The New-Yorker. March 31, 1838
From the National Gazette.
THE INDIANS.
We have received, from a private source, a manuscript copy of a memorial which has already been or will be presented to Congress in the course of the week, from the Cherokee Nation of Indians. It is so powerful a paper, and so finely[/feelingly] depicts the crying injustice and flagrant hardship of the case in question, that we hasten to publish it for the information of our readers. The memorial is signed by fifteen thousand six hundred and sixty-five persons, comprising the entire population of the Cherokee Nation. If better evidence can be required of the perfidy of the government agents, in calling the instrument of New Echota a treaty, we are at a loss to conceive what kind of testimony would be deemed satisfactory. It will be recollected that immediately after the concoction of that instrument, the Cherokee Nation, both individually and through its authorized representatives, protested against its ratification. The protest alleged that it was not the act of the Cherokee community, and that they had not been consulted; but that it was the work of a very few (about sixty or seventy) unauthorized persons of bad character, who were assembled to partake of a feast which had been provided by Mr. Schermerhorn, the United States' Commissioner. In the face of this protest, which was signed by nearly fourteen thousand persons, (nearly the whole nation,) the Senate, without inquiry, established the paper, by a formal vote, to be a valid contract—a binding treaty.
General Wool, who afterwards visited the nation on behalf of the United States, returned to Washington with a most perfect conviction, the expression of which he did not suppress, that the New Echota treaty had always been without and against the consent of the Cherokees. At the present session of Congress, an effort was made to institute an inquiry into the facts connected with the execution of the New Echota instrument, but inquiry was stifled by an indefinite postponement of the whole question. The paper, therefore, to all legal purposes, subsists as a treaty, under the provisions of which the Cherokees will be driven, in June next, from a cultivated and comfortable home, to a sickly wilderness, in the midst of savage tribes. In their memorial, they make a last appeal for protection, still trusting that faith, justice and magnanimity are virtues not utterly extinguished in the American Councils. Ought not this appeal to be seconded by a memorial from Philadelphia, expressing the sorrow, humiliation and shame which persistence in so unjust and unrighteous a policy cannot fail to inflict and awaken? As the inheritors of the principles of William Penn, Philadelphia cannot be silent in an emergency involving all that is precious and honorable in the national character.
——
MEMORIAL OF THE CHEROKEE NATION.
To the honorable the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States, in Congress assembled, most humbly and 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 Cherokees, to be a violation of the fundamental principles of justice, and an outrage on the primary rules of national intercourse, as well as the known laws and usages of the Cherokee nation, and therefore to be destitute of any binding force on us;
And, whereas, at a general council of the nation, held at Red Clay, in September, 1836, 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 subject 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 resolutions of the preceding council, in reference to that compact, were re-affirmed, 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 state of the matter, and of the real sentiments of the Cherokee people.
We therefore cherished the confident hope that he would deem it right to 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 government 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 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 U. States agency, addressed to the Chiefs, head men 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 President to execute the treaty—the time cannot possibly be prolonged—another day, beyond the time named, cannot 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—cannot fail to fill our minds with consternation and surprise. What have we done to merit such severe treatment? What is our crime? Have we invaded any one's rights? Have we violated any article of our numerous treaties? Have we in any manner acted in bad faith? We are 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 themselves to be your worst enemies.” But what is our “dangerous error”? What is our “delusion”? Is it delusion to be sensible of the wrongs we suffer? 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 cannot be. Is it a “delusion” to assert that the makers of this ill-omened compact were destitute of authority? This fact we are prepared to prove by incontestible evidence.
Indeed, it is virtually admitted by the parties themselves; 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 confidence 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 injunctions, 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!
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 indescribable evils which are designed to be inflicted on us? Is our country to be made the scene of the “horrors” which the Commissioners “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 acknowledge 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—relying on the righteousness of our cause, and the justice and magnanimity of the tribunal to which we appeal—we do solemnly and earnestly protest against that spurious instrument; and we do hereby, also, respectfully re-affirm, as a part of this our memorial, the resolutions and accompanying memorials of the two last general councils of the nation, held at Red Clay. Our minds remain unaltered. We can never 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 our 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 by 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 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.
Cherokee Nation, February 22, 1838.
[Signed by fifteen thousand six hundred and sixty-five of the Cherokee people, as will appear by referring to the original submitted to the Senate by the Cherokee Delegation.]
Vermont Telegraph. April 4, 1838
THE INDIANS.—The Seminole campaign, it appears, is to end about the time the Cherokee war will begin. It is very much doubted whether the Cherokees will agree to suffer the treaty of New-Echota to be enforced, obtained as they say it was, by fraud, and attended with hardship and oppression. A remonstrance signed by fourteen thousand of the Cherokees against the treaty has lately, it is said, come in. The treaty was ratified by the Senate, by a majority of one vote. No relief can be afforded, except by means of a new treaty. The Cherokees will agree to the emigration beyond the Mississippi, on certain conditions,—one of which is that they shall manage their own removal. The practice has generally been to remove them, by contract, and the contractors, looking only to their gains, are very careless of the comfort and health of the Indians. They blow them up in steamboats; keep them in a state of starvation; drive them, without shoes or blankets, during inclement seasons, through long marches in the wilderness; and abandon the feeble, the aged, the young, the weary, and the sick, to perish by the way side. The Cherokees know all this, and, if they consent to the execution of the treaty, they know that scarcely half of them will reach their destination beyond the Mississippi.
The Seminoles are aware of the same thing, after the proofs they have had of the degree of confidence to be reposed in American faith, and even in the faith of our general officers. They have, they say, lost only forty men, in battle, since the war commenced; and their places have been filled by warriors who have since grown up. But, in emigration, they would lose half their nation.
THE CHEROKEES.—A pretended treaty has been made with these civilized sons of the forest, by which they are to give up their lands, and to remove west of the Mississippi. This treaty has been from the first opposed by the great body of the nation, as in opposition to their wishes, and never having been authorized by them. Their principal objection is, that the treaty provides for their removal by the whites; and their wish is, if they move at all, to do it themselves, and not be exposed to the tortures and even death from those who would make the most money out of the expedition, as was lately the case of 200 who were sunk in a steamboat. Their wishes should be yielded in this respect, as they are as civilized as their neighbors of Georgia, and as well able to superintend their own removal. It appears from the following paragraph, that the government is determined to make them submit to their arbitrary requirements. Such treatment can no more be justified by the laws of God and humanity, than the aggressive wars of Alexander and Bonaparte. The motto is, “Might makes right.” The Raleigh Register says—N. E. Spectator.
“We entertain serious fears that much difficulty is about to be experienced, in carrying into execution the treaty with the Cherokee Indians, which provides for their removal beyond the Mississippi. We have a considerable body of them, it is known, in the South-western part of North-Carolina, and so alarming are the indications of hostility among them, that the general government has made a requisition upon the executive of the State, for a force of volunteer infantry. The adjutant general has, accordingly, by direction of Gov. Dudley, issued orders to the proper commanding officers, to call out their respective regiments, with a view to the immediate organization, if practicable, of one or more volunteer companies, in each.”
