"I have thought proper to issue this, my proclamation, warning all persons, citizens of Georgia, or others, against trespassing or intruding upon lands occupied by the Indians within the limits of this state, either for the purpose of settlement or otherwise; as every such act will be in direct violation of the provisions of the treaty, aforesaid, and will expose the aggressors to the most certain and summary punishment by the authorities of the state, and of the United States. All good citizens, therefore, pursuing the dictates of good faith, will unite in enforcing the obligations of the treaty as the supreme lay." How does this accord with a resolve of the legislature of that state, but a few years afterwards, to take forcible possession of the country of the Cherokees? A comparative view of these enactments led a high-minded senator* to declare, "that treaties were very lawful when made for the use of Georgia.” In 1824, the Georgia delegation in congress, in an address to the president of the United States, complained, in no very moderate terms, of the injustice done to their state, by the delay of the government in not extinguishing the Cherokee title to lands within its limits; thereby acknowledging what they denied afterwards, namely, that the Cherokees had any title. They say, "If the Cherokees are unwilling to remove, the causes of that unwillingness are to be traced to the United States. If peaceable purchase cannot be made in the ordinary mode, nothing remains to be done but to order their removal to a designated territory beyond the limits of Georgia." And, in conclusion, they add, "Our duty is performed by remonstrating against the policy heretofore pursued, by which the interests of Georgia have been disregarded; and by insisting, as we do, most earnestly, upon an immediate fulfilment of the obligations of the articles of cession of 1802." Such is a specimen of the language of two senators and six representatives of Georgia, to the president of the United States, upon this question. And we venture to assert that the autocrat of all the Russias is not more despotic in his decrees, than these gentlemen were on this occasion. A few days after the address of the Georgia delegates, the secretary of war, the Hon. JOHN C. CALHOUN, issued his report on our Indian relations, in which he says, "The United States have ever been solicitous to fulfil, at the earliest period, the obligation of the convention, by the extinguishment of the Indian titles within the limits of Georgia; a most satisfactory proof of which may be found in the number of treaties which have been held for that purpose, the quantity of lands which has been acquired, and the price paid. In fact, such has been the solicitude of the government, that but little regard has been had to the price, whenever it has been found possible to obtain a cession of lands to the state. The price given has far exceeded that which has ever been given in other purchases from the Indians." Thus a mighty clashing of opinions is apparent on a comparison of these two extracts. From certain other facts in Mr. Calhoun's report, it appears that, in 1802, the Cherokees owned 7,152,110 acres of land in the limits of Georgia. Since the late war with England, they had held two treaties with the United States, by which they had ceded 995,310 acres. Emigration had been uniformly encouraged, and many had voluntarily gone to Arkansas. To this course nobody objected. But in this way matters progressed too slow for greedy speculators, and it was urged that, as many Cherokees had emigrated, a proportionate quantity of the country should be set off for Georgia. An enumeration or census had been attempted, to ascertain what the proportion would be, and it was eventually concluded that one third of the nation had left the country, and a treaty was entered into at Washington, in 1819, by which that amount of territory was ceded. Between 1819 and 1824, two attempts to treat with them for further cessions of territory had been made, and both proved abortive. "It cannot be doubted," says Mr. Calhoun, "that much of the difficulty of acquiring additional cession from the Cherokees, and the other southern tribes, results from their growing civilization and knowledge, by which they have learned to place a higher value upon their lands than more rude and savage tribes. Many causes have contributed to place them * Mr. Frelinghuysen, of New Jersey. 446 HISTORY OF THE CHEROKEES. [BOOK IV. higher in the scale of civilization than other Indians within our limits - the genial nature of their climate, which enables them to pass more readily from the hunter to the herdsman state; and the fertility of their soil, and the value of their staple articles, particularly cotton. To these, however, must be added the humane and benevolent policy of the government, which has ever directed a fostering care to the Indians within our limits. This policy is as old as the government itself; and has been habitually and strongly extended to the Cherokee nation." Such, in 1824, were allowed to be the reasons why the Cherokees could not be prevailed upon to forsake their country. Now, if they had no right there, but that of sufferance, why is it that "this fostering policy, as old as the government," has been held forth and maintained towards them? The reason is obvious: no president before Gen. Jackson, could bring his mind-to do as he has done. At some future day, ask some remnant of the Cherokees, of the Creeks, or of the Seminoles, if any should remain, why they should leave the lands of their fathers to become wanderers beyond the Mississippi, and their reply can be no other than this: "We were forced away by the white men. Some of our men were traitors; of them they bought our rights, knowing them to be false." Compare the language held by Gen. Jackson, in 1821, with what he has since said and done. On the 18th of January of that year, he wrote from his head quarters at Nashville, to Path Killer, and other Cherokee chiefs, as follows: "Friends and brothers: I have never told a red brother a lie nor deceived him. The intruders [on your lands,] if they attempt to return, will be sent off. But your light-horse should not let them settle down on your land. You ought to drive the stock away from your lands, and deliver the intruders to the agent; but if you cannot keep intruders from your land, report it to the agent, and on his notice, I will drive them from your land." On the 6th of June, 1830, he informs the Cherokees, "that, having ro power to interfere and oppose the exercise of the sovereignty of any state, over and upon all who may be within the limits of any state, they will prepare themselves to abide the issue of such new relations, without any hope that he will interfere." It must be borne in mind, that the Indians had done nothing meanwhile to forfeit any one right, or the protection promised them by all the treaties, sanctioned by all the presidents, including Jackson himself! In April, 1824, a deputation of Cherokees was at Washington, and on the 15th day of that month they laid before congress a memorial "on matters of vast importance" to them. In this memorial they refer to the oppressive stand taken by the governor of Georgia, as communicated by him in a letter to the secretary of war, and to the acrimonious and incongruous address of the Georgia delegation to the president, already noticed. Upon these the delegation remark: "We cannot but view the design of those letters as an attempt, bordering on a hostile disposition towards the Cherokee nation, to arrest from them, by arbitrary means, their just rights and liberties." And this is the harshest language they any where complain in, in answer to the grossest insults. In regard to the cession of more land, they declare their sentiments in the following words: "In relation to the disposition and determination of the nation, never again to cede another foot of land is positively the production and voice of the nation, and what has been uttered by us, in the communications which we have made to the government, since our arrival in this city, is expressive of the true sentiments of the nation, agreeably to our instructions, and not one word of which has been put into our mouths by a white man. Any surmises or statements to the contrary are ill-founded and ungenerous." It should be remembered, that it had been basely insinuated by their enemies, in every public way, that the Indians were influenced by designing white men from the north, in all their opposition to the will of Georgia. This memorial was signed by JOHN ROSS, GEORGE LOWREY, the mark of MAJOR RIDGE, and ELIJAH HICKS. Immediately after this, Gov. Troup writes from Milledgeville a very conclusive letter to Mr. Calhoun, secretary of war, so far as sophistry and angry words can be conclusive on a subject. As a specimen of his logic, we will cite as follows from his communication. Forasmuch as the Puritans of New England, and Quakers of Pennsylvania, had never repaired the wrongs done Indians, why is Georgia to be called upon to make propitiatory offerings?" And "if the principle of Penn's treaty was right, all others that have followed are wrong." About the same time the Cherokee memorial was before the house of representatives, of which we have spoken, its authors, to counteract certain false reports of their traducers, published in the National Intelligencer a statement of their case, from which we note the following passages: "Not satisfied with wishing the executive of the United States violently to rupture the solemn bond of our rights to our lands, and to put at defiance the pledges which existing treaties coutain, guarantying to us our lands, it is attempted to take from us the intellect which has directed us in conducting the several negotiations with commissioners appointed to treat with us for our lands, and with the executive government, by the unfounded charge, that 'the last letter of the Cherokees to the secretary at war contains internal evidence that it was never written or dictated by an Indian. Whilst we profess to be complimented on the one hand by this blow at our intelligence, we cannot, in justice, allow it to pass, upon the other, without a flat contradiction. That letter, and every other letter, was not only written, but dictated by an Indian." We are not surprised that the Georgia statesmen are not willing to allow that they have insulted so much intellect and intelligence, aware, as they must have been, that in point of manner and matter, their own compositions, side by side with the Cherokees, would suffer in no inconsiderable degree by comparison. In closing they say, "It is not for us to vindicate, or attempt to vindicate, our great father the president; he does not need an Indian's aid, nor an Indian's eulogy; but, however we are bound to love him, yet it is due to justice to state, that we have been often pained, and especially of late, at the earnestness with which he has pressed upon us the subject of ceding our lands. Why he has acted thus we are at a loss to conceive. We are not ignorant of the nature of the convention of 1802. We know every one of its promises. If, however, these are to be violated, and the fell war-whoop should ever be raised against us, to dispossess us of our lands, we will gratify the delegation of Georgia, in their present earnestness to see us removed or destroyed, by adding additional fertility to our land, by a deposit of our body and our bones; for we are resolved never to leave them but by parting from them and our lives together." Such was the resolution of the Cherokees at this period. But fifteen years' suffering overcame them, and they were compelled to submit to a fate they could not avert. We have, in an earlier page,* stated the manner in which the Creeks had been divested of their country, and the fatal catastrophe that fell upon the heads of the chiefs, who, against the will of the nation, had bargained it away. The most prominent character in that work among the Creeks was Gen. WILLIAM M'INTOSH. We have, in the same place, stated the attempt made by that chief to bribe Mr. Ross to undermine his nation, in the same corrupt manner as himself had done in regard to his own; and the part enacted by the Cherokees, upon that occasion, is now necessary to be stated. A meeting of the legislative council of the Cherokees was held in October, 1823, to hear what the agents of our government had to say to them, they having procured the meeting. The object, of course, was well understood, and the agents urged their case in every possible form; but they were answered in the most manly manner, that the nation would never part with another foot of land. Gen. M'Intosh was present at this conference, and with his son was treated with every kindness, and during the proceedings were seated by the side of Mr. Ross, as was custoinary with both nations at their councils, when any distinguished chiefs were present, to signify that good correspondence between them existed. At, or about this time, M'Intosh ventured to recommend a cession to some of the chief men in conversations; what feigned encouragement he met with, to draw out his real character, is not upon our records, but it is certain that a communication in writing was Of this Book, Chap. vi., p. 52. 448 HISTORY OF THE CHEROKEES. [BOOK IV. thereupon made to Mr. Ross, who, without delay, laid it before the council, when it was decided that it should be read in M'Intosh's presence. He was accordingly called in, and his letter was read,* after which Mr. Ross made the following address: "My friends: five years have elapsed since I have been called to preside over the national committee; and your approbation of my conduct in the discharge of my official duties, is manifested by the successive reappointments which you have bestowed on me. The trust which you have reposed in me has been sacredly maintained, and shall ever be preserved. A traitor, in all nations, is looked upon in the darkest color, and is more despicable than the meanest reptile that crawls upon the earth. An honorable and honest character is more valuable than the filthy lucre of the whole world. Therefore, I would prefer to live as poor as the worm that inhabits the earth, than to gain the world's wealth and have my reputation as an honest man tarnished by the acceptance of a pecuniary bribe, for self-aggrandizement. It has now become my painful duty to inform you that a gross contempt is offered to my character, as well as to that of the members of the general council. This letter which I hold in my hand will speak for itself. But, fortunately, the author of it has mistaken our character and sense of honor." This took place on the 24 October, 1823, and was but the commencement of the denunciations M'Intosh was to receive. As chief speaker of the nation, the duty of severely reprimanding the traitor devolved on Major Ridge. This was an exceedingly painful duty to him, especially as they had been old friends and officers together; had fought under Jackson, side by side, at Taladega, Tohopeka, and in numerous other battles; they had been colaborers in the civil field; frequently called together to settle and adjust important matters between their respective nations; and they were, at this time, under an appointment as commissioners to run the boundary line between the two nations. But all these considerations and circumstances did not cause Major Ridge to shrink from his duty. He said that what be was about to say must not only be heard by the Cherokees, but by others, far and wide. He adverted to their acknowledged maxims in reference to the duties of those intrusted with their government, who, if once found astray from their duty, were never again to be trusted. M'Intosh, he said, had borne the character of high moral rectitude among his own people, the Crecks, but how stands his character now? "I cast him behind my back. He may depart in peace. I here publicly disgrace him. He now knows we are not to be bought with money. We will not exult over fallen greatness. He may go to his own nation, and in the bosom of his family mourn the loss of a good name." Such is the substance of the speech of Major Ridge, who himself fell into the same snare afterwards, and suffered the same fate, with the man he now so pointedly and justly condemned. In 1829, a society was formed in New York, "for the emigration, preservation, and improvement, of the aborigines of America," an account of which was transmitted to the president of the United States, then at the Rip Raps, in Virginia. The president replied to a letter which accompanied the account, through Major Eaton, in a very conciliatory and gracious manner. One passage is especially worthy of notice, from its surprising contrast with what was afterwards avowed by the same authors. "I beg leave to assure you," says the general, "that nothing of a compulsory course, to effect the removal of this unfortunate race of people, has ever been thought of by the president; although it has been so asserted." Now, all the world knows what has since been said and done. In a sort of a reply which Mr. Benton made to Mr. Clay in the senate, in 1835, he said he rose not for the purpose of taking any part in the little discussion, [about Indians,] but of calling up a voice far more powerful than his own-that of Mr. Jefferson." But as he said nothing in his half hour's talk that he attributed to Mr. Jefferson, or that Mr. Jefferson ever thought of, except that good man's name, it is fair to presume that that was the extent of his argument. We are prepared to use something more than the name of Jefferson against the oppressors of the In The same we have given, ante, page 52. 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 prolection 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 * See Mr. Blunt's Brief Examination, &c., page 15. |