At this period delegations representing the anti-Ross parties were
also in Washington, and their animosities, coupled with the frequent
and unsavory reports of the events happening in the Cherokee country,
determined the President to conclude no new treaty until the true cause
was ascertained and the responsibility fixed for all this turbulence
and crime.[478] The Old Settler and the Treaty parties alleged that
grievous oppressions were practiced upon them by the Ross party,
insomuch that they were unable to enjoy their liberty, property,
or lives in safety, or to live in peace in the same community. The
Old Settler delegation alleged that the act of union, by virtue of
which their government was superseded and they were subjected to the
constitution and laws of the Ross party, was never authorized or
sanctioned by the legal representatives of their people. _Per contra_,
the Ross delegation alleged that the Old Settler and the Treaty parties
enjoyed the same degree of security and the same fullness of rights
that any other portion of the nation enjoyed, and that the alleged
dissatisfaction was confined to a few restless and ambitious spirits
whose motto was "rule or ruin."
_Commissioners appointed to inquire into Cherokee feuds._--In
consequence of his determination, as above stated, the President
appointed General R. Jones, Col. R. B. Mason, and P. M. Butler
commissioners, with instructions[479] to proceed to the Cherokee
country and ascertain if any considerable portion of the Cherokee
people were arrayed in hostile feeling toward those who ruled the
nation; whether a corresponding disposition and feeling prevailed among
the majority who administered the government toward the minority; the
lengths of oppression, resistance, and violence to which the excitement
of each against the other had severally led the opposing parties, and
whether the discontent was of such extent and intensity among the great
mass of the Old Settler and Treaty parties as to forbid their living
peaceably together under the same government with the Ross party. This
commission convened at Fort Gibson on the 16th of November,[480] but
their labors resulted in nothing of practical benefit to the sorely
distressed Cherokees.