Arkansas. by the Treaty of 1828, Those Remaining Behind, in the State of Georgia, Were Guaranteed the Quiet and Undisturbed Possession of That Country Forever

Arkansas. By the treaty of 1828, those remaining behind, in the State of Georgia, were guaranteed the quiet and undisturbed possession of that country forever. But the restless and aggressive white man pressed upon them, and the State of Georgia, insisted upon the boundaries embraced in the royal charter, extended her laws and jurisdiction over this people. Then arose the memorable conflict between the State of Georgia and the Cherokee Nation, involving the general government in complications from which it sought to extricate itself by the treaty of 1835. An earnest appeal was made to Page 209 the eastern Cherokees to cede all their lands and remove west of the Mississippi. They hesitated long. Here were the graves of their sires; here were their homes and their hunting grounds. Every hill and valley, rivulet and glen, had its tradition and told of deeds of daring and renown. Here were their affections; this was their home. But the white man still pressed, and the demands of the government were urgent; arguments and considerations were used which only the rich and powerful can use, and terms were accepted which only the weak and defenseless can accept. A majority of the eastern Cherokees refused to treat; a minority, however, seeing their hapless condition east of the Mississippi—State law and State jurisdiction invading their territory at every point, and strongly urged by the general government, accompanied with the most sacred pledges of protection, entered into the treaty of New Echota, 1835, and, ceding their lands east, removed west of the Mississippi. These confiding men who made this treaty, and their adherents, are the same men who, with their wives and children, shivering in the cold, are now hovering on the borders of the Cherokee Nation, without shelter and without a home. Among the signers of this treaty will be found the names of Elias Boudinot, George W. Adair and Stand Watie. These men, after the lapse of thirty years, are here again before the government, insisting upon the observance of that faith and the assurance of that protection so solemnly guaranteed in the treaty. The last is here in person: the former two are represented here by their sons, Elias C. Boudinot and William Penn Adair. They made this treaty in pursuance of the (50) urgent wishes of the government. The non-treaty-making party were the most numerous. Here is the initial point of the deadly fueds and hatred between the treaty and non-treaty parties, which have continued from 1835 down to the present time without surcease or intermission, resulting in rapine, murder, assassination, and the steady decline in num bers of this people. No intelligent man who has lived on the frontier for the last quarter of a century can but be impressed with the utter impracticability of these contending factions ever living together in peace. The efforts of their principal men, by the treaty of 1846, to allay the deadly strife, proved utterly futile. Murder and assassination followed upon its heel and showed that the implacable spirit engendered by the treaty of 1835 was in- Page 210 ground in the people, and that no efforts of their chiefs could allay it. The reports of every superintendent, agent and commissioner upon the Cherokee people, now on file in your office, demonstrate this. .

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