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GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS 537
treaty of 1825, postponing the giving up of possession of the lands ceded,
and allowing twenty-four months for the removal of the Indians. The
representatives in Congress from Georgia entered a protest, and Gover
nor 1 Troup refused to recognize the new treaty, and ordered the sur
veyors to proceed. He declared that the vested rights of Georgia could
not be thus taken from her. The Indians complained. Correspondence
followed, and finally the Secretary of War informed the Governor that
the surveyors must be kept off the lands, and threatened that, if the
Governor refused to stop them, military force would be used. This
brought from the doughty Governor a vigorous answer, in which he
said: ' From the first decisive act of hostility, you will be considered as
a public enemy, and with less repugnance, because you, to whom we
might constitutionally have appealed for protection against invasion
are yourselves the invaders, and, what is more, the unblushing allies of
savages whose cause you have adopted.' Strong words from a Governor
to a Secretary of War. But that was not all. The Governor promptly
ordered the Generals of the Sixth and Seventh Division of the Georgia
militia to hold these commands in readiness to repel any invasion of the
state. Matters were reaching an acute stage when Congress was guided
by conservative counsels and recommended the acquirement of all the
lands held by the Creeks in Georgia. The chiefs and the head men
agreed. Whereupon the Creeks were paid about $28,000 in money and
given a lot of blankets; and it was agreed that certain sums should be
expended for schools. Thus was the danger of an armed clash between
Georgia and the United States averted."
Seventy-five years after the dramatic incident a,bove narrated, the
members of Piedmont Continental Chapter of the Daughters of the
American Revolution performed an act of belated justice to the memory
of the brave chieftain. On the well-known rock, near the Varner House,
which marks the site of the famous compact of agreement, they unveiled
on July 1, 1911, a tablet of bronze which bears the following inscription:
"Here on February 12, 1825, William Mclntosh, a
chief of the Creek Nation, signed the treaty which ceded
to the State of Georgia all the Creek lands west of the
Flint river. For this act he was savagely murdered by
a band of Indians who opposed the treaty. Placed by the
Piedmont Continental Chapter of the D. A. R., A. D.
1911."
Judge Joseph Henry Lumpkin, of the Supreme Court of Georgia,
delivered the principal address.
To the foregoing summary of facts by Judge Lumpkin, it may be
added that two officers of the United States Government were dispatched
to Georgia by the Federal authorities in Washington: Maj. T. P. An
drews, to inquire into the charges made against Crowell; and Gen.
Edmund P. Gaines, to represent the military arm of the administration.
• Both came with preconceived opinions and proceeded to work hand in