The Nashville people complained that the Creeks were "as busy in killing and scalping as if they had been paid three thousand dollars for so doing, in the room of fifteen hundred dollars to keep the peace." [Footnote: _Knoxville Gazette_, March 23, 1793.] A public address was issued in the _Knoxville Gazette_ by the Tennesseeans on the subjects of their wrongs.

In respectful and loyal language, but firmly, the Tennesseeans called the attention of the Government authorities to their sufferings.

They avowed the utmost devotion to the Union and a determination to stand by the laws, but insisted that it would be absolutely necessary for them to take measures to defend themselves by retaliating on the Indians.
Nature of the Indian Inroads.
A feature of the address was its vivid picture of the nature of the ordinary Indian inroad and of the lack of any definite system of defence on the frontier.

It stated that the Indian raid or outbreak was usually first made known either by the murder of some defenceless farmer, the escape of some Indian trader, or the warning of some friendly Indian who wished to avoid mischief.

The first man who received the news, not having made any agreement with the other members of the community as to his course in such an emergency, ran away to his kinsfolk as fast as he could.