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Treasury Department Second Comptroller's Office
January 12, 1850
Sir,
The question presented by the Second Auditor in his letter referred to me from your Department, is by no means free from doubt.
By the treaty with the Cherokee nation of
1835, ratified in
1836, the Cherokees stipulated to remove to their new homes west of the Mississippi, within two years from the ratification of said treaty. It has been decided that, by the provisions of the treaty, the expense of their removal and of one years subsistence after their arrival at their new homes was a proper charge upon the sum paid by the United States for the Cherokee country east of the Mississippi. Such persons and families as removed themselves were to be allowed, in full for all claims for the same twenty dollars for each member of their family, and thirty-three dollars and thirty-three cents in lieu of their one years subsistence. A portion of the nation residing in North Carolina


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did not remove, and by repeated decisions of the Executive, confirmed, I think, by Congress, were deemed not entitled under the treaty, to the commutation allowance above mentioned for removal and subsistence. A final settlement being about to be made with the Cherokee nation under the treaty of
1846, the North Carolina Cherokees preferred their claims to Congress, and the 4th and 5th Sections of the Act of
July 29, 1848, Chap. 118, provide for their relief. As whatever allowance that may be made under the 4th Section is to be charged to the Cherokee nation according to the proviso in the 5th Section, the United States have no pecuniary interest in this question.
After a careful examination of the two Sections above mentioned, I am inclined to the opinion that it was not intended that any part of the "amount required to be funded for the benefit of the Cherokees in North Carolina," and "charged to the general Cherokee fund," as directed in said proviso, should ever again be added to that fund, but that it should be appropriated for the benefit of the North Carolina Cherokees, to defray the expense of their removal and one year's subsistence,


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in case they should remove, otherwise by yielding them an annual interest of six percent.
If this view be correct, it would follow, that, in case of the death of a person interested in the fund, the legal representative of such person would succeed to his rights, and might claim the interest, so long as the fund continued. This is in accordance with the language of the 4th Section, and although I perceive difficulties in carrying it into effect for an unlimited time, yet I find no alternative but that of eventually returning the whole fund, except what may be withdrawn for actual removal, and which will probably be nothing, to the Cherokee nation. It is believed that there is nothing in the law indicating that such was the intention of those who framed it.

With sincere respect, & c. [et cetera] (signed)
[Signed] A. K. Parris
Comptroller.
Hon. [Honorable] W. M. Meredith, Sec. of the Treasury