56th Congress, ) SENATE. ( Document 
 
 1st Session. j | No. 392. 
 
 MEMORIAL OF THE EASTEEN OR EMIGRANT CHEROKEES. 
 
 May 22, 1900. — Referred to the Committee on Indian Affairs and ordered to be 
 
 printed. 
 
 Mr. Morgan presented the following 
 
 MEMORIAL OF THE EASTERN OR EMIGRANT CHEROKEES, SO 
 CALLED, PRAYING FOR THE PAYMENT TO THEM PER CAPITA OF 
 THE TRUST FUND DUE UNDER THE NINTH ARTICLE OF THE 
 TREATY OF 1846, AND APPROPRIATED TO THEM JULY 2, 1836, 
 AND FOUND DUE BY THE AWARD OF THE EXECUTIVE DEPART- 
 MENT OF THE UNITED STATES IN PURSUANCE OF THE CHER- 
 OKEE AGREEMENT OF DECEMBER 19, 1891, AND THE ACT OF 
 CONGRESS OF MARCH 3, 1893. (27 STATS., 643.) 
 
 May 17, 1900. 
 
 To the honorable the Senate and House of Representatives in Congress 
 assembled : 
 
 Your memorialists, the Eastern or Emigrant Cherokees of the Indian 
 Territory, relying firmly on our vested rights under the accounting ren- 
 dered by the executive department April 28, 1894, as set forth in 
 Senate Docs. Nos. 215, 282, 305, 308, Fifty-sixth Congress, first session, 
 and making our argument in such memorials a part hereof, and address- 
 ing this memorial particularly to the intent and true construction of 
 the treaty of 1835 and the acts of Congress relative thereto, and the 
 treaty of 1816 in settlement of the Cherokee difficulties, and particu- 
 larly dealing with every adverse suggestion known to your petitioners, 
 your memorialists respectfully submit the following statement: 
 
 SYNOPSIS OF ARGUMENT OF EASTERN OR EMIGRANT CHEROKEES. 
 
 I. Article 8, treaty 1828, obliges the United States to pay for removal 
 and subsistence of all Cherokees from the east to the west. 
 
 II. This was the fixed policy of the United States with regard to all 
 neighboring tribes; e. g., Creeks, Seminoles, Choctaws, Shawnees, etc. 
 
 III. The attempt to deduct the cost of removal and subistence from 
 $5,000,000 fund offered by Senate for lands and possessions resulted in 
 rejection of such proposed treaty October 23, 1835, even the leaders of 
 the treaty party, Eidge and Boudinot, opposing. 
 
 IY. The treaty party, consisted of a few prominent Cherokees, who 
 were paid over $30,000 for their services, in negotiating the treaty of 
 1835. They made treaty, however, on express condition that the 
 question whether cost of removal was intended to be charged to the 
 85,000,000 fund should be left to the United States Senate. 
 
CLA5JiC5 
 E 
 
 2 MEMORIAL OF EASTERN OR EMIGRANT CHEROKEES. 
 
 (AW 
 
 Y. By supplementary articles to treaty, the United States Senate 
 decided it did not intend $5,000,000 fund should include cost of removal. 
 
 VI. Congress, July 2, 1836, appropriated $000,000 to cover cost of 
 spoliations and removal, on an estimate that said sum was more than 
 sufficient to pay removal and leave a surplus for the educational fund 
 (Article 3, supplement). 
 
 VII. The War Department (after treaty of 1835) sustained the con- 
 struction that under the treaty of \S2S subsistence was chargeable to 
 the United States on November 18, 1836, in advising Cherokee Indian 
 Agent B. F. Curry. 
 
 VIII. This construction was fully justified, because Article 8, treaty 
 1828, was not modified by the treaty 1835, as construed by the Senate 
 and Congress, and because the purchase money could not be right- 
 fully used to pay a subsisting obligation of the United States. 
 
 IX. The War Department, September 12, 1837, instructed Van Home, 
 the enrolling agent, to advise the Cherokees they would be moved and 
 subsisted at the expense of the United States, and on the terms prom- 
 ised by Andrew Jackson's letter, 1835, which, among other things, prom- 
 ised them' $150 per capita. The payment of the Slade-Bender award 
 in addition to the previous per capita payment of 1852, excluding 
 interest, w r ould only make a total per capita payment of $124.78. 
 
 X. That " removal" was chargeable to the United States is further 
 shown by the letter of the Secretary of War, written to John h'oss and 
 others, May 18, 1838, expressing the opinion that the United States 
 ought to defray the expense of removal of the Cherokees. 
 
 XI. It is further shown by the letter of the Secretary of War to Gen. 
 Win field Scott sending him copy of the proposals made to Eoss, and 
 advising him to make arrangements with Eoss so as to protect, not the 
 Cherokees trust fund, but the interests of the United States, and avoid 
 unnecessary and useless expenditure, but arrange for a comfortable 
 removal. 
 
 XII. It is further shown by the estimate of the Secretary of War to 
 Congress for a sum sufficient to pay the entire cost of the removal and 
 subsistence of every Cherokee under date May 25, 1838. 
 
 XIII. It is further shown by the resolution of the House of Eepre- 
 sentatives asking for such estimate, on May 23, 1S38. 
 
 XIV. It is further shown by the appropriation of June 12, 1838, 
 made by Congress on such estimate, providing a sum sufficient, as Con- 
 gress then believed, to pay the whole cost of the removal and subsist- 
 ence of the entire Cherokee people, to wit, $1,047,017. 
 
 XV. It is further shown by the resolutions of the Cherokee Council 
 of July 21, July 26, and of August 1, 1838, in which it is manifest that 
 they understood that their self-emigration, through their own leaders, 
 was based on a special understanding with the Secretary of War, as 
 proposed to John Eoss, and that it was to be paid for out of the appro- 
 priations made or to be made by the United States for that purpose. 
 
 XVI. it is certain they did not authorize any contract to be made 
 for self-emigration under the treaty of 1835, but that they bitterly 
 repudiated such treaty and its alleged trust fund, by innumerable pro- 
 tests and petitions extending from 1830 to 1840, and expressly at the 
 very time and date under consideration when the Eoss-Scott contract 
 was made, to wit, July 21, 28, and August 1, 1838. 
 
 X N il. If they had been emigrating themselves under the treaty of 
 1835, by its terms tiny would have been restricted to $20 each for 
 removal and $33.33j\ each for subsistence. 
 
MEMORIAL OF EASTERN OR EMIGRANT CHEROKEES. 
 
 3 
 
 XVIII. The United States, as trustee, cau not exceed the sum pre- 
 scribed by the treaty for removal and subsistence, or permit any 
 extravagance to consume the trust fund due to the individual Cherokee 
 per capita. 
 
 XIX. The theory that the Cherokees authorized the John Ross con- 
 tract, and are responsible for any extravagance therein, and must pay 
 therefor out of the trust fund in the hands of the United States is a 
 manifest error. 
 
 (a) Because the Cherokee Nation under John Ross authorized no 
 contract under such treaty. They repudiated the treaty of 1835, and 
 the trust fund arising thereunder, at the time such contract was made, 
 during its execution, at its completion, and for years after the matter 
 was closed. 
 
 (b) More than that, they understood on July 21, July 26, and August 
 1, 1838, and November 11, 1810, as shown by their resolutions of these 
 dates, that the cost of such removal would be paid out of the Treasury 
 of the United States. 
 
 (c) It is further shown by their demanding indemnity for the country 
 pretended to have been ceded in 1835 in their numerous petitions, an 
 indemnity which was promised in 1811 by President Tyler after the 
 settlement of the amount due Ross under his contract, and insisting on 
 indemnity until the treaty of 1816 was made. 
 
 XX. It is said the contract with Ross was extravagant, and that the 
 removal could have been made for less money under contract. If the 
 contract was extravagant it would not relieve the United States from 
 paying the sum promised nor justify charging extravagance to cestui 
 qui trust. But it was not extravagaut from a government standpoint. 
 It would have cost the United States twice as much as the John Ross 
 contract to have delivered these people in Indian Territory by military 
 force. They were intensely excited. The four adjacent States appre- 
 hensive of a great Indian war. The Ross contract gave peace to four 
 States, and caused the immediate dismissal of a large army, with its 
 vast expense. General Scott explains a desolating drought immensely 
 increased the expense of the Ross contract, and on his testimony it was 
 paid. Over 600 burials helped to delay the thirteen Ross detachments. 
 Any complaints against the justice of this contract must be silenced 
 by the act of President Tyler in ordering it paid. 
 
 XXI. Commissioner Medill asserts the $600,000 and $1,047,000 was 
 an increase in the purchase money of the Cherokee lands and a com- 
 promise with the Cherokees. This is a gross, if not willful, error, con- 
 tradicted by the history above recited and supported by no good reason. 
 
 (a) Commissioner Medill offers the correspondence preceding the 
 proposed treaty of October 23, 1835, wherein it was proposed to deduct 
 the cost of removal from the price of the lands to justify his position. 
 This is completely disposed of by the fact that such proposed treaty 
 was rejected even by Ridge & Boudinot, on this very account, among 
 others. 
 
 (b) Commissioner Medill quotes Senator White's report to support 
 his position. Senator White calls the appropriation of June 12, 1838, 
 a voluntary grant, and says the amount paid the Cherokees was liberal 
 under the treaty of 1835, as the difference in value beticeen the coun- 
 tries exchanged by that treaty. The answer to this is that Senator 
 White was not passing on the points involved, and had no intention to 
 express an opinion as to the construction of the treaty of 1828 or 1835, 
 but gave a bad reason for a good action, in supporting the estimate of 
 the Secretary of War. He over estimated what the Eastern Cherokees 
 
 L'RST 
 
4 
 
 MEMORIAL OF EASTERN OR EMIGRANT CHEROKEES. 
 
 received under that treaty by 14,000,000 acres of laud, as there was no 
 exchange of land by the treaty of 1835. His report concedes that he 
 was not informed on the treaty of 1835 in various particulars, e. g., the 
 $000,000 fund, the commutation of annuity, etc. 
 
 (c) Commissioner Medill fails to quote the very important report of 
 the Committee on Indian Affairs of February 19, 1847, which had this 
 exact point under consideration, and which found in favor of the Chero- 
 kees. (Jarnigan.) 
 
 (d) Commissioner Medill fails to quote the report made by the special 
 commission— Adjutant General Jones, Colonel Mason, and Governor 
 Butler — to examine into the complaints of the Cherokees, and who found 
 in favor of Cherokees January 15, 1845, on very points at issue in elab- 
 orate report. 
 
 (e) Commissioner Medill fails also to quote the numerous reasons 
 hereinabove set forth, which would have forced him to a different con- 
 clusion had he considered them. 
 
 (/) His report shows numerous errors, as shown in detail hereinafter, 
 the juggling of the accounts, etc. Yet on this report the Auditor and 
 Comptroller, taking him as their declared authority, made the error of 
 charging trust fund with removal. 
 
 [g) Congress corrected a part of this (Commissioner MedilPs) error on 
 September 30, 1850, as to subsistence; a part on February 27, 1851, as 
 to sums paid Government agents, and the Interior Department corrects 
 the last error, as to "removal," in the Slade-Bender report of April 28, 
 1894, the refunding of which to the trust fund, with interest, is now 
 demanded. 
 
 (h) Commissioner Medill quotes General Scott and draws the inference 
 that General Scott had advised Cherokees that the United States would 
 use trust fund after exhaustion of appropriation for removal. General 
 Scott in letters of August 1 and 2 refers only to appropriations for 
 removal, and only spoke to Boss of trust fund November 15, 1835, one 
 hundred and seven days subsequent to the contract of August 1, 1838. 
 
 ARGUMENT. 
 
 It is impossible to comprehend the treaty of 1835 in its relations to 
 the Indians and to the United States except in the light of its history. 
 
 On December 29, 1835, the Cherokee Nation owned the following 
 land, which was ceded by that treaty to wit: 
 
 Acres. 
 
 In Tennessee 949, 760 
 
 In Georgia 4,609,280 
 
 In Alabama 1,611,520 
 
 In North Carolina 711, 680 
 
 A total of acres 7, 882, 240 
 
 (Page 378, History of the Cherokee Indians, Bureau of ethnology.) 
 
 On this land the Cherokees had over $2,000,000 in improved farms, 
 houses, orchards, mills, etc., which with the land they thought worth 
 $20,000,000 (p. 96, Senate Doc. No. 120, Twenty- fifth Congress, second 
 session). The Cherokees estimated the land at 10,000,000 of acres; it 
 w as splendidly watered, line climate, had great forests of valuable tim- 
 ber, inexhaustible quarries of marble; but above all, at that time there 
 was much excitement over the gold mines in the Cherokee country. 
 They say in their memorial (p. 40): 
 
 The riches of the, gold mines are inealenl:il)le. Some of the lots of 40 acres of land, 
 embracing gold mines whirl) have been surveyed and disposed of by lottery under 
 the authority of Georgia (with the incumbrance of the Indian title), have been sold 
 for upward of $80,000, etc. (House Doc. No. 286, Twenty-fourth Congress, first ses- 
 sion, vol. 7, p. 13.) 
 
MEMORIAL OF EASTERN OR EMIGRANT CHEROKEES. 
 
 5 
 
 The right of the Oherokees was established over the violent laws of 
 Georgia, which provided for distributing the Cherokee lands among the 
 citizens of Georgia, depriving the Cherokees of every civil right, etc., by 
 the Supreme Court of the United States in Worcester v. Georgia. This 
 decision declared the legislation of Georgia unconstitutional and void 
 and the Cherokee treaties in full force. 
 
 Georgia refused to submit to the decision of the Supreme Court on 
 the ground that she was a sovereign independent State. 
 
 PRESIDENT JACKSON'S DILEMMA. 
 
 President Jackson was in a serious dilemma — either to coerce Georgia 
 to respect the Federal treaty with the Cherokees, break faith with the 
 Cherokees, or make a new treaty with them. 
 
 J. F. Schermerhorn and Governor William Carroll were authorized to 
 negotiate a new treaty March, 1835, after various propositions had 
 failed. General Carroll being sick, Mr. Schermerhorn assumed the 
 responsibilities of the negotiations alone. He was limited by a resolution 
 of the United States Senate of March 6, 1835, to an offer of 85,000,000 for 
 their lauds and possessions. This the Cherokees were not willing to 
 accept. Meeting with no substantial encouragement, he suggested, in 
 a communication to the Secretary of War on September 10, 1835, two 
 alternative propositions, by either of which a treaty might be secured. 
 
 These propositions were (1) that the appraising agents of the Govern- 
 ment should ascertain from influential Cherokees their own opinion of 
 the value of their improvements, and promise them the amount if this 
 estimate should be in any degree reasonable and if they would take a 
 decided stand in favor of the treaty and conclude the same; (2) to con- 
 clude the treaty with a portion of the nation only should one with the 
 whole be found impracticable, and compel the acquiescence of the 
 remainder in its provisions. He was at once advised, on September 26, 
 1835, of the opposition of the President to any such action. He must 
 make no particular promise to any individual, high or low, to gain his 
 cooperation. The interest of the whole must not be sacrificed to the 
 cupidity of a few, and if a treaty was concluded at all it must be one 
 that would stand the test of the most rigid scrutiny. (History Chero- 
 kee Indians, Ethnological Bureau, p. 280.) 
 
 RED CLAY COUNCIL. 
 
 On October 23, 1835, at Red Clay, the Cherokee people in full council 
 rejected the Ridge treaty, to which much reference has been made and 
 which proposed that removal and subsistence should be deducted from 
 the $5,000,000 fund. Even John Ridge and Elias Boudinot went with 
 their people against this treaty. Mr. Schermerhorn on his own account, 
 and contrary to the Cherokee law which placed the calling of the council 
 in the hands of the principal chief, called a so-called council at Echota, 
 on December 22, 1835. Only a few were present. The Cherokees' regu- 
 lar council having sent John Ross and a delegation to Washington, to 
 negotiate with the Government, Schermerhorn prevented the Ross 
 delegation being received at Washington, and drew up a treaty of 
 December 29, 1835, in which he disobeyed his instructions from the 
 President, using not only bribes and threats but other unfair means. 
 He reports himself that he told the Indians that their country "has 
 already been virtually sold by the chiefs" (p. 461, Senate Doc. iso. 
 120, Twenty-fifth Congress, second session.) 
 
6 
 
 MEMORIAL OF EASTERN OR EMIGRANT CHEROKEES. 
 
 He says, in regard to making a treaty, October 27, 1835 (p. 484, Sen- 
 ate Doc. No. 120): 
 
 The only hope I have of accomplishing it now is the fear of the Indians of Georgia 
 legislation. Alabama and Tennessee, I think, will also pass some wholesome laws to 
 quicken their movement. 
 
 With the small meeting which Schermerhorn collected at Echota he 
 concluded a treaty on the 29th of December, 1835, with a delegation 
 composed of John Kidge, Elias Boudinot, Archilla Smith, etc., who 
 represented some three hundred people in favor of emigration and which 
 appears on the face of the treaty was not the delegation authorized by 
 the Cherokee people. 
 
 On December 31, 1835, Mr. Schermerhorn says: 
 
 The whole of the expenditures since I have been in the nation negotiating, not 
 including my own services, etc., or that of the secretary, amounting to about $3,000; 
 and I believe all the accounts are in and settled up to this day, having made myself 
 personally responsible to the disbursing agent tor all advances, above the money in 
 his hands, for this service (p. 496, Senate Doc. 120). 
 
 In point of fact. J. F. Schermerhorn paid the following persons for 
 services and expenses in negotiating and concluding the treaty with 
 the Cherokee Indians, dated December 29, 1835. 
 
 W. H. Underwood, attornev for the Cherokee Nation $472. 00 
 
 Do . 298.75 
 
 James Starr 1,681.00 
 
 Andrew Ross , 2, 760. 00 
 
 James A. Foreman 1, 315. 00 
 
 John Gunter 1,315.00 
 
 Longshell Turtle 1, 315. 00 
 
 Joshwav Rogers 2,175.00 
 
 John Smith 2, 175.00 
 
 William S. Coodv 1, 407. 00 
 
 E. Boudinot 1,550.00 
 
 John A. Bell 1, 200.00 
 
 William Rogers 1,310.00 
 
 Robert Sanders 1, 200. 00 
 
 Tayeskev 1,200.00 
 
 James Foster '. 1,200.00 
 
 John Fields 1,300.00 
 
 Major Ridge 1,280.00 
 
 George Welch 1,200.00 
 
 John Ridge 2, C54. 87 
 
 Stand Watie 1,419.00 
 
 James Fields 1,200.00 
 
 He acted as attorney for Boudinot, Bell, Kogers, Sanders, Tayeskey, 
 Foster, Fields, Major Ridge, George Welch, John Ridge, Stand Watie, 
 James Fields, and received for them over $16,000. He thus paid to 
 the leaders of the so-called treaty party something over $30,000 for 
 their u services and expenses" in negotiating and concluding that 
 treaty. (See p. 1034, Senate Doc. No. 120, Twenty-fifth Congress, Sec- 
 ond session, and Senate Doc. No. 101), Twenty-fifth Congress, Third ses- 
 sion, vol. 3. ) 
 
 M;ij. W illiam M. Davis, an agent of the Secretary of War in the 
 Cherokee country, on March 5, 1830, informed the Secretary of War as 
 follows (p. 27) : 
 
 I conceive that my duty to the President, to yourself, and to my country reluc- 
 tantly compels me to make ;i Btatement in relation to a meeting of a small number 
 of CheroUees at Kchota last December, who were met by Mr. Schermerhorn and 
 articles of ;i general treaty entered into between them lor the whole Cherokee 
 Nation. * * * 
 
 I should not interpose in the matter at all, but I discover that yon do not receive 
 Impartial information on the subject; that yon ha ve to depend upon the ex parte, 
 partial, and interested reports of a person who will not give you the truth. I will 
 
"MEMORIAL OF EASTERN OR EMIGRANT CHEROKEES. 
 
 7 
 
 not be silent when I see that yon are about to be imposed on by a gross and base 
 betrayal of the high trust reposed iu Rev. J. P. Scheraterhoru by you. '" * ' v 
 
 Sir, that paper * * * called a treaty is no treaty at all because not sanc- 
 tioned by the great body of the Cherokees and made without their participation 
 or assent. I solemnly declare to you that upou its reference to the Cherokee peo- 
 ple 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 100 Cherokee voters, and not more than 30o 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 
 couceai the paucity of numbers present at the treaty, etc. 
 
 Brig. Gen. R. G. Dunlap, in a speech to his brigade September, 1S36, 
 at their disbandment, said (p. 27): 
 
 I had determined that I would never dishonor the Tennessee arms in a servile serv- 
 ice 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 Cnerokee people. * * * I 
 soon discovered that the Indians had not the most distant thought of war with the 
 United States, notwithstanding the common rights of humanity and justice had 
 been denied them. 
 
 Gen. John E. Wool, of the United States Army, February 18, 1837, 
 wrote to Adjutant-General Jones at Washington, speaking of the 
 Cherokees (p. 27): 
 
 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. 
 
 John Mason, jr., who was sent on July 15, 1837, as a confidential agent 
 of the War Department to observe and report on the Cherokees, reported 
 on September 25, 1837, as follows: 
 
 The chiefs and better-informed part of the nation are convinced that they can not 
 retain the country, hut the opposition to the treaty is unanimous and irreconcilable. 
 They say it can not bind them, because they did not make it; that it was made by a 
 few unauthorized individuals; that the nation is not a party to it. * * * 
 
 The influence of this chief (John Ross) is unbounded and unquestioned. The 
 whole nation of 18,000 persons is with him; the few, about 300, who made the treaty 
 having left the- country. It is evident, therefore, that Ross and his party are in 
 fact the Cherokee Nation. * * * The officers say that with all his power, Ross 
 can not, if he would, change the course he has heretofore pursued, and to which he 
 is held by the fixed determination of his people. He dislikes being seen in conversa- 
 tion with white men, and particularly with agents of the Government. Were he, as 
 matters now stand, to advise the Indians to acknowledge the treaty he would at 
 once forfeit their confidence and probably his life. Yet, though unwavering in his 
 opposition to the treaty, Ross's influence has constantly been exerted to preserve the 
 peace of the country, and Colonel Lindsey says that he, Ross, alone stands at this 
 time between the whites and bloodshed. The opposition to the treaty on the part of 
 the Indians is unanimous and sincere, and it is not a mere political game played by 
 Ross for the maintenance of his ascendency in the tribe. 
 
 (History Cherokee Indians, Ethno. Bureau, 286.) 
 
 Many were the public men who denounced in the most vigorous terms 
 the policy of the Administration toward the Cherokees; for example, 
 Daniel Webster and Edward Everett, of Massachusetts; Theodore 
 Frelinghuysen, of Xew Jersey; Peleg Sprague, of Maine; Henry E. 
 Storrs, of 2sew York; Henry A. Wise, of Virginia; David Crockett, of 
 Tennessee. Tennessee being one of the States interested, it was not to 
 be expected that one of her representatives would have protested, but 
 David Crockett, in a speech in the House of Representatives, denounced 
 the treatment to which the Indians had been subjected at the hands of 
 the Government as unjust, dishonest, cruel, and short-sighted in the 
 extreme. He alluded to the fact that he represented a district which 
 bordered on the domain of the southern tribes, and that his constitu- 
 ents were perhaps as immediataly interested in the removal of the 
 Indians as those of any other member of the House. His voice would 
 perhaps not be seconded by that of a single fellow member living within 
 
8 
 
 MEMORIAL OF EASTERN OR EMIGRANT CHEROKEES. 
 
 500 miles of bis home. He had been threatened that if he did not sup- 
 port the policy of forcible removal his public career would be summarily 
 cut off. But while he was, perhaps, as desirous of pleasing his constit- 
 uents and of coinciding with the wishes of his colleagues as any man in 
 Congress, he could not permit himself to do so at the expense of his 
 honor and conscience in support of such a measure. (History of Gher- 
 okees, Ethnological Bureau, p. 288.) 
 
 With overwhelming evidence of fraud and that the treaty was not 
 recognized by the Cherokees. it is almost unnecessary to present the 
 numerous Cherokee protests and memorials, except for the sake of the 
 record. The principal memorials are as follows (p. 25, 29, 39, 41, etc.): 
 
 March 8, 1836, H. Doc. 286, Twenty-fourth Congress, first session, volume 7. 
 Jime 21, 1836, H. Doc. 286. Twenty-fourth Congress, first session, volume 7. 
 September 28, 1836, H. Doc. 99, Twenty-fifth Congress, secoud session, volume 5, p. 10. 
 September 30, 1*36, H. Doc. 99, Twenty-fifth Congress, second session, volume 5, p. 7. 
 December 8, 1836, H. Doc. 99, Twenty-fifth Congress, second session, volume 5, p. 14. 
 February 22. 1837, H. Doc. 99, Twenty-fifth Congress, second session, volume 5, p. 4. 
 December 15. 1837, H. Doc. 99, Twenty-fifth Congress, second session, volume 5, p. 1. 
 August 8, 1837, H. Doc. 99, Twenty-fifth Congress, second session volume 5, p. 15. 
 March 16, 1837, H. Doc. 99, Twenty- fifth Congress, second session, volume 5, p. 18. 
 February 22, 1838, H. Doc. 316, Twenty-fifth Congress, second session, volume 9. 
 
 The sum and substance of these petitions is to set forth tbe fact that 
 the Cherokees under the treaties with the United States owned their 
 lands and property; that Georgia determined to possess them and 
 passed laws depriving the Cherokees of every right of property and 
 liberty, and that their appeals to the United States were in vain; that 
 the treaty of 1835 was made in defiance of the laws and customs of the 
 Cherokees; was not made by the Cherokee people; was not consented 
 to by them, and was a fraud upon the United States and upon the 
 Cherokee Nation. 
 
 In their first protest of March 8, 1836, among other things, they say: 
 
 To the honorable the Senate of the United States of North America in Congress assembled : 
 This memorial aud protest of the Cherokee Nation, by their duly authorized dele- 
 gates, fully empowered and sent by said nation to negotiate a treaty arrangement 
 with the United States, respectfully showeth : 
 
 That since they left their nation for Washington City the Rev. John F. Sehermer- 
 horn, the United States commissioner, convened a few of the Cherokee people at 
 New Echota. and entered into a contract with them in the form of a treaty, which 
 has been submitted to your honorable body for ratification. This instrument pur- 
 ports to be a contract with the Cherokee people, when in fact it has been agreed 
 upon in direct violation of their will, wishes, and interests by a few unauthorized 
 individuals of the nation, as will be made manifest in this memorial and protest. 
 
 During the last winter the Cherokees had a regular delegation at Wash- 
 ington City, composed of John Ross, principal chief; Richard Taylor, Samuel (hun- 
 ter, William Rodgers, and Daniel McCoy, as may be also seen among the recited 
 documents, vested with powers to negotiate a treaty with the United States. They 
 made two propositions— t he one for a partial cession and to be secured in the resi- 
 due; the other, upon a basis not authorized, but proposed conditionally, to sell the 
 whole country for a gross sum of money. 
 
 The President thought the amount asked extravagant. The delegation requested 
 that he should bring the matter before the Senate and take their advice as to what 
 should be done under all the circumstances. To do this the delegation are informed he 
 declined, yet the matter was gotten before the Senate, not in the way the delegation 
 had asked or expected, and that body by resolution expressed an opinion that a sum 
 not exceeding $5,0 '0.000 ought to be allowed for the Cherokee country. I bit before 
 this was done Johu Ridge, Archilla Smith, Elias Boudinot, S. W. Bell, John West, 
 Williams A. Davis, and Ezekiel West, individuals of the Cherokee Nation, without 
 authority from the nation, had made their appearance in Washington City and with 
 them the Government had commenced a negotiation for a treaty. The delegation 
 hare been informed that anterior to the matter being brought before the Indian 
 Committee, the Wai Department had agreed with the above individuals upon a 
 treaty at $4,000,000, and perhaps less, and that their willingness to receive that suni 
 w;i^ made known to the Senate. What inlluenee the fact had upon the action of 
 
MEMORIAL OF EASTERN OR EMIGRANT CHEROKEES. 
 
 that body the delegation pretend not to determine, bat of one thing they are sure, if 
 it had any, it could not be for the interests of the C herokee people. 
 
 On the 14th of March, 1835, only ten days after the opinion of the Senate as to 
 the price that ought to be given, the United States entered into articles of a treaty 
 with the before-named individuals, which were, by the President of the United 
 States, directed to be submitted to the Cherokee Nation of Indians for their consid- 
 eration and approbation, etc. * * * 
 
 At great length the details of oppression, threats, violence, arrest, 
 and imprisonment is set forth, with a history of how the pretended 
 treaty was made, and they close as follows: 
 
 The delegation are sure it can not be the wish of the Senate of the United States 
 to ratify and have enforced upon the unoffending Cherokee people a treaty made 
 without their authority, false upon its face and against the known wishes of the 
 nation. Such is the instrument submitted to your honorable body. For the truth 
 of this statement, should the Senate require further proof, it can be obtained from 
 numerous persons of unimpeachable integrity and veracity. But if it be the fate 
 of the Cherokee people, and the decree has gone forth that they must leave their 
 homes and native land and seek a new residence in the wilds of the Far West, with- 
 out their consent, let them be expelled and removed by an act of Congress, that 
 they or their posterity in after times may have some claims upon the magnanimity 
 of the American people. 
 
 The delegation do solemnly declare they would consider such an act preferable and 
 more humane than the ratification and enforcement of a fraudulent treaty false upon 
 its face and made without the consent of one of the professed contracting parties. 
 The past history of the United States furnishes admonition against the ratification 
 of treaties made with unauthorized individuals. Resting upon the sacred rights of 
 the Cherokee Nation so often recognized, and solemnly guaranteed on the faith of 
 treaties, the delegation now appeal to the sympathies, the honor, the good faith and 
 magnanimity of the United States to preserve and protect their Nation from fraud, 
 rapine, plunder, and destruction. We are all children of the same Great 
 
 Parent and bound to be kind to each other without regard to the situation in which 
 we may be placed. If an earthly parent have a child unfortunately weak and poor, 
 how would he feel to see the brothers of that child abusing it for its misfortunes, 
 insulting its feelings, exulting in their own superiority, curling the lip of scorn 
 with a significant cant of the head at its earnest supplications for justice? Let 
 every man's own heart give him the answer. You have before you that unfortunate 
 child in the weak and dependent Cherokees. 
 
 With hands elevated toward the throne of grace and mercy we all supplicate, 
 saying : 
 
 "Our brothers, is it true you will drive us from the land of our nativity and from 
 the tombs of our fathers and our mothers ? We know you possess the power, but by 
 the tie that unites us yonder, we implore you to forbear." 
 
 This prayer is a sample of the others. 
 
 It should be observed that the Western Cherokee Nation, to whom 
 had been conveyed the western lands, joined with the Eastern Chero- 
 kee Nation in their protest against the alleged treaty of 1835. 
 
 The Cherokee Nation both East and West continued to protest 
 against the treaty of 1835, declaring it void, until the treaty of 1846 
 was entered into, filing numerous petitions setting this forth in various 
 ways to which reference is here made. 
 
 June 9, 1838; page 29, H. Doc. 129'; Twenty-sixth Congress, first session. 
 June 11, 1838; page 31, H. Doc 129; Twenty-sixth Congress, first session. 
 July 21, 1838; page 34, H. Doc. 129; Twenty-sixth Congress, first session. 
 August 1. 1838; page 37, H. Doc. 129; Twenty-sixth Congress, first session. 
 June 13, 1839; page 50, H. Doc. 129; Twenty-sixth Congress, first session. 
 February 28, 1840 ; pagel; H. Doc. 129; Twenty-sixth Congress, first session. 
 November 11, 1840; page 48, H. Rep. 1098; Twenty-seventh Congress, second session. 
 January 23, 1843; page — H. Doc. 93; Twenty-seventh Congress, third session. 
 March 30, 1844; H. Doc. 235; Twenty-eighth Congress, first session. Volume 5. 
 April 13, 1844; H. Doc. 234: Twenty-eighth Congress, first session. Volume 5. 
 February 22, 1845; S. Doc. 140; Twenty-eighth Congress, second session. Volume 8. 
 April 30, 1846 ; S. Doc. 331; Twenty-ninth Congress, first session. Volume 7. 
 
 And when the treaty of 184G was pending the only thing upon which 
 the Cherokee Nation East, the Cherokee Nation West, and the so-called 
 
10 MEMORIAL OF EASTERN OR EMIGRANT CHEROKEES. 
 
 treaty party were entirely agreed was that the cost of removal and 
 subsistence were not chargeable to the trust fund. A copy of which 
 their several positions is hereto attached as exhibits, taken from their 
 proposals in the settlement of 1846 (p. 53). 
 
 To comprehend the position of the Eastern Cherokees it has been 
 necessary to show that until the treaty of 1846 was entered into they 
 gave no recognition to the treaty of 1S35, and even as individuals before 
 accepting payment for their individual property they did on August 
 1, 1838, pass the following resolution: 
 
 Resolved further, That the Cherokee people, in consenting to an investigation of 
 their individual claims, and receiving payment upon them, and for their improve- 
 ments, do not intend that it shall be so construed as yielding or giving their sanc- 
 tion or approval to the pretended treaty of 1S35, nor as compromising in any 
 manner their just claims against the United States hereafter, for a full and satis- 
 factory iiidemnitication for their country, and for all individual losses and injuries. 
 
 And in their memorial of February 28, 1810, above referred to, they 
 pray for (p. 46) — 
 
 u Indemnification for the country which has been taken away from 
 them east of the Mississippi, etc.,' 7 in response to which they finally suc- 
 ceeded in obtaining a promise from President John Tyler, of a new 
 treaty that should be satisfactory and just. The President says in this 
 letter of September 20, 1841 (H. Rep. 288, Twenty-seventh Congress, 
 third session) : 
 
 Upon the ratification of the treaty contemplated which shall give to the Chero- 
 kee Nation full indemnity for all wrongs which they may have suffered, etc., I shall 
 rejoice, etc. 
 
 On December 20, 1842 (see p. 22, H. R. Ex. Doc, 234, Twenty- 
 eighth Congress, first session, vol. 5), John Ross, principal chief, hav- 
 ing been requested to lay before the National Council a statement of 
 the amount of money received by him from the Government of the 
 United States since the year 1835, replied among other things that he 
 had never received any money under the treaty of 1835, declared that 
 he and the Cherokee people had always disclaimed that contract, that 
 their claims against the United States still remained open and unad- 
 justed, but that they had the unequivocal promise of the President of 
 the United States that they should be satisfied. 
 
 In 1844 the Secretary of War appointed a commission of Jones, 
 Mason, and Butler, hereinafter referred to, who very strongly recom- 
 mended a new treaty, as recommended by President Tyler, etc., and set 
 forth the reasons why the United States in good conscience were in 
 honor bound to pay the Cherokees their per capita. 
 
 The treaty of 184G was the one contemplated and finally effected and 
 proclaimed August 17. L846. 
 
 This history fully shows that the Eastern Cherokees and their prin- 
 cipal chief, John Ross, never recognized the treaty of 18 55, except in 
 the manner prescribed in the treaty of 1840, and in no manner what- 
 ever until August 17, 1846. 
 
 COMMISSIONER MEDILL'S REPORT. 
 
 Commissioner Medill lias suggested that the Eastern Cherokees 
 under John Ross were informed by General Scott that — 
 
 M the Cherokee people pre exclusively interested in the cost as well as the com- 
 fort of the removal, I do not feel at liberty to withhold my sanction [to .John Ross's 
 estimate]. The commissioner Bays that the Secretary of War, in reply to General 
 Scott upon the subject, took t he same view — he was of opinion that the amount was- 
 very extravagant ; that $30 per head had been regarded as sufficient, and that "what- 
 
MEMORIAL OF EASTERN OR EMIGRANT CHEROKEES. 11 
 
 ever sum over aud above this amount that may be expended for this purpose will 
 have to be deducted from the original purchase money agreed to be paid them by 
 the treaty of Echota (the $5,000,000), and this must be fully explained to the chiefs 
 and head men, and ought to be understood by the nation." (P. 17, Ex. Doc. 65, 
 Thirtieth Congress, tirst session, H. R.) 
 
 The commissioner does not say in his report that General Scott only 
 communicated this to John Koss on November 15, 1838, after the entire 
 expedition was practically too far advanced, all the detachments being 
 on the road, for the contract to be in any degree changed. (See the 
 evidence of W infield Scott, last line of page 38, House Report 288, March 
 2, 1843.) Commissioner Medill fails to state that John Eoss and the 
 Eastern Cherokees while in General Scott's camp under capture in the 
 same resolution which authorized the delegation to negotiate with 
 General Scott for their self emigration on July 21, 1838, did enter their 
 solemn protest against the pretended treaty of Echota and referred to 
 the fact that their delegation had just returned from Washington City 
 " under a special understanding with the honorable the Secretary of 
 War." Commissioner Medill omits to state the fact that the Secretary 
 of War in his letter to John Koss and his delegation on May the 18th, 
 1838, said to them : 
 
 It' it be desired by the Cherokee Nation that their own agents should have the 
 charge of their emigration their wishes will be complied with and instructions be 
 given to the commanding general in the Cherokee country to enter into arrangements 
 with them to that effect. With regard to the expense of this operation, which you 
 ask may be defrayed by the United States, in the opinion of the undersigned the 
 request ought to be granted, and an application for such further sum as may be 
 required for this purpose shall be made to Congress. 
 
 Commissioner Medill fails to state that the Secretary of War on 
 June 1, 1838, wrote to General Scott, that — 
 
 It is proposed to make such allowances to the Cherokees as it is believed were 
 intended originally to have been made by the Senate. 
 
 'That is to say, that the $5,000,000 fund should not be charged with 
 removal, but removal paid by the United States. (See p. 3, H. Doc. 153, 
 Twenty-fifth Congress, second session.) 
 
 Commissioner Medill fails to point out that the Secretary of War on 
 May 23, 1838, wrote General Scott as follows: 
 
 War Department, May 23, 1838. 
 Sir: You will receive herewith a copy of proposals (already communicated to 
 Congress by the President) made by the Department to the Cherokee delegation 
 now in this city, which it is believed will be accepted by them. You are therefore 
 hereby authorized to enter into an agreement with the agent of the nation for the 
 removal of their people. The expenses attending the emigration of the Cherokees 
 are now fully ascertained by past experience; and it is presumed you will find no 
 difficulty in making such an arrangement as, while it will secure their comfortable 
 removal in the manner most agreeable to their chiefs and head men, will effectually 
 protect the interests of the United States and prevent all unnecessary delay or 
 useless expenditures. 
 
 Commissioner Medill fails to state the authority which was given to 
 John Ross and his associates for the removal of the Cherokees. It is as 
 follows : 
 
 They are hereby authorized and fully empowered to make and enter into any and 
 all such arrangements with Major-General Scott on the part of the United States 
 which they may deem necessary and proper for effecting the entire removal of the 
 Cherokee people from the east to the west of the Mississippi River, and also to enter 
 into such further arrangements with the Commanding-General in relation to the 
 payment of such sums of money by the United States as may be necessary for the 
 removal and subsistence of all the Cherokee people. 
 
 This limited resolution was passed on July 26, 1838, and is the only 
 authority the Cherokees gave. 
 
12 MEMORIAL OF EASTERN OR EMIGRANT CHEROKEES. 
 
 It contemplated the payment by the United States of this removal. 
 How could General Scott or John Boss go beyond it and bind the 
 Cherokees ? 
 
 It contemplated the li special understanding of the honorable Secre- 
 tary of War," who had advised General Scott it was "proposed to make 
 such allowances to the Cherokees as it is believed were intended origi- 
 nally to have been made by the Senate." 
 
 That is, the Senate intended the $5,000,000 fund should not include 
 the cost of removal. The special understanding of the Secretary of 
 War was that the expense of removal or self-emigration by the Eastern 
 Oherokees should — 
 
 l>e defrayed by the United States, and an application for such further sums as may- 
 he required for this purpose shall be made to Congress. 
 
 With what face can he after this say a part of "such further sum as 
 may be required for this purpose" shall be charged to the Cherokee 
 trust fund? 
 
 It is true that General Scott was under the impression as he says, 
 on August 2, 1838, that— 
 
 "The Cherokee people are exclusively interested in the cost as well 
 as the comfort of the removal," but he said nothing whatever about 
 the trust fund. He had before him the letter of the Secretary of War 
 agreeing that the cost of removal, in his opinion, should be borne by 
 the United States, and he was instructed by the Secretary of War to 
 protect the interests of the United States. It is true that he thought 
 the estimate extravagant, but it is also true in his testimony that the 
 terrible drought of that summer led him to give it his approval. Gen- 
 eral Scott says, on page 37, H. Report 288, Twenty-seventh Congress, 
 third session: 
 
 The drought that nearly desolated so many States in 1838 commenced in the south- 
 vrest at the end of May and continued into October. During the latter eight or ten 
 weeks of its continuance it would have been impossible for a detachment of 100 
 Indians, with their horses, to have found water on the land routes for many and 
 many marches together; hence all the subsequent difficulties and embarrassments in 
 my plans, and the emigration itself; for, but for the drought. I would have quashed 
 the contract with Lewis Ross as extravagant, and the renewed movement beginning 
 with September would have escaped ice, snow, and bad roads and been ended in 
 eighty days by each detachment. The drought was a calamity to the country gen- 
 erally, and particularly so to the poor Cherokees. 
 
 The United States agree to pay the expense, but because the drought 
 doubles the expense the Cherokees become liable for the additional cost. 
 This is magnanimous, indeed. 
 
 Commissioner Medill quotes a part of the letters of General Scott of 
 August 1 and August 2, 1838, and leaves the impression that General 
 Scott advised the Cherokees that the cost of the removal under Rosa 
 contract might be charged to the trust fund. 
 
 The fact is, August 1, 1838, General Scott says: "The whole expeuse 
 of the emigration is to be paid out of the appropriations already made 
 by Congress, the general surplus of which is to go to the Cherokee 
 Nation in various forms.'" 
 
 The only appropriations made for removal by Congress was the 
 $600,000 and the $1,047,000. 
 
 The t rust fund of $5,000,000 (less $500,000 for land in Kansas) was 
 not appropriated for removal, but "for the amount stipulated to be paid 
 for the lauds ceded. '* 
 
 General Scott referred to the appropriations for removal and to no 
 other appropriations, as farther appears from his letter of July 25, 
 183S, requiring the Ross contract to include fugitive Creeks residing 
 
MEMORIAL OF EASTERN OR EMIGRANT CHEROKEES. 
 
 13 
 
 with Ckerokees and agreeing that the United States, under such con- 
 tract proposed, would " pay over to the Cherokee functionaries, from 
 time to time, such portions of the moneys appropriated for the emigra- 
 tion as may seem reasonable," etc. 
 
 It is true that General Scott indicates in his evidence (p. 37) that on 
 November 15, 1838, he advised Eossthatthe United States would use the 
 trust fund after exhaustion of the sums appropriated for removal, etc., 
 but that was one hundred and seven days after the Eoss contract was 
 made, and too late to make any changes. It appears from Commis- 
 sioner MedilPs report that General Scott's letter of November 15, 1838, 
 was written on a suggestion from the War Department. 
 
 Change in a contract requires the consent of both parties. No pre- 
 tense is made that the Cherokee council agreed to any change. It 
 could not even meet till emigration had been completed. 
 
 Commissioner Medill fails to state that over 600 Cherokees died on 
 the road from exposure. 
 
 Commissioner Medill thinks it right to charge the Cherokee trust 
 fund with 8581,310.88, which was paid to John Eoss on his contract, 
 and justifies this by saying: 
 
 "Whether this sum was actually absorbed iu the mere removal of the Indians or 
 not, it was paid on the demand of the Cherokees themselves, and they must be con- 
 sidered as having enjoyed the benefit of it in that or some other way ; and the amount 
 for per capita distribution was thus materially diminished. 
 
 The Cherokee Nation was forced by bayonets to the attitude of con- 
 tracting their self-emigration, and because they demand payment it 
 follows that they should be paid out of their own money. Secretary 
 Poinsett proposed to the Cherokees self- emigration at the expense of 
 the United States, so advised General Scott. The Cherokee council 
 authorized their leaders to make — 
 
 Arrangements with the commanding general in relation to the payment of such 
 sums of money by the United States as may be necessary for the removal and sub- 
 sistence of all the Cherokee people. 
 
 Commissioner Medill seems to think this does not really mean "by 
 the United States," but by the United States as trustee of a fund these 
 Indians bitterly denied. 
 
 These same people at the same time repudiate the treaty of 1835 and 
 any alleged trust fund thereunder, and still do so on November 11, 
 1810, when they authorized John Eoss to demand payment in their 
 name, and at that same instant show by the preamble that they under- 
 stood in making the demand it would and ought to be paid out of the 
 United States Treasury and not out of any trust fund whatever; yet, 
 Commissioner Medill, entirely overlooking all these things, says: 
 
 They must be considered as having enjoyed the benefit of it in that or some other 
 way. 
 
 Their enjoyment of this removal is exhibited by their piteous and 
 unavailing appeals for mercy, and by the graves of their dead that 
 marked every mile of the road, and by the cries of their women, bear- 
 ing children in the hot sun, covered with dust, in a desolating drought, 
 in jolting wagons over the roughest roads. This contract was not 
 sought by the Cherokees. 
 
 It was a measure of economy to permit the mustering out of an army 
 of 10,000 men thought necessary to enforce a perfidious instrument, 
 which was equally a fraud on the United States and on the unhappy 
 Cherokees. 
 
 Commissioner Medill fails to point out that if John Eoss and his self- 
 
14 
 
 MEMORIAL OF EASTERN" OR EMIGRANT CHEROKEES. 
 
 emigrating Cberokees had been emigrating themselves under the treaty 
 of 1835 they would have been restricted to $20 per capita for such 
 removal under article 8 of that treaty. 
 
 Commissioner Medill fails to point out that the United States, as 
 trustee, could not in justice to the cestui que trust under the fifteenth 
 article have allowed exceeding 820 per capita to any self- emigrating 
 Cherokees. 
 
 Commissioner Medill fails to point out that in the treaty of 1846, 
 article 4, the principle is laid down that only 820 per capita shall be 
 charged for removal against the 85,600,000. In other words, by this 
 article, in settling with the Old Settlers, or Western Cherokees, the trust 
 fund was not to be charged with removal. Commissioner MedilFs report 
 finds that the Western Cherokees who are entitled to a sum equal to 
 one-third of the balance under the fifteenth article of the treaty of 1835, 
 are entitled to $419,763.96, while the Eastern Cberokees, who are enti- 
 tled to three times as much, or the entire balance under the same article, 
 he only allows 8181,071.28, iustead of 81,259,291.88. (See pp. 16 and 
 20, H. E. Ex. Doc. 65. Thirtieth Congress, first session.) 
 
 Commissioner Medill, in settling with the Old Settlers, finds the bal- 
 ance under the fifteenth article of the treaty of 1835, $1,259,291.88. 
 (See page 19, ibid.) 
 
 In settling with the Eastern Cherokees, on page 14, he finds the bal- 
 ance under the same article 15, treaty of 1835, 8184,071.28. 
 
 Commissioner Medill has juggled these accounts in a manner nothing 
 short of scandalous. He charged the emigrant Cherokees over 85,000 
 more than the Western Cherokees under the seventeenth article. 
 
 He charges the emigrant Cherokees over a million dollars more than 
 the Western Cherokees on account of removal and subsistence, etc. 
 
 He charges the Western Cherokees against the $600,000 fund for 
 spoliations and rents and reservation and preemptions, not one of 
 which is justly chargeable against this fund under Attorney General 
 Butler's opinion, and thus consumes the fund notwithstanding the fact 
 that by the report of the Second Auditor, of August, 1842, submitted 
 by J. C. Spencer, Secretary of War, to Hon. James Cooper, chairman of 
 the Committee of Indian Affairs, it is shown that this $600,000 was 
 practically consumed for removal at that time. (H. K. Rpt., 288 Twenty- 
 seventh Congress, third session, Vol. IV, p. 52.) 
 
 For further answer that the account of Johu Ross, or of the Cherokee 
 Xation, was against the United States and not against the trust fund, 
 attention is called to H. Report 1098, Twenty-seventh Congress, second 
 session, and H. Report 288, Twenty-seventh Congress, third session, 
 wherein it appears that every one of the accounts was rendered against 
 the United States, and in no case against the trust fund, and where it 
 appears from the affidavits of numerous witnesses, to wit, Gideon 
 Morris, Gary Hinnant, John Howard Payne, etc., who show that Ross 
 never did consider his claim except as a claim on the United States 
 and not on the trust fund. That neither Ross nor the Cherokees recog- 
 nized the existence of a trust fund, and that President Tyler, in ordering 
 it paid in his letter of September 20, 1841 (page 49, H. Report 288, 
 Twenty-seventh Congress, third session), was evidently under the im- 
 pression that he was settling the claim of the Cherokees against the 
 United States, and not of the Cherokees against the trust fund whose 
 existence they denied in their memorial to him, and in which they had 
 demanded indemnity for the wrongs of 1835, and were by him promised 
 indemnity for those wrongs. 
 
 This mass of evidence showing that this account was against the 
 
MEMORIAL OF EASTERN OR EMIGRANT CHEROKEES. 15 
 
 United States has no evidence whatever to the contrary, the absence 
 of which is itself testimony of the most important character that the 
 account was against the United States alone. 
 
 It has been charged that John Eoss was grossly unjust in insisting 
 on the settlement to the extent he did under his contract with General 
 Scott. These complaints, which were vigorously urged against him, 
 would seem to be set at rest by the final decision in his favor that his 
 claim was just, made by President Tyler. 
 
 It should be remarked that under the Eoss contract for removal the 
 amount provided by Congress of 81.017,007 and the 8335,105.91 appli- 
 cable for removal out of the $000,000 would more than have paid the 
 actual cost of removal under the John Eoss contract, even including 
 the 8581,346.88 due to the delays caused by the drought and heavy 
 winter weather, as explained by General Scott. 
 
 It should be kept clearly in mind that whether removal was justly 
 chargeable under the Scott contract to the United States or to the trust 
 fund does not depend on the amount involved, but on the understand- 
 ing of the Indians who made it, under their authorized understanding 
 with the Secretary of War, and their authority given to Eoss. 
 
 THE TREATY PARTY INTERPRETATION OF THE TREATY OF 1835. 
 
 The treaty party take the following view of the treaty of 1835 in 
 regard to removal : 
 
 That the Senate had offered them 85,000,000 for their land and 
 possessions. 
 
 That the United States were under contract to remove every Chero- 
 kee from the East to the West at the expense of the United States. 
 
 That to use the purchase money of their lands for removal was using 
 the consideration price to pay a subsisting obligation of the United 
 States Government and was precisely the same thing as not paying the 
 purchase price. 
 
 The treaty party insists that they did not intend to agree that 
 removal should be charged to the trust fund; that the Senate did not 
 intend it should be done 5 that for this reason they expressly agreed to 
 leave it to the Senate to say what their iutention was, and that the 
 Senate did decide that it was not the intention of the Senate to charge 
 the purchase price with the cost of removal. 
 
 That on Schermerhorn's own estimate as shown in the treaty he urged 
 the Cherokees to agree to on October 23, 1835, at Eed Clay, he estimated 
 spoliations and removal combined at 8505,000, or 8250,000 for spolia- 
 tions and 8255,000 for removal, and that by Schermerhorn's own esti- 
 mate, as shown in article 3, supplement 1835, which he himself drew, it 
 was represented to the Senate that 8000,000 would cover spoliations 
 and removal and leave a surplus for the education fund. 
 
 The treaty party insist that if the estimate was erroneous and proved 
 by subsequent events to have been entirely too small, this circumstance 
 can not be argued to affect the intention of the contracting parties. If 
 the parties did not intend to charge the trust fund with removal when 
 the treaty was made, no different interpretation can be subsequently 
 attached thereto, except by a formal agreement, which is not anywhere 
 pretended to have been made. The treaty party insist that if on May 
 23, 1838, the trust fund was chargeable with removal, there being an 
 abundance of such trust fund on hand with which to pay the entire cost 
 of removal, the House of Representatives would not have passed a reso- 
 
16 MEMORIAL OF EASTERN OR EMIGRANT CHEROKEES. 
 
 lutioii directing the Secretary of War to make an estimate for removal 
 and subsistence. 
 
 If the trust fund was chargeable, the Secretary of War would have 
 had no excuse for agreeing with John Ross that the expense of removal 
 should be borne by the United States, as he did do on May 18, 1838. 
 
 If the trust fund was chargeable, the Secretary of War would have 
 had no excuse to estimate for an amount sufficient to pay the entire 
 cost of removal, as he did do on May 25, 1838. 
 
 If Congress itself had not intended to stand firmly by the construc- 
 tion of the treaty as heretofore set forth and which existed in 183(5, 
 when the treaty was made, Congress would not have appropriated a 
 sum sufficient to meet the entire amount estimated as necessary to pay 
 the whole cost of removal out of the United States Treasury. 
 
 The fact that Congress made such an appropriation proves that Con- 
 gress believed that the Secretary was right in his proposal to Congress, 
 and which proposals were before Congress, wherein the Secretary 
 declared tbe United States ought to pay the cost of removal. 
 
 The treaty party insist that this was not a sudden burst of generos- 
 ity, but that it was in accordance with the view theretofore entertained 
 by the War Department, which held that the United States, under the 
 treaty of 1828, were chargeable with removal and subsistence, as will 
 appear from the letter of Mr. Commissioner of Indian Affairs Harris to 
 
 B. F. Curry, Cherokee Indian agent, as follows : 
 
 Sir: I acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 26th of October last, and in 
 reply have to observe that I have taken the decision of the Secretary of War ad 
 interim npon the claims of the Cherokees to commiitation lor subsistence at $33.33 
 each. The Secretary decides that the commutation may be paid at the rate above 
 stated, but at the same time declares that the allowance is made under the treaty of 
 1S2S. (S. Doc. No. 120, vol. 2, p. 209, Twenty-fifth Congress, second session.) 
 
 That under the treaty of 1835 enrollment books for voluntary emigra- 
 tion were opened in the then Cherokee country. Instructions as to the 
 nature of the enrollment were sent by the Acting Secretary of War, 
 
 C. A. Harris, to Lieut. J. Van Home, United States Army, dated Sep- 
 tember 12, 1837, in part as follows: 
 
 Enrolling books must be prepared on the following plan : A memoranda or entry 
 must be inseited purporting that the subscribers assent to a treaty with the United 
 States upon the terms heretofore offered by the resident to their people, and that if no 
 treaty should be made during the next fall or early in the winter, then the subscribers 
 will cede to the United States all their right aud interest in Cherokee lands east 
 of the Mississippi, upon the following conditions: That they shall receive, so last as 
 ( longress shall make the necessary appropriations, the ascertained value of their 
 improvements on their arrival "West; that they shall be removed and subsisted for one 
 year at the expense of the United States; that they shall be entitled to all such stipu- 
 lations as may be hereafter made in favor of those who do not now remove, etc. 
 
 The Cherokees were thus told, September 12, 1837, that they should 
 be removed and subsisted for one year at the expense of the United 
 States and be offered the terms heretofore offered by the President, to 
 wit, $150 each per capita. The payment of the present claim, found 
 due by the Department of the Interior, excluding interest, would only 
 make a total per capita of $124.78, and in 1852, instead of being paid 
 $1.10 they were only paid $56.3] per capita, and this is the ground of 
 their present complaint. 
 
 The treaty party further complain fchat when they made the treaty 
 of L835 they were promised protection ; that they did not receive it; that 
 their leaders were killed; that they were ostracized and the per capita 
 promised to them never paid; that it is now due and no just excuse can 
 be found for not paying it. 
 
MEMORIAL OF EASTERN OR EMIGRANT CHEROKEES. 17 
 COMMISSIONER MEDILL'S VIEW. 
 
 Commissioner Medill, upon whose report of May 10, 1848, the error 
 rests lor the unlawful withdrawal from the trust fund of a large sum 
 on account of removal, submits the following argument : 
 
 [We assume it will only be necessary to answer the reasons which he 
 assigns, and that his dictum in the absence of reason in support thereof 
 will not be permitted to control in defiance of substantial argument to 
 the contrary.] 
 
 The first reason offered by Commissioner Medill is that the corre- 
 spondence prior to the negotiation of the treaty shows that removal 
 and subsistence in the schedule submitted were to be deducted from 
 the 83,000,(100 fund " to be given for the lands, or, rather, as the differ- 
 ence in value between them and those assigned to the Cherokees West," 
 etc. He refers to Secretary Cass's letter, that — 
 
 " No proposition for a treaty will hereafter be made more favorable 
 than those now offered to them," as proof that removal and subsistence 
 was to be deducted from the 85,000,000, and was so understood by the 
 Indians. 
 
 Commissioner Medill omits to state that this proposed treaty, with 
 its schedule, was unanimously rejected by the Cherokees in general 
 council October 23, 1835, even Ridge and JBoudinot voting against it. 
 
 Commissioner Medill omits to quote the second article of the supple- 
 ment, treaty of 1835, in which appears plainly recorded tbe intention 
 both of the Cherokee citizens (who were paid to negotiate this treaty) 
 aud the Senate of the United States that the 85,000,000 trust fund 
 should not include removal. He omits to state the construction of the 
 Department of War of November 18, 1836, to Cherokee Indian Agent 
 Curry, above quoted, and tbe construction of September 12, 1837, to 
 Lieutenant Van Home, above quoted. He omits to mention Secretary 
 of War Poinsett's agreement with John Eoss of May 18, 1838, that 
 removal should be at the expense of the United States. 
 
 He omits to state that the Secretary of War instructed General Scott 
 that it was proposed to make such allowances to the Cherokees as it 
 is believed were intended originally by the Senate, i. e., that the trust 
 fund should not include removal. 
 
 In the above quotation from the Commissioner he intimates that the 
 85,000,000 was paid the Cherokees East "as the difference in value 
 between the lands East and those assigned to the Cherokees West," as 
 if those assigned to the Cherokees West was a part of the considera- 
 tion to the Cherokees East under the treaty of 1835. The lauds West 
 had been guaranteed to the Western Cherokees under the treaties of 1828 
 and 1833. The Eastern Cherokees acquired not one acre of such lands 
 by the treaty of 1835; what they did actually get was the bitter hos- 
 tility of the Western Cherokees, upon whom they were injected. 
 
 It is true that two Western Cherokees signed the treaty of 1835, 
 but it is also true the men who did it, James Rogers and John Smith, 
 had no authority to sign such treaty. It is also true that Schermer- 
 horn wrote the following letter to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs 
 with regard to the delegation of the Western Cherokees : 
 
 If they are true and faithful they may he of great service, and if they are not, I 
 hare told Coody what I should he obliged to do in reference to them. (Page 482, 
 S. Doc. 120, Twenty-fifth Congress, second session.) 
 
 And it is also true that Schermerhorn paid Coody 81,407 and that he 
 paid James Eogers and John Smith, who signed the treaty, $2,175 each, 
 or a total of $5,747 for their services (p. 1034, Sen. Doc. 120), and that 
 S. Doc. 392 2 
 
18 MEMORIAL OF EASTERN OR EMIGRANT CHEROKEES. 
 
 Scherinerhorn thus violated the instructions of President Jackson, that 
 he "must make no particular promise to any individual, high or low, to 
 gain his cooperation. The interest of the whole must not be sacrificed 
 to the cupidity of a few." 
 Commissioner Medill says: 
 
 The question was raised whether the spoliations, the cost of removal, aud claims 
 which many of the Cherokees had against the United States were to be paid for 
 out of the consideration money for the lands. This question having been submitted 
 to the Senate, it was agreed to allow the additional sum of $600,000 toward those 
 objects, and in lieu of the annulled grants of preemptions and reservations. This 
 was not an assumption by the Government of the whole cost of removal and of all 
 the spoliations and other claims against the United States, but only an extension 
 and increase of the consideration money with reference to those objects. Had the 
 former been intended, an estimate would have been made of the probable cost of 
 removal and of the probable amount of the claims (except the spoliations, which 
 were limited by the treaty to $300,000), in order that the additional amount to be 
 allowed might be made to embrace all; but this was not done. 
 
 It was a compromise between the Government and the Cherokees. * * * It 
 was, in effect, an increase of the consideration money granted, etc. 
 
 These bold statements are unsupported by any sound reason and 
 are contradicted by the facts of the history. 
 
 Commissioner Medill in the above quotation omits to mention that 
 the second article, supplement 1835, expressly declared the intention of 
 the Cherokees who negotiated the treaty and the Senate of the United 
 States to be that the trust fund should not include removal. Commis- 
 sioner Medill does not hesitate to construe the trust fund to include 
 removal, in direct conflict with the declared intention of both parties 
 and in conflict with the rulings of the War Department of November 
 18, 1836, and of September 1L>, 1837, of May 18, 1838, of May 25, 1838, 
 and of June 1, 1838, heretofore cited, that removal was chargeable to 
 the United States and not to the trust fund. 
 
 And what reasons besides his fatal omissions does Commissioner 
 Medill offer ! He quotes certain commissioners with approval, and offers 
 no other reason. These commissioners are alleged to be those who were 
 appointed in July, 1816, to inquire into matters in dispute between the 
 Cherokees and the United States, and who, under a subsequent 
 appointment, negotiated the treaty of 1816. 
 
 These commissioners, as quoted by Commissioner Medill, repeat the 
 argument we have already answered, to wit, that the negotiations in 
 the proposed treaty in the spring of 1835 showed that the Government 
 officers proposed to deduct "removal" from the purchase money offered 
 by the Senate. We have abundantly answered this argument by show- 
 ing that on this very account, among others, the proposed treaty was 
 rejected by the Cherokee people in full council at Red Clay October 
 23, 1835, against which even Ridge and Boudinot voted (History of 
 Cherokee Indians, p. 280), etc., as above set forth. 
 
 The commissioners quoted by Commissioner Medill, omitting all the 
 record to which we have referred, without other argument, add as a 
 conclusive proposition two sections from Senator White's report (S. Doc. 
 466, second session Twenty-fifth Congress), to wit: 
 
 They believe the #5,000,000 given by the treaty as the difference in value between 
 the countries exchanged and the $600,000 before mentioned, allowed for spoliations, 
 and as a fund for removal, constitute a very liberal consideration on the part of the 
 Federal Government; yet the committee would feel much better satisfied that too 
 much should be done for the Cherokees than too little. If, therefore, the voluntary 
 grant of an additional sum of money can be made the means of hastening their 
 removal to their nevt home, of dispensing with the use of a large military force, and 
 of insuring confidence in the justice of the Government and of restoring harmony 
 and good feelings, they believe economy, humanity, and peace will be best consulted 
 by making such grant. 
 
MEMOEIAL OF EASTERN OR EMIGRANT CHEROKEES. 19 
 
 With a view to attain these objects the committee would respectfully recommend 
 to the Senate that in the passing of some appropriation bill still to be acted on an 
 item be inserted placing a reasonable sum of money at the disposal of the Executive. 
 
 The commissioners, commenting on these two paragraphs, trium- 
 phantly say that the subsequent appropriation of $1,047,067 was a vol- 
 untary grant made for the purpose of hastening the removal of the 
 Indians, etc., and "the expenditures specified in the fifteenth article 
 are therefore justly chargeable upon the treaty fund." 
 
 [The conclusions of the commissioners wrongfully appear as a part 
 of Senator White's report in Ex. Doc. 65, Thirtieth Congress, first ses- 
 sion.] 
 
 The fact that Senator White, in a very brief report giving some rea- 
 sons for supporting the estimate of the Secretary of War, refers to the 
 appropriation as a voluntary grant, is seized upon as proof that 
 removal was justly chargeable upon the treaty fund. 
 
 It should be remembered that Senator White and his committee were 
 not passing upon the proposition as to whether or not the trust fund 
 was chargeable with removal, but were only giving reasons for support- 
 ing the estimate of the War Department, which came before the com- 
 mittee on the Secretary of War's letter containing the proposals to 
 John Ross, that the expense of removal should be defrayed by the 
 United States. Senator White supports the Secretary under the 
 impression that it was a voluntary grant. This proves nothing except 
 as to Senator White's opinion, as lie gives no reason for thinking it a 
 voluntary grant except that the committee thought the Government 
 had been liberal in theretofore granting $5,600,000 "as the difference 
 in value between the countries exchanged' 7 by the treaty of 1835. 
 
 Senator White would have been justified in his conclusion that 
 $5,600,000 was a very liberal consideration if it had been in fact given 
 as the difference in value between the countries exchanged; but there 
 were no countries exchanged by the treaty of 1835. Judge White 
 imagined that the Cherokees had received 14,000,000 acres in exchange 
 for the land they relinquished in 1835. The treaty as drawn might 
 leave this impression, but in point of fact every acre of this land had 
 been deeded to the Western Cherokees under the treaties of 1828 and 
 1833, and the Eastern Cherokees were receiving by the treaty of 1835 
 14,000,000 acres less than he thought. 
 
 More than that, Judge White's committee recommended a reasonable 
 sum, and the Senate thought it reasonable to appropriate enough to 
 pay the entire cost of removal, as estimated by the Secretary of War. 
 
 The committee report purports only to have had under consideration 
 the estimate and the letter of the Secretary of War. The committee 
 made no examination into the questions involved, and as to the $600,000 
 the committee says : 
 
 How this fund has been disposed of or whether any or what part of it yet remains 
 to be expended the committee do not know. 
 
 And as to the commutation of the annuity of $10,000, under the 
 treaty of 1835, and the stipulations in relation thereto, the committee 
 says: 
 
 How far this stipulation has been complied with the committee do not know. 
 
 These are the simplest items and are only mentioned to show that 
 the committee had given no special examination to the questions 
 involved and had no intention of deciding them, nevertheless the com- 
 missioners triumphantly declare that — 
 
 The expenditures specified in the fifteenth article are therefore justly chargeable 
 upon the treaty fund. 
 
20 
 
 MEMORIAL OF EASTERN OR EMIGRANT CHEROKEES. 
 
 And Commissioner Medill has this conclusion appear in his report as 
 if it were a part and parcel of Senator White's report. 
 
 Commissioner Medill thus quotes the report of the Indian committee, 
 which did not have this subject under consideration, and draws 
 an unwarranted conclusion from such report. He omits to quote the 
 opinion of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, which did have this 
 entire subject before them, and had in the preceding year made a 
 report fully sustaining the Cherokees 7 construction of this treaty as 
 sound and conclusively right, to wit, the report made by the Commit- 
 tee on Indian Affairs of the United States Senate on February 19, 1837, 
 as follows: 
 
 REFORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON INDIAN AFFAIRS OF THE UNITED STATES SENATE. 
 
 [Jarnigau Report.] 
 
 The Committee on Indian Affairs, to whom was referred the memorial of David 
 Vaun and William P. Ross, delegates from the Cherokee Nation, respectfully report 
 the following facts, which will enable the Senate to decide the various questions upon 
 which the Cherokee delegation and the commissioners appointed to treat with them in 
 July last could not agree, and which, by the terms of the treaty of the 6th of August, 
 1846, were to be submitted to the arbitrament of the Senate, whose award was to 
 constitute a part of that treaty. The peace and happiness of the Cherokee Nation 
 so imperiously demanded the immediate adoption of that treaty that the Cherokee 
 delegation could not refuse their assent to it, leaving certain questions to the arbit- 
 rament of the Senate. Peace and quiet have been restored in the Cherokee country, 
 and it now only remains for the Senate to decide the questions which have been 
 submitted to it that the account may be finally made up and closed. 
 
 The first of these questions is, whether, by the treaty of the 29th of December 
 1835, it was the understanding of the parties tbat the various sums since charged to 
 the $5,000,000 fund given by that treaty have been properly so charged. On the 28th 
 of February, 1835, a delegation from the Cherokee Nation proposed to submit the 
 terms of the treaty to the arbitrament of the Senate of the United States. In con- 
 sidering the subject the Senate only looked to the value of the lands and have so 
 said iu language most explicit. The preamble to that treaty recites the submission 
 which had been made to the Senate, and then adds: 
 
 "And whereas, on such submission, the Senate advised that a. sum not exceeding 
 $5,000,000 be paid to the Cherokee Indians for their lands and possessions east of the 
 Mississippi River." The sole consideration stated for the $5,000,000 was " their lands 
 and possessions east of the Mississippi River." If anything else had been intended 
 to be included, such as claims for spoliations, subsistence, removal, etc., why was it 
 not so stated in the treaty? 
 
 It is enough to show that it is not so stated, but it is manifest that such was not 
 the intention of the parties, for the amount of these spoliations, the expense of 
 removal, etc., were not then known and could not have been ascertained, and, besides, 
 they were subsisting claims upon the Government of the United States which they 
 were bound by treaty to have paid. Not to pay them, or to pay them out of the 
 funds of the Cherokees which had been fixed by the Senate as the value of their 
 lands, was precisely the same thing. 
 
 The United States were bound by the treaty of 1828 to pay the expenses of the 
 removal of all the Cherokees. This obligation was not released by the purchase of 
 their lands at their appraised value. Would such a thing be pretended in a similar 
 transaction between individuals? If all the Cherokees had removed before they 
 ceded their lands, the United States were bound to pay the cost of removal. If the 
 United States afterwards bought the lands of the Cherokees, they were bound to pay 
 the price at which they were appraised. The first article of the treaty recites that — 
 
 " The Cherokee Nation hereby cede to the United States their lands east of the Mis- 
 sissippi River and hereby release their claims for spoliations of every kind, for and 
 in consideration of $5,000,000. But as a question has arisen between the commis- 
 sioners and the Cherokee people whether the Senate, when they advised that a sum 
 not exceeding $5,000,000 be paid the Cherokee Indians for their lands and possessions 
 east of the Mississippi River, had included or made any allowance for claims for 
 spoliations, it is therefore agreed on the part of the United States that this question 
 shall be submitted to the Senate for their consideration and decision, and if no 
 allowance was made for spoliations, that then an additional sum of $300,000 be 
 allowed for the same." 
 
 It will l»e seen by the above that subsistence and removal were not included in 
 the above article, nor was any question as to either of those items then even thought 
 of. But the only thing pretended to be charged upon this fund was spoliations. 
 
MEMORIAL OF EASTERN OR EMIGRANT CHEROKEES. 
 
 21 
 
 The Senate decided that the sum of $5,000,000 was given for the lands alone, and 
 a supplemental article giving $600,000 was added to pay for spoliations and removal, 
 but still not including subsistence. That sum it was then thought would be suffi- 
 cient to cover these charges; but it was found that it was not, and the United 
 States, feeling that they were bound to pay these charges, again in 1838 appropri- 
 ated $1,047,000 for these objects. 
 
 The Cherokee Nation does not contend that the treaty fund shall be relieved from 
 the charge for spoliations but only from the cost of one year's subsistence and 
 removal to the West. Both of these sums, which were added by Congress, were 
 found inadequate to pay these various charges, and the fund of $5,000,000 has been 
 used for that purpose and others, to its entire exhaustion, or nearly so. They ask to 
 be relieved from the charges for removal and subsistence. It is very clear that not 
 until after the exhaustion of the $600,000 and the $1,047,000 did the officers of the 
 Government of the United States ever once think that the $5,000,000 was liable for 
 these charges. Not one dollar of that fund was ever so used until then. The fol- 
 lowing communication from the then Secretary of War shows that his understand- 
 ing was that this fund was not liable for these charges, or else he would not have 
 made the requisition for the sum of $1,080,000; that is to say, $1,047,000 for these 
 purposes and $33,000 for annuities. 
 
 Congress made the appropriation at once, which shows that the opinion of that 
 body was the same. 
 
 If the $5,000,000 fund was liable for these charges, how could the Secretary have 
 said that there were no funds to meet them when there was the $5,000,000 fund? 
 
 Why did Congress make this additional appropriation? The only answer which 
 can be given is, that it was considered just under the treaty, as the Senate had said 
 when the subject was a second time referred to that body for its decision on this 
 specific question, that the treaty fund of $5,000,000 was not liable to be charged with 
 these expenses. (Doc. 401, second session Twenty-fifth Congress.) 
 
 Department of W t ar, May 25, 1838. 
 Sir: In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the 23d 
 instant, requiring a statement of the amount that will be required for the additional 
 allowance proposed to be made to the Cherokees, I have the honor to present the 
 following estimate: 
 
 Payment of the expenses of removing the remaining Cherokees, esti- 
 
 mated at 15,840, at $30 per head $475, 200. 00 
 
 Amount applicable to that purpose 39, 300. 00 
 
 Balance to be provided for 435, 900. 00 
 
 If it should be deemed proper to make any further provision for the 
 payment of the subsistence of the emigrants for one year after their 
 arrival West, it will require, estimating the whole number at 18,335, 
 thereby including those who have already emigrated, and allowing 
 
 the amount stipulated, viz, $33.33 a head 611, 105.55 
 
 Add for contingencies, under estimates, both of number to be removed 
 
 and of expenses to be incurred 100, 000. CO 
 
 The amount of annuities, payment of which is asked for by the deputa- 
 tion, will be S3, 330. 00 
 
 1, 180, 335. 55 
 
 Very respectfully, your most obedient servant, 
 
 J. R. Poinsett. 
 
 Hon. J. K. Polk, 
 
 Speaker House of Representatives. 
 
 But this is not all. The question was submitted to the Secretary of War for his 
 decision of this specific point, and he decided that these charges of subsistence and 
 lemoval were not chargeable to the treaty fund but to the Government of the 
 United States under the treaty of 1828. 
 
 Shortly after the ratification of the treaty of 1835 a question arose as to the 
 allowance of claims for commutation of the year's subsistence, which was referred 
 for decision to the War Department; and the decision was communicated by the 
 Hon. C. A. Harris, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, to B. F. Curry, superintendent of 
 the Cherokee removals, in his letter under date of November 18, 1836, in which he 
 says: I acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 26th of October last, and 
 in reply have to observe that I have taken the decision of the Secretary of War ad 
 interim upon the claim of the Cherokees for subsistence at $33.33 each. The Secre- 
 tary decides that the commutation may be paid at the rate above stated, but at the 
 same time declares that the allowance'is made under the treaty of 1828, and not in 
 pursuance of any stipulations of the final treaty of 1835." (See Senate Doc. No. 120, 
 p. 209, second session Twenty-fifth Congress.) 
 
22 
 
 MEMORIAL OF EASTERN OR EMIGRANT CHEBOKEE8. 
 
 The treaty fund was never touched, uor was it ever pretended that it was liable 
 for these charges until alter the appropriations made for these specific objects had 
 been exhausted. Now, it seems very clear that if the Government of the United 
 States was liable for these charges when the additional sum of $600,000 was 
 given, and then again when the further sum of $1,047,000 was given, it is equally 
 liable for whatever may remain of these charges after both of these sums have been 
 exhausted. The magnitude of the obligation can not be held to release the party 
 from its fulfillment. 
 
 The thirteenth article of the treaty, which stipulates, on the part of the United 
 States, to pay for reservations of which the Indians have been deprived, closes 
 with the following words : 
 
 " It is expressly understood that the amount to be allowed for reservations under 
 this article shall not be deducted out of the consideration money allowed the Chero- 
 kees for their claims for spoliations and the cession of their lands, but the same is 
 to be paid for independently by the United States, as it is only a just fulfillment of 
 former treaty stipulations." 1 
 
 Here, again, the consideration given is stated. And what is that consideration? 
 Why. claims for spoliations and the cession of their lands— not a word said about 
 anything else; and this because "it is only a just fulfillment of former treaty stipu- 
 lations.'' Does not this apply equally to the payment of removal and subsistence? 
 The Government was bound, to do this by the treaty of 1828, and again by the eighth 
 article of the treaty of 1835 : 
 
 "Art. 8. The United States also agree and stipulate to remove the Cherokees to 
 their new homes in the West, and to subsist them for one year after their arrival 
 there, etc. Such persons and families as, in the opinion of the emigrating agent, are 
 capable of removing and subsisting themselves shall be permitted to do so, and 
 shall be allowed in full for all claims for the same, $20 for each member of their 
 family, and in lieu of their one year's rations they shall be paid the sum of $33.33, 
 if they prefer it." 
 
 AYhat does the word " also" in the above article mean, unless it be that this removal 
 and subsistence shall also be paid in addition to the price given for their lands? Is 
 there any other imaginable meaning that can be given to it ? The more clearly so, 
 as the United States were bound by the subsisting and unabrogated treaty of 1828 
 to pay these charges. 
 
 But if neither cost of removal nor subsistence is to be paid by the United States, it 
 is too clear to admit of contradiction that there is neither justice nor right in charg- 
 ing the treaty fund with more than $33.33 for subsistence nor more than $20 for 
 removal. That was the sum which the United States were willing to allow; the sum 
 which was fixed on as fair and proper. If the United States made it cost more, there 
 is no justice in charging the excess to the treaty fund, but all such excess should be 
 borne by the United States. So of the removal. The Indians were detained more 
 than a month after they were assembled and ready to remove. This expense should 
 also be borne by the United States, and all losses sustained on the resale of provi- 
 sions which were not needed nor consumed. 
 
 As to the justice of interest the committee have no doubt. If the treaty fund had 
 not been charged improperly, as it is now acknowledged, the money would have been 
 paid twelve years ago. This was in no wise the fault of the Cherokees, but of the 
 officers of the Government of the United states. The Cherokees have for all this time 
 been deprived of the use of the money justly due them, and the United States havehad 
 the use of it for their own benefit. They' have been paying interest upon money 
 borrowed all this time, and would have had to pay that interest on a larger sum if 
 they had paid the Cherokees what was justly due them. It is not the case of a 
 claim of an individual, but of a people treated with as a nation; and not to have 
 paid it was a violation of a treaty, and must be repaid now. For the claims of 
 American citizens on Mexico and other Governments interest has been claimed by 
 our Government and allowed. * * * The committee therefore report, and recom- 
 mend the adoption of the following resolutions: 
 
 Whereas by the treaty of the 6th of August, 1816, between the United States and 
 the Cherokee Indians, certain questions were agreed to be submitted to the decision 
 of the Senate: 
 
 /. Resolved, That, in the opinion of the Senate, whatever balance of the fund of 
 $5,000,000 stipulated to be paid to the Cherokee Nation by the treaty of the 29th of 
 December, 1*35. and the subsequent additions thereto, may now be ascertained to 
 be due to the said Cherokee Nation, shall bear interest at the rate of 5 per cent per 
 annum from the time found due until the same be paid by the United States. 
 
 /. Resolved, That the charge for one year's subsistence of the Cherokees after 
 their arrival in the West is not a proper 'charge upon the fund of $5,000,000 afore- 
 said, but should have beep paid independently of that fund l>y the United States. 
 
 S. Beeolved, That the expense of removing the Cherokees to the West should, in like 
 manner, have been borne bv the United States and not charged to the fund of 
 $5,000,000 aforesaid, 
 
MEMORIAL OF EASTERN OR EMIGRANT CHEROKEES. 
 
 23 
 
 Coininissioner Medill ignores this important report and its unan- 
 swerable argument. He quotes the unnamed commissioners whose 
 argument we have answered, and who have been reversed by Congress 
 in the force of their argument by the act of September 30, 1850, and 
 February 27, 1851, wherein the very items they argued chargeable- 
 against the trust fund were refunded by Congress, to wit, in the mat- 
 ter of subsistence and amounts paid to Government agents. 
 
 These commissioners are also reversed by the fourth article of the 
 treaty of 1846, which substantially agrees with the old settlers, that 
 removal shall not be charged to the $5,000,000 fund. We regret that 
 among the Government publications we have been uuable to find the 
 report of the commissioners quoted by Commissioner Medill. 
 
 We did rind, however, a most important report of the United States 
 commissioners appointed by the Secretary of War to inquire into the 
 complaints and difficulties of the Cherokees, who made their report on 
 January 17, 1815, of 143 pages, to wit: Hon. Koger Jones, Adjutant- 
 General United States Army; Hon. Eichard B. Mason, lieutenant- 
 colonel First Dragoons; Governor Pierce M. Butler. United States 
 agent. These commissioners make the following statement (p. 12. Senate 
 Doc. No. 140, Twenty-eighth Congress, second session, vol. 8). 
 
 The Treaty Party 
 
 complain of the noxreceipt of the per capita, etc. 
 
 The commissioners agree with the complainants that a large balance of money is 
 due from the United States, under treaty stipulations, for per capita division among 
 the Cherokee people. 
 
 The treaty of 1835 guarantees the payment of $5,000,000 by the United States for 
 the Cherokee lands, subject to the deduction of moneys to be expended on certain 
 objects enumerated in the fifteenth article, among which are removal and subsistence. 
 
 Had legislation on the subject terminated here, the United States were bound so 
 to administer the fund that the price of the lands should not be exhausted by the 
 expenses of removal. 
 
 The sums of $20, the commutation allowed in the eighth article for transportation, 
 and of $33.33 for subsistence, would seem to have been the limits beyond which no 
 further charge for these objects could properly be made upon the five millions. But 
 the Government, in the exercise of a benevolent magnanimity, consulting not so 
 much pecuniary considerations as the feelings and comfort of the unfortunate peo- 
 ple, gave the removal of the mass of them into the hands of agents chosen from 
 among themselves, instead of ottering the contract for their transportation, like that 
 of so many cattle, to the lowest bidder. 
 
 Surely, if these expenses proved greater than anticipated by the treaty it is not 
 just to make, from the fund voted as the price of the Cherokee lands, deductions far 
 exceeding what were contemplated when that price was fixed. Still less is it just that 
 that portion of the Cherokee people, "the treaty party so-called" who had commuted 
 for their removal, should have their reasonable expectations of compensation for the 
 homes they had surrendered defeated, by the exhaustion of their consideration 
 money in the removal of the other portion. 
 
 Under the first treaty arrangement, then, the United States would seem to owe the 
 Cherokees all the excess that has been paid for removal and subsisteuce out of the 
 five millions, over the amount that would result from allowing for each individual 
 removed the respective sums of $20 and $33.33, stipulated in the treaty as commu- 
 tation. 
 
 But there are yet to be considered certain supplementary articles to the treaty 
 and the subsequent legislation. 
 
 The second supplementary article, concluded March 1, 1836, is to this effect: That 
 whereas it was supposed by the Cherokee people that the Senate, in fixing the sum 
 of five millions as the value of the Cherokee lands, did not intend to include the 
 amount which might be required for removal, the subject was to be referred to the 
 Senate, that, if it did not intend the five millions to include the objects specified, 
 such further provision might be made as might appear to be just. 
 
 The third supplementary article says: " It is therefore agreed that the sum of 
 $600,000 shall be, and the same is hereby, allowed to the Cherokee people, to include 
 the expense of their removal:" and in 'the sequel concludes: "but it is expressly 
 understood, that the subject of this article is merely referred hereby to the cousid- 
 
24 
 
 MEMORIAL OF EASTERN OR EMIGRANT CHEROKEES. 
 
 eration of the Senate ; and if they shall approve the same, then this supplement shall 
 remain part of the treaty." 
 
 The Senate did approve and ratify these articles, and Congress made the "further 
 provision' - called for. The conclusion seems just that the Government thereby rat- 
 ified the above expressed understanding of their intentions, and debarred them- 
 selves from making any charge upon the tive millions for the expenses of removal. 
 
 If this construction be correct, then are the United States bound to restore to the 
 compensation fund, out of the whole sum paid for removal, such portion as has been 
 charged upon the general fund; and also to restore such moneys as may have been 
 paid out of that fund tor "objects of a contingent nature"' not enumerated in the 
 treaty. Of course, what has been said in considering the complaints of the "treaty 
 party" applies to the whole body of the emigrants. The eommissioners are of opin- 
 ion that the nonreceipt of this per capita is the germ of discontent — the great hin- 
 drance to the harmony and quiet of the complaining parties and of the whole people. 
 
 As a final and certain means of restoring harmony and promoting the improve- 
 ment Of the Cherokee people the commissioners beg leave strongly and respectfully 
 to recommend that their authorities be heard in support of their claims on the 
 United States, and that a new treaty be concluded on the just and. liberal basis set 
 forth and promised in the letter of His Excellency, President Tyler, September 20, 
 1841 (p. — ). By such a measure it is believed not only will the good faith of the 
 United States be triumphantly shown, but they will be more than repaid for this 
 liberal policy, etc." 
 
 Commissioner Medill entirely ignores this important report, although 
 these high commissioners were sent to make report on these very mat- 
 ters and did make report to the Secretary of War the very year pre- 
 ceding the treaty. 
 
 The only argument made by Commissioner Medill which we have not 
 completely answered is his argument on page 7, Ex. Doc. 65, that, 
 had the Government intended to assume the whole cost of removal, an 
 estimate would have been made of the probable cost of removal and 
 of the probable amount of the claims in order that the additional amount 
 to be allowed might be made to embrace all; he says this was not done. 
 Our answer is, first, that it was done, and second, that it was not nec- 
 essary to be done. 
 
 Manifestly, the absence of an estimate demonstrates nothing. Many 
 appropriations are made by Congress without an estimate in which 
 Congress does intend to assume the whole cost; this has been done in 
 thousands of cases. But in regard to the 6600,000 for spoliations and 
 removals, there was an estimate fully set forth, in Schermerhorn's pro- 
 posed treaty of October 18, 1S35, in the schedule thereof, to wit, for 
 spoliations, $250,000, and 6255,000 for removal. And article 3, supple- 
 ment 1835, shows on its face that the 8600,000 was estimated k 'to 
 include the expense of their removal,*' etc., and leave a surplus for the 
 education fund. 
 
 How could the 8600,000 include the cost of removal unless it were 
 estimated as more than enough ? 
 
 How could there be a surplus for the education fund unless it were 
 estimated that 6600,000 was more than sufficient to pay the removal, 
 etc ! 
 
 It is notorious that the Secretary of War, May 25, 1838, made a for- 
 mal estimate for a sum sufficient to pay the cost of removal of every 
 single Cherokee (although it proved insufficient because of the terrible 
 drought and winter which ensued). 
 
 Commissioner Medill says if the Government had intended to assume 
 the whole cost of removal an estimate would have been made of the 
 probable cost of removal, and as this was plainly done, according to his 
 logic, the United States did assume the whole cost of removal. 
 
 Commissioner Medill says there was no estimate, and therefore the 
 United States did not assume the whole cost of removal. He is wrong 
 in his facts, and if his facts were right he would be wrong in his logic. 
 
MEMORIAL OF EASTERN OR EMIGRANT CHEROKEES. 
 
 25 
 
 Yet, on his report, Mr. Albion K. Paris, Second Comptroller, and John 
 M. McCalla, Second Auditor, make their report on the amount due the 
 Gherokees, in which they say they take — 
 
 As a basis for our calculation the statement of amounts made by the Commissioner 
 of Indian Affairs in his report of May 10, 1848. (Senate Ex. Doc. No. 12, Thirtieth 
 Congress, second session.) 
 
 And thus the report of Commissioner Meclill became responsible for 
 the gross wrong perpetrated upon the Cherokees in the matter of their 
 per capita fund due them under the treaty of 1835 and 1846, and even 
 promised them by President Jackson and their arch enemy Schermer- 
 horn. In contrast with the obscure, unjust, and willfully perverted 
 report of Commissioner Medill, with its sins of commission and still 
 greater sins of omission, we appeal to the report of the Committee on 
 Indian Affairs of the United States Senate through Senator Jarnagin 
 and of Adjutant-General Jones, Governor Butler, and Lieutenant- 
 Colonel Mason, but above all to the able, exhaustive, and unanswerable 
 report of the experts appointed by the Interior Department as author- 
 ized and directed by Congress, to bring this matter to a settlement 
 which Attorney- General Shields, in his report submitted to Congress, 
 declared should be final. This report from pages 70 to 88, in Senate 
 Doc. Xo. 215, Fifty-sixth Congress, first session, we make as our con- 
 cluding answer to every objection which could be suggested adverse to 
 our claim. Earnestly praying and respectfully insisting upon a prompt 
 report in our favor and the settlement of our just claim, we have the 
 honor to be, 
 
 Your most obedient and humble servants. 
 
 The Eastern or Emigrant Cherokees 
 (so called) of the indian territory, 
 
 David Muskrat, 
 
 Daniel Gritts, 
 
 Frank J. Boudinot, 
 
 Executive Committee. 
 
 Robert L. Owen, Of Counsel, 
 
 EXHIBITS. 
 
 THE CHEROKEE NATION OF INDIANS. 
 
 A Narrative of Their Official Relations With the Colonial and Federal 
 
 Governments. 
 
 By Chas. C. Eoyce. 
 [1835.J 
 
 (Pages 276, 277.) 
 
 The memorial of the Cherokee Nation respectfully showeth, that they approach 
 your honorable bodies as the representatives of the people of the United States, 
 intrusted by them under the Constitution with the exercise of their sovereign power, 
 to ask for protection of the rights of your memorialists and redress of their grievances. 
 
 They respectfully represent that their rights, being stipulated by numerous sol- 
 emn treaties, which guaranteed to them protection, and guarded, as they supposed, 
 by laws enacted by Congress, they had hoped that the approach of danger would 
 be prevented by the interposition of the power of the Executive, charged with the 
 execution of treaties and laws, and that when their rights should come in question 
 they would be finally and authoritatively decided by the judiciary, whose decrees it 
 would be the duty of the Executive to see carried into effect. For many years these 
 their just hopes were not disappointed. 
 
 The public faith of the United States, solemnly pledged to them, was duly kept 
 in form and substance. Happy under the parental guardianship of the United States, 
 they applied themselves assiduously and successfully to learn the lessons of civiliza- 
 
26 
 
 MEMORIAL OF EASTERN OR EMIGRANT CHEROKEES. 
 
 tion and peace, which, in the prosecution of a humane and Christian policy, the 
 United States caused to be taught them. Of the advances they have made under the 
 influence of this benevolent system they might a few years ago have been tempted 
 to speak with pride and satisfaction, and with grateful hearts to those who have 
 been their instructors. They could have pointed with pleasure to the houses they 
 had built, the improvements they had made, the fields they were cultivating; they 
 could have exhibited their domestic establishments and shown how, from wandering 
 in the forests, many of them had become the heads of families, with fixed habitations, 
 each the center of a domestic circle like that which forms the happiness of civilized 
 man. 
 
 They could have shown, too, how the arts of industry, human knowledge, and 
 letters had been introduced among them, and how the highest of all the knowl- 
 edge had come to bless them, teaching them to know and to worship the Christian 
 God, bowing down to him at the same seasons and in the same spirit with millions 
 of His creatures who inhabit Christendom, and with them embracing the hopes and 
 promises of the gospel. But now each of these blessings has been made to them an 
 instrument of the keenest torture. Cupidity has fastened its eye upon their lands 
 and upon their homes, and is seeking by force, and by every variety of oppression 
 and wrong, to expel them from their lands and their homes, and to tear them from 
 all that has become endeared to them. Of what they have already suffered it is 
 impossible for them to give the details, as they would make a history. Of what 
 they are menaced with by unlawful power every creature of the United States who 
 reads the public journals is aware. 
 
 In this, their distress, they have appealed to the judiciary of the United States, 
 where their rights have been solemnly established. They have appealed to the 
 Executive of the United States to protect these rights according to the obligations 
 of treaties and the injunctions of the laws. But this appeal to the Executive has 
 been made in vain. In the hope that by yielding something of their clear rights 
 they might succeed in obtaining security for the remainder, they have lately opened 
 a correspondence with the Executive, offering to make a considerable cession from 
 what has been reserved to them by solemn treaties, only upon condition that they 
 migh't be protected in the part not ceded; but their earnest supplication has been 
 unheeded, and the only answer they can get informs them, in substance, that they 
 must be left to their fate or renounce the whole. What that fate is to be, unhap- 
 pily, is too plain. 
 
 The State of Georgia has assumed jurisdiction over them, has invaded their terri- 
 tory, has claimed the right to dispose of their lands, and has actually proceeded to 
 dispose of them, reserving only a small portion to individuals, and even these portions 
 are threatened and will no doubt soon be taken from them. Thus the nation is 
 stripped of its territory and individuals of their property without the least color of 
 right and in open violation of the guaranty of treaties. At the same time the 
 Cherokees, deprived of the protection of their own government and laws, are left 
 without the protection of any other laws; outlawed, as it were, and exposed to 
 indignities, imprisonment, persecution, and even to death, though they have com- 
 mitted no offense whatever save and except that of seeking to enjoy what belongs 
 to them and refusing to yield it up to those who have no pretense of title to it. 
 
 Of the acts of the legislature of Georgia your memorialist will endeavor to furnish 
 copies to your honorable bodies, and of the doings of the individuals they will fur- 
 nish evidence if required. And. your memorialists further respectfully represent 
 that the Executive of the United States has not only refused to protect your memo- 
 rialists against the wrongs they have suffered and are still suffering at the hands of 
 unjust cupidity, but has done much more. It is but too plain that for several years 
 past the power of the Executive has been exerted on the side of their oppressors and 
 is cooperating with them iu the work of destruction. Of two particulars in the 
 conduct of the Executive your memorialists would make mention, not merely as 
 matters of evidence, but as specific subjects of complaint in addition to the more 
 general ones already stated. 
 
 The first of these is the mode adopted to oppress and injure your memorialists 
 under color of enrollments for emigration. Unfit persons are introduced as agents, 
 acts :ire practiced by them that are unjust, unworthy, and demoralizing, and have 
 no object but to force your memorialists to yield and abandon their rights by making 
 tkeir'lives intolerably wretched. They forbear to go into particulars, which never- 
 theless they are prepared, at a proper time, to exhibit. 
 
 The other is calculated also to weaken and distress your memorialists, and is 
 essentially unjust. Heretofore, until within the last four years, the money appro- 
 priated by Congress for annuities has been paid to the nation, by whom it was dis- 
 tributed and used for the benefit of the nation. And this method of payment was 
 not only sanctioned by the usage of the Government of the United States, but was 
 acceptable to the Cherokees. 
 
 Set, without any oaase known to your memorialists and contrary to their just 
 expectations, the payment has been withheld for the period just mentioned, on the 
 
MEMORIAL OF EASTERN OR EMIGRANT CHEROKEES. 
 
 27 
 
 ground, then for the first time assumed, that the annuities were to be paid, not as 
 hitherto, to the nation, but to the individual Cherokees, each his own small fraction, 
 dividing the whole according to the numbers of the nation. The fact is that for the 
 last four years the annuities have not been paid at all. 
 
 The distribution in this new way was impracticable if the Cherokees had been 
 willing thus to receive it, but they were not willing; they have refused and the 
 annuities have remained unpaid. Your memorialists forbear to advert to the 
 motives of such conduct, leaving them to be considered and appreciated by Con- 
 gress. All they will say is that it has coincided with other measures adopted to 
 reduce them to poverty" aud despair and to extort from their wretchedness a conces- 
 sion of their guaranteed rights. Having failed in their efforts to obtain relief else- 
 where, your memorialists now appeal to Congresss, and respectfully pray that your 
 honorable bodies will look into their whole case, and that such measures may be 
 adopted as will give them redress and security. 
 
 (Page 284.) 
 
 REPORT OF MAJOR DAVIS (MARCH 5, 183G). 
 
 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. 
 
 * * * I should not interpose in the matter at all, but I discover that you do not 
 receive impartial information on the subject; that you have to depend upon the ex 
 parte, partial, and interested reports of a person who will not give you the truth. I 
 will not be silent when I see that you are about to be imposed on by a gross and base 
 betrayal of the high trust reposed in Rev. J. P. Schermerhorn by you. His conduct 
 and course of policy was a series of blunders from first to last. * * * It has been 
 wholly of a partisan character. 
 
 Sir, that paper * * * called a treaty is no treaty at all, because not sanctioned 
 by the great body of the Cherokees 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 1 believe by nineteen-twentieths of 
 them. There were not present at the conclusion of the treaty more than 100 Chero- 
 kee voters, and not more than 300 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 Schermer- 
 horn. 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 Cherokees accidentally picked up for that 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) natiou. The Cherokees are a peaceable, harmless peo- 
 ple, but you may drive them to desperation, and this treaty can not be carried into 
 effect but bv the strong arm of force. 
 
 (Page 286:) 
 
 SPEECH OF GEN. R. G. DUNLAP (SEPTEMBER, 1836). 
 
 I forthwith visited all the posts within the first three States and gave the Chero- 
 kees (the whites needed none) all the protection in my power. * * * My course 
 has excited the hatred of a few of the lawless rabble in Georgia, who have long 
 played the part of unfeeling petty tyrants, and that to the disgrace of the proud 
 character of gallant soldiers and good citizens. I had determined that I would 
 never dishonor the Tennessee arms in a servile service by aiding to carry into execu- 
 tion at the point of the bayonet a treaty made by a lean minority against the will 
 and authority of the Cherokee people. * * * I soon discovered that the Indians 
 had not the most distant thought of war with the United States, notwithstanding 
 the common rights of humanity and justice had been denied them. 
 
 (Page 286:) 
 
 REPORT OF GEN. JOHN E. WOOL (FEBRUARY 18, 1837). 
 
 I called them (the Cherokees) together and made a short speech. It is, however, 
 vain to talk to a people almost universally opposed to the treaty and who maintain 
 that they never made such a treaty. So determined are they in their opposition 
 
28 MEMORIAL OF EASTERN OR EMIGRANT CHEROKEES. 
 
 that not one of all those who were present and voted at the council held but a day 
 or two since, however poor or destitute, would receive either rations or clothing 
 from the United States lest they might compromise themselves in regard to the 
 treaty. These same people, as well as those in the mountains of North Carolina, 
 during the summer past preferred living upon the roots and sap of trees rather than 
 receive provisions from the United States, and thousands, as I have been informed, 
 had no other food for weeks. 
 
 Four months later General Wool said (p. 286) : Had Curry lived lie would assuredly 
 have been killed by the Indians. It is a truth that you have not a single agent, 
 high or low, that has the slightest moral control over the Indians. It would be wise 
 if persons appointed to civil stations in the nation could be taken from among 
 those who have had nothing to do with making the late treaty. 
 
 (Page 290:) 
 
 GOYERXOR GILMER, OF GEORGIA (MAY, 1838). 
 
 * * * I can give it no sanction whatever. The proposal could not be carried 
 into effect but in violation of the rights of this State. * * * It is necessary that 
 I should know whether the President intends, by the instructions to General Scott, 
 to require that the Indians shall be maintained in their occupancy by an armed 
 force in opposition to the rights of the owners of the soil. If such be the intention, 
 a direct collision between the authorities of the State and the General Government 
 must ensue. My duty will require that I shall prevent any interference whatever 
 by the troops with the rights of the State and its citizens. I shall not fail to per- 
 form it. 
 
 HOUSE EX. DOC. NO. 453, VOL. II, PART 1, 1837-38, TWENTY-FIFTH CON- 
 GRESS, SECOND SESSION. 
 
 (April 6, 1838:) 
 
 Maj. Gen. Alex. McComb, commander in chief, directs Maj. Gen. W. Scott to pre- 
 pare to remove Cherokees by military force, as "it is aj>prehended that the mass of the 
 nation, under some delusion, does not intend to remove to the country provided for 
 them under the stipulations of the treaty entered into with them on the 29th of 
 December, 1835." 
 
 (May 10, 1838:) 
 
 General Scott (p. 11) issues an address to the Cherokees as follows: 
 Major-General Scott, of the United States Army, sends to the Cherokee people 
 remaining in North Carolina, Georgia. Tennessee, and Alabama this 
 
 ADDRESS. 
 
 Cherokees : The President of the United States has sent me with a powerful army 
 to cause you, in obedience to the treaty of 1835, to join that part of your people who 
 are already established in prosperity on the other side of the Mississippi. Unhap- 
 pily, the two years which were allowed for the purpose you have suffered to pass 
 away without following, and without making any preparation to follow, and now, or 
 by the time that this solemn address shall reach your distant settlements, the emigra- 
 tion must be commenced in haste, but I hope without disorder. I have no power, 
 by granting a further delay, to correct the error that you have committed. The full 
 moon of May is already on the wane, and before another shall have passed away 
 every Cherokee man, woman, and child in those States must be in motion to join 
 their brethren in the far West. 
 
 My friends, this is no sudden determination on the part of the President, whom 
 you and I must now obey. By the treaty the emigration was to have been com- 
 pleted on or before the 23d of this month, and the President has constantly kept 
 you warned, during the two years allowed, through all his officers and agents in 
 this country, that the treaty would be enforced. 
 
 I am come to carry out that determination. My troops already occupy many posi- 
 tions in the country that you are to abandon, and thousands ;md thousands are 
 approaching from every quarter to render resistance and escape alike hopeless. All 
 those troops, regular and militia, are your friends. Receive them and confide in 
 them as such. Obey them when they tell you that you can remain no longer in this 
 country. Soldiers are as kind hearted as brave, and the desire of every one of us id 
 to execute our painful duty in mercy. Wo are commanded by the President to act 
 toward you in that spirit, and such is also tho wish of the whole people of America. 
 
 Chiefs, headmen, ami warriors, will you, then, by resistance compel us to resort 
 to arms I God forbid. Or will you by Hight seek to hide yourselves in mountains 
 and forests, and thus oblige us to hunt you down? Kemeniber that in pursuit it 
 
MEMORIAL OF EASTERN OR EMIGRANT CHEROKEES 
 
 29 
 
 may be impossible to avoid conflicts. The blood of the white man or the blood of 
 the' red man may be spilt, and if spilt, however accidentally, it may be impossible 
 for the discreet and humane among you or among us to prevent a general war aud 
 carnage. Think of this, my Cherokee brethren. I am an old warrior aud have 
 been present at many a sceue of slaughter; but spare me, I beseech you, the horror 
 of witnessing the destruction of the Cherokees. 
 
 Do not, I invite you, even wait for the close approach of the troops, but make 
 such preparations for emigration as you can, and hasten to this place, to Ross's 
 Landing or to Guuter's Landing, where you all will be received in kindness by officers 
 selected for the purpose. You will find, food for all and clothing for the destitute 
 at either of these places, and thence at your ease and in comfort be transported to 
 your new homes according to the terms of the treaty. 
 
 This is the address of a warrior to warriors. May his entreaties be kindly received, 
 and may the God of both prosper the Americans and Cherokees and preserve them 
 long in peace and friendship with each other. 
 
 Win field Scott. 
 
 Cherokee Agency, May 10, 1S3S. 
 (May 17, 1838:) 
 
 General Scott (p. 8) issues General Order, No. 25, announcing to the troops ''that, 
 with them, he has been charged by the President to cause the Cherokee Indians yet 
 remaining in North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, and Alabama to remove to the 
 West, according to the terms of the treaty of 1835;" announces his staff, divides 
 the country into districts to be commanded by the officers severally named, and 
 arranges plans of operation, etc. 
 
 (June 7, 1838:) 
 
 General Scott (p. 18) acknowledges to Hon. J. R. Poinsett, Secretary of War, 
 the receipt of his letter of 23d of May, " inclosing a copy of the proposals made by the 
 Department to the Cherokee delegation, of a date five days earlier/' and says, 
 among other things : 
 
 " The peace, nay, the lives of the Indians require that they should be immediately 
 removed from Alabama, as well as from Georgia, Tennessee, and North Carolina. 
 Accordingly I am glad to find myself instructed to continue my operations, although 
 I should be extremely delighted if something more could be done to soothe the feel- 
 ings of the Cherokees and to compensate them in money, at least, in part discharge 
 of that great debt of justice due from the United States." 
 
 General Scott further savs: 
 
 "There is remaining in the Cherokee country no authority or no set of agents to 
 sign any stipulation or contract in the least degree binding on the Indians. The 
 whole political power of the tribe is, at least for the time, in the hands of the dele- 
 gation at Washington: and should that delegation, or. rather, Mr. John Ross (whom 
 all obey), ever present himself to me, I do not see that I should have, under the pro- 
 posals, power to do more than to take the business of emigrating the Indians out of 
 the hands of the present superintendent and to put it into his. This would, no doubt, 
 be highly agreeable to the Ross party, and in the same degree, without many guards, 
 offensive if not fatal to the opposite party— a mere fraction, but consisting of indi- 
 viduals of great wealth and respectability." 
 
 (June 15 :) 
 
 General Scott reports (p. 22) to Secretary of War: 
 
 " A few families and individuals have, however, it is known, taken refuge in the 
 mountain parts of three districts. With such exceptions Georgia may be said to be 
 cleared of Cherokees, and in three or five days as much will have been clone in Ten- 
 nessee, North Carolina, and Alabama." 
 
 (June 18:) 
 
 General Scott reports (p. 26) : 
 
 "I have, with the concurrence of the superintendent of Cherokee emigration and 
 after the fullest inquiries, determined to suspend further emigration until the 1st of 
 September next. Not only the comfort, but the safety, of the Indians in reference to 
 the advanced season has forced this decision upon me. In the meantime I propose 
 to hold the prisoners and voluntary emigrants in convenient camps, guarded by the 
 regular troops, around the two great emigrating depots." 
 
 CHEROKEE PETITIONS. 
 
 June 9, 1838. 
 
 We have heard with intense emotions your address of the 10th of May. We have, 
 with more or less distinctness, heard rumors of subsequent orders and'of their exe- 
 cution. We have considered them with all the seriousness and care of which we were 
 
30 MEMORIAL OF EASTERN OR EMIGRANT CHEROKEES. 
 
 capable and which their portentous character demands. A most formidable mili- 
 tary force is arrayed against us for declining to comply with the requirements of the 
 instrument of New Echota. If this be a crime, sir, it has been committed in the 
 honesty of our hearts and in pursuance of the principles of justice, in which we have 
 been instructed by your own most honored chiefs. But, sir, we do not appear before 
 you in this our humble address to discuss the merits of that compact, which, even 
 under the most appalling circumstances, we dare not in conscience recognize in any 
 other character than that of Iraud upon the United States as well as upon the 
 Cherokees. We approach you, sir, in the character of individuals of a besieged 
 nation. We offer no resistance to your troops. We seek not to hide ourselves by 
 flight. We are at all times accessible, as you have had ample proof. We are entirely 
 at your mercy. We are altogether in your hands. But, sir, bad as our condition is, 
 we can not but rejoice that we have fallen into the hands of a commander who can 
 appreciate our feelings as lovers of our country and lovers of right. We venerate 
 the virtues of the patriot chieftain, whose life has been hazarded in defense of his 
 country's rights: who has braved the terrors of the battlefield in defense of the very 
 principles to which we humbly presume to cling. We respect the humanity which 
 breathes through your orders, the care for onr comfort which they evince, and the 
 deprecation of destruction of the Cherokees which they express. 
 
 In this dark hour it is consoling to be told that our father, the President, has 
 commanded the duties with which you are charged to he executed in mercy and that 
 "such is the wish of the whole American people/' It is consoling also to perceive 
 that the same sentiment is expressed in the President's communication to the gov- 
 ernors concerned and in the opinion of the Secrerary of War, approved by the Presi- 
 dent and by him laid before Congress, as well as in the honorable Secretary's letter 
 to yourself of the 23d of May. 
 
 Indulging also the assurance of your own good feeling toward our people, as well 
 from your communications as from the known magnanimity and generosity of your 
 character, we can not but entertain the hope that this our humble address will meet 
 with your favorable regard, especially as our requests are in perfect conformity with 
 the expressed sentiments of high functionaries of Government and the whole Ameri- 
 can people. 
 
 Our request, sir, is this: That the capture and emigration of our people may not 
 be executed with so much haste at the present season of the year, as threatening an 
 amount of suffering, disease, and death, so frightful as to excite forebodings little 
 short of the extermination of our whole race. The journey to Arkansas has often been 
 performed from this country. Our people are well acquainted with the results which 
 have uniformly attended it. 
 
 Under favorable conditions, in healthful seasons, with willing emigrants, and in 
 numbers so small as to admit of their being immediately accommodated by their 
 friends with shelter from worst effects of the insalubrity of the climate, an alarming 
 amount of sickness and death has been the constant attendant. And what can be 
 expected if the remainder of the 16,000 or 17,000 souls be captured in one day and 
 sent off at once in this sickly season? In complying with this our most importunate 
 request we can conceive no disadvantage which it would occasion to the service 
 with which you are charged, as the business of capturing our whole people can be 
 effected any day you may be pleased to order it. With regard to those already made 
 prisoners, our request is that they may be indulged with the privilege of a parole 
 until the season will admit of their emigrating with greater security to their health. 
 With regard to the faithful observance of the parole, we are willing to pledge our- 
 selves to guarantee their punctual appearance at the time you may prescribe, and if 
 you should think the guarantee of the national council necessary, we hesitate not to 
 say that it shall be given as early as a session can be convened. 
 
 We ask for no delay that can in the least interfere with the measure of govern- 
 ment as expressed in the documents referred to. It is very evident, sir, that the 
 emigrants, if taken off at this time, will arrive there at the sickly season. They 
 will have no shelter, no furniture, few tools, and no health to use them so as to 
 prepare for their own comfort and that of their families, so they will be exposed 
 throughout the whole season to the ravages of that sickly climate; whereas in the 
 fall they would arrive at the commencement of the healthful season, which would 
 afford them an opportunity to provide for the comfort of themselves and families. 
 To be taken by thousands from this healthful country and set down on the banks of 
 Arkansas in the month of July, or to be detained on that sickly stream on account 
 of low waters, far short of the place of destination, is a thought at which our hearts 
 sicken; our wives and children, our aged and inrirm, and onr strongest men, laid 
 prostrate together, is a consideration which breaks our hearts, which unmans our 
 firmest nerve. 
 
 In conclusion, sir, permit us to appeal to your magnanimity, to your humanity, 
 to your compassion ; the lives of our whole nation are at your disposal : at your word 
 thousands of people may die and their names be forgotten; at your word they may 
 live; and by the favor of Providence their posterity may bless your name and trans- 
 
MEMORIAL OF EASTERN OR EMIGRANT CHEROKEES. 31 
 
 mit in gratitude its remembrance to the latest generation. Assuredly, sir, this is no 
 common occurrence. The annals of time exhibit few instances in which an indi- 
 vidual is placed in a condition to confer benefits lasting and substantial on a great 
 portion of our race. 
 
 We add no more. With the most solicitous anxiety we await the result of this 
 application. Your favorable attention will cheer our hearts; your rejection of our 
 suit will seal our despair. 
 With the most profound respect, we are, sir, your humble servants, 
 
 George Lowry. 
 Thomas Foreman. 
 (And Others.) 
 
 Major-General Scott, U. S. A., 
 
 Commanding Cherokee Nation. 
 
 P. S. — A report has reached us that several hundred of our people now at or near 
 Ross Landing are to be sent off in a few days. Pardon us, sir, if we can not con- 
 ceal our anxiety on their account. We feel for them as friends condemned to die. 
 
 Cherokee Agency, June 11, 1S38. 
 Sir: We, your humble petitioners (and who, before this may reach your eyes 
 will, no doubt, most of us, be your prisoners), ask permission, very respectfully, 
 to represent: 
 
 That the orders of our great ally and protector, the President of the United States, 
 as contained in your address of the 10th of May, has rilled our mind with astonishment 
 and dismay. We have relied with unwavering confidence on the good faith of the 
 United States. When told by the makers of the unjust paper of New Echota that we 
 were deceiving ourselves by doing so, we could not believe them; and we were fully 
 persuaded that all our difficulties originated in the corrupt principles and practices 
 of the promoters and makers of that instrument on both sides, and that nothing but 
 a fair representation of the case was required to insure to us ample justice. We 
 solicited investigation with all earnestness. A special agent from the President 
 came to our last general council for that purpose. In all frankness and friendship 
 he was hailed and honored at our council ground. Nothing was concealed from 
 him. We anticipated a fair report to the President and an immediate abrogation of 
 that perfidious instrument. 
 
 That report has lately been published. We have read it with unmingled satisfac- 
 tion. It is the truth, and the maker of it will long be remembered with gratitude 
 and honor by the Cherokee people. 
 
 Why the execution of that compact should be urged with such precipitancy, in 
 the face of that illustration of its character, we can not conceive, nor is this the 
 place to discuss that point. Our present object is to address yourself, sir, as having 
 the unquestioned control of our destinies, so far as physical force is concerned; to 
 propitiate your compassion in the exercise of your power, so as to mitigate horrors 
 which must result from carrying into effect the course intimated in a part of your 
 address, which says, "that before another moon shall have passed away every 
 Cherokee, man, woman, and child, must be in motion to join their brethren in the far 
 West." This, sir, would bring us to Arkansas just at the beginning of the sickly 
 season: and it can not but be hazardous in the extreme, and more fearfully so for 
 constitutions habituated to this healthful atmosphere, to crowd together, at so 
 unfavorable a season, a whole nation of people, with all the conditions of age and 
 infirmity and sex and helplessness, in all the varieties whiah such a concourse must 
 comprise, and without houses, to be exposed to the deleterious fogs and winds and 
 heats, most fatal to health. The inevitable consequence of such a course must be 
 most appalling ravage of disease and death. This measure, sir, we most solemnly 
 and most earnestly deprecate. Our position is urgent, sir; but we bespeak your 
 patience to suffer us to urge the most pressing considerations of humanity and of 
 mercy. W T e urge it, sir, by the sentiments expressed by yourself, that "it is the 
 desire of everyone of us to execute this painful duty in mercy." "We are com- 
 manded," you say, "by the President to act toward you in that spirit, and such also 
 is the wish of the whole of the American people." If it be painful to you, sir, to 
 contemplate the work, what must be the feelings of the Cherokees, who are to be the 
 subjects of the disaster and ruin which must ensue? For, sir, if we are hurried off 
 at this season, we must, unavoidably, fall a prey to that cruel climate, and our com- 
 plaints will be forever silenced. 
 
 Do not upbraid us, sir, with neglecting to make preparation and with wasting 
 the time allowed for that purpose. The President can not do so with Colonel 
 Mason's report in his hands. The President has made no treaty with us on the basis 
 of removal, although we have, by our delegation, asked him to do so. We can not 
 but feel aggrieved to be charged with neglect and unfaithfulness by a power to 
 
32 MEMORIAL OF EASTERN OR EMIGRANT CHEROKEES. 
 
 -which we dare not reply. Your age and experience can appreciate this our feeling 
 of mortification and feebleness. 
 
 Yeu have us completely in your power, sir. On this point there is no controversy. 
 Our whole people are your prisoners, or expect to he so in a few days; therefore, 
 whatever you may do to alleviate our distresses must he viewed by us as emanating 
 from your own magnanimity and the feeling of humanity, and must be so viewed 
 by the intelligent and virtuous of the United States and of other nations, who will 
 wear for you a wreath of fairer laurels than can be gathered by the destruction 
 of the unoffending, unarmed, and unwarlike Cherokees. 
 
 Pardon, sir, the freedom with which we have urged our anxious plea. Our case 
 is pressing and will admit of no delay. We ask most respectfully and most humbly 
 that we may not be sent to the West till fall, when the prospect of health will be 
 more favorable. Our humble petition is before you; we hope for a favorable 
 answer. 
 
 George Lowry. 
 
 L. W. HlLDERBRAND. 
 
 (And Others.) 
 
 Major-General Scott, U. S. A., 
 
 Cherokee Country. 
 
 Headquarters Eastern Division, 
 
 Cherokee Agency, June 19, 1838. 
 Gentlemen: I have received two memorials numerously signed by yourselves and 
 other Cherokees, dated, respectively, the 9th and 11th of this month, praying: 
 
 1. That the collection of the Cherokees by the troops for emigration may be 
 delayed or relaxed, and 
 
 2. That the families and individuals so collected, or who have voluntarily come 
 in, may not be sent off to the west of the Mississippi before the next autumn. 
 
 Under my instructions from the President no delay or relaxation can be permitted 
 in the collection of the whole Cherokee people east preparatory to their early emi- 
 gration, west. 
 
 In respect to the second proposition I am disposed to grant indulgence, if the 
 chiefs and headmen present will give me a written pledge for themselves and the 
 other chiefs and headmen absent to the following conditions: 
 
 1. That each will discountenance and suppress among the Cherokee people the 
 idea that there is the slightest intention on the part of the United States to suspend 
 the emigration beyond the 1st of September next, for in all that month it is my 
 solemn expectation and purpose to put in motion from the emigrating depots every 
 Cherokee east for the Cherokee country west of the Mississippi. 
 
 2. That the chiefs and headmen will, in good faith, exert their authority to pre- 
 vent their people from escaping or straggling from the camps which may be assigned, 
 or leaving the latter beyond the limits prescribed, except on special written permis- 
 sions, to be signed by the nearest commander of troops or by the superintendent of 
 Cherokee emigration. 
 
 3. That the same authority will be employed to preserve good order among the 
 Indians in the respective camps, to prevent drinking, to prevent any injury to the 
 citizens or their property, and to aid the emigrating officers and agents in obtaining 
 an exact list or register, by names, families, ages and sexes, of all the Cherokees 
 who are to be emigrated. 
 
 Expecting a prompt acceptance of the foregoing conditions, I remain, 
 Your friend, 
 
 Winfield Scott. 
 
 Messrs. G. Lowry, T. Foreman, and Others. 
 
 Cherokee Agency, June 19, 1S3S. 
 Sir : We have the honor of acknowledging the reception of your communication of 
 the present instant in answer to our petitions of the 9th and 11th of the present 
 month. Sir, we shall ever feel under much obligation to you for the indulgence 
 which you seem disposed to allow us upon the conditions specified in your communi- 
 cation. Without specifying particulars we respectfully accept these conditions, and 
 hereby pledge ourselves to use our best efforts to have them strictly complied with. 
 We have, sir, the honor to be, your friends, 
 
 George Lowry. 
 Lewis Ross. 
 (And Others.) 
 
 Major-General Scott, U. S. A., 
 
 Commanding. 
 
MEMORIAL OF EASTERN OR EMIGRANT CHEROKEES. 
 
 33 
 
 EMIGRATION OF INDIANS. 
 
 RESOLUTION OF THE CHEROKEE COUNCIL. 
 
 Whereas the whole population of the Cherokeee Nation have been captured by 
 the order of the President of the United States in order to their transportation from 
 the land of their fathers to the west of the river Mississippi, in execution of the 
 alleged stipulations of an instrument purporting to be a treaty made at New Echota 
 in 1835, but against the validity of which the Cherokees have always earnestly 
 protested ; 
 
 And whereas Maj. Gen. Winfield Scott, having the execution of this order in 
 charge, had actually commenced their transportation, but from motives of humanity 
 was pleased kindly to entertain the memorials presented to him by a part of our 
 people on behalf of the whole, and in compliance with their prayers magnanimously 
 agreed to suspend their further transportation until the 1st of September; 
 
 And whereas our delegation has just returned from Washington City, and having 
 important suggestions to make to the commanding general, under a special under- 
 standing with the honorable Secretary of War, in reference to the removal of the 
 nation to the West, have submitted the matter to this council for advice: 
 
 Resolved, therefore, by the national committee and council and people of the Cherokee 
 Nation in general council assembled, That it is the decided sense and desire of this 
 general council that the whole business of the emigration of our people shall be 
 undertaken by the nation, and the delegation are hereby advised to negotiate the 
 necessary arrangements with the commanding general for that purpose. 
 
 Richard Taylor, 
 President of the National Committee. 
 E. Hicks. 
 (And Others.) 
 
 A<juohee Camp, July 21, 1S3S. 
 
 No. 1. 
 
 PROPOSITION OF CHEROKEE DELEGATION TO GENERAL SCOTT. 
 
 Amoke District, Aquohee Camp, Ju ly 23, 1838. 
 
 Sir: In respectfully presenting for your consideration the following suggestions 
 in relation to the removal of the Cherokee people to the West it may be proper very 
 brielly to advert to certain facts which have an important bearing on the subject. 
 
 It is known to you, sir, that the undersigned, the delegates of the Cherokee 
 Nation, submitted to the honorable the Secretary of War the project of a treaty on 
 the basis of a removal of the Cherokee Nation from "all the lands now occupied by 
 them eastward of the Mississippi," and on terms the most of which the honorable 
 Secretary expresses himself as "not willing to grant." The present condition of the 
 Cherokee people is such that all dispute as to the time of emigration is set at rest. 
 Being already severed from their homes and their property — their persons being 
 under the absolute control of the commanding general — and being altogether depend- 
 ent on the benevolence and humanity of that high officer for the suspension of their 
 transportation to the West at a season and under circumstances in which sickness 
 and death were to be apprehended to an alarming extent, all inducements to pro- 
 long their stay in this country are taken away, and however strong their attachment 
 to the homes of their fathers may be, their interest and their wishes now are to 
 depart as early as may be consistent with their safety, which will appear from the 
 following extract from their proceedings on the subject: 
 
 "Resolved by the national committee and council and people of the Cherokee Nation 
 in general council assembled, That it is the decided sense and desire of this general 
 council that the whole business of the emigration of our people shall be undertaken 
 by the nation; and the delegation are hereby advised to negotiate the necessary 
 arrangements with the commanding general for that purpose.'' 
 
 In conformity, therefore, with the wishes of our peojile, and with the fact that the 
 delegation has been referred by the honorable the Secretary of War to conclude the 
 negotiation in relation to emigration with the commanding general in the Cherokee 
 country, we beg leave, therefore, very respectfully to propose — 
 
 That the Cherokee Nation will undertake the whole business of removing their 
 people to the west of the river Mississippi ; 
 
 That the emigration shall commence at the time stipulated in a pledge given to 
 you by our people, as a condition of the suspension of their transportation until the 
 
 S. Doe, 392 3 
 
34 
 
 MEMORIAL OF EASTERN OK EMIGRANT CHEROKEES. 
 
 sickly season should pass away, unless prevented by some cause which shall appear 
 reasonable to yourself; 
 
 That the per capita expense of removal he based on the calculation of one wagon 
 and team and six riding horses required for fifteen persons; 
 
 That the Cherokees shall have the selection of physicians and such other persons 
 as may be required for the safe and comfortable conducting of the several detach- 
 ments to the place of destination — their compensation to be paid by the United States. 
 We have the honor to be, your obedient servants, 
 
 John Ross. 
 Elijah Hicks. 
 (And Others.) 
 
 Maj. Gen. Winfield Scott, U. S. A., 
 
 Commanding, etc. 
 
 No. 2. 
 
 Headquarters Eastern Division, 
 
 Cherokee Agency, July 25, 1S38. 
 Gentlemen: I have received your letter submitting certain proposals, dated on 
 the 23d instant. 
 
 On the part of the United states I am ready to place the whole business of com- 
 pleting the emigration of the Cherokee people remaining east of the Mississippi 
 (with an exception to be mentioned; see the exception and note upon it below) to 
 their new homes west of that river in the hands of sucli functionaries of the East- 
 ern Cherokees as may exhibit to me from the same due authority to undertake and 
 carry through the emigration, on the following conditions: 
 
 1. That the said functionaries and their people shall continue to observe and exe- 
 cute, in good faith, the promises given to me in writing by certaiu chiefs and head 
 men, for themselves and people, r>resent and absent, on the 19th ultimo. ' 
 
 2. That the said functionaries shall send intelligent Indian runners, to be fur- 
 nished with written permission, signed by the commanding general, in search of, 
 and to cause to be brought into the emigration, all Indian families and individuals 
 who may remain out, and who are not citizens of the United States, or who have not 
 received permission to remain in the States for the purpose of becoming denizens of 
 the same. 
 
 3. That with the exception of such Indians as are or who may have obtained per- 
 mission to remain in order to become citizens or denizens of^the United States or of 
 the States, also with the exception of such Indian families and individuals as may 
 be permitted by the commanding general to emigrate themselves," the said Chero- 
 kee functionaries shall cause all their people now remaining East, and who may at 
 the time be able to travel, including fugitive Creeks among them, to be put in 
 motion, in convenient detachments, either by land or water, and transported with- 
 out unnecessary delays on the routes, to the Cherokee country west of the Missis- 
 sippi, beginning the movement as early as the 1st of September next, and continuing 
 to send off parties at intervals not exceeding three days, so that all the emigrants 
 
 able to travel within that time shall be in motion for the West by the day of 
 
 the ensuing month (October). 
 
 Such Indians as within that time may not be able to travel by land shall, if the 
 rivers be not up, be permitted to remain until the next rise of waters, and in the 
 meantime have as attendants a small number of their families or friends. 
 
 The foregoing conditions being agreed to, the United States, through me, are 
 willing to stipulate to pay over to the Cherokee functionaries, from time to time, 
 such portions of the moneys appropriated for the emigration as may seem reason- 
 able to prepare for and carry it out. 
 I remain, gentlemen, etc., 
 
 Winfield Scott. 
 
 Messrs. John Ross, E. Hicks, J. Brown, E. Guntek, S. Gunter, Situakee, 
 White Path, R. Taylor, etc. 
 
 Note for the Secretary of War (added) : 
 This exception is intended for the benefit of such of the treaty-making party U 
 may not choose to remove under the directions of Mr. Ross and liis associates. 
 
 Winfield Scott. 
 
MEMORIAL OF EASTERN OR EMIGRANT CHEROKEES. 35 
 
 RESOLUTION OF THE CHEROKEE COUNCIL. 
 
 Resolved by the committee and council and people in general council assembled, That 
 Messrs. John Ross, Richard Taylor, Samuel Gunter, Edward Gunter, James Brown, 
 Elijah Hicks, Sitiwagy, and White Path be, and they are hereby, authorized and 
 fully empowered, on the part of the Cherokee Nation, to make and enter into any 
 and all such arrangements with Maj. Gen. Winfield Scott, on the part of the 
 United States, which they may deem necessary and proper, for effecting the entire 
 removal of the Cherokee people from the east to the west of the Mississippi River; 
 and also to enter into such further arrangements with the commanding general in 
 the relation to the payment of such sums of money by the United States as may be 
 necessary for the removal and subsistence of all the Cherokee people. And they are 
 hereby further authorized and empowered to make any such selections of persons as 
 they may deem necessary to aid and assist in the said removal of the Cherokees to 
 the western country. 
 
 Richard Taylor, 
 President of the National Committee. 
 James Wofford. 
 John F. Baldridge. 
 (And Others.) 
 
 Aquohee Camp, July 26, 1S3S. 
 
 No. 3. 
 
 Cherokee Agency, East, July 27, 183S. 
 Sir: Your. letter addressed to the undersigned on the 25th instant has been con- 
 sidered by the council and people assembled. The accompanying resolution confers 
 the authority upon the late delegation to Washington City to close with you the 
 necessary arrangements for the entire removal and subsistence of the Cherokees. 
 We are now prepared to discharge the duties devolving upon ns in relation to this 
 matter. 
 
 To the conditions mentioned in your letter, upon which you are willing to place 
 the whole business of managing the emigration in our hands, we are not disposed 
 to object, but are ready and willing to accede to them with, however, this further 
 understanding, that we may be allowed the two entire months of September and 
 October to get all our people in motion for the West, and that we shall not be required 
 positively to send off a detachment "at intervals not exceeding three days." In the 
 commencement; the weather will be very warm, and before the arrival west of the 
 last parties the winter will have commenced its rigor, and we would prefer some 
 discretion as to the time and arrangement in dispatching detachments, especially as 
 the time for the moving of the last will be hxed. 
 
 We have the honor to be, sir, most respectfully, your obedient servants, 
 
 John Ross. 
 
 Edward Gunter. 
 
 (And Others.) 
 
 No. 4. 
 
 Headquarters Eastern Division, 
 
 Cherokee Agency, July 2S, 1S3S. 
 
 Gentlemen: Your note of yesterday, in reply to mine of the 25th instant, is before 
 me, as also the paper of the 26th, conferring upon you full powers to enter into 
 arrangements with me for carrying on and completing the emigration of the Cher- 
 okee people remaining East to the west of the Mississippi. 
 
 The latter document is sufficient ; and in reply to your note I will so far yield to 
 your wishes as to say that the emigration must recommence on or before the 1st day 
 of the ensuing September and be continued at short intervals, so as to be completed 
 on or before the 20th of the following month, with the exception of such sick and 
 superannuated Cherokees as may not be able to travel by land, and their necessary 
 attendants. Should the rivers between this and your new country west be not navi- 
 gable for steamboats in the meantime, I have further no objection to give to the 
 more respectable heads of families, whose names may be presented to me for the pur- 
 pose, special permissions to remain and to remove themselves and families on the 
 first sufficient rise of those rivers, although snch rise may not happen until after the 
 20th of October next. 
 
36 MEMORIAL OF EASTERN OR EMIGRANT CHEROKEES. 
 
 The moneys which from time to time may be deemed necessary to prepare for and 
 carry on the emigration yon will please make estimates for, addressed to me, speci- 
 fying the immediate objects, and if the estimates shall appear reasonable they shall 
 be promptly complied with. 
 
 I remain, gentlemen, yours, with respect, 
 
 Winfibld Scott. 
 Messrs. J. Ross, E. Gunter, E. Hicks, S. Gunter, and Others, 
 
 Agents of the Cherokee Nation. 
 
 No. 5. 
 
 Cherokee Agency, East, July 31, 1838. 
 Sir : You have herewith the estimate of the expenses of each detachment of (1,000) 
 Cherokees to be removed by land, as estimated for by this committee, and which is 
 respectfully submitted for your consideration and approval. 
 
 It is desirable that immediate arrangements be entered upon for the purchase of 
 wagons, etc., and the organization of detachments, as well as the timely establish- 
 ment of depots for subsistence on the whole route. Your approval of the estimate 
 being known, and the basis established to regulate expenditures, the immediate 
 amount required will be specified. 
 
 With much respect, we have the honor to be, your obedient servants, 
 
 John Ross. 
 Edward Gunter. 
 (And Others). 
 
 Maj. Gen. Winfield Scott, U. S. A., 
 
 Commanding. 
 
 Estimate for the emigration of a party of 1,000 Cherokees to their country west of the Mis- 
 sissippi; distance, 800 miles; eighty days going. 
 
 50 wagons and teams, 20 persons to each wagon, at a daily expense of $350, 
 
 including forage $28, 000 
 
 Returning, $7 each day for every 20 miles » 14, 000 
 
 250 extra horses, at 40 cents each per day 8, 000 
 
 Ferriages, etc 1, 000 
 
 80,000 rations, at 16 cents 12, 800 
 
 Conductor, at $5 per day 400 
 
 Assistant, at $3 per day 240 
 
 Physician, at $5 per day 400 
 
 Returning, $15 for every hundred miles 120 
 
 Commissaries, at $2.50 per day 200 
 
 Assistant, at $2 per day 160 
 
 Wagon master, at $2.50 per day 200 
 
 Assistant, at $2 per day 160 
 
 Interpreter, at $2.50 per day 200 
 
 Total 65, 880 
 
 resolution of the Cherokee council.- 
 
 Whereas the title of the Cherokee people to their lands is the most ancient, pure 
 and absolute known toman. Its date is beyond the reach of human record; its 
 validity continued and illustrated by possession and enjoyment antecedent to all 
 pretense of claim by any other portion of the human race; 
 
 And whereas the free consent of the Cherokee people is indispensable to a valid 
 transfer of the Cherokee title; and whereas the said Cherokee people have, neither 
 by themselves nor their representatives, given such consent, it follows that the 
 original title and ownership of said lands still rest in the Cherokee Nation, unim- 
 paired and absolute: 
 
 L'esolved, therefore, by the committee and council and people of the Cherokee Nation in 
 general council assembled, That the whole Cherokee territory, as described in the 
 first article of the treaty of 1819 between the United States and the Cherokee 
 Nation, and also in the constitution of the Cherokee Nation, still remains the right- 
 ful and undoubted property of the said Cherokee Nation; and that all damages and 
 
MEMORIAL OF EASTERN OR EMIGRANT CHEROKEES. 37 
 
 losses, direct or indirect, resulting from the enforcement of the alleged stipulations 
 of the pretended treaty of New Echota, are, in justice and equity, chargeable to 
 the account of the United States ; 
 
 And whereas the Cherokee people have existed as a distinct national community 
 in the possession and exercise of the appropriate and essential attributes of sover- 
 eignty for a period extending into antiquity beyond the dates and records and 
 memory of man ; 
 
 And whereas these attributes, with the rights and franchises which they involve, 
 have never been relinquished by the Cherokee people, but are now in full force and 
 virtue ; 
 
 And whereas the natural, political, and moral relations subsisting among the citi- 
 zens of the Cherokee nation toward each other and toward the body politic can not 
 in reason and justice be dissolved by the expulsion of the nation from its own terri- 
 tory by the power of the United States Government : 
 
 Resolved, therefore, by the national committee and council and people of the Cherokee 
 Nation in general council assembled, That the inherent sovereignty of the Cherokee 
 Nation, together with the constitution, laws, and usages of the same, are, and by 
 the authority aforesaid are hereby declared to be, in full force and virtue, and shall 
 continue so to be in perpetuity, subject to such modifications as the general welfare 
 may render expedient. 
 
 Resolved further, That the Cherokee people, in consenting to an investigation of 
 their individual claims, and receiving payment upon them and for their improve- 
 ments, do not intend that it shall be so construed as yielding or giving their sanction 
 or approval to the pretended treaty of 1S35, nor as compromising in any manner 
 their just claim against the United States hereafter for a full and satisfactory indem- 
 nification for their country and for all individual losses and injuries. 
 
 Be it further resolved, That the principal chief be, and he is hereby, authorized to 
 select and appoint such persons as he may deem necessary and suitable for the pur- 
 pose of collecting and registering all individual claims against the United States, 
 with the proofs, and to report to him their proceedings as they progress. 
 
 Richard Taylor, 
 President of the National Committee. 
 Going Snake, 
 Speaker of the Council. 
 
 August 1, 1838. 
 
 Whereas the general council of the Cherokee Nation did, on the 26th day of 
 July, by a special resolution, authorize the undersigned to enter into, in behalf of 
 the nation, such arrangements with Mai or- General Winfield Scott as were deemed 
 necessary and proper to place in the hands of the Cherokees the entire control and 
 management of their emigration west of the Mississippi; and whereas the said 
 arrangements having been entered into and the whole management of the emigra- 
 tion committed to the undersigned, and it being extremely desirable that there may 
 be no delay in the preparatory arrangements for removal, and in order to expedite 
 the completion of the same ; therefore, it is by the committee, in behalf of the 
 nation, determined that John Ross be, and he is hereby, fully authorized and em- 
 powered to make such requisitions for money as from time to time he may deem 
 necessary for the Cherokee emigration, upon such officers of the United States Gov- 
 ernment as may have the control of funds for this service, and to receipt for the same 
 for the Cherokee Nation. 
 
 Richard Taylor. 
 Samuel Gunter. 
 (And Others.) 
 
 Cherokee Agency, August 1, 1838. 
 
 Headquarters Eastern Division, 
 
 Cherokee Agency, August 1, 1S3S. 
 Gentlemen : In your note of yesterday you estimate that $65,880 will be the 
 necessary cost of every thousand Cherokees emigrated bv land from this to their new 
 country. 
 
 As I have already stated to some of you in conversation, I think the estimate an 
 extravagant one. 
 
 Take the principal item or basis of your calculation — 1 wagon and 5 saddle horses 
 for every 20 souls. 
 
 I have already consented, with a view to lighten the movement by land, that all 
 
38 MEMORIAL OF EASTERN OR EMIGRANT CHEROKEES. 
 
 the sick, crippled, and superannuated of the nation should be left at the depots 
 until the river be again navigable for steamboats. All heavy articles of property 
 not wanted on the road may wait for the same mode of conveyance. 
 
 Deducting the persons just mentioned, I am confident that it will be found that 
 among every thousand individuals, taken in families, without selection, there are at 
 least 500 strong men, women, boys, and girls, not only capable of marching 12 or 15 
 miles a day, but to whom the exercise would be beneficial, and another hundred 
 able to go on foot half that distance daily. There would then be left, according to 
 your basis, but 200 souls to be steadily transported in 50 wagons, or only 4 to a 
 wagon. 
 
 Now the wagons being large, and each drawn by five or six horses (as must be 
 presumed from your high estimate of $7 for each wagon going and returning), it 
 strikes me that one such team and five horses ought to accommodate, on the route, 
 30 or 35 emigrants, including subsistence for a day or two, from depot to depot. 
 
 I repeat that I do not absolutely reject or cut down your estimate (which I think 
 also too high) in putting down the rations at 16 cents each. The whole expense of 
 the emigration is to be paid out of appropriations already made by Congress, the 
 general surplus of which is to go to the Cherokee Nation in various forms; therefore 
 they have a direct general interest in conducting the movement as economically as 
 comfort will permit. Nevertheless, for the reasons stated, I wish the several items 
 of the estimate submitted to be reconsidered. 
 I remain, gentlemen, yours, respectfully, 
 
 Wixfield Scott. 
 
 Messrs. J. Ross, E. Hicks, J. Brown, and Others, 
 
 Agents, etc. 
 
 No. 7. 
 
 Cherokee Agency, East, August 2, 1838. 
 
 Sir : We have had your reply of yesterday's date to our estimate under considera- 
 tion. The estimate we believe reasonable, having the comfortable removal of our 
 people solely in view, and endeavoring to be governed, as far as that object will 
 allow, by the rates of expenditure fixed by officers of the Government. 
 
 After the necessary bedding, cooking utensils, and other indispensable articles of 
 20 persons (say four or five families) are placed in a wagon, with subsistence for 
 at least two days, the weight already will be enough to exclude, in our opinion, 
 more than a few persons being hauled. The great distance to be traveled, liability 
 to sickness on the way of grown persons, and the desire of performing the trip in as 
 short a time as possible, induce us still to think our estimate of that item not extra v 
 agant. 
 
 In relation to the ration at 16 cents, the estimate is fixed at a rate which the Gov- 
 ernment-agents had already made some arrangements to have them supplied. 
 
 The addition, however, of sugar and coffee has been made under this estimate, 
 which we trust will be reasonable enough. 
 
 In our estimate we omitted an item which we deem indispensable; but propose 
 now the addition of soap, the quantity and cost of delivery at the rate of 3 pounds to 
 every 100 rations, at 15 cents per pound. 
 
 Whatever may be necebsary in the emigration of our people to their comfort on 
 the way and as conducive to their health we desire to be afforded them; at the 
 same time it is our anxious wish in the management of this business to be free at all 
 time from the imputation of extravagance. 
 
 With high respect, we have the honor to be your obedient servants, 
 
 Jno. Ross. 
 R. Taylor. 
 (And Others.) 
 
 Maj. Gen. Winfield Scott, U. S. A., 
 
 Commanding . 
 
 No. 8. 
 
 Headquarters Eastern Division, 
 
 Cherokee Agency, August 2, 1838. 
 i .i.M i.i.mkn: By your note of this date, in reply to my remarks of yesterday on 
 your est ima ' I ■ <>t the day before, I perceive that after a full consideration you adhere 
 to the calculation of $65,880, with a slight addition for soap, for the comfortable 
 
MEMORIAL OF EASTERN OR EMIGRANT CHEROKEES. 
 
 39 
 
 emigration by land of every thousand Cherokees from this to their new country west 
 of the Mississippi. 
 
 As the Cherokee people are exclusively interested in the cost as well as the com- 
 fort of the removal, I do not feel myself at liberty to withhold my sanction. The 
 estimate, therefore, submitted to me on the 31st ultimo, with the small addition for 
 soap, is hereby approved. 
 
 I remain, gentlemen, yours, respectfully, 
 
 V\ infield Scott. 
 
 Messrs. J. Ross, R. Taylor, E. Hicks, E. Gunter, J. Brown, White Path, and 
 Situ wakee, Cherokee Agents for Emigration. 
 
 Takattokaii, June 13, 1S39. 
 Whereas the people of the Cherokee Nation, east, having been captured and 
 ejected from the land of their fathers by the strong arm of the military power of 
 the United States Government and forced to remove west of the River Mississippi; 
 and 
 
 Whereas previous to the commencement of the emigration measures were adopted 
 in general council of the whole nation, on the 21st of July and August 1, 1883, 
 wherein the sentiments, rights, and interests of the Cherokee people are fully 
 expressed and asserted; and 
 
 Whereas under those proceedings the removal took place, and the late emigrants 
 arrived in this country and settled among those of their brethren (who had previously 
 emigrated), on lauds which had been exchanged for with the United States by the 
 Cherokee Nation for lands east of the River Mississippi; and 
 
 Whereas the reunion of the people and the adoption of a code of laws for their 
 future government are essential to the peace and welfare of the whole nation, and 
 it being agreed upou that the Eastern and Western Cherokees henceforward be 
 united as a body politic, aud shall establish a government west of the River Missis- 
 sippi, to be designated the Cherokee Nation: Therefore, 
 
 Resolved by the committee and council of the Eastern and Western Cherokees in general 
 council assembled, etc. 
 
 (Here follows plan for revising laws, etc.) 
 
 < [House Doc. No. 286, Twenty-fourth Congress, first session.] 
 
 MEMORIAL OF THE CHEROKEE REPRESENTATIVES, SUBMITTING THE 
 PROTEST OF THE CHEROKEE NATION AGAINST THE RATIFICATION, 
 EXECUTION, AND ENFORCEMENT OF THE TREATY NEGOTIATED AT 
 NEW EC HOT A IN DECEMBER, 1835. 
 
 [June 21, 1836.] 
 
 To the honorable the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of North 
 America in Congress assembled: 
 
 The undersigned representatives of the Cherokee Nation east of the River Missis- 
 sippi, impelled by duty, would respectfully submit for the consideration of your 
 honorable body the following statement of facts: 
 
 It will be seen from the numerous subsisting treaties between the Cherokee Nation 
 and the United States that from the earliest existence of this Government the United 
 States in Congress assembled received the Cherokee and their nation into favor and 
 protection, and that the chiefs and warriors, for themselves and all parts of the 
 Cherokee Nation, acknowledged themselves and the said Cherokee Nation to be under 
 the protection of the United States of America, and of no other sovereign whatsoever; 
 they also stipulated that the said Cherokee Nation will not hold any treaty with any 
 foreign power, individual State, or with individuals of any State; that for and iu 
 consideration of valuable concessions made by the Cherokee Nation, the United States 
 solemnly guaranteed to said nation all their lands not ceded, and pledged the faith of 
 the Government that " all white people who have intruded, or may hereafter intrude, 
 on the lands reserved for the Cherpkees shall be removed by the United States and 
 proceeded against according to the provisions of the act passed March 30, 1802," 
 entitled "An act to regulate trade and intercourse with the Indian tribes and to 
 preserve peace on the frontiers." 
 
 It would be useless to recapitulate the numerous provisions for the security and pro- 
 tection of the rights of the Cherokees to be found in the various treaties between 
 
40 MEMORIAL OF EASTERN OR EMIGRANT CHEROKEES. 
 
 their nation and the United States. The Cherokees were happy and prosperous under 
 a scrupulous observance of treaty stipulations by the Government of the United 
 States, and from the fostering' hand extended over them they made rapid advances in 
 civilization, morals, and in the arts and sciences. Little did they anticipate that 
 when taught to think and feel as the American citizen, and to have with him a com- 
 mon interest, they were to be despoiled by their guardian, to become strangers and 
 wanderers in the land of their fathers, forced to return to the savage life, and to 
 seek a new home in the wilds of the far West, and that without their consent. 
 
 An instrument purporting to be a treaty with the Cherokee people has recently 
 been made public by the President of the United States that will have such an oper- 
 ation if carried into effect. This instrument, the delegation aver before the civilized 
 world, and in the presence of Almighty God, is fraudulent, false upon its face, made 
 by unauthorized individuals, without the sanction and against the wishes of the 
 great body of the Cherokee people. Upward of 15,000 of those people have pro- 
 tested against it, solemnly declaring they will never acquiesce. The delegation 
 would respectfully call the attention of your honorable body to their memorial and 
 protest, with the accompanying documents, submitted to the Senate of the United 
 States, on the subject of the alleged treaty, which are herewith transmitted, etc. 
 
 The Cherokee territory within the limits of North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, 
 and Alabama, is estimated to contain 10,000,000 acres. It embraces a large por- 
 tion of the finest lands to be found in any of the States, and a salubrity of climate 
 unsurpassed by any, possessing superior advantages in reference to water power, 
 owing to the numerous rills, brooks, and rivers which flow from and through it. 
 Some of these streams afford good navigation; others are susceptible of being easily 
 improved and made navigable. On the routes where roads have been opened by the 
 Cherokees through this country there must necessarily pass some of the most impor- 
 tant public roads and other internal improvements, which at no distant day will be 
 constructed. 
 
 The entire country is covered with a dense forest of valuable timber, also abound- 
 ing in inexhaustible quarries of marble and limestone. Above all, it possesses the 
 most extensive regions of the precious metals known in the United States. The 
 riches of the gold mines are inealculable, some of the lots of 40 acres of land, embrac- 
 ing gold mines, which have been surveyed and disposed of by lottery, under the 
 authoritv of Georgia (with the incumbrance of the Indian title), have been sold for 
 upward of $30,000. 
 
 There are also extensive banks of iron ore interspersed throughout the country. 
 Mineralogists who have traveled over a porti- n of this territory are fully persuaded, 
 from what they have seen, that lead and silver mines will also be found in the moun- 
 tain regions. Independent of all these natural advantages and invaluable resources, 
 there are many extensive and valuable improvements made upon the lands by the 
 native Cherokee inhabitants and those adopted as Cherokee citizens by intermar- 
 riages. 
 
 The Cherokee population has recently been reported by the War Department to be 
 18,000, according to a census taken by agents appointed by the Government. This 
 people have become civilized and adopted the Christian religion. Their pursuits are 
 pastoral and agricultural, and in some degree, mechanical. Their stocks of cattle, 
 however, have become greatly reduced in numbers within the few past years, owing 
 to the unfortunate policy which has thrown upon this territory a class of white and 
 irresponsible settlers, who, disregarding all laws and treaties, so far as the rights of 
 the Cherokees are concerned, and who have been actuated more from sordid impulses 
 of avarice than by any principle of moral obligation or of justice, have by fraud aud 
 force made Cherokee property their own. 
 
 The possessions of the Cherokee inhabitants consist of houses which cost gen- 
 erally from $50, $100, to $1,000, and in many instances up to $5,000: some few as high 
 as $6,000, $8,000, and $10,000, with corresponding outbuildings, consisting of kitchens, 
 meat houses, dairies, granaries or corncribs, barns, stables, etc.. grist and saw mills. 
 Connected with these are gardens for culinary vegetables: also peach and apple 
 orchards; lots of inclosed ground for horses, black cattle, etc. The farms of the 
 Cherokees contain from 10. 20, 30, 10, 50, 60. to 100, 150, and 200 acres of land under 
 cultivation, and inclosed with good rail fences. Among the most wealthy there are 
 farms of 300 and 100 acres, and in one instance perhaps about 800 acres in cultiva- 
 tion. 
 
 Some of the most extensive and valuable farms and possessions have been forcibly 
 wrested from the proprietors by the ( Jeorgia guard and agents, and citizens ol" Georgia 
 put in possession of them, whilst the Cherokee owners have been thrust out to seek 
 shelter in a camp, or under the roof of a log hut in the woods, within tin; limits of 
 North Carolina, Tennessee, and Alabama. There are many valuable public ferries 
 also owned in the Cherokees; the income of some of them amount to from $500 to 
 $1,000, $1,500, and $2,000 per annum. Several public roads opened at private 
 expense w< re also kept up by companies under regulations of the national council, 
 and tollgates were erected on them. These regulations have all been prostrated by 
 
MEMORIAL OF EASTERN OR EMIGRANT CHEROKEES. 
 
 State legislation, and the Cherokee proprietors thus deprived of their rights, privi- 
 leges, and property. Besides all this, there are various important interests and 
 claims which are secured by the provisions of the former subsisting treaties to the 
 the Cherokees, and for which the United States in justice are bound to allow 
 indemnification. ■ 
 
 For the surrender, then, of a territory containing about 10,000,000 acres, 
 together with the various interests and claims spoken of. and the amount that will 
 be required to cover these claims.no man without data can form any estimate. 
 The sum of $5,600,000 only is proposed to be paid'; the price given for the lands at 
 this rate would not exceed 30 cents per acre. Will Georgia accept the whole amount 
 for that portion within her limits ! 
 
 The faith of the United States being solemnly pledged to the Cherokee Nation for 
 the guarantee of the quiet and uninterrupted protection of their territorial posses- 
 sions forever, and it beiug an unquestionable fact that the Cherokees love their 
 country and that no amount of money could induce theui voluntarily to yield their 
 assent to a cession of the same, but, when under all the circumstances of their peculiar 
 situation and unhappy condition, the nation sees the necessity of negotiating a treaty 
 for their security and future welfare, and having appointed a delegation with full 
 powers for that purpose, is it liberal, humane, or just that a fraudulent treaty, contain- 
 ing principles and stipulations altogether objectionable and obnoxious to their own 
 sense of propriety aud justice, should be enforced upon them ? The basis of the instru- 
 ment, the sum fixed upon, the commutation of annuities, and the general provisions 
 of the various articles it contains are all objectionable. Justice and equity demands 
 that, in any final treaty for the adjustment of the Cherokee difficulties their rights, 
 interests, and wishes should be consulted, and that the individual rights of the 
 Cherokee citizens in their possessions and claims should be amply secured, and as 
 freemen they should be left at liberty to stay or remove where they ]dease. 
 
 Also that the territory to be ceded by The United states to the Cherokee Nation 
 west of the Mississippi should be granted to them by a patent in fee simple, and not 
 clogged with the conditions of the act of 1S30, and the national funds of the Chero- 
 kees should be placed under the control of their national council. 
 
 The delegation must repeat, the instrument entered into at New Echota, purport- 
 ing to be a treaty, is deceptive to the world and a fraud upon the Cherokee people. 
 If a doubt exist- as to the truth of their statement a committee of investigation can 
 learn the facts, and it may also learn that if the Cherokees are removed under that 
 instrument it will be by force. This declaration they make in sincerity, with hearts 
 sickening at the scenes they may be (loomed to witness. They have toiled to avert 
 such a calamity: it is now with Congress, and beyond their control. They hope 
 they are mistaken, but it is hope against a sad and almost certain reality. 
 
 It would be on candid to conceal their opinions, and they have no motive for 
 expressing them but a solemn sense of duty. The Cherokees can not resist the power 
 of the United States, and should they be driven from their native land then will they 
 look iu melancholy sadness upon the golden chains presented by President Wash- 
 ington to the Cherokee people as emblematical of the brightness and purity of the 
 friendship between the Lnited States and the Cherokee Nation. 
 
 Jno. Ross, 
 John Martin, 
 James Bkowx, 
 Joskph Yaxn, 
 John Benge, 
 (And Others,) 
 Representatives of the Cherokee Nation. 
 
 Washington City, June 21, 1S36. 
 
 [House Doc. No. 99. Twenty-fifth Congress, second session.] 
 
 MEMORIAL OF A DELEGATION OF THE CHEROKEE NATION REMON- 
 STRATING AGAINST THE INSTRUMENT OF WRITING (TREATY) OF 
 DECEMBER, 1835. 
 
 [December 15. 1837.] 
 
 To the honorable the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States in Congress 
 assembled : 
 
 The memorial and petition of the undersigned, a delegation appointed by the 
 Cherokee Nation on behalf of themselves and their constituents, respectfully 
 showeth : 
 
 That at this session of your honorable bodies, held during the preceding winter 
 a memorial was prepared to lay before your honorable bodies on behalf of the Chero- 
 
42 MEMORIAL OF EASTERN OR EMIGRANT CHEROKEES. 
 
 kee Nation setting forth their grievances. This paper was laid hefore the Senate,, 
 but no opportunity presented itself to submit it to the House of Representatives. 
 To this document the undersigned pray leave to refer as part of this their present 
 petition and to request that it may receive your attention and regard. 
 
 Subsequent to the termination of that session of Congress and after the installa- 
 tion of the present Chief Magistrate in the Executive Chair, we addressed to him a 
 memorial, a Copy of which is appended, and to the contents of which we implore 
 your earnest attention. The documents referred to in those papers are on the files 
 of your honorable bodies or in the War Department. 
 
 Since that period the Cherokee people have again, in full national council, 
 appointed the undersigned as their representatives to lay before the Government of 
 the United States a statement of their condition, and clothed them with full author- 
 ity to enter into such arrangements as may be concurred in by the United States. 
 These proceedings are herewith submitted. 
 
 A special agent of the United States was at that time in our country. A copy of 
 the resolutions of the general council was transmitted to him, and an opportunity 
 was offered that gentleman of seeing for himself what was the position, and ascer- 
 taining for himself what were the opinions and sentiments of our people. 
 
 That gentleman won tor himself our respect and high regard. Doubtless he has 
 communicated to the Executive the result of his observations; and such is the con- 
 fidence we repose in him that we feel assured his representations accord with the 
 facts. 
 
 Although we had not consummated with him any arrangement, yet his conciliatory 
 tone, and the sympathy he expressed toward us, reanimated our hopes; and when, 
 upon our arrival at this place, and having had an interview with the President, we 
 learned that he was to be the organ of communication between us and the War 
 Department, we could not but indulge the expectation that we might yet conclude 
 such an arrangement as would be mutually and equally satisfactory. 
 
 This cup of hope has been dashed from our lips. The negotiations with him 
 have been terminated; and the Secretary has. while refusing to treat with us upon 
 any basis that we could suggest, and declining to intimate to us what the Executive 
 would be disposed to grant, intimated to us the fixed and unalterable determination 
 to enforce upon us the stipulations of the fraudulent and invalid instrument pur- 
 porting to be a treaty negotiated at New Echota in 1835. 
 
 Such being the decision of the Executive, we have no alternative but an appeal to 
 your honorable bodies. No denial has been given to our statement of the facts con- 
 nected with that document; it is not asserted that it was fairly and honestly made; 
 it is not alleged that it was negotiated with persons authorized to represent and to 
 bind our nation ; it is not intimated that it ever was authorized or recognized by 
 our people. Indeed, there could be no shadow of ground upon which to question or 
 to controvert our assertions upon these points. 
 
 Yet we are told that the Executive has no discretion — has no power to disregard 
 it or to enter into any arrangement inconsistent wilh its provisions. And this is 
 substantially all the answer we can obtain. 
 
 On a former occasion when, under similar circumstances, it was represented to the 
 Government of the United States that an instrument, purporting to be a treaty, had 
 been executed by parties unauthorized by those whom they professed to represent, 
 an inquiry was instituted, the truth of the allegations ascertained, and the Execu- 
 tive promptly redressed the wrong. A new treaty was concluded, the first provi- 
 sion of which was to annul that which had been imposed by fraud upon the President 
 and Senate. It was from looking to that case that we have erred, if we were wrong- 
 in supposing that it was the Executive to whom we were to address ourselves. 
 
 Put we can not and will not yet believe that we are remediless; that because 
 from imperfect knowledge of the circumstances of the case those who signed the 
 instrument of which we complain were supposed to be authorized, and therefore 
 the validity of their acts was presumed; that when the contrary is alleged all in- 
 quiry will be refused, and when proved the United states will persevere in demand- 
 ing at our hands the fulfillment of the stipulations of a void and fraudulent contract. 
 
 We can not for a moment suspect that either the disposition or the power is wanting 
 to annul this instrument if it be ascertained to be open to the objections we have 
 urged against it. Knowing as we do that these, objections are true to their very 
 letter, we have never relinquished the hope that we should ultimately receive 
 justice. 
 
 A charge has been made against some of our number that we have misled our peo- 
 ple by inducing them to entertain false hopes. In the most solemn manner, and 
 with a due sense of the responsibility we incur, we assert that the only hopes we 
 eve* encouraged were that the ('nited States would never perpetrate injustice and 
 wrong against those over whom they had voluntarily assumed the relationship of 
 guardian and protector; that they would listen to our remonstrances, hear our peti- 
 tion, investigate the facts, and decide in conformity with the immutable principles 
 of equity, justice, and good faith. If these be false hopes we shall admit not only 
 
MEMORIAL OF EASTERN OR EMIGRANT CHEROKEES. -±3 
 
 that we have been egregiously deceived ourselves, but have been instrumental in 
 deceiving others. 
 
 Independently of our objections to the instrument in question, we have other 
 causes of complaint to lay before your honorable bodies. We complain of the out- 
 rages which have been indicted upon our persons and property — lawless arrests, open 
 acts of violence perpetrated upon both. 
 
 We complain of sending among us a large armed force, of the attempts made to 
 prevent the expression of opinion among us, of the arrest and imprisonment of our 
 persons, of the expulsion of our people from their homes; for which even the docu- 
 ment in question furnishes no ground or cause. All these, however, sink into 
 insignificance when compared with the one overwhelming calamity, present and pro- 
 spective, of having the instrument of December, 1835, enforced upon us and our 
 people. 
 
 To these prayers we again, in the name of our nation, solicit your attention. Our 
 last and only hope depends upon your honorable bodies. Under our present impres- 
 sions we feel it due to ourselves frankly to state that the Cherokee people do not 
 and will not recognize the obligation of the instrument of December, 1835. 
 
 We reject all its terms, we will receive none of its benefits. If it is to be enforced 
 upon us it will be by your superior strength. We shall offer no resistance, but our 
 voluntary assent never will be yielded. We are aware of the consequences ; but 
 while suffering them in all their bitterness, we shall submit our case to an all-wise 
 and just God, in whose providence it is to maintain the cause of suffering innocence 
 and unprotected feebleness. 
 
 John Ross. 
 R. Taylor. 
 Edward Gunter. 
 James Brown. 
 Elijah Hicks. 
 
 Samuel Gunter (his x mark). 
 Sitewakee ( his x mark). 
 White Path (his x mark). 
 
 Washington City, December 15, 1S37. 
 
 [House Doc. Xo. 316, Twenty -fifth Congress, second session.] 
 
 MEMORIAL OF THE CHEROKEE DELEGATION. SUBMITTING THE MEMO- 
 RIAL AND PROTEST OF THE CHEROKEE PEOPLE TO CONGRESS. 
 
 [March 12, 1838.] 
 
 To the honorable the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States in Congress 
 assembled: 
 
 The undersigned delegation from the Cherokee Nation most respectfully beg leave 
 to submit the accompanying memorial, bearing 15.665 signatures of the Cherokee 
 people, together with some papers annexed, which have just been dispatched to the 
 delegation by express from their constituents. To these documents the attention of 
 your honorable bodies is respectfully requested; and, as in duty bound, your memo- 
 rialists will ever pray. 
 
 Jno. Ross. 
 R. Taylor. 
 * Edward Gunter. 
 
 Elijah Hicks. 
 James Brown. 
 Samuel Gunter (his x mark). 
 Sitewakee (his x mark). 
 White Path (his x mark). 
 
 Washington City, March 12, 1S38. 
 
 [February 22. 1838.] 
 
 To the honorable the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States hi Congress 
 assembled: 
 
 Most humbly and most respectfully showeth: 
 
 That whereas we, the undersigned, citizens of the Cherokee Nation, have always 
 regarded the instrument purporting to be a treaty made in December, 1835. at New 
 Echota, by the Rev. John F. Schermerhorn and certain unauthorized individual 
 
44 
 
 MEMORIAL OF EASTERN OR EMIGRANT CHEROKEES. 
 
 Cherokees, to be a violation of the fundamental principles of justice and an outrage 
 on the primary rules of national intercourse, as well as of the known laws and usages 
 of the Cherokee Nation, and therefore to he destitute of any binding force on us ; 
 
 And whereas at a general council of the nation held at Red Clay in September, 
 1636, our sentiments were set forth, and our solemn protest entered against it; 
 
 And whereas at a subsequent general council of the nation held at Red Clay in 
 August, 1837, a communication from the President of the United States on the sub- 
 ject of said instrument was delivered in full council by Col. John Mason, special 
 agent of the United States ; 
 
 And whereas after mature deliberation on the said communication the resolu- 
 tions of the preceding council in reference to that compact were reaffirmed, together 
 with the memorial which accompanied the same; 
 
 And whereas we entertained the belief that through the medium of the special 
 agent's report the President would become correctly informed of the true state of 
 the matter and of the real sentiments of the Cherokee people; 
 
 We therefore cherished the confident hope that he would abrogate that fraudulent 
 instrument and at once enter into arrangements with us for the adjustment of all 
 difficulties. 
 
 With these views, we then appointed a delegation to represent us before the Gov- 
 ernment of the United States, and vested them with full powers to make final 
 arrangements of all matters in controversy; and we were animated with the prospect 
 of a speedy termination of our distresses. But the cup of hope is dashed from our 
 lips; our prospects are dark with horror, and our hearts are filled with bitterness. 
 Agonized with these emotions, language fails, our tongues falter as we approach the 
 bar of your august assemblies, before whom we again beg leave humbly to present 
 our grievances. 
 
 With the full details of our troubles we forbear to trespass on your indulgence. 
 They are extensively known, and our delegation now at Washington will be found 
 ready to furnish any information which may be needed. We therefore respectfully 
 present the following, which will show the appalling circumstances in which we 
 are placed by the operation of that perfidious compact. 
 
 A communication has recently issued from the United States agency, addressed to 
 the chief, headsmen, and people of the Cherokee Nation, in which we are told that 
 "The Executive has formally declined all intercourse or correspondence with Mr. 
 Ross in relation to the treaty," and "that an end has been put to all negotiation 
 upon the subject. * * * That it is the unalterable determination of the Presi- 
 dent to execute the treaty. * * * The time can not possibly be prolonged. * * * 
 Another day beyond the time named can not and will not be allowed you." 
 
 The writers say, "We will not attempt to describe the evils that may fall upon 
 you if you are still obstinate and refuse to conform to the requirements of the 
 treaty; * * * we will not paint the horrors that may ensue in such an event." 
 It will be readily conceived that declarations like these, emanating from such a 
 source, our country already filled with troops, can not fail to fill our minds with 
 consternation aad surprise. What have we done to merit such severe* treatment? 
 What is our crime? Have we invaded anyone's rights? Have we violated any 
 article of our numerous treaties? Have we, in any manner, acted in bad faith ? We 
 arc not even charged with any such thing. But we are accused of " laboring under 
 a dangerous error," and of being "duped and deluded by those in whom we have 
 placed implicit confidence." Your pretended friends, say they, "have proved them- 
 selves your worst enemies." 
 
 But what is our " dangerous error?" Is it a "dangerous error " to believe that 
 the great nation, whose representatives we now approach, will never knowingly 
 sanction a transaction originated in treachery, and to be executed only by violence 
 and oppression ? It can not be. Is it a delusion to assert that the makers of that 
 ill-omened compact were deal itute of authority ? This fact we are prepared to prove 
 by incontestable evidence. Indeed, it is virtually admitted by the parties them- 
 selves. And the very fact that an armed force should be put in requisition to defend 
 their persons and to compel our submission argues, not obscurely, a defect of confi- 
 dence in the validity of the compact. 
 
 Is it obstinacy to refuse our assent to an act which is a flagrant violation of the 
 first principles of free government, and which sets foot on the neck of our liberties 
 and our dearest rights? Are we to be thus frowned into silence for attempting to 
 utter our complaints in the ear of our lawful and covenanted protector? Is it a 
 crime to confide in our chiefs, the men of our choice, whom we have tried and found 
 faithful? We would humbly ask in whom should we confide? Surely not in those 
 who have, in the face of our solemn in junctions, and in opposition to the reiterated 
 expression of our sentiments, conspired the ruin of our country, usurped the powers 
 of the nation, framed the spurious compact, and by artifice and fraud palmed it on 
 the authorities of the United States and procured for it the recognition of those high 
 functionaries. 
 
MEMORIAL OF EASTERN OR EMIGRANT CHEROKEES. 45 
 
 And now, in the presence of your august assemblies, and in the presence of the 
 Supreme Judge of the Universe, most solemnly and most humbly do we ask, Are we, 
 for these causes, to be subjected to the indiscribable evils which are designed to be 
 inflicted on us ? Is our country to be made the scene of the horrors which the com- 
 missioners will not paint ! 
 
 For adhering to the principles on which your great empire is founded, and which 
 have advanced it to its present elevation and glory, are we to be despoiled of all we 
 hold dear on earth ? Are we to be hunted through the mountains like wild beasts, 
 and our women, our children, our aged, our sick to be dragged from their homes like 
 culprits and packed on board loathsome boats for transportation to a sickly clime? 
 
 Already are we thronged with armed men. Forts, camps, and military posts of 
 every grade already occupy our whole country. With us it is a, season of alarm 
 and apprehension. We acknowledge the power of the United States; we acknowl- 
 edge our own feebleness. Our only fortress is the justice of our cause. Our only 
 appeal on earth is to your tribunal. To you. then, we look. Before your honorable 
 bodies, in view of *the appalling circumstances with which we are surrounded, rely- 
 ing on the righteousness of our cause and the justice and magnanimity of the tribu- 
 nal to which we appeal, wevlo solemnly and earnestly protest against that spurious 
 instrument. 
 
 And we do hereby also respectfully reaffirm, as a part of this our memorial, the 
 resolutions and accompanying memorials of the last two general councils of the 
 nation held at Red Clay. Our minds remain unaltered. We never can assent to 
 that compact, nor can we believe that the United states are bound in honor or in 
 justice to execute on us its degrading and ruinous provisions. 
 
 It is true we are a feeble people, and as regards physical power, we are in the 
 hands of the United States; but we have not forfeited our rights, and if we fail to 
 transmit to our sons the freedom we have derived from our fathers it must not be by 
 an act of suicide; it must not be with our own consent. 
 
 With trembling solicitude and anxiety, we most humbly and most respectfully ask 
 will you hear us? Will you extend to us your powerful protection? Will you 
 shield us from the "horrors" of the threatened storm? Will you sustain the hopes 
 we have rested on the public faith, the honor, the justice of your mighty empire? 
 We commit our cause to your favor and protection. And your memorialists, as in 
 duty bound, will ever pray. 
 
 Signed by 15,665 of the Cherokee people, as will appear by referring to the origi- 
 nal, submitted to the Senate by the Cherokee delegation. 
 
 Cherokee Natjdn, February 22, IS 38. 
 
 MEMORIAL OF THE DELEGATION OF THE CHEROKEE NATION. 
 
 [March 9, 1840.] 
 
 To the honorable the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of 
 America in CotK/ress assembled: 
 
 "The petition and memorial of the undersigned, delegates and representatives of 
 the Cherokee Nation, respectfully shows and represents: 
 
 "That the present position of the Cherokee Nation, and the events which have 
 taken place since its cause was humbly submitted two years ago to Congress, are of 
 a character to call for deep and immediate attention. 
 
 "Your memorialists have no desire, at this juncture, to dwell on the harrowing 
 causes of the removal of the great mass of their people from their native and culti- 
 vated country east of the Mississippi to the wilderness of the West. The history 
 of that capture is notorious; and that its agonies were mitigated, is owing to the 
 considerateness of the stronger in not demanding of an entire people to say that they 
 acknowledged what it was known they had disavowed, and to the permission hu- 
 manely accorded to their leading men, of personally supervising the compelled 
 removal. 
 
 "Your memorialists would here respectfully observe, that, when it was found indis- 
 pensable, under all the circumstances, to change the mode at first contemplated for 
 eft'ecting the transit in question, those of your memorialists who were intrusted with 
 the charge of reconciling their countrymen to it, and of conducting them to their 
 destination, encountered difficulties in the task, of which it may be impossible for 
 your honorable bodies to form any imagination. Many were the stern minds they 
 had to alter, who, even when convinced of the hopelessness of retaining the inher- 
 itance they held so sacred, could only be persuaded not to die defending it, by a 
 very slowly inspired reliance on promises that their consenting to remove would 
 ensure peace and freedom to their children in a new and permanent home. 
 
46 
 
 MEMORIAL OF EASTERN OR EMIGRANT CHEROKEES. 
 
 " For the success of those of your memorialists and others of their fellow-citizens 
 who performed this difficult office it was fortunate that they were encouraged to 
 assure their indignant, reluctant, and incredulous countrymen, that they would at 
 length live unmolested in a region where their inspiriting national principle of self- 
 government by the power of the majority was no more to be rendered inoperative; 
 where they were to enjoy their own laws, and to be forever secured in the glorious 
 privilege of feeling that they were men. # 
 
 " The Cherokee Nation was removed ; though, on their first capture by troops of the 
 xVmerican Republic, estates, large and small, were, upon the instant, seized and sold 
 to any sordid adventurer, at large commissions to the auctioneers and next to noth- 
 ing for the owners; though, in the sudden and forced gathering of the people into 
 separate masses by those troops, children were abruptly severed from doting par- 
 ents who never met them more; though even the young husband was doomed to 
 know that his wife, whom he was not permitted to protect nor even to behold, had 
 to pause before the rough soldier on the road to a military camp, and, under these 
 maddening circumstances, hear the first cry of her infant; though vast multitudes 
 of both sexes and of all ages, ever until then habituated to domestic comforts, were 
 sickened by the wretchedness and unwholesomeness of being congregated into open 
 fields and crowded under tents during the most scorching heat of summer, and 
 thousands of those nearest and dearest to many of us at length sunk into miserable 
 graves; yes, though all these aggravations clustered around us on every side, still 
 the drooping Cherokees were cheered on finding their armed captors eventually 
 withdrawn and their conduct into exile transferred to persons among themselves in 
 whom they could confide." 
 
 The memorial recites the removal, the unavoidable conflict with the 
 Western Cherokees, the difficulties of arranging a union, their final 
 success, the calumnies filed against John Ross on account of the mur- 
 ders of the Ridges and Boudinot, and concludes by maintaining their 
 position that the treaty 1835 was void, and that it was necessary to 
 adjust their relations independently of that treaty, using the following 
 language : 
 
 "Your memoralists, therefore, humbly state that, having full powers from the 
 Cherokee people to bring all questions between them and the United States to a 
 close, they have been waiting for some time in Washington, for the purpose — 
 
 "First. Of obtaining indemnification for the country which has been taken away 
 from them east of the Mississippi, and for the loss of private property and for 
 injuries sustained in their forced removal. 
 
 "Second. Of establishing a satisfactory definition of the tenure under which 
 they are to hold their lands in the West. 
 
 {i 1 Third. Of procuring some specific stipulations of the relations which are to 
 exist between them and the United States. And, 
 
 "Fourth. Of bringing the balance yet due for the expenses of their recent emi- 
 gration under General Scott to an immediate settlement. 
 
 "And your memorialists throw themselves on the humanity and justice of your 
 honorable bodies, as the only resource now left for the arrangement of these 
 momentous affairs, to open the door for their relief by such action as the wisdom of 
 your honorable bodies may devise, and the circumstances of our case urgently 
 demand. 
 
 "And your memorialists will ever pray. 
 
 John Ross. 
 John Looney. 
 (And Others.) 
 
 "Washington City, February ;. } S, 1840." 
 
 REMOVAL OF THE CHEROKEES, ETC. 
 | House llcport No. 288. T\v<;nty-sevei)1 li < 'onjrress, t bird session, Vol. IV.] 
 [March 2, 1843. j 
 
 Mr. Cooper, of Pennsylvania, from the Committee on Indian Affairs, submitted 
 the following report : 
 
 On the 9th of .July, 1812, the House of Representatives adopted a resolution in the 
 following words: 
 
 "Resolved, That the Committee on Indian Affairs be, and hereby are, instructed to 
 inquire into the contract for the removal of the Cherokee Indians to the west of the 
 
MEMORIAL OF EASTERN OR EMIGRANT CHEROKEES. 47 
 
 Mississippi River; the amount contracted for the removal; the amount actually 
 paid : how and by what officer the account of the contractor was settled and allowed ; 
 whether there was any appeal from such settlement, and the decision on the appeal, 
 and whether the appeal was final or not; by what officer and by what authority the 
 account was reopened and finally settled and allowed, and out of what fund such 
 account was paid, and on what authority; also to inquire whether any and what 
 other offers had been made for their removal, and why not accepted; and whether 
 any further and what further action of Congress should be had for the protection of 
 the Cherokees, or to guard the public Treasury; and that the said committee have 
 power to send for persons and papers. r 
 
 The Committee on Indian Affairs, in pursuance of the above resolution, report: 
 That the inquiries directed by the same are hereinafter stated and answered in 
 order : 
 
 First. What was the amount contracted to be paid per head for the removal of 
 the Cherokees to the west of the Mississippi? 
 
 By a contract made on the 2d of August, 1838, by General Scott, as agent of the 
 United States, with John Ross, Elijah Hicks, and others, on the part of the Cherokees, 
 the sum of $65.88 was stipulated to be paid per head for the removal of the Cherokees 
 to the country assigned them beyond the Mississippi. (See p. 12.) This price 
 General Scott regarded as extravagant. 
 
 R. E. Clements, who was examined as a witness on this subject, states that "he 
 considers the price paid to John Ross, agreeably to his contract, as having been 
 exceedingly extravagant.'" He says further, that "there were persons on the ground 
 every way able and competent to carry out the contract who would have taken it 
 for less than one-half the amount agreed to be paid to John Ross." (See deposition, 
 p. 41 of this report.) Gary Hinant, another witness, states that he was a citizen of 
 the Cherokee Nation, and removed himself; that he was fifty-live days on the route; 
 that he moved at his ease, stopping when necessary for rest and refreshment, and 
 That his expenses after starting were less than $20 per head. The distance was about 
 800 miles. (Deposition, p. 45.) 
 
 The treaty party offered to remove themselves for $40 per head, and Watson & 
 Co. offered to do it at $32 per head. The Secretary of War estimated the cost of 
 removal at $30 per head. (See report Commissioner of Indian Affairs, p. 12, et seq.) 
 
 Second. What amount was actually paid per head for the removal of the Cherokees ? 
 
 The amount actually paid was $103.25 per head. The amount contracted to be paid, 
 as before stated, was $65.88, or, with a small allowance which was made for soap, 
 $66.24. The whole amount due Ross, estimating at $66.24 per head, was $776,398.98, 
 which was paid to him by Captain Page, the disbursing agent of the Government, 
 on the 13th November, 1838. The whole claim of Mr. Ross was $1,263,338.38, or at the 
 rate of $103.25 per head. 
 
 Third. How was this claim settled, and by what officer was it allowed? 
 - The claim presented by John Ross to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, as before 
 stated, amounted to $1,263,338.38. Of this claim $776,398.98 had been paid, and was 
 allowed; the remainder, amounting to $486,939.50, was rejected. This amount is 
 over and above the contract, and is claimed on the ground that what is termed the 
 contract was a mere estimate, aud the amount mentioned in the same liable to be 
 increased or diminished accordingly as a greater or less time should be occupied in 
 the removal. (See report Commissioner Indian Affairs, p. 12, et seq.) 
 
 Fourth. Was there an appeal from the decision of the Commissioner of Indian 
 Affairs; to what officer, and what was the decision on the appeal? 
 
 When the amount of $486,939.38 was rejected by the Commissioner of Indian 
 Affairs an appeal was taken by John Ross to the Secretary of War. who a 'firmed or 
 approved the decision of the Commissioner. The case was then brought before the 
 President, and the decision of the War Department affirmed. Afterwards, on the 
 7th of January, 1841, this matter was again brought before the President (Van 
 Buren) by the counsel of John Ross, with a request that he would review his former 
 decision; but this he declined, stating- that he regarded his former decision as final. 
 (Pp. 25, 26.) 
 
 Fifth. Was the settlement of this claim opened; by what authority was it opened, 
 and how was it finally disposed of ? 
 
 The decision of the Commsssioner of this claim, made on the 8th of August, 1840, 
 and affirmed by the President of the United States on the 2d of September, 1840, was 
 opened, by the direction of the present Chief Magistrate, some time in the spring of 
 1841, as appears from his letter of September 20, 1841, to John Ross and others, in 
 which he informs them "that he had directed the Secretary of War to examine and 
 settle the arrearages due for removal under the contract made with General Scott, 
 in 1838. " The claim for arrearages was accordingly reexamined, and $486,939.50 was 
 finally ordered to be paid by the Secretary of War on the 6th of September, 1841. 
 (See pp. 49, 50; see also report of Secretary of War, in which he says: "The ground 
 on which the claim rests is materially changed by the statement of General Scott, 
 made since the first decision, p. 28.) 
 
48 MEMORIAL OF EASTERN OR EMIGRANT CHEROKEES. 
 
 The action of the executive officers in this case was, as the committee believe, 
 in contravention of t lie rules heretofore observed, and repugnant to law, as 
 expounded by various law officers of the Government in like cases. It is a rule, 
 which each Administration has heretofore prescribed for its action, to consider the 
 acts of its predecessors conclusive, as far as the Executive is concerned. And, with- 
 out intending to cast censure or blame upon the Executive in this particular case, or 
 to do more than simply arrange and embody the facts, the committee nevertheless 
 feel bound to observe that under such precedent the Executive acts will always be 
 liable to be disturbed as often as a successor shall think proper to review them. 
 (See opinion of Mr. Attorney-General VVirt, Executive Document, second session 
 Twenty-sixth Congress, vol. 2, 1840-41, p. 554; see also same volume, p. 841, opinion 
 of Mr. Attorney-General Taney.) 
 
 Sixth. Out of what fund was the amount last allowed paid; to whom was it paid, 
 and on what authority 
 
 The sum of $486,939.38 was paid out of the fund arising under the Cherokee treaty 
 of 1835-36. It was paid to John Ross on the authority, as the committee believe, of 
 the following resolution of the Cherokee council, to wit: 
 
 "Resolved by the Cherokee nation, through their National committee and council in 
 national council assembled, That it is hereby ordered that the aforesaid John Ross 
 be, and he is hereby, directed and fully empowered to proceed to Washiugton City 
 and urge a settlement of this claim with all possible expedition, and to apply for 
 and receive from the Government of the United States, in the name of the Cherokee 
 Nation, the balance due of $581,346,884 as stated in the account of the emigration 
 claim, in order that the business growing out of it may be brought to a final close.' 7 
 
 This sum of $581, 346. 88£ includes a claim of Lewis Ross of $94,407.38, which has 
 not been referred, not having relation to the subject of inquiry. It is, however, 
 somewhat curious that the national council should undertake the settlement of a 
 private claim. (For the fund out of which this claim was paid, see Statement A, 
 p. 51.) 
 
 Seventh. Was any offer or bid made for the removal of the Cherokees and at 
 what rate ? 
 
 General Scott states in a letter to the Secretary of War, dated August 28, 1838, 
 that the treaty party of the Cherokee Nation offered to remove themselves for $40 
 per head. Watson & Co. proposed to remove them at $32 per head, and R. E. Clem- 
 ents, a witness already referred to, states that there were persons on the ground who 
 would have removed them for less than half the sum agreed to be paid to John Ross. 
 
 From the opinion entertained of the original contract (at $65.88 a head) by various 
 persons, some idea may be formed of whether it was liberal or not. Bryan, Clem- 
 ents & Co. offered Lewis Ross $40,000 for his contract, which he declined. George 
 I>. Gordon, who was a partner of Lewis Ross to the extent of one-seventh, sold his 
 interest to the latter for $15,000. If the profits on a seventh were $15,000 they would 
 amount to $105,000 on the whole. John McCain, who was employed by Lewis Rosa 
 to assist him in the execution of his contract, and who kept the accounts of the pur- 
 chases, etc., states that Ross could not have realized less than $150,000 on his con- 
 tract as originally made. (See report of Commissioner of Indian Affairs, p. 12, 
 et seq.) 
 
 Eighth. What action should be taken for the protection of the Cherokees, and to 
 guard the Treasury I 
 
 This is a question which the committee find it difficult to answer. They submit 
 (see statement A) a table showing the amount appropriated, the objects to which 
 it has been applied, as well as the amount remaining unexpended. From this the 
 House will be able to form its own judgment, when it shall be called on to act on 
 the subject. 
 
 Under the treaty and the acts passed to carry it into effect the Cherokees were 
 entitled to $6,537,634. By the treaty $600,000 was sot apart to pay the expenses of 
 removal, but by the table above referred to it will be seen that the expense of removal 
 ;ind subsistence for a year exceeds the sum of $2,855,000. The amount paid to claim- 
 ants Cor spoliations, reservations, and improvements is $2, 21?, 828. 90, and the whole 
 amount expended is $5,388,178.23. The sum of $714,871.75 is invested in stocks for 
 the benefit of the Cherokees, and there remains in the Treasury and in the bonds of 
 agents, $434,384.02. Of this last-mentioned sum $63,663.29 has been lost by the defal- 
 cation of Capt. b\ I ). ( !. ( 'ollins, as well as several smaller sums by other persons ; so 
 that there remains in the Treasury but $275,499.59. The payment to John b'oss of 
 the sums which be has received over and above the amount agreed to be paid him 
 will probably be regarded as a matter of no pecuniary importance to the United 
 States. 
 
 These sums were paid out of the fund arising under the treaty, or that whic h was 
 appropriated by the act of 12th June, 1838. But it must be recollected that a por- 
 tion of the funds arising Qnder the treaty were applicable to certain specific objects; 
 and if the Oovcmment has misapplied these funds so far that there does not remain 
 
MEMORIAL OF EASTERN OR EMIGRANT CHEROKEES. 49 
 
 sufficient to meet these objects, the deficiency created by its abuse of its trust must 
 be made good out of the Treasury. The payment to John Ross was an injury to 
 that part of the nation who did not participate in the profits of his contract, and it 
 is likely to prove an injury to this Government in the manner just mentioned. 
 
 Accompanying this report will be found the contract of General Scott with John 
 Ross and others; the report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs on the subject of 
 Mr. Ross's claim; the review of the claim by Mr. Secretary Bell; the letter of the 
 President to the Cherokee delegation; Mr. Ross's accounts; the testimony of a num- 
 ber of witnesses relative to the subject; together with a statement of the expendi- 
 tures made from the Cherokee fund arising under the treaty of 1835-36, etc. 
 
 JOHN HOWARD PAYNE'S EVIDENCE. 
 
 John Howard Payne testified before the Committee on Indian Affairs in 1842 that 
 he was employed by John Ross from 1835 to 1841 for the purpose of assisting him 
 and the Cherokee delegation, sometimes, with him, to compose the difficulties 
 between the Cherokees and the United States. His evidence is, in part, as follows 
 (House Report, No. 1098, Twenty-seventh Congress, second session; House Reports 
 of Committees, vol. 5, 1841-42) : 
 
 " Second interrogatory. Was Mr. Ross opposed to the execution of the treaty 
 made with the Cherokees in 1835-36? If aye, state in what manner his opposition 
 was manifested. State particularly. 
 
 " Answer to second interrogatory. Mr. Ross never, to my knowledge, admitted, 
 either directly or indirectly, that what the interrogatory terms ' the treaty made with 
 the Cherokees in 1835-36," either was fairly entitled to be considered as a real treaty, 
 or was made with the Cherokees as a nation. * * * 
 
 " Third interrogatory. Has Mr. Ross ever informed you that he would never 
 recognize the validity of the above-mentioned treaty? * * * 
 
 "Answer. * * * I have always supposed that Mr. Ross never would recognize 
 the validity of what the interrogatory terms 'the treaty made with the Cherokees 
 in 1835-36/ I can not state fully all that he said upon the subject, * * * but 
 from the beginning to the end of my communications with him his views of it never 
 appeared to vary. 
 
 u Fourth interrogatory. Were you present in Washington in 1839, when Mr. Ross 
 presented his claim to the Department of War for the removal of the Cherokees? If 
 aye, state whether the claim was against the United States or the Cherokee Nation. 
 
 " Answer. 1 never understood that it was made against the Cherokee Nation, 
 
 but always regarded it as a claim against the United States. Distinctly it seems to 
 be stated as such in the memorial upon the general affairs of the Cherokees and the 
 United States, which appears in Document 129 of the House of Representatives, first 
 session Twenty-sixth Congress, where, on the 10th page, it forms the fourth and last 
 article of the enumeration of objects sought by the delegation signing that memo- 
 rial. Such also is iny construction of the manner in which it was mentioned by 
 John Ross in a message to the Cherokee council in October, 1840, in resolutions, and 
 an order of the same council to John Ross for its enforcement, as well as in other 
 official documents. 
 
 The language used by Mr. Ross in his message to the national council in the 
 present Cherokee Nation, in October, 1840, is as follows (id., page 45) : 
 
 JOHN ROSS'S MESSAGE, OCTOBER, 1840. 
 
 a » # * j abstain from remarking upon the postponement of the just dues to 
 our nation, further than to add that the unanimity now prevailing among ourselves, 
 and other circumstances, justify the expectation of a change of policy in the United 
 States Government regarding our affairs. I will, therefore, hope that our country- 
 men will continue to be patient, and to place every confidence in the honesty and 
 honor of the Government and people of the United States. Let us not afford an 
 excuse for withholding our dues, by dissension among ourselves. Let us remain in 
 the right, and trust to Providence and an upright cause for the result. The points 
 for adjustment at Washington are more numerous and important now than ever. 
 The country taken from us east of the Mississippi still remains unpaid for; the 
 tenure under which our present lands in the West are granted continues undefined, 
 as do the relations which are to subsist between us and the United States. But 
 these multifarious calls are too severely known to you to require that I should enu- 
 merate them here. 
 
 "The utter disregard of all. our claims at the American metropolis might have been 
 more injurious than it proved had it not been for the timely aid of friends by whom 
 your delegation were enabled to meet the expenses which were to have been defrayed 
 with moneys long overdue from the United States that when applied for under 
 your requisition were withheld. Thus embarrassed, I claimed, under a protest, the 
 
 S. Doc, 392 4: 
 
50 MEMORIAL OF EASTERN OR EMIGRANT CHEROKEES. 
 
 proceeds of a partial valuation for improvements taken from me in our late country, 
 and with these discharged the loan for the nation and paid all other demands against 
 your delegates." 
 And on page 46, id : 
 
 "It was my hope to have bad it in my power to close the whole business of the 
 emigration at tbe present council, but I deeply lament that the course taken by the 
 War Department in witbholding a final settlement renders it impracticable. When 
 our account, formed upon tbe basis distinctly understood between General Scott and 
 our special agents, was presented for payment frivolous exceptions were takeu 
 against portions of it, and a balance due to the nation of $581,346.88^ was left 
 unsettled; * * * Tbe principle upon which the nation estimated our emigration 
 expenses with General Scott was to receive for them the same amount which the 
 removal would have cost had it been accomplished not by us but by the United 
 States." * * * 
 
 The resolution of the national council empowering John Ross to receive from the 
 United States the balance due for removal under the contract with General Scott, 
 passed November, 1840 (id., 48), is as follows: 
 
 RESOLUTION OF CHEROKEE NATIONAL COUNCIL, NOVEMBER 11, 1840. 
 
 "Whereas, in the month of May, 1838, the Cherokee Nation east of the Mississippi 
 was in a state of capture by an army of the United States, under the command of 
 Major-General Scott, for the avowed purpose of removal west of the Mississippi; 
 
 "And whereas, at that crisis, it was thought expedient by the United States, in 
 order to diminish the sources of irritation produced among the Cherokees by the 
 hereinbefore stated and other causes, regarded by them as harsh and unauthorized, 
 to change the mode of removal, with an understanding on the part of the Chero- 
 kees that their remaining concernments should be left for subsequent adjustment; 
 
 "And whereas, in consequence of the aforesaid change of policy, General Scott 
 was vested with unlimited powers from the United States Executive to arrange 
 with the Cherokees for their self-removal and for the withdrawal of his army; 
 
 "Aud whereas, pursuant to the authority in question, General Scott did arrange 
 with tbe Cherokee Nation, through their regularly constituted special agents for 
 that purpose, and which special agents calculated with General Scott a basis for the 
 amount to be paid for the expense, rating the component parts from the customary 
 allowance by the War Department upon such items, when contracted for with 
 citizens of tbe United States; 
 
 "And whereas it was supposed that the emigration might be entirely completed 
 in eighty days, more or less, although it was impossible to covenant for any specific 
 term ; 
 
 "And whereas it appeared that, if eighty days should be the time consummated in 
 the emigration, the aggregate of the component parts of the aforesaid estimate 
 would make the cost of each person for tbe eighty days amount to sixty-live dollars 
 and eighty-eight cents; and hence, on that sum it was concluded to fix as the basis 
 of the charge, to which it was agreed to add the single article of soap, at fifteen 
 cents per pound; 
 
 "And whereas it was fully understood between the Cherokee Nation, through their 
 special agents, and General Scott, full}' empowered to represent in this matter the 
 United States, that sixty-live dollars and eighty-eight cents, with the aforesaid addi- 
 tion for soap, was a fair allowance for eighty days' expenses each in emigrating the 
 Cherokees; that amount per bead being necessarily liable to reduction or to increase, 
 at the same rate, in the event of a greater or a lesser length of time proving requisite 
 for the purpose than the before-mentioned eighty days; 
 
 "And whereas, under the aforesaid arrangement, the Cherokee people were formed 
 into thirteen detachments, and the removal was to proceed by such routes as might 
 appear most eligible; but its commencement by no means to be delayed beyond the 
 first day of September, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-eight, then next 
 ensuing ; 
 
 " And whereas, these conditions being fully settled, the special agents of the 
 nation, acting on the nation's behalf, after having made divers appointments for the 
 purpose of carrying it into effect, in order to condense the business, did delegate its 
 entire snperintendance to one of their body, John Koss; and by John Ross such per- 
 sons were deputed for the management of the various departments, on account of 
 the nation, as were considered best qualified for the purpose; 
 
 "And whereas, before tbe first day of September, one thousand eight hundred and 
 thirty-eight, which day formed the limit of the term covenanted for, John Koss 
 caused the removal to be commenced and the first detachment actually to bo under 
 way upon the twenty-eighth of August previous ; but in consequence of t ho awful 
 sickness among the people, and the drought which pervaded the country through 
 which they had to pass, General Scott, and not John Koss, called a halt, and ordered 
 the emigration to be suspended) 
 
MEMORIAL OF EASTERN OR EMIGRANT CHEROKEES. 51 
 
 "And whereas the emigration, in consequence of this considerateness on the part 
 of General Scott, actually was suspended for several weeks, and thereby a necessity 
 entailed for further delay, and especially among some of the detachments, on arriv- 
 ing afc the Mississippi, found it impassable, from the ice accumulated therein, in 
 consequence of the advance of winter; 
 
 "And whereas the different causes of protraction extended the time occupied in 
 removal variously, but in every instance beyond the limit first contemplated of eighty 
 days, and consequently enlarged proportionately the cost of the emigration to the United 
 States; 
 
 "And whereas it appears from the report of John Ross, the superintendent, that 
 there is a balance still in arrear to the Cherokee Nation of live hundred and eighty- 
 one thousand three hundred and forty-six dollars and eighty-eight and a half cents, 
 which balance has been repeatedly applied for, but the payment of which has been 
 withheld; 
 
 "Now, therefore, by the committee and council of the Cherokee Natiou, in 
 national council assembled, it is 
 
 "L'esolved, That the conditions of the contract made between General Scott, on 
 the part of the United States, and the special agents, including John Ross, on the 
 behalf of the Cherokee Nation, for removing the Cherokees east of the Mississippi 
 to their destination west of Arkansas, have (not) been scrupulously fulfilled on the 
 part of the United States, as represented by General Scott. 
 
 ; 'Bcso1ved, That the aforesaid failure of the United States to sustain the pledges 
 given to the Cherokee Nation by General Scott has caused the deepest distress 
 among numbers of its citizens who have claims upon the balance due; and that a 
 final settlement, especially under the trying circumstances of the Cherokee people 
 of late, is of vital importance. 
 
 "L'esolred, That the authority vested in the special agents, and continued by the 
 act of union between the Eastern and Western Cherokees, passed at Illinois Camp 
 Ground on the 12th day of .July, 1839, and by them conferred upon one of their 
 members, John Ross, as superintendent, with a view to facilitate the duties 
 required of them, be, and the same is hereby, approved and ratified. 
 
 And further resoh-ed (in support of the aforesaid authority). That, by the Cherokee 
 Nation, through their national committee and council, in national council assembled, 
 it is hereby ordered, that the aforesaid John Ross be, and he is hereby, directed and 
 fully empowered to proceed to Washington City, and to urge a settlement of this 
 claim with all possible expedition, and to apply for and receive from the Govern- 
 ment of the United States, in the name of the Cherokee Nation, the balance due of 
 five hundred and eighty-one thousand three hundred and forty-six dollars and eighty- 
 eight and a half cents, as stated in the emigration claim, in order that the business 
 growing out of it may be brought to a final close." 
 
 "Eleventh interrogatory. Against whom was Mr. Ross's claim first charged, and 
 against whom was it charged in the second instance? * * * 
 
 Answer. * * * I know nothing whatever in relation to any shifting of the emi- 
 gration claim from the United States to the treaty fund. As John Ross had never, 
 to my knowledge, recognized the treaty, I could not of course suppose that he had 
 recognized any treatv fund, as I had nsver found him to waver upon that point." 
 (Id. p. 50.) 
 
 EVIDENCE ON JOHN ROSS'S CONTRACT. 
 
 Samuel C. Stambaugh testified before the same Committee on Indian Affairs August 
 6, 1842, and said in part: 
 
 "I never saw the decision of the Secretary of War upon that claim, or heard the 
 grounds upon which he directed it to be paid out of the Cherokee fund. My impression 
 always was, pending the prosecution of the claim, that it was against the United 
 States and not the Cherokee Nation. It was based upon a contract made between 
 the United States and individuals of the nation, not sanctioned by any provision of 
 the treaty." (Id., p. 51.) 
 
 (Page 53.) "In reply to your second interrogatory I can say that I have no distinct 
 recollection of any particular conversation I ever had with Mr. Ross upon the subject 
 of the claim preferred by him against the United States for removing the Cherokees. 
 I have frequently heard him speak of his difficulties with the War Department under 
 Mr. Van Buren's Administration, and always understood that he refused to recognize 
 the New Echota treaty of 1835, and, consequently, that he did not claim under that 
 treaty; hence he must have charged his account for removing the Cherokees to the 
 United States, and not to the Cherokee Nation, in the first instance." 
 
 Gideon F. Morris (p. 65) : 
 
 " Question 10. Had you any conversation with John Ross while in this city in 1841, 
 or since, in relation to the claim which he was then pressing? If yea, state against 
 whom the claim was made, for what it was made, and the particulars of the con- 
 versation referred to. 
 
52 MEMORIAL OF EASTERN OR EMIGRANT CHEROKEES. 
 
 "Answer. I have bad different conversations with John Ross relative to the claim 
 which was allowed him in 1841. I understood that the claim was one against the 
 United States, and for services rendered in removing the Cherokees west of the Mis- 
 sissippi. 
 
 " Question 11. Did he (Ross) state that the claim was one against the United 
 States and that he did not intend it to be a charge upon the Cherokee fund ? 
 
 "Answer. I have heard John Ross say that his claim was against the United States 
 and that it was not to come out of the Cherokee fund. I have heard others of the 
 delegation (Mr. Benge and Mr. Vann) say the same thing — that Ross claimed it from 
 the United States and not out of the Cherokee fund. 
 
 "Question 12. Did not Ross and his party always deny the validity of the treaty 
 of 1835, and have they not refused to recognize it, and do they do so still? 
 
 "Answer. Mr. Ross and his party have in all their conversations with me uni- 
 formly denied the validity of the treaty of 1835 and refused to recognize it. 
 
 ''Question 13. Out of what fund was this claim finally paid? YVas it out of the 
 Cherokee fund, and why ? 
 
 " Answer. I have always understood that the claim was paid out of the Cherokee 
 fund." 
 
 Garry Hinant (pp. 66-67) : 
 
 " Question 3. Have you ever had any conversation with John Ross about his claim? 
 If aye, state out of what fund he claimed to be paid and what he said on the subject. 
 
 "Answer. I have had conversations with the Cherokee delegation, and perhaps 
 with Ross, on the subject of their or his claim, who said it was a claim against the 
 United States generally, and not payable out of the Cherokee fund appropriated 
 under the treaty of 1835 and 1836. He and they denied the validity of the New 
 Echota treaty; said it was a fraudulent treaty, made without authority; never 
 could recognize it as a treaty or receive any of the moneys appropriated to carry it 
 into effect. " 
 
 [House Report jSo. 1098, p. 68; report from Sec on '1 Auditor's Office, August 18, 1842.] 
 
 1838. 
 
 Aug. 4. Paid to John Ross, principal chief and agent of the Cherokee 
 
 Nation, on account of removal and subsistence $130, 000. 00 
 
 Sept. 17 do 134, 960. 00 
 
 Oct. 16 do 264,960.00 
 
 Nov. 13 do .' 264,479.04 
 
 Total - 776.399.04 
 
 1841. 
 
 Aug. 16. Paid to John Ross and Lewis Ross, on account of carrying 
 into effect treaty with Cherokees, allowed by Secretarv of 
 War . 94,407.38 
 
 Sept. 17. Paid to John Ross, principal chief and agent of the Cherokee 
 Nation, specially authorized by the national council to 
 apply for and receive the same, allowed by the Secretarv of 
 War 486,939.50 
 
 Total 581,346.88 
 
 Grand total , 1, 357, 745. 92 
 
 SERVICES OF TREATY PARTY. 
 
 June 2, 1846. In House Report No. 683, Twenty-ninth Congress, first session, Mr. 
 Jacob Thompson, from the Committee on Indian Affairs, reports in favor of House 
 bill 456, providing for separation of the Cherokee country between the factious and 
 the removal and subsistence of the North Carolina Cherokees. The committee say, 
 among other things : 
 
 " llefore the treaty of 1835 the Cherokee council had issued a decree that any 
 individual of that tribe who should sign a treaty for the cession of the Cherokee coun- 
 try should be considered as a traitor, and as such should be regarded as an outlaw. 
 Notwithstanding this sentence and fearful penalty, after the Cherokee Nation was 
 involved in the most perplexing difficulties with the State of Georgia, which, if per- 
 sisted in, were calculated to disturb the peace and good feeling of the people of the 
 whole Union; and after it became evident that to remain longer in their old country 
 was destructive to their prosperity, and even of their national existence, and that 
 the only means of saving their own people, and of removing from the States and 
 
MEMORIAL OF EASTERN OR EMIGRANT CHEROKEES. 
 
 53 
 
 the General Government the perplexing question of conflicting jurisdictions which 
 had sprung out of their remaining on this side of the Mississippi River, was to treat 
 for the cession of all their country within the States; the treaty party, with a firm- 
 ness of nerve and a purity of purpose which reflected upon them high honor, came 
 forward, at the most earnest solicitation of the United States, entered into a treaty 
 in the year 1835, in the face of the most violent opposition; braved the most 
 unmeasured denunciations; and, in this manner, enabled our Government to avoid 
 a conflict which threatened to shake our institutions to their very foundation." 
 
 GOVERNMENT PARTY. 
 [July 17, 1846. Indian Office Files.] 
 [Portion of argument.] 
 
 The whole amount paid to the Cherokee government for the expenses of emigra- 
 tion is $1,263,338,481. 
 
 It is said that this sum is extravagant. If it were so, is the Government relieved 
 from the obligation to pay it ? With equal justice might it be said that the sum of 
 $5,000,000 was an extravagant price for the lands east, and therefore it should not 
 be paid. 
 
 But is it true in point of fact? What is the standard by which these expenses are 
 to be estimated ? Not surely the allowance which was made to individual Cherokees 
 who might remove themselves. But the sum which such removal would have cost 
 if it had been made by the Government of the United States through its agents. It 
 need not be stated that a small party could have been removed at a less expense, 
 proportionately, than a large one. 
 
 In eases of sickuess and the attentions for burial the whole detachment must be 
 detained, for they could not be separated. The only rule by which it could be esti- 
 mated is the probable cost to the United States removing the Indians by its own 
 agents. One of the detachments was removed by an officer of the Army of the 
 United States — Lieutenant Dean — and the cost of removal was $61.70 each, within $5 
 of the sum agreed to be paid by the contract with General Scott, and which was all 
 that it would have cost if the march had only occupied eighty days, as was reason- 
 ably estimated, but it required much more, from causes which I will now state. 
 
 The commencement of the march was delayed from the causes above stated until 
 it could not be finished until the approach of winter, when the Mississippi River 
 was frozen over and it was impossible to cross it. The detachments were delayed at 
 that river more than a month; the days were short and cold, and a very short dis- 
 tance could therefore be accomplished over bad roads in the day, and hence the 
 greater time occupied and the increased cost. 
 
 The great mortality on the route sufficiently proves that no excessive regard was 
 paid to the comfort of the Cherokees, and this is the whole story of this emigration 
 contract fairly and truly stated. 
 
 The Cherokees only ask the fulfillment of their contract, and the only reply that 
 was ever made to them, whenever it was refused, was not to deny the contract, but 
 to say that it was too good an one. Does it become the Government of the United 
 States, after driving this poor and oppressed people from their homes, and at infinite 
 sacrifices to them and loss of property, to higgle about a small sum, more or less, 
 appropriated and contracted for, to add to their comfort and to mitigate the severity 
 of the infliction upon them ; still more to say we did so contract, but by care and 
 economy you have saved $150,000, and therefore will pay you nothing. We could 
 have contracted with others to have removed you for less. It is true that those with 
 whom we should have contracted had no sympathies with you, and would have 
 driven you as they would beeves to the shambles, or as they did the Creeks, whose 
 unburied bodies were left rotting on the roadside. 
 
 I have already adverted to the letter of Mr. Poinsett, Secretary of War, written 
 by the direction of the President, and dated May 18, 1838, in which he says: "I 
 think that the expenses of your removal should be home by the United States and 
 on May 23, 1838, five days afterwards, he writes to General Scott to make an agree- 
 ment with the headmen of the nation, which, "while it will secure their comfortable 
 removal in the manner most agreeable to their chiefs and headmen, will effectually 
 protect the interests of the United States and prevent all unnecessary delay — useless 
 expenditures." 
 
 The language used is not " which will protect the Cherokee funds," but which 
 "will protect the interests of the United States from unnecessary expenditures." 
 
 This language shows too plainly to admit of doubt what was the opinion of the 
 Secretary of War. If anything more were required it is furnished by the letter of 
 
54 
 
 MEMORIAL OF EASTERN OR EMIGRANT CHEROKEES. 
 
 the Secretary live days before, in which he says he thinks the expense ought to be 
 borne by the United States. 
 
 It is true that General Scott, after the contract was made, said that the expense 
 was to come out of the Cherokee funds, but the Cherokee contracting parties never 
 assented to this. But what did General Scott mean by Cherokee funds; the price 
 of the lands, $5,000,000? By no means but the $1,047,000; and the $600,000, doubt- 
 less supposing that they would be all sufficient and that the balance left would 
 belong to the Nation. If these two funds had been sufficient they would have been 
 charged with these expenses of removal. They were not, and the United States are 
 bound in good faith to make them sufficient and not to take the treaty money to pay 
 them. As well might the annuity fund or any other be seized on for that purpose. 
 The United States were bound to pay the expense of removal — 
 
 1. Because the treaty of 1835 so stipulated. 
 
 2. Because the removal of all other Indian tribes, and the previous removal of por- 
 tions of the Cherokees to the West, were made at the expense of the United States. 
 
 3. Because General Jackson, in a talk when the treaty of 1835 was submitted to the 
 Cherokees, assured them that the cost of their removal would be i>aid by the United 
 States. 
 
 4. Because the Secretay of War, under direction of the President, gave similar 
 assurance in May, 1838. 
 
 5. Because the Senate so decided when the question was submitted to that body 
 to declare the intention of its award. 
 
 6. Because the Congress of the United States so decided afterwards, in 1838, when 
 asked for an additional appropriation to pay the expenses of removal. 
 
 7. Because it is only justice, not liberal but hard justice, and without it nothing 
 will be left to distribute per capita, and the Eastern Cherokees will receive nothing 
 for their lands and a most inadequate compensation for the sacrifices consequent 
 upon their removal. 
 
 If the treaty fund is relieved from the charges for removal, spoliation claims, 
 reservations, subsistence for one year paid to Glasgow and Harrison, it will then only 
 be charged with — 
 
 800,000 acres land $500, 000 
 
 Funds invested 500, 000 
 
 Improvements, ferries, etc., about 1,000,000 
 
 2, 000, 000 
 
 leaving a balance of between $2,500,000 and $3,000,000 justly due as the balance of the 
 purchase money agreed to be paid for the lands east of the Mississippi. If this sum 
 is due now it was equally due on the ratification of the treaty. If the transaction 
 were between individuals interest would be allowed. The Government of the 
 United States has had the benefit of this money for eleven years, and the Cherokees 
 have been deprived of it — not from any laches of theirs, for they have constantly 
 and importunately asked for payment, and the debts of the Indians contracted on 
 the faith of this fund have in that time doubled by the accumulation of interest, etc. 
 Filed July 17, 1846. 
 
 (For Treaty Party Argument, see 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 in report of Committee on 
 Indian Affairs, Senate Doc. No. 298, Twenty-ninth Congress, first session; House 
 Doc. No. 185, Twenty-ninth Congress, first session. 
 
 POWERS OF THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL. 
 
 The Attorney-General has no power to give opinions concerning any matters pend- 
 ing in Congress upon request of either of the Houses or of any committee. 
 
 On January 20, 1869, Hon. Wm. M. Evarts, Attorney-General of the United States, 
 confirmed the uniform opinion of the Attorneys-General of the United States 
 as set forth by Attorneys-General Wirt, Taney, Crittenden, and Bates (1 Op., 335; 2 
 ib., 199; 5 ib., 561; 10 Lb., 164), "that it was not competent for the Attorney- 
 General to give opinions concerning any matters pending in Congress upon the 
 request of either of the Houses or of any committee, " for the reasons set forth in 
 those opinions. (\2 <)p. Atty. Gen., 544.) Attorney-General Wirt (1 Op., 320) says, 
 September 14, 1821, in regard to the act of Congress which prescribes the duties of 
 the Attorney-General: ''This act limits me to questions of law propounded by the 
 President and heads of departments; and to these limits I have made it a rule to 
 confine myself, on fche ground that in a government purely of laws no officer should 
 be permitted to stretch his authority and carry the influence of his office beyond the 
 circle which the positive law of the land has drawn around him. (See also 1 Op. , 21 1, 
 June ll\ lsis; l Op.,258, December 22, 1818.) 
 
MEMORIAL OF EASTERN OR EMIGRANT CHEROKEES. 
 
 55 
 
 Attorney-General J. J. Crittenden. June 15, 1852, declines an opinion requested by 
 a committee of Congress, on the ground of Attorney-General Wirt's opinion of Feb- 
 ruary 3, 1820 (1 Op., 216), and says as to his duties: " Those duties are prescribed 
 and limited by law, by his commission, and his oath of office. * * * To answer 
 the questions you hare been pleased to propose does not fall within the limits of 
 the duty or legal power of the Attorney-General, but would be a wide departure 
 from his appointed sphere of action. " (5 Op., 561.) 
 
 Attorney-General Edward Bates, December 14, 1861, declining to give an opinion 
 in answer to a resolution of the United States Senate requesting it, says that he 
 would be " compelled to decline compliance with the request of the Senate, on the 
 ground that in the absence of any statutory authority to give official opinions to 
 the legislative department of the Government, the assumption of such power by the 
 Attornev-General would be in violation of his oath of office, and of dangerous 
 example." (10 Op., 164.) 
 
 Attorney-General George H. Williams, March 26, 1872, says : "I find that my pre- 
 decessors in office have made numerous decisions to the effect that the Attorney- 
 General is only authorized to give his official opinion upon a question of law 
 submitted to him for that purpose by the President or the head of one of the Execu- 
 tive Departments. 1 do not think that the act ' to establish the Department of Justice' 
 (16 Stats., 162) changes his rights or his duties in respect to his official opinions." 
 (14 Op. Atty. Gen., 21.) 
 
 Attorney-General Williams, January 20, 1873, requested by committee of United 
 States Senate for opinion on the construction of Choctaw-Chickasaw treaty, says: 
 "I can not recognize the right of any committee of Congress to call for such an 
 opinion for their use in matters of legislation; and if given for that purpose it would 
 be entitled to no more consideration in Congress than the opinion of any other indi- 
 vidual presumed to have a knowledge of legal matters. * * * My authority to 
 give such opinions is confined by the law to matters which concern some depart- 
 mental action of the Government." (14 Op. Attv. Gen., 177.) (Opinions cited 1 Op. 
 253, 335, 492; 2 Op., 499; 10 Op., 164; 12 Op., 544.) 
 
 DUTY OF ATTORNEY-GENERAL. 
 
 The Attorney-General is not authorized, by the law creating and defining his office, 
 to give legal opinions at the call of either House of Congress or of Congress itself. 
 His duty to render such opinions is limited to calls from the President and heads of 
 departments. 
 
 Attorney-General Charles Devens, March 27, 1878, declines an opinion requested by 
 resolution of House of Representatives, and says: "The authority of the Attorney- 
 General to render his official opinion is limited by the laws which create and define 
 his office, and does not permit him to give advice at the call of either House of Con- 
 gress or of Congress itself, but only to the President or the head of an Executive 
 Department of the Government." (2 Op., 499; 5 Op., 561; 10 Op., 164; 12 Op., 544; 
 14 Op., 17; 14 Op., 177, cited.) 
 
 It is not the duty of the Attorney-General to give opinions on questions of fact 
 (Op. Sept. 11, 1852, 5 Op., 626; April 3, 1820, 1 Op., 346.) 
 
 The Attorney-General will not give an opinion on a case, submitted by the head 
 of a Department, which is not pending in his Department and subject to his decision. 
 (10 Op., 50, June 12, 1861; 10 Op., 220, April 2, 1862.) 
 
 The Attorney-General will not give a speculative opinion on an abstract question 
 of law which does not arise in any case presented for the action of an Executive 
 Department. (April 11, 1865, 11 Op., 189. see also July 20, 1868, 12 Op., 453 ; January 
 8, 1872, 13 Op., 568.) 
 
 DOCUMENTS ON EMIGRANT CHEROKEE CLAIM. 
 
 Xo. on 
 Poores 
 index. 
 
 Date. 
 
 149 
 
 149 
 
 1822 
 1, 7, 22 
 
 210 
 
 1, 30, 29 
 
 201 
 
 2, 29, 28 
 
 203 
 
 3, 22, 28 
 
 Complete and valuable statistics of Indians. Jedediah Morse 
 
 Cherokee and Creek treaties violative of Georgia sovereignty. Report 
 
 Committees, 10, Seventeenth Congress, first session, Vol. I 
 
 Message, President Adams; agreement 'with Georgia and treaty with 
 
 Cherokees. House Ex. Doc. Xo. 95, Twentieth Congress, second session, 
 
 Vol. Ill 
 
 Report of S. F. Vinton; reviews Indian legislation; plan of emigration. 
 
 Political Pamphlets. Vol. CXLII 
 
 President J. Q. Adams; new government for Cherokees. House Ex. Doc. 
 
 No. 211, Twentieth Congress, first session, Vol. V 
 
56 
 
 MEMORIAL OF EASTERN OR EMIGRANT CHEROKEES. 
 Documents on emigrant Cherokee claim — Continued. 
 
 No. on 
 Poore's 
 index. 
 
 Date. 
 
 Pane. 
 
 208 
 
 1, 3, 29 
 
 208 
 
 1,8,29 
 
 211 
 
 2, 17, 29 
 
 211 
 
 2, 18, 29 
 
 213{ 
 
 213 
 219 
 
 A pril. 
 May, 1830. 
 1830-1837 
 
 2. 22, 30 
 
 219 
 
 2, 24, 30 
 
 219 
 219 
 219 
 219 
 219 
 219 
 
 2, 23. 30 
 2. 26, 30 
 2, 27. 30 
 2, 28, 30 
 3, 1. 30 
 3, 2, 30 
 
 220 
 
 3, 3, 30 
 
 220 
 220 
 220 
 
 3, 4, 30 
 3, 6, 30 
 3, 8, 30 
 
 220 
 221 
 221 
 
 3, 10, 30 
 3. 17, 30 
 3,19, 30 
 
 221 
 221 
 221 
 
 3, 22, 30 
 3, 22, 30 
 4, 2,30 
 
 221 
 
 4, 13. 30 
 
 221 
 
 1,15,31 
 
 227 
 228 
 228 
 228 
 230 
 230 
 
 1,7,31 
 1, 19,31 
 
 1. 26. 31 
 2, 3,31 
 
 2,21.31 
 
 2, 22,31 
 
 235 
 
 1,5,32 
 
 240 
 
 2,15, 32 
 
 242 
 
 3, 12, 32 
 
 244 
 
 3. 24, 32 
 
 273 
 
 5, 17, 34 
 
 281 
 
 6, 20, 34 
 
 282 
 
 6, 25, 34 
 
 283 
 
 10,31,34 ' 
 3, 14,35 
 
 307 
 
 3, 15, 36 
 
 313 
 
 4, 30, 36 
 
 Eeport on Indian tribes— statistics, lands, numbers, etc. Senate Doc. Xo. 
 
 27, Twentieth Congress, second session. Vol. I 
 
 Senator Prince ; inquiry as to law needed to remove Indians. Senate Doc. 
 
 Xo. 31. Twentieth Congress, second session, Vol.1 
 
 John Ross, to ask interest on treaty money. House Ex. Doc. Xo. 124. 
 
 Twentieth Congress, second session. Vol. Ill 
 
 Indian Committee reports; recommends title to Indian lands and fair 
 
 treatment to them, and appropriation for their removal. House Report 
 
 Xo. 87, Twentieth Congress, second session 
 
 ^Speeches in Congress on removal of Indians (Boston, 1830) 
 
 History of Indians — tribes of Xorth America 
 
 Senate committee recommends ample appropriation to move Indians. Sen- 
 ate Document, Twenty-first Congress, first session, Vol. II 
 
 House committee recommends ample appropriation to move Indians. 
 House Report 227, Twenty-tirst Congress, first session, Vol. II 
 
 Burlington ladies memorialize Congress to protect Indian rights 
 
 Citizens of Xew Jersey memorialize Congress to protect Indian rights 
 
 Citizens of Connecticut memorialize Congress to protect Indian rights 
 
 Citizens of Xew Jersey memorialize Congress to protect Indian rights 
 
 Citizens of Peunsylzauia memorialize Congress to protect Indian rights... 
 
 Pennsylvania Baptist Association memorialize Congress to protect Indian 
 rights 
 
 Legislature of Pennsvlvania memorialize Congress to protect Indians in 
 rights \ 
 
 Legislature of Indiana memorialize Congress to protect Indians in rights. 
 
 Citizens of Maine memorialize Congress to protect Indians in rights 
 
 Georgia's jurisdiction over Indians. Senate Doc. Xo. 98, Twenty-first Con- 
 gress, first session, Vol. II 
 
 Citizens of Maine memorialize Congress to protect Indian rights 
 
 Citizens of Massachusetts memorialize Congress to protect Indian rights. 
 
 Laws relating to Indians — State and Colonial — House Reports Xo. 316. 
 Twenty-first Congress, first session 
 
 Citizens of Connecticut memorialize Congress to protect Indian rights... 
 
 Tearlv meeting of Friends memorialize Congress to protect Indian rights. 
 
 President Jackson's message; intrusion Cherokee lands; State paper Xo. 
 89, Twenty-first Congress, first session, Vol. Ill 
 
 President Jackson's message; expense removal of Indians: military 
 needed to protect them; State paper Xo. 91, Twenty-first Congress, first 
 session. Vol. IV 
 
 Cherokees protest against claim of Georgia to lands of Cherokees. House 
 Ex. Doc. Xo. 57. Twenty-first Congress, second session. Vol. Ill 
 
 Citizens of Pennsvlvania "memorialize Congress to protect Indians 
 
 do 
 
 American Board of Foreign Missions petition Congress to protect Indians. 
 
 Citizens of Massachusetts memorialize Congress to protect Indians 
 
 Citizens of Virginia memorialize Congress to protect Indians 
 
 President Jackson's message recommends removal of Indians or they be 
 compelled to submit to State law. Senate Doc. Xo. 65, Twenty-first Con- 
 gress, second session, Vol. II 
 
 Cherokees memorialize as to removal and spoliations. House Ex. Doc. Xo. 
 45, Twenty-second Congress, first session. Vol. II 
 
 Message on removal: Secretary of War's Report. House Ex. Doc. Xo. 116, 
 Twenty-second Congress, first session, Vol. IV 
 
 Messageof President Jackson; money expended in removal. House Ex. 
 Doc. Xo. 171, Twenty-second Congress, first session, Vol. IV 
 
 Report on expense of treaty with Cherokees. by Secretary Cass. House Ex. 
 Doc. Xo. 181, Twenty-second Congress, first session. Vol. IV 
 
 Cherokee memorial to Congress asking protection against Georgia. Senate 
 Doc. Xo. 386, Twenty-third Congress, first session, Vol. V 
 
 Indian Commissioner recommends that President ascertain on what term a 
 Cherokee claim to lands in Georgia can be extinguished. Senate Doc. 
 Xo. 465, Twenty-third Congress, first session. Vol. VI 
 
 Cherokee memorial to Congress praying protection. Senate Doc. Xo. 486, 
 Twenty-third Congress, first session, vol. VI 
 
 Indians ^Secretary of War relative to condition, and removal. Senate Doc. 
 Xo. 1, Twenty-fourth Congress, first session, Vol. I 
 
 Documents on emigration of Indians. Senate Doc. Xo. 512, Twenty-third 
 Congress, first session, Vols. VII, VIII, IX, X, XI 
 
 Abstract of expenditure on account of removal and subsistence. House 
 Doc. Xo. 286, Twenty-fourth Congress, first session, Vol. VII. (Ridge 
 & Schermerhorn tre'aty) 
 
 Commissioner of Indian Affairs: emigration. Senate Doc. Xo. 1, Twenty- 
 fourth Congress, first session, Vol. I 
 
 Indian Commissioner recommends exchange Indian lands east for land 
 west, .ind removal. Senate Doc. Xo. 246, Twenty-fourth Congress, first 
 session, Vol. Ill .* 
 
 Cherokee memorial, praying Congress to secure just iee from Tinted States 
 and pay interest due them. Senate Doc. Xo. 340, Twenty-fourth Con- 
 gress, first session, Vol. V 
 
 121 
 4271 
 
 414 
 
 : 12 
 
MEMORIAL OF EASTERN OE EMIGRANT CHEROKEE-. 
 Documents on emigrant Cherokee claim — Continued. 
 
 57 
 
 Page. 
 
 No. on 
 Poore's 
 index. 
 
 Date. 
 
 316 
 317 
 313 
 
 6, 3. 36 
 6, 16, 36 
 6, 22, 36 
 
 319 
 
 6, 28, 36 
 
 338 
 
 12, 15, 37 
 
 344 
 
 1, 8, 38 
 
 345 
 
 1, 12, 38 
 
 347 
 
 1, 22, 3& 
 
 353 
 
 2, 22, 38 
 
 359 
 
 4, 9, 38 
 
 360 
 
 4. 9, 38 
 
 360 
 
 4, 11,38 
 
 361 
 
 4, 19. 38 
 
 361 
 
 4, 19,38 
 
 361 
 
 4, 25, 38 
 
 361 
 
 5, 3, 38 
 
 361 
 
 5, 3, 38 
 
 364 
 
 5.21,38 
 
 364 
 
 5,21,38 
 
 364 
 
 5,21,38 
 
 364 
 
 5, 25, 38 
 
 364 
 
 5, 25, 38 
 
 365 
 
 5, 31, 38 
 
 
 6, 1, 38 
 
 365 
 
 6, 5, 38 
 
 365 
 
 6. 5. 38 
 
 368 
 
 7, 3, 38 
 
 
 
 380 
 
 2, 6, 39 
 
 380 
 
 2, 6, 39 
 
 383 
 
 2, 23, 39 
 
 383 
 
 2, 25, 39 
 
 392 
 
 2, 38, 40 
 
 Secretary Cass on Indian treaties and amount needed to carry them out. 
 Ex. Doc. No. 282, Twenty-fourth Congress, first session. Vol. VII 
 
 Report of Secretary Cass ; Cherokee emigration. Senate Ex. Doc. No. 403, 
 Twenty-fourth Congress, first session. Vol. V 
 
 Memorial of Cherokee Nation denounces treaty of 1835 false and fraud- 
 ulent. Ex. Doc. No. 286. Twentv-fourth Congress, first session, Vol. 
 
 vii : 
 
 Report relative to treaty of 1835 ; by Lewis Cass. Ex. Doe. No. 290, Twenty- 
 fourth Congress, first session, Vol. VII 
 
 Memorial of Cherokee Nation, protesting against pretended treaty of 
 1835. Ex. Doc. No. 99. Twenty-fifth Congress, second session, Vol. V 
 
 Secretary Poinsett; Cherokee emigration. Senate Ex. Doc. No. 82, 
 Twenty-fifth Congress, second session, Vol. V 
 
 Secretary of War Poinsett transmits reports and correspondence relative 
 to Cherokee treaty of 1835 
 
 Indians; providing* for their removal. Senate Doc. No. 416, Twenty-fifth 
 Congress, Vol. V * 
 
 Documents relating to validity of Cherokee treaty of 1835. Senate Doc. 
 No. 121, Twenty-fifth Congress, second session, Vol. II 
 
 Indians; memorial of Cherokees in behalf of Seminoles. Senate Doc. No. 
 285, Twenty-fifth Congress, second session, Vol. VII 
 
 Memorial denying validity of treaty of 1835. Ex. Doc. No. 316, Twenty- 
 fifth Congress, second session, Vol. IX 
 
 Citizens of New Jersey protest against treaty of 1835 
 
 Vearly meeting of Friends protest against treaty of 1835 
 
 Citizens of Burlington protest against treaty of 1835 
 
 Citizens of Pennsylvania protest against treaty of 1835 
 
 do 
 
 Citizens of Xew Jersey protest against treaty of 1835 
 
 Legislature of Massachusetts protests against treaty of 1835 
 
 Citizens of Xew Jersey protest against treaty of 1835 
 
 Vermont protests against treaty of 1835 
 
 Ohio protests against treaty of *1835 
 
 Pennsylvania protests against treaty of 1835 
 
 President Van Buren transmits copy of letter of Secretary of VTar to 
 Cberokee delegation relative to their removal. Ex. Doc. No. 376, 
 Twenty-fifth Congress, second session. Vol. X 
 
 Secretary of "War Poinsett estimates for funds for additional allowance to 
 emigrate Cherokees. Ex. Docs. Xos. 401 and 410, Twenty-fifth Congress, 
 second session, Vol. X 
 
 Secretary Poinsett reports that Cherokee delegation has agreed to coope- 
 rate in removal of Cherokees. Senate Doc. No. 461, Twenty-fifth Con- 
 gress, second session, Vol. V 
 
 Indians; report of Secretary of War relative to appropriation for benefit of 
 Cherokees. Senate Doc. No. 466, Twentv-fifth Congress, second session, 
 Vol. V 
 
 Pavment to Cherokees on account of improvements and spoliations. Ex. 
 Doc. No. 410. Twenty-fifth Congress, second session, Vol. X 
 
 Secretary of War explains to General Scott arrangements made with John 
 Boss. House Doc. Xo. 253, Twenty-fifth Congress, second session, Vol. II. 
 
 Indians, Cherokees; in relation to the number remaining east of Missis- 
 sippi. Ex. Doc. No. 82, Twenty-fifth Congresss, second session. Vol. VIII. 
 
 Indian Committee recommend appropriation to Cherokees to hasten their 
 removal (Senator White). Senate Doc. No. 464, Twenty-fifth Congress, 
 second session. Vol. V 
 
 Indians : George Duvall and others: Cherokee claims for property, with list 
 of claims. Report of committee, 824, Twentv-fifth Congress, second ses- 
 sion, voi. iv.: 
 
 President Van Buren transmits correspondence with governor of Georgia 
 as to modification of Cherokee treaty of 1836. Ex. Doc. No. 421, Twenty- 
 fifth Congress, second session. Vol. X 
 
 Secretary Poiusett transmits correspondence on Cherokee removal. Ex. | 
 Doc. Xo. 453, Twenty-fifth Congress, second session, Vol.- XI 
 
 Indians who have emigrated. Senate Doc. No. 88, Twenty-fifth Congress, 
 third session. Vol. II 
 
 Indians, representing removal of. Ex. Doc. No. 2, Twenty-fifth Congress, 
 third session. Vol, I 
 
 Indians, Cherokee: pay to guard accompanying emigrating. Ex. Doc. No. 
 61, Twenty-fifth Congress, third session, Vol. Ill 
 
 Expense in negotiating treaty of 1835. Senate Doc. No. 199, Twenty-fifth 
 Congress, third session. Vol. II 
 
 Expense, etc., of commissions on claims under treaty of 1835. Senate Doc. 
 No. 198, Twenty-fifth Congress, third session, Vol". VII 
 
 Number and condition of Cherokees in North Carolina. Ex. Doc. No. 224, 
 Twenty-fifth Congress, third session, Vol. V 
 
 Execution of treaty of 1835; persons employed, interest, compensation, 
 property, relation, etc 
 
 Memorial of Cherokees praying justice. House Doc. No. 129, Twenty-sixth 
 Congress, first session, Vol. Ill - 
 
 Cherokee Indians ; documents and correspondence x-elating to emigration, 
 etc. Senate Doc. No. 1, Twenty-sixth Congress, first session, Vol. I 
 
 36 
 376 
 
 167 
 1 
 49 
 13 
 1090 
 1 
 43 
 
 100 
 117 
 
 349 
 
58 
 
 MEMORIAL OF EASTERN OR EMIGRANT CHEROKEES. 
 Documents on emigrant Cherokee claim — Continued. 
 
 No. on 
 Poore's 
 index. 
 
 Date. 
 
 2, 38, 40 
 
 Page. 
 
 3, 2, 40 
 3, 24, 40 
 4, 20, 40 
 3, 24, 42 
 
 6, 1, 42 
 
 7, 29, 42 
 
 8, 27, 42 
 1, 23, 43 
 
 1, 31, 43 
 
 3, 2, 43 
 3, 14, 44 
 3, 30, 44 
 
 3, 30, 44 
 4, 13, 44 
 1,1,45 
 
 1, 9, 45 
 
 2, 22, 45 
 
 4, 13,46 
 
 4, 13, 46 
 4, 18, 46 
 4, 30, 46 
 6, 2, 46 
 6, 16, 46 
 
 2, 17, 47 
 
 Indians; documents and correspondence relating to emigration, etc. Sen- 
 ate Doc. No. 1, Twenty-sixth Congress, first session, Vol. I 
 
 Memorial of Cherokee Nation, West. Ex. Doc. No. 162, Twenty-sixth Con- 
 gress, first session, Vol. IV 
 
 Indians, emigrating, pay guard to. Ex. Doc. No. 165, Twenty-sixth Con- 
 gress, first session, Vol. IV 
 
 Cherokee, interference of officers with, in formation of government. Ex. 
 Doc. No. 188, Twenty-sixth Congress, first session, Vol. IV 
 
 Indian department, Cherokee disturbances. Ex. Doc. No. 2, Twenty-sixth 
 Congress, second session, Vol. I 
 
 Secretary Poinsett ; report on Ridge and Boudinot difficulties. Senate Doc. 
 No. 347, Twenty-sixth Congress, first session, Vol. VI 
 
 Poinsett recommends appropriation to move Indians from Fort Wayne. 
 Senate Doc. No. 320, Twenty-sixth Congress, first session, Vol. VI 
 
 John Ross; memorial as to discussion between East and West Cherokees. 
 House Doc. No. 222, Twenty-sixth Congress, first session. Vol. VI 
 
 Senator J. T. Morehead ; report on Cherokee Indians. Senate Doc. No. 200, 
 Twenty-seventh Congress, second session, Vol. Ill ' 
 
 Letter of Secretary J. C. Spencer as to Cherokee affairs. House Doc. No. 
 237, Twenty-seventh Congress, second session, Vol. VI ., 
 
 M. A. Cooper (M. C.) ; report on Cherokee Indians. Demands of President 
 information. House Report No. 960, Twenty -seventh Congress, second 
 session, Vol. V 
 
 House Report No. 1098, Twenty-seventh Congress, second session, Vol. 
 V, on removal; very important 
 
 Memorial of Cherokees asking adjudication of claims under treaty of 1836. 
 D. Taylor, P. F. Morris, J. K. Rogers. House Doc. No. 93, Twenty- 
 seventh Congress, third session, Vol. Ill 
 
 Message of President Tyler on Cherokee claims Commissioner's instructions 
 and estimates. House Doc. No. 110, Twenty-seventh Congress, third ses- 
 sion, Vol. IV '. 
 
 House Report No. 288, Twenty-seventh Congress, third session, Vol. IV, 
 on removal; very important 
 
 Report of Secretary William Wilkins on condition of Cherokees. Senate 
 Doc. No. 229, Twenty-eighth Congress, first session, Vol. IV 
 
 Majority and minority reports on Cherokee claims (C.Johnson). House 
 Report No. 391, part 1, Twenty-eighth Congress, first session, Vol. II 
 
 Resolutions relative to land upon which Fort Cedar Bluff is located. Ex. 
 Doc. No. 130, Twenty-eighth Congress, second session, Vol. Ill 
 
 Memorial of Western Cherokees; Chief John Rogers gives history, etc. 
 House Doc. No. 235. Twenty-eighth Congress, first session, Vol V 
 
 Treaty party; memorial, with views of a, just settlement. House Doc. No. 
 234, Twenty-eighth Congress, first session, Vol. V 
 
 Cherokee memorial asking pay for property sold in North Carolina by 
 United States agents. Senate Doc. No. 90, Twenty-eighth Congress, 
 second session, Vol. Ill 
 
 Report of Secretary of War relative to removal and subsistence. Senate 
 Doc. No. 86, Twenty-eighth Congress, second session, Vol. Ill 
 
 Resolutions of North Carolina legislature asking immediate payment of 
 just claims of Cherokees 
 
 Cherokee Indians in North Carolina Ex. Doc. No. 106, Twenty-eighth 
 Congress, second session, Vol. Ill 
 
 Report of Secretary William Wilkins on Cherokee difficulties; complaint 
 of treaty party in not receiving per capita valid; recommends new 
 treaty; Cherokee -outrages; Secretary Of, War. Senate Doc. No. 140, 
 Twenty-Eighth Congress, first session. Vol. IV 
 
 Cherokee outrages. House Doc. No. 92, Twenty-ninth Congress, first ses- 
 sion, Vol. IV v 
 
 Report of Indian Commissioners on memorial of Preston Sterritt. Senate 
 Doc. No. 228, Twenty-ninth Congress, first session, Vol. V 
 
 President Polk's report on Cherokees: legislation needed; Army useless; 
 troubles very serious. House Doe. No. 185, Twenty-ninth Congress, first 
 session, Vol. VI 
 
 President Polk on Cherokee feuds. Senate Doc. No. 298, Twenty-ninth 
 Congress, first session, Vol. V 
 
 Commissioner of Indian Affairs Medill on Cherokee feuds. Senate Doc. 
 No. 301, Twenty-ninth Congress, first session, Vol. V 
 
 John Ross replies to President and Commissioner. Senate Doc. No. 331, 
 Twenty-ninth Congress, first session, Vol. VII 
 
 House Report No. (>8:>. T wenty-nint li Congress, first session, Vol. Ill, 
 recommends removal and subsistence of North Carolina Cherokees 
 
 .Memorial o1 North Carolina; Cherokees ask per capita as per articles 8-12, 
 treaty of in:;."). Senate Doe. No, 408. Twenty-ninth Congress, firs, t session.. 
 
 Report' Otl memorial of I'rcston Slarritt and otliers. Senate Doc. No. 185, 
 Twenty-ninth Congress, second session, Vol. Ill 
 
 Senator S. .larnigan's report on memorial of David Vann and William I*. 
 Ross. Senate Doc. No. 157, Twenty-ninth Congress, second session, Vol. 
 
 Ill 
 
 Report of K. T. Perry. Hx. Doc. No. 4, Twenty-ninth Congress, second ses- 
 sion, Vol. I 
 
 Repor t ofS. A. Worcester. Hx. Doc. No. 4, T went y-nint h Congress, second 
 session • 
 
 100 
 
 36 
 
 143 
 
 233 
 224 
 9 
 59 
 5 
 24 
 1 
 
 10 
 359 
 
MEMORIAL OF EASTERN OR EMIGRANT CHEROKEES. 
 Documents on emigrant Cherokee claim — Continued. 
 
 59 
 
 Xo. on 
 Poores 
 index. 
 
 535 
 
 Date. 
 
 1, 15,47 
 
 542 12, 21, 4- 
 
 559 
 560 
 561 
 567 
 
 570 
 
 575 
 
 576 
 577 
 
 593 
 
 871 
 910 
 
 5, 10, 48 
 5, 19, 48 
 6, 13, 48 
 12, 8, 48 
 
 1, 15, 49 
 3, 15, 49 
 
 i 12,37,49 
 ! 8,20,50 
 
 640 ; 3, 20, 54 
 
 656 
 657 
 
 1, 29, 68 
 3, 28, 70 
 
 Page. 
 
 Report of Commissioner of Indian Affairs; instruction to commissioner 
 under article 17, Cherokee treaty of 1835. Senate Doc. Xo. 113, Twenty- 
 ninth Congress, second session, Vol. Ill ... 20 
 
 Report of J. Hitchcock. Ex. Doc. No. 4, Twenty-ninth Congress, second i 
 session, Vol. I 361 
 
 Memorial; Cherokees ask redress account reservations, preemptions, and 
 indemnities, and spoliations. House Mis. Doc. Xo. 8, Thirtieth Congress, 
 hrst session 71 
 
 Report of J. McKisick, agent for Cherokees. Ex. Doc. Xo. 8, Thirtieth 
 Congress, first session, Vol. I 881 
 
 Secretary W. L. Marcy ; report of Commission on ( herokee Claims under 
 treaty 1835. House Ex. Doc. Xo. 63, Thirtieth Congress, hrst session, 
 Vol. VII 
 
 President Polk sends report of Commissioner of Indian Affairs W. Medill, | 
 stating settlement with Cherokees under treaty 1840. House Ex. Doc. 
 Xo.65, Thirtieth Congress, first session, Vol. VIII 
 
 Memorial of Cherokees; R. Taylor and R. B. Daniel protesting against set- | 
 tlement proposed hy Commissioner of Indian Affairs. Senate Mis. Doc. 
 Xo. 145, Thirtieth Congress, first session, Vol. I 
 
 Memorial of Judge Wind and others, asking payment to Cherokees. House 
 Mis. Doc. Xo. 40, Thirtieth Congress, third session, Vol. 1 2 
 
 Report of R. C. .Brown, agent for Cherokees. Ex. Doc. Xo. 1, Thirtieth 
 Congress, second session. Vol. I, p. 515 
 
 Report on Cherokee claims; Commissioners A. K. Parris and John M. 
 McCalla. Senate Ex. Doc. Xo. 12, Thirtieth Congress, second session, 
 Vol. I 4 
 
 Memorial of William P. Ross; claims Western Cherokees have heen de- 
 prived of certain rights. Senate Doc. Xo. 3, Thirtieth Congress, special 
 session 
 
 Detailed statement claims by Comptroller A. K. Parris, Second Auditor P. j 
 Clayton. Ex. Doc. Xo. 29,' Thirty-first Congress, first session, Vol. VII . . 3 
 
 Report on Cherokee claims by Comptroller Parris and Auditor McCalla. 
 Senate Doc. Xo. 6, Thirty-first Congress, first session, Vol VI, p. 4. (Same 
 as on index p. 570) ' 
 
 Senator Sebastian ; report on subsistence and interest, August 8. 1850. Sen- 
 ate Report Xo. 176, Thirty-tirst Congress, first session, Vol. 1 10 
 
 Senate Document Indian Affairs in relation to claims against Western | 
 Cherokee Indians. Senate Doc. Xo. 32, Thirty-second Congress, first 
 session. Vol. VII, p. 1 
 
 Report of Geo. Butler, Cherokee Agency. Ex. Doc. Xo. 2, Thirty-second | 
 Congress, second session. Vol. II, p. 379 
 
 Report on Xorth Carolina Cherokees, claiming money under 1835, 1846: 1 
 favorable. House Report 2S'o. 122, Thirty-third Congress, first session, 
 Vol. II, p. 13 
 
 Cherokees. east and west of Mississippi River; letter from the Secretary of 
 War relative to an appropriation. Ex. Doc. Xo. 85, Thirty-third Con- 
 gress, first session, Vol. X i 
 
 Commissioner G. W. Many penny ; Cherokee per capita claim under treaty 
 of 1835-1846. House Mis. Doc. Xo. 16, Thirty-third Congress, second j 
 session, Vol. I : 3 
 
 President Pierce sends letter of Secretary of Interior for payment of 
 interest due Cherokees. Senate Ex. Doc. "Xo. 29, Thirty-third Congress, 
 second session, Vol. VI 
 
 Cherokee Indians, execution of the law giving pensions to; Senate Doc. | 
 Xo. 95, Thirty -fourth Congress, first session, Vol. I I 
 
 Cherokee courts; correspondence relative to conflict of jurisdiction between 
 the Federal and. Ex. Doc. Xo. 113, Thirtv-fourth Congress, first session, 
 Vol. XII 
 
 Cherokee neutral lands. House Ex. Doc. Xo. 132, Fortieth Congress, second i 
 session, Vol. XI 
 
 Cherokee, treaty pending and land west. Senate Mis. Doc. Xo. 98, Forty- j 
 first Congress, second session 100 
 
 o