Major General McComb arrived in Florida (May 20) for the purpose of effecting a new treaty with the Seminoles upon the basis of _permitting them to remain in their native land_. The war had been waged with the intent and for the purpose of compelling the Indians to emigrate West and settle with the Creeks, and become subject to the Creek laws. It had continued three years at a vast expenditure of treasure and of national reputation. Many valuable lives had also been sacrificed; and, although some two thousand Indians and Exiles had emigrated West, not one Exile had settled in the Creek Country, or become subject to Creek laws. Some hundreds had been enslaved and sold in Florida, Georgia, Alabama and South Carolina; but a remnant of that people, numbering some hundreds, yet maintained their liberties against all the machinations and efforts of Government to reënslave them.[122] The vast expenditure of national treasure had called forth severe animadversion in Congress; while the entire policy of the slave power forbid all explanation of the real cause of this war, and of the objects for which its prosecution was continued. Thus, while the nation was involved in a most expensive and disastrous contest for the benefit of slavery, the House of Representatives had adopted resolutions for suppressing all discussion and all agitation of questions relating to that institution. General Scott, a veteran officer of our army, had exhausted his utmost science; had put forth all his efforts to conquer this indomitable people; or rather to subdue the love of liberty, the independence of thought and of feeling, which stimulated them to effort; but he had failed. The power of our army, aided by deception, fraud and perfidy, had been tried in vain. General Jessup, the most successful officer who had commanded in Florida, had advised peace upon the precise terms which the allies demanded at the commencement of the war; and General McComb, Commander-in-Chief of the army of the United States, was now commissioned to negotiate peace on those terms. But the first difficulty was to obtain a hearing with the chiefs who remained in Florida, in order to enter upon negotiations touching a pacification. To effect this object, recourse was had to a negro, one of the Exiles who knew General Taylor, and in whom General Taylor confided. At the request of General McComb, this man was dispatched with a friendly message to several chiefs, requesting them to come into the American Camp for the purpose of negotiation. His mission proved successful. A Council of several chiefs, and some forty head men and warriors, was convened at Fort King, on the sixteenth of May, 1839, and the terms of peace agreed upon; but no treaty appears to have been drawn up in form. On the eighteenth of May, General McComb, at Fort King, his head-quarters, issued the following general orders: "HEAD QUARTERS OF THE ARMY OF THE UNITED STATES,} _Fort King, Florida_, May 18, 1839. }