Page:Andrew Erwin - Gen. Jackson's Negro Speculations (1828).djvu/20

 to the agency, he directed his negroes to go on to a branch, and eat their breakfast.—that he rode up to the agency, where he saw several Indian countrymen, inquired of them for Mr. Dinsmore, who informed him Mr. Dinsmore was not there,or from home. He told them to tell Mr. Dinsmore he should have been glad to have seen him, but be could not wait, that he was going on home with his negroes. A fellow named John Amp, whom I raised, and was sold by the then Capt. John Brahan to the said Joseph Coleman, was one of the negroes armed and put in front, as the General then stated. The above is a true statement of what I heard Gen. Andrew Jackson say in Nashville, after bis return from Natchez. It may not be the precise words, but it is the substance, to the best of my own recollection.

It seems from this letter, that the purchase from Epperson was not the only negro speculation in which your firm was concerned. You bought of John Brahan, and probably, if all the transactions could be brought to light, of several other persons. But my main object in introducing the above letter, is to show your respect for the laws and constituted authorities of your country. "You even boasted, it seems, of having armed your negro slaves, in order to fight their way, if necessary, rather than to conform to the regulations of government, and procure and produce a passport for them. This sir, is perfectly consistent with your declaration, in your celebrated letter to G. W. Campbell, about sweeping from the earth the invader of legal rights, and involving Silas Dinsmore in the flames of his agency house. Is this a spirit to be patronized and cherished by the people of these United States? Does this not also explain the height and depth of your untiring, malignant persecution of myself, who, alone, or nearly so, defended my unsuspecting, poor, but honest neighbors, against your swindling combination, to deprive them of their houses and homes, so fairly and honestly bought and paid for by them, as set forth in transcripts from the records by the "Tennessean" in his numbers two to seven, each included. Dinsmore was threatened with consuming fire for giving you the trouble of obtaining a passport, in strict conformity with the laws of the country, and in the faithful execution of the confidence reposed in him by government. My crime was of a deeper dye. I deprived you of sweeping three or four hundred thousand dollars worth of my neighbors lands into your own pocket, (by taking advantage of your own agency, so well described in Judge Anderson's letter in the 7th number of the Tennessean,) for which you had not paid one dollar; neither had your partner, P. H. Darby, who got $5000 of the $10,000 you so unrighteously extorted out of the people, rather than be longer harrassed by you and him. You also got 6 to $7000 worth of land from me, for your individual benefit in said compromise, about which you have been very silent, and are yet, in open violation of that article of compromise—causing five or six of my worthy, but poor neighbors, to be harrassed with law suits; although every iota of the agreement has been complied with on our part. This accounts for the perpe-