It will be recollected, that General Scott would not permit the people of Florida to interfere in the discharge of his official duties, and that they, through their representative in Congress, had demanded his removal from command of the army. They now applied directly to the Secretary of War, remonstrating against the action of General Jessup; and it is possible that officer deemed it prudent to yield to their dictation. Be that as it may, it is certain that he now lent the power of the army to carry out the wishes of the citizens. Officers and men were detailed to take black prisoners--who had come in and surrendered with the expectation of emigrating West--from their places of rendezvous to certain points where it would be most convenient for claimants to receive them. On the seventeenth of April, Major Churchill, aid to General Jessup, wrote Colonel Harney, saying, "I am instructed by the commanding General to acknowledge the receipt to-day of your letter of the seventh instant, and to inform you that the negro prisoners captured from the Indians, and supposed to belong to the white people, were sent from this place, on the eleventh instant, to Lieutenant D. H. Vinton, at St. Marks, for the purpose of being returned to their owners. The Indians have agreed to send all slaves, _taken from white people during the war_, to Fort Mellon and Volusi; and runners are now employed in the interior on that service." On the same day, information was given to William De Payster, that seven of the number sent to Volusi probably belonged to him. On the same day also, "A. Forrester" was informed of the fact, that those slaves "had been sent to St. Marks, and that six of the number probably belonged to him." Other plans were devised for securing slaves, as we are informed by a letter from General Jessup to E. K. Call, Governor of Florida, dated eighteenth of April, 1837, in which he says: "If the citizens of the territory be prudent, the war may be considered at an end; but any attempt to interfere with the _Indian negroes_, or to _arrest_ any of the chiefs or warriors as _debtors_ or _criminals_, would cause an immediate resort to arms. The negroes control their masters; and have heard of the act of your legislative council. Thirty or more of the Indian negro men were near my camp on the Withlacoochee in March last; but the arrival of two or three citizens of Florida, said to be in search of negroes, caused them to disperse, and I doubt whether they will come in again; at all events the emigration will be delayed a month I apprehend in consequence of this alarm among the negroes."