Moo.NKY] TREATY WITH RIDGE PARTY 1835 121 



tion. hoiidod by .Fohii Koss. a<l(li'('>stMl uiiothcr canu'st ineiiiorial to 

 C'oiij^TCs.s on May 17, 1S84. Ito^vce <iuoti's the docununit at length, 

 with the remark, "Without attecting to pass judgment on the merits 

 of the controversy, tiie writer thinks tiiis memorial well deserving of 

 reproduction here as evidencing the devoted and pathetic attachment 

 with which the Cherokee clung to the land of their fathers, and, 

 remembering the wrongs and humiliations of the past, refused to ))c 

 convinced that justice, prosperity, and happiness awaited them beyond 

 the Mississippi." ' 



In August of this year another council was held at Red Clay, south- 

 eastward from Chattanooga and just within the Georgia line, where 

 the question of removal was again debated in what is oiEcialh- 

 described as a tumultuous and excited meeting. One of the ])rin- 

 cipal advocates of the emigration scheme, a prominent mixed-l)h)od 

 named John Walker, jr., was assassinated from ambush while return- 

 ing from the council to his home a few miles north of the present 

 Cleveland. Tennessee. On account of his superior education and 

 influential connections, his wife being a niece of former agent Return 

 J. Meigs, the ati'air created intense excitement at the time. The 

 assassination has been considered the tirst of the long series of political 

 murdei's growing out of the removal agitation, but, according to the 

 testimony of old Cherokee acquainted witli the facts, the killing was 

 due to a more personal motive. ■ 



The Cherokee were now nearly worn out hy constant battle against 

 a fate from which they could see no escape. In February, 1S35, two 

 rival delegations arrived in AVashington, One, the national party, 

 headed by John Ross, came prepared still to tight to the end for home 

 and national existence. The other, headed liy [Major John Ridge, a 

 prominent subchief, despairing of further successful resistaiu'e, was 

 prepared to negotiate for removal. Re\erend J. F. Schermerhorn 

 was appointed commissioner to arrange with the Ridge party a treaty 

 to be confirmed hiter l)V the Cherokee people in general council. On 

 this basis a ti'eaty was negotiated with the Ridge party by which the 

 Cherokee were to cede their whole eastern territory and remove to 

 the West in consideration of the sum of $3,250,000 with some addi- 

 tional acreage in the West and a small sum for depredations com- 

 mitted upon them by the whites. Finding that these negotiations were 

 proceeding, the Ross party filed a counter proposition for $20,0(10.000, 

 which was rejected by the Senate as excessive. The Schermerhorn 

 compact with the Ridge party, with the consideration changed to 

 $4..-)<)().00i>, was thereupon completed and signed on March 1-1, 1885, 

 but with the express stipulation that it should receive the approval of 



• Royce. Cherokee Xation, Fifth Ann. Report Bureau of Ethnology, p. 276,1888. 

 2 Commifisioner Elbert Herrins. November 25. Report of Indian Commissioner, p. 210. 1.S34; author' .-i 

 personal information from Major R. C. Jaekson and J. D. VVafford. 



