Untitled - the Digital Library of Georgia

574 GEORGIA AND GEOEGIANS
due to Mr. Clay's Compromise $• and there was little talk of Nullification.
Once more Georgia felt the old ties of attachment binding her to the
Union.
The administration of Governor Schley witnessed a final treaty with
the Cherokees, at New Bchota, on December 29, 1835, under which they
peaceably agreed to a relinquishment of all the lands still occupied by
them within the borders of the state. William Carrolland John F. Scher-
merhorn were the commissioners on the part of the United States Gov
ernment. It is sometimes called the Schermerhorn Treaty because it was
in the main negotiated by the latter. But, leading up to this important
transaction, there are just a few minor events which need to be discussed.
On the issue of a westward migration, two rival parties were developed
in the Cherokee Nation, one of which, headed by John Ross, its principal
chief, opposed removal; while the other, headed by John Ridge, favored
removal. At first sentiment was unanimous in opposition to any further
relinquishment of lands. Biit seeing the inevitability of fate certain
leaders among them, John Ridge, Major Ridge, Elias Boudinot, Elijah
Hicks, and others, thought it best to cease all further resistance. These
internal dissentions among the Cherokees were accompanied by numerous
depredations on the borders. In 1834, a band of Cherokees robbed a
smoke house belonging to a white man who.lived near the frontier line.
Elijah Hicks, a friendly chief, who favored removal to lands west of the
Mississippi, thereupon started in pursuit of the robbers, with only two
followers. Overtaking the marauders, he severely upbraided them,
whereupon one of the savages fired at him, inflicting a wound from
which he died in two days. Nor was this the only murderous affair.
In like manner, several other chiefs who favored removal were killed by
the Indians. •
At last the eyes of the Federal Government were opened to the neces
sity of removing these troublesome people, a policy to which President
Jackson was strongly committed. The Georgia Legislature by an act of
December, 1834, authorized an immediate occupation of the Cherokee
lands but allowed the Indians two years in which to remove. We will
let Mr. Phillips conclude the Story of these negotiations. Says he:*
'' President Jackson persisted in his attempts to persuade the Cherokees
to remove in a body. Early in 1834 it was discovered that a treaty
party was developing in the nation. This party sent a delegation to
Washington, which signed a preliminary treaty looking to a cession, but
John Ross, the principal chief of the nation, protested, May 29, 1834,
with such a show of support by the great bulk of the nation that the
treaty failed of ratification. The division among the Cherokee leaders
had at length opened a way for the final success of Georgia's efforts.
In February, 1835, two rival Cherokee delegations appeared in Washing
ton, with John Boss at the head of the orthodox party and John Ridge
as the leader of the faction in favor of emigration. John Ridge, Major
Ridge, Elias Boudinot, and other chiefs, had finally come to see the
futility, of opposition to the inevitable, and were ready to lead their
people westward. The Ridge party signed a treaty of cession on March
14, which required the approval of the whole Cherokee Nation before
"Georgia and State Eights," ~D. B. Phillips, pp. 85-86.