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part of our government to remove these tribes to the country west of the Mississippi. A treaty to this effect had been entered into by certain agents of the Seminoles, but their chief, Mi-can'-o-py, and their leading warrior, Os-ce-o'-la, denied the binding force of this engage

ment.

4. To the natural desire expressed by the latter, that he might rest in the land of his fathers, and his children sleep by his side, was added a bitter feeling of indignation at having been seized and put in irons by General Thompson, the agent of the United States. Dissembling his real feelings, and pretending to consent to the treaty of removal, Osceola obtained his liberty; but only to commence the bloody work of revenge and slaughter.

5. The American commanders in this quarter were soon made aware of these proceedings. General Clinch was at the time stationed in the interior of Florida, at Fort Drane, and being in want of supplies and deemed in imminent danger from the Indians, Major Dade, with one hundred and ten men and officers, was dispatched from Fort Brooke to his relief. On the way, December 28th, Dade was suddenly assailed by a large party of Seminoles, and he and all but one of his men were killed, or mortally wounded.

6. On the same day, General Thompson, while dining with a few friends, a short distance from Fort King, was suddenly fired upon by a party headed by Osceola, and fell pierced with fifteen bullets. Four others, out of the party of nine, were also killed. The savages rushed in, scalped their victims, and fled, before they could be arrested by the garrison. On the 31st of December, General Clinch had a severe and bloody conflict with the Indians on the banks of the With-la-coo'-chee, and in the succeeding February, General Gaines was attacked by them near the same place.

7. In May, 1836, several bands of Creeks joined the Seminoles, and the war raged with additional fury. In Georgia and Alabama steamboats were attacked, stage-coaches destroyed, towns burned, and many of the scattered inhabitants murdered. A strong force, joined by many friendly Indians, was, however, sent against them, and they submitted. During the summer of 1836, several thousands of them were transferred to the country west of the Mississippi.

8. What was the immediate occasion of this war? What of Micanopy? Of Osceola ? 4. What particular feelings of hatred had Osceola? What of his dissimulation? 5. What of the American commanders in Florida? What of General Clinch? Of Major Dade? 6. What of General Thompson? What of the battle of Withlacoochee? 7. What of the Creek Indians?

Fort Brooke is at the head of Tampa Bay, which lies on the western side of the peninsula of Florida. Fort Drane is seventy-five miles south-west of St. Augustine, and Fort King a few miles to the south-east of St. Augustine.

8. The remaining history of the Florida war belongs to a subsequent administration; but we may here briefly note its chief events. It is necessary to state, however, that in February, 1836, General Scott had been appointed to the command of the army in Florida, but was afterward succeeded by General Jessup.

9. In October, 1837, Osceola presented himself with a flag of truce; Jessup received him, and, disregarding the flag, seized him, and sent him to Fort Moultrie, near Charleston, where he died the following year. According to his education and condition, this savage chief was a patriot and a hero; the more civilized race which triumphed over him, only gained their victory by adopting the treacherous policy of the savage.

10. Though they had lost their leader, the Seminoles continued the war. In 1838, Colonel Taylor, afterward a renowned general in the Mexican war, and still later president of the United States, pursued them to the Everglades, the tangled and almost inaccessible swamps of south-eastern Florida. A fierce and bloody engagement took place on the 25th of December, which led to a treaty in 1839.

11. The Seminoles did not, however, wholly desist from their depredations till 1842, when peace was finally established. Since that time they have all been removed to the Indian Territory.

CHAPTER CXCVI.

JACKSON'S ADMINISTRATION, CONTINUED.-The great Fire in New York, December, 1835.—Decease of Eminent Men, Carroll of Carrollton, Randolph of Roanoke, and John Marshall.-Black Hawk and other Indian Chiefs.

1. ABOUT the period of which we are writing a remarkable confiagration occurred in the city of New York. It broke out on the night of the 16th of December, 1835. The weather at the time was extremely severe, and the water of the hydrants was frozen; the fire, therefore, raged till more than thirty acres, covered with dwellings and warehouses, were laid in ashes. More than five hundred buildings were destroyed, and property to the amount of eighteen millions of dollars consumed! It is an evidence of the renovating vigor of this great city, that the district blackened with fire was in a brief period

8 What occurred in 1886? 9. What of Osceola and General Jessup? Character of Osceola? 10. What of General Taylor? 11. What occurred in 1842?

CHAP. CXCVI.-1. What of the great fire in New York, December 16th, 1835

DECEASE OF EMINENT MEN.

385

covered with buildings of far greater value and utility than those which had before existed.

2. At this point we may notice the decease of several men of great public distinction. Monroe had died on the 4th of July, 1831, as we have elsewhere stated. Charles Carroll, of Carrollton, in Maryland, the last surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence, died at the great age of ninety-six.

3. In May, 1833, John Randolph, of Roanoke district, in Virginia, a descendant of Pocahontas, died at the age of sixty. He had served in Congress for thirty years, and at some periods had exercised great influence; his eccentricity of personal appearance and conduct, his bitter sarcasm and venomous wit, together with occasional flashes of eloquence, rendered him an object of mingled wonder, admiration and fear. In 1830, he was appointed minister to Russia by President Jackson. 4. In 1835, John Marshall, of Virginia, died at the age of eighty

BLACK HAWK.

five. He had been many years chief-justice of the United States, and enjoyed a degree of confidence and personal esteem, on the part of the people of the United States, similar to that bestowed on Washington, Jay, and a few other men of the earlier periods of our history.

5. In the autumn of 1836, about thirty Indian chiefs and warriors, of the Sacs and Foxes, with others, were taken on a visit through some of the principal cities of the United States, and at length arrived in Boston, where they were received with much ceremony. They were exhibited at the State House and Faneuil Hall, and performed a wardance on the Common. The celebrated chiefs Keokuck

2. What of Ex-president Monroe? Carroll of Carrollton? 3. John Randolph ? 4. Judge Marshal! 5. What happened in the fall of 1836? What were the names of some of

those Indians who came to Boston?

6. The latter excited great interest on account of his fine personal appearance, and his well known achievements. He had been the leader of a portion of the Winnebagoes and of the Sacs and Foxes, in a war which raged in Northern Illinois, in the year 1832. While other chief's submitted, he obstinately maintained the fight, though he was finally defeated and captured.

7. He was kept as a prisoner; but after his tour to Boston, in which he had seen the power of the whites, of which before he had no conotion, he was liberated, and, living peaceably for a time, he died in kwa in 1838.

CHAPTER CXCVII.

JACKSON'S ADMINISTRATION, CONTINUED.-Michigan admit ted into the Union.

1. On the 25th of January, 1837, a bill, which had already passed the Senate of the United States, for the admission of Michigan to the Union as a state, passed the House of Representatives by a large majority; and, on the 26th, received the sanction of the president.

2. Michigan had contained sixty thousand inhabitants, the usual number required of a new state as one of the qualifications for admis

sion, long before

this time, but difficulties had presented themselves which were not adjusted till now. The population, in 1837, was nearly two hundred thousand; in 1850, it was three hundred and ninetyseven thousand six hundred and fifty-four; in 1860, seven hun

dred and forty-nine thousand one hundred and thirteen.

6. 7. What of Black Hawk?

CHAP. CXCVII-1. What bill passed the Senate of the United States in 1837? 2. Pop alation of Michigan at different periods?

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3. The Michigan Territory, when first discovered by the white people, was inhabited by a tribe of Indians called Hurons by the French, and Iroquois by the Indians themselves. Many of these were converted to Christianity by the assiduous labors of the Jesuit missionaries, as early as 1648. It was not, however, till 1670, that the French took possession of the territory, and built two forts, one at Detroit and another at Michilimackinac; nor was it really settled till thirty years after.

4. The progress of the settlements, under the French, was exceed ingly slow. It was not till the year 1763, when, by the treaty between Great Britain and France, it was ceded to the former, that much was done in the way of civilization and improvement. Little, indeed, was actually accomplished till after the peace of 1783, when the territory was given up by Great Britain to the United States.

5. Until about the year 1800, this territory, for the purposes of government, was considered a part of the great North-Western Territory. After Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois had been severally detached, the remainder, in 1805, became a distinct territory, of which President Jefferson made General Hull the first governor.

6. Michigan was still doomed to much suffering, especially from the war of 1812. For almost two years, nearly the whole territory was the theatre of conflict, and was necessarily exposed to the barbarity of the enemy and their Indian allies. The situation of the state, from its contiguity to the great lakes, is almost unrivalled, and Michigan thus promises to be one of the leading members of our confederacy.

8. How was it first peopled? Who converted many of the Indians? When did the French build two forts in Michigan? When was Michigan really settled? 4. When was It ceded to Great Britain? When was it given up to the United States? 5. Relate its history after the year 1800. 6. How did Michigan suffer in the war of 1812?