Newspaper Page Text
cleat it* aaiublUll ®J proposition, that
those IriJhna b^ v « great and juat
cause to took to ua fqr protection.
I will tirat apeak of tho effect of
the Georgia legislation upon the Cher*
olioa government. Thte Cherokees,
sir, have a very respectable represen
tative government; respectable in its
character; respectable in its origin.
The first sketch of it proceedod from
the same pen that drafted our own
Declaration of Independence. In 1809
Mr Jefferson gave this people the
first elements of a system of govern*
ment, adapted to their condition,
which I will venture to read to the
House.
•VJfj Children, Deputies of the Chero
kee Upper To tens
I have maturely considered the
speeches you have delivered me, and
will now give you answer to the sev
eral Blatters they contain.
You inform me of your anxious de
sires to engage in the industrious pur
suits of agriculture and civilized life;
that ti l ling it impracticable to induce
the nation at large to join in tins, you
wish a line of separation to be estab
lished between jhe Upper and Lower
Towns, so as to include all the wafers
of the Higbwass *e in your pari; and
that having thus contracted your soci
ety within narrower limits, you pur
pose, within these, to begin the estab
lishment of fixed laws and of regular
govern ment. You say. that the Low
er T.nvns are satisfied with the divi
sion you propose, and ou these several
matiois you ask my advice and
aid.
With respect to the line of division
between yourselves and the Lower
Towns, it must rest on the joint con
sent of both parties. The one you
pronose appears moderate, reasonable
• and veil defined; we arc willing to
roc agonize those on eaeffside of that
lino as distinct societies, and if our
aid shall he necessary to mark it
tnort) nlaiuly than nature has done,
you shall have it. 1 think with you,
that an this reduced scale, it will be
in re easy for you to introduce the
regular administration of laws.
la proceeding l«* the establishment
of laws, you wish to adopt them IYoir
my children, for the consideration of
the Upper Towns of your nation, to
be decided on as they think best, and
I sincerely wish you may succeed in
your .laudable endeavors to save the
remains of your natibn* by adopting
industrious occupations and a govern
ment of regular laws. In this you
may rely on the counsel and assis
tance of the Government of the Uni
ted States. Deliver these words to
your people in iny name, and assure
thorn of my friendship.
January 9, 1809
THOMAS JEFEERSON.
lu 1817 this' government received
sanction of the United States, in
ou"s, and such only for the present as
suit vour present condition; chiefly
indeed, those for the punishment of
crimes and the protection of property.
But who is to determine which of our
laws siit vour condition, and shall be
m f roe with you? All of you being
equally free, no one has a right to say
wh.it shall lie law for the others.
Ok .vay is to put these questions to
the vote, and to consider that as law
for which tho majority votes—tho
fool has is great a right to express his
opinion by votes as the wise, because
lie is eq lally tree, and equally master
of himself. Bui s i* would b> .n ’on-
vnuient for all your men to meet lb j
one pi.ice* would it no> be better for ■*
every town trt do as we do—that is so
say: choose hy the. vote of the in nri-
ty of the town and of country people:
nearer to that than to any other town,
one, two, three or mure, according to
!»e size of the town, of those whom
moil voter thinks the wisest and liorj-
catfst moo of their place, and let
those in et together and agree which
of our laws suit them But these
men know nothing of our la-vs Ho v
tiien can they know which to adopt?
Lot them associate in their council
our beloved man living with them.
Col. Meigs, and ho will tell them
wml our law is on any point they de
sire. He will inform them also of
our methods of doiog badness in our
councils, so as to preserve order, and
to obtiin the vote of every member
fairly. This council can make a law
for giving to every bead of a family a
separate parcel of land,, which, when
he has built upon and improved, it
shall belong to him and bis descen
dants for ever, and which the nation
itsolf shall have no right to *• II from
under his feet. They will determine
too. what punishment shall he inflic
ted for every crime. In our Stat.es
generally, ivo pfoish murder only bv
death, and all other crimes by solita
ry confinement iu a prison.
But when you shall have adopted
laws, who aro to execute them'?
Perhaps *t .ragy be bos. to permit
eyery town and the sottlers in its
neighborhood attached to it, to select
some of their best men, by a majority
of i*8 voters, to be judges *n »H differ
ences, and to execute the law accor
ding to.their owq judgment. Your
conn.’it of representatives will deoidn
oq this, or such, other mode a* mny
best’ suit ypq. I suggest these things,
the
a rea y negotiated in that year b’y
the present Chief Magistrate, 'as a
Commissioner Plenipotentiary i> jr tha*
purpose. In the preamble to this
treaty the incidents of IStfj are allu
ded to; the purpose of *’ne Cherokees
who remained on this &Jde of the Mis
sissippi, to begin th® establishment of
fixed laws and a regular Government
is recognized, together with the
promise mr.iic by Mr. Jefferson of the
patrona^o, aid, ami good neighborhood
, of Ute United States, alike to those
who emigrated aud those who stand
behind. This treaty was unamimous-
ly ratified*!)]* the Senate of the Uni-
tad States. Thus originated and thus
confirmed, the Cherokee Government
subsequently assumed a highly regu
lar form, and an improved organ
ization. Its practical operation w as
excellent, & it did the United States
no harm, because it was assumed as
the principle of our Government, that
no change was te be wrought by the
improved institutions of the Cliero-
kees tm their relations with us.
Of tho orderly and becoming man
ner in which tho Cherokee Govern
ment was conducted, we have the
satisfactory testimony of Messrs
Campbell and Meriwether, who went
among them to negotiate a treaty in
1823. I wlli read an extract from a
letteijaddresscd bylhem to tho Council
of the Cherokee Natron, dated New
town, 16th Ocober, 1823:
“Friends and Brothers: 'Ve arc hap
py that a short time kas been consum
ed ". l!',e correspondence between you
land the State commissioners.
‘•This lias afforded us an opportuni
ty of becoming partially acquainted
with several members oflltis Coun
cil. For the whole body we enter
tain a high respect, am! we trust,
tint, with some of you we have con
tracted individual friendships. In
saving this, we do no violence to onr
feelings, neither do we lower the el
evated character of the United
States. People who have never seen
yon. know but little *f your progress
in the arts of civilized life, and of the
tegular and becoming manner in
which your affairs are conducted.
Your improvement reflects the
credit upon yourselves, and
upon'the Government b; which you
h ive been improved and fostered.’'
Such was and is the Cherokee
Government which Georgia has a-
vuwed her purpose, by one svT.“r* a, c
id of legislation, to put down. That
State has enacted a law making it
highly penal to exercise any of the
functions of this Government. Chiefs,
headmen, members of the Council,
Judicial and Executive officers, aro
all subject to four years imprison
ment in the penitentiary, if they pre
sume to exercise any of the functions
of Government within their own tribe,
and under that Constitution which
we originally and repeatedly exhorted
th *m to frame.
In this way the greatest confusion
is at once introduced into tin* con
cerns of this unhappy people. Their
own Government is outlawed, and it
is made highly penal to execute its
functions. The protection of the
United States is withdrawn, becauso
Georgia has extonted hor laws over
tho Indians; and Go rgia herself, al
though asserting, and in many ro-
spects exercising her jurisdiction, has
not yet organized it in such a manner
a to keep the peaea among this
afflicted race. Their system oC Gov
ernment. instead of being regarded as
almost all Governments, however de
fective aro entitled te be, as an insti
gation necessary for the weJJ being of
thw people, which ought to he treat
ed with tenderness, and not bo do-
b -trofed till a substitute is provided,
has been abated and broken down as
a nuis.?o ce ‘
But am s ngthe laws of Georgia ex
tended ovef the Cherokees, there
are some whic.^j from their nntqre,
pjuot take aq immediate effeet; and
among tttede t cannot but- notice sev
eral whose operation must be ts in
jurious to the welfare of the Indians'
as the entire pystoiA is destructive of
tbeir rights. At the late session of
tho Georgia legislature n law was
passed “that no Cherokee Indian
should be boamd by any contract,
hereafter to be entered into, with a
white person or persons; nor shall any
Indian be "liable to he fined in any of
the Courts of law or equity in this
Stale oh such a contract.” I am a-
wareihat lftws.qf this kind have been
necessary among the dwindling rem
nants of tribes in some of the Slates,
r whose mombers are bo degenerate
that they are unable to preserve, a-
gninst the arts of corrupt white man,
line little properly they possess. But
among the Cherokees are men of in
telligence and shrewdness, who have
acquired and possess large accumul
ations of property, houses, shops,
plantations slock, mills, ferries and
other valuable possessions; men who
understand property and its uses as
well as we do, and who need all
the laws which property requires for
its judicious management. Notwith
standing this, Georgia, at one blow,
makes all these people incapable oi l
contracting. Men as competent es,
ourselves to all business transaciiOns,
aro reduced by a sweeping law to a
stats of p'^piiage.
[Mr. Foster, of Georgia explained,
that this law was passed for the ben
efit of the Indians, to prevent their
being imposed on. That it did not
release white raonTr m their engage-
mums to Indians, but Indians Irom
their engagements to white men.]
I understand and stated the law
precisely as the gentleman from
Georgia states it. I know this char
acter may be claimed for the law.
But how does it seek the benefit of
the Indians? By reducing them to a
slate of minority. Sir, it is for the
benefiit & protection of children, that
they are unable to contract;.but still
they aro children, and the law holds
them to their infancy. And what
sort of a boon is it to men of large
property and twt.iVn dealings to pass
a law releasing them from their eon-
tracts? Dues it not directly follow,
that, if they cannot he held to their
contracts, no one wll contract with
them; rind that the apparent limita
tion of the law which exempts the
Indian while it binds the white man,
is illusory; for who will contract with
a person who is by law exonerated
from compliance with Irs engage
ments? Such a law can have no other
effect among Indians than among
white men; and what would he tho
effect on the business pf a community
of white-men, to enact a law releas
ing them from all engagements into
which they might enter?
By the law of Georgia of 1829, the
testimony of an Indian was declared
inadmissible in any case, ill which a
white minis a party. 'Phis law was
generally condemned during the dis
cussions of last year. The objections
taken to it were declared by some of
the advocates cf ‘hd course pursued
by Georgia to be unreasonable, caji-
lious, and groundless, and were set
down to the score of morbid sensibil
ity and’pblitioar philanthropy. Now,
what has been t\ie practical opera-
of
lion of this feature in the Georgia
law? Governor Gilmer thus de
scribes it in his Message, at the open
ing of tho session of the Georgia Le
gislature:
“ It is also due to our Indian People,
that thst provision in the law of 1829,
should be repealed, which prevents
Indians and the descendants of Indians
frem being competent witnesses in tho
Court of the State, in cases where a
white man is a party. The present
law exposes them te great oppres
sion. while its repeal would most prob
ably injure no one. Attempts have
been inaae to strip them of their pro
perty by forged contracts, becauso of
tha impossibility of defending their
rights by the testimony of those who
alone can know Ihofa. And although
tho moral feeling of our frontier com
munity has been too correct to per
mit such infamous proceedings to eff
ect their cuds; yet tb'o character of
our legislation for justice requires,
that the rights of those People should
not he oxposed to suah danger ”
Such is the character, which Gov
ernor Gilmer givn* of this law, and
of its operation. I have heard some
details of the oppressions to which
he dUIndes. I have no reason to doubt
their truth; but I will not repeat them
to the House, without vouchers to
sup^fort thrift , _
this law rejeefiag tfeo testimony
Indians, reinainfSliirefmnled; and that
their righle&prop&mstf-e still depen
dent oo“thc mtfral feelwg of the fron
tier community” of Ga. That frontier,
community raust,bave betleKe«lings&
principles, than usually actuate a part
of every community, if in the continu
ed operation of this law, the Indians
are not subjected^ tha most griev
ous oppression.
1 will mention another law of the
new code. Its design may be imper
fectly apprehended by me: and if I
err in the motive for which I suppose
it was enacted I hope I shall be ex.
cused ou tbe ground of the great diffi
culty of picking up here and there—
one law, in this newspaper,.& anoth
er in that—the information, which, as
it seems to me, ought to have bcon
spiead before us, iu ample detail, to
enlighten and guide our legislation.
The law, to which I allude, subjects
all white persons, who shall reside
within the Cherokee country, without
a permit from the Governor of Geor
gia or such agent as the Governor
shall authorize, and who shall not
have takeu an. call) of allegiance as a
citizen of Georgia, to four years ins*
■ prisonuient at hard labor in the pen
itentiary. Now, 1 should bo glad to
be informed, where, on her own prin-
cifles, Georgia gets the right to ex
act such an oath from all persons res
ident on her soil, granting tho Chero
kee country to be her soil. I be
Constitution of the United States
gives Georgia no such right. It is
there provided, that ‘the citizen of
each State shall be entitled to all
tho privileges aud immunities of cit
izens of the several State Grant
that the country is subject to her
laws: wliat right Ins six* to render to
the citizens of another Stale, an oath
of allegiance as citizens of Georgia?
If I go to Savannah or Milledgcville,
and demean myself peaceably, I wish
to know' what right, under the Con
stitution, Georgia possesses to shut
me up to bard labor ill her peniten
tiary, if I will not take an oath, as a
citizen of that State.* I am told that
this law is intended to strike at (he
missionaries. 1 do not assert the
fact, nor ascribe motives to men or
bodies of men. If this is its design,
as it will unquestionably be its effect,
I trust it will be borne in mind, that
the missionaries were introduced into
tho Cherokee nation undor very re
spectable auspieies. It was during
the administration of Mr. Madison,
and with the express consent and ap
probation of Mr. Cratvlord, while
this gentleman hold the office of Sec
retary of War. Ilis letter to Mr.
Kingsbury, to this effect is among (he
documents, formerly communicated
to the House. The missionaries
were then promised the protection,
countenance, and co-operation ol tho
Government, and the annual appropri
ation for civilizing the Indians w'as
recommended to be made, and has
boon applied in furtherance of their
operations. They are, to say the
very least, an innocent and a harm
less mtm. They expressly dis
claim having interfered in the politi
cal relations of the Cherokees with
the United States. Tlmy ?»avc un
questionably been the ins*rumenls e.
groat good. If this region, aud its
ill-fated inhabitants, were swallowed
up te-morrow by an earthquake, and
sunk from cxistsneo, the missiona
ries would have left monuments of
their benevolent labors which will
last as long as the history or tha
memory of this generation lasts; yes,
sir, as long as the Earth and the Hea
vens shall last t The law I have
quoted is supposed to aim £.t their
exclusion.
I^nt^l*possessed, nmf
probably abundance,'veins of gold.
As soon as this discovery was made,
intruders from every quarter, and
from all the States in the neighbor
hood flocked into the gold region and’
overran the land. The Indians de
manded their removal by the Agent.
The Agent referred the case to the
Secretary of Wat* and thdgee rotar y
of War gave the requisite orders for
their removal. .This took plttee be
fore the first day of June, 1830*,
That day tho laws of Georgia took
effect. And very shortly afterwards
I read a Proclamation in the papers,
prooeeding .from a gentleman whom
1 most highly respect, the Governor
of Georgia, and which appeared to
be of a diameter so strange and un
expected, that I could scarcely cred
it my senses as 1 read it. Let me
read * portion of this Proclnmalion to
the Honse, which bears date 3dr
June, 1830.
‘Whereas it has been discovered,
that tbu lands in the territory, now
occupied by the Cherokee Indian*
within the limits of this State, abottnt}
with valuable minerals and especial
ly gold; and whereas the State of
Georgia has the fee simple title'to
said lands, and the entire and exclu-
sive property of the gold and silver
*iw»m-M-l whereas numerous' p6r-’
Thus as it is possible, that Georgia
(and I again bag leave to say, that I
name that State not individually) may
be thought by some persons not to
have gone beyond some abstract right
of civil juiisdiction, capable of being
reconciled with a “possessory right,”
in which the Indians wera promised
by the Executive to be protected.
But Georgia has not stopped here. In
the course of the year 1829, it was
* These are tbe terms of 4he oath, ‘I, A.
B. do solemnly swear, or atlirm as the case
may be, that t will support and defend the
Constitution of Georgia, and uprightly de
mean myself as a citizen thereof.”
t Much information relative to the char
acter and operation of the Missionaries a-
mohg the Indiap tribes, ina v be found in
the memorial to Congress of tho. Prudential
Committee ofthe Board of Commissioners
for Foreign Missions, presented to the
House of Representatives by ^fr. E. on
tbe Mtb February.
therein; and whereas numerous' pGr
suns, citizens of thfe anti other
States, together with the Ifldtaao§»
cupants of said Territory, taking ad
vantage of the Law of this State, by
which its jurisdiction over said ter
ritory was not assumed until the first
day of Juno last past, have been on-
gaged in digging for gold in said land,
and taking therefrom great amounts
rn value, thereby appropriating riches
to themselves, which, of right, equal-
fy belonged to every other citizen of
the Stale, and in violation of the
lights ofthe State, and to the injury
of its public resources,”&c And 1
then tho Governor warns “all persons,
whether citizens of this or other
States, or Indian occupants, ( to cense |
all fuilher trespass-on the lands bf’
this State, and especially from*
taking any gold or silver from tho laridtf
iuehided within the Territory occupi
ed bv ihe Cherokee Indians,” &c.
AH' further trespass on their own
lands, end all further digging for
their own gold!
It is frac tha Governor, in his Mes
sage at the opening ofthe late Session
of the Legislature in Georgia,# at
tempts to justify this strange preten
sion. “Tha right thus asserted,
says he, “was supposed to bo estab
lished, by the customary law of all
tho European nations, who made dis
coveries, or formed Colonias on the
Continent; by the fee simple or allod
ial till* which belongs to live State,
to all lends within its limits, or al
ready granted away: and the absence,
of all right in the Indians, they never
having appropriated the mineral rich
es or the earth to their own use.”
Neither had Georgia appropriated
these mines by occupation. Aa seoft
as the Cherokees know their exis-
tnnec, they proceeded to take pos
session of, and to work tho® till they
were driven away, by the Vawtf of
Georgia, and the troops of live United
Stales What force there tcan be nt
English Common law of fee simple
altoliia* t0 conlro1 tb ?
. • nf > . ••. l ,jtv between the Uuited
e . ‘ . *' , -, . e c r Indians,-^con
st a tos and a tritoF V- . . ’
fess my inability to imaging ^
argument from tbe custom^
tbe European con'jinstadores pro>»°
a great deal too much. M would jus
tify the Governor, not onty in Adzin'*
the gold mines, hut in reducing the’
Indian's themselves to bondage and to‘
labor in the mines. The Portuguese*
did this and so did the Spaniards.
The slave trade was projected by
the benevolent Las Casas, to relieve
the Indians from digging their ownf
gold for their conquerors.
When this subject was under tbe T
consideration of the House at the law
session, I certainly did not entertain
very favorable auguries of the treat
ment, which the Cherokees were like
ly to receive; but it never entered
info my head, that they were to b6
denied a right to their own ruinesv
On the contrary, I assumed it as
matter of course, that they were th^,
lawful and admitted owners o£ this,
mineral wealth. Having, in tbe ceurse.
of my remarks on Ibis subject, had,
occasion to allude to the intruders into,
tho gold region, lefors Icottld finisli
the sentonce, in which I uvule that
allusion, n gonllnman wbo voted for
the Indian bill. intorrupteJ wit®
■MOBH