ROYCE. ] TREATY OF AUGUST 6, 1846. 301 
difference to be adjudicated, involving (1) a fair and just indemnity to be 
paid to the Cherokee Nation for the country east of the Mississippi from 
which they were forced to remove; (2) indemnity for all improvements, 
ferries, turnpike roads, bridges, etc., belonging to the Cherokees; (3) 
indemnity for spoliations committed upon all other Cherokee property 
by troops and citizens of the United States prior and subsequent to the 
treaty of 1855; (4) that a title in absolute fee-simple to the country west 
of the Mississippi be conveyed to the Cherokee Nation by the United 
States; (5) that the political relations between the Cherokee Nation and 
the United States be specifically defined; (6) that stocks now invested 
by the President for the Cherokee Nation be guaranteed to yield a speci- 
fied annual income, and (7) that provision be made for those Cherokees 
residing east of the Mississippi who should evince a desire to emigrate 
to the Cherokee country west of’ that river. 
FEUDS BETWEEN THE ROSS, TREATY, AND OLD SETTLER PARTIES. 
At this period delegations representing the anti-Ross parties were 
also in Washington, and their animosities, coupled with the frequent 
and unsavory reports of the events happening in the Cherokee country, 
determined the President to conclude no new treaty until the true cause 
was ascertained and the responsibility fixed for all this turbulence and 
crime.! The Old Settler and the Treaty parties alleged that griev- . 
ous oppressions were practiced upon them by the Ross party, inso- 
much that they were unable to enjoy their liberty, property, or lives 
in safety, or to live in peace in the same community. The Old Set- 
tler delegation alleged that the act of union, by virtue of which their 
government was superseded and they were subjected to the consti- 
tution and laws of the Ross party, was never authorized or sanctioned 
Ly the legal representatives of their people. Per contra, the Ross dele- 
gatiou alleged that the Old Settler and the Treaty parties enjoyed the 
same degree of security and the same fullness of rights that any other 
portion of the nation enjoyed, and that the alleged dissatisfaction was 
confined to a few restless and ambitious spirits whose motto was “rule 
or ruin.” 
Commissioners appointed to inquire into Cherokee feuds.—In conse- 
quence of his determination, as above stated, the President appointed 
General R. Jones, Col. R. B. Mason, and P. M. Butler commissioners, 
with instructions? to proceed to the Cherokee country and ascertain if 
any considerable portion of the Cherokee people were arrayed in hos- 
tile feeling toward those who ruled the nation; whether a corresponding 
disposition and feeling prevailed among the majority who administered 
the government toward the minority; the lengths of oppression, resist- 
ance, and violence to which the excitement of each against the other had 

‘Letter of Secretary of War to Commissioners Jones and Butler, October 18, 1844. 
2 October 18, 1844. 
