General Jessup appears to have now felt a desire to do justice to that friendless and persecuted people. Without waiting to answer the President, he at once wrote General Arbuckle, saying, "The case of the Seminole negroes is now before the President. By my proclamation and the convention made with them, when they separated from the Indians and surrendered, _they are free_. The question is, whether they shall be separated from the Seminoles and removed to another country; or be allowed to occupy, as they did in Florida, separate villages in the Seminole Country, west of Arkansas? The latter is what _I promised them_. I hope, General, you will prevent any interference with them at Fort Gibson, until the President determines whether they shall remain in the Seminole Country, or be allowed to remove to some other." General Arbuckle, faithful to the honor of his Government, continued to protect the Exiles. He fed them from the public stores, not doubting that the Executive would redeem the pledge of the nation given by General Jessup, its authorized agent. But the President (Mr. Polk) himself a slaveholder, with his prejudices and sympathies in favor of the institution, did not understand the articles of capitulation according to the construction put upon them by General Jessup; he appears, therefore, to have called on the General for a more explicit report of facts. In reply to this call, he reported, saying, "At a meeting with the three Indian chiefs, and the negro chiefs, Auguste and Carollo, I stipulated to recommend to the President to grant the Indians a small tract of country in the south-eastern part of the Peninsula; but it was distinctly understood that the negroes were to be separated from them at once, and sent West, whether the Indians were permitted to remain in Florida or not. With the negroes, it was stipulated that they should be sent West, as a part of the Seminole nation, and be _settled in a separate village, under the_ PROTECTION OF THE UNITED STATES." In another letter, addressed to the Secretary of War, he says: "A very _small portion_ of the Seminole negroes who went to the West, were brought in and surrendered by their owners, under the capitulation of Fort Dade. Over these negroes the Indians have all the rights of masters; but all the other negroes, making more than _nine-tenths of the whole number_, either separated from the Indians and surrendered to me, or were captured by the troops under my command. I, as commander of the army, and in the capacity of representative of my country, _solemnly pledged the national faith that they should not be separated, nor any of them sold to white men or others_, but be allowed to settle and remain in separate villages, UNDER THE PROTECTION OF THE UNITED STATES."