The Seminoles—­in the West more and more identified with the Creeks—­were angered by their failure to recover the lands lost by the treaty of Fort Jackson and also by the building of Fort Scott.  One settlement, Fowltown, fifteen miles east of Fort Scott, was especially excited and in the fall of 1817 sent a warning to the Americans “not to cross or cut a stick of timber on the east side of the Flint.”  The warning was regarded as a challenge; Fowltown was taken on a morning in November, and the Seminole Wars had begun.

2. First Seminole War and the Treaties of Indian Spring and Fort Moultrie

In the course of the First Seminole War (1817-18) Jackson ruthlessly laid waste the towns of the Indians; he also took Pensacola, and he awakened international difficulties by his rather summary execution of two British subjects, Arbuthnot and Ambrister, who were traders to the Indians and sustained generally pleasant relations with them.  For his conduct, especially in this last instance, he was severely criticized in Congress, but it is significant of his rising popularity that no formal vote of censure could pass against him.  On the cession of Florida to the United States he was appointed territorial governor; but he served for a brief term only.  As early as 1822 he was nominated for the presidency by the legislature of Tennessee, and in 1823 he was sent to the United States Senate.

Of special importance in the history of the Creeks about this time was the treaty of Indian Spring, of January 8, 1821, an iniquitous agreement in the signing of which bribery and firewater were more than usually present.  By this the Creeks ceded to the United States, for the benefit of Georgia, five million acres of their most valuable land.  In cash they were to receive $200,000, in payments extending over fourteen years.  The United States Government moreover was to hold $250,000 as a fund from which the citizens of Georgia were to be reimbursed for any “claims” (for runaway slaves of course) that the citizens of the state had against the Creeks prior to the year 1802.[1] In the actual execution of this agreement a slave was frequently estimated at two or three times his real value, and the Creeks were expected to pay whether the fugitive was with them or not.  All possible claims, however, amounted to $101,000.  This left $149,000 of the money in the hands of the Government.  This sum was not turned over to the Indians, as one might have expected, but retained until 1834, when the Georgia citizens interested petitioned for a division.  The request was referred to the Commission on Indian Affairs, and the chairman, Gilmer of Georgia, was in favor of dividing the money among the petitioners as compensation for “the offspring which the slaves would have borne had they remained in bondage.”  This suggestion was rejected at the time, but afterwards the division was made nevertheless; and history records few more flagrant violations of all principles of honor and justice.