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Tile t.f r ib rt y Kolerml j
meeting.
In pursuance of previous public notice, a
large and respectable meeting of the citizens
oi Tuscaloosa county, with som few gentle
men from ot.ier counties, convened at the
Court-house in this place, on Monday the Ist;
day oi October inst. to take into considera
tion the proprt ty of calling a State Conven
tion, to devise the best means of procuring an 1
abandonment, by the Gen ru! Government, of
the Protective System; w ben, on motion,Ben
iamin Whitfield, Esq. was called to the chair,
and John A. Hodges, appointed Secretary.
The Chairman explained, in a brief and ap
propuatc manner, the design and object ol
meeting.
On motion ofP. N. Wilson. Esq. the chair
appointed a committee of five persons, name
ly, P. N- Wilson, Thomas Fox, Robert S.
Foster, Willis Bmks and Reuben Dodson, to
draft a t address and resolutions expressive of
the views and feelings of the meeting, on the
subject under consideration.
The committee accordingly retired, and af
ter being absent for some time returned, and
reported the following—
-1 Address.
A call has been made by the citizens of the
county of Wilcox, for a State Convention. —
r.v our devotion to the wise and patriotic prin
ciples of the Union ; by our conviction of
the indispensable necessity of prcsvrviag. in
its purity, the Constitution of the U. States ;
by our admiration of equal laws: by our love
of civil liberty, and our veneration for indi
vidual and politic ! rig ts, we are constrained
to acquiesce in 1 lie propriety of such acal!,and
the necessity of such Convention. The in
cidents attendant on the administration of the
Federal Government are peculiarly afflict
ing. An era in our political annals, far sur
passing any epoch of any other Government,
—-the entire extinguishment of the notional
debt —is fast approaching, and has uiibrded
the most felicitous opportunity to administt r
file Government in such manner as to ensure
the harmony and prosperity of the Stafe3 and
People, and to add another golden link to
that bond of our Union, which was conceiv
ed in liberty, matured in wisdom, defended
by patriotism, and sustained by justice, lib
erality, and forbearance. But in the midst
of all these advantages, we have fallen upon
evil times, and instead of reposing in pros
perity, we are awakened to a sense of danger
by an alarming derangement of our political
institutions. The great first elements of le
gitimate government have been adulterated
the greatest good of the greatest number, dis
regarded—the principles of the Constitution
ins 'iously invaded, and a fearful indication \
of the destruction of those principles, or the
dissolution of the Union, plainly evinced.—
Diet content widely diffused, sectional excite
ments hard to be appeased, the insatiable
thirst of avarice and monopoly, and the unti
ring spirit of opposition to oppression, now
occupy the minds and engross the energies of
the citizens of each State in the Union.—
Something must bo done—delay has become
dangerous and indifference criminal.
We hold as sacred, the principles contain
ed in our Federal Compact, and as essential
to the existence of an union of the States, an
i.onest observance of these principles, by the
cutliorities delegated to execute them; —that
the primary stipulation of our Federal Con
stitution, on which most of tho others mainly
depend, is, that the Federal Government su
perintend and control our external relations,
end such interests ns are common to, and
arise out of the Union of the States, ns a
whole; and that each individual State super
intend and control its internal relations and
domestic interests. To provide the means to
defray the expenses of the Federal Govern
ment (by either imposts or excises, if equally
levied on the different States and the citizens
thereof.) is the right and duty of the Federal
Authorities. To regulate the industry of the
citizens of the different States, or rather, to
protect each class of citizens in the regula
tion of tin ir own industry, and their occupa
tions from any unequal and embarrassing !e
- lative interference, is the right and the du
ty of the several States. The Federal Gov
ernment being restrained in its powers by a
limited Constitutton, cannot transcend the
limits of that constitution without infringing
on the absolute rights of the people of the in-
dividual States, and an exercise, of such pow
ers is consequently extra-constitutional and
void. We believe that an attempt on the part
of the Federal Government to foster and pro
tect one species of industry to the detriment
of another, —at the expense of any set of cit
izens—or in fret, to intermeddle with the do
mestic industry of the country, m any man
ner, is a violation of tha Constitution, danger
ous in theory, and highly improper in prac
tice. lint, apart from any constitutional con
sideration, an assuinotion of such power is of
the most ruinous tendency to the prosperity
of the people of the l 'nited States, as the man-'
I’est effects of such a system, in any govern
ment, however restricted in territory, will be
to divert the industry of the country from its
natural pursuits, and to accumulate into the
bands of a few, the benefits of the industry
and acquisitions of the larger portion of the
community, without leaving them much more
than the bare means of a poor subsistence.
This assertion is exemplified by the wretched
monopolies of England, from which she is
now afviniptmg'o free herself, —as well ashy
the more Vudistinet, but not less unering, in
dicatioris in oqr o\yn country. The property
holders ol the .’’forth, with a climate compara
tively uncongenial, n ! a soil not abundantly
productive, now assert, that such is their
prosperous condition, M.cy cannot submit to
a small r p-ofit tier: tw ,ty per cent on the
amount ofjtnp.ta! e . >ycd; while Hie peo
ple of the Southern Suites, wl:o arc engaged
incuKivating the-soil, w h their rich lands
nd salubrious Hire.-; , would deem them
s he-> mo> t prospero l s if they could realize
i‘ third of ,h- ' n 7?: on it i. ■ ihy,r capital and
! i . )}•,; again, a system of protection and
r> ‘ ' 1 gi'Vrmuv-’ut so extensive as
, ' '' t :i; ' •‘■'wd "'Ol description of
8! * ll ; i ‘ * :: and <npt dto every sp-oics j
n: pr itaWe indu*ry, lias a direct and inevi-:
table tendency to array one interest against
another, and engender the most rapacious
and indomitable sectional excitements: The
present ominous crisis tests the truth of this
remark. Such a system may for a time be
sustained, by fraud, circumvention and con
cealment, but its ultimate suslaincr must in
e ritab! i/ be, absolute and overpowering force, j
A principle like this claims no affinity to civ- j
il liberty, and lias no abiding place in the let
ter or spirit of our free institutions.
We unhesitatingly assert, that the proper
| design ofall social institutions, is not for the
bestowment of privileges, benefits or immu
nities, on any class of men, by legislation,
either direct or indirect, hut for the adjust
ment of a system of equal laws, to si cute
each citizen in the enjoyment of life, liberty
and property; and to vindicate, by suitable
penalties, all infringements or violations of
these social rights. Where the broad pano
ply of law is thrown around the natural and
social rights of the citizen, simply for protec
tion, there will be found liberty and equali
; ty, prosperity and happiness: when these
! rights are re strained, or exchanged for legis
{lative prerogative and gorem.mental privi
leges, slavery more or less intolerable, ine-
quality rendered galling by invidious com
parison, misery poignant in proportion to the
intelligence of the community, and penurv in
direct degree to the emoluments and afflu
ence of the favorites of Government, mark,
with unerring certainty the sickiy or fever
ish existence of an unnatural social union.—
This must he the case, because no govern
ment can bounty or foster in equal degree j
every species of industry; or if capable of
doing so, such fostering would be tantamount
to leaving them at the point from which they
started—entirely dependant on their own re
sources for the amount of their accumulations.
To the inequalities engendered by the usur
pations of Government on the appropriate
freedom of action and pursuit of the citizen,
all the commotions, anarchy, bloodshed and
revolution which-have taken place, are main
ly attributable; —and to such practical
usurpations by our Federal Government, up
on our essentially free and equal principles,
the present alarming state of the Union may
be plainly traced. If these obnoxious ten
dencies are not arrested by a speedy interpo
sition of an efficient corrective, the stun re
mits which have always attended palpable
usurpations, must follow.
That the Tariff laws are violative of the
Constitution of the United States, in assum
ing to control the domestic industry of the i
country, rewarding some branches by bur-;
thons imposed on others, is too plain to admit
of serious doubt—That they tend to consoli
date the Federal Union, and establish a moni
ed aristocracy on the rums of our free and
equal institutions, needs no argument —That
they array sectional interests, and place dif
ferent occupations in direct hostilty to each
other, their own operations have already
shown—That they are coutraty to the nature
of just government, and contain in them
selves the germ and substance of a dissolu
tion of the Union, the ominous attitude which
the people of the Southern States have been
driven to assume, indubitably demonstrates
—That they were conceived by the subtelfy
of avarice, and the thirst of ambition for indi
vidual, not public aggrandizement—That
they have been matured by mistaken policy
or duplicity, and arc intended to be sustained
by open misrepresentation and concealed
fraud, is plainly indicated by an inspcctiop of
the laws themselves, and the unblushing as
sertions of their advocates; and that a mis
guided and fatally infatuated majority are r. -
solver), if possible, to perpetuate them as the
settled policy of thocountry, cannot be doubt
ed on the slightest investigation of ths history ;
of the times. All ordinary means of redress ■
have been resorted to in vain. Our mem- 1
hers in Congress have argued, declaimed, op
posed; our State Legislatures have remon
strated; ou r Free Trade Convention has me
morialized, setting forth the injustice of the i
present system, in the most luminous and
convincing manner; and what has been the
result of all these patriotic exertions? Have
they been efficient? Has the majority aban
doned their destructive policy ? Has avarice
ceased to glut her vulture appetite, or monop
oly to indulge her cormorant cravings? No!
All things conspire to convince us that no
equituble adjustment lias been made,and that
the measures heretofore employed arc inade
quate to produce an equalization of the reve
nue system. Before hope is utterly extin
guished, other untired means should be re
sorted to, as preservatives of our cherished
Union- “’Dont give up the ship” of State,
until every resource be exhausted in una
vailing efforts to preserve her. Minorities,
by union, decision, and right, mty become
majorities. As an untried, and as we will
hope salutary expedient to preserve the union
of the States, to .protect the constitutional
rights of our citizens, to ameliorate the most
palp.tblo oppression, aud to vindicate and sus
tain that freedom & equality which is the tal-
isman of our Independence, wo believe the
extraordinary means of a State Convention
should be resorted to. Until the solemn and
impo.-ingdeclaration of the Southern States,
in their primary capacities, in regard to their
constitutional rights, their unmerited oppres
sions, and the unjust operations of the Tariff,
shall have failed to influence a majority of
Congress, we will hope that the government
will return to an administration of its powers
in accordance with the first principles of the
Union. If this measure proves abortive, then
we will have no hope of the integrity of the
Union; and no desire to be the obsequious
devotees of splendid models, when the spirit
which gave them life and beauty has bccom*
extinct. For when the principles of our Un
ion are abandoned, the pageantry of empty
lot in—-the proud boast of equal rights
and the imperishable truths of our—l) i
ration of Indepcndanco, will not, can 't pre- 1
serve :t from the smouldering powt r of oppres
sion, or the severing stroke of dissolution;
when each State shall resume the sovereign! i
it has delegated, &. “provide new guard., 0,.
ifs future security.”
To the citizens, of Alabama,a State Conv. n
lionet t is crisis is of the first impor.tncej
We are opposed to the Tariff in common wti ii :
tiie other southern states. Georgia and South
Carolina will hold State Conventions, and in
their detrmiuatious we are unavoidably invo
lved. Their fdtc must be ours. Then certain
ly each one who has a becoming degree of
respect for himself and his State,each lover
of the Union, and each admirer of its princi
ples, must concur in the necessity of presen
ting to theconsidertion of the next Congress,
an unbroken front of States and people who
insist upon a modification of the Tariff as a
right. It is Union alone which can check am
bition in its mad career, and avarice in its in
satiable practices. It is from an undisguised
expression of the opinions and feelings
of the South, the inducement is to flow which
will cause a restitution of our violated rights,
and restore harmony to the United States.
W'e therefore, recommend, as the basis of
the proposed Convention, representation in
conformity with the apportionmentof members
of the House of Representatives of our State
Legislature, as near as may be, (permitting
each county, nevertheless, to send at least one
delegate, (and propose that the delegates to be
elected, be invested with lull power tocon
sider and determine upon the best means to
procure an abandonment, by the Congress of
the United States,of the protective princ pie,
and inequality of taxation contained in the
Tariff Laws—the determination of such Con
vention, being subject nevertheless to the ap
proval or disapproval of the citizens of Ala*
bama.
Therefore Resolved, That we will elect
four Delegates to attend the State Conven
tion to be held at Tuscaloos , on the second
Monday in December next, who shall have
the powers and privileges specified in the
last clause of the foregoing address.
Resolved, That a committee, to consist of
Thirty persons, be appointed to superintend
said Election, managing the same as near as
may he, in conformity with the manner of
holding and conducting our General Elec
tions.
Resolved , That tiie different Counties of
this State, berespectfully invited to co-ope
rate with the county of Wilcox, and the
countv of Tuscaloosa, in the objects of the
foregoing address and resolutions.
Resolved, That a committee of five per
sons be appointed to correspond with differ
ent meetings and persons in the difl’erer.t
counties of this State, upon the subject of the
foregoing address and resolutions.
Resolved, That tiie election for Delegates
take place on the socoiul Monday in Novem
ber next.
The question was taken by axes and noes,
and ttie Chair decided that the ayes had it.
A division was called for ; and the Chair di
rected a division to different sides of the
House. The decision in the affirmative was
again announced. Bo the Address and Reso
lutions were adopted.
Spirit of the Age.
jaasiuta
On the Political Stale of Agriculture.
BY JOHN TAYLOR,
Of Caroline, Pa.
English agriculture has completely tried
the project of enriching itself, by buying
markets with bounties. It has provided
more of these, markets, than the agriculture
of any oilier nation. Yet it is unable to feed
its own people, many of whom are indebted
to foreign agriculture for daily bread. No
profession in England is deficient in hands,
but the agricultural, and none other a cypher
in government. They have lords, bisliops,
officers civil and military, soldiers, sailors,
hankers, loaners and capitalists ta abundance,
and all ot them have an influence in the
government. These are the markets in
which the English agriculturists have suc
cessively laid out their money, in order to
get good prices, and the more of these mar
kets they buy, the less liberty and wealth
they retain.
If the agriculture of the United States
would only consider how it happens, that it
can yet live upon six shillings sterling a
bushel tor wheat, when the English agricul
ture is perishing with sixteen, the film drawn
over its eyes by the avarice with which those
charge it who design to cheat it, would fall
off. 'File solution of the apparent wonder,
lit sin the delusion of buying price by boun
ties- The bounties are partly, but never
completely r imbu so byt ie price. Though
the payer of the bounties gets more price, he
gains less profit than from the lower price,
when he paid no bounties. Therefore the
receivers of the bounties become rich and
idle, anti the receivers of the price, poor and
laborious. And this effect is inevitable, be
cause the bounties must for ever outrun th
prices they create, or no body could subsist
on them. If the bounty paid was equal to
one shilling a bushel on wheat, and should
raise the price nine pence, the receivers ot
the bounty would gain three pence a bushel
on all the wheat of the nation, and agriculture
would lose it, though it got a higher price.
And this obvious fraud is precisely the result
ol every promise in every form made by char
ter anti privilege to enrich or encourage agri.
culture.
The agriculture of the United States, found
itself in the happiest situation for prosperity
imaginable, at the end of the revolutionary
war. It had not yet become such an egre
gious gudgeon as to believe, that bv giving
ten millions of dollars every year to the tribe
of undertakers, to make it rich, they would
return it twenty ; and it could avail itself of
all the markets in the world, where this rid
iculous notion prevailed. These were so
many mines of wealth to the agriculture of
the United States. The idle, clerical, mili
tary, hanking, and ennobled classes, as has
been stated, do certainly have the effect ol
raising agricultural prices very considerably;
but the agriculturists who pay and maintain
these classes, still los> more by them than
th y gain. Now the United States, as a sec
den of the commercial world, might have
shared in the enhancement of agricultural
piirv, produced by such unproductive orders
. n tt: >i -1 counties; and paid none of the ruin
o.si.vp’ i, of wealth or liberty, which they
cod. 1 hey might have reaped tlie good",
and avoided the evil. And agriculture, once 1
iii its life, might have done itself justice,
iiut the ise-acre chose to reap the evil, and
avoid the good; and it its situation has been
occasionally tolerable, it was sorely against
its will, or by accident. —In the first eigct
years after the revolution, being the first
period in the latter ugts of the world, j
that agriculture could make laws, it legis
lated sundry items of the British system,
for buying markets or raising prices. In the
next twelve, it nurtured their growth, so as
to raise up some to a large, and one to a mon
strous size; and also most sagaciously pro
hibited itscif, firs - from sharing in the ben
efit of the high prices produced by aristocra
tieai institutions in France, and secondly
troin sharing in those produced in the same
way in England. European agricultur is
gull'd or oppressed by others; American,
gulls or oppresses itself. The first ( s.no lon
ger weak enough to think that its battalion
of aristocratical items, does it any good , but
it is now unable to follow its judgement; the
second, though able to follow it3 own judg
ment, lias adopted the exploded errors hear
tily repented of by the first, and far outstrips
it in the celerity of its progress towards a
state of absolute submission to other interests
by shutting out itself from markets enhanced
at the expense of other nations ; and at the
same time by creating the English items ot
capitalists, or masters for manufactures, bank
ers, lenders, armies, and navies. Our true
interest was to pay nothing for markets,
spurious and swindling to those who buy
them, and yet to share in their enhancement
of prices. We have pursued a different
course, and I do not iccollcct a single law,
state or continental passed in favor of agricul
ture, nor a single good house built by it
since the revolution; hut I know many built
before, which have fallen into decay. Our
agriculture is complimented by presidents,
governours, legislators and individuals; and
the Turks reverence a particular order of peo
ple as being also favored by heaven.
The arguments to prove the political cr*
rours under which our agriculture is groaning,
mav suggest a suspicion, that I am an enemy
to manufactures. The fact is otherwise.
I believe that protecting duties, or whatever
else shall damp agricultural effort, and im
poverish the lands of our country, is the only
real and fatal foe to manufactures ; and that
a flourishing agriculture will beget and
enrich manufactures, as rich pastures multi
ply and fatten animals, lie, who killed the
goose to come at her golden eggs, was such
a politician, as he who burdens onr expiring
agriculture, to raise bounties for our flourish
ing manufactures.—He kills the cause ot the
end he looks for.
I meet such an insinuation by another ar
gument. Protecting duties impoverish
and enslave manufacturers themselves, and
are so far from being intended to operate in
their favour, or in favour of a nation, that
their end and effect simply is to favour
-monied capital, which will seize upon and
appropriate to itself, the whole profit of the
bounty extorted from the people by protecting
duties; and allow as scanty wages to its work
men, as it cun. Monied capital drives in.
dustry without money out of the market, and
forces it into its service, in every case where
the object of contest is an enormous income.
The wages it allows to industry are always
regulated by the expense of subsistence, and
not by the extent of its gain. Monied capi
talists constitute an essential item of a govern
ment modelled after the English form. To
advance t da item, for the sake of stength
eaing the government against the people,
and hot for the saki of manufacturers, is the
object of protecting duties. True, will say
the reader, but that is not the design here.
Oh ! how reverential is the logician who can
prove, that an axe will cut under a monarchy,
but not under a republic!*.
Some km::, I believe, requested the mer
cantile class of hia subjects, to ask of him a
favour. The greatest, your in ijesty can grant
us, said they, is, to let us alone. Protect
ingdutiesare such favours to manufacturers,
as the pretended favours of kings are to
merchants. They impoverish their custom
ers, the agriculturists, and place over them
selves an order of masters called capital
ists, which intercepts the profit, destined,
without legal interposition, for industry.
Many other arguments might be urged to
prove that protecting duties beget the po
verty of manufacturers, but this is not my
subject. To that I return.
Tile bitterest pill which the English gov
ernment compelled our agriculture to swal
low before the revolution, was, the protectinj
duU piil, or an equivalent drug, gilded with
lh natural advantage of dealing with fellow
subjects : and, after having gone through a
long wir to get rid of this nauseous physick,
wo have patiently swallowed it, gilded also
bv other doctors with the national advantage
of dealing with fellow citizens: The power
and wealth of the political doctors, who have
recommended these selfsame political drugs,
depended .consid 'rnbly in both cases, on
tii. ir Iking swallowed.
I wili suppose that our protecting duties
do not exceed the average amount of 25 per
centum, that they had expelled every ar
ticle of foreign manufacture, and bestowed
on our brother citizens a complete monopoly
of our m loufuctural wants, ami an ability
to supply them. 1 will suppose too in favour
of a project, which must depend on conces
sions to obtain the respect .of examination,
that the agricultural interest shall be able,
after this blessed desideratum of the protect
ing dut system 13 obtained, to get at its old
markets the same price for its products, and
annually bring home the whole in gold or
silver, for the us. of our own capitalists
ud monopolizers. This, have said many
great ministers of state, who had no know
ledge of agriculture, would complete its
prosperity.
It is the prosperity of giving one fourth
above the market price for all the manufac
tures it nerds. It is the boon of returning
with empty sb : ps rotn ports, at which the
same things can he brought for one fourtii
I ss. It is the boon of a direct tax or a s.-
t ’m of excise, to supply the revenue, whicn
the success of the prefect would annihilate.
From the Georgia. Gazette-
THE CHEROKEE EMIGRANTS.
We have been politely favored with the j
following interesting letter for publication,'
by the gentleman to whom it is addressed.—
We- commend it to the perusal cf our read-!
ers, as giving an authentic and highly grati
fying description of the country V* est of the
Mississippi, assigned by Government to the
emigrating Cherokees, which has beenhreto
fore so much misrepresented. Northern phi
lanthropy, we hope, will take a lesson from
this letter. The “ hard-hearted Georgians.”
are sending off the “poor Indians” from a
country where there is no game, and where
the poor miserable natives, in all the inanity
of naif civilized life, are lying upou their
tattered blankets t night, and he-gging for
mere sustenance in the day. We are sending
them to a country plentiful in game, where
the very clothing of their prey will make
bountiful clothing for themselves; and where
the native energy of the aboriginal will have
full scope to operate, unadulterated by the
miserable pollutions of the degraded white
men. Wc would beg our northern brethren,
in the great cause of philanthropy, to cast
aside their prejudices, and let us work to
gether in the good cause. Prejudice, like
fate among the ancients, should have no
tributaries. Among the thousands of 'fc ise
crated altars, fate alone had no worshippers;
amid their many thousand altars, no inceuse
ascended at her shrine; and at her altar, no
sacrifice was offered. We would call upon
our Northern brethren, if still wc may call
them such—instead of exasperating the poor
Indian w ith imaginary ideas of independence,
which must only result in shewing emphati
cally their dependence, to join with us in put
ting the original owner of the soil upon a
land where he may exert all his native ener
gies, and exercise all his primitive virtues.
Hightower, Cherokee Cos. Sept. 1 0,1 832.
“ Dear Sir :—As the enrolling business
is suspended lor the present, and 1 am detain
ed here, awaiting the session of Hall Circuit
Court, to attend to the interests of some or
phan Cherokees, the interval affords me an
opportunity, for the first time since my return,
to redeem a pledge, that 1 would give you a
history of my expedition with the Cherokee
emigrants.
1 left the Agency on liighvvassee river, in
flat bottom boats, on the 10th April. On the
17 tli, after contending against adverse winds,
we arrived at Lamb’s Ferry, having passed
the Boiling Pot ami Tumbling Shoals, without
even exciting alarm with the emigrants.—
Lamb’s Ferry is just above the Elk River
Shoals, which are succeeded by the Muscle
Shoals. Here we lay to for two days awaiting
a calm, w hen, under the guidance of skilful
pilots, we again put out and passed over these
shallows and falls so rapidly, and so free from
I harm, that the emigrants could scarcely be
lieve they had yet passed points, which, in
story, had been depicted in the most terrific
characters, until the pilots were paid off and
had actually turned hack. On the 22<i, hav
ing met the Steam Boat at Waterloo, below
Florence, near the foot of Colbert’s Shoals,
we exchanged our slow and tedious mode of
passing over the waters, for one much more
expeditious; and eleven days and a half at
terwaids, without a death or any serious in
disposition, arrived within the limits of the
Ctmrokee country West, where I remained
seventeen days. During this time 1 passed
ti.rough the Cherokee country, and as high
up as the Creek Agency. Time would not
admit of my taking as general an observation
as I wished ; but where it was out of mv
power to go and see particular sections, 1 ob
tained the most correct informat ion that was
to be had with regard to the advantages and
disadvantages of that region of country assign
ed by the Treaty of 1828, to such of the
Cherokees as may choose to go Wcstwardiy
When the Boats came in view' of that part
of the Arkansas Territory lying along the
Mississippi river, where the first Cherokee
emigrants settled many years ago, near the
mouth of the river St. Francis, which is re
markatdy uninviting to a mountaineer, and
presents the appearance of a iow maishy lev
el. I must admit I was f arfully appr hensiv
1 had promised to my company a better home
than they would ever realize. These fears
continued, though gradually diminishing as
we advance.'! up the rapid but winding cur
rent of the Arkansas river, until we had pass
ed above that country w ere the Cherokees
were located previous to the treaty of 1828,
when hills and wid< ly extended valleys be
gan to upon to our view ; and instead of a
dull and monotonous scenery, all that is ro
mantic, all that is delightful to the eye of the
farmer or the hunter, wuis there to be witness
ed. Her'- too, the feelings of the Cherokees
seemed to vary as much as tin; face of the
country—troin a sullen dissatisfaction ac
companied sometimes by low murmurs, and
again liv loud complaints, to a gem ral ex
pression of admiration and joy. “ Here is
my country ! Who would not exchange lands
i't Georgia, jor such a home as this!!" were
there exclamations.
On our arrival in the night, at the mouth of
the river Illinois, near the residence ( the
Agent, ns well as the principal Chief, .John
Jolly, the latter having been aroused from his
bed by the noise made in lotting oft’ sh am,
came on board to wclqome the emigrants to
their new home, which was don* in a mos:
kind and parental manner. He speaks only
in Ids vernacular tongue, but having an inter
preter present, 1 was informed, in addressing
some of them, he said .• “My brethren, I am
happy to see you at votir new home. I once
lived east of the Mississippi, b it I saw the
storm coining which rages through your an
cient hunting grounds, and left it. Here w
find safe retreat from the operations of St a te
ar Tt rritoriul Laws. No European King has
rend* fed our title doubtful, by granting tin's
sod to bis Colonics. We hold our grant un
der the mi mbnrrasscd pledges of our great
father, the President of the United States.—
He keeps a military fore* too, between us
1 ltd the wilder savages, to protect ns in tb ■
enjoyment of our lands, our hunting grounds,
our range, and in the exercise of our own laws
and government. This he will I
<lo while we keep l>. eee „XS* 4
f -clings towards our white brethren It,/‘I
give me much happiness to see all* oar Tl
tern brethren here. The laws of the „, !
don t suit them—their game is doaeJ'hl
range has failed. 1 think I see starvation,!
misery at their doors. This land bclon! i
them as well as us. It is the joint i* 1
ol all Cherokees. let them be where !’!
may. It is their rightful home; where ■
recruiting, wc can again be a great and J
erhn nation. These things I wrote t 0 * I
j principal Chiefs Ross and Lovvrv, carlrhS
j winter. I hope they may listen" to niv h,®
j tion and again be happy.” The old , r ’..®
j iim. then lit h;s pipe, and only spoke
i addressed by others. ®
Within the limits of the northern md
the Cherokee couutrv Let ’s Creel, e and
riv< r, Grand liver, and \erdigris, hate 1
confluence with the Arkansas— the Hindi
ter navigable for steam boats and || lC J
fo rmcr for small craft. These stream-, J
ly have their rise with the Cherokee T. ri
ry. In this section ol the countrv ti’j
two salt works carried on extensively I
Cherokees, stores of merchandize j„ and J
dance owned hv natives, and school iE ,,J
by intelligent Cherokees, as well as wh’J
Morality and religion seem with industry!
cleanliness, to have taken a deeper ho j
the feelings and actions of the Western A
they have on the Eastern Cherokees.’!
wing of the nation would aflord a settler!
t for one hundred thousend whites. Tiier!
to he seen occasionally in passing thro J
Prairies varying in length, from one qj
ol a mile to six miles; in breadth, t>®
' quarter to one mlie; some covered withe!
o‘hers with shrubbery or winter and sun®
grass; interspersed with flowers, beau!
and fragrant, innumerable in variety®
rounded by fen sis affording timber fur®
cmg and firewe c! for centuries to come,®
abounding with honey. There is noCiie®
timber nor Poplar in the country, but®
l’rocon, a nutwrqually nutricious, h four®
abundantly He re in places, as the Chrstfl
here. The Cotton Tree is found thr-r l
scuffling very much the Yellow Poplar®
if, as tin- Poplar here, is regarded as at®
erring indication of good soil. Pineis®
means so pi ntifnl tlmreas hi re
m.n growth is Hickory, Ash, Wild
Sti-r; !r Tree, Black and White Wainiit®
Dog-wood, Hornbeam. In places, mit®
vines are to be found, as various in tin
ductions ns the host European via, ®
drank some very pleasant wine inantfi®
hv .Tusti e, a full blooded Cherckie, ®
the wild Grape of the forest.
farm on a high mom tpn, level as a iloi®
rich as the Coosa Wattie bottoms: bit®
mountains are not rich. Some of ti®
as poor and flinty as they are in tins ®
The bottom lands are wider and the sni®
deeper there than hero. Nearly all*®
rio lands produce well Wat ris not?®
as we had understood it to he, except®
rich low grounds, where it may be to®
diggidg a short distance. There tire ®
or, good springs to he found occasio®
the low lands. In fact, it is pretty nut®
as it is in other countries, w ; th re;: rd®
ter—t!ie mountainous broken country®
ing an abundance of the best, whilst
lands shew but few' good springs.
ficicncv can easily he remedied
wells—the water found a short
the rivers in this way, is generally
refreshing.
1 was ip the edge of pic Grail H|
whirl) commences' near the west.
northern wine, with a point
right and left, where by gazing. ’ IB
heroin* s bewildered in its Ion" <ff :
obslmeted only by isolated (dust s
following the meanders of small"
■ s. or hv bald mountains which m
gle their summit with the sky,
wcstwnrdlv.
The Canadian river is navigable I
boats, and empties itself in to the At
the south side, a considerable distal
the mouth of Illinois river. Inthil
the residue of the seven millions ofi
en bv the treaty of 1828. But f l
reside there. Those with whom I<|
told me they had enjoyed good heal
they mostly Used the river water fl
who is a man of sterling integrit'',!
the principal chief, informs nr thcri
body here, three hundred thous®
which might be set down as first r®
was on this tract, but had not lei®
plore it all. It is exceedingly rid®
timbered, Iving immediately in m
here as on the northern side, winlf®
mor, range is good and abundant,®
such as deer, bear and turkey,tslfl
plentifully in most parts of the natfl
sav in all except the Lee's creek sfl
The Buffalo' 1 , Elk and AntcM
make inroads upon the Cliprokß
their range is still westwurdly
prairies, which ere new and d |,n ß
•ill tribes, whor. sometimes the hfl
kng an elevated site, l ain credibß
may feast his eyes with the sipß
feeding for miles in the valleys,
cent liiils, whilst, by changing fl
lie may obs< rve in wild
hors *s onarettstmm dto tin a|
zed man. .
When we got ready to leave M
found on board of our boat, !: H
ton of peltry ar>d furs, tho result J
dilstt ■ . We however had to I-'-j
boat, not for the want of water, I
of the ear' lessness or treachery j
pilot, who run ns on a high san (l I
evening after It aving the Uto'it.J
rr , from whence we took our i
mg gently (low n, arrived at *“ C J
Kansas, ten or twelve days j
t a nee of five or six hundred 1
As wc descended* I" hadtuucl
skiff’, frequently !o visi' ,n - 1
the opposite sifiei four mib fl
Rock,there is a hill wb -^1 '
11s, was once occupied bv ’ ,®
Lnfftte, and bis company, ■
mine. Dr. Dayton and m*' j
place, and found unit- ft* 1 1
similar to tht/j fowl i'- ; *■ 1