Part 33

Their country was especially adapted to stock raising and their flocks and herds increased in proportion to the zeal and industry of their owners. The proceeds of their surplus cotton placed within reach most of the comforts and many of the luxuries of life. The unselfish devotion of the missionary societies had furnished them with religious and school instruction, of which they had in large numbers eagerly availed themselves.[691] From the crude tribal government of the eighteenth century they had gradually progressed until in the month of July, 1827, a convention of duly elected delegates from the eight several districts into which their country was divided[692] assembled at New Echota, and announced that "We, the representatives of the people of the Cherokee Nation, in convention assembled, in order to establish justice, insure tranquillity, promote our common welfare, and secure to ourselves and our posterity the blessings of liberty, acknowledging with humility and gratitude the goodness of the sovereign Ruler of the Universe in offering us an opportunity so favorable to the design and imploring His aid and direction in its accomplishment, do ordain and establish this constitution for the government of the Cherokee Nation." By the constitution thus adopted the power of the nation was divided into legislative, executive, and judicial departments. The legislative power was vested in a committee and a council, each to have a negative on the other, and together to be called the "General Council of the Cherokee Nation." This committee consisted of two and the council of three members from each district, and were to be elected biennially by the suffrages of all free male citizens (excepting negroes and descendants of white and Indian men by negro women who may have been set free) who had attained the age of eighteen years. Their sessions were annual, beginning on the second Monday in October. Persons of negro or mulatto blood were declared ineligible to official honors or emoluments.

The executive power of the nation was confided to a principal chief, elected by the general council for a term of four years, and none but native born citizens were eligible to the office. The chief was required to visit each district of the nation at least once in two years, to keep himself familiarized with the condition and necessities of the country. His approval was also required to all laws, and, as in the case of our own Government, the exercise of the veto power could be overcome only by a two-thirds majority in both houses of the national legislature. An executive council of three members besides the assistant principal chief was also to be elected by the joint vote of the two houses for the period of one year.

The judicial functions were vested in a supreme court of three judges and such circuit and inferior courts as the general council should from time to time prescribe, such judges to be elected by joint vote of the general council.

Ministers of the gospel who by their profession were dedicated to the service of God and the care of souls, and who ought not therefore to be diverted from the great duty of their function, were, while engaged in such work, declared ineligible to the office of principal chief or to a seat in either house of the general council. Any person denying the existence of a God or a future state of rewards and punishments was declared ineligible to hold any office in the civil department of the nation, and it was also set forth that (religion, morality, and knowledge being necessary to good government, the preservation of liberty, and the happiness of mankind) schools and the means of education should forever be encouraged in the nation.

Under this constitution elections were regularly held and the functions of government administered until the year 1830, when the hostile legislation of Georgia practically paralyzed and suspended its further operation. Although forbidden to hold any more elections, the Cherokees maintained a semblance of their republican form of government by tacitly permitting their last elected officers to hold over and recognizing the authority and validity of their official actions. This embarrassing condition of affairs continued until their removal west of the Mississippi River, when, on the 6th of September, 1839, they, in conjunction with the "Old Settlers," adopted a new constitution, which in substance was a duplicate of its predecessor.

This removal turned the Cherokees back in the calendar of progress and civilization at least a quarter of a century. The hardships and exposures of the journey, coupled with the fevers and malaria of a radically different climate, cost the lives of perhaps 10 per cent of their total population. The animosities and turbulence born of the treaty of 1835 not only occasioned the loss of many lives, but rendered property insecure, and in consequence diminished the zeal and industry of the entire community in its accumulation. A brief period of comparative quiet, however, was again characterized by an advance toward a higher civilization. Five years after their removal we find from the report of their agent that they are again on the increase in population; that their houses, farms, and fixtures have greatly improved in the comforts of life; that in general they are living in double cabins and evincing an increasing disposition to provide for the future; that they have in operation eleven common schools, superintended by a native Cherokee, in which are taught reading, writing, arithmetic, bookkeeping, grammar, geography, and history, which are entirely supported at the expense of their own national funds, and which are attended by upwards of five hundred scholars; that the churches are largely attended and liberally supported, the Methodists having 1,400 communicants, the Baptists 750, and other denominations a smaller number; that a national temperance society boasts of 1,752 members; that they maintain a printing press, from which publications are issued in both the English and Cherokee tongues; that some of them manifest a decided taste for general literature and a few have full and well selected libraries; that thousands of them can speak and write the English language with fluency and comparative accuracy; that hundreds can draw up contracts, deeds, and other instruments for the transfer of property, and that in the ordinary transactions of life, especially in making bargains, they are shrewd and intelligent, frequently evincing a remarkable degree of craft and combination; that their treatment of their women had undergone a radical change; that the countenance and encouragement given to her cultivation disclosed a more exalted estimate of female character, and that instead of being regarded as a slave and a beast of burden she was now recognized as a friend and companion.

Thus, with the exception of occasional drawbacks--the result of civil feuds--the progress of the nation in education, industry, and civilization continued until the outbreak of the rebellion. At this period, from the best attainable information, the Cherokees numbered twenty-one thousand souls. The events of the war brought to them more of desolation and ruin than perhaps to any other community.

Raided and sacked alternately, not only by the Confederate and Union forces, but by the vindictive ferocity and hate of their own factional divisions, their country became a blackened and desolate waste. Driven from comfortable homes, exposed to want, misery, and the elements, they perished like sheep in a snow storm. Their houses, fences, and other improvements were burned, their orchards destroyed, their flocks and herds slaughtered or driven off, their schools broken up, and their school-houses given to the flames, their churches and public buildings subjected to a similar fate, and that entire portion of their country which had been occupied by their settlements was distinguishable from the virgin prairie only by the scorched and blackened chimneys and the plowed but now neglected fields.

The war over and the work of reconstruction commenced, found them numbering fourteen thousand impoverished, heart broken, and revengeful people. But they must work or starve, and in almost sullen despair they set about rebuilding their waste places. The situation was one calculated to discourage men enjoying a higher degree of civilization than they had yet reached, but they bent to the task with a determination and perseverance that could not fail to be the parent of success.

To-day their country is more prosperous than ever. They number twenty-two thousand, a greater population than they have had at any previous period, except perhaps just prior to the date of the treaty of 1835, when those east added to those west of the Mississippi are stated to have aggregated nearly twenty-five thousand people.[693] To-day they have twenty-three hundred scholars attending seventy-five schools, established and supported by themselves at an annual expense to the nation of nearly $100,000. To-day thirteen thousand of their people can read and eighteen thousand can speak the English language. To-day five thousand brick, frame, and log houses are occupied by them; and they have sixty-four churches with a membership of several thousand. They cultivate a hundred thousand acres of land and have an additional one hundred and fifty thousand fenced. They raise annually 100,000 bushels of wheat, 800,000 of corn, 100,000 of oats and barley, 27,500 of vegetables, 1,000,000 pounds of cotton, 500,000 pounds of butter, 12,000 tons of hay, and saw a million feet of lumber. They own 20,000 horses, 15,000 mules, 200,000 cattle, 100,000 swine, and 12,000 sheep.

They have a constitutional form of government predicated upon that of the United States. As a rule, their laws are wise and beneficent and are enforced with strictness and justice. Political and social prejudice has deprived the former slaves in some instances of the full measure of rights guaranteed to them by the treaty of 1866 and the amended constitution of the nation, but time is rapidly softening these asperities and will solve all difficulties of the situation.

The present Cherokee population is of a composite character. Remnants of other nations or tribes have from time to time been absorbed and admitted to full participation in the benefits of Cherokee citizenship. The various classes may be thus enumerated:

1. The full blood Cherokees.

2. The mixed blood Cherokees.

3. The Delawares.

4. The Shawnees.

5. White men and women intermarried with the foregoing.

6. A few Creeks who broke away from their own tribe and have been citizens of the Cherokee Nation for many years.

7. A few Creeks who are not citizens, but have taken up their abode in the Cherokee country, without any rights.

8. A remnant of the Natchez tribe, who are citizens.

9. The freedmen adopted under the treaty of 1866.

10. Freedmen not adopted, but not removed as intruders, owing to an order from the Indian Department forbidding such removal pending a decision upon their claims to citizenship.

If the Government of the United States shall in this last resort of the Cherokees prove faithful to its obligations and maintain their country inviolate from the intrusions of white trespassers, the future of the nation will surely prove the capability of the American Indian under favorable conditions to realize in a high degree the possibilities of Anglo-Saxon civilization.

_Table showing approximately the area in square miles and acres ceded to the United States by the various treaties with the Cherokee Nation:_

+----------------------+------------------+----------------+----------+ | |State where ceded | Area | Area in | | Date of treaty. |lands are located.| in square | acres. | | | | miles. | | +----------------------+------------------+----------------+----------+ |1721 |South Carolina | 2,623 | 1,678,720| |November 24, 1755 | do | 8,635 | 5,526,400| |October 14, 1768 |Virginia | 850 | 544,000| |October 18, 1770 {| do | 4,500 | 2,880,000| | {|West Virginia | 4,300 | 2,752,000| | {|Tennessee | 150 | 96,000| | {|Kentucky | 250 | 160,000| |1772 {| do | 10,135 | 6,486,400| | {|West Virginia | 437 | 279,680| | {|Virginia | 345 | 220,800| |June 1, 1773 |Georgia | 1,050 | 672,000| |March 17, 1775 {|Kentucky | 22,600 |14,464,000| | {|Virginia | 1,800 | 1,152,000| | {|Tennessee | 2,650 | 1,696,000| |May 20, 1777 |South Carolina | 2,051 | 1,312,640| |July 20, 1777 {|North Carolina | 4,414 | 2,824,960| | {|Tennessee | 1,760 | 1,126,400| |May 31, 1783 |Georgia | 1,650 | 1,056,000| |November 28, 1785 {|North Carolina | 550 | 352,000| | {|Tennessee | 4,914 | 3,144,960| | {|Kentucky | 917 | 586,880| |July 2, 1791 {|Tennessee | 3,435 | 2,198,400| | {|North Carolina | 722 | 462,080| |October 2, 1798 {|Tennessee | 952 | 609,280| | {|North Carolina | 587 | 375,680| |October 24, 1804 |Georgia | 135 | 86,400| |October 25, 1805 {|Kentucky | 1,086 | 695,040| | {|Tennessee | 7,032 | 4,500,480| |October 27, 1805 | do | 1-1/4 | 800| |January 7, 1806 {| do | 5,269 | 3,372,160| | {|Alabama | 1,602 | 1,025,280| |March 22, 1816 |South Carolina | 148 | 94,720| |September 14, 1816 {|Alabama | 3,129 | 2,194,560| | {|Mississippi | 4 | 2,560| |July 8, 1817 {|Georgia | 583 | 373,120| | {|Tennessee | 435 | 278,400| |February 27, 1819 {|Georgia | 837 | 535,680| | {|Alabama | 1,154 | 738,560| | {|Tennessee | 2,408 | 1,541,120| | {|North Carolina | 1,542 | 986,880| |May 6, 1828 |Arkansas | 4,720 | 3,020,800| |December 29, 1835 {|Tennessee | 1,484 | 949,760| | {|Georgia | 7,202 | 4,609,280| | {|Alabama | 2,518 | 1,611,520| | {|North Carolina | 1,112 | 711,680| |July 19, 1866[694] |Kansas |[695]1,928 | 1,233,920| | | +----------------+----------+ | Total | | 126,906-1/4 |81,220,374| +----------------------+------------------+----------------+----------+

[Footnote 583: United States Statutes at Large, Vol. XVI, p. 727.]

[Footnote 584: Letter of General J. J. Reynolds to Secretary of the Interior, June 28, 1865; printed in report of Commissioner of Indian Affairs for 1865, p. 295.]

[Footnote 585: Report of D. N. Cooley, president of the commission, dated October 30, 1865.]

[Footnote 586: Report of D. N. Cooley, president of the commission, dated October 30, 1865.]

[Footnote 587: Report of Commissioner of Indian Affairs for 1865, p. 36.]

[Footnote 588: Report of Elijah Sells, superintendent of Indian Affairs, October 16, 1865.]

[Footnote 589: September 13, 1865.]

[Footnote 590: September 15, 1865.]

[Footnote 591: September 16, 1865.]

[Footnote 592: This objection to consolidation was afterwards withdrawn, and, based upon fuller information of the proposed plan, was most fully concurred in.]

[Footnote 593: September 18, 1865.]

[Footnote 594: Statement of Southern delegation at an interview held with Commissioners Cooley and Sells, March 30, 1866. They also proposed that a census be taken and each man be allowed to decide whether or not he would live under the jurisdiction of the Ross party.]

[Footnote 595: Statement of loyal delegation at interview held with Commissioners Cooley and Sells, March 30, 1866.]

[Footnote 596: Sundry interviews between Commissioners Cooley and Sells and the loyal and Southern delegations, from March to June, 1866.]

[Footnote 597: June 13, 1865.]

[Footnote 598: United States Statutes at Large, Vol. XIV, p. 799.]

[Footnote 599: See preamble to treaty of July 19, 1833.]

[Footnote 600: John Ross, or Kooeskoowe, was of mixed Scotch and Indian blood on both father's and mother's side. His maternal grandfather was John Stuart, who for many years prior to the Revolutionary war was British superintendent of Indian affairs for the southern tribes and who married a Cherokee woman. He was born about 1790 in that portion of the Cherokee Nation within the present limits of Georgia, and died in Washington, D. C., August 1, 1866. As early as 1813 Ross made a trip to the Cherokee country west of the Mississippi, ascending the Arkansas River to the present limits of Indian Territory, and wrote a detailed account of the situation and prospects of his brethren, the character of the country, etc. In 1820 (and perhaps earlier) he had become president of the Cherokee national committee, and continued so until the adoption of a constitution by the Cherokee Nation, July 26, 1827. Of this constitutional convention Mr. Ross was the president, and under its operation he was elected principal chief, a position which he continued to hold until his death.]

[Footnote 601: May 11, 1872. United States Statutes at Large, Vol. XVII, p. 98.]

[Footnote 602: April 29, 1874. United States Statutes at Large, Vol. XVIII, p. 41.]

[Footnote 603: February 28, 1877. United States Statutes at Large, Vol. XIX, p. 265.]

[Footnote 604: See treaty of April 27, 1868. United States Statutes at Large, Vol. XVI, p. 727.]

[Footnote 605: See report of Commissioner of Indian Affairs to Secretary of Interior, March 1, 1867, transmitting the agreement.]

[Footnote 606: October 9, 1867.]

[Footnote 607: United States Statutes at Large, Vol. XVI, p. 727.]

[Footnote 608: See Indian Office records.]

[Footnote 609: See report of Commissioner Indian Affairs for 1870, p. 376.]

[Footnote 610: See report of Commissioner Indian Affairs for 1871, p. 671.]

[Footnote 611: August 11, 1871.]

[Footnote 612: 5,019.91 acres.]

[Footnote 613: United States Statutes at Large, Vol. XV, p. 222.]

[Footnote 614: August 27, 1868.]

[Footnote 615: December 23, 1868.]

[Footnote 616: July 6, 1867.]

[Footnote 617: March 3, 1868.]

[Footnote 618: February 26, 1868.]

[Footnote 619: See document "Fortieth Congress, second session--confidential--Executive 3P."]

[Footnote 620: United States Statutes at Large, Vol. VII, p. 311.]

[Footnote 621: Ibid., p. 414.]

[Footnote 622: Ibid., p. 478.]

[Footnote 623: United States Statutes at Large, Vol. IX, p. 871.]

[Footnote 624: United States Statutes at Large, Vol. IX, p. 446.]

[Footnote 625: United States Statutes at Large, Vol. X, p. 283.]

[Footnote 626: Indian Office records.]

[Footnote 627: December 6, 1867.]

[Footnote 628: July 31, 1868.]

[Footnote 629: Letter of Cherokee delegation to Commissioner of Indian Affairs, April 23, 1868.]

[Footnote 630: Treaty of November 7, 1825, in United States Statutes at Large, Vol. VII, p. 284.]

[Footnote 631: Treaty of May 10, 1854, in United States Statutes at Large, Vol. X, p. 1053.]

[Footnote 632: United States Statutes at Large, Vol. XVI, p. 53.]

[Footnote 633: August 14, 1871.]

[Footnote 634: United States Statutes at Large, Vol. XIV, p. 687.]

[Footnote 635: April 10, 1868.]

[Footnote 636: May 27, 1868.]

[Footnote 637: United States Statutes at Large, Vol. XVI, p. 362.]

[Footnote 638: Letter of Cherokee delegation to Commissioner of Indian Affairs, February 15, 1871.]

[Footnote 639: May 27, 1871.]

[Footnote 640: Letter of Cherokee delegation to Commissioner of Indian Affairs, June 10, 1871.]

[Footnote 641: United States Statutes at Large, Vol. XVII, p. 228.]

[Footnote 642: April 8, 1872.]

[Footnote 643: See surveyors' plats on file in Indian Office.]

[Footnote 644: See report of Commissioner of Indian Affairs to Secretary of the Interior, March 6, 1875.]

[Footnote 645: United States Statutes at Large, Vol. XIX, p. 28.]

[Footnote 646: United States Statutes at Large, Vol. XVII, p. 190.]

[Footnote 647: United States Statutes at Large, Vol. XIV, p. 717.]

[Footnote 648: Treaty of October 21, 1867, United States Statutes at Large, Vol. XV, p. 581.]

[Footnote 649: United States Statutes at Large, Vol. XV, p. 593.]

[Footnote 650: August 10, 1869.]

[Footnote 651: United States Statutes at Large, Vol. XVII, p. 190.]

[Footnote 652: October 24, 1872.]

[Footnote 653: November 18, 1873.]

[Footnote 654: United States Statutes at Large, Vol. XIX, p. 120.]

[Footnote 655: January 30, 1877.]

[Footnote 656: September 8, 1877.]

[Footnote 657: Letter of the Secretary of the Interior to the President, June 21, 1879.]

[Footnote 658: June 23, 1879.]

[Footnote 659: United States Statutes at Large, Vol. XIX, p. 187.]

[Footnote 660: January 27, 1877.]

[Footnote 661: Report of Commissioner of Indian Affairs for 1877, pp. 21-23.]

[Footnote 662: Report of Commissioner of Indian Affairs for 1878, p. xxxvi.]

[Footnote 663: United States Statutes at Large, Vol. XXI, p. 380.]

[Footnote 664: Act of May 27, 1878, United States Statutes at Large, Vol. XX, p. 63.]

[Footnote 665: Report of Commissioner of Indian Affairs for 1879, p. xl.]

[Footnote 666: Report of Commissioner of Indian Affairs for 1881, p. lxiii. The removal was accomplished between October 5 and October 23.]

[Footnote 667: Deeds were executed June 14, 1883, by the Cherokee Nation to the United States in trust for each of the tribes located upon Cherokee country west of 96°, such deeds being in each case for the quantity of land comprised within the tracts respectively selected by or for them for their future use and occupation. See Report of Commissioner of Indian Affairs, for 1883, p. lii.]

[Footnote 668: February 27, 1871.]

[Footnote 669: April 14, 1871.]

[Footnote 670: May 4, 1871.]

[Footnote 671: The survey was approved by the commissioners December 11, 1871.]

[Footnote 672: Acts of July 25, 26, and 27, 1866.]

[Footnote 673: May 13, 1870.]

[Footnote 674: May 21, 1870.]

[Footnote 675: May 23, 1870.]

[Footnote 676: June 13, 1870.]

[Footnote 677: The persons affected by this action were comprised within four classes, viz:

1. White persons who had married into the tribe.

2. Persons with an admixture of Indian blood, through either father or mother.

3. Adopted persons.