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Show 18~ LIFE OF GEN. JACKSON. CHAP. and may have founded his opinions upon data presum...:;_, ed to be cmTect ; but his continual declarJ.tions, that 1814. the Creek Indians intended a rigid adherence to their treaties, at the very moment they were planning their murderous schemes against the frontiers, led the western people to fear, that his agency had lasted too long, to hope that he would steadily pursue that course, which the safety and interest of the country required. On the lOth of July, the general, with a small retiUnitcd nue, reached the Alabama; and on the lOth of August ~~::~: ne- su~cecded in . procuring the execution of a treaty, in ~t iation wluch the Ind1ans pledged themselves, no more to list;; 1~:~~~~ en to foreign emissaries,-to hold no communication with British or Spanish garrisons ; guaranteed to the United States, the right of erecting military posts in their country, and a free navigation of all their waters. They stipulated further, that they would suffer no agent or trader to pass among them, or hold any kind of commerce or intercourse with their nation, unless specially deriving his authority from the president of the United States. To settle the boundary, defining the extent of territory to be secured to the Creeks, and that which they would be required to surrender, was attended with some difficulty ; and was increased by the intrigues of the Cherokee nation, who sought to obtain from them, such all acknowledgment of their lines, as would give them a considerable portion of country, never attached to their claim. The Creeks had heretofore permitted this tribe to extend its settlements as low down the Coosa as tl1e mouth of Wills' creek. It was insisted, now, in private caucus, that as they were about to sur- LIFE OF GEN. JACKSON. 18:1 render all their country, lying on Tennessee river, they Cf~AP. should, previously to signing the treaty, acknowledge H . th . ~ e extensiOn of the Cherokee boundary, which would tl . I . . 1814. secure 1e1r c ann agmnst that of the United States. The only reply obtained from the Creeks, was, that th:y could not lie, by admitting what did not in reality CXJSt. The United States might, witl10ut violence to those feelings benevolence excites, have demanded the whole countr~, and either have treated the Indians as vassals, or admitted them into tllCir national compact, with such r!ghts of citizenship, as, fi·om their peculiar habits of hfe, they were calculated safely to use and enjoy; but the humane lmd generous policy, which had been sedulously maintained, in all transactions witl1 the savage~, w~thin their limits, induced tl1e government to reqmre, m the cession, only such portion of tlleir countr_ y as sh?:J!d bar every avenue to foreign intrigue, rulCl giVe adchtwnal strength to those sections of th . 1 . h f h . e umon, w lJC ' r?~ t eJr limited extent of territory' and con-sequent limJ:ed population, were unable to afford suffi. c ient supp. lies, for the subsistence of a, n armv, or to give a partial check to the inroads of an invading ene-my. The lines defined by the treaty were so arranged, as fully ~o meet these objects. Sufficient ten~tory w~s acqurred on tile south, to give security to the M~bile settlements, and western borders of Geor ia wldu ch had often felt the stroke of I nd "m n vengeagn ce' ~n cruelty ; while, at the same time was effected th m~portrul: purpose of separating them from the' Se~ ;;~r~le tnbes, an~ our unfriendly neighbours in East da. To Madison county, and the frontiers ofTenA a |
