294 CHEROKEE NATION OF INDIANS. 
crimes had been committed at the instigation of Ross, as it was well 
known that the murderers were among his followers. oss’s friends, 
however, at once rallied to his protection and a velunteer guard of six 
hundred patrolled the country in the vicinity of his residence.' 
A number of the chiefs and prominent men of the Old Settler and 
Ridge parties fled to Fort Gibson for safety. From there on the 28th 
of June, John Brown, John Looney, John Rogers, and John Smith, 
signing themselves as the executive council of the Western Chero- 
kees, addressed a proposition to John Ross to send a delegation of the 
chiefs and principal men of his party with authority to meet an equal 
number of their own at Fort Gibson, with a view to reach an amicable 
agreement between the different factions. Ross responded? by invit- 
ing them to meet at the council convened upon his call on the Ist of July, 
which was declined. A memorial was thereupon® addressed to the 
authorities of the United States by Brown, Looney, and Rogers as 
chiefs of the Western Cherokees, demanding protection in the territory 
and government guaranteed to them by treaty. Against this appeal 
the Ross convention or council in session at Illinois camp-ground filed 
a protest. Between the dates of the appeal and the protest a part 
of the Old Settlers, acting in concert with Ross and his adherents, 
passed resolutions® declaratory of their disapproval of the conduct of 
Brown and Rogers, and proclaimed their deposition from office as 
chiefs. Looney escaped deposition by transferring his fealty to the 
Ross party. 
Unification of Bastern and Western Cherokees.—It is proper to remark 
in this connection that on the 12th of July the Ross council adopted 
resolutions uniting the Eastern and the Western Cherokees ‘into one 
body politic under the style and title of the Cherokee Nation.” This 
paper, without mentioning or referring to the treaty of 1835, speaks of 
the late emigration as constrained by the force of circumstances. 
The council also passed® a decree, wherein after reciting the murders 
of the Ridges and Boudinot, and that they in conjunction with others 
had by their conduct rendered themselves liable to the penalties of 
outlawry, extended to the survivors a full amnesty for past offenses 
upon sundry very stringent and humiliating conditions. They also 
passed? a decree condoning the crime of the murderers, securing them 
from any prosecution or punishment by reason thereof, and declaring 
them fully restored to the confidence and favor of the community. 
Treaty of 1835 declared void.—At a council held at Aquohee Camp 
a deeree was passed on the Ist of August, declaring the treaty of 1835 

‘Avent Stokes to Secretary of War, June 24, 1839. 
2 July 5, 1839. 
3’ August 9, 1838. 
+ August 27, 1839. 
® August 23, 1839. 
SJuly 7, 1839. 
7 July 10, 1839. 
i 
