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CHAPTER XIX
BUT. TO RETURN TO THE CHEROKEES—BEFORE THE FINAL DEPORTATION
AN EVENT OF SINGULAR INTEREST OCCURS—JOHN HOWARD PAYNE'S
VISIT TO GEORGIA—SKETCH OF THIS MAN OF GENIUS WHO WROTE
"HOME SWEET HOME"—His SONG THE PRECIOUS HERITAGE OF AN
ENGLISH-SPEAKING WORLD—COMES TO GEORGIA TO ASCERTAIN THE
TRUTH CONCERNING THE CHEROKEES—WHILE ON A VISIT TO JUDGE
HARDEN, AT ATHENS, HE FALLS IN LOVE WITH His DAUGHTER, MARY
—-ENTERING THE TERRITORY OF THE INDIANS, HE Is IMPRISONED AT
SPRING PLACE, IN MURRAY COUNTY, AS A SUSPICIOUS CHARACTER—
GENERAL HARDEN SOON PROCURES His RELEASE—BUT HE DOES
NOT REGARD HIM WITH FAVOR AS A PROSPECTIVE SON-IN-LAW—Miss
HARDEN REMAINS TRUE TO HER POET-LOVER—DYING, AT THE AGE OF
SEVENTY-SIX, A COPY OF "HOME, SWEET HOME" Is SAID TO HAVE
' BEEN BURIED WITH HER, BUT' THIS TRADITION Is QUESTIONED;—SHE
DID, HOWEVER, POSSESS A MANUSCRIPT COPY OF THE POEM, WHICH,
ACCORDING TO ONE WHO KNEW HER WELL, WAS DESTROYED WHEN
DEATH APPROACHED—PAYNE'S SUBSEQUENT CAREER—DIES WHILE
HOLDING A CONSULAR APPOINTMENT AT MOROCCO, AND Is BURIED IN
NORTHERN .AFRICA—BUT His BODY Is EXHUMED IN 1883 AND
BROUGHT TO AMERICA FOR FINAL REINTERMENT IN OAK HILL CEME
TERY, WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.
But let us return to the Cherokees. Before the final removal of .these
Indians to a region west of the Mississippi, afterwards known as Indian
Territory, there occurred an incident of the most dramatic character in
the Cherokee Nation, concerning which, however, only meagre accounts
have been preserved in the records. Mention has already been made of
the fact that, under an act of December 22, 1830, the Legislature of
Georgia made it a penal offense for a white person to reside in the Chero
kee territory in Georgia without a license from the state authorities, to
secure which it was first necessary to take an oath of allegiance to the
State of Georgia. John Howard Payne, the immortal author of '' Home,
Sweet Home," though an innocent offender, fell under the ban of this
law while on a visit to the state in 3-836r
It is one of the ironies of fate that the poet from whose pen has come
the best known lyric of the hearthstone was himself a homeless wan
derer. With little knowledge of domestic happiness, he sang of home,
not as a possession but as a want; and for more than thirty years he
was fated to fill an exile's grave, on the distant shores of the Medi
terranean. The absence of any strong domestic ties first led him, when
a mere lad, to seek his fortune abroad. On returning to America,- after
a lapse of two full decades, his wandering footsteps at length brought
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