The Augusta chronicle and gazette of the state. (Augusta [Ga.]) 1789-1806, August 27, 1796, Image 1

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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