286 CHEROKEE NATION OF INDIANS. 
Tennessee volunteers. In aspeech to his brigade at their disband- 
ment in September, 1836, he used the following language : 
I forthwith visited all the posts within the first three States and gave the Chero- 
kees (the whites needed none) all the protection in my power. * ~ * My course 
has excited the hatred of a few of the lawless rabble in Georgia, who have long played 
the part of unfeeling petty tyrants, and that to the disgrace of the proud character 
of gallant soldiers and good citizens. I had determined that I would never dishonor 
the Tennessee arms in a servile service by aiding to carry into execution at the 
point of the bayonet a treaty made by a lean minority against the will and authority 
of the Cherokee people. * * * Isoon discovered that the Indians had not the 
most distant thought of war with the United States, notwithstanding the common 
rights of humanity and justice had been denied them.! 
REPORT OF GENERAL JOHN E. WOOL, 
Again, February 18, 1837, General John E. Wool, of the United States 
Army, who had been ordered to the command of the troops that were 
being concentrated in the Cherokee country ‘ to look down opposition” 
to the enforcement of the treaty, wrote Adjutant-General Jones, at 
Washington, thus: 
I called them (the Cherokees) together and made a short speech. It is, however, 
vain to talk toa people almost universally opposed to the treaty and who maintain 
that they never made such a treaty. So determined are they in their opposition that 
not one of all those who were present and voted at the council held but a day or two 
since, however poor or destitute, would receive either rations or clothing from the 
United States lest they might compromise themselves in regard to the treaty. These 
same people, as well as those in the mountains of North Carolina, during the summer 
past, preferred living upon the roots and sap of trees rather than receive provisions 
from the United States, and thousands, as I have been informed, had noother food for 
weeks.” 
Four months later,? General Wool again, in the course of a letter to 
the Secretary of War concerning the death of Major Curry, who had 
been a prominent factor in promoting the conclusion of the treaty of 
1835, said that — 
Had Curry lived he would assuredly have been killed by the Indians. It isa truth 
that you have not a single agent, high or low, that has the slightest moral control 
over the Indians. It would be wise if persons appointed to civil stations in the na- 
tion could be taken from among those who have had nothing to do with making the 
late treaty. 
REPORT OF JOHN MASON, JR. 
In further testimony concerning the situation of affairs in the Cher- 
okee Nation at this period, may be cited the report of John Mason, jr., 
who was in the summer of 1837° sent as the confidential agent of the 
War Department to make observations and report. In the autumn* 
of that year he reported that — 
The chiefs and better informed part of the nation are conyinced that they cannot 
retain the country. But the opposition to the treaty is unanimous and irreconcilable. 
! National Intelligencer, May 22, 1838. 
2 June 3, 1837. 
3 July 15, 1837. 
4September 25, 1837. 

