Roxee. ] TREATY OF AUGUST 6, 1846. 305 
missioners.! This agreement was duly signed by the members of the 
several delegations present in Washington, and in pursuance of its pro- 
visions President Polk appointed? Edmund Burke, William Armstrong, 
and Albion K. Parris commissioners with the powers and for the pur- 
poses above indicated. These commissioners at once entered into com- 
munication and negotiation with the three delegations representing the 
different factions of the Cherokee Nation, which were then in Wash- 
ington, and the result was the conclusion of the treaty of August 6, 
1846,* in thirteen articles, naking detailed provision for the adjustment 
of all questions of dispute between the Cherokees themselves and also 
for the settlement of all claims by the Cherokees against the United 
States.‘ This treaty, with some slight amendments, was ratified and 
proclaimed by the President on the 17th of the same month; an abstract 
of its provisions has already been presented. It was not until this 
treaty that the Ross party ever consented in any manner to recognize 
or be bound by the treaty of 1835.° 
Objects of the treaty.—The main principle involved in the negotiation 
of the treaty of 1846 had been the disposition on the part of the United 
States to reimburse to the Cherokee fund sundry sums which, although 
not justly chargeable upon it, had been improperly paid out of that 
fund." In the treaty of 1835 the United States had agreed to pay to 
the Cherokees $5,000,000 for their lands and $600,000 for spoliations, 
claims, expenses of removal, etc.?. By the act of June 12, 1838,* Con- 
gress appropriated the further sum of $1,047,067 for expenses of re- 
moval. As all these sums were for objects expressed in the treaty of 
1535, the commissioners who negotiated the treaty of 1846 regarded 
them as one aggregate sum given by the United States for the lands of 
the Cherokees, subject to the charges, expenditures, and investments 
provided for in the treaty. This aggregate sum was appropriated and 
placed in the Treasury of the United States, to be disposed of according 
to the stipulations of the treaty. The United States thereby became 
the trustee of this fund for the benefit of the Cherokee people, and were 
bound to manage it in accordance with the well known principles of 
law and equity which regulate the relation of trustee and cestui que 
trust. 
Adjudication of the treaty of 1835.—In order, therefore, to carry out 
the principle thus established by the treaty of 1846, Congress, by joint 
g, June 24, 1846. 
* Commissioner Indian Affairs to Maj. William Armstrong 
> Jaly 6, 1816. 
° United States Statutes at Large, Vol. IX, p. 871. 
* The subject of the North Carolina Cherokee interests was also referred to this com- 
mission July 13, 1846. 
° Report of Commissioner Indian Affairs to Secretary Interior, January 20, 1855. 
° Second Comptroller of the Treasury to Commissioner of Indian Affairs, February 
6, 1849. 
7 United States Statutes at Large, Vol. VII, p. 478. 
* United States Statutes at Large, Vol. V, p. 241. 
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