Untitled - the Digital Library of Georgia

530 GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS
extinguish the Indian claims to all lands within our territorial limits;
and (2) commanding instructions to her agents, whoever they, may be,
that what of right ought to be done, shall be done."
In due time a memorial was sent to Washington by the Georgia
Legislature urging immediate action.
Things were beginning to look serious. Realizing that blood earnest
ness characterized these Georgia demands, all of which were grounded
upon solemn pledges made by the Government in the compact of 1802,
an effort was made by the Federal authorities in 1824 to obtain another
cession of land from the Creeks, but these Indians refused to cede an
other foot of land within the borders of Georgia. Big "Warrior, the chief
of the Creek Nation, remained obdurate, stating that his people had
already been too easily persuaded. He also informed the Government
that at a great council of the Creek Nation held at Broken Arrow, in
Alabama, it had been decided to hold no more treaties with the whites.
Meanwhile, the Cherokees in the upper part of the state finding the
Troup administration bent upon bringing the Government to terms, like
wise began to take alarm. The Cherokees were well advanced in the arts
of civilized life, including even manufactures.
As we shall see later, they possessed a written alphabet and not a
few of them owned slaves. There were several strong leaders among the
Cherokees, gifted with rare powers of eloquence, if not with a genius for
statecraft. To protest in advance against any line of policy unjust to
the Cherokees, these Indians sent a delegation to Washington composed
of the following half-breeds, all of them men of talent: John Ross,
George Lowrey, Major Ridge, and Elijah Hicks. These commissioners,
on April 16, 1824, addressed a strong communication to the Senate of
the United States. It ran as follows:
"Communicated to the Senate, April 16, 1824.
'' To the Senate of the United States in Congress assembled:
"We, the undersigned delegation from the Cherokee Nation, now on
a visit at the seat of Government of the United States, on matters of vast
import, as will appear by the President's message of the 30th of March
last, and its accompanying documents, humbly beg leave to submit before,
your honorable body a few remarks, which we are bound (as we believe)
to make, under a sense of duty to our nation, as well as to ourselves.
It is with unfeigned regret and pain we discover the sentiments which
are expressed by the Governor of Georgia, in his letter to the Secretary
of War of the 28th of February last; and, also, those expressed by the
Georgia delegation in Congress to the President of the United States, on
the 10th of March last. We cannot but view the design of those letters
as an attempt, bordering on a hostile disposition towards the Cherokee
nation, to wrest from them, by arbitrary means, their just rights and
liberties, the security of which is solemnly guarantied to them by these
United States. As you have a full view of the subject before your hon
orable body, it is not our purpose to be superfluous; therefore, we will
take occasion to assert, under the fullest authority, that all the senti
ments expressed in relation to the disposition and determination of the
nation.never again to cede another foot of land, are positively the pro
duction and voice of the nation; and what has been uttered by us, in