"War with the Seminoles of Florida" Topic

"By far the most costly, protracted, and troublesome of all our Indian wars, was that with the Seminoles of Florida. That it was so was owing to their warlike character, as well as to the fact that they were contending for their homes and all that was dear to them. It was also largely owing to the unhealthiness of the climate, and especially to the inaccessible nature of the country, with its dense and almost impenetrable swamps, hommocks, and everglades, which provided the Indians with hiding-places and fastnesses innumerable. Probably no region better adapted than this to the peculiar warfare of the Indian can be found on the face of the globe.

It was an unjust and unwise war: unjust, because the rights and the wishes of the Indians were disregarded; and unwise, because the territory they occupied, some of which they still continue to occupy, was not required for settlement. It afforded, however, a shelter for runaway negroes, and this must, at all events, be put a stop to. The Government of the United States was at that time controlled by the slave-holding minority at the South. The people of Georgia thought that the first duty of the Federal Government was to catch their runaway negroes. The Florida War was in reality nothing more than a slave-hunt on a large scale, at the national expense…"
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