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CALHOUN AS SECRETARY OF WAR 317 spots for their settlement west of Arkansas and Missouri. In carrying out this plan there were several principles to be ob- served. Above all, the government should try to keep peace among the different tribes, and the schools, which they had giv- en, were to be moved with them, so that they should have the same advantages of civilization. The government agents must assure them that this new land will not be taken away from them. An effort should also be made to unite all the tribes and to introduce the laws of the United States among them, so that in time they might enjoy the privileges of citizens. To this end Calhoun advised Congress to hold a convention of the leading Indians. 59 The main ideas which run through Calhoun's reports in this chapter, are, the necessity of keeping English traders out of the United States territory, and the peaceful admission of the Indians to participation in the United States Government. He realized that if the English were allowed to trade in our possessions, they would incite the natives to war and drive out our traders. The Indians could not be civilized while they were treated as a foreign and often antagonistic nation. CHAPTER V THE CONFLICT ON THE FRONTIER No part of his work as Secretary of War exhibits Calhoun's diplomacy and caution so well as his connection with the Seminole War and annexation of Florida. The War was caused by the attacks of the Seminole Indians on citizens of the United States, in CAUSE OF THE Spanish territory and on the American SEMINOLE WAR side of the boundary. 60 The Governor of Pensacola 61 asserted in 1818, that he had neither the force nor the authority to conquer the Indians, but that he was as anxious as the United States to stop the out- rages which they committed. 62 Nevertheless the Committee on Register, XXVII, 40 Ses egster, , 404. 60 Annals of Congress, i6th Cong., ist Sess., II, 1618-9. 61 An important Spanish fort in the southwestern part of Florida. 62 Annals of Congress, i$th Cong., 2nd Sess., IV, Appendix, 1970. !