118 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [eth.ann.)9 



The purpose of this legisliitioii was to i-endcr life in their own 

 c-ountrj' intolerable to the Cherokee by depriving them of all legal 

 protection and friendly counsel, and the effect was precisely as 

 intended. In an eloquent address uj)on the subject before the House 

 of llepresentatives the distinguished Edward Everett dearly pointed 

 out the encouragement which it gave to lawless men: " They have but 

 to cross the Cherokee line; they have but to choose the time and the 

 place where the eye of no white man can rest upon them, and they 

 may burn the dwelling, waste the farm, plunder the property, assault 

 the person, nmrder the children of the Cherokee subject of Georgia, 

 and though hundreds of the tribe may be looking on, there is not one 

 of them that can be permitted to bear witness against the spoiler."' 

 Senator Sprague, of Maine, said of the law that it devoted the prop- 

 erty of the Cherokee to the cupidity of their neighbors, lea\-ing them 

 exposed to every outrage which lawless persons could inflict, so that 

 even robbery and murder might be committed with impunity at noon- 

 day, if not in the presence of whites who would testify against it." 



The prediction was fulfilled to the letter. Bands of armed men 

 invaded the Cherokee country, forcibly seizing horses and cattle, 

 taking possession of houses from which thcv had ejected the occu- 

 pants, and assaulting the owners who dared to make resistance.^ In 

 one instance, near the present Dahlonega, two white men, who had 

 been hospitably received and entertained at supper by an educated 

 Cherokee citizen of nearly pure white blood, later in the evening, 

 during the temporary absence of the parents, drove out the children 

 and their nurse and deliberately set tire to the house, whi(.'h was 

 burned to the ground with all its contents. They were pursued and 

 brought to trial, but the case was dismissed b}' the judge on the 

 ground that no Indian could testifj' against a white man.* Cherokee 

 miners upon their own ground were arrested, lined, and imprisoned, 

 and their tools and machinery destroyed, while thousands of white 

 intruders were allowed to dig in the same places umnolested." A 

 Cherokee on trial in his own nation for killing another Indian was 

 seized by the state authorities, tried and condemned to death, although, 

 not understanding English, he was unal>le to speak in his own defense. 

 A United States court forbade the execution, but the judge who had 

 conducted the trial defied the writ, went to the place of execution, and 

 stood beside the sheriff while the Indian was being hanged."' 



1 Speech of May 19, 1830, Washington; printed by Gales & Seaton,1830. 



2 Speech in the Senate of the United States, April 16, 1830'; Wasihington, Peter Force, printer, 1830. 



'See Cherokee Memorial to Congress, January IS, 1831. 



< Personal information from Prof. Clinton Duncan, of Tahlequah, Cherokee Nation, whose father's 

 house was the one thus burned. 



"Cherokee Memorial to Congress January 18, 1831. 



»Ibid.; see also speech of Edward Everett in House of Representatives February 14, 1831; report of 

 the select committee of the senate of Ma&sjichusctts upon the Georgia resolutions, Boston, 1831; Greeley, 

 American Conflict, l, p. lOU, 18H; Abbott, Cherokee Indians in Georgia: Atlanta Constitution, October 

 27, 1889. 



