Chapter 8

At the beginning of the Federal relations with the Cherokees, a definition of their boundaries had been made by treaty of November 28, 1785, extending on the south as far west as the headwaters of the Appalachee River. Beyond that point to the west no declaration as to the limits of the Cherokee territory was made, because, for the purposes of the Federal Government, none was at that time necessary. But when in course of time other cessions came to be made, both by the Cherokees and Creeks, it began to be essential to have an exact definition of the line of limits between them. Especially was this the case when, as by the terms of the Creek treaty of February 12, 1825,375they ceded all the territory to which they laid claim within the limits of Georgia, and although this treaty was afterwards declared void by the United States, because of alleged fraud, Georgia always maintained the propriety and validity of its negotiation.

As early as June 10, 1802, a delegation of Cherokees interviewed Colonel Hawkins and General Pickens, and after demanding the removal of certain settlers claimed to be on their lands, asserted the boundary of their nation in the direction of the Creeks to be the path running from Colonel Easley's, at High Shoals of the Appalachee, to Etowah River. This they had agreed upon in council with the Creeks. A delegation of the Creeks, whom they brought with them from the council, were then interrogated on the subject by Messrs. Hawkins and Pickens, and they replied that the statement of the Cherokees was correct.

In the spring of 1814 (May 15) Agent Meigs had written the Secretary of War that the Cherokees were sensible that the Creeks ought to cede to the United States sufficient land to fully compensate the latter for the expenses incurred in prosecuting the Creek war. However, they (the Cherokees) were incidentally interested in the arrangements, and hoped that the United States would not permit the Creeks to point out the specific boundaries of their cession until the division line between the two nations had been definitely determined. In the following year, in a discussion of the subject with Colonel Hawkins, the Creek agent, Colonel Meigs declares that the Cherokees repel the idea entertained by the Creeks that the Cherokee or Tennessee River was ever their southern boundary. On the contrary, the dividing line between the territories of the two nations should begin at Vann's Old Store, on the Ocmulgee River, thence pursuing such a course as would strike the Coosa River below the Ten Islands. This claim was predicated upon the assertion that the Cherokees had in the course of three successive wars with the Creeks driven them more than a degree of latitude below the point lastnamed. Another Cherokee version was to the effect that at a joint council of the two nations, held prior to the Revolutionary War, the boundary question was a subject of discussion, when it was agreed to allow the oldest man in the Creek Nation to determine the point. This man was James McQueen, a soldier who had deserted from Oglethorpe's command soon after the settlement of Savannah. McQueen decided that the boundary should be a line drawn across the headwaters of Hatchet and Elk Creeks, the former being a branch of the Coosa and the latter a tributary of the Tallapoosa. This decision was predicated upon the fact that the Cherokees had driven the Creeks below this line, and it had been mutually agreed that it should constitute the boundary.

In contradiction of this it was asserted by the Creeks that in the year 1818 it had been admitted at a public meeting of the Creeks by "Sour Mush," a Cherokee chief, that the Creeks owned all the land up to the head of Coosa River, including all of its waters; that the Tennessee was the Cherokee River, and the territories of the two nations joined on the dividing ridge between those rivers. In former times, on the Chattahoochee, the Cherokees had claimed the country as low down as a branch of that river called Choky (Soquee) River. Subsequently they were told by the Coweta king, that they might live as low down as the Currahee Mountain, but that their young men had now extended their claim to Hog Mountain, without however any shadow of right or authority.376

With a view to an amicable adjustment of their respective rights a council was held between the chiefs and headmen of the two nations at the residence of General William McIntosh, in the Creek country, at which a treaty was concluded between themselves on the 11th of December, 1820. In the first article of this treaty the boundary line between the two nations was fixed as running from the Buzzard's Roost, on the Chattahoochee, in a direct line to the Coosa River, at a point opposite the mouth of Wills Town Creek, and thence down the Coosa River to a point opposite Fort Strother. This boundary was reaffirmed by them in a subsequent treaty concluded October 30, 1822.377

The Cherokee treaty of 1817 had assumed to cede a tract of country "Beginning at the high shoals of the Appalachy River and running thence along the boundary line between the Creek and Cherokee Nations westwardly to the Chatahouchy River," etc.

The Creek treaty of 1818378in turn ceded a tract the northern boundary of which extended from Suwanee Old Town, on the Chattahoochee, to the head of Appalachee River, and which overlapped a considerable portion of the Cherokee cession of 1817.

The Creek treaty of 1821379ceded a tract running as far north as the Shallow Ford of the Chattahoochee, which also included a portion ofthe territory within the limits of the Cherokee domain, as claimed by the latter.

By the treaty of 1825380with the Creeks they ceded all their remaining territory in Georgia. Complaint being made that this treaty had been entered into by only a small non-representative faction of that nation, an investigation was entered upon by the United States authorities, and as the result it was determined to declare the treaty void and to negotiate a new treaty with them, which was done on the 24th of January, 1826.381

By this last treaty as amended the Creeks ceded all their land east of the Chattahoochee River, as well as a tract north and west of that river. In the cession of this latter tract it was assumed that a point on Chattahoochee River known as the Buzzard's Roost was the northern limit of the Creek supremacy.

The authorities of Georgia strongly insisted that not only had the treaty of 1825 been legitimately concluded, whereby they were entitled to come into possession of all the Creek domain within her limits, but also that the true line of the Creek limits toward the north had been much higher up than would seem to have been the understanding of the parties to the treaty of 1826.

In the following year the Creeks ceded all remaining territory they might have within the limits of Georgia.382This left the only question to be decided between the State of Georgia and the Cherokees the one of just boundaries between the latter and the country recently acquired from the Creeks.

The War Department had been of the impression that the proper boundary between the two nations was a line to be run directly from the High Shoals of the Appalachee to the Ten Islands, or Turkeytown, on the Coosa River.383On this hypothesis Agent Mitchell, of the Creeks, had been instructed, if he could do so, "without exciting their sensibilities," to establish it as the northern line of the Creek Nation.

Georgia, on the contrary, claimed that the proper boundary extended from Suwanee Old Town, on the Chattahoochee, to Sixes Old Town, on the Etowah River; from thence to the junction of the Etowah and Oostanaula Rivers, and following the Creek path from that point to Tennessee River. In pursuance of this claim Governor Forsyth instructed384Mr. Samuel A. Wales as the surveyor for that State to proceed to establish the line of limits in accordance therewith. Mr. Wales, upon commencing operations, was met with a protest from Colonel Montgomery, the Cherokee agent,385notwithstanding which he continued his operations in conformity with his original instructions.

This action of the surveyor having produced a feeling of great excitement and hostility within the Cherokee Nation, rendering the danger of collision and bloodshed imminent, the United States authorities took the matter in hand, and, by direction of the President, General John Coffee was appointed and instructed386to proceed to the Cherokee Nation, and from the most reliable information and testimony attainable to report what, in his judgment, should in justice and fairness to all parties concerned be declared to be the true line of limits between Georgia, as the successor of the Creeks, and the Cherokee Nation.

General Coffee proceeded to the performance of the duty thus assigned him. A large mass of testimony and tradition on the subject was evoked, in summing up which General Coffee reported387to the Secretary of War that the line of demarkation between the two nations should begin at the lower Shallow Ford of the Chattahoochee, which was about 15 miles below the Suwanee Old Town. From thence the line should run westwardly in a direction to strike the ridge dividing the waters running into Little River (a branch of the Hightower or Etowah) from those running into Sweet Water Creek (a branch of the Chattahoochee emptying about 2 miles below Buzzard's Roost). From this point such ridge should be followed westwardly, leaving all the waters falling into Hightower and Coosa Rivers to the right and all the waters that run southwardly into Chattahoochee and Tallapoosa Rivers to the left, until such ridge should intersect the line (which had been previously as per agreement of 1821 between the Creeks and Cherokees themselves) run and marked from Buzzard Roost to Wills Creek, and thence with this line to the Coosa River opposite the mouth of Wills Creek.

Two weeks later388General Coffee, in a communication to the Secretary of War, alludes to the dissatisfaction of Georgia with the line as determined by him, and her claim to an additional tract of territory by remarking that "I have thought it right to give this statement for your own and the eye of the President only, that you may the better appreciate the character of the active agents and partisans of the Georgia claim, for really I cannot see any reasonable or plausible evidence on which she rests her claim."

The President, after a careful examination of the testimony and much solicitude upon the subject, decided to approve General Coffee's recommendation. The Cherokee agent was therefore directed389to notify all white settlers living north of Coffee's line to remove at once. The governor of Georgia was also notified of the President's decision, and, though strongly and persistently protesting against it, the Presidentfirmly refused to revoke his action.390The Cherokees were equally dissatisfied with the decision, because the line was not fixed as far south as Buzzard's Roost, in accordance with the agreement of 1821 between themselves and the Creeks.391

A delegation of the Cherokees, with John Ross at their head, was quartered in Washington during the greater part of the winter of 1832—'33, bringing to bear in behalf of their nation every possible influence upon both Congress and the Executive. A voluminous correspondence was conducted between them and the War Department upon the subject of their proposed removal. In a communication on the 28th of January, 1833, they ask leave to say that, notwithstanding the various perplexities which the Cherokee people had experienced under the course of policy pursued toward them, they were yet unshaken in their objections to a removal west of the Mississippi River. On the question of their rights and the justice of their cause, their minds were equally unchangeable. They were, however, fully sensible that justice and weakness could not control the array of oppressive power, and that in the calamitous effects of such power, already witnessed, they could not fail to foresee with equal clearness that a removal to the west would be followed in a few years by consequences no less fatal.

They therefore suggested for the consideration of the President, whether it would not be practicable for the Government to satisfy the claims of Georgia by granting to those of her citizens who had in the lotteries of that State drawn lots of land within Cherokee limits otherlands of the United States lying within the Territories and States of the Union, or in some other way.

The President urges their assent to removal.—The Secretary of War, in replying for the President (February 2,1833), was unable to see that any practicable plan could be adopted by which the reversionary rights held under the State of Georgia could be purchased upon such terms as would justify the Government in entering into a stipulation to that effect. Nor would it at all remove the difficulties and embarrassments of their condition. They would still be subject to the laws of Georgia, surrounded by white settlements and exposed to all those evils which had always attended the Indian race when placed in immediate contact with the white population. It was only by removing from these surroundings that they could expect to avoid the fate which had already swept away so many Indian tribes.

Reply of John Ross.—Ross retorted, in a communication couched in diplomatic language, that it was with great diffidence and deep regret he felt constrained to say, that in this scheme of Indian removal he could see more of expediency and policy to get rid of the Cherokees than to perpetuate their race upon any permanent, fundamental principle. If the doctrine that Indian tribes could not exist contiguous to a white population should prevail, and they should be compelled to remove west of the States and Territories of this republic, what was to prevent a similar removal of them from there for the same reason?

Without securing any promises of relief, and without reaching any definite understanding with the executive authorities of the Government, the delegation left for their homes in March, 1833. They agreed, however, to lay before their national council in the ensuing May a proposition made to them by the President, offering to pay them $2,500,000 in goods for their lands, with the proviso that they should remove themselves at their own expense.392This proposition, it is hardly necessary to remark, was not favorably considered by the council, though the Secretary of War designated393Mr. Benjamin F. Curry to attend the meeting and urge its acceptance.

Alleged attempted bribery of John Ross.—In this connection a story having been given currency that the Government had offered Chief Ross a bribe, provided he would secure the conclusion of a treaty of cession and removal, the Commissioner of Indian Affairs denied it as being "utterly without foundation, and one of those vile expedients that unprincipled men sometimes practice to accomplish an evil purpose," and as being "too incredible to do much injury."394While this story was perhaps without solid foundation in fact, its improbability would possibly have been more evident but for the fact that only five years earlier the Secretary of War had appointed secret agents andauthorized them to expend $2,000 in bribing the chiefs for this very purpose, and had made his action in this respect a matter of public record.

In January, 1834, a few weeks after the assembling of Congress, the Cherokee delegation again arrived in Washington.395Sundry interviews and considerable correspondence with the War Department seemed barren of results or even hope. The delegation submitted396a proposition for adjustment in another form. Remarking upon their feeble numbers, and surrounded as they were by a nation so powerful as the United States, they could not but clearly see, they said, that their existence and permanent welfare as a people must depend upon that relation which should eventually lead to an amalgamation with the people of the United States. As the prospects of securing this object collectively, in their present location in the character of a territorial or State government, seemed to be seriously opposed and threatened by the States interested in their own aggrandizement, and as the Cherokees had refused, and would never voluntarily consent, to remove west of the Mississippi, the question was propounded whether the Government would enter into an arrangement on the basis of the Cherokees becoming prospectively citizens of the United States, provided the former would cede to the United States a portion of their territory for the use of Georgia; and whether the United States would agree to have the laws and treaties executed and enforced for the effectual protection of the Cherokees on the remainder of their territory for a definite period, with the understanding that upon the expiration of that period the Cherokees were to be subjected to the laws of the States within whose limits they might be, and to take an individual standing as citizens thereof, the same as other free citizens of the United States, with liberty to dispose of their surplus lands in such manner as might be agreed upon.

Cherokee proposals declined.—The reply397to this proposition was that the President did not see the slightest hope of a termination to the embarrassments under which the Cherokees labored except in their removal to the country west of the Mississippi.

Proposal of Andrew Ross.—In the mean time398Andrew Ross, who was a member of the Cherokee delegation, suggested to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs that if he were authorized so to do he would proceed to the Cherokee country and bring a few chiefs or respectable individuals of the nation to Washington, with whom a treaty could be effected for the cession of the whole or part of the Cherokee territory. His planwas approved, with the understanding that if a treaty should be concluded the expenses of the delegation would be paid by the United States. Ross succeeded in assembling some fifteen or twenty Cherokees at the Cherokee agency, all of whom were favorable to the scheme of emigration. Under the self-styled appellation of a committee, they proceeded to appoint a chief and assistant chief in the persons of William Hicks and John McIntosh, and selected eight of their own number as the remainder of the delegation to visit Washington.399

Protest of John Ross and thirteen thousand Cherokees.—Upon their arrival Hon. J. H. Eaton was designated400to conduct the negotiations with them. During the pendency of the negotiations Mr. Baton advised John Ross of the purpose in view and solicited his co-operation in the scheme. Mr. Ross refused401this proposal with much warmth, and took occasion to add in behalf of the Cherokee Nation that "in the face of Heaven and earth, before God and man, I most solemnly protest against any treaty whatever being entered into with those of whom you say one is in progress so as to affect the rights and interests of the Cherokee Nation east of the Mississippi River."

Chief Ross also presented a protest, alleged to have been signed by more than thirteen thousand Cherokees, against the negotiation of such a treaty.

Preliminary treaty concluded with Andrew Ross et al.—Disregarding the protest of Chief Ross and distrusting the verity of that purporting to have been so numerously signed in the nation, the negotiations proceeded, and a treaty or agreement was concluded on the 19th day of June, 1834. The treaty provided for the opening of emigrant enrolling books, with a memorandum heading declaring the assent of the subscriber to a treaty yet to be concluded with the United States based upon the terms previously offered by the President, covering a cession and removal, and with the proviso that if no such subsequent treaty should be concluded within the next few months then the subscribers would cede to the United States all their right and interest in the Cherokee lands east of the Mississippi. In consideration of this they were to be removed and subsisted for one year at the expense of the United States, to receive the ascertained value of their improvements, and to be entitled to all such stipulations as should thereafter be made in favor of those who should not then remove.

The treaty, however, failed of ratification, though the enrolling books were opened402and a few of the Cherokees entered their names for emigration.

While the negotiations leading up to the conclusion of this treaty were in progress John Ross and his delegation, finding no dispositionon the part of the executive authority to enter into a discussion of Cherokee affairs predicated upon any other basis than an abandonment by them of their homes and country east of the Mississippi, presented403a memorial to Congress complaining of the injuries done them and praying for redress. Without affecting to pass judgment on the merits of the controversy, the writer thinks this memorial well deserving of reproduction here as evidencing the devoted and pathetic attachment with which the Cherokees clung to the land of their fathers, and, remembering the wrongs and humiliations of the past, refused to be convinced that justice, prosperity, and happiness awaited them beyond the Mississippi.

The memorial of the Cherokee Nation respectfully showeth, that they approach your honorable bodies as the representatives of the people of the United States, intrusted by them under the Constitution with the exercise of their sovereign power, to ask for protection of the rights of your memorialists and redress of their grievances.They respectfully represent that their rights, being stipulated by numerous solemn treaties, which guaranteed to them protection, and guarded as they supposed by laws enacted by Congress, they had hoped that the approach of danger would be prevented by the interposition of the power of the Executive charged with the execution of treaties and laws; and that when their rights should come in question they would be finally and authoritatively decided by the judiciary, whose decrees it would be the duty of the Executive to see carried into effect. For many years these their just hopes were not disappointed.The public faith of the United States, solemnly pledged to them, was duly kept in form and substance. Happy under the parental guardianship of the United States, they applied themselves assiduously and successfully to learn the lessons of civilization and peace, which, in the prosecution of a humane and Christian policy, the United States caused to be taught them. Of the advances they have made under the influence of this benevolent system, they might a few years ago have been tempted to speak with pride and satisfaction and with grateful hearts to those who have been their instructors. They could have pointed with pleasure to the houses they had built, the improvements they had made, the fields they were cultivating; they could have exhibited their domestic establishments, and shown how from wandering in the forests many of them had become the heads of families, with fixed habitations, each the center of a domestic circle like that which forms the happiness of civilized man. They could have shown, too, how the arts of industry, human knowledge, and letters had been introduced amongst them, and how the highest of all the knowledge had come to bless them, teaching them to know and to worship the Christian's God, bowing down to Him at the same seasons and in the same spirit with millions of His creatures who inhabit Christendom, and with them embracing the hopes and promises of the Gospel.But now each of these blessings has been made to them an instrument of the keenest torture. Cupidity has fastened its eye upon their lands and their homes, and is seeking by force and by every variety of oppression and wrong to expel them from their lands and their homes and to tear them from all that has become endeared to them. Of what they have already suffered it is impossible for them to give the details, as they would make a history. Of what they are menaced with by unlawful power, every citizen of the United States who reads the public journals is aware. In this their distress they have appealed to the judiciary of the United States, where their rights have been solemnly established. They have appealed to the Executive of the United States to protect these rights according to the obligations of treaties and the injunctions of the laws. But this appeal to the Executive has been made in vain.In the hope that by yielding something of their clear rights they might succeed in obtaining security for the remainder, they have lately opened a correspondence with the Executive, offering to make a considerable cession from what had been reserved to them by solemn treaties, only upon condition that they might be protected in the part not ceded. But their earnest supplication has been unheeded, and the only answer they can get, informs them, in substance, that they must be left to their fate, or renounce the whole. What that fate is to be unhappily is too plain.The State of Georgia has assumed jurisdiction over them, has invaded their territory, has claimed the right to dispose of their lands, and has actually proceeded to dispose of them, reserving only a small portion to individuals, and even these portions are threatened and will no doubt, soon be taken from them. Thus the nation is stripped of its territory and individuals of their property without the least color of right, and in open violation of the guarantee of treaties. At the same time the Cherokees, deprived of the protection of their own government and laws, are left without the protection of any other laws, outlawed as it were and exposed to indignities, imprisonment, persecution, and even to death, though they have committed no offense whatever, save and except that of seeking to enjoy what belongs to them, and refusing to yield it up to those who have no pretense of title to it. Of the acts of the legislature of Georgia your memorialists will endeavor to furnish copies to your honorable bodies, and of the doings of individuals they will furnish evidence if required. And your memorialists further respectfully represent that the Executive of the United States has not only refused to protect your memorialists against the wrongs they have suffered and are still suffering at the hands of unjust cupidity, but has done much more. It is but too plain that, for several years past, the power of the Executive has been exerted on the side of their oppressors and is co-operating with them in the work of destruction. Of two particulars in the conduct of the Executive your memorialists would make mention, not merely as matters of evidence but as specific subjects of complaint in addition to the more general ones already stated.The first of these is the mode adopted to oppress and injure your memorialists under color of enrollments for emigration. Unfit persons are introduced as agents, acts are practiced by them that are unjust, unworthy, and demoralizing, and have no object but to force your memorialists to yield and abandon their rights by making their lives intolerably wretched. They forbear to go into particulars, which nevertheless they are prepared, at a proper time, to exhibit.The other is calculated also to weaken and distress your memorialists, and is essentially unjust. Heretofore, until within the last four years, the money appropriated by Congress for annuities has been paid to the nation, by whom it was distributed and used for the benefit of the nation. And this method of payment was not only sanctioned by the usage of the Government of the United States, but was acceptable to the Cherokees. Yet, without any cause known to your memorialists, and contrary to their just expectations, the payment has been withheld for the period just mentioned, on the ground, then for the first time assumed, that the annuities were to be paid, not as hitherto, to the nation, but to the individual Cherokees, each his own small fraction, dividing the whole according to the numbers of the nation. The fact is, that for the last four years the annuities have not been paid at all.The distribution in this new way was impracticable, if the Cherokees had been willing thus to receive it, but they were not willing; they have refused and the annuities have remained unpaid. Your memorialists forbear to advert to the motives of such conduct, leaving them to be considered and appreciated by Congress. All they will say is, that it has coincided with other measures adopted to reduce them to poverty and despair and to extort from their wretchedness a concession of their guaranteed rights. Having failed in their efforts to obtain relief elsewhere, your memorialists now appeal to Congress, and respectfully pray that your honorable bodies will look into their whole case, and that such measures may be adopted as will give them redress and security.

They respectfully represent that their rights, being stipulated by numerous solemn treaties, which guaranteed to them protection, and guarded as they supposed by laws enacted by Congress, they had hoped that the approach of danger would be prevented by the interposition of the power of the Executive charged with the execution of treaties and laws; and that when their rights should come in question they would be finally and authoritatively decided by the judiciary, whose decrees it would be the duty of the Executive to see carried into effect. For many years these their just hopes were not disappointed.

The public faith of the United States, solemnly pledged to them, was duly kept in form and substance. Happy under the parental guardianship of the United States, they applied themselves assiduously and successfully to learn the lessons of civilization and peace, which, in the prosecution of a humane and Christian policy, the United States caused to be taught them. Of the advances they have made under the influence of this benevolent system, they might a few years ago have been tempted to speak with pride and satisfaction and with grateful hearts to those who have been their instructors. They could have pointed with pleasure to the houses they had built, the improvements they had made, the fields they were cultivating; they could have exhibited their domestic establishments, and shown how from wandering in the forests many of them had become the heads of families, with fixed habitations, each the center of a domestic circle like that which forms the happiness of civilized man. They could have shown, too, how the arts of industry, human knowledge, and letters had been introduced amongst them, and how the highest of all the knowledge had come to bless them, teaching them to know and to worship the Christian's God, bowing down to Him at the same seasons and in the same spirit with millions of His creatures who inhabit Christendom, and with them embracing the hopes and promises of the Gospel.

But now each of these blessings has been made to them an instrument of the keenest torture. Cupidity has fastened its eye upon their lands and their homes, and is seeking by force and by every variety of oppression and wrong to expel them from their lands and their homes and to tear them from all that has become endeared to them. Of what they have already suffered it is impossible for them to give the details, as they would make a history. Of what they are menaced with by unlawful power, every citizen of the United States who reads the public journals is aware. In this their distress they have appealed to the judiciary of the United States, where their rights have been solemnly established. They have appealed to the Executive of the United States to protect these rights according to the obligations of treaties and the injunctions of the laws. But this appeal to the Executive has been made in vain.In the hope that by yielding something of their clear rights they might succeed in obtaining security for the remainder, they have lately opened a correspondence with the Executive, offering to make a considerable cession from what had been reserved to them by solemn treaties, only upon condition that they might be protected in the part not ceded. But their earnest supplication has been unheeded, and the only answer they can get, informs them, in substance, that they must be left to their fate, or renounce the whole. What that fate is to be unhappily is too plain.

The State of Georgia has assumed jurisdiction over them, has invaded their territory, has claimed the right to dispose of their lands, and has actually proceeded to dispose of them, reserving only a small portion to individuals, and even these portions are threatened and will no doubt, soon be taken from them. Thus the nation is stripped of its territory and individuals of their property without the least color of right, and in open violation of the guarantee of treaties. At the same time the Cherokees, deprived of the protection of their own government and laws, are left without the protection of any other laws, outlawed as it were and exposed to indignities, imprisonment, persecution, and even to death, though they have committed no offense whatever, save and except that of seeking to enjoy what belongs to them, and refusing to yield it up to those who have no pretense of title to it. Of the acts of the legislature of Georgia your memorialists will endeavor to furnish copies to your honorable bodies, and of the doings of individuals they will furnish evidence if required. And your memorialists further respectfully represent that the Executive of the United States has not only refused to protect your memorialists against the wrongs they have suffered and are still suffering at the hands of unjust cupidity, but has done much more. It is but too plain that, for several years past, the power of the Executive has been exerted on the side of their oppressors and is co-operating with them in the work of destruction. Of two particulars in the conduct of the Executive your memorialists would make mention, not merely as matters of evidence but as specific subjects of complaint in addition to the more general ones already stated.

The first of these is the mode adopted to oppress and injure your memorialists under color of enrollments for emigration. Unfit persons are introduced as agents, acts are practiced by them that are unjust, unworthy, and demoralizing, and have no object but to force your memorialists to yield and abandon their rights by making their lives intolerably wretched. They forbear to go into particulars, which nevertheless they are prepared, at a proper time, to exhibit.

The other is calculated also to weaken and distress your memorialists, and is essentially unjust. Heretofore, until within the last four years, the money appropriated by Congress for annuities has been paid to the nation, by whom it was distributed and used for the benefit of the nation. And this method of payment was not only sanctioned by the usage of the Government of the United States, but was acceptable to the Cherokees. Yet, without any cause known to your memorialists, and contrary to their just expectations, the payment has been withheld for the period just mentioned, on the ground, then for the first time assumed, that the annuities were to be paid, not as hitherto, to the nation, but to the individual Cherokees, each his own small fraction, dividing the whole according to the numbers of the nation. The fact is, that for the last four years the annuities have not been paid at all.

The distribution in this new way was impracticable, if the Cherokees had been willing thus to receive it, but they were not willing; they have refused and the annuities have remained unpaid. Your memorialists forbear to advert to the motives of such conduct, leaving them to be considered and appreciated by Congress. All they will say is, that it has coincided with other measures adopted to reduce them to poverty and despair and to extort from their wretchedness a concession of their guaranteed rights. Having failed in their efforts to obtain relief elsewhere, your memorialists now appeal to Congress, and respectfully pray that your honorable bodies will look into their whole case, and that such measures may be adopted as will give them redress and security.

Rival delegations headed by Ross and Ridge.—But little else was done and practically nothing was accomplished until the following winter. Early in February, 1835, two rival delegations, each claiming to represent the Cherokee Nation, arrived in Washington. One was headed by John Ross, who had long been the principal chief and who was the most intelligent and influential man in the nation. The rival delegation was led by John Ridge, who had been a subchief and a man of some considerable influence among his people.404The Ross delegation had been consistently and bitterly opposed to any negotiations having in view the surrender of their territory and a removal west of the Mississippi. Ridge and his delegation, though formerly of the same mind with Ross, had begun to perceive the futility of further opposition to the demands of the State and national authorities. Feeling the certainty that the approaching crisis in Cherokee affairs could have but one result, and perceiving an opportunity to enhance his own importance and to secure the discomfiture of his hitherto more powerful rival, Ridge caused it to be intimated to the United States authorities that he and his delegation were prepared to treat with them upon the basis previously laid down by President Jackson of a cession of their territory and a removal west.

Rev. J. F. Schermerhorn was therefore appointed,405and instructions were prepared authorizing him to meet Ridge and his party and to ascertain on what terms an amicable and satisfactory arrangement could be made. After the instructions had been delivered to Mr. Schermerhorn, but before he had commenced the negotiation, Ross and his party requested to be allowed to make a proposal to be submitted to the President for his approval. He was assured that his proposal would be considered, and in the mean time Mr. Schermerhorn was requested to suspend his operations. So much time, however, elapsed before anything more was heard from Ross and his party that the negotiations with the Ridge party were proceeded with. They terminated in a general understanding respecting the basis of an arrangement, leaving, however, many of the details to be filled up. The total amount of the various stipulations provided for, as a full consideration for the cession of their lands, was $3,250,000, besides the sum of $150,000 for depredation claims. In addition, a tract of 800,000 acres of land west of the Mississippi was to be added to the territory already promised them, amounting in the aggregate, including the western outlet, to about 13,800,000 acres.406

Proposition of John Ross.—On the 25th of February, Ross and his delegation, finding that the negotiations with Ridge were proceeding, submitted a proposition for removal based upon an allowance of $20,000,000 for the cession of the territory and the payment of a class of claims of uncertain number and value. This was considered so unreasonable as to render the seriousness of his proposition doubtful at the time, but it was finally modified by an assertion of his willingness to accept such sum as the Senate of the United States should declare to be just and proper.407Thereupon a statement of all the facts was placed in the hands of Senator King, of Georgia, who submitted the same to the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs on the 2d of March. It was not contemplated that any arrangement made with these Cherokee delegations at this time should be definitive, but that the Cherokee people should be assembled for the purpose of considering the subject, and their assent asked to such propositions as they might deem satisfactory.

Resolution of United States Senate on John Ross's proposition.—The Senate gave the matter prompt consideration, and on the 6th of March the Secretary of War advised Mr. Ross that by a resolution they had stated their opinion that "a sum not exceeding $5,000,000 should be paid to the Cherokee Indians for all their lands and possessions east of the Mississippi River," and he was invited to enter into negotiations upon that basis, but declined to do so.

Preliminary treaty concluded with the Ridge party.—The treaty between Schermerhorn and the Ridge party was thereupon completed with some modifications and duly signed on the 14th of March, but with the express stipulation that it should receive the approval of the Cherokee people in full council assembled before being considered of any binding force. The consideration was changed to read $4,500,000 and 800,000 acres of additional land, but in the main its provisions differed but little in the important objects sought to be secured from those contained in the treaty as finally concluded, December 29, 1835.

Schermerhorn and Carroll appointed to complete the treaty.—In the mean time,408two days after the conclusion of the preliminary Ridge treaty, President Jackson issued an address to the Cherokees, inviting them to a calm consideration of their condition and prospects, and urging upon them the benefits certain to inure to their nation by the ratification of the treaty just concluded and their removal to the western country. This address was intrusted to Rev. J. F. Schermerhorn and General William Carroll, whom the President had appointed on the 2d of April as commissioners to complete in the Cherokee country the negotiation of the treaty.

General Carroll being unable on account of ill-health to proceed from Nashville to the Cherokee Nation, Mr. Schermerhorn was compelled to assume the responsibilities of the negotiation alone. The entire summerand fall were spent in endeavors to reconcile differences of opinion, to adjust feuds among the different factions of the tribe, and to secure some definitive and consolidated action. Meeting with no substantial encouragement, he suggested, in a communication to the Secretary of War,409two alternative propositions, by either of which a treaty might be secured.

These propositions were: (1) That the appraising agents of the Government should ascertain from influential Cherokees their own opinion of the value of their improvements, and promise them the amount, if this estimate should be in any degree reasonable, and if they would take a decided stand in favor of the treaty and conclude the same. (2) To conclude the treaty with a portion of the nation only, should one with the whole be found impracticable, and compel the acquiescence of the remainder in its provisions.

He was at once410advised of the opposition of the President to any such action. If a treaty could not be concluded upon fair and open terms, he must abandon the effort and leave the nation to the consequences of its own stubbornness. He must make no particular promise to any individual, high or low, to gain his co-operation. The interest of the whole must not be sacrificed to the cupidity of a few, and if a treaty was concluded at all it must be one that would stand the test of the most rigid scrutiny.

The Ridge treaty rejected.—The Cherokee people in full council at Red Clay, in the following October, rejected the Ridge treaty. Mr. John Ridge and Elias Boudinot, who had been the main stay and support of Mr. Schermerhorn in the preceding negotiations, at this council, through fear or duplicity and unexpectedly to him, abandoned their support of his measures and coincided with the preponderance of Cherokee sentiment on the subject. In his report of this failure to bring the negotiations to a successful termination Commissioner Schermerhorn says: "I have pressed Ross so hard by the course I have adopted that although he got the general council to pass a resolution declaring that they would not treat on the basis of the $5,000,000, yet he has been forced to bring the nation to agree to a treaty, here or at Washington. They have used every effort to get by me and get to Washington again this winter. They dare not yet do it. You will perceive Ridge and his friends have taken apparently a strange course. I believe he began to be discouraged in contending with the power of Ross; and perhaps also considerations of personal safety have had their influence, but the Lord is able to overrule all things for good."411

Council at New Echota.—During the session of this council notice was given to the Cherokees to meet the United States commissioners on the third Monday in December following, at New Echota, for the purposeof negotiating and agreeing upon the terms of a treaty. The notice was also printed in Cherokee and circulated throughout the nation, informing the Indians that those who did not attend would be counted as assenting to any treaty that might be made.412In the mean time the Ross delegation, authorized by the Red Clay council to conclude a treaty either there or at Washington, finding that Schermerhorn had no authority to treat on any other basis than the one rejected by the nation, proceeded, according to their people's instructions, to Washington. Previous to their departure, John Ross was arrested. This took place immediately upon the breaking up of the council. He was detained some time under the surveillance of a strong guard, without any charge against him, and ultimately released without any apology or explanation. At this arrest all his papers were seized, including as well all his private correspondence and the proceedings of the Cherokee council.413In accordance with the call for a council at New Echota the Indians assembled at the appointed time and place, to the number of only three to five hundred, as reported414by Mr. Schermerhorn himself, who could hardly be accused of any tendency to underestimate the gathering. That gentleman opened the council December 22, 1835, in the absence of Governor Carroll, whose health was still such as to prevent his attendance. The objects of the council were fully explained, the small attendance being attributed to the influence of John Ross. It was also suggested by those unfriendly to the proposed treaty as a good reason for the absence of so large a proportion of the nation, that the right to convene a national council was vested in the principal chief, and they were unaware that that officer's authority had been delegated to Mr. Schermerhorn.413

Those present resolved on the 23d to enter into negotiations and appointed a committee of twenty to arrange the details with the Commissioner and to report the result to the whole council.

The following five days were occupied by the commissioner and the committee in discussing and agreeing upon the details of the treaty, one point of difference being as to whether the $5,000,000 consideration for their lands as mentioned in the resolution of the Senate was meant to include the damages to individual property sustained at the hands of white trespassers.

The Indians insisted that $300,000 additional should be allowed for that purpose, but it was finally agreed that the treaty should not be presented to the Senate without the consent of their delegation until they were satisfied the Senate had not included these claims in the sum named in the resolution of that body. It was also insisted by the Cherokee committee that reservations should be made to such of their peopleas desired to remain in their homes and become citizens of the United States.

As a compromise of this demand, it was agreed by the United States commissioner to allow pre-emptions of 160 acres each, not exceeding 400 in number, in the States of North Carolina, Tennessee, and Alabama, to such heads of Cherokee families only as were qualified to become useful members of society. None were to be entitled to this privilege unless their applications were recommended by a committee of their own people (a majority of which committee should be composed of those members of the tribe who were themselves enrolled for removal) and approved by the United States commissioners. The latter also proposed to make the reservations dependent upon the approval of the legislatures of the States within which they might be respectively located, but to this proposition a strenuous objection was offered by the Indians.

The articles as agreed upon were reported by the Cherokee committee to their people, and were approved, transcribed, and signed on the 29th.

The council adjourned on the 30th, after designating a committee to proceed to Washington and urge the ratification of the treaty, clothed with power to assent to any alterations made necessary by the action of the President or Senate.415

Commissioner Schermerhorn reports conclusion of a treaty.—Immediately following the adjournment of the council, Commissioner Schermerhorn wrote the Secretary of War, saying: "I have the extreme pleasure to announce to you that yesterday I concluded a treaty.* * *Ross after this treaty is prostrate. The power of the nation is taken from him, as well as the money, and the treaty will give general satisfaction."416

Supplemental treaty concluded.—Several provisions of the treaty met with the disapproval of the President, in order to meet which supplementary articles of agreement were concluded under date of March 1, 1836,417wherein it was stipulated that all pre-emption rights provided for should be declared void; also that, in lieu of the same and to cover expenses of removal and payment of claims against citizens of the United States, the sum of $600,000 should be allowed them in addition to the five millions allowed for cession of territory. And, furthermore, that the $100,000 stipulated to be expended for the poorer class of Cherokees who should remove west should be placed to the credit of the general national fund.418

Opposition of the Ross party.—Whilst these events were happening, and strenuous efforts were being made to encourage among Senators asentiment favorable to the ratification of the treaty, John Ross was manifesting his usual zeal and activity in the opposite direction. Early in the spring of 1836 he made his appearance in Washington, accompanied by a delegation, and presented two protests against the ratification of the treaty, one purporting to have been signed by Cherokees residing within the limits of North Carolina to the number of 3,250, and the other representing the alleged sentiments of 12,714 persons residing within the main body of the nation. Mr. Ross also demanded the payment of the long withheld annuities to himself as the duly authorized representative of the nation, which was declined unless special direction to that effect should be given by an authentic vote of the tribe from year to year. He was further assured that the President had ceased to recognize any existing government among the Eastern Cherokees.419

Treaty ratified by United States Senate.—In spite of the opposition of Mr. Ross and his party, the treaty was assented to by the Senate by one more than the necessary two-thirds majority,420and was ratified and proclaimed by the President on the 23d of May, 1836.421By its terms two years were allowed within which the nation must remove west of the Mississippi.

Measures for execution of the treaty.—Preparatory steps were promptly taken for carrying the treaty into execution. On the 7th of June Gov. Wilson Lumpkin, of Georgia, and Gov. William Carroll, of Tennessee, were designated as commissioners under the 17th article, and vested with general supervisory authority over the execution of the treaty. The selection and general supervision (under the foregoing commissioners) of the agents to appraise the value of Cherokee improvements was placed in charge of Benjamin F. Curry, to whom detailed instructions were given422for his guidance. General John E. Wool was placed in command of the United States troops within the Cherokee Nation, but with instructions423that military force should only be applied in the event of hostilities being commenced by the Cherokees.

The Ross party refuse to acquiesce.—John Ross and his delegation, having returned home, at once proceeded to enter upon a vigorous campaign of opposition to the execution of the treaty. He used every means to incite the animosity of his people against Ridge and his friends, who had been instrumental in bringing it about and who were favorable to removal. Councils were held and resolutions were adopted denouncing in the severest terms the motives and action of the United States authorities and declaring the treaty in all its provisions absolutelynull and void.424A copy of these resolutions having been transmitted to the Secretary of War by General Wool, the former was directed425by the President to express his astonishment that an officer of the Army should have received or transmitted a paper so disrespectful to the Executive, to the Senate, and through them to the people of the United States. To prevent any misapprehension on the subject of the treaty the Secretary was instructed to repeat in the most explicit terms the settled determination of the President that it should be executed without modification and with all the dispatch consistent with propriety and justice. Furthermore, that after delivering a copy of this letter to Mr. Ross no further communication should be held with him either orally or in writing in regard to the treaty.

To give a clearer idea of the actual state of feeling that pervaded the Cherokee Nation on the subject of removal, as well as the character of the methods that distinguished the negotiators on the part of the United States, a few quotations from the letters and reports of those in a position to observe the passing events may not be inappropriate.

Maj. William M. Davis had been appointed an agent by the Secretary of War for the enrollment of Cherokees desirous of removal to the West and for the appraisement of the value of their improvements. He had gone among the Cherokees for this specific purpose. He held his appointment by the grace and permission of the President. It was natural that his desire should be strongly in the line of securing the Executive approval of his labors.

Strong, however, as was that desire he was unable to bring himself to the support of the methods that were being pursued in the negotiation of the proposed treaty. On the 5th of March following the conclusion of the treaty of 1835, he wrote the Secretary of War thus:

I conceive that my duty to the President, to yourself, and to my country, reluctantly compels me to make a statement of facts in relation to a meeting of a small number of Cherokees at New Echota last December, who were met by Mr. Schermerhorn and articles of a general treaty entered into between them for the whole Cherokee Nation.* * *I should not interpose in the matter at all but I discover that you do not receive impartial information on the subject; that you have to depend upon theex parte, partial, and interested reports of a person who will not give you the truth. I will not be silent when I see that you are about to be imposed on by a gross and base betrayal of the high trust reposed in Rev. J. F. Schermerhorn by you. His conduct and course of policy was a series of blunders from first to last.* * *It has been wholly of a partisan character.

* * *I should not interpose in the matter at all but I discover that you do not receive impartial information on the subject; that you have to depend upon theex parte, partial, and interested reports of a person who will not give you the truth. I will not be silent when I see that you are about to be imposed on by a gross and base betrayal of the high trust reposed in Rev. J. F. Schermerhorn by you. His conduct and course of policy was a series of blunders from first to last.* * *It has been wholly of a partisan character.

Sir, that paper* * *called a treaty is no treaty at all, because not sanctioned by the great body of the Cherokees and made without their participation or assent. I solemnly declare to you that upon its reference to the Cherokee people it would be instantly rejected by nine-tenths of them and I believe by nineteen-twentieths of them. There were not present at the conclusion of the treaty more than one hundred Cherokee voters, and not more than three hundred, including women and children, although the weather was everything that could be desired. The Indians had long been notified of the meeting, and blankets were promised to all who would come and vote for the treaty. The most cunning and artful means were resorted to to conceal the paucity of numbers present at the treaty. No enumeration of them was made by Schermerhorn. The business of making the treaty was transacted with a committee appointed by the Indians present, so as not to expose their numbers. The power of attorney under which the committee acted was signed only by the president and secretary of the meeting, so as not to disclose their weakness.* * *Mr. Schermerhorn's apparent design was to conceal the real number present and to impose on the public and the Government upon this point. The delegation taken to Washington by Mr. Schermerhorn had no more authority to make a treaty than any other dozen Cherokees accidentally picked up for that purpose. I now warn you and the President that if this paper of Schermerhorn's called a treaty is sent to the Senate and ratified you will bring trouble upon the Government and eventually destroy this (the Cherokee) nation. The Cherokees are a peaceable, harmless people, but you may drive them to desperation, and this treaty cannot be carried into effect except by the strong arm of force.426

About this time there also appeared, in justification of the treaty and of his own action in signing it, a pamphlet address issued by Elias Boudinot of the Cherokee Nation. Mr. Boudinot was one of the ablest and most cultured of his people, and had long been the editor and publisher of a newspaper in the nation, printed both in English and Cherokee. The substance of his argument in vindication of the treaty may have been creditable from the standpoint of policy and a regard for the future welfare of his people, but in the abstract it is a dangerous doctrine. He said:

We cannot conceive of the acts of a minority to be so reprehensible and unjust as are represented by Mr. Ross. If one hundred persons are ignorant of their true situation and are so completely blinded as not to see the destruction that awaits them, we can see strong reasons to justify the action of a minority of fifty persons to do what the majority would do if they understood their condition, to save a nation from political thralldom and moral degradation.427

It having been extensively rumored, during the few months immediately succeeding the conclusion of the treaty, that John Ross and other evil disposed persons were seeking to incite the Cherokees to outbreak and bloodshed, the militia of the surrounding States were called into service for the protection of life and property from the supposed existing dangers. Brig. Gen. R. G. Dunlap commanded the EastTennessee volunteers. In a speech to his brigade at their disbandment in September, 1836, he used the following language:

I forthwith visited all the posts within the first three States and gave the Cherokees (the whites needed none) all the protection in my power.* * *My course has excited the hatred of a few of the lawless rabble in Georgia, who have long played the part of unfeeling petty tyrants, and that to the disgrace of the proud character of gallant soldiers and good citizens. I had determined that I would never dishonor the Tennessee arms in a servile service by aiding to carry into execution at the point of the bayonet a treaty made by a lean minority against the will and authority of the Cherokee people.* * *I soon discovered that the Indians had not the most distant thought of war with the United States, notwithstanding the common rights of humanity and justice had been denied them.428

Again, February 18, 1837, General John E. Wool, of the United States Army, who had been ordered to the command of the troops that were being concentrated in the Cherokee country "to look down opposition" to the enforcement of the treaty, wrote Adjutant-General Jones, at Washington, thus:

I called them (the Cherokees) together and made a short speech. It is, however, vain to talk to a people almost universally opposed to the treaty and who maintain that they never made such a treaty. So determined are they in their opposition that not one of all those who were present and voted at the council held but a day or two since, however poor or destitute, would receive either rations or clothing from the United States lest they might compromise themselves in regard to the treaty. These same people, as well as those in the mountains of North Carolina, during the summer past, preferred living upon the roots and sap of trees rather than receive provisions from the United States, and thousands, as I have been informed, had no other food for weeks."

Four months later,429General Wool again, in the course of a letter to the Secretary of War concerning the death of Major Curry, who had been a prominent factor in promoting the conclusion of the treaty of 1835, said that—

Had Curry lived he would assuredly have been killed by the Indians. It is a truth that you have not a single agent, high or low, that has the slightest moral control over the Indians. It would be wise if persons appointed to civil stations in the nation could be taken from among those who have had nothing to do with making the late treaty.

In further testimony concerning the situation of affairs in the Cherokee Nation at this period, may be cited the report of John Mason, Jr., who was in the summer of 1837430sent as the confidential agent of the War Department to make observations and report. In the autumn431of that year he reported that—

The chiefs and better informed part of the nation are convinced that they cannot retain the country. But the opposition to the treaty is unanimous and irreconcilable.They say it cannot bind them because they did not make it; that it was made by a few unauthorized individuals; that the nation is not a party to it.* * *They retain the forms of their government in their proceedings among themselves, though they have had no election since 1830; the chiefs and headmen then in power having been authorized to act until their government shall again be regularly constituted. Under this arrangement John Ross retains the post of principal chief.* * *The influence of this chief is unbounded and unquestioned. The whole nation of eighteen thousand persons is with him, the few, about three hundred, who made the treaty having left the country. It is evident, therefore, that Ross and his party are in fact the Cherokee Nation.* * *Many who were opposed to the treaty have emigrated to secure the rations, or because of fear of an outbreak.* * *The officers say that, with all his power, Ross cannot, if he would, change the course he has heretofore pursued and to which he is held by the fixed determination of his people. He dislikes being seen in conversation with white men, and particularly with agents of the Government. Were he, as matters now stand, to advise the Indians to acknowledge the treaty, he would at once forfeit their confidence and probably his life. Yet though unwavering in his opposition to the treaty, Ross's influence has constantly been exerted to preserve the peace of the country, and Colonel Lindsay says that he (Ross) alone stands at this time between the whites and bloodshed. The opposition to the treaty on the part of the Indians is unanimous and sincere, and it is not a mere political game played by Ross for the maintenance of his ascendancy in the tribe.

It is interesting in this connection, as indicating the strong and widespread public feeling manifested in the Cherokee question, to note that it became in some sense a test question among leaders of the two great political parties. The Democrats strenuously upheld the conduct of President Jackson on the subject, and the Whigs assailed him with extreme bitterness. The great Whig leader, Henry Clay, in replying432to a letter received by him from John Gunter, a Cherokee, took occasion to express his sympathy with the Cherokee people for the wrongs and sufferings experienced by them. He regretted them not only because of their injustice, but because they inflicted a deep wound on the character of the American Republic. He supposed that the principles which had uniformly governed our relations with the Indian nations had been too long and too firmly established to be disturbed. They had been proclaimed in the negotiation with Great Britain by the commissioners who concluded the treaty of peace, of whom he was one, and any violation of them by the United States he felt with sensibility. By those principles the Cherokee Nation had a right to establish its own form of government, to alter and amend it at pleasure, to live under its own laws, to be exempt from the United States laws or the laws of any individual State, and to claim the protection of the United States. He considered that the Chief Magistrate and his subordinates had acted in direct hostility to those principles and had thereby encouraged Georgia to usurp powers of legislation over the Cherokee Nation which she did not of right possess.

Among many men of note who denounced in most vigorous terms the policy of the Administration toward the Cherokees were Daniel Webster and Edward Everett, of Massachusetts; Theodore Frelinghuysen, of New Jersey; Peleg Sprague, of Maine; Henry R. Storrs, of New York; Henry A. Wise, of Virginia; and David Crockett, of Tennessee. The latter, in a speech in the House of Representatives, denounced the treatment to which the Indians had been subjected at the hands of the Government as unjust, dishonest, cruel, and short-sighted in the extreme. He alluded to the fact that he represented a district which bordered on the domain of the southern tribes, and that his constituents were perhaps as immediately interested in the removal of the Indians as those of any other member of the House. His voice would perhaps not be seconded by that of a single fellow member living within 500 miles of his home. He had been threatened that if he did not support the policy of forcible removal his public career would be summarily cut off. But while he was perhaps as desirous of pleasing his constituents and of coinciding with the wishes of his colleagues as any man in Congress, he could not permit himself to do so at the expense of his honor and conscience in the support of such a measure. He believed the American people could be relied on to approve their Representatives for daring, in the face of all opposition, to perform their conscientious duty, but if not, the approval of his own conscience was dearer to him than all else.

Governor Lumpkin, immediately upon his appointment as commissioner, had repaired to the Cherokee country, but Governor Carroll, owing to some pending negotiations with the Choctaws and subsequently to ill health, was unable to assume the duties assigned him. He was succeeded433by John Kennedy. To this commission a third member was added in the summer of 1837434in the person of Colonel Guild, who was found to be ineligible, however, by reason of being a member of the Tennessee legislature. His place was supplied by the appointment435of James W. Gwin, of North Carolina.

On the 22d of December James Liddell was also appointed,viceGovernor Lumpkin resigned.436

Superintendent Currey having died, General Nathan Smith was appointed437to succeed him as superintendent of emigration.

Census of Cherokee Nation.—It appears from a statement about this time,438made by the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, that from a census of the Cherokees, taken in the year 1835, the number residing in the States of Georgia, North Carolina, Alabama, and Tennessee was 16,542, exclusive of slaves and of whites intermarried with Cherokees.439

In May, 1837,440General Wool was relieved from command at his own request, and his successor, Col. William Lindsay, was instructed to arrest John Ross and turn him over to the civil authorities in case he did anything further calculated to excite a spirit of hostility among the Cherokees on the subject of removal. This threat, however, seemed to have little effect, for we find Mr. Ross presiding over a general council, convened at his instigation, on the 31st of July, to attend which the Government hastily dispatched Mr. John Mason, Jr., with instructions to traverse and correct any misstatements of the position of the United States authorities that might be set forth by Ross and his followers. An extract from Mr. Mason's report has already been given.

Cherokee memorial in Congress.—Again, in the spring of 1838 Ross laid before Congress a protest and memorial for the redress of grievances, which, in the Senate, was laid upon the table441by a vote of 36 to 10, and a memorial from citizens of New York involving an inquiry into the validity of the treaty of 1835 shared a similar fate in the House of Representatives two days later by a vote of 102 to 75.

Speech of Henry A. Wise.—The discussion of these memorials in Congress took a wide range and excited the warmest interest, not only in that body, but throughout the country. The speeches were characterized by a depth and bitterness of feeling such as had never been exceeded even on the slavery question. Hon. Henry A. Wise, of Virginia, who was then a member of the House of Representatives from that State, was especially earnest in his denunciation of the treaty of 1835 and of the administration that had concluded it. He lookedupon it as null and void. In order to make treaties binding the assent of both parties must be obtained, and he would assert without fear of contradiction that there was not one man in that House or out of it who had read the proceedings in the case who would say that there had ever been any assent given to that treaty by the Cherokee Nation. If this were the proper time he could go further and show that Georgia had done her part, too, in this oppression. He could show this by proving the policy of that State in relation to the Indians and the institutions of the General Government. That was the only State in the Union that had ever actually nullified, and she now tells you that if the United States should undertake to naturalize any portion of the Indian tribes within her limits as citizens of the United States she would do so again. He had not disparaged the surrounding people of Georgia, far from it—"but" (said he) "there are proofs around us in this city of the high advancement in civilization which characterizes the Cherokees." He would tell the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Halsey) that a statesman of his own State, who occupied a high and honorable post in this Government, would not gain greatly by a comparison, either in civilization or morals, with a Cherokee chief whom he could name. He would fearlessly institute such a comparison between John Ross and John Forsyth.442

Speech of Daniel Webster.—Mr. Webster, of Massachusetts, also took occasion443to remark in the Senate that "there is a strong and growing feeling in the country that great wrong has been done to the Cherokees by the treaty of New Echota."

President Van Buren proffers a compromise.—Public feeling became so deeply stirred on the subject that, in the interests of a compromise, President Van Buren, in May, 1838, formulated a proposition to allow the Cherokees two years further time in which to remove, subject to the approval of Congress and the executives of the States interested.

Georgia hostile to the compromise.—To the communication addressed to Governor Gilmer, of Georgia, on the subject, he responded:

* * *I can give it no sanction whatever. The proposal could not be carried into effect but in violation of the rights of this State.* * *It is necessary that I should know whether the President intends by the instructions to General Scott to require that the Indians shall be maintained in their occupancy by an armed force in opposition to the rights of the owners of the soil. If such be the intention, a direct collision between the authorities of the State and the General Government must ensue. My duty will require that I shall prevent any interference whatever by the troops with the rights of the State and its citizens. I shall not fail to perform it.

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