780 



McGlLLIVRAY, AtEXANDEiR 



[b. a. E. 



tury by his ability and the affection in 

 which he was held by his mother's peo- 

 ple. Capt. Marchand, in command of the 

 French Ft Toulouse, Ala., in 1722, mar- 

 ried a Creek woman of the strong Hutali 

 or Wind clan, from which it was custom- 

 ary to select the chief. One of the chil- 

 dren of this marriage was Sehoy, cele- 

 brated for her beauty. In 1735 Lachlan 

 McGillivray, a Scotch youth of wealthy 

 famil}', landed in Carolina, made his way 

 to the Creek country, married Sehoy, and 

 established his residence at Little Talasi, 

 on the E. bank of Coosa r., above We- 

 tumpka, Elmore CO., Ala. After acquir- 

 ing a fortune and rearing a family he 

 abandoned the latter, and in 1782 re- 

 turned to his native country. One of his 

 children was Alexander, born about 1739; 

 he was educated at Charleston under care 

 of Farquhar McGillivray, a relative. At 

 the age of 17 he was placed in a count- 

 ting house in Savannah, but after a short 

 time returned to his home, where his 

 superior talents began to manifest them- 

 selves, and he was soon at the head of 

 the Creek tribe. Later his authority ex- 

 tended also over the Seminole and the 

 Chickamauga groups, enabling him, it is 

 said, to muster 10,000 warriors. McGil- 

 livray is first heard of in his new role as 

 " presiding at a grand national council at 

 the town of Coweta, upon the Chatta- 

 hoochie, where the adventurous Leclerc 

 Milfort was introduced to him" (Pickett, 

 Hist. Ala., 345, 1896). Through the ad- 

 vances made by the British authorities, 

 the influence of Col. Tait, who was sta- 

 tioned on the Coosa, and the conferring 

 on him of the title and pay of colonel, 

 McGillivray heartily and actively es- 

 poused the British cause during the Rev- 

 olution. His father had left him prop- 

 erty on the Savannah and in other parts 

 of Georgia, which, in retaliation for his 

 abandonment of the cause of the colonists, 

 was confiscated by the Georgia authori- 

 ties. This action greatly embittered him 

 against the Americaus and led to a long 

 war against the western settlers, his at- 

 tacks being directed for a time against 

 the peojjle of e. Tennessee and Cumber- 

 land valley, whence he was successively 

 beaten back by Gen. James Robertson. 

 The treaty of peace in 1783 left McGilli- 

 vray without cause or party. Proposals 

 from the Spanish authorities of Florida 

 through his busine-ss partner, Wm. Pan- 

 ton, another Scotch adventurer and trader, 

 induced him to visit Pensacola in 178-1, 

 where, as their "emperor," he entered 

 into an agreement with Spain in the name 

 of the Creeks and the Seminoles. The 

 United States made repeated overtures to 

 McGillivray for peace, but he persist- 

 ently refused to listen to them until in- 

 vited to New York in 1790 for a personal 



conference with Washington. His jour- 

 ney from Little Talasi, through Guilford, 

 Richmond, Fredericksburg, and Phila- 

 delphia, was like a triumphal march, and 

 the prospective occasion for such display 

 was a strong inducement for the shre\\d 

 chief to accept the invitation. According 

 to Pickett (p. 406) there was, in addition 

 to the public treaty, a secret treaty be- 

 tween Mc(Tillivray and Washington 

 which provided "that after two years 

 from date the commerce of the Creek 

 nation should be carried on through the 

 ])orts of the United States, and, in the 

 meantime, through the jiresent channels; 

 that the chiefs of the Okfuskees, Tooka- 

 batchas Tallases, Cowetas, Cussetas, and 

 the Seminole nation should be paid an- 

 nually by the I^nited States $100 each, 

 and be furnished with handsome medals; 

 that Alexander Mcfxillivray should be 

 constituted agent of the United States 

 with the rank of brigadier-general and 

 the pay of |1,200 per annum; that the 

 United States should feed, clothe, and 

 educate Creek youth at the North, not 

 exceeding four at one time." The pub- 

 lic treaty was signed Aug. 7, 1790, and a 

 week later McGillivray took the oath of 

 allegiance to the United States. Never- 

 theless he was not diverted from his in- 

 trigue with Spain, for shortly after taking 

 the oath he was appointed l)y that power 

 superintendent-general of the Creek na- 

 tion with a salary of |2,000 a year, which 

 was increased in 1792 to $3,500. 



The versatile character of McGillivray 

 was perhaps due in part to the fact that 

 there flowed in his veins the blood of 

 four different nationalities. It lias ])een 

 said that he po.ssessed "the polished 

 urbanity of the Frenchman, the duplicity 

 of the Spaniard, the cool sagacity of the 

 Scotchman, and the subtlety and inveter- 

 ate hate of the Indian." Gen. James 

 Robertson, who knew him well and 

 despised the Spaniards, designated the lat- 

 ter ' ' devils ' ' and pronoimced ]Mc(Tillivray 

 as the l>iggest devil among them — "lialf 

 Spaniard, half Frenchman, half Scotch- 

 man, and altogether Creek scoundrel." 

 That Alexander McGillivray was a man 

 of remarkable ability is evident from the 

 consummate skill with which he main- 

 tained his control and influence over the 

 Creeks, and from his success in keeping 

 both the United States and Spain paying 

 forhis influence at the same time. In 1792 

 he was at once the superintendent-general 

 of the Creek nation on behalf of Spain, the 

 agent of the United States, the mercantile 

 ]>artner of Panton, and "emperor" of 

 the Creek and Seminole nations. As 

 opulence was estimated in his day and 

 territory, he was a wealthy man, having 

 received $100,000 for the property con- 

 fiscated by the Georgia authorities, while 



