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In The Exiles of Florida, Giddings bluntly summarized the treaty's evasive language:

"The leading feature of this treaty, is a studied effort to make no allusion to the Exiles, or to recognize their existence in any way. General Jessup ... had expressly stipulated for the protection of the persons and property of the 'allies' of the Seminoles; but for half a century efforts had been made to exclude them from the page of our national history, and never was that policy more strikingly illustrated than in this treaty."

Writing in the 1930s, Foreman was slightly less disposed to see conspiracy at work, but he nonetheless found the evasion revealing:

"The real bone of contention, the source of nearly all the bitter hostility, the controversy revolving round the Seminole Negroes, was disposed of in a few evasive words incorporated in section three: 'It is mutually agreed by the Creeks and Seminoles, that all contested cases between the two tribes, concerning the right of property, growing out of sales or transactions that may have occurred previous to the ratification of this treaty, shall be subject to the decision of the President of the United States.' This document drawn by officials of the Government made no allusion to the Seminole Negroes, but the Seminole delegates being persuaded that it had the effect of protecting them in their legal rights, agreed to it."