1838 Martin Van Buren - The Cooley Massacre (Justifying the Seminole War)

In the wake of violent attacks like the Cooley and Gwinn family massacres, President Martin Van Buren framed the Second Seminole War as a necessary response to what he described as savage and indiscriminate violence against settlers.

In 1832, the Seminole people of Florida signed the Treaty of Payne’s Landing, agreeing to relocate west of the Mississippi within three years. But when the deadline passed, only a few clans had moved, and tensions simmered. Then, on December 28, 1835, the conflict exploded. Seminole warriors ambushed a column of U.S. soldiers under Major Francis L. Dade, killing 107 out of 110 men. The brutal surprise attack—known as the Dade Massacre—ignited the Second Seminole War, one of the bloodiest and most expensive Indian conflicts in U.S. history, stretching on for seven relentless years.

President Martin Van Buren, inheriting the war from his predecessor, described the violence in stark terms. He accused the Seminole of “butchering whole families...without distinction of age or sex,” and warned that nowhere in Florida was safe from their raids. Two of the most infamous attacks left lasting scars. On January 6, 1836, the Cooley plantation in present-day Fort Lauderdale was the site of a grisly massacre. William Cooley, a prominent settler, had left for business when local Indians attacked, killing his wife, children, and their tutor. The Seminoles first chopped down and scalped the tutor who was trying to defend a child, then they shot Mrs. Cooley trying to run away with the baby. Finally the clubbed to death the 9-year old son and shot the 11-year old daughter. Today, a historical marker at the site stands as a grim reminder of the bloodshed and the founding of nearby Fort Lauderdale as a military post in 1838.

Another tragedy struck along the Santa Fe River in July 1838. As reported by the St. Augustine Herald, the entire Gwinn family—father, mother, and two children—was found murdered at their homestead. A 13-year-old daughter was missing, presumed abducted or killed. The paper described the scene as “heart rending,” a chilling example of what settlers faced on the Florida frontier.

As the war raged, Major General Thomas Jesup led a large force of volunteers from across the states to push the Seminole deeper into the Everglades. By early 1838, weary of swamp fighting and mounting losses, the Seminole proposed a truce: they would cease hostilities if allowed to remain in the Everglades south of Lake Okeechobee. Jesup, reluctant to pursue a drawn-out guerrilla war in the treacherous wetlands, favored the offer—but Washington had other plans. Secretary of War Joel Roberts Poinsett rejected the peace overture and ordered continued aggression. Jesup complied, detaining 500 Seminole. The campaign was fierce—so fierce that Jesup reportedly had his eyeglasses shot off in battle.

Eventually, even Poinsett recognized the futility of endless swamp warfare. He recommended a new strategy: rather than chasing the Seminole through the Everglades, U.S. forces would permanently occupy parts of Florida already cleared of Native resistance and concentrate on protecting settlers. With this shift in policy, Jesup stepped down and General Zachary Taylor assumed command, tasked with preventing the Seminole from reclaiming territory in northern Florida. The war would grind on until 1842.

In his 1838 State of the Union address, President Van Buren discussed the conflict with harsh conviction. While he did not mention the Cooley or Gwinn families by name, the horrors they endured clearly shaped the administration's policy. Van Buren justified continued military action by citing the Seminoles’ “treacherous conduct” and the “ruthless war” they waged. The only solution, he insisted, was their total removal – “military operations against them until they are totally expelled from Florida”.

“The case of the Seminoles constitutes at present the only exception to the successful efforts of the Government to remove the Indians to the homes assigned them west of the Mississippi. Four hundred of this tribe emigrated in 1836 and 1,500 in 1837 and 1838, leaving in the country, it is supposed, about 2,000 Indians. The continued treacherous conduct of these people; the savage and unprovoked murders they have lately committed, butchering whole families of the settlers of the Territory without distinction of age or sex, and making their way into the very center and heart of the country, so that no part of it is free from their ravages; their frequent attacks on the light-houses along that dangerous coast, and the barbarity with which they have murdered the passengers and crews of such vessels as have been wrecked upon the reefs and keys which border the Gulf, leave the Government no alternative but to continue the military operations against them until they are totally expelled from Florida. There are other motives which would urge the Government to pursue this course toward the Seminoles. The United States have fulfilled in good faith all their treaty stipulations with the Indian tribes, and have in every other instance insisted upon a like performance of their obligations. To relax from this salutary rule because the Seminoles have maintained themselves so long in the territory they had relinquished, and in defiance of their frequent and solemn engagements still continue to wage a ruthless war against the United States, would not only evince a want of constancy on our part, but be of evil example in our intercourse with other tribes. Experience has shown that but little is to be gained by the march of armies through a country so intersected with inaccessible swamps and marshes, and which, from the fatal character of the climate, must be abandoned at the end of the winter. I recommend, therefore, to your attention the plan submitted by the Secretary of War in the accompanying report, for the permanent occupation of the portion of the Territory freed from the Indians and the more efficient protection of the people of Florida from their inhuman warfare.”

Thus, the Second Seminole War became not just a military campaign, but a defining moment in the broader effort to forcibly relocate Native Indian tribes westward—an effort fraught with violence, resistance, and deep moral controversy that echoes through American history.

References

Van Buren, Martin. Second Annual Message. 3 Dec. 1838, The American Presidency Project, https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/second-annual-message-4.

Second Seminole War. Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia, Wikimedia Foundation, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Seminole_War. Accessed 21 May 2025.

Cooley's Massacre Marker. The Historical Marker Database, https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=127510. Accessed 21 May 2025.

St. Augustine Herald. 8 July 1838. Quoted in Under the Magnolia Tree, https://underthemagnoliatree.net/Floridaherald.html. Accessed 21 May 2025.

"Before the Bloodshed." Fort Lauderdale Magazine, https://fortlauderdalemagazine.com/before-the-bloodshed/. Accessed 21 May 2025.