8041. SPAIN, Incitement of Indians.—[further continued].
The consequence is that
the Indians, and particularly the Creeks, finding
themselves so encouraged, have passed,
without the least provocation on our part, from
a state of peace, which appeared to be well settled,
to that of serious hostility. Their murders
and depredations, which, for some months
we were willing to hope were only individual
aggressions, now assume the appearance of unequivocal
war. Yet, such is our desire of
courting and cultivating the peace of all our
Indian neighbors, that instead of marching at
once into their country, and taking satisfaction
ourselves, we are peaceably requiring punishment
of the individual aggressors; and, in the
meantime, are holding ourselves entirely on
the defensive. But this state of things cannot
continue. Our citizens are entitled to effectual
protection, and defensive measures are, at the
same time, the most expensive and least effectual.
If we find, then, that peace cannot be obtained
by the temperate means we are still pursuing,
we must proceed to those which are extreme,
and meet all the consequences, of whatever
nature, or from whatever quarter they May
be.—
To Carmichael and Short. Washington ed. iii, 567.
Ford ed., vi, 272.
(Pa.,
May. 1793)
