Untitled - the Digital Library of Georgia

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS 535
follows: George Carey, Alfred Cuthbert, John Forsyth, Charles E.
Haynes, James Meriwether, Edward F. Tattnall, and Wiley Thompson.
We now return to the Indian problem. Due to the unfriendly atti
tude of the Indians, both Creeks and Cherokees, all negotiations for two
years had been fruitless. At a council of the Creeks held at Broken
Arrow, in 1824, the Indians had refused to listen to any proposition from
the Federal Government. But President Monroe, before retiring from
office, decided to make one more effort toward settling this vexed ques
tion. Accordingly he invited the chiefs of the Creek Nation to a con
ference at Indian Springs, there to meet with commissioners from the
United States Government, on Monday, February 7, 1825. These^ com
missioners were: Duncan G. Campbell and James Meriwether, both
Georgians.
But the hostile Alabama Creeks refused to attend in any large num
bers; and while there were many chiefs, head-men and warriors present
these came chiefly from the southeastern area of the Creek Nation, an
area included within the borders of Georgia. These Lower Creeks were
led by Gen. William Mclntosh, a man of the highest character, and a
cousin to Governor Troup, whose mother was a Mclntosh. Opposition
by the Alabama Creeks to any cession of the Georgia lands was based
upon the contention that these lands formed a part of the Creek ; Nation
as a whole and the consent of the entire nation was needed to make any
cession of land, however fractional, perfectly valid. On the other hand,
the Georgia Creeks, recognizing the inevitability of a final surrender to
the whites, were willing to treat with the Government for a relinquish-
ment of lands within the borders of Georgia; and since they were the
ones chiefly concerned they saw no reason for hostile interference on the
part of the Alabama Creeks.
General Mclntosh, chief of the 'Cowetas or Lower Creeks, was the
principal actor in this historic drama at Indian Springs. His warm
friendship for the people of Georgia had been evinced in more than one
crisis of affairs but within the next few months it was destined to cost
him the forfeiture of his life, at the hands of savage foes. With the
clear foresight of a statesman, General Mclntosh realized only too well
how the bitter warfare between the two races in Georgia was to end.
Consequently he urged upon his people the course which was finally
adopted. It not only meant peace but it meant an exchange of land, in
fair equivalent, acre for acre, with an additional sum of $400,000. Be
sides, it meant the avoidance of unnecessary bloodshed; and the new
home west of the Mississippi River was to be an undisturbed possession.
To the arguments of Mclntosh, the Lower Creeks listened; but the
Upper Creeks, who resided chiefly in Alabama, demurred. They per
sisted in looking upon Mclntosh as a traitor to- the nation, and in
criminal league with the whites. But the counsels of the latter pre
vailed ; and at Indian Springs, on February 12, 1825, occurred the final
deliberations which resulted in the formal relinquishment of the Geor
gia lands by the Creek Indians.
But, in affixing his signature to the treaty, William Mclntosh signed
his own death warrant! *
* See Death of Mclntosh, in section on Georgia in the Realm of Anecdote, etc.