Rage

The Secretary of War did not relieve Jesup, and after a week the general cooled down. Rejecting extreme measures, he settled on ruthless pragmatism. Jesup extended an offer of plunder to his own soldiers. "There is no obligation to spare the property of the Indians," he wrote. "Their negroes, cattle, and horses ... will belong to the corps by which they are captured." Disappointed with Creek mercenaries who had been recruited at the outset of the war, he tried to recruit more violent Indians -- Delaware, Shawnee, and Sioux, whom he hoped would kill the Seminole men and enslave the women. Newspapers outside Florida criticized the use of northern Indians, but Jesup defended the policy with candor:

"I not only recommended, but urged … the employment of northern Indians … and to save American blood, I would employ the dogs of Cuba, if I could obtain them, regardless alike of the cant of hypocrites or the bluster of demagogues." [More]