The Exiles of Florida: or, The crimes committed by our government against the Maroons, who fled from South Carolina and other slave states, seeking protection under Spanish laws.Giddings, Joshua R. (Joshua Reed)
Philosophy
The Exiles of Florida: or, The crimes committed by our government against the Maroons, who fled from South Carolina and other slave states, seeking protection under Spanish laws.
Giddings, Joshua R. (Joshua Reed)
Maroons; Seminole War, 1st, 1817-1818; Seminole War, 2nd, 1835-1842
The leading feature of this treaty, is a studied effort to make no
allusion to the Exiles, or to recognize their existence in any way.
General Jessup, in the articles of capitulation, had expressly
stipulated for the protection of the persons and property of the
"allies" of the Seminoles; but for half a century efforts had been made
to exclude them from the page of our national history, and never was
that policy more strikingly illustrated than in this treaty.
As heretofore stated, the Seminoles were said to own some forty slaves;
but the Author has been unable to find any hint or intimation that any
one of those slaves was claimed by the Creeks: yet efforts were made to
falsify the truth of history by representing the four or five hundred
Exiles now living with the Seminoles to be slaves to their friends and
"_allies_."
The next extraordinary feature of the treaty, is the recital of the
_Creek_ treaty as binding upon the Seminoles, when they had been no
party to it, nor even had knowledge of its existence.
But the third article is that on which both Exiles and Seminoles appear
to have relied. Thinking the President would do justice; feeling
themselves subject to the power of the Executive, and pressed on all
sides to accede to terms of pacification, they signed the treaty as the
best alternative that lay before them.
In accordance with the past policy of the Administration, this treaty
was withheld from publication. It was of course submitted to the Senate
in secret session for approval. It was then amended, and still kept from
the public for nearly two years after its negotiation.
NOTE.--At the session of Congress, 1845-6, a bill containing, among
many other things, an appropriation to carry out this treaty, was
reported by the committee on Ways and Means, of the House of
Representatives. The treaty itself yet lay concealed in the office
of the Secretary of the Senate, where it had been ratified in
secret session, and not a member of the House of Representatives
had seen it, unless it was the Chairman of the committee of Ways
and Means, or other confidential friends of the Executive, to whom
it was given for personal examination.
The bill was printed, and the Author seeing this provision,
determined to know something of the treaty, before voting money to
carry it into effect. For this purpose, he called on one of the
Senators from Ohio (Hon. Thomas Corwin), to get a copy of the
treaty. Mr. Corwin went with him to the office of the Secretary of
the Senate, and after much inquiry, and passing from one clerk to
another, a copy was obtained.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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