120 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [eth.a.nn.19 



anniliihition of the Union, and now ijjnorcd the decision, refusing to 

 release the missionary, who remained in prison until set free b}' the 

 will of the governor nearly a year later. A remark attributed to 

 President Jackson, on hearing of the result in the Supi'enie C^ourt, may 

 throw some light on the whole proceeding: ""John Marshall has made 

 his decision, now let him enforce it."' 



On the 19th of July. 1833, a public fast was observed throughout 

 the Cherokee iS'ation. In the proclamation recommending it, Chief 

 Ross observes that "Whereas the crisis in the affairs of the Nation 

 exhibits the day of tril>ulation and sorrow, and the time apjieai'S to be 

 fast hastening when the destiny of this people must be sealed; whether 

 it has been directed by the wonted depravity and wickedness of man, 

 or by the unsearchable and mysterious will of an allwise Being, it 

 equally becomes us, as a rational and Christian community, humblj- to 

 bow in humiliation," etc.~ 



Further attempts were made to induce the Cherokee to remove to 

 the West, but met the same firm refusal as ))efore. It was learned that 

 in view of the harrassing conditions to which they were subjected the 

 Cherokee were now seriously considering the project of emigrating to 

 the Pacific Coast, at the mouth of the Columbia, a territorj' then 

 claimed bj' England and held by the posts of the British Hudson Bay 

 Company. The Secretary of War at once took steps to discourage the 

 movement.^ A suggestion from the Cherokee that the government 

 satisfy those who had taken possession of Cherokee lands under the 

 lottery drawing by giving them instead an equivalent from the unoc- 

 cupied goverinnent lands was rejected by the President. 



In the spring of ISS-t the Cherokee submitted a memorial which, 

 after asserting that they would never voluntarily consent to abandon 

 their homes, proposed to satisfy Georgia l)v ceding to her a portion of 

 their territory, they to l)e protected in possession of the remainder 

 until the end of a definite period to be fixed by the United States, at 

 the expiration of which, after disposing of their surplus lands, they 

 should l)ecome citizens of the various states within which they resided. 

 They were told that their ditticulties could be remedied only by their 

 removal to the west of the jNlississippi. In the meantime a removal 

 treaty was being negotiated with a self-styled committee of some fif- 

 teen or twenty Cherokee called together at the agency. It was carried 

 through in spite of the protest of John Ross and the Cherokee Nation, 

 as embodied in a paper said to contain the signatures of 13,000 Chero- 

 kee, but failed of ratification.' 



Despairing of any help from the President, the Cherokee delega- 



'Royce, Cherokee Nation, Fifth .inn. Rep. Bureau of Ethnology, pp. 264-266, 1888; Draire, Indians, 

 pp. 454-457, 1880; Greeley, American Conflict, i, lOii, 1864. 

 - Drake, Indians, p. 458, 1880. 

 » Royce, op. cit.. pp. '26ii-2fJ4, '272. 27:i. 

 nbid., pp. 274, 27.5. 



