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GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS 559
Superior Court of Gwinnett County, where their writ was passed upon
by Judge Clayton. Counsel pleaded for their release on the ground of
the unconstitutionality of the law of Georgia. The Judge granted their
release, but did so'on the ground that they were agents of the United
States, since they were expending the United States, fund for civilizing
the Indians. Governor Gilmer then sent inquiries to Washington to
learn whether the missionaries were recognized as agents of the Gov
ernment. The reply was received that as missionaries they were not
governmental agents, hut that Mr. Worcester was United States post
master at New Echota. President Jackson, upon request from Georgia,
removed Mr. Worcester from that office, in order to render him amen
able to the laws of the state. The Cherokee Phoenix, the newspaper
and organ. of the nation, expressed outraged feelings on the part of
the Indians at the combination of State and Federal Executives against
them.
"The Governor wrote Mr. Worcester, May 16, advising his removal
from the State to avoid arrest. May 28, Colonel J. W. A. Sanford,
commander of the Georgia Guard, wrote each of the missionaries that
at the end of ten days he would arrest them if found upon" Cherokee
territory in Georgia. Notwithstanding their address to the Governor
in justification of their conduct, they were arrested by the guard, the
Rev. Samuel A. Worcester, the Rev. Elizur Butler, and the Rev. James
Trott, missionaries, and eight other white men, for illegal residence in
the territory. Tried at the September term of the Superior Court of
Gwinnett County, they were found guilty and, on September 15, were
each sentenced to four years confinement at hard labor in the State
penitentiary. But a pardon and freedom were offered to each by the
Governor on condition of taking the oath of allegiance or of promising
to leave the Cherokee territory. Nine of the prisoners availed them
selves of executive clemency, but Worcester and Butler chose rather
to go to the penitentiary, intending to test their case before the Supreme
Court.*
"On the occasion of their second arrest the missionaries had been
taken into custody by a section of the Georgia Guafd, commanded by
a subordinate officer, Colonel Nelson. During the journey from the
scene of the arrest to the place of temporary confinement the treatment
of the prisoners was needlessly rough, extending in the case of Messrs.
Worcester and McLeod to positive harshness and violence. These two
clergymen complained to the head of their missionary board of having
been put in. shackles, and other indignities. The State government
condemned the severity of the guard, and ordered an inquiry into
Nelson's conduct. That officer explained that his course of action had
been rendered necessary by the unruly character of the prisoners. The
controversy was practically closed by the retort of the Rev. Mr.
McLeod that Colonel Nelson's statements were false and his conduct
villainous."
More than a year elapsed before the case was finally adjudicated
before the Supreme Court of the United States. We must, therefore,
*"White's Collections," p. 140; Georgia Journal, September 29, 1831; "Nile's
Eegister," Vol. 40, p. 296, Vol. 41, p. 176.