another talk on the next day. He expressed the disappointment felt by the commissioners at the manner in which the talk of the President had been received by his red brothers. They had not returned such an answer as their father the President had a right to expect from his Chickasaw children. They informed the council that all communications which are made will be given in writing and copies forwarded to their father the President for his consideration. It was agreed on the part of the nation to submit their communications in writing. The council then adjourned. Wednesday 25th Oct. The council met agreeably to adjournment and the commissioners being notified that the council was ready to receive their communication they went into council, when the following talk was delivered to them by the commissioners and interpreted to the council by Malcolm McGee. Friends and Brothers, The commissioners of our father the President have received the answer of his Chickasaw children. The commissioners herewith send you a talk of our late father, President Monroe, to the Congress of the United States. This talk will prove to you that measures have been for some time in progress by which all our Indian brethren will ultimately be removed from this to the other side of the Mississippi river. You will also see that this plan of the Government is not new nor hastily adopted. It is the result of mature deliberation, and will not be relinquished until it is finally accomplished. Th objections of our red brethren to the policy of our Government cannot prevent it. Already have your neighbors and relatives the Creeks Cherokees and Chocktaws secured themselves a country beyond the Mississippi, where their names and their nations may be preserved. Would it not be wise in you to follow their example, whilst yet it is in your power, and before it is too late to do so with advantage? You will then be, as you are now, their neighbors and friends. Having a common interest, you would be able to make common cause, and mutually defend each other against all your enemies. In addition to this, for your protection, you will have the faith of the Government of the United States pledged to you by the sacred seal of a treaty. We are also bound by every feeling of brotherhood and a common interest to secure you against the encroachments of our white brothers, and to defend against yours and our enemies. Are you willing to sit down in delusive security, and see your nation gradually diminish and your people dwindle away, until the very name and language of a Chickasaw is forever lost? Your father the President is persuaded that this will be your fate unless you join your red brothers on the west of the Mississippi. His wisdom and foresight together with his ability and disposition to protect you will enable you to guard against it if you will like dutiful children receive his talk. Here you have a country greatly too large for you if you intend to depend upon the earth for a support and entirely too small if you intend to depend upon game for support. If you wish to remain here and be civilized you must contract your limits and you must apply to the ground for support. When your people who are now scattered over a wide surface and far separated from each other shall be brought together, and compelled to live near to one another the march of civilization will then be rapid, industry will spread its blessings over your land, your population will increase and you will speedily arrive at that state of improvement which your father the President so much desires. So soon as this is accomplished his red children will be entitled to all the civil and political rights of his white children. You say that to remove would be like transplanting an old tree which would wither and die. The trees of the forest and particularly the most useless are most difficult to transplant but fruit trees which are more particularly designed by the Great Spirit for the nourishment and comfort of man require not only to be transplanted but nourished and cultivated and even pruned to bring forth good fruit. You say you are attached to the land of your fathers-this is right and natural. But how seldom does it fall to the lot of your white brothers to leave their bones in the land of their fathers? We may repine at it and regret it but such is the ever changing condition of our people that all of them submit to their lot. A wise man will cheerfully submit when he is convinced that the change although disagreeable to him is for the benefit of his country and his children. You say you are a small nation and by removing you will be more exposed to your enemies. From all dangers from this quarter the United States will be bound to protect you. The strong arm of our Government will protect all the tribes on the west side of the Mississippi and keep them at peace with one another. It has protected all the Indians who have removed, and will feel doubly bound to protect the Chickasaws "who have never shed the blood of a white man. But should you still be opposed to exchanging your land here for a country west of the Mississippi your father the President has directed his commissioners to say that the interest of his white children makes it his duty to call upon you to sell him a part of your land. His white children never will be satisfied until they have a communication through their own settlements between the city. of New Orleans and the State of Tennessee. In the late war when the British invaded Louisiana our white brothers of New Orleans and of Natchez were compelled to call upon their broth ers in Tennessee and Kentucky to defend them. The distance was so great that the country of the Mississippi was for a long time left exposed. Our towns would have been burned, our property plundered and our country lost but for timely and miraculous relief by our brothers from Tennessee and Kentucky. This state of things must not occur again. The wide country between Mississippi and Tennessee must be settled. We must have men near at hand to defend our seaports and our Southern white brothers. You have more land than you can use. Your white brethren have to protect their own and the country of their red brothers. They defray the expenses of the Government in peace and feed and support their armies in war. The only advantage the Government derives from its red children is to get occasionally some of their lands at a fair and reasonable price. By refusing to sell us lands you withhold the only means in your power of contributing to the support and prosperity of the Government of the United States. Should you obstinately persist in this your father the President will be compelled to do that which you ought most willingly and of your own accord to do. You must see the necessity of selling a part of your lands so as to enable us to connect our lower and upper countries. If our Choctaw brothers will act toward the Government with that liberality which we have a right to expect we will be enabled with what we calculate on getting from you to accomplish this most desirable object. Your father the President says you must sell to your white brothers that part of your land which you can most conveniently spare and which their necessities compel them to have. It is not proposed to take any part of your country without giving you ample compensation. You father the President would. not defraud you and the commissioners would scorn to take advantage of either your weakness or your necessities. They are resolved to deal fairly and honorably with you and pay a full and liberal value for your lands in money for the benefit of the whole nation; and in addition will give reservations with good title and of reasonable sized tracts to such of the natives as live on that portion of the land which may be ceded to the United States. To attain the objects of your father the President it is proposed that you will sell us a part of your country on the Tombigby river and its waters and to adjoin Monroe County-of size sufficient to form a federal district and to be bounded by such lines as your brothers and your chiefs and head men may agree on. (Signed) THOS. HINDS. After this "talk" was read to the Council Genl. Coffee made an address emphasizing the reasons for a sale or removal. The next day was spent by the Indians in consultation among themselves and on the 27th they submitted their answer in writing which was substantially a repetition of the reasons given in their first communication against either selling their land or exchanging for territory west of the Mississippi. These answers are a queer combination of submissive humility to the wish of the President, and an unalterable determination not to give up the country of their fathers. They meet the arguments of the commissioners squarely and repeat many times that they will not remove but say they are entirely in the hands of the President, who alone can protect them. On the 28th, after another address, Coffee took a step from which he evidently expected a sensation and material results.. f He submitted a statement from Walter Bunch that he had heard threats made against the life of any chief who advocated submission to the plan of the commissioners, and claimed the Indians were being intimidated. This announcement was without effect, and the commissioners made a proposition in new language differing from the first only in some minor details, and in offering to pay for their houses, their stock lost or injured in transit to the new territory if they moved, the expenses and per diem of a party who would first visit and examine the country offered them, and finally "a large sum in money by annuities." This was also refused by the Indians. Then a new commissioner for the Government, Gen. Wm. Clark, appeared on the scene, and made an address to the council, at the conclusion of which Levi Colbert for the Indians announced that there was not a man in the nation' who would consent to the sale of either the whole or a part of their country. The following communication terminated the negotiations: "Friends and Brothers: "We have layd before the Council this evening the talks of the Commissioners and have come to this determination as we have no wish to exchange our lands here for any other we think it unnecessary to run our Father the President to any further expense; therefore we have to refuse your propositions. "If we was to accede to the offers made us in exploring that section of the country west of the Mississippi it would incur great expense for no effect as we are entirely opposed to changing countries. We are happy to see our brother the Commis-, sioner William Clarke and are thankful for his counsel. If we had any idea of exchanging our lands with the government we should be happy in receiving his information of the situation of that country. "As this appears to be the last talk that we have to swap together at this time we wish to tell our brothers the commissioners that as we met them like brothers we hope to part in the same kind of spirit. (Signed) LEVI COLBERT. J. MCCLISH, MARTIN COLBERT." |