280 CHEROKEE NATION OF INDIANS. 
mer and fall were spent in endeavors to reconcile differences of opinion, 
to adjust feuds among the different factions of the tribe, and to secure 
some definitive and consolidated action. Meeting with no substantial 
encouragement, he suggested, in a communication to the Secretary of 
War,! two alternative propositions, by either of which a treaty might 
be secured. 
These propositions were: (1) That the appraising agents of the Gov- 
ernment should ascertain from influential Cherokees their own opinion 
of the value of their improvements, and promise them the amount, if 
this estimate should be in any degree reasonable, and if they would 
take a decided stand in favor of the treaty and conclude the same. (2) 
To conclude the treaty with a portion of the nation only, should one 
with the whole be found impracticable, and compel the acquiescence 
of the remainder in its provisions. 
He was at once” advised of the opposition of the President to any 
such action. Ifa treaty could not be concluded upon fair and open 
terms, he must abandon the effort and leave the nation to the conse- 
quences of its own stubbornness. He must make no particular promise 
to any individual, high or low, to gain his co-operation. ‘The interest of 
the whole must not be sacrificed to the cupidity of a few, and if a treaty 
was concluded at all it must be one that would stand the test of the 
most rigid scrutiny. 
The Ridge treaty rejected.—The Cherokee people in full council at 
Red Clay, in the following October, rejected the Ridge treaty. Mr. 
John Ridge and Elias Boudinot, who had been the main stay and sup- 
port cf Mr. Schermerhorn in the preceding negetiations, at this council, 
through fear or duplicity and unexpectedly to him, abandoned their 
support of his measures and coincided with the preponderance of Chero- 
kee sentiment on the subject. In his report of this failure to bring the 
negotiations to a successful termination Commissioner Schermerhorn 
says: “I have pressed Ross so hard by the course I have adopted that 
although he got the general council to pass a resolution declaring that 
they would not treat on the basis of the $5,000,000, yet he has been forced 
to bring the nation to agree to a treaty, here or at Washington. They 
have used every effort to get by me and get to Washington again this 
winter. They dare not yet do it. You will perceive Ridge and his 
friends have taken apparently a strange course. I believe he began to 
be discouraged in contending with the power of Ross; and perhaps also 
considerations of personal safety have had their influence, but the Lord 
is able to overrule all things for good.” 
Council at New Echota.—During the session of this council notice was 
given to the Cherokees to meet the United States commissioners on 
the third Monday in December following, at New Echota, for the pur- 
‘September 10, 1835. 
“September 26, 1835. 
®Senate Document 120, Twenty-fifth Congress, second session, p. 124. 
