Koycr.) TREATY OF APRIL 27, 1868. 345 
On the 21st of September the council adjourned, to meet again at the 
call of the Seeretary of the Interior. 
CONFERENCE AT WASHINGTON, D. C. 
Early in 1866, in accordance with the understanding had at the ad- 
journment of the Fort Smith council, delegations representing both 
factions of the Cherokees proceeded to Washington for the purpose of 
concluding some definite articles of agreement with the United States. 
They were represented by eminent counsel in the persons of General 
Thomas Ewing for the loyal and Hon. D. W. Voorhees for the Southern 
element. Many joint interviews and discussions were held in the pres- 
ence of Commissioners Cooley, Parker, and Sells, but without any hope- 
ful results. The bitterness exhibited in these discussions upon both 
sides gave but little promise that enmities of more than twenty years’ 
standing could be subordinated to the demands of a peaceful and har- 
monious government. The Southern element, which numbered about 
sixty-five hundred, constituted but a minority of the whole nation. 
These, with the exception of perhaps two hundred, were still living in 
banishment among the Choctaws and Chickasaws, and felt it would be 
unsafe to return to their old homes with the Ross party in full pos- 
session of the machinery of government and ready to apply with sever- 
est rigor the enginery of their confiscation law. Their representatives 
were therefore instructed to demand, as the only hope for their future 
peace and happiness, a division of the Cherokee lands and funds in pro- 
portion to their numbers between the two contending parties.’ On the 
other hand, the representatives of the Ross or loyal party insisted that 
there was no good reason existing why the Southern element should be 
unable to dwell harmoniously with them in the same country and under 
the same laws, which they asserted always had been and always would 
be impartially and justly administered, so far as they were concerned. 
A just feeling of national pride would always forbid their consent 
to any scheme against the integrity and unity of the whole Cherokee 
Nation. But, while they were thus on principle compelled to antago- 
nize the demand of the Southern faction, yet if that element felt the 
impossibility of living comfortably in the midst of their loyal breth- 
ren the latter were willing that the portion of their national domain 
known as the Canadian district should be devoted to their sole occupa- 
tion and settlement for a period of two years or until the President of 
the United States should deem it inadvisable to longer continue such 
exclusiveness.2. To this again the Southern Cherokees refused assent, 

1 Statement of Southern delegation at an interview held with Commissioners Cooley 
and Sells, March 30, 1866. They also proposed that a census be taken and each man 
be allowed to decide whether or not he would live under the jurisdiction of the Ross 
party. 
2Statement of loyal delegation at interview held with Commissioners Cooley and 
Sells, March 30, 1866. 
