dians, and we here offer some of his sound and sober convictions. "I am of opinion," he says in a letter to Gen. Knox, of 10 August, 1791, "that government should firmly maintain this ground; that the Indians have a right to the occupation of their lands, independent of the states within whose chartered limits they happen to be; that, until they cede them by treaty, or other transaction equivalent to a treaty, no act of a state can give a right to such lands; that neither under the present constitution, nor the ancient confederation, had any state, or persons, a right to treat with the Indians without the consent of the general government; that that consent has never been given to any treaty for the cession of the lands in question; that the government is determined to exert all its energy for the patronage and protection of the rights of the Indians, and the preservation of peace between the United States and them; and that if any settlements are made on lands not ceded by them, without the previous consent of the United States, the government will think itself bound, not only to declare to the Indians that such settlements are without the authority or protection of the United States, but to remove them also by the public force." Such was the "voice" Col. Benton said he was to "call up," to drown that of the friend of the Indians. But "how are the mighty fallen!" The helpless Indians have been forced to fly before the steel of the white man to inhospitable regions, leaving their fine fields and comfortable houses to their avaricious oppressors. But after all that has happened, all the wrong that has been done the Indian, all the wrong that has been done to every countryman of Jefferson, we would not change our condition with a subject of Algiers, because we have well-grounded hopes that good men will ere long stand in the place where justice emanates; yet it fills the heart of the philanthropist with sorrow, that their coming cannot relieve the Cherokees. The dey of Algiers holds out no pretensions to Christians that they may expect justice at his hands; but he says to them, "Do you not know that my people are a band of robbers, and that I am their captain?"* A president of the United States has said that he intended no harm to the Cherokees; but what has he done? It is painful to be compelled to reproach the government of a beloved country with acts like these; but we have no alternative, excepting in a dereliction of duty. We would gladly have been spared this part of our undertaking; but Justice has claims upon us now as strong as she had upon our government, and we cannot so deliberately disregard them. 10001 CHAPTER XV. HISTORY OF THE CHEROKEES, CONTINUED. "They have taken the realm which our ancestors gave; And what have we left but our once honored name?"-ALONZO LEWIS. We have seen how Jefferson viewed the rights of the Indians, as guarantied to them in the times of Washington; and what have the Cherokees since done, that they are to forfeit those rights? Have they forfeited them by adopting the manners and customs of a civilized people? or by fighting their battles? That a president of this day should say to them, when they are about to be grossly tyrannized over by a state, "that he has no power to interfere and to oppose the exercise of the sovereignty of any state, over or upon all who may be within the limits of any state; that, therefore, they must prepare themselves to abide the issue of such new relations, without any hope that he will interfere;"-thus did Gen. Jackson speak to the insulted Cherokees, on page 15. 2D *See Mr. Blunt's Brief Examination, &c., 38 * 450 HISTORY OF THE CHEROKEES. [BOOK IV. the 6 June, 1830. He, at the same time, assured them "that he loves them; (!) that he is their friend; that he feels for them as a father feels for his children." With whatever truth this might have been spoken, we do not hesitate to presume that such was not the way the Cherokees felt "for their children." And in an address to the people of the United States, which they published on the 17 July of the same year, they say, "It would be impossible to describe the sorrow which affects their minds, on learning that the chief magistrate of the United States has come to this conclusion, that all his illustrious prede cessors had held intercourse with them on erroneous principles; principles that could not be sustained; that they had made promises of vital importance to them, which could not be fulfilled-promises made hundreds of times, in almost every conceivable manner-often in the form of solemn treatiessometimes in letters written by the chief magistrate with his own hand-very often in letters written by the secretary of war under his direction-these, all these, are now discovered to be upon false principles." The Cherokees had now become capable of meeting the white people with the arguments of reason, and not with steel; and they were capable of judging between sincerity and mere pretension. This was well portrayed by the chief SPECKLED SNAKE, in a speech which he made in a council which had been summoned to hear a talk from President Jackson read to them. It was as follows: "Brothers! We have heard the talk of our great father; it is very kind. He says he loves his red children. Brothers! When the white man first came to these shores, the Muscogees gave him land, and kindled him a fire to make him comfortable; and when the pale faces of the south* made war on him, their young men drew the tomahawk, and protected his head from the scalping knife. But when the white man had warmed himself before the Indian's fire, and filled himself with the Indian's hominy, he became very large; he stopped not for the mountain tops, and his feet covered the plains and the valleys. His hands grasped the eastern and the western sea. Then he became our great father. He loved his red children; but said, 'You must move a little farther, lest I should, by accident, tread on you.' With one foot he pushed the red man over the Oconee, and with the other he trampled down the graves of his fathers. But our great father still loved his red children, and he soon made them another talk. He said much; but it all meant nothing, but 'move a little farther; you are too near me.' I have heard a great many talks from our great father, and they all begun and ended the same. Brothers! When he made us a talk on a former occasion, he said, ‘Get a little farther; go beyond the Oconee and the Oakmulgee; there is a pleasant country.' He also said, 'It shall be yours forever.' Now he says, "The land you live on is not yours; go beyond the Mississippi; there is game; there you may remain while the grass grows or the water runs.' Brothers! Will not our great father come there also? He loves his red children, and his tongue is not forked." The doctrine of a right inherent in the government of the United States to remove the Cherokees by force, is comparatively new. It was not thought or even dreamed of before 1808. In that year a deputation from that nation was encouraged to visit the seat of government, more for the renewal of friendship than any thing else perhaps, who, in a conference they had with President Jefferson, "declared their anxious desire to engage in the pursuit of agriculture and civilized life, in the country they then occupied;" but said, "as all their countrymen could not be induced to exchange the hunter's life for an agricultural one, they requested that their country might be divided by a line between the upper and lower towns, so as to include all the waters of the Highwassee River to the upper towns; that, by thus contracting their society within narrower limits, they might begin the establishment of fixed laws and a regular government. Those wishing to lead the hunter's life, owing to the scarcity of game in their country, requested liberty to go over the Mississippi, and occupy some vacant lands belonging to the United States. To these The Spaniards of Florida endeavored to break up the English settlement under Gen. Oglethorpe in Georgia. propositions the president gave his entire and unqualified approbation. No objection is heard of against their erecting a government for themselves, or a wish to restrain them in any manner. Eventually, some four or five thousand of the lower town Cherokees did emigrate to Arkansas, and there a wretched life many of them worried out; many fell in wars with the Osages, some few got back to their own country, and sickness swept off many more. Such fruits of emigration tended to strengthen the upper towns in their resolution of cultivating the land; and when, in 1823, commissioners were appointed to treat with them for their country, and for their removal west, they directly refused, and showed how much better off they were for continuing in their own nation than those who had emigrated. And here ended for some years all attempts on the part of the United States to treat with them for a removal. The seeds of avarice, although sown, had not come to maturity, but, like a plant in an uncongenial soil, remained without seeming to flourish or decay; yet at length a prosperous cultivator being found in a president of the United States, its growth soon astonished all beholders, and its branches cast a deathlike shade over a prosperous nation, and withered it away. We have before remarked upon the discovery made by the southern politicians, namely, that from the time of WASHINGTON, there had been no president (including that great man) who knew what laws and treaties meant; that all the time and money which had been spent in making treaties, had been thrown away; for it was now discovered that Indians were only tenants at will, and had no right on any lands within certain state boundaries, any longer than the charity of the good people near them would humanely permit. In fact, all these treaties were now found out to be unconstitutional. This doctrine was finally the hinge on which the whole business turned. But Georgia herself could condescend to treat with the Cherokees in 1783, and obtained from them a considerable tract of country. Did that state condescend then to acknowledge the Cherokees an independent nation to get from them by treaty that which she was not strong enough to take by force? I will not aver that it was so. One thing, however, there is, about which there can be no misconception; the Cherokees were then powerful; and though, in the war with England, which had just terminated, they fought against us, they now came forward and declared for us; and their alliance was considered of no small account, situated as we then were in relation to the Spaniards in Florida. And, besides, it must be considered that at the close of the revolution, our people desired peace with the Cherokees as much as they with us; and, in the language of Chief Justice Marshall,* "When the United States gave peace, did they not also receive it? Did the Cherokees come to us, to our seat of government, to solicit peace; or did our government send commissioners to them to ask it?" The result, however, was the treaty of Hopewell, "within the Cherokee nation," and not at New York, that that celebrated treaty was made. The series of usurpations commenced upon the Cherokees and other Indians, has at length, in this present year, 1840, reached the climax of oppression contemplated by its originators. That people had long viewed further encroachments upon them as certain, inasmuch as such encroachments had never actually ceased from the day of their acquaintance with the white man; but the awful thunder which burst upon them in our day had never been thought of by the whites, much less by themselves, until within a few years. They had, indeed, as early as 1823, observed a dark cloud gathering in the north-east, but they rationally thought that the extent of country it must pass over, before it should reach them, would qualify its rage, and waste its deadly effects; happy for them had it proved as they had hoped, and as every friend of humanity and justice had hoped it would; but it came and swept away the Cherokees. The monstrous project of a removal of all the Indians within our limits beyond the Mississippi, is not chargeable to any one of our chief magistrates, but Mr. Monroe is conspicuous among them. He proposed it with diffidence * Opinion in the case, Worcester vs. the State of Georgia, p. 14. 452 HISTORY OF THE CHEROKEES. [Book IV in his opening message to congress, on the 7th of December, 1824; and here let us observe, that the suggestion was made upon the same month, and nearly the same day of the month, that our fathers came to these shores; and on the 27th of January, following, he strongly recommended the measure. He was induced to propose such a plan, he said, as the only one he could devise to relieve the country from the difficulty by which its executive was surrounded, and which every day thickened. Georgia was pressing with severe earnestness; alleging that the time had arrived when the Indian title to lands within its limits should be extinguished, and the new states were crowding on all sides with undue importunity, that their claim for Indians' lands was as good as their neighbors'. The president, therefore, like a bankrupt, who, to get rid of a difficult demand to-day, obligates himself to pay a greater one to-morrow, disregards the dictates of his own judgment. It was under these circumstances that a removal was recommended. But with this recommendation of removal, Mr. Monroe, although he speaks of force, repudiates in the strongest terms its employment. And we cannot doubt his suggestion was dictated by the purest benevolence. He says, “The condition of the aborigines within our limits, and especially those who are within the limits of any of the states, merits peculiar attention. Experience has shown, that unless the tribes be civilized, they can never be incorporated into our system, in any form whatever. It has likewise shown, that in the regular augmentation of our population, with the extension of our settlements, their situation will become deplorable, if their extinction is not menaced. Some well-digested plan, which will rescue them from such calamities, is due to their rights, to the rights of humanity, and to the honor of the nation. Their civilization is indispensable to their safety, and this can be accomplished only by degrees. Difficulties of the most serious character present themselves to the attainment of this very desirable result, on the territory on which they now reside. To remove them from it by force, even with a view to their own security or happiness, would be revolting to humanity, and utterly unjustifiable." And touching this matter we have a very clear view of the opinions of Mr. Monroe, regarding Indian rights, in another message, in which he expresses himself as follows: "I have no hesitation, however, to declare it as my opinion, that the Indian title was not affected in the slightest circumstance by the compact with Georgia, and that there is no obligation on the United States to remove the Indians by force. The express stipulation of the compact, that their title should be extinguished at the expense of the United States, when it may be done peaceably, and on reasonable conditions, is a full proof that it was the clear and distinct understanding of both parties to it, that the Indians had a right to the territory, in the disposal of which they were to be regarded as free agents. An attempt to remove them by force would, in my opinion, be unjust. In the future measures to be adopted in regard to the Indians within our limits, and, in consequence, within the limits of any state, the United States have duties to perform, and a character to sustain, to which they ought not to be indifferent." But what have the admonitions of all good men availed? And the more we meet with, the more we are astonished at the result of things, and the more severely do we deprecate and denounce the advocates of the course pursued. The president evidently had not thought very seriously about the removal of the Indians at this time, and knew little of the history, or actual state of the Cherokees; they had then become considerably civilized, and instead of decreasing, were increasing. But about two months after, he again makes the Indian subject the object of a special message, in the outset of which he holds this language: "Being deeply impressed with the opinion, that the removal of the Indian tribes from the lands which they now occupy within the limits of the several states and territories, to the country lying westward and northward thereof, within our acknowledged boundaries, is of very high importance to our Union, and may be accomplished on conditions and in a manner to promote the interest and happiness of those tribes, the attention of government has been long drawn, with great solicitude, to the subject.” First a removal is barely thought about, then talked about, then proposed, then strongly recommended; so far there must be no compulsion, because it would be too barefaced an outrage on the common sense of the people; because the Indians will remove without force; they can be bought out. Time showed that they could not be obliged to sell their country; then the project of extending state laws over them is started, which, though unconstitutional, can be enforced in spite of the general government, to the incalculable mischief of the Indians; and besides, could it be supposed that the general government would resist state laws unto a drop of white blood in defence of the rights of Indians? A preposterous idea! A result which could not be allowed to happen in these days of light and reason in abundance. While the executive of the general government is pondering the matter, not only Indians, but citizens of the United States, among them as instructors, and by the direction and under the authority of the president himself, are seized by an armed force, dragged to a distant region, and thrown into prison! Months pass away, and the government is still pondering on what is to be done. In the mean time Georgia sends out an armed force to protect the Indians, and we will hear how this force performed the service, as set forth in a memorial to congress from some of the most respectable of the Cherokees, in 1831. "In the name and authority of G. R. Gilmar, governor of Georgia, a bill was filed in chancery, in the superior court of Hall county, in July last, (1830,) against certain Cherokees, praying for an injunction to stop them from digging and searching for gold within the limits of their own nation; and the bill being sworn to before Judge Clayton, he awarded an injunction against the parties named in the bill as defendants, commanding them, forthwith, to desist from working on those mines, under the penalty of 20,000 dollars; at the same time and place there were unmolested several thousand intruders from Georgia and other states, engaged in robbing the nation of gold, for which the owners were ordered not to work by the said writ. Under the authority of this injunction, the sheriff of Hall county, with an armed force, invaded the nation, consisting of a colonel, a captain, and 30 or 40 of the militia of the state of Georgia, who arrested a number of Cherokees engaged in digging for gold, who were at first rescued by the troops of the United States, stationed near the place, and the sheriff and his party themselves made prisoners, and conducted fifteen miles to the military camp, when a council of examination was held, and the exhibition of their respective authorities made, which resulted in the release of the sheriff and his party, and a written order by the commanding officer of the United States troops, directing the Cherokees to submit to the authority of Georgia, and that no further protection could be extended to them at the gold mines, as he could no longer interfere with the laws of Georgia, but would afford aid in carrying them into execution. On the return of the sheriff and his party, they passed by the Cherokees who were still engaged in digging for gold, and ordered them to desist, under the penalty of being committed to jail, and proceeded to destroy their tools and machinery for cleaning gold, and after committing some further aggression, they returned. Shortly afterwards, the sheriff, with a guard of four men, and a process from the state of Georgia, arrested three Cherokees for disobeying the injunction, while peaceably engaged in their labors, and conducted them to Wadkinsville, a distance of 75 miles, before the same judge, A. S. Clayton, who then and there sentenced them to pay a fine of 93 dollars, costs, and to stand committed to prison until paid; and also compelled them to give their bond in the sum of 1,000 dollars, for their personal appearance before his next court, to answer the charges of violating the writ of injunction aforesaid. They were retained in custody five days, then paid the costs, and gave the required bond. They appeared agreeably to the bonds, and Judge Clayton dismissed them, on the ground that the governor of Georgia could not become a prosecutor in the case. For these unwarrantable outrages, committed on their persons and property, no apology was offered, nor to this day has any of their money been refunded." If there are any blacker cases of outrage any where committed in a Christian country, we are not informed of them. Such would not be submitted to in Turkey or China. The manner in which affairs were managed |