) that the citizens are intruding and trespassing on the Indians, by taking and conveying off the corn and other property of General William McIntosh, together with other friendly Indians. From a letter I this day received from Colonel Wagnor, of DeKalb county, and from the information of others of respectability, I am informed that the whites, citizens of this State, are committing depredations, and, in fact, stealing and taking off the property of the Indians on the head of Tallapoosa.

From my situation, I have thought it the most advisable to communicate the above facts to your excellency, and elicit your opinion as to the most advisable plan for me to pursue against those intruders, as, in my opinion, I deem it necessary that something ought to be done to put a stop to these plundering whites, divested of every principle of right and justice. I have sent on this by a friend of mine, Mr. Jones, who was going to Milledgeville, and who will hand you this; and permit me to solicit your excellency to send me an answer by the bearer.

With sentiments of esteem, your excellency's obedient servant,
Alexander Ware.

To His Excellency G. M. Troup.

Governor Troup to General Ware.

Executive Department, Milledgeville, July 14, 1825.

Sir:

I have received your letter of the 11th instant by Mr. Jones, notifying me of the depredations committed by our citizens on the property of the friendly chiefs and others. As the criminal laws of Georgia have been extended over that section of country, I wish you to turn over to the solicitor general of your circuit for prosecution the names of all persons who, in this respect, have been violating the laws. Be pleased to give this information to Colonel Wagnor also. The magistrates ought to be vigilant and active in repressing these disorders, as they are required by my proclamation; and you can give them to understand that, whenever a military force shall become necessary in aid of the execution of the laws, you will furnish it promptly; and to this effect you had better give orders to your frontier officers.

Very respectfully, your friend and servant,
G. M. Troup.

Brigadier General Alexander Ware, Fayetteville, Georgia.

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