Part 22

The President of the United States has sent me with a powerful army to cause you, in obedience to the treaty of 1835, to join that part of your people who are already established in prosperity on the other side of the Mississippi. Unhappily the two years * * * allowed for that purpose you have suffered to pass away * * * without making any preparation to follow, and now * * * the emigration must be commenced in haste. * * * The full moon of May is already on the wane, and before another shall have passed away every Cherokee, man, woman, and child * * * must be in motion to join their brethren in the far West. * * * This is no sudden determination on the part of the President. * * * I have come to carry out that determination. My troops already occupy many positions, * * * and thousands and thousands are approaching from every quarter to render resistance and escape alike hopeless. * * * Will you then by resistance compel us to resort to arms? * * * Or will you by flight seek to hide yourselves in mountains and forests and thus oblige us to hunt you down? Remember that in pursuit it may be impossible to avoid conflicts. The blood of the white man or the blood of the red man may be spilt, and if spilt, however accidentally, it may be impossible for the discreet and humane among you, or among us, to prevent a general war and carnage.

JOHN ROSS PROPOSES A NEW TREATY.

John Ross, finding no sign of wavering in the determination of the President to promptly execute the treaty, then submitted[448] a project for the negotiation of a new treaty as a substitute for that of 1835, and differing but little from it in its proposed provisions, except in the idea of securing a somewhat larger consideration, as well as some minor advantages. He was assured in reply that while the United States were willing to extend every liberality of construction to the terms of the treaty of 1835 and to secure the Cherokee title to the western country by patent, they could not entertain the idea of a new treaty.

As soon as it became absolutely apparent, not only that the Cherokees must go but that no unnecessary delay would be tolerated beyond the limit fixed by the treaty, a more submissive spirit began to be manifested among them. During the summer of 1838 several parties of emigrants were dispatched under the direction of officers of the Army. The number thus removed aggregated about 6,000.[449]

CHEROKEES PERMITTED TO REMOVE THEMSELVES.

Later in the season John Ross and others, by virtue of a resolution of the national council, submitted a proposition to General Scott that the remainder of the business of emigration should be confided to the nation, and should take place in the following September and October, after the close of the sickly season, the estimated cost of such removal to be fixed at $65.88 per head. To this proposal assent was given,[450] and the last party of Cherokee emigrants began their march for the West on the 4th of December, 1838.[451] Scattered through the mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee, however, were many who had fled to avoid removal, and who, nearly a year later, were represented to number 1,046,[452] and Mr. James Murray was, in the spring of 1840, appointed[453] a commissioner to ascertain and enroll for removal those entitled to the benefits of the treaty of 1835.

DISSENSIONS AMONG CHEROKEES IN THEIR NEW HOME.

The removal of the Cherokees having at last been accomplished, the next important object of the Government was to insure their internal tranquillity, with a view to the increase and encouragement of those habits of industry, thrift, and respect for lawfully constituted authority which had made so much progress among them in their eastern home. But this was an undertaking of much difficulty. The instrumentalities used by the Government in securing the conclusion and approval of not only the treaty of 1835 but also those of 1817 and 1819 had caused much division and bitterness in their ranks, which had on many occasions in the past cropped out in acts of injustice and even violence.

Upon the coming together of the body of the nation in their new country west of the Mississippi, they found themselves torn and distracted by party dissensions and bitterness almost beyond hope of reconciliation. The parties were respectively denominated:

1. The "Old Settler" party, composed of those Cherokees who had prior to the treaty of 1835 voluntarily removed west of the Mississippi, and who were living under a regularly established form of government of their own.

2. The "Treaty" or "Ridge" party, being that portion of the nation led by John Ridge, and who encouraged and approved the negotiation of the treaty of 1835.

3. The "Government" or "Ross" party, comprising numerically a large majority of the nation, who followed in the lead of John Ross, for many years the principal chief of the nation, and who had been consistently and bitterly hostile to the treaty of 1835 and to any surrender of their territorial rights east of the Mississippi.

Upon the arrival of the emigrants in their new homes, the Ross party insisted upon the adoption of a new system of government and a code of laws for the whole nation. To this the Old Settler party objected, and were supported by the Ridge party, claiming that the government and laws already adopted and in force among the Old Settlers should continue to be binding until the general election should take place in the following October, when the newly elected legislature could enact such changes as wisdom and good policy should dictate.[454] A general council of the whole nation was, however, called to meet at the new council-house at Takuttokah, having in view a unification of interests and the pacification of all animosities. The council lasted from the 10th to the 22d of June, but resulted in no agreement. Some six thousand Cherokees were present. A second council was called by John Ross for a similar purpose, to meet at the Illinois camp-ground on the 1st of July, 1839.[455]

_Murder of Boudinot and the Ridges._--Immediately following the adjournment of the Takuttokah council three of the leaders of the Treaty party, John Ridge, Major Ridge his father, and Elias Boudinot were murdered[456] in the most brutal and atrocious manner. The excitement throughout the nation became intense. Boudinot was murdered within 300 yards of his house, and only 2 miles distant from the residence of John Ross. The friends of the murdered men were persuaded that the crimes had been committed at the instigation of Ross, as it was well known that the murderers were among his followers. Ross's friends, however, at once rallied to his protection and a volunteer guard of six hundred patrolled the country in the vicinity of his residence.[457]

A number of the chiefs and prominent men of the Old Settler and Ridge parties fled to Port Gibson for safety. From there on the 28th of June, John Brown, John Looney, John Rogers, and John Smith, signing themselves as the executive council of the Western Cherokees, addressed a proposition to John Ross to send a delegation of the chiefs and principal men of his party with authority to meet an equal number of their own at Fort Gibson, with a view to reach an amicable agreement between the different factions. Ross responded[458] by inviting them to meet at the council convened upon his call on the 1st of July, which was declined. A memorial was thereupon[459] addressed to the authorities of the United States by Brown, Looney, and Rogers as chiefs of the Western Cherokees, demanding protection in the territory and government guaranteed to them by treaty. Against this appeal the Ross convention or council in session at Illinois camp-ground filed a protest.[460] Between the dates of the appeal and the protest a part of the Old Settlers, acting in concert with Ross and his adherents, passed resolutions[461] declaratory of their disapproval of the conduct of Brown and Rogers, and proclaimed their deposition from office as chiefs. Looney escaped deposition by transferring his fealty to the Ross party.

_Unification of Eastern and Western Cherokees._--It is proper to remark in this connection that on the 12th of July the Ross council adopted resolutions uniting the Eastern and the Western Cherokees "into one body politic under the style and title of the Cherokee Nation." This paper, without mentioning or referring to the treaty of 1835, speaks of the late emigration as constrained by the force of circumstances. The council also passed[462] a decree, wherein after reciting the murders of the Ridges and Boudinot, and that they in conjunction with others had by their conduct rendered themselves liable to the penalties of outlawry, extended to the survivors a full amnesty for past offenses upon sundry very stringent and humiliating conditions. They also passed[463] a decree condoning the crime of the murderers, securing them from any prosecution or punishment by reason thereof, and declaring them fully restored to the confidence and favor of the community.

_Treaty of 1835 declared void._--At a council held at Aquohee Camp a decree was passed on the 1st of August, declaring the treaty of 1835 void, and reasserting the Cherokee title to their old country east of the Mississippi. Later in the same month a decree was passed,[464] citing the appearance before them, under penalty of outlawry, of the signers of the treaty of 1835, to answer for their conduct. This act called forth[465] a vigorous protest from General Arbuckle, commanding Fort Gibson, and was supplemented by instructions[466] to him from the Secretary of War to cause the arrest and trial of Ross as accessory to the murder of the Ridges in case he should deem it wise to do so.

_Constitution adopted by the Cherokee Nation._--A convention summoned by Ross and composed of his followers, together with such members of the Treaty and Old Settler parties as could be induced to participate, convened and remained in session at Tahlequah from the 6th to the 10th of September, 1839. This body adopted a constitution for the Cherokee Nation, which was subsequently accepted and adopted by the Old Settlers or Western Cherokees in council at Fort Gibson on the 26th of the following June, and an act of union was entered into between the two parties on that date.

_Division of Cherokee territory proposed._--A proposition had been previously[467] submitted by the representatives of the Treaty and Old Settler parties, urging as the only method of securing peace the division of the Cherokee domain and annuities. They recommended that General Arbuckle and Captain Armstrong be designated to assign to them and to the Ross party each their proportionate share according to their numbers, but the adoption of this act of union avoided any necessity for the further consideration of the proposal. As a means also of relieving the Cherokees from further internal strife, General Arbuckle had,[468] pursuant to the direction of the Secretary of War, notified them that, in consequence of his public acts, John Ross would not be allowed to hold office in the nation, and that a similar penalty was denounced against William S. Coody for offensive opinions expressed in the presence of the Secretary of War.[469] Little practical effect was however produced upon the standing or influence of these men with their people.

Skeptical of the sincerity of the promises of peace and good feeling held out by the act of unification, John Brown, a noted leader and chief of the Old Settler Cherokees, in conjunction with many of his followers, among whom were a number of wandering Delawares, asked and obtained permission from the Mexican Government to settle within the jurisdiction of that power, and they were only persuaded to remain by the earnest assurances of the Secretary of War that the United States could and would fully protect their interests.[470]

CHEROKEES CHARGE THE UNITED STATES WITH BAD FAITH.

No sooner had the removal of the Cherokees been effectually accomplished than the latter began to manifest much dissatisfaction at what they characterized a lack of good faith on the part of the Government in carrying out the stipulations of the treaty of 1835. The default charged had reference to the matter of payment of their claims for spoliations, improvements, annuities, etc. Each winter at least one delegation from the nation maintained a residence in Washington and urged upon the Executive and Congress with untiring persistency an adjudication of all disputed matters arising under the treaty.

At length the term of President Van Buren expired and was succeeded by a Whig administration. Then as now, the official acts of an outgoing political party were considered to be the legitimate subject of criticism and investigation by its political enemies. President Harrison lived but a month after assuming the duties of his office, but Vice-President Tyler as his successor considered that the treatment to which the Cherokees had been subjected during Jackson's and Van Buren's administrations would afford a field for investigation fraught with a rich harvest of results in political capital for the Whig party.

_President Tyler promises a new treaty._--Accordingly, therefore, in the fall of 1841, just previous to the departure of the Cherokee delegation from Washington to their homes, the President agreed to take proper measures for the settlement of all their difficulties, expressing a determination to open the whole subject of their complaints and to bring their affairs to a satisfactory conclusion through the medium of a new treaty. In conformity with this determination the Commissioner of Indian Affairs[471] instructed the agent for the Cherokees to procure all the information possible to be obtained upon every subject connected with Cherokee affairs having a tendency to throw any light upon the wrongs and injustice they might have sustained to the end that full amends could so far as possible be made therefor. Before much information was collected under the terms of these instructions a change seems to have taken place in the views of the President, and the order for investigation was revoked. The draft of the new treaty was, however, in the mean time prepared under direction of the Secretary of War. It contained provisions regulating the licensing of traders in the Cherokee country, the jurisdiction over crimes committed by citizens of the United States resident in that country, the allotment of their lands in severalty by the Cherokee authorities, and the establishment of post-offices and post-routes within their limits. It further contemplated the appointment of two commissioners, whenever Congress should make provision therefor, whose duty it should be to examine into and make a report to that body upon the character, validity, and equity of all claims of whatsoever kind presented by Cherokees against the United States, and also to afford the Cherokees pecuniary aid in the purchase of a printing press and type as well as in the erection of a national council-house. This treaty, however, was never consummated.

_President Jackson's method for compelling Cherokee removal._--In connection with this subject of an investigation into the affairs of the Cherokees, a confidential letter is to be found on file in the office of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, from Hon. P. M. Butler, of South Carolina, who had a few months previous to its date[472] been appointed United States agent for the Cherokees, interesting as throwing light on the negotiation and conclusion of the treaty of 1835. Mr. Butler says it is alleged, and claimed to be susceptible of proof, that Mr. Merriweather, of Georgia, in an interview with President Jackson, a considerable time before the treaty was negotiated, said to the President, "We want the Cherokee lands in Georgia, but the Cherokees will not consent to cede them," to which the President emphatically replied, "You must get clear of them [the Cherokees] by legislation. Take judicial jurisdiction over their country; build fires around them, and do indirectly what you cannot effect directly."

PER CAPITA PAYMENTS UNDER THE TREATY.

In the same letter Mr. Butler, in alluding to the existing difficulties in the Cherokee Nation, observes that prior to the preceding October the Ross party had been largely in the ascendency in the nation, but that at their last preceding election the question hinged upon whether the "per capita" money due them under the treaty of 1835 should be immediately paid over to the people. The result was in favor of the Ridge party, who assumed the affirmative of the question, the opposition of Ross and his party being predicated on the theory that an acceptance of this money would be an acknowledgment of the validity of the treaty of 1835. This, it was feared, would have an unfavorable effect on their efforts to secure the conclusion of a new treaty on more satisfactory terms. On the settlement of this per capita tax, Mr. Butler remarks, will depend the peace and safety of the Cherokee Nation, adding that should the rumors afloat prove true, to the effect that the per capita money was nearly exhausted, neither the national funds in the hands of the treasurer nor the life of Mr. Ross would be safe for an hour from the infuriated members of the tribe.

POLITICAL MURDERS IN CHEROKEE NATION.

In the spring of 1842 an event occurred which again threw the whole nation into a state of the wildest excitement. The friends of the murdered Ridges and Boudinot had never forgiven the act, nor had time served to soften the measure of their resentment against the perpetrators and their supposed abettors. Stand Watie had long been a leader among the Ridge party and had been marked for assassination at the time of the murders just alluded to. He was a brother of John Ridge, one of the murdered men, and he now, in virtue of his mission as an avenger, killed James Foreman, a member of the Ross party and one of the culprits in the murder of the Ridges. Although Stand Watie excused his conduct on the score of having come to a knowledge of certain threats against his life made by Foreman, no event could at that time have been more demoralizing and destructive of the earnestly desired era of peace and good feeling among the Cherokee people. From that time forward all hope of a sincere unification of the several tribal factions was at an end.

ADJUDICATION COMMISSIONERS APPOINTED.

In the autumn of 1842[473] the President appointed John H. Eaton and James Iredell as commissioners to adjudicate and settle claims under the treaty of 1835. Mr. Iredell declined, and Edward B. Hubley was appointed[474] to fill his place. This tribunal was created to continue the uncompleted work of the board appointed in 1836 under the provisions of the same article, the labors of which had terminated in March, 1839, having been in session more than two years.

[Footnote 346: United States Statutes at Large, Vol. VII, p. 488.]

[Footnote 347: May 27, 1828.]

[Footnote 348: Letter of War Department to Hugh Montgomery, Cherokee agent, May 27, 1828, and to General William Carroll, May 30, 1829.]

[Footnote 349: December 18, 1828.]

[Footnote 350: Letter of T. L. McKenney to Secretary of War, November, 17, 1829.]

[Footnote 351: Letter of T. L. McKenney to Hugh Montgomery, Cherokee agent, August 6, 1830.]

[Footnote 352: Letter of Cherokee delegation (East) to Secretary of War, January 21, 1829.]

[Footnote 353: Letter of Secretary of War to Cherokee delegation, April 18, 1829.]

[Footnote 354: December 20, 1828.]

[Footnote 355: Agent Montgomery to the Secretary of War, July 11, 1829.]

[Footnote 356: Secretary of War to General William Carroll, May 27, 1829.]

[Footnote 357: June 25, 1829.]

[Footnote 358: November 19, 1829.]

[Footnote 359: June 23, 1829.]

[Footnote 360: December 19, 1829.]

[Footnote 361: Among other legislation on this subject enacted by Georgia may be enumerated the following, viz:

1. A penalty of forfeiture of all right to his land and improvements was denounced against any Cherokee who should employ any white man, or the slave of any white man, as a tenant-cropper, or assistant in agriculture, or as a miller or millwright.

2. Any Indian who should enroll for emigration and afterwards refuse to emigrate should forfeit all right to any future occupancy within the State.

3. No Indian should be allowed the use of more than 160 acres of land, including his dwelling house.

4. Grants were to be issued for all lots drawn in the late land and gold lottery, though they might lie within the improvements of an Indian who had by any previous Cherokee treaty received a reservation either in Georgia or elsewhere.

5. No contract between a white man and an Indian, either verbal or written, should be binding unless established by the testimony of two white witnesses.

6. Any Indian forcibly obstructing the occupancy by the drawer of any lot drawn in the land and gold lottery should be subject to imprisonment in the discretion of the court.]

[Footnote 362: Letter of War Department to Hugh Montgomery, Cherokee agent, June 9, 1830.]

[Footnote 363: Letter of Acting Secretary of War to H. Montgomery, Cherokee Agent, June 18, 1830.]

[Footnote 364: Letter of Acting Secretary of War to H. Montgomery, Cherokee Agent, June 26, 1830.]

[Footnote 365: September 1, 1830.]

[Footnote 366: October 20, 1830.]

[Footnote 367: Action of Cherokee national council, October 22, 1830.]

[Footnote 368: Cherokee Nation _vs._ State of Georgia, Peters's United States Supreme Court Reports, Vol. V, p. 1.]

[Footnote 369: April 17, 1832.]

[Footnote 370: July 18, 1832.]

[Footnote 371: September 4, 1832.]

[Footnote 372: Worcester _vs._ State of Georgia, Peters's United States Supreme Court Reports, Vol. VI, p. 515.]

[Footnote 373: According to the statement of Hon. Geo. N. Briggs, a member of Congress from Massachusetts, President Jackson remarked, after the case of Worcester _vs._ State of Georgia was decided, "Well, John Marshall has made his decision, now let him enforce it."]

[Footnote 374: Treaty June 1, 1773, between the British superintendent of Indian affairs and the Creeks and Cherokees.]

[Footnote 375: United States Statutes at Large, Vol. VII, p. 237.]

[Footnote 376: Letter of D. B. Mitchell, Creek agent, to Secretary of War.]

[Footnote 377: See Indian Office files for these two treaties.]

[Footnote 378: United States Statutes at Large, Vol. VII, p. 171.]

[Footnote 379: Ib., p. 215.]

[Footnote 380: United States Statutes at Large, Vol. VII, p. 237.]

[Footnote 381: Ib., p. 289.]

[Footnote 382: Ib., p. 307; Creek treaty of November 15, 1827.]

[Footnote 383: Letter of Secretary of War to D. B. Mitchell, Creek agent.]

[Footnote 384: Letter of Governor Forsyth, of Georgia, to Samuel A. Wales, May 5, 1829.]

[Footnote 385: Letter of Montgomery to Wales, May 13, 1829.]

[Footnote 386: October 10, 1829.]

[Footnote 387: December 30, 1829.]

[Footnote 388: January 15, 1830.]

[Footnote 389: March 14, 1830.]

[Footnote 390: Secretary of War to Governor Gilmer, of Georgia, June 1, 1830.]

[Footnote 391: The following paper, which is on file in the Office of Indian Affairs, is interesting in connection with the subject matter of this boundary:

Extract from treaties and other documents relative to the Cherokee lines in contact with the Creeks and Chickasaws west of Coosa River: