Kore. ] TREATY OF DECEMBER 29, 1835. 261 
the passage of an act reasserting the territorial jurisdiction of Georgia 
and annulling all laws made by the Cherokee Indians. It further de- 
clared that in any controversy arising between white persons and Indians 
the latter should be disqualified as witnesses. Supplementary. legisla- 
tion of a similar character followed in quick succession, and the procla- 
mation of the governor of the State was issued on the 3d of June, 1830, 
declaring the arrival of the date fixed by the aforesaid acts and the con- 
sequent subjection of the Cherokee territory to the State laws and 
jurisdiction. 
The President of the United States about the same time gave direc- 
tions to suspend the enrollment and removal of Cherokees to the west 
in small parties, accompanied by the remark that if they (the Chero- 
kees) thought it for their interest to remain, they must take the conse- 
quences, but that the Executive of the United States bad no power to 
interfere with the exercise of the sovereignty of any State over and 
upon all within its limits. The President also directed’ that the pre- 
vious practice of paying their annuities to the treasurer of the Chero- 
kee Nation should be discontinued, and that they be thereafter dis- 
tributed among the individual members of the tribe. Orders were 
shortly aftert given to the commandant of troops in the Cherokee 
country to prevent all persons, including members of the tribe, from 
opening up or working any mineral deposits within their limits. All 
these additional annoyances and restrictions placed upon the free ex- 
ercise of their supposed rights, so far from securing compliance with 
the wishes of the Government, had a tendency to harden the Cherokee 
heart. 

* Among other legislation on this subject enacted by Georgia may be enumerated the 
following, viz: 
1. A penalty of forfeiture of all right to his land and improvements was denounced 
against any Cherokee who should employ any white man, or the slave of any white 
mnan, as a tenant-eropper, or assistant in agriculture, or asa miller or millwright. 
2. Any Indian who should enroll for emigration and afterwards refuse to emigrate 
should forfeit ail right to any future occupancy within the State. 
3. No Indian should be allowed the use of more than 160 acres of land, including 
his dwelling house. 
4. Grants were to be issued for all lots drawn in the late land and gold lottery, though 
they might lie within the improvements of an Indian who had by any previous Cher- 
okee treaty received a reservation either in Georgia or elsewhere. 
5. No contract between a white man and an Indian, either verbal or written, should 
be binding uuless established by the testimony of two white witnesses. 
6. Any Indian forcibly obstructing the occupancy by the drawer of any lot drawn 
in the land and gold lottery should be subject to imprisonment in the diserétion of 
the court. 
> Letter of War Department to Hugh Montgomery, Cherokee agent, June 9, 1830. 
* Letter of Acting Secretary of War to H. Montgomery, Cherokee Agent, June 18, 
1830. 
‘Letter of Acting Secretary of Warto H. Montgomery, Cherokee Agent, June 26, 
1830. 
