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‘jbr ant wee from that Cheif Magi*-'
rate, that the Presidont of the Uni
ted States hat no power to prqtoot
them against the laws of Georgia.
Your o'biAplainants beg leave to
shew, farther, unto your honors, that,
at the last session of tbu Congress of
the United States, av\ aot was passed,
entitled ‘‘An act. to provide for an
exchange of land* with the Indians re
siding in any qf the States or Territo
ries, a'nd for tUeir removal west of
the river Mississippi.” By this act,
the President of the United States is
ahthr.rizcd to cause so much of any
.Territory belonging to the United
States, west of the river Mississippi
not included in any Stale or organized
Territory, and to which the Indian ti
tie h as been extinguished, as he may
judge necessary, to be divided into
a suitable number of districts, for the
reception of siwii tribes or nations >•
Indians as may c/ioose to exchange lb
lands where they now reside and r<>
move there; but there is a proviso an
nexed to this act, which declares, that
nothing therein contained shall be con
strued as authorizing or • directing lhr«
violation of any existing treaty be
tween the United Stales and any of the
Indian' tribes.
. Under this act, overtures have
been in; 1* to your complainants to
give them in exchange for tlir.ir
lands, oiiiers to the west of the Mis
sissippi. Tnese overtures, as it was
their right to do, ihcy have declined
They prefer to remain on their pre-
co.it lande, and to insist on their rights
under their various treaties with the
United States.
As a sovereign and independent
State, it would be enough for them
to say, that they do not choose to
make the proposed exchange, without
reason therefor—
bn the other hand, they know-lit.
’lie of the country offered to ‘beta -.
exchange; but the little they do keen
of it, convinces them that* instead of
being the Paradise which 'it hav
sometimes been described to be. it,
will become, if they except it, tire
grave . not only of tneir civilization
and Christianity,’ btil of their entire
nation itself! ' In 'the fitst place, they
arc by no means satisfied that the
Indian title to it Has bt on extinguish
ed. But let it be admitted that it is
so, those who have visited that coun
try represent it as being for the aios.
part barren, there being but, com
paratively, a small portion of it fit for
agriculture, ft is represented, and
they believe it, to bv destitute, inj
the far greater paid, both of wood*
and water, and rhercforc wholly unfit’
or a settlement of planted, farmers,
'"cl herdsmen. It is, also, said to
oe sickly. It is lar removed from
all intercourse with the ports and
markets of the United States. And
these complainants, if they could be
tempted I o’ remove, would have all
iheir labours to commence, anew, in
that distant wilderness without any
hope of rornfmerr-t n But ihe
worst feature of the country is yet to
come. It is surrounded and infested
with fierce and powerful nations of
Indians, in ihe Wildest state of sav
age barbarity, who claim tliat coun
try as their own, and wage a war of
extermination on all the new tribes
who enter it and whom they consider
as intruders. In evidence of this
! fact, those complainants beg leave
to state, that their Cherokee breth
ren, who emigrated to the West of the
Mississippi under the patronago and
'sanction of the President, in the
| years 1809, 1809, and subsequently,
j under the treaty ;f 1817 before men-
! tioned. were authorized, in the first
flattered themselves that the law* of
Borgia were merely heltl over them
i terror, With thit view of ceustrai.v
mg them to' adeept (hnt exchange,
i nqy had hoped that *o soon as then
firm and final i evolution, toi reject it
was made known, the Slate of..Qeor-,
•assigning any other
than their non-pleasure. But as this I place, to settle on the river Arkau-
ofler of exchange has been held upi
before the world, as an evidence ofj
great humanity towards these com-1
plainants, and as the happiest means*
that could be devised, to save them
from that extinction, which it is sup
posed that Indian tribes are fated to
experience, from the appro.ch aud
‘.‘good neighborhood” of white popu
lation; and as your complainants are
uot disposed to be considered, either
as so stupid as • o he blind to their
own best entcrests, or so contuma
cious as to resist, through mere ob
stinacy, the desire so strongly ex
pressed by their brethren of Geor
gia, for their expu!:i°n: they beg
leave to state, in a few vvonis, the
motives that have induced them to
decline this offer of exchange.
In the .Ot st place, the territory
which they uow inhabit is well known
to them, ind has been found well
adapted to all their wants It has
been opened, improved, settled, built
upon and placed in a condition tor
agriculture, which they are now
prosperously carrying on. It is well
supplied with wood and water, en
joys a salubrious climate, and every
convenience of commerce and inter
course suited to a ivilized people
composed of farmers, planters, me
chanics and herdsmen. The ports
of the United State* are all within
the reach of those exchanges which
their pursuits make necessary for
their prosperity. They have schools
esta-dished for tfie education of their
Children, and the means of furnisliia
them, with instructors from among
tbe citizens of the United States
they have places of religious worship
established, in which the Christian
religion is peaceably taught by Mis
sionaries and Pastors, easily supplied
from the United States, and tlip word
of God is prospering among them
they have learned to relish the man
tiers and pursuits of civilized life
arid, if their treaties with the United
States shall be faithfully executed,
they have continually brightening
prospects of becoming, speedily, as
civilized, as enlightened, and as
Christian as tbp best portion of their
white brethren. This country,, too,
, so fraught with every convenience
and advantage to them, and so endear
ed to them by the great and multifari
ous s«nefits which they have already
f*oeive*, aa d are still receiving from
it, is con»«..., e j i n (heir affections
from having bee* ; Jmmemorially, the
property ai)d residSm.. of their an .
pestors. and fftpn containing, „ ow the
? raves of their fathers, relative! %<K |
riends Such are the grounds or
Jtheir attachment to this oountry, and
of their unwillingness to relinquish
t.,
iei,;:i guarantee of the United
and remain, them Jomer.”
sas, in ihe territory of the same
name, whore they \\< re assured, by
the 5th article of the treaty last men
tioned-, that they should be entitled to
all the immunities and pri ileges oi
all niH treaties union iiuq
been made with their nation. Bui the
white population again growing up to
them, they were required to remove
again. This se. onrl removal was ef
fected by the treaty, made at Wash
ington on the Gth of May, 1828, be
tween the United States and the
Chorokoes west of the Mississippi,
to which these complainants refer,
and pray that it may be taken as port
of this Bill. The object of this trea
ty, as is alleged in the preamble, is
(o provide for those Indians ■ a per-
mament heme, and tchick shall, under
the most soietii
States, be
The second article of that treaty
runs thus: “The United Suites agree
to possess the Cherokecs. and to
guarantee it to them forever, and
that guarantee is hereby solemnly
lodged, of seven millions of acres of
land, to he bounded as follows:” [The
joundarles are then given by that ar
ticle.] By the third article, the
United States stipulate to remove all
vhile intruders and others, and to
keep them off “so that no obstacle
arising out of a white population, or
a population of any other sort, shall
exist to annoy the ClierokeesOn
the faith of these stipulations, their
Cherokee brethren removed to their
new and permanent home, where, in
.lie language of the 8lh article ol the
treaty, they were “to enjoy the re
pose and blessings of such a state, in
the future:” and the consequence,
has been, as your complainants are
informed and believe, that they have
been delivered up to the tomahawks
of the Osages, Sioux and other sav
age tribes, with whom they are en
gaged in constant scenes of killing and
scalping, and have to wage a war of
extermination with more powerful
tribes, before whbm these complain
ants have no hope but that they must
ultimately fall. Such is the region
of country to which these complain
ants have been invited, and such
“the repose and blessing*” which
they have to anticipate from such an
exchange. The only consequences
which they could anticipate from it
as inevitable, would be, 'first their
relapse into all the habits of savage
life in their own defence, and, finally,
and speedily, the dissolution and
extinguishment of their entire na
tion.. t . ; .. ’
With those views'of the subject,
I >, "'e decidedly rejected the of
fer oi exehhwge. as they had a right
| to do; and as they had, at one time,
gia would suffer those laWs
a dead letter, without ai
icinpt to efiftree them
But in this hope they ha 1 '
appointed. ‘In the faee,
ance of all the treaties Uu
referred to, and in equal
the constitution of the Unite
and of tlieoulhonty of Ih
of the United States, op
the before mentioned a
territory of the complni
crated by so many sanctipp
violated, and the aforesaid
Georgia of 1828 and 1829 hive been
let loose upon 'hem in all their ter
rors; and that State has declared its
dotermination to continue , to enforce
them upon these complainants, and
Upblf ihcir territory, so long as these
complainants shall continue to occupy
that territory. But while these laws
are enforced in a manner the most
harassing and vexatious to your com
plainants, the design seems to have
been deliberately formed to carry no
one of these cases to final decision in
the State courts, with the view, as
your complainants believe and there
fore allege; to prevent any one of the
Cherokee defendants from carrying -
those cases to the Supreme Court of
the United States, by writ of error
for review, tirtder the 25th section of
the act of Congress of the United
States, passed in Ihe year 1789, and
entitled “Ait act to establish the Ju
dicial Courts of the United Slates.”
The constituted authorities of the
State of Georgia seem to bo under
the impression that your complainants
can have no access to the jurisdiction
d*this honorable court, hut by writ of
error from the Supreme Court of the
United Staled, to the Gnql decision of
the highest court of the State of
Gty rrii ,. under tie- aforesaid section,
~ciuf judiciary act of .the United
States. The plan adopted, therefore,
to deprive these complainants of the
benefit of this jurisdiction, seems to
be, and these complainants so believe
and charge it to he, to hart-ass them by
the constant institution /•! judicial pro
ceedings in the State courts, without
carrying any one or them to final adju
dication. In proof of the fact, that
the design has been formed to deprive
these complainants of the benefit of
the jurisdiction of this honorable court,
they refer to a charge delivered on
the day of
Jury of co.in the State of Georgia
byjjlhe Hon. Augustus S. Clayton, the
Judge, of thp Western District of the
State of Geprgia; and to a message
of his excellency George R. Gilmer,
the Governor of the State of Georgia,
delivered to the. Legislature of that
Stale, on the day of last past,
which are annexed hereto,&whichyour
complainants pray may be taken and
considered as part of this bill. In il
lustration of the unjust, illegal, and
oppressive manner in which the said
laws of Georgia are enforced upon
(be Cherokee judgffe, and the Cherokee
jury who tried the bouse; under which
warrant, the (Georgia sheriff of Hall
county entered the Cherokee territo-
ry, mid there arrested the aforesaid
John Saunders, the Cherokee Judge,
and George Saunders, one of the jury,
# # # - ■* .
* ’ * t-< uwa. their trial under
that indict. t. T e counsel retained
by them.filed pleas to the jurisdiction
of the court, setting forth the tacts of
th se, and relying upon the afore
said treaties and intercourse laws of
Congress. The pleas were overrul
ed 1 , and the prisoners tried and found
ilty by the jury; whereupon, errors
n arrest of judgment were filed by
the paisoners’ counsel, and there the
prosecution stopped; the judge having
not, to this day, passed judgment on
the errors in arrest, and the prisoners
having been admitted to bail. A copy
of the record, as perfect as these
complainants have been able fo pro
cure, is hereto annexed, and prayed to
be taken us part of this bill.
In another case, a white man, by
the name of Ambrose jlarnage, enter
ed the Cherokee territory, some years
ago, in indigent circumstances, took
the protection of its government, mar
ried a Cherokee woman, and,' under
the fostering care of the laws ot that
nation, acquired property and a large
family, whose interests «re identified
with those of the nation. This man
haviag entered into u mercantile part
nership with two Cherokee men, nam-
e ’»<*:. r M Coy and Leonard
Hicks, fell out with them in a short
time, and their controversy was, in
due from, submitted to the proper
di :•••; erokee country, and
decided against Harnage. After this,
ho filed a bill in the Superior Court
of ftwinett county, in Georgia, sitting
in Chancery, of which the before nam
ed Augustine S. Clayton, was judge,
in which bill, among other things, he
prayed for a writ ol tie eexat against
the said McCoy and Hicks. The bill,
iviili Iih annexed affidavit. was pre
sented to judge Clayton, who thereup
on awa ni u me ae exeat. ■ s> p. ayed.
This wr ' was so>• veil by the deputy
sheriff of Gwinett County, oil Alexan
der McCoy, a native Cherokee, at
his dwelling house, in now Echola, a
town of the Cherokee country, on the
20i.h day of August last, and, under a
guard of three men, he was carried
about eighty miles to the common jail
of Gwinett county, where he was kept
in close c.ipfnieiueiii for ten days, lie
was then taken out under a writ of
habeas corpus, and allowed tin* pris-
ion bounds until the sitting of the Su-
list, to the Grand perior Court of Givinett county, on
the second Monday of September,
was then brought up tor trial before
his honour, judge Clayton, and dis
charged on the ground, that the affida
vit of the plaintiff was not sufficient
to have warranted the issuing of such
a writ. Your complainants exhibit
herewith as part of this bill, the copy
of the original process, under which
McCoy was airested, together with
his affidavit.
The same deputy sheriff who ar
rested- McCoy, as aforesaid, at
the same time, arrested an cl-
inslituted to promote the right* ofth*
people, and hold the scales of justice
between man and man, shall lend, her
sanction to such gross violations of
constitutional law, aud auch an un*
warranted proscription of an ihnocent
and harmless people, may we not bid
farewell to ..the fair . “Goddess of
liberty,” who is already pluming her
wings for eternal flight? ‘ who shall
fix a barrier to such unprovoked op
pression, and strike qervelett tud
cowardly arm which inflicts it? Wo:
answer the people can—am* wfc
doubt not they writ, when the peril,
od arrives when by a constitutions!
expression of their wishes, they oaji
shake corruption from its fearful'
height, and elec', for the n»*t presi-
deni, a man of justice-, arid a man of
feeling!Greensboro' (JV C.) Pat.
CHEROKEE PHCKIYIX.
NEW T.CHOTA MAY!.!, 1881.
‘ , ' • " . ... ' " ■' If?*
The following is said (6 fee taken frtjta
the Repertory, a religious paper published.
them; and, at the same time, in illus- j derly Cherokee woman, a married
t rat ion of the - mode adopted to deprive woman, under process of the state of
these complainants and their people of Georgia, in a plea of debt at the in-
tlie benefit of a writ of error to the-stance of the same Ambrose Ham-
final decision of the highest court ofj^ge, and bore her off captive, from
the State of Georgia, under the 25th , her husband and children, for Law-
section of the Judiciary act, aforeshid, : reneeville, in Georgia, a distance of
these complainants beg leave to lay ; eighty or ninty miles; but after having
before your honors the following eases,
which have actually occurred.
In the autumn of the year 1829,
one Jesse Stansal, a white man, enter
ed the Cherokee territory and stole
a horse, the property of. one of the
Cherokee qieople; he was arrested
within.the Cherokee territory, tried
for the offence before q regularly con
stituted court oflhe Cherokee Nation,
found guilty by the jury, and, in Strict
conformity with the Cherokee laws,
was sentenced by the court to be
whipped; which sentence was carried
been carried about fifteen miles, she
gave bail, and was permitted to return
home.
lir another case, a Cherokee man,
named Corn Tassel, was arrested in
the Cherekee territory, by process
from the state of Georgia on a charge
of murder alledgcd to have been com
mitted by him on another Cherokee,
within the Cherokee territory; having
been taken to the prison of Hall coun
ty, .your complainants are informed
and believe that he has demanded bis
trial; but that the said judge Clayton
into effect. For this act, done within j refused to try him, and has remanded
in Jfiaeon, Georgia. We cannot but ex
press our astonisbmcnt tlut a lninister^of
the Gospel should thus publicly «ounten^
ance that law of Georgia which mqst*
whatever the Rev. Mr. Capers ina\ ^ay
to the contrary, forever fix a stain on :the
'civilized code' of the state. Peihaj t -
Capers was not aware that many oil
those, whom he would most charitably,.de
nounce as the authors of the “Savage
Code,” the conducters of “irock triaUw
and the encouri.gers of “crimes at which
humanity must blush,” are member* i*
good standing of the Society (^fethodislj
the organ of which, in Georgia, he claims
to be. But such a slander on the Cherokee#
cannot, we think, be relished by bis bteth.
ren. The main point .on. which he builds
his remarks appears to be the reply 0 f
Jhnst to the Pharisees—'Render uxto Cc-.
sar tkc.fiut how,will this Rev. Gentleman
dispose of the consciences of those who be
lieve that Georgia is not the Cesar?, Th#
language of a writer may well be. ap_
plica to this editor, who would,.in his ,c#-
pacityol an expounder of. the oracles of
iiod, decide for others, upon mere assump
tion, where their allegiance is. due—“O
the power of prejudice
The Missionaries Jirrested.—Under
this article some remarks have bee*,
offered to the public, apparently &*-
much to question the humanity ol cur
luns, as to increase the unt'nenuljr
feeling ol our . Indian neighbors.—
Much is said and mucii more will'
doubtless be said on a subject which
seems to have elicited many' painful
feelings; but the ynnghteous features cf"
the Act' for the violation of which the
"arrest’ was m .de is yet to be exhibit*
?d. The constituted authorities of
the Slate have certainly the right, and
are bound by moral obligations, to eh*
act and enforce such laws within the
chartered limits of her jurisdiction, a*
should effectually secure our citizene
from the ‘mock trials’ and inhuman
brutal treatment which some of them
have received at the bands- of th©
Clierokees—and if Christianity, will
justify a preference for the ‘Savage
Code,’ and its boasted declaration of
Independence, it cannot sustain the
propriety of a voluntarily subjection of
its votaries, to the penalties of a law,,
which regards as its chief object, th© -
suppression of crimes at which human
ity must blush; The ‘concientiou*
scruples’ which the ‘Oath’ is sard to
have imposed upon its subjects, may
be ascertained by a reference to it*
letter, viz:—I,A. B ‘Jo solemnly
swear (or affirm, as the case may be;)
that I will support and defend th©
Constitution and Laws of the State of
Georgia, and uprightly demean my
self as a citizen thereof? ’
Render unto Cesar the things which
are Cesar's and unto God the things
which are God's? is a precept which
all men are required to obey.
C‘ Thou shaft not bear false witness a-*
gainst thy neighbor,* is another preceptr
which ill men are as equally required to*
obey.] v
their own territory according to their
laws, the Cherokee judge and jury
were indicted by, the Grand Jury of
Hall county, in the State of Georgia,
at the March rterm last of that court,
for trespass, battery, aud false im
prisonment, alleged to have been com
mitted on the said Jesse Stansal, con
trary to. the laws of the state of
G&orgia, : «nd the good order, peace
and dignity thereof. On this indict-
nent, a warrant was ^issued by judge
Clayton, the judge of the court of
Hall county, ngai«s,t John Saunders,
him to prison, for farther deliberation.
[To BE CONCLUDED.
Georgia laws and the Cherokces.—
We refer tbe reader to an article on
this subject, copied from the Chero
kee Phoenix, in another part Of this
weeks paper. It will serve to show
the high-handed measures ih their
true light—that light which is making
“darkness visible!'.,—carried on by tbe
nullifying state of Georgia'a«d pre
tent reforming administration. When
that government which <Vas originally
A gentleman recently from Wash*
ington, has informed - the editor of th©
Rural Cabinet, thgt the Cheroke©
Delegation waited oil the President,
soon after tho decision of the Su
preme Court, and wished to know if'
lie was angry With them. The Pres
ident replied no*—he was sorry for
them—that they had been deluded by
their pretended friends. The Dele
gation than asked the President if the
Cherokees should a be disposed to
treat otrwhat term* would the Presi
dent meet them. The President inv ,