Sold – Patrick Henry Seeks to Aid Georgia in Its War With the Spanish-sponsored Indians

In November 1783, just after the Revolution, two minor chiefs (Tallassee and Cusseta) ceded Creek Nation land in the southern portion of what is now Georgia to that state. Much of this land these chiefs did not own and the Creeks, a warrior people, refused to accept the treaty as valid. In February 1784, Spain, which ruled adjacent Florida, accepted the Creek Nation as a protectorate, and in June it appointed Alexander McGillivray to be Commissary of the Creek Nation. The Creeks, Spanish and Georgians all claimed the same land. The Articles of Confederation granted the U.S. Congress the sole right to regulate the Indian trade and manage all Indian affairs, meaning the U.S. government was yet a fourth player.

By early 1785, Georgia’s illicit activities were causing so much of a problem that the U.S. government decided to send commissioners directly to the Creeks to negotiate a new and binding treaty. The commissioners did indeed arrive in October, but the meeting was sabotaged by Georgia agents.  Neither the Spanish protectorate nor the major Creek chiefs attended. The Georgia agents signed a treaty, invalid on both sides, with the two remaining groups of Indian representatives. This treaty was invalid on the Creek side because the Creek Nation was not truly represented, and it was invalid on the settler side because Georgia had no legal right to treat with the Indians over the head of the United States. All sides were now primed for a clash.

On April 2, 1786, the Creeks, sponsored by Spain, declared war and sent war parties on a wide front against Georgia interlopers on their lands. Georgia, with inadequate defense capabilities, found that it was ill prepared for the hostilities; and the state was soon alarmed over claimed Indian attacks and claimed atrocities. Spain was actively – if clandestinely – involved in fomenting trouble, seeking to keep a potentially hostile United States away from its holdings in Florida.

Emmanuel Zespedes, Spanish governor in Florida, wrote to McGillivray of the friendship of Spain on May 22, “You have petitioned against the flagrant injustice of the state of Georgia’s taking possession and occupying a territory which, it appears, has always been the unquestioned property of your nation… You express concern that the United States may consider the forces sent by the Creek nation to put an end to the usurpations of the Georgians the beginning of general hostilities… I am persuaded that the United States, mindful of the benefits and protection with which they were favored through the generosity of the king in the day of their great trouble, will hesitate to take measures that not only might make them fall from his esteemed friendship but could provoke his royal wrath.”  On May 29, the Creeks received word from the King’s representative inciting them by assuring them of protection and just treatment.  And on June 16, 1786, Zespedes again wrote McGillivray noting " that all persons, of whatever nation they may be, living on the south bank of the St. Marys are under the protection of his Majesty and therefore ought to be considered as friends and brothers.”  On June 20, McGillivray ordered Spanish munitions and other arms to be sent to the Creeks.

Edward Telfair, Georgia’s new governor, was immediately enmeshed in dealing with this crisis, and he reached out for insistence in a number of directions. On the same day that McGillivray ordered his arms, Telfair contacted Virginia Governor Patrick Henry, requesting munitions to carry on the conflict. However interested Henry may have been, he was diverted by Virginia’s leading role in the upcoming Annapolis Convention that preceded the Constitutional Convention, and constrained by its own scarce resources.  The U.S. government was not at that time willing to join in Georgia’s war with the Creeks, nor to intervene and perhaps provoke Spain.

Autograph Letter Signed as Governor, Richmond, Va., June 22, 1786, to Georgia Governor Telfair, providing assistance by locating guns needed by Georgia in its war with the Creek Indians. The Benjamin Harrison Jr. he refers to was the son of the signer of the Declaration of Independence and Virginia Governor of the same name. “Your favor by express was to delivered to me the 20th & yesterday I laid the contents of it before the Council. As I feel great anxiety for the present condition of Georgia, I proposed the loan of the arms you asked for. The proposition however on serious reflection appeared inadmissible, the number of public arm here being small, & totally inadequate to furnishing our own people in case of invasion. The continental arms deposited here are in so bad condition that they cannot be made to answer for present use, so that I was obliged to look out for some other source of supply. In this I have been successful, & have prevailed on Mr. Ben. Harrison Jr. to agree to ship you the number you asked from me, & several hundred more. I have no doubt you will consider this as a most fortunate acquisition, & that you will satisfy M. Harrison for them & prevent my being called on for them. The price is uncommonly low, & indeed far less than I could have supposed. As to the swords, they can’t be had. I hope the size of the guns will render them proper for cavalry, & in some measure supply the want of swords – Give me a leave sir to recommend a prudent use of the present friendly disposition of the Choctaws – perhaps something capitally serviceable to your state might result from it. I shall ever esteem my self happy to render services to your state. P.S. I inclose you a duplicate of Mr. Harrison’s letter to his correspondent on the subject of the arms. I am sorry the opportunity of vessels going to Ch[arle]s Town are so few. Perhaps you had better employ some agency to hurry the arms if you are pressed by the enemy.” ALSs of Virginia’s great Revolutionary War figure Patrick Henry are great rarities.

The rotting guns and lack of policy or direction from the Federal government are a stunning commentary on weakness of the government the eve of the Annapolis Convention. The situation, which remained volatile for some time, helped convince many Georgians of the need for a stronger central government; delegates from Georgia played an active role when the Constitutional Convention convened in Philadelphia in 1787. As for the Georgia frontier, because the strengths of the adversaries there were so evenly matched, there was no sustained peace until after the War of 1812. In the end Spain’s attempt to install a buffer Indian state between Florida and the territory-hungry Americans failed and Florida did indeed fall into the American orbit not many decades later.