One wrong was naturally followed by another; and General Jessup, finding that the negroes who had come in and delivered themselves up for emigration were suspicious and dissatisfied, and that no others arrived, seized them by force and sent ninety of them, against whom were some sort of claims, to St. Marks to be delivered over to the slave hunters; and the rest, amounting to about the same number, to Tampa Bay, to be taken west. This conduct brought matters to a crisis, and General Jessup chronicles the result in a letter to General Gadsden on the 14th of June, as follows: "All is lost! and principally, I fear, by the influence of the negroes."

He was no doubt right. The "negroes" preferred their chances in the swamps of Florida to their chances with the Jessups, and Harneys, and Van Burens, who then wielded the power of the government, and so moved their allies to appeal once more to arms. Twenty-six vessels were then lying at Tampa Bay to carry the Indians to New Orleans on their way westward, and seven hundred had come in and were ready to depart; but the vessels left empty, and the Indians took to the woods, determined once more to defy the whole power of the government.

The war was renewed, and for four or five years more the murderous work went on. The resources of the country were poured out like water, and some $40,000,000 were expended without, at last, fully accomplishing the objects of the planters. There was much suffering, much loss of property, and many lives sacrificed on both sides. The Indians and their allies defended their homes with wonderful heroism and tenacity, and for a long time with almost uniform success; but their numbers gradually melted away before the powerful armies which were constantly on their trails; and what with the decoy of white flags, forfeited pledges, and the sharp scent of Cuba bloodhounds, large numbers of them were at length hunted from their fastnesses, and such of the negroes as were not sent directly into slavery under the pretense of some claimant, were forwarded to Fort Gibson to occupy lands assigned them beyond Arkansas.

But their wrongs did not end even yet. The object of their removal was not to better their condition, but to break up the depot in Florida for runaway slaves. They were not regarded as having any rights, although, as a people, they had been more than a century in freedom. But although hunted down by bloodhounds, given over to the tender mercies of the slave trader, and regarded as the "plunder" of the Creeks, many of them finally found their way to war. Horrible as this now seems, it was exactly what was meant by giving to the Creeks all the "plunder" which they might capture.

Fort Gibson, and some who had been set apart to quite a different fate.

The Creeks were to have as "plunder" all the negroes that they could capture, but fortunately they had not proved to be very nimble kidnappers. The bloody work which the allies gave them was not at all encouraging to the enterprise which they had taken in hand. Some ninety negroes had been captured in one way or other by troops and Indians together, and of these General Jessup conceded thirtyfive to the Creeks, which as "plunder," under his arrangement with them, they were entitled to claim as their property. But he made an arrangement with them by which government was to pay them $8,000 in full discharge of their rights in the negroes, and thus, as he supposed, released the Maroons from their piratical grasp. Several years afterward, when a large company of the Maroons were at New Orleans on their way west, it struck some of the leading slaveholders as a mistake to send so many able-bodied laborers out of the country, and a plan was devised to arrest their farther progress. It was discovered that the Creeks had never been paid the $8,000 awarded them by General Jessup for their "plunder," and consequently that their rights in the "plunder" still held good. On learning this fact, a slave-dealer named Watson was induced to purchase the rights of the Indians, and obtaining an order from the Indian department to have thirty-five of the negroes delivered to him, he sent his agent, Collins, to New Orleans after the property.

Fortunately, however, Lieutenant Reynolds, who had them in charge, had gone on up the river, and Collins did not overtake the party till they reached Vicksburgh. Here it was not convenient to deliver the negroes. They were men of energy, accustomed to war, and utterly refused to go with Collins; and as there was not force enough with Reynolds to compel them, Collins followed on to Fort Gibson. Here, after a long consultation, he was repulsed by the commanding general, and returned without his "plunder." Fourteen years afterward he petitioned Congress for a large sum to repay him and make good his damages, and a bill was passed for his relief.

But when the Seminoles and their Maroon allies were at last in the Indian country, they found that no "separate lands," according to the agreement, had been provided for them, and consequently they must either pass under Creek jurisdiction, according to the original design of the government, or remain without any lands whatever. In this unpleasant dilemma the Cherokees kindly invited them to occupy, temporarily, their lands, which they did; but in course of time dissatisfaction arose, and complaints went up to

Washington from all parties, and a treaty was finally effected in 1845, by which it was agreed that the Seminoles and their dependents, the Maroons, should remove to the Creek lands, and that if any differences arose they should be referred to the President for settlement.

The Creeks and Seminoles had been separated for about a century, had often been at war, were exceedingly jealous of each other, and still had unsettled disputes, so that the arrangement did not promise much for their future harmony; but to the Maroons this arrangement was still more repulsive, and they looked forward to it with the greatest apprehension. The government, however, insisted, and under the pledges made it was thought best to remove, according to the stipulations.

But hardly had the Maroons got fairly settled in their new territory when the apprehended mischiefs ensued. The Creeks looked wistfully toward them, and soon began to assert their former claims. Living in freedom in their own villages, they naturally excited discontent among the slaves held by the Creeks, and thus excited their hatred, and they greatly desired to have them in their power. The Maroons, alarmed, went in a body to Fort Gibson and claimed the protection of General Arbuckle, who was in command. He treated them kindly, and allowed them to occupy lands near the fort, and supplied their wants from the public stores till he could lay the matter before the President.

Mr. Polk, a slaveholder, was then invested with the executive authority, and he at once consulted with General Jessup as to the terms of his agreement with the negroes. The general, freed from the influence of the Florida planters, did not hesitate to declare that they were to remain in a state of freedom. He says: "The question is whether they shall be separated from the Seminoles and removed to another country, or be allowed to occupy, as they did in Florida, separate villages in the Seminole country, west of Arkansas. The latter is what I promised them." In a subsequent statement made to the Secretary of War, he adds: "I, as commander of the army, and in the capacity of representative of my country, solemnly pledged the national faith that they should not be separated from the Seminoles, nor any of them sold to the white men or others, but be allowed to settle and remain, in separate villages, under the protection of the United States."

But even this explicit statement of the pledges made to the Maroons did not satisfy the President, and he asked counsel of the Attorney General ad interim, Hon. John Y. Mason, of Virginia. Mr. Mason gave a very elaborate opinion on the subject, and came

to the conclusion that the Executive could not interfere in any manner to protect them, but must leave them to return to the towns in the Indian country, where they had a right to remain.

This seems to have been a crude view of the more recent doctrine of "non-intervention," and the results were quite in harmony with the workings of the same principle in Kansas. The Maroons returned to their villages, where they had a right to remain; but not long after a slave dealer appeared in the Creek country, and offered to pay the Creeks $100 for every negro that they would seize and deliver to him properly secured.

This offer was too much for Creek virtue. They secretly assembled two hundred warriors, who made a descent on the Maroon settlements at a time when they suspected no danger. They were taken unawares, and before they could arm themselves seventy of their number, mostly women and children, were seized and secured. The Seminole agent interposed, and had the matter brought before the nearest court in Arkansas, a slave state, and the judge decided that the Indians had a rightful claim to the Maroons under their agreement with General Jessup, and they were thereupon released to the trader, and the whole seventy hurried off to New Orleans and sold into slavery.

It was now clear that there was no protection for the Maroons within the boundaries of the United States, so they held a council to consider what was best to be done. Some of them were connected by marriage with leading Seminole families, and felt so secure in the protection which this advantage gave them, as to feel it safe to remain; but about three hundred of them resolved to sunder their connection with their old friends, the Seminoles, and take up their line of March for Mexico. Accordingly, on the 10th of September, 1850, after the sun had sunk below the horizon, and their patrols had ascertained that no enemy was at hand, they bade farewell to their old friends and started for the Rio Grande. The Creeks were at that time in negotiation with other slave dealers, and waiting their opportunity to make more reprisals. When, therefore, they found that they had gone, they sent a war party in pursuit, which came up with them on the third day. But the Indians found them well armed and prepared for battle, and they did not venture to attack them. They continued their journey safely, crossed the Rio Grande, and settled down at Santa Rosa, where they still remain, and are said to be in circumstances of great prosperity.

ART. III.-PARTY POLITICS.

SINCE the hour when man in Eden threw off the government of God, one of the darkest problems which he has been compelled to work at, is how he shall govern himself. That some mode of government is necessary in communities, is clear from the testimony of all human history. Whether king or president, chief or tycoon, be the head, it is conceded that every community must have an acknowledged leader, and that there must be some way provided for settling regularly the great questions which concern public welfare. There must be law more or less definite and formal, and consequently there must be framers and executors of law, clothed with powers of greater or less extent. Revelation, too, has declared government needful, saying that the powers are "ordained of God," and that he who resisteth them "resisteth the ordinance of God."

But while revelation, history, and reason agree in affirming the necessity of governments among men, no political forms are set forth in God's word as the best; and in their efforts to reason out the question, the wisest men have reached different results. History, ancient and modern, testifies that however perfect theories may be, no practical perfection has yet been attained. Under king and president, chief and tycoon, the rights of the citizen are imperfectly guarded, and the public good is only partially secured. A despotism, provided the right man is always upon the throne, is as good a political structure as any other. But those who have founded dynasties in the past were generally far from being the right men. And if one of the world's model rulers were to reign to-day, he would soon be gathered to his fathers, and the responsibility of determining his successor must rest somewhere. Shall the scepter be hereditary or elective? Shall the whole power descend from father to son? Or shall there be two lines of hereditary power, an aristocracy as well as royalty? Or shall all citizens be equal, and power in all its forms be the creation of the popular voice? The nations, by choice, accident, or the will of God, have tried these various modes of solving the great problem, and found them all practically more or less defective. Man is fallen, and to attempt political perfection is to try to "bring a clean thing out of an unclean."

In these United States we are trying the popular principle. The corner-stone of our system is that governments are instituted solely