Removal of the Cherokee Indians

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REMOVAL
OF THE
CHEROKEE INDIANS.





The treatment of our General Government towards the Indians within our limits is a subject of high importance. It deeply involves the character of the United States, and tells much of our future prospects as a nation. Institutions based on moral principles, can be sustained little longer than those principles are preserved uncorrupted. Hence every act of the President or the Administration, which is a departure from a course of rectitude and good faith, is pregnant with danger. If it receive the countenance of the people, it argues decay in the foundation which supports our civil liberties; if not sustained, it still has a corrupting influence, by calling into action the worst of passions and principles in its defence.
Let no one be weary of investigating the subject of the Indians. The conduct of the President and the Administration towards that ill-fated people should be fully understood. If they are right, let them be justified; if they are wrong, they are wrong in a very important and interesting particular, and the error must deeply affect the best interests of the Union. As a nation, we have National Character, and it should be preserved unsullied. The kingdoms of Europe are watching us with a scrutinizing eye. They know our boasted professions of equal and impartial justice. They know that while we consider their Governments as administered on principles of policy merely, as they arise out of the circumstances of the case, we have boasted that honesty is the best policy, and have affected to control the operations of our Government by the great principles of eternal justice. We have loudly censured the exercise of power against the right, and been somewhat severe upon the more powerful for their treatment towards the weaker nations of Europe. What then must be said where the Government of the United States comes down from its elevated stand and stoops to pluck from the forlorn remnant of a once formidable people, their last hope and consolation, and this, too, by means the most insulting? With the hypocritical smile of friendship, the President addresses them as his children; but at the same time tells them that the plighted faith of the nation in which they had reposed with so much assurance, can avail them nothing. That the solemn treaties which they had hugged to their bosoms as guaranteeing to them their independence and their rights, are mere shadows -- and that they must flee from their fields, their gardens,


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and their homes, to the deep and distant forest which alone can secure them against a more speedy destruction. With what heart rending force must such language as this fall upon the ears of those whose very existence depends on the good faith of the nation that utters it! How does such conduct strike the mind of the looker on, who has no immediate interest in the transaction? Let a
London Journal
, and one too, favorable to American Institutions, give the reply. Speaking of it, it calls it a "measure which would rival in its violent, oppressive and faithless character, and transaction in the annals of European or Asiatic despotism." Such is the light in which it is viewed abroad. The truth is, the faith of the whole nation is pledged for the protection of those Indians. The fact cannot be dissembled. Black cannot be argued into white -- nor can all the ingenuity and sophistry of those who would now destroy them, absolve us from our obligations. The Indians have lands, and the Georgians want them. But how are they to be obtained? Are they to be procured at the expense of the fidelity and moral character of the Nation? The price is too great. The Indians have appealed to us, the people. They have appealed to our morality, our religion, and our sense of justice, -- and shall they not be heard? Let their appeal be read, and let the Treaties, and Laws, and acts of the Government which sustain it be examined, and the public sentiment will yet save them from ruin, and retrieve the honor of the country.

MESSAGE

Of the Principal Chief of the General Council of the Cherokee Nation.


To the Committee and Council,
In General Council convened:
Friends and Fellow Citizens --
The constituted authorities of Georgia having assumed the power to exercise sovereign jurisdiction over a large portion of our Territory, and our Political Father, the Chief Magistrate of the United States, having declared that he possesses no power to oppose or interfere with Georgia in this matter, our relations with the United States are placed in a strange dilemma. The grave aspect of this picture calls for your calm and serious reflections. I have therefore deemed it my incumbent duty, on this extraordinary occasion, to convene the General Council of the Cherokee Nation.
The prayers of our memorials before the Congress of the United States have not been answered. But it is gratifying to know that numerous similar petitions from various sections of the United States have been presented in favor of our cause, by a large portion of the most respectable class of the community, and that our rights have been ably vindicated in Congress, by some of the most distinguished statesmen. But notwithstanding the unanswerable arguments which have been advanced under these appeals, there seems to have been a settled determination, by a small majority in Congress, to make further efforts to bring about a removal of all the Indians east of the Mississippi, beyond that great river, by making the question a general one, and acting upon the principles of policy and expediency -- the respective claims and rights of each tribe under existing treaties with the United States were viewed only as a secondary consideration -- consequently, an act has been passed, "To provide for an exchange of lands with the Indians residing within any of the states or territories, and for their removal west of the river Mississippi." The House of Representatives, however, by a very large majority, adopted this amendment, which has been accepted by


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the Senate. "Provided that nothing in this act shall be construed as authorizing or directing the violation of any existing treaty between the United States and any of the Indian tribes."
It is much to be regretted that we find in the reports of some of the acting agents of the General Government and other designing and interested individuals, that our true motives, disposition and condition have been grossly perverted and misrepresented. This may in part be attributed to a want of correct information upon points of which they pretend to speak, but much more to an intention to deceive the public with the view of obtaining certain political ends.
The fee simple title to our soil has been vainly asserted to be in the people of Georgia; and that state has arrogated to herself the power to exercise sovereign jurisdiction over us, and by legislative enactments, has declared all our laws, ordinances, orders, regulations and usages to be null and void, and peremptorily demands submission to her proscriptive and oppressive laws, under the most degrading circumstances. She has pointed to her jails, penitentiary, and gallows, for practising obedience to our own laws: and independent of all our treaties with the United States, and the acts of Congress which have been passed for the protection of our individual and national rights, the Chief Magistrate of the Union has warned us against any hope of interference, on his part with Georgia, in the exercise of his power, -- yet, he says, that such power as the laws give him for such protection, shall be executed for our benefit, and this will not fail to be exercised in keeping out intruders; beyond this he cannot go. An officer commanding a detachment of United States Troops who have been ordered into the nation, as it is said for the purpose of removing intruders, has communicated to the Cherokees at the Gold mines, the following notice --
"

That an arrangement has been entered into, by which there will be mutual assistance between the U. S. Troops and the civil authority of Georgia in all civil processes, the jurisdiction of Georgia having extended over the chartered limits, and all the natives are hereby advised to return to their homes and submit to the proclamation of the State authority.
[Signed]

[Signed] E. TRAINER, Lieut. Com'g. [Lieutenant Commanding]

P. S. They cannot be supported any longer in any thing inconsistent with the laws of the State.
"
Thus you will see that the rights and liberties of the Cherokee people are most grievously assailed.
Our delegation were authorized, if it should become necessary, to consult and employ counsel to defend our cause before the Supreme Court of the United States, in which tribunal, as the conservatory of the Constitution, Treaties, and laws of the Union, we can yet hope for justice, and to which we should fearlessly and firmly appeal. I would therefore, recommend the expediency of passing a law, authorizing some person to assert the rights of the Cherokee Nation in all Courts of law and equity in the U. States; also to address the President of the United States frankly, openly, and respectfully, on the subject of our unhappy situation, and request his parental interference in all points as far as the treaties and laws of the United States acknowledge and secure to us our rights; until the controversy at issue with Georgia be decided by the Supreme Court of the U. S.
I would further submit for your consideration the necessity of adopting some suitable and proper regulations for the observance of our citizens in working the Gold mines of the nation and other valuable minerals, such as the public interest, and the peace and good order of society may seem to require.
Confiding in the superintending care of a kind Providence, we should not despair, even should we for a season be plunged into the cells of Georgia's prisons -- means for our deliverance may yet be found. Let us not forget the circumstance related in Holy writ, of the safe passage of the children of Israel through the chrystal [crystal] walls of the Red Sea, and the fate of their wicked pursuers; let our faith in the unsearchable mysteries of an Omnipotent and allwise Being, be unshaken, for in the appearance of impossibilities, there is still hope.

[Signed] JNO. [John] ROSS.

New Echota, C. N. [Cherokee Nation]
July, 1830.



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ADDRESS
Of the Committee and Council of the Cherokee Nation in General Council convened, to the People of the United States.

Some months ago, a delegation was appointed by the constituted authorities of the Cherokee nation, to repair to the City of Washington, and, in behalf of this nation, to lay before the Government of the United States such representations as should seem most likely to secure to us as a people that protection, aid, and good neighborhood, which had been so often promised to us, and of which we stand in great need. Soon after their arrival in the City, they presented to Congress a petition from our National Council, asking for the interposition of that body in our behalf, especially with reference to the laws of Georgia, which were suspended in a most terrifying manner over a large part of our population, and protesting in the most decided terms against the operation of these laws. In the course of the winter they presented petitions to Congress, signed by more than four thousand of our citizens, including probably more than nineteen twentieths, and for ought we can tell ninety-nine hundredths, of the adult males of the nation, (our whole population being about sixteen thousand,) pleading with the assembled representatives of the American people, that the solemn engagements between their fathers and our fathers may be preserved, as they have been till recently, in full force and continued operation; asking, in a word for protection against threatened usurpation, and for a faithful execution of a guaranty, which is perfectly plain in its meaning, has been repeatedly and rigidly enforced in our favor; and has received the sanction of the government of the United States for nearly forty years.
More than a year ago we were officially given to understand by the Secretary of War, that the President could not protect us against the laws of Georgia. This information was entirely unexpected; as it went upon the principle, that treaties made between the United States and the Cherokee Nation have a power to withstand the legislation of separate States; and of course, that they have no efficacy whatever, but leave our people to the mercy of the neighboring whites, whose supposed interests would be promoted by our expulsion, or extermination. It would be impossible to describe the sorrow which affected our minds, on learning that the Chief magistrate of the United States had come to this conclusion, that all his illustrious predecessors had held intercourse with us on principles which could not be sustained; that they had made promises of vital importance to us, which could not be fulfilled -- promises made hundreds of times, in almost every conceivable manner, -- often in the form of solemn treaties, sometimes in letters written by the Chief Magistrate with his own hand, very often in letters written by the Secretary of War under his direction, sometimes orally by the President and the Secretary to our chiefs, and frequently and always, both orally and in writing, by the Agent of the United States residing among us, whose most important business it was, to see the guaranty of the United States faithfully executed.
Soon after the war of the Revolution, as we have learned from our fathers, the Cherokees looked upon the promises of the whites with great distrust and suspicion; but the frank and magnanimous conduct of General Washington did much to allay these feelings The perseverance of successive Presidents, and especially of Mr Jefferson, in the same course of policy, and in the constant assurance that our country should remain inviolate, except so far as we voluntarily ceded it, nearly banished anxiety in regard to encroachments from the whites. To this result the aid which we received from the United States in the attempts of our people to become civilized, and the kind efforts of benevolent societies, have greatly contributed. Of late years, however, much solicitude was occasioned among our people by the claims of Georgia. This solicitude arose from an apprehension, that by extreme importunity, threats, and other undue influence, a treaty would be made, which should cede the territory and thus compel the inhabitants to remove. But it never occurred to us for a moment, that without any new treaty, without any assent of our rulers and people, without even a pretended compact, and against our vehement and unanimous protestations, we should be delivered over to the discretion of those who had declared by a legislative act, that they wanted the Cherokee lands and would have them.


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Finding that relief could not be obtained from the Chief Magistrate, and not doubting that our claim to protection was just, we made our application to Congress. During four long months our delegation waited, at the doors of the National Legislature of the United States, and the people at home, in the most painful suspense, to learn in what manner our application would be answered; and, now that Congress had adjourned, on the very day before the date fixed by Georgia for the extension of her oppressive laws over the greater part of our country, the distressing intelligence has been received that we have received no answer at all; and no department of the Government has assured us, that we are to receive the desired protection. But just at the close of the session, an act was passed, by which half a million of dollars was appropriated towards effecting a removal of the Indians; and we have great reason to fear that the influence of this act will be brought to bear most injuriously upon us. The passage of this act is certainly understood by the representatives of Georgia as abandoning us to the oppressive and cruel measures of the State, and as sanctioning the opinion that treaties with Indians do not restrain State Legislation. We are informed by those who are competent to judge, that the recent act does not admit of such construction; but that the passage of it, under the actual circumstances of the controversy, will be considered as sanctifying the pretensions of Georgia, there is too much reason to fear.
Thus have we realized with heavy hearts, that our supplication has not been heard; that the protection heretofore experienced is now to be withheld; that the guaranty, in consequence of which our fathers laid aside their arms and ceded the best portion of their country, means nothing; and that we must either emigrate to an unknown region, and leave the pleasant land to which we have the strongest attachments, or submit to the legislation of a State, which has already made our people outlaws, and enacted that any Cherokee, who shall endeavor to prevent the selling of his country, shall be imprisoned in the Penitentiary of Georgia not less than four years. To our countrymen, this has been melancholy intelligence, and with the most bitter disappointment has it been received.
But in the midst of our sorrows, we do not forget our obligations to our friends and benefactors. It was with sensations of inexpressible joy, that we have learned, that the voice of thousands, in many parts of the United States, has been raised in our behalf, and numerous memorials offered in our favor, in both houses of Congress. To those numerous friends, who have thus sympathized with us in our low estate, we tender our grateful acknowledgements. In pleading our cause, they have pleaded the cause of the poor and defenceless [defenseless] throughout the world. Our special thanks are due, however, to those honorable men, who so ably and eloquently asserted our rights, in both branches of the national legislature. Their efforts will be appreciated wherever the merits of this question shall be known; and we cannot but think, that they have secured for themselves a permanent reputation among the disinterested advocates of humanity, equal rights, justice, and good faith. We even cherish the hope, that these efforts, seconded and followed by others of a similar character, will yet be available, so far as to mitigate our sufferings, if not to effect our entire deliverance.
Before we close this address, permit us to state what we conceive to be our relation with the United States. After the peace of
1783, the Cherokees were an independent people; absolutely so, as much as any people on earth. They had been allies to Great Britain, and as a faithful ally took a part in the colonial war on her side. They had placed themselves under her protection, and had they, without cause, declared hostility against their protector, and had the colonies been subdued, what might not have been their fate? But her power on this continent was broken. She acknowledged the independence of the United States, and made peace. The Cherokees therefore, stood alone; and in these circumstances, continued the war. They were then under no obligations to the United States never subjugated the Cherokees; on the contrary, our fathers remained in possession of their country, and with arms in their hands.
The people of the United States sought a peace; and, in
1785, the treaty of Hopewell was formed, by which the Cherokees came under the protection of the United States, and submitted to such limitations of sovereignty as are mentioned in that instrument. None of these limitations, however, affected, in


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the slightest degree, their rights of self-government and inviolate territory. The citizens of the United States had no right of passage through the Cherokee country till the year
1791, and then only in one direction, and by an express treaty stipulation. When the Federal Constitution was adopted, the treaty of Hopewell was confirmed, with all other treaties, as the Supreme law of the land. In
1791, the treaty of Holston was made, by which the sovereignty of the Cherokees was qualified as follows: The Cherokees acknowledged themselves to be under the protection of the United States, and of no other sovereign. They engaged that they would not hold any treaty with a foreign power, with any separate state of the Union, or with individuals. They agreed that the United States should have the exclusive right of regulating their trade; that the citizens of the United States should have a right of way in one directions through the Cherokee country; and that if an Indian should do injury to a citizen of the United States he should be delivered up to be tried and punished. A cession of lands was also made to the United States. On the other hand, the United States paid a sum of money; offered protection; engaged to punish citizens of the United States, who should do any injury to the Cherokees; abandoned white settlers on the Cherokee lands to the discretion of the Cherokees; stipulated that white men should not hunt on these lands, nor even enter the country without a passport; and gave a solemn guaranty of all Cherokee lands not ceded. This treaty is the basis of all subsequent compacts; and in none of them are the relations of the parties at all changed.
The Cherokees have always fulfilled their engagements. They have never reclaimed those portions of sovereignty, which they surrendered by the treaties of Hopewell and Holston. These portions were surrendered for the purpose of obtaining the guaranty which was recommended to them as the great equivalent. Had they refused to comply with their engagements, there is no doubt the United States would have enforced a compliance. Is the duty of fulfilling engagements on the other side less binding than it would be if the Cherokees had the power of enforcing their just claims?
The people of the United States will have the fairness to reflect, that all the treaties between them and the Cherokees were made, at the solicitation, and for the benefit, of the whites; that valuable considerations were given for every stipulation, on the part of the United States; that it is impossible to reinstate the parties in their former situation; that there are now hundreds of thousands of citizens of the United States residing upon lands ceded by the Cherokees in these very treaties; and that our people have trusted their country to the guaranty of the United States. If this guaranty fails them, in what can they trust, and where can they look for protection?
We are aware, that some persons suppose it will be for our advantage to remove beyond the Mississippi. We think otherwise. Our people universally think otherwise. Thinking that it would be fatal to their interests, they have almost to a man sent their memorial to Congress, deprecating the necessity of a removal. This question was distinctly before their minds when they signed their memorial. Not an adult person can be found, who has not an opinion on the subject, and if the people were to understand distinctly, that they could be protected against the laws of the neighboring states, there is probably not an adult person in the nation, who would think it best to remove; though possibly a few might emigrate individually. There are doubtless many who would flee to an unknown country, however beset with dangers, privations and sufferings, rather than be sentenced to spend six years in a Georgia prison for advising one of their neighbors not to betray his country. And there are others who could not think of living as outlaws in their native land, exposed to numberless vexations, and excluded from being parties or witnesses in a court of justice. It is incredible that Georgia should ever have enacted the oppressive law, to which reference is here made, unless she had supposed that something extremely terrific in its character was necessary in order to make the Cherokees willing to remove. We are not willing to remove; and if we could be brought to this extremity, it would be not by argument, not because our judgment was satisfied, not because our condition will be improved, but only because we cannot endure to be deprived of our national and individual rights and subjected to a process of intolerable oppression.


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We wish to remain on the land of our fathers. We have a perfect and original right to remain without interruption or molestation. The treaties with us, and laws of the United States made in pursuance of treaties, guaranty our residence, and our privileges, and secure us against intruders. Our only request is, that these treaties may be fulfilled, and these laws executed.
But if we are compelled to leave our country, we see nothing but ruin before us. The country west of the Arkansas territory is unknown to us. From what we can learn of it, we have no prepossessions in its favor. All the inviting parts of it, as we believe, are pre-occupied by various Indian nations, to which it has been assigned. They would regard us as intruders, and look upon us with an evil eye. The far greater part of that region is, beyond all controversy, badly supplied with wood and water; and no Indian tribe can live as agriculturalists without these articles. All our neighbors, in case of our removal, though crowded into our near vicinity, would speak a language totally different from ours, and practice different customs. The original possessors of that region are now wandering savages, lurking for prey in the neighborhood. They have always been at war, and would be easily tempted to turn their arms against peaceful emigrants. Were the country to which we are urged much better than it is represented to be, and were it free from the objections which we have made to it, still it is not the land of our birth, nor our affections. It contains neither the scenes of our childhood, nor the graves of our fathers.
The removal of families to a new country, even under the most favorable auspices, and when the spirits are sustained by pleasing visions of the future, is attended with much depression of mind and sinking of heart. This is the case, when the removal is a matter of decided preference, and when the persons concerned are in early youth or vigorous manhood. Judge, then, what must be the circumstances of a removal, when a whole community, embracing persons of all classes and every description, from the infant to the man of extreme old age, the sick, the blind, the lame, -- the improvident, the reckless, the desperate, as well as the prudent, the considerate, the industrious, are compelled to remove by odious and intolerable vexations and persecutions brought upon them in the forms of law, when all will agree only in this, that they have been cruelly robbed of their country, in violation of the most solemn compacts, which it is possible for communities to form with each other; and that, if that should make themselves comfortable in their new residence, they have nothing to expect hereafter but to be the victims of a future legalized robbery!
Such we deem, and are absolutely certain, will be the feelings of the whole Cherokee people, if they are forcibly compelled by the laws of Georgia to remove; and with these feelings, how is it possible that we should pursue our present course of improvement, or avoid sinking into utter despondency? We have been called a poor, ignorant, and degraded people. We certainly are not rich; nor have we ever boasted of our knowledge, or our moral or intellectual elevation. But there is not a man within our limits, so ignorant as not to know that he has a right to live on the land of his fathers, in the possession of his immemorial privileges, and that this right has been acknowledged and guaranteed by the United States; nor is there a man so degraded as not to feel a keen sense of injury, on being deprived of this right and driven into exile.
It is under a sense of the most pungent feelings that we make this, perhaps our last appeal to the good people of the United States. It cannot be that the community we are addressing, remarkable for its intelligence and religious sensibilities, and pre-eminent for its devotion to the rights of man, will lay aside this appeal, without considering that we stand in need of its sympathy and commiseration. We know that to the Christian and the Philanthropist the voice of our multiplied sorrows and fiery trials will not appear as an idle tale. In our own land, on our own soil, and in our own dwellings, which we reared for our wives and for our little ones, when there was peace on our mountains and in our valleys, we are encountering troubles which cannot but try our very souls. But shall we, on account of these troubles, forsake our beloved country? Shall we be compelled by a civilized and christian people, with whom we have lived in perfect peace for the last forty years, and for whom we have willingly bled in war, to bid a final adieu to our homes, our farms, streams and our beautiful forests?


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No. We are still firm. We intend still to cling, with our wonted affection, to the land which gave us birth, and which, every day of our lives brings to us new and stronger ties of attachment. We appeal to the judge of all the earth, who will finally award us justice, and to the good sense of the American people, whether we are intruders upon the lands of others. Our consciences bear us witness that we are the invaders of no man's rights -- we have robbed no man of his territory, nor have we deprived any man of his unalienable privileges. How then shall we indirectly confess the right of another people to our land by leaving it forever? On the soil which contains the ashes of our beloved men we wish to live -- on this soil we wish to die.
We intreat those to whom the foregoing paragraphs are addressed, to remember the great law of love, "Do to others as ye would that others should do to you" -- Let them remember that of all nations on the earth, they are under the sake of principle, their forefathers were compelled to leave, therefore driven from the old world, and that the winds of persecution wafted them over the great waters and landed them on the shores of the new world, when the Indian was the sole lord and proprietor of these extensive domains. Let them remember in what way they were received by the savage of America, when power was in his hand, and his ferocity could not be restrained by any human arm. We urge them to bear in mind, that those who would now ask of them a cup of cold water, and a spot of earth, a portion of their own patrimonial possessions, on which to live and die in peace, are the descendants of those whose origin, as inhabitants of North America, history and tradition are alike insufficient to reveal. Let them bring to remembrance all these facts, and they cannot, and we are sure they will not fail to remember, and sympathize with us in these our trials and sufferings.

[Signed] Lewis Ross, Pres't of Committee.
[Signed] Richard Taylor ,
[Signed] James Daniel ,
[Signed] Jos. [Joseph] Vann ,
[Signed] David Vann ,
[Signed] Edward Gunter ,
[Signed] John Baldridge ,
[Signed] Samuel Ward ,
[Signed] George Sanders ,
[Signed] Daniel Griffin, Jun.
[Signed] James Hamilton ,
[Signed] Walking Stick ,
[Signed] Moses Parris ,
[Signed] J. R. Daniel ,
[Signed] Slim Fellow
[Signed] Situake ,
[Signed] De-Gah-Le-Lu-Ge ,
[Signed] Robbin ,
[Signed] Tah-Lah-Doo ,
[Signed] Nah-Hoo-Lah ,
[Signed] White Path ,
[Signed] Ne-Ga-We ,
[Signed] Dah-Ye-Ske ,
[Signed] John Ridge, Clerk of Conncil [Council] .
[Signed] Alex. M'Daniel ,
[Signed] Thos. Foreman ,
[Signed] John Timson ,
[Signed] W. S. Codey, Clerk.
[Signed] Going Snake, Speaker of the Council,
[Signed] James Bigbey ,
[Signed] Deer-in-the-water ,
[Signed] Charles Reese ,
[Signed] Sleeping Rabbit ,
[Signed] Chu-nu-gee .
[Signed] Bark ,
[Signed] Laugh-at-Mush ,
[Signed] Chuleowah ,
[Signed] Turtle .
New Echota, C. N. [Cherokee Nation]
July 17, 1830.



FROM THE
MASSACHUSETTS JOURNAL
.
PRESIDENT JACKSON AND THE INDIANS.

The western papers contain an extract from a communication made by the President through the secretary of War, to the U. S. Commissioners and Agents to the Cherokee nation, dated
May 30th 1830. This document after stating the fact that Georgia and Alabama had extended their laws over the Indians, proceeds thus:
"The President is of opinion, that the only mode left for the Indians to escape the effects of the enactments, and consequences YET MORE DESTRUC-


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TIVE, which are consequent on their contiguity with the whites, is to emigrate."
"The President views the Indians as the children of the Government. He sees what is best for them; and that a perseverance in their refusal to fly the dangers that surround them, must result in their misery and final destruction."
This is most extraordinary language for the Chief Magistrate of the United States. What say the laws of the U. States? The following is a specimen of their language:
If any citizen or resident of the United States, shall go into any town, settlement or territory, belonging or secured by treaty with the United States, to any nation or tribe of the Indians, and shall there commit robbery, larceny, trespass, or any other crime against the person or property of any friendly Indian or Indians, which would be punishable if committed within the jurisdiction of any State against a citizen of the United States, or, unauthorized by law and with a hostile intention shall be found on any Indian land, such offender shall forfeit one hundred dollars, and be imprisoned not exceeding twelve months. -- And shall also, when property is taken and destroyed, forfeit and pay to such Indian or Indians, to whom the property taken and destroyed belonged, a sum equal to twice the value of the property taken and destroyed. -- Act of
1802, Section 4 th .

Other provisions abstracted from the laws of the U. S.

If the robber, thief, trespasser or invader shall not be able to pay the double value, it shall be paid from the U. S. Treasury .
If any citizen or resident of the U. States shall cross any Indian boundary secured by treaty, to hunt, or shall drive cattle across to range, he shall forfeit not exceeding $100 or be imprisoned 6 months.
If any citizen or resident of the United States shall enter Indian country allotted and secured by treaty to any Indian tribes, south of the Ohio without a passport, he shall forfeit not exceeding $50 or be imprisoned not exceeding three months.
If any such citizen or resident shall settle on any land secured to the Indians by treaty, or attempt to survey the same, he shall forfeit not exceeding $1000, or be imprisoned not exceeding 12 months.
If any such citizen or resident shall enter any Indian territory and commit murder by killing any Indian or Indians of any tribe in treaty with the United States, he shall be punished by death.
Such are some of the laws of this republic for the protection of the Indians which Mr Forsyth asked Congress at their last session to repeal; but Congress, (servile as it was) said NO, WE WILL NOT. -- Now what is the President's oath ?
"I do solemnly swear that I will execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."
The constitution declares that "all laws made in pursuance of it," and "all treaties made under the authority of the United States shall be the supreme law of the land, and the judges in every state shall be bound thereby, any thing in the constitution or laws of any state to the contrary notwithstanding ."
[The Constitution says " He shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed .]"
Upon all this read a brief commentary of facts. The Georgians have entered the Indian territory in hostile array, taken and destroyed property; arrested Indians and driven them off to Georgia prisons. Forty Indians at one time were thus dealt with, and the Georgians amused themselves by firing bullets through milk pails, which were hung out to dry.
A Georgia Constable entered the Cherokee lands, on the
first day of June to serve a writ on an Indian, but he found that said Indian had no property . He then took and drove off the cattle of


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an Indian farmer who dwelt hard by. The Indian followed, went into Georgia, stated his case to the Magistrate who issued the writ; but the magistrate said he could not hear him, and ordered the cattle to be sold, and they were sold without remedy to the owner; inasmuch as by the laws of Georgia, no Indian can bring an action or be a witness against a white man.

REMOVAL OF THE INDIANS.

The friends of the administration justify the State of Georgia for her inhuman conduct towards the Indians, by attempting to show that the Constitution of the United States does not authorize our Government to negotiate treaties with any Indian nation or tribe, living within the chartered limits of any or our States; and that the State of Georgia has never acknowledged the Indian title, nor the right of our Government to negotiate treaties with the Indians living within her State; therefore all treaties which our Government have thus negotiated, are null and void, and have no legal effect or operation whatever, and that Georgia has a perfect right to extend her laws over the Indians, the effect of which will be, to drive them from the land which they have possessed from time immemorial; notwithstanding her laws are in direct violation of numerous treaties, and treaty stipulations, and in violation of the laws of the United States made in pursuance of those treaties. This is the high ground which the supporters of the Administration and the State of Georgia have assumed in justification of their proceedings towards the natives of our soil. Now I ask the attention of the Yeomanry of our Country, to the official document of the late Governor Troup, which is in the following words:

"

GEORGIA. -- A PROCLAMATION.
By his Excellency GEORGE M. TROUP, Governor and Commander-in-chief of the Army and Navy of this State, and the Militia thereof.

WHEREAS, by a treaty concluded with the Creeks at the Indian Springs, on the
12th day of February last, their claims to the whole territory within the limits of Georgia, were ceded to the United States, and the ratification of the same, by the President and Senate, having been made known to me, by which act the territory aforesaid, according to the stipulations of the treaty, and of the articles of agreement and session in the year
1802, will on or before the first day of
September, 1826, pass into actual possession of the State of Georgia. And whereas it is provided in said treaty, that the United States shall protect the Indians against the encroachments, hostilities and impositions of the whites, so that they suffer no interruption, molestation or injury in their persons, goods, effects, their dwellings, or the lands they occupy until their removal shall have been accomplished, according to the terms of the treaty. I have therefore thought proper to issue this my proclamation, warning all persons, citizens of Georgia, or others, against trespassing, or intruding upon the lands occupied by the Indians within the limits of this State, either for the purpose of settlement or otherwise, as every such act will be in direct violation of the provisions of the treaty aforesaid, and will expose the aggressors to the most certain and summary punishment by the authorities of the States and of the United States. All good citizens therefore, pursuing the dictates of good faith, will unite in enforcing the obligations of the treaty as the Supreme law, aiding and assisting the magistracy in repressing and punishing any disorder or violence which may infringe its provisions, and all officers civil and military, are commanded to be vigilant in preventing offences under it, and in detecting and punishing offenders .
Given under my hand, and the great seal of the State, at the State House in Milledgeville, this
twenty first day of March, in the year of our Lord eighteen hundred and twenty five, and of the forty ninth year of the independence of the United States of America.
[Signed] E. HAMBLIN, Secretary of State.
By the Governor.
[Signed] G. M. TROUP.
"
I shall not make any comments at this time upon the proclamation above inserted -- but will remark that the same Governor Troup issued another proclamation, dated the
18th of April following, calling upon the members of the Legislature to assemble at the State house in Milledgeville, on Monday the
23d day of May, then next. The whole object of the meeting of the Legislature was to pass such laws as were necessary to carry the treaty above alluded to, into effect. The Legislature assembled at the time and place requested by the Executive, and passed a law embracing 24 sections, based wholly upon that treaty. And in addition to all this, the whole Georgia delegation in the Congress of the United


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States affirmed and declared in the most solemn manner that the treaty of Indian Springs was valid, binding, and obligatory, to all intents and purposes. Now I ask, if the above facts do not prove beyond all doubt, that the State of Georgia has by her official acts acknowledged the right of the Government of the United States to negotiate treaties with the Indians living within her chartered limits; and compacts thus made are the Supreme law, and that all persons that should violate the provisions of those treaties, are punishable, not only by the laws of Georgia, but by the laws of the United States; and do they not even go further, and say, that the citizens of Georgia are punishable by the laws of the United States, provided they should violate the provisions of an Indian treaty negotiated by our Government.
It will be recollected that the same G. M. Troup is now a Senator in Congress, and that he and all the other members from Georgia denied the right and authority of the United States to negotiate treaties with the Indians; and contended that the State of Georgia had a legal right to extend her laws over the Indians, and drive them from the land of their Fathers, whenever they chose; but no such language was used by Governor Troup in
1825. Then, Indian treaties and the laws of the United States touching the same, were binding, and also the Supreme Law of the land. The same ground which Gov. Troup took in
1825, relative to the McIntosh treaty, was taken and ably supported by the friends of humanity and justice in
1830. There is one fact, however, relative to the treaty of Indian Springs, which ought to come to light, which is this. By the repeated solicitations of the State of Georgia, President Monroe appointed two commissioners, viz. Capt. James Meriwether, and Duncan G. Campbell, both inhabitants of Georgia, to negotiate a treaty with the Creek nation of Indians for the acquisition of territory; the Indians were assembled in Council, the Commissioners made a written application to the Chiefs, head men and warriors in behalf of the United States, requesting them to cede all their territory within the limits of Georgia to the United States, and remove beyond the Mississippi. The Indian Council returned in answer that they had no more land to spare, and they could not think for a moment of removing beyond the Mississippi. I will make a short quotation of their reply, which is as follows: "Brothers, we have among us, aged and infirm men and women, and helpless children, who cannot bear the fatigues of a single day's journey. Shall we, can we leave them behind us? Shall we desert in their old age, the parents that fostered us. The answer is in your hearts. NO." Again, "we feel an affection for the land in which we were born; we wish our bones to rest by the side of our fathers. Considering then our now circumscribed limits, the attachments we have to our soil, and the assurance which we have, that our homes will never be forced from us, so long as the Government of the United States shall exist, we must positively decline the proposal of a removal beyond the Mississippi, or the sale of any more of our territory. Taking into view words of the treaty of cession with Georgia, and the several Guarantees in treaty stipulations, between this nation and the United States, as well as the letter of the Honorable George Graham, acting Secretary of war, to the Creek deputation, dated
17th March, 1819, an extract of which here follows, viz: 'The land which was guaranteed to you by the treaty signed by General Jackson, and your Chiefs and head men on the
9th of August 1814, is your land, and your father the President, who holds you and your nation, fast by the hand, will take care that no part of it is ever taken from you, excepting by the free consent of the Chiefs and head men, given in Council, and for a valuable consideration.'" These were some of the reasons which the Creeks assigned for not ceding any more of their territory, but the Commissioners made a second and a third application, and urged with great ingenuity, the vast benefit which would result to their nation by ceding their territory, and removing beyond the Mississippi, but the Indians were stedfast in their determination not to cede their territory and remove, and unanimously gave a negative answer.
The Commissioners being so often repulsed, came to the conclusion, that it was impossible, with all the threats and flattery, which they could use, to induce the nation to accede to their proposals, but as the Commissioners were determined to obtain their land, regardless of the means or consequences, they negotiated a treaty with McIntosh and his party, for the cession of all the Creek lands lying within the State of Georgia, for which the Commissioners agreed that the


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Government of the U. States should pay the Creek nation two hundred thousand dollars. The treaty was ratified, but the Creeks refused to receive the money or recognize the treaty, and contended that the treaty was not binding upon the nation, as it was made with only a small minority of the nation, and that McIntosh was bribed, otherwise he would not have ceded the territory nor signed the treaty. Col. Crowell the Government's Indian Agent for the Creek nation, addressed a letter to the Secretary of War, stating that the Commissioners had negotiated a treaty with McIntosh and his party, in direct violation of the instructions which the Government furnished the Commissioners. The Government immediately appointed Major General Gaines and others to repair to the Creek Country and ascertain the facts relative to the manner in which the treaty was obtained, and the numbers for the against the treaty; they performed the service, and reported to the Government, that the treaty was signed by "McIntosh, an Indian Chief of the fifth grade, and five underling Chiefs of an inferior degree, and that the whole number that signed the treaty were only 52, and that the whole McIntosh party consisted of from 280 to 300 men, women and children, and that there were 20,653 inhabitants in the nation, and of that number 776 were Chiefs. A treaty thus corruptly and fraudulently obtained, was declared by every department of the Government of Georgia to be valid and binding, and that it was the Supreme law of the land; and it was this treaty that created so much contention and debate in the Congress of the United States in
1826 and
'27. Now I ask if the foregoing facts do not compel Governor Troup, and the State of Georgia, however reluctantly, to reverse the order of things, and say, that treaties obtained by fraud, corruption and bribery, are valid and obligatory, and those which are negotiated in the utmost good faith, have no legal effect or operation whatever. I will only add, that it seems to me that if it were possible to disquiet and interrupt the repose of the Father of our Republic, and the founder of Pennsylvania, the cruel, oppressive and faithless conduct of our Government, and that of Georgia, towards the natives of our soil, would produce that effect.

A KENNEBEC FARMER.

The last received
Cherokee Phoenix
contains an opinion, by WM. WIRT, Esq. late Attorney General of the United States, on the right of the state of Georgia to extend her laws over the Cherokee Nation of Indians. It occupies nearly three pages of that paper, embraces a full discussion of that subject, and from the argument adduced draws the following conclusion.
"

On every ground of argument on which I have been enabled by my own reflections, or the suggestions of others, to consider this question, I am of the opinion,
1. That the Cherokees are a sovereign nation; and that their having placed themselves under the protection of the United States does not at all impair their sovereignty and independence as a Nation. "One community may be bound to another by a very unequal alliance, and still be a sovereign State . Though a weak State, in order to provide for its safety, should place itself under the protection of a more powerful one, yet according to Vattell (B. I Ch. I § 5 and 6,) if it reserves to itself the right of governing its own body, it ought to be considered as an independent State." 20 Johnson's Report 711, 712 Goodell vs. Jackson.
2. That the territory of the Cherokees is not within the jurisdiction of the State of Georgia, but within the sole and exclusive jurisdiction of the Cherokee Nation.
3. That consequently, the State of Georgia has no right to extend her laws over that territory.
4. That the law of Georgia which has been placed before me, is unconstitutional and void, 1. because it is repugnant to the law of the United States passed in
1802, entitled "an act to regulate trade and intercourse with the Indian tribes and to preserve peace on the frontiers." 3. because it is repugnant to the constitution, inasmuch as it impairs the obligation of all the contracts arising under the treaties with the Cherokees: and affects moreover to regulate intercourse with an Indian tribe, a power which belongs exclusively to Congress.

[Signed] WM. WIRT.

Baltimore,
June 20th, 1830. "