ROYCE. ] TREATY OF DECEMBER 29, 1335. 277 
Tn the hope that by yielding something of their clear rights they might succeed in 
obtaining security for the remainder, they have lately opened a correspondence with 
the Executive, offering to make a considerable cession from what had been reserved 
to them by solemn treaties, only upon condition that they might be protected in the 
part not ceded. But their earnest supplication has been unheeded, and the only an- 
swer they can get, informs them, in substance, that they must be left to their fate, or 
renounce the whole. What that fate is to be unhappily is too plain. 
The State of Georgia has assumed jurisdiction over them, has invaded their terri- 
tory, has claimed the right to dispose of their lands, and has actually proceeded to 
dispose of them, reserving only a small portion to individuals, and even these por- 
tions are threatened and will no doubt, soon be taken from them. Thus the nation 
is stripped of its territory and individuals of their property without the least color of 
right, and in open violation of the guarantee of treaties. At the same time the 
Cherokees, deprived of the protection of their own government and laws, are left 
withont the protection of any other laws, outlawed as it were and exposed to indigni- 
ties, imprisonment, persecution, and eyen to death, though they have committed no 
offense whatever, save and except that of seeking to enjoy what belongs to them, 
and refusing to yield it up to those who have no pretense of title toit. Of the acts 
of the legislature of Georgia your memorialists will endeavor to furnish copies to 
your honorable bodies, and of the doings of individuals they will furnish evidence if 
required. And your memorialists further respectfully represent that the Executive 
of the United States has not only refused to protect your memorialists against the 
wrongs they have suffered and are still suffering at the hands of unjust cupidity, but 
has done much more. It is but too plain that, for several years past, the power of 
the Executive has been exerted on the side of their oppressors and is co-operating 
with them inthe work of destruction. Of two particulars in the conduct of the Ex- 
ecutive your memorialists would make mention, not merely as matters of evidence 
but as specific subjects of complaint in addition to the more general ones already 
stated. 
The first of these is the mode adopted to oppress and injure your memorialists under 
color of enrollments for emigration. Unfit persons are introduced as agents, acts are 
practiced by them that are unjust, unworthy, and demoralizing, and have no object 
but to force your memorialists to yield and abandon their rights by making their lives 
intolerably wretched. They forbear to go into particulars, which nevertheless they 
are prepared, at a proper time, to exhibit. 
The other is calculated also to weaken and distress your memorialists, and is essen- 
tially unjust. Heretofore, until within the last four years, the money appropriated 
by Congress for annuities has been paid to the nation, by whom it was distributed and 
used for the benefit of the nation. And this method of payment was not only sanc- 
tioned by the usage of the Government of the United States, but was acceptable to the 
Cherokees. Yet, without any cause known to your memorialists, and contrary to 
their just expectations, the payment has heen withheld for the period just mentioned, 
on the ground, then for the first time assumed, that the annuities were to be paid, not 
as hitherto, to the nation, but to the individual Cherokees, each his own small 
fraction, dividing the whole according to the numbers of the nation. The fact is, that 
for the last four years the annuities have not been paid at all. 
The distribution in this new way was impracticable, if the Cherokees had been 
willing thus to receive it, but they were not willing ; they have refused and the an- 
nuities have remained unpaid. Your memorialists forbear to advert to the motives 
of such conduct, leaving them to be considered and appreciated by Congress. All 
they will say is, that it has coincided with other measures adopted to reduce them 
to poverty and despair and to extort from their wretchedhess a concession of their 
guaranteed rights. Having failed in their efforts to obtain relief elsewhere, your 
memorialists now appeal to Congress, and respectfully pray that your honorable bodies 
will look into their whole case, and that such measures may be adopted as will give 
them redress and security. 
