The voice of freedom. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1839-1848, 1848-07-20
NUMBER 5.
ANECDOTE OF GEN. TAYLOR.

While Gen. Chen Col.) Taylor was serv4
ing IN Florida he captured many negroes in
his conflicts with the Indians. Many of these
negroes were claimed by persons in Georgia
and Alabama, from whose service or from the
service of whose fathers it was contended
they had escaped. Agents on behalf of the
claimants were despatched to Col Taylor,
seeking to recover them. Proof Of identity
of the persons claimed as slaves was prof.
ferred, and the right of property insisted up
on. Col. Taylor refused to allow the claim,
or even to examine it. He had come to
Florida to serve in the army against the In
dians, not to act as a negro-catcher. His
commission, he said, gave him no judicial
powers, and he could not assume to determine
matters beyond his province.
The disappointed and enraged applicants,
after having tried in vain other means to
operate upon Col. Taylor favorably, carried
their COM lants to the Secretary of War
He entertained their view of the case. In
consequence, an order issued from the De-
partment was addressed to Mai. Gen. Jessup,
then commanding in Florida, directing the
surrender of the captured negroes to the
agent of the claimants. A similar order was
issued to Col. Taylor. The following is his
reply, as copied from the record in the War
Department:
HEAD QUARTERS, ARMY OF THE SOUTH,
Tampa, (Florida,) July 2, 1888. J
General: ! have the honor to acknowledge
your communication of the 10th of May, 1888,
accompanied by one of the 9th, from the COM
missioner of Indian affairs, addressed to Capt.
Cooper, acting Secretary of War, on the sub
ject of turning over certain negroes captured
by the Greek warriors in Florida to a Mr..
Collins, their Agent, in compliance with an
engagement of General Jessup.
/ know nothing of the negroes in question,
nor of the subject, farther than what is con-
tanned in the communication above referred
to; but | must state distinctly, for the infor-
nation of all concerned, that while l shall
hold myself ever ready to do the utmost in
my power to get the Indians and their ne
groes out of Florida, as well as to remove
them to their new homes west of the Missis.
sippi, cannot for a moment consent to med
die in this transaction, or to be concerned, for
the benefit of Mr.. Collins, the Creek Indians,
or any one else; or to interfere in any way
between the Indians and their negroes, which
may have tendency to deprive the former
of their property, and reduce the latter from
q c0mparatiue state Of freedom to that of
slaverq; at the same time l shall take every
means to obtain and restore to his lawful
owner, any slave among the Indians who has
absconded or been captured by them.
Very respectfully, have the honor to be
General, your obedent servant,
u. TAYLOR,
Brevet Brig. U. S. A. Commanding.
Gen. R. Jones, Adjt. Gen.U. S. Army,
Washington, d. c.
Here Gen. Taylor showed himself as firm
in resisting what he considered an illegal and
!; disgraceful order of the Department, as he
had been previously to the opportunities or
threats of the slave hunters. His commission
was in the power of the President to revoke
at any time his honor was above the reach
of the President; it was dearer to him than
all commissioned Cor. I3ib.