Again, February 18, 1837, General John E. Wool, of the United States
Army, who had been ordered to the command of the troops that were being
concentrated in the Cherokee country "to look down opposition" to the
enforcement of the treaty, wrote Adjutant-General Jones, at Washington,
thus:
"I called them (the Cherokees) together and made a short speech.
It is, however, vain to talk to a people almost universally opposed
to the treaty and who maintain that they never made such a treaty.
So determined are they in their opposition that not one of all
those who were present and voted at the council held but a day or
two since, however poor or destitute, would receive either rations
or clothing from the United States lest they might compromise
themselves in regard to the treaty. These same people, as well
as those in the mountains of North Carolina, during the summer
past, preferred living upon the roots and sap of trees rather than
receive provisions from the United States, and thousands, as I have
been informed, had no other food for weeks."
Four months later,[429] General Wool again, in the course of a letter
to the Secretary of War concerning the death of Major Curry, who had
been a prominent factor in promoting the conclusion of the treaty of
1835, said that--
Had Curry lived he would assuredly have been killed by the
Indians. It is a truth that you have not a single agent, high or
low, that has the slightest moral control over the Indians. It
would be wise if persons appointed to civil stations in the nation
could be taken from among those who have had nothing to do with
making the late treaty.