Quoting again from Jackson--

The enemy, although many of them fought to the last with that

kind of bravery which desperation inspires, were at last entirely

routed and cut to pieces. The battle may be said to have continued

with severity for about five hours, but the firing and slaughter

continued until it was suspended by the darkness of night. The

next morning it was resumed and sixteen of the enemy slain who

had concealed themselves under the banks. [236]

It was supposed that the Creeks had about a thousand warriors,

besides their women and children. The men sent out to count the dead

found five hundred and fifty-seven warriors lying dead within the

inclosure, and Coffee estimates that from two hundred and fifty to

three hundred were shot in the water. How many more there may have

been can not be known, but Jackson himself states that not more than

twenty could have escaped. There is no mention of any wounded. About

three hundred prisoners were taken, of whom only three were men. The

defenders of the Horseshoe had been exterminated. [237]

On the other side the loss was 26 Americans killed and 107 wounded,

18 Cherokee killed and 36 wounded, 5 friendly Creeks killed and 11

wounded. It will be noted that the loss of the Cherokee was out of

all proportion to their numbers, their fighting having been hand to

hand work without protecting cover. In view of the fact that Jackson

had only a few weeks before been compelled to retreat before this same

enemy, and that two hours of artillery and rifle fire had produced no

result until the Cherokee turned the rear of the enemy by their daring

passage of the river, there is considerable truth in the boast of the

Cherokee that they saved the day for Jackson at Horseshoe bend. In

the number of men actually engaged and the immense proportion killed,

this ranks as the greatest Indian battle in the history of the United

States, with the possible exception of the battle of Mauvila, fought

by the same Indians in De Soto's time. The result was decisive. Two

weeks later Weatherford came in and surrendered, and the Creek war

was at an end.

As is usual where Indians have acted as auxiliaries of white troops,

it is difficult to get an accurate statement of the number of Cherokee

engaged in this war or to apportion the credit among the various

leaders. Coffee's official report states that five hundred Cherokee

were engaged in the last great battle, and from incidental hints

it seems probable that others were employed elsewhere, on garrison

duty or otherwise, at the same time. McKenney and Hall state that

Ridge recruited eight hundred warriors for Jackson, [238] and this

may be near the truth, as the tribe had then at least six times as

many fighting men. On account of the general looseness of Indian

organization we commonly find the credit claimed for whichever chief

may be best known to the chronicler. Thus, McKenney and Hall make

Major Ridge the hero of the war, especially of the Horseshoe fight,

although he is not mentioned in the official reports. Jackson speaks

particularly of the Cherokee in that battle as being "headed by their

gallant chieftain, Colonel Richard Brown, and conducted by the brave

Colonel Morgan." Coffee says that Colonel Gideon Morgan "commanded

the Cherokees," and it is Morgan who makes the official report of

their part in the battle. In a Washington newspaper notice of the

treaty delegation of 1816 the six signers are mentioned as Colonel

[John] Lowrey, Major [John] Walker, Major Ridge, Captain [Richard]

Taylor, Adjutant [John] Ross, and Kunnesee (Tsi'yu-gûnsi'ni,

Cheucunsene) and are described as men of cultivation, nearly all

of whom had served as officers of the Cherokee forces with Jackson

and distinguished themselves as well by their bravery as by their

attachment to the United States. [239] Among the East Cherokee in

Carolina the only name still remembered is that of their old chief,

Junaluska (Tsunu'lahuñ'ski), who said afterward: "If I had known that

Jackson would drive us from our homes I would have killed him that

day at the Horseshoe."

The Cherokee returned to their homes to find them despoiled and ravaged

in their absence by disorderly white troops. Two years afterward, by

treaty at Washington, the Government agreed to reimburse them for the

damage. Interested parties denied that they had suffered any damage

or rendered any services, to which their agent indignantly replied:

"It may be answered that thousands witnessed both; that in nearly all

the battles with the Creeks the Cherokees rendered the most efficient

service, and at the expense of the lives of many fine men, whose wives

and children and brothers and sisters are mourning their fall." [240]

In the spring of 1816 a delegation of seven principal men, accompanied

by Agent Meigs, visited Washington, and the result was the negotiation

of two treaties at that place on the same date, March 22, 1816. By the

first of these the Cherokee ceded for five thousand dollars their last

remaining territory in South Carolina, a small strip in the extreme

northwestern corner, adjoining Chattooga river. By the second treaty a

boundary was established between the lands claimed by the Cherokee and

Creeks in northern Alabama. This action was made necessary in order

to determine the boundaries of the great tract which the Creeks had

been compelled to surrender in punishment for their late uprising. The

line was run from a point on Little Bear creek in northwestern Alabama

direct to the Ten islands of the Coosa at old Fort Strother, southeast

of the present Asheville. General Jackson protested strongly against

this line, on the ground that all the territory south of Tennessee

river and west of the Coosa belonged to the Creeks and was a part

of their cession. The Chickasaw also protested against considering

this tract as Cherokee territory. The treaty also granted free and

unrestricted road privileges throughout the Cherokee country, this

concession being the result of years of persistent effort on the part

of the Government; and an appropriation of twenty-five thousand five

hundred dollars was made for damages sustained by the Cherokee from

the depredations of the troops passing through their country during

the Creek war. [241]

At the last treaty the Cherokee had resisted every effort to induce

them to cede more land on either side of the Tennessee, the Government

being especially desirous to extinguish their claim north of that

river within the limits of the state of Tennessee. Failing in this,

pressure was at once begun to bring about a cession in Alabama,

with the result that on September 14 of the same year a treaty was

concluded at the Chickasaw council-house, and afterward ratified in

general council at Turkeytown on the Coosa, by which the Cherokee

ceded all their claims in that state south of Tennessee river and west

of an irregular line running from Chickasaw island in that stream,

below the entrance of Flint river, to the junction of Wills creek

with the Coosa, at the present Gadsden. For this cession, embracing

an area of nearly three thousand five hundred square miles, they were

to receive sixty thousand dollars in ten annual payments, together

with five thousand dollars for the improvements abandoned. [242]

We turn aside now for a time from the direct narrative to note the

development of events which culminated in the forced expatriation of

the Cherokee from their ancestral homes and their removal to the far

western wilderness.

With a few notable exceptions the relations between the French and

Spanish colonists and the native tribes, after the first occupation of

the country, had been friendly and agreeable. Under the rule of France

or Spain there was never any Indian boundary. Pioneer and Indian built

their cabins and tilled their fields side by side, ranged the woods

together, knelt before the same altar and frequently intermarried on

terms of equality, so far as race was concerned. The result is seen

to-day in the mixed-blood communities of Canada, and in Mexico,

where a nation has been built upon an Indian foundation. Within

the area of English colonization it was otherwise. From the first

settlement to the recent inauguration of the allotment system it

never occurred to the man of Teutonic blood that he could have for

a neighbor anyone not of his own stock and color. While the English

colonists recognized the native proprietorship so far as to make

treaties with the Indians, it was chiefly for the purpose of fixing

limits beyond which the Indian should never come after he had once

parted with his title for a consideration of goods and trinkets. In

an early Virginia treaty it was even stipulated that friendly Indians

crossing the line should suffer death. The Indian was regarded as an

incumbrance to be cleared off, like the trees and the wolves, before

white men could live in the country. Intermarriages were practically

unknown, and the children of such union were usually compelled by

race antipathy to cast their lot with the savage.

Under such circumstances the tribes viewed the advance of the English

and their successors, the Americans, with keen distrust, and as early

as the close of the French and Indian war we find some of them removing

from the neighborhood of the English settlements to a safer shelter

in the more remote territories still held by Spain. Soon after the

French withdrew from Fort Toulouse, in 1763, a part of the Alabama,

an incorporated tribe of the Creek confederacy, left their villages

on the Coosa, and crossing the Mississippi, where they halted for a

time on its western bank, settled on the Sabine river under Spanish

protection. [243] They were followed some years later by a part of the

Koasati, of the same confederacy, [244] the two tribes subsequently

drifting into Texas, where they now reside. The Hichitee and others of

the Lower Creeks moved down into Spanish Florida, where the Yamassee

exiles from South Carolina had long before preceded them, the two

combining to form the modern Seminole tribe. When the Revolution

brought about a new line of division, the native tribes, almost without

exception, joined sides with England as against the Americans, with

the result that about one-half the Iroquois fled to Canada, where they

still reside upon lands granted by the British government. A short

time before Wayne's victory a part of the Shawano and Delawares, worn

out by nearly twenty years of battle with the Americans, crossed the

Mississippi and settled, by permission of the Spanish government, upon

lands in the vicinity of Cape Girardeau, in what is now southeastern

Missouri, for which they obtained a regular deed from that government

in 1793. [245] Driven out by the Americans some twenty years later,

they removed to Kansas and thence to Indian territory, where they

are now incorporated with their old friends, the Cherokee.

When the first Cherokee crossed the Mississippi it is impossible

to say, but there was probably never a time in the history of the

tribe when their warriors and hunters were not accustomed to make

excursions beyond the great river. According to an old tradition,

the earliest emigration took place soon after the first treaty with

Carolina, when a portion of the tribe, under the leadership of

Yûñwi-usga'se`ti, "Dangerous-man," foreseeing the inevitable end

of yielding to the demands of the colonists, refused to have any

relations with the white man, and took up their long march for the

unknown West. Communication was kept up with the home body until

after crossing the Mississippi, when they were lost sight of and

forgotten. Long years afterward a rumor came from the west that

they were still living near the base of the Rocky mountains. [246]

In 1782 the Cherokee, who had fought faithfully on the British side

throughout the long Revolutionary struggle, applied to the Spanish

governor at New Orleans for permission to settle on the west side of

the Mississippi, within Spanish territory. Permission was granted,

and it is probable that some of them removed to the Arkansas country,

although there seems to be no definite record of the matter. [247]

We learn incidentally, however, that about this period the hostile

Cherokee, like the Shawano and other northern tribes, were in the habit

of making friendly visits to the Spanish settlements in that quarter.

According to Reverend Cephas Washburn, the pioneer missionary of the

western Cherokee, the first permanent Cherokee settlement beyond

the Mississippi was the direct result of the massacre, in 1794,

of the Scott party at Muscle shoals, on Tennessee river, by the

hostile warriors of the Chickamauga towns, in the summer. As told

by the missionary, the story differs considerably from that given

by Haywood and other Tennessee historians, narrated in another

place. [248] According to Washburn, the whites were the aggressors,

having first made the Indians drunk and then swindled them out of the

annuity money with which they were just returning from the agency at

Tellico. When the Indians became sober enough to demand the return of

their money the whites attacked and killed two of them, whereupon the

others boarded the boat and killed every white man. They spared the

women and children, however, with their negro slaves and all their

personal belongings, and permitted them to continue on their way, the

chief and his party personally escorting them down Tennessee, Ohio,

and Mississippi rivers as far as the mouth of the St. Francis, whence

the emigrants descended in safety to New Orleans, while their captors,

under their chief, The Bowl, went up St. Francis river--then a part

of Spanish territory--to await the outcome of the event. As soon as

the news came to the Cherokee Nation the chiefs formally repudiated

the action of the Bowl party and volunteered to assist in arresting

those concerned. Bowl and his men were finally exonerated, but had

conceived such bitterness at the conduct of their former friends, and,

moreover, had found the soil so rich and the game so abundant where

they were, that they refused to return to their tribe and decided to

remain permanently in the West. Others joined them from time to time,

attracted by the hunting prospect, until they were in sufficient

number to obtain recognition from the Government. [249]

While the missionary may be pardoned for making the best showing

possible for his friends, his statement contains several evident

errors, and it is probable that Haywood's account is more correct

in the main. As the Cherokee annuity at that time amounted to but

fifteen hundred dollars for the whole tribe, or somewhat less than

ten cents per head, they could hardly have had enough money from that

source to pay such extravagant prices as sixteen dollars apiece for

pocket-mirrors, which it is alleged the boatmen obtained. Moreover,

as the Chickamauga warriors had refused to sign any treaties and

were notoriously hostile, they were not as yet entitled to receive

payments. Haywood's statement that the emigrant party was first

attacked while passing the Chickamauga towns and then pursued to

the Muscle shoals and there massacred is probably near the truth,

although it is quite possible that the whites may have provoked

the attack in some such way as is indicated by the missionary. As

Washburn got his account from one of the women of the party, living

long afterward in New Orleans, it is certain that some at least were

spared by the Indians, and it is probable that, as he states, only

the men were killed.

The Bowl emigration may not have been the first, or even the

most important removal to the western country, as the period was

one of Indian unrest. Small bands were constantly crossing the

Mississippi into Spanish territory to avoid the advancing Americans,

only to find themselves again under American jurisdiction when the

whole western country was ceded to the United States in 1803. The

persistent land-hunger of the settler could not be restrained or

satisfied, and early in the same year President Jefferson suggested

to Congress the desirability of removing all the tribes to the west

of the Mississippi. In the next year, 1804, an appropriation was made

for taking preliminary steps toward such a result. [250] There were

probably but few Cherokee on the Arkansas at this time, as they are

not mentioned in Sibley's list of tribes south of that river in 1805.

In the summer of 1808, a Cherokee delegation being about to visit

Washington, their agent, Colonel Meigs, was instructed by the

Secretary of War to use every effort to obtain their consent to

an exchange of their lands for a tract beyond the Mississippi. By

this time the government's civilizing policy, as carried out in the

annual distribution of farming tools, spinning wheels, and looms,

had wrought a considerable difference of habit and sentiment between

the northern and southern Cherokee. Those on Little Tennessee and

Hiwassee were generally farmers and stock raisers, producing also a

limited quantity of cotton, which the women wove into cloth. Those

farther down in Georgia and Alabama, the old hostile element, still

preferred the hunting life and rejected all effort at innovation,

although the game had now become so scarce that it was evident a

change must soon come. Jealousies had arisen in consequence, and the

delegates representing the progressive element now proposed to the

government that a line be run through the nation to separate the

two parties, allowing those on the north to divide their lands in

severalty and become citizens of the United States, while those on

the south might continue to be hunters as long as the game should

last. Taking advantage of this condition of affairs, the government

authorities instructed the agent to submit to the conservatives a

proposition for a cession of their share of the tribal territory

in return for a tract west of the Mississippi of sufficient area to

enable them to continue the hunting life. The plan was approved by

President Jefferson, and a sum was appropriated to pay the expenses

of a delegation to visit and inspect the lands on Arkansas and White

rivers, with a view to removal. The visit was made in the summer

of 1809, and the delegates brought back such favorable report that

a large number of Cherokee signified their intention to remove at

once. As no funds were then available for their removal, the matter

was held in abeyance for several years, during which period families

and individuals removed to the western country at their own expense

until, before the year 1817, they numbered in all two or three thousand

souls. [251] They became known as the Arkansas, or Western, Cherokee.

The emigrants soon became involved in difficulties with the native

tribes, the Osage claiming all the lands north of Arkansas river,

while the Quapaw claimed those on the south. Upon complaining to the

government the emigrant Cherokee were told that they had originally

been permitted to remove only on condition of a cession of a portion

of their eastern territory, and that nothing could be done to protect

them in their new western home until such cession had been carried

out. The body of the Cherokee Nation, however, was strongly opposed

to any such sale and proposed that the emigrants should be compelled

to return. After protracted negotiation a treaty was concluded at the

Cherokee agency (now Calhoun, Tennessee) on July 8, 1817, by which the

Cherokee Nation ceded two considerable tracts--the first in Georgia,

lying east of the Chattahoochee, and the other in Tennessee, between

Waldens ridge and the Little Sequatchee--as an equivalent for a tract

to be assigned to those who had already removed, or intended to remove,

to Arkansas. Two smaller tracts on the north bank of the Tennessee,

in the neighborhood of the Muscle shoals, were also ceded. In return

for these cessions the emigrant Cherokee were to receive a tract

within the present limits of the state of Arkansas, bounded on the

north and south by White river and Arkansas river, respectively, on

the east by a line running between those streams approximately from

the present Batesville to Lewisburg, and on the west by a line to

be determined later. As afterward established, this western line ran

from the junction of the Little North Fork with White river to just

beyond the point where the present western Arkansas boundary strikes

Arkansas river. Provision was made for taking the census of the whole

Cherokee nation east and west in order to apportion annuities and

other payments properly in the future, and the two bands were still

to be considered as forming one people. The United States agreed to

pay for any substantial improvements abandoned by those removing

from the ceded lands, and each emigrant warrior who left no such

valuable property behind was to be given as full compensation for

his abandoned field and cabin a rifle and ammunition, a blanket, and

a kettle or a beaver trap. The government further agreed to furnish

boats and provisions for the journey. Provision was also made that

individuals residing upon the ceded lands might retain allotments and

become citizens, if they so elected, the amount of the allotment to

be deducted from the total cession.

The commissioners for the treaty were General Andrew Jackson, General

David Meriwether, and Governor Joseph McMinn of Tennessee. On behalf of

the Cherokee it was signed by thirty-one principal men of the eastern

Nation and fifteen of the western band, who signed by proxy. [252]

The majority of the Cherokee were bitterly opposed to any cession or

removal project, and before the treaty had been concluded a memorial

signed by sixty-seven chiefs and headmen of the nation was presented

to the commissioners, which stated that the delegates who had first

broached the subject in Washington some years before had acted without

any authority from the nation. They declared that the great body of

the Cherokee desired to remain in the land of their birth, where they

were rapidly advancing in civilization, instead of being compelled to

revert to their original savage conditions and surroundings. They

therefore prayed that the matter might not be pressed further,

but that they might be allowed to remain in peaceable possession of

the land of their fathers. No attention was paid to the memorial,

and the treaty was carried through and ratified. Without waiting for

the ratification, the authorities at once took steps for the removal

of those who desired to go to the West. Boats were provided at points

between Little Tennessee and Sequatchee rivers, and the emigrants were

collected under the direction of Governor McMinn. Within the next

year a large number had emigrated, and before the end of 1819 the

number of emigrants was said to have increased to six thousand. The

chiefs of the nation, however, claimed that the estimate was greatly

in excess of the truth. [253]

"There can be no question that a very large portion, and probably a

majority, of the Cherokee nation residing east of the Mississippi had

been and still continued bitterly opposed to the terms of the treaty of

1817. They viewed with jealous and aching hearts all attempts to drive

them from the homes of their ancestors, for they could not but consider

the constant and urgent importunities of the federal authorities in the

light of an imperative demand for the cession of more territory. They

felt that they were, as a nation, being slowly but surely compressed

within the contracting coils of the giant anaconda of civilization;

yet they held to the vain hope that a spirit of justice and mercy

would be born of their helpless condition which would finally

prevail in their favor. Their traditions furnished them no guide

by which to judge of the results certain to follow such a conflict

as that in which they were engaged. This difference of sentiment in

the nation upon a subject so vital to their welfare was productive

of much bitterness and violent animosities. Those who had favored

the emigration scheme and had been induced, either through personal

preference or by the subsidizing influences of the government agents,

to favor the conclusion of the treaty, became the object of scorn and

hatred to the remainder of the nation. They were made the subjects

of a persecution so relentless, while they remained in the eastern

country, that it was never forgotten, and when, in the natural course

of events, the remainder of the nation was forced to remove to the

Arkansas country and join the earlier emigrants, the old hatreds and

dissensions broke out afresh, and to this day they find lodgment in

some degree in the breasts of their descendants." [254]

Two months after the signing of the treaty of July 8, 1817, and

three months before its ratification, a council of the nation sent

a delegation to Washington to recount in detail the improper methods

and influences which had been used to consummate it, and to ask that

it be set aside and another agreement substituted. The mission was

without result. [255]

In 1817 the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions

established its first station among the Cherokee at Brainerd, in

Tennessee, on the west side of Chickamauga creek, two miles from

the Georgia line. The mission took its name from a distinguished

pioneer worker among the northern tribes (37). The government aided

in the erection of the buildings, which included a schoolhouse,

gristmill, and workshops, in which, besides the ordinary branches,

the boys were taught simple mechanic arts while the girls learned the

use of the needle and the spinningwheel. There was also a large work

farm. The mission prospered and others were established at Willstown,

Hightower, and elsewhere by the same board, in which two hundred pupils

were receiving instruction in 1820. [256] Among the earliest and most

noted workers at the Brainerd mission were Reverend D. S. Buttrick and

Reverend S. A. Worcester (38), the latter especially having done much

for the mental elevation of the Cherokee, and more than once having

suffered imprisonment for his zeal in defending their cause. The

missions flourished until broken up by the state of Georgia at the

beginning of the Removal troubles, and they were afterwards renewed

in the western country. Mission ridge preserves the memory of the

Brainerd establishment.

Early in 1818 a delegation of emigrant Cherokee visited Washington

for the purpose of securing a more satisfactory determination of

the boundaries of their new lands on the Arkansas. Measures were

soon afterward taken for that purpose. They also asked recognition

in the future as a separate and distinct tribe, but nothing was done

in the matter. In order to remove, if possible, the hostile feeling

between the emigrants and the native Osage, who regarded the former

as intruders, Governor William Clark, superintendent of Indian affairs

for Missouri, arranged a conference of the chiefs of the two tribes at

St. Louis in October of that year, at which, after protracted effort,

he succeeded in establishing friendly relations between them. Efforts

were made about the same time, both by the emigrant Cherokee and by

the government, to persuade the Shawano and Delawares then residing in

Missouri, and the Oneida in New York, to join the western Cherokee,

but nothing came of the negotiations. [257] In 1825 a delegation of

western Cherokee visited the Shawano in Ohio for the same purpose,

but without success. Their object in thus inviting friendly Indians

to join them was to strengthen themselves against the Osage and other

native tribes.

In the meantime the government, through Governor McMinn, was bringing

strong pressure to bear upon the eastern Cherokee to compel their

removal to the West. At a council convened by him in November, 1818,

the governor represented to the chiefs that it was now no longer

possible to protect them from the encroachments of the surrounding

white population; that, however the government might wish to help them,

their lands would be taken, their stock stolen, their women corrupted,

and their men made drunkards unless they removed to the western

paradise. He ended by proposing to pay them one hundred thousand

dollars for their whole territory, with the expense of removal, if

they would go at once. Upon their prompt and indignant refusal he

offered to double the amount, but with as little success.

Every point of the negotiation having failed, another course was

adopted, and a delegation was selected to visit Washington under the

conduct of Agent Meigs. Here the effort was renewed until, wearied

and discouraged at the persistent importunity, the chiefs consented

to a large cession, which was represented as necessary in order to

compensate in area for the tract assigned to the emigrant Cherokee in

Arkansas in accordance with the previous treaty. This estimate was

based on the figures given by Governor McMinn, who reported 5,291

Cherokee enrolled as emigrants, while the eastern Cherokee claimed

that not more than 3,500 had removed and that those remaining numbered

12,544, or more than three-fourths of the whole nation. The governor,

however, chose to consider one-half of the nation as in favor of

removal and one-third as having already removed. [258]

The treaty, concluded at Washington on February 27, 1819, recites

that the greater part of the Cherokee nation, having expressed an

earnest desire to remain in the East, and being anxious to begin

the necessary measures for the civilization and preservation of

their nation, and to settle the differences arising out of the

treaty of 1817, have offered to cede to the United States a tract

of country "at least as extensive" as that to which the Government

is entitled under the late treaty. The cession embraces (1) a tract

in Alabama and Tennessee, between Tennessee and Flint rivers; (2)

a tract in Tennessee, between Tennessee river and Waldens ridge; (3)

a large irregular tract in Tennessee, North Carolina, and Georgia,

embracing in Tennessee nearly all the remaining Cherokee lands

north of Hiwassee river, and in North Carolina and Georgia nearly

everything remaining to them east of the Nantahala mountains and

the upper western branch of the Chattahoochee; (4) six small pieces

reserved by previous treaties. The entire cession aggregated nearly

six thousand square miles, or more than one-fourth of all then held

by the nation. Individual reservations of one mile square each within

the ceded area were allowed to a number of families which decided

to remain among the whites and become citizens rather than abandon

their homes. Payment was to be made for all substantial improvements

abandoned, one-third of all tribal annuities were hereafter to be

paid to the western band, and the treaty was declared to be a final

adjustment of all claims and differences arising from the treaty of

1817. [259]

Civilization had now progressed so far among the Cherokee that in

the fall of 1820 they adopted a regular republican form of government

modeled after that of the United States. Under this arrangement the

nation was divided into eight districts, each of which was entitled

to send four representatives to the Cherokee national legislature,

which met at Newtown, or New Echota, the capital, at the junction of

Conasauga and Coosawatee rivers, a few miles above the present Calhoun,

Georgia. The legislature consisted of an upper and a lower house,

designated, respectively (in the Cherokee language), the national

committee and national council, the members being elected for limited

terms by the voters of each district. The principal officer was styled

president of the national council; the distinguished John Ross was

the first to hold this office. There was also a clerk of the committee

and two principal members to express the will of the council or lower

house. For each district there were appointed a council house for

meetings twice a year, a judge, and a marshal. Companies of "light

horse" were organized to assist in the execution of the laws, with a

"ranger" for each district to look after stray stock. Each head of

a family and each single man under the age of sixty was subject to

a poll tax. Laws were passed for the collection of taxes and debts,

for repairs on roads, for licenses to white persons engaged in farming

or other business in the nation, for the support of schools, for the

regulation of the liquor traffic and the conduct of negro slaves,

to punish horse stealing and theft, to compel all marriages between

white men and Indian women to be according to regular legal or church

form, and to discourage polygamy. By special decree the right of blood

revenge or capital punishment was taken from the seven clans and vested

in the constituted authorities of the nation. It was made treason,

punishable with death, for any individual to negotiate the sale

of lands to the whites without the consent of the national council

(39). White men were not allowed to vote or to hold office in the

nation. [260] The system compared favorably with that of the Federal

government or of any state government then existing.

At this time there were five principal missions, besides one or two

small branch establishments in the nation, viz: Spring Place, the

oldest, founded by the Moravians at Spring place, Georgia, in 1801;

Oothcaloga, Georgia, founded by the same denomination in 1821 on the

creek of that name, near the present Calhoun; Brainerd, Tennessee,

founded by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions

in 1817; "Valley-towns," North Carolina, founded by the Baptists in

1820, on the site of the old Natchez town on the north side of Hiwassee

river, just above Peachtree creek; Coosawatee, Georgia ("Tensawattee,"

by error in the State Papers), founded also by the Baptists in 1821,

near the mouth of the river of that name. All were in flourishing

condition, the Brainerd establishment especially, with nearly one

hundred pupils, being obliged to turn away applicants for lack of

accommodation. The superintendent reported that the children were apt

to learn, willing to labor, and readily submissive to discipline,

adding that the Cherokee were fast advancing toward civilized life

and generally manifested an ardent desire for instruction. The

Valley-towns mission, established at the instance of Currahee Dick,

a prominent local mixed-blood chief, was in charge of the Reverend

Evan Jones, known as the translator of the New Testament into the

Cherokee language, his assistant being James D. Wafford, a mixed-blood

pupil, who compiled a spelling book in the same language. Reverend

S. A. Worcester, a prolific translator and the compiler of the Cherokee

almanac and other works, was stationed at Brainerd, removing thence to

New Echota and afterward to the Cherokee Nation in the West. [261]

Since 1817 the American Board had also supported at Cornwall,

Connecticut, an Indian school at which a number of young Cherokee

were being educated, among them being Elias Boudinot, afterward the

editor of the Cherokee Phoenix.

About this time occurred an event which at once placed the Cherokee in

the front rank among native tribes and was destined to have profound

influence on their whole future history, viz., the invention of

the alphabet.

The inventor, aptly called the Cadmus of his race, was a mixed-blood

known among his own people as Sikwâ'yi (Sequoya) and among the whites

as George Gist, or less correctly Guest or Guess. As is usually the

case in Indian biography much uncertainty exists in regard to his

parentage and early life. Authorities generally agree that his father

was a white man, who drifted into the Cherokee Nation some years before

the Revolution and formed a temporary alliance with a Cherokee girl

of mixed blood, who thus became the mother of the future teacher. A

writer in the Cherokee Phoenix, in 1828, says that only his paternal

grandfather was a white man. [262] McKenney and Hall say that his

father was a white man named Gist. [263] Phillips asserts that his

father was George Gist, an unlicensed German trader from Georgia,

who came into the Cherokee Nation in 1768. [264] By a Kentucky family

it is claimed that Sequoya's father was Nathaniel Gist, son of the

scout who accompanied Washington on his memorable excursion to the

Ohio. As the story goes, Nathaniel Gist was captured by the Cherokee

at Braddock's defeat (1755) and remained a prisoner with them for

six years, during which time he became the father of Sequoya. On

his return to civilization he married a white woman in Virginia,

by whom he had other children, and afterward removed to Kentucky,

where Sequoya, then a Baptist preacher, frequently visited him and

was always recognized by the family as his son. [265]

Aside from the fact that the Cherokee acted as allies of the English

during the war in which Braddock's defeat occurred, and that Sequoya,

so far from being a preacher, was not even a Christian, the story

contains other elements of improbability and appears to be one of

those genealogical myths built upon a chance similarity of name. On

the other hand, it is certain that Sequoya was born before the date

that Phillips allows. On his mother's side he was of good family in the

tribe, his uncle being a chief in Echota. [266] According to personal

information of James Wafford, who knew him well, being his second

cousin, Sequoya was probably born about the year 1760, and lived as

a boy with his mother at Tuskegee town in Tennessee, just outside

of old Fort Loudon. It is quite possible that his white father may

have been a soldier of the garrison, one of those lovers for whom the

Cherokee women risked their lives during the siege. [267] What became

of the father is not known, but the mother lived alone with her son.

The only incident of his boyhood that has come down to us is his

presence at Echota during the visit of the Iroquois peace delegation,

about the year 1770. [268] His early years were spent amid the stormy

alarms of the Revolution, and as he grew to manhood he developed a

considerable mechanical ingenuity, especially in silver working. Like

most of his tribe he was also a hunter and fur trader. Having nearly

reached middle age before the first mission was established in the

Nation, he never attended school and in all his life never learned

to speak, read, or write the English language. Neither did he ever

abandon his native religion, although from frequent visits to the

Moravian mission he became imbued with a friendly feeling toward the

new civilization. Of an essentially contemplative disposition, he

was led by a chance conversation in 1809 to reflect upon the ability

of the white men to communicate thought by means of writing, with

the result that he set about devising a similar system for his own

people. By a hunting accident, which rendered him a cripple for life,

he was fortunately afforded more leisure for study. The presence of his

name, George Guess, appended to a treaty of 1816, indicates that he was

already of some prominence in the Nation, even before the perfection

of his great invention. After years of patient and unremitting

labor in the face of ridicule, discouragement, and repeated failure,

he finally evolved the Cherokee syllabary and in 1821 submitted it

to a public test by the leading men of the Nation. By this time, in

consequence of repeated cessions, the Cherokee had been dispossessed

of the country about Echota, and Sequoya was now living at Willstown,

on an upper branch of Coosa river, in Alabama. The syllabary was soon

recognized as an invaluable invention for the elevation of the tribe,

and within a few months thousands of hitherto illiterate Cherokee were

able to read and write their own language, teaching each other in the

cabins and along the roadside. The next year Sequoya visited the West,

to introduce the new science among those who had emigrated to the

Arkansas. In the next year, 1823, he again visited the Arkansas and

took up his permanent abode with the western band, never afterward

returning to his eastern kinsmen. In the autumn of the same year

the Cherokee national council made public acknowledgment of his

merit by sending to him, through John Ross, then president of the

national committee, a silver medal with a commemorative inscription

in both languages. [269] In 1828 he visited Washington as one of the

delegates from the Arkansas band, attracting much attention, and the

treaty made on that occasion contains a provision for the payment to

him of five hundred dollars, "for the great benefits he has conferred

upon the Cherokee people, in the beneficial results which they are now

experiencing from the use of the alphabet discovered by him." [270]

His subsequent history belongs to the West and will be treated in

another place (40). [271]

The invention of the alphabet had an immediate and wonderful effect

on Cherokee development. On account of the remarkable adaptation

of the syllabary to the language, it was only necessary to learn

the characters to be able to read at once. No schoolhouses were

built and no teachers hired, but the whole Nation became an academy

for the study of the system, until, "in the course of a few months,

without school or expense of time or money, the Cherokee were able to

read and write in their own language. [272] An active correspondence

began to be carried on between the eastern and western divisions,

and plans were made for a national press, with a national library

and museum to be established at the capital, New Echota. [273]

The missionaries, who had at first opposed the new alphabet on the

ground of its Indian origin, now saw the advisability of using it

to further their own work. In the fall of 1824 Atsi or John Arch,

a young native convert, made a manuscript translation of a portion

of St. John's gospel, in the syllabary, this being the first Bible

translation ever given to the Cherokee. It was copied hundreds

of times and was widely disseminated through the Nation. [274] In

September, 1825, David Brown, a prominent half-breed preacher, who

had already made some attempt at translation in the Roman alphabet,

completed a translation of the New Testament in the new syllabary,

the work being handed about in manuscript, as there were as yet no

types cast in the Sequoya characters. [275] In the same month he

forwarded to Thomas McKenney, chief of the Bureau of Indian Affairs

at Washington, a manuscript table of the characters, with explanation,

this being probably its first introduction to official notice. [276]

In 1827 the Cherokee council having formally resolved to establish

a national paper in the Cherokee language and characters, types

for that purpose were cast in Boston, under the supervision of the

noted missionary, Worcester, of the American Board of Commissioners

for Foreign Missions, who, in December of that year contributed to

the Missionary Herald five verses of Genesis in the new syllabary,

this seeming to be its first appearance in print. Early in the next

year the press and types arrived at New Echota, and the first number

of the new paper, Tsa'lagi Tsu'lehisanuñ'hi, the Cherokee Phoenix,

printed in both languages, appeared on February 21, 1828. The first

printers were two white men, Isaac N. Harris and John F. Wheeler,

with John Candy, a half-blood apprentice. Elias Boudinot (Galagi'na,

"The Buck"), an educated Cherokee, was the editor, and Reverend

S. A. Worcester was the guiding spirit who brought order out of chaos

and set the work in motion. The office was a log house. The hand

press and types, after having been shipped by water from Boston,

were transported two hundred miles by wagon from Augusta to their

destination. The printing paper had been overlooked and had to be

brought by the same tedious process from Knoxville. Cases and other

equipments had to be devised and fashioned by the printers, neither of

whom understood a word of Cherokee, but simply set up the characters,

as handed to them in manuscript by Worcester and the editor. Such was

the beginning of journalism in the Cherokee nation. After a precarious

existence of about six years the Phoenix was suspended, owing to the

hostile action of the Georgia authorities, who went so far as to throw

Worcester and Wheeler into prison. Its successor, after the removal

of the Cherokee to the West, was the Cherokee Advocate, of which

the first number appeared at Tahlequah in 1844, with William P. Ross

as editor. It is still continued under the auspices of the Nation,

printed in both languages and distributed free at the expense of the

Nation to those unable to read English--an example without parallel

in any other government.

In addition to numerous Bible translations, hymn books, and other

religious works, there have been printed in the Cherokee language and

syllabary the Cherokee Phoenix (journal), Cherokee Advocate (journal),

Cherokee Messenger (periodical), Cherokee Almanac (annual), Cherokee

spelling books, arithmetics, and other schoolbooks for those unable to

read English, several editions of the laws of the Nation, and a large

body of tracts and minor publications. Space forbids even a mention

of the names of the devoted workers in this connection. Besides this

printed literature the syllabary is in constant and daily use among the

non-English-speaking element, both in Indian Territory and in North

Carolina, for letter writing, council records, personal memoranda,

etc. What is perhaps strangest of all in this literary evolution is

the fact that the same invention has been seized by the priests and

conjurers of the conservative party for the purpose of preserving

to their successors the ancient rituals and secret knowledge of the

tribe, whole volumes of such occult literature in manuscript having

been obtained among them by the author. [277]

In 1819 the whole Cherokee population had been estimated at 15,000,

one-third of them being west of the Mississippi. In 1825 a census

of the eastern Nation showed: native Cherokee, 13,563; white men

married into the Nation, 147; white women married into the Nation,

73; negro slaves, 1,277. There were large herds of cattle, horses,

hogs, and sheep, with large crops of every staple, including cotton,

tobacco, and wheat, and some cotton was exported by boats as far as New

Orleans. Apple and peach orchards were numerous, butter and cheese were

in use to some extent, and both cotton and woolen cloths, especially

blankets, were manufactured. Nearly all the merchants were native

Cherokee. Mechanical industries flourished, the Nation was out of debt,

and the population was increasing. [278] Estimating one-third beyond

the Mississippi, the total number of Cherokee, exclusive of adopted

white citizens and negro slaves, must then have been about 20,000.

Simultaneously with the decrees establishing a national press,

the Cherokee Nation, in general convention of delegates held for

the purpose at New Echota on July 26, 1827, adopted a national

constitution, based on the assumption of distinct and independent

nationality. John Ross, so celebrated in connection with the history

of his tribe, was president of the convention which framed the

instrument. Charles R. Hicks, a Moravian convert of mixed blood, and at

that time the most influential man in the Nation, was elected principal

chief, with John Ross as assistant chief. [279] With a constitution

and national press, a well-developed system of industries and home

education, and a government administered by educated Christian men, the

Cherokee were now justly entitled to be considered a civilized people.

The idea of a civilized Indian government was not a new one. The first

treaty ever negotiated by the United States with an Indian tribe,

in 1778, held out to the Delawares the hope that by a confederation

of friendly tribes they might be able "to form a state, whereof

the Delaware nation shall be the head and have a representation in

Congress." [280] Priber, the Jesuit, had already familiarized the

Cherokee with the forms of civilized government before the middle

of the eighteenth century. As the gap between the conservative and

progressive elements widened after the Revolution the idea grew,

until in 1808 representatives of both parties visited Washington to

propose an arrangement by which those who clung to the old life might

be allowed to remove to the western hunting grounds, while the rest

should remain to take up civilization and "begin the establishment

of fixed laws and a regular government." The project received the

warm encouragement of President Jefferson, and it was with this

understanding that the western emigration was first officially

recognized a few years later. Immediately upon the return of the

delegates from Washington the Cherokee drew up their first brief

written code of laws, modeled agreeably to the friendly suggestions

of Jefferson. [281]

By this time the rapid strides of civilization and Christianity had

alarmed the conservative element, who saw in the new order of things

only the evidences of apostasy and swift national decay. In 1828

White-path (Nûñ'nâ-tsune'ga), an influential full-blood and councilor,

living at Turniptown (U`lûñ'yi), near the present Ellijay, in Gilmer

county, Georgia, headed a rebellion against the new code of laws,

with all that it implied. He soon had a large band of followers, known

to the whites as "Red-sticks," a title sometimes assumed by the more

warlike element among the Creeks and other southern tribes. From the

townhouse of Ellijay he preached the rejection of the new constitution,

the discarding of Christianity and the white man's ways, and a return

to the old tribal law and custom--the same doctrine that had more than

once constituted the burden of Indian revelation in the past. It was

now too late, however, to reverse the wheel of progress, and under

the rule of such men as Hicks and Ross the conservative opposition

gradually melted away. White-path was deposed from his seat in council,

but subsequently made submission and was reinstated. He was afterward

one of the detachment commanders in the Removal, but died while on

the march. [282]

In this year, also, John Ross became principal chief of the Nation,

a position which he held until his death in 1866, thirty-eight years

later. [283] In this long period, comprising the momentous episodes

of the Removal and the War of the Rebellion, it may be truly said

that his history is the history of the Nation.

And now, just when it seemed that civilization and enlightenment

were about to accomplish their perfect work, the Cherokee began to

hear the first low muttering of the coming storm that was soon to

overturn their whole governmental structure and sweep them forever

from the land of their birth.

By an agreement between the United States and the state of Georgia

in 1802, the latter, for valuable consideration, had ceded to the

general government her claims west of the present state boundary,

the United States at the same time agreeing to extinguish, at its own

expense, but for the benefit of the state, the Indian claims within

the state limits, "as early as the same can be peaceably obtained on

reasonable terms." [284] In accordance with this agreement several

treaties had already been made with the Creeks and Cherokee, by

which large tracts had been secured for Georgia at the expense of

the general government. Notwithstanding this fact, and the terms

of the proviso, Georgia accused the government of bad faith in not

taking summary measures to compel the Indians at once to surrender

all their remaining lands within the chartered state limits, coupling

the complaint with a threat to take the matter into her own hands. In

1820 Agent Meigs had expressed the opinion that the Cherokee were now

so far advanced that further government aid was unnecessary, and that

their lands should be allotted and the surplus sold for their benefit,

they themselves to be invested with full rights of citizenship in

the several states within which they resided. This suggestion had

been approved by President Monroe, but had met the most determined

opposition from the states concerned. Tennessee absolutely refused

to recognize individual reservations made by previous treaties, while

North Carolina and Georgia bought in all such reservations with money

appropriated by Congress. [285] No Indian was to be allowed to live

within those states on any pretext whatsoever.

In the meantime, owing to persistent pressure from Georgia, repeated

unsuccessful efforts had been made to procure from the Cherokee a

cession of their lands within the chartered limits of the state. Every

effort met with a firm refusal, the Indians declaring that having

already made cession after cession from a territory once extensive,

their remaining lands were no more than were needed for themselves

and their children, more especially as experience had shown that

each concession would be followed by a further demand. They conclude:

"It is the fixed and unalterable determination of this nation never

again to cede one foot more of land." Soon afterward they addressed

to the President a memorial of similar tenor, to which Calhoun, as

Secretary of War, returned answer that as Georgia objected to their

presence either as a tribe or as individual owners or citizens,

they must prepare their minds for removal beyond the Mississippi. [286]

In reply, the Cherokee, by their delegates--John Ross, George Lowrey,

Major Ridge, and Elijah Hicks--sent a strong letter calling attention

to the fact that by the very wording of the 1802 agreement the

compact was a conditional one which could not be carried out without

their own voluntary consent, and suggesting that Georgia might be

satisfied from the adjoining government lands in Florida. Continuing,

they remind the Secretary that the Cherokee are not foreigners, but

original inhabitants of America, inhabiting and standing now upon

the soil of their own territory, with limits defined by treaties

with the United States, and that, confiding in the good faith of the

government to respect its treaty stipulations, they do not hesitate

to say that their true interest, prosperity, and happiness demand

their permanency where they are and the retention of their lands. [287]

A copy of this letter was sent by the Secretary to Governor Troup of

Georgia, who returned a reply in which he blamed the missionaries

for the refusal of the Indians, declared that the state would not

permit them to become citizens, and that the Secretary must either

assist the state in taking possession of the Cherokee lands, or, in

resisting that occupancy, make war upon and shed the blood of brothers

and friends. The Georgia delegation in Congress addressed a similar

letter to President Monroe, in which the government was censured for

having instructed the Indians in the arts of civilized life and having

thereby imbued them with a desire to acquire property. [288]

For answer the President submitted a report by Secretary Calhoun

showing that since the agreement had been made with Georgia in 1802

the government had, at its own expense, extinguished the Indian claim

to 24,600 square miles within the limits of that state, or more

than three-fifths of the whole Indian claim, and had paid on that

and other accounts connected with the agreement nearly seven and a

half million dollars, of which by far the greater part had gone to

Georgia or her citizens. In regard to the other criticism the report

states that the civilizing policy was as old as the government itself,

and that in performing the high duties of humanity to the Indians,

it had never been conceived that the stipulation of the convention

was contravened. In handing in the report the President again called

attention to the conditional nature of the agreement and declared it

as his opinion that the title of the Indians was not in the slightest

degree affected by it and that there was no obligation on the United

States to remove them by force. [289]

Further efforts, even to the employment of secret methods, were made in

1827 and 1828 to induce a cession or emigration, but without avail. On

July 26, 1827, as already noted, the Cherokee adopted a constitution

as a distinct and sovereign Nation. Upon this the Georgia legislature

passed resolutions affirming that that state "had the power and

the right to possess herself, by any means she might choose, of the

lands in dispute, and to extend over them her authority and laws,"

and recommending that this be done by the next legislature, if the

lands were not already acquired by successful negotiation of the

general government in the meantime. The government was warned that

the lands belonged to Georgia, and she must and would have them. It

was suggested, however, that the United States might be permitted to

make a certain number of reservations to individual Indians. [290]

Passing over for the present some important negotiations with the

western Cherokee, we come to the events leading to the final act in

the drama. Up to this time the pressure had been for land only, but

now a stronger motive was added. About the year 1815 a little Cherokee

boy playing along Chestatee river, in upper Georgia, had brought in to

his mother a shining yellow pebble hardly larger than the end of his

thumb. On being washed it proved to be a nugget of gold, and on her

next trip to the settlements the woman carried it with her and sold it

to a white man. The news spread, and although she probably concealed

the knowledge of the exact spot of its origin, it was soon known that

the golden dreams of De Soto had been realized in the Cherokee country

of Georgia. Within four years the whole territory east of the Chestatee

had passed from the possession of the Cherokee. They still held the

western bank, but the prospector was abroad in the mountains and it

could not be for long. [291] About 1828 gold was found on Ward's

creek, a western branch of Chestatee, near the present Dahlonega,

[292] and the doom of the nation was sealed (41).

In November, 1828, Andrew Jackson was elected to succeed John Quincy

Adams as President. He was a frontiersman and Indian hater, and the

change boded no good to the Cherokee. His position was well understood,

and there is good ground for believing that the action at once taken

by Georgia was at his own suggestion. [293] On December 20, 1828, a

month after his election, Georgia passed an act annexing that part of

the Cherokee country within her chartered limits and extending over it

her jurisdiction; all laws and customs established among the Cherokee

were declared null and void, and no person of Indian blood or descent

residing within the Indian country was henceforth to be allowed as a

witness or party in any suit where a white man should be defendant. The

act was to take effect June 1, 1830 (42). The whole territory was soon

after mapped out into counties and surveyed by state surveyors into

"land lots" of 160 acres each, and "gold lots" of 40 acres, which were

put up and distributed among the white citizens of Georgia by public

lottery, each white citizen receiving a ticket. Every Cherokee head

of a family was, indeed, allowed a reservation of 160 acres, but no

deed was given, and his continuance depended solely on the pleasure of

the legislature. Provision was made for the settlement of contested

lottery claims among the white citizens, but by the most stringent

enactments, in addition to the sweeping law which forbade anyone of

Indian blood to bring suit or to testify against a white man, it was

made impossible for the Indian owner to defend his right in any court

or to resist the seizure of his homestead, or even his own dwelling

house, and anyone so resisting was made subject to imprisonment at

the discretion of a Georgia court. Other laws directed to the same

end quickly followed, one of which made invalid any contract between

a white man and an Indian unless established by the testimony of two

white witnesses--thus practically canceling all debts due from white

men to Indians--while another obliged all white men residing in the

Cherokee country to take a special oath of allegiance to the state of

Georgia, on penalty of four years' imprisonment in the penitentiary,

this act being intended to drive out all the missionaries, teachers,

and other educators who refused to countenance the spoliation. About

the same time the Cherokee were forbidden to hold councils, or to

assemble for any public purpose, [294] or to dig for gold upon their

own lands.

The purpose of this legislation was to render life in their own country

intolerable to the Cherokee by depriving them of all legal protection

and friendly counsel, and the effect was precisely as intended. In an

eloquent address upon the subject before the House of Representatives

the distinguished Edward Everett clearly pointed out the encouragement

which it gave to lawless men: "They have but to cross the Cherokee

line; they have but to choose the time and the place where the eye of

no white man can rest upon them, and they may burn the dwelling, waste

the farm, plunder the property, assault the person, murder the children

of the Cherokee subject of Georgia, and though hundreds of the tribe

may be looking on, there is not one of them that can be permitted to

bear witness against the spoiler." [295] Senator Sprague, of Maine,

said of the law that it devoted the property of the Cherokee to the

cupidity of their neighbors, leaving them exposed to every outrage

which lawless persons could inflict, so that even robbery and murder

might be committed with impunity at noonday, if not in the presence

of whites who would testify against it. [296]

The prediction was fulfilled to the letter. Bands of armed men

invaded the Cherokee country, forcibly seizing horses and cattle,

taking possession of houses from which they had ejected the occupants,

and assaulting the owners who dared to make resistance. [297] In one

instance, near the present Dahlonega, two white men, who had been

hospitably received and entertained at supper by an educated Cherokee

citizen of nearly pure white blood, later in the evening, during the

temporary absence of the parents, drove out the children and their

nurse and deliberately set fire to the house, which was burned to the

ground with all its contents. They were pursued and brought to trial,

but the case was dismissed by the judge on the ground that no Indian

could testify against a white man. [298] Cherokee miners upon their

own ground were arrested, fined, and imprisoned, and their tools

and machinery destroyed, while thousands of white intruders were

allowed to dig in the same places unmolested. [299] A Cherokee on

trial in his own nation for killing another Indian was seized by

the state authorities, tried and condemned to death, although, not

understanding English, he was unable to speak in his own defense. A

United States court forbade the execution, but the judge who had

conducted the trial defied the writ, went to the place of execution,

and stood beside the sheriff while the Indian was being hanged. [300]

Immediately on the passage of the first act the Cherokee appealed to

President Jackson, but were told that no protection would be afforded

them. Other efforts were then made--in 1829--to persuade them to

removal, or to procure another cession--this time of all their lands

in North Carolina--but the Cherokee remained firm. The Georgia law was

declared in force on June 3, 1830, whereupon the President directed

that the annuity payment due the Cherokee Nation under previous

treaties should no longer be paid to their national treasurer, as

hitherto, but distributed per capita by the agent. As a national fund

it had been used for the maintenance of their schools and national

press. As a per capita payment it amounted to forty-two cents to each

individual. Several years afterward it still remained unpaid. Federal

troops were also sent into the Cherokee country with orders to

prevent all mining by either whites or Indians unless authorized by

the state of Georgia. All these measures served only to render the

Cherokee more bitter in their determination. In September, 1830,

another proposition was made for the removal of the tribe, but the

national council emphatically refused to consider the subject. [301]

In January, 1831, the Cherokee Nation, by John Ross as principal chief,

brought a test suit of injunction against Georgia, in the United States

Supreme Court. The majority of the court dismissed the suit on the

ground that the Cherokee were not a foreign nation within the meaning

of the Constitution, two justices dissenting from this opinion. [302]

Shortly afterward, under the law which forbade any white man to reside

in the Cherokee Nation without taking an oath of allegiance to Georgia,

a number of arrests were made, including Wheeler, the printer of the

Cherokee Phoenix, and the missionaries, Worcester, Butler, Thompson,

and Proctor, who, being there by permission of the agent and feeling

that plain American citizenship should hold good in any part of the

United States, refused to take the oath. Some of those arrested

took the oath and were released, but Worcester and Butler, still

refusing, were dressed in prison garb and put at hard labor among

felons. Worcester had plead in his defense that he was a citizen of

Vermont, and had entered the Cherokee country by permission of the

President of the United States and approval of the Cherokee Nation;

and that as the United States by several treaties had acknowledged

the Cherokee to be a nation with a guaranteed and definite territory,

the state had no right to interfere with him. He was sentenced to four

years in the penitentiary. On March 3, 1832, the matter was appealed as

a test case to the Supreme Court of the United States, which rendered a

decision in favor of Worcester and the Cherokee Nation and ordered his

release. Georgia, however, through her governor, had defied the summons

with a threat of opposition, even to the annihilation of the Union,

and now ignored the decision, refusing to release the missionary,

who remained in prison until set free by the will of the governor

nearly a year later. A remark attributed to President Jackson, on

hearing of the result in the Supreme Court, may throw some light on

the whole proceeding: "John Marshall has made his decision, now let

him enforce it." [303]

On the 19th of July, 1832, a public fast was observed throughout

the Cherokee Nation. In the proclamation recommending it, Chief

Ross observes that "Whereas the crisis in the affairs of the Nation

exhibits the day of tribulation and sorrow, and the time appears to

be fast hastening when the destiny of this people must be sealed;

whether it has been directed by the wonted depravity and wickedness of

man, or by the unsearchable and mysterious will of an allwise Being,

it equally becomes us, as a rational and Christian community, humbly

to bow in humiliation," etc. [304]

Further attempts were made to induce the Cherokee to remove to the

West, but met the same firm refusal as before. It was learned that

in view of the harrassing conditions to which they were subjected the

Cherokee were now seriously considering the project of emigrating to

the Pacific Coast, at the mouth of the Columbia, a territory then

claimed by England and held by the posts of the British Hudson Bay

Company. The Secretary of War at once took steps to discourage the

movement. [305] A suggestion from the Cherokee that the government

satisfy those who had taken possession of Cherokee lands under

the lottery drawing by giving them instead an equivalent from the

unoccupied government lands was rejected by the President.

In the spring of 1834 the Cherokee submitted a memorial which, after

asserting that they would never voluntarily consent to abandon their

homes, proposed to satisfy Georgia by ceding to her a portion of

their territory, they to be protected in possession of the remainder

until the end of a definite period to be fixed by the United States,

at the expiration of which, after disposing of their surplus lands,

they should become citizens of the various states within which they

resided. They were told that their difficulties could be remedied

only by their removal to the west of the Mississippi. In the meantime

a removal treaty was being negotiated with a self-styled committee of

some fifteen or twenty Cherokee called together at the agency. It was

carried through in spite of the protest of John Ross and the Cherokee

Nation, as embodied in a paper said to contain the signatures of

13,000 Cherokee, but failed of ratification. [306]

Despairing of any help from the President, the Cherokee delegation,

headed by John Ross, addressed another earnest memorial to Congress

on May 17, 1834. Royce quotes the document at length, with the remark,

"Without affecting to pass judgment on the merits of the controversy,

the writer thinks this memorial well deserving of reproduction here as

evidencing the devoted and pathetic attachment with which the Cherokee

clung to the land of their fathers, and, remembering the wrongs

and humiliations of the past, refused to be convinced that justice,

prosperity, and happiness awaited them beyond the Mississippi." [307]

In August of this year another council was held at Red Clay,

south-eastward from Chattanooga and just within the Georgia line,

where the question of removal was again debated in what is officially

described as a tumultuous and excited meeting. One of the principal

advocates of the emigration scheme, a prominent mixed-blood named

John Walker, jr., was assassinated from ambush while returning from

the council to his home a few miles north of the present Cleveland,

Tennessee. On account of his superior education and influential

connections, his wife being a niece of former agent Return J. Meigs,

the affair created intense excitement at the time. The assassination

has been considered the first of the long series of political murders

growing out of the removal agitation, but, according to the testimony

of old Cherokee acquainted with the facts, the killing was due to a

more personal motive. [308]

The Cherokee were now nearly worn out by constant battle against

a fate from which they could see no escape. In February, 1835, two

rival delegations arrived in Washington. One, the national party,

headed by John Ross, came prepared still to fight to the end for

home and national existence. The other, headed by Major John Ridge,

a prominent subchief, despairing of further successful resistance,

was prepared to negotiate for removal. Reverend J. F. Schermerhorn

was appointed commissioner to arrange with the Ridge party a treaty

to be confirmed later by the Cherokee people in general council. On

this basis a treaty was negotiated with the Ridge party by which the

Cherokee were to cede their whole eastern territory and remove to the

West in consideration of the sum of $3,250,000 with some additional

acreage in the West and a small sum for depredations committed upon

them by the whites. Finding that these negotiations were proceeding,

the Ross party filed a counter proposition for $20,000,000, which

was rejected by the Senate as excessive. The Schermerhorn compact

with the Ridge party, with the consideration changed to $4,500,000,

was thereupon completed and signed on March 14, 1835, but with

the express stipulation that it should receive the approval of the

Cherokee nation in full council assembled before being considered of

any binding force. This much accomplished, Mr. Schermerhorn departed

for the Cherokee country, armed with an address from President

Jackson in which the great benefits of removal were set forth to the

Cherokee. Having exhausted the summer and fall in fruitless effort to

secure favorable action, the reverend gentleman notified the President,

proposing either to obtain the signatures of the leading Cherokee by

promising them payment for their improvements at their own valuation,

if in any degree reasonable, or to conclude a treaty with a part of the

Nation and compel its acceptance by the rest. He was promptly informed

by the Secretary of War, Lewis Cass, on behalf of the President, that

the treaty, if concluded at all, must be procured upon fair and open

terms, with no particular promise to any individual, high or low,

to gain his aid or influence, and without sacrificing the interest

of the whole to the cupidity of a few. He was also informed that,

as it would probably be contrary to his wish, his letter would not

be put on file. [309]

In October, 1835, the Ridge treaty was rejected by the Cherokee Nation

in full council at Red Clay, even its main supporters, Ridge himself

and Elias Boudinot, going over to the majority, most unexpectedly

to Schermerhorn, who reports the result, piously adding, "but the

Lord is able to overrule all things for good." During the session of

this council notice was served on the Cherokee to meet commissioners

at New Echota in December following for the purpose of negotiating

a treaty. The notice was also printed in the Cherokee language and

circulated throughout the Nation, with a statement that those who

failed to attend would be counted as assenting to any treaty that

might be made. [310]

The council had authorized the regular delegation, headed by John Ross,

to conclude a treaty either there or at Washington, but, finding that

Schermerhorn had no authority to treat on any other basis than the one

rejected by the Nation, the delegates proceeded to Washington. [311]

Before their departure John Ross, who had removed to Tennessee to

escape persecution in his own state, was arrested at his home by

the Georgia guard, all his private papers and the proceedings of the

council being taken at the same time, and conveyed across the line

into Georgia, where he was held for some time without charge against

him, and at last released without apology or explanation. The poet,

John Howard Payne, who was then stopping with Ross, engaged in the

work of collecting historical and ethnologic material relating to

the Cherokee, was seized at the same time, with all his letters and

scientific manuscripts. The national paper, the Cherokee Phoenix,

had been suppressed and its office plant seized by the same guard a

few days before. [312] Thus in their greatest need the Cherokee were

deprived of the help and counsel of their teachers, their national

press, and their chief.

Although for two months threats and inducements had been held

out to secure a full attendance at the December conference at New

Echota, there were present when the proceedings opened, according

to the report of Schermerhorn himself, only from three hundred to

five hundred men, women, and children, out of a population of over

17,000. Notwithstanding the paucity of attendance and the absence

of the principal officers of the Nation, a committee was appointed

to arrange the details of a treaty, which was finally drawn up and

signed on December 29, 1835. [313]

Briefly stated, by this treaty of New Echota, Georgia, the Cherokee

Nation ceded to the United States its whole remaining territory east of

the Mississippi for the sum of five million dollars and a common joint

interest in the territory already occupied by the western Cherokee,

in what is now Indian Territory, with an additional smaller tract

adjoining on the northeast, in what is now Kansas. Improvements were

to be paid for, and the Indians were to be removed at the expense of

the United States and subsisted at the expense of the Government for

one year after their arrival in the new country. The removal was to

take place within two years from the ratification of the treaty.

On the strong representations of the Cherokee signers, who would

probably not have signed otherwise even then, it was agreed that a

limited number of Cherokee who should desire to remain behind in North

Carolina, Tennessee, and Alabama, and become citizens, having first

been adjudged "qualified or calculated to become useful citizens,"

might so remain, together with a few holding individual reservations

under former treaties. This provision was allowed by the commissioners,

but was afterward struck out on the announcement by President Jackson

of his determination "not to allow any preemptions or reservations, his

desire being that the whole Cherokee people should remove together."

Provision was made also for the payment of debts due by the Indians out

of any moneys coming to them under the treaty; for the reestablishment

of the missions in the West; for pensions to Cherokee wounded in the

service of the government in the war of 1812 and the Creek war; for

permission to establish in the new country such military posts and

roads for the use of the United States as should be deemed necessary;

for satisfying Osage claims in the western territory and for bringing

about a friendly understanding between the two tribes; and for the

commutation of all annuities and other sums due from the United

States into a permanent national fund, the interest to be placed

at the disposal of the officers of the Cherokee Nation and by them

disbursed, according to the will of their own people, for the care

of schools and orphans, and for general national purposes.

The western territory assigned the Cherokee under this treaty was

in two adjoining tracts, viz, (1) a tract of seven million acres,

together with a "perpetual outlet west," already assigned to the

western Cherokee under treaty of 1833, as will hereafter be noted,

[314] being identical with the present area occupied by the Cherokee

Nation in Indian Territory, together with the former "Cherokee strip,"

with the exception of a two-mile strip along the northern boundary,

now included within the limits of Kansas; (2) a smaller additional

tract of eight hundred thousand acres, running fifty miles north

and south and twenty-five miles east and west, in what is now the

southeastern corner of Kansas. For this second tract the Cherokee

themselves were to pay the United States five hundred thousand dollars.

The treaty of 1833, assigning the first described tract to the western

Cherokee, states that the United States agrees to "guaranty it to them

forever, and that guarantee is hereby pledged." By the same treaty,

"in addition to the seven millions of acres of land thus provided

for and bounded, the United States further guaranty to the Cherokee

nation a perpetual outlet west and a free and unmolested use of

all the country lying west of the western boundary of said seven

millions of acres, as far west as the sovereignty of the United

States and their right of soil extend ... and letters patent shall

be issued by the United States as soon as practicable for the land

hereby guaranteed." All this was reiterated by the present treaty,

and made to include also the smaller (second) tract, in these words:

Art. 3. The United States also agree that the lands above ceded by

the treaty of February 14, 1833, including the outlet, and those

ceded by this treaty, shall all be included in one patent, executed

to the Cherokee nation of Indians by the President of the United

States, according to the provisions of the act of May 28, 1830....

Art. 5. The United States hereby covenant and agree that the

lands ceded to the Cherokee nation in the foregoing article shall

in no future time, without their consent, be included within the

territorial limits or jurisdiction of any state or territory. But

they shall secure to the Cherokee nation the right of their

national councils to make and carry into effect all such laws as

they may deem necessary for the government and protection of the

persons and property within their own country belonging to their

people or such persons as have connected themselves with them:

Provided always, that they shall not be inconsistent with the

Constitution of the United States and such acts of Congress as have

been or may be passed regulating trade and intercourse with the

Indians; and also that they shall not be considered as extending

to such citizens and army of the United States as may travel or

reside in the Indian country by permission, according to the laws

and regulations established by the government of the same....

Art. 6. Perpetual peace and friendship shall exist between the

citizens of the United States and the Cherokee Indians. The United

States agree to protect the Cherokee nation from domestic strife

and foreign enemies and against intestine wars between the several

tribes. The Cherokees shall endeavor to preserve and maintain

the peace of the country, and not make war upon their neighbors;

they shall also be protected against interruption and intrusion

from citizens of the United States who may attempt to settle in

the country without their consent; and all such persons shall

be removed from the same by order of the President of the United

States. But this is not intended to prevent the residence among

them of useful farmers, mechanics, and teachers for the instruction

of the Indians according to treaty stipulations.

Article 7. The Cherokee nation having already made great progress

in civilization, and deeming it important that every proper and

laudable inducement should be offered to their people to improve

their condition, as well as to guard and secure in the most

effectual manner the rights guaranteed to them in this treaty,

and with a view to illustrate the liberal and enlarged policy

of the government of the United States toward the Indians in

their removal beyond the territorial limits of the states, it

is stipulated that they shall be entitled to a Delegate in the

House of Representatives of the United States whenever Congress

shall make provision for the same.

The instrument was signed by (Governor) William Carroll of Tennessee

and (Reverend) J. F. Schermerhorn as commissioners--the former,

however, having been unable to attend by reason of illness--and

by twenty Cherokee, among whom the most prominent were Major Ridge

and Elias Boudinot, former editor of the Phoenix. Neither John Ross

nor any one of the officers of the Cherokee Nation was present or

represented. After some changes by the Senate, it was ratified May 23,

1836. [315]

Upon the treaty of New Echota and the treaty previously made with the

western Cherokee at Fort Gibson in 1833, the united Cherokee Nation

based its claim to the present territory held by the tribe in Indian

Territory and to the Cherokee outlet, and to national self-government,

with protection from outside intrusion.

An official census taken in 1835 showed the whole number of Cherokee

in Georgia, North Carolina, Alabama, and Tennessee to be 16,542,

exclusive of 1,592 negro slaves and 201 whites intermarried with

Cherokee. The Cherokee were distributed as follows: Georgia, 8,946;

North Carolina, 3,644; Tennessee, 2,528; Alabama, 1,424. [316]

Despite the efforts of Ross and the national delegates, who presented

protests with signatures representing nearly 16,000 Cherokee, the

treaty had been ratified by a majority of one vote over the necessary

number, and preliminary steps were at once taken to carry it into

execution. Councils were held in opposition all over the Cherokee

Nation, and resolutions denouncing the methods used and declaring

the treaty absolutely null and void were drawn up and submitted to

General Wool, in command of the troops in the Cherokee country, by whom

they were forwarded to Washington. The President in reply expressed

his surprise that an officer of the army should have received or

transmitted a paper so disrespectful to the Executive, the Senate,

and the American people; declared his settled determination that

the treaty should be carried out without modification and with all

consistent dispatch, and directed that after a copy of the letter

had been delivered to Ross, no further communication, by mouth or

writing, should be held with him concerning the treaty. It was further

directed that no council should be permitted to assemble to discuss the

treaty. Ross had already been informed that the President had ceased

to recognize any existing government among the eastern Cherokee,

and that any further effort by him to prevent the consummation of

the treaty would be suppressed. [317]

Notwithstanding this suppression of opinion, the feeling of the Nation

was soon made plain through other sources. Before the ratification of

the treaty Major W. M. Davis had been appointed to enroll the Cherokee

for removal and to appraise the value of their improvements. He soon

learned the true condition of affairs, and, although holding his

office by the good will of President Jackson, he addressed to the

Secretary of War a strong letter upon the subject, from which the

following extract is made:

I conceive that my duty to the President, to yourself, and to

my country reluctantly compels me to make a statement of facts

in relation to a meeting of a small number of Cherokees at

New Echota last December, who were met by Mr. Schermerhorn and

articles of a general treaty entered into between them for the

whole Cherokee nation.... Sir, that paper, ... called a treaty,

is no treaty at all, because not sanctioned by the great body of

the Cherokee and made without their participation or assent. I

solemnly declare to you that upon its reference to the Cherokee

people it would be instantly rejected by nine-tenths of them,

and I believe by nineteen-twentieths of them. There were not

present at the conclusion of the treaty more than one hundred

Cherokee voters, and not more than three hundred, including women

and children, although the weather was everything that could

be desired. The Indians had long been notified of the meeting,

and blankets were promised to all who would come and vote for

the treaty. The most cunning and artful means were resorted

to to conceal the paucity of numbers present at the treaty. No

enumeration of them was made by Schermerhorn. The business of

making the treaty was transacted with a committee appointed by the

Indians present, so as not to expose their numbers. The power of

attorney under which the committee acted was signed only by the

president and secretary of the meeting, so as not to disclose

their weakness.... Mr. Schermerhorn's apparent design was to

conceal the real number present and to impose on the public and the

government upon this point. The delegation taken to Washington by

Mr. Schermerhorn had no more authority to make a treaty than any

other dozen Cherokee accidentally picked up for the purpose. I now

warn you and the President that if this paper of Schermerhorn's

called a treaty is sent to the Senate and ratified you will bring

trouble upon the government and eventually destroy this [the

Cherokee] Nation. The Cherokee are a peaceable, harmless people,

but you may drive them to desperation, and this treaty can not

be carried into effect except by the strong arm of force. [318]

General Wool, who had been placed in command of the troops concentrated

in the Cherokee country to prevent opposition to the enforcement of

the treaty, reported on February 18, 1837, that he had called them

together and made them an address, but "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. Many have said

they will die before they will leave the country." [319]

Other letters from General Wool while engaged in the work of disarming

and overawing the Cherokee show how very disagreeable that duty was

to him and how strongly his sympathies were with the Indians, who were

practically unanimous in repudiating the treaty. In one letter he says:

The whole scene since I have been in this country has been nothing

but a heart-rending one, and such a one as I would be glad to get

rid of as soon as circumstances will permit. Because I am firm

and decided, do not believe I would be unjust. If I could, and I

could not do them a greater kindness, I would remove every Indian

to-morrow beyond the reach of the white men, who, like vultures,

are watching, ready to pounce upon their prey and strip them of

everything they have or expect from the government of the United

States. Yes, sir, nineteen-twentieths, if not ninety-nine out of

every hundred, will go penniless to the West. [320]

How it was to be brought about is explained in part by a letter

addressed to the President by Major Ridge himself, the principal

signer of the treaty:

We now come to address you on the subject of our griefs and

afflictions from the acts of the white people. They have got

our lands and now they are preparing to fleece us of the money

accruing from the treaty. We found our plantations taken either

in whole or in part by the Georgians--suits instituted against us

for back rents for our own farms. These suits are commenced in

the inferior courts, with the evident design that, when we are

ready to remove, to arrest our people, and on these vile claims

to induce us to compromise for our own release, to travel with

our families. Thus our funds will be filched from our people, and

we shall be compelled to leave our country as beggars and in want.

Even the Georgia laws, which deny us our oaths, are thrown aside,

and notwithstanding the cries of our people, and protestation of

our innocence and peace, the lowest classes of the white people are

flogging the Cherokees with cowhides, hickories, and clubs. We are

not safe in our houses--our people are assailed by day and night by

the rabble. Even justices of the peace and constables are concerned

in this business. This barbarous treatment is not confined to men, but

the women are stripped also and whipped without law or mercy.... Send

regular troops to protect us from these lawless assaults, and to

protect our people as they depart for the West. If it is not done,

we shall carry off nothing but the scars of the lash on our backs,

and our oppressors will get all the money. We talk plainly, as

chiefs having property and life in danger, and we appeal to you for

protection.... [321]

General Dunlap, in command of the Tennessee troops called out to

prevent the alleged contemplated Cherokee uprising, having learned

for himself the true situation, delivered an indignant address to his

men in which he declared that he would never dishonor the Tennessee

arms by aiding to carry into execution at the point of the bayonet

a treaty made by a lean minority against the will and authority of

the Cherokee people. He stated further that he had given the Cherokee

all the protection in his power, the whites needing none. [322]

A confidential agent sent to report upon the situation wrote in

September, 1837, that opposition to the treaty was unanimous and

irreconcilable, the Cherokee declaring that it could not bind

them because they did not make it, that it was the work of a few

unauthorized individuals and that the Nation was not a party to

it. They had retained the forms of their government, although no

election had been held since 1830, having continued the officers

then in charge until their government could again be reestablished

regularly. Under this arrangement John Ross was principal chief, with

influence unbounded and unquestioned. "The whole Nation of eighteen

thousand persons is with him, the few--about three hundred--who

made the treaty having left the country, with the exception of

a small number of prominent individuals--as Ridge, Boudinot, and

others--who remained to assist in carrying it into execution. It is

evident, therefore, that Ross and his party are in fact the Cherokee

Nation.... I believe that the mass of the Nation, particularly the

mountain Indians, will stand or fall with Ross...." [323]

So intense was public feeling on the subject of this treaty that it

became to some extent a party question, the Democrats supporting

President Jackson while the Whigs bitterly opposed him. Among

notable leaders of the opposition were Henry Clay, Daniel Webster,

Edward Everett, Wise of Virginia, and David Crockett. The speeches

in Congress upon the subject "were characterized by a depth and

bitterness of feeling such as had never been exceeded even on the

slavery question." [324] It was considered not simply an Indian

question, but an issue between state rights on the one hand and

federal jurisdiction and the Constitution on the other.

In spite of threats of arrest and punishment, Ross still continued

active effort in behalf of his people. Again, in the spring of 1838,

two months before the time fixed for the removal, he presented

to Congress another protest and memorial, which, like the others,

was tabled by the Senate. Van Buren had now succeeded Jackson and

was disposed to allow the Cherokee a longer time to prepare for

emigration, but was met by the declaration from Governor Gilmer of

Georgia that any delay would be a violation of the rights of that

state and in opposition to the rights of the owners of the soil, and

that if trouble came from any protection afforded by the government

troops to the Cherokee a direct collision must ensue between the

authorities of the state and general government. [325]

Up to the last moment the Cherokee still believed that the treaty

would not be consummated, and with all the pressure brought to bear

upon them only about 2,000 of the 17,000 in the eastern Nation had

removed at the expiration of the time fixed for their departure,

May 26, 1838. As it was evident that the removal could only be

accomplished by force, General Winfield Scott was now appointed to

that duty with instructions to start the Indians for the West at

the earliest possible moment. For that purpose he was ordered to

take command of the troops already in the Cherokee country, together

with additional reenforcements of infantry, cavalry, and artillery,

with authority to call upon the governors of the adjoining states for

as many as 4,000 militia and volunteers. The whole force employed

numbered about 7,000 men--regulars, militia, and volunteers. [326]

The Indians had already been disarmed by General Wool.

On arriving in the Cherokee country Scott established headquarters at

the capital, New Echota, whence, on May 10, he issued a proclamation

to the Cherokee, warning them that the emigration must be commenced

in haste and that before another moon had passed every Cherokee man,

woman, and child must be in motion to join his brethren in the far

West, according to the determination of the President, which he, the

general, had come to enforce. The proclamation concludes: "My troops

already occupy many positions ... and thousands and thousands are

approaching from every quarter to render resistance and escape alike

hopeless.... Will you, then, by resistance compel us to resort to arms

... or will you by flight seek to hide yourselves in mountains and

forests and thus oblige us to hunt you down?"--reminding them that

pursuit might result in conflict and bloodshed, ending in a general

war. [327]

Even after this Ross endeavored, on behalf of his people, to secure

some slight modification of the terms of the treaty, but without

avail. [328]