[Letter] 1839 Nov. 12, Washington City, D.C. [to] T. Hartley Crawford, Commissioner of Indian Affairs / W[illiam] H[olland] T[homas] of an image

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Washington City DC
Nov 12, 1839
Hon [Honorable] T. Hartley Crawford Commissioner of Indian Affairs
Sir,
I would respectfully call your attention to your report of the
12th sept on the subject of the cherokees remaining East of the Mississippi which is herewith inclosed respecting which I beg leave to submit the following remarks
At the time the report was made you seem to have [deleted text: been of opinion ] deemed it unnecessary to separate the Cherokee East from those who had emigrated and the reason assigned is the probability of their removal west before the Cherokee business was settled. Upon what information that supposition was founded I have not been informed. I presume however it was on a report said to have been in circulation in georgia and of which the Department was informed by the Hon [Honorable] Wilson Lumpkin. who thereupon was requested to procure what information he could in relation to those cherokees & inform the Department thereof. His report has been made by which it appears that none of those Indians under existing circustances [circumstances] desire to emigrate nor does he think it probable they will before next fall he does not deem it expedient to encourage them to go until after those west have settled their difficulties. That report taken in connection with the fact that the government has not furnished them with the means of removal and subsistence demonstrably prove that none will emigrate until after the Cherokee national business is closed. For by your report it appears that it will be completed during next winter. Therefore making payment to those [added text: East ] of what is due them under the treaty or setting it apart for that purpose before the cherokees books are sent west would seem to be indispensably necessary without which I am at a loss to perceive how with any degree of certainty payment can be made them under the treaty.


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as the books furnish the only evidence in relation thereto, And they were not to wait until payment was made to those that emigrated but was entitled by the 12th article of the treaty to recive [receive] all their dues provided for therein as soon as an appropriation was made therefor. it was made on the
2d of July 1836 Three years and four months their money has been due from the United States and that time has elapsed since Congress made the appropriation to pay them
So far as regards their election it seems to have been made agreeably to the provisions of the treaty it was upon that desire to remain East subject to the laws of the states that the privileges they now enjoy more granted them. And as they now have the right to remain East until they choose to emigrate I do not percieve [perceive] how setting apart for them removal and subsistence allowance to which they are intitled [entitled] under the treaty will occasion them to be unsettled and unfixed. It is to be presumed as their prejudices against the country designs for them and which they also have contributed to purchase are removed by means of information they may recive [receive] from their friends who have emigrated that they will then desire to join [deleted text: their brethren ] and the means being furnished they will go leaving none behind only such as are still determined to remain East who until they change that opinion regard their situation as permanent it being dependent on their own choice, and their improvements on the lands they have purchased will be as progressive as if no means were furnished them to emigrate. What is there to make them more unsettled than the white citizens they too have a right to remove & are offered a bounty to go to Texes


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but it is scarcely presumable that such as do not intend going are unsettled in consequence of having the offer made to them the liberty of changing our situation whenever we desire to do so is the prime cause of our being contented therewith.
If the information concerning the cherokees west be true instead of their improving they are retrograding, and it is highly probable the gradual emigrations of those East can a lone [alone] prevent them from sinking into the same degraded situation as their neighboring tribes. While those [deleted text: East ] remaining being at peace with each other under the influence of temperance and religious societies will it is to be presumed continue to improve. and at this time they are capable of manufacturing their own clothing -- cultivating a sufficiency of the earth for those support -- acquainted to a considerable extent with the merchants -- and a majority of them are capable of reading and writing either in their own language or the english. It is scarcely presumable that the cherokees west will at any subsequent period become so blind to their own interest as to regard such emigrants as strangers On the contrary so long as they on their arrival west can give the name of the clan to which they belonged they will be received and treated by all the members of that clan as brothers -- Welcomed into their houses and assisted to make such improvements as they need -- none will doubt this who are acquainted with Cherokee usages and customs.


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The Cherokee as well as most of the Indian Tribes have no reason to fear of becoming too numerous nor is it probable they will object to any of their people coming in to enjoy their nights on that account .But the great danger to be apprehended by them is that of becoming extinct which has already befallen so many of the once numerous tribes.
As to the claim for commutation of removal and subsistence allowance permit me to refer you to [added text: a ] printed statement in relation thereto which I previously submitted

very respectfully yours obt svt [obedient servant]
[Signed] WHT [William Holland Thomas]