"Cherokee Wrongs"
 
 

The Friend

Vol. XI. 1838

A Religious and Literary Journal

Edited By Robert Smith

No.50, North Fourth Street,upstairs,

Philadelphia

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"Cherokee Wrongs"

This, to the dishonour of our country, is an old story, so often repeated that some, perhaps, will have no inclination to hear it again, and at the sight of an article with such a title as this will turn away for something that has the charm of novelty to recommend it. Others of us, who esteem ourselves wiser, may turn away under a feeling of discouragement. All the efforts heretofore made in the cause of the poor Indian seem to have availed little or nothing, and we may have nearly come to the conclusion that he is doomed by an inexorable decree to destruction, and therefore it is useless to disturb ourselves about sorrows and injuries for which we can devise no remedy, but are we right in yielding to such feelings? The Cherokees themselves, notwithstanding all the past, and the gloomy prospect before them, have not yet abandoned hope. Then why should we? In their affecting remonstrance addressed to congress, at its last session, they say, "We are indeed an afflicted people! Our spirits are subdued! Despair has well nigh seized upon our energies! But we speak to the representatives of a Christian country; the friends of justice; the patrons of the oppressed: and our hopes revive, and our prospects brighten as we indulge the thought." Shall we not respond to this hope, at least by the expression of our sympathy, and by the manifestation of some little interest on their behalf? Would that we could cheer them with something more substantial!

An important crisis is fast approaching in the affairs of this persecuted people. The pretended treaty of New Echota is to take effect in a little more than four months from this time; when, unless the national legislature can be aroused to a sense of justice, and interpose to protect them, they will, in the words of General Wool, "be forced from their country by the soldiers of the United States!" This is the language of an authorized agent of our government, acting under the instructions of our president. Hear him farther: "Under such circumstances what will be your condition? Deplorable in the extreme! Instead of the benefits now presented to you by the treaty, of receiving pay for the improvements of your lands, your houses, your cornfields, and your ferries, and for all the property unjustly taken from you by the white people, and at the same time, blankets, clothing and provisions for the poor, you will be driven from the country, and without a cent to support you on your arrival at your new homes. You will in vein flee to your mountains for protection. Like the Creek you will be hunted up and dragged from your lurking places, and hurried to the west!"

Did ever language more brutal proceed from the agents of despotism in the darkest ages of the world? This ferocious address was intended to scare the Cherokees into compliance with a spurious treaty, made with unauthorised individuals--a faction, consisting of less than one hundred persons, whom it was thus attempted to vest with power to bargin away, without, and in direct opposition to, the expressed will of their fellow countrymen, all the elements of their welfare. And this is the act of a government whose boast is, that it is founded on the principle of the greatest good of the greatest number.

It is with a view of exciting the public attention, and especially that our representatives at Washington, to this subject, that the following deeply interesting letter of John Ross, head chief of the Cherokees, to a personal friend in this city, has been lately published. To aid in the circulation of the painful and shameful facts detailed therein, it is proposed to give it an insertion in "The Friend."

The individual addressed justly remarks, in relation to this letter, "The temper of this epistle, will commend it to the kind consideration of every calm and dispassionate mind, whilst its facts and reasonings must carry conviction to all readers. It is a skilful and comprehensive survey of the whole Cherokee question, and unfolds in cool language, a course of conduct which makes the patriotic cheek burn with shame, and the patriotic heart glow with indignation. May its persual produce the proper effect in the proper quarter, and induce those elevated measures which policy, humanity, and honour, concur to recommend."

To the letter are appended copies of various documents vouching for the correctness of the assertions contained in it, and entering more fully into the details of some circumstances. Among the rest are the tardy reply of the secretary of war to the repeated and respectful applications of the Cherokee delegation, for the poor privilege of an interview with himself and with President Jackson; their dignified rejoinder, and the final refusal of secretary Butler, as follows:--

"War Department, Feb.24th, 1837.

"Gentlemen--In answer to your letters of the 13th and 22nd instant, I have the honour to inform you, that, as the president does not recognise you in any such official character as that, described in your communications, no interview can be had with you in that character, either by him or by the department.

"Should you think proper, as individuals, to call at the department it will give me pleasure to meet you, and any suggestions you may make, in that character, and which it may be proper for the department to consider, will receive due consideration.

"Very respectfully, &c.

"To Messrs. John Ross, John Looney, and others, Washington City."

On the 28th the delegation reply--

"We had the honour, yesterday, to receive your communication under date of the 24th instant.

"We are filled with surprise at learning that, as the president does not recognise us in the official character described in our communications, an interview with us is declined by the executive. From the earliest periods of our mutual history, the Cherokee nation has been accustomed to transact its business with the government of the United States through the medium of delegations. Some of us have long been known to the executive as having constituted parts of those delegations, and this is the first instance in which such an interview as was asked has been denied.

"We are utterly unable ourselves to conjecture, and shall be equally at a loss to inform our nation, upon our return, what has led to this determination of the president. It must surely originate in some misapprehension on the one side or the other. **

"May we,therefore, hope that you will be pleased to apprise us of the objections which exist to our recognition, that if any misapprehension as to facts exists, it may be rectified; if any irregularity, on our side, has been commited, it may be cured; and that we may be enabled to inform our people, on our return, of the true nature and extent of the difficulties which intercept their accustomed friendly intercourse with the president.

"Your last suggestion of a disposition to see us at the department, in our individual character, has been considered. Our nation has protested against the interference of unauthorised individuals between them and the government of the United States. They regard this as the fruitful source of the evils under which they now suffer; and guided by their instructions, and anxious to conform to their wishes, we are compelled, reluctantly, to decline any other than an official interview with the department."

The secretary delayed his answer till the 11th of the succeeding month, and then furnished the deligation with a most extraordinary reason for refusing them an interview. He says:-

"The claim to the official authority described in your letters, when taken in connection with the fact, that some of your number have denied the fairness and validity of the late treaty, and have taken measures to defeat its execution, made it improper, in the judgement of the president, to recognise you in such character, unless he was willing to re-open the discussions settled by the treaty.

* * * I forbear to enlarge on topics, the discussion of which cannot be productive of any good; and will, therefore, merely repeat the assurance, that any suggestion you may have ocassion to make, as individuals, or any business you may be authorised to transact, consistently with the treaty stipulations existing between the United States and the Cherokee people, will receive a prompt and liberal consideration."

On the accession of the present chief magistrate of the Union, the delegation renewed the attempt to open a negotiation which the executive by an appeal which one would suppose no man having human feelings could have resisted.

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" To the President of the United States.

"Sir-The people constituting the Cherokee nation, beg leave to congratulate you on your accession to the lofty and dignified situation which you have been called upon, by your countrymen, to fill. That this event may prove, under the blessing of Providence, equally beneficial to those over whom you now preside, as honourable to the individual on whom so valued a trust has been reposed, is our most earnest and sincere prayer.

"Among those who have been placed under your protecting influences, may we not be permitted to number ourselves, and may we not be allowed, after the manner of our fathers, to address the president of the Union, as their guardian and their friend, as holding in his hands the equal scales of justice, and the power to enforce his decisions?

"It is in this character that the Cherokee nation venture to approach the executive, to ask for a hearing; that their claims may be investigated, and that such measure of justice be meted to them as shall appear to be due. Beyond this they have nothing to ask; within these limits they will not indulge an apprehension that they shall meet with a refusal.

"The undersigned have been, in full council of the nation, appointed a delegation to confer with the executive; they are clothed with powers to open negotiations, and to ajust, upon the most liberal terms, all the subjects in which the United States take an interest.

"The government has been apprised, in part, of the insuperable objections to the acknowledgement, by the nation, of the (so called) treaty, submitted to the senate for its ratification in 1836. If you will listen to us we will briefly refer to some of them; and we beg your excellency to understand us, in this matter, as speaking what we believe to be the feeling and language of more than nine tenths of our nation." After detailing particulars which will be found in the letter, the delegation proceed:-

"We aver that the Cherokee nation never authorised its formation. In all negotiations with ourselves, and we believe with every other Indian nation, the government of the United States have conducted them with the regularly authorised agents of the other party. The internal arrangements of our nation, by which certain persons are clothed with power to represent and act for the whole, have been long known and constantly recognised. No government has ever claimed the right to pass by the regular representatives of another people, to carry on negotiations with any who may claim, without exhibiting full authority from those whom they profess to represent and whom they undertake to bind.

"In this instance, those who were regularly invested with this authority were at Washington. The initatory steps had been taken to commence negotiations. Were the powers which had been given, and which were then in the act of being exercised, ever revoked or suspended? We have never heard of any such proceeding. All that we have heard, and all that we have seen, negatives such an idea. The letter from Mr. Secretary Cass, of January 16, 1836, which announces to us that Mr. Schermerhorn had reported the formation of the treaty, is addressed to us in our official character. The letter of 13th February apprises us, for the first time, that this official character cannot be recognised. If the proceedings at New Echota were not,in fact, the authoritative proceedings of the nation , they must be regarded as inadequate to operate a cancellation of our powers.

"Admitting, however, for a moment, that these proceedings were regular, the parties who came on as delegates under the council at New Echota, on the 6th February, 1836, address a letter to the Cherokee delegation now in Washington City, in which they speak of your constituents at home, and in which they assure us that in doing what the people have done at New Echota, it was with no view of laying any obstacles in your way. In a subsequent passage they say, "we assure you of the heartfelt satisfaction it would give us, and certainly our constituents, if you have settled, or can settle, our difficulties with the government by a treaty." Still further, "We are instructed, in case that you have not already made, or are able to make, a better; and they conclude with a proffer of any assistance in their power, to those whom they address.

"It would be difficult to gather from this communication, the fact, "that our constituents," had revoked the powers which had been previouly given.

"The letter of E.Herring, of February 13, 1836 which first informs us that our official character is denied, places such denial upon the single ground of our having come on to Washington, after being notified by the president that a deligation would not be received in Washington. * * To us,not very conversant with such matters, it wore the appearance of singularity that, notwithstan>

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