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GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS 461
address strongly supported the Government's action. Later an effort was
made by England to force a direct trade with the cotton states, on the
supposition that no real unity existed between these states, especially
where selfish interests were involved. In January, 1809, an English war
brig, the Sandwich, anchored off Tybee Island, at the mouth of the
Savannah River. Disembarking, two British officers came in rowboats
up the stream to purchase cotton, but only to meet an emphatic refusal.
There was no cotton in Savannah for English buyers. These officers
became insolent and even threatened to destroy the town, but they
failed to secure any cotton. Returning to the brig, they soon put out to
sea, but as a farewell salute emptied a charge of lead into a pilot boat
lying in the harbor.
Such an indignity made Georgia eager for war, and accordingly the
Legislature of 1809 passed resolutions of protest, urging our Government
to maintain its sovereign rights against the despots of Europe.
But Georgia's part in the War of 1812 was chiefly to aid in quelling
a frontier outbreak of the Creek Indians who became in this struggle
the allies of the British. Anticipating an outbreak of war, England had
secretly sent emissaries to this country to secure allies among the North
American Indians. Tecumseh, a chief of the Shawnees, famed for his
eloquence, became a convert to these emissaries, especially since, with
a prophet's eye, he saw the doom of his race prefigured in the reddening
clouds which lurng upon the sunset sky; and he, therefore, undertook to
incite all the tribes between Canada and Florida to rise in an organized
body against the white settlements. This was an adroit move on the part
of England. Tecumseh, from his home in the far-away Northwest, came
all the way to Georgia for the purpose of inciting the Muscogee Confed
eracy to arms; nor did his fiery eloquence fail to exert a powerful influ
ence upon the savage tribes. All accounts agree in ascribing to Tecumseh
wonderful powers of oratory, in portraying him as a man. of splendid
presence, and with a powerful voice, marvelous in its flexibility and
compass, and with a tropical imagination. Tecumseh encountered little
difficulty in arousing the hostile Upper Creeks, 011 the Alabama River,
though it was mainly from the youthful hot-heads or Red-Sticks that he
drew his adherents. The old men of the tribe counseled moderation.
But to quote an authoritative account, "the Red Sticks listened readily
to Tecumseh's teaching, .and when he left for his home in the distant
North-west many were already dancing the war-dance of the Lakes.'' *
Most fortunate it was for Georgia that at this time she possessed a
strong tower of defense in the person of Col. Benjamin Hawkins, the
resident Indian agent appointed to this office by Washington. For years
this truly great and noble man had devoted his life with supreme un
selfishness to the welfare of the Indians, and though he had occupied a
seat in the American Senate he was nevertheless willing to bury himself
in the heart of the wilderness, if by such a sacrifice he could serve his
country in an hour of need and aid in uplifting the savage tribes of the
forest. The Lower Creeks, who dwelt within the limits of Georgia and
who came directly under the 1 influence of Colonel Hawkins, remained
friendly to Georgia, and no persuasive arguments could induce them to
' Life of Jackson," W. G. Brown, p. 47.