Calhoun John


Secretary of War Calhoun Urges Agent to Confer with Creek Chiefs on Claim
JOHN C. CALHOUN, Manuscript Letter Signed, to David B. Mitchell, January 8, 1819, Washington, D.C. 1 p., 7" x 9.5"  Tight trimming on left cuts off portion of first letters; 3.5" tear from right edge, professionally mended; attached to paper frame on three sides; stain of photograph to verso.
Complete Transcript

                                                                        Department of War, / 8th January, 1819.
Sir,
            I have examined the vouchers transmitted by you on the 14th of Septemr last, relative to the claim of the heirs of the late Colonel Hawkins. Altho’ the claim appears well founded, it would be but fair to give the chiefs of the nation an opportunity to consider it, and express their opinion upon it. For this purpose, you will lay the papers before the chiefs the first time they may be assembled in Council, and will report the result to this Department.
                                                                        I have the honor to be, / your most obedt servt
                                                                        J. C. Calhoun
Genl D. B. Mitchell, / creek agent, / Georgia.
Historical Background

Benjamin Hawkins (1754-1816) was a planter, and he served as a delegate to the Continental Congress and as U.S. Senator from North Carolina (1789-1795).  In 1796, President George Washington appointed him as General Superintendent for Indian Affairs. In that position, he had responsibility for relations with Native American tribes south of the Ohio River, and he was the principal agent for the Creeks. He established a plantation and the Creek Agency in central Georgia and had a Creek common-law wife, with whom he had seven children. He married her in January 1812 to make certain the children could inherit in the American legal system. His will made his nephew William Hawkins co-executor of his estate with his wife and also gave the nephew a share of the estate. The settlement of the estate was contentious, in part because Hawkins’ 1812 will had not been revised to include his youngest daughter Jeffersonia.
This letter may deal with the legal disputes surrounding Hawkins’ large estate.
 
John C. Calhoun (1782-1850) was born in Abbeville District, South Carolina, and graduated from Yale College as valedictorian in 1804. He studied law at Tapping Reeve Law School in Litchfield, Connecticut, and was admitted to the South Carolina bar in 1807. In 1811, he married Floride Bonneau Colhoun, with whom he had ten children. He won election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1810 and served until 1817, when President James Monroe appointed him as Secretary of War, a position he held until 1825. Initially a candidate for the presidency in 1824, Calhoun abandoned his candidacy in favor of Andrew Jackson. The Electoral College elected Calhoun as vice president by a landslide, in marked contrast to the position of president. Although Andrew Jackson won a plurality of the popular vote and the most electoral votes, the House of Representatives selected John Quincy Adams as president. In 1828, Calhoun supported Jackson’s campaign, and Jackson selected Calhoun as his running mate. When Jackson won, Calhoun continued in the position of vice president. As vice president, Calhoun presided over the Senate from 1825 to December 1832, when he resigned as vice president over disagreements with Jackson. From 1832 to 1843 and from 1845 until his death, Calhoun represented South Carolina in the U.S. Senate. During the eleven months between Senate terms, Calhoun served as John Tyler’s Secretary of State.
David Brydie Mitchell (1766-1837) was born in Scotland and inherited land in Georgia from his uncle. He moved to Georgia in 1782, read law, and was admitted to the bar. He served as mayor of Savannah from 1801 to 1802.  He served as attorney general of Georgia (1796-1806) and for three terms in the Georgia General Assembly—two terms in the House of Representatives and one term in the Senate. He served as governor of Georgia from 1809 to 1813 and again from 1815 to 1817. He resigned from his third term as governor to accept appointment by President James Monroe as U.S. agent to the Creeks.  In 1818, Mitchell negotiated the Treaty of the Creek Agency, in which the Creeks ceded land to the United States. After he allowed smugglers of slaves to seek refuge at the agency he supervised, Monroe dismissed him in 1821.
 


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