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SATURDAY, Augkfii 7, 1796.
THE AUGUSTA CHRONICLE
AND
GAZETTE of the STATE .
FREEDOM of the PRESS and TRIALsr JURY shall remain inviolate. Constitution of Georgia.
A U , G U , S A1 vT tei ty ?,? H S MITH, Printer to the State, Essays, Articles of Intelligence, Adver
tisements, &c. vnll be gratefully received, and every kind of Printing performed. [Price Three Dollars per annum.]
STATE-HOUSE, Louisville,
July 29, 1796.
A Communication of the 28 th June
from James Hendricks, Esquire,
Chairman of the Board of Commissio
ners to attend the Treaty with the Creek
Indians, being taken up,
It is Ordered , That the F rot est of the
said Commiftioners, the treaty of Gal
phinton, an extract from the treaty of
Shoulderbone, and an extract from the
report of the Commiftioners in the year
1789 to Congress, be publiflied in the
State Gazette.
Alt est.
J. MERIWETHER, E. D.
Coleraine, z 6th June, 1796.
WE the commissioners of the Hate of Georgia,
appointed on the part of the state, to attend a trea
ty with the Creek Indians, now held at this place
under the authority of the United States, in pur
fuar.ee of the trull reposed in us, think it our in
ilifpenfable duty, which we owe cur country,
to protest, and we do hereby PROTEST against
the commiftioners of the United States, and their
fjperintendant of Indian affairs, for certain pro
t eedings affefting the objedl of the (late of Georgia,
the relinquishment of the Indian claims to certain
] tnds contemplated in an aft of this Hate, entitled
“an aft for appropriating part of the unlocated
territory of this llate, for payment of the late state
troops, and for other purposes therein mentioned j”
pa fled the 28th December, 1794, as the causes of
the failure thereof, as follows :
First. We protest against certain regulations of
the commiftioners of the United States, signed
Benjamin Hawkins and George Clymer, polled up
tit the gates of the garrison of Coleraine, and da
ted the 26th day of May last, and which regula
tions are in the words following, to wit:—“ The
“ commiftioners for holding a treaty with the Creek
“Nation of Indians, in order to prevent quarrels,
improper behaviour, or mal-praftices during the
“ negociation, have judged it proper, in virtue of
“ the powers and authority veiled in them, to
* e make the following regulations.
« ill. The Indians are to be encamped on the
river, above the garrison, convenient to the fpiing
smd river.
2d. The fuperintendant is to fix his residence
Within the Indian encampment.
3d. No citizen of the United States is to be
permitted to encamp with, or near the Indians,
except such as are under the direftion of the fuper
intendant.
4th. No citizen is to be permitted to enter the
Indian camp in arms.
3th. No citizen is to visit the Indians, or hold
3ny conversation with them except with a permit
from the commiftioners of the United States, or
either of them.
6th. No citizen is to be in arms in the garrison
or neighbourhood of it, and on the arrival of any
visitors, who may travel with arms, they arc to be
informed of this order, and requested to conform
thereto.
7th. No citizen is to be permitted to fell, or
furnilh by gifr, spirituous liquors to the Indians,
or to have any commercial traffic with them.
Bth. These regulations are to be polled up at
the two gates of the garrilon, and at the residence
of the Supcrintcndant."
By which regulations the commissioners of the
state have been debarred from conciliating the af
feftions of the Indians, and consequently from ef
fsfting the objeft of their million—the civil and
aftual jurifdiftional rights of the Hate have been
infringed, and her consequence in the eyes of the
Indians, much leflened, who will be taught by the
eenduft wc have experienced, being liable to Hop
page by the centinels, without paflports from the
Federal commissioners, on our own ground, and
v/ithin the aftual limits of the sovereignty of Geor
gia, from entering their emcampment, that the
citizens of the state, however high their commis
sion, are inferior in consequence and rights to them
fclves> and may be insulted. with impunity.
GEORGIA.
Secondly. W e protest against the manner of con
dufting the said treaty: r i he fame being ordered
by the Preluient to be at Colerain, and to be con
dufted in a fair, open and honorable manner, and
so the talk or invitation of the Prelident, and the
talic of Georgia were given, in a fqnare or bower,
erefted in the garrison lor thatpurpofe, lince which
without any known reason to the commissioners of
the llate, the place has been altered to Mufccghe,
the residence ot the fuperintendant, where the talk
of the Indians, in answer to the talk delivered by
us was manufaftured, and where the commissioners
of Georgia, owing to the regulations before pro
tested against, had no access. The said pretended
answer or talk of the Indians not being delivered
in the usual open manner in the square, face to
face, before the commissioners of Georgia and the
United States, but penned in their camps by cer
tain agents or interpreters, under the command of
the fuperintendant, and transmitted not direftly,
but through the channel of the commissioners of
the United States to us, without being certified by
them, or by any attesting witneftes, chief, agent,
or interpreter. And for this also, that mattempt
ing to attend one cl the conferences, to which the
commissioners of the United States had invited the
commissioners of Georgia, vve were iniulted by the
stoppage of our secretary by the centinel of the
garrison picket; and he havingour papers we were
compelled to return, in obedience to the regulati
ons aforementioned.
We further protest against the commissioners for
not permitting us to propose questions, or deliver
fentimenrs, duting the negociation, on the fubjeft
ol our particular million, without being under their
controul, and overruling arbitrary interference.
We further proteit againlt said commissioners
for evasive conduft towards the state and her com
missioners, in offering their fei vices to procure the
land at one period, and openly declaring at ano
ther, in open council, that it was not the with of
the commiftioners of the United States, that the
Creeks Ihould part with their land without their
own deft re.
Thirdly. We protest against the fuperintendant
of Indian affairs for not counteracting certain re
ports introduced into the Creek nation that the
Georgia militia were to encounter the Indians at
this place, and certain talks lent there persuading
the Indians not to relinquitli their claims, to the
lands contemplated to be purchafcd by the state, in
the invitation of the prelident and the aft aiorc
mentioned.
Fourthly . We protest against the time and place
appointed for holding the treaty, both of which
we understand were recommended by the fuperin
tendant of Indian affaiis, on account of the scarci
ty of provisions at such a lealon, and the poverty
of the surrounding country—the supplies ol the
former fwelltng the cxpence to an enormous
amount, and the latter being, although the pro
perty of the fujierintemlant, inconveniently lima
ted in every refpett, but more particularly for our
fellow citizens to attend vvlio have fuft'ered from
Indian depredations.
Fifthly. We protest against any crffion of land,
within the tcrritoiial limits ot the itate ot Georgia
by the Creek Indians, to the United States, whe
ther for the purposes of posts, trading houses or
otherwise, without the confetti ot the state ot
Georgia, as contrary to the gth feftion, of the
firft article of the United States conltitution, which
declares, “ that congress shall have power to exer
“ cife exclusive iegiilarion in all caies whatsoever,
« over such district (not exceeding ten miles fquatc)
«as may by cession of particular states, and the
“acceptance of congress, become the feat ol go
“ vernmeift of the United States; and to excrcwe
tt like authority over all places purchased by the
“consent of the legiftature of the state in which
« the fame lhall be lor the erection of lorts, maga
zines, arsenals, dock yards, and other needful
“buildings." Such ctflions for trading houses
and .garrilons being now applied for by the com
missioners of the United States, with land adjacent
for flock, and to raise corn within* the territorial
limits of the state of Georgia, and which at a fu
ture day may militate with the rights of the state,
and be pronounced binding on her, being now to
be concluded cn at a public treaty, and perhaps may
be ratified by the treaty making power of the Uni
ted State*,
Sixthly. We protest against the decision of the
commiflioners of the United States, given in opeo
council to the chiefs of the Creek nation, that the
treaties of Augusta, Galphinton and Shoulderbonr,
held in the
Georgia was a free, lovereign and independent
state, unconnected with the treaty making power
of the United States, under the present constitu
tion, were invalid, of courfc that the cession of the
Tallifce county was void.
There was no federal compaft against such cef
fton by treaty, between individual Hates and Indi
an tribes at the time it was made, and if the Uni
ted Mates have a right to take a retrofpe&ive view
and lop oft'ceftions of part of a state, made before
their authority existed, the United States may
make different ceftions, until they lop off a whole
state, and if one state they may several Hates, the
whole having been formed by ceftions at different
periods, a melancholy profped, and more melan
choly tic to the union, for the frontier state of
Georgia.
We iurther protest against the conftruflion of the
said cummiftioners, as to the property the Indian*
are made liable for, under the said treaty of New-
York, which conltru&ion confines the demand for
property | lundered from our citizens, to a very
humble limit, even as refpefts negroes, the only
article agreeably to their conftruftion contemplated
thereby.
Seventhly . We therefore prnteft against the pay
ment or liability of payment, of any (hare of the
enormous and unnecefiary expence attending the
present treaty, by the state of Georgia, which so
far from being conduced in a fair, open and ho
norable manner, the anfvver of the Indians one par
ty thcrero, if so it can be called, lias been die*
rarrd to them in (cere t council by undue influence*
and cannot be considered their answer, and for that
the state of Georgia has not had a fair and open
opportunity to contrad for the lands, the plea of
the chiefs openly declared by Aleck Cornels and
the Bird Tail King, their speakers, now being*
that the refufal to giving up the lands was fully de
termined on in the nation, and that the chiefs came
inftruded to abide by that determination, which
if true, is a fraud on the state, and a trick unwor
thy the dignity and honor of the United States,
tranfaded through their fupcrintendanr, to fling
one half the expcnce of a treaty to serve their own
purposes, on any individual state, which could
poflibly reap no benefit thereby ; and we do in con
sequence protest against any payment or liability of
payment by the state of Georgia as aforefaid, for
or on account of the fame, uijiefs it may be such
ncceffarics as the cotr.miflioners of Georgia or their
guard or houfchold, may have drawn, and foC
which only the itate ought to be accountable.
JAMES HENDRICKS,
JAMES JACKSON,
JAMES SIMMS.
By Order ,
Thomas Robertson, Scc’ry.
ARTICLES of a Trfsty concluded at Galphinton
on the 12th day of November 1785, between
the underwritten commiflioners in behalf of the
state of Georgia of the one part, and the kings,
headmen and warriors in behalf of themselves,
and all the Indians in the Creek nation of the
other, on the following conditions:
Article 1 ft. The said Indians for themselves ar.d
all the tribes or town 3 within their refpe&ive na
tions within the limits of the ft2te of Georgia,
have been and now are members of the fame, fines
the day aod date of the Constitution of the said
state of Georgia.
2d. If any citizen of this state, or other person
or persons, shall attempt to fettle or run any of the
lands reserved to the Indians for their hunting
grounds, such person or persons may be detained
until the governor (hall demand him or them, and
then it flia'il be lawful sot any of the tribes nea£
such offenders to come and Re the puniihment ac
cording to such laws as now are, or hereafter lhaH
be enacted by the said state, for trying fuih offen
ders.
3d. It fnal! in no ccfe be undetftood that the
pnnifhment of the innocent, under the idea of reta
liation, shall be praCtifed on either fide.
4th. If any citizen cf this state, or other w hite
pet ion or pertons, fnaii commit a robbers; or mux*
{Vol. X. No. 516. J