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CHEROKEfi PHOENIX AND TNDtANfe* ADVOCATE.
three other persons, oiit* of whom was
Charles i<k «\9, luati acting' as inter
preter. 1 nave cailed it a compact
not a treaty, because it was not sent
to tile Senate for ratification. But
though it he not technically a tVeaty,
It <s morally binding upon the Unilc'j
States, for it has been carried ir^o
effect, and the United States, particu
larly the People of Tennessee tjeor-
J ia, have derived great benefit Viom it.
oa\ e an accurate copy belr Ji e , ue
< ‘ Articles of Agreement between
the United States and V M Cherokee
IS\\tion, for opening a r 0a d f rom the
fi^te ol Tennessee l >0 t | ie state of
Georgia, through U AC Cherokee Na
tion.
•1 ho Cherok ee Nation having ta
ken into consid ,e ra tion the request of
tiiei. h atiier t | le president of the Uni
ted States, to grant that a road may
be opene. 4 || lr0 4 g|j t| le Nation, from
the Sta’ e 0 f Tennessee to the State
ol ail( i ,)eing desirous to e-
►■piie- a j ( , Father, the President,
'y < t the good People of the United
feUates, their good will and friendly
/lisposUioi, do hereby agree, that a
road may be opened from the State of
Tennessee to the State of Georgia,
tvith lho reservations and provisions
as in the following articles are ex
pressed; and further to evince to our
Father, the President, that we are
mt influenced by pecuniary motives,
tv; make a present of the road to the
United States.”
Art. 1. A road granted, sixty feet
V.) aiilth, passing through about 150
miles of Cherokee territory, and o-
pe.ii ig a communication from Augus
ts, Georgia, to Knoxville and Nash-
vi'lo, Tennessee. [This has usual
ly been called the Federal Road.—
li ms been much travelled; and great
quantities of merchandize, and other
v doable property have been trans
ported over it.j It was to be made
s delv at (lie expense of the United
Slaves. The article also provides;
Unit when the road is opened, the di-
Pe tin i of it shall not be changed; and
t'l.it io branch or branches (except
one which iiad been described) “shall
ever lie permitted to be opened with-
unl the consent of tht Cherokee Na
tion,.'*
Art. 2 The Cherokees reserve to
themselves the income of the ferries;
and specify where the ferries shall he
kept.
Art. 3. Various regulations re
specting houses uf entertainment,
Wiieh tlie Cherokees were to estab
lish; keeping the road m repair,
&•'. &.C.
An. 4. No neat cattle from the
Sontiiyrn States shall bo driven
through tiie Cherokee Nation; and
when horses are taken through, the
mini ier of them shall be inserted in
111 v passport of the owner. The
Ch frokees are not to be answerable
for estrjys from among the animals
of Ilia vliites.
Art. 5 Officers, civil and military,
nnil carriers, anil other classes, ex
empted from toll and ferriage.
Art 6. Commissioners to be ap
pointed on each side to survey and
/nark die road,
Art. 1. 0 ie copy of this agree
ment to be sent to the Secretary of
W ar, a tot her to be left with the prin
cipal Cherokee Chief, and a third
vvi b tho Age it of the United States
among the Cherokees.
Tiie road was opened the following
year, and has now been travelled for
a q nrter of a century; and, during
this whole time, has greatly facilitat
ed iutereou so between different parts
of the Southern States.
No reader of the foregoing abstract
can be so dull as not to perceive, that
Iho privilege was granted to the Uni
ted States, at the special instance
of the President; that the Cherokees
•were extremely cautious not to com-
pro nit their territorial rights; and
tint they made the grant from mo
tives of friendship, and a vvill.ngness
to afford the desired accommodation.
They guard, in a suitable manner, a-
gainst vexations and liabilities, to
which this act of kindness might be
thought to expose them; and they re
serve the income of the ferries, some
pf which are over considerable rivers
$ml have been quite profitable.
The word Father is repeatedly
used in this, document, to indicate the
jre'nt.ion which the President of the
United States held to the Cherokees
as their protector from aggression
and as hound to see that (he treaties
with th“m a?e carded Ho effect
♦‘with nil 'ond *Vtth ” We had oh-
trudud the word upon them.
had put it into their mouths, and it
*vas ir,ade the standing pledge, not
merely of our justice, but of our kind
ness and generosity towards them.—
Miiiall this sacred and venerable name
be prostituted to purposes of injustice
and oppression? For most assuredly
it will be deemed oppression, rank op
pression, if we disown our engage
ments; forswear our most solemn cov
enants, and then take possession of the
lands of our poor neighbors, which
had been secured to them by the
highest guaranty which we could
make. Nor will the oppression be
less odious on account of its being ac
companied by professions of great
benevolence, and the promise of a new
guaranty.
SECOND TREATY OP TELLICO, OR SEV
ENTH NATIONAL COMPACT AVITH THE
CHEROKEES.
This instrument was executed ‘‘in
the garrison of Tellico, on Cherokee
"round,” Oct. 24, 1804, by Daniel
Smith and Return J. Meigs, for the
United States, and ten Chiefs and
Warriors for the Cherokees, in (he
presence of five witnesses.
The preamble says, that certain
propositions were made by the Com
missioners; that they w'dre considered
bv the Chiefs; that the parties afore
said have unanimously agreed and stip
minted, as is definitely expressed in
the following articles:”
Art. 1. “For the considerations
hereinafter expressed, -the Cherokee
nation relinquish and cede to the U. 8. a
tract, of land bounded &c. [This was a
small tract, called Wafiord’s settle
ment,containing perhaps not more than
100.000 acres It was a strip on the
frontier between the Cherokees and
Georgia.]
Art. 2. “In consideration of the
relinquishment and cession, the United
States, upon signing the preseut trea
ty,” shall pay the Cherokees $5,000,
in goods or money, at the option of
the Cherokees, and $1,000 annual
ly. in addition to the previous annui
ties
The Treaty was ratified by Presi
dent Jefferson and the Senate. ‘The
relinquishment and cession” are of
the sauje nature, and carry with them
the same implications, as have been
described in preceding comments.
THIRD TREATY OF* TELLICO, OR
EIGHTH COMPACT WITH THE CHER-
bitrtis.
This treaty was executed Oct, 25,
1805, by two Commissioners of the
United States, and thirty-three Cher
okee Chiefs and Warriors, in the pre
sence of ten witnesses.
“Art. 1. Former treaties reefiguiz-
I ed and continued in force.
| Art. 2. “The Cherokees quit claim
j and cede to the United States all the
i land which they [The Cherokees] have
| heretofore claimed, lying to the North
of the following boundary line: [The
lands here ceded were of considerable
value, and fell into the State of Ten
nessee, extending East and West
near the central of that State.]
Art. 3. “In consideration of the a-
bove cession and relinquishment, the U-
nited States agree to pay immediate
ly” $14,000, and $3,000 a year in
addition to previous annuities.
Art. 4. The citizens of the United
States to have the free & unmolested
use of two roads iti addition to those
previously established, one leading
from Tennessee to Georgia, and the
other from Tennessee to the settle
ments on the Tombigbee. These
roads to be marked out by men ap
pointed on each side for the pur
pose .
Art. 5. This treaty to take effect,
“as soon ns it is ratified by the Pres
ident of the United States, by and
with.the advice and consent of the
the Senate of the same.”
The treaty was ratified by President
Jefferson and the Senate. It will be
observed, that the first article con
tains an express recognition of previ
ous treaties, and pledges the faith of
the United Statps anew for the ful
filment of those treaties.
Several documents of this kind re
main to be considered; but I pledge
myself to you. Messrs. Editors, and
to your readers, that I will be as
brief as possible, consistently with
fidelity to the cause. This is a seri
ous matter to the Indians and to the
People of the United States. It is
a matter which must he decided by
the great body of the People, through
their Representatives in Congress —
The people piust therefore have the
means of understanding it. ,
WILLIAM PENN)
From the New York Observer.
The editor of the Charleston Ob
server, after censuring us for the
languago in which we have chosen to
speak of tho authorities of Georgia on
account of their treatment of the In
dians, says:
“What has the State of Georgia
done which any other state similarly
situated would not have done? The
State of Georgia has no controversy
at all with the Indians; nor are we
apprized of a single act of theirs, to
wards the shattered remnants of this
unfortunate race, which indicates a
disposition to treat them with injus
tice, unless it may be their running a
new line through the Cherokee coun
try, in regard to which a difference of
opinion exists; and their refusal to
permit the Indians to give witness, or
be a party in any court crea.ed by the
laws or constitution of that state.
Now, whatever may be the integrity
and virtue of a number, both of the
Creeks and Cherokees, no white man
would like to have his life and proper
ty jeopardized by tiie testimony of an
Indian.
Is it possible that the Editor of the
Charleston Observer does not know
that the Legislature of Georgia have
voted to extend the laws of that state
over the Creeks and Cherokees after
June, 1830? Docs he not know that
these Iridiaiis have always been free
and independent nations, governed
exclusively by theii 4 own laws and ac
knowledging no authority but that of
their own duels? Does lie not see
that this vote of the Georgia legisla
ture will deprive them at once of
rheir liberties, and reduce them to a
state of the most humiliating depen
dence and vassalage? What is im
plied in extending laws over a nation
but the claim of absolute mastery and
lordship?
And what are the laws which
Georgia pfoposes to extend over the
Cherokees? The editor of (lie Ob
server has given us a specimen of
them in the very paragraph whicn we
have quoted. No Indian is allowed to
give evidence in a Georgia court of
justice. He is placed on a level with
the negro slave. He may be robbed,
he may be shot, in open day. in the
presence of his family, by any strag
gling white man, and there is no law
in Georgia that can touch the murder
er. And yet the edit or of the Charles
ton Observer c,.n see no injustice in
nil this, and wonders that there should
he. any excitement on the subject!
And the editor of the Columbian Stai
echoes him and wonders that there
should be any excitement on the sub
ject!
Twenty thousand men, who have
governed themselves from a time to
which no record and no tradition ex
tends back, and who have as good a
right to govern themselves os the
people of anv state in this Union, are
In a mothent deprived of this clearest
of all earthly rights! and still there
ai-e men, Christian men, Christian
editors, stationed on the watch-towers
of the land, and overlooking the scene
of this iniquity, who. instead of sound
ing the alarm, strive only to drow n the
voices of their companions by the cry
or “All’s wfell.” Shtttne on silch w atch*
men, we say
We call upon the editor of the
Charleston Observer to show us wlmt
right Georgia has to extend her laws
over th» Cherokees. After having
for so many centuries maintained the
character of .an independent nation,
-—after having, in this character,
made treaties upon treaties with the
government of the United States,
what have they done to forfeit their
rights? Have they suddenly become
so savage and degraded that they‘are
no longer competent to the business
of self government, and must Geor
gia, therefore, interpose as gnapdian?
No; their very crime is that they
have ceased to be savages, that they
no longer desire to subsist by hunting,
that they have made rapid advances
in civilization and arts, and above all,
that they have adopted a written
constitution! and arc becoming in all
respects like white men. On what
ground then will the editor of the
Charleston .Observer justify Georgia
in assuming the right to bring them
under her. laws? We confess that we
ate Wholly at a loss to conceive and
until we have some new light, we
must be permitted to pronounce it a
bold and cruel usurpation.
GENUCOlIJ^CjtL.
dfealto
MESSAGE
Of the Principal Chief of the Cherokee
Nation, submitted before the Nation
al Committee and Council, in joint
Committee of the whole, Wednesday,
October 14/A, 1829.
To the Committee and Council,
in General Council convened.
Friends and Fellow Citizens,—As
Representatives of the Cherokee peo
ple, you have again convened under
the Constitutional authority of the Na
tion. This sacred privilege, of as
sembling in General Council of the
Nation, to promote the interest and
happiness of our citizens, is one, a-
mong the greatest blessings which we
have derived from the Great Ruler of
the Universe. It is a right which
we. as a distinct people, have ever ex
ercised, and our prerogative so to ac-
has been recognized by the Govern
ment of the United States, under
whose fostering care we have merged
from the darkness of ignorance and
superstition, to our present degree of
advancement in civilized improve
ment. It has therefore become your
duty to guard and protect the rights
and hnppintss of your constituents, by
adopting such laws for their common
welfare, as will avert any abuse of
the legitimate privileges guarantied
under the Constitution.
During the last session of the Gen
eral Council, you determined on the
expediency of sending n Delegation to
represent the grievances of tiie Na
tion to the General Government, and
at the same time earnestly requested
that I s/miiId accompany them. I now
subiriit. for your information, docu
ments containing the correspondence
between the Delegation and the offi
cers of the Government, on the vari
ous subjects appertaining to the mis
sion: You will perceive from these
documents that the late administration
did not act upon any of the subjects
submitted by the Delegation, but re
ferred them all to the consideration of
the preseut administration. At an
early day, a protest was laid before
the late President, through the Secre
tary of War, against the proceedings,
of Georgia, relative to the extension
of her laws over the territory within
our jurisdiction, believing at the same
time that be would ljave deemed the
matter of sufficient importance to
have submitted a Special message to
Congress, respecting so unjust an as
sumption of power on the part of
Georgia; but finding that our antici
pation would not be realized, and be
in* desirous that the true sentiments
of the Nation on this subject should
be made known to that honorable
body, the Delegation, at a late hour,
presented a memorial ar.d protest.
When on the eve of leaving Wash
ington, and only awaiting the decision
of the President on Reids’ claim for
ardent spirits, illegally introduced in
to the Nation, and confiscated under
our laws, the Delegation, very unex
pectedly, received from the Secreta
ry of War, the much talked of letter
of the 18th April last. The subject
having been laid before Congress, and
the sentiments of the Nation fully ex
pressed, and the opinion of the Dele
gation not being in the slightest degree
effected by the arguments advanced
by the Hon. Secretary in favor of
Georgia’s extending her sovereign ju
risdiction over n portion of our terri
tory, and withal, being in readiness to
depart, and anxious to return home,
they did not deem it necessary to make
any reply. The extraordinary lati
tude of construction given by the
Secretary, on the sovereignty of Geor
gia, exhibits a glaring attempt of inno
vation in our political rights, and is
calculated to effect seriously our re
lationship with the General Govern
ment.
Georgia, to add to our grievances
in the many outrages committed by
her intrusive and lawless citizens,
has lately set forth an unheard of
claim, before, to a large portion of
our lands, under the very absurd pre
tension that they were purchased from
the Creeks by the United States, un
der the Treaty concluded with McIn
tosh and his party at the Indian
Springs; and a survey has been made
by the authority of Georgia, which is
called a iipw line: Beginning at Su-
wanna old Town on the Chnttahoo-
chie river, tfience to the Six's on the
Etowah river, thence, imagining said
river as a part of the boundary line,
<its confluence with the Oostanalee,
they resumed tho tftirVty from the
north bank‘of my ferry limiting at tfie
mouth of the Oostenalec, through ny
jane and along the Wagggh road leal-
*hg to Alabama to a point 16 or 17
miles west of my residence, which
road, in the surveyors report, thef
have been pleased to style the Ol\
Creek path. It is well, known that
many ot the citizens of Geoigia huj
previously intruded upon these lands|
and after committing many flagrant
aggressions, upon the persons anil
property of our frontier citizens, ana
anticipating a removal by order of tli0
United States Government, this fraud-,
ulent and unfounded elaim was set
forth by some of* t l| e Georgia politi-
eians, with a v«*(v of causing a delay
in the removal of the intruders; and'
that by a system of fraud, violence,
and oppression practised upon the
frontier Cherokees, they would abaa-
don their improvements and remove
farther into the interior of the Nation/
and the National authority might
thereby, eventually; be compelled to
cede these lands totflie United State#
for their benefit. You will discover
from Col. Montgomery’s letter directs
ed to me, and inclosing a copy of a
letter from the Secretary of War,
that the order for removing the intru
ders has been suspended until he shall
have been put in possession of the
facts relative to the lands thus intrude
ed upon, and unjustly attempted to be
wrested from us.
In the archieves of the U. State*
are to be lound public documents that
afford abundant eviuen^e to convince
the world mat this land is the s ii of
the Cherokees,—that the boundary
line between this and the Creek Na
tion has been definitively and satis-*
iactorily established, and this agree
ment recognized and sanctioned by
the treaties with the United States,
and also acquiesced in and observed
on the part of Georgia. The course
taken by the Secretary of War in this
matter seems strange, as you w ill see,
from the documents submitted, that
this unfounded elaim to a portion of oar
lands, was brought to his view by the
Delegation, and the .only attention
then given Jo it by the Depart
ment, was, the positive assurance
given by the President that the in
truders should be removed. This
unexpected delay in their removal ie
calculated to encourage them to mul
tiply, and the consequences cannot
fail to produce serious evils to our
bordering citizens. The portion of
country embraced by the claim has
ever been in the peaceable and undis
puted possession of the Cherokees.—
The Creek treaty of the Indian
Springs, under which the State
claims, only ceded to the United
Slat 6 the lands claimed and occupied
by tho Creeks within the chartered
limits of Georgia. They neither
claimed nor occupied any land north
of the boundary line previously es
tablished and marked out between tho
two nations from the Buzzard Roost;
on the Chalahoochie to the Corsa
river opposite the mouth of Will’a
Creek, thence down to the lower
end of the Ten Islands The expos!-,
ticn of the United States’ Commis
sioners who negotiated the treaty of
the Indian Springs shewetb plainly
that they understood the boundary
line between the two nations to have-
been run and established as above
stated, and that the Creeks occupied^
and claimed and disposed of land#
only on the south side of said line.—
The new treaty entered .into at
Washington City, declares the treaty
of the Indian Springs to be null and
void, because it had been conceived
in sin and brought forth in iniquity.—
The boundary established by thi*
treaty recognized the Cherokee,
boundary, and the surveys made un
der the authority of the United
States and Georgia respected it ac*
cordingly.
The efiurse of proceeding adopted
by the Agents of the Government is
conducting the enrolment of emigrant*
for Arkansas, through the medium
of secret Agents, by permitting the
emigrants to claim improvements
they never possessed or even before
claimed, ,ond have them assessed, is
calculated to distuib the pear/ ans
tranquility of our citizens. It had
been confidently asserted that the em
igrants are encouritged by those em
ployed in the service of the Govern
ment and entrusted in this business,
o make extra disposition of their im
provements to citizens of the Uiited
States thereby adding another class
of intruder® to annoy our peaceable
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