The Whig standard. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1843-1844, 1844-07-06
Mr.. POLK AND THE FLORIDA WAR.

the Columbia Observer, the excellent Wing jour-
nal printed in the town which has the honor of
MIR. Folks citizenship. The extract is from
speech OF the Hon. Bale Peyton, in the House of
Representatives, on the 18th December, 1886.
A motion had been made to appoint committee
to investigate certain grave charges, which had
been made against certain functonaries of the
Government, of outrage and frauds practised upon
the Seminole Indians, which caused them to go
to war with the whites. The proposition for the
appointment of the committee WAS defeated by
the casting vote of the Speaker, James K. Polk
The eloquent denunciation of his conduct by Mr..
Peyton will find generous response in the heart
of every reader who can sympathise with the OPP
pressed Indian. Mr.. Peyton depicts their wrongs
with burning fervor Of words which must have
caused the blush of shame to mantle upon the
cheek of Mr. Polk. He selfishly and heartessly
refused to hear their cries, because by doing SO
he foresaw that the corrupons of the adnlinistra-
ton, to whose fortunes he was bound, would be
exposed. He foresaw, or the party which dictated
law to him foresaw, that the corrupt contracts
which had been made with Government agents
would come to light-corruptions which the
Wings have since exposed, and which shocked
the moral sense of mankind. 1t has been proven,
among other thngs, too tedious to MENTION"
that during Van Buren's administration steam
boats were employed upon the Florida coast in
the transportation of supplies, at cost per month
equal to or greater than their total value. And
among the profitable and economical occupations
of those boats and their crews, was to transport
WOOD, purchased at New Orleans at three or
four dollars per cord, to Tampa Bay, six hundred
miles distant, and surrounded by a forest! 1t
was by such measures of economy that Mr.. Van
Buren, swelled the expenses of Government from
twelve to thirty-nine millions of dollars. Of
course MIR. Peyton appealed in vain for the CON-
mittee of investigation. To have granted it un-
der such circumstances would have amounted to
little less than pleading guilty
Such procedure would have been unnecessa-
ry likewise, since turning out the rogues who
were in would only have made way for "the more
hungry swarm" without. This was the prnci-
pie upon which Mr.. Van Buren's friends advised
him to acl, and upon which he did act in reference
to the defaultng land money receivers. An agent
sent out by him to investigate the conduct Of one
of these leeches in Alabama, wrote to Mr.. v. B.
that the officer had already defaulted to the
amount OF 100000, and that, presumng that he
would be satisfied with that sum, he recommend
ed that he be permitted to retain his place-Mr.
Van Buren, took the advice, and the scoundrel
boyd or Harris) kept the money he had appro-
priated and the Office to boot
Mr.. Peyton said:
I" Let it also be remembered that the Commit
tee of Indian Affairs unanimously recommended
an inquiry into the abuses of that bureau, which
would have developed the causes Of the late and
present Indian wars in the South. The commit
tee reported resolution authorizing any two of
its members to prosecute the inquiry by taking
testimony for the information of the House at this
session. But, sir, this resolution, reported by
committee, majority of whom were in favor of
Mr.. Van Buren,, was rejected in the House. The
citizens of Georgia and Alabama petititoned and
implored the House to investigate that subject,
alleging the most unheard-of frauds and abuses.
Upon this application the vote stood: ayes II,
noes II, a TIE, and the Speaker JAMES K.
POLK gave the CASTING VOTE AGAINST the in
vestgation. Sir, men high in favor and high in
Office were suspected. The agent of the Govern
ment, John B. Hogan, gave the Department official
information OF the greatest ontrages practlsed up
on the Indians which were ever perpetrated upon
any people, savage or civilized. He was very
soon removed, or rather promoted, from Indian
agent to be collector at the port of Mobile. And
yet, sir, we have no account of prosecutions, con-
victions, and punishments which have followed
his disclosures Why, sir, those spectators, or
rather Indian robbers, would find an old chief up
on his patrimonial estate, where the chifs and
kings of his race had lived for centuries before
him, with his slaves and his farm around him,
smoking his pipe amidst his own forest trees,
spurning any offer to purchase his home and
they would bride some vagabond Indian to per-
senate him in trade to sell his land, forging his
name, and the first nmation that he would have
of the transaction would be his expulsion by force
from his house! This was common, and not only
so, but, under the pretext of retaining fugitive
slaves, the wives and children (of mixed bloody
of the Indians were seized and carried off in bond