Editing Seminole Wars (section)

===Further Indian removal===
In 1851, General [[Luther Blake]] was appointed by the Secretary of the Interior [[Thomas McKean Thompson McKennan]] to move the Indians west. Blake had successfully removed the [[Cherokee]] from Georgia and was presumed capable of the task of removing the Seminole. He had funding to pay every adult male $800 and every woman and child $450. He went to the Indian Territory to find interpreters and returned to Florida in March 1852. Traveling into the field to meet with all of the Indian leaders, by July he had found sixteen Seminole to send west. Finding [[Billy Bowlegs]] insistent on staying in Florida, Blake took Bowlegs and several other chiefs to Washington. President [[Millard Fillmore]] presented Bowlegs with a medal, and he and three other chiefs were persuaded to sign an agreement promising to leave Florida. The chiefs were taken on a tour that included [[Baltimore]], [[Philadelphia]] and New York City. Upon returning to Florida, the chiefs repudiated the agreement they had signed in Washington. Blake was fired in 1853, and Captain Casey was put back in charge of Indian removal.<ref>Covington. pp. 123–6.</ref>

In January 1851, the Florida Legislature created the position of commander of the Florida Militia, and Governor [[Thomas Brown (Florida politician)|Thomas Brown]] appointed General Benjamin Hopkins to it in January 1853 after the Seminole refused to appear for a meeting in Washington.<ref>{{cite news |newspaper=New-York Daily Times |title=The Seminoles: Action of the Legislature of Florida |date=26 January 1853 |page=6 |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1853/01/26/75351987.html?pageNumber=6 |access-date=12 November 2022 |url-access=subscription |archive-date=13 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230213100533/https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1853/01/26/75351987.html?pageNumber=6 |url-status=live }}</ref> The Florida Militia pursued Seminole who were outside the reservation boundaries. In the period prior to the Third Seminole War, the militia captured one man and a few women, and 140 hogs. One Seminole woman elder committed suicide while being held by the militia, after the rest of her family had escaped. The whole operation cost the state US$40,000.<ref>Covington. p. 126.</ref>

Pressure from Florida officials pushed the federal government to take action. Captain Casey continued to try to persuade the Seminole to move west without success. He sent Billy Bowlegs and others to Washington again, but the chiefs refused to agree to move. In August 1854, Secretary of War [[Jefferson Davis]] initiated a program to force the Seminole into a final conflict. The plan included a trade embargo against them, the survey and sale of land in southern Florida to European-American settlers, and a stronger Army presence to protect the new settlers. Davis said that if the Seminole did not agree to leave, the Army would use force.<ref>Covington. pp. 126–7.</ref>