About this time[356] General William Carroll was designated by the
President to make a tour through the Cherokee and Creek Nations, with
both of which he was supposed to possess much influence. His mission
was to urge upon them, and especially upon the former, the expediency
of their removal west of the Mississippi under the inducements held
out by the treaty of 1828. A month later[357] Col. E. F. Tatnall and
on the 8th of July General John Coffee were appointed to co-operate
with General Carroll in the accomplishment of his mission. The results
of this tour were communicated[358] to the War Department by General
Carroll in a report in which he remarked that nothing could be done
with the Cherokees by secret methods; they were too intelligent and too
well posted on the current news of the day to be long kept in ignorance
of the methods and motives of those who came among them. He had met
their leading men at Newtown and had submitted a proposal for their
removal which was peremptorily rejected. The advancement the Cherokees
had made in religion, morality, general information, and agriculture
had astonished him beyond measure. They had regular preachers in their
churches, the use of spirituous liquors was in great degree prohibited,
their farms were worked much after the manner of white people, and were
generally in good order. Many families possessed all the comforts and
some of the luxuries of life. Cattle, sheep, hogs, and fowl of every
kind were found in great abundance. The Cherokees had been induced by
Eastern papers to believe the President was not sustained by the people
in his views of their proposed removal. Eastern members of Congress had
given their delegation to understand while in Washington the preceding
spring that the memorial left by them protesting against the extension
of the laws of Georgia and Alabama over Cherokee territory would be
sustained by Congress, and that until that memorial had been definitely
acted on by that body all propositions to them looking toward removal
would be worse than useless.
_Cherokees refuse to cede lands in North Carolina._--In the early
summer of 1829[359] a commission had also been appointed, consisting of
Humphrey Posey and a Mr. Saunders, having in view the purchase from the
Cherokees of that portion of their country within the limits of North
Carolina, but it, too, failed wholly of accomplishing its purpose.
_Coercive measures of the United States and Georgia._--Sundry
expedients were resorted to, both by the General Government and by the
authorities of Georgia, to compel the acquiescence of the Indians in
the demands for their emigration.
The act of the Georgia legislature of December 20, 1828, already
alluded to, was an act "to add the territory within this State and
occupied by the Cherokee Indians to the counties of De Kalb _et
al._, and to extend the laws of this State over the same." This was
followed[360] by the passage of an act reasserting the territorial
jurisdiction of Georgia and annulling all laws made by the Cherokee
Indians. It further declared that in any controversy arising between
white persons and Indians the latter should be disqualified as
witnesses. Supplementary legislation of a similar character followed in
quick succession, and the proclamation of the governor of the State was
issued on the 3d of June, 1830, declaring the arrival of the date fixed
by the aforesaid acts and the consequent subjection of the Cherokee
territory to the State laws and jurisdiction.[361]
The President of the United States about the same time gave
directions[362] to suspend the enrollment and removal of Cherokees to
the west in small parties, accompanied by the remark that if they (the
Cherokees) thought it for their interest to remain, they must take the
consequences, but that the Executive of the United States had no power
to interfere with the exercise of the sovereignty of any State over and
upon all within its limits. The President also directed[363] that the
previous practice of paying their annuities to the treasurer of the
Cherokee Nation should be discontinued, and that they be thereafter
distributed among the individual members of the tribe. Orders were
shortly after[364] given to the commandant of troops in the Cherokee
country to prevent _all persons_, including members of the tribe,
from opening up or working any mineral deposits within their limits.
All these additional annoyances and restrictions placed upon the free
exercise of their supposed rights, so far from securing compliance with
the wishes of the Government, had a tendency to harden the Cherokee
heart.